‘Shut up!’ he screamed, in a frenzy. ‘Don’t talk about that filthy harlot. I’m gonna do you over like the slut you are, and then you’re gonna die.’
‘Is your mother a harlot? Can you prove that? Or is that what your granddad told you? And how can you call me a slut? I didn’t leave you when you were hurt and needed me.’
Danny blinked, his expression filled with too-bright confusion, personalities competing in his eyes. ‘I don’t know! I don’t know!’ He jerked Dr Schumacher by the hair. ‘You need to know who’s a man!’
Elly shook her head. ‘I could never love or respect a man who enjoys hurting people.’
‘A real man has to show a woman who’s in control!’
‘Your grandfather was wrong. That’s why he was never happy, Danny,’ she said softly. ‘He hurt women because he couldn’t make them love him. Monster’s making the same mistake as your granddad always has. I don’t want a boss. I want a man I can give my whole heart to, a man I can respect.’
Still he held the gun on the doctor, but his breathing was uneven. ‘I can’t stop it until you help me, Janie! If you want to save people, you have to make Monster go away!’
Poor, warped Danny. ‘I’m not qualified to make Monster go—and he’s breaking all the oaths I took to save life. I could never stay with you until you get help.’
‘You will save me!’ Danny made gibbering sounds, and then the fierce, bright-eyed Monster took over. ‘I’ll make you do it. Get out here, Jepson!’
A slight commotion, and Adam was beside her in a flak jacket and helmet, a gun cocked and ready in his hand, his gaze trained on Danny. ‘I’m here.’
Elly felt her knees buckle. No, her mind cried. Not you, Adam. Not you!
Rick held her up. ‘Stay strong,’ he whispered. Slowly, she nodded.
Adam pushed her aside, mouthing something to Rick, who nodded and moved back.
After one small, shaking step, she couldn’t go further. Rick drew her backward, holding her hand. She clung to her brother as Adam spoke, quiet and sincere.
‘Danny, if you do this, it will destroy any chance of making Janie love you.’
‘Shut up!’ He kept the gun poised by the doctor’s mouth, but pointed the remote at Adam. ‘That woman said Janie’s done it with you.’
She heard laughter in Adam’s voice. ‘What does Jen Collins know? She’s angry and jealous because she has a crush on me, and I rejected her. You know Janie, Danny. Men fall in love with her because she’s so giving and strong, but she’s so innocent. All she ever wanted was a brother, not a lover.’
Danny’s eyes swung to Elly, then back to Adam, frowning as he thought about it. ‘She said Janie’s been spending all her time with you!’
‘Of course she has—and with Rick. We’re all a family. We love each other.’ As Danny’s face turned dark, Adam lowered his gun, and went on as if he’d said nothing wrong. ‘We’ve been like brother and sister since we were kids. She came to my wedding. My wife knew her.’
‘Y–your wife?’ Danny faltered, his gaze swinging back and forth as if watching an invisible tennis match. ‘But she’s dead.’
Adam nodded, his whole bearing taut. ‘Yes, but I still love my wife. Janie knows that. All she wanted in coming here was the love and protection of her brothers.’
Elly had to force herself to show no emotion when Danny’s gaze swung to her. She only nodded. Danny turned back to Adam, ferreting out the truth.
Adam nodded. ‘Would you like to see my wife?’ Putting his pistol on the ground, he fished out his wallet slowly showing Danny every move he made. He held up a family picture, the only one with little Zack. ‘This is my Sharon, and my children, Zoe and Zack. Aren’t they beautiful?’
‘Janie knows?’ Danny couldn’t stop staring at the picture. His voice veered between disbelief and hope. His balance, never strong, was wavering. ‘She knows you love your wife?’
‘Of course. She’s always known.’ He folded the photo back into his wallet. ‘I know how it feels to lose the only woman I’ll ever love, Danny,’ he said in a tone of quiet conviction. ‘No one can hope to understand that the way we do. Others, they see a beautiful, wonderful woman like Janie, and don’t believe any man can love her as I do—like a best friend, or brother.’
A momentary veering back to suspicion. ‘She has a brother.’ Danny tilted his head at Rick.
