The Lost

‘Why’d you do it?’ Jonah asked.

Gavin glared at him, but even that seemed like too much effort. He went back to the padded seat and slumped down.

‘I was tired. So fucking tired. All the lies, the fucking fear. Never knowing when it was all going to blow up in my face. There was no end to it, but after ten years you get so you don’t care anymore. Or think you don’t.’ All the energy seemed to have left him. He passed a hand over his face. ‘I’d been getting sloppy. Taking payments from other gangs, making promises I couldn’t keep. And the DPS were already on my back. I knew it was only a matter of time before they put together a case against me, and then I’d be fucked. As long as I was useful I was fairly safe. Even the bastards pulling my strings would think twice about killing an active police officer. But one who’d been disgraced, who they thought might start talking, that was a different thing. I couldn’t run and leave Marie and Dylan. I was getting desperate, and then, to cap it off, the sister showed up.’

‘She had a name,’ Jonah said. ‘She was called Nadine.’

Gavin gave him a sour look. ‘She was a threat. I thought the Armenians had killed Eliana because they’d found out she was an informer. But they didn’t know about me and her. If they’d had any idea I’d been her fucking handler I’d have wound up with my throat cut, cop or not. If her sister knew about us, the last thing I needed was her mouthing off.’

‘How did she find you?’

‘She didn’t.’ A spasm seemed to cross Gavin’s face. ‘I found her.’

He’d learned that a missing persons report had been filed for Eliana Salim. Fortunately, he’d found out early, before it had raised any red flags. Salim’s murder was an old case, left to gather dust beneath years of official embarrassment. There was nothing to say that the woman reported missing now was the same person whose dismembered body had been found years before. But Gavin had his own reasons for heading off any awkward questions. So he’d pulled the report to see who’d made it.

It was a Kenyan post-grad student called Daniel Kimani.

‘The name didn’t mean anything to me, so I went to talk to him,’ Gavin said, slumped back in the seat. ‘He lived in a shared house in Notting Hill. Typical student. Told me he’d filed the report on behalf of a friend but wouldn’t say who. I was wondering how hard to lean on him when the door opened and Eliana’s sister walked in.

Gavin closed his eyes at the memory. He shook his head.

‘Jesus Christ, when I saw her I thought... Anyway, she must have known from my face, because she just looks at me and says, “You’re him, aren’t you?” Turned out Eliana had written to her about this detective she’d met.’

He gave Jonah a crooked smile.

‘So that was it. I’d fucked myself. She was in the country illegally, so she’d had to get Kimani to file the report for her. But once I got them talking it was obvious they didn’t know anything I needed to worry about. If I’d let it go, they’d never have got any further. Once they knew who I was, though, I had to do something.’

‘So you killed them.’ Jonah didn’t try to keep the disgust from his voice.

‘I told you, I needed a way out. And then when I saw Stokes, everything sort of fell into place.’

Fell into place. All those lives, Jonah thought, still pulling at the tie.

‘What about the other man you murdered? Who was he?’

An oddly furtive expression crossed Gavin’s face. ‘Just a rough sleeper I found in an alley. Somebody no one would miss. If it was just the two of them it’d be too suspicious. I couldn’t have that. It had to look like they were random victims.’

So he’d found one. Jonah had thought nothing else would shock him, but that did. He used it as a goad, clenching his jaw as the nylon tie bit deeper into his flesh. It had snagged in a flap of torn skin on the heel of his hand. If he could get it over that, he might be able to wrench free.

But Gavin was rising to his feet. He seemed calmer now as he went to retrieve the vodka, holding it up to see how much was left in the bottle.

‘You know, I’ve thought about telling you for years,’ he said, after taking a drink. ‘I wondered how it’d feel to get it off my chest. That’s why I let you wake up. I was still in two minds whether to or not, but it was now or never. And you know what? It makes fuck all difference.’

Draining the bottle, he set it down. The cosh hung from his hand as he came over.

‘Tell me how to find Eliana.’

‘Not until you—’

The cosh struck the meat of his thigh before Jonah could move. He cried out, trying to kick Gavin’s legs out from under him, but it was a futile effort. Easily evading it, Gavin laid into him with the cosh, the solid leather weight smacking into bone and muscle with deadening impacts.