Lawless
Page 24
She looked at him. Looked away. Looked back. Said nothing.
After several seconds McBride spoke again. ‘There is another way, of course. Stop all this. Bring it to an end and make your father really proud. Give me the gun and we’ll work things through together. Get help. We’ll find a hospital where you’ll be looked after.’
He rose slowly from the sofa and moved hesitantly in her direction. ‘Your father had honour,’ he said. ‘You can get it too.’ He held out a hand for the pistol. ‘Let me have it.’
Mikel attempted speech once more. Changed her mind. Then made a decision.
She lifted the Glock, pointed it with slow deliberation, took aim and gently squeezed on the trigger. The bullet entered her right temple, blew her brain apart and exited to the left.
Hackett and the scene of crime teams arrived thirty minutes later. By that time the best-looking detective inspector who’d ever been on his force was free of her shackles and into another pair of knickers. In other circumstances, McBride would have been happy to have delayed both processes by a good hour – another time.
Novak had fifty questions she wanted to ask but not then either.
He had kept her in the bedroom and they hadn’t said much. He had held her in his arms and she’d wept.
Later, she told McBride she needed to leave for a debriefing by Hackett and they both managed to laugh.
McBride drove the two miles back to his apartment slower than he’d driven in his life. He parked the Mondeo and started to walk along the beach. A white moon hung low overhead and the only sound was water breaking softly on to sand at his feet. He headed towards the lifeboat shed where he knew there was a seat.
He would occupy it and think of how he would describe the last few weeks of his life.
Then, when daybreak rose out over the river, he would call London and tell a news desk he had a story to write.
Also by Alexander McGregor
The Law Killers
Copyright
First published 2006
by Black & White Publishing Ltd
29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JL
www.blackandwhitepublishing.com
This electronic edition published in 2014
ISBN: 978 1 84502 772 8 in EPub format
ISBN: 978 1 84502 745 2 in paperback format
Copyright © Alexander McGregor 2006, 2014
The right of Alexander McGregor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay