Simon Kernick - The Last 10 Seconds

‘Your husband’s lying, Mrs Gore,’ she said, ‘and we can prove it.’

‘No, you can’t,’ shouted Gore. ‘You can’t prove anything.’

Mrs Gore grabbed his arm. ‘Is that what they were blackmailing you about, Anthony? Murder?’

‘Who’s been blackmailing you, Mr Gore?’

‘No one. Get out.’

‘If you cooperate now, there’ll be a way out. If you don’t, we’ll find out everything.’

‘How could you do this, Anthony? Did you kill her? Did you kill that little hussy? I thought it was all over!’

‘Shut up! Now!’ Without warning, Gore slapped his wife hard across the face, knocking her backwards.

Tina and Grier both took a step towards them.

Jane Gore put a hand to her cheek and backed slowly away from him, the fear in her expression there for all to see.

‘Oh God, I’m sorry,’ said Gore. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

‘Get away from me. Don’t touch me.’

‘Please, Jane. .’ He turned to Tina. ‘See what you made me do, you heartless bitch.’

‘Is this what you did to Roisín, Minister? Hit her just that little bit too hard? That’s what happened, isn’t it? You lashed out. Was she threatening to tell your wife? Is that why you strangled her?’

Gore’s face contorted with rage. ‘You lying whore!’ he yelled, and threw a punch at Tina.

She’d been expecting it, had hoped it would come, and dodged out of the way, letting the momentum drive Gore forward. As he passed her, she grabbed him by the wrist and yanked his arm up behind his back, while Grier got hold of the collar of his dressing gown from the other side. Together, they pushed him hard into the wall.

The fight went out of him now. ‘Let me go,’ he whispered. ‘Please.’

Tina ignored his plea, putting her mouth close to his ear as she spoke, although her words were loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear. ‘Andrew Kent, the Night Creeper, used to like filming his victims. Not just when he killed them but in the days beforehand too. He’d break in and set up a camera so he could film them in an everyday setting. It was like stalking them before the kill. He filmed you killing Roisín, didn’t he?’

Gore took a deep breath but didn’t say anything.

‘We’ll find out, Mr Gore. And we’ll find the film that Kent took too, and when we do, you’ll be absolutely finished, because you’ve done so much to hide it. But if you cooperate now, if you let us know where Andrew Kent is, and who you’ve been using to help you, then you may be able to salvage something. I know you didn’t mean to kill Roisín,’ she added soothingly, knowing she had to give him a way out of his current predicament, otherwise there’d be no way he’d talk. And if he didn’t, then they still had nothing. But he was weakening fast, Tina could feel it.

‘It’s too late,’ he said with a strangled sob.

‘It’s never too late,’ she reassured him. ‘Now, where’s Kent?’

‘I don’t know. I honestly don’t.’

Mrs Gore approached them, anger replacing her earlier fear. ‘What have you done, Anthony? What have you done, you bastard? You’ve destroyed everything! All of us!’

Tina motioned to Grier, and he intercepted her, gently moving her into an adjoining room. She then let go of Gore and they stood facing each other, except now the balance of power had changed, and they both knew it.

‘Let me lighten the load,’ she said to him. ‘Tell me the truth.’

For a long time he didn’t speak. Then, finally, he closed his eyes and sighed. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll talk.’

They went back inside the study, taking the same seats they’d taken earlier, Grier joining them a few moments later.

‘How’s my wife?’ Gore asked him.

‘Upset,’ he replied tersely, refusing to give him any crumb of comfort.

Tina was pleased with his answer. It was essential to keep Gore off balance so that he wouldn’t regain his confidence.

‘I think you need to start talking, Minister,’ she told him, surreptitiously turning on the digital recorder in her pocket.

Gore’s bearing had changed completely. He was slumped in his seat, his skin an unhealthy grey. He cleared his throat and began speaking. ‘My affair with Roisín was very passionate. It lasted a number of months. We didn’t see each other that often. Usually no more than once a week. I have to confess, I had strong feelings for her. She was a vivacious girl, with the kind of joie de vivre that has been missing in my life for some years. Unfortunately, as time passed, Roisín became increasingly possessive. She wanted me to leave Jane. I resisted. I knew the scandal a move like that would cause. I tried to persuade Roisín that, though my feelings for her were very strong, I could only give her a limited amount of my time, and that she would simply have to accept that.

‘The problem was, she didn’t. We began to argue, as she became more and more resentful. Then one night she threatened to expose our affair to Jane. As you can imagine, I begged her not to, and eventually she saw sense and relented. However, by that point I’d concluded that the only course of action available to me was to terminate our relationship. It took me some days to pluck up courage, and Roisín didn’t help matters by phoning me constantly and leaving messages. Some of them were loving, stating how much she missed being with me. Others were more angry in tone, suggesting that I didn’t care for her any more, and that I couldn’t simply reject her, she wouldn’t tolerate it.

‘Finally, one night I went round to her apartment, which was where most of our meetings occurred, and told her that it was over. I apologized for becoming involved with her when I was married and threw myself at her mercy for the sake of my wife. I genuinely believed she’d let me go. If not for me, then for Jane. But I was wrong. She became hysterical and slapped me round the face.’

He stopped talking for a few moments, shaking his head slowly.

‘We’d both been drinking, and I lost my temper. I hit her back, and she threatened to have me arrested. Then she went for me again, and. .’ He sighed, and ran a hand across his forehead. ‘We fought. It was like some kind of surreal blur, and then. . Then the next thing I knew, she was lying on the bed, not moving.’ He raised his eyes skywards, as if seeking forgiveness. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I felt for her pulse, tried to revive her, but it was too late. She was gone.’ He looked imploringly at Tina.

Tina didn’t believe Gore’s version of events. He might not have meant to kill Roisín but, having seen his flashes of temper and the way he’d struck his wife, she was pretty certain he’d been the aggressor. However, she knew better than to interrupt a suspect when he was in full flow. ‘What happened then?’ she asked gently.

‘At first I didn’t know what to do. I thought about calling the police, or an ambulance, but I panicked. Even though I hadn’t meant to hurt Roisín, I was afraid that I’d be charged with murder. I know that was wrong, but at the time I wasn’t thinking straight. I knew our affair had been kept secret, and I thought about simply leaving and hoping for the best, but I was worried I’d leave evidence behind. So I called a business contact, a man who I felt would be able to help me in my time of need.’

Tina exchanged glances with Grier. She’d never had too many illusions about the integrity of the politicians who ran the country, and was aware that some of them were corrupt. Even so, hearing such an admission from a high-ranking minister shocked her.

‘And this business contact, who was he?’

‘His name’s Paul Wise.’

If she’d been shocked before, she was almost speechless now. Her head swam with the news that the man who’d done so much to ruin her life had also had a hand in this. It didn’t seem possible, yet there was a grim logic to it. Wise had always been suspected of having high-level contacts within the establishment, which was one of the main reasons he’d never been brought to justice. But now there was a chance that he would be — a thought that suddenly filled Tina with a wild hope.