Hell Is Too Crowded - Jack Higgins [49]
Brady didn't bother to argue. He took the flask and swallowed, coughing as the raw liquor burned its way down into his gullet.
A warm, pleasant glow spread inside him. He swallowed deeply again and began to feel a little better.
Davos had busied himself lighting a Turkish cigarette and now he smiled. "I trust you feel less like a corpse, my friend."
"You lousy bastard!" Brady croaked.
A slight sardonic smile touched the dark, saturnine face. "So, there is still a spark of life? That promises very well. Would you care for a cigarette?"
Brady took one and leaned forward for the proffered light. For a moment, he considered making a move, but as if sensing his thoughts, the Dobermann growled threateningly.
Brady subsided, coughing slightly as the smoke of the harsh Turkish tobacco caught at the back of his throat, and Davos said, "By the way, as I haven't heard from Haras since yesterday, I'm presuming I won't do."
"I'm afraid he met with a nasty accident last night," Brady said. "He should have looked where he was going."
"You've really done astonishingly well during the last couple of days," Davos said. "When Haras told me you'd somehow got out of Manningham Gaol and given him the slip, I had a premonition we would see each other again."
"I'd have followed you to Hell if necessary," Brady said.
"But Hell is too crowded, my friend." Davos smiled gently. "There was never anything of a personal nature in this affair, Brady."
"I know," Brady said wearily. "I just happened to be the first drunk on the first bench on the Embankment that night."
"I'm afraid you were," Davos said. "If they had carried out the death sentence, everything would have been fine. Unfortunately, the Home Secretary chose to commute it to life imprisonment."
"That must have really messed things up for you," Brady said.
"It did, I assure you," Davos said. "In this country reprieved murderers serve on the average, no more than seven years of their sentence. The English are such a humane people."
"So you decided to carry out the original sentence of the court," Brady said.
"I had no choice." Davos shrugged. "There was always the chance that you would see my face somewhere and recognize it. Perhaps the odd newspaper photo or something like that. If not this year, the next or the one after. I had no intention of allowing such a possibility to threaten my peace of mind indefinitely."
Brady flicked his cigarette out into space. He was tired. So tired that he was finding it difficult to concentrate. "What happens now?"
"An intriguing situation, isn't it?" Davos smiled. "Just the two of us--and Kurt, of course. I sent my caretaker and his wife over to the mainland when I arrived yesterday."
The Hungarian stood up and Brady scrambled to his feet and faced him, swaying slightly. "What's it to be? A bullet in the back?"
"But my dear fellow, nothing so unsporting." Davos patted the dog and it whined restlessly. "Wonderful animals, Dobermanns, Brady. When fully trained, they can kill a man in under a minute."
"Quite an accomplishment," Brady said.
"It is indeed." Davos backed away and raised the shotgun. "I think the fence at the top of the slope would give you a fair start. It must be at least seventy-five yards away."
"I'd like about two minutes alone with you," Brady said bitterly. "That's all it would take."
"I suggest you get started," Davos said. "My patience is beginning to run out."
Brady took his time going up the slope. There was no strength left in him and his limbs felt as heavy as lead.
He paused once to glance back over his shoulder. Davos stood waiting, holding the dog firmly by its collar. "You'll have to do better than that, Brady," he called.
What had the woman called him? A brutal and perverted sadist, ceaselessly searching for new sensation. Something sparked inside Brady, filling him with white-hot killing rage, flooding his weary limbs with a new energy. He breasted the slope in a few quick strides and clambered over the fence.
The Dobermann howled once as Davos released it and Brady ran down a slight incline into a wooded