by Val McDermid
Before I could test whether it was possible to shift my weight to my feet without making a noise, the voice started yammering again. ‘Look, it’s your responsibility. She’s got to be dealt with, and now. She’s seen the videos, for God’s sake. You might want to spend the next ten years being buggered by some Neanderthal in the nick, but I don’t.’ He paused. ‘Fine. You better be here, that’s all, or I’ll be right on the phone to Colin. And if you want another wage packet like today’s, you won’t want me doing that.’ I heard the sound of a phone being slammed down. The jangling crash cut through my head like a blunt axe, snapping my eyes open.
I closed them to a slit at once, eager to look like I was still out for the count. If I had any chance of getting clear of this place before the hit man arrived, it was by playing dead and hoping my captor would leave me alone. Through my lashes, I could see I was in the kitchen, the fluorescent light a stab behind the eyes. At the far end of the room, the man who’d been using the wall-mounted phone turned towards me. He was tall and slim, his gingerish hair tousled from sleep. He had a neat, full moustache that jutted out like a ledge above thin lips and a sharp chin. The bleary eyes he focused on me narrowed vindictively. ‘Bitch,’ he said, savagely tightening the belt of his towelling dressing gown.
I knew him. Not his name, or anything like that, but I knew him. I’d seen him around, in the local shops, and in Manto’s café bar on one of the handful of occasions I’d been in there waiting for Richard. We were on nodding terms, talking about the weather in the corner-shop terms. It was hard to get my head round the idea of being trussed up by someone I knew. I’ve never had the slightest desire to explore S&M, and I sure as hell didn’t want to start now.
He turned away from me and picked up the kettle. He filled it up and switched it on. While he was waiting for it to boil he came over to me. I let my eyelids sink shut and tried to ignore the cramps that were sending spasms of agony from my lower back muscles through my shoulders and down into my triceps. I let my body hang limp. I was just fine till he kicked me in the ribs.
I think I passed out again for a moment, for the next time I cracked my eyes open he was pouring boiling water into a teapot. I had a funny feeling that he wasn’t going to offer me a cup. I took the opportunity of his back being turned to check out my position.
I was handcuffed to water pipes, each about an inch in diameter. What was holding me up was the brackets that were screwed into the wall to keep the pipes in place. What worried me most of all was that I wasn’t wearing my jacket or my cotton sweater. I was stripped down to my sports bra, and the entire length of my arms was covered in temporary tattoos. No wonder I was feeling out of it. The gratuitous kick had given me a vague feeling that I ought to be really, really angry, but I couldn’t seem to get worked up. However, I was a long way from being totally stoned. Maybe the lack of circulation in my arms and hands had slowed down the process of absorption. Just how long had the tattoos been in place, and how long did I have before I became a silly giggling maniac?
While I worried about this, Moustache was brewing his tea. He poured himself a mug, gave me a last glance and walked out of the room. Judging by the shuffle of his slippers, he’d only gone as far as the living room.
I knew I didn’t have a lot of time. The hit man was on his way, and I needed to be free and clear by then. Taking a deep breath, I shifted round so the soles of my feet were on the floor. Gradually, I allowed my legs to take the weight off my shoulders. For a moment, the pain in my shoulders vanished like magic. Then the pins and needles set in. From my hands to my shoulders, I twitched with a million stabs of irritation. I bit my lip to gag the whimpers that I couldn’t stop escaping.
Slowly, inch by cautious inch, I straightened my legs, relieving all the strain on my arms and shoulders. It seemed to take forever, especially since I had to do it all in silence and the pounding in my head seemed to be growing rather than subsiding. When I was upright, I took stock again. The pipes looked pretty strong, but there were a couple of bends in them which might indicate weak points. The downside was that my arms were weak, my muscles twitching with pain. On the other hand, I had nothing to lose since the hit man was already on his way.
