58
‘You’re sure this is his?’ Drake crouched, took a pen out of his top pocket and lightly prodded the black remains of Henrik’s Sons of Anarchy tee shirt.
Rena nodded.
Lucas orbited them with the Lumix but the two cops had already begun to ignore him. Weiss and Sweeting hung back, redundant, as Lucas had opted to use the camera mic.
‘Looks too big for a campfire.’ Soles inspected the circumference of the scorched earth.
‘D’you think?’ Rena folded her arms.
Did they really want Soles in charge? Hazel had considered contacting Bennett. It had been made crystal clear she wasn’t to do that again though. And having the officer around meant he was available for interview. Persuading him to do that was her next task. She took out her phone and idly tried Jacob Huber.
A distant ringtone. Everyone’s head spun in its direction.
She peered into the denser area of the forest. ‘I just called Jacob.’
Drake stood and unnecessarily raised his hand for silence.
‘Over there.’ Soles pointed north through the trunks and crept a few paces forward.
Drake followed and Hazel, Lucas, Weiss, Sweeting and Rena fell in behind him as Soles entered the foliage. Lucas kept shooting.
Soles halted, and Hazel craned to see past him into the darkness. Somebody was moving there.
The melody ceased.
Hazel pocketed her phone and patted Lucas on the shoulder, signalling him to bring the lens to the left of Soles.
‘Police officer, stay where you are!’ Drake yelled suddenly.
His voice echoed back at them, and they held their breath. The figure fled.
Hazel saw them flit past the gaps in the birches and heard feet stamping over wet ground. She followed their escape with her finger. ‘There!’
Soles took off and was surprisingly agile for his age. As he weaved around the trees, Drake tried to keep up with him. Lucas was third to give chase, recording but leaning away from the viewer so he could watch his footing. Hazel caught up and put her hand on his back to guide him. She could hear the others on their heels.
‘Police officers, halt!’ Soles had already disappeared into the shadows ahead.
As Hazel and Lucas reached the area where the figure had been, the air suddenly became cooler. The pungent fungus there had been crushed and scattered.
Lucas slowed and swung the Lumix around. ‘Where the hell have they gone?’ He whispered.
Hazel scanned the fingers of daylight beyond them for signs of activity.
Sweeting, Weiss and Rena arrived, already out of breath.
‘Quiet.’ Hazel took her palm from Lucas’ hot spine and inched past him. She could distinguish two voices, a low male mumble.
‘I think they went straight on.’ Rena gulped.
‘Listen.’ Hazel hissed. But the conversation had stopped.
Lucas panned the camera around. ‘Nothing.’
‘Keep shooting.’ Hazel strained for sounds again and picked up a set of faltering footsteps. ‘Someone’s coming.’
It was Drake and he was nursing his shoulder.
‘You OK?’
He put his finger to his lips and didn’t answer Hazel until he could lean into her ear. ‘We’d gotten a hold of him but he broke free.’
‘Where’s Officer Soles?’ Sweeting positioned himself behind Lucas.
‘Lost sight of him’ Drake bent down and spat on the forest floor.
A rustle of leaves. The six of them tried to pinpoint the noise.
‘There.’ Weiss jabbed his finger.
Twenty feet away, a silhouette decelerated as it saw the group and jogged sideways. Drake barrelled after them.
‘Come on.’ Hazel and the crew pounded the mud and just kept the officer in sight.
‘Halt! Fuck!’ Drake was getting the brunt of each branch that whipped back from the fleeing figure.
Now they were in the thickest part of the forest and there wasn’t a chink of daylight.
‘Shit!’ Lucas took a tumble.
Hazel turned back. She could just make out Weiss and Sweeting reaching him so felt her way forward but couldn’t see a trace of Drake or the person he was pursuing.
Rapid footfalls. Coming towards her.
Hazel braced herself. She couldn’t work out if they were right, left or about to hit her head on.
