‘You would have let a guilty man walk free?’ she asked in amazement.
‘What was the point of doing anything else, Jill? Archie hadn’t got long and no one was in any danger from him. What would have been the point of letting the taxpayer pick up the tab for sending him down? It would have been a complete waste of everyone’s time and money.’
Jill couldn’t have agreed more. ‘But we’re not allowed to think that way.’
‘Christ,’ he said, reaching for another cigarette, ‘when the day comes that we’re not allowed to think, we’ve really reached rock bottom. Anyway, it’s all over now bar the sodding paperwork.’
He kicked out at a stray piece of gravel.
‘I’m so bloody annoyed with myself, though,’ he muttered. ‘I should have known Archie would do something—’
‘Come off it, Max. How could you be expected to know he had a gun in the house? A bloke like Archie? No way could you have expected that.’
‘I should have kept my big mouth shut. All I was doing was saying “Look at me … I’m not as daft as you think.” It was my own personal ego trip. If I’d kept my stupid mouth shut, Archie could have ended his days in peace and Jack wouldn’t have to live with—that.’
‘Jack was prepared for it. They both knew the score.’
Max wasn’t convinced and Jill guessed he’d need time to come to terms with it all.
‘Mum wants to know when you’re going to have your turn at karaoke,’ she told him, changing the subject.
That brought the first genuine smile of the day.
‘Sadly, I would need at least half a bottle of Scotch inside me and as I’m driving—’ He shrugged. ‘Anyway, I wouldn’t want to steal your dad’s limelight.’
She snorted at that. ‘People would pay you a fortune to steal his limelight.’
He considered this for a moment, threw his cigarette butt away, then draped his arm around her shoulders.
‘I could do with the money,’ he said at last.
‘Me, too. The horses I backed yesterday should be reaching the finishing post about now. Having said that,’ she added, ever the optimist, ‘there are still those I backed this morning. Maybe I’ve won a small fortune.’
‘Let’s hope so. I really need to buy that beach bar in Spain.’
Jill had heard it all before. All the same, the idea was appealing.
‘Shergar fixing the drinks,’ she said wistfully.
Max nodded. ‘Elvis cooking the burgers.’
‘Lord Lucan waiting on tables.’
‘Jack Taylor making the tea.’
‘Hey, nice one, Max!’