Chapter 45
My hands were still shaking as I put on my clothes. Kyle remained in place, his eyes not leaving his father, a look of terrible grief and regret on his face.
“Did you touch anything?” he asked, his voice quiet.
“Um, I guess I must have,” I said, thinking back.
“Think Alice. What did you touch?”
“Just the door handle when I came in. The glass on the table. I may have put my hands to the chair.”
He withdrew a cloth from his jacket pocket and threw it over to me. “Wipe anything you may have touched. Do it quickly.”
I took the glass and wiped it down, placing it back onto the table, before starting off on the sofa, wiping every last area I'd touched.
“Wait,” he said as I moved over to the door. “Leave that to me.”
He took the cloth off me and picked up the glass from the table. “Best dispose of this,” he said, taking my purse from me and dropping it inside.
“It's just precautionary Alice. They won't have your DNA or fingerprints on file. You'll never be connected to this.” He was so calm now, his mind set to the task.
“Give me your hand,” he said. I lifted it to his and he held it lightly.
“You're shaking. You must compose yourself. We're going to walk out there as if nothing's happened.”
He walked to the door and put his ear close to it, listening for movement. He wiped the handle with the cloth before opening it with his gloved hand, leaning out into the corridor and looking both ways.
“OK, let's go.”
I followed him out as he shut the door carefully and wiped the other side of the handle before placing the cloth back into his pocket.
“What about cameras,” I whispered into his ear as he touched the button for the elevator.
“Don't worry about that. It's not a concern.”
I didn't now exactly what he meant, but trusted his words. For all I knew he could have a man on the inside, covering our tracks. I didn't put it past him.
“Now smile and take my arm,” he said as the elevator sprung open in front of us.
I followed his orders as we stepped in and descended, walking out into a busy hotel lobby. We moved straight through a group of incoming guests and out into the night. He continued to the left, moving me off down the street.
We walked in silence and at speed, moving through the busy street. He turned us into a multi storey parking lot, walking up to the third level where cars were sparsely parked. A lone car stood at the far end and we moved towards it. It wasn't the car he usually drove. It was bland, innocuous, a car that would blend in.
He opened the door for me and I stepped in. I let out a breath as the door shut on the other side, casting us into silence. It felt as if I'd been keeping it in for the last ten minutes.
His face remained unblinking, his eyes staring forward as if they were looking into the distance. I could only imagine what was going through his head.
“I'm sorry Alice,” he said, breaking the quiet.
I looked at him, my own eyes mourning. “For what.”
“Everything,” he said. “This is all my fault. I should never have involved you in it.”
I took his cheek in my palm and turned his face towards me. His eyes were turned down, looking to the floor, a tear threatening to roll from one corner.
“No Kyle, we all make our own choices. None of this is your fault.”
His eyes stayed down, a tear now rolling down his cheek, a single line across his unblemished face.
“Look at me,” I said, urging his eyes upwards. They moved slowly, deep wells of emotion behind them.
“You did what you needed to do Kyle. It was justice. You've set us free - you, me, Jen, every person beneath his heel. Don't ever think otherwise.”
I knew the words would fall on an empty heart right now. I knew, as he did deep down, that what he'd done had been just. And yet, I knew it would live with him forever.
His eyes softened slightly at my words.
“I did it for you Alice. Only for you.”
He paused as he reached out and stroked his hand through my hair, the tears drying in his eyes.
“Now, we can be together.”
Epilogue
I stood at one side of the grave as the coffin was lowered into it. In front of me I could see Kyle standing in the middle of four other men. They were all of similar height and shared similar features, a dark handsomeness to each of them. It was clear to everyone there that they were brothers.
There were hundreds of people there, each dressed in black, each with their heads bowed as a prayer was said. The weather mimicked the mood. The sky was blanketed in thick grey cloud, a cold wind whistled through the trees. Black umbrellas were opened as a few drops of rain fell, but Kyle and his brothers stayed still, their eyes fixed onto the coffin as it descended to its final resting place.
I imagined how Kyle must be feeling, his family around him, all of them mourning the passing of their father. A passing that he'd secured, a one-way ticket to hell.
The prayer ended and the crowd began to disperse, moving off towards the wake to celebrate a life they probably knew little about. But not Kyle. Not his brothers. They stood together, five men in a row, motionless, their eyes still locked to the grave as the rain fell on their shoulders.
A tear dropped from my eye at the sight. Not at the thought of Charles Logan lying lifeless in front of me. I held no feeling of warmth towards him. No, I felt for Kyle, forced to live his life with this burden now upon his back.
It was something he'd done for me, something he'd done for us. He'd been willing to take his own fathers life to set me free, to let us be together. It was a deserved fate, but nothing could have been harder.
It was a sacrifice he'd made for me, and I loved him for it.