Desolate Sands Crime Book 5 (Detective Alec Ramsay Crime Mystery Suspense Series)

by Conrad Jones

  “She’s a lovely woman who got hooked on drugs and couldn’t find her way out of it for a while,” Stirling tried to remain calm as he spoke. He needed Ryder to see Janice as more than an ex-prostitute. “You must have seen a hundred women in the same boat, haven’t you?”

  “Probably more than that.”

  “They weren’t all dirty, were they?”

  “I suppose not,” Brendon sighed. He sounded bored with the conversation. “Do you ever wonder how many?”

  Stirling sensed that Ryder was going to try to provoke him but he had to go along. “How many what?”

  “You know, when you’re kissing her,” he paused. “Do you wonder how many cocks she’s had in her mouth?” He paused again for an effect. “You must think about it. I know that I would. Shall we ask her?” Brendon bent down and pushed her head back. She groaned. “Hey, time to wake up,” he slapped her face as he shook her. “Wake up!”

  Stirling could only bite his lip as he listened to what was happening. “Don’t hurt her, Brendon,” he kept his voice even and tried to remain calm. “What is it that you want from me and Janice?”

  Janice opened her eyes as wide as she could. She blinked and looked around. Brendon Ryder was grinning at her. His piggy eyes had madness in them. He had a mobile to his ear. “Hey, she’s awake,” he said down the phone. “Say hello to your husband,” he cooed. “Hiya, Jim, I’m a little tied up at the moment,” he taunted them.

  “Janice,” Stirling said. “Are you okay?” Stirling felt tears in his eyes. The police interceptor turned into the approach road to the estate and came to a halt next to the mobile headquarters. A small army had their weapons trained on the fourth floor balcony of the middle townhouse. The reality of his wife’s perilous position hit him. “Can you hear me, Janice?”

  “Jim,” she croaked. Her voice sounded gravelly.

  “Are you okay?” he asked and immediately felt ridiculous for asking the question.

  “I’ve been better,” she muttered. Janice licked her lips and swallowed, trying to get her natural juices flowing. Brendon put the call onto speaker mode so that he could hear everything. “My nose is sore but I’ve been hit harder than that many times.” She watched Brendon’s face darken at her jibe. It was like flicking a switch from light to dark. “I am joking, sorry,” she said to him directly. “I’m nervous and I never know what to say when I’m nervous, so I revert to sarcasm.”

  The apology seemed to stave off any physical retribution, for the moment at least. “See what I mean about her mouth, Jim?” Brendon spoke loudly so that he could be heard, but it made him sound unbalanced. Stirling shivered at the thought of her being in close proximity to a man as dangerous as Brendon Ryder. “She doesn’t know when to shut up, does she?”

  “Sometimes she doesn’t think about what she’s saying,” Stirling answered cautiously. He climbed out of the interceptor and walked over to the trailer. The door was opened by a uniformed Inspector who nodded a silent greeting as he climbed in. “She doesn’t mean to be insulting. It’s just her sense of humour, isn’t it, Jan?” The tech took the mobile from him and fitted a jack-plug lead into the speaker slot so that everyone could hear. “She doesn’t mean any offense, do you, Jan?”

  “No,” her voice was weak but he thought that she might get the message to shut up. Alec and Annie pointed to a chair and Stirling walked over and sat heavily in it. He couldn’t take his eyes from the screen which showed his wife tied to a chair, her captor leaning over her. Her eyes were blackened and swollen and the blood from her nose had run down the front of her tee-shirt. She looked like she had been beaten badly. The anger inside him threatened to boil over. He stood rigid and breathed deeply. His fists clenched and unclenched and his eyes filled with tears as he stared at the screen.

  “I was just asking Jim if when he’s kissing you, he ever wonders how many cocks you have had in your mouth,” he paused. “Wasn’t I, Jim?” Alec put a comforting hand onto his wrist and nodded grimly. Stirling looked around at the faces in the room and all stared back at him with pity in their eyes. Some were so uncomfortable that they couldn't meet his gaze. He puffed up his cheeks and blew out slowly. “I said, wasn’t I, Jim?” Ryder shouted.

