Although neither of them said anything, they both felt that they needed at least a day to recover from what they had been through. Not only that, the television news programmes were still describing the mayhem that had killed so many innocent people in Tooting as a riot. If Jerry and Jamila checked in and described what had actually happened, they were sure that they would be told to forget it, and that they must have been suffering from overwork. Either that, or they would be accused of trying to cover up the murderous behaviour of some black or Asian gangs in order to be politically correct.
As she spread butter on her toast, Jamila summed up both of their feelings. ‘You know what will happen if we tell the powers that be all about it? They’ll sack us. And if we tell the media, the Met will ruin us, believe me. They’ll make out that you’re a paedophile and I’m a terrorist. There’s no such thing as clothes that come to life and kill people.’
Halfway through the morning, Jamila’s phone rang. It was Dr Stewart, from Springfield hospital.
‘Detective sergeant Patel? Oh, good. I tried to get through to the police station but I got no answer. I gather from the news that there’s been some trouble.’
‘How can I help you, doctor?’ asked Jamila.
‘Well, I’m just calling to tell you that all three of your suspects have made a remarkable overnight recovery. They all seem to be their old selves again. None of them are saying any longer that they have another personality inside them who’s going to die if they’re not fed with human flesh, which I must say is a great relief to all of us. From a psychological point of view, I would say that all three are ready to be released from our care back into yours.’
‘Oh. I’m afraid there might be some problems with that,’ said Jamila. ‘As you rightly say, there has been some trouble, and we may not have any secure accommodation available for them just at this moment in time.’
‘I see,’ said Doctor Stewart. ‘But you can understand that we’re a hospital, not a prison, and if an individual is mentally competent, we cannot be expected to keep them incarcerated.’
‘All right,’ said Jamila. ‘What I’ll do is, come to the hospital and interview each of them, if that’s all right with you. If they’re not trying to pull the wool over your eyes, I’ll see what I can do to have them moved.’
‘DS Patel,’ said Dr Stewart, frostily, ‘I have been a psychiatric consultant for twenty-seven years. Patients do not “pull the wool over my eyes”, as you put it.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Jamila. ‘It’s just that many offenders have a great talent for deceiving almost everybody, including us.’
‘Perhaps you’d like to come this afternoon,’ said Dr Stewart. ‘The sooner the better.’
Jamila put down her phone and said to Jerry, ‘That was Dr Stewart. She says they’re better – Sophie and Laura and Jamie and Mindy. They’ve all made a miraculous overnight recovery.’
‘You’re kidding. Maybe it was something to do with those clothes. After all, the power came back on after we’d chopped them up, didn’t it? Or maybe it was something to do with Liepa snuffing it.’
‘I’ve said that we’ll go to Springfield this afternoon and talk to them. I don’t want to take them back into police custody until I’m sure that they’re not dangerous any more. You know what some of these schizophrenic murderers are like. They can convince you that it wasn’t them who strangled their wives, it was the fellow next door but one.’
‘All right, sarge, if you say so. Although I must say I’ve had it up to here with homicidal clothes.’
*
It took them nearly three quarters of an hour to drive to Springfield hospital that afternoon, because the centre of Tooting was still cordoned off, and most of the town-bound traffic had been diverted along Tooting Bec Road and Trinity Road.
Dr Stewart was there to meet them herself.
‘We thought you must have had some inkling that they were better,’ she said, as she led them along the corridor. ‘You didn’t send your officer this morning.’
‘No, well, there was some trouble at the police station, as you said.’
‘A riot, that’s what it said on the news. Who was rioting, and what were they rioting about? They didn’t say.’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Jamila. ‘Some protest about somebody who’d been arrested, I think.’
‘I blame social media, myself,’ said Dr Stewart. ‘It’s the way that people work themselves up into such a frenzy on Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever. They get quite hysterical about things that are none of their business, and personally don’t affect them in the slightest.’
‘This isn’t the way to your security wing,’ Jerry put in.
‘Oh, no. Their recovery is so complete that we’ve let them out of there. They’re in the quiet room now with Cherry Mwandi. She’s encouraging them to share their experiences. We’re hoping that it will help each of them to understand how they came to be in such an unusual state of mind.’
