The Demon Club

by Scott Mariani

  Wolf tore off more strips of tape and bound his ankles, knees and wrists as he’d done to the bodyguards. Dudley was blinking and spluttering. Ben activated the weapon light on his MPX and shone it in the politician’s face, dazzling him. He said softly, ‘Start shouting, try to call for help, and I will shoot you. Do you understand, Mr Dudley?’

  ‘W-who … W-what …?’

  Ben slapped him across the cheekbone with the gun. ‘Be quiet, listen to me and speak only when I ask you a question. Lie to me and I will shoot you. All right?’

  ‘That was a question, moron,’ Wolf growled.

  Dudley nodded. ‘I … I understand.’

  ‘Now understand this. We are not kidnappers, and we’re not here to steal. This isn’t happening to you because you’re Tristan Dudley, senior MP and future Prime Minister. We don’t care how rich or important you are. We care about only one thing. The Pandemonium Club.’

  The effect of those three words was like a bomb going off inside Tristan Dudley’s brain. His bloodshot eyes boggled like a madman’s and his jaw sagged open. After the initial shock subsided he managed to mumble, ‘I . . I don’t …’

  Ben slapped him again with the gun. ‘Careful, Mr Dudley. If I hear you say something like “I don’t know what you’re talking about” I’m going to interpret that as a lie. And we’ve already established what happens next.’

  ‘We know you’re one of them, you repugnant sack of shit,’ Wolf said. ‘We know about Karswell Hall. We know what really happened to Annie. I watched it happening with my own eyes.’

  ‘As you can see, there are no secrets between us,’ Ben told him. ‘So now, for the first time in your miserable life, you’re going to tell the truth.’

  Chapter 54

  Ben tore away the tape binding Dudley’s knees together, so that he could roll himself up into a kneeling position there on the moonlit lawn between them. At first Dudley was reluctant to talk, but with the threat of the gun in his face he quickly broke down and the admissions began to pour out. Yes, he was a sworn initiate of the club and its inside organisation, the Ancient Order of Thoth. He’d been in it for years. Yes, he’d attended many of the ceremonial events at Karswell Hall. Yes, things happened there. He didn’t know why he’d ever allowed himself to get involved with it. Truly, he didn’t. He was so ashamed. But the tears that streamed down his face as he made his confession were ones of fear, not of repentance.

  As the truth began to spill out, Wolf laid down his weapon and started to video-record Dudley’s confession on his phone. After a few moments Dudley noticed the camera and faltered. ‘Wh-what are you doing? Are you filming me?’

  ‘This isn’t for our benefit,’ Ben told him. ‘We already know the truth about you. Now it’s time that the whole world gets to hear who you really are. This video will be sent to a man called Vincent Eritas, and he’s going to blow the lid off your whole sick operation.’

  All the blood had drained from Dudley’s face. He looked like a desiccated corpse. ‘You can’t do that to me. Please! You don’t know the kind of punishment they’ll bring down on me!’

  ‘I have a pretty good idea,’ Ben said. ‘You’ll be a marked man. If Satan himself doesn’t roast your arse alive, your Pandemonium Club pals surely will. And it’s no worse a fate than you deserve.’

  ‘No, I beg you, don’t!’

  ‘But let’s say I was willing to negotiate,’ Ben said. ‘You’re a politician. Politicians make deals.’

  Dudley gibbered, ‘Okay, okay. A deal, yes. Anything. What do you want?’

  ‘Your friends in a cage,’ Ben told him. ‘The whole bunch of them, from the Grand Master, Bartholomew Van Brakel, all the way down. This ends now.’

  ‘H-how do you—?’

  ‘Know so much? You have your late former associate, Anthony Abbott, to thank for that. He was about to blow the whistle on you all. You might not have known about it, but Saunders did.’

  ‘W-who’s Saunders?’

  ‘That’s what I’d like to find out,’ Ben said. ‘But I will soon enough. He’s going to have a bad day when I catch up with him. And you’re going to help us make it happen.’

  Dudley hung his head and the tears dripped from his nose into the grass. ‘If I do this, you agree not to send the video to your friend. Agreed?’

  ‘He’ll be disappointed. But it’s agreed.’

