Better Confess Read online

  Better Confess

  Alan Gorevan

  Copyright © 2020 by Alan Gorevan

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Dublin. Thursday, 6:54 pm.

  Florence Lynch took a bottle of perfume from her handbag and gave her neck a discreet squirt of Chanel No. 5. The fragrance had been her late mother’s favourite, and Florence liked to keep a bottle of it with her at all times.

  The taxi driver glanced at her in his mirror.

  “Going somewhere nice?”

  He was a leathery-faced man in his fifties, with tufty, greying hair. Florence ignored him. A stranger had no business knowing her plans. She placed a breath mint on the tip of her tongue and gazed at the driver’s face in the mirror.

  They thought they had a right to ask anything they liked. As bad as hairdressers, Florence thought, though at least her hairdresser stuck to asking if Florence had any holiday plans and what she was doing at the weekend.

  “Excuse me,” she said, pulling out her iPhone. She brought the screen to life, lighting up the gloomy backseat of the taxi.

  “Sure, sure,” the driver said.

  He yawned obnoxiously. Even if she hadn’t been a coach to small-business owners, Florence would have been appalled by his lack of professionalism. People never seemed to think about the impression they made.

  Florence always made sure to present herself optimally when she met clients: looking well-groomed, smelling pleasant, smiling and alert, after a solid night’s sleep. She drank two litres of water each day to keep her teenage acne in the past tense, and had her hair styled at an exclusive salon every two weeks. As far as appearances went, she had little to worry about, though some days the gap between her front teeth preoccupied her. She had a tall, athletic build, an upright carriage and long, honey-coloured hair.

  At thirty, Florence knew she was on the brink of personal and professional triumph. Her bachelor’s degree in communications and her master’s in marketing had set her on a trajectory towards success. Always striving for improvement, she liked to share what she’d learned with others.

  “You shouldn’t yawn like that,” Florence said, unable to resist. “It’s incredibly rude.”

  “Pardon?” the driver said. From his tone of voice, Florence gathered that he had heard her, but was too stung to believe he’d heard her correctly.

  Florence’s iPhone rang.

  “Never mind,” she said. “I have to take this.”

  “Sure, sure.”

  She noted the time displayed on her phone, then put it to her ear. “What is it, Jill?”

  Jill Fitzgibbon, Florence’s personal assistant, stayed in the office until at least nine o’clock every night, though no one asked her to do this. Florence couldn’t say she liked Jill. The younger woman was too nervous, calling Florence constantly, even out of hours. However, Florence’s father had appointed her, and he hated it when Florence questioned his hiring and firing decisions.

  “Sorry to bother you,” Jill said.

  Despite her shyness, Jill always spoke loudly, as if to compensate.

  “What is it?”

  “I was about to leave the office when I got an urgent e-mail from Jon Glynn.”

  Florence groaned. Jon Glynn, a new client, liked to have his hand held. Florence had spent far too much of her morning in a meeting with him, listening to his plans for his IT company. Florence found the inner workings of computers tedious, not to mention baffling.

  “What does he want?”

  “He says he needs to speak to you at once.”

  “Well, I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

  “His e-mail does say at once. I just thought you should know.”

  “Does he say why?”

  “He’s worried about his trade mark. He says it’s been rejected by the Intellectual Property Office.”

  “Big deal,” Florence said.

  “What should I tell him?”

  “Don’t tell him anything. Let him wait until tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Jill said with a nervous laugh. She drew the word out, as if she was giving herself time to think of an argument.

  Florence ended the call.

  “Trouble at home?” the driver asked.

  Florence glared at the back of his head, at the point where grey tufts receded into pink skin.

  As if he had any right to know whether Florence had trouble at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

  She gazed out the window. The taxi was moving slowly through Dublin’s north inner city. They were now on Capel Street, approaching Simon’s office.

  “I said, trouble at home?” the driver repeated, as if she owed him an answer.

  “Never mind that. Can you go any faster?”

  The driver shrugged. “Only if the car in front does.”

  Florence fished around in her handbag for her lipstick, and applied a little more.

  The truth was that things were wonderful at home. Florence had no reason to complain. Simon Hill was the perfect boyfriend. Sometimes he could be silly – just look at his ridiculous man-bun and his obsession with milkshakes – but he had a good heart.

