by Emmy Ellis
“Face,” Cassie said.
Doreen slashed at Karen’s features, obliterating any evidence that barbs had been used. Cassie plunged Karen’s knife into the treasonous bitch’s stomach, over and over, grunting, snarling, incensed it had come to his. Blood coated Karen’s face, spurted from between her lips, landed on Cassie’s face. Doreen, in an unplanned move, lifted her knife and drove the blade into Karen’s open mouth. Claret spewed everywhere, marring the snow with spots, and Doreen let go of her hair. Cassie stopped stabbing, Karen falling backwards, legs bent beneath her, and the image of Richie Prince in the same position when Jason had killed him in the squat entered Cassie’s mind. She shook it off, pushed away the voice of Jason as he’d described it, and bent to snatch open Karen’s coat and push up her top.
“No one’s come out to see,” Doreen panted out, “nor have any lights come on.”
Good.
Some of Karen’s guts poked through a couple of wounds, rich with redness and the oozing of blood. Cassie knelt beside the woman and hacked at her belly, slicing in a cross and exposing her innards. She cut off the four ragged triangles she’d made, some with cuts on them, and threw them on the snow for the police to ponder over. Karen gurgled and moaned, and Doreen crouched by her head. She looked at Cassie.
“Do it,” Cassie said.
Doreen dragged her blade from one side of Karen’s throat to the other, proving her loyalty, that she was as up for this as she’d promised. She was earning her murder money, and there would be more where that came from. Doreen was an excellent killer, calm and collected, her hand steady, no nerves showing.
Who the hell is she underneath it all?
Karen jolted then stilled, her neck gaping, dark blood viscous and heading down the sides to the snow. Cassie stared at Doreen, and something passed between them, not just a shared experience but a mutual respect. It cemented Doreen’s place in Cassie’s world, she’d be a permanent fixture, and Cassie blessed the day Jason had shot Richie so their paths had definitely crossed.
“Time to get her up,” Cassie said, rising.
A rhythmic crumping sound from the alley’s direction had her pausing. She glanced across at Mam walking over the snow, her back arched, a man behind her, although he wasn’t tall so Cassie couldn’t see who it was. The business end of a gun pressed to Mam’s temple, and a black-clad arm clamped over her chest.
“Get over the chain,” he commanded Mam.
Zhang Wei? What the fuck is he doing here?
Cassie switched the knife into her left hand and swept her weapon up with her right, ire surging through her so fast she went giddy. Doreen stepped up beside her, pointing her blade towards Mam and Zhang Wei, who came towards them as a staggering duo, one with fury in her eyes, the other with less anger, the moon casting a beam behind them from between two bulbous clouds.
“Let my mother go,” Cassie said. “Then we can talk.”
“No. I hold your mother until I get what I want.”
“What’s that then?”
“You kill Helen and Geoff.”
Cassie sighed. “I’ve already explained my position on that.”
“If you do not say you will do it, I will pull the trigger.”
Cassie looked at Mam, who didn’t appear as scared as she should be.
“All right,” Cassie said. “I’ll kill them. Now let her go.”
Surprisingly, Zhang Wei released Mam, shoving her to the ground.
Mam shot back up, rushing behind him. “Doreen, Cassie…split.”
Cassie dived one way, Doreen the other, and a gunshot retorted, quieter than it would have been without a silencer. Still, Cassie cursed the noise, the attention this might bring—they’d got lucky with Karen’s scream. She sat on her arse, the cold of the snow seeping through her leggings, the whip handle and knife pointing upwards. She stared at Zhang Wei, his forehead gone, his eyes wide in shock, his mouth bursting with blood. He fell forwards, landing face-first and, fuck it, there would be evidence of him now, and this would mess up what they’d had in mind for Karen—to leave her impaled on The Beast for the police to deal with.
Mam ran round to grab one of Zhang Wei’s wrists. “Get the other, Doreen. He’ll have to come with us. Cassie, you get a crew down here to pick up any snow with blood on it, and some of it’s on The Beast.”