59
Hazel became aware of laboured breathing under her own and then somebody snapping brittle branches ahead. She fumbled for her phone. ‘Officer Soles?’
‘Did you see somebody come by here?’
She was relieved to recognise his breathless voice. ‘Yes, your colleague was right behind him.’
‘Not any more.’ Drake joined them.
Hazel’s phone lit up the three of them.
Soles managed to extricate his jacket from the thicket. ‘Listen… ’
They all stopped panting but the only sound was the rest of the crew’s muted voices behind them.
‘I’ll call him again.’ She speed-dialled Jacob.
The ringtone started a second time. Nearby. Fifty yards ahead of them a small blue screen cast its glow across the forest floor.
‘Both of you stay here.’ Soles moved off towards the light.
Hazel watched his bulk intermittently blocking the beacon as he tramped towards it.
A motorbike’s engine started some way off.
‘That’s him gone,’ Drake said with resignation. He trudged after Soles.
Hazel tapped on the torch of her iPhone and used it to guide her way around the roots of the trees to where they were standing. She hung up the call, and Jacob’s ringtone cut off.
‘Don’t pick it up.’ Soles scolded Drake. ‘Go get a bag for it. I’ll walk along the perimeter and see where he was parked up.’ He shuffled away.
Hazel shone her torch down to Jacob’s phone.
‘Can you stay here until I get back?’ Drake’s exhausted breath smelt rank.
‘Sure.’
‘And don’t touch it.’
‘I got that,’ she said stolidly. ‘Tell the others to return to base. I’ll see them back there.’
Drake didn’t reply but she heard him trying to wrangle them soon after and their conversation receding until the forest was silent.
Occasionally there was the hiss of leaves as Soles scoured the area beyond her. She looked down at Jacob’s phone.
The screen was still on. It was at forty-three per cent battery. Was it Jacob they’d just been chasing through the forest?
Hazel glanced swiftly up from the screen. She had an overwhelming sensation that somebody was nearby and shone the beam around the trunks. But the torch couldn’t penetrate the darkness between.
A soft swipe, hardly discernible but it sounded like the movement of an arm against material.
‘Officer?’
Gripping the phone tighter and arcing it around again, the impression heightened but she tried to remain calm. Maybe there was an animal in here with her.
Hazel felt a hard impact in her kneecaps and realised she’d dropped to them before the punch to the back of her neck registered. She lost balance and pitched forward into the leaves. She gritted her teeth as she anticipated another blow. It came harder than she thought, slamming into the bridge of her nose and flashing blue in her eyes. Hazel covered her face with her palms, and the second kick struck the backs of her hands.
She waited for another but could hear their feet pelting away from her.
‘Officer Soles!’
Blood pumped hotly against Hazel’s fingers.
60
Eve had spent some time weighing up her options. One of them was doing exactly what her sick fuck captor didn’t want and staying right where she was. But, from the lack of traffic noise, it seemed wherever she’d been imprisoned was completely isolated so there was little chance of anyone happening by to hear her cries for help.
Shaking her head to dislodge the blood-soaked weight
of her scarf and wig, Eve felt the cool, fresh air on her baldness. Her body still felt so numb. Should she try to reach the key and would it actually open the cuffs? She craned around as far as she could and peered into the shadows behind her. Was someone back there watching Eve and had they expected her to immediately take off for the exit before even spotting the sign?
As much as she wanted to put major distance between herself and the two sets of snapping jaws, Eve surveyed the silo again for anything she might have missed. But as the dogs were driven berserk by the blood scent all around her, she found nothing else that would help her and resigned herself to the fact she had to work with the scant odds available. If Eve didn’t act soon, it was likely the terriers would bust out of their prison. But she still felt so feeble.
Gripping both handlebars, she wondered if there was enough battery power in the scooter. Eve had charged it the day before but had gone back and forth to the restaurant a couple of blocks away from Rifkin Lodge for their breakfast special.
