Ruthless a Gripping and Gritty Crime Thriller

by Charlie Gallagher

  William’s head rolled back to Danny. He sniffed. His eyes looked glazed. ‘What are we talking about then, Danny? ’Cause I haven’t got all night. I’m a busy man! Got a lot on!’ William laughed. It sounded forced.

  ‘What did you tell the cops?’ Danny’s voice was a growl. He tried his best to sound threatening though his mouth was dry, his heart was pounding in his chest and that knife was suddenly pushing much more firmly into his stomach.

  ‘The cops, you say?’

  ‘Yeah, the cops. Don’t play dumb, rummy. We know you talked to them. We know you told them about Mo.’

  ‘Mo? No, that ain’t the name I gave.’

  ‘What did you tell them? What name did you give?’

  ‘I’ll tell you what name . . . Jack Shit! The same name I always give them! I don’t talk to the fucking cops. Never have, never will. That should be my nickname, you know — Never Will!’

  ‘We know you did.’ Danny’s voice had lost some of its strength.

  ‘You don’t know fuck all!’ William suddenly carried all the anger, all the strength. Danny couldn’t let him seize the upper hand. Aaron was staring at him.

  Danny strode forward. He swung his right foot as hard as he could into William’s legs. He couldn’t remember which one was already injured. William immediately shouted out in pain, he swung again. William’s scream was louder now, but it was very suddenly cut short. Aaron dropped to a squat and grabbed William by the throat. Suddenly William couldn’t shout out and, judging by his bulging eyes, he couldn’t breathe either.

  ‘You think you can lie to us? You think we’re just gonna listen to your shit and walk away? I don’t need you to tell us what you did, I already know. You spoke to the filth — you told them about Mo and he got nicked. You didn’t tell them about the house because you were worried about your miserable existence there. You were worried they would take that away. Well, guess what . . . we’re here to take it all away.’ Aaron loosened his grip enough for William to take a rushed breath. He looked like he was trying to speak. Aaron tightened back up.

  ‘Fucking do it, Danny.’ He twisted and stared at Danny, his eyes carried an intensity Danny had seen before; he was terrified of it. He reached down for the knife. It slid easily out of his waistband, the blade catching the moonlight. He levelled it, his grip firm. He stood over William, one foot either side of his outstretched legs. ‘Do it, Danny!’ Aaron screamed again.

  William was staring up at him, his eyes wide, his lips parted but silent, Aaron still held him firmly round the neck. William had lifted his hands to pull at Aaron’s wrists — his midriff was unguarded.

  Danny thrust the knife. It struck hard, and the handle pushed back, bending Danny’s thumb. He pulled the blade back out, it came easier than he expected and he stumbled backwards. Aaron let go of William, whose head fell immediately forwards, his hands fell, too, to where his shirt was now slick and reflecting the moon.

  ‘Again!’ Aaron screamed, his excitement peaking. Danny lunged forward again. He aimed for the abdomen, to where William’s hands had moved. He pulled the knife back out then thrust it forward again, his whole body weight shifting so it was behind the blows. Danny paused. William lifted a hand in front of his shocked expression, his little finger hung by a flap of skin. Tears ran from his eyes and his hand dropped back to his lap. Danny saw Aaron stand and aim a kick. He heard it land but he had already turned away.

  Danny walked the length of the path quickly. He almost made it back to the Leas. He was back in the artificial light and suddenly aware. The knife was still in his right hand, still protruding from his clenched fist. He threw it in a jerking motion and it landed in a bush. He climbed back over the gate, his hands slippery with blood. He heard Aaron right behind him. He was talking, his voice low. Danny didn’t know what he was saying. He felt a gentle pull on his arm and let himself be led. A few minutes later and they were back at the BMW. Danny slid into the passenger seat.

  ‘Keep your hands away from the car. We need to clean you up properly. You did well there, Danny. That was what I was looking for. Now we just need to find that bitch you were hanging out with. She’s the last one, yeah? Don’t worry, I’ll deal with that. You did good.’