‘Now she does. The whole time I knew her, she didn’t. She’s only just found Rick again. He’s my closest friend here. We’ve all become family.’ His voice turned indulgent. ‘Would you like to see Janie as she was when I first met her, when she was eleven?’
One side of Danny’s mouth quirked up. He nodded.
He fished out the other photo from his wallet, showing it to Danny. ‘Look at her. Up her tree, just like always. That’s where I met her. She didn’t trust anyone. She only came down to pat my dog.’
Danny chuckled and nodded, startling the distant onlookers. ‘That’s Janie. She finds it hard to trust any man, because her father and brother left her.’
The words shook Elly to her core. Was she so transparent even a madman could see her clearly? Rick’s hand tightened on hers, saying what she needed to hear without words. Your life has changed, Janie. She gulped down the familiar sense of abandonment, clinging to Rick’s hand in return. But the seesawing of her emotions made it hard to concentrate on ending this situation.
‘You’re so right, Danny. She was always running away, or pushing people away. Look at her here, with her foot out. She was kicking me that day, because she was so angry with me. Scrawny wild little thing she was, always disappearing. It took ages for her to say more than “hi” to me. We eventually became best friends, which is why she came to my wedding. Why she came here when she was scared. Who else could take care of her but her brothers? Someone here has been hurting Janie. They hit her with a tree branch, slashed her tyres and called her a slut. Look at her lip, all swollen.’
Danny stared at Elly’s mouth, his face turning tight with fury.
‘Do you think Rick would trust any other man with her but me, and vice versa? You and I know we have to protect our women. I kept Janie safe and pure for the right man.’
He took another step closer as Danny’s defiance and fury began to crumble, and turned to amazement and hope. Then his face darkened again, and Elly could see the character called Monster taking over.
‘You were hiding her from us!’
Adam nodded. ‘Of course I was. I thought it was you hurting her. But you weren’t even here. It was Jen Collins, the Mirakis—the people your grandfather paid attacked her, Danny. He paid them to hurt her, and terrify her.’
‘Granddad,’ Danny snarled, his eyes hardening. ‘He doesn’t want us, just another boy to own and screw over.’
‘I’ll only talk to you, Danny.’ Adam kept his gaze on Danny. ‘Monster doesn’t know Janie. Only you do. Only you will look after Janie.’
As she watched, Danny’s fury melted and more hope came; with it, the other personality retreated. Though Adam was no psychiatrist, his negotiation skills were working. He was keeping Danny happy, the key to restraining the other personality.
‘I will,’ Danny said eagerly. ‘If she stops running away! I can’t stop him when she makes him angry. She has to obey.’
Adam made a clicking sound with his tongue. ‘Janie has a habit of running away when she’s sad or scared. Don’t take it personally. She wouldn’t have saved your life if she didn’t care, would she?’
‘She said she doesn’t love me!’ Danny’s voice was a wail, a child falling into a nightmare. As the negative emotions came forward, the other personality stepped up. His finger tightened on the trigger of his remote, just a notch, and Elly held her breath. The nasty little boy who took pleasure in creating havoc and death was coming back, his focus all on Adam.
‘Can men ever work women out, Danny?’ Adam put a subtle emphasis on the name. ‘No means yes to them, and yes means no—but Janie isn’t like
that. She ran because you really scared her last time. Cutting her made her think you never loved her at all.’
‘But—but it was a sign of love. She knows it means I love her!’
‘Who believes cutting a woman means love—Danny or Monster? Or Granddad?’ he asked, very softly. ‘Because Janie doesn’t know it. It hurt and terrified her.’
‘What?’
Uncertainty filled the crazed eyes—and, as Elly’s lungs refused to work, Adam put the killing blow together.
He spoke very softly now. ‘Janie lost her parents very young, like you did, Danny. She lived on the road until she was ten, then she moved around from family to family. She grew up feeling lonely and unloved. So she doesn’t always know when someone loves her, or if they’re using her. Janie seems so strong, but beneath that, she really needs stability and love. A man who won’t frighten her, or offer her less than the home and family she deserves. Right now she thinks you don’t love her—that you just want the doctor, or the beautiful woman, not the real Janie.’
Abracadabra. The lust and fury left Danny’s eyes as they swivelled to Elly, with that sickening gaze of hope. ‘Janie, you know I love you … don’t you?’
