Page 118 of We Chase Shadows

‘She said Esteban had told her all about me,’ says Lee. ‘The bodyguard who can’t fire a gun. And then she pulled the trigger. Esteban slumped to the floor, and she walked away, her gun pointed at me until she disappeared back through the gates.’

‘And then?’

‘I couldn’t think what to do,’ says Lee. ‘A bodyguard shot, and I was there, and I didn’t stop it.’

‘But why the note?’

‘I could have stopped it with a single bullet,’ says Lee. ‘But I didn’t. She was right, I couldn’t. So I went back inside, and I thought about what would happen in the morning, when Esteban was found. Everyone would be asking what happened, and it wouldn’t be long until the rumour mill came up with an answer.’

Amy nods, getting it.

‘They would have worked out it was Maria,’ says Lee. ‘The police would have picked her up, and eventually she’d have told them everything that happened that night.’

‘And that would have been the end of your job?’ says Amy.

‘Exactly,’ says Lee.

‘So you gave them a different explanation?’

‘I thought it was perfect,’ says Lee. ‘I’d heard so much about Eriksson this, Eriksson that, the big bad wolf, why wouldn’t he come after Mr Blackwood?’

‘So you wrote the note, and you put it in Esteban’s pocket?’

‘Yeah,’ says Lee. ‘I thought that would be the end of it. Eriksson wasn’t really after Mr Blackwood, so surely nothing else would happen?’

‘And yet here’s a hitman with a bullet in his head,’ says Amy. ‘And Vern’s dead in the castle.’

‘I honestly can’t explain anything else that happened afterwards,’ says Lee. ‘I just made something up, and then it all came true.’

Well, that’s one murder solved, thinks Amy, but where does it leave everyone else? And how to make sense of the blond man, dead in this ditch, and Vern Blackwood, dead in the wine cellar?

Steve has headed somewhere, Amy doesn’t know where. Rosie and Ernesto are both going to The Hunter’s Rest. Connor Brooks is still somewhere out there.

Amy hears sirens in the distance. The police are finally here. They’ll have a few tales to tell tonight.

‘Give me your gun,’ says Amy to Lee. ‘There can’t be any guns here when the police pull up.’

Lee leans across and hands his gun to Amy.

‘You’re okay to deal with them if I go?’ she asks.

‘Yeah,’ says Lee. ‘Yeah. I didn’t mean for all this to happen. You know that. I just couldn’t fire my gun.’

Amy looks at Lee’s tattoo and puts her arm around him. ‘I know.’

Lee starts to cry.

‘No need for that though,’ says Amy, and Lee’s sobs turn into a laugh. ‘Why do you still have the tattoo? If you’ve never watched another match?’

‘Just to remember him,’ says Lee. ‘Mohammed Al-Abbas. His name was in the book.’

Amy can see the first police car in the distance now.

‘I’ve got to go, Lee,’ she says. ‘No crying, understand?’

‘Yep,’ says Lee. ‘I’ve done enough.’

‘And, Lee,’ says Amy, ‘there can’t be any guns here when the police arrive. Are you absolutely sure you don’t have another one?’