  Danny didn’t respond. His gaze was turned to the left, back out through the window. The scenery started moving, he let his vision blur, he was only aware of the passing of lights. The car picked up speed. Danny was frozen still, his hands rigid, palm up in his lap. They still dripped with William’s blood.

  Chapter 25

  The phone rang out again. Theresa’s irritating voice cut in, breathy and matter of fact, suggesting that Rhiannon leave her a message or call her during office hours. It gave an emergency number too, but Rhiannon couldn’t face talking to a stranger. Where would she even start? She left a message this time.

  ‘Hey, Theresa, it’s Rhiannon. Rhiannon Davis. Look, I know you’re doing what you can to get me somewhere, but . . . well, there’s been a bit of a change in my circumstances. I’m homeless. That’s the crux of it. It’s not Rose’s fault, I would have thrown me out too. Somehow I got mixed up with drug dealers. I didn’t mean to — you have to know that. I haven’t done anything wrong. Look, can you call me back when you get this message? I don’t know what to do. I think they’re looking for me. I think I might be in danger here. As soon as you get this, okay?’ Rhiannon hung up. She didn’t like sounding so pathetic but she had to lay it on a bit thick. She could just imagine Theresa’s patronising face in the morning. She would have to bear it. She needed Theresa right now.

  She pushed her phone back into her pocket. She was on a bench in the middle of a deserted Victoria Park in Ashford, all her possessions in a rucksack at her feet. The bus route wasn’t far from here; she could get a bus down to Langthorne and sit with William. She knew she wasn’t thinking straight. She knew there must be better options. She couldn’t afford a hotel room right now, nor could she muster the energy to ask for one on the basis of goodwill. At least with William she would be safe.

  She stood up and stretched. There was a breeze. She had been sitting under a big tree and its branches creaked as they moved. Its leaves shushed her. Suddenly her phone vibrated in her pocket. Maybe Theresa was picking up her messages out of hours? She pulled out the phone. Danny’s name was across her screen. She hesitated long enough for it to ring off. The screen didn’t have chance to go black before Danny was ringing back again.

  ‘What?’ she snapped. ‘This isn’t a good time, Danny. You’ve ruined my life so, you know—’

  ‘Rhiannon, you’re okay! I was so worried. You have to help me!’ Danny’s voice sounded panicked, his words so rushed he was falling over them.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to do any of it, Rhiannon. But Aaron was there. I knew if I didn’t then it would be me. It wasn’t real—’

  ‘Danny, slow down. What’s happened?’

  ‘Aaron. He’s on the warpath. He got hold of your friend and we found the rummy. Now he’s looking for you, Rhiannon! I didn’t want to do any of it!’

  ‘What did you do, Danny? What’s happened? Why did you come to my house? I got kicked out because of you.’

  ‘I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to do any of it. The rummy, he made me hurt him!’

  ‘You mean . . . William? What did you do?’ Rhiannon fell back on the bench. She turned her head, trying to shelter from the wind. She could feel her pulse racing in her chest, Danny’s panic rubbing off on her.

  ‘I had a knife. Aaron made me carry it. I saw you in the house. I saw you and I didn’t say anything. If I had — if I had said you were there he would have hurt you, Rhiannon. I don’t know what he would have done. He’s looking for you now.’

  ‘What happened to William, Danny? What did you do?’

  ‘That knife. I saw Aaron put it through the door. It had blood on it. Your blood, Rhiannon.’

  ‘I’m fine, Danny. I’m fine. Calm down, pleas
e. What happened? What did you do to William?’

  ‘Shit, Rhiannon! Shit! They’re gonna know it was me. I think I killed him. I think he’s dead. We left. I got his blood all over me. Aaron’s gone into some flat. He’s getting me some clothes to wear. We need to go get cleaned up.’

  Rhiannon wanted to cut in. She wanted to shout, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t say a thing.

  ‘Are you still there? Are you still there, Rhiannon? I think I hurt him bad. What if he’s dead?’

  ‘Where is he?’ Rhiannon managed. She swallowed, tried to think, tried to focus on what she had been told.

