Enter The Dark

by Chris Thomas

  ‘OK, I’m all yours.’

  ‘Good. I should warn you that very few people know we’re even here. We are maintaining what is known as a cloak of total “plausible deniability” around this case. If anyone asks, or anything happens to you, we can just deny any knowledge of meeting you.’

  ‘That’s alright,’ he replied. ‘I imagine my fiancée is doing much the same at this precise moment. So what do you want me to do?’

  Fowler decided it was time to join the conversation. ‘The chances are they’ve discovered by now that we managed to infiltrate their systems. Which means that they will almost certainly assume that, a, we know where the show was taking place and, b, were able to trace it back to you. Did they say that they would be in contact with you? I can’t believe that they just packed up and left with the intention of leaving you to get on with your life.’

  ‘One of the blokes did say that they would be in contact shortly to “debrief me”,’ Joe replied, making air quotes with his fingers. ‘Although I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, I’m pretty certain it didn’t mean that they were going to present me with a nice thank you gift for all my help.’

  ‘Kill you, perhaps?’ piped up Harris.

  ‘That did cross my mind,’ replied Joe.

  ‘I think they would probably have preferred a little time to go through this there and then,’ said Fowler, as he began rummaging around in his black padded case. ‘It would appear that whatever little cock-up happened at the end made them rethink their plans and concentrate on getting the hell out of there. And the fact that they haven’t sought you out already would indicate that they have yet to discover the breach. Or they are biding their time. Either way, I think we need to kit you out with one of our little toys for when they do.’

  Harris stood up and started to walk around the living room as Joe’s eyes followed him. In a weird way, Joe had feared the police becoming involved more than anything, but now he saw these two officers as his best hope of coming out of this rather sticky situation in one piece. Harris picked up a photograph from the mantelpiece and looked at it for a few seconds.

  ‘Is this your fiancée, Joe?’ he said, turning the picture of Joe and Ellie stood on a beach, holding two enormous cocktails.

  ‘Yes, Ellie,’ he replied, solemnly. ‘She walked out on me a few days ago after she found out I’d spent practically our entire wedding fund on this show. Not that I did of course, I still have the bitcoins, but it was better to make her think I’d spent it than say what I’d planned to do with them.’

  Harris tutted and shook his head. ‘Still, it could be worse, I suppose. She could know what you did last night.’

  ‘I had considered that, yes,’ Joe replied. ‘But however she reacts will be nothing compared to when my parents find out. They’ll disown me.’

  Harris placed the photo frame back down and walked over to Joe, placing a semi-reassuring hand on his shoulders.

  ‘Well, yes, whichever way you look at it, you are in a considerable amount of deep shit. So deep in fact that you could be looking at a very long stretch inside. But, like I said, if you help us, we can help you. There’s no reason why you won’t just receive a big slap on the wrist and be told not to be such a huge dickhead in the future.’

  ‘Thanks. I think.’

  Fowler pulled a small black earpiece from his case and handed it to Joe. ‘When they arrange this debriefing, just place this as far into your ear canal as you can and it still be comfortable. Just before you place it in, squeeze it together to activate it. That will let us know that it’s on and is working properly. Try it.’

  Joe took the earpiece between his finger and thumb. He gave it a small squeeze and placed it in his ear. The small black unit that Fowler was holding lit up blue and bleeped.

  ‘OK, you should be able to hear me coming through the piece straight into your ear?’ asked Fowler. ‘We can’t hear my voice outside, but when you speak we’ll be able to pick it up on here. Understand?’

  ‘Yes, I’ve got it. It’s not very comfortable, is it?’ replied Joe.

  ‘And this is a tracker,’ said Fowler, ignoring Joe’s complaints. ‘Wear a shirt to your meeting and tuck this into where the stays go.’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘The stays. The stiffeners. No? The bit at the front of the collar where the two bits of plastic go that keep the collar stiff.’

  ‘Oh, I see,’ said Joe, as he examined the tracker. ‘I’m not sure I have any shirts that have those.’

