He puts the phone down. This time, instead of locking it in his drawer he opens up the back, takes out the SIM and removes the battery. In the little canteen area at the end of the hallway he drops the SIM into a ceramic mug and puts it in the microwave. It fizzes and pops and thirty seconds later he removes the cup and rinses it in the sink, what’s left of the blackened SIM disappearing down the plughole. Back in his office he sits, wondering what to do next. When he’d received that call from Rykel he’d acted calm, despite the fear rampant inside. It’s only a matter of time now, he thinks. The question is, how long? He’s been instructed to clean up his operation, leaving no trace. Including the man who’d been doing the work for him. He’s due to meet him later this evening, ostensibly to pay him off. Only the payment’s not going to be what he expects.

Bite

I’m on my knees. Naked. A gun at the back of my neck and also a knife in play. Not a lot going for me.

Except for one thing.

The knowledge that I hadn’t been making all this up. I hadn’t killed the people the police think I killed. I hadn’t made myself schizo.

I take in deep breaths, the air’s never seemed so sweet. Painfully sweet. The sky lightens by the second, stars blinking out, and the world rebirthing around me. A clearing hemmed in by trees. There’s grass, probably millions of blades of it, and on each blade tiny droplets of dew are glistening as they come alive in the light. A bird starts a long warbling melody, complex and simple and one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. There’s a stillness to it. It’s like a key to another place, another time, which is nevertheless right here, right now. I feel deep pangs of regret. I’ve made so many mistakes, so many things that I could have done better.

Most of all I think of Tanya. But even that slips away and I start to sense this place is different, that this place is better. This place is –

‘You know what I’m going to do, don’t you?’

Klaasen’s voice. I don’t want to hear it, the ugly intrusion into where I’m heading. I just want to die here peacefully, taking in the world that I’d never fully appreciated before. The sheer beauty of it all and my failure to see it before more painful than anything he can do to me with his knife.

Klaasen leans in and whispers in my ear, his breath hot and rancid. ‘I’m going to cut your throat and watch you bleed to death.’