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Halifax, June 18
9:00 p.m.
The pistol dug into Allan’s back.
Behind him, the man in the black coat leaned forward.
“Get the fuck inside, pig,” he said.
The pulse hammered in Allan’s throat. He closed his eyes for a second and took a long, deep breath.
The man nudged him again.
Swallowing, Allan climbed onto the backseat. The upholstery smelled of stale cigarettes. Turned low, heavy metal drifted from the speakers.
“Move over,” the man in the coat said.
Allan slid over to the far door, looking at the two occupants in front. The driver had on a red ball cap and a gravel-colored flannel shirt. Lee Higgins sat in the passenger seat, his head tilted back against the rest.
Allan tried to make himself calm. The guy beside him shut the door. The driver engaged the locks then hit the gas, pushing everyone back in their seats.
“Easy,” Higgins said. “We don’t wanna attract attention.”
“What’s going on here, Lee?” Allan asked. “Kidnapping cops now?”
The driver let out a laugh. With a slow turn of his head, Higgins looked back at Allan, his eyes narrowed to slits.
“Not kidnapping you, Stanton.”
The driver hit the steering wheel with his fist and shouted, “Yes! Let’s fucking do this.”
Higgins said, “Shut up, Cole.”
Allan fought the tremor in his voice. “These your new henchmen? Dumb and Dumber?”
“Cocky for someone with a gun pointed at his gut.” Higgins flicked his eyes to the guy in the black coat. “What if I told Talon to shoot you right here?”
Talon turned to Allan, his face all serious. “Just give the word, Lee.”
“Nah,” Higgins said. “Too much work. Ever try cleaning blood out of upholstery? We’d have to take the seat out. Burn it.”
Allan felt cold with fear. He was sweating under his sport coat. Through the windshield, he saw them coming to the end of Oakland Road. Where were they taking him? Somewhere private to kill him, no doubt.
Cole took a right at the stop sign, heading north up Beaufort Avenue. Daylight was fading. In twenty to thirty minutes, it would be dark.
Higgins turned around to face the two backseat passengers. His gaze skipped across Allan’s face and settled on Talon’s.
“I trust you got his gun?” he said.
Talon nodded. “Of course.”
Higgins reached a meaty hand over the seat. “Give it here.”
Talon took Allan’s pistol from a coat pocket and handed it over. Higgins lifted his eyebrows in admiration.
“Nice,” he said. “Beretta. I thought all you city pigs used Sigs?”
Allan didn’t say anything.
Higgins fixed him with a menacing stare, and Allan saw his own death lurking there.
“Next time you pigs decide to tail somebody,” Higgins said, “pick a guy who doesn’t make it so obvious. But what else would I expect?
“I remember your young guys coming in the bar all the time when I used to bounce. Trying to get their little peckers wet. Boy, they thought they were something. Strutting around like their shit didn’t stink. Every night, I wished one of them would get out of hand, just so I could slam their head through a fucking wall. See what they’re really made of.”
Allan held his eyes. “You hate cops. I get it.”
One corner of Higgins’s mouth twitched upward, and a shadow crossed his face.
He said, “Oh, it’s more than that.”
Allan felt the car slow down for a stop sign then accelerate again. He looked over, realizing they were on Oxford Street.
“Do you really expect to get away with this, Lee?” he asked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, Stanton. I do.” Higgins tapped the Beretta against the side of his head. “I’m smarter than you think. We’re here. Your guy in the Expedition is following my car all over the place. We watched him take the bait.”
“We pulled your car over,” Allan said. “Does Colton Reynolds sound familiar?”
Higgins blinked, then shrugged it off. “Don’t mean nothing. Just a friend borrowing my car. The thing is, nobody is tailing me right now. Nobody knows I’m here, and nobody knows you’re here with me. Your car is back there in buddy’s driveway, not in mine. He’ll have to answer for your whereabouts. Not me.”
Allan wondered how he could get out of this. It was one man against three. At the edge of his vision, he saw the pistol in Talon’s hand. The butt rested on his thigh with the barrel pointed straight at Allan. Could he get to it? Would Higgins just turn around again and face forward?
“When you brought over that mask today,” Higgins said, “I asked myself why. You had nothing on me. But you were hoping if I knew anything, I’d go after the fucker who killed Todd and Blake. And you were right. But then I noticed your guy tailing me. And I realized you were really trying to set a trap. Kill two birds with one stone.”
Allan said, “We’ve had you under surveillance since Blake’s murder. We figured the suspect would eventually go after you and we’d catch him.”
A broad smile inched across Higgins’s face. “How ’bout it, boys? Sounds like Stanton’s got a hard-on for me.”
Cole and Talon laughed.
“Whatever you say, Stanton,” Higgins said. “I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth. All you fucking cops lie.”
“Believe what you want.”
Higgins fell quiet for a few seconds. “We were going to take that fucker out tonight. That’s why we ditched your tail.” He nodded. “Oh, yes. We had something nice in store for him. But then you showed up, and I knew you were piecing it all together.”
Allan stared at him.
Cole said, “Did you get a load of the guy’s house? What’s up with all the bars?”
Higgins’s eyes never left Allan’s. “Afraid we might come back. Finish him off. I’m surprised the fucker lived.”
Allan clenched his jaw. He felt a terrible knowledge creep through his brain. It brought flashes of callousness and bloodstained walls and a dead woman on a bedroom floor with her throat cut.
“So, you did attack that family,” he said. “You, Todd, and Blake. Broke into their house while they slept. Murdered the wife and the four-year-old daughter.”
Talon snapped his head toward Higgins. “Wait. Wait. You did a little girl, man?”
Higgins held up a hand. “No, no.”
“Yeah, he did,” Allan said. “Cute as a button.”
Higgins sneered. He leveled the Beretta on Allan’s face, and Allan tensed up.
“I didn’t kill any kid, Stanton,” he yelled. “Hear me?”
Talon said, “What’s he talking about, Lee?”
Higgins ignored him. “Todd went into that bedroom. Not me.”
“Right,” Allan said. “You were too busy trying to murder her parents.”
“Keep talking, pig. I’ll blow your fucking brains right out that back window.”
Talon said, “Lee. What’s this about a little girl?”
Throat working, Higgins lowered the Beretta.
After a long pause, he said, “There was a little girl inside that house when we hit it. We didn’t know beforehand. Todd made the mistake of going into her room. She was awake.” Higgins’s eyes misted, and he blinked several times. “She saw him and tried to run. She fell. That’s all. Todd didn’t touch her. I felt bad when I heard about it. I love kids. They’re the only pure things left in this world.”
Without another word, Higgins turned around in the seat and leaned his head back against the rest again. Allan watched him wipe his eyes.
He said, “You know, Lee, there’s still a way back from this.”
“How you figure, Stanton?”
“Just let it go. Nothing’s happened here yet.”
Cole let out another laugh. “What’s this guy been smoking?”
“He’s trying to save his ass,” Talon said.
Higgins looked back at Allan, his eyes gone cold again.
“Nothing’s happened here, huh?” he said. “What’ve we been talking about? You’re just gonna forget all that? Walk away?”
Allan gave him nothing back but a flat stare.
Higgins said, “I wouldn’t trust one word from you anyway. No, no. You’re going somewhere nobody’s going to find you. Ever.”
