Souls At Zero (A Dark Psychological Thriller)

by Neal Martin

  A look of horror came over McGinty's gaunt face as his wife made a squealing sound when Edger said he would shoot her. Edger didn't blame the man for looking horrified. In fact, McGinty was doing a good job of not panicking, considering there was a 6'3 masked man in the room, pointing a gun at his wife. Edger knew McGinty was a Sinn Fein councillor, and he wondered if the old man had ever used a gun back in the day in the name of politics instead of a ballot box. There was nothing in McGinty's record to indicate he was ever a terrorist, but that didn't mean he never was one. It just meant he never got caught.

  McGinty, who was taller in person than Edger expected him to be, cautiously made his way into the living room, a long dark over coat covering his grey suit. McGinty was in his early sixties and looked it, most of his hair having long departed, leaving only loose strands either side of his head and a small patch on the front. His wide blue eyes never left Edger as he closed the door behind him. "What is this?" he asked Edger. "What do you want?"

  Edger stood up and levelled the gun at him. "Why don't you take a seat beside your wife, Mr Mayor."

  McGinty did as he was told, sitting down beside his wife, who burst into tears again as he put his arm around her. "Its okay, Maureen," he said, trying to reassure his wife.

  "Its not, Brian!" she screeched back. "He's got a gun!"

  Edger moved quickly before McGinty could even gauge what was happening. He stepped forward and punched McGinty hard in the face, hearing the older man's nose crack under the impact of his knuckles. Then Edger put the gun inside his jacket and took out the duct tape. As Maureen McGinty screamed and cried, and as Brian McGinty groaned, blood running down his face, Edger grabbed McGinty's hands and bound his wrists in duct tape. Then he bound the Mayor's ankles as well. McGinty never struggled, or even protested, as the pain in his nose was all consuming. Which is why Edger hit him in the first place, so the older man wouldn't try anything while he was securing him.

  With the Lord Mayor now bound alongside his wife, Edger stood over him. "Now, Mr Mayor," he began. "I don't have a lot of time, and neither do you for that matter. So it's in your best interests to tell me exactly what I want to know."

  McGinty had trouble speaking with all the blood running into his mouth from his broken nose. His bound hands were up trying to stem the flow. "Who are you?" he said. "What do you want?"

  "Who I am isn't important," Edger replied. "What's important is that someone wants you dead, and I want to know why."

  McGinty stopped groaning and playing with his nose for a second. "What? Who wants me dead? Why?"

  Edger sighed. Either McGinty was clueless, or he was hiding something. "That's what I'm asking you. Can you think of any reason as to why someone would want to kill you? Think hard. Your life may depend on it."

  "My husband's a good man," McGinty's wife said, half turned into her husband, her bound hands resting in his lap. "He has no enemies."

  "You've got your facts wrong," McGinty said. "I'm the bloody Lord Mayor of Belfast. What would anyone have to gain from killing me?"

  "That's exactly what I'm trying to find out here," Edger said. "Someone told me to kill you, that's all I know."

  McGinty's eyes suddenly focused hard on Edger's. "There must have been some kind of mistake," he said. "I help this city. I help people. There's no reason why someone would want me dead."

  Edger shook his head and stood in silence for a minute. This was going nowhere. Whoever had taken Kaitlin, they had chosen McGinty as a target for a reason. Maybe it was just because of McGinty's position in City Hall, or maybe it was because of something else. Edger didn't think McGinty had been made a target solely because he was the Mayor of the city. It was hard to see what could be gained, politically at least, by killing the Mayor. Edger knew in his gut that this was personal, which meant McGinty was somehow connected to the kidnapper. Although that didn't explain why the kidnapper wanted Edger to kill McGinty. Why didn't the kidnapper just do it himself? Why go to all this trouble? There had to be a reason as to why the kidnapper wanted to implicate Edger in all this as well. Edger himself had never met McGinty before tonight. So what was it? Why him and why McGinty? If he could find that out, he could also find out who was doing this to him and who had taken Kaitlin.

