Cross - Ken Bruen [65]
More's the Irish pity, not any more.
I said, 'I was a friend of your sister's.'
He was only a young man, but his whole body had the suggestion of age that has nothing to do with time and everything to do with horror.
I asked, 'What took you so long?'
He had no answer, went with, 'Did Maria tell you the full story?'
I wasn't sure how to answer so said, 'I'd like to hear it from you.'
He nodded, as if that was fair. 'The car that killed Mrs Mitchell?'
He was talking about the hit and run that set all of this in motion.
I said, 'Be a man. After all that's happened, at least take responsibility.'
He lowered his head. 'I did. My girlfriend was driving and she had two strikes against her, so I told them I was driving. And then I ran.'
Jesus Christ.
I debated telling him that his lie had cost the lives of all his family and others. Then I thought, fuck it, and began to walk away.
He shouted, 'Are you going to tell on me?'
I didn't answer.
The morning of my departure, I was about to disconnect the phone when it rang. I had a short time to kill before my cab was due to take me to the airport, so I picked it up.
'Jack?'
Ridge.
I hadn't said goodbye to her.
I said, 'Yeah?'
She took a deep breath. I could tell she'd been crying. 'Jack, I need your help.'
I was thinking of Terms of Endearment. Jack Nicholson at the airport, smiling in that way only he can and saying he's almost made a clean getaway.
I sat on my suitcase, my heart pounding, and for the first time ever I used an endearment with her.
'What's up, hon?'
'The biopsy, it's malignant.'
Must have been the sunlight coming through the window. I wiped at my eyes, my cheeks wet.
THE END
SANCTUARY
by Ken Bruen
Coming in June 2008
The new Jack Taylor Mystery
When a letter containing a list of victims arrives in
the post, PI Jack Taylor is sickened, but tells himself
the list has nothing to do with him.
He has enough to do just staying sane. His close
friend Ridge is recovering from surgery and
alcohol's siren song is calling to him ever
more insistently.
A guard and then a judge die in
mysterious circumstances.
But it is not until a child is added to the list that
Taylor determines to find the identity of the killer,
and stop him at any cost.
Spiked with dark humour and fuelled by rage at
man's inhumanity to man, this is crime-writing
at its darkest and most original.
9781848270176
PRIEST
by Ken Bruen
Featuring an exclusive interview with
bestselling author Tess Gerritsen
Fresh out of hospital, a new life beckons for
troubled PI Jack Taylor.
Then Father Joyce is decapitated in a Galway church,
and Taylor is asked to find his killer.
Soon he is drawn into a dark web of
murderous conspiracies.
What he cannot know is that the real danger is
much closer and far more personal than
he can imagine . . .
'Grimy, brooding, pawkily funny and
wholly original. Great'
Observer
'Hardboiled in the best way, unforgiving
and unforgettable'
Sunday Tribune
9780552153430