The Last One To See Her by Mark Tilbury

Author:Mark Tilbury [Tilbury, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tilbury Publishing
Published: 2020-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

***

Half an hour later, Curtis reappeared in the front room. His face had a waxy sheen of sweat glistening on the skin, and his eyes appeared as if they were still in the bedroom.

Bentley popped the tab on another can. His last. He needed an alert mind to carry out the rest of his plan. ‘How was it?’

‘Good, thanks.’

‘Did the bed move for you?’

Curtis brayed laughter. ‘Nice one.’ He sat on the sofa and finished his can. ‘What’s happened to her face? It’s covered in bruises.’

‘She got lippy, so I had to put her in her place.’

‘Cool.’

‘That’s the thing with women, Curtis – they need to know the boundaries. If you let them step over the line, then that’s it! You’re in for a whole heap of trouble.’

‘What did she do wrong?’

‘Talked too much.’

Curtis nodded, as if that made perfect sense. ‘How long you gonna keep her strapped to the bed?’

‘As long as it takes for her to realise she needs to keep her big mouth shut.’

‘You might wanna give her some water, Jim. It’s roasting in that bedroom.’

‘And you might wanna keep your nose out of my affairs if you don’t want it broken.’

Curtis recoiled as if the words had physically assaulted him. ‘Is there anything else you want me to do?’

Bentley didn’t answer. He walked into the kitchen and returned with a large carving knife. ‘This baby could carve the meat right off the bone just by showing it the blade.’

Curtis’s eyes looked as if he didn’t doubt that for one moment.

‘Wassamatta, don’t you like knives?’

‘I do when they’re in a drawer.’

Bentley flipped the knife around and held it by the blade. Offered the handle to Curtis. ‘You feel the weight of that. It’s perfectly balanced.’

He took the knife and held it out in front of him. ‘Cool.’

‘You ever stabbed anyone, Curtis?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t like blood.’

‘Why?’

‘It gives me the willies.’

‘Like you just did to Shona?’

‘Huh?’

‘Gave her the willies.’

Curtis tried to laugh but only emitted a strange noise somewhere between a cackle and a whine.

‘Do you think I’ve ever killed anyone?’

Curtis’s eyes widened. ‘I don’t know. Have you?’

‘Twice. The first one was an accident. I strangled some tart I picked up on a one-night stand.’

‘How was it an accident?’

‘Because she was into all that choking bollocks, and it went too far.’

‘Jesus.’

‘But I meant to do the second one. He owed me money and kept fobbing me off with a load of crap about needing more time to pay.’

‘So you killed him?’

Bentley nodded. ‘Took the fucker round the back of the old Waitrose and slit his throat. Could say I bled him dry.’

This horrific news drained all the colour from Curtis’s face. He looked like a wannabe ghost. ‘And you got away with it?’

Course I did. I just made it up to keep you in your place. ‘Murder’s easy when it’s just a random act. The filth don’t have nothing to go on. As long as you wear gloves and don’t leave any DNA at the scene, they’ve got no chance of tracing you.

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