Mason Black (The Complete Collection): 6 Gripping Crime Stories: The Complete Collection + BONUS Story

by Adam Nicholls

  It was something of a relief. If Calvin had been withholding information like that – telling lies like that – then he could easily be lying about everything else. It would mess up her article, but it was better for it to go sour sooner rather than later. At least this way she would have more time to find something else worth writing about. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Sadie broke it off, said she wanted to make things work with her husband. So she packed up her job, moved house, and never looked back. Never even said goodbye.’

  ‘Which explains your feeling guilty.’ As soon as she said it, she went quiet. She was hoping that he wouldn’t react to it or ask too many questions. But that kind of luck never fell on Evie, and this wouldn’t likely have been an exception.

  ‘Excuse me?’ John turned, looking her dead in the eye.

  ‘I just mean… Well, Calvin Durant has suspicions that you… murdered his family.’

  In the speed of a heartbeat, John flicked the bistro chair across the sitting area. It crashed into the wooden fence, making Evie start. ‘Of course he does! He’s guilty as hell!’

  ‘You were there that night?’ she asked, trying to hide her panic.

  ‘What? Yes, I was there. That was probably what made him fly off the handle.’ John crossed the small area and pushed open the door. ‘I’d like you to leave, Miss Black. You shouldn’t have come here – not with those accusations.’

  Feeling almost ashamed, Evie left the building in a hurry. She had only come here to get the truth. But what she was leaving with was two different sides to the same story, and two trembling legs struggling to hold her upright.

  14

  As if it wasn’t bad enough to be caught in the middle of a screwed-up lie-fest, Evie soon received a phone call from Conan Reed. He summoned her to the office, and he didn’t sound overly happy.

  When she arrived – one particularly expensive cab ride later – she sat across from his desk and watched him settle in. He was shuffling papers, slamming drawers, and moving stuff around his workspace.

  ‘Catch me up,’ he said.

  Evie told him everything she had done so far. Despite that he didn’t extend her the courtesy of even looking her in the eye, she offered as much detail as she could. When she got to the part about John Matthews and his little outburst, Conan stopped her.

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘It was just an interv–’

  ‘You can’t go around putting people in a box like that. Now he could sue us for harassment.’ Conan sat back, roughly massaging his scalp. He spun slightly in his chair, giving a look of contemplation. ‘How close do you think you’re coming to having an article?’

  ‘Um…’ Evie wasn’t even sure if she could get an article. She was already taking enough risks as it was. ‘I’ll get it done within the time frame. I can guarantee that much.’

  ‘I hope so,’ Conan said. ‘Because I’m shortening it to three days.’

  Evie shot to her feet, preparing to scream at him for being an ass. As soon as she was up, looking down at his angrily reddening cheeks, she suddenly remembered that he wasn’t even her boss yet. Her mouth had gone as far as opening, but she managed to stifle her yelling. ‘This,’ she said calmly, ‘is unfair. I chose my case with the deadline in mind. Shortening it now would be–’

  Conan raised a hand, cutting her off. ‘Take it or leave it. I can’t put everything on hold for a story that might not even come about. If you mess this up, I’m going to need time to get a half-decent story out there.’

  ‘But–’

  ‘You still have your chance, Evie. Now close the door on your way out.’

  Evie didn’t hang around. If she was going to continue pursuing this case, she would have to figure out her next move as quickly as possible, else she would lose everything she had worked for.

  15

  At midday, Calvin was taken from his cell. He didn’t know why this was, until he was shown into the interrogation room and forced into the seat. It couldn’t be long before they’d have to either let him go or send him to trial, he thought, but that wasn’t exactly comforting.

  Soon enough, a man stepped in. He was redheaded, with freckles and a little ginger goatee. His suit looked expensive, but he didn’t wear it well. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Durant,’ he said, taking a seat. ‘I’m Detective Poe.’

  ‘As in Edgar Allan?’ Calvin asked.

  ‘Yes, exactly.’

  ‘Where’s Detective Little?’

