The Soul Collector mw-2

by Paul Johnston

  Oaten moved on to the latest update from the Mary Malone murder. No other witnesses to a figure in a black cape and top hat had been found. DI Neville surmised that the killer either had a car parked farther down the street or had managed to change clothes somewhere nearby after the attack.

  The chief inspector’s cell phone rang. It was her boss, the assistant commissioner.

  “I’m in the office, sir.”

  “Admirable, Chief Inspector,” he said drily. “I’m expected to play golf with the commander of the Flying Squad, would you believe?” The assistant commissioner resented every minute he had to spend away from his desk. “Update me, please.”

  She gave him a rundown of the Saka and Zinar murders.

  “And your recommendation?” the AC asked.

  “To leave them with Homicide East. I’ll make sure we see the daily case-file updates. If there’s any link, I’ll take them over.”

  “Very well. Now, what about the crime novelist?”

  She told him where Homicide West had reached.

  “That doesn’t sound very impressive,” he said. “Don’t you think we should intervene?”

  “Do you mean because of the potential connection to the White Devil case?”

  “I mean exactly that.”

  Karen thought about it. If she took over the case, the spotlight would inevitably fall on Matt. He was already worried that Sara might be back, even though there was no direct evidence. Then again, she hadn’t heard from him today.

  “Tell me honestly, Karen,” he said. “Do you think it’s the start of a series?”

  She pursed her lips. How the hell was she supposed to know that? “It could be, sir,” she replied, hedging her bets.

  “How do you want to play it? The newspapers are having a field day. It would calm things down if they knew the VCCT was on it. We might scare the killer into backing off.”

  Oaten raised her eyes to the ceiling. The AC had been in the alternative reality inhabited by senior ranks for far too long. “I doubt it, sir. How about we leave it with Homicide West for the time being? If there’s another murder, we’ll take over.”

  Her boss considered that for a long time. “You’re not losing your appetite for messy cases, are you, DCI Oaten?”

  Karen felt her cheeks redden. “Certainly not, sir. You have no reason to suppose that.”

  The AC was taken aback by her tone. “No, of course not. I apologize. Very well, do it your way. Let’s hope it’s a one-off.” He cut the connection.

  “Tosser!” Oaten yelled.

  John Turner put his head around her door. “Not me, I hope, guv?”

  She glared at him. “Why? Have you got something to be guilty about?”

  The Welshman shrugged. He knew better than to cross swords with his boss when she was in a temper. “I just had Neville the Lip on the phone. He couldn’t get through to you.”

  “Because I was talking to the idiot on the golf course,” Oaten said, shaking her head until curiosity got the better of her. “Have they got something?”

  “It isn’t good news. Still nobody else in Ifield Road who saw the figure in the cape and top hat.”

  “Oh, great.”

  “That’s not all. The rubbish was collected early this morning.”

  “What, Neville didn’t seal the street?”

  “Apparently not well enough.”

  “For pity’s sake.”

  “So the killer could have dumped the fancy costume in any of the bins on the street and walked off into the night. There’s no sign of anyone dressed like that on the recordings at Fulham Broadway Station. Homicide West is following up the owners of cars that showed on the local traffic-control cameras, but so far they all have cast-iron alibis.”

  Karen Oaten leaned back in her chair. “What interests me is why the killer chose a novelist as the victim, Taff. Is Neville doing any work on that?”

  “They’ve been checking her e-mails for signs of a stalker or the like. Nothing so far.” The Welshman caught his superior’s eye. “You should be getting background on her from your…from Matt Wells.” He failed to keep his disapproval of Oaten’s partner from his voice.

  She gave him a sour look. “I’m working on that. What are you doing here, anyway? You should be at home with your kids.”

  “I’m on my way, unless you’ve got anything for me.”

  Karen Oaten shook her head. “Have a good one.”

  “You too, guv.”