Jamila glanced at Jerry as if to say, We already know how they came to be in such an unusual state of mind, don’t we? It was the clothes they wore, and the ghost virus that was infecting them.
Dr Stewart led them to the door marked QUIET ROOM. She knocked, and then she entered. ‘Come along in,’ she said.
But then she stopped dead. All of the chairs in the room had been pushed back to the walls so that there was a wide clear space in the centre. Sitting cross-legged around this centre space were Sophie and Laura and Jamie and Mindy. They had looked up as Dr Stewart came in, and their chins were all red-bearded with blood. Their hands, too, wore glistening red gloves.
Lying spread-eagled in between them was Cherry Mwandi. She was staring blindly at the ceiling and her mouth was open as if she were finding it difficult to breathe. She was naked, and all of her clothes were lying on the floor under the window. She had been cut open from her breast bone to her curly black pubic hair, and all of her intestines dragged out, as well as her stomach and her womb. The whole room smelled of blood and excrement.
Jerry and Jamila stood in the doorway, so shocked that they didn’t know what to say. Dr Stewart turned around, pushed her way back into the corridor, and vomited on the floor.
It was Mindy who spoke first. ‘It’s all right now,’ she said, quite chirpily, wiping the blood from her chin with the back of her hand. ‘We’ve found something to eat.’
We hope you enjoyed this book!
For more information, click the following links
About Graham Masterton
About the Katie Maguire Series
About the Scarlet Widow Series
Also by Graham Masterton
From the Editor of this Book
An Invitation from the Publisher
About Graham Masterton
GRAHAM MASTERTON was a bestselling horror writer for many years before he turned his talent to crime. He lived in Cork for five years, an experience that inspired the Katie Maguire series.
Find me on Twitter
Visit my website
About the Katie Maguire Series
Katie Maguire was one of seven sisters born to a police Inspector in Cork, but the only sister who decided to follow her father into An Garda Siochana.
With her bright green eyes and short redhair, she looks like an Irish pixie, but she is no soft touch. To the dismay of some of her male subordinates, she rose quickly through the ranks, gaining a reputation for catching Cork’s killers, often at great personal cost.
Katie spent seven years in a turbulent marriage in which she bore, and lost, a son – an event that continues to haunt her. Despite facing turmoil at home and prejudice at work, she is one of the most fearless detectives in Ireland.
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
SHORT STORIES
>
Find out more
Find out more
Visit Head of Zeus now
About the Scarlet Widow Series
London, 1750
Beatrice Scarlet is the apothecary’s daughter. She can mix medicines and herbs to save the lives of her neighbours - but, try as she might, she can’t save the lives of her parents. An orphan at just sixteen, Beatrice marries a preacher and emigrates to America.
New Hampshire, 1756
In the farming community where Beatrice now lives, six pigs are found viciously slaughtered; slices of looking-glass embedded in their mouths. According to scripture, this is the work of Satan - but Beatrice Scarlet suspects the hands of men. As she closes in on the killer, she must act quickly to unmask him - or become the next victim herself...
Find out more
Find out more
Visit Head of Zeus now
Also by Graham Masterton
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Find out more
Visit Head of Zeus now
From the Editor of this Book
If you enjoyed this book, you may also enjoy reading these novels recommended by the editor.
Find out More
Find out more
Find out more
Visit Head of Zeus now
An Invitation from the Publisher
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
We will keep you up to date with our latest books, author blogs, special previews, tempting offers, chances to win signed editions and much more.
Get in touch: [email protected]
Visit Head of Zeus now
Find us on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
Find us on BookGrail
First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Graham Masterton, 2017
The moral right of Graham Masterton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781788545013
Head of Zeus Ltd
First Floor East
5–8 Hardwick Street
London EC1R 4RG
www.headofzeus.com
Table of Contents
Welcome Page
About Ghost Virus
Contents
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
About Graham Masterton
About the Katie Maguire Series
About the Scarlet Widow Series
Also by Graham Masterton
From the Editor of this Book
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright
Ghost Virus Page 36