  ‘No, not a lot of people do nowadays,’ replied Fowler, tossing a shirt wrapped in clear polythene from his bag. ‘That’s why we have these.’

  Harris sat down and sipped from the teacup, spitting the nasty cold tea back and wiping his mouth. ‘When they contact you, arrange to meet them at your work. Then give us the time so we can be ready to monitor you. All we need you to do is keep them talking as long as possible, so that we can record as much incriminating evidence as possible before we come and take them down. Got it?’

  ‘Yes, I think so,’ replied Joe.

  Harris and Fowler packed up their things and walked to the front door.

  ‘Remember, Joe,’ said Harris, ‘we’ll be monitoring you. Any sign that they are about to pull anything and we’ll be straight in there. You can do this.’ He stood closer to Joe’s face and his manner changed, ‘But if you do choose to fuck with us then you can kiss goodbye to any hope of coming out of this with anything less than a serious jail term. And looking at you, you wouldn’t last five minutes in the nick. OK?’ Harris smiled at him and left, closing the door behind him.

  Joe breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down on the sofa, closing his eyes to try and regain some composure. But the silence was quickly broken by the vibrating handset on the coffee table, followed by the loud ringtone. He picked up the phone, half hoping to see Ellie Mobile, but instead his heart sank as he saw the letters BR.

  ‘Hello, Joe,’ came the voice on the other end. ‘It’s time we had a little catch up.’

  36

  The triangular conference phone in the middle of the dining table rang only a couple of times before it was answered.

  ‘Yes?’ came the voice over the loudspeaker.

  ‘Yes? Is that all you can say?’ said Alistair, as Gilbert, Jarvis, Stan, and Eric sat around the table, variously twiddling pencils or stroking their beards. ‘I assume you know precisely why I am calling?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Well did you not think to contact me earlier? You managed to send me a text on Friday just before the show started. Instead, we had to discover that your lot managed to break into our system for ourselves.’

  ‘There’s not a lot I can do about that,’ replied the voice, the background noises suggesting they were walking to somewhere a little quieter, where they couldn’t be heard. All of a sudden the voice became louder and more talkative. ‘I risked exposing myself enough with that text. You cannot expect me to contact you every single time they get any sort of breakthrough. It would be blatantly obvious that you were being fed information.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Alistair, curtly. ‘Who is the main officer looking into this?’

  ‘Harris.’

  ‘Really?’ replied Alistair, a little more enthusiastically, as the others all looked up and at each other. ‘So he’s back in work is he? How far along are they?’

  ‘They worked out where the episode was filmed from, that was fairly straightforward. Maybe you should ask Jarvis to use McAfee or Norton as a firewall next time if his is so easy to penetrate.’

  The others let out stifled laughs, except for Jarvis, who mouthed an expletive at the phone.

  ‘Enough,’ said Alistair, impatiently. ‘Go on.’

  ‘They are on their way around now to see your little friend, and they’ll make him an offer to help them. If I were you I would leave it a while so as not to arouse too much suspicion. They are obviously aware that you either already have discovered, or very soon will discover, the breach.
But also, they will assume that you will work out the fact that they have contacted Mister Henderson, given how easy that is. They aren’t stupid, Alistair, you will need to play this very carefully. I would say that your best bet is to contact Henderson now but delay meeting him for a day or so. That way, they might just believe that you were either ludicrously slow at discovering the breach or that you are arrogant enough to believe that it doesn’t matter. Either way, make sure you have some leverage in place. Shouldn’t be too difficult given Harris’ current situation. Anyway, there’s people coming, I’ve got to go.’

  And with that, the phone clicked off.

  The men sat around the table in silence as Alistair stared at the table, stroking his beard. They all knew that it was better to let him work it out in his own brain first and then for them to pick his plans apart; although he was rarely wrong, and in this instance it didn’t take long.

  ‘We need to move and move fast,’ said Alistair. ‘I know the perfect person for leverage, as they put it. And by happy coincidence we have the perfect guest to help us capture him.’

