DECOY (Kindle Single) (7 page)

Kate led her boy down the stairs and across the warehouse, heading for the door. ‘Wait here,’ she said at the entrance, and gave him the bag of money to hold. ‘Do not move. I’ll be right back.’

She kissed him, leaving a bloody smear on his cheek. Then quickly limped back to the basement and hurried down the steps.

‘I’m sorry, Hayley,’ she whispered to her dead friend. She hobbled over to the gas heater. Turned on the regulator valve and used Julie Hawkins’ butcher knife to sever the orange rubber pipe that connected the bottle to the heater element. Gas hissed noisily from the cut hose. She opened the matches, struck one and used it to light the butane blowtorch, which she set upright on the table a few feet away from the heater.

Back upstairs, she took Charlie’s hand, picked up the bag of money and said, ‘Let’s go.’

‘Are we going to be safe now?’ he asked her as they walked away into the night.

‘For ever and ever,’ she told him. ‘And we’re going to fix you up, and everything’s going to be fine again.’

Kate started Hayley’s Fiat, put it into gear and pulled away without a last look at the place. The money nestled in its bag on the rear seat. Charlie was quiet. There would be a lot of questions, later. For now, he seemed content just to be comforted by her.

They were halfway down the track, the warehouse out of sight behind the trees, when the dark sky lit up with the flash and the roar of the blast shook the car. With all that age-seasoned wooden furniture to burn, the fire would rage for hours, and it wouldn’t stop until the whole building was incinerated along with everything inside it.

Kate wrapped an arm around her boy’s shoulders and hugged him close and kissed his head as she drove.

‘For ever and ever,’ she repeated.

This eBook novella is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed therein are creations of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A Kindle Single Ebook

Published by Claymore Publishing

Copyright © Scott Mariani 2014

www.scottmariani.com

Scott Mariani asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

ISBN: 978-0-9569226-7-0

Artwork design and layout by
Damonza.com

All rights reserved. This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way without the prior permission of the copyright holder.