Brute Force

49

I lay in my pile of discarded clothes; they smelled like stale margarine. What a dickhead Duff was. Why expose yourself if you don't have to? Money and vanity are more dangerous than a box-cutter. Maybe he'd thought he had immunity in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement. Even a couple of years ago, he would have been found in a plastic bag on the Armagh border, leaking badly.

'You know anything more about how he was killed?'

'He got some close attention from an electric drill, and then he was shot.'

PIRA got the Black and Deckers out for at least fifty people it claimed were informers during the Troubles. Duff's disclosure came after they'd formally declared that they were abandoning violence. But maybe in his case they'd been prepared to make an exception.

Northern Ireland might be on the brink of a new era of peace, but someone had clearly decided that Duff wasn't going to live to see it. If he'd left Ireland he might still be alive: plenty of informers and double agents had been spirited away to start new lives abroad. By staying in Ireland, Duff had signed his own death warrant. He'd been living in a remote area of western Ireland, in a run-down cottage with no electricity or running water. But even in Donegal there is nowhere that anyone can completely hide themselves away, as I had very quickly found out.

I nodded. 'Plenty of people have that MO.'

'I really did think it might have been you. That maybe you still worked for the Firm – or perhaps had a few scores to settle of your own . . .'

He had a point. 'This PIRA traitor Duff was on about – the one who gave up the Bahiti – you know who it was? He had to be pretty high up the food chain to know about the job.'

He didn't even blink. 'That information, Nick, is something that would get you killed.'

'You really think it could have been the Firm?'

'Duff had already revealed there was a Brit on board who killed Lesser. He would undoubtedly have exposed even more details about us. Then, of course, there is the question of a device under your car. It's not too hard to put two and two together . . .'

'You think it's the Firm tying off a few loose ends?'

'More each time I think about it.'

'But why go to such elaborate lengths to drop us two? There has to be more to this than a bit of spring cleaning.'

I rolled over and looked up at the sky. Whatever – it didn't matter right now. What did was getting out of the UK to reform, regroup and sort our shit out.

Lynn was starting to read my mind. 'Where next, Nick?'

'Not sure yet.'

He sat up and adjusted the pile of clothes to insulate his back against the bricks. 'I have a place in Italy.'

I thought for a second. 'It'll be a known location. They'll check it.'

'You aren't the only one who has a safety blanket, you know. I was about to move there myself – until you interrupted my packing.'

'It's secure? No one knows about it? You can't be found?'

'No one. Not even my children.'