You’d really have to be a good person to not go ahead and do that.
Every. Second.
Of the day.
“Come in.”
I bowed my head and walked through the doorway to my boss’s office. He had one foot on the desk, a phone wedged in against his shoulder.
“You wanted to see me, Sir?”
His eyes fluttered. “Uh-huh. Okay… Look, I’ll call you back. Alright. See you.” He put the phone down. Put his second foot up onto the desk. “Where were you last night between the hours of seven and ten?”
My spine came apart like a pile of rocks. “Uh… I was –”
“At home?”
“Sure, I think. I mean … there –”
“What I’m asking, you weren’t in here?”
“In … in your office?”
“Helping yourself to my fridge?”
I stared at him. “What?”
“I had three bottles of champagne in there and now there’s only one. Plus two of my glasses are missing. So I’m asking everyone. I want to know who did this –”
“Maybe it was the night cleaner.”
“The night – the bloody night cleaner. Of course!”
“Did you need me for anything else, sir?”
“No, that will be all.”
I stumbled out around the corner of the office and put a hand to my chest, clutching it. My feet dragged across the carpet till I reached the sofa by the wall, where I collapsed.
Looked up into the ceiling fan.
My heart hammering behind my lungs.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “She didn’t talk.”
Yet.
CHAPTER 29
Sal hadn’t been listening to Nadine before, but now his ears were fine-tuned. And he wasn’t just listening to her. Making his best effort to remain calm and expressionless, he began to leaf over certain events that had transpired earlier that were suddenly starting to make a lot more sense.
Nadine looked on from behind her dark sunglasses, shielding herself not only from her perpetrator, but also from people like Sal who were going to treat her differently … now she’d been found out.
“You understand, don’t you?” Nadine inquired. “You understand I didn’t have a choice.”
Sal’s frame shifted a little. “Of course. You were … under duress…”
Nadine glanced around. “A little bit, yeah.”
“He threatened you.”
She hesitated. “You know it was more than that.”
“How was it more?”
Nadine looked down at the ground.
After a moment, her head rose slowly. “We were in love.”
“There you are!” Taylor Shandling’s voice rang out from the other end of the hall. “Thank freaking God!”
Sal brushed past Nadine, his face contorting in multiple directions, waving at Taylor to back off.
“No, no, no,” she said quickening her pace. “You aren’t getting away this time.”
Nadine grabbed Sal’s wrist. “Stall her. I’ll save the girl.”
“What?” Sal spluttered. “No –”
“Stall her.”
Nadine took off towards the fire escape.
“Hold up, Shields!” Taylor shouted, rushing over. “Where are you going?”
Sal blocked Taylor’s path.
“No, Sal, get the fuck –”
“Stop it,” Sal hissed. “Let her go.”
Taylor kicked Sal in the knee, causing him to slump, screaming.
With a hand on his shoulder she leap-frogged over him and continued in hot pursuit of Nadine.
Sal glanced round as she disappeared out the fire escape. “Goddamn it, you stupid woman.”
He pulled himself up and staggered over back towards the computer lab. Still no match on the fingerprints.
But on another monitor there was the homepage for a local business renting out blue limousines. Sal sat down in front of it with his cell out, punching in the phone number.
He paused a moment before dialing.
Just to get a snapshot of what had just happened.
“Jesus Christ,” Sal muttered. “I need a fucking drink.”
CHAPTER 30
Nadine knew she wasn’t alone in the stairwell. Just as the door had fallen shut it burst open again with Taylor’s footsteps hot on her trail. Nadine soon realized she wasn’t going to outrun her. The bitch was athletic.
She stopped two floors below out of breath, a moment before Taylor ran into her, forcing her against the wall.
“Hands. Give me your Goddamn –”
As the cuffs bit into one of Nadine’s hands, she turned and with the other clocked Taylor in the face.
Taylor fell back, the cuffs spilling to the floor.
Nadine kneed her in the stomach and ripped Taylor’s gun from her holster.
Nadine put it to her head.
“Alright, alright,” Taylor exclaimed. “Jesus!”
Nadine didn’t back away.
She pressed the barrel in deeper.
“Settle the fuck down,” Taylor cursed. “I’m not your enemy here.”
Nadine pressed it tighter.
“Ouch…”
Taylor was now looking away.
Nadine slowly retracted the weapon.
“What is your problem?” Taylor gushed.
“What is my problem?”
“You’re acting like a lunatic.”
“Do you want me to shoot you then?”
“Get fucked, Shields.”
Taylor got to her feet.
She went for the gun in Nadine’s wavering grip.
Nadine let her have it.
“You want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Taylor barked at her. “Or does it not even make sense in your head?”
Nadine grimaced. Turned her face away.
“Just how messed up are you?” Taylor demanded.
Nadine’s lips curled inward.
