I’d almost reached Eric when I was yanked back. At first I thought someone had grabbed me, but then I felt the weight on my ankle.
What the hell!
I looked round to see a shackle on my ankle that was attached to a long chain bolted to the wall. I was going nowhere. Getting through to Sheena was my only chance.
My gut clenched as I pictured Tommy with a knife stuck in him too, his life blood seeping out onto the floor. Where the hell is he? He should have burst into the room and be cleaning house by now.
“Sheena.” I said her name softly. “I spoke to your mum and dad. They miss you.”
Not so much as a flicker.
“They want you to come home. They said Chester misses you.”
Her eyes moved almost imperceptibly when I mentioned her horse.
“Wouldn’t you love to see Chester again?”
She was still off in la-la land as she played with the dirty bandage that covered the stump of her missing finger. In these filthy conditions it was a wonder it hadn’t got infected and killed her.
Time for a change of tact.
“I met Donna,” I said brightly. “She thinks you’re dead and she’s responsible. She wishes she’d gone with you.”
“Donna.” She said her friend’s name so faintly, at first I thought I’d imagined it, but then she met my gaze, eyes slowly coming alive and filled with confusion. “Is she okay?”
She took a step towards me. That’s when I spotted Eric’s gun on the window ledge. It was too far away for me to reach. I needed to get free.
“She’s fine,” I said. “Still saying ‘you know’ at the end of every sentence. Still gobby.”
Sheena’s face relaxed, her lips curling into something approaching a smile.
“Can you unlock this?” My gaze focused on the chain around my ankle. “My friend Eric needs urgent medical help or he might die.”
She placed a finger on her lips. “Sssshhh, he’s coming.”
Despite the summer heat, I shivered.
There were footsteps and my heartbeat quickened. There was nothing I could use as a weapon within reach. The only thing within range was a filthy mattress that should have been incinerated years ago. My Taser was gone.
“Sheena,” I said quietly, “you need to help me get free.” I tried to keep a lid on my rising panic.
Sheena didn’t reply. She simply stood there, waiting—an obedient little servant. Panic beat against my chest. I was going to die here or worse, the doctor’s mad brother was going to keep me here all chained up, then dissect me bit by bit because the voices told him to.
A thought crept into my head, a plan so crazy it might just work. Lying flat down on the floor, I pretended to still be unconscious. There was a creak as the door swung open, followed by footsteps.
“Good girl,” I heard a man say in a soft Irish lilt. His voice had a hypnotic quality. He sounded like a therapist, not a schizophrenic.
His tone didn’t change when he addressed Eric. “Tell me where your other friend is or I’ll stick the knife in deeper, and don’t lie to me about him being here; I saw him on the cameras.”
Shit, why hadn’t we spotted them?
“What’s that?”
He must have leaned over Eric’s prone body to hear and been told to go fuck himself, because Eric screamed them. A feral scream that could have come from a wild animal. The bastard must have twisted the knife.
Unless I did something he was going to kill him.
“Please help me,” I said. I made my words sound as pathetic as I could. “I can’t move. I think I’m paralyzed.” My eyes were open wide and staring up at the ceiling. I had to make him think there was something wrong with me so he’d leave Eric alone to deal with me.
He said something like “I’ll deal with you later,” to Eric and strode over to me. That’s when I realized we’d all been duped. Donald Cassidy wasn’t dead. Unless the doctor had a double, he was very much alive. How was that even possible?
DI Waddell had a lot of explaining to do. How the hell had the boys in blue missed Cassidy’s switcheroo?
“I can’t move,” I mumbled so he’d have to crouch to hear me. He knelt down. That’s when I sprang into action.
Seizing the Stanley knife I’d secreted in my sock, I flicked it open and jumped to my feet.
“Don’t be silly, girly. I know you’re not going to use it.”
His use of girly really pissed me off.
“Is that right?” I hissed.
