The law couldn’t prove that Jason had fired the killing shot and he’d walked away.
Maybe if he’d shown a little remorse then he’d have lived, but it was the way he’d laughed in the face of little George’s mother that had sealed his fate.

‘Do you know he begged for mercy before I shot him?’ I asked.

He didn’t rise to the bait, but my words had stung him.
Mal rolled his bald head on his shoulders.
Vertebra cracked like it was a prophesy.

‘I also promised Jason that I’d take off your head and bury it next to him,’ Mal said. Then he walked around the chair he’d tied me into, laying the cold edge of the machete against my throat. “Do you think one chop would do it?’

‘Someone as weak as you,’ I said, ’it’ll probably take a dozen attempts. Maybe you should ask one of your crew to do it for you.’

He laughed. ‘No, I think I can manage.’

‘Not usually your style, Mal,’ I reminded him.

‘I’ve killed men before,’ he told me.

‘But you prefer to watch others do it,’ I said. ‘When Jason was down on his knees begging for his life, he told me that you made him shoot the kid.’

‘I didn’t make him do nothin’.’

‘You gave him the gun. You were driving the car. It was your idea to go hunting. A seven year old child died because of you, Mal.’

‘That wasn’t any child,’ Mal spat bitterly. ‘He was a goddamn drain on our good country. He needed putting down. I only wish that Jason had killed the other brother, too. Just like I told him to.’

Mal seemed to like the weight of the machete in his hands. He stood in front of me bouncing it on his palm.
It made him feel like a big man.
But he was nothing in my eyes.

‘The next president of your good country is a black man, Mal,’ I said to him. ‘Time’s are changing. People are beginning to see sense. There’s no place in a good country for an animal like you.’

‘He’ll be dead within a year,’ Mal said. ‘People will see sense and shoot him dead, too.’

‘People just like you,’ I said. I shook my head at him. ‘But not you, Mal. You aren’t going to be around much longer.’

He lifted the machete.

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