“Yeah he’s working with the Captain on the Spider Jack case. They just brought a couple of suspects in.”
“What floor?”
“Level three I think. Here. You’ll need to sign in.”
Darper took the clipboard from her. He etched his name and ID number into it. The officer handed him a pass.
“Thank you,” Darper said.
He walked on to the elevator, maneuvering his way through the clusters of people grouped around the hallways. He pushed the button and the doors closed. He watched the numbers tick up.
Then his phone started vibrating.
He answered the call. “This is Special Agent Darper.”
“…Darper…?”
Darper’s eyes strained. “Erin?”
“Help me, Darper… Help –”
She was cut off. Darper looked at the phone.
They were still connected.
He put it to his ear and could make out heavy breathing.
“Who is this?” Darper demanded.
“It’s Ross.”
“Ross? What – was that Erin?”
“Shut up.” A pause.
The elevator doors opened.
“Where are you?”
Darper stepped out into level three. “I’m at the precinct.”
“Do they have Marcus yet?”
“I don’t know. I’m about to meet with Feirstein now. Where are you?”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you bring him to me.”
“Bring who to you?”
“Marcus. I want him. And you’ll want Erin, I suppose.”
“Ross. Have you lost your fricken’ mind?”
“I could well have. If you say anything to Feirstein or anyone else, I’ll know. I still have friends. Call me back when you have Marcus and we’ll arrange an exchange.”
Click.
Darper lowered the phone from his ear.
“Darper!”
Darper turned and saw Director Feirstein at the other end of the hallway. He motioned for him to come over.
Darper complied.
“Who was that on the phone?” Feirstein asked once they were in earshot.
Darper hesitated before answering. “No one.”
CHAPTER 43
Taylor was with Nadine at the train station locker-bay, standing to the side while Nadine handled the combination lock. Eventually it clicked open and the lock fell to the ground.
“Stand back,” Taylor said.
Nadine put her hands in the air. “No problem.”
Taylor stepped in front of the locker. Then turned and looked inside it.
There was a phone there.
Just a phone.
“Well. Not exactly the go-away package you were expecting.”
Nadine pushed her out of the way. “Someone’s been in here. Drat!”
“That’s still the phone, isn’t it?” Taylor asked. “The phone with that special number on it.”
Nadine nodded.
“So?”
Nadine took the phone out. Switched it on.
She scrolled through.
“Before you make the call,” Taylor said, “let’s get something straight. If they don’t answer, or they don’t say the right thing, or there’s any hint of you speaking in codes then it’s back to the car and back to jail with you. You get me?”
Nadine smiled. “And if everything goes according to plan?”
“Then I guess we still have ourselves an adventure. Make the call. Loudspeaker.”
Nadine nodded. “Here? You sure?”
“Do it.”
“Alright.”
Nadine pressed a few buttons and the dial tone sounded, loud enough so Taylor could hear. The girls stood there, hovering over the phone.
Someone answered after three rings.
“Yes…?”
Hissing. Nasally.
Sick.
“Hi, it’s Nadine. I’m outside and I need a car sent for me. I want to see The Magician. If, uh… that’s possible…”
Taylor stared up at Nadine.
She’d just dropped a name.
A new name.
“The Magician is far too busy to be bothered with the likes of you.”
Nadine exhaled. “It’s kind of important.”
“Is … it…?”
Taylor suddenly yelped in terror as a burst of blood shot out of Nadine’s neck. Nadine’s mouth opened, dark blood spilling out, a mortified look on her face.
The phone scattered across the ground as Nadine collapsed into her.
“Ou-OUCH,” Nadine said holding onto Taylor.
Then her body sagged and her eyes closed.
She fell to the floor.
Taylor turned to see where the attack had come from.
“Don’t move, Taylor,” the voice on the phone said. “Stay where you are. Perfectly still.”
Taylor hesitated a moment.
Then she turned to run.
A bullet sailed in front of her head and slammed into the adjacent locker.
“OOH!” Taylor squealed, falling to her knees.
“You move, you die.”
“Okay,” Taylor gasped, helpless. “What do you want from me?”
“Pick up the phone. Turn off the loudspeaker. Put it to your ear.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
Taylor bent over and picked up the phone. She adjusted the settings and raised to her ear.
“Okay,” Taylor said.
“You can stand back up.”
Taylor stood.
“On behalf of our organization, we’d like to thank you for releasing Ms. Shields.”
“I didn’t – I mean –”
“Her transgressions will not go unpunished, of course. But the matter now belongs to us. Step away from her, please.”
Taylor glanced at Nadine.
She wasn’t moving.
“For the last time –”
“Okay, I’m going.”
Taylor quickly left the area.
CHAPTER 44
The caller wasn’t male or female. At least as far as Taylor could tell. Her voice sounded mechanical, machine generated. They were using a voice masking app.