Cassie glanced over. Faint splashes marred the whiteness of the statue. That would have been okay to leave if Zhang Wei hadn’t turned up, but now…
Galvanised into action, Cassie got up and handed Doreen the knife. Mam and Doreen dragged Zhang Wei, creating a trough in the snow, pausing to climb over the chain. They picked his wrists up again on the other side, then tugged him behind them towards the alley. Cassie snatched up Karen’s stomach skin and wedged it in her coat pocket, then gripped Karen’s wrist, her whip in her free hand, and struggled to pull the woman’s weight. She managed to get to the chain using Zhang Wei’s trough and let her go, stepped over, and stared across at the houses on New.
Still no lights except for the one in the porch.
Doreen came running back, out of breath, and snagged one of Karen’s wrists. “Come on, your mam wants us to go to the meat factory, don’t ask me why.”
“I know why.”
“Right.”
“When Karen’s in the car, go over to yours and meet us at the factory.”
“Okay.”
They hurried towards the alley, Karen bumping along, blood no doubt leaking on the snow—the cleaners would have a job on their hands. Cassie scanned the houses on Old, the odd light on but no people silhouettes showing they were being observed. At the stolen car, Cassie and Doreen pushed Karen’s body into the back seat, folding her in, Mam closing the boot where she’d packed Zhang Wei, then they converged by the bonnet and bent their heads together.
“What you’re about to see must never be repeated, Dor,” Mam whispered. “If you need to talk about what you’ll have seen afterwards, you come to one of us, because the first time isn’t pretty, and it can take a while to get over it.”
“What are you on about?” Doreen whispered back, confusion riming her voice.
Cassie smiled. “You’re about to finally find out who Marlene is.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
At the meat factory, Cassie switched the alarm off and turned the light on. Doreen stood by the boot of the stolen car and stared at Cassie, the illumination from the factory splashing on her face, revealing her bewilderment and dotted stripes of blood.
“Is this where you meet Marlene?” She peered around as if the feared woman herself would come strolling around the side of the building.
“It’s where we keep her.” Mam bent over to lug Zhang Wei’s top half upwards.
“Keep her?” Doreen frowned.
“You’ll see.” Cassie went inside and collected a double-shelf steel trolley from Marlene’s side room, wheeling it out to the car.
Mam and Doreen held Zhang Wei beneath the armpits, Doreen casting the trolley a wary glance. Cassie studied Zhang Wei. What a silly man. He’d probably followed them to Sculptor’s Field, to get her to reconsider Helen’s and Geoff’s culpability. A pity she’d never know whether he’d have backed down on it, Mam shooting him so fast, but perhaps it was better that way. Speed was needed to vacate the field, and arguing the toss with the takeaway owner would have slowed them down. He’d have been killed regardless, only it would have been Cassie and her whip in action, not Mam with a gun Cassie hadn’t known she’d bloody well brought with her.
Zhang Wei seemed to stare at her, as if a speck of life still resided in him, his face so red from blood, the exit wound in his forehead a nasty mess. She stared in case Li Jun wanted a description of the injury—if she bothered to tell him what had happened. She may well leave it, let Li Jun come to her and ask if his brother had been ‘disappeared’. God knew she had enough to do soon with Jason, then there was burning their clothes.
“Let’s put him on the lower shelf. He’s ligh
ter than Karen.” Mam was all business.
It brought it home to Cassie that her mother wasn’t just that—she’d been a person in her own right before Cassie had come along, one adept at this sort of thing if her no-nonsense attitude was owt to go by.
Mam helped Doreen, who slid the body on from one end while Mam yanked at it from the other. Zhang Wei’s feet pointed ten to two, and his arms draped over the edges, his hands resting on the snow.
Doreen stood upright and huffed out some breaths, a hand to her chest. “I’d have got fit if I’d known I’d be getting up to this sort of lark, except I’m the woman who ate all the pies.”
Their laughter broke the tension, then they got to work with Karen, loading her up, Mam commandeering the trolley and pushing it inside despite how heavy it was, Doreen following her, Cassie locking up. At the side room door, they all stopped.
