by Rob Sinclair
Dani turned to Ana, but as she did so the torchlight flicked into the near distance and Dani paused as she stared across the ground surrounding them. Just like everywhere else there was a thick layer of leaves and other debris scattered all over, but it was clear the ground around here was undulating with small mounds. A horrific thought wormed into Dani’s mind but she pushed it away.
‘How far inside?’ Dani asked.
‘I don’t know. Not far. But… I can’t go back in there.’
Ana was shaking as she spoke, and Dani didn’t believe it was from the cold.
‘You’d rather stay out here on your own?’ Dani said.
‘I’d rather be in a foamy bath in the suite of a five-star hotel.’
‘Tell me about it.’
Dani turned and ducked and headed in. She was confident Ana would soon follow. Three steps inside she glanced over her shoulder to see Ana right there.
The cramped space was dank and musty. Water pooled underfoot and Dani’s feet splashed through it sending mucky liquid up against the bottom of her trousers with each step. She kept the torchlight focused up ahead and soon she could see a junction of sorts where the tunnel split into two.
‘Which way?’ Dani said to Ana.
‘I don’t know.’
Dani shone the torch to the left. The tunnel carried on that way as far as the light could reach, sloping downwards as it went, no end visible. To the right the ground remained more level, and Dani was sure there was an end in sight that way. Which was why she chose that path.
Sure enough, after a few more steps, the form of a doorway took shape.
‘This must be it,’ Dani said as much to herself as to Ana.
Every step now was more fraught than the last. How Dani longed to be somewhere else. The five-star room Ana had mentioned. Dani could imagine it now. The warmth, the comfort, the smells and the feel. That picture of serenity couldn’t be any further from her reality.
By the time Dani was five yards from the open doorway, she could make out some of the room that lay beyond. Shelving. Workbenches. She flicked the torch down to the ground, kept the light focused on the unidentifiable, crumpled mound on the floor just past the threshold.
She edged forwards ever so slowly. Her heart raced. Her legs were shaking from surging adrenaline. Pure fight or flight. But Dani wasn’t about to turn and run. Not now.
She reached the doorway.
‘There was a light,’ Ana said. ‘I don’t remember turning it off.’
Dani, torch shining into the space, didn’t take her eyes off the heap on the floor as she reached around the doorway. She felt for the switch. Found it. She flicked it and the strip light overhead in the room sputtered into life, achingly slowly. Only when the flickering had stopped did Dani turn off her torch light. She took another half step forward, her eyes still on the heap on the floor right in front of her, spatters of red all around. Most of it still wet.
She’d expected to see the form of a man in the heap. To see skin, a face. Alex, to be precise. But all she saw was a discarded pile of blood-drenched clothes.
The room was empty.
Alex was gone.
Chapter 48
‘I don’t understand,’ Ana said, as Dani prodded the pile of bloodied fabrics with her toe, as if she expected it to come to life.
It didn’t.
‘Did you check he was dead?’ Dani said.
‘No! I only wanted to get out. But I stabbed him. In the chest, in the back. He wasn’t moving. He must have been dead.’
‘Except he’s not here now.’
Dani saw a flicker of doubt in Ana’s eyes.
‘You don’t believe me?’
‘Where’s the knife?’ Dani asked.
Ana glanced around the room. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Did you drop it? Take it with you?’
‘I don’t remember!’
Dani bit her tongue. She scanned the room. First she looked to the chair in the middle. Just a plain old wooden chair, although it was bolted to the ground. Why? There was no sign of the rope that Ana had claimed had tied her to it. Next Dani looked over to the workbenches. There were no tools laid out now, like Ana had claimed. Tools which Ana had believed Alex was about to use to torture her with.
What was going on?
Was Ana lying?
‘What is this place?’ Dani said.
