I went over and put my arm around her. I felt sick to the gut. It was difficult to believe what I was hearing. I wondered how much worse things could get. ‘Did he rape you?’ I asked quietly, desperate for the answer to be no.
She shook her head and removed her hands from her face, but still didn’t look at me. I felt relief that lasted for all of about two seconds. ‘He did other things,’ she whispered, her disgusted tone leaving little doubt as to what those things might have been. ‘And when he’d finished, he just looked at me like I was nothing and told me to fuck off. Like I was nothing, Max. No-one … no-one’s ever done that to me before.’ She shook her head slowly like she was trying to shake the memories out of her head. She looked distant, and I thought then that I didn’t want to lose her. To be honest, amid all the frustration and rage in my head, that was when I sort of knew I loved her. A bit hasty, yes, but sometimes these things really do happen.
We held each other for a long time. Five minutes, ten minutes, it was difficult to tell. It could have been longer. Eventually she sighed and took a drink from the glass of brandy.
‘I need a cigarette,’ she said.
‘I’ll find you one.’ I opened up the drawer of her bedside table and found a pack and a lighter. I lit two and passed one to her.
‘Don’t do anything, Max. For Christ’s sake. I just want to forget about it, that’s all. At least now I’ve left the club. I don’t think anyone’s going to expect me to work my notice after that.’
‘What? You’re going to ignore the fact that a piece of shit like Krys Holtz did that to you?’ I tried to keep my voice calm, knowing that she could hardly be blamed for wanting to put an incident like that behind her, but it was difficult.
‘He’s Stefan Holtz’s son, for fuck’s sake! What can we do?’
I shook my head. ‘Fuck that. I keep hearing about these Holtzes and how fucking invincible they are, but let me tell you something, no-one’s invincible. I might be on the run but I’m not going to leave London with my tail between my legs. And I’m not going to move one more fucking foot until I get this sorted out.’
‘It won’t help anything.’
‘It’ll help me,’ I said, and got up and went to get the rest of the brandy from the kitchen. My blood was up; I needed something to get it back down again. I poured myself a glass, then took the bottle back to the bedroom and poured some more for Elaine. ‘You know something, I’ve never met Stefan Holtz or any of his extended family, never done a fucking thing to any of them, but these people seem to be doing everything in their power to fuck up my life.’
‘They fuck up a lot of people.’
‘There’s one way I can get back at them. And get revenge for what happened to you. I can off that arsewipe Krys.’
‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘I’m a trained soldier, Elaine. I’m perfectly capable of doing it. And it’ll make me feel one hell of a lot better.’
‘Then what happens? You’ll be on the run for ever.’
‘I’m on the run anyway, so what’s the difference? And I’ll have got them back, for me and for you. Krys’ll be dead, and his dad’ll have to live with the fact that he’s lost a son. And if I do it right, they’ll never know it was me.’
Something in her face hardened. ‘He’s not going to be that easy to kill, Max. Someone like him’s got a lot of enemies. He’s got bodyguards.’
I shrugged. The idea of killing bodyguards didn’t bother me either. I knew it could be done. I could also see that Elaine was now coming round to the idea. We both sat looking at each other for a few moments, each of us wondering how far we were really going to go.
‘I hate that bastard for what he’s just done to me,’ she said eventually, ‘but I don’t want to do anything that’s going to make things worse for you and for us. Do you know what I mean?’
But the thing was, I’d made up my mind. ‘He’s going to have to die, Elaine,’ I said simply.
She took a drag on her cigarette and eyed me closely through the bluish haze of smoke. Then, for the first time since returning that night, her gloom seemed to lift. ‘There’s a better way,’ she said.
Gallan
Berrin remained off sick on Monday. The flu, or whatever it was, had supposedly got worse. If the truth be told, he’d picked a good day to be absent. It was another stinking hot one and tempers in CID were frayed. Knox chaired the meeting of the Shaun Matthews murder squad, during which the events of the weekend, including the death of the possible witness McBride, were discussed, but there remained
