Читать книгу The Easy Sin - Jon Cleary, Jon Cleary - Страница 7

Fifteen minutes after the Briskins had departed, a man arrived in the Magee apartment with intent to murder, not to kidnap. He came in through the same door as the one through which the Briskins had departed with their baggage. He saw the corpse of Juanita Marcos on the floor, knelt down and felt for a pulse. He remained kneeling on one knee for a long moment, then he shook his head and stood up. He knew who Juanita was, but from observation, not from meeting her. He was a professional killer and he had a professional contempt for collateral damage.

He went quickly through the rest of the apartment, pausing only to look at the messages on the eight computers and shake his head again, this time in amusement.

When he left he had been in the apartment only three minutes. He had touched nothing but the still pulse on Juanita Marcos’ throat.

Across the waters of Circular Quay he had been watched by a puzzled Darlene Briskin. She had been waiting for Errol Magee to come home and read the messages on the computers. Who was this stranger?

‘You are looking at where you live?’ The elderly man had appeared while she was concentrating, through the night-glasses, on the Magee apartment.

‘No, my mother does.’ She knew how to lie, she worked in a bank’s customer service: please hold, your custom is valued by us …

‘Very fortunate. I live in Essen, in Germany. Nothing to see. You are travelling alone?’

‘Just me and my boyfriend.’

‘Ach, a pity.’

Then her mobile rang. ‘Excuse me,’ she said and moved away along the deck. ‘Corey?’

Corey gave her the bad news.