Eeny Meeny (34 page)

It was Helen. She had survived. Already the paramedics were rushing to her, her colleagues surrounding her. But she pushed them away. Charlie called out to her, but Helen walked past without hearing.

Shrugging off Bridges, Detective Inspector Helen Grace walked alone through the rain. It was over. She was alive. But she hadn’t won. Her ordeal was only just beginning. For as Marianne knew only too well, there is no peace for those that shed the blood of those closest to them. It was Helen’s turn to live with that stain now.

Thirsty for more? Turn the page for a taste of

Pop Goes the Weasel,

the next gripping novel in the DI Helen Grace series, coming soon from Penguin.

Chapter One

The fog crept in from the sea, suffocating the city. It descended like an invading army, consuming landmarks, choking out the moonlight, rendering Southampton a strange and unnerving place.

Empress Road Industrial Estate was quiet as the grave. The body shops had shut for the day, the mechanics and supermarket-workers had departed and the streetwalkers were now making their presence felt. Dressed in short skirts and bra tops, they pulled hard on their cigarettes, gleaning what little warmth they could to ward off the bone-chilling cold. Pacing up and down, they worked hard to sell their sex, but in the gloom they appeared more like skeletal wraiths than objects of desire.

The man drove slowly, his eyes raking the line of half-naked junkies. He sized them up – a sharp snap of recognition occasionally punching through – then dismissed them. They weren’t what he was looking for. Tonight he was looking for something special.

Hope jostled with fear and frustration. He had thought of nothing else for days. He was so close now, but what if it was all a lie? An urban myth? He slammed the steering wheel hard. She
had
to be here.

Nothing. Nothing. Noth−

There she was. Standing alone, leaning against the graffiti-embossed wall. The man felt a sudden surge of excitement. There
was
something different about this one. She wasn’t checking her nails or smoking or gossiping. She was simply waiting. Waiting for something to happen.

He pulled his car off the road, parking up out of sight by a chain link fence. He had to be careful, mustn’t leave anything to chance. He scanned the streetscape for signs of life, but the fog had cut them off completely. It was as if they were the only two people left in the world.

He marched across the road towards her, then checked himself, slowing his pace. He mustn’t rush this – this was something to be savoured and enjoyed. The anticipation was sometimes more enjoyable than the act – experience had taught him that. He must linger over this one. In the days ahead, he would want to replay these memories as accurately as he could.

She was framed by a row of abandoned houses. Nobody wanted to live round here any more and these homes were now hollow and dirty. They were crack dens and flophouses, strewn with dirty needles and dirtier mattresses. As he crossed the street towards her the girl looked up, peering through her thick fringe. Hauling herself off the wall, she said nothing, simply nodding towards the nearest shell of a house before stepping inside. There was no negotiation, no preamble. It was as if she was resigned to her fate. As if she
knew
.

Hurrying to catch up with her, the man drank in her backside, her legs, her heals, his arousal increasing all the time. Already he could hear her screams in his head, her cracked voice begging for mercy. As she disappeared into the darkness, he picked up the pace. He couldn’t wait any longer.

The floorboards creaked noisily as he stepped inside. The derelict house was just how he had pictured it in his fantasies. An overpowering smell of damp filled his nostrils – everything was rotten here. He hurried into the sitting room, now a repository for abandoned G-strings and condoms. No sign of her. So they were going to play ‘Chase me’, were they?

Into the kitchen. No sign. Turning on his heal, he stalked out and climbed the stairs to the second floor. With each step, his eyes scanned this way and that, searching for his prey.

He marched into the front bedroom. A mildewed bed, a broken window, a dead pigeon. But no sign of the girl.

Fury now wrestled with his desire. Who was she to mess him around like this? She was a common whore. Dog-shit on his shoe. He was going to make her suffer for treating him like this.

He pushed the bathroom door open – nothing – then turned and marched into the second bedroom. He would smash her stupid fac−

Suddenly his head snapped back. Pain raged through him – they were pulling his hair so tight, forcing him back, back, back. Now he couldn’t breathe – a rag was being forced over his mouth and nose. A sharp, biting odour flared up his nostrils and instinct kicked in too late. He struggled for his life, but already he was losing consciousness. Then everything went black.