  ‘The girl?’ asked Stan. ‘How in the hell is she going to help?’

  ‘Leave that to me,’ replied Alistair, rising from his chair and making his way to the large oak double door. ‘You call our friend Joe and arrange to meet him on, say, Monday morning. In the meantime, we’ll set about collecting some bait, then we set the trap and, once we have our detective sergeant, we can close this out once and for all.’

  As he shut the doors behind him, he heard the ringing tone, and then heard someone pick up at the other end.

  ‘Hello, Joe. It’s time we had a little catch up.’

  A little further down the hall, he stopped at Daisy’s room and knocked, before turning the key and entering. Daisy was lying on her side on the sofa, reading one of the books that she had found on the bookshelf. Alistair walked over, grabbing a footstool on the way, and sat down next to her.

  ‘Oliver Twist,’ he said, looking at the book in her hand. ‘One of my favourites.’

  ‘I never read it,’ replied Daisy. ‘He seems to be a sorry boy, always treated badly, yet he tries to do the right thing.’

  ‘Indeed, and it does have a happy ending. When he finally gets what he deserves.’

  Daisy put the book down and looked at Alistair. ‘How long are you going to keep me here?’

  ‘We need your help,’ replied Alistair, dodging the question. ‘The man who held you captive, Saeed Anwar, we need him.’

  Daisy sat bolt upright. She had been trying her damnedest for the last weeks to erase that man from her mind. The mention of his name made her uncomfortable, visibly so, and Alistair saw it.

  ‘I know how you must feel, hearing his name again after what he did to you. But that’s why we need your help. We want to right his wrongs.’

  ‘Kill him, you mean?’ replied Daisy.

  ‘Well, we need to do what we need to do. Your little stunt last night has put us in a very difficult position. The police are on to us and one particular officer has us in his sights. Anwar would be the perfect person for us to, how shall we say, tie up all the loose ends. After that, you are free to go.’

  ‘What, walk out of here, just like that?’ replied Daisy, unconvinced. ‘How do I know that you won’t hunt me down and put me on your show?’

  ‘How do we know you won’t walk out of here and go straight to the police?’ said Alistair, immediately. ‘I had hoped that we had developed an understanding and I had made it clear that we don’t want to hurt you. I explained to you very personal things about myself, about why we do what we do. We’re both in a situation now where we need to trust each other. Just think about Anwar. Think long and hard about everything he did, not just to you, but before you. We are offering you the chance to have your revenge. To help stop him doing to others what he did to you and the other girls in the house. You don’t need to take part if you don’t want, but I am sure it would help provide you with a little closure.’

  Daisy thought about this. It didn’t take long.

  ‘I’ll help,’ she said. ‘Just promise me one thing.’

  ‘What?’ replied Alistair.

  ‘Make sure he suffers,’ said Daisy, as she lay back down, resting her head on her hands and closing her eyes.

  37

  The door of the small mid-terrace opened, and out walked a small boy closely followed by the front wheels of a black three-wheeled buggy.

  ‘About time,’ said Stan, placing a half-eaten Cornish pasty into the door compartment. ‘I thought for a minute we were never going to see any movement.’

  Daisy and Stan had been sat in the car parked down the street from Saeed’s house for the last couple of hours, waiting for any sign of life coming from his home. Amanda followed Mo, pushing the buggy down the path and through the front gate. Once they reached the pavement, she grabbed her son’s hand and walked off down the street.

  ‘That must be his wife and children,’ said Daisy. ‘They’re probably completely oblivious to the sort of person he is.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ replied Stan. ‘Judging by the state of that woman’s face, either she’s incredibly clumsy or she’s well aware of his character. And the boy, he’s got a bandage around his head. If you were having any doubts about this, maybe now you see you’re not the only person in this world whose life he’s ruining.’

  ‘I’m not sure what’s worse; having no father or having one like that. I would prefer it if he didn’t have any kids at all,’ said Daisy, with an air of doubt.

  ‘They’ve got their mother,’ replied Stan, quickly. ‘Eric’s going to go and check he’s in. Just watch when he opens the door so you can confirm that it’s him. OK?’

