Killing Mum_Kindle by Allan Guthrie Read Free Book Online Page A

inside."
    Jordan tossed the can.
    "And your gun."
    You think?
    "Can't keep it. It's a murder weapon."
    Yours too.
    Carlos wrenched the gun out of his waistband, lobbed it into the van.
    Jordan nodded, threw his in too.
    "Out of the way," Carlos said.
    He drenched petrol over the seats. Damn stuff stank. Not what you wanted to smell when you'd been up half the night and you'd just started smoking again and you'd had a bellyful of bloodshed. He went round to the back, jumped inside, splashed more petrol around the interior. Splashed it over Bob. Hesitated as the torchlight spilled from his mouth and onto Maggie. It didn't look like her. Not in the least. He poured petrol on it.
    The can was feeling much lighter when he heard a voice say, "Oh, my God." The voice came from the darkness outside the van. But it was unmistakably his mother's. Mierda . He put down the can. Only then did he twist his head, caught his mother in the narrow beam, hands pressed over her mouth. What the fuck was she doing out of her car?
    "Is that a body?" she asked.
    It's Maggie. Jordan was suddenly right beside her. And a friend of hers.
    The little fucker. Carlos clambered out of the van, feet thudded on the ground when he landed.
    "Get back in your car, M ama ," he said.
    "Charlie?"
    Carlos rubbed his forehead.
    Jordan gave Carlos's mother his torch. Take a look .
    "Don't do that."
    "Let go of me."
    Carlos let go of her and she stepped into the van. He grabbed Jordan's arm, steered him away.
    "Why are you doing this?" Carlos whispered.
    You know what you have to do.
    "What the fuck are you saying?"
    You haven't worked it out yet?
    "The fuck do you mean?"
    Your mother. She was the one.
    "The one? You mean the one who set herself up? Like fuck she was."
    Who else could it have been?
    "Could have been anybody."
    You don't believe that, though. If you did, you wouldn't have planned what we've done tonight.
    "I didn't fucking plan —"
    Yeah, yeah, it got a bit fucked up. But you planned on finding out the truth.
    "I hoped."
    You've just succeeded.
    "Suppose I believed you. Why would Mum take out a contract on herself?"
    To see how far you would go.
    "She didn't know what I did. She had no idea."
    Yes, she did.
    "How would you know?"
    Jordan waited a moment. Maybe I told her.
    "You don't know her."
    Maybe I found out about her.
    "How?"
    Not so hard.
    Carlos thought about the Glock he'd tossed into the front of the van. He shone his torch at Jordan's face, made him blink. "Why would you go to the trouble?"
    Squinting. Because I thought she should know.
    "Nah," Carlos said. "I don't believe you. She was shocked when I told her what I did. She wasn't faking it."
    Don't believe me. I don't care. But maybe it's the truth.
    "What's the truth?" Carlos's mother said. She stretched out her arms, a gun in each hand. "You shouldn't leave dangerous weapons lying around."
    "Mum," Carlos said. "You want to put those down."
    "When I'm ready," she said. "They're loaded, I know. I checked. Maggie's dead, Charlie. I really didn't think you'd do it."
    "It's not her."
    "Charlie."
    "It was an accident. Sort of."
    "God knows I didn't have a lot of love for her and she certainly had none for me. But, bloody hell, you killed somebody. And not just somebody. You killed your wife."
    Carlos looked at Jordan. "Tell her what happened."
    Well , Jordan said and started to explain about the police car and Bob and how Maggie had run away and how Carlos had shot her. In the leg , he said. And twice in the body.
    "You little fuck," Carlos said. To his mum: "He's lying. He's the one who shot her."
    "Make sense, Carlos," she said.
    "He's thirteen years old. He thinks it's fun. That's why he's lying."
    "God help you, Carlos."
    "I know what it's like to be thirteen. Doesn't take much."
    Fuck you , Jordan said. You know what it's like? he spat. Just like you know how I feel? Fuck you. Second half of payment on completion of job. Right, Charlie? His arm shot out and there was a crack and a flash