Page 69 of Girl, Remembered

‘We were looking for you… for months,’ Edis said.

‘And I guess you found me.’

Edis nearly toppled, but he steadied himself with one hand on the floor. ‘But how… do you know all this? I met Ella here in private.’

Doyle couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Ella Dark told a few people. In fact, she told a hundred people, perhaps inadvertently. I just happened to be behind her in the cake shop.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘You don’t need to. Now, I want you to apologize.’

Now it was Edis’s turn to laugh. ‘Not going… to happen.’

Doyle felt the rage building. This man was at her mercy, and still he refused her wishes? ‘For a man who held such a high profile position, you aren’t the sharpest tool in the box, are you? I told you to apologize and I suggest you do it.’

‘No.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘You’re in my bar. This is… a law enforcement bar, for law enforcement people. You’re… not welcome here.’

Doyle laughed again. She had to, or the rage would morph into a homicide. She drew her leg back and drove her boot into his ribs. Edis folded sideways with a grunt, catching himself on one palm before he hit the glass-covered floor. A wet, winded sound came out of him.

Doyle checked her watch. Three minutes. She grabbed a fistful of Edis’s collar and hauled him back up onto his knees. She must have hit an internal organ, because the poor old ex-director now had blood between his teeth.

‘When I tell you to do something, you do it. Do you understand?’

‘You won’t get away with this,’ Edis spat. ‘You’re going to end up dead, just like your stupid boyfriend. They’ll find you and put a bullet in your head. Believe me.’

Doyle’s attack seemed to have kickstarted Edis’s frontal lobe again, which was ideal for his execution. She wanted him fully aware up until the moment she killed him.

But he was still talking, still spitting.

‘When they put you down, nobody’s gonna remember you. One unmarked grave, right next to Creed, and I’m going to piss all over it.’

Doyle heard grave and was suddenly twelve years old again, sleeping in a six-foot hole at the bottom of the garden. She felt the phantom touch of the dirty sheet beneath her, the bite of insects, the taste of soil.

‘Say that again.’

‘You heard me. You – all these three dipshits – can all go and fuck yourselves.’

She hit him. Boot into his stomach, then his back when he curled forward, then his stomach again, each kick harder than the last. Edis took it without another word, arms wrapped over his head, blood dripping steadily onto the glass-strewn floor beneath him.

‘I’ll kill you! Do you hear me? I’ll kill-’

BANG.

A flood of light from the streetlamps outside irradiated the room.

And there, silhouetted against orange glow of streetlamps, was the guest of honor.

‘Give it up, Lindsey. It’s over!’

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The Milestone Bar.

Simple, but not easy.