Page 37 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)
When you’re killing more than one person, the order matters.
There had once been an Albanian gang who operated in and around Gatwick Airport. Three brothers. One an accountant, one a cage fighter and one a certifiable lunatic. Classic set-up, all bases covered.
These three brothers had transgressed some code or other, skimming money off the top of a heroin shipment, something like that, Danny forgets the details.
All he remembers was that a price had been put on their heads, and a guy Danny used to know from karate got the job. Callum was his name, God rest his soul.
Ideally you’d want to kill all three at once, but, for various logistical reasons – it was the school holidays, Danny remembers – they weren’t all going to be in the same place any time soon.
So Callum kills the cage-fighter brother in his local gym, and the accountant brother in Center Parcs (the Longleat one, Danny thinks) and heads up to the Lake District to kill the certifiable maniac, who is on a walking holiday.
While on the journey up, the maniac brother gets word that the cage-fighter brother has been killed.
He doesn’t love the news, but cage fighters get killed all the time, so he doesn’t want it to spoil his holiday.
He then gets the news that the accountant brother has also been killed, which can mean only one thing.
Someone is coming for all three brothers.
He puts a status update on Facebook, showing the cottage he and his wife are staying in, and waits for Callum to arrive.
When the dust had settled, Callum’s head was in Lake Windermere, his torso was in Coniston Water and his legs and arms had been sent by FedEx to his parents.
The brother was back in Albania, and later died climbing Everest for charity.
There was some sympathy for Callum, of course – his ordeal, it later transpired, had lasted several days – but really he had to take some of the blame on himself.
It was widely discussed, and agreed, that he should have killed the maniac brother first: nice, isolated cottage, kill the wife too, then tootle back down to Sussex and kill the cage fighter, and then a quick hop west to Longleat to pick off the accountant.
Even if the accountant had got wind that his brothers had been killed, he simply would have flown back to Albania, without taking the trouble to kill and dismember Callum first.
All this goes to say that Danny is going to have Jason Ritchie killed before he has Suzi killed.
He has taken a jet-ski along the coast and moored it at Playa de Bahínas.
There’s a restaurant on the beach that hauls seafood straight from the fishing boats and grills it over an open fire, with olive oil and lemon straight from the mountainous slopes overlooking the sand.
It also serves burgers though, and that’s what Danny is having.
‘When can you do him?’ Danny asks, squirting ketchup into his bun.
The man looks at his watch and gives it some thought. ‘Tomorrow?’
Danny nods. ‘And where?’
‘His house is tucked away,’ the man says. ‘I’ll take round an Amazon delivery that needs signing for.’
Amazon deliveries have been the single greatest boon for professional hitmen. Everyone is always expecting one.
‘Then straight round to the next target?’ Danny says.
The man nods. ‘She does the school run at three. I’ll wait outside the house.’
Danny hands the man an envelope. ‘Here’s the first ten thousand.’
The man tucks it into his jacket pocket.
‘I’ll see you here on Wednesday for the next twenty,’ says Danny. ‘Make it quick and make it clean.’
The man nods. ‘Don’t Callum it.’
‘Exactly.’
Danny takes a bite of his burger. It’s a bit cold in the middle, but it’s still good. All being well, he’ll get the call from the police – your wife’s dead, come and identify the body, etc. – and he can fly home on Wednesday evening with the perfect alibi.
He can sell the house (‘too many memories’), leave the boy with his grandad and see a bit of the world. Expand his horizons. Since he arrived here, he’s already met a Moroccan counterfeiter and a German guy who sells fake vitamins on the internet. Travel broadens the mind.
The man stands, and they shake hands.
‘Should have done this a long time ago,’ says Danny.
‘See you Wednesday,’ says the man.