I took a deep breath and raised one leg, placing the sole of my foot against the wall, on a level with my hips. Then, gritting my teeth, I leaned back, taking my weight on my arms again, and swung my other leg up, bracing it against the wall on the other side of the pipe. With all my strength, I straightened my legs, pulling back against the handcuffs as hard as I could, my weight lending maximum force to my efforts.
At first, nothing happened. The cuffs dug into my hands, thankfully in a different place to the weals from my earlier suspension, but nothing moved. Then, suddenly, one of the brackets popped out of the walls like the pearl stud on a tight cowboy shirt. Another bracket followed it almost at once, and the pipe came away from the wall, bowing dramatically towards me. I bent my legs slightly, then prepared for a final, all-out effort. With a grunt that Monica Seles would have been proud of, I straightened my legs and hauled with everything I had. Just when I thought I would dislocate my shoulders, the pipe snapped about five feet from the ground and I crashed to the floor.
The roar of gushing water mingled with the roar of anger from behind me. I dragged myself upright and hauled my hands over the broken ends of the pipes, fast as I could. Even so, Moustache was on me as I swivelled round to face him. He’d grabbed the first thing to hand, which was the kettle, swinging it at my battered head. I did a staggering sidestep, as much to get away from the scalding blast of the hot pipe as to avoid the kettle. Moustache got the hot water straight in the face as the momentum of his running blow carried him past me and into the wall.
His scream would have been music to my ears if my head hadn’t been splitting. Instead, all I wanted to do was shut him up. I aimed a Thai boxing kick at the crook of his knee. It was a pretty feeble kick, but he was off balance anyway. He dropped to his knees like a sack of spuds and I brought my clenched hands, complete with nasty sticking-out bits of handcuffs, down hard on the back of his neck. With a groan like an abandoned harmonium, he slumped against the wall and slithered down into the growing pool of water like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
I leaned against the sink, trying to catch my breath. I looked at the inert body crumpled at my feet and realized that all I had to do was walk away to get my own back for that gratuitous boot in the ribs. Given the rate the water was pouring into the kitchen, it wouldn’t be long before Moustache said good night, Vienna.
Call me a wimp, but I couldn’t do it. I crouched down, grabbed his hair and hauled his poleaxed head out of the water. I yanked him on to his back and propped him in a sitting position between the wall and the sink unit. I’m too nice for my own good.
Keeping one eye on him, I backed across the kitchen to the phone. Using both hands, I picked up the receiver and tucked it into my left shoulder. I punched in a familiar number and listened to it ring out. I was starting to panic when it reached the thirteenth ring: it’s not easy being patient when you know someone’s on their way to send you to the crematorium.
Just as I was about to abandon the phone and leg it, the ringing stopped and a blurred voice muttered, ‘’Lo?’
‘Della? It’s Kate. This is an emergency. Are you awake?’
There was a grunt, then Della said, ‘Getting there. What is it?’
‘Della, there’s a guy on his way to kill me. It’ll take too long to explain it all now, but he’s the hit man who killed Cherie Roberts, the single mum who got blown away this afternoon? He’s coming after me!’ I could hear the hysteria rising in my voice, and I was overwhelmed by the urge to giggle.
‘Kate? Are you pissed?’ Della asked incredulously.
‘No, but I think I’ve been drugged,’ I said. ‘I swear this isn’t a wind-up, Della. I know it’s not your beat, but you’ve got to get a posse out here right away, double urgent. This guy’s a paid killer.
&n
bsp; And he’s after me!’ Even to me, my voice sounded like Minnie Mouse.
‘OK, calm down. Where exactly are you?’
‘I’m in a house on the corner of Oliver Tambo Close, near the Apollo. The house is full of kiddy porn. They’ve been drugging the kids to get them to perform,’ I gabbled.
‘Later, Kate, later,’ Della interrupted. ‘I’m going to hang up now and get the local lads to send the area car round there pronto. And I’ll be there myself as soon as I can. But I want you to get out of there right now. Don’t hang about. Just get out. Go back to your house and I’ll meet you there.’
