The Evil And The Pure (59 page)

“Where?” she said quietly.

“I have a cab waiting. We’ve two million pounds and our passports. We can go wherever we want. Abroad. Somewhere sunny. Or the Alps if you’d prefer.”

“They’ll come after us,” she said.

“We’ll post the formula to Bushinsky before we leave,” Kevin chuckled. “He won’t give a toss about us or the money once he gets that.”

Tulip
gulped and gazed at her brother, troubled. “Kevin… I…”

“Wait a minute,” he interrupted. “I thought I heard something.” He looked over her head, scrutinising the shadowy depths of the Galleria
. For a couple of seconds, nothing. Then a massive figure emerged out of the gloom, others behind him, something scrabbling on all fours in front, and Kevin groaned sickly, “
No!
”

Tulip turned and squinted. “Who –”

She got no further. Kevin grabbed her arm and ran like the devil. Tulip had no choice but to run too. Behind them someone bellowed, “After them!”

Kevin couldn’t believe it. He
should have had until eleven thirty, yet it wasn’t even a quarter to and here they were, Big Sandy at the fore. What had gone wrong? How had he miscalculated so disastrously?

Spilling out of the Galleria, hearing Big Sandy and the others pounding after them, turning right into Tooley Street, racing for Borough High Street, telling himself
Dave would be there if he made it, passing at the exact moment he hit the street, the fates would be kind if he could stay ahead of them just long enough to…

Tulip slipped and fell. She cried out
and slid into the middle of the road. If a car had been passing she could have been killed, but there was no traffic. Kevin dived after her, grabbed her elbow and hauled her to her feet. “Come on,” he screamed. “We have to…”

Tulip yelped with pain and slumped, clutching her left
ankle. “I can’t.”

Kevin glared at her desperately, hatefully. Glanced up. Saw Big Sand
y surge out of the Galleria, a savage-looking dog ahead of him, three or four men hot on his heels. He studied Tulip as she nursed her ankle. Gazed at the bag in his right hand. He knew what he must do, the sacrifice he must make. For almost a full second he rejected that knowledge and stood firm beside the sister who meant so much to him, who was so vulnerable now…

…
then spun with a moan and struck for freedom, taking the money, leaving Tulip behind.

Fleeing cravenly, thinking only of himself, all noble thoughts washed away by a wave of self-serving fear. Sights set on Borough High Street. Praying for Big Sandy to stop with Tulip, focus on the formula, not bother about Kevin. Escaping like he escaped before
, but this time he wouldn’t make the mistake of coming back. Get out, lay low, put his money to good use, say a few prayers for Tulip and weep for her. But he wouldn’t die for her. The lie of the last few years exposed. The threat of suicide if she left him ridiculed in an instant. The selfish truth revealed abruptly and nakedly to the world, to Tulip, to himself.

Kevin ran,
sobbing, clinging to the bag, unaware of Big Sandy stopping next to Tulip, unaware of Fast Eddie drawing his gun and looking to Big Sandy for a signal, unaware of Big Sandy nodding with the slightest and tightest of grins.

Something exploded in Kevin’s lower back. He gasped and went sprawling. Blood arced
from the small of his back as he hit the ground face first, not losing his grip on the bag. He broke his nose and shattered his front teeth as he smashed into the pavement. Tried bringing his arms in, to push himself up, get on his feet, run. But his arms wouldn’t work. He tried moving his legs but they only twitched. Sobbing pitifully he began to crawl, thinking,
If I can just get to the High Street… Dave English… freedom… millions…

Fast Eddie stepped up behind Kevin as he
painfully inched towards the promise of escape. Checked with Big Sandy again. Big Sandy nodded again. Fast Eddie put the nozzle of his gun to the back of Kevin’s head. Kevin never felt it. He was focused on the path ahead. He heard a click. His thoughts snapped back into place and he realised what the sound meant. Flashed on an image of Tulip. Then a bullet, bone and his brains came screaming out through the front of his already bloodied face and Kevin died a coward, in selfish disgrace.

