‘How did you ever put your life in his hands, Harry? I did it by mistake. What’s your excuse?’
He held her eyes and said, ‘I got a letter today, Kathy, Christmas Eve. Me and Bo Seager, both. Our services are no longer required. The company would appreciate it if we would clear our desks and piss off.’
He glanced back over his shoulder at North, who was now humming to himself as he ate.
‘Now I’m a slow learner-it took me fifty years to figure it out-but I’m not so slow that I had to wait for them to tell me. You only get one shot at life, this is not a dress rehearsal, seize the day-all those old lines, they are true. You don’t understand because you’re young, Kathy. You think you have time to spare. Well, you don’t. None of us does. I finally understood that when Connie told me she wanted to leave Gavin for me, and I realised that this was my very last chance, and after this was nothing. And I looked back over my life, and saw it for how it had really been: fifty years fretting over pennies, stuffing around, making do. And I thought, No more, no more. I didn’t know what I was going to do about it, but I was going to do something.
‘That afternoon I walked through the mall, smiling at the shoppers, passing the time of day, and thinking, What a load of fucking zombies. Don’t you realise how utterly pointless you are? I’ve wasted most of my life trying to keep you safe-for what? And it was then I spotted Upper North.’
Perhaps North picked up his own name above the sound effects from the TV. He called over, mouth full of food, ‘What you talking to her about?’
‘I’m just putting this one straight on a few matters, Greg.’
‘What’s the point?’
Jackson eased back slowly from the wall. ‘Yeah, you’re right. There is no point.’
But there had been a hint of regret, and Kathy guessed he still wanted to tell her how it had happened.
‘Why didn’t you just go for the reward?’ she said quietly.
He looked her in the eye. ‘I checked that later. Ten thousand quid. About what I expected. Pennies.’
‘Honest pennies.’
He snorted and began to turn away.
She said quickly, ‘I can see how you were able to fool everyone else, Harry. I just can’t understand how you managed to fool yourself.’
He turned back, about to say something, but she cut in, ‘Murder isn’t like other crimes. You can’t balance a human life against cash. He can, but that’s what makes him different. You’ve persuaded yourself you can live with it, but you’re wrong.’
Jackson shook his head slowly. ‘No. We don’t have a choice between life and death, Kathy, only between death today and death tomorrow. Enough of my friends have passed away over the years for that to finally sink in- everybody dies. Once you really accept that, that it’s not a matter of whethe r but of when, it puts everything else into perspective. Him’-he nodded down at the figure on the ground-‘he’s dying a couple of days or a couple of months before he might have done. So what? He’d only have wasted the time anyway. I can make better use of it than him.’
‘What makes you think North isn’t looking at you in the same way?’
He smiled at her. ‘That’s why the money is already deposited equally in two Swiss bank accounts, one in his name and one in mine. That way neither can steal from the other. Don’t worry, I’ve thought a lot about this. It’s a finely balanced arrangement.’
‘He needs you to hide him here… and you need him…?’
‘I need his silence, Kathy. Because unlike him I’m not going to be on the run for the rest of my life. I’m going to retire quietly with my new family, buy a villa overlooking a Mediterranean beach, and live like a king.’
He seemed quite unconscious of what Kathy would have to conclude about her own future from his sharing this rosy vision with her.
She pretended not to notice, and said, ‘So you did it all between you? Just the two of you?’
‘That’s right.’ Although he tried to sound cool and offhand, Harry was clearly still somewhat in awe at what they’d done.
‘To North’s plan?’
‘No,’ Jackson leant forward to Kathy’s ear, ‘ my plan. When it comes to planning, ex-coppers make excellent villains. Greg North’s expertise is more in the-’
‘Execution.’ Kathy finished the sentence for him. ‘Yes, I’ve gathered that. Still, it must have been his idea, originally?’
‘Uh-uh.’ Jackson shook his head, pleased by her look of disbelief. ‘I’d worked it all out long before I saw him in the mall that day. Bo got me started, actually. She told me, early on when we first began working together, about this holdup at a mall in Canada, and after that I used to think about it sometimes, just for my own amusement, working out how it could be done.’
He stopped at the sound of North’s laughter from the other side of the room as he watched the cartoon film while the police messages continued on the radio.
‘Turn the small light on, Harry,’ North called out suddenly. ‘This one reflects in the screen.’
He got up and switched off the bright overhead fluorescent while Jackson turned on a small desk lamp on a chair beside the bed, creating a pool of light in a now darkened and shadowy room, the far end illuminated by the flickering screen to which North returned.
Harry came over and began to lead Kathy towards the bed. She stumbled, then, as he grabbed her arm, she whispered urgently, ‘Harry, please, let me try to help Orr. Let me at least sit with him.’
He glanced over at North’s back, then shook his head. ‘Forget it, Kathy. Just sit down on the end of the bed. You’ll be more comfortable.’
Kathy stared at the old man on the floor, unable to detect any sound or movement from him now, while Jackson searched among her things for the key to her handcuffs. When he found it he unfastened the cuff on her left wrist and clipped it to the bed frame, then sat down at the other end of the bed and gathered her possessions together. He picked up her notebook and put the rest of the things down onto the floor out of her reach.
‘So, you worked out how it could be done,’ Kathy prompted. She no longer really cared how they’d done it, but knew she must try to keep him talking to her.
Jackson, reading her notes, didn’t reply at first. Then he said, ‘How much do you know about Bruno Verdi?’
‘Know, or suspect? I suspect that he murdered his niece, Kerri Vlasich, and before that two other girls, maybe more.’
‘Hmm.’ Jackson returned his attention to the notebook, turning the pages slowly.
‘Do you know?’ she prompted.
‘Some time ago we had a bit of a problem with a girl called Norma Jean. You know about her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yeah. Vagrancy, thieving, soliciting, dealing, shooting up in the toilets. Not unique by any means, but more persistent than most. Nobody seemed prepared to deal with her.
‘Well, one day I was down the gym with Bruno and Speedy and we were talking about Norma Jean. Bruno was complaining about how we weren’t solving the problem, and how it was beginning to affect business. I said I’d love to get rid of the girl, if anyone could tell me how, and Bruno said, if I really meant that, he could take care of it. When I asked what he meant, he looked kind of sly, you know, and said he could arrange to have her taken to Birmingham.’
‘Birmingham?’
‘He said he knew of a refuge there. Once there, he was sure Norma Jean wouldn’t want to come back. I said that sounded good to me. He said the only problem was that she wasn’t likely to go voluntarily. So it was a matter of finding some way to persuade her, for her own good of course, and ours. He said he could arrange this, if security would turn a blind eye, and if necessary cover up for him afterwards.’
‘You agreed to this?’ Kathy said, incredulous.
‘I didn’t know about his earlier history with the ice-cream van then, and he seemed genuinely concerned for the girl, wanting to help her start again. Honestly, Kathy, I thought he was doing us all a big favour.’
‘What changed your mind?’
‘Few months ago I had a run-in with Speedy. I’d caught him before taking drugs, or under the influence, but I’d always given him the benefit of the doubt. I knew he was on pain-killers, and I thought that was what was making him groggy. But this time I caught him red-handed with speed, and I said he was out. So then he told me a
