by N. M. Brown
“We don’t have to go in, if you don’t want to?” Echo whipped her head round to see McQueen looking at her concerned.
“Why wouldn’t I want to go in?” she snapped.
“You… you just looked a little scared is all.” McQueen said with a nonchalant shrug, but Echo knew he was brushing it off.
Her temper flared. “It’s my home. Why the hell would I be scared of it?” Kicking the door open, Echo slammed it closed behind her and stormed across the gravel turn-around. She was pleasantly pleased to hear McQueen's door slam behind him and the quick slap of his shoes as he caught up.
“So why do we need to see Ms. Hellion?”
Echo snorted. “Samantha works with all the couples in the House. She knows everyone, and she knows their every desire. She can pick two people from a crowd and they will have the most mind-blowing night together.”
“It wouldn’t be love though. It would be fake and brittle.” McQueen's sour view on sex interjected.
“Who wants love?” Echo asked him back, walking up the white marble steps. “It hurts you, it hurts other people, and it gives power and control over you, when it shouldn’t. It binds two people together when compatibility suggests otherwise. Love is the most destructive force of nature. Cities have fallen, families torn apart, whole civilizations wiped out for the sake of love.” Echo smiled back at McQueen as she reached for the front door. “And everyone just wishes for the fairy-tales.” Echo pushed to enter the front door, but it didn’t budge. “What the…?” She gave it another swift kick, but again it didn’t budge. “Jacob?” She called, hoping Jacob was waiting on the other side of the door.
“Don’t you have a key?” McQueen asked also trying the handle.
“It’s never locked.” Echo answered looking up and down the front. It was never locked. Echo had never known it to be locked; frankly she didn’t know it even could be. Giving it one last kick, she stomped back done the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Asked McQueen but when she didn’t answer, he continued to follow. Looping round, Echo marched straight to the Library window, peeking inside, but the lights were out, and the gloom was hiding in the corners and doorways. Continuing around the side, she made her way around the stone veranda and eventually made it to her kitchen’s back door.
Unfortunately, the back door was sorely used and over time, the hedges either side had become overgrown. “I’m going to kill the gardener.” Echo groaned as she began to work, whistling through her teeth in pain as thorns and splinters sliced her palms.
“You have a gardener?” McQueen asked, helping pry aside some of the foliage. “That could have been helpful information. At least to interview him!” He almost sounded angry. Echo had to stop and give him a dead-pan look which took him a few seconds to get. “You don’t have a gardener, do you?” Clearing his throat, McQueen gave another stab with the Detective stick. “Where does this go?” McQueen asked behind her. “Could a guest use it to get out?”
“With all this plant life? Doubtful.” She answered.
Finally, the door was clear and for a heartbeat, Echo hesitated. What if it was locked too? What would she do if she couldn’t get in? She could always get in previously. Hand grasping the handle, she dared not hesitate in case McQueen mistook it for fear again. This was her home. She wasn’t afraid of it or who was inside. They were her family. The handle dipped as she pulled it down and the door swung inwards like a breeze. “See. Easy.” Echo smiled behind her. McQueen didn’t look as impressed.
Stepping through the door way, Echo led McQueen into the kitchen. The bear light bulb hung in the gloom and every corner held jumping shadows. The large, wide wooden table sat in the middle with scattered tools and flakes of herbs from above. Someone, and Echo’s guess was Sydney, had started to make themselves at home here. Some cup and plates had started to pile in the corner and even a nice-looking fruit bowl in the centre of the table.
“It’s so…” McQueen began but trailed off.
“Empty?”
“I was going to say dusty, but empty works too.” Looking over, McQueen met Echo’s eyes, who’d wandered further in and plucked an apple from the fruit bowl. “So, you still didn’t tell me what Sam can do for us.”
