Kelly was crying again now. ‘Was it you?’ he asked, looking at Karen, who lowered her head, tugging at his trouser leg. He kicked out at her, lightly, to get her attention. ‘Was it you? Is this because of the party? It was a joke, all right? It was a joke.’

‘What was a joke?’ Tony said, standing, as Duggan stooped again to his task.

‘The pill. It was a joke. It was a fucking joke,’ Kelly said. ‘I just slipped her one thing, one thing. She’d not even remember. It was a joke. It was a JOKE!’

He began thrashing now. Duggan stepped up again, his hands already curling into fists and unleashed a barrage of punches on the prone figure. Kelly curled on himself, screaming at each strike. ‘I trusted you. Trusted you. I trusted you!’ he shouted, each word punctuated with a blow.

Duggan leaned down, tearing at Kelly’s T-shirt, ripping it up the middle and tearing it from his body. He ripped down each short sleeve, in order to remove the garment without having to undo the binds that held his arms.

‘Get his trunks off him and gag him again. I don’t want to hear him, anymore.’

‘Please, Hugh,’ Kelly cried. ‘I’ll not shout. I’ll not shout.’

Duggan looked at Karen and nodded, then began digging again. Tony watched her removing Kelly’s underwear, keeping her head averted so she did not look at his nakedness.

‘He drugged you?’ Tony asked.

‘I said,’ Karen said, her tears streaming freely now. ‘I said that it wasn’t my fault.’

‘I’m sorry, Karen,’ Tony said.

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty

‘I’m sorry, Karen,’ Tony said. ‘I didn’t know.’

He stood next to her, his hand on her shoulder. She made no effort to remove his hand, nor did she acknowledge he was there. She stared straight ahead, her tears coursing freely.

‘She was watching!’ Duggan said. ‘She said she saw someone going in after dark. She told us it was Kelly. Was that a lie?’

Karen nodded.

‘Why?’

She looked up at him, angrily. ‘Why? Why do you think? He was a scumbag. He killed that wee lassie that used to come into Betty’s. He sold to kids. He drugged me. He was worse than the very people we were meant to be saving the country from and yet we were meant to work with him? Where’s the morality in that?’

‘Wars aren’t moral!’

‘Spare me the shit, Hugh,’ Karen said. ‘You weren’t at war. You spent your days getting off on the power, on people being a little afraid of you. You mistook fear for respect. The night you maimed that guy in Glasgow, coming into the party late, bag in hand, standing with your arms up while everyone cheered you, like you were some kind of hero.’

‘Don’t!’ Hugh cautioned her, his teeth gritted, his gun levelled at her.