  "I can see you're confused, son," McGinty said. "Obviously this has all been a big misunderstanding. Why don't you just be on your way and there'll not be a word said about this."

  "We won't say anything," Maureen McGinty added. "You can just go."

  If only I could.

  Although he had never exactly been schooled in the ways of interrogation, Edger knew enough to know that he would have to up the ante to get what he wanted. Earlier, when he had asked McGinty's wife why someone would want her husband dead, she had a look of shame or guilt in her face, even as she protested that her husband was a decent man, which suggested to Edger that she might be hiding something. He could be wrong of course. The woman may have just been scared, or he may have misinterpreted her reaction, but he didn't think so.

  He took out his gun again.

  Maureen McGinty screamed.

  "No, please…" McGinty said.

  Edger walked over and pointed the gun at the politician, who cowered into the sofa and closed his eyes as if Edger was going to shoot him right there and then. Looking at McGinty's stricken wife, Edger said, "Tell me what your husband is hiding, or I'm going to shoot him."

  "No!" Maureen McGinty screamed, a look of utter horror on her face. "Please…"

  Edger pressed the barrel of the gun down into McGinty's head. "Last chance. What are you both hiding?"

  "Oh God…" McGinty groaned, sounding like a man who thought he was about to die.

  "Brian…" McGinty's wife cried.

  McGinty was crying himself now. "Maureen…"

  "Tell me!" Edger shouted.

  McGinty's wife jumped when Edger raised his voice. "Alright!" she wailed, shaking her head, then she looked at her husband. "I have to, Brian…"

  "Maureen, no," McGinty pleaded, his face wet with blood and tears. "He'll kill me."

  Edger aimed the gun at Maureen McGinty, who threw her hands up in front of her as if to shield herself from an oncoming bullet. "Somebody better start talking, or I'm going to kill you both," Edger said, disgusted with his own brutal actions. For a second, he lost his resolve, but then he thought of Kaitlin, lying somewhere, alone and afraid, thinking she was going to die.

  His resolve soon returned.

  Maureen McGinty looked up at him, almost defiantly, her eyes wet and puffy with bitter tears. "The study next door," she said, her lower lip trembling uncontrollably as she tried in vain to keep herself together.

  Edger kept the gun trained on her. "What about it?"

  "The computer on the table," she said in a near whisper.

  "Maureen…" McGinty groaned beside her. "What have you done?"

  Maureen McGinty turned her head slowly to look at her husband, unmistakable anger in her eyes now. "Saving our fucking lives," she said, sounding like a different person altogether now, like her previous behaviour had just been an act. Now her face had hardened and she didn't look as scared anymore. It was the like the game was finally up. All she had left was her defiance.

  "He'll kill us both," McGinty said, shaking his head. "You stupid bitch."

  Edger stared at Maureen McGinty in disbelief for a moment, then he said, "Don't move."

  He left the room, went down the hallway to the study and retrieved the laptop that was sitting on a table in there, then he brought it back into the living room, wondering what the hell he was going to find on the computer.

  The McGinty's sat staring at him, saying nothing as he sat down on one of the other seats across from them. He put the Glock on the arm of the chair and opened the laptop. "Password?" he asked.

  "Maureen, think about this," McGinty pleaded.

  "He wants to know," Maureen McGinty said, her tears dried up now as she sat straight backed with her hands in her lap lik
e she was attending some kind of job interview. "I've looked the other way for long enough, Brian. No more. I won't die for your…your…" She trailed off and shook her head, turning her back on her husband.

  Brian McGinty sat shaking his own head, blood still running from his mangled nose.

  "Password?" Edger asked again. Maureen McGinty gave him the password and he typed it in. "What am I looking for here?"

  "Maureen, please don't…" Brian McGinty said.

  Ignoring her husband, Maureen McGinty directed Edger towards a password protected file on the laptop. The politician looked shocked when she called out the password. Obviously he didn't know his wife knew what it was.

