by Tania Carver
Choked
( Detective Inspector Philip Brennan - 4 )
Tania Carver
Detective Inspector Phil Brennan and criminal psychologist Marina Esposito have just returned from their honeymoon and are spending the Easter weekend in Suffolk with their baby daughter Josephina and Phil's adoptive parents.
But their rural idyll is cruelly destroyed. After a devastating arson attack on the cottage, Josephina goes missing.
With Phil in a coma, Marina is alone when she receives the first phonecall.The kidnappers say that if Marina ever wants to see her daughter alive again, she has to do exactly what they say…
Tania Carver
Choked
Copyright
Published by Hachette Digital
ISBN: 978-0-7481-2284-4
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © Tania Carver 2012
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, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Hachette Digital
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DY
www.hachette.co.uk
PROLOGUE
THE PASSOVER LAMB
1
He opened his eyes. Stood up slowly. He hurt. Everything hurt.
He looked round. Took it all in. And knew what he needed.
A gun.
He knew where there was one. A double-barrelled shotgun, kept for bagging rabbits and clay pigeons.
But not today.
The locked cabinet where it was kept was simple to open. He held the gun in his hand, felt the weight, the heft of it, like he was balancing it against what it was capable of. Or had been capable of.
He took his eyes off the barrels and surveyed the room. The house had been wrecked. The furniture had always been carefully positioned, regularly cleaned. He could remember being told off for playing on it when he was younger. The antiques had been out of bounds. He was never to touch them, or else. The drumming-in of the consequences of such an act was one of his earliest memories of life in the house. He had grown up too terrified to do so. If one of his hands had accidentally brushed against a vase or a porcelain figurine, he had gone to bed that night in abject fear of some terrible but unspecified punishment.
But all that was now gone. Replaced by carnage.
The furniture was overturned, glass-fronted cabinets smashed, upholstery ripped open. The antiques lay shattered all around, giving each room a new, shard-sharp carpet.
Something caught his eye. A vase, upright, sitting on the plinth it had always occupied in the corner. The last remaining antique. He crossed to it, reached out and touched it softly. Caressed it, stroked it like it was the only remnant from the old days, his old life. But he’d forgotten the shotgun balanced in the crook of his other arm. He brought it round too quickly. It connected with the vase. Hard. And the vase fell, shattering on the parquet flooring, rippling out in thousands of tiny porcelain fractals, making his ears ring.
He backed away quickly. Felt fragments crunch under his feet; felt that childhood terror once more. Someone or something would get him for this. He would be punished in some way.
He turned, fled the room. Looking for peace, respite.
But it was the same in all the others. Same carnage, same destruction.
Same dead bodies.
That was what he had been avoiding. Too scared to look. Blanking them out. All of them. Because he knew who each of them was. Or had been. The man he had called his father. The girl he had called his sister. The boy he had called his brother. And his mother.
His mother …
Now they were nothing. Just leavings in a stinking abattoir. Their blood and insides smearing and decorating the walls, ceilings and floors. He could plot their pathways, the journeys from room to room to avoid the gun. Running. Shrieking. Grabbing at antiques — carefully collected and collated antiques, expensive antiques — throwing them, hearing them shatter. Pulling over sofas, chaises, hiding futilely behind them. Knowing that nothing they did, said or could do would stop the gun from firing. From tearing them apart.
From tearing apart the people he had come to call his family.
He felt tired, as if suddenly coming down from an adrenalin high. He yawned. The shotgun felt like an extra, heavy limb in his arms. Or a sleeping baby. He trudged round the house, eyes seeing yet not seeing.
His mother.
His mother …
Up and down stairs. In and out of every room. Over and over. Nothing changed. Nothing moved. Outside, it grew dark. The sun sank over the hedges. He didn’t turn on any lights, didn’t notice. Shadows accumulated. His feet, and what was under his feet, made the only sound. Eventually he came again to the main room. The drawing room, as the girl he had been told to call sister insisted on it being referred to. In here was worst. Even more so than he remembered it the first time.
This was where most of his family had ended up. Hunted down, the shotgun taking them out like rabbits in the field, clay discs in the sky.
His mother had made it to the fireplace. Twilight shadows falling from the huge side window turned her body into a misshapen sack, of offal and bone, cloth and hair. He felt even more tired, more numb inside. He knelt over her body, meaning to stroke her hair, move it away from her face, her sightless eyes. His fingers touched wet sponge. He pulled them back, looked at them. The darkness of the room rendered her blood black.
He wanted to cry, but he was beyond tears.
He moved away from her, pulled a small footstool to the wall, sat down on it. Took in the room once more. Everything wrecked. Lives. Futures. Including his.
He sighed. I should be pleased, he thought. Because this is all mine now. No more arguments, no more whispering behind hands, saying things about me behind my back. No more telling me what to do. Making me feel small. Hurting me. Making me do things I don’t want to do. Telling me I can’t touch things when the rest of them can. When the girl who’s supposed to be my sister can. No more. No more.
