‘That was too easy,’ says Neva. She looks around as we drive up a tree-lined driveway.
As we approach the winery building, we take in our surroundings. We can see the château to our right and a further two buildings. One has the appearance of a hospital. The other is clearly the training school building that holds the arena in the centre.
‘Do you recognize this place now?’ I ask Neva.
She shakes her head. ‘If this was my home, then they took the memory from me at the house.’
I feel her frustration as I drive up to the building and park in one of the bays at the front. I look up at the tall brick building which is large and functional but not attractive, despite the rural setting.
‘It might come back,’ I say.
Neva doesn’t answer, instead she looks back at the dense trees as though she expects an assault at any moment. She runs her hand over her boot in an unconscious gesture. She’s ready to reach for her knife if needed.
As we get out of the car, a short man comes out of the building to greet us.
‘Bonjour Madame et Monsieur,’ he says. ‘I am Louis and I’m going to be your guide this day.’
Louis gestures towards the building. I glance over my shoulder back at the château.
‘Lovely château. Who lives there?’ I ask.
‘Ah yes, the estate owner. It has been in the family for a few centuries,’ Louis says. ‘This way if you please.’
‘How long does the tour usually take?’ I ask.
‘For a private visit like this, as long as you wish,’ Louis says.
We follow him into the building.
‘We have a quiet day today,’ Louis says. ‘It is Sunday and our vintners do not work this day. And so, you will see us on a rare visit. Nevertheless, I hope you will enjoy the experience and I can answer all of your questions and especially let you taste our fine wines.’
‘So, you’re alone here today?’ Neva asks.
‘Oui,’ says Louis.
As he closes the door behind us, Neva chops her hand down on his neck. Louis slumps forward, smacking his head on the door. He slides down the wood, landing hard on the stone-tiled floor. We pick the unconscious man up and carry him into the office. Then Neva pulls cable ties from her pocket (I hadn’t even realized that she had them with her) and she secures Louis to the chair. From the office drawer she gets a roll of brown tape and covers Louis’s mouth.
‘This couldn’t have worked out better,’ I say. ‘The absence of staff today…’
Neva shakes her head. ‘It’s too convenient, Michael. We need to keep our guard up.’
I agree with her. It’s all just too easy. Our timing can’t be this good by accident.
‘Maybe Elbakitten knew they’d have less people on hand today?’ I suggest.
‘Maybe she did. Or maybe she is setting us up,’ Neva says.
‘You’re suspicious of everyone,’ I say.
‘It’s kept me alive so far,’ she comments.
I take my Glock out and check the cartridge is full. Neva does the same with her gun.
‘We need to avoid shooting anyone if we can. They’ll hear the gunfire,’ I say.
Neva takes a silencer out of her bag and tosses it to me. She always thinks of everything. Then she puts her gun away, and removes the knife from her boot.
‘I’m happier with this, anyway,’ she says.
I screw the silencer onto my Glock as we walk back out of the winery building and start making our way through the vineyard towards the château. I glance at my watch: it’s just gone 5pm.
‘Should we wait here for nightfall?’ I ask.
Neva shakes her head. ‘The guard on the gate will become suspicious if we aren’t out in two hours. We need to do what we came for, as quietly as possible.’
Neva leads the way through the grape plants towards the château, as though, despite her denial, she does remember this place. I’m about to ask her again if she recalls anything but she silences me. She crouches down and pulls me with her. We hear the crunch of feet as someone moves through the vineyard a few lanes left of us. We remain quiet and still as they pass by.
Once the coast is clear, Neva stands again. ‘We need to be quick,’ she whispers.
We hurry on now, being less quiet but getting closer to the château with every step.
The plan is to get in, find Mia and get out again. Neva will not look to engage with Annalise at this time. Once Mia is safe, I’ve promised to help her confront her mother. But today isn’t the right time or place for such a meeting. But this is all so ad hoc that I’m concerned we’ll fall at the first hurdle. What were we thinking, taking on this place alone? But then, it isn’t as if I can call in help from Ray who has no jurisdiction in France and they’d see him coming a mile off anyway. No, our only option is this direct action and now we have to get inside that building, find Mia, and get away without being noticed.
I try to anticipate how this will go down. There has to be security around Mia, otherwise I believe she would have attempted to escape. As I think about this, my mind flashes back to some of the moments I now remember when Beech had activated me. I hadn’t been desperate to escape on any of those occasions. I’d been more than willing to stay and do his bidding. Will Mia be in that mind-set too? The dilemma we face is this main insecurity. Will Mia fight us to remain, or remember who she is and let us rescue her? Knowing how the conditioning can affect us, I have no idea which Mia we will find, and for this reason I’m very nervous as we reach the end of the vineyard.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Jewel
Jewel walks back around the château and heads towards the vineyard. On what should have been a loving return home, Jewel finds herself still more frustrated with Mother. Why can’t she call her by the name she prefers? Why does she always make her feel so useless? Why can’t Jewel ever please her?