She paused to blink away blood before lightly putting her foot on the control pedal.
The animals’ barking subsided.
They knew she was about to make a move and monitored her intently. Her ridgeback, Banjo, had always sensed the fear of strangers. He’d been taken from her to be destroyed when he’d attacked a pair of canvassers, and Eve had vowed never to go through the heartache of being a dog owner again. ‘That’s it; just stay right there. How about I go fix you some food, would you like that?’ She couldn’t conceal the tremor in her voice.
As Eve depressed the pedal the scooter jerked once and both terriers went rigid, their ears pointing skywards as she came in line with the front of the cage.
‘Mummy will be back now. Just lie down and take a nap.’
They remained poised and motionless.
Eve put her weight on the pedal again and juddered forward.
One of the dogs started growling gutturally and the other joined in.
‘Stay. Nothing to be afraid of. Stay, now.’
When she heard a rattle behind her, Eve halted and glanced back. The chain had started to uncoil. She had to take it slow, gauge how much ground she could cover before it went taut and started to lift the cage door. There was still some slack though so Eve moved onwards.
The growling lowered until it was an almost indiscernible buzz, their eyes narrowing and heads following her progress.
‘Ssshhh.’ She could take an hour to cross the floor and they’d still be ready to pounce. Eve just had to avoid any sudden movement and pray the chain would allow her to grab the key.
She could see it now hanging from a hook below the sign. But as Eve neared it and peered beyond the half-open panel, she heard the last coil slacken. Looking back she found the chain had straightened across the concrete floor.
‘Help!’ Eve shouted through the doorway at the area of dust and flattened dead grass. She waited and listened to the faint echo of her voice. ‘Help!’
The terriers started barking again and bouncing around in the cage, their din drowning out hers. How long could Eve wait to see if anyone came? If the door had been left open, whoever kidnapped her must be pretty confident she wasn’t going to get any outside help.
Swivelling back to check the chain again, Eve saw it was tight between her scooter and the cage but still lying along the floor. She extended her hand to the key. But because of the cuffs restraining her, it was at least another two feet away. Eve had to negotiate the front wheel flush with the metal wall before she could reach it.
Readying herself, she took a few breaths. The animals went silent again.
‘Ssshhh.’ Eve turned the handlebars towards the sign and gently nudged the pedal. The scooter surged forward another inch, and the chain started to lift off the floor.
She painstakingly sidled it up to the wall, the end of the left handlebar scraping noisily against the metal. Three inches from the key, Eve heard a creak and looked back to find the cage door had opened a crack.
The motion prompted the dogs to start dementedly yelping as they both tried to scoop the door open with their black snouts.
Eve’s lip trembled as she took her foot away from the pedal. The chain was as tense as it could be. ‘It’s OK. Ssshhh.’ Even when she slid her left hand as far along the handlebar as the cuffs would allow, the key was still about four inches ahead of her fingertips. The front scooter wheel was snug against the wall but if she rolled forward she could unhook it. But that meant lifting the door and letting the terriers out.
Eve examined the cuffs, making sure she could quickly locate the lock with the key. She couldn’t afford to hesitate.
What was she waiting for? Eve gulped and gradually applied pressure to the pedal. The scooter lurched forward, faster than she intended, and suddenly she was beside the key.
A metallic clap told her the dogs were out. Eve could hear their claws clicking on the concrete as she seized the key with her left hand and rapidly used it to unlock the cuff on her right. She had to block out the sound of the animals’ approach and focus on getting free.
To her surprise, the first ring fell effortlessly from her right wrist. She quickly switched the key to her free hand and started unfastening the left cuff. Her sticky red fingers shook as she scraped it around the tiny slot.
The snarls grew louder.
Eve spun to find the terriers two feet from her. She bellowed at them, expelling every ounce of energy she had.
The dogs parted from their trajectory but settled and fiercely jabbed their barking mouths at her from a foot away.
