Relentless: A Novel

by Simon Kernick

  ‘Let me get my glasses,’ said Mrs Crabbe, looking around her with a sudden urgency. ‘Have you seen my glasses, Bernard?’

  Mr Crabbe said he hadn’t. His own were hanging around his neck. He put them on and took the photo from Bolt, inspecting it carefully.

  ‘Does he look at all familiar?’ Bolt asked him.

  ‘He doesn’t,’ answered Mr Crabbe, ‘but she does. We’ve seen her at Jack’s place several times, although we don’t know who she is. I do know that the police who were speaking to us earlier want to find her, though.’

  ‘Is it her?’ demanded Mrs Crabbe, who was leaning across her husband, still without her glasses.

  ‘Yes, it is.’ Mr Crabbe tapped the image of Kathy Meron with a stubby forefinger. ‘This woman was at Jack’s today.’

  Bolt and Mo exchanged glances, but it was Bolt who spoke. ‘What time was this?’

  ‘Well, this is why the other police were so interested. It was just before all this happened. I was out in the front garden and I saw her driving past. It was just after lunch, at about half past one this afternoon.’

  So, Kathy Meron must have been one of the last people to see Jack Calley alive, Bolt thought. Which meant she might well have seen his killers.

  Or, worse, been involved with them.

  27

  Kathy got to her feet and started to back away from Daniels. Daniels looked surprised, but made no effort to follow her.

  ‘What’s going on, Kathy?’ I asked as I watched her retreat.

  Her eyes darted down towards the knife, still lying on the floor where she’d dropped it, then she lunged and picked it up in one movement. She pointed the blade in Daniels’ direction. Her hand was shaking slightly, but there was a grim determination in her eyes that I didn’t like the look of at all.

  ‘You were there, weren’t you?’ she hissed, addressing Daniels.

  ‘Where?’ he asked, bemused.

  ‘At Jack’s house. This afternoon. You were one of the men who came for him, weren’t you?’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Yes, you do.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I think you’re mistaking me for someone else.’

  ‘Don’t patronize me. I don’t make mistakes like that.’

  ‘What is this, Kathy? How do you know he was at Jack Calley’s today?’

  ‘You know how I know?’ she said. The question was directed at Daniels rather than me. She had the knife raised so that the blade was pointed directly at his throat. Three feet separated skin from steel. ‘I didn’t see you, because if I’d seen you I’d be dead now too, wouldn’t I? I heard you. I heard you all, and I recognize your voice.’

  A thin smile crossed her face as she spoke, but at the same time her expression hardened. In those moments, she didn’t look like my wife at all. Even then, however, I still didn’t quite make the connection, my excuse being the number of shocks I’d had that day.

  ‘What were you doing at Jack’s, Kathy? We haven’t seen him in four years.’

  ‘All right, all right,’ said Daniels, stepping back and raising his hands in supplication. ‘I think we may be starting off on the wrong foot here.’ As quick as a flash, his hand went inside his leather jacket and the next second he was pointing the gun at Kathy.

  ‘Daniels, for Christ’s sake, don’t shoot. She’s my wife.’

  He ignored me and released the safety catch. ‘Right, let’s start again. Put the knife down, Mrs Meron.’

  Kathy made no move to obey. ‘You killed Jack, you bastard. I’m going to make you pay for that.’

  This was the moment when I finally realized the inevitable. Some might say a little belatedly. I might not have seen Jack for some years, but it was becoming clear that Kathy had been pursuing the friendship on behalf of both of us. I think deep down I’d known for a while she was having an affair. Her working hours had got longer, there were weekends away at conferences, there’d been changes in her behaviour. She’d started wearing perfume again, buying expensive underwear. But when the signs are there you don’t want to admit it to yourself. You make excuses, rationalize things. That was why hearing the admission from her mouth now was like a hammer blow to the gut.

  Jack. I felt dizzy. The fucking bastard.

  ‘This isn’t what you think, Mrs Meron. Now, please put the knife down, and let’s talk.’

  ‘What do you mean, it isn’t what I’m thinking? I heard you torturing him on the bed.’

