by Shaun Baines
The barbeque was ready, but Daniel was not.
"Let's go find Uncle Bear," he shouted to his daughter.
Eisha wrestled Princess to the ground. At the sound of his voice, she released a grateful dog and scampered to her father's side.
The kitchen smelled of bleach and the counter tops were wiped clean. The room was empty, save for a plate of pink sausages wrapped in cellophane.
"I know where he is," Eisha said, taking Daniel by the hand.
She led him up the stairs and they hovered outside of Eisha's bedroom. Behind the door came the sounds of gunshots.
Daniel pushed open the door. The bed was made, the pillows plumped and tucked neatly under a unicorn quilt.
Bear and Hannah were huddled on bean bags playing on Eisha's computer. It was the first time the device had been used for entertainment. Bear had evidently christened it with a shoot ’em up, inviting his young friend along for the blessing.
Their shoulders touched as they unloaded their weapons into unsuspecting victims.
"Get the guy on the right," Hannah said.
"I am. I am."
With grim faces, their controllers moved in synchronicity, their heads following as they ducked pixelated bullets.
"Busy?" Daniel asked.
Bear's mouth dropped open and he struggled to get up. The bean bag slinked around his frame and he slipped back down, the controller falling from his hand.
"The barbeque," he said. "I forgot."
"We are having a party," Daniel said, cracking his knuckles, "and we are going to enjoy ourselves for once."
On his hands and knees, Bear freed himself from the bag. "I'm on my way."
"Are you coming?" Daniel asked Hannah.
She made no effort to move. Her eyes were fixed on the screen. She was under attack by enemy soldiers, but Hannah had lost interest in their bullets.
Eisha nudged Daniel out of the way. She clambered over the bean bags and sat next to the older girl, tucking her knees into her chest.
Hannah handed over a controller.
"I'm probably not allowed," Eisha said, "but I can watch, if you like?"
"Can she play?" Hannah asked, glancing at Daniel.
It was the first time Hannah had spoken to him. He nodded and Hannah gave him a small smile.
Eisha held the controller as if she'd been loaned a priceless artefact. "What do I do?"
"Press this," Hannah said, "and go to New Game."
Eisha followed the instructions, her tongue lodged in the corner of her mouth.
"That button is for shooting." Hannah pointed at the controller. "That one is for throwing grenades. And if you find special weapons, you can garotte people."
"Cool," Eisha said.
"Are you sure about this?" Daniel asked Hannah.
But the children were lost to him, hypnotised by the glow of the screen. They made whispered conversation beyond the hearing of the adults.
Daniel turned at the sound of clacking heels.
Liz tottered toward them, her face flushed with exertion.
"I had to cancel a therapy session to be here," she said, reaching into a tiny handbag and retrieving a lipstick. Liz applied a fresh coat and smacked her lips. "So can I spend time with my granddaughter or not?"
"Eisha is making a new friend." Daniel stepped to one side, allowing a view of his daughter's bedroom. The two girls were engrossed in their game and didn't look up.
"Hey," Liz said, pointing a taloned finger at Hannah. "I know you."
Chapter Twenty-Five
Karin faltered on top of a pile of burned timber. The fire was a long time dead, but the smoke lingered, coating everything in soot.
Crash dragged charred superhero costumes along the floor, stuffing them into a shopping trolley.
Adrian wrestled with feather boas burned down to stubs.
New warehouse, new job. Choo had informed them they were in a storage facility for a fancy dress company. The owner had gone bankrupt. Later, a mysterious fire had forced him to claim on his insurance and now the warehouse had to be cleared.
The building was open plan, any dividing walls having been reduced to blackened stumps. An office at the rear had been constructed from corrugated iron. Its walls were singed, but it remained standing among the debris.
Karin's fingers were numb from the cold and wet from the water left behind by the fire brigade. She struggled with a wooden beam as she hauled it toward a skip. Crash came to her aid. They dragged it through the smouldering wreckage, carving out a clean mark between them and their captors.
