In Denial (50 page)

She just prayed she was right.

‘
No,’ Adam told the driver, looking towards Leila who was already in front of one of the doors. She turned the handle and put her shoulder against the door. It shook but didn’t move.

‘
Here, let me try,’ Adam said, moving her out of the way. On the fifth attempt the door gave way and Adam almost fell into the building.

Inside it was dank and dark.

‘
You’re sure this is the right place?’ he asked in a whisper

‘
If he hasn’t brought her here then ...’ Leila took hold of Adam’s arm. ‘If they aren’t here, Adam, I don’t know where they’ll be. Your friend might be dead already.’

Adam looked around, his eyes having become accustomed to the dark. At floor level, on the other side of the warehouse, he saw a line of dim light. ‘Over there,’ he said, pointing.

As they crossed swiftly towards the door the silence was split by the terrifying shrillness of a woman’s scream. It echoed through the building, the sound as frightening as it was intense.

Adam followed Leila across the rotting carpet towards a door in the far corner.

*  *  *

‘
I tend to like my women to show a little more enthusiasm,’ Patrick Yong said, looking down at his victim. ‘And I must assume the screaming was more out of reluctance to participate than sheer ecstasy. Still, never mind, maybe next time, or even the time after that, you’ll begin to appreciate me. You, my dear, were good enough for me to want to have a repeat performance. Could I pay you a greater compliment?’ He pulled on his trousers and zipped them up. ‘Now, Miss Brooks, perhaps you’ll begin to see sense. I’ve decided after that short but none-the-less enjoyable experience, if you are indeed a minister on some love-torn escapade involving my brother then I am Mao Tse Tung, although I think Mao may have been a virgin at your age, unlike you. If you tell me the truth then I’ll promise you will die very quickly. But if you continue to lie then your death will be slow and very painful. I’m not a man of violence but I do like to get - and if necessary take - what I want.’

Gabrielle did not move.

Her entire body was numb after what had just happened to her, so Patrick Yong’s words did not register.

If she had heard him, she would have asked for her death to happen there and then because that was all she wanted to do, to die. If she’d known at that precise moment that her friends, Elizabeth and Eric Elliott were being zipped into body bags, and that they were dead because of their association with her, such knowledge would have only added to her need to die with them.

She was desolate.

‘
Miss Brooks ...’ Patrick Yong began to say but stopped, every muscle in his body tensing as he jerked his head towards the door.

A noise. A noise he should not have heard.

He went quickly to the door and opened it a fraction, just as from the other side Adam threw his weight against the door.

Both he and Adam fell back into the room, sprawled across the carpet.

Adam rolled over as best he could in readiness to face his brother. From the corner of his eye he saw a naked woman lying on the other side of the room with her back towards him. As he twisted round he saw the pistol in Patrick Yong’s hand. His eyes darted from Adam to Leila who was still standing by the door.

‘
Adam, I heard you were in town but I’m afraid this is a private meeting,’ Patrick Yong said calmly, the barrel of the pistol as steady as a rock. ‘But now you are here, and thanks to that mutinous cow over there, perhaps I can make a little more progress than I was making with your friend.’

Adam was on his haunches, his hand resting on the floor to steady himself, his breathing rapid after the exertion. He glanced again at the woman, whose back was still towards them, noticing only now that her hands were tied behind her back.

She was lying perfectly still. And suddenly he knew it had to be Gabrielle. ‘What have you done?’

‘
Done? Done, Adam? I have done nothing,’ Patrick Yong said, smiling that same slimy smile of his that Adam remembered so well. ‘It is what
you
have done or what you intend doing that is of interest to me.’ The smile disappeared. ‘Now go and sit in that chair.’ He turned towards Leila. ‘And you, you traitorous bitch, can get over there as well.’

‘
This isn’t how it appears -’ Leila said.

‘
Shut up!’ Patrick Yong shouted at her. ‘Get over there.’

Leila moved slowly across the room, then suddenly she dropped her right shoulder and charged at Patrick Yong. She was fast but not fast enough. There was a loud crack and she fell without a sound. Adam had already begun to move before the pistol was fired and, unlike Leila, he was fast enough. He hit his brother with his shoulder just as the pistol exploded. The noise was deafening and he felt the whoosh of the bullet passing close to his head.

Both were sprawling backwards towards the desk. Adam reached for the hand holding the pistol, grabbed Patrick Yong’s wrist and twisted it with all the strength he had.

They were rolling on the floor when the pistol was fired for a third time.

Adam felt his brother’s body go limp beneath him.

There was no movement at all.

Not even any noise.

The fight had lasted less than five seconds.

Adam lifted himself slowly from his brother. Patrick Yong’s eyes were open and glazed. His mouth was also open and the expression on his face was one of total disbelief. Adam felt nothing. He did not know the man who lay dead beneath him, because he was not the Patrick Yong who was his brother all those years ago. He was a stranger, a stranger who had a warped and criminal mind.

The spreading red stain on this stranger’s shirt meant that he would not be hurting anybody else ever again.

Adam’s next concern was Leila.

He crossed the room.

She looked as though she was asleep.

She had fallen with her right arm outstretched and her head resting on it. She was lying on her side, her left knee bent in the perfect recovery position.

But Leila would never recover.

Blood oozed from a small black hole in the middle of her forehead. But it was the pool of blood on the carpet at the back of her head that confirmed her fate. Her hair was still black, shiny and beautiful, her face peaceful, her lips red and pouting, her face as pretty as ever but she was dead.

Adam picked up her still warm hand and held it against his cheek.

‘
I’m sorry,’ he whispered.

