Killing Freedom

by Ryan Casey

  The first thing he saw was Raymond leaning against the counter with a smile on his face.

  Then he saw her.

  She was at the table sipping a glass of water, completely okay. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, in complete stasis. Her eyes scanned his face, looking for some kind of crack in his emotional front, some kind of sign that he was hurt, but he held the gaze. He could read her stare. ‘I’m okay.’ She’s okay.

  ‘Jared,’ Raymond said, cutting the silence. ‘I’m really pleased you could join us. Drink?’ He held a glass in front of his bottle of whiskey, pouring himself one with no real intention of sharing.

  Jared shook his head and kept his focus on Faith.

  ‘Very well,’ Raymond said, knocking back a gulp of the whiskey and then gasping from the burn. ‘Very fine whiskey, this is. All that crap about sipping it: rubbish. A gulp is much more enjoyable. It’s just a shame I never have anyone to share it with. Ah well, more for merry old me, eh?’

  Jared remained silent and stood by the door.

  Raymond waved his hand over at Jared. ‘Come on, come on. You might as well come in. We don’t have all day. It’s the big speech in an hour. Hope you’re prepared.’

  Jared stepped into the room and let the door shut behind him. He scratched the back of his neck and nodded, his attention still on Faith.

  ‘Oh—Faith’s fine,’ Raymond said, turning to her in realisation. ‘Aren’t you, dear? Absolutely fine. No need for any—what’s the word? Commotion. Yeah, commotion. No need for any of that. You’re fine aren’t you, hun?’

  ‘Yes,’ Faith said. She sat rigid at the table and continued to stare at Jared.

  ‘Good,’ Raymond said, taking another sip of his drink. ‘That’s good. Y’know, Jared, I’m really pleased you’ve seen sense. All that stuff at the house and the family, I know it must be tough, but you’ve gone through worse, haven’t you? And what you’re doing now… it’s admirable. Fucking admirable. I raise a glass to you.’ He lifted his whiskey glass in the air then stumbled to one side clumsily.

  The room was silent again.

  ‘Anyway,’ Raymond said. ‘I suppose I should let you two exchange a few words or whatever. Forgive me for being paranoid, but I think I’ll stay in the room if that’s okay with you.’

  Jared tilted his head. ‘Sure.’

  ‘Sure,’ Raymond said, staring back at him. ‘Very well.’

  Jared exhaled and rushed over to Faith, who rose to her feet. He grabbed her, and she fell into his arms, resting her chin against his shoulder.

  ‘You okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Am I okay? Are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine. I just… I just don’t want you to go away. You shouldn’t have come here. I can deal with myself.’

  Jared smiled and stared Faith in the eyes. ‘Faith, everything’s going to be absolutely fine. I can see that more than ever now.’ He looked over at Raymond, who had his hands behind his back, and knocked Faith’s glass of water to the floor.

  Raymond flinched around and shook his head. ‘Back five minutes and already causing havock, huh? Get it soaked up, man. Least you can do for me.’ He gestured over to the pile of cloths beside the sink.

  Jared half-smiled at Faith and then walked over to the sink. On the draining boards there were plates, cutlery, and Raymond’s favourite steak knife, as stainless and sparkling as ever.

  Jared grabbed the chequered tea-towel and slipped the knife underneath, walking back to the growing patch of the water on the floor.

  When Jared got on his knees and patted the tea towel onto the patch, he made sure Faith saw the knife between his fingers. He needed her to know what was going to happen. He needed her to know he was ready; he understood what freedom was now.

  Faith looked at Jared’s face for some sort of answer. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

  ‘Things will be back to normal soon, I promise,’ Jared said, standing back up and resting his head against hers.

  Faith nodded her head again with realisation. He could see fear and questioning in her eyes—but he could also see the understanding.

  Raymond shuffled round to look at them. ‘You nearly done there?’ he asked.

  Jared disregarded him and smiled at Faith, slipping the knife under his sleeve. ‘You live your life, okay? You go out there live your life. I don’t know how long I’ll be inside, but I’ll be out again one day, I promise.’ He rubbed the back of her hand and took a deep breath before standing upright and nodding at Raymond.

  Raymond unfolded his arms and stepped over to Jared. His eyes were welling up. ‘You go do what you have to do, son, for this city. I’m proud of you, y’know?’

  ‘I’m proud of you’. Once upon a time, the words would have had weight and meaning. But now, Jared could see right through to the emptiness behind. He could see exactly what they were and what Raymond was, and it made him so, so happy.

  Raymond opened his arms out. ‘One last man-hug?’

