Raven wondered if she could just hop in her car and drive away. Her rival appeared to have gone into his own world and she was tired and cold and not up to shouldering the weight of someone else’s baggage.
When she side-stepped in the direction of her car, his head snapped up, eyes burning. “Then it was just me, all alone.”
“You can’t seriously blame me for your mum dying of a brain aneurysm?”
“My dad’s death was the beginning of the end for her, so yes, I fucking am.”
“People die, it’s a part of life. Blaming innocent people isn’t going to bring them back.”
“I can blame who I want and I pick you. If your mum was alive I’d be going after her but she’s not. So you’re it.”
“I don’t think that’s fair. I was only fourteen at the time.”
“Nothing about this is fair,” he yelled. “Two years I spent training in Russia with mercenaries. They taught me how to fight, shoot and kill with my bare hands, all so I could pull your life apart before finally putting you out of your misery.”
“Oh I’ve had enough of this,” she said, reaching into her pocket for her gun.
She was astonished by the speed with which he drew his own weapon and they faced one another in the dark, guns aimed at each other.
“As you can see,” he said. “The mercenaries taught me well. There was one in particular I remember. He was the only English one, he had to translate for me. His name was Aidan Gallagher.”
Raven swallowed hard, forcing back the emotion wanting to wash over her. She couldn’t afford a single moment’s lapse because he would take advantage of it.
“His services weren’t cheap. Fortunately I had a nice nest egg after selling the home I grew up in. Of course I never told him I would be using the skills he was teaching me to kill his own wife. I don’t think that would have gone down very well.”
“And what do you think he’s going to do when he finds out what you’ve been doing? He might have trained you but there’s no way you could best him.”
“I’m fully aware of that but why should he find out? He’s not even here, is he? I’ve heard he’s hardly ever home. Why not? Can he not stand you?”
“You know fuck all about it.”
“Ooh, so you can feel real emotion? But it seems only your husband can draw it out. Very interesting.”
“Oh fuck off you cock, I’m sick of this,” she said, taking aim at his head.
“Think you can get a shot off before me?”
“Yes. I’ve been doing this longer than you.”
“Doesn’t mean you’re better at it than me.”
“Let’s see.”
“Oy, you,” called a voice.
They both shoved the guns back into their pockets when a shadowy figure approached.
“Oh sorry,” said the tall, thin man who emerged from the darkness. “I thought you were someone else.”
“Who are you looking for?” said Raven, seeing in the man a way of getting out of this situation alive.
“A couple of vicious skinheaded bastards. They caused a real rammy in the pub and now they’ve done one.”
“What’s it to you?” said her rival.
The tall man frowned, detecting the belligerence in his tone. “My mate owns that pub and those bastards smashed it up.”
“No one’s come through here but we’re happy to help you look for them.” She glanced at her rival. “Aren’t we?”
“No,” he retorted.
The tall man glared at him before turning to Raven, his expression much more pleasant. “That’s very kind of you dear, thank you but you probably want to stay out of the way, someone’s going to get hurt and a pretty thing like you doesn’t want to get caught up in that.”
If only you knew, she thought. “Well, if you don’t need me I’ll say goodnight. It’s very late.”
“Yes, you get yourself off sweetheart,” said the tall man. “There’s some unscrupulous characters in town tonight and you don’t want to come across any of them in the dark.”
He accompanied her to her car as he talked, even going as far as to open the door for her.
She thanked the man and got in, closing the door and hitting the central locking.
As she drove out of the car park she glanced at her rival, who was glaring at her, lips set into a snarl. She’d come here tonight intent on ending this and she’d failed. It was far from over. However she couldn’t help but chuckle as she drove by her furious rival. He’d failed too and he’d had ten men helping him.
By the time she arrived home it was almost two o’clock in the morning. All she wanted to do was collapse into bed but her mind wouldn’t allow her, what her rival had told her endlessly spinning through her head. Unwillingly, she thought back over the few times she’d visited her mother in the mental hospital. She recalled a wild-haired, paranoid mess who’d thought demons were chasing her. After her own experiences with mescaline, she wondered if there had been more to her mother’s condition than mental illness. She’d encountered not very nice beings during some of her trips and afterwards too - dark, unpleasant creatures who did not belong in the world of the living. Fortunately the ravens had always warded them off.
Raven’s last memories of her mother were of a woman with dark hair just like her own, only hers had been streaked with silver. Leona had been in her thirties but she’d looked much older, the fear and paranoia prematurely ageing her. Her eyes had constantly flicked about, never looking directly at you, even when you were talking to her, as though she was watching something no one else could see. Raven always had the feeling she hardly knew she was there. She’d visited Leona a few times out of a sense of duty, she’d never been that fond of her mother, who had never shown much interest in her, preferring the company of her men and friends at the pub. However she’d always ensured her daughter had something to eat and decent clothes and went to school, which Raven had always been grateful for. She’d never been neglectful, more disinterested. Raven held her no ill will, she had been as disinterested in her mother as she’d been in her and that was why she’d sworn never to have children. Fortunately Aidan didn’t want kids either, so it wasn’t a problem. Not that it really mattered. In order to conceive a child you had to at least be in the same room.