  “You were,” Stirling replied flatly.

  Janice felt burning tears in her eyes. They spilled over and made fresh tracks in the smudged mascara and congealed blood. She didn’t cry for herself, she cried for Jim and how excruciatingly embarrassed he must have been. If his colleagues were listening and she was sure that they would be, he would be traumatised by Ryder’s cruel questions. “I think that you should guess, Jim,” Ryder said. “You have a guess and then I’ll guess.”

  “What do you mean?” Stirling felt his fists tighten. His face was purple with anger. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable.

  “We’ll have a competition,” Ryder said. “We’ll both make a guess and then Janice can tell us who is closest shall we?”

  “What do you want, Brendon?” Stirling tried to end his sport. He had had enough of his game.

  “You know what I want, Jim,” he taunted, “I want you to guess.”

  “What do you really want?”

  “I said fucking guess!” Ryder sounded angry. “Guess or I’ll have to smash Janice in the face again.” He grabbed her hair and twisted her head back. Janice cried out and closed her eyes anticipating another blow to her already painful swelling. It sounded animal like. “Guess!”

  “Okay!” Stirling shouted. “Don’t hit her!”

  “Guess.”

  “Fifty,” Stirling said quickly. He shrugged and put his head into his hands. His stomach felt like a giant hand was twisting his guts. He was totally helpless and at the mercy of a lunatic.

  “Fifty?” Brendon repeated. “Fifty?” He waited for another answer but Stirling remained silent. He couldn’t bring himself to guess again. Alec sat back and folded his arms. He regretted bringing Jim Stirling into the equation. How could he operate rationally when the kidnapper was crucifying him over the telephone? “Fifty? Are you taking the piss out of me?”

  Annie could see that Alec was struggling with his decision. They made eye contact and Annie cringed inside. Brendon Ryder was ready to torture Stirling. She could see it coming and so could everyone else in the unit. “I’m not trying to take the piss.”

  “I hope not, or I’ll be insulted.”

  “I don’t want to insult you.”

  “Good,” Brendon said. “I’ll give you another chance, okay, but let’s do some maths first okay?” Jim stared at the screen and bit the back of his fist. He squeezed his eyes closed tightly to make the image disappear but it was still there when he opened them “Jim, I said okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Good,” he paused and spoke to Janice. “How many days a week did you work when you were a whore?” Janice shivered and felt her lips quivering. The tears ran freely and a sob stuck in her throat. She closed her eyes before she answered. She had to think about the baby. “How many?” He said impatiently.

  “Please don’t do this,” she sobbed.

  “Answer the question or I’ll have to think of another game.” He slid the survival knife from its sheath. “One which involves my knife.”

  Stirling stood up at the sight of the fifteen inch blade and closed his eyes. He took a sharp breath. “Answer him, Jan, it doesn’t matter anyway,” he said calmly. “Don’t hurt her, Brendon, I’ll play your game. Put the knife away.”

  Alec and Annie reacted as one. They grabbed Stirling by the arm and put their fingers to his lips to shush him. Annie shook her head anxiously and they waited for Ryder to pick up on what he had said. The tech turned off the microphone. Alec felt his breath trapped inside his chest. If Ryder realised that they could see what he was doing, it could be all over very quickly. Stirling rolled his eyes to the ceiling. He couldn’t believe what he had done.

  “Okay,” Brendon said slowly. He slid the knife back into sheath. His exp
ression hadn’t changed. He didn’t seem to realise what Jim Stirling had said, “so answer the question.”

  “Seven nights,” Janice muttered. Her expression was different. She had noticed and her eyes darted around the room.

  “Good,” Brendon said happily. “How many men did you do in a night?”

  “About ten.”

  “Ten!”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s seventy a week, Jim!” Brendon laughed. “Seventy cocks a week, fifty-two weeks a year is,” he paused to do the calculation, “three thousand six hundred and forty cocks.” He waited for a response. “Did you hear me, Jim?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s disgusting, Jim,” Ryder said patronizingly, “how can you go near her?” Janice sniffled, trying desperately to clear her nostrils. Congealed blood and mucus conspired to make her breathing difficult. “How many years were you a whore?”

