Dead of Winter

Chapter 75

Carmichael packed up his belongings from the office in the Velvet Lagoon. He took his rifle from behind the bar.

‘Alex Tapp? Is he still alive?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is he?’ Carmichael let a minute pass then he aimed his rifle. A bullet burned past Justin’s earlobe.

‘Fuck you, Carmichael. Fuck you. .’ He screamed as the pain pumped into the ends of his finger stumps.

Carmichael watched Justin hanging; he saw his shape sway in the darkness.

‘Who else? Tell me everyone who was involved that night thirteen years ago.’

Justin’s breathing grew coarse, laboured. His voice rasped through the air:

‘We didn’t go there that night to kill your wife. We went to harvest Martingale’s daughter. It’s your fault your wife and child are dead and you know it is.’

Carmichael lowered the chain until Justin hung a foot from the ground. He was bleeding badly from his gunshot wounds and his hands. He could see the floor now. He struggled against the chain as the rats watched him and crept forward in the darkness.