Sweet Revenge thriller

Chapter Twenty Six

FUCK! HE'S DEAD! On the Sidewalk. And I'm here, in his apartment. At the crime scene, probably splashing my DNA all over the bloody place.

And now I have to think pretty dammed fast. My head spins with the plans I have to put in place. I have things to do before I make my getaway and on my way out of his apartment I grab his laptop, his hard drive needs to be formatted. I slip out of the building via the fire stairwell and merge into the darkness. Several people stand around Patricks lifeless body, one young girl is yelling on her cell, 'Ambulance...' It will not do any good and the men on either side of her tell her as much. Everyone shows puzzlement and are glancing at Patricks broken body then casting their eyes upward wondering which floor he threw himself off. As I slip past them I hear, 'I wonder who he is?' and 'Why would anyone take such drastic measures?' If only they knew what I know!

I wonder if he was still holding his gun when he died, or did it fall out of his hands on impact? And how will the police react when they see the suicide letter in his pocket? Patrick hadn't been thinking straight from the minute I took it out of my bag and showed it to him.

When I arrive at my car I slip into the driver's seat and take a few minutes to calm down before I use my burner. The Hulk arrives at Patrick's office block minutes after me. He has what I've asked for, including a large metal bin.

He doesn't ask too many questions and I guess it's because he can see the state I am in...frantic...except he growls, 'What the fuck have you got yourself into?' But he does as I ask.

First, he rejigs Patrick's office block surveillance, then he breaks the locks on Patricks office door and in we go. He then stops the fire alarm system in the office. I open up the cabinet with client files and we grab all the folders— except my file and Reubens file—and throw the files and contents into the metal bin which The Hulk has placed next to a window. The new combination lock Patrick had placed on his cabinet is a doddle for The Hulk so within a minute we are grabbing every CD and video and chucking them on top of the folders.

I see his face twist in anger when he reads the last video before it follows the others... 'Sex with Libby.'

He places an accelerant in the metal bin and sets the contents alight. Then on goes a lid which has one end of an industrial looking hose attached to it and he places the other end out the window. Only a smidgen of the foul smoke seeps into the office. He seems to have thought of everything but I'm so nervous we will be caught I think I'm going to throw up.

He sees me gag.

'You can't leave your DNA, here.' He shakes his head and then he places his big hands at the back of my neck and rubs both thumbs slowly. It works, I calm down and for the next 10 minutes we watch all evidence of Patricks clients and his heinous crimes disappear. I would have liked to have kept one video to ensure this man, even though he's now deceased gets tarnished, but the risk of harming any of his victims overrides everything.

When the police start to look into Patricks sleazy life they will already know about his suicide letter. And when they discover all his files destroyed and the evidence that a time-based accelerant was used, I trust they will think it was Patrick himself. The police will use Patrick's office block surveillance to determine who his clients were and will contact them. Then, all his victims will know Patrick had destroyed all of his files before he took his own life. Their secrets will remain their own.

The Hulk walks me back to my car and as I unlock my door he puts a hand on my shoulder. I turn and look up into his well-worn face. 'I don't know exactly what all of this was about tonight. Guess I'm gonna find out. But, on no account do you tell my boss what you done. Or that I helped you. Got it?'