She didn’t get an answer from Ana, nor had she expected one. She was thinking out loud. She moved over to the dusty metal shelving unit in the far corner, where there were several similarly dusty cardboard boxes. Dani reached out and flipped the lid on one of them. Discs for an angle-grinder. They looked ancient. She moved to the next box. This one was more curious. Not tooling at all. She reached in and her hand came back out clutching onto a swatch of leather, all ragged at the ends like it had been cut or torn from a bigger piece.
‘How did Victor and Alex even know this place existed?’
Once again she got no answer from Ana. Dani put the leather to one side, then reached into the box once more, and this time pulled out a pendant necklace.
What the hell?
‘Ana, what—’
Dani looked over her shoulder. Then spun around abruptly, her eyes fixing on Ana’s petrified and teary face. She was still standing right by the door.
Except now she wasn’t alone.
Dani hadn’t heard the newcomer at all. How on earth had they moved so stealthily?
Dani’s gaze moved first from Ana’s terrified eyes to the glint of metal held up against her neck, then traced across the thick gloved hand, the black-coated arm and along – until she was staring into two dark eyes behind Ana.
Two dark eyes in a bulbous face that Dani immediately recognised, even though she’d only ever seen him before in photographs.
Nicolae Popescu.
Chapter 49
‘You’ve been looking for me,’ he said, his voice as growly as his accent was thick.
‘Put the knife down,’ Dani said.
Was that the best she could think of?
Popescu grinned evilly.
‘I have a whole team of officers coming this way,’ Dani said. ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’
Popescu snorted. ‘No. You don’t. You two are all alone.’
‘Where’s Alex?’ Dani asked.
Popescu flicked his gaze over his shoulder. Dani took her chance and shuffled forward a half step. Ana’s eyes went even wider than they already were, as if warning Dani to stay put.
‘I finished him off,’ Popescu said.
Ana moaned and squirmed.
‘She did a good job, but he wasn’t dead. Not quite.’
Why would Popescu kill Alex?
Then Dani got it.
‘You’re running from Victor,’ Dani said.
Popescu looked disgusted.
‘You and Silviu were both running. Because we stopped you with that body. You know we arrested Silviu earlier tonight?’
He didn’t react at all to that. Had he already known?
‘She was called Maria,’ Dani said. ‘You were coming here, right? To dispose of her. This is the place you always come to dispose of bodies, whenever Victor asks. But you were caught by the police. And now you’re a risk to Victor. He wants you de—’
‘Shut your face, you stupid bitch,’ Popescu snarled, flicking the knife towards Dani.
The angry reaction was undoubtedly supposed to intimidate Dani. But Popescu had made a mistake. Even though he’d seen Ana’s previous handiwork, he’d still underestimated her. With the knife away from her throat, Dani knew what was coming.
She wouldn’t pass up on the opportunity either.
Dani raced forwards. She reached out and grabbed out, toward the workbench. Grabbed what she could. A wooden stump – a broken handle? A weapon of sorts, at least.
Ana stamped on Popescu’s foot, grabbed hold of his knife arm with both her hands. She tried to wrestle the blade further away from her. But Popescu towered
over her, and was thick and muscly to boot. Ana was nowhere near a match for his size and strength.
Popescu threw his fist into Ana’s side. She squirmed and he pulled his arm free and lifted the knife to drive it down into her neck.
‘Ana, move!’ Dani screamed.
Ana did her best. She pulled to the side. The knife slashed across the flesh of her shoulder. She cried in pain. Dani swung the wood in an arc towards Popescu’s face. He didn’t see it coming. There was a crunch as wood hit bone and he stumbled a half step back. Dani wound up to hit him again. She never saw the meaty fist winging towards her face.
Popescu’s thick knuckles smashed into her nose. Blood spurted and Dani reeled back and lost her footing. She was on her way down as Popescu delivered the same hammer-like blow to Ana. Her head snapped to the side, and the blow sent her crashing into the shelving. The side of her skull cracked horrifically against the metal, and she plummeted awkwardly to the concrete floor, smacking down a fraction of a second after Dani.
