Jacqui Rose - Fatal

Nico walked over to the officer, his face twisted with rage. ‘You think it’s okay to speak to me like that in front of my family? What are you trying to do, embarrass me?’ He stopped, then walked even closer to the warden and pressed his forehead against his. ‘I know where you live, Officer Johnstone. I know where your mother lives and your children, so don’t push me, because like that –’ he clicked his fingers ‘– they could be gone.’

Officer Johnstone, alarmed, put his hands up, backing away slowly. ‘Okay, Nico, okay, I was only saying, there’s no need to do anything rash. We’ve got an agreement that we’re going to stick to … I’m sorry.’

‘And you’d do well to remember that. Now, get out of my fucking face. Capito ?’

As the officer nodded in understanding, Nico turned and pressed call, waiting for it to ring before going straight to voicemail. He paced as he talked.

‘Hello, Cabhan, it’s Nico. Happy birthday. I understand from my brothers that your girl got away, but I just wanted to call and tell you, there’s no hiding place, nowhere we won’t find you. Nowhere revenge won’t touch you. I will find you, Cabhan … or rather, I’ll find your little girl. Hide, Alice Rose, hide, because Nico’s coming, ready or not.’

‘Cab, it’s been over four weeks, we can’t stay here. Look at her. She’s getting worse by the day. She’s just a kid and I’m worried about her, I’m worried about all of us,’ Franny whispered to Cabhan as they stood in the tiny motel room just outside Frenchtown in Montana.

When they’d found Alice, they’d driven through Iowa before hitting South Dakota, then finally reaching western Montana to hide out in the tiny, mostly unpopulated area, but not for one moment had she thought they’d still be holed up in the motel a month later. Not that either of them had a plan, and as each day went on it seemed less likely that Cabhan would come up with one. She’d never seen him like this before: he was struggling to cope, blaming himself, and the tension in the air was almost unbearable.

‘So tell me, what the fuck are we supposed to do? What better ideas have you got? Nico’s not playing when he says he’s looking for us. You know what he’s like, he won’t stop until he’s got Alice …’

‘Look around you, Cab, there’s nothing here for us. We have five hundred dollars to our name. That’s it and it’s going to run out soon and then what? We have nothing. The day we went to see Nico, I transferred all of the money. Alfie’s money. And he’s not happy. I’ve given up listening to his voicemails, but when I went through Evaro yesterday, I tried the bank cards and guess what? He’s stopped them all, and I doubt the motel manager is going to be full of understanding if we tell him we can’t pay for the room.’

Cabhan stared at Franny, hissing through his teeth, hating the fact that the bitter anger he felt towards Nico was being directed at her. ‘What the fuck do you want me to do about it? I’m as screwed as you are. I can’t use my account because they’ll know where we are. And besides, my bank account is a business account set up by Salvatore to make sure he knows my every move.’

Franny glanced around the dark, grimy room. Two double beds, a bedside cabinet propped up by a Bible. A threadbare chair in the corner that had seen better days and an en-suite bathroom consisting of a toilet and shower, both barely working.

Refusing to be hurt by Cabhan offloading his stress onto her, Franny kept her voice quiet.

‘Cab, I know this is tough, but we’ve got to think of something. Alice has been through a massive amount of trauma; we need to get her some help. She’s a kid; she can’t just lie there. She’s hardly said a word for three whole weeks.’

‘You don’t think I can’t see that? You don’t think I’m worried about her? She’s my daughter, Franny. Jesus Christ, I’ve only known her a couple of years and look what I’ve done to her life. I just can’t think straight anymore. Every time there’s a noise I think the Russos will come walking through that door.’

Overwhelmed by guilt, Cabhan turned away from Franny, not wanting her to see him breaking down. He continued to speak, his voice cracking on every word. ‘I feel so helpless and I’m so fucking angry with myself. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m scared. I’m scared for Alice, because this isn’t going to be over anytime soon.’

Franny grabbed hold of Cabhan’s arm, pulling him towards the door of the room, and gently pushed him outside into the warm Montana air.

Looking out towards the vast, rugged hillside, Franny smiled compassionately. ‘Let’s not talk in there, Cab, you don’t want Alice to wake up and see you upset. And we don’t want Alice to know anything about the Russos, you hear me?’

‘So what are we going to tell her?’

Franny shrugged, her eyes darting around as she kept watch on the road. Although she’d never admit it, she felt the same air of unease as Cabhan did, but the last thing he needed was for her to crumple as well. The other thing she didn’t really want to admit, not even to herself, was that she wished Alfie were here. She missed him so much, plus he would know what to do, because right now she didn’t think she was doing such a great job of looking after Cabhan or Alice. Of course, she knew she had to be strong – the problem was she didn’t feel very strong at all. ‘I don’t know, Cab. Why don’t we tell her it was a robbery?’

‘A robbery? More like a fucking homicidal maniac. Have you seen the news? Seen what they’re saying about it? They’re coming up with all sorts of ideas about how it happened. Cults, crazed killers, the other night they were even mentioning terrorists.’

‘Then that’s good, isn’t it? It means they’re not talking about Nico and they’re not talking about us. So we don’t have to tell Alice anything apart from it was a robbery, because nobody knows the truth and that’s the way it’s going to stay.’

Cabhan stared hard at Franny, his thoughts racing. ‘You can be cold sometimes. Does nothing bother you, Fran? Are you really that hard? Just wipe it away like it never happened?’

A flicker of hurt crossed through Franny’s eyes, which went unseen by Cabhan. ‘That’s not how it is.’

‘Really? Because it seems like you’re forgetting those kids, those nuns, are only dead because of me.’

‘Because of Nico, not you .’

Cabhan shook his head as he kicked at the white dusty ground in angry bemusement. ‘You’re something else, you know that?’

‘All I know is that we need to think about now , about Alice and about how we’re going to get out of this mess. The last thing we want to do is start telling Alice any more than she needs to know.’

‘So what you’re saying is tell her nothing and get on with our lives, is that it?’

Feeling edgy as a car appeared in the distance, Franny nodded. ‘If we can, that’s exactly what we do. Look, Cab, someone has to be practical about this. I’m just trying to do what’s best for Alice and if that makes me cold, that’s totally fine with me.’

Emotional, unable to look at Franny, Cabhan continued to stare at the ground. ‘I’m just so fucked off with myself. I mean, how did they know where she was? How did they find her? I was so careful, or I thought I was. I was a fool, Fran, to think that I could’ve walked away scot-free from killing Ally.’

‘Cab, it was an accident, when will you get that into your head?’

Becoming angry again, Cabhan raised his voice. ‘But the blood of so many people is on my hands. If it wasn’t for me they’d all be alive. Have you any idea how that feels, Fran?’