Kiss Her Goodbye Read online

  If Tina was on schedule, she should be here soon.

  Come on. The nearer he got to realizing this whole thing, the more nervous he was becoming. It wasn't like him to get nervous. He set down Cooper's bat and flexed his fingers. Shook the tension out of his shoulders. He started pacing. The foyer was cramped. He went back into the church and crossed from one side of the room to the other. He picked up an upturned pew. Turned it the right way round. He sat down, facing the door to the entrance hall.

  Five minutes passed. It seemed a hell of a lot longer. He got up again and went to check on the others.

  The little room was drenched in the bright light from a single bulb. Adam looked up at him. Sally gave him a scared look. At least she'd stopped crying now. Joe hadn't wanted to put the gag on her, but he didn't have any choice. After Adam brought her here, Joe had sat her down and told her his suspicions about Cooper. Somehow, he'd fooled himself into thinking she'd understand, that she'd take his side. When he'd finished speaking, she asked to leave. He said she had to stay. She started screaming and wouldn't stop no matter how much he begged her. He tried threatening her. That didn't work. With Adam's help, he tore one of Gary's blankets into strips. Adam pinned her arms to her sides while Joe removed one of her socks. He rolled the sock into a ball and stuffed it into her mouth, then secured it with one of the strips torn from the blanket. He used the remaining strips to tie her to her chair.

  Joe strolled over to the cot. Gary was still asleep. He tucked the remaining blanket under the little man's arms and said to Sally, "I wish I didn't have to do any of this."

  Twenty minutes later he was standing by the church's main entrance listening for the sound of approaching footsteps.

  For the first time in ages he felt a twinge where Monkman had kicked him. He touched his side, hoping the bruising wouldn't interfere too much with his swing. He tried a one-handed air shot. It was okay. He tried with both hands. A little discomfort, but nothing he couldn't live with. Come on.

  What was keeping her? All Tina had to do was persuade Cooper she wanted a fuck. How difficult was that? Were they walking here? He couldn't imagine Cooper suggesting a romantic evening stroll. It was possible they'd been rumbled, of course. Somehow, Monkman could have found out what was going on. Or maybe Cooper had seen through Tina's charade. After all, it would take a vain man to believe that Tina fancied him. A supremely vain man.

  In the dim light, Joe grinned. There was no doubt they'd be here. He'd just have to be patient.

  A few minutes later he heard the car. The engine growled, then died. After a moment a door clicked shut and a man's laughter punctured the night air. Another click. A woman's voice. Tina's? He wanted to open the door and have a quick look. The compulsion was hard to resist, but his better judgment forced him to retreat inside the church. He hid behind the foyer door, flattening himself against the wall, bat raised.

  They entered the foyer, talking. Tina was saying, "Course there's no bed. There's a pulpit, though. Standing room only."

  "That'll do me," Cooper said.

  And then the door opened.

  Joe stopped breathing. He let Cooper take a few strides past him, then hit the fucker on the side of the knee. Cooper yelped and buckled.

  Tina snapped on the lights and slammed the door shut.

  "Fuck was that?" Cooper asked.

  "One of these." Joe swung the bat again. It smashed into the same place on the same knee.

  Cooper yelled. He kept yelling for a long time. He stopped only to take a breath. Then he started yelling again. When he stopped, it was only to say, "You bastard. You've broken my leg, you bastard. Jesus Christ you bastard, Joe. You fucking bastard." He yelled again. Outrage as much as pain.

  Over the racket, Joe said to Tina, "You should leave."

  "I only just got here."

  "You don't want to be associated with this."

  "Too late."

  "It'll be ugly."

  "I doubt it'll be ugly enough."

  "Just piss off, will you? I don't want you here."

  "That wasn't part of our plan."

  "The plan's changed."

  "You want rid of me because I'm a woman, right?" She grabbed the bat out of Joe's hand. Cooper was on his side, writhing on the ground, both hands covering his left knee. Tina brought the bat down hard on his elbow. His yelling rose to a new level. He rolled onto his back, mouth wide open, head shaking with his screams.

  Joe held out his hand for the bat.

  Tina shouted, "I'm staying."

  He nodded.

  She gave him the bat. "What do we do now?"

  "Wait for that bag of shite to calm down."