  ‘I didn’t touch him. I was there, but I promise you, I didn’t touch him.’

  ‘You lied to me,’ I said.

  The statement was aimed at Daniels, but it was Kathy who answered, although as she spoke, she kept her eyes firmly on him.

  ‘I’m sorry, Tom. I didn’t mean you to find out this way.’

  ‘Why?’ I asked, and this time it was to her, although there were probably plenty of answers to that question.

  ‘I can’t talk about it now.’

  ‘Put the knife down, Mrs Meron.’

  Kathy gave a barely perceptible shake of the head, her expression hardening. ‘No.’

  Daniels came forward fast, grabbing her wrist and twisting it violently. He smacked the gun barrel down on her exposed forearm and she let out a yelp and dropped the weapon. Shoving her backwards, he picked it up from the floor and flung it into the corner of the room, a long way from any of us. All this before I even had a chance to react.

  For a second, Kathy looked like she was going to burst into tears, but she quickly controlled herself. I went over and hugged her, still feeling the pain in my stomach from the knowledge that she no longer loved me in the way I loved her. She buried her head in my chest, the warmth of her body comforting against my skin.

  I glared at Daniels. ‘So, you were at Jack’s house?’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah, I was. I couldn’t tell you before because you’d never have trusted me.’

  I looked at the gun, which was still pointed in our direction. ‘So, you’re not a cop?’

  ‘I am a cop. I didn’t lie about that.’

  Kathy broke away from me. ‘You can’t be. The police don’t do that sort of thing.’

  ‘I’m undercover,’ he told her.

  He briefly explained what he’d told me, and Kathy listened without interrupting. As he spoke he lowered the gun. ‘We got a call this afternoon from Lench. Me and Mantani were to go with him over to a guy named Jack Calley’s house, and we were to dress in suits and make sure we wore gloves. While we were driving, Lench told us that Calley had some information that we had to get from him. He wouldn’t say what it was. When we arrived, Mantani asked him what we were going to do with Calley once we got the information, and Lench said we were going to kill him and make it look like suicide. Apparently, that’s one of Lench’s specialities.

  ‘Anyway, Mantani and I knocked on the door while Lench waited round the corner. Because we were dressed in suits, we looked pretty normal, so I guess Calley wasn’t suspicious. When he answered, Mantani gave him a shot of pepper spray and the three of us forced our way inside. We dragged Calley upstairs and tied him to the bed. He was coughing and choking and telling us that we could take whatever we wanted but to please leave him alone. He was really scared. Lench stuffed a golfball in his mouth, then sat on his legs and put a lighter to his balls.

  ‘Then he took out the golfball and said, “Where is it? We know you’ve got it.” Calley was screaming and saying he didn’t know what the hell it was Lench was talking about, so Lench started burning him again, for longer this time. Then he asked Calley who he’d been blabbing to. He didn’t say what about, but I got the feeling Calley knew what he was talking about.

  ‘But he wasn’t talking, so Lench put the golfball back in his mouth and told him he had five minutes to think things over, and then we were really going to get started on him. He went downstairs, and I went with him. We left Mantani on guard duty. When we were down in the kitchen, Lench put the kettle on and then came right up and loo
ked me in the eye. He told me that to prove myself to him I was going to have to take the kettle up to the bedroom and pour the contents over Calley’s face and body, before we even tried to get him to talk again. That way he’d know we were serious. Lench said he was going to film me on his phone doing it, so that I’d be completely implicated.

  ‘I knew I was going to have to get the hell out of there, but before I had a chance to create a distraction I heard shouting coming from upstairs. That idiot Mantani had gone to take a piss, leaving Calley on his own, and he’d managed to get free. The next thing we know, Calley comes flying down the stairs and charges out the side door, with Mantani hot on his tail. Lench yelled at me to go and start the car so we could be ready for a quick getaway, and then he disappeared out the door after them.’

  ‘I didn’t hear him shout that,’ said Kathy.

  ‘So you were there?’ I asked quietly, and with resignation.

