I felt Andy's hand on my shoulder.
'Oh, sweet Jesus,' he said, then his grip tightened. 'I'm going to check the rest of the house. The bastard who did this might still be here.'
I knew he was right. I wanted to go with him-maybe, when we came back, the atrocity wouldn't be here any longer, maybe I'd imagined it, I'd always had a vivid imagination..
I dug my fingernails into my palms and forced myself to look up. Dave was wearing only jeans and shoes. They were soaked in blood, as was the sofa he lay sprawled across. His arms were outstretched and his legs wide apart. Something terrible had happened to his legs. There were bullet wounds across both thighs and in the kneecaps. But worst of all was his head. It had been broken open, his features unrecognizable beneath a carpet of blood and soft tissue. Dave was no longer there. What he had been-his spirit, his bighearted soul-had disappeared. I fell forward like a worshipper before the shrine of some ancient, blood-addicted god, my chest racked by sobs and my face soaked with tears.
'Matt?' I heard Pete say, in my earpiece. 'Are you in? There's someone moving around on the first floor.'
'This is Andy. Get in here, both of you. The house is clear.'
The American came thundering down the stairs, then unlocked the front and back doors. I felt his hand on my shoulder again.
'Come on, Wellsy,' he said, 'let's get you out of here.'
'No!' I screamed. 'I can't leave him! I'm not leaving him on his own.'
'Fucking hell,' Rog said, retching. He ran out, a hand to his mouth.
'What the.' Pete was standing next to us, his mouth slack. 'What animal did this?'
'You…you know who did it,' I said, staring up at them through the blur of tears. 'It was. It must have been Sa.Sa.' I couldn't complete the name of the woman I had once loved. But even if she had been the one who'd pulled the trigger, I knew I was the true author of Dave's death. If I had refused to get involved with the White Devil, this would never have happened. I felt the weight of that knowledge bear down on me. The sight of my friend's ruined body added years to my life in a few seconds.
Pete and Andy pulled me to my feet and walked me out of the room. I wiped my eyes with the back of my arm and saw Rog leaning over the kitchen sink, a string of vomit hanging from his lower lip.
'Call.call Karen,' I said as they sat me at the breakfast table.
Andy dug in his pocket for his phone.
'No,' I said, batting his arm away. 'Me. You have to go, all of you. I'm.I'm responsible.'
'Screw that,' Pete said. 'We haven't done anything wrong.'
Andy lifted up his automatic and pointed at the case that held the sniper's rifle. 'Um, I think you're wrong there, Boney.' He stuck his empty hand out at me. 'Come on, Matt. Hand 'em over. Glock, knife, walkie-talkie, everything you've got.'
I complied, too numb to protest. He was right. There was no point in me putting Karen in a difficult position by being in possession of an illegal firearm.
'Car key, as well,' Andy said. 'I'll drive the Saab around here for you, okay?'
Pete gripped my wrist. 'You don't have to stay here on your own, Matt,' he said. 'You can come with us. Karen will understand.'
I shook my head. 'No, Boney. I have to do this.' I swallowed a sob. 'For Dave.'
'You two go,' Pete said, tossing keys to the Cherokee to Rog. 'I'll meet you at the end of the road.'
Andy nodded at me, and then pushed Rog gently to the back door. 'Lock this after us,' he said to Pete.
I pushed my chair back and stood up.
'What are you doing?' Boney asked. 'Don't-'
I swerved past him, my breathing ragged. There were two things I had to do before Dave was taken beyond my reach. I forced myself to look at the remains of the bravest man I'd ever known. I was looking for a message- the White Devil had inserted messages inside many of his victims' bodies. His mouth was partially open. I kneeled down and mumbled an apology to him, though I knew he would have understood. I was still wearing a glove. Trying to ignore the torn tissue and splintered bone, I moved his jaws farther apart and peered inside, blinking away my tears. There was nothing. I couldn't find any pieces of paper inside his blood-drenched trousers. I had to move him to each side to get to the back pockets. His blood transferred to my jacket, and I swore to myself that I'd never wash it again. I took off his shoes, but again didn't find a thing. It was beyond me to put them back on the feet that had carried him past despairing opposition players so often on the rugby pitch.
Rocking back on my heels, I took in the mutilated face and legs. The White Devil had been dispatched by pistol shots to the head, and I was certain Dave's wounds were a deliberate imitation of that. She had also shot him in the legs back then-those wounds had been repeated. Perhaps those were the only messages I was going to get this time. They were enough.
I stood up and bent over the body. Then I took off my glove and closed Dave's eyes beneath the partially congealed slick of blood. I didn't care that my fingerprints would be on the eyelids. There were some duties that friends had to discharge, whatever the circumstances. I leaned close and spoke to my friend for the last time.
'We'll get her, Dave, I promise you that. And we'll look after Ginny and the…and Tom and Annie.' His son was the same age as Lucy, his daughter two years older. The horror that they would have to face made me blink hard. Then I opened my eyes again and inhaled the coppery smell of fresh blood.
'No matter how far she goes, I'll be on her tail,' I said, standing up straight.
There was only one more thing to say-the catch- phrase that everyone who played for South London Bisons used when a game seemed to be lost.
'No mercy, no surrender.'
Pete arrived at my side. He repeated the words, and then turned me around, gently but insistently. In the hall, I took out my phone and called Karen.
'Dave's been murdered,' I said, the words singeing my mouth. I gave her the address. After I'd hung up, I turned to Pete. 'You'd better get moving.'
He pushed me back toward the kitchen. 'Let him be now,' he said. 'Don't go back in there.'
I nodded my agreement. I had no appetite to see Sara's handiwork again. Besides, I wanted to check the rest of the house. It was possible she'd left a message somewhere else and I didn't want the police to find it first. After about ten minutes I heard sirens. But by that time I'd only managed to ascertain one thing: there was no sign of a break-in.
Had Dave willingly admitted his killer?
'Where are we going, Mummy?' Lucy asked from the backseat.
Caroline Zerb looked in the rearview mirror. 'Never mind,' she said, her voice sharp. She had been watching for cars on her tail ever since they'd left the house in Wimbledon.
'It's a magical mystery tour,' Fran said, turning her head and smiling at her granddaughter. She had been a primary schoolteacher before her children's books had taken off, and her skills with children were far superior to Caroline's.
Lucy raised an eyebrow skeptically. 'How long are we going to go round and round the motorway?'
'Until I decide otherwise,' her mother said, accelerating up the fast lane, then cutting inside and slowing down in front of a lorry. Matt had given her a book about surveillance techniques and she had practiced how to make life difficult for a tail. The initial shock she'd felt when her ex- husband sounded the alarm had worn off and now she was anxious about the meetings she'd been forced to cancel.
Her phone rang and she pressed the button on her hands-free kit. 'It's me,' Matt said. 'Listen carefully, I haven't much time. This is a full alert.'
'What's happened?'
'Just listen! Are you on the M25?'
'Yes.'
'Get off at the next exit and find a pay phone. Your cell phone frequency may be being scanned. Follow instruction two, repeat, two. I'll be in touch. Give.give my love to Lucy and Fran.'
'Matt?' Caroline swallowed an expletive when the connection was broken.
'Is he all right?' Fran asked, her face drawn.
'I think so. He was in a hurry. He sent his love to you both.'
The two women exchanged glances. They both knew that something bad had happened. There had been a