Dani lay on the floor. Dazed, nearly out of it. She tried to shake her head. Blinked a few times to clear her fogging vision. She couldn’t lose consciousness. Not now. Not like this. She fought against it with everything she had. Across the way, Ana was crumpled on the floor, unmoving, as a line of blood dribbled down her face from her hairline.
Dani glanced up. Popescu was hovering right over her now, one thick boot either side of her torso. He used the heel of one to turn Dani onto her back. She groaned and writhed but her world was swimming, her body distant, and she didn’t have the strength to fight back, however much she willed herself to try.
Popescu dropped down. His hefty weight crushed Dani’s chest, knocking the air from her lungs. Her head spun all the more and she once again fought to stave off unconsciousness.
Popescu pinned her arms with his knees. He looked down on her with hatred and disgust.
‘You shouldn’t have come after me,’ he snarled.
Dani didn’t say anything. She could barely breathe, let alone speak.
‘If it hadn’t been for his stupid sister…’
His sister.
His sister. Clara Dunne?
Dani’s brain fired now, his words exactly what she needed to find clarity. Dani bucked and writhed. Not that she intended to throw him off, but she needed an inch to breathe properly. To think properly. To talk, and keep him talking, before he thrust that knife down into her heart, or her neck, which he could do at any second if he wanted.
‘You killed Clara,’ Dani said, her words still choked, though at least she’d got them out. His distraction was exactly what she needed. ‘You killed Clara because she knew the truth.’
Popescu clenched his teeth. ‘She had to go.’
‘But you didn’t bring her here. Not like the others. Why?’
‘Because… I hate this place.’
‘How many people have you killed? How many have you brought here?’
Popescu shook his head. He was looking more and more angry. Surely that wasn’t a good thing.
‘You still don’t know a thing,’ he said.
‘Then tell me. Why did you kill Liam?’
He shook his head. ‘You really don’t know anything.’
He looked almost disappointed.
That was when he lifted the knife, and plunged it down into Dani’s flesh.
Chapter 50
The blade sank effortlessly into the flesh of Dani’s shoulder. She screamed in pain, her eyes welled. She gritted her teeth and fought through it as Popescu slowly drew the knife free. Blood dripped off the end of the blade. Dani was woozy, delirious from the agony.
‘You really don’t know?’ Popescu said. ‘You don’t know who Dunne was?’
Popescu dropped down to face Dani. The stab wound was sufficient to make sure she didn’t take the opportunity to fight back. She flinched when his free hand fell down to her hip. He patted about her side and drew her phone from her pocket.
‘Open it,’ he said to her, pushing the phone down to the ground, next to her hand.
Dani grimaced as she stretched out to press her thumb onto the screen. Popescu flicked for a couple of seconds before he turned the phone to Dani.
The screen was blindingly bright and it took Dani’s eyes a couple of seconds to properly focus. She was left staring at the picture of Liam Dunne and the blonde woman.
‘My sister,’ Popescu said.
‘I don’t…’
Dani had been about to say, ‘I don’t understand.’ But then, perhaps she did after all.
‘What is this place?’ Dani said as a tear fell from her eye.
Popescu snorted in disgust. Revulsion. ‘This is where he brought them. All of them. My sister too.’
And now it all made sense.
‘Liam Dunne killed your sister.’
An open secret. Stef had known it too, no doubt. Who else had? Victor? Brigitta? Not even two days ago Stef had looked at that picture in Brigitta’s house and had sworn she didn’t know either Liam or the woman. She’d lied. Because she did know Popescu’s sister. She’d said so herself; that not just Brigitta’s daughter, but her granddaughter had gone missing too. Brigitta’s daughter many years ago, in Romania. But her granddaughter…
‘And believe me,’ Popescu said. ‘I showed that bastard just how bad that decision was.’
Pure hatred dripped with every word.
Finally, Dani could make sense of it all. Liam Dunne had murdered Popescu’s sister. Had brought her here. Had likely brought others here before her. He’d paid the ultimate price. Both Dani and Clara Dunne, Liam’s own sister, had been searching for the truth. The truth of Liam’s disappearance. They’d both believed him to be a victim.