She only had a minute. Keeping her gaze trained on the suicide vest, she hoped to God she was right in what she saw, because hundreds of lives depended on it. She felt Adam willing her to say the right words. Rick squeezed her hand, a brother’s faith. You can do it.
‘When you hurt me, when you called me those nasty names, it felt just like the people who hurt me when I was a child. When you hurt my little fur-babies, I thought, He hates me …’
Adam stepped back as they watched Danny overtake Monster. The gun and remote in his hands slipped an inch. ‘Oh, Janie, Janie—’
Her head lowered. She peered at him from under half-closed lashes. ‘I run away when I feel scared or unloved. I can’t help it.’
Danny’s whole face softened; his hands loosened still more. ‘Janie,’ he whispered with cloying adoration. ‘You’ll never feel unloved again. We’ll be together forever!’
She repressed a shudder, and even managed to smile at him. She could almost hear Adam and Rick’s thoughts, Drop your weapons, Spencer. Drop your weapons …
A nurse ran from the direction of the ER, and whispered a few urgent words in Jonas’s ear. Elly closed her eyes, silently begging, Don’t say it …
‘Elly, one man’s situation has become critical. He’s haemorrhaging.’
Danny’s eyes took on the fierce glitter again, and his finger tightened on the dead-man’s switch. Monster was here. ‘Yeah, Elly. He’s gonna die if you don’t do something. So come to us, Janie, and we’ll let the nice doctor go. He’s the only chance he has.’
She took a deep breath, let go of Rick’s hand and walked to Danny.
‘Elly, don’t go to him. He’ll kill you!’
She looked right through Adam, her eyes distant, as if their shared past, their night and morning of love never existed, then she turned back to Danny. ‘Let him go,’ she commanded as she reached Danny’s side. ‘I won’t come to you until he’s safe. Until you put down the remote.’
But as Danny released the old man, he grabbed Elly, making sure her body covered his from the aim of the police guns. Dr Schumacher stumbled away without a backward glance.
Cocking the rifle, holding the remote still, he dragged her into his free arm, pointing the muzzle at the back of her head, both personalities merging for a moment of triumph. ‘I knew you’d come to me, Janie. We belong together. So kiss me, baby. And then we’ll die together.’
She said quietly, ‘I won’t kiss you until the remote’s gone, Danny. There are small children in this hospital. They’re as young as we were when we lost our families. It wouldn’t be fair.’
A slow blink, as his personalities balanced on a knife’s point.
She dropped her head to his shoulder. ‘Please, be my Danny now,’ she murmured, gentle and meek. ‘I know you’ll give me my last wish. I could love a man who would save children. The gun is for us.’
With a long sigh he moved slightly away from her and, keeping the gun trained on her, he switched off the remote and put it carefully down on a plastic chair to his left. ‘Janie …?’
Her eyes filled with true gratitude. ‘Thank you, Danny. A real man knows when to give.’ She stepped back into his arms.
‘Kiss me, baby,’ Danny whispered.
She obeyed him without hesitation, her left arm hooking around his neck, her right hand fumbling in her jeans pocket beneath the flak jacket, as Danny’s finger tightened on the trigger.
The horrible kiss went on, Danny’s free hand roaming her body. She heard him growling low in his throat, growing slowly angrier as the kiss didn’t arouse him.
It’s almost time—wait, just wait.
Behind her, she heard Rick whisper, ‘Dive tackle. Now.’
No, Ricky, Adam, please! I can’t lose you! She kissed Danny in desperation—but she’d failed; Monster came out to play with Danny’s anger. And then, as Adam and Rick dived at Danny, Monster turned the rifle.
Adam dropped like a stone at Elly’s feet.
A glance showed blood pooling, rather than pumping, out—thank God. It wasn’t the carotid artery, probably the jugular vein. His life was still in danger, but he wouldn’t die soon. Rick rolled onto Adam’s body to protect him from a second shot, hands going to the wound.
‘Get off him,’ Danny roared. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’ He looked at Elly, and she knew her kiss hadn’t fooled him—and shooting Adam had aroused him. ‘I’ll do you now, Janie. Your boyfriend’s gonna die just before we do.’