Raven curled up in the armchair before the vast window in the lounge, sipping green tea and mulling over the few visits she’d made to the mental hospital. She couldn’t recall seeing her rival or his dad there, but then again she hadn’t paid much attention to the people surrounding them in the grim, echoing hall they’d had the nerve to call a day room. She’d been far too busy watching her mother grow twitchier and crazier. In her worst psychosis, Leona had been known to be violent and Raven had always feared she’d attack her.
It was outrageously unfair of her rival to take what had happened to his parents out on her, she’d only been a child at the time. He must have sustained some mental damage himself, it was the only explanation and it appeared he wasn’t going to stop until she was dead. Still, she now had somewhere to look where she could discover more about her rival. Stonefort Hospital in Leeds.
CHAPTER 13
Raven was rudely woken by her phone ringing the next morning. Despite the plan she’d made to go to Stonefort Hospital, she had wanted a bit of a lie in to compensate for her late night. But that went out the window when she heard Patrick’s hard voice on the other end of the line.
“My office. Now.”
“It’s six thirty in the morning and you don’t own me.”
“It’s important and you will want to hear what I have to say.”
“Then tell me now, over the phone,” she said, rubbing her eyes.
“I don’t trust the phone, I want to talk face to face…are you yawning?”
“Hmmm, sorry. Late night.”
There was a derisive sniff. “Clubbing I suppose.”
“No. I don’t go clubbing, I can’t stand it. Actually I was working.”
“
Was it to do with restoring your reputation?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Face to face. I don’t trust phones.”
“Then you’ll understand my reluctance to talk now. Don’t be long,” he said before hanging up.
She glared at the phone before tossing it onto the bed, raking her fingers through her hair and yawning again. When all this crap was over she was taking some time off just to relax at home, hike on the moors, sleep, read and drink tea. That’s if she made it through this alive.
“You took your time,” said Patrick, black eyes narrowing at her over the tips of his steepled fingers. For once he didn’t look immaculately dressed. His hair was slightly unkempt and his shirt creased.
“I was in bed when you rang,” retorted Raven, not in the mood for him. “I had to shower, dress and eat first. So, what’s so important?”
“I was arrested last night.”
She forced herself not to laugh. “What for?”
“The attempted murder of Harold Reedman. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous?”
“It’s not ridiculous. You did try to have him killed.”
“Yes but the person I hired wasn’t the one who poisoned him. Stupid police.”
“Sounds like they’re pretty smart to me.”
“I didn’t ask you here to compliment the idiots who kept me caged all night.”
“I thought that savage lawyer of yours would have had you sprung sooner.”
“He would have if the cretin hadn’t accidentally turned the ringer off his mobile phone.”
Raven had to swallow down more laughter. Besides, she liked the thought of Patrick sweating in a prison cell, it would do his ego some good to realise he wasn’t omnipotent. “Is he still your lawyer?”
He nodded, eyes flashing. “He gave me his services today for free. I also gave him a bollocking he’ll never forget. He loses me as a client his reputation sinks, so he’ll be on his best behaviour from now on.”
“What evidence did they have against you?”
“Nothing except that myself and Harold had recently butted heads in business. Normally this wouldn’t be enough but unfortunately they realised how my business rivals have a habit of dying. Fortunately the last two were cremated, although they are digging up Arthur Swinton. Remember him?”
She nodded, refusing to utter a single word.
“This conversation isn’t being recorded,” he said.
Raven merely shrugged. She was taking no chances.
“You need to produce a suspect to take the heat off me.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I do?”
“I’ll pay you,” he snapped.
“Too right you will.”
“At a reduced rate. Don’t regard me with that cold eyed fury,” he said, practically purring with pleasure that he’d angered her. “You failed to kill Harold and you’ve failed to eliminate this rival of yours, which has directly led to my recent…encounter with the local police.”
“The fact you keep ordering hits on your business rivals led the police to you.”
“And if you hadn’t allowed your rival to take another of your contracts, you would have injected Harold with your serum that is undetectable and not that rancid concoction that interfering fool used.”
“Out of interest, what did he use?”
“What does it matter?”
“I want to know. It could be useful.”
He snorted out an angry breath, reminding Raven of a bull. “Some nasty mix of narcotics mixed with drain cleaner. They wouldn’t give me the specifics but it was lethal and fast acting.”
“What about Terry?”
“They suspect he was given something similar but there were so many drugs in his system that it scrambled the results. Why does anyone need to take a horse tranquiliser? Apparently that was one of many things pounding their way through his bloodstream. They were amazed he managed to remain upright. So whatever he was injected with pushed him over the edge very quickly.”
