I tried calling Jenny. No answer. We needed her to work her magic on the CCTV outside our office. I texted her.
Hun where are you? Need you!
I took Danny’s gun out of my handbag and aimed it at our prisoner. He might have been easy to take, but you could never underestimate an enemy. And god, it was so much faster than having to threaten someone with a knife and be a little bit stabby to show you meant it. People saw a gun and just talked.
Fox pulled his scarf off the tied-up man.
“Man” might have been pushing it. He looked like he was barely old enough to start shaving.
“Jesus, how old are you?” A flash of panic from Fox that he’d abducted a child.
“Fuck off, I’m twenty. Just look young.” His voice was deep enough to confirm he had, in fact, gone through puberty.
“Why the fuck have you been following us?” I waved the gun at him.
“I was paid to!”
Fox crouched down in front of him. “We just want to know who you’re working for.”
The man-child continued staring at me.
“Don’t look at her, look at me.”
The man-child’s eyes flicked over me. Over my body.
“Did you just give me the once-over? Seriously? I’m holding you hostage, and you’re perving on me? Where’s the respect? The terror?” I took another step toward him, the gun pointed right at him.
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry! You just look good.”
I paused. “You don’t think the dress is too young for me?”
“Nahhhh. With those legs, you can totally pull it off.”
“You’re not just saying that because, you know?” I gestured, trying to signify the whole him-being-tied-to-a-chair-and-me-holding-a-gun thing.
“No! I mean, I probably would still say it even if it wasn’t true, because, you know, I don’t want to die. But I really do mean it. Total fire fit on you.”
Fox looked up at me. “If you’ve finished getting fashion advice from the prisoner, can we…?”
“Oh, yes. Right. Who are you working for?”
“I don’t know! I mean, like, I know who hired me, but he said it was a jobhe’dbeen hired to do by someone else. He doesn’t actually want to be up in your business himself.”
“What’s his name, and where do we find him?” I waved the gun at him.
He talked fast. “Dave Milligan. He’s not just a drug dealer, he’s a fixer too. He gets involved in all sorts. He’s doing really well, actually. He’s the one who’s paying me, and I can give you his address. No problem. Whatever you want. But you’ll need to ask him who hired him, and actuallytheywere probably hired by someone else. And on and on.”
The idea of working our way through a line of low-level criminals sounded both time-consuming and boring.
“Dave is big on this whole set-up where it’s hard to trace it back to the original customer. It’s pretty clever, actually. It’s to protect all of us. You can see why I left school to get involved, as—”
“You left school? You didn’t finish your education?” Fox sat down in the chair opposite him and leaned forward. “You really think this is a great career path for you?”
I understood Fox’s concerns. “Do you think your failings are down to your parents, or do you feel like you would’ve kind of ended up this way anyway?”
“Oh god, just shoot me now.” He closed his eyes.
Fox didn’t get the hint. “We’re just trying to understand how a young man like you ends up doing this. Was it drugs? You got addicted? They actually ruin lives, you know. It’s not just a slogan.”