  Edger opened the file to find a huge batch of other files inside. He double clicked on the first one to open it. Inside was hundreds of images. He sat in taut silence while he opened another file, this one containing video clips. He opened two more files before he decided he had seen enough. Sick to his stomach, Edger slammed the laptop closed and put it on the floor. His anger boiled as he turned and looked at the McGinty's. Maureen McGinty had her head bowed as she stared at the floor in shame. Brian McGinty refused to look at Edger.

  Edger grabbed the gun of the chair and gripped it tight while he stared at McGinty. "Fucking children, you sick cunt," he growled.

  McGinty still couldn't look at Edger. His wife made a small squeal of despair and kept her head down.

  "You knew about this," Edger said to McGinty's wife. "That makes you as bad."

  Maureen McGinty started crying again, but she said nothing.

  Edger stood, walked over to the cowering politician, and pointed the Glock at him.

  "No, please," McGinty said, crying himself now. "I can't help it. It's a sickness, you have to understand…"

  Edger clenched his teeth. He would be wholly justified in pulling the trigger on McGinty right now. But he still didn't understand what McGinty's vile predilections had to do with him. So McGinty was a paedophile. Why would someone kidnap Edger's daughter just to force him to kill McGinty, however despicable the man was? There had to be more to it. "What are you not telling me?" he demanded of the stricken Mayor.

  "Nothing," McGinty blubbered. "You know my dirty little secret. That's it, I swear."

  Then his wife mumbled something that Edger didn't catch.

  "What?" he asked her.

  "That place," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  McGinty's head snapped round. "Maureen—"

  "Shut up!" Edger told him, then looked at Maureen McGinty again. "What place?"

  "That vile place," she said, a blank look on her face.

  "Maureen, you stupid cunt!" McGinty shouted. "Shut up!"

  Edger grabbed McGinty by the lapels and stuck the gun in his face. "What the fuck is she talking about?"

  "I don't know…"

  "Tell me!"

  McGinty was about to say something else when there was a loud knock on the front door.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  DI Black stood outside Mayor Brian McGinty's house and waited, having just knocked on the front door. For the last half hour he had been sitting in his car in the street outside, waiting for Edger to show his face again, all the while wondering what the hell Edger was doing at McGinty's house in the first place. Black doubted Edger had any relationship with McGinty, before or after the councillor became Lord Mayor. What worried Black was that Edger was there uninvited, maybe even forced his way in. It was possible that Edger had gotten it into his head that McGinty had something to do with his daughter being taken, which sounded ridiculous to Black. Black knew McGinty had ties with the Provos in the past. The man was a Sinn Fein councillor after all, but he was also the Lord Mayor of Belfast. It was a stretch to think that the politician was involved in any kind of kidnapping scheme. Although Black also knew of McGinty's vile sexual leanings, having arrested the politician over them a few years ago. The charges ended up being dropped, despite evidence to the contrary. More powerful people than McGinty had pulled strings to get him released. Could that be why Edger was in that house right now?

  Black banged on the door again. "Mr McGinty," he called out, knowing the Mayor was in there because he had seen him arrive not long ago. "This is Detective Inspector Paul Black from CID here. I need to speak with you."

  Black waited. Still no answer.

  The feeling that something wasn't right hit him hard.

  He tried the door once more, identifying himself again, but there was still no response from inside.

  "What the fuck are you doing, Edger?" he hissed as he stepped back from the door and began to walk around the side of the house to the back.

  Edger cursed when he heard the detective identify himself at the front door. "Not a sound," he warned the McGinty's, as the two of them sat stiffly on the sofa, the only thing stopping them from crying out for help being the gun Edger had trained on them.

  Jesus, what a fucking mess this was turning out to be.

  The detective must have been following him earlier. How else would he know Edger was there?

  The tension in the living room was palpable. Edger's scalp itched madly under the woollen balaclava, so much so that he wanted to rip it off.

  How was he supposed to do what he had to do when there was a fucking detective prowling around outside the house?

