Need You Dead

56 Monday 25 April

Misdirection! The first principle of a close magician. Direct your victim’s focus onto your left hand, while you do what you need to do with your right hand. Or have a fox chase a chicken across the room while you pick your mark’s pocket.

We’re all gullible, all easily suckered. The conman succeeds by offering something for nothing. Double your money... Treble it... Roll up, roll up! Three-card Monte! Find the lady! A tenner a go — easy money. Suckers! Marks!

He knew he just had to keep calm, keep remembering that the police are not superhuman. Not infallible. They could be misdirected, too, just like anyone else. Oh sure, he knew there were smart ones like Roy Grace.

You are smart, Detective Superintendent, but beware. You might just be too smart for your own good. You should cut a little slack.

Otherwise there won’t be any slack in that noose round your neck.

Not that I want to kill you. But then again, I didn’t want to kill Lorna Belling. Never intended to. Not sure I actually did. But hey, whatever. Get too much closer and I’ll need you dead.

Shit happens, eh?

He stared in the bathroom mirror at his face. A killer’s face.

This past week I seem to have aged ten years. I’m starting to think like a killer. Hey! I really might be a killer! There are all kinds of mitigating circumstances but let’s not risk that route. Juries are too unreliable, judges too mercurial. We’re into survival, self-preservation, Darwinian rules apply now. Survival of the fittest. Just remember, life’s a game. Keep hold of that. I have to win. Coming second is not an option. Coming second means going to prison. Banged up, locked away. Forgotten.

Like I always say, no one remembers who came second.