  ‘He has other business to take care of right now. I’m simply stepping in as a favour.’ Poe opened up a file and spread different photographs and documents across the table.

  Calvin wanted nothing to do with it. All he could think about was whether or not he would receive a fair trial. ‘What’s going to happen to me?’

  ‘Oh, you’ll be going to court soon enough.’

  ‘I want a lawyer.’

  ‘You’ll get one.’ Poe didn’t so much as look up to say this.

  ‘And a phone call.’

  ‘That, too.’

  Calvin was at a loss. This detective seemed to be treating him well enough, considering that he probably thought him guilty. But maybe now was his chance to explain, and he was determined to seize it. ‘Listen to me,’ he began, choosing his words carefully. ‘I didn’t kill my family. The other detective – Little – he came to my cell the other night and threatened me.’

  Poe was listening now. He set down the paper he’d been holding and looked up, meeting Calvin’s gaze. ‘Threatened? How?’

  ‘Some strangling, pulling around. It doesn’t matter. Point is, he’s only interested in hearing that I’m guilty. I tried to explain – God knows I tried to explain – but he didn’t want to hear it. You have to help me.’

  Detective Poe cupped his hands together. ‘Don’t you think you should listen to him?’

  ‘Wha… What?’

  ‘Don’t you think you should just plead guilty and make everyone’s life a lot easier?’

  Calvin recoiled. He knows. He knows and doesn’t give a shit!

  ‘Do as you’re told, like a good little boy.’ Poe collected the papers and went for the door. ‘I’m going out for a bit. I’m thinking steak for lunch. Some cigars, maybe. Meanwhile, you sit here and think about what might be best for you.’

  The door slammed shut behind him, and Calvin sat in utter horror. A few days ago he’d been a family man – his adoring wife and loving daughter were on his team. And now here he sat, not only accused of murdering them, but being blackmailed into confession.

  Whatever would happen next, he needed a lawyer as soon as possible. And if Evie Black could hurry the hell up, that would be useful too.

  16

  Every time someone passed by the open door, Evie looked up from her desk. Well, it wasn’t exactly a desk, but rather a staffroom dining table she had made into a desk.

  She was at a loose end. Finding a good lead seemed so far out of the question that all she could think about was getting John Matthews and Calvin Durant in a room together. If that wouldn’t help her figure out the truth then she didn’t know what would.

  ‘How’s it going, beautiful?’

  Evie started at the voice and looked up at the doorway it had come from. Troy stood there, a self-satisfied grin on his face, greasy blonde hair slicked back over his head. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘Can’t a guy say hello to his date?’

  Shit. Evie had totally forgotten that she had agreed to go out with him. There was nothing she wanted less in this world than to eat dinner at the same table as this guy. Sadly, her word meant everything to her, and she had trapped herself into it. ‘Sure. You okay?’

  Troy’s smile broadened. ‘I didn’t know you cared.’ Making his way past the water cooler, he came around to her side of the table and pulled out a chair next to her. The metallic legs scraped the tiles.

  ‘I don’t. Just… making conversation.’

  ‘There are more interesting things to talk about.’
r />   ‘Like what?’ Evie curled her arm around her work, refusing to let him peek.

  ‘Where we’re going to dinner.’ Troy pulled the chair in, took a sip of his water.

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to go just yet.’

  ‘What? Why not?’

  ‘I have a deadline.’

  ‘We all have deadlines, baby.’ Troy uttered a quiet chuckle. Then, taking things to a whole new level, he put a hand on her leg. ‘But you gotta let your hair down and fuck once in a while, eh?’

  Evie shot to her feet, slapping his hand away quickly. ‘Don’t touch me!’

  Troy’s grin turned into a hurt and embarrassed frown. He looked like a grumpy child.

  ‘I’m not going out with you. You’ve shown me nothing but disrespect since the day we met. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’ She leaned over the table and collected her paperwork into any old order. Usually obsessed with neatness and perfection, she felt this was a good enough reason to throw order aside and sort through it later. She just wanted to get out of there.