  ‘All right. Tell me what I can do.’

  ‘You can start by telling us when your Demon Club pals are due to get together next,’ Wolf replied.

  ‘Surely you wouldn’t plan on—’ Dudley started, gaping at them.

  ‘That’s exactly what we plan on,’ Ben said. ‘So let’s have it.’

  Dudley let out a long sigh. ‘Very well. The next date in our calendar is the evening of March twenty-ninth. It’s the most important event of the year for us.’

  Wolf looked at Ben. ‘Jesus. That’s tomorrow night.’

  ‘Why’s it so important?’ Ben asked Dudley.

  ‘There are many key dates in our year,’ Dudley confessed. ‘The Spring Equinox. Halloween. Hexennacht, the night of the witches. Lupercalia, when we sacrifice a goat in honour of our Lord Satan. But March twenty-ninth is special because it marks the creation of the Ancient Order of Thoth by our founder in 1907.’

  ‘Aleister Crowley,’ Ben said. ‘Your Grand Master’s old mentor.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Dudley no longer seemed surprised that his captors knew so much.

  ‘So what entertainment have you got cooked up this time around?’ Wolf asked, still filming and recording every word. ‘Someone else’s daughter getting her throat cut?’

  ‘Every important gathering must involve a blood ritual,’ Dudley admitted. ‘The usual event is scheduled for tomorrow night, to take place on the lake. Afterwards a second ceremony is to be held. It’s kept very secret. Only the Grand Master and his closest entourage know what’s planned.’

  ‘This takes place on the lake too?’ Ben asked him.

  Dudley shook his head. ‘No. Down beneath the house. In the crypts.’

  ‘Crypts?’

  ‘A network of tunnels,’ Dudley replied.

  ‘Like the ones that Francis Dashwood built at Medmenham Abbey.’

  ‘But more extensive,’ Dudley said. ‘Our founder established them over a century ago, and they were in poor condition by the time I was inducted into the Order. I was on the committee that oversaw their refurbishment, and I still have the plans. The tunnels are lined with concrete and extend far beneath Karswell Hall, right across the lake.’

  ‘That’s how the bastards bring their victim from the house onto the island,’ Wolf said. ‘The way they just appeared from the trees, like magic.’

  Dudley nodded. ‘Yes. There are cells down there, where the sacrificial offerings are kept until the ceremony. As well as other special rooms devoted to certain purposes.’

  Certain purposes. Ben could imagine what those might be. Or maybe he couldn’t imagine. Either way, he didn’t want to know.

  ‘Where are the plans? Here in your house?’

  ‘No, I have them on my phone.’

  Ben reached down, searched Dudley’s pockets for the phone and found it. ‘So who else will be at this little party?’ he demanded.

  ‘Everyone will be present for the opening rite. Afterwards only the senior members will attend the ceremony in the crypts. The Inner Circle of the Order of Thoth. Thirteen initiates in all.’

  ‘Including Van Brakel?’

  ‘Of course. The Grand Master presides over every special event.’

  And Saunders would be there too, Ben thought. He wouldn’t have to know his name to recognise him instantly. The man’s face was burned on his memory. He asked, ‘Everybody in their robes and bird masks?’

  ‘In honour of the god Thoth. The costume is an essential part of the ritual.’

  ‘Bunch of freaks. Keep it hidden under the bed, do you?’ Wolf said.

  ‘Of course not. Karswell Hall has dressing room
s where every member keeps his items in a personal locker.’

  Ben thought for a moment. ‘I need to know how to get inside. What about security?’

  ‘Armed guards,’ Dudley replied. ‘I don’t know how many. Several. Plus there’s a vehicle checkpoint on the gate to the estate. You haven’t a chance of getting inside unless you’re on the guest list.’

  ‘We know about the checkpoint,’ Wolf said. ‘And about the cameras everywhere, too.’

  ‘No, the only cameras are the ones surveilling the perimeter and the lodge house where all the chauffeurs and bodyguards spend the evening,’ Dudley answered. ‘The main house and the immediate grounds are clear of them.’

  Ben was suspicious. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because of the concern that our members’ anonymity could be compromised if anyone ever managed to hack into the security system.’

