“Get back in the room,” Taylor snapped grabbing her by the arm. “Close the damn door.”
“Ouch…” Elsie complained.
“I’m sorry, but… It’s for your own good.”
Taylor closed the door herself. Then she turned and ran back down the stairs. Nadine was on her feet with Sal, both of them standing over Justin who was crawling across the floorboards. He had a hole in his stomach.
“Thank God you showed up when you did,” Taylor said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
“Would have helped if you gave me a freaking loaded gun,” Nadine said angrily.
“Oh,” Taylor murmured. “That was supposed to be a test for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Alright,” Sal said, taking charge. “What’s he told you?”
Nadine shook her head.
Taylor looked back upstairs, making sure the door was closed. “The girl just identified him. He was the one who kidnapped her.”
“He’s not our guy though,” Sal said.
“Pardon?”
“He’s not the one we saw earlier. The one who took Nadine.”
Sal moved alongside Justin. Knelt down.
“He’s working with them,” Nadine stated.
“Who is them?” Taylor asked.
Nadine didn’t answer.
Sal turned Justin over.
Justin’s face was wretched with hatred and anger. Blood seeped from his mouth.
“Care to fill us in?” Sal asked him.
Justin chuckled to himself. “What’s the point. You’re just going to leave me here.”
Sal waved his shotgun over him.
Lowered the barrel towards his stomach.
“I bet that one hurts,” Sal said. “How would another one feel?”
“Do your worst,” Justin spat back.
Taylor put a hand to Sal’s shoulder. He looked at her. Stepped away.
Taylor looked down at Justin. “We trusted you. You were one of us. What happened?”
Justin winced. “Once you start, you can’t stop.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means…” His features writhed and twisted. “It means one day they gave me twenty grand to let a guy off the hook. We didn’t have much on him, but it was no big thing right. Just misplace what we did have. Look the other way. Easy money. I shouldn’t have taken it.”
“And then?”
“And then I’m driving guys around. ‘Go here, Justin.’ ‘Go there.’ Stupid money. Too much. I couldn’t say no to it. And then when they asked me to start with the abducting … Well. They had enough on me that I was going to jail for at least ten years if I said no. I tried cutting a deal once. Was going to have a sit down with the Commissioner and everything. You know what they did?”
“What?”
“A couple of guys went around to my Mom’s house and beat the fuck out of her. They said next time it would be my eight-year-old niece. They weren’t joking. I knew because … they made me take someone else’s niece.”
“What did they do with her?” Sal asked.
Justin shook his head.
Sal grabbed Taylor and shoved her out of the way.
He stooped down and pulled Justin up by his jacket. “WHAT DID THEY DO WITH HER?”
“I don’t know!” Justin mumbled. “They’re – oh God. I don’t want to say it.”
“SAY IT!”
“They’re … they’re pedophiles. They have to be. It’s a fucking network of pedophiles. Why else would they keep asking me to abduct kids?”
Sal let go of him. He fell back to the floor and started choking on his blood.
“What else do you know?” Taylor asked.
Justin shook his head. Tried to wipe the blood away with his hand.
Sal looked back at them. “Any thoughts? Nadine?”
Nadine’s head tilted slightly. “He’s not lying. We suspected him for a while.”
“Who is we?” Taylor asked.
“I can’t say. You guys aren’t cleared.”
“Wait,” Sal interrupted. “You’re working with someone else on this.”
Nadine shook her head. “Ask him where.”
“Where what?”
“Where he was supposed to take her?”
Justin forced himself up. He was grinning. “I wasn’t taking her anywhere.”
“But you must’ve been,” Nadine insisted.
“No,” Justin muttered. “They’re coming to collect her.”
CHAPTER 46
Taylor felt the room drop several degrees. Nadine seemed taken aback by Justin’s answer. She lowered her gaze from him and turned to the open front door behind her.
Sal stood over Justin. “How many?”
“How many guys?”
“How many come to collect?”
“They usually send a couple of cars,” Justin said.
“When are they supposed to be here?”
Nadine turned back towards them.
Even though Taylor couldn’t see her eyes through her glasses, she could tell that the news wasn’t good.
“When are they coming?!” Sal shouted at Justin.
“It’s too late,” Nadine muttered. “They’re already here.”
Taylor swallowed. They had to move quickly.
“Keys,” she said snapping her fingers at Justin. “Get his fucking keys.”
Sal bent over Justin. He rummaged around.
“Find a weapon,” Taylor instructed Nadine.
“You mean one with bullets in it?”
“Just find one! I’ll get Elsie.”
Taylor grabbed hold of the banister and charged up the stairs with blinding speed. She stormed through the bedroom upstairs to find Elsie in the middle of the room, holding onto something.
“Come on,” Taylor said. “We have to go now.”
“Where’s Nadine?” Elsie asked.
“Nadine? She’s downstairs, come on.”
As Elsie moved towards her, Taylor saw she was clutching a VHS tape.