  Daisy rested her hand on the door’s window sill and put her head on it, watching as Eric walked up the path with a large parcel in his hand. He rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds, looking up and around the row of properties, before the door finally opened.

  ‘Delivery for Mrs White, sign here please,’ he said.

  ‘Who?’ came the curt response.

  ‘Mrs White. Are you Mister White?’

  ‘Do I fucking look like Mister White?’

  ‘Alright mate, calm down. Does Mrs White live here?’

  ‘No, she doesn’t.’

  ‘Is this number sixty-four?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But Mrs White doesn’t live here. And presumably you haven’t ordered anything from …’ continued Eric, rotating the parcel to see the sender, ‘er … ValueSexToys.com?’

  ‘Are you having a fucking laugh?’ replied Saeed, trying to slam the door in Eric’s face.

  ‘OK, sir,’ said Eric, planting his foot in the door. ‘It must be for your wife then.’

  The door flew open and Saeed launched through the doorway, grabbing the parcel from Eric’s hand and throwing it down the path. He grabbed Eric by the lapels and pulled him close to his face.

  ‘What did you say, you jumped up little prick?’ spat Saeed. ‘Think you’re funny, do you? Well let’s see how funny you find it when I smash your fucking face in.’

  Eric pushed away and stumbled backwards, holding his hands up. He turned and ran for the end of the garden.

  ‘Jeez, are you some kind of bloody nutter? I was only joking. You’ve got serious issues, pal.’

  But Saeed had already slammed the door behind him. Eric dusted down his delivery company uniform and held his finger to his ear.

  ‘That’s him alright. I think I successfully pissed him off, so he shouldn’t be too hard to entice after us.’

  Eric made his way a few houses back down the road to his parked car to wait. Stan turned to Daisy, who had turned ashen at the sight of the man who had caused her so much pain and misery. She concentrated hard to control her breathing, which had become fast and shallow, sipping water to calm her nerves.

  ‘Are you alright?’ asked Stan, trying his hardest to sound fatherly and concerned. Over the course of his career in sp
ecial operations he had been in situations of mortal danger and in the company of some of the most dangerous people walking the planet, but dealing with teenage girls was somewhat outside his usual remit. And having to work with them was even more of a cause for concern.

  ‘Yes,’ Daisy replied. She could feel the hatred that she held for Saeed swelling inside her, and mixed with the intoxicating nervous energy, it made her feel as though she were in the middle of some sort of out of body experience.

  ‘You need to stay calm, and you need to stay focused,’ said Stan, clicking his fingers in front of her face to snap her out of her apparent trance. ‘As soon as he takes the bait, i.e. you, you need to leg it back to the car. I’ll be watching and I’ll make sure that I’m close at hand for when you need to get out of there. Once you’re back here we’ll lead him away, Eric will follow, and then we’ll pick our moment.’

  ‘But why do you need me to get him to chase us? Why don’t you just get him to come outside again and then bundle him into the car?’

  ‘Because it’s broad bloody daylight,’ replied Stan, before quickly realising that his young charge wasn’t quite as experienced in this kind of activity as he was. ‘Sorry. We need to lead him away so we can take him down without the risk of being seen. His neighbours probably won’t bat an eyelid to him having a barny with someone on his drive, but they would if they saw us Taser him and throw him in our boot. This matter has become urgent and we have to sort it now. We’ll be keeping a close eye on you, you’ll be fine. Everything clear?’

  ‘Yes, clear,’ replied Daisy, taking a last mouthful of water before stepping out of the car. She walked along the pavement, past the parked cars, past the black BMW that she remembered from the first time he took her out. A tunnel vision engulfed her, all the other houses blurring into one, and her focus was entirely concentrated on his house. She felt strong now. Nothing like the shadow of herself that she was the last time he saw her. She had played this moment over in her mind on numerous occasions, but never with an experienced backup to protect her. It was finally time to make him pay. If anything, his family would probably thank her for doing them a favour.