Gabrielle was also silent but very much alive.

Despite the warmth of the room, she was shaking. She felt Adam gently untie her hands. She stared up at him, her tears immediate.

She had found him but she wanted to be dead. She had found him but no sooner had she achieved her goal than she wanted to leave him. He would know what had happened. He would not want her now.

Her life was over.

Adam got down onto his knees and put his arms round Gabrielle’s shoulders, lifting her slight frame so that he could hug her. He could only guess what had really happened but the look in her eyes told him everything. Holding her as tightly as he dared, he looked across at Patrick Yong’s body.

‘
You did not deserve to die so quickly,’ he said.

Adam’s mind was racing.

He and Gabrielle had to get as far away as they could and as soon as possible.

Two dead bodies earlier, their throats slit from ear to ear, and now there were two more. After what he and Leila had been through he could not believe she was dead. She may have committed murder herself but she had not deserved to die at the hands of her controller.

Adam wasn’t responsible for any of the deaths but how would he explain what had happened when he didn’t know himself? Who would believe his version of events? Nobody else knew what had taken place other than Leila and his brother. And they would not be telling anybody.

But being dead only brought problems for the living.

Gabrielle was still alive and she was suffering.

Holding her in his arms, feeling her shaking and sobbing, Adam knew they had to get away quickly. He looked around for her clothes and spotted them over by the desk. He lowered her slowly to the floor then crossed the room and picked up the clothes. They were no more than rags; the skirt was slashed, the blouse was in tatters and even the underwear was cut to shreds. Her sandals were the only items he could make use of.

He looked back towards Gabrielle.

She had turned her head and was staring at him. She had drawn up her legs and wrapped her arms round her knees; she was doing her best to cover her nakedness. She had stopped crying but her face expressed her despair. Her whole body trembled. Her total dejection was obvious; nothing mattered to her any more.

Gabrielle watched as Adam went over to the other woman. She didn’t know who she was. Seeing her attacker lying motionless on the floor had no real effect on her either, other than knowing he could not do her any more harm. She had heard the loud cracks of the pistol but had not heard any screams. She had heard nothing. Nothing had registered. She didn’t care what had happened, she just wanted the floor to open up and swallow her down to the hell that would be waiting for her.

It could not be any worse than the hell she’d already experienced.

Adam hated what he had to do but if he and Gabrielle were going to escape he had little choice. He began to take Leila’s clothes from her dead body. Her blood had stained the collar of her shirt but he would be able to disguise that with a scarf, and Gabrielle’s hair was long enough to cover most of it. Leila had not been wearing a bra but that was the least of his worries. She and Gabrielle were a similar size so he hoped everything else would fit well enough not to arouse suspicion.

He left Leila naked and gave the clothes to Gabrielle.

‘
Can you put these on?’ he asked, realising they were the first words he had said to her since they had said goodbye in Loch Lomond.

What was she doing in Hong Kong?

Gabrielle looked up at him.

She closed her eyes as she made an effort to speak but the words simply would not come out. She was aware of what he was doing but there was no point; there was nothing he could do to change the way she felt.

‘
Gabrielle, we have to get out of here,’ Adam urged. ‘Patrick and Leila are dead. We must get as far away from here as possible.’ He showed Gabrielle Leila’s shirt. ‘Can you put these clothes on?’

She slowly shook her head.

He started with Leila’s pants, slipping them over Gabrielle’s feet. Her eyes bored into his. Her muscles were rigid as she resisted his efforts.

‘
I have to get you dressed, Gabrielle. We’ve got to get out of here.’ He pulled the pants a little further up her legs, but her knees were still bent. With his free hand he brushed a few strands of hair away from her face. ‘I can only guess what you’ve been through but staying here is not an option, so please help me to get you dressed.’

He felt her muscles relax slightly but her eyes never left his. He pulled the pants over her knees and thighs but had to physically lift her off the floor in order to pull them fully on. The jeans were more difficult. Holding her up with one hand, still making sure he was looking at her face all the time, he was pleased when she moved voluntarily to help him.

Once he’d buttoned up the shirt, he held her by her shoulders. ‘Did you have a handbag with you? I need to know whether you have your passport.’

She nodded, slowly.

‘
Where? Where is it?’

She shook her head.

‘
Can you stand up?’

Closing her eyes, she nodded again.

She didn’t want to stand up. She didn’t want to do anything other than find a corner in which she could curl up and wait for death. But as she felt Adam’s arms she let him lift her up and guide her to a chair. She looked down at the two bodies. The woman was now as naked as she herself had been a few minutes ago. She was consumed with embarrassment but didn’t know whether it was because of her lack of compassion for the two people who were now dead, or whether it was because Adam knew what had happened to her and had seen her as Patrick Yong had left her. She had no idea who the Chinese woman was, and right now she was too distraught to care.

Adam found Gabrielle’s bag behind the desk and breathed a huge sigh of relief when a quick search straight away revealed her passport and her return ticket. His passport and ticket were still in his room in the Peninsula but if they were able to get away without incident from the building they were now in, getting them shouldn’t prove a problem.

He looked down at Patrick Yong.

The pistol was still in his brother’s hand, his finger curled round the trigger. Leila was ten feet away over by the door. Adam had done his best not to disturb the way she was lying when he had taken off her clothes. Would it work? Would the police discover they were both members of a Triad? Would the police think that Patrick Yong had killed Leila and then turned the gun on himself? There was nothing to suggest otherwise. The pistol was fired three times: the first bullet killed Leila, the second was lodged somewhere in a wall and the third killed Patrick