“What’s that?” she asked. “Was that under the bed?”
“It’s for Nadine.”
“Yeah okay,” Taylor said plucking it away from her. “We don’t need that.”
Taylor tossed the tape onto the bed.
“No, she needs to see it,” Elsie asserted, rushing back over to the bed.
“Jesus Christ,” Taylor exhaled. “We need to fucking move. People are coming here! They’re going to kill us!”
Elsie rejoined her, the tape jammed under her arm.
Taylor led them back out onto the landing just in time to see two men in balaclavas charge through the door.
Nadine and Sal were ready, opening fire.
“Holy shit,” Elsie murmured.
Their bodies fell.
Nadine looked up towards them from her place by the door. “HURRY!”
“Okay,” Taylor said. “We’re going over.”
“What?” Elsie spluttered.
“You first!” Taylor said pushing her into the railing. “Try to aim for the couch!”
“Ooh, oh no…”
“Come on, Elsie, you can do it!”
Elsie climbed over the railing. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”
She threw the video tape first and then jumped down after it.
Taylor followed her over the railing.
Elsie hit the couch and rolled off it.
Taylor hit the ground with both feet, pain shooting up her legs. “FUCK!”
“You got the keys, Sal?” Nadine asked.
Sal nodded. Then glanced in Taylor’s direction. “Taylor! Drop!”
Taylor blinked.
Then she allowed her body to fall to bits.
The bullets instantly sailed over her head, Nadine and Sal returning quick fire.
She heard the bodies fall behind her.
Sal grabbed Elsie and pushed her in Taylor’s direction.
“We good to go?” Nadine asked.
“Y
eah, let’s move,” Sal said.
Trying not to scream out in pain, Taylor found the side of the wall and used it to get herself back on her feet.
“Don’t suppose you’ll help me get out as well,” Justin said, sitting up. “I think it’s not too bad. I might live if –”
Nadine lowered her pistol in line with his head as she moved past, and put a bullet in his face.
Sal glanced back at her, caught off guard.
“Any complaints?” Nadine asked coldly.
“No,” Sal mumbled.
Taylor stared at her. Just long enough so that they were both understood.
Then she found Elsie and took her by the arm. “The car’s this way.”
CHAPTER 47
Sal was in the driver’s seat. Nadine in the passenger. Taylor and Elsie in the back. Sal started the car whilst Nadine got on the phone with the precinct, and Taylor tried calling McGuiness without success. The car’s tires ripped through mud and wet grass, as they descended the slope behind the house.
“What’s on the right?” Sal asked. “Does anyone know?”
Nadine covered her phone. “Go left.”
“Left?”
“It’s the only way out of here.”
“Alright,” Sal said. “Keep your heads down.”
The car swerved round the side of the house and jolted back and forth as they went over a series of bumps in the terrain.
Taylor turned to her left as they came out the side of the house.
The high-beams of several land-rovers crashed through their windows, exposing their frightful faces. The car pressed on as Sal increased the acceleration. Looking back, now they were away from the light, Taylor saw four or five figures scrambling around.
“Get a move on,” Taylor said. “They might try and follow us.”
“Make sure you’re buckled up,” Sal replied.
Taylor pulled down her seatbelt and then made sure Elsie’s was secure.
“Backup in seven minutes,” Nadine said putting her phone away.
“We won’t be here for that,” Sal said.
“I know.”
Taylor looked out the back window. Two of the land rovers were moving.
“Faster, Sal,” she urged him.
He ignored her.
They were nearing the edge of the forest and the car hooked to the left so that they would reach the edge of the dirt driveway.
Taylor kept her focus on the high-beams moving towards them from behind.
“Sal!” she said between clenched teeth.
Nadine looked over her seat. “They’re coming, Sal.”
“Hold on,” he muttered.
They churned through the last of the driveway, Sal making a left on the main road.
A few seconds later, Taylor saw the land-rovers zoom out of the drive, tailing them.
“Shit,” she muttered under her breath. “Sal?”
No response.
“Sal!”
“I know, I –”
“Wind down my window.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
Nadine got involved with locating the correct button, and Taylor’s window began rolling down. Clutching her firearm, she veered half her body outside the vehicle, turning the gun to aim towards the nearest car following them.
She lowered the pistol until she felt she had the correct aim, and then took out one of the land-rover’s front tires. There was a loud bang following the discharge, and sparks lit up the road.
The land-rover screeched to a halt, the second land-rover colliding with the side of it.
Taylor fired a couple of more times blindly as the second land-rover continued a little further.
But then it stopped too.
They’d made it out.
CHAPTER 48
Rose McGuiness was floating. Her mattress had begun to levitate, and in no time she was looking down from the ceiling. Up and up she went. The crisp night atmosphere enriched her skin as left her house behind. Further and further. Higher and higher. The streetlights. And moving cars. She could see it all.
A sound.
A sound of a door opening.