  As soon as Turner had left her office, she called Matt. She got the messaging service on his landline and cell phone. She was about to call the ex-directory number that only she and his close circle had when she remembered that he was to have had Lucy today.

  Karen settled back to the heap of files, and hoped that there were no more murders-at least until after the weekend.

  I felt around for the security lock that Dave had fitted to the outside of the window for exactly this eventuality. The hole was concealed by a blob of putty the same shade of pale gray as the paint on the frame. Only Rog, Andy, Pete and I had extra keys. When I finally located and cleared it, I inserted the key and turned it until the window was loose. Then I pushed it inward, slowly and silently. I turned and nodded to Andy. He cupped his hands and, after I’d put one foot in them, lifted me smoothly upward. Moving carefully, I put my hands through the open window and dragged my stomach over the ledge with Andy’s help. For a moment I went into a partial dive, but I stopped the fall when my hands hit the floor. I stayed in that position until the muscles in my arms began to burn, listening. I heard nothing. I walked forward on my palms before bringing my legs in and letting my feet slide gradually to the floor. I was in. Then I felt a vibration in my pocket. I pulled my phone out and saw that it was Karen’s office number. I knew she’d call at some stage to arrange the evening, but this was hardly the best moment. I let it ring out.

  I moved forward and stood at the pantry door for a full two minutes. I still couldn’t hear anything. That wasn’t good news. Either Dave had been taken away, or he was the bait in a trap. I stopped myself from thinking about the other possibilities.

  “Okay,” I said to Andy.

  He heaved himself up with ease and was soon standing beside me.

  “There’s no noise,” I whispered.

  He nodded, and then took the silenced Glock from his belt. I followed suit.

  “Go for it,” Andy said, his eyes narrowed.

  I opened the door slowly-it was always deliberately left an inch ajar by Dave and his family so we could get in without making undue noise. I looked around. There was no one in the kitchen. Holding the automatic in two hands, I walked very slowly down the carpeted hall. On my left was the dining room. Looking cautiously around the door frame, I quickly established that no one was inside. On my right was the sitting room. The door was a couple of inches open. Through the gap I could see no occupants, but most of the room was out of sight.

  My heart began to pound and I took several deep breaths again. I turned to Andy. He pointed to his chest, meaning did I want him to go first? I shook my head. That was my job. I was the one who’d brought Dave into danger and I owed it to him to get him out of trouble now. I steeled myself and pushed the door hard and swung around it into the room, Glock raised.

  I felt my mouth open as I took in the scene. I sank to my knees, unable to speak or scream and blinded by tears.

  Six

  The Soul Collector took off all her clothes-what an inspiration the disguise had been-and stood naked in the cheap hotel room. There was a mirror near the bathroom door and she studied herself in it. Some mornings she still didn’t recognize what she saw, but this wasn’t one of them. She glanced at the watch she had removed from her coat pocket. It was coming up to eleven o’clock. Matt and his idiot friends would be at the house in Dulwich. She wondered how he would take the work of art she had left him. Badly, she was sure of that. He had always been weak, for all his claims to understand the criminal mind. That book-he would regret
what he’d written about her brother and her, as would all the people he loved. Not that the ex-SAS man had shown her the pain he was undoubtedly feeling. Eventually, after he’d finally agreed to make the call to alert Matt and even managed not to sound like a man in terrible agony, she put an end to it. She admired him for that, if nothing else.

  Eyes still fixed on her perfect body, the unsupported breasts firm and the lines of her face even more striking than they had been, she took off the black leather outer gloves and put them in an opaque rubbish bag. Her hands were still covered with latex, the pale gray flecked with blood that hadn’t washed away in the target’s sink. She stripped them off and put them in a different bag. Then she stepped gracefully onto the uneven bathroom tiles and into the battered shower cabinet. The hot water cleansed her, but the cold she stood under for much longer was what she really enjoyed. It made her skin tingle and her nipples harden. She always felt like this after “a mission”-that was what the men who’d trained her had called killings. She knew they used the euphemism to distance themselves from what they did to their fellow human beings. She had no such scruples. She killed because she was good at it and because it brought her closer to her dead brother-the brother who had also been her lover. She put her fingers between her legs, then took them away. There would be time for that later. Now she wanted to glory in what she had achieved, doused in the cold that was her natural medium.

