Adam marched down the road, his eyes set dead ahead. Back of the Yards was unfamiliar to him, but Kassie’s house lay in the shadows of the Union Stock Yard and everybody knew where that was. It loomed over this part of Chicago like a shadowy phantom, a faded monument to the old Chicago when life was good and work was plentiful.
As he walked, his hand strayed to his jacket, sliding inside to grip the butt of the Beretta. It was solid and powerful in his hand and Adam felt a surge of adrenaline, powering him forward. Even if he had wanted to stop himself now, he wasn’t sure he could. This journey – perhaps the last he would ever make – seemed to have a momentum of its own now.
‘First, do no harm.’ How easily that oath was forgotten. Adam had never hurt anyone in his life – had never wanted to – but now it seemed logical, even inevitable. Someone had to pay for all this misery, all this suffering. And that someone had to be Kassie. He would be deaf to her pleas, to his own conscience – all he wanted to do now was obliterate the contagion that had destroyed his life.
He pulled the handgun from his jacket, flicking the safety catch off before dropping it to his side, careless of detection. He was only a few minutes from Kassie’s house and something told him that nothing would impede him.
Kassie had been right all along. He laughed bitterly at the thought, but it was true. Kassie had foreseen how this would end, she had foreseen everything. Despite all his doubts, all his alternative theories, she had been telling the truth from the start. She was at home right now, waiting for him, waiting for the promised end. He could see himself raising the gun, pulling the trigger. It was as if a higher force was guiding him, propelling him towards the final act. Perhaps this was why his stride was so confident, his nerve so strong. Kassie had foreseen that he would kill her.
And that was precisely what he intended to do.