  Jared smiled and nodded as he stepped into Raymond’s arms and let them wrap around him. Faith sat at the table again, her jaw rigid.

  ‘Thanks, Raymond,’ Jared said.

  ‘I’ll always give you another chance, kid. You know that.’

  ‘No, not for that.’

  He grabbed the knife and rammed it into Raymond’s neck.

  Raymond’s eyes widened as his face turned purple. He struggled to pull Jared’s hand away, but already Jared could feel Raymond’s shaking body beginning to struggle. Jared cried out and pulled the knife out of Raymond’s neck and shoved it into his flabby stomach, blood staining his ironed white shirt. Faith held her hands in front of her face at the table.

  ‘It didn’t have to be this way,’ Jared shouted, staring into Raymond’s bloodshot eyes.

  Raymond tried to splutter some words out, but blood-laced saliva dribbled down his chin as his body went rigid and collapsed onto his knees.

  ‘It didn’t have to be like this.’ He could feel the tears pouring down his cheeks as Raymond’s shaking body fell onto its back, gargling blood, the whites of his eyes turning yellow. Jared pulled the knife out of his stomach and wiped it against Raymond’s shirt.

  Raymond gasped on the floor. His knuckles were blue as he squeezed his fists together and tried to roll onto his side. His legs shook as the life trickled away from them.

  Jared leaned down to his ear. ‘I’m sorry it had to be this way. I’m sorry, but you did this, not me. Not me.’

  He brought the knife up, and then turned away before plunging it into Raymond’s temple.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  ‘Are you okay?’

  Jared hunched down beside Raymond’s body as the blood trickled out of his head. He watched it stain the carpet, transfixed. Everything they’d worked for, together, had to come to this.

  ‘Jared, are you okay?’

  He turned and saw his sister looking over him. She had her hands wrapped around her body, an expression of concern but not surprise. Jared wiped the tears away from his face and reached down for Raymond’s eyelids, pushing them shut. His watch caught his eye—twenty minutes until the speech. Enough time to get into position, enough time to do his final job.

  He stood up and walked over to Faith, who initially backed off as he raised his blood-drenched arm to comfort her, before falling into his chest. ‘I’m sorry,’ Jared said. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that. But it’s… it’s the right thing. It’s what this city deserves.’

  ‘I just don’t want you to go away,’ Faith said.

  Jared smiled. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.’ He pulled away from her and raised her chin to look into her eyes. ‘What I need you to do is to go to Mustapha’s village and stay there. You go there and you wait for me. I don’t know how long I’ll be, but you wait for me, and I promise you I’ll be there someday soon.’

  Faith blinked and scanned the room, her bottom lip shaking. ‘I don’t know, Jared. I just don’t know. What are…
what are you going to do now?’

  Jared turned around to look at Raymond’s body and felt the lump growing in his throat. ‘I’m going to finish what I started. Now go—go on and get out of here. Take the lift and run for your life and get as far away as possible.’

  Faith sniffed back her tears. ‘When will I see you again, brother?’

  Jared wiped his cheek and held Faith’s arm. ‘Sooner than you can possibly imagine. Just… just tell me though. Tell me honestly. Why did you go behind my back? Why did you go behind all of our backs?’

  Faith closed her eyes and paused to think. ‘Because if I hadn’t, he’d have dealt with us both long ago. I just… I was just doing my job, Jared. You know what that feels like.’

  Jared shook his head. ‘Cindy was innocent, y’know? She was completely innocent.’

  Faith sighed. ‘Jared, that’s never stopped you before. Haven’t you ever considered how many of the people you’ve killed for Raymond have been innocent? When you… when you start a job, you finish it. You know what happens if you don’t.’ She stood up and straightened her shoulders before walking over to the door. She grabbed the handle and turned back to look at Jared, who was standing over Raymond’s body.

  ‘You were wrong though, y’know,’ she said.

  ‘What about?’

  She paused. ‘When you said you couldn’t ever be free. You were wrong. You just… you just didn’t know what freedom meant before.’

  Jared nodded. ‘I know what it means now.’

  Faith smiled and sniffed again, opening the door. ‘God bless you, brother. God bless you.’

  Then she walked out of the door and she was gone.

  The crowds were already out in full force as he stepped through the sun-drenched park and towards the stage. Blue posters with the mayor’s face, red posters with Dwight’s candidate, Callum. The smell of sweat was ripe as bulky men raised their fists and punched the air.