SEVENTY-SIX

Big Sandy stood in front of Tulip with the
hound – he had to choke hard on the leash to keep it away from her – blocking her view of Kevin as Fast Eddie finished him off. He needn’t have bothered. Tulip had shut her eyes and covered her ears with her hands. Her lips were moving fast but silently, praying. When Fast Eddie had finished with Kevin, dumping the body at the side of Tooley Street, having first checked his pockets for the formula and prised the bag from Kevin’s lifeless fingers, Big Sandy gently pulled Tulip’s hands from her ears and waited for her to look at him. When she did, he smiled sadly. “It’s over.”

Tulip’s
lips trembled and for a moment she held Big Sandy’s gaze. Then she glanced through his legs, saw Fast Eddie walking towards them, spotted her brother’s corpse. She shut her eyes again and moaned, rocking back and forth. Her left hand automatically slid to her ankle and rubbed the flesh around it. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she wept. “You could have just taken the money.”

“It’s better this way,” Big Sandy replied. “He died quickly. If I’d taken him back…” He shook his head sombrely. Fast Eddie stepped up beside him. Eyes Burton and
Jimmy B were further back, guns drawn, keeping watch, warding off the few pedestrians who were on the street. Fast Eddie passed the bag to Big Sandy, who held it in the same huge hand with which he gripped the hound’s reins. Didn’t even glance at the bag. “Is it all there?”

“I
only had a quick look but I think so.” Fast Eddie stared at Tulip. “No sign of the formula.”

“Tulip?” Big Sandy said softly.

“He didn’t have it,” she sighed. “They gave it to me. I was supposed to hand it to you.” Her tears had ceased. Placing her hands on the road, she pushed herself to her feet, wincing. Big Sandy reached out his free hand to help but she ignored it and hopped towards the pavement where Kevin lay splayed. Eyes trained his gun on her but Big Sandy grunted at him and he lowered it again. All four men moved with Tulip, trailing after her as she made her slow way to her dead brother, the hound whining with excitement at the bloody smell of the corpse.

Tulip hovered over Kevin when she reached him, gazing in silence at the back of his head. Big Sandy was glad
that Kevin was lying face down. She lowered herself to the pavement and sat next to her brother, running her fingers through his hair, smoothing it over the hole in his skull. Then she opened the front of her coat and rubbed a hand over her stomach.

“Give us the formula, Tulip,” Big Sandy said quietly. “You don’t have to die like the rest of them. We can stop if we have the money and the formula. You can walk away. You have my word.” Knowing he couldn’t guarantee that – the Bush might kill her to be s
afe – but not making the promise lightly. He’d fight for her life if he had to.

“I’m pregnant,” Tulip said. Big Sandy blinked, taken aback. “That’s why Kevin st
ruck a deal with Gawl and Clint, so he’d have money to look after us. He loved me really, despite his sickness.”

“Is that why he deserted you?” Fast Eddie snorted.

“He was weak,” Tulip responded evenly. “He wasn’t responsible for his actions. Not all of them anyway.”

“We
need to get out of here,” Eyes said nervously. “We’re exposed. Let’s get her back to the lab. She can do all the talking she wants there.”

“He’s right,” Fast Eddie said to Big Sandy. “
The others will be here soon. I’ll stay and help them deal with the body. Will you walk her back to the van or do you want me to phone for a car?”

Big Sandy didn’t answer. He was staring at Tulip as she rubbed her stomach. “Why tell us you’re pregnant?”

Tulip smiled shakily. “I’m going to be a mother. I have responsibilities now. I have to make the world as safe for my child as possible.”

“Sandy, we have to –” Fast Eddie began but Big Sandy cut him short with an angry gesture.

“Tell me you didn’t do it,” Big Sandy croaked, fearing the worst.

“Drugs are evil,” Tulip whispered. “
Kevin got me hooked. I’m still an addict. I’ve sworn to get clean for my baby’s sake, but I know it wont be easy. I know what it’s like to be trapped, to feel the
need
. Clint and Tony said this new drug would be given to people who didn’t want it, that it would kill them if they didn’t keep taking it. I chose to experiment, but their victims wouldn’t have had a choice. Innocent people bound to a relentless, vile addiction for life. I couldn’t allow that, not when I was presented with a way to prevent it.”

“What’s she saying?” Eyes snapped, not liking the sound of this.