Jewel enters the vineyard and makes her way towards the winery, stomping through the trees like a spoilt child. All she wants is Mother’s love. Is that too much to ask? She feels like screaming. But the walk does her good and soon the rage subsides inside her, and as she comes out of the vineyard and walks around the ugly redbrick building, she sees a red sports car parked outside. She hurries to the front and goes into the winery.
‘Louis?’ she calls as she traverses the rooms containing barrels of wine.
Louis enjoys his private tours, and the wineries’ finest wines, which he can drink any time he wishes. He always makes Jewel welcome when she does her inspections. Jewel likes to see him, and enjoys it when he brags to visitors how Jewel is the heir to the D’Aragon Estate. Even if Jewel doesn’t believe it herself, everyone else sees her that way, as Annalise’s biological daughter. Now Jewel goes into the tasting room, expecting Louis and his visitors to be there. But the winery manager is nowhere to be found and she hadn’t seen him out in the vineyard during her approach.
She feels a prickle of suspicion. Could the assault have already started? Neva was smart and knew all about stealth. Could she already be here? But of course! The winery was always the weakest point on the estate. It had to remain accessible to the public, but others could get to the château so easily from there.
Jewel comes back to the front of the building and opens the office door. She finds Louis trussed up. There is dried blood on his forehead and his head lolls down to his chest. She checks if he is still alive and when she discovers that he’s just unconscious, Jewel leaves him where he is. She’s not concerned for his safety; she doesn’t want him to raise the alarm. She doesn’t want anyone to know that Neva is here until it is too late. Why didn’t Neva just kill him? Jewel would have. Perhaps she is weaker than Jewel thinks?
Her head buzzes with excitement, pushing away thoughts of Louis, because she has no real loyalty or emotion for the man despite his obvious consideration towards her. Jewel isn’t wired that way. The only person she cares about is Mother.
Neva is here! That’s all that matters now. Jewel is ready
for this final showdown. How wonderful it will be when she ends Neva. Of course, she won’t have come alone, and Michael, if he gets in the way, will be collateral damage. He’s Neva’s Achilles heel, a thing she can use to bring her down.
And Mother will just have to deal with the consequences!
Jewel comes out of the winery and looks around. Which way would they go? She glances at the château beyond the vineyard. Neva and Michael must have passed her.
Some of the plants have been snapped or damaged. Now she’s looking closely, she sees their entry point but Neva and Michael have been careful and it isn’t that obvious.
Jewel follows. There is a subtle trail left by them that Jewel is able to track. The odd bend of a vine here, the crushing of some budding grapes there. They are all signs that someone has made their way through, desperate to reach the house.
Jewel takes her time, remaining far behind them; she wants the element of surprise to be hers. As a result, she reaches the end of the vineyard in time to see both Neva and Michael entering the château by the back entrance.
She pauses, allowing them time to get inside, and then she strolls across the lawns and sneaks into the house behind them. She feels tremendous satisfaction as she follows them unseen.
After that she trails them through the kitchen, remaining hidden as they avoid the kitchen staff and move on into the main house. She sees Michael and Neva slip into one of the smaller side rooms used for storage as Jeremy makes his way back down the corridor carrying her tray back to the kitchen. Once the butler has passed, Neva comes out of the room and she and Michael head towards the hallway.
As they begin their search of the château, starting upstairs, Jewel hides under the expansive staircase until they have climbed the stairs. She doesn’t want either of them to see her until she has the advantage. Jewel waits, knowing that at some point they will have to split up and then she will make her move, taking down her much-hated sister first.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Neva
As they reach the top of the stairs, Neva sees that the landing goes in two different directions. One north wing, one south wing, she thinks.
‘We need to split up and search before our presence is discovered,’ Neva says. ‘I’ll try this side. You take the other.’
Michael nods but she can see he isn’t happy that they are parting.
Neva turns and walks away. As she reaches the first door, she glances back at the stairs and sees Michael at the door on the opposite side. She turns her attention away from him and back to her search. She listens at the first door, then opens it and goes inside. The room is a basic bedroom, and not as lavish as the rest of the house. It has very little in the way of personal possessions and has two single beds inside, both neatly made. It reminds her of a barracks. Something twitches in Neva’s brain. A recollection that this corridor and these rooms are used by other employees of Annalise. But she doesn’t know where the memory comes from.
She tries the next room, finding it equally empty, then she’s plummeted into a memory that was once suppressed somewhere deep inside her.
‘Coming ready or not!’
Neva staggers against the door frame of the second door.
‘I know where you’re hiding, Fae!’
The little girl giggles as she runs from room to room. ‘I’ll find you!’ she yells.
And Neva knows who this is as the memory comes flooding back. Fleur!
Neva pulls her mind back to the present. She looks back up the corridor towards the stairs as though she expects that same little girl to come running towards her now.
I was here, she thinks. Neva had half-believed her similarity to Annalise had just been a coincidence. But her own memories confirm that Annalise is her mother.
Shaken, she continues down the corridor, passing several rooms without checking them. She reaches the end of the corridor and the final door on the right as though drawn there.
