The Assassin Who Never Smoked

"Clare, you know I can't force you to leave him."

"I know, Lee. I just don't think I've got the strength. I'm just too scared. Even if I did manage to get away, he'd just come after me."

"You don't need to worry about him anymore, Clare."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm arranged for... for some people to help you. I mean really help you."

"You're not going to the police? Because that won't work, it will make it worse. Please don't go to the police, Lee. Please."

"No I'm not going to the police. But I promise you, you won't have to worry about your father ever again. From now on."

And now I finally knew the truth about my job, and who had been sending me assignments. It was Lee. She was exacting justice for those kids. I was not an assassin, I was an executioner. And I didn't mind my job.

Anger and vengeance welled in me. I drove to Clare's father's place, crouched behind the dark bushes by his boat until he returned from the pub and then jumped out and summarily and silently drowned him in the black canal.

"Yes Lee, I've known since January. And I'm amazed at how well your hypnosis worked up till then."

"Thank you."

"But now, Lee, even though I'm not hypnotised anymore, I'm still happy to go on working for you. Willingly. I want to help you. To help those poor kids."

Lee is silent.

"Lee. I'm not hypnotised anymore, am I? Am I, Lee?"

"Tell me Dan, do you smoke?"

"I've never smoked a cigarette in all my born days. I mean, I mean..."

"You still don't know the truth about anything." Lee's voice is cold.

"What do you mean, darling?"

"What I mean, 'darling', is this: Everything you told me under hypnosis is false. I planted the whole story in you."

"Yes, I know."

"No, I mean about everything. About how we met. You didn't come to me for smoking therapy. We met at university."

"At university? Yes... yes... I was studying biochemistry. And you were studying..."

"...Psychology. And..."

"..And we did fall in love. Didn't we, Lee? I'm so confused..."

"Yes, we did fall in love, we married twenty years ago. And we had a daughter. Do you remember, 'darling'? What was her name?"

"Oh God..."

"No, that wasn't it, darling. It was, it was..." Lee can't say it.

"Jessica."

"But you killed her."

"No, she killed herself... It was an accident. An overdose. She, she,"

"She couldn't take the memory of what you did to her for years. Yes, you killed her, Dan. And do remember what you did after she died? Do you?"

"No, Lee, I'm sorry. I don't remember anything."

"After she killed herself, you, coward, came to me and you begged me to make you forget her. To forget those unspeakable things you'd done to her. To erase her memory from your mind. And I did. But I made sure you'd pay for it, with the lives of all the other child murderers, and now..."

"Now...?"

"Here. It's your next assignment."

Lee hands Dan an envelope. There's no stamp. He opens it. It's his own name and address.