“All right.”
Somehow, Langham had a feeling that Oliver knew that wouldn’t be the end of it, that the pair of them wouldn’t be able to ignore a new case if one came up. Fairbrother was well able to deal with things back at the station—he could bring Sergeant Villier in if she didn’t mind a bit of overtime—so there was no reason for Langham and Oliver to be needed. No reason at all.
Chapter Five
Jackson stared through one of the floor-to-ceiling lounge windows at Sid’s wide back. His employer strode towards his car on the driveway. The bloke had left with a gut full of cupcakes and homemade lemonade, freckles of crumbs on his tie and a smear of pink icing on his jacket lapel.
“Weird sort, your boss,” Randall said—from right behind him.
Fuck me. Move back, will you? “Um, yeah. Takes a while to get used to him, but he’s all right.”
Sid climbed into his car then reversed at breakneck speed down the drive. Jackson thought about that copper he’d seen on the way here. If he was still around and pulled Sid over, that was Sid’s problem. But what was the copper even doing out here? Had he got some tip-off or other to be on the lookout for them?
“So,” Randall said. “Down to business. I know who wants me dead.”
“Right.” Jackson shrugged and kept his gaze ahead.
Sid made a ragged turn onto the road and disappeared from sight.
“Someone who’s after your money?” Jackson asked. “A distant family member, whatever? Doesn’t matter in the long run because when he arrives, I’ll take him out.”
“Do you know who it is?” Randall had sounded amused, like he was taking the piss. Was that how the rich were, even when facing a threat to their lives? Did they think it was just a trifle or however the fuck they put it, something easily fixed, nothing to worry about?
Suppose they do. And it is nothing to worry about. He’s paid good money to have this sorted. By morning it’ll be as though it never happened. As though I’d never been here. Except that copper knows I have. Shit.
“Sid knows everything,” Jackson said. “I prefer not to. The less I know about them the better. He’s my target, someone to be eliminated, simple as that.”
“Don’t you ever feel guilty?”
“Nope,” Jackson sighed out. No one ever understood his reasoning, the way he saw things. How he could flick a switch in his head and just get on with assignments. “It’s a job. Pays my rent.”
“I see. So you don’t feel emotion.”
“Investing feelings in my line of work leads to mistakes. Do you feel guilty employing me to take him out?”
“No. He wants me dead.”
“There you go then.”
“Ah, but he hasn’t done anything to you, doesn’t plan on doing anything to you, not unless forced, I imagine. No reason why you should want to kill him.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone, I just do.”
“Why do something you don’t want to?”
He’s getting on my wick. “It’s the way things turned out.” Jackson needed to change the subject before Randall probed too hard. Found out too much about him. About Christine and how he needed to do what he did in order to right some wrongs, to give himself a sense of being useful to someone. Making someone’s life better. The fact that he wrecked other lives more often than not wasn’t something he allowed himself to think about. If he had his work to keep him distracted, he didn’t think about how Christine had almost killed him with what she’d done, with her words, with walking away. “Sounds to me like you’re trying to put me off.”
“No. On the contrary, I need this done. I’m just making sure I hired the right man for the job. Someone who might feel bad about it later isn’t something I can risk. Someone who might cause me problems by spilling secrets…”
“You did your homework in finding Sid. My boss trusts me. That should be enough.” Jackson turned around to face Randall, avoiding eye contact and staring at the skin just above the bloke’s nose. “Listen, this is what I do. I protect people, and if it means killing, then that’s just fucking tough. I don’t think about whether they have a family, whether some wife or husband will be sobbing by the end of the day. Might sound heartless, but there you go. It’s what I do. I don’t expect anyone to get it.”
Randall raised his eyebrows. “I find your career choice fascinating. You look so dangerous.”
“I am dangerous. But there’s nothing fascinating about me, mate. I do my job, get the hell out when I have the all clear, and Sid sends someone to clean up the mess and take it away. You’re safe, I’m well paid, Sid’s well paid. I go home. Eat, shit, shower, sleep, and the next day it starts all over again. I don’t discuss who I’ve killed with anyone but Sid. That make you feel better?”
“Much.”
“Any more questions?” Jackson stepped back. “We have stuff to discuss. I need to make you aware of what you have to do in order to stay safe in the future. I’m just taking one man out. They may send another.”
“They?” Randall frowned. Two deep lines appeared between his eyebrows, and his eyes lost some of their colour.
“Figure of speech. I know as little as possible, but the bloke who wants you gone has employed someone to come here. Thought you knew that.”
“Yes, so there’s still a threat after tonight.”
“Yeah, hence me wanting you to up your security.”
“Hmm. What if we just take the main man out as well? Tonight? Solves the problem. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.”
“Weren’t you listening when Sid explained all this?”
“Not
