Absolution(125)

“You sound pretty sure.”

“I am.”

“Then relax. If it’s as straightforward as you say it is, it’ll be fine. Come on, we’ve still got a few hours before you need to head over. Let’s get something to eat.”



Pulling up outside his house, Jack felt the tension coiled inside of him, searching for an outlet. He wanted this over, and quickly. He glanced at his watch. He was ten minutes early. As he made his way up the front path, his gaze swept the front of the house and up the street on both sides. Nothing was out of the ordinary but it didn’t help to dispel the knot of apprehension that sat in his stomach.

He unlocked the door and walked into the hall, closing it behind him. Switching on the hall light, he walked into the living room with the bag of money and stopped dead.

Jimmy and his gorilla were standing in the eerie half-light, watching him. Jimmy glanced down at the bag he was holding, and Jack immediately put it down on the floor, stepping away from it. He fidgeted with the keys in his hand, prepared to use them as a weapon if the need arose, but Jimmy just smirked at them pointedly.

“How did you get in here?” Jack demanded, with more bravado than he felt.

“Irrelevant,” Jimmy said, indicating the bag at Jack’s feet.

“It’s all there.” Jack shoved the bag towards them with his foot, his heart racing. The gorilla picked it up and unzipped it, showing the contents to Jimmy.

“You don’t need to count it,” Jack said, eager to get them out of the house.

“I won’t. If it’s not all there, we’ll be back. I’m sure you knew that.”

They eyeballed each other in silence.

“So that’s it then? We’re done here?” Jack prodded.

Jimmy smiled, and Jack’s blood ran cold. “Not quite.”





CHAPTER 23




“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope… I have loved none but you.”

- Jane Austen




Callum checked his watch again, tapping his foot nervously. He should have heard from Jack by now. He got up and peered through a crack in the curtains, scanning the street in front of Ally’s house.

“Call him,” she said from her place at the kitchen table. “If you don’t, I will. It’s been forty minutes – how long does it take to hand over a bag of cash?”

Not bothering to argue, he dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed Jack’s number. As he listened to it ringing, he shrugged helplessly across the room at Ally.

“Something’s wrong, I can feel it,” she said.

Callum disconnected the call, then dialed again.

“Who are you calling?”

“Maggie and Jane. While I check up on him, you three are gonna have a quiet drink at Barney’s.”

She stared at him blankly.

“You’ll be safer in a room full of people,” he explained. “Trust me.”



Callum pulled up slowly behind Jack’s car, parked outside Tom’s house. He pushed the car door shut behind him carefully, conscious of not disturbing the peace in the quiet street.

So, Jack’s car was here. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing yet. Keeping his wits about him, he made his way up the front path. In the darkness, the light from within the house illuminated the fact that the front door was ajar. Odd. He crept up the stairs onto the porch, but nothing else seemed out of place. Still, he couldn’t help the anxiety that sat in his throat. He gently pushed the door open and a cold chill stung the back of his neck.

The hall table had been overturned and lay on its side, contents spewing out of the single drawer.

“Jack?” he called tentatively, panic overwhelming his need for stealth.

No reply. Broken glass crunched beneath his feet as he made his way through the hall and into the living room. “Are you here?”

He stepped over a dining room chair inside the living room doorway. More upturned furniture greeted him. Then he noticed a boot, partially obscured behind an overturned armchair.

His heart stopped as the image sensors in his brain put two and two together.

He covered the short distance in a millisecond, dropping to his knees beside him as his heart threatened to leap out of his chest.

Jack lay face down on the floor, out cold.



Callum checked his watch again. God, how he hated hospitals. The smell of the place was enough to make him feel sick – a peculiar mix of Lysol and misery, wrapped up in one jagged little bundle that scraped away at his insides. He glanced up as the outer doors opened and Maggie, Jane and Ally made their way into the waiting room, blinking in the harsh light. Maggie rushed straight over to him, grabbing him by the arm.