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Larkin Shoots
Sally and her father look at Larkin in silence.
“Where’s my wife?” asks Larkin.
“In my dad’s bedroom,” Sally replies. “She’s
unconscious, but apart from that she’s okay. Oh, and I’ve tied
her up.”
“And Brutus?” asks Larkin. “I hope you haven’t injured
Brutus.”
“No, of course not,” says Sally. “He’s locked in my
bedroom.”
“You’re not just an attractive woman, are you?”
continues Larkin. “I really have underestimated you.
Unfortunately for you, I now have the pistol, and I won’t make
the same mistake twice.”
“What are you going to do with us?” asks Sally.
“He’s going to kill us,” answers DI Rush. “The van is
full of illegal immigrants from Africa. He brings them into the
country every week.”
“Surely it’s not worth killing us to protect your illegal
little business, is it?” says Sally. “In a few days every
policeman in England will be looking for you”
“When they find your bodies, we will be far away,”
replies Larkin.
“Anyway, you aren’t the first to die. What do you think
happened to Mr Dalton?”
“So the blood in the yard was his?” gasps Sally.
“Yes,” answers Larkin. “I put him in the boot of his car
before I drove it to London, so he was on the ground in the
yard for a few minutes. That’s where the blood came from. I
didn’t see it in the dark.”
“But why did you kill him?” asks DI Rush.
“I can’t stand around here all night talking,” growls
Larkin. “There’s work to be done. That’s your last question,
Mr Rush. Dalton was our partner. He looked after the
immigrants when they arrived in London. He found jobs and
rooms for them. Then they had to pay him all the money that
they earned. He was richer than we were. A few days ago,
Brenda and I decided that we wanted to stop bringing in the
immigrants. We’re quite rich now and want to enjoy our
money. Dalton wanted us to continue, but we said that we
were leaving. He came here to try to convince us to stay. He
even brought a pistol to help ‘convince’ us.”
Larkin laughs and waves the pistol around. “This pistol,
in fact. When he threatened me with it, we struggled and I
took it from him. Then I shot him.
I knew he would always be a danger for us if I left him
alive.”
He pauses a moment and then adds, “So you see, I’m
already a murderer. I have no choice. I have to kill you both.”
“You won’t get away with it,” cries DI Rush.
“I think I will. Now, Miss Rush, please lie on the floor
and put your arms behind your back. I need to tie your hands
together.”
Without taking his eyes from Sally, he goes to the wall
of the barn and gets some wire. He returns to stand in front of
her, the wire in one hand and the pistol in the other.
Sally laughs. “Do you think I’m going to make it easy
for you? There are several things you don’t know about me,
Mr Larkin. Firstly, I don’t like someone telling me what to do.
I am very stubborn. If you don’t believe me, ask my dad.”
The inspector sits there with his mouth open. He cannot
believe how calm his daughter is. She is going to die and she
is talking to Larkin as though they are discussing the weather.
Larkin points the pistol at the inspector.
“Either you do as I say, or your father gets the first
bullet,” he says.
“That’s the second thing you don’t know about me,”
answers Sally. “I hate guns. I would like to see them all
destroyed.”
“Just be quiet and lie on the floor,” replies Larkin
impatiently.
“Please let me finish,” continues Sally. “As I said, I hate
guns, so although I brought your wife’s pistol with me, I took
out all the bullets, so that no one could use it.”
As she finishes speaking, she begins to walk towards
Larkin. He points the pistol directly at her and pulls the trigger.
The only sound is a metallic “click”. A look of anger appears
on his face. He pulls the trigger a second time, only to hear the
“click” again.
By now Sally is directly in front of him. As he swings
the pistol at her head, Sally moves quickly to the side and
slides her hand down his arm. This pulls him off balance. She
then begins to turn, and as she does, she takes hold of his wrist
with one hand and grabs his head with the other. She pulls it
against her shoulder and continues to turn.
Larkin swears. He cannot believe this is happening. He
really has underestimated her. She pushes his head towards the
floor, and he tries to stand up. Suddenly she is pushing him in
the same direction. He is upright for only a second before he
falls backwards, Sally’s arm and body pushing him down. He
hits the floor, and the air is knocked out of his body. Sally still
holds his wrist, and now she uses his arm to turn him over, so
that he is facing the floor. She picks up the wire that has fallen
from his hand during the struggle and quickly uses it to tie his
hands together. Then she stands up and breathes deeply.
“Are you okay, Sally?” asks the inspector.
“I’m fine, Dad,” she replies. “Are you all right?”
“Apart from a bit of a headache, I’ve never felt better,”
he replies. “I always knew that I had an amazing daughter,” he
continues, “but until tonight, I never knew how amazing you
really are. I’m so happy now that I paid for your Aikido
courses.”
“And I’m so happy that i took the bullets out of the
pistol,” replies Sally and smiles at her father.
Three days later, Sally and her father are sitting on the
grass at Leeds Castle. They have just eaten a picnic of
sandwiches and wine, and they both feel relaxed and happy. It
is a beautiful summer evening, and thousands of other people
are sitting around them. They are all waiting for the start of the
concert.
“There was a time when I thought we wouldn’t be sitting
here together tonight,” says DI Rush as he puts his arm around
his daughter and hugs her.
“Yes,” agrees Sally. “When Mrs Larkin came for me
with the pistol and the dog, I didn’t know what to do. It is a
good thing that she didn’t send Brutus in first. I think
everything would have ended differently. Anyway, now that
they are in prison, we can relax. I suppose that we’ll have to
come back to Kent when they appear in court?”
“Yes,” answers her father. “That won’t be for several
weeks yet, though. The police have a lot of work to do before
that. They told me that they have found Dalton’s body in his
car in London, lust as Larkin said. The pistol will have to be
checked to see if it fired the bullet that killed him. They will
also have to speak to all the Africans who were in the van.”
“I really feel sorry for them,” says Sally. “Presumably
they will all be sent back to the countries that they came
from?”
“I think so,” replies the inspector. “But perhaps some of
them will be able to stay.”
“We are so lucky to live in this country, aren’t we? And
I’m especially lucky. I have such a good life here,” says Sally
as she hugs her father. “And I have people who love me.”
Indeed you do, Sally,” says her father and smiles.
“Indeed you do.”
- THE END -
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