“She knows people. Couples. If the killer is here for a hunting ground, as you believe they do, Sam would have crossed paths with them. We can give her the traits we have and see if she comes up with anything. Or anyone to be précis. If we’re correct about the killer hating cheater and mistresses, they could have been cheated on themselves.” Echo took a large bite of the apple, munching down on it as McQueen processed what she’d said.
“Why didn’t you suggest this earlier? Why didn’t Sam step forward saying she might know something?” But instead of answering Echo just raised an eyebrow. “Right. Right of course, I forget. What would have been in it for you?” He spat with bitterness. “Where will we find Sam? In the… Summer Annex?” Echo didn’t miss how he swallowed before saying the room name. His memories must have been less fuzzy then he let on.
“She’ll be in the boudoir with Twilight more than likely.” Echo bounced her chin to the ceiling, mouth full of apple. “It’s Twilight’s area. It’s where she gets ready. The Summer Annex is only used for ‘fun’.” Echo wiggled her eyebrows.
“Let’s go then.” Striding forward, McQueen stormed forward, a boiling mess of frustration and repressed lust. Echo just rolled her eyes, throwing the half-eaten apple into the sink as she followed.
“AH!” McQueen cried out suddenly as the door flipped closed behind him, blocking Echo's view.
“Queenie?” Hurrying her steps, Echo slipped through the door, but it rebounded hard off the bottom of McQueen's boot almost hitting her in the face.
He was lying out cold on the floor, a small trickle of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Two, tiny metal cylinders protruded from his back, while twin, coiled strings still bounced in the air. Following the wire off to her right, Echo saw shoes; black heeled boots with black pants. She only reached the flow of a sunburnt orange top when darkness swallowed her mind.
XXXI
Twin points on his lower back twinged in pain as McQueen shifted his legs. Groaning, he cracked open his crusty eyes and hissed at the harsh bare bulb that swung above him. His hands were numb. Painfully numb. Trying to shift them to assess his situation he heard a light scraping sound above his head. Groggily he looked up as he pulled again. Some kind of chain, looped above his head bound his wrists. The warm metal was the only things supporting his weight, pulling hard on his shoulders and causing his muscles to scream in protest.
Finding his feet underneath him, McQueen stood slowly and with great difficultly. As he moved, his body protested. He cursed Echo to the depths of Hell and snarled at himself for ever believing her. Her innocence was a sham. He thought he could help her, maybe even save her. But she was right. You can’t save someone who doesn’t even know they need saving. And now he was here, kidnapped and facing a foe he didn’t even know. Stupid! He’d been so stu-
“Glad you're awake.” A sarcastic voice came from the side of him. Looking across, his mouth fell agape. Echo was hung just as he was, arms tied aloft, and her eye and temple were black and blue, a nasty bruise forming across her face that hadn’t been there before. “Welcome to the party.”
“What…” Looking around himself again, McQueen saw what ‘party’ Echo spoke of. With only the single bulb as a light, he could see shelves, rows upon rows of shelves lining the walls and bare brick behind them. There were bottles and glasses stacked around them, while a giant freezer, the only modern object in the room, took up the whole wall at the end. McQueen could also see one single door. It was slightly ajar, which could be seen as a good thing, however, the further he looked around the room that knowledge did little to ease his mind.
He examined the chain above his head and was sickened to find that it wasn’t a chain, but was in fact his own cuffs, while his spare set encircled Echo’s wri
sts. Both of them were attached to old iron rings that were deeply implanted into the beams above. He tugged harder this time, his strength slowly returning, but his back strained in protest. He didn’t realise how much being tasered would hurt. He told himself he would be more mindful the next time he thought of using it. “How long have we been down here?” He asked huffing for breath as the cuffs had failed to move.
“Oh, well let me see?” Echo began. McQueen could already hear the sarcasm lacing her voice. “Well the kidnapper and I had a wonderful chat while you were unconscious. The goose egg on the side of my head shouldn’t deter your ideas of how close we became.” She spat. “How the fuck should I know?”
“Who the hell is behind this?” He spat back, though he dared to guess the answer.