Chapter Two

They were watching her every move. Hanging on her every word.

‘The body is that of a white female, aged between twenty and twenty-five. She was found by a Community Support Officer yesterday morning in the boot of an abandoned car on the Greenwood Estate.’

Detective Inspector Helen Grace’s voice was clear and strong, despite the tension that knotted her stomach. She was briefing the Major Investigation Team on the seventh floor of Southampton Central Police Station.

‘As you can see from the pictures, her teeth were caved in, probably with a hammer, and both her hands have been cut off. She is heavily tattooed, which might help with IDing and you should concentrate your efforts on drugs and prostitution to begin with. This looks like a gang-related killing, rather than common or garden murder. DS Bridges is going to lead on this one and he’ll fill you in on particular persons of interest. Tony?’

‘Thank you, Ma’am. First things first, I want to check precedents …’

As DS Bridges got into his stride, Helen slipped away. Even after all this time she couldn’t bear being the centre of everyone’s attention, gossip and intrigue. It was nearly a year since she’d brought Marianne’s terrible killing spree to an end, but the interest in Helen was as strong as ever. In the immediate aftermath, friends, colleagues, journalists and strangers had rushed to offer sympathy and support. But it was all largely fake – what they wanted were
details
. They wanted to open Helen up and pick over her insides – were you abused too? Do you feel guilty about all those deaths? Do you feel
responsible
?

Helen had spent her entire adult life building a high wall around herself – even the name Helen Grace was a fiction – but thanks to Marianne that wall had been destroyed for ever. Initially Helen had been tempted to run – she’d been offered leave, a transfer, even a retirement package – but somehow she had caught hold of herself, returning to work at Southampton Central as soon as they would allow her to do so. She knew that wherever she went the eyes of the world would be on her. Better to face the examination on home turf where for many years life had been good to her.

That was the theory, but it had proved far from easy. There were so many memories here – of Mark, of Charlie – and so many people who were willing to probe, speculate or even joke about her ordeal. Even now, months after she’d returned to work, there were times when she just had to get away.

‘Goodnight, Ma’am.’

Helen snapped to, oblivious to the desk sergeant she was walking straight past.

‘Goodnight, Harry. Hope the Saints remember how to win for you tonight.’

Her tone was bright, but the words sounded strange, as if the effort of being perky was too much for her. Hurrying outside, she picked up her Kawasaki and, opening the throttle, sped away down the West Quay Road. The sea fog that had rolled in earlier clung to the city and Helen vanished inside it.

Keeping her speed strong but steady, she glided past the traffic crawling towards St Mary’s Stadium. Reaching the outskirts of town, she diverted on to the motorway. Force of habit made her check her mirrors, but there was no one following her. As the traffic eased, she punched her speed up. Hitting eighty miles per hour she paused for a second before pushing it to ninety. She never felt so at ease as when she was travelling at speed.

The towns flicked by. Winchester, then Farnborough, before Aldershot eventually loomed into view. Another quick check of the mirrors, then into the city centre. Parking her bike at the Parkway NCP, Helen sidestepped a group of drunken squaddies and hurried off, hugging the shadows as she went. Nobody knew her here, but even so she couldn’t take any chances.

She walked past the train station and before long she was in Cole Avenue, in the heart of Aldershot’s suburbia. She wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing, yet she’d felt compelled to return. Settling herself down amidst the undergrowth that flanked one side of the street, she took up her usual vantage point.

Time crawled by. Helen’s stomach growled and she realized that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Stupid really, she was getting thinner by the day. What was she trying to prove to herself? There were better ways of atoning than by starving yourself to death.

Suddenly there was movement. A shouted ‘bye’ and then the door of number fourteen slammed shut. Helen crouched down. Her eyes remained glued to the young man who was now hurrying down the street, punching numbers into his mobile phone. He walked within ten feet of Helen, never once detecting her presence, before disappearing round the corner. Helen counted to fifteen, then left her hiding place and set off in pursuit.

