‘I made a statement as a ten-year-old boy,’ I snap, pressing into the table and pushing back my chair. ‘I’m thirty years old. I’ve lived a life since I was that kid. I see what you’re doing. I see your game but that ten-year-old boy won’t give you a motive. The reason, theonlyreason, I shot a man tonight is because he would have killed me if I hadn’t. Am I sorry that a man died tonight? Of course I am. Will it haunt me every day for the rest of my life? Of course it will. But am I sorry that if someone had to die tonight, it wasn’t me or, worse still, Jackson or Scarlett? No.’
I rest back into my hard-as-hell seat and soften my tone.Time to play the man.I gaze into her eyes until she shifts awkwardly and I wait until her pupils lock on mine. I lure her in. ‘I’m just a man, Trina. I took a life to save my own. Don’t I deserve to live?’
Her lips part with her breath as she slowly moves her head up and down.
‘I’m not the bad guy in this. I can promise you that. Kevin Pearson may have been my father but he was a sinful man. You’re about putting bad guys away, aren’t you?’
She nods again. She’s putty.
I sit back, giving her space to compose herself, glancing at Barnes, who winks very subtly from his left eye.
‘We’re done here,’ he says, turning off the recorder.
I breathe a short sigh of relief.
Trina is quick to make her excuses and exit, no doubt annoyed by her inability to control her pheromones.
‘You know Jackson?’ I ask Barnes.
‘We served together in the military and briefly in the policebefore he went private. I know what I need to know.’ He crosses one heel over his opposite thigh, revealing offensively yellow socks.
‘How’s it looking?’
He shrugs and rolls a pen between his fingers. ‘I can work with self-defence. Jackson’s statement matches yours. But the gun is more difficult. It’s a bad time politically for gun crime. The Crown Prosecution Service are going to want possession as a minimum, even if they accept self-defence.’
‘What can I do?’
‘It could cost you.’
I sit up straighter now. ‘If there’s one thing I’ve got, it’s money, Barnes.’
He nods. ‘Jackson said as much. He also said you’re a good guy.’
‘How is he?’
Barnes shakes his head on a short laugh. ‘He’s made of stone, that man. Muscle damage only. He was lucky. Had them stitch him up with a shot of the good stuff, no anaesthetic, then he discharged himself. Should be back on his feet soon enough.’
‘Sounds like Jackson. And Scarlett, how’s she?’
‘We haven’t spoken to her yet.’
‘Where is she? Can I see her?’
He shakes his head. ‘We won’t be long. She’s up next.’
The foreign sensation of pressure begins to build behind my eyes again. I need to sleep.
‘Can I trust you, Barnes?’
‘Jackson does.’
‘I’ll take that as a ringing endorsement.’
‘Do so. He’s a good judge of character.’
‘I hope so.’
‘You and me both.’
