Page 32 of She Saw What He Did

Moray felt his blood pressure rising. He’d spent a lot of money on this. It had been damn near perfect. What the fuck had he been thinking of, agreeing to let amateurs in?

‘He’d better get it, or you and Sparrow will wish you had never been born. We’ll arrange a meeting. I’ll get back to you.’

He clicked off the phone and turned to the man standing by the window.

‘All’s not lost,’ said the man, shaking the ice in his brandy. ‘Obviously Sparrow is a problem.’

‘A problem,’ Moray smirked. ‘He’s an idiot. Weren’t you watching that recording? It made my stomach churn.’

‘It’s unfortunate. But we could perhaps put this to our advantage.’

‘How the fuck are we supposed to do that?’ said Moray.

‘He’s a fool, of course. But you don’t use smart people for this kind of job, do you? But we can use him. That way nothing will lead back to us. We just change our plans slightly. If he messes it up, we’ll have to rethink things.’

‘Are you mad?’ growled Moray. ‘It’s taken months to plan this?’

‘I’m a clear thinker. This could work out well. He doesn’t know what he’s dealing with yet, but when he does …’

Moray frowned.

‘What are you saying?’

‘He’ll have to be disposed of. Surely you knew that?’

Moray blinked. This was all getting out of hand.

‘We’re not wasting money on that low life,’ said the man.

‘Are you crazy,’ Moray laughed nervously. ‘I don’t like this.’

‘You seem to have a weak stomach, Moray. Either you’re in or you’re not.’

‘Of course I’m in. The whole thing has got to be stopped but I didn’t imagine …’

‘This must never come back to us. It’s the perfect answer. He’s our delivery boy. He won’t even know who he’s delivering for.’

‘As if he’d do it willingly,’ Moray said, shaking his head.

‘That’s just it. He won’t will he? He’s not that much of an idiot. Once he knows about the recording, he’ll do it. He’ll find a way around it. We tell him that as soon as he delivers the goods, we’ll give him seventy thousand. How he does it is irrelevant.’

Moray looked back at the recording and the close-up of Abby and Jared Miller frozen on the screen and popped a pill into his mouth. His ulcer was playing up something terrible.

‘You can’t be serious,’ said Moray.

‘It’s a mess now. Sparrow has to clear it up. We can’t get our hands dirty.’

‘But …’

‘There’s always collateral,’ said the man. ‘You’re surely not that naïve to think there wouldn’t be? This is the perfect solution. We take Sparrow out at the pay-off. He won’t cost us a penny if we play our cards right.’

Moray sighed.

‘It’s all for the greater good isn’t it?’ the man assured him.

Moray switched off the projector and nodded.

‘Indeed,’ he said.

---