The Essence of Evil

by The Essence of Evil (retail) (epub)

  ‘Did you or the PCs find any witnesses?’ she asked, looking around at the now largely dispersed crowd.

  ‘There really weren’t many. It was quiet. And they all moved on too quickly.’

  ‘What about the old lady?’

  ‘Her description was pretty much the same as mine and Constable’s.’

  ‘So you’ve no idea if it was James Colton or Ethan Grant or someone else entirely who did this to you?’

  ‘No idea. Though the fact he attacked me and ran at all suggests he’s up to no good, one way or another.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Dani sighed then took a couple of deep breaths to try and get her head straight and focused. It seemed to take the edge of her worsening mood ever so slightly. ‘Have you been inside yet?’

  ‘No. Constable has. It’s a two-bed flat. Pretty sparse place. Not quite up to Reeve’s standards. Mattresses on the floor for beds, not much in the way of furniture or personal belongings, but plenty of booze and cigarettes. Weed too. There’s no ID. No post or documents to say who’s been living there.’

  Dani scanned the area around her. Once again she felt eyes on her from all directions. She shuddered. As ever, with the police cordon in place around the flat, there was a gaggle of eager bystanders on the sidelines, trying to get a good look at proceedings, but it wasn’t their keen eyes that had spooked Dani.

  She looked over at the houses, flats and shops, trying to place the source of the eerie feeling that was taking hold of her once again, just like it had more than once over the last couple of days. Or maybe it was just her medication – or lack or it – messing up her mind again.

  She saw nothing to explain the feeling. No shadowy figures, no ghouls, and yet somehow she felt the same ominous presence as she had on the street outside her flat. At Natalya’s murder scene. Even outside Grant’s house.

  What was wrong with her?

  ‘Right. I’m going to go up and take a look,’ Dani said, managing to bring her focus back.

  ‘Shall I come up with you?’ Easton said.

  ‘Sure. But probably time to get rid of this lot first, don’t you reckon?’ Dani asked, indicating the crowds of people and the now unneeded police and vehicles.

  ‘Yeah, ok.’

  ‘But why don’t you get Constable to do it. Give him something useful to do rather than chatting up that poor PC. If you’re worried about lawsuits slapped on the Super’s desk, then that there is one in the making.’

  Easton smiled. ‘Ok, I’m on it. I’ll be up in the flat in a minute.’

  Dani finally drew her eyes away from the street and she headed through the open doorway and up the bare staircase to the flat. Once inside she quickly saw that the place was a dive. Why was Ethan Grant living in such a cesspit? It reminded her of the house from The Young Ones, the comedy show from the eighties where the central characters, university students, lived in a squalid house, the conditions in it almost as bad as the personal hygiene of its occupants. Really this flat was nowhere near as decayed as that one, but the similarities were there; the ashtrays piled high with butts, the empty beer cans and bottles of spirits, the pizza boxes and takeaway containers half filled with leftovers, and not a clean cup, plate or bowl in sight.

  Despite herself, Dani realised she was smiling. She’d loved that show when she was young. Ben had too. At times they’d been just two happy, smiling kids, who revelled in the violent slapstick and foul language of one of their favourite TV shows, huddled together on a sofa together in fits of laughter, tears streaming down their faces.

  Dani shook her head, trying to flush from her mind the memories of herself and Ben, angry that she’d slipped back to that mostly happy and far more innocent period of her life.

  Or had it only appeared innocent? Had Ben been a monster even then?

  Dani stepped over discarded crockery and moved over to the two sash windows in the lounge. One was covered with a makeshift curtain that looked like a plain old bed sheet tacked to the window frame. The other window had a tatty venetian blind. Dani used the tips of her fingers to spread apart two of the slats on the blind and looked down to the street below. A PC was already in the process of rolling away the police tape. Only one of the squad cars remained. Two officers were helping the old lady into the back, probably to give her a lift home. The bystanders were slowly filtering away, disappointed that the fun was over.

