November Lake: Teenage Detective (The November Lake Mysteries) Book 1 (7 page)

In the
darkness, I reached out and gently squeezed Kale’s hand. He
squeezed my fingers back, then let go. “C’mon,” he whispered,
heading for the foot of the stairs.

We
climbed them to the top. Every one of our steps slow and precise,
desperate not to make one wooden floorboard creak, giving us away.
At the top we found ourselves on a landing. There were three doors
leading from it, and all of them were closed. Two bedrooms and one
bathroom? I wondered. The noise we had heard from downstairs came
again. This time closer, from behind the door nearest to us at the
top of the stairs. It sounded like chair legs being scrapped across
floorboards. Kale looked at me, his face an eerie mask in the
torchlight. Side by side we crept toward the closed door. We stood
outside it in the gloom of the landing.

“
Okay?” Kale whispered.

“
Okay,” I nodded.

Without
another word, Kale threw open the door. I was struck by two things
at once. The body lying on the floor and the girl sitting on a
chair before it. The girl looked up at once, her eyes dark and wide
as she peered over the gag that covered the lower half of her face.
She made a gurgling noise in the back of her throat as if drowning.
She wore a black sweater and blue jeans and trainers on her feet.
She had long, black hair just like me. Her arms looked like they
had been tied behind her back. I could see what looked like a
length of rope trailing down behind the chair. I glanced at the
dead man lying on his back. A large knife protruded from the front
of his chest, his shirt wet with blood. There were blood splatters
up the wall and over the dusty wooden floorboards. The man had been
stabbed several times. He wore jeans, but no shoes, just grey
coloured socks.

The girl
made another murmuring sound in the back of her throat. Kale leapt
from the open doorway toward her. I shot my hand out and gripped
his arm.

“
No, Kale!” I shouted. “It’s a trap!”

He
glanced back over my shoulder, a look of bewilderment on his face.
The girl sprung from out of the chair as Clive came rushing into
the room from behind us. There was a horrendous squelching noise as
the girl pulled the knife from the chest of the corpse. She waved
the knife in the air before us, blood flying from its blade and
spraying the walls of the room red. Clive held a length of one of
those freshly cut logs in his fist and he brandished it at
us.

Kale and
I lurched backwards, both of us raising our hands to our heads
fearing that we might be struck. When the blow I was expecting
didn’t fall and crush my skull, I lowered my hands and looked at
Clive and the girl.

“
Sarah?” I breathed.

A cruel
and selfish smile spread across her face. “That’s me.”

“
What’s going on here?” Kale said, that deep frown furrowing
his forehead once again. He looked angry and mystified all at once.
I could see that he was standing next to a small wooden table. On
it was a glass of water and a bottle of small white
pills.

“
We have been deceived,” I said to Kale. Then looking straight
back at our captors, I added, “You are not Clive. That’s Clive,
lying dead on the floor. You are in fact Morris Cook, robber,
blackmailer, and now murderer.”

“
Morris Cook?” Kale whispered as if parts of a jigsaw were
sliding into place. “You tricked us? Why?”

The man
we had once believed to be named Clive reached into his trouser
pockets and fished out Kale’s car key. He swung it before Kale’s
face like a pendulum. “Your friend is right. I did kill Clive Mason
and had every reason to. The story is as I told you, but I am
Morris Cook and this is Clive’s sister.”

I looked
at the girl standing before us, blood-stained knife in her hand.
“And what about you? Why did you kill your brother? If what Morris
told us is true, your brother loved you very much.”

Sarah
gave another cruel smile. “My brother might have loved me, but I
love Morris more.”

“
So you did come in search of Morris to find the evidence he
had against your brother…?” Kale started to figure out.

“
But you fell in love with the man you came to destroy,” I cut
in, unable to take my eyes off the girl. She did look a little like
me, but that’s where the resemblance between us stopped.

“
Yes,” she said with pride.

“
But why murder your brother?” Kale asked her as if none of
this still made much sense.

“
He would never let us be together,” Sarah said. “I wrote to
him and told him how I had fallen in love with Morris. I invited my
brother to this farmhouse which has been up for sale for the last
few months. We couldn’t risk inviting Clive to our real home for
fear that he might never leave us alone. So we broke in here last
night and waited for my brother to arrive today. When he did he
said I had to return home with him. He shouted and screamed that he
would not have his younger sister stay with the man who had
tormented him so much. But I couldn’t help who I had fallen in love
with. I refused to go with him. He said that if I didn’t he would
go to the police and tell them everything. He no longer cared that
he might go to prison for that robbery if it meant Morris couldn’t
have me. When Morris reminded my brother that he had already served
his sentence for the robbery, Clive said he would tell the police
about how he had been blackmailed over the last two years. Morris
would surely have gone back to prison, so a violent struggle broke
out between the three of us. Clive produced this knife, and in the
struggle he dropped it. I snatched it up and stuck it into his
chest.”

“
Several times,” I said, looking down at the body.

“
He just wouldn’t die,” she said, that smile now fading as if
she remembered the violence. “I just kept stabbing him over and
over and over until he finally fell to the floor.”

“
So why involve us?” Kale asked them.