“There’s going to be some heat on you for losing Nadine,” the voice was saying as Taylor climbed the steps towards the street exit. “But you needn’t worry. We’re going to help you catch Jack the Spider. Hopefully, by the time this night is over, your good and bad deeds will balance themselves out.”
Taylor looked up as artificial lights swept across her body. She wondered if she was still being followed.
“So you know who Spider Jack is, huh?”
“I haven’t been permitted to disclose his identity to you, I’m afraid. Our employer wishes for you and the Spider to face off against one another. As you did before…”
“What before? What are you talking about?”
“Jack has a long memory. He remembered enough about you to find your childhood home. It didn’t matter that you weren’t there. Because a part of you always was…”
“How do you know so much about Jack? I mean, this just sounds like theory, not fact.”
“It is fact. Jack’s motives are painfully obvious. This is the first we’ve seen of him in five years. He wanted to make his return properly. By going back to the start.”
Taylor was now in the street. There were people everywhere, coming at her from all sides.
And Nadine was gone.
“So … he kills the people living inside my old house. Then what? He goes after Marcus? Lester? Me again?”
“Now you’re thinking. If you were Jack, who would you go after?”
“I don’t know,” Taylor mumbled. “Who else is there?”
“You tell me.”
She raised her eyebrows. “There’s Megan. Megan Brinkley. Is that what you’re trying to tell me? He’s going after the people who were chasing the man in the field. Because that was Spider Jack. And … he some
how knows all about us … seventeen fucking years later or whatever it is…”
“Megan is out there, it’s true. She may be a target. Or … she may be dead already. Anything is possible from where you’re standing now.”
Taylor looked up into the starlit sky. “You know I don’t think you’ve been as helpful as you make out to be.”
“Well, now you know, in a roundabout sort of way where Jack will strike next. I can’t do much more for you, I’m afraid.”
“Alright. Is this goodbye then?”
“One last thing. You remember Charlotte, don’t you?”
“Yes. I remember Charlotte.”
“If you find Charlotte, you’ll find Jack. She’s been helping him.”
Click.
Taylor slowly lowered the phone, her eyes widening.
And within a second, she was there.
CHAPTER 45
She was sitting in the back of Lester’s car, in the middle of that fateful afternoon. On the road. Away from school. Away from her parents. Away from life.
Marcus had a dealer connection and they were all along for the ride to get blitzed this evening. Lester, who was her friend, was being used by the other two of course. Taylor could tell he had a problem with it and kept shooting angry stares around, but whenever Megan or Marcus spoke or gestured, he was put in his place. He should have been just grateful enough that they would let him drive them. Other students wouldn’t have treated him so kindly.
And then they were driving. And Taylor was looking out the back of the car window. Things just started getting familiar. A few charred embers somehow standing apart from the rest of the fire.
It was the tennis courts that she saw first.
“Pull over,” Taylor said.
But the others were talking so loud they didn’t hear her. The large wire fencing. The red dust courts. The smashing of racquets into balls.
She was losing it.
“I said, ‘PULL OVER’!”
Lester hit the brakes. The car jolted forward, then he snapped the indicator and they moved to the side of the road.
“What’s going on?” Megan asked.
“Are you feeling sick, Taylor?” Marcus wanted to know.
Taylor pushed open the backseat door and stepped out onto the footpath. The air was hot and she felt dizzy.
Lester rolled down his window. “Are you alright?”
Taylor was agitated. She pushed her hair out of her eyes.
One by one they got out of the car to confront her.
“Taylor, what the fuck?” Megan demanded.
“Alright, alright, alright,” Taylor said putting her hands in the air. “I’m really sorry. I just. I know this place. I had to get out to see it.”
Marcus glanced up. “What, the tennis club?”
“Yes,” Taylor nodded.
“Fancy a hit?” Lester inquired.
“I’ll give you a hit, Limpy,” Marcus snapped.
“Look, guys it’s not even about the tennis club, itself,” Taylor said.
“Then what?” Megan asked.
So she told them. All about Charlotte. All about the Man in the Red Cloak.
All about the Treehouse. And the Spider Cupcakes.
How she had found the place.
And how she had tried to follow the man.
When she was finished, Taylor wasn’t sure what their reaction would be. It turned out that everyone responded differently.
“That’s creepy,” Megan said. “But I like it. It’s like a folk legend or something.”
“Sounds like a lot of horseshit,” Marcus remarked. “No offense.”
“Let’s take a look,” Lester grinned.
He moved past them, walking around the side of the tennis courts.
“No, Lester,” Taylor began.
“Yeah, get back here, Limpy,” Marcus called. “This meeting is time sensitive.”
Megan glanced around. “Why don’t we take a look? Just for peace of mind.”
“You too?” Marcus fumed.
Megan shrugged. “Taylor?”
She looked out to where Lester was. He was almost at the car park.