  Someone caught Dani’s attention. A hooded figure standing away from the crowd. Lurking. Clearly interested in what was happening, like the others, but being more discreet about it.

  Not quite discreet enough, though.

  Was he – at least Dani thought it was a he – the reason for the sinister sensation she’d experienced moments before? Her natural sixth sense, a barometer for danger?

  Ok, perhaps that was a bit dramatic, but nonetheless Dani hurried out of the flat and back to the stairs. She raced down them and when she reached the bottom Easton was just moving towards the entrance, his head turned away as he shouted an instruction to Constable. Not looking, he almost collided with Dani.

  ‘Easton, watch out!’

  She held her arm out to stop him and their chests bumped. Easton jumped in shock and then rolled his eyes. At his own klutziness, Dani assumed.

  ‘Sorry, Dani. I didn’t see you.’

  Dani held her hand up and shook her head, showing she wasn’t interested in his apology.

  Dani discreetly looked over his shoulder to the man across the street who was now half hidden behind a parked van. He was wearing different clothes to the man Easton had described – blue trainers and a grey hooded top, the hood pulled right over his head so nothing could be seen of his face.

  ‘Behind you on your left. By the van, wearing a hoodie. Could that be the guy?’ she asked.

  Easton glanced over briefly. ‘Different clothes but… I really don’t know.’

  The man casually walked away.

  ‘Come on,’ Dani said.

  Easton said nothing more but headed off a step behind Dani as they crossed the street. By the time they got over to the other side and around the van, the man was ten yards in front, walking with more purpose.

  After a few seconds he glanced over his shoulder. He spotted Dani and Easton.

  And he ran.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Dani and Easton sprinted after the man. The pavement they were running down wasn’t busy, but it was narrow with terraced houses on one side and tightly parked cars on the other. Any pedestrians, even those walking on their own, would block the man’s way, and Dani hoped that would allow them to close the distance. The early evening autumn sun didn’t help matters either, the rays poking through buildings in front of Dani blinding her every now and then as she hurtled along.

  She could hear Easton’s heavy breathing behind her. She wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t the pace to overtake her. She’d made light of his cuts and bruises but he was still injured. Possibly concussed too. She should really tell him to stop and wait because the last thing she wanted was for him to suddenly collapse because of the exertion. She didn’t, though. She was too focussed on the man ahead of her who was striding in athletic motion. Even with her tight-fitting trouser suit on, and slip-on shoes, Dani was no slouch, though. She just needed a bit of luck…

  Up front a young mother was strolling with a pram. The man called out to her and she shrieked and pulled the pram as far to the side as she could as he sped past. The slight distraction lost him a yard.

  Next up was a junction with a busier road running crossways, cars blasting left and right. A set of traffic lights marked the pedestrian crossing but the man wasn’t about to stop and wait for the green light. He slowed his pace a fraction as he approached the road, as though he was about to be cautious and reduce the chances of him being squashed, but then he simply darted out into the traffic.

  Cars screeched to a halt, horns blared, and the man had to shimmy left then right to avoid a hefty collision. The bonnet of one car bumped him but he simply gli
ded a half step in the air before landing back on both feet, the contact causing nothing more than a momentary stumble.

  Still, Dani gained another two yards because of it, and she would take that. If she could close the gap another three or four yards she’d be within distance to launch herself at him.

  With the traffic in the junction now at a stop, she raced right through without being impeded at all. The man ducked left and Dani followed down a narrow alley that soon opened out onto an expansive concrete forecourt. In front were two looming tower blocks.

  ‘Go around to the left,’ she shouted to Easton between laboured breaths. ‘I don’t think he can get out to the right. We’ll box him in.’

  Dani turned to Easton who nodded before he veered off and Dani continued on. Off to the right hand side a long red brick wall separated the council blocks from the backyards of terraced houses on an adjacent street. Unless there was an alley or a snicket of some sort in that wall then there was a good chance that the man would head left after the tower blocks, and with Easton coming around the side they’d corner him.