Rose turned over on her mattress and saw a sign hovering over one of the clouds. It read: TO THE LAND OF PILLOWS. And indeed there were pillows. Pillows floating in the sky around her. She saw there were others sitting on their mattresses and pillows. Some were talking, but their words were muffled. Like there was an invisible wall between them and Rose.
Someone was snoring. Who was it? They sounded close.
Rose crept along the edge of her mattress in search of the person who was sleeping, but she couldn’t find them. So close they were too. Blocked by a tear in the sky.
“An angel. That’s who you were. My sleeping angel.”
Rose felt a presence at the other end of the mattress.
She shifted along towards it and saw a dark figure begin to materialize.
His back to her.
“What we had should have lasted a thousand lifetimes. Your deception, your manipulation, your cheating. The only thing that eclipsed my pain was the surprise. You taught me so much.”
Rose knew who was speaking.
But she could not speak herself.
There was something covering her mouth.
“Did I teach you anything, Rose? I wonder that. I wonder how it is that you’re here tonight, asking me about the girl. Was it fate that her brother found you? I think it must be. They’re trying to tell me something. Something about you.”
Simon exhaled.
There was a pause.
“Maybe I’m supposed to tell you the truth.”
Vmm, vmm…
Vibrating.
Another exhale.
The figure stood from the mattress. Floating in the air beside her.
“What is it?” Simon asked. “What…? You mean … regular cop, cops…? Oh shit. How many did…? Shit. And now they have her…? Alright, calm down. There’s no need to… Yes. Yes, I’ll be there.”
End of call.
Rose’s eyes were beginning to flutter.
She wasn’t in the sky anymore.
She wasn’t above the roof.
She was in this tiny little room, with an unconscious Rupert lying in the bed beside her.
Simon, with his back to her.
Facing the door.
“Maybe you knew,” Simon whispered. “Maybe you knew and that’s why you left…”
He started to say something else but Samantha opened the door, poking her head in to see what was happening.
Simon quickly ushered her out of the room, closing the door behind them.
Snuffing out the light.
CHAPTER 49
FIFTH NOTE
Killing a random person and getting away with it is easy. It’s easy, because it really isn’t random. What you’re doing is you’re selecting the ideal candidate to murder. You choose the day. You choose the time. You choose the place. Then the world in all its marvel will gift you with the random character.
That night in the elevator when I saw the twelve-year-old girl and got all flustered and aroused – that was the world gifting me the perfect victim. Right place. Right time. She fell into my lap, as I took a plunge into depravity.
So now that I’ve decided to take her again, I’m looking at a much more difficult task.
That night in the elevator, she was perfect. But she could have been anybody.
Tonight it can be only be her. This act of killing is not one to satisfy my whimsical inner longings. This isn’t about me having a slice of fun.
Oh sure, if I get through this, then that night will come.
One day.
But for now I must correct my moment of weakness by letting her live. Letting her walk away, with all she knows about me.
This isn’t about getting off. This is about survival.
And on that note I should further amplify – that I am, indeed, getting myself off on this.
Wouldn’t you?
How about then – I paint ourselves a rather startling and dynamic picture. I don’t doubt the level of underestimation swimming around out there. I am the slime, the scum, the degenerate, the mentally challenged and broken individual that I may one day become infamous for. But I am also a predator. And … I am organized.
So then. You’ll be wanting your picture.
I’m sitting here in my van on the brink of sunset with a pair of binoculars, looking at my girl pack up her bag at the local library, speaking to people. Saying her goodbyes. It’s time for her to go home.
I’ve watched her take this route before. Some days her hair is out. Other days she has it up or in a cute little ponytail.
I wonder if she knows I’m watching her. I look to see if there’s a sense of anxiety about her. Just a little glance over her shoulder. A little strain in her eyes is all I’m looking for.
Fear.
Palpitating through her veins.
Evidence that she dreams about me.
But there’s nothing. Either it’s not there or it’s so fleeting I don’t catch it.
I see her each of these days, watching her route from the library to the bus stop. I know exactly where to grab her.
And it was hard.
So hard to make this moment my reality.
Out she comes through the doors all sexy and delicious and she’s mine. She’s mine all over again.
As I turn the keys to the van, and the headlights switch on, a moment of hesitation strikes.
I’ve grown attached to her. I’ve fallen in love. I think I might not perhaps enjoy this as much as I’m hoping I will.
I catch a look at my eyes in the rear-view mirror as the van twists across the road to follow her.
And I’m so far away…
From the good person I used to be.
CHAPTER 50
Sal kept his eyes on Nadine whilst administering the gas pump to the car. She was outside, on foot like he was. She’d wandered away a bit. Not so much Sal felt the need to call out to her, but enough that he noticed it.
What lay inside her mind…
What secrets she may have been holding…
Sal wasn’t completely sure. But he was going to find out.
Icy Stares (Guess The Killer Book 1) Page 10