  As Cooper yelled his throat hoarse, Joe kept picturing him on top of Gemma, slavering over her, drool hanging from his lips as she tried to fight him off. His whisky breath. Those words she'd written in her diary. Those terrible words. Joe beat down the urge to hit Cooper again. He wanted some questions answered first.

  Adam opened the door of the ante-room, glanced around and quickly closed the door again.

  Cooper's yelling eventually subsided. He moaned loudly. In between gasps of pain, he called Joe a bastard.

  Finally, Joe said, "Why did you kill Ruth?"

  Through clenched teeth, Cooper said, "Fuck off."

  "I'll hit you again."

  "Give it your best shot, you useless prick."

  Joe thought about it. He didn't see the point. Cooper wouldn't talk. He said to Tina, "Bring the girl out."

  Cooper was suddenly quiet. He swivelled round on the floor so he could watch Tina cross to the room at the far end. She reappeared moments later with Sally. The minute Sally saw Cooper on the floor she started making mewling noises behind her gag. All of a sudden she turned and tried to get back into the room she'd just left. Tina barred her way, grabbed her shoulders and pushed her forward.

  Joe said to Cooper, "Tell me what happened."

  "Get to fuck." Cooper made a low moaning sound.

  "I'm serious."

  Tina urged Sally closer. Joe wanted to apologize to Sally, but he knew it would be fatal to speak to her.

  "You want to see how serious I am?" He walked up to Sally and aimed the bat. "Where, Cooper? Tell me where you want me to hit her."

  "Fuck you, Joe."

  "How about the hipbone? The hardest bone in the human body. Least likely to break. What do you think?"

  "Do what you want," Cooper said.

  "Hold her still, Tina. What happened that night, Cooper?"

  "I told you." His voice was quiet. "You can fuck off."

  "I don't want to have to hurt Sally," Joe said. "You going to give me an answer?"

  Cooper's voice was a choked whisper. "Fuck off."

  "You won't budge, will you?" Joe lowered the bat. "He really loves you Sally. Bear that in mind." He shouted, "Bring him out, Adam."

  "Bring who out?" Cooper winced as he tried to sit up.

  "Who do you think?" Joe said.

  "Fuck, Joe. You wouldn't dare touch him."

  "No? You destroyed my family. Murdered my wife. Raped my daughter. I hold you responsible for her death."

  "I didn't do any of that, Joe."

  "Adam?" Joe shouted.

  The door opened and Adam appeared with Cooper's baby in his arms. Sally tried to break free of Tina's hold. Tina grabbed her round the waist. Sally screamed behind her gag.

  "Bring him over here," Joe said to Adam. "Put him on the floor."

  "You won't harm him, Joe," Cooper said. "I know you won't."

  "Like you didn't harm my daughter."

  "I swear I didn't do anything to Gemma."

  "We've read her diary," Tina said. "She says you raped her."

  "Mentions you by name," Joe lied.

  "She left a diary?" Cooper shook his head. "Bitch." He shook his head again. "Tell you what, Joe, I'm glad the fucking slut is dead, do you hear me? And rape, for fuck's sake? She wanted it as much as I did, I'll tell you that. Fucking bitch. It's all lies, her diar
y. You can't believe what she wrote. She was crazy. Didn't know what she was saying. She led me on, you know. I didn't want to do it. It was her fault. She wanted it."

  Joe's self-control almost left him. For the moment he managed to hold his rage in check. "What about Ruth? Why did you kill her?"

  "I didn't, Joe, and that's the honest truth."

  "Bring the baby to me," Joe told Adam.

  Gary was quiet, despite being jostled in Adam's shaking arms. Joe moved towards Adam, intending to meet him half way.

  "You won't touch him," Cooper said. "You wouldn't dare. You touch him, you're fucking dead."

  "Let me explain the situation." Joe came to a halt. "I've lost my best friend, my job, my wife, my daughter, my home, and my freedom. I have nothing more to lose. You can decide what you're prepared to risk, but neither of us is leaving this building until you tell me what happened. You want to gamble your child's life, so be it."

  Sally was wailing into the torn strip of blue blanket that served as a gag. Her eyes were wet and wide. She started making choking sounds.

  "She wants to say something," Adam said.

  Joe said, "Let her speak."

  Tina reached round and untied the gag.