  She was thinking about other SAS men. The ex-soldier she’d just worked on had known the three who’d dispatched her brother. Two years ago, she had stopped as she was fleeing from the wood yard in East London, long enough to hear one of them ask her victim of today what he was doing there. That had been all she’d needed. Matt Wells hadn’t said much about the three killers in his book, but he mentioned they had Special Forces experience and that they had pursued the White Devil because he’d killed a former comrade: Jimmy Tanner. She had heard that name before-Tanner was the drunk who’d trained her brother how to kill along with numerous other skills. He had also been one of the White Devil’s earlier victims. She had salted away those pieces of information, but after she’d moved her brother’s deposits into new accounts, finished her training and dispatched her early targets in Latin America and the U.S., she was ready to act.

  The woman had slipped into Britain by ferry from Belgium a month ago. She had a new look, identity and passport, but she’d waited for a busy and rainy day to ensure she didn’t stick out from the crowd. Although every immigration officer in the country would have a photo and description of Sara Robbins in their laptops, she hadn’t been recognized under her new name and guise. That gave her confidence for the murders ahead; no point in wasting time calling them missions.

  She’d passed a hundred pounds to a publican in Brighton and was given contact numbers. A homely woman with two squealing kids had provided her with a driving license that would stand computer scrutiny. A man with rat’s-tail hair had sold her a brand-new Heckler and Koch U.S.P., a silencer and a hundred 9 mm cartridges; he even threw in a Spyderco C36 military knife with a black blade for free. Then she’d paid cash for a common-as-dirt white van she’d seen in a dealer’s yard in Southampton. Her adoptive father had been a farmer and he had taught her about the workings of cars and tractors-she could tell in five minutes that the van was adequate. She’d taped over the rear windows and put a mattress and sleeping bag in the back with her bike, a red metallic XL650V Transalp.

  Dave Cummings had been easy. She’d been sure Matt and his friends would have alarms on their houses. They would also have set up alert codes to be used if any of them were under threat. From the van, she had studied the movements of the burly demolition expert and his family. She’d considered murdering them all and leaving pieces of the children about the house, but decided against that-not from any qualms of conscience, but because she didn’t want to risk the neighbors hearing the screams. Instead, when the wife and kids left, she’d struck.

  All she needed to do now was snare the three men who had executed her brother. Her plan was already under way.

  I felt Andy’s hand on my shoulder.

  “Oh, sweet Jesus,” he said, then his grip tightened. “I’m going to check the rest of the house. The bastard who did this might still be here.”

  I knew he was right. I wanted to go with him-maybe, when we came back, the atrocity wouldn’t be here any longer, maybe I’d imagined it, I’d always had a vivid imagination….

  I dug my fingernails into my palms and forced myself to look up. Dave was wearing only jeans and shoes. They were soaked in blood, as was the sofa he lay sprawled across. His arms were outstretched and his legs wide apart. Something terrible had happened to his legs. There were bullet wounds across both thighs and in the kneecaps. But worst of all was his head. It had been broken open, his features unrecognizable beneath a carpet of blood and soft tissue. Dave was no longer there. What he had been-his spirit, his bighearted soul-had disappeared. I fell forward like a worshipper before the shrine of some ancient, blood-addicted god, my chest racked by sobs and my face soaked with tears.

  “Matt?” I heard Pete say, in my earpiece. “Are you in? There’s someone moving around on the first floor.”

  “This is Andy. Get in here, both of you. The house is clear.”

  The American came thundering down the stairs, then unlocked the front and back doors. I felt his hand on my shoulder again.

