Page 112 of One of Us Is Guilty

The bald man took something from his pocket and gave it to the giant: a fine wire, maybe four feet long, with what appeared to be corkscrew handles on each end, like a garrote.

But this wasn’t a garrote.

The bald man drew a gun from his coveralls, and stood beside the small dark-haired man. Each of them fell into a firing and moving stance, pistol grip supported by both hands as they entered the house.

The giant looped the wire completely around Corbett’s neck, then stood over him, both handles in his hands, maybe twelve inches in front of Corbett’s face. The giant put a huge boot on Corbett’s chest, then pulled on his right hand, which lowered his left. Then pulled on his left, which lowered his right. It was a pump-action motion, which drew the wire back and forth across the entire surface of Corbett’s neck in a sawing motion.

The giant pumped his fists, faster and faster, the loop of razor wire tightening.

Within five seconds, Bloch heard a whine from the steel sawing through bone.

Less than ten seconds. The giant reached down, picked up the bag containing Corbett’s severed head and placed it in the bucket.

He had some blood spotting on his hands, but not much. Draining the arterial flow of blood first had cut down on the spray. The giant then put the lid on the bucket, knelt down beside Corbett’s headless corpse and rolled him into the rubber mat. He squatted and heaved the body onto his shoulder, then picked up the bucket with his other hand and walked to the van.

Total time since they’d arrived, less than three minutes.

It was efficient. Practiced. Smooth and unhurried. A quiet, clinical execution and dismemberment, as if these men were not dealing with a human being. They were body disposal operatives. Like men who had worked in a meat processing plant all of their lives.

This was human processing.

‘Jesus Christ, what have you got me into?’ whispered Raymond.

‘You got this on video?’ she whispered back.

Raymond, holding up his phone, nodded.

‘When you see a chance, get out of here on foot. Call Lake.’

Bloch put her index finger to her lips. Raymond had finished twenty minutes ago, but she’d told him to leave his equipment and follow her out the back doors of the kitchen, across the sand through the trees enclosing the property until she could get a good look at the entrance unobserved.

Just because Lake was paranoid didn’t mean they weren’t coming to get her.

She grabbed the long item lying beside her on the bed of rotten leaves. Unwrapped it. Slowly, she made her way through the foliage of the evergreen trees surrounding the house. As long as she kept the soft earth beneath her boots, the giant wouldn’t hear her coming. The noise from the wind buffeting the trees would help.

The storm was coming in fast now.

His two friends, the short one and the bald one, would take two, maybe three minutes to clear the house. Maybe half that time had gone already.

Ninety seconds until they came around the side of the property, following her and Raymond’s footprints in the sand.

She had never seen these men before. Between Lake and Bloch, they had photographed and researched every single man on Patrick and Julian’s security team.

These three men were not part of that detail.

It was important to keep as many of them alive as possible.One of them would talk. One of them would confess to who had hired them.

The giant put down the bucket at the back of the van, opened the rear doors with his free hand and then, as he dumped Corbett’s body in the back, Bloch stepped onto the gravel.

He spun round, his eyes locked on what she held in her hands.

Bloch pointed the working end of a Beretta 1301 tactical shotgun at the giant.

Center mass.

Stock tucked tight to her shoulder. The Beretta fired with lower recoil than most models and its gas system fed the next round into the chamber automatically. It was loaded with six twelve-gauge shells in Bloch’s preferred load out. Two slugs, two buckshot, and then two slugs. The slugs were for penetration, and the buckshot for stopping power.

At this range, Bloch could put a hole in the giant that would never be filled.