Chapter 84
The rain was forming a second skin on Liam Scanlan’s exposed flesh. His clothes were soaked through. He’d been running and hiding for too long. He was weary. Hungry, cold, wet and fed up with everything. Backed into a corner.
He’d done what had been asked of him and still they weren’t satisfied. Then he’d lost it altogether. Stabbings were not on his CV when he took the job with Cameron Healy. What he thought was the best decision of his life had turned into a nightmare.
Now he was paying the price. There was no escape for him. He’d ruined everything, so he’d been told. Well fuck you, he thought, I did what I was told to do. The rest was collateral damage.
The thing was, he didn’t see how he could get out of the mess.
He was going to prison, that was a certainty if they caught him.
And they would catch him, because he had no means to go anywhere, to escape.
That was why he’d made his biggest mistake yet.
Asking for help from someone he knew was the wrong person to ask.
So here he stood, teetering on the edge of the station platform, waiting for the Sligo to Dublin train.
He was standing at the very end of the platform, where the train entered the station, slowing down.
He would suffer a slow death. Good enough for him, he thought.
He didn’t deserve to die quick and painless.
The hooter sounded in the distance. Inching closer to the edge, he tried to see under the bridge and around the corner.
He hadn’t decided if he would jump or just fall out in front of it.
A few seconds more. Another hoot, louder this time.
He stepped forward, the toes of his shoes over the edge.
He felt himself sway between life and death.
He looked up as the train made its appearance from under the bridge. Looming like a grizzly bear stretching from hibernation. Angry and hungry for food. Hungry for him. And he was hungry for oblivion.
One more step and it would be over.
Then he was being hauled backwards, and he heard a voice in his ear.
‘Whatever it is, young man, it’s not worth it.’
He fell to the ground, a sobbing mess.
When the guards came for him, Liam Scanlan didn’t even get to thank whoever had saved him. But then again, he was long past saving.