  “Nine.”

  “Work that out, Jim,” Brendon sounded ecstatic. “I can’t do that in my head. Work it out on your phone.”

  “I am talking to you on my phone.” Stirling was at boiling point.

  “Don’t be difficult. Work it out on your mobile.”

  “I’m using my phone to talk to you!”

  “Work it out now, or Janice here is going over the balcony.” Brendon’s voice sounded clinical and cold. He was almost monotone. Annie rushed forward, handed her phone to Stirling and he found the calculator app and entered the numbers. He closed his eyes and put his hand to his mouth. Tears ran from both eyes. “Hurry up!” Brendon shouted.

  “Thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty,” Stirling said quietly. The words seemed to stick in his throat.

  “How many?”

  “Thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty.”

  “Thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty what, Jim?” his voice was thick with sarcasm.

  “Cocks.”

  “Amazing isn’t it?” Brendon smiled widely. “I mean you married a whore, right? So you have some idea what she’s been up to but this is amazing,” he whooped with glee, “when you analyze the numbers, it is mind blowing isn’t it?” He waited for a response but Stirling wasn’t forthcoming. Ryder raised his voice. “I said it’s mind blowing, isn’t it Jim?”

  “If you say so.”

  “I do, I do, I do,” he said laughing. “Your wife has had over thirty thousand cocks in her mouth. Oh my god, how dirty is that?” Ryder paused. “I said, how dirty is that, Jim?”

  “I heard you.”

  “Over thirty thousand, Janice.” Ryder turned his attention on her. “Well it’s your problem I suppose but personally I think she must be crawling with germs. Horrible dirty filthy germs,” he reinforced his point by speaking slowly, pronouncing every syllable. “Now your guess of fifty was just silly, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think I should make it thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty one, Jim?” Brendon pushed him harder.

  “No.”

  “No, I don’t either, because I would probably catch something nasty.” Ryder paused again. “I wouldn’t fuck her with yours, Jim. She’s a skanky bitch but I could make her do other stuff while we’re here. What do you think, Jim?”

  “I think that you should tell me what you really want.”

  “You embarrassed me, Jim, now I’ve embarrassed you in return. The difference is, that every time you look at her you’ll remember that number and better still, so will she. Won’t you, Janice?” Her body trembled and she whimpered. Saliva dribbled from the corners of her mouth. He had taken what little pride and dignity she had left and twisted it into something vile. She believed that every time Jim looked at her she would be thinking about what he was thinking. “She’s not answering because she’s a little bit upset.”

  “Okay, you’ve got what you wanted and hurt her and embarrassed us, so what’s next?” Stirling asked. “What do you really want?”

  “I want the truth.”

  “You wouldn’t know the truth if it crept up and bit you on the arse,” Stirling scoffed. “What is it that you think we’re lying about?”

  “Mr and Mrs Bissell for a start.”

  “We found them dead. That’s the truth.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “I can’t make you believe it, so what’s next?”

  “What is next, Jim?” He went quiet for a moment. “That depends really.”

  “On what?”

  “On what Janice has to say,” Ryder sounded distracted. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up and the line went dead. Stirling wondered if he had suddenly realised his glaring mistake earlier. They watched as he crouched down in front of Janice Stirling and looked up into her swollen eyes. The tech turned up the microphone in the townhouse. “You two are very close, aren’t you,” he said to her quietly. He seemed to be thinking about something. “Does he talk about work at home?”

  Chapter 54

  Brendon kept close to the wall and pulled the front curtains closed. He peered through a gap between the material and the wall and saw the army of armed police officers encamped outside. They didn’t appear to be making any plans to storm his position and although he was no military mastermind, he didn’t think that they could. He stepped back and leaned against the wall with a sigh. What a mess he had made of everything. He felt sick inside. His life of privilege was gone, taken from him by his own actions. Stupidity was the one constant through his life, his stepfather had reminded him of that fact often. John Ryder didn’t really like him and he certainly didn’t love him as his own but he made sure that he had money. He always had new clothes, decent cars and enough money to do as he pleased. As a result of his own decisions, that life was gone, never to be seen again. The time to pay the piper was near but he needed answers before he could face the repercussions of his actions. He wasn’t sorry for what he had done. He was sorry for getting caught. He had tried to impress his stepfather by silencing a snitch but the situation ran away with him. Everything always did. The results were catastrophic.