Together they pitched the beam into the skip.
"I wish you could talk," Karin whispered to Crash as he twirled a scorched cape around his shoulders.
She found a tangled mess of coat hangers and began pulling them apart. As they fell into pieces, Karin watched the guards at the other end of the warehouse. Someone had done a number on them, alright. Choo had black eyes and a swollen nose. The two guards looked like they'd fallen off a cliff.
They were huddled in a tight group, jabbing accusing fingers at one another.
"Something's not right with them," Karin said. "I think they tried to take the wrong person."
Adrian shuffled toward them, pushing a broom and expertly missing anything worth sweeping. "They tried to replace Rachel and it went wrong," he said.
"How do you know so much?" Karin asked.
Adrian pointed to his missing ear. "I listen."
Karin wrenched at the coat hangers. "No, I think you talk."
The warehouse was a blackened shell, its contents combusted down to twisted heaps. There was a large entrance for vehicles to come and go, but the doors were closed, bolted from the inside.
"This is our chance," she said.
"Our chance for what?" Adrian asked.
Taking an unravelled coat hanger, Karin wound it around her fist like a makeshift knuckle-duster. "They're distracted. We can make a run for it through those doors."
"Are you kidding me?" The broom slipped from Adrian's grasp and it clattered on the floor. "You should be grateful."
"For what?" Karin asked.
"You let Rachel escape," Adrian said. "If they didn't need this warehouse cleared, you'd be dead."
Karin's fingers blanched white where the wire restricted the blood flow. "I showed them who they were dealing with. They wouldn't dare come for me now."
Crash groaned, making inarticulate sounds at the back of his throat.
"Maybe," Adrian said. "Maybe not, but if you try and escape again, they'll have a good go."
Crash raised his finger, making sawing motions next to Adrian's missing ear.
"They're not cutting me," Karin said, hiding the quiver in her voice.
Choo and the guards were deep in discussion and Karin stepped closer to the doors.
Adrian scooped up his broom and dropped it again where it clattered to the floor.
"Wait," he said. "Someone gave them a kicking, right? Beat the wind out of their sails. It's the only reason they haven't cut you up. Someone knows what's happening. You're safe for now. Choo isn't going to draw more attention to himself by posting out your left tit, is he?"
Adrian made to pick up the broom. As it fell from his hand, Karin grabbed it in mid-air. "Why do you keep dropping that?"
Crash tapped Karin on the shoulder, pointing through the warehouse. Choo and his guards had stopped talking. They were moving toward them.
Karin looked to the broom and then to Adrian's paling face. "You were signalling them," she said.
"You have to follow the rules," he said, backing away.
Tightening a grip around her wired knuckle, Karin stamped on the broom. It snapped in half, creating a wooden spear, which she handed to Crash. "Are you coming or not?"
"Back to work," Choo shouted.
Karin leapt over a box of shrivelled vampire teeth, heading towards the warehouse doors. She yanked on the bolts, sliding them out of their locks. Twisting on the handles, she could a
lmost taste fresh air, but the doors were warped and the hinges had been buckled by the flames. Sweat seeped from her forehead. She heard hurrying footsteps growing louder.
The door gave an inch. Karin saw a sliver of the outside world. Hissing, she yanked harder, her muscles screaming and gained another inch of freedom.
The footsteps were too close. She couldn't be caught this time and Karin ran without looking back. She dodged behind the melted corpses of mannequins heaped together like a mass grave. Crawling underneath, she hid, pausing to ease her laboured breathing.
A gap allowed her to see the guards kicking over clothes and boxes. Choo stood sentinel at the door. Next to him was Adrian on his hands and knees. The boy was crying, his hands lifted up in prayer. There was a knife pressed to his throat.
"Your friends can't help you," Choo shouted. "I'll kill this one if I have to."
The guards pressed closer, swinging their knotted ropes.
Karin tightened the wire around her fist. Could she get to Choo before he got to Adrian? Force the door open before the guards fell on her?