  Dani’s heart beat wildly in her chest, and she was quickly losing pace from the initial sprint. Unlike in the movies, it really wasn’t possible to continue at full pelt for minutes on end. Her pace had already dropped to little more than a fast jog, and although the man was slowing too, she was struggling to further close the distance. The jeers and shouts from a group of kids and teenagers loitering in the expansive yard told her exactly what she must have looked like as she huffed and puffed along in her trouser suit.

  ‘He went that way!’ someone shouted.

  ‘No, that way. He went inside.’

  ‘Please don’t arrest me, miss.’

  And, of course, the obligatory, ‘Show us ya tits.’

  Dani ignored them all. Up ahead the man took the left after the tower block, just as Dani hoped he would, but this meant he was momentarily out of sight. Pumping her arms and legs as fast as she could, but with the build-up of lactate in her muscles now severely hampering her speed and making her legs feel like lead weights, Dani rounded the corner.

  Realising the man was nowhere to be seen, she came to an abrupt stop.

  Chest heaving, drops of sweat running down her face and down the small of her back, Dani gazed ahead. She heard more calls from behind her but ignored them. A narrow passageway of garages led into the distance, coming to a stop at a T-junction with yet another row of garages off to the left and right. There was no sign of the man at all. Could he have made it to the end and turned already?

  There was no sign of Easton either. He should have been coming from the left, around that corner in front.

  Moving cautiously, Dani edged forwards, her eyes busy.

  She looked up at the concrete tower blocks. Even if the man didn’t know this place, or anyone here, he still had the upper hand. Chances were few people around would help the police, if they could avoid it. It was the sad and unfortunate case that in many of the poorer communities in the city there was still a ‘them versus us’ mentality when it came to the police.

  As Dani moved slowly forwards, her senses on high alert, she heard sounds from the flats above. TVs blaring. Babies crying. Talking. Shouting. A door banged, off to Dani’s left. She felt herself jump and readied for action but then a middle-aged woman appeared. She looked at Dani suspiciously then carried on her way, walking off in the direction Dani had just come from.

  Dani was by now nearing the junction by the garages up ahead. She wondered whether she’d been too hasty in stopping running. Had the man already scarpered, off to the right?

  And where the hell was Easton?

  That same ominous feeling crept over Dani again, her heart racing for a different reason now. She was scared.

  Then she spotted movement ahead. A looming shadow. Her heart raced.

  Easton.

  Dani would have felt a rush of relief, but he wasn’t where she’d expected him to be at all. He was on a higher level. Not alongside the garages where she was, but on top of them. How the hell had that happened? He was no longer running either, as though he’d come to the same conclusion she had; that the man was now hiding.

  ‘Anything?’ she shouted out to him.

  He shook his head. Dani made it to the intersection and quickly scanned left and right. Off to the left the row of garages formed a closed loop that connected to the tower block itself, which explained why Easton had been forced to come up over the top. Off to the right, where the row of garages ended, the tarmac gave way to a large patch of grass, a children’s play area in the near distance.

  ‘Dani, there he is!’ Easton shouted.

  As the words passed his lips Dani saw him, peeling away from where he’d been hunkered by a garage door, and making a mad dash for the grass ahead of them.

  ‘Shit, it’s a dead end up here!’ Easton shouted.

  Dani growled in frustration. She bounded after the man. She wasn’t letting him get away. The man hurdled over the low fence into the play area, and Dani felt sick as tension suddenly filled her. Mums and dads in the play area turned to take notice, concerned looks on their faces. The children carried on, oblivious to the threat.

  Please, not that, Dani willed.

  She felt relief when the man ran right past the tiny toddlers and jumped the fence on the other side. Dani followed and by the time they were both running down the hill across the open grass, she’d managed to close the distance again, with less than ten yards between them now.

