Page 60 of Rat

“Why the hell would he do that?”

“To torment me, to run his shady deals opposite me.”

Morris looked at Rory. “You need to get that phone.”

“He doesn’t keep it in the cell. The officers have searched it twice more since I last saw you. It’s not there.”

“Well, he’s keeping it somewhere!”

Hamish picked at his moustache. “Did he say anything else, any hint who he was telling to buy the farm?”

Rory shook his head. “No, that was all he said, and I haven’t heard him on the phone again.”

“Shit,” Hamish hissed, pacing behind the desk. “I’ve got to stop whatever he’s planning.”

“That’s the problem,” Morris muttered, throwing her hands up in the air. “We don’t know what he’s planning.”

“You have to get hold of that phone, Rory,” Hamish said.

“I’m trying.”

Morris snorted. “Well, not hard enough. Ask him.”

“What?”

“Ask him if you can use it.”

Rory shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

“You’re friends now, aren’t you?”

Rory flared his nostrils. “I can’t ask to use it… He’ll want something in return.”

“Then give it to him.”

“Morris,” Hamish said firmly. “Enough.”

Morris turned away.

“I’ll try, okay,” Rory said.

“Do more than try,” Morris snapped. “Get that phone.”

Rory hung his head as he was escorted back to the wing. He’d tried to be upbeat when he’d spoken to Erica, but she could tell something was wrong, and he’d cut the call short.

He released a slow sigh and waited for the gate to clunk.

He’d been there four months, and each week that passed, he felt more and more like a fraud. A fraud to Ollie, who waited eagerly for him each morning, a fraud to Captain, who worked hard to train him up, a fraud to Sebastian, who made him smile and offered his protection with no catch, and a fraud to inspector Hamish, who’d helped him in his moment of crisis.

His heart, and mind, and even his needycockwere tripping over each other, and he was betraying them all.

“Hey, we’ve got twenty minutes until art starts.”

Rory couldn’t raise his head to look at Ollie. “I’m not feeling it.”

“Oh, come on, Mrs Mason says we’re going to start something else today.”

“I’m feeling pretty rough.”

---