  “Come on, Wellsy,” he said, “let’s get you out of here.”

  “No!” I screamed. “I can’t leave him! I’m not leaving him on his own.”

  “Fucking hell,” Rog said, retching. He ran out, a hand to his mouth.

  “What the…” Pete was standing next to us, his mouth slack. “What animal did this?”

  “You…you know who did it,” I said, staring up at them through the blur of tears. “It was…It must have been Sa…Sa…” I couldn’t complete the name of the woman I had once loved. But even if she had been the one who’d pulled the trigger, I knew I was the true author of Dave’s death. If I had refused to get involved with the White Devil, this would never have happened. I felt the weight of that knowledge bear down on me. The sight of my friend’s ruined body added years to my life in a few seconds.

  Pete and Andy pulled me to my feet and walked me out of the room. I wiped my eyes with the back of my arm and saw Rog leaning over the kitchen sink, a string of vomit hanging from his lower lip.

  “Call…call Karen,” I said as they sat me at the breakfast table.

  Andy dug in his pocket for his phone.

  “No,” I said, batting his arm away. “Me. You have to go, all of you. I’m…I’m responsible.”

  “Screw that,” Pete said. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Andy lifted up his automatic and pointed at the case that held the sniper’s rifle. “Um, I think you’re wrong there, Boney.” He stuck his empty hand out at me. “Come on, Matt. Hand ’em over. Glock, knife, walkie-talkie, everything you’ve got.”

  I complied, too numb to protest. He was right. There was no point in me putting Karen in a difficult position by being in possession of an illegal firearm.

  “Car key, as well,” Andy said. “I’ll drive the Saab around here for you, okay?”

  Pete gripped my wrist. “You don’t have to stay here on your own, Matt,” he said. “You can come with us. Karen will understand.”

  I shook my head. “No, Boney. I have to do this.” I swallowed a sob. “For Dave.”

  “You two go,” Pete said, tossing keys to the Cherokee to Rog. “I’ll meet you at the end of the road.”

  Andy nodded at me, and then pushed Rog gently to the back door. “Lock this after us,” he said to Pete.

  I pushed my chair back and stood up.

  “What are you doing?” Boney asked. “Don’t-”

  I swerved past him, my breathing ragged. There were two things I had to do before Dave was taken beyond my reach. I forced myself to look at the remains of the bravest man I’d ever kno
wn. I was looking for a message-the White Devil had inserted messages inside many of his victims’ bodies. His mouth was partially open. I kneeled down and mumbled an apology to him, though I knew he would have understood. I was still wearing a glove. Trying to ignore the torn tissue and splintered bone, I moved his jaws farther apart and peered inside, blinking away my tears. There was nothing. I couldn’t find any pieces of paper inside his blood-drenched trousers. I had to move him to each side to get to the back pockets. His blood transferred to my jacket, and I swore to myself that I’d never wash it again. I took off his shoes, but again didn’t find a thing. It was beyond me to put them back on the feet that had carried him past despairing opposition players so often on the rugby pitch.

  Rocking back on my heels, I took in the mutilated face and legs. The White Devil had been dispatched by pistol shots to the head, and I was certain Dave’s wounds were a deliberate imitation of that. She had also shot him in the legs back then-those wounds had been repeated. Perhaps those were the only messages I was going to get this time. They were enough.

  I stood up and bent over the body. Then I took off my glove and closed Dave’s eyes beneath the partially congealed slick of blood. I didn’t care that my fingerprints would be on the eyelids. There were some duties that friends had to discharge, whatever the circumstances. I leaned close and spoke to my friend for the last time.

  “We’ll get her, Dave, I promise you that. And we’ll look after Ginny and the…and Tom and Annie.” His son was the same age as Lucy, his daughter two years older. The horror that they would have to face made me blink hard. Then I opened my eyes again and inhaled the coppery smell of fresh blood.

  “No matter how far she goes, I’ll be on her tail,” I said, standing up straight.