When she tries the door, Neva finds that it is locked. She is confused for a second as she sees the two little girls in her mind’s eye running along the corridor again, yelping in excitement. She tugs at the handle again. Like an automaton, Neva takes the lock-pick set she carries from her pocket. She prods the lock until she hears that satisfying click and then she opens the door.
Chapter Sixty
Annalise
After seeing Mia off, and the brief and irritating exchange of words she’d had with Fleur, Annalise seeks the haven of her bedroom. She has a strict beauty regimen which she now begins. She cleanses her skin and puts on a face mask and then she lies down on the bed and closes her eyes.
The last few months have been challenging, sometimes draining, especially with Fleur going rogue.
Then there is her operative Elliot. A promising man, with good abilities. Beth Cane was just Elliot’s type, which was why Annalise had picked him for the job. Submerged in his pathologist role – a career he’d trained for with her money – Elliot had lost his way. He’d begun to believe he could keep the job and just feed Annalise scraps of information. He’d begun to fall for Beth. Annalise had recognized the signs. Since their phone call last night, he hadn’t been in touch. In the end even the best of spies could make stupid choices. Elliot wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last, but Annalise hoped his training would kick in and spur him to make the right choice in the end and kill Beth Cane like she’d ordered him to do.
Life is full of hard choices, Annalise thinks.
She gets up out of the bed and goes to the laptop on her dressing table. Elliot had sent her the autopsy reports of the killings he was working on with Archive.
She opens the folder now and looks at the photo gallery of the women: each before and after death. Even with Annalise’s constitution the murders are hard to look at. Especially the woman in the stable. Annalise knows death: sometimes for necessity but never for pleasure. These kills serve a purpose only the killer can understand.
She scans the autopsy report. Elliot was supposed to send her Michael’s profiling on the killer too, but so far, he hasn’t been able to gain access.
Annalise looks at the photographs again. Then she closes the laptop. It looks to her as though Fleur is pursuing a goal that doesn’t suit Annalise’s plans.
Annalise’s mind follows a path of memory. One she tries not to recall too often, but today it’s somehow important to draw on. It reminds her that difficult decisions are sometimes crucial and that she has more to make herself soon regarding both of her daughters.
Chapter Sixty-One
Annalise
Forty-three years ago
Annalise was 17 when she met Mr Beech for the first time. She’d graduated from the house, top of her class, and already had several professional hits to her credit.
Annalise observed that this Mr Beech was young. He was barely a few years older than herself, in fact. She’d heard rumours that the old one had died. Or been executed. She wasn’t sure which and it didn’t matter anyway. What did matter was that this young man now owned the Network, and all of the handlers were bowing and scraping to him which meant that he was a very powerful man.
‘You’ve exceeded all expectations, Annalise,’ Mr Beech said. ‘And for this reason, I’m going to give you a rare gift.’
‘A gift, Monsieur?’
‘Do you know how you came to be here, my dear?’ Beech asked.
Annalise shook her head.
‘I’m going to give you your parents,’ Beech said. ‘Would you like that?’
Annalise stared ahead; she showed no excitement at the prospect of meeting her parents.
‘I’ll give you a choice,’ Beech said. ‘You can kill them, or you can kill your twin sister.’
Annalise’s curiosity spiked at the mention of a sister.
‘I have a sister?’ she said.
‘Did you know that your parents gave you to the Network?’ Beech said.
Annalise didn’t react as Beech revealed this. She was not broken and did not r
ebel. She was fully trained to do as Mr Beech ordered her to.
‘It would be a revenge killing. Payback. Would you like that?’ Beech continued.
‘I will kill whichever of them you wish,’ Annalise said.
‘I want you to choose. Your mother and father? Or you sister?’ Beech said.
Annalise was unable to respond. She couldn’t make such a decision herself. She killed if her situation was jeopardized. She killed witnesses, and anyone who got in her way when on a mission. There was no thought necessary for these deaths, they were all logical calculations. But to be given the choice of her own mission? Her conditioned mind spiralled with the unfathomable idea of such choice and freedom.
‘I… can’t…’ Annalise said.
‘You don’t want to kill them?’ Beech had said.
‘Their deaths mean nothing to me,’ Annalise said. ‘I will do what you want me to do. But I can’t choose.’
Beech sent her away after this response, and Annalise had thought she’d failed some important test. But she didn’t have to undergo further conditioning, and she was sent on her way a few days later to the halfway house.
But Annalise never forgot Beech’s offer to tell her who her parents were. And, as she matured, she began to wonder who they were, and why they’d chosen to send her away, instead of her sister. It was several years until she discovered the truth for herself. By then, Annalise was in her late twenties. She had a string of successful jobs behind her, and a large accumulation of wealth. She was also an expert on infiltration and seduction. Skills that she used to gain leverage for the Network.
Then Beech sent her on a new assignment. She was to work for a fashion photographer, called Henri D’Gault. Her mission was to infiltrate D’Gault’s circle and learn secrets that Beech could use as leverage against the man. Annalise disguised her looks, taking on the appearance of a dowdy secretary. She hid her red-blonde hair and her demeanour matched the mousiness of the wig she wore.
Kill a Spy: The House of Killers Page 27