“We used to be friends,” Taylor said. “What the hell happened to you?”
“If we were actual friends, then maybe you would have asked me that before trying to sell my ass to management.”
Taylor nodded. “Fair point.”
“Now if you don’t mind, there’s a girl out there who’s been taken by a monster and needs our help. Do you have your car with you?”
“It’s outside.”
“So I’ll explain it to you on the way.” Nadine pushed open the door to the ground floor behind them. “Are you coming?”
“She’s really in trouble?”
“She was in trouble half an hour ago,” Nadine said. “Now she might be dead.”
CHAPTER 31
Elsie’s consciousness came back gradually, like the dead slowly rising from their grave. Her hands had broken through the earth a while before her eyes rose above the surface.
And now she could breathe.
Pain throbbed from the back of her head, all the way down to her waist. She had fought him. Sustained many blows. And of course he’d won in the end, as she knew he would. Where was he … now…?
Elsie sat up in the bed. She had a blindfold on, the room frozen black in front of her. Her wrists and ankles were bound to the bed.
Her clothes were still on.
“Hello?” she called out pitifully. “Is someone there…?”
She couldn’t hear anyone. If he was still here, he was being nice and quiet.
Elsie strained her hearing. And then she caught it.
The familiar ticking of the grandfather clock downstairs.
“Hello?” she tried.
A new sound. Faraway. Tires crunching gravel outside. A car.
But was he coming or going?
“Shit,” Elsie muttered. She tried breaking free of her restraints but they wouldn’t budge. Not for her feeble strength. The chords were far too tight.
“Aaarrgghhh…” Elsie moaned.
Door slam. Soft footsteps.
So he’d left her here
. All alone.
And now he had returned.
Elsie kept still as she listened to his movements downstairs, gradually drawing nearer. She heard items being shuffled around. The sound of a gun being loaded. His feet on wooden stairs. Surely … he didn’t mean to kill her?
The door opened slowly.
Elsie remained completely still.
Silence.
Then a finger. His finger.
Pressing against her neck. Checking her pulse.
Elsie held back a yelp.
The finger’s intensity relaxed. She felt it draw a line down from her neck and across her chest.
It reached her stomach and stopped short of going down further.
“You must be so afraid,” he whispered in a gentle tone of voice. “I can’t even imagine.”
The finger shifted towards her pelvic region.
“Fuck you,” Elsie gasped.
He quickly pulled his hand away from her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were awake.”
“Are you going to rape me?”
“Would you like that?”
“What? No!”
He suddenly put his hands behind her head.
Elsie struggled with him, trying to knock his hands away. She was unsuccessful.
He removed her blindfold.
She kept her eyes shut. “I don’t want to see your face.”
“Why not?”
“Because then you’ll have to kill me.”
She heard him moving to the other end of the bed.
“You won’t see much of me in this light, I’m afraid.”
Elsie kept her eyelids clenched.
“Please open them.”
“No,” she said.
“I SAID OPEN THEM!”
He shook the bed violently.
Wincing, Elsie’s sight gradually returned.
She could see where he was. She could see his figure bending over the bed.
Two bright blue circles were glowing around the hollow edges of where his eyes should have been.
“Oh God!” Elsie shrieked. “What the fuck?!”
“What’s the matter?” the man demanded of her. “You don’t like my face?”
“HELP!” Elsie screamed.
“You don’t find me attractive?”
“FUCKING GO AWAY!!!”
“You can scream all you want, no one’s going to hear you,” the man said ominously.
“HELP!!!”
“We’re all alone out here.”
“SOMEBODY!!!”
“It’s just me and you.”
CHAPTER 32
The car was covered with a blanket of artificial heat. Air fogged up the windows. The rain pitter-pattered outside.
Rose looked over from the driver’s seat as Rupert rubbed the glass with his elbow.
There it was.
Simon’s house.
It felt so long since she’d been here, yet … her memories were all still vivid…
Rupert looked at her from the corner of his eyes. “This your ex-husband’s place?”
Rose nodded slowly.
“And you don’t think he’ll have an issue with me being here?”
“If he does he won’t show it,” Rose said unbuckling her seatbelt. “He’s an adult.”
She got out of the car quickly and slammed the door.
Rupert hurried out from his side and ran around the front of the car to confront her.
“So here we go with the age thing again, right?”
“What?”
“He’s an adult? Implying I’m a child?”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
“And how old is he again. How old exactly?”
“He’s old. Let’s just leave it at.”
“Yes, but how much older is he than me. I want to know.”
Rose moved across the road, her arms draped around herself. The rain painted false tears running down her cheeks. “He’s in his sixties.”
“Sixties? Are you serious?”
“Do we want to get moving now, or –?”
“So he’s at least forty years older than me. And twenty years older than you. How does that work?”