“I don’t know.” Echo answered. She tried to rotate her shoulders, but the height of the handcuffs stopped her. McQueen was a few inches taller than her, so he could stand on the floor, releasing the strain on his arms. For Echo though, being shorter she was having trouble. For a split second he was concerned about her circulation, but then he thought, fuck her.
“Oh, you don’t know?” He ignored her pain, focusing on the situation “Your God-damn family did this! They’ve been a foul smell in our nose since we first came here. Your ‘people’ did this! They set everything up and I wouldn’t be surprised if you were in on it.”
Echo laughed viciously but it was also full of pity. “It wasn’t them. You don’t know them. They can’t, it’s impossible for them to have done anything. And as for me being in on it? Well I’m glad we got back round to square one. I was wondering how long that would take?”
“Impossible? It’s not impossible” He sneered. “The victims are customers of this House. They have been killed on their property and you have been stalking this case every step. Your family have had their mucky fingers in all the pies since the beginning! I can’t believe you still think them innocent in all this!”
Echo threw back her hair and howled again, her face aglow and eyes wild. “Innocent! I’ve never known them to be innocent. Not in all the years I’ve been alive and beyond that. Not in all their centuries of existence! But they don’t kill. They don’t get their hands dirty. That I do know.”
McQueen just shook his head. Centuries. They must have really hit her hard on the head for. “Well then who? Who did this to us? Who murdered those poor people?”
“Innocent? No, no, no my Detective. They are far from innocent.” A heavy thick Indian accent spoke from the door. Amongst their screams and argument, neither of them had heard the sound of footsteps come down the stairs or the door open further. The voice was rich and exotic and very, very feminine. A slow purr curled from the visitor’s lips, as she clicked her tongue at them. “Two lovers fighting? So soon?” She laughed, her perfect red lips smiling wide. “Isn’t it always the case?”
McQueen and Echo just looked at her, dumb found. She wore soft black boots and long black, suit pants that had a perfect ironed crease down the front. A sun burnt orange top was tucked into the pants and hung off her shoulders. The chest area was decorated in beads that swept her neckline, which matched her gold earrings. She had beautiful cropped hair that tickled her chin and bright hazel eyes that shone out of her creamy, flawless skin. She was stunning.
“Who the fuck are you?” Echo glared, her eyes skipping all over the woman like there might be a clue.
“Pari Badal. But I’m surprised Echo that you would forget. You were after all, feeding her and her husband drinks all night long last year.” A second voice sounded from the darken hallway, and this time, Echo growled fiercely.
Sydney Summers all dressed up in her new style walked slowly through the door. Black heels, tight pants and only a waist coat over the top showing her bra, McQueen thought her ensemble went very nicely with his service weapon she now held. Echo snorted, bearing her teeth at them. “I feed people a lot of drinks darling. Don’t count yourself as special.”
Pari moved closer, still smiling, but that smile put McQueen’s teeth on edge and he wished Echo would shut up. “Really? You don’t remember the drinks you’d dusted with; oh what was it, Mistletoe?” She let out a bitter laugh, “So festive, drinking Mistletoe at Christmas time. But of course, it wasn’t decoration. No, you and Samantha used it to entice my husband. Increase his heart rate. Mixed with the Wormwood, well, we’ve got a perfect mixture for a hard-on begging for attention. Surprised? Well, I’ve done my homework on your little skill set, girl.”
“And I should care why?” Echo bit out, but Pari’s eyes had already flicked to McQueen, while he was more worried about Sydney. She had his gun and she was far too calm.
“Is that what she’s used on you when you went crawling back to her apartment?” Pari asked him, drawing his reluctant attention. “I watched you, you know. How you lapped up her attention in that beastly room. How you craved her touch, and then you went away for some privacy, so I’ll give you that Detective. You like to keep it behind closed door unlike other people.”
McQueen didn’t blush which he was pretty proud of. No, he’d relived that night enough times laced with embarrassment and shame that he had none left. Instead, he flicked his gaze to Sydney. “You were a part of all this? The whole time?”