Without any hesitation, I lashed out with the blade and raked it across his arm, slicing it open like it was a banana. He shrieked and staggered backwards, yelling, and that’s when I stuck a leg out. He tripped and fell, agonizingly too far away for me to rummage through his pockets for the keys to the chain. Tripping him up had unbalanced me, and the knife flew out of my hand and landed too far away for me to reach it. Casting a glance towards Sheena, I knew she’d be no help—she was still a robot. Any chance I’d had of escape was gone.
When I heard footsteps, my heart did a wee skip. It had to be Tommy.
The door swung open to reveal the last person I expected to see. Lorna Chanderpaul.
In that instant, I realized she’d done more than supply Cassidy with girls.
He was coming for her. Not the nicer one who’d stroked Diane’s hair and told her she was pretty before the mean one who called himself doctor had marched in and smacked him across the face with an open palm, calling him a dumb boy and ordering him out the room.
She hadn’t seen the nicer one for days now, or was it weeks? In here, time had lost all meaning.
Would Kyra even remember her? Or was Kyra’s gran her mum now? She knew she should be happy that her wee girl had someone, but instead she felt sad. Kyra was the only good thing that’d ever happened to her.
Sometimes she’d wake up and feel Kyra stroking her hair the way she always did on the nights when she’d have a bad dream, when she’d come running into her bed bawling because she was convinced something terrible was hiding in her wardrobe. When she realized Kyra wasn’t there, it physically hurt.
The footsteps outside the room got closer, and Diane’s heart was beating so fast she thought it was about to burst. It added to her mounting panic that he always fumbled about with different keys as if he couldn’t remember which one to use. He liked to mess with her mind. He liked to do that as well as sticking needles in her. At one point, he’d even thrust one long one deep inside her as she’d thrashed against the restraints and screamed until her throat was raw underneath the gag. Finally she’d passed out with the pain.
When she’d asked him why he was doing this, he’d said she was wicked and needed to be cured. Then he’d grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into another room with a bath. He’d ordered her to strip and climb into the cast-iron tub with lukewarm water and the kind of scrubbing brush you’d use to wash the stairs.
“Use that,” he’d ordered, holding up the brush. “And make sure you’re clean. If you miss a spot, I’ll do it for you.”
She didn’t dare defy him.
She’d scrubbed herself until her skin stung and bled. Afterwards, as her vision swam with tears, he’d hauled her out of the bath and flung her and her clothes back in this room.
There’d been no food or water for her that night.
When the door opened, she braced herself for what she knew was about to happen.
Chapter 26
Lorna swept into the room and eyed us all dismissively. “For Christ sake, Donald, you’ve really messed up this time. Why is”—she pointed at Sheena—”that little tart still alive? I told you to dispose of her. She can’t be cured. Just like your useless, retarded brother Eddie.”
Donald Cassidy was on his feet. “I’m sorry, Lorna. Things got out of hand, but I can fix this. We can move on, start again and continue with our good work. Cure these poor wretches of their debauchery.” His soft Irish brogue had turned whiny.
Lorna made a huh noise. “Like
you fixed it when Eddie played out his sick fantasies and strangled that Henderson whore. Like you fixed it when you let that little scrubber live. Forgive me if I no longer have any faith in you, Dr. Cassidy.” She sneered when she said his name. “You’ve become a liability just like your brother, and I’ve already dealt with him.”
Clearly, Dr. Cassidy wasn’t the only one who believed in brutal methods being applied to women who sold sex to “cure” them. Lorna wasn’t just pimping out the girls for cash; she was also helping Cassidy to systematically torture them because in her twisted mind, she thought his sadistic methods would somehow stop them from prostituting themselves. When those treatment methods failed, she wanted the girls dead.
Cassidy glared at her. “My brother, what have you done to Eddie?”
I could see in his eyes that he already knew that his brother was dead.
