I was sitting quite still amongst the large boulders that are a part of the Northern Groyne. I was wearing a grey track-suit and a black cap. I reckon I must've been nearly invisible. It was barely dawn, foggy, dank and bloody cold at 6.15 am. Mr Edwards and his dog were walking towards me along the damp, firm sand. He was the only one about this early. The same as always, a creature of habit. His big, furry old dog had to be half blind and deaf but it was onto me. It had probably sensed me. It was not on a lead and ambled around the rocks and looked at me, the old boy followed her. "Good morning," he said. "Another early bird."

I nodded and looked about - not a soul in sight. "Mr Edwards?" He nodded. "I'm Al." I said and held my hand out to the dog.

“Who's a pretty girl then?” She gave me a sniff and a wag as I put a little gun to her head and shot her. Pop! Her head acted like a silencer.

Mr Edwards lurched back. “Why? For God's sake. Why? You brute! Why would you kill a poor old dog?”

“Because if I killed you first, the dog would be upset and howl. She died happily and quietly.”

“Kill me?" he asked incredulously. "Why would you kill me? You don't even know me.”

I gave him kudos for coolness. I'd just told him that I was going to kill him and he was not begging for his life or showing any fear. When it's my turn, I'll be kicking and screaming.

“I know of you, Mr Edwards, you operate a payday loan company. Your iniquitous rates of compounding interest have driven too many families to suicide or divorce. You've put kids out on the street and generally been an avaricious swine."

He nodded, still dead cool. “That's just business," he shrugged. "These fools shouldn't get themselves into a mess.”

“Sadly, these poor fools are desperate and I'm told it's not just you. It's your whole damned family. You've trained them all in acts of bastardry. So I'll work my way through them all.

He stared at me. "How I pity you, the hatred you carry around in your heart. How bitter and twisted are you?"

"No! Not at all," I told him. “I look at myself as a good Christian person ridding the world of sinners thus making the world a better place for good people. You do know that the good book states that thou shalt not be a usurer. It's probably amongst the Thou Shalts. And what's more, Jesus threw the money lenders out of the temple.

"Now sidle through this - um - crevice and sit with me amongst these rocks.” I said and---

"Crevice?" he interrupted me. "A bit wide for a crevice---"

"Are you mad? I'm pointing a gun at you, I've told you that I'm going to kill you and you're interrupting and arguing over a word."

"Sorry, obviously I'm quite upset."

"Alright. " He's put me right off my thread. I remembered, then lied to him, "and I'll tell you how I'm going to enjoy the favours of your attractive, young wife before I kill her and then hunt down your son and daughter. I'm going to obliterate your whole cursed family from the face of the earth."

He collapsed on a small boulder near me. "No, please, I beg you," he gasped. Reality had hit him. He stared at me, "I'll do anything. Pay you everything I have." He had finally cracked.

“No,” I told him and added sanctimoniously, “you and yours have been responsible for the death of a multitude and there'll be even more deaths if I let you and your family live."

He suddenly jumped up to make a dash for it but I poked him in the belly with the gun and he collapsed back on his boulder, near his poor old dog.

“Mr Edwards, have you heard the expression- Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?" I asked.

He nodded.

“I'll tell you a secret. I care for the people and families you've destroyed. That's how I justify killing you. You're a blood-sucking killer. But you should have cherchied the femme. It's your bitter, first wife who gave me this gun and paid me to kill you.”

He stared at me. “No!”

“Yes,” I said and shot him.

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