The Killing House

74

M placed her BlackBerry in Borgia’s line of vision. The video played, Borgia’s confident voice echoing over the phone’s speakers: ‘ I’m going to go check your gun permit. When I return, Mr Karim, if you don’t tell me where you’ve hidden Fletcher, I’ll have tear gas launched inside every room of this house. ’

It was interesting to watch Alexander Borgia’s curious physical transformation. He sat up, rigid, a flash of surprise, maybe even fear, on his face. The confidence had vanished. His gaze widened and his jaw dropped, as if a deer had suddenly materialized on the highway directly in front of them. Then he remembered he was driving, righted himself and got control of the wheel.

‘Pull into the breakdown lane,’ M said. ‘Slowly. Try anything stupid and I’ll press a button and email this across the country.’

Borgia grew very still. She studied his expression and found the matching flashcard: fear.

He hit the blinker and, checking his mirrors, navigated his way across the lanes. M lowered the BlackBerry. She decreased its volume and then placed the phone on the seat between them. Her eyes never left Borgia.

They had come to a full stop. M unbuckled her seatbelt after Borgia had put the car in park. He left the engine running, and the video played between them, the sound occasionally broken by the whoosh of a passing car.

Borgia twisted around in his seat to face her.

‘Eyes straight ahead, Mr Borgia.’

He looked out of the front window. ‘That video gets out,’ he said, draping his arms over the top of the steering wheel, ‘you’ll condemn your boss. He’ll serve time; you know that. You’ll destroy his company, his reputation, everything he’s built. He’ll never recover.’

‘Why did you try to kill Karim?’

‘Sorry, but that’s above my pay grade. And yours.’

‘Meaning?’

‘What do you think is going to happen next? That you’re going to, what, walk away and live your life?’

‘Karim’s lawyers are in possession of this video,’ she said, which was true. She had given a copy of it as well as the others to Karim’s legal team. ‘If something should happen to me, this video will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.’

‘That’s not going to change your predicament, Miss White.’

‘You’re going to tell me — ’ M began, when Borgia reached for her.

Mistake.

M was ready, her fist was ready; she was already out of her seatbelt, and she had enough room to move. She deflected the blow easily with her right arm as her left fist came up. She hit him with a solid blow that broke his nose.

It didn’t stop him. Borgia was frenzied, like an animal caught in a snare. He had managed to unlock his seatbelt when she hit him again, and still he went for her. He grabbed the lapels of her jacket, clutching it as though she were the last-remaining life-vest aboard a sinking ship. He was trying to push her down against the floor.

Borgia was smaller than she was, and nowhere near as strong. She grabbed his head and smashed it against the console radio. When he screamed she gripped him by the back of the hair and smashed his face against the edge of the dashboard. She got to her knees and pinned Borgia against the seat and hovered over him the way the HRT operator had hovered over Karim and she hit Borgia again in the face and she hit him in the throat and kept hitting him until he went limp and begged for her to stop, please stop.