“What do you mean, ‘how does that work?’”
“I mean, why would you go out with someone so much older than you? Ugh.”
“Like, you know nothing about that.”
“Yeah well. I didn’t marry you, did I?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Have you finished?”
Rupert nodded. “I’m finished.”
“Good. Let’s get this over with.”
Whatever this was wasn’t something Rose would have a quick answer for. Sure, here she was with a guy who was looking for spiritual guidance in a state of emergency – and if there was even a slight chance her husband would help with that, then of course he’d be more than happy to.
But was that the real reason Rose had brought him here?
Did she not have demons inside her who wanted nothing more than to stoke the fire?
“So much for him not being home,” Rupert remarked as they walked up the driveway. “It sounds like he has people over.”
It was true.
Shadows moved behind the curtains. Muffled music and chatter echoed from within.
“I hope you’ll be polite and respectful,” Rose said.
“Me? Always.”
“No swearing.”
“Yes, Mom.”
She grabbed his arm near the front door. “That isn’t funny.”
“It’s true, my Mom is older than you,” Rupert said. “But not by much.”
A light came on outside the porch.
The front door opened.
Rose turned. “Hello?”
A middle-aged woman in an elegant evening dress looked over them. “Hello, Rose.”
“Who is this?” Rupert demanded.
“I’m Samantha. This is my house.”
“So you married Simon?”
“Yes, I –”
“He is here, isn’t he?” Rose asked.
There was a pause. Samantha showed little emotion. “Why don’t you come inside?”
CHAPTER 33
Nadine was in the passenger seat once again, but the destination was hers to control. Taylor of course wanted to call a dozen or so cars to come along for the ride with them, which Nadine said no to. Taylor wanted it handled like any other hostage situation with teams by the front door, the back door, the side windows. A sniper in a tree seven miles away. An attempt at negotiation. Like, give up the girl or we’ll bomb the shit out of you. No pizza. No helicopters. Surrender or die.
Taylor was so far away she might as well have been living in another decade. Nadine knew things about the man who was holding the girl. Things that would send chills to Taylor’s bones. Things that would make her sick in the stomach. Taylor was – for all her guts and glory – completely, utterly.
In the dark.
“You are, without a doubt, one of the creepiest people I’ve ever worked with,” Taylor said during their drive. “I really mean it. You have the whole victim complex going on. Yeah. Don’t I know it? Used to believe you, as well. Felt sorry for you. Invited you into … my home…”
“You don’t know who I am, Taylor.”
“There you go again. Creeping me out. With your shit. Well, you listen here and you listen good. When this is over, you’re not going to worm your way out. You’re not going to fall between the cracks. I won’t let it happen. You hear?”
“Are you trying to make me not like you?”
“What? Gosh, you know –”
“I wonder how different it will be once we get there. Once you see him. Face to face. I wonder if perhaps you’ll … wake up…”
“Wake up to what?”
Nadine turned to the woman beside her. The question was like soft knock to a locked door.
Nadine could open it for her. That wasn’t the problem. Nadine may have even enjoyed doing so. It would mean a lot having some
one to share the truth with.
But Taylor wasn’t ready for it yet.
She had to see it with her own eyes first.
“Wake up to what, Nadine?”
“It’s nothing.”
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you? I know who is behind this shit if any of it is true.”
“Really? You do?”
“Yeah. Your boyfriend stalker.”
“Boyfriend – Stalker…” Nadine chuckled.
“Well, he’s one or the other, isn’t he? Though I’m guessing by your response we’ll tick the former. You obviously don’t seem that affected by my mentioning him.”
“Oh God. He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Well, who is he then?”
“I already have a boyfriend. You know that, don’t you?”
“Who is that then? Justin?”
“Justin.”
“Yeah, well I don’t think you’ll be seeing much of him anymore.”
“And why is that?”
“Because he doesn’t want a nutcase for a girlfriend.”
“How would you know?”
“Trust me, I know.”
Nadine shifted in her seat. “He asked me to marry him tonight. Did you know that?”
“Bullshit.”
“Took me out to a fancy restaurant. Had a lightshow waiting for me across the river. Put the ring in my champagne.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh my God. Do you like him?”
“No.”
“You do so. You like my boyfriend. Ha, ha, ha. No wonder you hate my guts.”
Taylor hit the brakes.
The car skidded a few meters across the road before come to a violent stop.
Nadine kept her eyes facing forward. They were in the middle of nowhere.
Taylor opened the driver’s door. Got out of the car.
She moved by the front and went to Nadine’s door. Ripped it open. Grabbed hold of Nadine.
“What are you doing?” Nadine scolded.
“Out!” Taylor shouted. “Get out!”
“You need me! You don’t know where you’re going!”
Icy Stares (Guess The Killer Book 1) Page 7
