“I’m not giving my hand away that easily. It doesn’t work that way. I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a freebie. You’re allowed to ask me one question, which I will answer honestly, to the best of my knowledge. But after that. Information will carry a price.”
Taylor reflected on the words.
There was what they – the police, the public, everyone – need to know.
And then there was what Taylor needed.
“Did you send him to my house?”
Nadine’s eyes went up and shifted to the left.
“Nadine. It’s a simple question. Did you or did you not send Spider Jack to my old house?”
Nadine exhaled. Grinned. “Of course I didn’t. Do you really think I’m the puppet-master, pulling the strings? That I have every serial killer in the city sitting there, on my call list.”
“No one hates me the way you do.”
“Taylor! My God,” Nadine gushed. “You might hate me, but I definitely don’t hate you. If anything, I look up to you. You’re the model citizen. Who I’d want to be if I could start this life over. Do you think I’m proud of my shortcomings?”
“It certainly seems like you are.”
“It’s all weakness. I’ve ruined my life. The girls are still in my head. I dream about them all the time. And not in a good way. I’m not happy with who I’ve become. You must know that. You must know I wanted to be caught. Deep down.”
Taylor clenched her teeth together. Strained her eyes.
Was Nadine actually opening up?
Or was this more bullshit?
“You said there were others involved. You. Justin. That Special Agent guy. There were others, you said. People higher up.”
“I did say that.”
“Was it true then?”
Nadine shrugged.
“If you want some kind of … I don’t know. Rehabilitation. Then it starts here. You need to tell me who else is involved. Name names. And you also need to tell me anything you know about Spider Jack. If he’s connected and so on…”
“There can’t be any rehabilitation for me.”
“I understand that. The extent of your crimes –”
“It’s nothing to do with the nature of the crimes. It’s too late because I got caught. If I’d been able to stop myself a year ago, and I wasn’t caught after that. And I just kept going with life as normal. That would have been rehabilitation. Because the onus would have been on me to forgive myself. Which I think I could have done.”
“We’re getting off subject.”
“No, we’re not,” Nadine sneered. “Because I was caught. Because I was found out. I was exposed. Everyone treats me differently.”
Taylor snorted. “What did you expect?”
“I can’t be repaired – I can’t heal – I can’t become normal – because of you. You cannot forgive me. There is nothing I can do, no amount of time I can serve that will ever dull your hatred and condemnation of me. I could have healed myself. If I’d had more time. If I’d been stronger. But this place and the place I’m going to is not going to put me back together. It’s not going to fix me. It’s designed to destroy me all the more. Do you understand me, Taylor? Do you understand where I’m at?”
Taylor shook her head. “You’re getting what you deserve.”
“That’s beside the point! I’m trying to tell you I’m not this all-powerful, criminal mastermind. You need to get that idea of me out of your head.”
“Okay…”
“I know some things though, that can obviously help you.”
“So help me.”
“I’ll need something in return.”
“I knew that was coming.”
“I need you to tell me about Charlotte.”
Taylor raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“What happened to Charlotte?”
“She disappeared. No one knows.”
“But you know. Don’t you, Taylor.”
“No. I saw her like one time. And then she was gone.”
“But that’s not the whole story, is it?”
Taylor stared at her. “Where are you getting this?”
“Never mind that,” Nadine said. “You want to know who Spider Jack is? You want to know where you can find the rest of the network? I’ll tell you. They don’t mean anything to me while I’m in here. But Charlotte does mean something to me. And I know you were there when it happened. Weren’t you…”
Taylor closed her eyes.
She couldn’t believe she was allowing herself to go back.
Especially with this killer sitting opposite.
“Take your time,” Nadine whispered. “Don’t be afraid.”
Chills radiated as she touched Taylor’s hand.
“I’m here,” Nadine said.
CHAPTER 18
It was like a scene out of a movie or something. That’s how vivid the memory was. Everything was positioned correctly in the frame. The colors contrasted perfectly. The man in his red cloak and black briefcase. How he was just far enough for Taylor to see him clearly from the treehouse. The grass had taken on a yellow tinge. The sun was a quarter way out from the clouds. The sky half blue, half grey. And there he was, moving along the field at that exact moment. The only moment. Where he could be seen this way.
Taylor pulled back from the tiny window and leant against the treehouse wall. It was as though a door had been opened. She’d come here, come with a question. Just to see if any of it was real from that surreal day before. And even though the girl was gone her sanctuary was still present as it had been.
And her nightmare had come to life.
Taylor felt the urge to see more, but as she glanced out the window she could barely see him anymore. He didn’t appear to be moving quickly from up here.
But he was.
She found herself climbing the panels back down the outside of the tree, landing on the grass and hurrying forward to the field. When she got there she was on one side, and he was on the other.
She had to hurry.
So she broke into a slow run and rushed along in his direction.
The grass was soon at her ankles. Within a minute it was up to her knees and before she was halfway across it had passed her waist.
