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I gulp back tears. My prayer to see Gianni one last time has been answered. Maybe now I’m ready to die.
“Carl, you need to let her go, and we can talk about what has happened here.” The police officer has put his megaphone down now. “Nobody needs to get hurt. We can end this now.”
“That’s exactly what I intend to do, officer,” Carl says. I’m shaking so badly. I want to close my eyes, but I can still see Gianni. I don’t want to forget his face. If I can die looking at him, then at least that will be something. “But before we do, Chloe has something she would like to say, don’t you, Chloe?” Carl pulls on my arm and sticks the gun harder against my back. I gulp back tears. I’m so scared I can’t get my words out, but the gun pushes me forward.
“I… I…” I splutter. My legs are weak enough that I might collapse. I know what he wants me to say, and what does it matter? I’m going to die here anyway. I might as well cleanse my soul before I go. My final confession.
“I set fire to my house. It wasn’t Carl. It was me. I did it.” I cry. The tears cascade down my face, and I don’t see anyone except Gianni. He stands at a distance, and I feel his eyes on me. I want to tell him I love him, but the police officer is speaking to Carl.
“And there we have it, gentlemen, the lie that got me jailed. I want my name cleared. I want the record set straight,” Carl announces.
“Okay, Carl,” the officer announces. “That’s something we can deal with after you have put the gun down.” Carl doesn’t move. Here is my chance. I have nothing to lose.
“But I’ll also tell you what he did to me to make me set my house on fire, although I’m not sure we have time, all things considered,” I’m rambling, the ravings of a condemned woman. I don’t know what I’m saying, but I need to tell my side of it.
“He killed my cat, tormented me, bullied me, and threatened to burn my face.”
“Shut up!” Carl shrieks. “Shut the fuck up!”
“I was prepared to die that day because of what he did to me, and I am prepared to die again.”
“Shut up!”
“Some people are born evil, and I believe he’s one of these people. I did it to try and rid the world of him, and I’m only sorry I didn’t succeed because if I had, Lewis would still be alive.”
“Shut up!” The gun moves from my back, and I close my eyes.
It’s coming. I’ve goaded him into it. I hunch my shoulders and wait for the cold steel to rest against my temple. Will I hear the bang, or will I be dead before the sound reaches my ears? Dear God, let it be instantaneous.
I hear the gunshot.
ChapterThirty-Six
Isit on the hospital bed facing DI Klein, the nurse having left us several minutes ago. I didn’t argue this time and allowed Klein to take me to the hospital to have the gash above my eye stitched. Klein hovered in the small cubicle while the nurse patched me up, his questions stinging just as much as the nurse’s needle. We’ve gone over everything several times, and even now, he’s still making notes in his little book. I get the impression that he still doesn’t trust me, and he has every reason not to. I recall every detail, from when Piero manhandled me out of the coffee shop to my capture in the house. Piero’s motive for handing me over to Carl was something Klein took a while to grasp. I told him about the car accident, the affair, and Juliette’s unborn child as he regarded me with an air of caution. I don’t think he disbelieved me. I’m sure he has come across more complex motives, but his outlook still seemed skeptical.
“So, Piero thinks his brother killed his wife in the car accident?” Klein asks.
“He never said those exact words, but he certainly believes Juliette’s death was Gianni’s fault.”
“And he never said why he thought this?”
“No.”
“Do you know what happened to his wife?”
“Gianni told me it was a car accident, that she was driving as Gianni had been drinking. They were arguing in the car, and she lost control.” Klein merely nods at this as if it’s an everyday occurrence.
“So, how does the brother reckon he knows that Gianni killed her?”
I shake my head. “He didn’t say.”
The only part he hasn’t asked me about is from when I stepped out of the house. He doesn’t need my recount as he was there, watching for himself. But I have questions of my own.
“Where’s Piero now?” Klein closes his book and taps his pen on the front cover.
“Piero was apprehended by my men as soon as he stepped out of the house.”
“But how did you know I was there?”
