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By Root 483 0

There was a bad smell here. Rogan’s reactions were all wrong. He slipped his hand inside his coat and Rogan fired through the blanket. Fallon was thrown back against the wall. Oh, you fool, you bloody, stupid, dramatic fool, he thought and as his senses reeled, he was dimly aware of Rogan getting out of bed, giggling like a woman, the spittle dribbling from one corner of his mouth. Fallon wasn’t conscious of taking any deliberate aim. He simply threw his arm up in a straight line and squeezed the trigger of the Luger. A black hole materialized in Rogan’s head and several red marks, like cracks in a china plate, appeared like magic, running crookedly into his eyes. An expression of utter astonishment appeared on his face. He was already dead as his body flopped back on the bed.

Fallon sagged back against the door and closed his eyes. After a while he felt a little better. He grabbed hold of the door knob and pulled himself upright. For a moment or two nausea flooded through him and he leaned against the wall and breathed deeply until he recovered his senses. He walked over to the bed and looked down at the body. Rogan’s eyes stared up at the ceiling and his lips were curled back from his teeth like an animal’s. Fallon turned away in disgust and wrenched open the door.

The house was as quiet as when he had come in. For a moment he stood listening and then, as he approached the stairhead, the girl’s voice sounded from below, ‘Watch yourself, Mr. Fallon. Me Dad’s up there.’

As Fallon turned quickly, the door to Conroy’s bedroom swung open and the old man stood revealed. He carried an iron bar in one hand and his face was flushed with drink. His little beady eyes flickered and he said, ‘So you’ve done for him have you? But not before he gave you a touch, I see.’ Fallon jerked out the Luger and then the terrible, numbing pain flooded through his body again and he cried out and doubled over.

Conroy struck the Luger from his hand with the iron bar. It was only a reflex action that made Fallon step in close and grapple with him before the old man could bring the bar down across his head.

Fallon gasped for breath and hung on grimly and gradually his senses returned. The old man was fighting mad, kicking and butting, his fingers clawing at his opponent’s face. Fallon felt his back bump against the banisters at the stairhead. He dropped a shoulder and turned it up and under the old man’s chin, jolting him hard. He ducked under Conroy’s arm and swung him round so that he was now fighting with his back against the banister.

By now his left arm was paining him so much it was virtually useless. He used it to block a wild punch and hit Conroy hard in the belly with his right fist. What happened next was purest accident. Conroy gulped and a fine spray of liquor erupted from his mouth as he vomited, then he lurched back against the banister. There was a splintering sound and the whole framework crashed backwards into the well of the stairs carrying Conroy with it.

Fallon stood swaying on the edge of the landing looking down at the old man. He lay with one leg twisted under him. His mouth was open and a ray of sunlight gleamed on his half-open eyes. The girl appeared and glanced up fearfully and cried out, ‘For God’s sake, stay where you are. You’ll be breaking your neck.’ Fallon moved back from the edge and she hurried up the stairs to his side and guided him downstairs.

They paused beside the body and he looked down at it and said, ‘I didn’t mean to kill him.’

She laughed grimly. ‘The best day’s work you ever did.’ She gently urged him forward. ‘Come on now. Into the kitchen quickly and let me have a look at you.’

She stripped his coat from him and cut his shirt off with a pair of scissors. The bullet had penetrated his left breast just below the collar bone. It was bleeding profusely. He groaned and said, ‘What a bloody fool I was. I should have known from the first second that he had an ace up his sleeve. He was always frightened of me before and this time he never turned a hair.’

‘Have you done for him?’ she said in a whisper.