  Tonight,
Florence was treating Simon to dinner at a new ramen bar she’d wanted to try for months. Simon had already been there at lunchtime and he insisted the place served the best noodles in the city.

  The taxi passed Simon’s workplace, the headquarters of marketing company, Transcend Promotions. It was an old building. Though not much to look at, Florence felt happy every time she saw the place. Not only did her boyfriend work there, but so did her best friend, Hazel Price. Hazel was the one who introduced Simon to Florence.

  The taxi began to move a little faster.

  “Do you have any plans for the weekend?” the driver asked.

  Florence sighed.

  “Could you—”

  Could you shut your mouth? she thought.

  But then she was distracted. Out the window, she saw a man who looked like Simon walking along the sun-dappled footpath.

  No, it was Simon, and he was arm-in-arm with a woman in a short black skirt. The woman turned her head and Florence saw that it was Hazel.

  Perhaps they had left work together.

  Florence stared at her boyfriend and her best friend. Why were they so close to each other? Their arms were linked and they were laughing hard.

  And, as Florence watched, Hazel threw her arms around Simon and kissed him on the lips.

  Chapter Two

  London. Thursday, 6:55 pm.

  “Sir, when a man is tired of London,” Samuel Johnson wrote, “he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

  Thomas Ogden had always thought that was true. London throbbed with energy, with variety, with vitality. And right now, Thomas was in the perfect place to observe the great city’s masses. He’d managed to snag the window seat in a trendy new coffee shop near Trafalgar Square. His chair was angled towards the window and his laptop rested on his knees. An endless flood of people hurried past the window, umbrellas raised against the evening’s misty rain.

  With his hoodie and jeans, his short brown hair, upturned nose and thick-rimmed glasses, Thomas Ogden looked exactly like a computer programmer, but this was his uniform. His mask. Though he was in fact an IT professional, it wasn’t natural for him to dress like one.

  Oddly enough, he preferred to clothe himself in a well-cut suit rather than a T-shirt or chinos. It was a relic of having a tailor for a father. Thomas only dressed casually when he didn’t want to be seen.

  The light next to Thomas’s chair was angled away so his face would not be lit up, either to passers-by on the street or to the other customers in the café. Thomas’s work was important, and it demanded invisibility.

  He took a sip of coffee. It had turned cold while he sat there. Wincing, he dribbled the bitter beverage back into the mug. He glanced around. The café was busy, but no one was paying any attention to him. Trying to get rid of the taste in his mouth, he dribbled the last bitter dregs back into the cup, then set it down on the table in front of him.

  He glanced at the restaurant across the road. It was a French place specialising in small plates, whatever that meant. Thomas had been watching the yellow glow of its window for an hour.

  The target’s name was Brook Reynolds. He sat at the third table from the window, against the left wall. A Toulouse-Lautrec print hung on the wall over his head.

  Normally on Thursday evenings, Mr. Reynolds visited his mistress’s Vauxhall apartment on the way home from work. His wife thought he played badminton. She was usually busy marking assignments, though her browser history showed an unhealthy fixation on cat videos.

  Thomas knew all about the couple.

  When it came to his work, Thomas lived by certain simple rules, about which he was completely inflexible.

  He had to make sure he had the right target. The target was guaranteed dead within twenty-four hours. No cancellations. No refunds.

  Normally Thomas had little time to observe the target. He had to do the best he could within the limit, using both physical and technological surveillance. Usually that yielded sufficient information.

  In this case, the client had approached them with a query, and then a number of weeks passed before the booking was made.

  During that time, Thomas’s curiosity had remained piqued. He had no other target during this period, and was becoming restless, so he took it upon himself to do some preliminary research.

  Mr. Reynolds and his wife turned out to be a well-off couple in their fifties. They lived in a plush townhouse in West Brompton and had no children. Reynolds’s wife was a popular biochemistry lecturer at a nearby university. Mr. Reynolds was a portfolio manager who looked after endowments for a (different) university.

  Thomas wondered if Mr. Reynolds had met his wife through work. It was certainly how he met his mistress.

  On Saturdays, Mr. Reynolds played golf. On Sundays, he sang in a church choir, then met his mistress again under the pretext of visiting an elderly relative, whose care facility was conveniently nearby.

  Thomas had gleaned excellent information about the man’s movements from the location history on his phone.

  Mr. Reynolds’s e-mails and text messages showed that he was sick of his wife but feared a messy, expensive divorce.