“At least he didn’t suffer.”
“Yes, because that was top of my list of priorities.” He slammed his fist down on the desk and leaned over it, eyes black, hissing at her like a rattlesnake. “You find this fucker, you kill him, painfully, and you find someone to blame for the attack on Harold.”
“I fully intend to do the first two, for myself, not you. But I am not going to set up some innocent to take the fall for something they didn’t do.”
“Then find someone guilty, some creep the world could do without. There’s plenty of those around.”
Raven found it amusing that he failed to realise he was one of those people. “The police have nothing on you. They’re just trying to scare you into doing something stupid and you’re playing right into their hands. You need to calm down and stop panicking.”
“I do not panic.”
“That’s exactly what you’re doing. They can exhume all the bodies they like but they’ll find nothing, the serum is untraceable. All they have are Arthur, Harold and Terry, who they can’t link to you.”
There was a beat of silence before he said, “perhaps you’re right.”
“Of course I am. Just please, try and relax and let me take care of my rival.”
“Sooner rather than later.”
“Hopefully.”
“Any leads?”
She nodded.
He sighed. “Care to share?”
“Not until I know where this is going.”
“Raven…”
“It’s for your own good. Believe me, you don’t want this guy on your tail.”
Patrick considered the wisdom of her words and had to concede that she was right. He may be a big hitter in the business world but he wasn’t a physical fighter, that was why he needed to employ people like Raven.
“Now I need to go,” she said, getting to her feet.
“Keep me posted.”
She just nodded before leaving. As she left his office, closing the door behind her, her eyes once again settled on Karen, the secretary.
“Can I help you?” said Karen sweetly.
“No,” said Raven.
Karen forced herself not to squirm as Raven’s dark, intense gaze felt to penetrate her very soul. Raven’s eyes narrowed slightly, the atmosphere in the room growing heavier, thick with danger.
With a swirl of her dark coat, Raven left the room. Karen finally allowed herself to exhale with relief.
As Raven was walking out of the building housing Patrick’s empire, heading to her car parked at the kerb, an uneasy revulsion crept up her spine. Whipping round, she scanned the street, seeing nothing but strangers walking by. But there was more to the scene than met the eye. Someone was watching her.
Hastily she got into her car, careful to check the back seats first, locking the doors. Just before she pulled away, she glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw Dexter Aleksandrov standing on the pavement, grinning at her with his twisted lips.
Raven gazed up at the stern grey frontage of the hospital where her mother had ended her days. Five years ago it was shut down after the new, modern hospital had been built, leaving this echoing husk to rot away, slowly being reclaimed by nature. The grounds were hidden away by high walls, which had defended society from the unwanted and forgotten. Stonefort’s history was a long and dark one, tainted by whispers of abuse and a high mortality rate. It had only marginally improved by the time her mother had been admitted, kicking and screaming.
It was a simple thing for Raven to scale the padlocked gate and now she stood in the grounds, the once neat lawn overgrown, ivy suffocating the building. Off to the right was the graveyard where her mother was buried. At least she’d been placed in the newer burial site, away from the old graveyard that housed the remains of hundreds of unfortunates from the Victorian era. Where her mother rested there were less than a hundred gravestones. However it was rumoured that beneath this land lay many more bodies than had been officially recorded. Stonefort
had first opened its doors in the mid-eighteenth century, when record-keeping hadn’t been as stringent as it was now. The governor had preferred for all the funds given to the hospital to go into his pocket rather than be used for the benefit of the patients. Each patient had meant less money for him, so it was said those with no family, no one to miss them were quietly disposed of, their bodies buried in the vast grounds. Tales of hauntings and spectres abounded and Stonefort was popular with the local ghost hunters and teenagers wanting a late night thrill. Thanks to her experiences with mescaline, Raven was convinced life beyond this physical realm existed, however the prospect of ghosts and ghouls did nothing to dissuade her from entering the building.
Although the main doors were securely locked and chained shut, a side door had been prised open years ago by some thrill-seeking teenagers and no one had bothered to secure it, so getting inside required no ingenuity.
Despite the fact it was daylight outside, the light failed to filter in through the grimy windows and she had to pause to get her bearings in the gloom, pulling the small torch out of her pocket, which shone watery light down the empty, echoing hall. Dead leaves had blown through the door and they crunched beneath her boots as she walked. It smelled damp and some of the walls had mould growing up them, which she was careful to stay away from. This level had been one of the wards, the one for those who were only expected to be in a short time. Her rival’s own words had belied his truth as her mother had been on the ward at the top of the three storey building, the one reserved for the most violent patients, those with very little chance of ever being released. They wouldn’t have put someone suffering from a mild case of depression on that ward. He’d have been down here. The patients on this ward didn’t interact at all with the patients on the top ward, so there was more to the story than he was letting on, or her rival was looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses.
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