  She turned to me and nodded gently. She looked beautiful, her olive skin unblemished by the tears, her eyes radiating a warmth and intelligence that made her betrayal so much harder to accept. She was a good person, a fantastic mother. I couldn’t understand how she could have done what she’d done.

  ‘Look, Tom. I . . .’

  Her words trailed off. I knew she felt sorry for me, but there seemed to be no regret, no desire to put things right. Her pain was for someone else.

  ‘How long’s it been going on?’

  She sighed. ‘We’ll talk about it later, Tom, OK? For now, I want to know who this man is, because I still don’t believe his story.’

  ‘I’m telling you the truth,’ said Daniels evenly. ‘Lench and Mantani went after Calley. I had to go back to the car because we’d parked it away from Calley’s house so it wouldn’t get clocked by passers-by. They came back five minutes later and said that Calley was dead, but he’d told them that he no longer had the thing they were after. He said he’d given it to Tom Meron.’

  I shook my head. ‘But I haven’t seen him for four years.’

  Daniels shrugged. ‘Well, that’s what they told me. They also said that while he was trying to escape, Calley made a call to your house. While we were driving, Lench made a call of his own. He’s got some excellent contacts because it only took him minutes to find out who your wife was and where you both worked. He got a car sent round to your house to make sure you were there when he turned up, then got us to drop him off. We were told to get rid of the car we’d been using, then to stay together and wait for further orders. The rest you know.’

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ I said, utterly confused. ‘Jack Calley never gave me anything.’

  ‘It’s convenient you had nothing to do with Jack’s actual murder, isn’t it?’ said Kathy to Daniels, an undercurrent of venom in her voice. ‘Did you see what they did to him? I did. I went up into the woods to try to find him. They’d strung him up from a tree like some sort of dog. Nobody deserves that.’

  Daniels ignored her. ‘So, where were you all this time? I’m guessing you must have been in the bedroom. In one of the cupboards?’

  She sighed. ‘Jack and I were upstairs when you came to the door. When the doorbell went, Jack went to get it, and that’s when I heard all the commotion and shouting coming from downstairs. I panicked and hid in the nearest place I could find – his clothes cupboard. I pushed myself right to the back, behind all his suits, and kept as quiet as I could. And then I heard you and your friends coming into the room, Jack being knocked about and tied to the bed, and then . . . And then I heard you torturing him.’ Her voice cracked as she recounted the events. ‘He was in agony. And no-one, none of you, seemed to care.’

  Daniels didn’t say anything, so she continued.

  ‘When you went downstairs and the other man left the room too, I knew this was the only chance I was going to get to help Jack. I came out of the wardrobe and saw him lying there on the bed with the crotch of his jeans all blackened where he’d been burned. His face was screwed up in agony but he was still conscious. He motioned for me to get back inside the cupboard – he didn’t want me to get caught, because he knew they’d kill me – but I couldn’t leave him like that. Not helpless. I could hear the other man moving about in the toilet and it was obvious I only had a few seconds. I managed to free one of his hands, and he untied the other. We heard the toilet door opening, and Jack pushed me away and made a run for it. I heard the scuffle on the stairs and then him charging down them. And that was the extent of our goodbye.’ I watched as Kathy took some deep breaths, then fixed Daniels with a hard stare. ‘And I never heard anyone shout anything about going and starting the car.’

  Daniels shrugged. ‘That’s the way it happened.’

  She shook her head. ‘You took part in his killing, I know you did.’

  ‘Daniels rescued me earlier, Kathy,’ I said. ‘I think he’s who he says he is: an undercover cop.’

  ‘You weren’t there, Tom. I was. He was a part of it, undercover cop or not.’

  ‘Jack phoned me, when they were chasing him,’ I told her. ‘He said he needed my help. The last words he said – and he said them to the people chasing him – were the first two lines of our address. Why?’

  Daniels looked at Kathy. ‘Maybe Calley gave the thing Lench was after to you but he didn’t say anything under torture because he was trying to protect you.’

  She shook her head. ‘Jack never gave me anything.’

  ‘Are you sure about that?’

  She glared at him. ‘I don’t have to answer to you, whoever you are. Even if you have got a gun in your hand.’ She turned in my direction. ‘I think we need to call the police, Tom. Get this sorted out.’