Her throat constricted in answer. There was no way out for anyone of them and Karin shrugged off the mannequins. Body parts fell from her shoulders. Plastic arms tumbled into an untidy pile, their hands swaying in the air.
"It was my idea," she said. "Leave Adrian alone."
The guards crunched over the bodies.
Karin raised her fists, ready for her last fight.
Crash drew her attention, waving from the windowless office. He was crouched in the doorway, desperation on his face.
The first guard grabbed Karin by the hair. She spun, driving her wired fist into his balls. He crumpled into the mannequins with a squeal.
Karin pulled out a plastic leg and beat him across the face, the foot colouring from white to pink. The other guard hesitated, giving Karin the space she needed. She vaulted over the mannequins and ran to Crash.
"Open the door," she shouted, running at speed.
Crash tugged on the handle.
"Get it open," she said.
Karin didn't stop running. She launched herself at the plywood door, but it acted like a trampoline and she bounced backwards. Pain shot through her shoulder.
Choo and his guards scrambled through the warehouse to reach her.
Adrian was on his own, curled into a ball, his arms wrapped around his knees. In his panic, he had kicked open the doors to the warehouse. A breeze rustled through his dark hair, but he was frozen in fright. Adrian couldn’t move, his path to freedom was a breath away.
Karin gripped Crash's face in her hands. "Please open the door."
Crash tried again and it opened. Using his one arm, he threw her inside the office.
Karin rolled along the floor, coming to a stop on her back. The ceiling tiles above her had melted, looking like curling toenails. A thin layer of ash covered the floor. There were no tables or desks. There was nothing but a chair bolted to the ground. It had a headrest, armrests and a footrest. It almost resembled a dentist's chair, except for the blood staining its covers.
Outside, the guards descended, uncurling their whips.
Crash backed into the room, stumbling on Karin as she cowered. She couldn't take her eyes off the chair, barely noticing when Choo appeared in the doorway.
"You make trouble," he said. "Now more will suffer."
He slammed the door shut and locked it.
Karin wet her dry lips and turned to Crash.
"What have I done?" she asked.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Daniel sat in a chair behind his father's desk. The walls of the Dayton office were bare brick. They were lime washed and cold. The room was lit by a single window. It was a porthole lead lined with a cross. As the sun poured through, it formed the shadow of a rifle scope tracking along the floor.
The floor was littered with plastic dolls in states of undress. An Army jeep chased a battered ambulance and Daniel spied an abandoned game of Twister in the corner.
Once again, Eisha had been in a room she was forbidden to enter.
"I'll ask you again," Daniel said. "How do you know Sophia?"
Hannah perched on a dusty Chesterfield sofa, her small frame swallowed by its size. Her knees were clamped together and her hands twitched in her lap. She seemed a million miles away from the teenage gangster who had attacked Bronson.
"I saw you at the house in Whitley Bay." Liz strolled around the room, stepping over Eisha's toys and avoiding the rifle scope as it followed her. "That's a long way to travel from Pelaw."
"Were you casing the place?" Daniel asked.
Hannah said nothing.
"Jordan has lots of nice things in his house," Liz said, "which reminds me, Daniel. Have you returned his painting yet?"
Daniel dismissed his mother with a wave, keeping his focus on Hannah. The girl was difficult to read. Her youth was like a mask.
She stared at a spot on the floor, her gaze fixed and certain.
Picking up a doll, Liz examined it in her hand. "My son just wants to talk with Sophia. There's nothing to worry about."
Daniel stretched in his chair. "Actually, I'm going to kill her."
A flinch in the right eyebrow. That was it. That was what he needed.
"You're not afraid of Sophia," Daniel said, drumming his fingers on the desk, studying her face. "You like her. You don't want her to be hurt. Is she the one running your crew?"
Jaw tightening. Thumb twitching. Daniel was getting through.
"You're protecting her," he said, "but why? What is she to you?"
Hannah continued in her silence.