“
The idea came to me as I watched you both at the petrol
station,” Morris started to explain. “Sarah had murdered her
brother and both of us had fled in his car. It would only be a
matter of time before his body was discovered on this remote farm.
It might take weeks or months even, but his body would be found.
The police would look for his family – for Sarah. When they
discovered that she was living with an ex-con, it wouldn’t take
Miss Marple long to figure out we had been involved in Clive’s
death. But what were we to do? So as I filled up the car with
petrol and Sarah hid on the backseat, I had an idea. What if the
police found three bodies in this house? All of them unrecognisable
because of fire. They would find Clive’s car and Sarah’s and my
I.D. in the pockets of the coats we will later leave on the
backseat of the car. Crashing the car into that tree was no
mistake. The police will believe we crashed in the fog, staggered
from the wreckage and came across this place. The gas and electric
was shut off, so the three of us lit a fire in this room to keep
warm and while we slept the fire got out of control. The smoke
suffocated us as we slept, then the fire took us. The police won’t
even bother coming to look for me and Sarah because they will
believe us dead.” Then, rolling up his shirt, he showed us the gash
in his stomach. It wasn’t very deep after all. “The cut was
deliberate, just like the crash. The police will find blood out on
the road. They will match the DNA to mine on their database. They
will believe it was me who died in the fire. So I needed to get you
two to this house. That’s why I drove you off the road and took
your keys and locked your car. You would come looking for shelter
or for the driver who had forced you into the ditch. I needed to
lead you to the house, but not too quickly. Sarah had to get back
first and make it look like she had been taken captive just like I
told you she had. So I lay in the mud, pretending I was injured.
When you came across me, I delayed you further by telling you my
story – Clive’s story. And here we are.”

Kale
took a sudden step forward as if to grab Morris Cook. Sarah waved
the knife at him and Kale stepped backwards, brushing up against
the table.

“
Get back,” she hissed.

“
You really think we are going to just lie down and let you set
fire to this room?” I said, staring at the both of them.

“
You won’t be able to get up,” Morris said, going to the table.
He placed Kale’s car key down and picked up the bottle of tablets.
He unscrewed the cap. “Sleeping pills. You will both be fast asleep
when the fire takes you. You won’t feel a thing. And when the
police discover your charred skeletons, you will look as if you had
died in your sleep, not clawing at the windows as you fought for
fresh air.”

“
You think you have it all figured out, don’t you?” Kale
said.

“
Being in prison for twelve years gives you lots of time to
think about stuff. You’d be amazed what you learn from other
inmates,” Morris said, looking at Kale. “Open your
hand.”

Kale
uncurled his fist and Morris dropped several of the white sleeping
pills into his hand. “You too,” he snapped, looking at
me.

I opened
my hand and he dropped the pills into my palm.

He then
snatched up the glass. “Swallow,” he ordered Kale.

Kale
glanced sideways at me. I could see the fear in his
eyes.

“
Swallow!”
Morris suddenly
screeched.

Both
Kale and I flinched.

Morris
thrust the glass at Kale, water spilling from it and onto the
floor. Kale placed the sleeping pills into his mouth. Then taking
the glass, he washed them down with a large gulp of water.
Suddenly, he bent forward, making a choking sound as if the tablets
had got stuck in the back of his throat. He reached out with his
hand, knocking the small wooden table over.

Morris
grabbed Kale by the collar of his coat, dragging him back into a
standing position.” Have you swallowed them?” Morris demanded. “Let
me look in your mouth.”

Slowly,
Kale opened his mouth wide and lifted his tongue to prove to Morris
he had indeed swallowed the sleeping pills.

“
Now you!” Morris spat, thrusting the glass of water in my
direction. Sarah stood, watching me over Morris’
shoulder.

Hoping
that I might be able to get them to see some reason in all the
madness, I said, “You will never get away with this. Me and my
friend are both police officers.”

Both
Morris’ and Sarah’s eyes grew suddenly wide. Not much, but enough
not to go unnoticed by me.

“
You two are both coppers?” Morris scoffed, but there was now
an uncertainty to his voice. “You’re nothing more than a couple of
kids.”

“
Murder is one thing, but killing two police officers is
something completely different,” I tried to warn him.

“
Prove it!” Sarah said, coming from behind Morris, the knife
still in her hand.

I
reached into my pocket and fumbled for my warrant card and police
badge.

“
Faster!” she barked at me, eyes wide. Could I see fear in
them?

I pulled
out my warrant card and badge. Morris snatched it from my hand. He
opened up the small black leather wallet and looked down at the
photo I.D. and silver badge.

“
Police Constable November Lake,” he breathed.

He
raised his head and met my stare. Then, looking at Kale, he shot
out his hand. Kale pulled his warrant card from his pocket. Morris
snatched it from him. I couldn’t help but notice that Kale suddenly
looked unsteady on his feet as he swayed forward, then backwards
again. I knew we were fast running out of time.

Morris
closed the wallets, tucking them into his trouser pocket. “Do you
think that being a couple of coppers makes a difference to me? I’m
going to enjoy watching you burn even more. This doesn’t change a
thing. There won’t be enough of you left for anyone to know if you
were coppers or shopkeepers. Now take the sleeping pills. It’s your
turn, Constable Lake.”

I looked
down at the pills in the palm of my hand. I took the glass from
Morris, then closing my eyes, I placed the pills into my mouth,
took a gulp of water and swallowed hard.

“
Open your mouth,” I heard Morris hiss. “Let me
see.”

I looked
at him, then opened my mouth.

“
Under the tongue. I want to see under your tongue,” he
demanded.

With my
mouth open, I pressed the tip of my tongue against the roof of my
mouth so he could see that I truly had swallowed the sleeping
pills.

“
Good. Very good,” he smiled.

Kale
suddenly dropped to the floor and onto his side. The tablets were
already beginning to affect him. He rolled over onto his back and
tried to get back up. He looked like a punch-drunk boxer who had
just been floored.

“
Stay down,” Sarah said, springing forward and wielding the
knife.

“
Leave him alone!” I shouted at her.

I was
suddenly shoved from behind, and went sprawling down onto my hands
and knees. “Shut your face!” Morris roared from behind
me.

I rolled
onto my side and wrapped one arm around Kale, pulling him close.
With my eyes closed and the fall and rise of Kale’s chest becoming
slower and more laboured, I heard Morris and Sarah moving around in
the room.