  For a second, he thought about sending McGinty's wife to the front door to tell the detective that everything was fine, but the woman looked so distressed, Black would know immediately that something was amiss.

  There was silence from outside.

  Then Edger remembered the back door.

  It was still unlocked.

  Black took out his standard issue Glock 17 and pushed down on the handle of the back door, glad to see it was unlocked. He gently pushed the door open and stepped inside the McGinty's kitchen.

  The house was too quiet.

  A familiar coldness swept over him, telling him that something wasn't right. He should have called for backup. But he was inside the house now, and something was compelling him to continue.

  "Hello?" he called out as he looked through the kitchen door and down the hallway. "Mr and Mrs McGinty? Police. Is anyone here?"

  No answer.

  He moved through the kitchen door and down the hall.

  "Quiet," Edger whispered to the McGinty's, pointing the gun at them. "Don't move."

  The McGinty's stared back at him, their faces tense with fearful anticipation.

  Edger moved to the living room door and opened it as quietly as he could, then he peeked around the door frame and looked down the hall.

  His heart leapt in his chest when he saw the detective standing by the kitchen door. Both men stared at each other for a second, then Black threw his gun up and shouted, "Don't move!"

  Edger ducked back into the living room. "Fuck," he said.

  Then Maureen McGinty called out. "We're in here! Help!"

  Edger moved back from the door as he heard footsteps coming quickly down the hall.

  Adrenaline pumped through Black as he made his way down the tiled hallway towards the living room. The face he had seen in the doorway was masked, but he knew it was Edger. "I know it's you Edger," he said, standing in front of the half open door. Through the gap he could see Maureen McGinty on the sofa, her wrists and ankle bound with duct tape.

  Where's the husband?

  Black pushed the door open with his boot and edged his way into the room, gun held out in front of him.

  Edger stood in the centre of the living room, one thick arm wrapped around Brian McGinty's neck as he held the Mayor tight to him, the other hand holding the Glock as he pointed it at McGinty's head. The politician shook with fear in his grip.

  Upon making his entrance into the room, the cop's eyes widened when he saw Edger was holding a gun to the Mayor's head.

  "Drop the gun, Edger," Detective Black said, standing to the side of the sofa where Maureen McGinty still sat.

  "Help us!" she scre
amed.

  Black ignored the woman's plea as he kept his focus on Edger.

  "You fucking followed me," Edger said. "Why couldn't you have stayed out of this?"

  "I'm a policeman," Black said, his gun unwavering. "You know I can't do that. Drop the gun. Now."

  Edger made no move to lower his gun from McGinty's temple. He knew the second he did it would all be over. He would go to jail and Kaitlin would be killed by her kidnapper. Yet what was he going to do? Shoot a cop?

  "I know what you're thinking, Edger," Black said, his voice calm like he had faced off against armed men before. "If you kill that man, I will be forced to kill you, and you will never see your daughter again."

  "She's dead anyway if you stop me doing what I have to do," Edger said.

  Black took a step closer. "And what do you have to do? I know your daughter's kidnapper asked you do something. Is it this? You were going to kill McGinty here?"

  McGinty groaned and Edger tightened his grip on the man's neck.

  "I wasn't going to kill him," Edger told the cop. "I planned to fake his death."

  The detective stood silent for a moment, obviously trying to wrap his head around everything, then he said, "Let the Mayor go and drop your weapon. We can talk about this."

  "Down the station?"

  "Yes. We can still help get your daughter back."

  Edger snorted and shook his head. The whole thing was fucked now. When Kaitlin's kidnapper didn't hear from him, the cunt would hurt Kaitlin to punish Edger for his mistakes. And there wouldn't be a thing Edger could do about it, not from a prison cell.

  "Come on now," the cop said. "Do yourself a favour—do your daughter a favour—and drop the gun."

  "You have no idea how wrong you are," Edger said. But he lowered the gun and let McGinty go, who immediately ran back to where his wife sat on the sofa.

  "Toss the gun behind you," Black ordered. "Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head."