  It was all so drearily predictable, Thomas reflected.

  He observed beads of rain running down the windowpane. The dark clouds made the summer evening gloomier than it would otherwise have been.

  Today, Mr. Reynolds and three friends were having dinner. Or small plates, whatever that meant. The French restaurant had about two dozen tables, all of which were occupied. Lots of witnesses. Thomas had been tempted to get a table in the restaurant himself, but decided it was too risky, so had settled on the café opposite. He had to be careful. He took elaborate precautions for the online side of this business. It would be crazy not to exercise proper caution for the physical part of the plan too.

  Thomas checked the time.

  Eighteen hours had passed since the booking came through. He’d received his cut of the fee in bitcoin before the job. They always charged half in advance, with the understanding that the remaining half would be transferred as soon as the target was dead. Thomas kept half of the initial payment and the organisation kept the other half. Thomas wasn’t sure that was a fair split, but he wasn’t greedy.

  Thomas hadn’t been able to sleep because of the excitement. Even after all the jobs he had done, each new one was a thrill.

  “Don’t cause any more pain than you have to,” the client had said. Thomas took professional pride in fulfilling clients’ instructions.

  Across the street, Mr. Reynolds and his friends were finishing their meal. It hadn’t taken long. Now Thomas knew what small plates meant. It meant a small meal and a big bill. He watched as the waiter brought them a fresh set of menus.

  Time for coffee, Thomas thought. And I’ll supply dessert: a nice, painless murder.

  Chapter Three

  Dublin. Thursday, 7:15 pm.

  Florence Lynch stared out the window of the taxi. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Simon and Hazel, their lips locked together, then pulling back, gazing into each other’s eyes. They looked so happy. For a moment, Florence could do nothing but stare in horror.

  They’re having an affair.

  As Florence watched, Simon threw his arms around Hazel and they hugged. She couldn’t help thinking what a handsome couple they made. Her best friend and her boyfriend.

  Simon stood six feet tall and carried himself in a way that was self-assured without ever becoming arrogant. He had an easy-going charm and his long, black hair framed a sweet smile that let him get away with anything.

  Hazel, on the other hand, was good-looking in a less obvious way. She had round cheeks, a button nose, and shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair that framed a triangular face. If she didn’t have a great sense of style, Hazel made up for it with her vitality. She was constantly trying exciting new things: skydiving, skiing, ziplining, paintballing, go-cart racing. Guys loved that about her. It had always been a mystery to Floren
ce why Hazel hadn’t settled down with one of her boyfriends yet.

  Now Florence knew the reason. Hazel wanted to steal Simon away from her. Or she already had.

  Is it serious? How long has it been going on?

  Florence had a thousand questions.

  She’d been dating Simon for two years. They’d been talking about buying a house together. Had he been cheating on her the whole time, or was this a recent development?

  How could he do this to her?

  The taxi began to move faster.

  “Hey, wait!” Florence snapped. They’d been crawling along for half an hour, and the idiot behind the wheel chose this exact moment to start speeding? “Stop the car.”

  The driver turned his head slowly, and said, “What?”

  They’d left Simon and Hazel behind.

  Florence leaned forward in her seat.

  “Stop the car immediately. I want to get out.”

  “I can’t stop here.” The driver glanced at her in the mirror. Florence couldn’t help thinking that there was a hint of amusement on his face, as if he enjoyed seeing her get flustered. “There are cars behind us,” he added.

  “Just let me jump out.”

  “Give me a minute and I’ll find somewhere to pull over.”

  Florence stopped herself from slapping him on the side of the head, as she felt sorely tempted to do. Her life was on the line, and he acted like everything was alright.

  She turned and peered through the back windscreen, but Simon and Hazel were no longer in sight. The car was moving too quickly, and Florence realised they had nearly reached the ramen bar.

  Fine, she would go there, where she was supposed to meet Simon anyway. She could ask Simon where he’d been, what he had been doing, and see what he had to say for himself.

  “Never mind,” Florence said. “Continue on.”

  “Sure, sure.”

  They reached the place after another couple of minutes. Florence jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped. Though it was a warm June evening, she closed her coat across her chest and glanced around.

  The street was full of small shops and restaurants. From the outside, the ramen bar looked clean and modern, with a black paint job and a neon sign over the doorway.

  “Hello?” a man shouted.