50/50 Killer

'An excellent writer who steers well clear of the genre formulae and manages some really deft characterisation . . . And there's a switchback twist at the climax that is brilliantly conceived and consumately executed. Pretty much fiawless'
London Lite

'[An] electrifyingly scary thriller'
Daily Mail

'Thriller new boy Mosby is shaping up to be a king of the craft'

Daily Sport

'Steve Mosby has invented a suitably dark and uneasy world for his excellent noir thriller . . . Mosby has a pleasingly consistent style that manages to encompass intense emotion, intellectual musings and vicious violence. Not an easy task'
Guardian

'Mosby has packed a complex, sometimes bewildering plot with brilliant ideas. His book is fiercely original, truly intriguing. This is speculative fiction at its reckless best'
Literary Review

'The most extraordinary first novel I've read for a while . . . I won't waste time trying to give you an outline of this indescribable near future satire, detective story and psychological horror. I'll just say that writing of this quality and originality doesn't come along very often'
Morning Star

'A thrilling good read. Adult in tone and content, it deals with lost love, the darker corners of the unmonitored web, the journey into despair of a man seeking answers and the latent power of the written word . . . a unique psychological read'

Impact magazine

'A cracking futuristic thriller'
Irish Examiner

Steve lives in Leeds. He is the author of two previous novels,
The Third Person
and
The Cutting Crew
, which are also available in Orion paperback. Visit his website at
www.theleftroom.co.uk
.

By Steve Mosby

The Third Person
The Cutting Crew
The 50/50 Killer

The 50/50 Killer

STEVE MOSBY

Orion

www.orionbooks.co.uk

An Orion paperack
First published in Great Britain in 2007
by Orion
This paperback edition published in 2007
by Orion Books Ltd,
Orion House, 5 Upper Saint Martin's Lane,
London WC2H 9EA

An Hachette Livre UK company
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

The right of Steve Mosby to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the copyright owner.

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
is purely coincidental.

the space between the day
(c) John James Kennedy 1997

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

eISBN : 978 1 4091 0610 4

Typeset by Deltatype Ltd, Birkenhead, Merseyside
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent

The Orion Publishing Group's policy is to use papers that
are natural, renewable and recyclable products and
made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging
and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to
the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

www.orionbooks.co.uk

PROLOGUE

'We don't have to go,' she said. 'Not if you don't want to.'

John Mercer stared at himself in the mirror and didn't reply. He just watched his wife's hands reaching round him, pulling his tie together. She was looking after him, as she always did. He lifted his chin a little to help her with the knot. She did it loose to begin with, then tightened it gently.

'People would understand.'

He wished that was true. On the surface, people might sympathise, but deep down they would recognise it for what it was: a dereliction of duty. He could easily imagine the talk in the canteen. People would remark upon his absence and say that he must be taking it hard, and what they'd really be thinking was that, no matter how he was feeling, he should have turned up for the funeral: bitten down and taken responsibility. It was the least he could do. And they'd be right. It would be unforgivable not to attend. But he had no idea how he was going to cope.

Eileen tucked the stray end of his tie between the buttons of his shirt. She smoothed it all down.

'We don't have to go, John.'

'You don't understand.'

The air in the bedroom appeared steely blue in the morning light. In the mirror, his skin was white and slack, his face almost lifeless. His body, well, she still had to stretch a little in order to reach round it, but he didn't feel as sturdy as he'd been once. Things were heavier to pick up than they should be. He got tired too quickly. Right now, his face was frozen somewhere between sadness and emptiness, his arms hanging there. Somewhere along the line, he'd grown old. It felt like a fairly recent development.

Eileen said, 'I do understand that you're not well.'

'I'm fine.'

But he wasn't. Whenever he thought about standing there in front of all those people, something began turning inside his heart, winding it up, tighter and tighter. When he thought about it too much, it became hard to breathe.

Behind him, Eileen sighed. Then she hugged him round the top of his arms, her cheek against his back.

He felt relief. When she held him it allowed him to be simply this man, here and now, and to forget all the duties and responsibilities, all the things that weighed on him. He reached up slowly and covered one of her hands with his. She had small, warm hands.

They stood like that for a time, man and wife embracing, and he watched himself in the mirror. Despite the comforting pressure of her, he was still a statue, cast at a moment of blankness. He could see occasional flickers of emotion in his eyes, but it was like being in a plane, catching patches of ground through the cloud. There was nowhere safe for his mind to land. And yet you couldn't stay in the air for ever.

He gave Eileen's hand a final squeeze and then broke the embrace.

'I need to go and practise the tribute.'

Funerals were sad for a hundred reasons, but what struck him most was the number of people who attended. The dead would surely be surprised by how popular they had been and how many lives they'd touched without realising. Death had a way of summoning those with even a passing acquaintance with the deceased. People always came.

At police funerals, the effect was increased. Mercer looked around. Most of the department was here, including officers who had never worked with Andrew, probably never even known him. A feeling of responsibility and family had brought them. Each and every one of them had paid their respects to Andrew's family as they entered, then taken their seats on the right-hand side of the chapel, the side reserved for colleagues. Most were wearing their uniforms.

Mercer was sitting at the front on that side, the other members of his team beside him. Eileen was seated back on the left, and he kept glancing behind, hoping to catch sight of her. Every time he saw her, his panic eased a little and he settled back in the pew. Increasingly, he was desperate to be with her, but he belonged here, with Pete, Simon and Greg.

The four of them sat in silence; the coffin at the front of the chapel held the fifth. Mercer stared at it. Surely it was too small to contain the man who had worked for him -
with
him - for so many years? Death reduced everyone. It was another sadness of funerals. Even a religious ceremony, deep down, felt utterly godless.

He cocked his head slightly and listened to the hum of subdued conversations, the shuffling of bodies making their way to seats. Every now and then, there was a flurry of deep, echoing coughs, like birds caught in the rafters.

Eventually, the officiant walked across and stood at the lectern at the front of the chapel. Everyone fell silent. The man spoke through a microphone that amplified his voice, but only slightly.

'We are gathered here today to pay tribute to the life and memory of Andrew Dyson, who died on the fifteenth of December, taken from us in the course of his duty. Andrew did not have a firm religious belief, and so a religious funeral service was not thought to be appropriate. I am an officiant, accredited by the Humanist Association, present today to conduct a non-religious ceremony.'

He looked up towards the back of the chapel, his face bathed in amber light.

'The world is a community, and Andrew has been part of it with us,' he said. 'In everyday life, it is easy to forget. We conduct our own business. But in fact, we are all involved and affected by the life and death of each and every one of us.'

Mercer glanced across to the left and saw Andrew's wife. She was sitting between their two young daughters, holding their hands tightly, being strong for them. When he had gone to her with the news that her husband was dead, she had cried long and hard, but she had also been capable and practical. He sat with her all that evening, and that was when she'd asked him if he would read a tribute to Andrew today. Unable to refuse, he'd felt the panic stirring even then. He was now head of this side of the chapel, just as she was of hers, but he had none of her resolve.

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