  Wolf gave a cynical grunt. ‘Well, isn’t it nice that nobody else in this country can go anywhere without getting filmed all the time, but you fuckers get to be shielded from it?’

  ‘You’d better be damn sure about this,’ Ben warned Dudley.

  ‘I swear, it’s true. I know, because I was also on the committee that approved it. That’s the reason the checkpoint security don’t look inside the vehicles. They require an admission pass before letting anyone in, but they’re not authorised to see the faces of the attendees.’

  ‘Including your own ugly fizzog,’ Wolf said. ‘I suppose you’re invited to this shindig as well, are you?’

  ‘I have to go. It’s expected of me!’

  ‘How were you planning on travelling there?’ Ben asked.

  ‘The same as always, in the Bentley.’

  ‘With your bodyguards?’

  ‘Two of them, but they spend the evening with the other bodyguards and drivers, in a lodge house on the estate. Nobody’s allowed to come out. They have no idea of what goes on.’

  ‘What about the admission pass?’

  ‘It’s just a plain piece of card with a number on it. Like a ticket. They’re sent out by post two days before every event.’

  ‘And where’s yours?’

  ‘I … I left it in the car. I always do, in case I forget.’

  Ben imagined Dudley being happily chauffeured off to Karswell Hall to take part in more sadistic slaughter while his poor wife mourned at home, alone and in pain. He was feeling sickened talking to this man, and he’d heard all he wanted to hear. ‘Unfortunately, Mr Dudley, you won’t be able to make it. You have a prior engagement. With your maker.’

  Dudley shrank away in terror. ‘No. I’ve done all you asked. I’ve told you everything. Don’t kill me. Please!’

  ‘How did you think this was going to end, dickhead?’ Wolf asked. ‘Thank you very much, have a nice evening and try to behave from now on?’

  ‘I’m begging you. Think of my wife. We just buried our daughter this afternoon.’

  ‘That’s what I like about this guy. He’s so full of consideration,’ Wolf said.

  ‘She’ll be upset, I know,’ Ben told Dudley. ‘To have lost not only her beloved daughter but her devoted husband, too. But she won’t mourn you for long, because she’ll soon find out all about what kind of man you were.’

  The idea of Clarissa finding out the truth seemed to terrify Dudley almost as much as the threat of death. ‘Wait! I thought we had a deal!’

  ‘I agreed not to send your confession video to our friend Vincent,’ Ben said. ‘I never said I wouldn’t show it to Clarissa.’

  ‘They’ll kill her for knowing too much. They’ll tear her apart.’

  ‘Not if there are none of them left alive,’ Ben said. ‘She needs to know that you murdered your own daughter. I think we owe her that, don’t you?’

  ‘Seconded,’ Wolf said with a nod.

  ‘I didn’t murder Annie!’ Dudley protested. ‘I … just arranged for her to die. There’s a difference!’

  ‘Oh, there’s a difference,’ Wolf said.

  ‘It was quick! She was drugged out of her mind! She barely suffered at all!’

  Wolf said in disgust, ‘Come on. Plug the bastard and let’s go.’

  Ben shook his head. ‘Not here. We’ll take him to the woods and do it there.’

  ‘No. No!’ Dudley rasped. ‘Listen, I have money. Lots of it. Half a million pounds in cash, right there in a safe inside the house. Let me go and it’s all yours.’

  Ben glanced across the north lawn to the section of the perimeter where he and Wolf had entered the property. On their way in they’d draped the tow rope from the rental car over the top of the stone wall, planning to use it to haul their trussed-up captive out of the grounds and back through the woods where they’d carry out the deed. Cold-blooded murder was an ugly thing to do. Ben didn’t like it much. But to kill Tristan Dudley was to prevent the deaths of untold numbers of his future innocent victims.

  Filled with grim resolve, Ben tore a section of tape from the roll and went to slap it over Dudley’s mouth. But then, he stopped. Because he’d suddenly sensed a new presence behind him. He turned to look.

  Standing there a few yards away, half-hidden in the moon shadow of the trees, watching them from within earshot of every word they’d been saying, was Clarissa Dudley.