“I destroyed it,” Tulip said. “The formula was written down in a notebook. I ripped out the pages, tore them up into pieces and scattered them over the Thames as I walked here from London Bridge.” She reached into a pocket, produced a thin notebook and opened it to show its eviscerated interior.

“She’s got to be shitting us,
” Eyes groaned but Big Sandy and Fast Eddie knew Tulip and they could tell by her expression that she was telling the truth.

“That was very foolish,” Big Sandy said dolefully.

“I couldn’t allow such a wretched drug into the world,” Tulip countered. “It was God’s plan. He put me in possession of the formula so I could dispose of it.”

“God doesn’t work that way,” Big Sandy said.

“I believe he does.”

“She’s lying,” Eyes snarled. “
She made a copy or this is just a notebook she bought in a shop and ripped up after she hid the real one.”

“No,” Big Sandy said. “I believe her.”

“I do too,” Fast Eddie sighed, “but we have to be sure. We have to take her in. Dave will want to question her. He’ll probably sic Michael on her.”

Big Sandy’s left eyelid twitched. “No.”

“It’s not our call,” Fast Eddie hissed. “We can talk to Dave, try to persuade him that she’s on the level, but this is his business, not ours.” Big Sandy hesitated and Fast Eddie pushed ahead swiftly. “We don’t make the decisions. We’ll take her back, plead her case, hope Dave believes her. If he doesn’t…” Fast Eddie shook his head.

“Enough of this shit,”
Jimmy B growled, stepping forward to pick up Tulip.

“Stop.” Big Sandy didn’t raise his voice but the menace in it
stopped Jimmy B cold. He stared at Big Sandy. Fast Eddie sensed danger. His hand sneaked towards his gun. Then Big Sandy sighed. “I’ll bring her.” He thrust the reins of the hound – straining anxiously, wild on the smell of blood – to Jimmy B. “Take this.”

Jimmy
B nodded and took charge of the hound. Fast Eddie relaxed. Tulip drew away from Big Sandy as he reached for her. “Can I say a prayer first?”

“You can pray later,” Big Sandy grunted, taking hold of her wrists.

“But it’s not for me, it’s for Kevin.” She looked at Big Sandy pleadingly. “I want to say a prayer for the repose of his soul. Please. This is important to me.”

Big Sandy wavered. “You’re wasting your prayers on him,” he warned her.

“Maybe,” she conceded with a weary smile. “But God is merciful. He listens to those who plead on behalf of their loved ones.”

“She’s playing for time,” Eyes said.

“Shut up,” Fast Eddie told him and turned to Big Sandy. “Let her pray. It can’t do any harm. I’ll call for that car.”

“OK,” Big Sandy said, releasing Tulip. He stepped back. Tulip faced Kevin, made the sign of the cross, put her hands together, closed her eyes. Eyes and
Jimmy B stared at her incredulously, then at Big Sandy, but said nothing. Fast Eddie moved away and phoned for a car, telling the guy to also contact the Bush and let him know that they were coming.

Big Sandy watched Tulip praying, her face serene despite the trauma of the last week and the terror and loss of the last few hours. He imagined what would happen when they presented her to the Bush. Dave would be furious. Big Sandy knew he’d believe her story – too crazy to make up – but he didn’t think the Bush would let himself be seen to believe. There would have to be proof positive
. And retribution. Tulip would be tortured and killed. Dave wouldn’t – couldn’t – allow her to live, not after she’d cheated him out of the formula and all the millions it would have generated. Her motives were irrelevant. He’d have to punish her.

Big Sandy fixed on Tulip’s lips as they moved silently. He took in the tears, the bedraggled hair, the pain in her face, the (imagined) bulge of her stomach. Sixteen years old and damned. None of it her fault. A good girl
dragged through the muck by her vicious, petty, perverse brother — but not degraded. Too pure of spirit to be truly soiled. And a mother-to-be, new life in her womb, an innocent child.

Big Sandy thought of Amelie. The boy who snapped her bra. Pictured her in this position, knocked up by the spotty teenager, pregnant, a victim of a wicked man, in the grip of even worse men, damned. And he knew — he couldn’t let Tulip
die.