But Liam Dunne hadn’t been a victim. He was a sick murderer.
Popescu held the knife aloft.
‘And now, Detective, I’m very sorry but—’
Thwack.
The blistering impact halted Popescu mid-sentence. Dani had seen it coming. He hadn’t. The wood smacked into the side of his face. Blood spurted, a tooth flew from his mouth.
Ana didn’t let up.
She whacked him again on the top of his skull with her elbow. Dani reached forwards and grabbed his knife hand. Much the same attack as the two women had tried moments earlier. This time they had to make it count. Dani bucked and managed to worm her way out from underneath Popescu, even as she continued to hold his arm at bay. Ana hit him a third, then a fourth time in the head. Dani launched her knee up and dug and ground it into Popescu’s groin. He groaned in pain. Ana hit him again, and as Dani twisted his wrist the knife came free.
The next second Popescu pulled out from Dani’s grip. Ana hit him in the head again. Popescu went to haul himself up. But Ana was like an animal. She grabbed his leg, just below the knee, and sent him crashing back down to the floor. His head smacked against the back of the chair in the middle of the room. Ana landed on top of him, snarling. She reached out to the side and grabbed the knife…
‘No!’ Dani shouted.
Too late. Ana thrust her arm towards him and four inches of the blade disappeared into Popescu’s neck. She wrenched the knife free. Blood spurted and poured as Popescu’s body twitched. He desperately gargled for breath.
Dani watched on helplessly, too shocked to move.
Within seconds Popescu’s movements slowed. Soon, the blood flow reduced to a tame trickle.
After that, Popescu lay entirely still.
Chapter 51
The huge spotlight flicked on and Dani winced from the strength of the ultra-bright beam. Then she cringed with pain as the needle was pushed into her skin once more.
‘Last one, I promise,’ the paramedic said, his face as apologetic as his words.
Dani looked back across the clearing that was now filled with ambulances and police cars, their strobes of blue doing a good job of lighting up the forest surrounding them. As Dani glanced across to the flagpole on the hill in front of them, she could see the first
daylight peeking over as the sun made its slow rise. Within an hour there’d be no need for the hastily erected spotlights at all. At least not on the outside.
In the mine, however…
‘All done?’ Dani said when the paramedic turned away.
‘All done. Though I really do think you should—’
‘I’m not resting now,’ Dani said as she jumped off the end of the ambulance.
She headed back towards the gap in the fence. But then veered to her left when she spotted Ana sitting in the back of one of the many police cars. She headed over and crouched down by the open door. Ana was shaking despite the hot drink in her hand and the silver blanket wrapped around her.
‘What will happen to me?’ Ana said, solemn and more than a little concerned now. After all, an hour ago she’d stabbed a man in the throat in full view of a detective.
‘You’re going to be fine,’ Dani said. ‘I’ll make sure of it. You saved both of us tonight.’ She put her hand onto Ana’s shoulder. ‘Thank you.’
Ana gave a meek smile. Dani turned and headed away. She moved beyond the gap in the fence, the trail now lit up brightly the whole way. She passed several white-suited FSIs before she came to the smaller clearing by the cave entrance where there were close to a dozen FSIs, together with digging equipment, large piles of freshly dug mud all around.
Dani paused and watched them for a few moments.
‘What have we got?’ Dani shouted when one of the FSIs looked her way.
‘Definitely human remains,’ she shouted back. ‘At least five so far. Hard to say how long they’ve been here. Some are definitely older than others.’
Dani sighed then headed back into the cave. If it was possible, the bright lights in here made the narrow space all the more oppressive. At the junction, Dani’s eyes followed the tunnel downwards to the left. She could hear voices that way. She already knew that that was where Alex’s body had been found. Along with a jumbled pile of other bones.
Brigitta Popescu’s words rattled in Dani’s minds. Bones… so many bones.