Abbott was aware of everything – of the sounds of battle in the distance, of McGregor breathing hard with excitement just behind him, but mostly of Tess and Kilgore – and also aware of nothing but himself, his weapon, his aim.

‘Wait,’ said Kilgore quickly. ‘We have men at her house. If you kill her, her family dies.’

Abbott paused, his gaze went to Tess, whose eyes widened, nostrils flaring with fear, and it was all the hesitation that Kilgore needed. His gun whipped forward as he tried desperately to take advantage of the moment, squeezing off a round that would have been a perfect shot if he’d been aiming for Morris. The round killed him outright.

Kilgore just had time to register his terrible effort – an effort that left him even more exposed than he had been before.

And Abbott took the shot.

Chapter 58

CHAPTER 58

Kilgore’s body fell backwards away from Tess, who launched herself forward into Abbott’s grasp. For a second, he felt as though there was nowhere in the world he’d rather be, feeling almost desolate as she then hauled herself away with a look of panic and alarm, maybe even the fringes of hysteria. ‘The children,’ she said. ‘The children? Phil?’

‘He was bluffing, Tess,’ Abbott told her. ‘He was trying it on to get the drop on me, and it nearly worked.’

‘How can you be sure?’

The answer was that of course he couldn’t be sure, but McGregor came forward with a phone. ‘Can you try them?’ he was saying to her. At the same time he gave Abbott a look as though trying to exhort him to finish his business here. Abbott ignored it, staying with Tess as she dialled, trying not to interrogate his own feelings too hard, afraid of what they might reveal about him.

‘Oh, thank God,’ she was saying. Next, she was clearly responding to the worry at the other end of the line, trying to put her husband’s mind at rest, telling him she was fine, that she was with Alex. And then taking a deep breath and blurting it out. ‘Phil, I think you should get out. I think you should leave the house. Just to be on the safe side.’ God knows what he was saying at the other end of the line. ‘Just, please, please do as I ask. Just as a precaution. Yes, call the police . . .’

Abbott reached out to her. ‘No,’ he hissed, ‘whatever he does, don’t call the police. This lot,’ he gestured outside the open door of the room, across the quad to the conference room door, ‘they’ve got the police in their pockets. They’ve got the whole establishment sewn up. Just tell him to get out of there, go to a hotel. Is there a place that you both know where you can meet without saying so on an open line?’

‘Did you get that?’ she said into the phone.