Twenty-Five
Arthur’s face was bruised and bloodied and he held a hand across his stomach clutching onto his ribs where I’d kicked him. Despite his injuries he stood resolute and the arm that pointed the gun to us never faltered. I had no doubt that if, or when he shot, his aim would be direct and on point.
I instinctively took a step back as he began to inch forward. His movements were slow and calculated, circling me rather than coming straight forward, until we were both standing just a few metres apart on the quarry’s edge. I looked down at the jagged outcrop of rocks below, calculating my chances if I was to fall. If he decided to rush me, I’d have to think fast to get out of the way. The drop would kill me, that was for sure.
Putting some space between us, Gwyn had inched towards the clearing that Arthur had emerged from. A clear line into the woods had opened up but neither of us fancied our chances trying to outrun a bullet. We stood like three points of a triangle waiting for someone to make the first move. I wanted him at my side but at least the distance between us would make it harder for Arthur to kill us both, and for now his focus was on me.
“This is only going to end my way, Tom,” Arthur shouted over the noise from the quarry. He was flicking his gaze between me and the ground far below him as he spoke. “You’re going to give me that ring and tell me how it works, or you’re going to the noose for the murder of Elinor Lewis.”
“Don’t be so stupid, nobody is going to believe I did anything to that woman.”
“Do you know how far I had to go, Tom, to find someone that looked even remotely like her? Someone nobody would miss. How hard it was getting her back to this godforsaken village without anybody seeing her? The things I had to do to disguise the body? What do you think I was doing all that time I was away? She was nice, too. Stupid, but nice. And ever so friendly. But now she’s just lying there with all of your strange documents alongside her waiting for a good local policeman to come along and find.”
“So what?” I asked. “You’re just going to frame me for murder because you can’t handle that Elinor left you? It makes no sense. Face it, Arthur, whether she went with Jack or disappeared into thin air, she didn’t love you. She didn’t want to be with you. You lost.”
His lips curled in and he waved the gun at me, his body shaking with rage. “I will blow your fucking head off,” he screamed.
“And then what?” I asked. “You kill me and you’ll never know how the ring works, then you’ll have lost all over again.”
“Then maybe I’ll kill him instead.” He swung his body around, turning the gun on Gwyn and I reached out with both hands and shouted for him to stop. “You think you can make a fool of me?”
He cast another look into the quarry but this time raised his free hand up and signalled to someone below. I glanced over the edge, trying to keep Arthur in my periphery. At the bottom of the path on the other side of the opening his cousin Graham, the local constable, was beginning his ascent up the tracks to us, flanked by two other uniformed men.
“It’s Graham,” I turned and shouted to Gwyn. “He’s coming up the path. It’s all a set up.”
The sight of his cousin made Arthur laugh arrogantly as he turned his attention back to us. “I always win. I’m Arthur fucking Morgan. The only way out of this is my way.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” Gwyn shouted. “Is all this really worth it?”
“Quiet, you filthy sodomite,” Arthur barked, then he brought his eyes back to mine. “Will killing him inspire you to cooperate, Tom? Are your secrets worth his life?”
He cocked the gun and raised it towards Gwyn's face.
“No, stop!” I shouted, taking another step towards him at the rocks’ edge. “I’ll tell you what I know.”
“Don’t do it, Tom.”
“That’s more like it,” Arthur grinned. “Give me the ring.”
With his free hand he beckoned me forward and I took another step toward him. I looked over into the quarry as I moved, trying to stay away from the edge and mind my footing. Graham hadn’t gotten far but it wouldn’t take too long until he reached the top and we’d be surrounded on both sides.
I needed to get Arthur’s attention back off Gwyn and onto me. This wasn’t Gwyn’s fight and I wasn’t about to watch him die for me. “Why are you doing this?” I called out. “Is your pride really that important?”
“SHE WAS MINE!” he screamed, bringing the gun back towards me. “Nobody walks out on me.”
“But she did. She’s gone.”
I knew I was antagonising him but I didn’t care as long as he left Gwyn alone. I motioned with my head to try to encourage him to run off into the trees but he stayed rooted to the spot, not willing to leave me.
“Even if you find her, she’s never going to take you back. You’re going to be stuck in a time you don’t know, rejected all over again.”
“Tom, just shut up,” Gwyn called out, afraid I’d talk myself into a bullet.
“I’d listen to your filthy lover if I were you. Now, give me the ring.”
“Not until you put the gun down.”
“Give me the fucking ring,” he shouted. He aimed the gun slightly to my right and fired off a round that passed inches from my head. The shot echoed around the quarry and I recoiled from the sound, almost losing my balance. Gwyn shouted to me in the distance but his voice was nothing more than muffled noise and I brought my hands to my ears to try and block it out.