  ‘You’re making a big mistake.’ Troy stood up. ‘I’m a good guy.’

  ‘I’ll believe that when I see it.’ Evie brought her work to her chest, snatched up her purse and hurried out the door, where other people were buzzing around and could witness anything that might happen again.

  “You’re making a big mistake,” Troy had said.

  And as he’d said it, Evie couldn’t help but notice that there was aggression in his eyes. It was like he’d been holding back. She knew men like that, and they never held back forever. Sooner or later they would lash out, and she wouldn’t want to be there when that happened.

  17

  After a long and hypnotic walk around the city, it now seemed so obvious. Evie’s next step wasn’t to interview anyone, or even to eavesdrop on a discussion between the two suspects. It was to get inside their personal space, to rummage through their secrets – to break in to Calvin Durant’s home and dig up the dirt on him.

  It was dark outside now, which provided the perfect cover for her. Evie slipped into a nearby alley, paying no mind to the police tape that surrounded the perimeter of the house. None of the authorities were inside (the lights were off and she’d been watching the place all evening), which pretty much gave her the go-ahead to break in.

  Using the roof of the porch to gain access to the slightly open bathroom window, she reached in, got a hand around the latch of the bigger window, and prised it open. From there, she easily crept inside and into the Durant family home.

  Evie held out her cell phone, using the screen’s light to illuminate her path. It was the best way to go unnoticed – she wouldn’t want a nosy neighbour seeing that the house was occupied and phoning the police.

  The bedrooms were the first two rooms she went through, riffling through their personal things in the dark. It was lucky she didn’t believe in ghosts; this was exactly the kind of place where somebody of that nature might expect one.

  Finding nothing, Evie headed downstairs into the kitchen. ‘So, this is where the murders took place,’ she said aloud, for no particular reason. It was eerily quiet, but she could still picture the sounds of laughter and joy as they all gathered around the dining table for dinner. It suddenly broke Evie’s heart that, even though she had never met Sadie and Emma Durant, their lives had ended so suddenly.

  This room, however, was just as useless as the others. There was nothing to suggest any kind of secret rivalry between the spouses, nor could she find anything that might be worth asking Calvin about.

  But what she did find was something that gave her a whole new idea.

  On the refrigerator, clearly written on a blue slip of paper and pinned down with a Winnie the Pooh magnet, was: MOM. There was an address underneath, which might prove useful. Evie snapped up a picture of this on her phone and got out of there the same way she’d come in.

  Now… She held the picture up and studied it. Whose mother is this, and what little secrets can she tell me about the Durant family?

  18

  The motoring magazine had torn in his hand. It was probably that his nails had dug into the paper as he’d dreamt his terrible dreams. Calvin had no idea what time it was, but the pitch black of the corridors outside his cell told him it was at least late at night… or early morning.

  But there was something else, a daunting realisation that the hours he’d lost had, in fact, not slipped by because he had simply dozed off. No, this was something else.

  This was a blackout.

  As evidence to his conclusion, a pile of paper triangles lay at his feet, shuffling between his wiggling toes and giving the smallest of paper-cuts to his sensitive feet. Calvin examined the magazine in his hand, and sure enough, there were triangles missing from the sides of the front page. It wasn’t what they meant (or didn’t mean) that caused concern – it was that he had no recollection of doing this. None whatsoever.

  As big as the hope was that Evie Black could prove his innocence, there was something more worrying on Calvin’s mind: what if he really had killed his family? Surely his love for them would be buried so deep in his subconscious that he couldn’t hurt them under any circumstances, but the frustration showed by the paper triangles suggested something else.

  They suggested aggression.

  Anxiety poisoned his body now. There was no way he was going back to sleep. Not without his lawyer, and not without hearing from Evie. Calvin Durant needed the truth, in any way that it came. But it would have to be soon, or he would surely be sent down. And in prison, as hinted on by Detective Little, anything could happen to him.

  Anything at all.