“Marlene is in here,” Cassie said. “She ends lives and chops up the bodies.”
“Fucking hell, do we have to watch her doing it?” Doreen’s mouth twitched.
“We usually do in case she chokes,” Cassie said.
“Chokes? What, does she bloody eat them or something?”
Cassie smiled. “You’ll get it in a sec. Once Marlene’s dealt with these two, we still have work to do. When you step through this door, everything changes. When we go to our next destination, you’ll find things will never be as they were, you won’t look at certain people in the same light. But this is how we operate, have done for many years, and only the most trusted people know the procedure. Now’s the time to drive away if you’ve got any doubts you won’t be able to keep your mouth shut.”
Doreen closed her eyes. “I’m…I can do this. I said I’d do whatever you wanted, and I will. I know how to keep secrets.”
“Fine.” Cassie pushed the door open and went inside, turning to grip the end of the trolley and pull while Mam pushed. She stopped beside the mincer. “This is Marlene.”
Doreen looked around, her forehead stitched with confusion, trying to find the woman her mind had conjured up since Marlene had first been mentioned to the residents via The Life. “Where?”
“It’s the machine, Dor.” Mam laid a hand on their new associate’s shoulder. “We feed people into that chute, and they come out of that tube on the other side. Sometimes they’re alive when we do it.”
Doreen staggered a little, reaching behind her to grip the edge of the sink unit. “Oh my life, I would never have guessed. Lenny had me believing some mad woman murdered everyone, not this…this effing mincer.”
“Are you disappointed?” Mam got on with taking Karen’s clothes off. “I suppose it could be a bit of a letdown.”
“No, I’m…relieved there isn’t some bint watching us all, waiting for us to mess up. What are you doing?”
Mam threw one of Karen’s shoes on the floor. Snow escaped from the treads and scattered. “Marlene doesn’t like clothes.”
“Lord above, what have I got myself into?” But Doreen hadn’t said it with regret, more fascination. “So you really just put people down that chute?”
“Watch,” Cassie said.
She switched Marlene on, the grinding choppers inside her rumbling and scraping metallically. Cassie climbed up the set of steps, took Karen’s stomach skin out of her pocket, and threw it inside. She waited for Mam and Doreen to angle Karen’s legs towards her. Cassie fed them into the chute, then pushed Karen’s shoulders so only her head sat in the opening. She applied pressure, and Karen slowly moved downwards now Marlene had a grip on her.
Doreen stared, eyes wide, hands fisted at her neck. A stream of clotted blood shot out of Karen’s mouth halfway down, landing on the steel above, and Doreen covered her mouth and heaved, but she remained where she was, stoic, clearly wanting to see this through until the end.
Mam got busy with the mince, pressing it down tight in the tall plastic box so more could land on top. Doreen switched her attention there, shaking her head, entranced. Yes, there was a monster inside her, one Cassie hoped to learn about—the reasons why Doreen was okay with this happening, okay with keeping their secret.
Like Mam had said, you thought you knew someone…
* * * *
Tubs packed into the car boots, Cassie drove towards Handel Farm, Doreen following. It was a test letting her have a minced body in her vehicle—any moment now she could take a turning and give the police everything they’d need to put Cassie and Mam behind bars for life. But her headlights still bobbed behind them.
Mam nodded to herself. “Doreen doing what she did to Karen. Who’d have thought she’d have the balls to slice her neck?”
“Hmm. And you. Who’d have thought that, too?”
Mam laughed quietly. “Shooting Zhang Wei reminded me of being with your dad, how we used to be. He stopped me once I got pregnant, said he didn’t want me in any danger, that one of us getting nicked was better than two. I had to be good so you always had a parent around.”
“I gathered. I found the diary.”
“Good. I put it there yesterday. You were meant to find it. Saved me telling you myself. I did what you do now, that’s all. I’ve missed it.”
“Well, the offer’s there if you want to jump back in and get your hands dirty again.”
“Maybe I will.”
