Page 87 of Any Day

“Come closer and I will shoot.”

“And if you do, you will go to prison for a very long time, son. Is that what you want?”

“I want what’s mine. The house should be mine.”

“He thinks that with me gone, Bryn Bach will be his,” said Leonard.

“It will. Even if I go to prison, my mother will sell the house on my behalf.”

“And keep the money for herself,” said Leonard.

“Shut your fucking mouth!”

“Drop the gun,” came another voice, from the same direction he and Matthew had come. PC Lewis stood there now and Matthew backed up a step against a bush, swinging the gun wildly in all directions.

“Don’t come any closer. Or I will kill all of you.”

“That’s a double-barrelled shotgun, son," said PC Morgan. "Even if you’re a sharpshooter, you’ll only get off two shots before you need to reload. There are four of us and, if you listen, a lot more on the way.”

In the distance Leonard could hear the faint sound of multiple police car sirens approaching, probably arriving at the front of the house. Matthew heard too, because his eyes started to dart around the clearing.

“Shut up. Shut up all of you. Or I will at least killhim.”

Matthew appeared crazy now, turning in a half circle, aiming the gun at each of them before levelling both barrels at Leonard.

“He told me, Adrian,” said Leonard, stepping to one side of the hole. Feeling more emboldened, he reasoned that if Matthew chose to shoot him now, at least Adrian was safe and there would be multiple witnesses to his action. “He confessed to me how he tried to blackmail Max Williams and then killed him.”

“Shut the fuck up! I didn’t kill him. He tried to grab hold of me. So I pushed him away and he fell. I didn’t—”

“You didn’t try to save him, though, did you? You could have jumped in to help, but you didn’t. You let a drowning man die.”

“Why shouldn’t I? He was a paedophile, a bastard-fathering pervert, as well as the worst kind of sinner—just like my brother. He deserved to drown like the pathetic rabid dog that he was—”

But Leonard’s cousin didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence.

Hidden within a thick evergreen bush where Matthew had been standing, a figure stepped forwards and swung what looked like a cricket bat at his head. The blow was not only fierce and powerful, but done with frightening accuracy, striking him on the side of the head. Matthew stumbled sideways, falling to his knees, dropping the gun and rolling slightly into the slope. All at once, seeing their opportunity, both officers began to move quickly forwards to try to reach him. Leonard took the opportunity to hurry away from the sinkhole. But the officers were too far away and Matthew, conscious still and desperate, scrambled to raise himself from the ground while reaching a hand out for his gun. This time, behind him, his attacker strode fully into view.

Freya Williams.

Matthew managed to fire off a random single shot before Freya, without fear or hesitation, connected another blow directly to the back of his head. This time he fell forwards, his body rolling down the rest of the steep slope and dropping into the crevice before anyone could reach him. Almost instantly, a splash could be heard. After a quick glance at the fierce, triumphant and frankly frightening face of Freya, Leonard joined PC Lewis, who had dashed to the edge of the sinkhole and grabbed the cricket bat from Freya. Behind them Leonard could hear PC Morgan barking orders into his phone.

“Dispatch. We need emergency services with a ladder. And get some medics here, pronto. We have one man fallen into a sinkhole, another with a head injury and one shot in the chest.”

With a loud crackling of tramped grass, other police officers, these in stark-black uniforms with black helmets and carrying guns, began appearing from each direction. Instantly, PC Morgan ordered them to stand down their weapons. Leonard wondered who had been shot, until he turned to see PC Morgan leaning over the figure of Adrian, laid out on the ground.

“No.” Leonard mouthed the word but no sound came, and began to rise. One of the black-uniformed officers moved over and pushed Leonard firmly back down, telling him not to move. But he could still turn his head.

Adrian lay unmoving on the ground, his eyes closed. Blood oozed from the left side of his chest.

“Please, no,” he finally choked out.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Casa di Luca

Adrian arrived at Bryn Bach with a special house-warming gift for Lenny the day before the house-warming party. Apart from wanting to be with him earlier and help out in whatever way he could—injury willing—he also felt nervous about this particular present.

Friends knew he always went the extra mile in seeking out meaningful gifts for people, but he didn’t know Lenny well enough to guess how he might react.

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