The man, a boyish twenty-five-year-old, was handsome with thick dark hair and a full face. Casually dressed with his jeans hanging around his bum, he looked like so many young men, desperate to appear cool and uninterested. It made Helen smile a little, such was the studied casualness of it all.

A knot of rowdy lads loomed into view, stationed outside the Railway Tavern. £2 a pint, 50p a shot and free pool, it was a Mecca for the young, the skint and the shady. The elderly owner was happy to serve anyone who’d hit puberty, so it was always packed, the crowds spilling out on to the street. Helen was glad of the cover, slipping in amongst the bodies to observe undetected. The lads greeted the young man with a cheer as he waved a twenty-pound note at them. They entered and Helen followed. Waiting patiently in the queue for the bar, she was invisible to them – anyone over the age of thirty didn’t exist in their world.

After a couple of drinks, the gang drifted away from the prying eyes of the pub towards a kids’ playground on the outskirts of town. The tatty urban park was deserted and Helen had to tail the boys cautiously. Any woman wandering alone at night through a park is likely to draw attention to herself, so Helen hung back. She found an aged oak tree, grievously wounded with scores of lovers’ carvings and stationed herself in its shadow. From here she could watch unmolested as the gang smoked dope, happy and carefree in spite of the cold.

Helen spent her whole life being watched, but here she was invisible. In the aftermath of Marianne’s death, her life had been picked apart, opened up for public consumption. As a result people thought they knew her inside and out.

But there was one thing they didn’t know. One secret that she had kept to herself.

And he was standing not fifty feet away from her now, utterly oblivious to her presence.

Chapter Three

His eyes blinked open, but he couldn’t see.

Liquid oozed down his cheeks, as his eyeballs swivelled uselessly in their sockets. Sound was horribly muted, as if his ears were stuffed with cotton wool. Scrambling back to consciousness, the man felt a savage pain ripping through his throat and nostrils. An intense burning sensation, like a flame held steady to his larynx. He wanted to sneeze, to retch, to spit out whatever it was that was tormenting him. But he was gagged, his mouth bound tight with duct tape, so he had to swallow down his agony.

Eventually the stream of tears abated and his protesting eyes began to take in their surroundings. He was still in the derelict house, only now he was in the front bedroom, lying prostrate on the filthy bed. His nerves were jangling and he struggled wildly – he had to get away – but his arms and legs were bound tight to the iron bedstead. He yanked, pulled and twisted, but the nylon cords held firm.

Only then did he realize he was naked. A terrible thought pulsed through him – were they going to leave him here like this? To freeze to death? His skin had already raised its defences – goosebumps erect with cold and terror – and he realized how perishingly cold it was.

He bellowed for all he was worth – but all he produced was a dull, buzzing moan. If he could just talk to them, reason with them … he could get them more money, and they would let him go. They couldn’t leave him here like
this
. Humiliation seeped into his fear now, as he looked down at his bloated, middle-aged body stretched out on the stained eiderdown.

He strained to hear, hoping against hope that he was not alone. But there was nothing. They had abandoned him. How long would they leave him here? Until they had emptied all his accounts? Until they had got away? The man shuddered, already dreading the prospect of bargaining for his liberty with some junkie or whore. What would he do when he was
liberated? What would he say to his family? To the police? He cursed himself bitterly for being so bloody stu−

A creaking floorboard. So he
wasn’t
alone. Hope flared through him – perhaps now he could find out what they wanted. He craned his neck round to try and engage his attackers, but they were approaching from behind and remained out of view. It suddenly struck him that the bed he was tied to had been pushed out into the middle of the room, as if centre stage at a show. No one could possibly want to sleep with it like that, so why …?

A falling shadow. Before he could react something was passing over his eyes, his nose, his mouth. Some sort of hood. He could feel the soft fabric on his face, the drawstring being pulled taut. Already the man was struggling to breathe, the thick velvet resting on his protesting nostrils. He shook his head furiously this way and that, fighting to create some tiny pocket of breathing space. Any moment he expected the string to be pulled still tighter, but to his surprise nothing happened.