What happened next happened so fast I wouldn’t have been able to intervene even if I hadn’t been chained to the wall. Cassidy, who’d been edging his way closer to Lorna, fell into her, and I heard her surprised yelp as an arterial spray of blood soaked Cassidy’s coat. Her chocolate-brown eyes stared at Cassidy with confusion before she slumped to the floor with a red gash at her throat.
Someone screamed, and at first I thought it was Sheena, until I realized it was me. Cassidy had a scalpel, and he was staggering over to me with a wild look on his face.
Moving as far back as the chain would allow, I searched for a weapon. But unless you counted an empty water bottle, there was nothing. He’d killed Lorna. Now he was gonna kill me.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said as he stepped over her body and advanced towards me. “Nobody needs to know what happened here. Please let me go.”
I hated the weakness in my voice. This wasn’t how I wanted to go.
I heard something hit the floor.
“Nancy.”
The voice spoke my name so quietly at first I thought that in the grips of my terror I’d imagined it. Then Eric said the one word he knew I’d recognize. “Hustle.”
As he’d taught me at the gym, I hurled myself at Cassidy. Cassidy didn’t expect it; you don’t expect the person you’re attacking to turn the tables.
He went flying, landing with a crushing thud on his tailbone, his foot at an awkward angle.
“You bitch,” he roared as he gazed in horror at his ruined ankle.
I could hear Eric’s ragged breath. Thank God, he was still alive, but he wouldn’t be for long unless I got him help. There had to be some way I could get free.
Surveying the room, I looked for anything within reach, but there was nothing. The gun taunted me from the window ledge. Cassidy must have had the key for the chain in his pocket.
There was only one thing I could do now.
“I can help you,” I said to him. “Just throw me the keys to this chain.”
“Do you think I’m stupid, girl? If I do that, you’ll take your friend out of here and the girl too, and phone the police. That’s what I’d do in your place.”
“Look,” I said, “I just want to get Eric out of here. Why would I do anything to help the psycho bitch who stabbed him?” I glared at Sheena, who was now hunkered down on the floor, arms folded and muttering away to herself. This had to be convincing. “Just let us go. You’ll have enough time to leave before we can get help.”
Cassidy seemed to be considering it, but then said, “No, I don’t think so.”
He started to crawl towards the door. Every movement must have taken him immense effort and he grunted with pain.
He was halfway to the door when he spoke to Sheena. “Now, be a good girl and kill them.”
Sheena moved towards me. In that moment, I knew what he’d done to her. She wasn’t drugged, she was hypnotized.
“Now, be a good girl,” I said, “and sit back down.”
I hoped it would work, but I’d no idea if a stranger saying it would have the desired effect.
It didn’t look too good for me when Sheena picked up my knife and walked towards me.
Chapter 27
The door was nearly kicked off its hinges, and Tommy appeared. Diane Chambers was with him, and she was carrying a shovel. It dwarfed her small frame, and looking at her, I doubted she had the strength to raise it.
Tommy took in the madness. The lifeless body of Lorna Chanderpaul. His injured friend Eric. The crazy doctor.
Marching over, he booted Cassidy in the body, and I heard the crunch of bone. Cassidy whimpered as Tommy rummaged through his pockets. Tommy pulled out a bunch of keys held together by a wire and threw them to me. Then he knelt down to check on Eric.
“How is he?” I asked, fumbling with the keys before finding the right one and springing myself free.
Tommy’s face was grim. “I’ve managed to stop the bleeding and he’s still conscious, so I think he’s going to be okay.”
I let out the breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding in. “Thank God for that.”
Cassidy hadn’t finished yet, even as he lay whimpering on the floor. “You have no idea of the depravity, of the rottenness that exists at the core of those poor wretches. They’re painted as victims of circumstance, of addiction. But the truth is they go with any man, do anything they are paid to do because they enjoy it. They’re wicked.”
This time I was the one who booted him in the ribs.
Tommy stood there in a shooting stance. “The police will be here soon,” he said. “It has to be done now.”
I was confused. “What?”
“Kill the bastard, of course.”
