DARIAN COULDN’T remember if he locked the car or not as he ran into the flat, and an unlocked car in that area was a vulnerable beast. He sprinted into the building and up the stairs to Maeve’s flat, running along the corridor and seeing her front door open. His heart sank; Gallowglass must be in the flat.
He stepped through the front door and saw a glut of people along the corridor in the living-room doorway. Corey was the first he saw, face red and angry, spit on his lip like he’d just been hissing at someone. He turned and saw Darian, his anger touching a new height, and he snarled at him.
“Oh, brilliant, fan-fucking-tastic, look who else is here to join the party. More stupidity to throw on the pile. There isn’t one of you with an ounce of sense, not one of you.”
He was trying to say it in a whisper but his rage twisted it into a hiss. Darian stepped along the corridor, getting close to the doorway so he could see what was happening inside. Corey was of little concern to him at the moment; it was Maeve he wanted to see.
She was in the living area, back toward the window, a large kitchen knife in her hand. She was pointing it at Gallowglass, the big ex-cop standing in the middle of the room, staring at her, a concentrating silence. This looked like a standoff that had been going on a while, Gallowglass uncertain about going for Maeve when she had the knife and Maeve unwilling to push past him to the door because she didn’t want to have to get blood on the blade. All the while Corey was in the doorway, sniping at the pair of them.
“Come on, Randulf, get out of there. You’ve lost the plot.”
Gallowglass didn’t take his eyes off Maeve as he said quietly, “You’re going to arrest her, gaffer, you’re going to take her in and charge her. It ain’t going to be me. I’m not taking the fall for this. No way. No way.”
Corey looked quickly at Darian and then back into the room, talking fast and quiet as though Darian might not hear him. “I don’t know where you got that into your thick ugly head but you’re not taking the fall for anything. Nothing. Now get out here.”
Darian could see Gallowglass shaking his head. “No, you’re stitching me up. I should have known it from the start. Get rid of me. The pair of you are stitching me up. You hearing this, Ross? Your girlfriend and the cop, stitching me up from the beginning.”
He was shouting the last sentence. He knew Darian was there and he wanted him to serve as a witness. That was the point of the phone call, to bring him here to bear witness to the ending. Darian couldn’t affect it, couldn’t change what had started without him, but he would be made to see the truth. That seemed to matter a lot to Gallowglass.
Maeve spoke for the first time. “Don’t you come any closer, you’re scaring me.”
That prompted Darian to take a step forward and try to push his way past Corey, but the old cop grabbed him roughly and shoved him back. He went nose-to-nose with Darian and said, “You stop trying to be a bloody hero; this ain’t the place for them, this is the real world.”
Darian thought about forcing his way through but he stopped. It seemed Corey wanted Gallowglass out of the room, and there was nothing else Darian wanted more. Corey had a better chance of making their shared ambition happen. The cop looked at him with disgust and turned away to talk to Gallowglass before he thought of another insult and turned quickly back to Darian.
He said, “You know this is your bloody fault. You sticking your nose in, trying to solve every injustice like a dime-store batman. All you’ve done is make a bad situation worse. You made this.”
Maeve shouted, “Don’t listen to him, Darian. This is his doing, him and Gallowglass. You were right about them both.”
That provoked Gallowglass, as though it confirmed the fears that had driven him madly here. He took a step toward Maeve, Darian and Corey watching from the doorway, knowing they were too far away to stop it. Gallowglass lurched at her, grabbing out with both arms.
Corey shouted, “Don’t.”
The two men ran into the room but it was over, Gallowglass had jumped at her and Maeve had instinctively stuck out her hand. The knife had gone deep into his stomach, up to the handle, and Maeve had let go. She took a step back so that she was pressed against the window and watched Gallowglass. He stood still, looking down at the knife. His hands reached for it but when he touched it he grimaced and stepped back, scared of the pain he had created.
He whispered, “I knew it.”
Gallowglass took another step back and stumbled, all of his strength falling out of him as he tumbled. He fell against the wall of the room opposite Maeve and slumped down into a sitting position, the handle of the knife still protruding. He held his hands around the plastic but not on it, fearing it might move. Maeve stood and watched him. Corey stepped toward Gallowglass and stopped, unsure. Darian ran to Maeve and threw his arms around her.