Page 118 of The Rat

He pulled the plastic bag out of hispocket and covered a patch on the bench. “Now sit.”

Rory sat down and stared at hislap. “Why didyou keep asking for the time?”

“You’ll see in aminute.”

Sebastiansat down, then yanked off hisgloves. He huffed, waited a minute, then turned to Rory.

“I’m sorry about yoursister.”

Rory widened his eyes andpressed his back to the bench, then he remembered the letter he’d written.“You read it?”

“No.”

“Then how doyou know about her?”

Sebastian pursed his lips and exhaled.“Not yet. I need to tell you about Lester first.”

Rory swallowed the lump in his throat.“Lester? What about him.”

“I deserved every second of that sixteenyears, I’m the only one in that prison who thinks their time waslenient, who thinks they deserved more.”

“You said he betrayedyou.”

“He did. I hadn’t seen him for ayear, and when he called me out of the blue, hesounded odd.He wanted me to help him get money, and fast, and I did what I dobest…”

Rory frowned. “Which is?”

“I set up a con, had no idea Iwas being watched, followed, stabbed in the back, by one of mydearest friends, and when I found out, I lost it. I couldn’t understand whyhe’d come back after a year and try to ruin me. And in a moment ofanger, I killed him. I know you’ve listened to thatrecording…”

“How do youknow—

“I also know you didn’thear all of it.”

“What do youmean?”

“I tried to bring himback, Icalled for help, phoned an ambulance and did everything they toldme to, but it was too late, I’d done too much.”

Sebastian stared down at hishand and shook his head. “I went down for murder, I didn’t disputeit, I didn’t plead not-guilty, or beg forleniency, I accepted it, but what Icouldn’t accept was him turning on me. For years I’ve wonderedwhy.”

“Did you ever findout?”

Sebastian lifted his head and staredpassed Rory. His lips twitched into a sad smile.

“William Hamish.”

“What?”

“Heharassed Lester, put pressure on him, paidpeople to loiter outside his house, and threaten him. He madeLester’s life hell for a year. His wife got fed up and left, andLester started drinking, gambling, and got himself into a shit loadof debt. He was facing jail time for several charges until Hamishoffered him a deal. The bastard that had put him in that state, wasoffering to save him, bail him out. All he had to do was expose mefor the con artist I am.”

Rory licked his lips. “You diddeals on the dark-web. Hamish gave me a file about you … you’ve sold bombs toterrorists, weapons to gangs—”

Sebastian shook his head. “Ionce sold a bottle of air to this guy for a hundred thousand pound,convinced him it was full of this deadly gas, and another, a vialof pinkliquid, told him it was so unstable, a single drop in watercould make a nuclear explosion. I even had a gun that could vanishin thin air after a shooting, I called it the ghost gun. I’m a conman, and I conned assholes, the lowest of the low.”

“How?”

“Iwas clever about it, I spent money, set upsmall experiments, faked video footage. Had meetings, I wined, anddined, and looked legit. I pushed people’s buttons, found out theirweaknesses, their desires, convinced them I had the answer to alltheir problems.” Sebastian pointed at the pier. “The skills Ilearned here only got better. I seduce, I manipulate, I convince, Iplay people, and I did it to you.”

Rory shook hishead. “Idon’t understand.”

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