What the hell was he saying?
“The police are coming,” I said. “Let them deal with him.”
Tommy sniffed. “You know what’ll happen. He’s a psychologist. He knows how to play the system. They’ll declare him mad, put him in a cushy mental hospital. Then he’ll miraculously be cured; be freed to prey on others.”
Was I really hearing this? Killing the bastard would be too easy. He needed to suffer; every day, every minute of the rest of his miserable life. His victims deserved their day in court.
“Tommy, are you crazy? If you kill him like this, it’ll be cold-blooded murder. And we might never find Tanya.”
Tommy shook his head before he fixed me with a cold stare. “You don’t know what he did. You never saw what he did.”
I didn’t want him to say it because whatever it was, it had to be bad to make him go off the deep end like this. He was a soldier; he’d been in Iraq. He must have seen some horrendous things, but none of them had made him go rogue.
“What didn’t I see?”
Tommy’s shoulders slumped. His face was porcelain-pale. “I found Tanya. That bastard”—he pointed at Cassidy—”drowned her in the bath. She put up a fight. There were gouges on the sides. Bits of nail. Blood—so much fucking blood. He’s a fucking savage. He’s gotta die.”
Vomit filled my throat as I imagined Tanya’s last terrifying moments. After all we’d done, we’d been too late.
All along, I’d known there was a slim chance of finding her alive. If anyone was destined to end up murdered, it was Tanya. No one but us had ever cared about her. Or maybe the only person who had, her mother, had been torn from her when she’d been murdered by her father.
“Okay, do it. You’ve convinced me.”
I meant it. Bastard deserved to die.
I looked over at Diane and she nodded. No point in asking Sheena; throughout everything she stood there as if in a dream.
Tommy chambered a round and I nodded, waiting for him to stick a bullet in that sick bastard’s skull.
He never got to fire, because at that exact moment the police stormed the building with their guns drawn.
Chapter 28
They handcuffed Tommy and me. Eric was taken to hospital and managed a weak smile as they were loading him onto a gurney. Diane and Sheena were also taken to hospital.
Detective Inspector Duncan Waddell swept into the room. He acknowledg
ed me by frowning in my direction and I couldn’t blame him. I was making a habit of being around violent crimes.
“How’s Eric?” They’d taken him hospital under police escort and I wasn’t sure whether it was to save his life, or because they wanted him to be fit as soon as possible so they could charge him—if we were being charged. As Eric had been wheeled past me as I was being led handcuffed to a patrol car, he’d managed a weak smile.
“He’s in surgery,” Waddell said without an ounce of concern. “Now, it’s time to talk about you. What the hell were you and your pals playing at?”
I did my best to explain, but it did nothing to dampen his anger. “Let me get this straight, Nancy. You weren’t engaged by the families of any of the missing women to find them? You got involved because you felt it was your civic duty?” He stared at me. “To be honest, I don’t know whether to recommend you and your Action Man boyfriend and his pal for a bravery award or charge you with interfering with a police inquiry.”
This time round there was no bottle of Irn Bru for me or questions about how I was feeling. DI Waddell was angry with me, but as usual for him, he managed to keep it self-contained. One day he would probably blow and anyone in the firing line would be sorry. I just hoped I wouldn’t be there to see it.
I could see his point of view. Whilst he and his team of finely trained detectives had been “busting their balls to break the case,” someone who used to write newspaper and magazine inserts and a dead soldier had beaten him and his team to the punch and probably cost him a promotion for cracking such a major case. Hell, I’d have been irritable if I’d been him.
His eyes locked on to mine. I’d forgotten how much the veins on his face made it resemble a road map. All those late nights and junk food had taken their toll. “The fact that you two aren’t in a cell right now should tell you something. I’ve discussed it with DCI Griggs and the procurator fiscal’s office, and we’ve decided we won’t be pursuing any charges against you. Think yourselves lucky.”
Throwaways (Crime Files Book 2) Page 11