Page 26 of Famous Last Words

Niall steps towards the door again. ‘Luke – your wife, Camilla, told us you like coffee,’ he says. ‘She’s very keen to get you home.’

At this, he hears something more distinct.

‘She’s missing you,’ Niall adds softly.

And there it is: a noise. So quiet, he wonders if his mic and recording device will capture it at all.

‘Luke? You OK in there?’ Niall asks. ‘It’s tough, isn’t it?When we’ve made decisions we wouldn’t ordinarily make. And perhaps for reasons you feel others wouldn’t understand.’

Now there’s silence. Niall turns around. A hand goes up. Proceed: Deschamps isn’t displaying dangerous behaviour.

And that’s when he realizes what the noise is: it’s sobbing. Deschamps is sobbing.

And this is the bit where it gets easy. The communication channel has opened, and Niall steps into it like it’s a fresh running stream that’ll carry him away.

‘There’s always a way out. And it doesn’t have to be as bad as you think. I can hear you’re crying,’ he says, and then he starts it: the priming, telling him things he wants him to think. ‘And I know that’s because you care. And I care, too, so let’s find a way to get you out of there together.’

And then Deschamps speaks.

10

‘Niall?’ Deschamps calls, a disembodied voice from inside the warehouse.

A rush of relief moves up through Niall like he’s a champagne bottle somebody has just popped.

‘Yes?’ he says.

Nothing.

‘Yes?’

‘Can you get a message to somebody?’

‘Yes, anything,’ Niall says, moving even closer to the door. He begins to plant the persuasive seeds. ‘We’ve got you coffee here and we’re also more than happy to pass a message on.’ This is the beginning of reciprocity.Here’s what we’ve done for you …

‘OK.’

‘What would you like to say?’

‘Tell my wife …’

‘Camilla?’

‘Yes. Tell my wife that I love her. Her and Polly.’

Niall stares at the peeling paint of the door, listens to the silence around him, the desperate, eleventh-hour proclamation of a man trapped in his own actions. What does it mean?

‘I will,’ Niall says. ‘Anything else you want me to relay?’

Silence.

‘Luke? You could come out – tell her yourself. She’d love that.’

Nothing.

‘Luke?’

Nothing.

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