  “Here,” he handed Janice some water. “There’s not much left but it’s better than nothing. I blocked the stairs with furniture and then remembered that the kitchen was on the floor below.” He laughed coldly as he grabbed another chair and sat facing Janice. “I never plan anything properly. I think that I have thought of everything and then shit always goes wrong and it’s usually my own fault.”

  Janice listened to him as she drank greedily from the glass. She thought about smashing it in his eyes but he was just a little bit too far away. His attitude and demeanor appeared to have changed. He looked focused. There was curiosity in his eyes and his voice. “We can get water from the bathrooms,” Janice said. “I assume the bedrooms in a house like this have en-suite bathrooms?”

  His face brightened and he smiled. Nodding his head he chuckled, “See what I mean?” He sighed. “I never would have thought of that until we were desperate. Then I would have gone for a piss and realised that there was water there all the time!”

  Janice half smiled to humour him but it hurt her face. “So what are you going to do next?” She drained the water and looked at his face. He was volatile, angry one minute and contrite the next. She had met people like him before. Some said they were bipolar, massive highs followed by deep lows interspersed with long bouts of depression, but Ryder was different. His unpredictability was dangerous. Even his smile oozed malice. She genuinely feared for the life of her unborn child. How she interacted with her captor would determine much of what happened next. She knew that, but she had no idea what he was thinking or how he thought things would pan out. “How do you think this will end?”

  “God knows.” He put his hand to the gun instinctively. Janice shivered visibly. Although the room was reasonably sized, there was little furniture to hide behind, she was tied around the waist to a chair and Ryder was a serial killer. If there was a shoot-out, she was certain that he would kill her first. “Those
bastards are trying to fit me up.”

  “You said that you didn’t kill anyone.” Janice licked her lips. The water had refreshed her. “If that’s true, then what have you got to worry about?”

  “Prison,” he scoffed.

  “I thought that your stepfather had a reputation. Big boy like you would be okay in prison,” Janice smiled thinly. “If you haven’t done anything really bad then you won’t do long, will you?” She didn’t know what game Ryder was playing but if he believed that he hadn’t killed anyone, who was she to argue with him? If she could reassure him that he wouldn’t be in prison long, then he might be more inclined to give up. He could be trying to convince her that he was innocent, or he could be trying to convince himself, or he could just be completely fucking puddled, she couldn’t decide which.

  ****

  Jim Stirling wasn’t so sure that engaging Ryder was wise. Janice was too straight sometimes. Her honesty could be cutting. He sat glued to the screens, watching his wife prodding the devil with a stick. She really didn’t realise what she was saying. Or maybe she did but didn’t care. Life had made her tough. Alec and Annie watched and listened. Although they were in charge of the operation, containing Ryder didn’t seem nearly enough. While he had Janice as a hostage, they were little more than helpless. Ryder was too close to her for them to take him out. They would have to wait patiently for a break. Annie felt the familiar throbbing pain behind her eye patch. It was building ominously. Waiting was stressful for all concerned, but for Jim Stirling? She could only imagine what agonies he was suffering.

  ****

  Ryder lifted his index finger and wagged it at her playfully. “Sometimes it is not what you have done but what they say you have done that counts,” he sneered. “They can make you guilty if they want to, and they want to make me guilty of just about everything.”

  “I don’t follow,” Janice said; her voice thick with phlegm. “Things are more transparent nowadays, so how can they set you up?.”

  “They make things up, your fella and his cronies,” he smiled sourly, “they nick you for one thing and then clear up a load of other shit by pinning it on you. They find evidence wherever they need to find it, if you know what I mean.”