He looked at the shotgun. Felt emotions build within him that he couldn’t even name. He sat there, breathing hard, his skin prickling and hot as though he had developed some virus, the room dancing before his eyes like the prelude to a migraine.
The emotions swam within him, whirling round and round, faster and faster, engulfing him.
No more.
No more.
He moved the shotgun out of the crook of his arm. Felt the slow, painful release of his elbow muscles where he had held it for so long, a rusty gate being unlocked.
He stretched his arms out fully, the shotgun in his right hand. Head still swirling, he placed the barrel against the underside of his chin, felt the cold metal against his hot skin. Put the stock between his thighs. Brought them together. Wrapped both his thumbs round the triggers. Closed his eyes.
No more …
‘Can I just suggest something?’
He stopped. Opened his eyes.
‘If you’re going to do it, at least do it properly.’
2
He jumped, startled at the sudden sound. He had believed himself alone in the house. The only one there. The only living one there, anyway.
‘It’s the wrong way round.’ A finger pointed at the shotgun. ‘You’re holding it the wrong way round.’
He looked down at his own fingers. The trigger guard was pointing outwards, away from him. That was the easiest way, he had thought, to bring his two index fingers down on the triggers. A sure way of
making certain he didn’t miss.
‘Like Village of the Damned.’
Puzzled, he didn’t reply.
‘Village of the Damned,’ the intruder said again, voice edged with exasperation. ‘The film. With the spooky blond kids. Old one. Black and white.’
He still said nothing.
‘Oh, you must have seen it. Remember?’
He couldn’t process fast enough, couldn’t keep up. The house. The people he called his family. The intruder. And now the things the intruder was saying to him. Prattle. White noise in his head. His brain felt like it moved seconds after his head did.
‘Anyway, there’s this scene in the film. This farmer’s done something to upset the kids. And they make him kill himself. Point his own shotgun at himself. He does it that way.’ The intruder pointed at his hands. ‘The way you’re holding it.’
He looked down again. Took his fingers away, suddenly self-conscious.
‘I mean, it’s all right, as ways go. But there’s too much margin for error. Too many things that can go wrong. Your finger could slip. You could miss. The shot could just take your jaw off, miss your brain completely. You’d still be alive, but you’d be a hell of a mess. Is that what you want?’
The intruder stared at him. Scrutinised him. He felt embarrassed, looked away.
Still saying nothing.
He looked down at the gun once more. He could pick it up, point it, pull the triggers … the intruder would be gone. Simple. Easy. One little finger twitch. One loud noise. One dead intruder.
And one hero.
The intruder turned back to him and smiled. He looked away, couldn’t hold the gaze. It was like the other man could tell what he had been thinking.
‘If you’re going to do it, turn it round, stick it in your mouth. Right the way back and up. So you’re choking on it, gagging. Then pull. That’s the way.’ Doing the actions all the while. ‘Or didn’t you really want to do it?’
He realised he was being asked a direct question. Felt it demanded an answer. An honest one.
‘I … I don’t … don’t know … ’
The intruder smiled, like that was the expected answer. ‘Thought so. Never mind.’ A sigh. ‘Village of the Damned. Interesting. Based on the John Wyndham novel, The Midwich Cuckoos. Ever read it?’
He said nothing.
‘No. Didn’t take you for much of a reader. Should give it a go. Very interesting.’ The intruder laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. ‘Especially for you. Cuckoos are a bit of a thing with you, aren’t they?’
Again he said nothing.
The intruder looked away from him, surveying the damage. ‘What a mess. What a real … blooming … mess.’ He turned back. ‘And no questions. You haven’t even asked who I am or what I’m doing here. Not curious?’
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. His head, his heart had stopped functioning. He no longer knew what to think or feel.
The intruder laughed. ‘I’m your Jiminy Cricket, of course.’ Another laugh. ‘The voice of your conscience. Your imaginary little friend. Like Pinocchio had. Remember him? Surely you can remember him. The little wooden boy who wanted to be real. Wanted to fit in. Sound familiar?’
He looked round the room. Saw bodies that were now just lumps in the darkness. Indistinguishable from the overturned, destroyed furniture.
‘Thought so.’
The intruder sat down on the floor next to him.
‘You can put the gun down now. You’re not going to use it. Either on me or yourself.’
He did as he was told. Placed it carefully on the wooden floor.
‘Good.’ The intruder looked at it. Made no attempt to pick it up. Nodded. ‘Good. So, what we going to do with you, eh?’
‘What … what d’you mean?’
‘Well, we can’t just leave you sitting here like this, can we? Or can we?’
‘I … I don’t know. I … hadn’t thought about it … ’
‘Of course you hadn’t thought about it. That would call for forward planning. Thinking ahead. But that’s not Pinocchio’s job, that’s Jiminy Cricket’s, isn’t it?’
