Hunted

by Darcy Coates

You’ll have a recorder on you somewhere.” He held out his hand. “So I’ll have that now, please.”

“You have a pretty good measure of me.”

“But you slipped up in two places.”

“Firstly, you’ve overestimated my intelligence. I didn’t come here to play mind games and try to outsmart you. I knew that would be impossible before I even stepped in here.” She sighed. “And secondly, perhaps I’m more of a bleeding-heart martyr than you gave me credit for.”

Then she pulled the trigger and watched the back of his head scatter across the beautifully decorated room.

Decker had been right about her: she could make hard decisions. Unpleasant decisions.

And it was necessary in this case. Decker wasn’t young, but he was fit and healthy for his age. Left unchecked, the killings could have continued on for as long as a decade. And he’d left her with no doubt of his intentions.

The gun was Decker’s. She’d found it hidden under his mattress while searching his home.

People would be upset to hear he’d killed himself, but no one would be surprised.

If anyone realised Decker’s death wasn’t self-inflicted, she fully expected to eventually be caught.

She could live with that. She was, after all, a murderer.

But then she didn’t need to like it. She just needed to be sure that it was the right thing to do.

hurt. Gabon would take the blame for the murders. Decker would go down as a tragic hero. People would feel safe again. It wasn’t justice, but it was the best she could manage in a messed-up world.

The only element that put her at risk was Hailey.

She wouldn’t ask Hailey to conceal the truth, but she would explain the situation and let the girl make up her own mind on what was justice.

Anna had once told him that. She’d said that life had sections, like walking through doors. People had to choose when to walk through them, but no one could see what the next room held until they were in it. Some new rooms were painful. Some were happy. Some seemingly had no purpose. But the fullest, happiest lives were lived by those who walked through many different doors, unafraid of what they would find.