Eve couldn’t get the key into the lock. Maybe it didn’t fit. Perhaps this was the joke. Let her get close to escape but still bound to the scooter so the dogs could savage her.
She could feel the saliva from their chopping jaws land on her bare arm. Fuck this. Eve could get off with one hand freed, wheel or drag the vehicle over to the door, slip through and use it as a shield. But she was just about to swing her leg off when the second cuff dropped from her left wrist.
‘Ssshhh, listen, listen, listen. Stay.’ Eve shakily stood, held up her palms and took several steps back towards the doorway, leaving bloody footprints in her wake.
They scampered hesitantly forward, closing the distance.
Eve could feel the cold draught from the open door on the back of her head. ‘Stay. You don’t want to hurt me, do you?’ She reversed another pace, and her shoulder struck the edge of the sliding panel. Sensing there were only seconds before they went for her, Eve turned but then noticed the other restraint.
Eve could see it wasn’t metal though and that it was tangled between the two back wheels. It ran from the rear of the scooter and along the floor to where she was standing. She gagged as she realised what it was. The end disappeared under the hem of her bloody dress.
Eve’s fingers explored her stomach. There was no sensation there. She’d been anaesthetised, cut open and her intestine extracted and attached to the axle of the scooter. She’d steadily disembowelled herself as she’d driven to the doorway.
Her legs began to buckle. But even though she would still be connected to the scooter and every step she took would eviscerate her, Eve had to get through the doorway and slam it against the dogs. Turning her back to them, she headed into the daylight.
The opening wasn’t big enough, however, and Eve jammed half her body into it and pushed on the panel. It was locked in position. She grunted as she rammed herself into the aperture and then yelled as teeth sunk into the soft flesh at the back of her knee.
Eve got her right shoulder through and hooked her arm around the edge. As another set of fangs pierced the top of her leg and sharp claws fought for purchase, she levered herself far enough out to get a look at the other side. At the bottom of the door was a black plastic bulb that had to be kicked up to release the runner.
One of the terriers was at her back now; she could feel its warm solid weight there. But Eve couldn’t squeeze herself any further through the gap
. A tug below her waist told her the other dog had hold of her intestine and was yanking it in the other direction. Eve’s legs gave way and she collapsed to her knees.
She reached for the bulb. ‘Help!’ Her fingers scraped at the release but she didn’t have enough strength to click it up. A snout slid into the crook of her neck, nostrils snorting hot breath while a second set of canine teeth bit deep into the back of her thigh.
Eve recognised the person leaning against the silo. They pushed themselves upright and stepped to the doorway. Looked like they were gripping a car aerial. She tried to grasp the bulb again, and they touched the back of her hand with it. Eve felt a jolt and her muscles went into spasm. It was a cattle prod, and it was obvious they didn’t want her letting the animals loose.
Eve couldn’t move, closed her eyes, and waited for the dogs to be done with her.
61
‘So, exactly how many bad omens d’you need?’ Lucas ripped off some more blue paper napkin from the all-purpose crew roll and handed it to Hazel.
She took it from him, swapped it with the blood-soaked one against her nostrils and tried not to wince. ‘You don’t believe in omens.’
‘No but I do know when to quit.’
‘Really?’ She made significant eye contact. ‘That’s not the impression I got.’
The rest of the crew were leaning around the production office and awkwardly waited for the moment to pass.
Who had been out in the forest? Hazel had thought it was Soles and Drake that might have been spying on them before.
The officers finished their muted exchange in the corridor and entered.
‘So you think there was more than one of them?’ Weiss took a swig from his beer bottle.
‘They were talking.’ Hazel folded the new swab.
Soles frowned. ‘When?’
‘When you both chased after them. There was a conversation.’
‘Sure it wasn’t us?’ Drake rotated his arm in its socket and grimaced.
Be My Killer: A completely UNPUTDOWNABLE crime thriller with nail-biting mystery and suspense Page 14