Angel and the Assassin

Kael said. He didn‟t give a damn what they called him as long as they
    never set eyes on him.
    “If I thought the boy was your type, I would suspect you had something to do
    with his disappearance,” Conran said.
    “Oh yeah, what‟s my type?”
    “You like them mature and masculine, don‟t you? Those are the ones who end
    up dying in compromising positions.”
    It was true. He did prefer masculine men like himself. He liked men in their
    late twenties to midfifties, experienced subs who begged for his discipline and
    offered their arses and mouths willingly for his pleasure.
    Angel was an aberration.
    “Yes, that‟s what I like. If that boy had been in the house, he would be dead by
    now. And if cleanup had done their jobs, they would have been taking out two
    bodies.”
    “You‟d kill a five-year-old if it got in your way, wouldn‟t you, Saunders?”
    Conran said.
    “Don‟t judge me, arsehole. You approved my training.”
    “Do you know anything about three Bosnians found shot dead in a gay club
    last night?”
    “Who were they?”

    Angel and the Assassin
    69

    “Nobody‟s quite sure. That lot tend to be involved in human trafficking and
    forced prostitution. But you go to gay bars, and the hit had your mark all over it.”
    “It‟s a coincidence.”
    Kael hung up, trying to integrate all he had heard. Angel had used the
    Internet at Starbucks. So now everyone assumed he was missing and in danger, and
    they were all looking for him. The steward on the British Airways flight would
    remember them. If there was a God, the man would be on a stopover flight in
    Afghanistan right now. There was CCTV all over the airports, not to mention all
    over the streets of London. If someone chose to start looking through it, they would
    spot him and Angel somewhere, though it was a needle-in-a-haystack approach.
    “Fuck,” he whispered, remembering Freddie. “I hope he‟s too busy changing
    nappies to watch the news.”
    The door handle turned, and the charwoman knocked. “Mr. Carpe, you want
    me to clean your gym?” she called.
    Kael got up and opened the door. He needed the woman out of the flat soon.
    “No. Have you done the bathroom?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Do it quickly and leave everything else.” He followed her along the hall and
    into the bathroom. She looked at him curiously as she squeezed cream cleanser into
    the toilet and sink.
    “You watch me clean today, Mr. Carpe?”
    He was watching the door to the bedroom to make sure she did not open it.
    “How‟s your family?” He had never asked about her family before.
    “Very well, thank you.” She made short work of scrubbing the sink and
    polishing the big mirror above it. “The bathroom is not usually so dirty. Toothpaste
    splattered on the mirror.”
    “I‟ve been feeling lazy.”
    “Is it the young lady who makes a mess?” She nodded knowingly at the
    bedroom door. Kael shrugged, trying to look sheepish, but he hated it when people
    thought he was straight.
    Just as she was polishing the stainless-steel taps, the door from the bedroom
    opened and Angel walked in naked, heading straight for the toilet. His eyes were
    closed, and he walked like a blind person. He sat on the seat and urinated, his head
    tilted back, eyes shut as though he was sleepwalking. Kael watched him in horror.
    He looked at the charwoman, who was watching Angel with utter surprise on her
    face.
    Without seeing them, Angel got up, dribbling pee onto the seat, and went back
    to bed. Dragana walked over and flushed the toilet. With her cloth she wiped the
    seat and put the lid down.
    If one more thing went wrong, he was going to scream. The entire Cape Cod
    mission, which under normal circumstances would be something he never thought

    70
    Fyn Alexander

    of again, was turning into an Inspector Clouseau film, but with deadly
    consequences.
    Kael followed Dragana out of the bathroom and watched her put her
    equipment away in the mop cupboard. She had seen Angel on the news, and she
    had seen him in the flat. All she had to do was stop at the nearest police station and
    tell them the missing young man was in Mr. Carpe‟s expensive flat on the river, and
    it would all be over. Conran would get him out of jail within the hour, but he would
    never see Angel again. Conran‟s office would take charge of him, and a few weeks
    later his body would wash up somewhere.
    From the moment he saw Kael, Angel was never meant to live.
    But right at that moment, there was the