Cassie veered onto the track and drove towards the farmhouse, parking around the rear. She’d messaged Joe prior to setting off, and he stood at the back door, Lou beside him, shrouded by her usual tartan blanket. Doreen came to a stop beside Cassie, and she glanced through their car windows at her, eyebrows meeting in the middle.
Cassie and Mam got out, and Doreen did the same.
“What the hell are we doing here?” Doreen whispered.
“This is where the mince ends up,” Mam said.
Doreen lifted a hand to her brow. “Please don’t tell me Lou puts it in her pies.”
“No, in the pigs.”
“Deary me, and we eat the pigs…” Doreen flapped a hand over her face.
“Something like that.” Cassie waved Joe and Lou over. “Doreen’s on the payroll and won’t be telling anyone a thing, will you, Dor?”
Doreen didn’t have a chance to answer.
“No, she won’t.” Lou smiled. “Welcome to the fold. I wondered when we’d create mischief together again.”
“What have we missed?” Cassie asked.
Lou shuttered her face. “Some things are best left unsaid.”
* * * *
Pigs fed, Doreen wondered whether her guts would ever go back in the right place. They’d churned throughout the Marlene business, and seeing those pigs going stark raving bonkers for the meat…well, she’d nearly been sick. Saying that, she’d pushed through, trying to convince herself she’d never eaten a human being via one of the meat factory’s sausages or chops—surely part of those people had to get in the food—and she considered vetoing pork and sticking to beef. She was fair put off for life.
Still, it was a brilliant system, one she’d never have believed had someone told her. No, she’d had to see it with her own eyes, and now she had, she understood exactly what ‘disappeared’ meant.
At the farmhouse kitchen table, everyone else chatted as if they hadn’t just been involved in murder, discussing the recent cold winds, the snow, and how Lou’s sheets had frozen then snapped off the line yesterday. Why the hell Zhang Wei had turned up, Doreen didn’t know, but maybe Cassie would explain it one day.
Francis leant closer. “Are you okay, Dor?”
“Yes, I just don’t fancy a bacon sandwich anytime soon.”
Francis laughed. “You get used to it, and you don’t have to do any of that again if you don’t want to, but it’d be handy to have you on hand in the future. Cassie might be in need of you. I can’t go into details as something’s on the go that needs to be under the radar for now, but like I said, you may be needed. Extra wages, of course.”
Doreen thought of the envelope Cassie had passed her at th
e car when they’d come back from the pig barn. Fat, it was, and contained all the cash she’d been promised. While she’d never scrub what she’d seen and heard from her mind—amongst other things from her past, those pigs grunting would forever be the soundtrack of her nightmares—the money would certainly go some way to easing things.
“I’ll do whatever,” Doreen said. “I’ve already done the worst thing I could do by slashing Karen’s face.” And the other stuff. Dare she admit it had felt good to take all her anger out on Karen’s skin? That she’d killed her? “I liked it.” A vast difference to before when she’d— Don’t think about that.
Francis laughed. “It gets addictive, and when you don’t have that outlet… Let’s just say I had to content myself with being Lenny’s sounding board and waiting for him to describe what he’d done to people to get my fix.”
Doreen remembered how she’d felt years ago. She’d been eighteen, that terrible time when— “I’m scared of the police, of them finding out we—”
Francis smiled. “The cleaners will have dug up the bloodied snow by now and scrubbed The Beast, bleached it. If someone saw us, we’d appear as indistinct shapes, people, yes, but our features were too far away for proper identification. As for when we were near houses, all the lights were off. We have the police on our side, coppers willing to make things go away, so don’t even worry about it.”
Doreen didn’t say they ought to be careful, to never become complacent, but it wasn’t her place, and she didn’t fancy getting up close and personal with Marlene, ending up inside pigs’ bellies. For now, she’d spy for Cassie, take her five hundred a week, and deal with any daunting requests when they occurred. At the minute, she had to come to terms with how killing again had given her a new lease on life, and she wasn’t just talking Martin Barnett either. Lou knew her secret, she’d been a part of it, and they’d promised never to tell, not even Lenny.
It was a past better left buried.