  Sally spewed the sock onto the floor. Her shoulders heaved. She took several sharp breaths, then said, "He went out. After you'd gone to bed, Joe. There were a couple of calls, then he got dressed and left. He was gone for hours."

  "Is that right?" Joe smiled. "So. What were you doing all night, Cooper?"

  "I don't think he'll be answering that, Mr. Hope."

  Joe turned and thought for a moment that he might throw up again. Park stood in the foyer doorway, a handgun pointed at him. The gun looked like the one he'd had in his hotel room when Joe had visited earlier.

  The hitman said, "Drop it."

  Joe dropped the bat. It clattered onto the floor and rolled in an arc towards Adam.

  "Thought you were never going to make an appearance," Cooper said.

  "You said twenty minutes. I waited twenty minutes. You didn't phone."

  "Yeah, yeah. Help me up, will you. I'm all busted up. You believe this? Leg's busted. Elbow's busted."

  Park helped Cooper to stand. Cooper leaned against Park, damaged leg dangling off the ground, arm tucked into his side. "Sally, take Gary and get the fuck out of here."

  Sally took a couple of steps towards Adam. "How am I going to get home?" she asked Cooper.

  He stuck his hand in his pocket. "Take the fucking car." He tossed his keys towards her. "Now take Gary off that fat git and get out of here."

  Adam handed the baby over. Sally hobbled towards the door with Gary in her arms, tears dribbling down her cheeks.

  "And when I get home," Cooper said, "I'm going to leather your arse for ratting on me."

  The foyer door closed behind her.

  "Give me the gun," Cooper said to Park. "I want to shoot this lot myself." Park handed over the gun. "Help me sit down." Park took a step to the side and lowered Cooper onto the nearby pew. Cooper waved him away. "Okay, you fuckers can all kneel down." He pointed the gun at Tina. "Now."

  She dropped to her knees. Adam did likewise.

  Cooper stretched his arm towards Joe. "Gun's loaded," he said. "Cocked. Pointed at you. You scared, Joe? Am I going to see some panic flicker?"

  Joe stayed absolutely still. He wondered if Cooper was about to launch into his speech about stillness. Joe's eyes bored into Cooper's. Cooper wasn't going to see any trace of panic however long he sat there.

  "I should shoot you first, but that wouldn't be any fun." Cooper turned to Tina. "And you, bitch. I'm going to fuck you good and proper. It's what you want, isn't it? Come here." He smiled, encouraging her as she waddled towards him on her knees. She stopped an arm's distance from the pew. "Closer." She edged a couple of inches nearer. He reached out, traced a line down her face with the gun. She winced as he pressed it against her nose. "After all, you do find me irresistible. Isn't that right?" His expression hardened. "Get back over there with your boyfriend."

  He turned to Adam. "Now, Joe, would you look at this? We've got some serious panic flicker going on here."

  Adam was shaking from head to toe. Joe was worried he might do something stupid.

  Tina brushed her hand against Joe's leg as she returned to his side.

  Joe said, "You're going to kill us all, right?"

  Cooper nodded. "Eventually."

  "Tell me what happened with Ruth." Joe shrugged. "What's the harm?"

  "Why should I?"

  "For the sake of our friendship?"

  "We don't have a friendship."

  "We used to."

  Cooper shrugged. "For the sake of what we used to have? I don't think so, Joe. You really hurt my leg, you know."

  "Good. Now hurt me back. Tell me why you set me up."

  "Get on your knees, then, like I told you."

  Slowly, Joe lowered himself to the floor.

  "Good boy," Cooper said. "Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. Hurt you back?" Cooper looked at Park. The hitman was standing next to the bench, arms folded, face expressionless. "Tell you what, Joe," Cooper said. "Before I kill you, I'll tell you something that'll really hurt." He took a deep breath, then said, "I'm not sure how things came to this sorry state. Looking back on it, well it's Ruth's fault, really. All I did was try to stop her screwing things up. You ask me, I've done a damn fine job. Under the circumstances. Although you probably have a different opinion, Joe. Shite. I was trying to protect you. That's all. That's how it started. You were my friend. What was the point of you finding out?"

  "Finding out what?"

  "Got some mouth on you, Joe. I got advice for you. Keep it closed. You can't sort out your own problems. Don't even know you have them. So don't get lippy with me. This is my fucking head and it controls my fucking life. You don't see what's under your nose, Joe. That's your problem. You never have. What's the matter now?"