Her legs began to tire.
The sun’s edges flashed in her peripheral.
Taylor grabbed hold of the grass in big chunks, pulling herself through, desperate the reach the other side.
That day, the first time she saw the man in red. She didn’t even make it to the end of the field.
Her energy depleted, her feet tripping over an unseen object rising from the earth below, she crashed through the leafy bristles and hit the ground like a pancake. By the time she got up it was already starting to get dark. She could see where the river was a short distance away. She could see the thickening of trees beyond it.
But no sign of the man.
CHAPTER 19
“I kept finding my way back there, over the years,” Taylor was saying. “I must’ve seen Charlotte’s face in the news or something because I knew she’d gone missing. And I thought the man in red had something to do with it.”
“But you never came forward,” Nadine mused.
“I was just a kid. I was afraid. I didn’t want anyone coming after me. At the same time, I also wanted proof of some kind. I figured that man passed through the field as part of a routine or something, so I hung around but he never showed. A year or two went by and I stopped off there after school one afternoon, still curious. Still thinking about it. And that day he showed. But again, I wasn’t ready…”
Knock, knock, knock.
Taylor looked down at the space between them.
Her knees were almost grazing Nadine’s.
Taylor jerked herself away quickly, getting up to answer the door.
McGuiness was on the other side. “Time to wrap up.”
“No, I’m…” Taylor began. “I’m only getting started.”
“Someone tipped Internal Affairs off th
at you’re here,” McGuiness explained. “They’re gonna shut us down anyway.”
“I’m willing to talk now,” Nadine said behind them. “Do they know that?”
McGuiness stepped into the room. “Do you know who Jack the Spider is?”
“I don’t,” Nadine answered. “But it could be that I know people who do.”
“Well, what good is that to us?”
Nadine moved closer. “It’s what I’ve been saying all along. I am just a little pawn sitting on a giant chessboard.”
“Here we go again,” McGuiness scoffed. “The so called ‘Network’.”
“You’re on the board too, Rose,” Nadine continued. “As is Taylor.”
Taylor turned slightly, locking eyes with Nadine.
Nadine grinned. “As was Sal.”
“Why you little –” Taylor lashed out at Nadine but Rose jumped in between them, holding her off.
“You think it’s not a game?” Nadine shouted. “The other side are playing whether you can see them or not.”
“We’re done here,” McGuiness said straightening Taylor up. “Okay? We’re done.”
Taylor looked over the Captain’s shoulder.
“But you can use me against them,” Nadine said. “I’ll be your pawn to play with. You just have to get me out of here. Bring me back into the world.”
“Come on, Taylor,” McGuiness urged her out of the room. “We can’t trust her.”
Taylor let herself be pushed.
Nadine was still staring at her as McGuiness closed and locked the cell door.
“It was a mistake coming here,” McGuiness said. “You see that, don’t you?”
Taylor started to say something, but no words made it from her mouth.
A dent had been made in her. An invisible blade sunk in.
Taylor suddenly felt like crying.
“Hey, hey, hey,” McGuiness said. “No, sweetie. Don’t do that. Don’t let her get to you.”
Taylor turned away to the wall, shielding herself.
McGuiness took a clean handkerchief from her handbag and handed it to Taylor.
“Thank you,” Taylor sobbed into it.
“You’re doing the best you can,” McGuinness soothed. “You’re much stronger than you realize.”
Taylor wiped the tears away. “We should have known.”
“Known what?”
“We should have been able to tell she was crazy. I should have –”
“There, there. It couldn’t be helped.”
Taylor’s back slid across the wall. She looked from the rag in her hand to the closed cell door.
All those memories flashing behind her eyes.
“No,” Taylor whispered. “It could have…”
CHAPTER 20
Spider Jack had reached his destination.
He double checked the scrawled handwritten address from the note in his pocket, then began ascending the surrounding wall. He was aware of the surveillance. The security system wasn’t boasting the latest in technology but it was enough to keep him making a direct entrance.
The land the estate was sitting on gave him plenty of opportunities to maneuver his way through undetected. It was littered with fancy pathways, gardens, shrubbery, trees and the like. He kept a watchful eye out for guards but didn’t see any.
He followed the side of the manor for a while until he spied an open doorway inviting him into the property. He climbed a couple of concrete steps and passed through the opening into a wide hallway with a smooth, glossy texture underfoot. His feet echoed as they moved along through the passage. It eventually connected with another and he made a right.
The area opened. To his left were a series of white stairs leading up to the second floor. He stood in front of them, his ears peeled, listening. Not hearing anything, he put his hands to the banister and began making his way up.
“Oooh! Oooh, YEAH!”
He stopped. She was downstairs, not upstairs.
“Drill it baby, drill it…”
Apparently engaged in some kind of activity.
He jumped from his place on the stairs and landed below the stairs, racing off to the left again in the sound of the voices. He walked through an archway, turned to his right and approached a second arch, this one leading to a common room.