"It's just as easy to drop two bodies in the Tyne as it is one," Daniel said.
Liz came to his side, turning her back on Hannah. "Remember, she's just a child."
The seat creaked under Daniel's shifting weight. "Is she? She's extorting money from vulnerable people."
"So do you."
"She damn near killed Bronson." Daniel stopped drumming his fingers and slammed his hand on the desk. "When did youth become an excuse?"
"It must be like looking in a mirror," Liz said, leaving the office. "Except she has a chance to change."
She opened the door, jumping back into the room. "How long have you been waiting there?"
Eisha wore a coat peppered with flowers. In her hand was a plate of burnt sausages. "Uncle Bear made me these."
"Well, you can have them later," Liz said. "Would you like to keep granny company?"
Eisha squeezed past Liz, a protective hand over the plate. She scurried to the Chesterfield and slipped in beside Hannah.
"I take it you're not here to tidy up," Daniel asked his daughter.
Liz cast a glance around the room from the other side of the threshold and slowly closed the door. The click made Hannah jump and she looked at Eisha.
"Would you like a sausage?" Eisha asked.
Hannah took one, but kept it in her hand.
"Daddy?" Eisha offered, but Daniel declined.
Eisha bit into a sausage and chewed.
"They're cooked," she said with a tone of surprise and continued eating.
Hannah followed her lead, devouring a second one before Eisha had finished her first.
When they'd finished eating, Daniel reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a box of tissues. He threw it at Hannah.
Taking a tissue, she cleaned Eisha's hands before cleaning her own.
"You can go," Daniel said.
Hannah looked up.
"You can go," he said again. "I don't think you're like me at all. Maybe there is hope, but be warned. If I find Sophia and her daughter without your help, there'll be consequences."
"She can't go," Eisha said, the dirty plate slipping from her grasp. "I want her to stay."
Sausages spilled onto the floor, bouncing into the toy ambulance.
"Your friend has a life of her own. I'm sure our paths won't cross again," Daniel said with a knowing look at the teenager.
; Hannah stared at the floor, the same spot she'd been staring at since she arrived. She pulled herself out of the leather sofa and sloped to the door.
"Daddy, no." Eisha jumped up, throwing the first thing she could lay her hands upon.
Daniel ducked as a legless Action Man sailed over his head. "Get to your room," he shouted.
"It's not fair," Eisha said, grabbing the plate. She held it aloft and took aim. "You can't make her go."
Hannah stepped silently behind Eisha.
"Listen to your Dad," she said, taking the plate from her. "I don't belong here."
"Comfortable, though, isn't it?" Daniel asked. "Better than roaming the streets."
Hannah stroked the scar on her cheek. "That's not reason enough to help you."
"And what is? Missing teenagers? Body parts arriving in the mail?" Daniel asked. "What exactly is enough for you?"
Eisha slipped her hand into Hannah's and smiled.
With a sigh, Hannah planted her feet in the shadow of the rifle scope.
"You and me," she said to Daniel. "No-one else. We do this alone or it doesn't get done."
Daniel steepled his fingers, peering over the ridge.
"I don't want that maniac with the twitch coming," Hannah added, "and Bear isn't well. He should stay behind."
Sucking in a breath, Daniel considered the proposal.
Hannah turned to his daughter, brushing a lock of hair over Eisha's ear. "And you have to stay, too."
"Are you coming back?" Eisha asked.
"That's up to your Dad."
Daniel stared at the crumpled Action Man his daughter had thrown and gave a curt nod.
"Okay, then," Hannah said. "I'll take you to see Sophia, but I'm telling you now, she's not what you're expecting."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
On the outskirts of Byker was a thin strip of land separating it from the neighbouring ward of Shieldfield. There were trees, but not too many, as if Newcastle council had decreed greenery was on short supply and couldn't be wasted on unappreciative residents.
Daniel and Hannah parked in front of a brick building with green slate tiles. There was a double door, one of which was open.
Daniel heard the faint hum of music from inside.