  ‘I’d advise you against that, Mrs Meron.’ Daniels had raised the gun again, and I saw his finger tightening on the trigger.

  ‘Vanessa’s dead as well,’ I told her desperately. ‘She was murdered over at the university this afternoon.’

  Kathy’s eyes widened, and she looked genuinely shocked. ‘Oh God, no.’

  ‘Look, I’ve got to ask. Did you know anything about it?’

  She shook her head. ‘Of course not. Christ, what happened?’ Her voice was high-pitched, distraught.

  ‘The police didn’t tell me, but I think she was stabbed.’

  ‘Do you know anything about this?’ she demanded, addressing Daniels.

  Now it was his turn to shake his head. ‘I’ve no idea why she would have been targeted. Can you think of a reason?’

  ‘No, I can’t. She’s a bloody university lecturer, for Christ’s sake.’ She wiped her hand across her face. ‘Oh God, poor Vanessa.’

  ‘There’s something else you should know,’ I said.

  She looked at me quickly. ‘What?’

  ‘The knife used to kill her had your fingerprints on it.’

  ‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘No way. There must be some mistake.’

  I watched her reaction carefully. It’s a very disconcerting feeling not being able to trust anything your wife says.

  ‘And I’m still wondering why Jack phoned our house, and why he wanted me to help him,’ I added.

  ‘I don’t know anything about that either.’ But when she turned my way I could see doubt in her eyes. She was lying. I could tell.

  Daniels obviously felt the same way. ‘You know something, Mrs Meron, and it’s in everyone’s best interests that you tell us what it is.’

  ‘What? To you? To someone who was involved in the killing of a man I cared about, who I’ve never met before in my life, and who’s now pointing a gun at me? No, I’m calling the police. I’ll talk to them.’

  There was a phone in the far corner of the room, on a table next to one of the chairs, and Kathy now strode over to it.

  ‘Don’t do it, Mrs Meron,’ snapped Daniels, the tension in his voice obvious. The gun was now pointed at Kathy’s head.

  I stepped in front of him. ‘Come on, Daniels. For Christ’s sake, don’t point that thing at my wife.’

  He shoved me
aside with a hissed ‘shut the fuck up’, then addressed her again. ‘There are police officers involved in this, Mrs Meron. You talk to the wrong one, you could end up dead. Don’t do it.’

  ‘Or what? What’ll you do? Shoot me?’

  Daniels’ features were taut and ragged. ‘If I have to, yes.’

  ‘I’m going to phone nine-nine-nine and get the police to come here. If you are a police officer, then you have to accept that, don’t you?’

  They stared at each other, Kathy’s hand resting on the receiver. Her expression was one of grim determination. So was Daniels’, but he looked to be under the most pressure, even though he was the one with the gun. I knew he didn’t want to hurt her, but I wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t. His grip on the gun was firm. The barrel didn’t move.

  ‘Don’t make me do this, Mrs Meron. If you tell me where it is, then we can sort all this out.’

  Something struck me then. Something so obvious that I should have known about it right from the first minute I’d met him.

  ‘You know what it is, don’t you?’ I said to Daniels. ‘You know what Lench and his boss are looking for. And you want it for yourself.’

  But his attention was focused entirely on Kathy.

  My mind was racing. Should I rush him? Try to get the gun from his grasp? Did my wife deserve my help? I felt my legs shaking, the tension building. The room was thick with silence, no longer resembling the place where we’d spent so many relaxing evenings. My next thought, somewhat inappropriately, was that we were going to have to sell our share in the cottage. I couldn’t come here again, not after this.

  ‘Please, Mrs Meron. Come over here, and let’s talk.’

  I leaped forward, grabbing Daniel’s gun arm at the wrist and shoving it away from Kathy. With my free hand I tried to get a grip on his throat, but he danced backwards and out of reach, sending me tumbling into the banister. Then a hand slammed into the back of my skull, sending my head flying forwards into the wood with a painful thud, and Daniels’ arm seemed to slip effortlessly out of my grip.