Page 77 of The Burnt
Freddy stood at the entrance to the living room. He had a gun in his hand and it was aimed directly at Tom. “I would have been here sooner, but I stopped to get gas and the battery conked out on my car. I see you’ve got company, Mr Griffin,” he said,pointing at Declan and Charlie. “I guess there’s no harm in them hearing what I’ve got to say.”
“And that is?” Simon asked.
Freddy sneered. “Well, first of all, you may be interested to know that your friend Tom over there knew that your son was dead all along. In fact, he’s the one who killed him.”
Simon’s eyes widened. “Is that true, Tom?”
Tom’s face was still, but his eyes turned a shade darker. “No, Simon. He’s lying. You know I looked far and wide for Milo. On the night he ran away, we used the tracking device on your car and we found it at the airport. There was no Milo. And then he just disappeared.”
Freddy laughed. “Well, the car may have wound up at the airport after your friends moved it, but first it came to an industrial park in Forest Lawn to pick me up.”
Freddy turned to Simon. “Milo and I were running away that night. But Tom here got in the way.”
Freddy moved closer to Tom.
Declan stood. “Freddy, don’t do anything stupid.”
Freddy pivoted toward Declan pointing the gun at him. “You stay out of this.”
He turned back to Tom. “You see, Tom, when you arrived, Milo spotted you and waved at me to hide. I watched as you beat the life out of him. I watched as you piled wood around him and lit the fire. And I watched as you drove away. I was sure you would come after me, but you never saw me, did you?”
Tom smiled coldly, “You’re making this up. What do you want? Is it money? If this is blackmail, Simon has lots of money.”
Freddy said, “Oh no, I don’t want money. I want justice.”
Tom started to rise from his chair and Freddy took another step toward him. “By the way, Tom, what was it you were looking for on the night you murdered Simon’s son? Anything particular? Because you checked the car. I saw you. And youweren’t happy when you didn’t find it.” He took another step closer. “What did Milo have that you wanted so badly?”
Tom said, “I didn’t look for anything. I just wanted Milo to come home.”
Freddy nodded. “Ah, so you admit you were there?”
Tom’s neck muscles tensed.
He’s not going to take this much longer, Declan thought.
Freddy continued, “Simon, I should let you know, you can’t really trust Tom. He didn’t do a very good job. Not only did he kill your son, but he left behind something Milo had hidden in a backpack. It was right behind the dumpster Tom got the paper from to start the fire.”
Simon folded his hands. “And what exactly was in the backpack, young man?”
“Money. Lots of it…and a USB key that has a rather interesting conversation recorded on it. Does the name Roger Feist mean anything to you?”
The edges of Simon’s lips began to twitch.
Who the hell is Roger Feist?Declan thought.
Freddy continued. “I don’t know how, but somehow when you were on a call on speakerphone in your office, Milo managed to record it. You can clearly hear someone say that if you sent your man Tom here to kill Roger Feist—the son of the head of Monarch Holdings apparently—”
Monarch!Declan shot Charlie a glance. It was clear from the pallor of his face that he had also clocked the name of the company.
“—that the person on the other end of the call would help you acquire some sort of relic. It was all highly illegal, of course, but something you apparently wanted badly. It was quite a lively call.”
Simon put his hands in the pockets of his sweater. “I think you’re lying.”
Freddy said, “I assure you, I’m not. For a long time, I was afraid of your organisation, but after ten years, it’s time to put things right. You might be interested to know I looked up Roger Feist’s father. It appears he’s heavily involved in real estate, and it was pretty easy to get a number for a secretary that could pass him a message. She gave me a phone number with an answering machine. I didn’t leave a long message. I just said that I was phoning, anonymously of course, to let him know that Simon Griffin was responsible for the death of his son. And that the person who had killed him was Tom Semple. And then I mailed his office a copy of the USB key. I don’t know if he got or not. Probably not yet, but he will soon.”
Tom lunged toward Freddy. “You little fucker.”
Freddy pulled the trigger on the gun. The bullet tore open the floor near Tom’s feet. It stopped him in his tracks.