With narrowed eyes, she looked only at Danny, spoke only to Danny. ‘You let Monster out so you don’t have to take responsibility for hurting my friend. But you are Monster. And he disgusts me.’
‘I’m in control here!’ He bent back for the dead-man’s switch.
She whipped out the scalpel she’d hidden in her jeans pocket, taken from her kit on the way into town. Its honed edge glittered in the ward lights as she slashed through the shoulder of the homemade suicide vest and into his right arm. Cutting into tendon and nerves, rendering the arm useless.
Danny gasped as suddenly nerveless fingers dropped his weapon, his whole arm shaking. Pleading eyes looked at her, a child to its mother. ‘Janie, no … not you …’
Weary, sad, hopeless, she whispered, ‘You are Monster.’ And she pushed the knife into the other arm, same movement.
He gasped and swayed, both arms useless. ‘No … not you, Janie. Not you … there’s nobody else who cares … nobody …’
‘Danny, my darling, please don’t say that. I’m here.’
His hands hanging at his side, dripping blood, Danny choked, staring past Elly in disbelief. A middle-aged woman, with startling blue eyes behind glasses, thin and somehow ragged despite her neat clothing and greying hair pulled back in a ponytail, stepped forward from among the police.
‘Danny, I’ve missed you so much. My beloved boy.’
Danny visibly shook, either from the wounds or the shock of seeing his mother again at this critical time.
Elly dropped to the floor beside Rick, who was holding Adam’s wound. She pulled off her flak jacket and handed it to him. ‘Pressure bandage, Ricky, but be careful. Don’t block his breathing.’
The police moved in as Rick used the flak jacket to bear gentle weight onto the wound. He looked up at the officers, shaking his head. He mouthed, ‘Ricochets. Hold off.’
‘Mendham’s right,’ Jonas said, just as softly.
Still the police kept their armoury of weapons trained on Danny, ready for a chance that wouldn’t hurt anyone in the room.
Danny kept staring at the woman moving toward him. ‘I don’t know you! Go away!’
The woman smiled and softly sang, ‘Incy-wincy spider climbed up the water spout …’
Danny seemed mesmerised. As she continued to sing, he swayed side to side, mouthing the words, fi
ngers twitching, attempting but failing to create the shapes of the nursery rhyme. Blood dripped to the floor from both sides of his body.
When the song finished, the woman said, ‘Do you remember we sang that together every night? You wouldn’t go to sleep without it. Did your grandfather sing it to you after he forced me away from Gundawin?’
Blinking hard and fast, Danny came back to the present. ‘You left me. You left me!’
‘No, Danny,’ came the woman’s answer, gentle and firm. ‘Your grandfather hated me, as he hates all women. Because he’d lost your father, he wanted you to himself.’
‘You’re lying,’ Danny said, but his voice shook.
‘If you want me to say I’m lying, I will, but I don’t think it will make you feel any better. He hurt you, didn’t he? Just as he hurt me. Did he brand you with his whip, too?’ She pulled back her sleeves, showing a multitude of white, crisscrossing scars.
His mouth hung open. He tried to move his arms, but they were useless. After a few moments, he nodded. ‘Prove this isn’t a trap,’ he rasped. ‘Prove you’re my mother.’
The woman held out a photo. ‘Here we are, darling, the day you rode your first horse on Gundawin. Do you remember that day? Your grandfather threw you on. You were so scared, you cried for me. So I rode a horse beside you, and we held hands the whole time.’
He whispered, ‘And Granddad was so angry. Said you were making a sissy of me.’
‘But I didn’t care what he said. You’re my precious boy, and I protected you, just as your father would have. Just as I will now,’ Lorena Spencer said, quiet but full of love.
Danny stood transfixed. He didn’t even notice that Elly was at his feet, working with Rick to save Adam’s life. She heard the gentle flow of words from above her without really registering them.
‘Did he force you to kill animals when he was angry, like he tried to with your father? Or did he kill them all, and tell everyone it was you doing it?’
The corridor was silent. Police held their guns and waited for a chance. Rick’s hands grew slick with Adam’s blood, while Elly held Adam’s throat at either side of the wound to slow the blood flow.
Beneath the Skin Page 29