I snorted with insane laughter. I was beginning to feel really silly. ‘I can’t go there,’ I giggled. ‘He knows where I live. He’s already blown my door away.’ Before she could make another suggestion, the line went dead. Not the way it goes when someone hangs up on you. This was dead, hollow, a void. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like giggling any more. Somewhere outside the house was the man who had been sent to kill me. And his automatic first action was to cut the lines of communication.
I checked my pockets for the van keys, but they weren’t there. Wildly. I looked around the kitchen. I spotted them on one of the worktops, along with my wallet. I paddled through the water and picked them up, stuffing my wallet in my trouser pocket. In the kitchen doorway, I hesitated, water flowing like a spring stream round my ankles, trying to decide whether the assassin would approach from the front or the rear.
I didn’t wonder for long. With a crash that reverberated round my skull, the back door slammed against the wall. I didn’t even wait to look. I whirled round to the front door. The gods were on my side, for the key was in the lock. I turned the key, pulled it out of the lock and yanked the door open. I was through it and had it closed in the time it took the hit man to travel the length of the hall. I shoved the key in the lock and turned it. Then I stumbled and weaved down the path, my breath coming in ragged sobs.
I’d reached the pavement when the night exploded in a pair of catastrophic bangs. I turned to look back at the house. The door was hanging drunkenly on one of its hinges, and the silhouette of a man was pushing it aside. In his right hand, he carried a sawn-off shotgun. I drew in my breath in a horrified moan and ran for my life.
Now I was swerving madly by design as I approached the van. I pressed the burglar alarm remote-control button, which unlocks the doors as well as deactivating the alarm. I was barely at the back of the van, and I could hear him gaining on me. Then, suddenly, the sound of his footsteps stopped. I knew he was taking aim. Desperately, I threw myself into a rolling somersault round the rear of the van to the passenger side, putting the van between him and me.
Weeping with fear, sweating in spite of the cold night air on my freshly grazed skin, I scrambled to my feet and staggered along the side of the van to the passenger door. I grabbed the door handle like a lifeline and pulled myself into the cab. I had the presence of mind to lock the doors behind me. I fumbled the key into the ignition at the second attempt.
I was still cuffed, so driving wasn’t going to be easy. I swivelled round to shift the gear stick into first, then released the handbrake. Movement at the edge of my peripheral vision made me swing round to look out of the driver’s window. The shock of what I saw nearly had me stalling the engine. As it was, I let the clutch out way too fast and the van bucked forward in a series of jumps like a kangaroo on acid.
In my wing mirror, I saw him step back involuntarily to avoid having his feet run over by the van’s rear wheels. Crazy Eddy Roberts, locked somewhere on the slopes of Mount Tumbledown, clutching his gun like mothers clutch frightened children. A man who’d lost touch with human feelings to the point where there was nothing difficult about taking a damn sight more than thirty pieces of silver to kill the mother of his children.
For a fraction of a second, our eyes locked. The engine was screaming a protest at still being in first, so I took my hands off the steering wheel to change up into second. When I looked in my mirror again, the twin barrels of the gun gleamed dully in the distant streetlights as Eddy swung it up towards me. I put my foot down and grabbed the steering wheel. I could feel the van fishtailing as I tried to wrench the wheel round to clear the oncoming corner.
I heard the boom of the gun as the window shattered. I’d lost control of the van almost simultaneously. I hit the kerb at speed and clipped a lamppost. As the van toppled over on its side, the last thing I saw was a pair of flashing blue lights.
Chapter 25
I couldn’t believe how blue the sea was. It glittered under Mediterranean sunlight like one of those crystal beds that New Age fanatics have lying around their living-rooms. I propped myself up on one elbow and watched the lumbering half-tracked harvesters further down the beach, gathering and refining the spice that had caused the planet wars that had ravaged Dune for a generation. Suddenly, the sand shifted, only feet away from my leg, and the head of a huge, carnivorous sandworm reared up. The ferocious jaws opened, to reveal Moustache’s face.
I swam up the levels to consciousness, passing from dreaming to awareness via that state where you know that you’ve just been dreaming, but you’re not quite awake. My head felt like an oversized block of stone, though there didn’t seem to be as much pain as I remembered enduring before the accident. The accident!
