Page 152 of Better the Devil

The room had gone silent now. The masks, and the stillness made it impossible for Logan to get a read on what the other people in the bothy were thinking. Were they struck dumb with horror over what Gavin had done, or standing in silent support of him?

It was easier to tell what the man with the gun was thinking. His stance hadn’t shifted, and the shotgun remaining trained on the centre of Logan’s chest.

‘But, you asked me how I thought I’d get away with it?’ Fleck shrugged. ‘I didn’t. I didn’t want to. It doesn’t matter. I just want to finish everything. Tick everything off, so I can be done. So I can face whatever comes next.’

He gestured down to Bosco on the floor.

‘That means killing him. See, I tracked all the way back from Jason’s dealer—the piece of shit who got him hooked on that poison after his slut of a wife told him what she’d done. Tracked back up the chain until I came to him. The main man.’

Fleck’s voice trembled, but not with grief this time. It was rage, just barely contained.

‘Your friend there, it’s his fault Jason fell as far as he did. If it hadn’t been for that junk in his veins, maybe he’d have listened to us. Maybe we could’ve helped him, and he could’ve been here. But no. He’s gone, because this piece of shit wanted to make money from his suffering.’

He glanced around, meeting the gazes of some of the others, recognising his own pain in their eyes.

‘From everyone’s suffering. When I found out he was being released—and I did find out, because I was paying attention, unlike you—then I knew the time had come,’ Fleck said. ‘I knew it was now or never.’

He inhaled through his nose, drawing himself up to his full height, like he was pulling all the parts of himself back together.

‘He dies here. Where Jason died. After that, it’s over, and you can do what you like to me.’ He smiled through his tears at the DCI. ‘I want you here for this. I want you to see justice done. I think you deserve it, too, after everything he did to you.’

He glanced at the shotgun, then at the man holding it.

‘Do it.’

The masked man at Fleck’s side shifted his aim, turning the gun on Bosco.

‘I can’t let you do this,’ Logan warned, side-stepping back into the line of fire.

‘Come on. Don’t be stupid here,’ Fleck said. ‘You know full well how many lives he’s ruined. How much damage he’s done.’

‘I do,’ Logan confirmed. ‘But that doesn’t mean you get to just execute him.’

‘Oh, so he gets to live? While Jason dies?’ Fleck gestured around at some of the other masked people still gathered in silence. ‘Trisha. Adam. Jenny. They all had to die, but he gets to live?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ Logan intoned. ‘I didn’t say I liked it, but that’s just the way it is.’

Fleck stared at him. It was a cold, clinical look, like he was looking at a problem to be fixed, not at another human being.

‘Fine. We’re going to have to kill you now, anyway,’ he announced.

That one drew more gasps from the audience, and a few strangled cries of shock.

‘Wait, what?’

‘Gavin, what are you talking about?’

‘You can’t!’

Fleck hissed at them through his teeth, rising to a shout. ‘Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! I’m doing this for you,’ he told them. ‘If he lives, everyone finds out about your involvement. He dies, and it’s on me. Just on me.’

‘That’s not true, Gavin,’ Logan shot back.

‘Yes it is! He came here alone! Me and him. Nobody else knows about you lot. About any of you.’

‘Curtis Neil,’ Logan said, pointing to the man with the gun. ‘That’s you, isn’t it? Your girlfriend here somewhere? Cassidy, was it? That what you said her name was, Gavin?’

‘The fuck?’ whispered a woman from the corner.