  Chapter 55

  Ben and Wolf had been so focused on getting the truth out of her husband that she’d managed to sneak up on them completely unnoticed. Clarissa Dudley was swaying slightly on her bare feet, clad in a lacy nightdress with a gown pulled around her. Her hair was a mess and the dark rings under her eyes looked like punch bruises against the pallid skin of her face. Her gaze was fixed unblinkingly on her husband as though she’d been hypnotised. She barely even seemed to have registered the fact that he was on his knees with his wrists and ankles taped together, and being interrogated by two strangers, one clutching a submachine gun.

  Ben said nothing. He heard Wolf mutter under his breath, ‘Oh, shit.’

  Tristan Dudley was paralysed with horror at the sight of his wife. He gasped, ‘W-what are you doing here?’

  In a dulled, faraway voice she replied, ‘I couldn’t sleep. All the pills in the world can’t take this kind of pain away. I got up and saw the lights at the bottom of the garden. Came downstairs and found the front door open. I thought you must have gone out to the garden, and I came looking for you. And then I saw you with these people. And I heard you talking.’

  ‘How long have you been standing there?’ Dudley quavered.

  Long enough, Ben thought. She was going to have to find out the truth anyway. Better that she heard it directly from her spouse. From the look on her face, he guessed she’d already heard a good deal.

  Clarissa Dudley came a step closer on her bare feet, then slowly turned her gaze towards Ben and Wolf. Up closer in the moonlight Ben could see that she was still half-dazed from the after-effects of the tranquillisers but growing more focused and alert every second, as she started to process the situation she was witnessing. He put down his weapon, to show her that he was no threat to her. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss, Mrs Dudley. And I apologise for coming here tonight. Please be assured that we mean you no harm.’

  She asked, ‘What’s going on? Who are you? What are you doing to my husband?’

  ‘Your husband is mixed up in terrible things. Annie wasn’t the only person who’s been made to suffer because of him. We came here to make him pay the price for that.’

  ‘Don’t listen to them, Clarissa,’ Dudley warned her. ‘They’re nothing but common criminals. They tried to torture me for my safe combination.’

  Clarissa looked at him and shook her head. ‘But I heard what you were saying just now. How could you say those things if they’re not true?’

  Dudley’s last and most desperate shred of hope was that she hadn’t overheard any of his confession. Now that was blown away. ‘It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!’ he sobbed. ‘You weren’t supposed to know!’

  ‘You said you arranged for her to die. You
said she was drugged. But I don’t understand. Our Annie was killed in a car crash.’

  Wolf shook his head. ‘That was no car crash. He just used his power to make it look like one.’

  As she slowly woke up to what she was hearing, the pain in her eyes was hard to look at. She ran trembling hands down her face. ‘I’m very confused. What’s going on?’

  Ben said, ‘Maybe you should ask your husband what really happened to your daughter, Mrs Dudley.’

  Dudley started to cry. ‘I-I can’t tell her. Don’t make me!’

  ‘No,’ Ben said. ‘Actually, I think we will.’ He picked up his weapon and put the muzzle against Dudley’s head. ‘Go on, tell her.’

  ‘It wasn’t me!’ Dudley sobbed. ‘They forced me to do it!’

  His wife shook her head. ‘Who forced you to do what? Tristan?’

  He blubbered, ‘You have no idea what these people are like, what they’re capable of. It’s a religion. A twisted, vile religion. They’re totally insane.’

  ‘And you’re right in there with them, matey boy,’ Wolf said.

  ‘No!’

  Clarissa Dudley asked, ‘What religion?’

  ‘Your husband and his so-called Brothers worship things that shouldn’t be worshipped,’ Ben said. ‘They make blood sacrifices to their gods, for their own entertainment and career advancement.’

  She screwed up her face in confusion as though she didn’t know what he was talking about. Denial. ‘Sacrifices?’

  ‘Human ones,’ Ben said. ‘People die. Deaths get covered up. Made to look like something else.’

  As rigid as a girder she gasped, ‘You can’t mean … Annie?’

  Ben nodded. ‘I’m afraid it’s true, Mrs Dudley. We have evidence.’ Though the last thing in the world he wanted was to show her.

  She stared at her husband. ‘Tristan? Talk to me!’ Seeking reassurance, as if all this might just be some terrible, horrific dream that he could make go away.