My eyes snapped open. I was in a small room, dimly illumined by lights glowing through frosted glass from the corridor outside. I tried to lift my head, but it was too much of an effort. Instead, I shifted my feet to check I was still functioning below the neck. You put your left leg in, you put your left leg out…Yeah, the lower limbs all did the hokey cokey. I breathed deeply. There was a bit of pain from my ribs and chest, but nothing felt broken, which was pretty miraculous given that I hadn’t been wearing my seat belt when I crashed the van. I raised my right arm, which seemed fine, apart from the puffy bruises that ran round hand and wrist like designer bangles by the Marquis de Sade. My left arm had no watch on it, only grazes from shoulder to wrist, and a drip running into the back of my hand, which was more than a little disconcerting.
I moved my head to one side, trying to see if there was a clock anywhere. To my surprise, Della was fast asleep on a plastic bucket chair next to my bed. I felt mildly outraged. Someone had tried to kill me tonight, and she should have been down the police station, going through the hoops of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to make sure Crazy Eddy spent the foreseeable future living at the taxpayers’ expense in a room with a bucket to piss in and bars on the windows. Then a horrible thought struck me. What if Eddy Roberts had managed to give the plod a body swerve? What if Della was Greater Manchester Police’s idea of a bodyguard? What if Crazy Eddy was still out there with his pump-action double-barrelled shotgun packed with cartridges with my name on?
I opened my mouth. My brain said, ‘Della?’ but my mouth was too dry to play along. All I managed was a sort of strangulated croak.
She must only have been catnapping, for her eyes opened at once. Momentarily, she had the startled look of someone who has lost track of where she is. Then her conscious mind checked in and she sat bolt upright, staring at me with undisguised relief. ‘Kate?’ she said softly. ‘Can you hear me?’
I tried to nod, but it wasn’t in my repertoire yet. I waved my arm in the direction of the locker, where there was a jug of water and a bottle of orange juice. ‘Drink?’ I mouthed.
Della jumped up and poured a glass of water. She leaned over me and tipped the glass to my lips. Most of the water went down my cheeks and on to the pillow, but I didn’t care. All I was concerned about was getting some in my parched mouth. The water was warm and stale and blissful. I didn’t want to swallow, just hold it there in my mouth. Della gave me a concerned, anxious look as I waved her away.
Finally, I let the water trickle down my throat. ‘Thanks,’ I said in something approaching my normal voice. ‘What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be down the cells beating a confession out of that mad bastard with the
shotgun?’ She gave me an odd look. ‘You did catch him, didn’t you,’ I demanded, panic gripping my chest and turning my stomach over.
‘We caught him,’ Della said grimly. ‘The officers from Longsight got slightly over-enthusiastic with their truncheons when they realized he had a gun. Your assailant has a broken collar bone and a shattered wrist, you’ll be sorry to hear.’
‘Is that why you’re here and not down the nick taking a statement?’ I asked.
Della looked awkward. ‘Actually, no,’ she said, shifting in her seat. ‘Kate, this isn’t the same day,’ she said in a rush.
I frowned. ‘Not the same day? What do you mean?’
‘You called me in the early hours of Wednesday morning.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘It’s now four forty-seven a.m. on Thursday. You’ve been out cold for over a day.’
‘Over a day?’ I echoed foolishly. I couldn’t take it in. I had no sense of having lost a day of my life. I felt like I’d woken up from a strange dream after a brief spell of unconsciousness. Did people feel like this when they came out of comas that lasted weeks or years? No wonder they felt dislocated. I’d only lost a day and I felt like I’d stumbled into an episode of the Twilight Zone. I managed a twisted grin. ‘You know it’s a bad case when the only way you can catch up on your sleep is to get unconscious.’
‘I’m glad you can joke about it. We were starting to get really worried. The doctors gave you a brain scan and said there seemed to be no damage, but they couldn’t say how long you’d be out.’