One of Us Is Dead

56 Monday 10 October 2022

Paul Anthony was looking across the table at her. His cold expression was unnerving her. ‘You want me to explain why exactly Tracey Dawson deserved to die?’

‘I do, Paul. This is not what I signed up to. I thought most of your business was in 3D guns and that you only helped arrange accidents for people who really did deserve to die. I’m not convinced about Tracey Dawson. And I’m not convinced it’s just a few of these accidents you have been involved in.’

He looked back at her evasively. That same weaselly expression she’d seen before, when she’d forced him to explain something she was really not happy about.

‘Listen, babes, that girl, Tracey, is just collateral damage. Unfortunate, but sometimes shit happens in my line of work.’

His words horrified her. ‘Shit happens? Is that all murdering an innocent person means to you?’

‘You need to understand, Shannon,’ he said.

‘Understand what, exactly?’

He stared back at her in silence for some moments. ‘Do you have a view on guilt by association?’ he asked, finally.

‘I don’t. And what’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Take Fred West, for example. He murdered at least twelve young women and girls, burying them in his garden, as well as horrifically abusing his own daughter. His wife, Rosemary, maintained her innocence for thirty years. Don’t you think she was guilty by association, at the very least? Dennis Rader operated in Wichita, Kansas, binding, torturing and killing ten people over a fifteen-year period. He was married with two daughters. Was it possible his wife, who was an intelligent woman, didn’t know — or at least turned a blind eye?’

‘Tracey Dawson is a different situation entirely,’ she said. ‘This was only their third date.’

He looked hard at her. ‘How do you know that?’

‘You are paying me to know everything.’

He smiled and was relieved to see a slight thaw in her expression. But it was only fleeting before the coldness returned. ‘I’m concerned,’ she said. ‘I’m concerned about who you really are. Do you even know who you are any more?’