He peered through.
“Fuck me, fuck me, yes, drill it –”
She was lying on the top of a billiard table, with him on top of her.
The killer sighed. It was an awkward moment.
He removed the gun from his waist and looked down at it, regretting he didn’t have his case anymore. It seemed befitting for someone to place one of his friends against their naked flesh whilst they were in this act together. Which would no doubt infuse them each with a good dose of terror.
An opportunity wasted.
“I love you! I fucking love you –”
Spider Jack stepped into the room and shot the man three times in the head. He waited, as the screaming immediately followed, then proceeded onto the table assisting the woman with the removal of her dead lover.
With hands –
And with strength –
He pinned her to the table and climbed on top with the gun penetrating her hollow mouth.
He put his hand through her hair and petted her like an animal.
“Do you know why this is happening?” he asked the woman softly. “I’ll tell you.”
CHAPTER 21
Taylor could see how the rest of the day was going to go. She’d have words with Ms. Redcroft out by the car. A few more from McGuiness. And then it would be time for her to go home. She’d sit in the kitchen with a bottle and a glass, thinking about Nadine. Thinking about the man who had murdered the family in her childhood home.
Thinking about Sal.
The depression rushed right through her. Each step away from Nadine’s cell carried weight. Each step she felt regret.
The mechanical buzzers lit up and clicked, the jail door to Nadine’s wing grinding back.
McGuiness glanced back at her as she went through. “Taylor? You coming?”
“One minute,” Taylor whispered. “Give me one more minute with her.”
“No, come on, Taylor. You have to let this one be.”
“No! I can’t do it!” Taylor shouted.
McGuiness flinched a little.
“Listen,” Taylor said. “She was on the verge of telling us something. We just have to give her something in return.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask her. Just one more minute. Please.”
McGuiness glanced away. “Alright. Goddamn you, alright. You better make it count.”
“Thank you,” Taylor said.
They both hurried back to Nadine’s cell and unlocked the door.
Nadine was in the kitchen, pouring a drink of something. She seemed flustered a moment, caught off guard.
At first Taylor thought she might have been doing something suspicious, but as she edged in closer she realized what it was.
Nadine was embarrassed.
“So you’re back,” Nadine said, shifting into character. “I’m holding all the cards then, aren’t I?”
Taylor moved towards her. “We don’t have any more time to waste. If you want to help us catch your superiors then we need your full cooperation. You can’t hold back anymore.”
“Just put down that I’m helping you catch Spider Jack,” Nadine said. “It will look better on your report.”
“How?” McGuiness demanded. “How will you be helping us?”
Nadine stopped what she was doing. She moved through the kitchen. “You’ll have to let me out on bail for starters. It has to be official. Run it up the channels. Get the tick off you need. Do it legit. Don’t tell anyone what you’ll be really using it for.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’ll be going undercover. Reaching out to my old contacts. Convincing them I need to speak to the higherups. That’s the on
ly way you’ll find out who they are. Where they are. What they’re doing…”
“Give us the name of your contacts,” McGuiness demanded.
Nadine chuckled.
“We’re not letting you out of here,” McGuiness insisted. “You won’t be going undercover. That’s not how this works.”
“Are you sure there isn’t some way –” Taylor began.
“No! Come on, Nadine. Cough up what you know or we’re through here.”
Nadine remained stone-faced.
“Very well. You had your chance.”
“Can we just talk about this –” Taylor tried.
“Get out! Out, out, out – before the –”
McGuiness was cut off midsentence whilst trying to force Taylor out of the room.
A plastic chord was wrapped around her neck. Choking her.
“Stop it!” Taylor screamed. “Get off –”
McGuiness’s eyes dulled, losing consciousness.
Taylor broke Nadine’s hold of the chord and the Captain collapsed.
“Rose!” Taylor shouted. “Rose, can you –”
“She’ll be fine,” Nadine said.
Taylor stood back up, stirring with rage.
“Think Taylor,” Nadine said. “Think very carefully. The guard hasn’t been alerted. We can walk right out of here.”
“Are you joking?”
“We’ll find the fire escape or something. There’s got to be a few ways out of here. Then you get me into your car and –”
Taylor grabbed Nadine by the throat and pushed her over the bench.
“Are you trying to get me locked up as well?”
“It’s your move, Taylor. That’s all I’m saying. Choose wisely.”
Taylor turned back to McGuiness. She was already starting to wake up.
The moment was now.
“Ask yourself,” Nadine grinned. “What would Sal do?”
CHAPTER 22
It was twenty to five and getting later. Erin Leeds looked across to the white clock mounted into the wall opposite, the second hand silently traveling around. She’d been in storage for more than a few hours now. Darper, who was supposed to be looking after her, had ditched her here. He had errands to run. Business she’d only get bored with. It was better for her to come down here and read up on all the old Spider Jack files. Like a refresher course. One she didn’t need.
Spider Jack (Guess The Killer Book 2) Page 5