“Not the whole time.” Sydney smiled. She was very different from whom he’d first met; the nervous, bubbly bar tender who looked around the House with stars in her eyes. “When I found Ms. Badal struggling to get that fat lump of a man, Farrows, over the bridge, I saw an opportunity.”
“An opportunity?”McQueen was horrified. Looking at Pari his mind finally started to connect the dots. “You were there? In the Summer Annex that night. You saw us-… and that’s where you saw Ms. Bowheart and Mr. Pimm’s. You chose them that night with Lizzy…”
“Was that their names?” Pari tilted her head like it was a fun trivia fact. “There was another with them in the end. Gorgeous girl with red hair and busty breasts. I enjoyed stripping her of that feature once I got them alone.”
“You killed them?” Echo asked. But there wasn’t disgust in her tone as there should have been. She seemed almost impressed. “Alone? Or did little Miss. Sunshine help?”
“Of course, I killed them.” Pari snapped, eyes flashing. “And I enjoyed it. How dare he hold himself above others? How dare he and that slob Farrow throw away their vows of marriage on a whore and a mistress?” McQueen had the gut feeling she wasn’t talking about Mr. Farrows or Mr. Pimm’s, any more. “They had wives, and yet they were unsatisfied. They had loving homes to return to, and yet they stayed out in sin and filth. So, yes, I killed them. I butchered their flesh and strung them up, so the world could see their shame.”
“And you?” McQueen locked eyes with Sydney. “You helped?”
“No, Detective, I just… cleared the way.” There was a gleam in her eyes that distantly reminded him of a look he’d seen now and again in Echo. It wasn’t as fierce or as refined, but it was growing. Perhaps the wicked and moral-less view on life was contagious. “Unlike some of us who work here, I succeeded where they failed.” Sydney was now looking at Echo with a chilling, cocky smile. “This entire time, dear little Echo has been desperately trying to keep the Police out, just like she’d been told to do. While I was instructed with bigger, better things. Things you’d almost consider… Family Business.”
“Liar.” Echo spat. Launch herself forward. The cuffs snapped her back, but that were an audible groan from the wood.
Sydney just laughed. “Yes, you would think I was lying. All those tears I shed from your harsh words. All those times you knocked me down, thinking you were pushing me lower than yourself. But it was your own stupidity and pride that has caused your down fall. While you knocked me, you only knocked me closer to your dear family and when they saw my usefulness, you were done.” Echo was growing colder by the second. McQueen could see it in her limbs and the stony expression on her face. “I was brought into their inner circle. I was accepted, not you. And
now, after tonight, you never will be!”
If McQueen had seen a spark, he would have sworn electricity jolted through Echo’s body, but instead, she just suddenly and violently threw herself at Sydney with so much force, the wood around her iron bolt crumbled. Within seconds Echo was diving straight for the bartender with a vicious howl. Both Pari and Sydney side stepped, but Echo went straight for Sydney. The animalist rage in Echo’s eye was nothing he’d seen before and McQueen was scared.
But Echo forgot what Sydney had; one thing she didn’t. She raised the gun aiming it directly at Echo’s chest. “Ah, ah, ah! Don’t even think about it bitch!” She sneered. “I am going to kill you, I will get to it eventually don’t worry about that, but I’m going to savour it. Back up!”
“If you think you’re going to kill me bitch, you’ve got another thing coming.” Echo said but was smart enough to step back and keep her distance.
McQueen had his heart in his throat and did not want to see anyone gets shot. There was a right and a wrong way to get justice in the world. “Wait, wait!” He cried, grabbing everyone’s attention back, watching Pari carefully. She was too far away to see if she was armed. No doubt she had his cuffs keys on her, but did she have another weapon. At the moment, Sydney held all the fire power. “Why did you kill them? Was it your husband who cheated on you first?” He needed her distracted. Dragging up the past could work.