  Jared squeezed his hands together. He had cleaned himself up before leaving Raymond’s, but he could still feel the blood drying in the crevices of his palm. He pushed past a few people and found himself leaning on the metal barrier between the stage and the crowd. It was a concert, and he was the audience to a farcical musical bereft of sincerity. ‘They’re on in five,’ one woman shouted as she held her kid in her arms, the ice-cream melting down his wrist and seeping into her curly hair.

  On in five. That was good enough for him. Although his hands were shaking and his stomach knotting, nobody was paying any attention to him. He’d do it, and it would be over.

  Some of the crowd squealed as the crew carried on two microphones, the blue and red in the background representative of the two sides of the debate. Iain and Callum, Raymond and Dwight, Punch and Judy. He wondered if the mayor knew anything about Raymond’s plans to have his opposition taken out; whether he’d be prepared to be covered in blood.

  That said, he was already covered in plenty of blood.

  Jared squeezed his palms together. Not long to go. All over soon.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause and warm welcome for our two candidates today: the mayor, Iain Forbes, and his opposition, Callum Thomson!’

  The crowd roared as the two men stepped out, both of them holding their arms aloft. Callum was dark-skinned and had a buzzcut, the mayor sported his traditional blue suit and platinum blonde hair. The sun beamed against his whitened teeth as he waved at the crowd.

  Jared reached for his coat pocket. Security stared into the distance, as robotic and detached as ever.

  ‘Thank you very much for being here today,’ the mayor said. ‘It brings me great pleasure to firstly welcome along my competitor.’ The crowd cheered as the mayor clapped his hands in his Callum’s direction. ‘Let’s just hope he doesn’t have too much fun.’ The crowd laughed.

  Sincerity, humour, sincerity: textbook approach to public speaking. Sincerity connotes reliability, humour suggests oneness with the people. A farcical, pre-scripted show. It was about time it had a twist.

  ‘Jibes aside, we’re all here for one special reason today, and that’s to decide on the future of this beautiful city in which we live.’ The crowd mumbled in agreement. ‘Whichever side you vote for, rest assured, this city will be in more fortunate hands than the rest of the country.’

  The crowd cheered again.

  The mayor worked his fingers through his silky white hair, airbrushed grin on his face. This is it. This is the moment.

  Deep breath. One, two, three.

  Jared lifted the gun out of his pocket and aimed his scope at the mayor. The first thing he felt was the sense of freedom as he stood there, gun in hand, with nobody paying any major attention to him.

  Just do it.

  It must have happened quickly, but everything seemed delayed and in slow motion as he fired one bullet, two bullets, and then three bullets towards the mayor’s head.

  The crowd around him only noticed after the mayor fell towards the ground.

  Screaming. Panicking. Jostling.

  Jared held his hands up, the gun still between his fingers. ‘Lower your weapon,’ someone shouted.

  More jostling, more panicking.

  Stench of sweat ripe in the air.

  ‘Sir, I’m going to count to three, and I want you to drop that fucking weapon on the ground. One…’

  Deep breath. Faith’s okay. Mustapha’s okay. Raymond’s gone.

  ‘Two…’

  Eyes closed. Cool it, cool it.

  ‘Three…’

  Jared smiled as a sharp pain stabbed into his back and he fell to the floor. He was still smiling as his head cracked against the ground.

  Deep bre…

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  About the Author

  Ryan Casey is the author of over a dozen novels and a highly successful serial. He writes horror, mysteries and thrillers. Across all genres, Casey's work is renowned for its dark, page-turning suspense, unforgettably complex characters, and knockout twists.

  Casey lives in the United Kingdom. He has a BA degree in English with Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham, and has been writing stories for as long as he can remember. In his spare time, he enjoys American serial television, is a slave to Pitchfork's Best New Music section, and wastes far too much of his life playing Football Manager games.

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  About This Book

  Jared is good at making friends. He's even better at killing them.

  When career assassin Jared Colwright is tasked with carrying out a hit on a wealthy businessman and his family, he doesn't think much of it. To him, it's just another job in his dark and gritty world of murder and organized crime.

  But Jared's morals are thrown into chaos when he begins to form an emotional bond with the family. As he grows closer to them and dreams of freedom, which path will he choose: one of violence or redemption?

  Killing Freedom is a dark suspense thriller from Ryan Casey, author of the Brian McDone and Dead Days series. Action-packed and filled with unexpected twists, Killing Freedom is a gripping tale of murder and morality that will keep you hooked right through to its mind-blowing conclusion.

  The characters and events portrayed in this boo
k are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.

  Killing Freedom

  Copyright © 2013 by Ryan Casey

  Cover design by Lloyd Lelina

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Published by Higher Bank Books