  19

  First thing on Saturday morning, just as the sun rose to kiss the sky, Evie trod up the wobbly brick steps of the woman’s house. It was small, shaded. Just right for someone living on their own. Whoever this Mom was, Evie had to guess that there was no Dad beside her.

  She raised a hand to knock, but before her knuckles could drum the wood, the door popped open and an elderly lady jolted backwards. Her eyelids gave a little flutter, flinching like something was going to hit her.

  ‘I’m so sorry if I frightened you,’ Evie said, half laughing.

  The old woman pressed an open hand across her heart, letting out a sigh. A smile slowly crept upon her lips then, and her blue eyes blazed as if touched by magic. ‘It’s okay, dear. I just didn’t expect you there – you almost gave me a heart attack.’

  The way she smiled – her plump cheekbones rising as she spoke – made it clear to Evie that this was Calvin’s mother. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind. They even had the same distinct eye colour. ‘You’re Mrs Durant?’

  ‘I am. But call me Judy, please. And who might you be?’

  Evie extended a hand. ‘Sorry. I’m Evie Black. I’m working for Vision Magazine.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t need two guesses as to what this is about.’ Judy closed the door and ushered Evie off the steps. ‘But if you want to talk, perhaps we could do it on the way to the funeral parlour. You’re welcome to share my cab.’

  ‘Funeral parlour?’ Evie held an arm out for the fragile Judy Durant to take.

  ‘For my granddaughter and her mother. As I’m sure you know, the proceedings need to be taken care of. Sadie had no family of her own, and with Calvin under arrest, who else is there?’

  ‘That’s very kind of you,’ Evie said.

  A cab pulled up on the side of the road, sounding its horn to alert them.

  ‘I just hope Calvin is able to make it. It will be a shame if my boy doesn’t get to say goodbye to his family properly.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Evie held open the cab door and carefully helped Judy inside. She closed the door and ran around the other side, hopping in beside her contact. As soon as she was in, they began to move. ‘I hope I don’t sound insensitive…’

  ‘You’re wondering if I think my son is a killer?’

  Evie felt her cheeks grow a pinkish red. ‘Well, I…’

&n
bsp; ‘It’s fine. You have a job to do, I understand.’ Judy waved a hand and gazed out of the window. ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think Calvin did it. I’ve known him his entire life – obviously – and he’s never been one for violence.’

  ‘Mrs… Judy, are you aware that your son suffered blackouts?’

  ‘Very, yes. I’ve witnessed it twice myself.’

  ‘What happened?’ Evie pulled the notepad from her purse and began to scribble notes.

  Judy turned, looked briefly down at the pen, and shook her head. ‘Nothing. Nothing at all. He was mostly braindead when it happened. He would have simplistic conversations and not remember them later. During both of those phases – that’s what we liked to call them, phases – he wouldn’t move an inch. He would fidget, peel labels off things and pick at his fingernails, but nothing more.’

  Evie wrote this down in shorthand, using only keywords to remind herself – Braindead, Phases, Fidget. She could type it all up later and know exactly what she had meant. The irony of it was that she didn’t really need to look at the notes because she would remember having written them. But if she didn’t write them, she wouldn’t have that visual aid. She called this “brainfuckery.”

  ‘Could you think of any reason why Calvin and Sadie might have argued?’ Evie asked. ‘Anything that might have raised his blood pressure?’

  ‘No, dear. They were in the middle of a divorce, but it wasn’t exactly news to him.’

  Evie suddenly felt light-headed and heavy-hearted all at once. ‘A divorce?’ Calvin had kept this from her – probably intentionally, too. But why?

  ‘I can tell you’re surprised,’ Judy said, raising a frail hand to cover her eyes. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything. If it’s all the same to you, I would like to end the discussion for now. If you want to know more about the divorce, you should probably talk to my son. It’s just not my place.’

  ‘It’s fine. You didn’t know it was a secret.’ Evie did her best at assuring Calvin’s mother, but it did nothing for herself. Whatever trust she had built up for the man had been demolished in only a second. Now, it was replaced with anger – raw lividness that she had been lied to from the very beginning.