Sleight of Hand [Show 'em Who's Boss #1]

13: Metathesiophobia

The argument with Jakob was short and boring so I won't go through all the details. He was pissed that I'd run off to save James Morrisby, obviously. He told me that I was reckless and stupid. Then he shouted at me when I refused to tell him what happened. I rarely cry but as he continued to shout I was almost in tears. There was no point in standing around to listen to Jakob's pointless ranting, it was all over and done with, so I rushed out of the room before I cried in front of him. I struggled to sleep though. My dreams were haunted by gunshots and screaming.

I soon gave up on sleep and got out of bed. The folder about the Morrisby case was still on my bedside table. I picked it up and went through it again. So far I had only read snippets but now I sat there and took the time to read through it all.

About five years ago my family consisted of me, my mum and my dad. We were so poor and practically homeless back then. It was all my dad's fault. He's always been too ambitious and enjoyed taking risks, especially when it came to work. My dad had a business that failed and he ended up owing money to a lot of people. I don't know the specific details of it all, but that's more or less what happened. My parents had to sell our house to pay the money back to people and then we had to stay at Uncle Steve's house for a while. My mum and dad both managed to find new jobs fairly quickly but the money was barely enough to survive on. Uncle Steve was helping all he could by putting a roof over our heads but even he didn't have enough money to support us.

Then, to make matters even worse, I got ill. My father knew he had to do something to help his family out. We were already falling to pieces but everything seemed to be getting worse. So he started a new business up, but this one wasn't exactly legal as I've recently found out.

At first his business started up with simple drug dealing but then my father moved on to worse things. His ambition had always been a problem and once he saw the opportunity he had to take it. He started to steal cars and items of a similar value then sell them through some kind of dodgy black market. His business built up gradually over time until he was earning millions.

From my point of view, this wasn't that bad. Sure what he was doing was illegal but it could have been worse. I could have easily forgiven him for stealing and drug dealing because there were worse things he could have done.

But then I read even further and found out that my dad is in charge of some kind of assassination business. People hire his employees, who are skilled murderers, to kill people for them. My father is a murderer. Every page I turned to in the folder contained the information for an organised death of a different person and the pages were endless. He'd arranged so many deaths. Each murder was different and cleverly thought out. There was no way that the murders could be traced back to my father or any of his employees. Some of the murders were even set up so that someone else got the blame. My father's plans were all flawless but he'd killed so many people. My father is a murderer.

That's when I completely lost it. The next few hours are still a bit of a blur. I can't be certain what happened but I know that I felt like I was falling to pieces. When I was younger I had always been daddy's little girl. He was so loving and gentle. It was hard to believe that he could have planned organised murders.

At first, all I wanted to do was deny it. He's my dad; he can't possibly be a murderer. This folder was clearly some kind of sick joke. I refused to believe it. Then I remember intense anger. How could he do this to me? Is this what drove my mother away and ultimately caused her death? If it is I swear to God I'm going to kill him! No, worse, I'm going to make him regret his decision. I'm going to find a way to ruin his life. I need to find a way to get back at him.

I was still in a slight state of denial though. I desperately wanted it to all be some lie. Perhaps it's all just one big prank? I guess the denial is what led to my next stupid act.