But then Daniel spoke again. ‘It was about the stuff in his bag.’
‘Shit,’ Scott said.
‘Wait,’ Ronan said. ‘You were there? In the lift?’
‘Yes. With my dad. We went to the cinema and then we came home. I don’t like the lift, but Dad said—’
‘You forgot to mention this little piece of information, Scott. I swear to God, one more lie from you . . .’ He looked at Daniel again. ‘What stuff, Danny? What was in the bag?’
‘A gun and some money and some bags of powder. He dropped the bag in the lift.’
‘I see. And Joey wasn’t happy about you seeing it, is that right?’
Daniel seemed to struggle with putting himself in Joey’s shoes. ‘I think so. He kept asking us what we saw in his bag.’
‘So you told him?’
‘Yes. I told the truth, like I always do, but it just made him more and more angry.’
‘And then what?’
Scott said, ‘I told him to leave my son alone, and he turned on me. It started to get physical. I hit him, and he went down, and . . . and he didn’t get up again.’
Ronan was on his feet, bringing his Colt to the man’s head. ‘You . . . you killed my brother? Is that what you’re telling me here, Scott? You killed my fucking brother?’
‘Dad,’ Daniel said. ‘That’s not right. It was Adam-9, remember? He—’
‘Daniel!’
‘He came to our rescue. He—’
‘Daniel!’
‘He stopped the bad guy like he always does. Like when those boys were attacking me, and I pressed the button on my Adam-9 briefcase and—’
‘DANIEL! STOP!’
The silence was astonishing. It was as though it cleared the room for the truth to make its way in. And there the truth was. In front of Ronan in all its bright, shining glory.
‘It was you?’ Ronan asked. ‘You did it?’
‘N-no. It was Adam-9.’
‘How? How did he do it?’
‘He can use a metal robot arm. It can shoot out a long way. He used the arm to grab Joey’s neck and pick him up.’
‘You picked him up by the neck?’
‘No. Not me. Adam—’
And then Ronan was moving the gun across to Daniel, and he was cocking the hammer and pressing the weapon into the young man’s skull, screaming at him while ignoring the pleas of his parents, demanding to know why the fuck he had killed Joey, why did he have to go and do that instead of just telling him what he wanted to hear? And then Scott made a move, tried to grab the gun, and Ronan swiped it across his head, and there was more yelling, Scott being held back by his wife and Ronan putting pressure on the trigger, asking this whole fucking dysfunctional family if they were ready to die, right here and now.
It descended into sobbing and panting and whimpering. Ronan stood over them, a searing rage in his head.
‘What then?’ he demanded. ‘After you killed him? What then?’
‘We . . . we brought him into the flat,’ Scott said. ‘We didn’t know what else to do.’
‘You didn’t think to call an ambulance, maybe? Take him to hospital?’
‘There was no point. He was definitely dead.’
‘All right, Doctor fucking Timpson, so what did you do next?’
‘I . . . I’d rather not say.’
‘You’d rather not say? Oh, I’m really sorry about that. I’d hate to ruin your day.’
‘My family . . . they don’t know the details. I told them I’d take care of it. There was no reason to tell them what I did.’
‘So these two don’t know? They have no idea?’
‘No.’
Ronan looked at Gemma, then at Daniel. ‘Here’s a nice bedtime story for you, Danny boy. You know what your nice kind daddy did to my brother?’
‘Please,’ Scott said. ‘You don’t have to do this.’