  Joe shook his head.

  "I'll carry on, then," Cooper said. After a moment he said, "You'd agree that Ruth is a first class bitch, huh?"

  Joe opened his mouth.

  "Shut the fuck up. I'm talking."

  Joe closed his mouth.

  "If it wasn't for her, I'd be fine, you'd be fine, everybody would be fine. We could all carry on as normal. But no, she had to go and spoil it for the lot of us." He hesitated for a second before saying, "That's why she's dead."

  "Why did you kill her, Cooper?"

  "You think I want to live my life cowering in the corner like some whimpering gimp she just dragged out to play with on a Saturday night? You want to know what happened? You want to know why I killed her? I'm really enjoying this, Joe. Got myself a captive audience. Thanks for setting it up so nicely for me." He chuckled. Then his eyes clouded over. "Tell me if I'm boring you, Tina, and I'll stop for as long as it takes to put a bullet in your head."

  Tina said, "I'd never dream of describing this as boring."

  "Well, fucking pay attention." Cooper faced Joe. "Jesus Christ, my leg hurts," he said. "But I'm man enough to ignore the pain. Maybe later we'll see if you are, Joe. A bullet in each knee, huh? Look forward to that. And an elbow or two. What do you think? Still leave me with a bullet for each of your balls. Then we'll see how much of a man you are.

  "Okay. Where was I? When the damn buzzer went that night I wasn't a happy chicken. Gary was awake, having a wee drink, or I'd have been even more pissed off. Not a good start, Joe.

  "I got out of bed. Asked who the fuck was waking me up this time of night. And I heard your sweet voice, Joe. Kind of faint. There was a roar in the background. Like a storm. Wasn't raining that hard, though. I asked you what the din was. Football fans, you said. Came in handy, knowing that. I buzzed you in and lit a fag and waited in the doorway. The draft was blowing a gale round my legs. Just had my underpants on, but I wasn't worried about being assaulted. It was only you, Joe, and I'd heard you didn't like sex."

  "Who told you that?"

/>   "Patience, Joe. You'll find out. Anyway, when you said you wanted to talk about Gemma, I nearly shat myself. I tried to stay cool. Stuck my hand down my pants and had a good scratch. When you started blethering about pussy snorkels I knew you were in a bad way. Kept rubbing your palms together, far too enthusiastic about this new muff diving equipment. I let you rabbit on. If you wanted to tell me something about Gemma, I wasn't going to hurry you along. In your own good time, pal. I could wait. I was calm. Focussed.

  "I started giving you some advice about parenting. You cut me off. Told me Gemma was dead. Just like that. Nice, eh? You don't know what that did to me."

  Cooper scratched the side of his face with his gun. "You have no fucking idea." He paused for a moment, then carried on: "Ruth called after you'd gone to bed. I was still up, drinking a last glass of whisky. She'd been drinking, too. Don't know what or how much, but enough to get shitfaced. She threatened me. Can you believe that? Under Scottish law, a verbal threat is an offense and I could have contacted the police and had her jailed. I explained that to her, but she was so drunk she just laughed. That hurt my feelings. I'm sensitive, you know. Still. Her daughter was dead and I'm a reasonable guy. I thought I'd give Ruth a bit of rope. And with any luck, maybe she'd hang herself."

  He stared at Joe. Joe remained absolutely still. His gaze didn't flicker.

  Cooper rubbed the gun over his chin again. "I put the phone down and thought about what she'd said. Well, I had to. TV was crap. Pay a fucking fortune for an LCD TV, all very well, but it doesn't improve the quality of the shite they make you watch. Anyway, I couldn't concentrate. I had a bucketful of adrenalin still shooting around in my bloodstream. By the time she rang again, I was dressed. She asked if you were there, said she was going to tell you. Said it was about time you knew."

  "Knew what?" Joe said.

  "Keep what's left of your fucking hair on, Joe," Cooper said. "I'm telling you." He sucked in a lungful of air and let it out slowly. "I calmed her down. Said I'd come and see her. Told her to hang on, keep it together, I'd see her in a while. You see, I like you, Joe. If you want to know, I like you more than I like Ruth. And there's no way on earth I wanted you to find out."