“Yeah,” Taylor said under her breath. “Why not…”
CHAPTER 46
Back in the present, the evening had just passed eight o’clock and Taylor was wandering into the precinct on a mission. Hands shaking, anxiety touching the gut, she still hadn’t taken a drink since this afternoon. But her mind was sharp. Her eyes were alive. She had questions for both Marcus and Lester and was informed at the front desk that both her old friends were being interviewed upstairs. Unfortunately, to get to them she’d have to get through Captain McGuiness. And McGuiness wasn’t exactly in the greatest of moods.
“SHANDLING!” she screeched from the other end of the hallway on level three. “I SEE YOU!”
Taylor stopped in her tracks, twisting her head around meekly.
“Oh … Rose, it’s –”
“IN MY OFFICE. NOW.”
Taylor’s arms fell to their sides and she lowered her head, obeying the Captain. Rose stormed off to the other end of the hall, around the corner and to the end where her office was. She held open the door as Taylor walked through.
Inside, things were looking a bit cluttered. There was a bunch of half-eaten Chinese takeaway containers taking up a sizable part of the desk.
“Sit down,” McGuiness ordered, closing the door.
Taylor put her hands to the chair opposite the desk while McGuiness moved around it.
“I said –”
Taylor got seated.
McGuiness remained standing. “So, what do you got for me?”
“Uh,” Taylor began. “You’re not going to like this.”
“Try me.”
She tried her. Told her the truth about everything. The breakout with Nadine. The restaurant. The coffee shop. The train station.
The shooter.
McGuiness was still standing by the end. A vein about to pop out of her head.
“So this is how it ends then,” McGuiness muttered. “The Terrible Three now becomes the Fucked Up Four.”
“What?”
“We have a lot of good, hardworking detectives in this department. But the four of you, working together, were the best. Before I got here you caught killers. You solved the unsolvable. And when the others fell, I wanted to believe that the real reason things were working here was because of you. You weren’t an alcoholic deadbeat like Sal. You weren’t corrupt like Justin. You weren’t an insane person like Nadine. But alas … the truth comes out in the end, doesn’t it?”
“Look,” Taylor said, standing up. “Sal and Justin, rest in peace, had their problems. But they do not – nor do I – belong in the same category of insult as that disgusting creature called Nadine Shields.”
“You just broke her out of jail and for what? Now she’s free. She can come and go as she pleases. How many people – how many children – will she get to before she’s locked up again?”
“Did you hear what I said about the caller?”
McGuiness shook her head.
“You mean you weren’t listening?”
“I don’t know what your point is.”
“Sal was right. There is a – a – a Network. It’s real. All due respect, Nadine is small fry. You need a task force of investigators dispatched. Get back to Central Station and look at the cameras, find out who was shooting at us. Find out what happened to Nadine. There’s surveillance on the street. Supposing they moved her into a car. You might have the license plate. You might –”
“Alright. Enough. Sit back down.” McGuiness put a hand to her eyes. “Let’s make a deal.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll put a team on it. And if they’re able to locate Nadine in the next twelve hours, I’ll say I signed off on it as an undercover operation or something. Completely wipe clean your involvement.”
“Rose, you don’t –”
“But if she’s gone and she
stays gone then you’re finished.”
“Yes. Fine, fine, fine. Now, look. I heard you’re interviewing Marcus and Lester –”
The door suddenly opened behind them.
One of the C.I.D. chiefs was standing there seemingly out of breath.
“Director Feirstein, how may I help –” Rose began.
“It’s Special Agent Darper,” Feirstein said. “He’s turned rogue and broken our Spider Jack suspect out of custody.”
CHAPTER 47
It was hard enough for Darper just getting into the room with Marcus, let alone breaking him out. Feirstein had a team of agents at his disposal and intended on them sorting this one out with he and Darper hanging back in the crow’s nest. Darper of course, had other ideas.
“I want to take this guy,” Darper said. “I feel like I can break him.”
Feirstein put a hand to his head. “No. You’ve got that business with Agent Leeds to clean up when she gets here. It’s better if you –”
“All due respect sir, I’ve been working this Spider Jack thing harder than anyone, excluding Ross. If this is our guy, I’ll know it. Just give me five minutes in there with him.”
Feirstein sighed. “Alright. But I’m going in with you.”
“Sir, you’ll just –”
“Save it, Darper.”
Darper shrugged his shoulders, relenting, and they marched out across the hallway to the interview room where Marcus was being held.
A couple of agents were in there with him already, which Feirstein promptly instructed: “Take a break, guys” to little resistance. The door swung shut, the automatic lock in place and then it was just the two of them.
Standing over Marcus.
“So, who are you guys?” Marcus asked. “Are you the real cops?”
“You could say that,” Feirstein replied.
They stared at each other.
“Where’s my lawyer?”
“He’s on his way,” Darper said quickly. “We thought we’d wait with you till he arrived.”
Marcus licked his front teeth. Nodded.
“You know, I have to say,” Feirstein said. “You don’t seem that upset.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows.
“For a man whose wife just got murdered.”
Spider Jack (Guess The Killer Book 2) Page 10