He said nothing. Instead he saw a brief mental image of the two characters in the Disney film, walking down a road, singing and dancing. It was false, untrue, but they both looked happy. In fact it looked so false it seemed attainable. He smiled.
‘That’s it … you know what I’m talking about. Smart boy. Now this … ’ another expansive gesture, ‘is a mess. A mess that needs sorting. And with me beside you, it will be sorted. If you want me to, that is.’
His head was still all over the place. He couldn’t process, couldn’t compute what had happened, what was there in front of him. He couldn’t work out how from him walking in the door of the house — of his home — feeling angry and bullied, self-pitying and wronged, feeling like he wanted to say his piece, get things straightened out, get everything sorted … how everything had gone from that to … He looked round the room again. To … this.
‘All right,’ he said, turning once more to the intruder. ‘Help me.’
‘I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Know where that’s from?’ The intruder laughed.
It left a cold, ringing echo round the blood-black walls.
PART ONE
A BLOODY GOOD FRIDAY
3
It should have been the happiest time of her life. But it had turned into the worst.
Marina Esposito opened her eyes slowly. Shock flooded her system. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She gradually pushed herself up on to her elbows, trying to blink away the images before her. Failing.
It was as if she had gone to sleep and woken up in some hellish post-apocalyptic landscape. The cottage, the garden behind it, the stretch of Suffolk coastline before it, had all gone. The comforting, safe rural environment replaced by ruins, flames.
She tried to pull herself into a sitting position, willed her mind to catch up with her body’s movements, but felt nothing but blankness in her head. It was too much to process, like she had just woken up and dragged a nightmare with her into the day. But she felt the heat on her face, her skin, the dust in her eyes. The gravel of the pathway she was lying on painfully imprinted on her hands and arms, her face. And she knew, subconsciously, that it must be real.
She blinked again, trying to corral her mind into some kind of rational order, to remember what had happened, why she was there.
The cottage where they had all been staying. The …
She looked at the blazing ruin before her and realised that that was the cottage.
‘Oh God … ’
She dragged herself slowly to her feet, ignoring the painful gravel rash, the grazed skin, her head spinning. Adrenalin began to pump round her system. She felt her heart speeding up, tripping along faster than her chest could contain it. She stood on unsteady legs, swaying, looking at the burning cottage before her. Slowly, as though her legs were made from concrete, she made her way towards it, crunching on gravel and shingle, breathing heavily through her mouth, her mind racing to catch up with her body.
A few days away before returning to work. That was all it had been. After the wedding and the honeymoon. Just herself, Phil and his parents.
And their three-year-old daughter.
‘No … oh no, oh fuck, no … ’
She looked again at the burning ruin before her, walked quicker.
Spending Easter in Suffolk. Aldeburgh, on the coast. Snape Maltings music festival nearby, a large stretch of beach, pubs and restaurants. A way of saying thank you to Don and Eileen for looking after Josephina.
And now this.
Marina was almost running in her haste to get there. She looked at the cottage, tried to make out shapes, called for her family.
‘Phil … Phil … oh God … Eileen, Don … ’
Nothing. Her only reply the sound of the flames, intensifying as she got nearer.
Her heart was ready to break through her ri
bcage.
There was a blazing car in front of the cottage. Marina didn’t recognise it. Not theirs. Not Don and Eileen’s. She dismissed it from her mind, kept going, moving towards the cottage. She hadn’t realised how far away she had been.
Part of her mind was asking the question: why was she not in the cottage? Why wasn’t she with the rest of them? Another part of her mind dismissed it. More important things to do. More important questions to answer.
She heard voices behind her, becoming louder. She ignored them. Heard footsteps running towards her. Ignored them too. Staying focused on the cottage. Moving towards it. Her world narrowed down to that burning ruin. To saving her family.
She had almost reached the car when she was grabbed from behind.
‘Get away from there! You mental?’
She shook the hands off her, kept going. They grabbed her again.
‘It’s not safe, you’ll be killed. Come on … ’
The hands pulled her back, stopped her from moving forward, separating her from her family.
She tried to shake them off again, but they gripped harder.
‘Please, stay back … see sense … ’
Desperation and adrenalin gave her strength. She turned, saw a man about her own age, concern and fear in his eyes, his hands grappling with her shoulders. She shook him off, broke free from his grasp.
As she reached the car, she felt the heat on her face and body. It was so bright it forced her eyes to close, so powerful it knocked her back like a physical presence. She squinted through the flames. Tried to make out anyone else. Reality rippled through the heat haze.
She heard the man’s voice behind her once more.
‘Get back! The car’s going to … ’
She felt hands on her body, the sensation of being pushed roughly to the ground. Then a sudden burst of searing heat, like she was being devoured by a miniature sun, accompanied by a sound so loud it must have shattered her eardrums.