  Up ahead the grass ended at a thin line of trees. Dani couldn’t see what lay beyond but she could hear the roar of fast-moving traffic getting louder with each step. As she neared the tree line she spotted a chainlink fence the other side, separating the grounds from a dual carriageway. The man was at the fence already. He began to climb. This was her chance.

  Dani strained and pushed herself forwards. She thought about leaping through the air to catch him. She may even have done it; her mind blurred at that moment. She reached out, visualising grabbing the man and hauling him back off the fence and to the ground. She shouted out and…

  Missed him by only inches. At the last second he managed to clamber up and over the fence, and landed on both feet as he thumped down on the other side.

  Dani, who’d been focused only on getting there in time, couldn’t stop herself and she slammed into the chainlink fence which crashed and bent and shook. The man, right there in front of her, but out of reach on the other side, looked over at Dani.

  Much like hers, his chest heaved from exertion. She could see more of his face now, underneath the hood. His cheeks were flushed red. He had thick stubble that belied his otherwise youthful skin. She starred into his dark brown eyes and he smiled.

  What was he doing?

  It was an unsettling moment that seemed to last far longer than the fraction of a second it probably really was.

  Then the man turned and sped down the bank. Dani grabbed the fence and pulled herself up. Like before, at the road crossing, the man hesitated for a second when he reached the edge of the tarmac, surveying the busy traffic in front of him.

  Then he plunged right into the road.

  He cleared one of the lanes no problems, but as he was midway through the second lane, a truck blasted towards him…

  There was a horrific bang. Tyres screeched. Dani jerked in shock. Her hands let go of the fence and she fell to the ground.

  Just like that, the man was gone.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Dani initially froze, unsure what to do, but with her suspect lying in pieces on the road she couldn’t rely on the first response team to do the job. She was already on the scene. She was the first response. Yet, having scrambled over the fence and having begun to walk across the tarmac towards the chaotic mess, she could already sense that what lay ahead would leave her forever scarred.

  The carnage in front of her was devastating and absolute. With the braking and the screeching tyres and the smashing at an end,
and the smoke clearing, Dani could see that four cars were involved as well as the large articulated truck that had pulverised the man Dani had been chasing.

  Big trucks had big problems stopping quickly, and safely, and although the driver had probably done his best, it was inevitable on such a busy road that other vehicles would be sucked into the mess.

  Dani hit the button to call Easton then pulled her phone to her ear as she walked through the destruction, not quite sure what to say or do first. Two of the cars caught up in the disaster were almost unrecognisable; just lumps of mangled, crumpled and jagged metal. What remained of the windows was smeared with blood from the unlucky occupants stuck inside. The other two cars had fared better; their drivers and passengers were already out of the vehicles, surveying the damage, wondering what had just happened to them, and pretty soon likely to be overcome with emotion when they realised how lucky they were to still be walking and breathing.

  The call to Easton went unanswered and Dani put the phone away. A second later she heard him call out to her.

  ‘Dani!’

  She turned to see him clambering over the fence. She locked eyes with him for a second.

  ‘Call for help,’ she shouted out to him before she faced back to the truck driver who was standing by his open cab. ‘We’re going to need a lot of help,’ she said more quietly, almost to herself.

  The truck driver seemed the least injured of the many people involved, though by the shaky look of him he was possibly the most mentally damaged.

  ‘I didn’t see him,’ the driver said over and over again. His face was as white as chalk and he was shaking. ‘I didn't see him.’

  A plump balding man with rounded facial features which reminded Dani of the Fat Controller from Thomas the Tank Engine, he was talking to no one in particular, just staring at the lumps of flesh and bone that used to be a man. As well as the mess on the front of the truck there were streaks of blood and flesh and clothing stretching a good hundred yards across the tarmac behind the vehicle, glistening gruesomely in the warm evening light. The little that remained of the man formed an ugly lump that had been catapulted further down the carriageway even after the truck had finally come to a stop.