  ‘I left him there. He was down some path near McDonald’s. He was drunk. I didn’t want to. Aaron held him by the throat.’

  ‘Do you think he’s dead?’

  ‘I don’t know! I don’t know. They’re going to know it was me. I panicked. I threw the knife away. It’s not far — they’ll find it. I can’t go back. Aaron doesn’t know I threw it.’

  Rhiannon stood back up. She picked out the path that would take her towards the town and started immediately down it, walking as fast as she could. Her mind was clearing. ‘I can call the ambulance from here. I know where he is. I was with him there. I can tell them where to go—’

  ‘You can’t!’ Danny cut in, his voice even more panicked. ‘If you do that, Aaron will know! He’ll know someone called the ambulance. He’ll know I am the only other person who knows he is down there! No one can see him, Rhiannon. You can’t do that! Promise me you won’t do that! I think it was bad anyway. I don’t think he’s going to be okay.’

  ‘Fine. Look, fine. I can go. I need to go. Maybe he’s alive. Maybe he needs help.’

  ‘But what if he tells the police it was me? What if he does? I can’t go to prison, Rhiannon.’

  ‘He won’t. He always said he doesn’t talk to the police. I need to go see him. I need to see if he’s okay. Where exactly is the knife?’

  ‘I walked back up the path. I got to the Leas and I was all lit up. I panicked. I threw it there. I don’t know where exactly. Get it, Rhiannon. When you get it, put it somewhere they’ll never find it. Please do that for me. I’m so sorry I got you into all this. I never meant to get you hurt. You don’t belong here, Rhiannon — with all this. But today, when I saw you, I never said a word. I kept you safe. Please help me!’

  Rhiannon reached the pavement. She knew there was a taxi rank another half a mile away. All of Danny’s presence, all his arrogance was gone. All that was left was a desperate shell. ‘Don’t worry, Danny. I’ll sort this out.’

  ‘He’s coming back . . . he’s coming out, Rhiannon. I need to go!’

  ‘Where? Where are you going now?’

  ‘I need to clean up. The rummy’s place, I think.’

  Rhiannon pressed to end the call. She pushed the phone back into her pocket and broke into a run. The taxi rank office was closer than she remembered. She ran into the door so hard it thumped off the wall and there was movement behind the counter, the sound of someone in the back room springing to their feet.

  ‘Sorry!’ Rhiannon said. ‘Have you got any cabs?’

  She had given the middle-aged man with the swept-back hair a start. ‘Yeah, where are you going?’ He looked her up and down. She knew she was filthy, she had been crying and had a bloodied nose. She couldn’t blame him for judging her immediately.

  ‘Langthorne. The McDonald’s in the town centre.’

  ‘How soon?’

  ‘Right away — I’m in a big rush.’

  The man looked her up and down again. ‘You got the cash?’

  ‘Of course I have.’

  ‘It’s twenty from here. Pay it up front and I’ll take you myself.’

  Rhiannon reached into her pocket. She had some emergency funds that had been given to her when she was rehoused. She pulled out a crumpled twenty-pound note and laid it on the counter. ‘But I need to go now.’ The man still hesitated.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. He walked into a back room; he was gone a few seconds then reappeared. ‘We’re out the front.’

  Rhiannon sat in the back of the taxi. The man didn’t try and strike up any conversation, he just drove silently and quickly. Rhiannon was glad. She was aware that he was keeping his eye on her via his mirror and he was all the more interested when she reached up to the centre of the roof and turned on the interior light. She reached her hand up her top to her shoulder and it came back spotted with blood. The tape felt damp and the combination of sweat and blood had caused it to slip. She dug in her bag for the roll of tape she had taken from William’s house. She lifted her top up, casting a disapproving look at the mirror. The driver snapped his eyes away. She pulled her T-shirt over her head. Her bra was stained with blood and there was a further trail of it down her chest and onto her stomach. Some of it was congealed, but some was fresh. She had some more tissue and she bunched it together. She pulled the tape off her wound and gasped sharply as it tugged at her skin and pulled the wound apart. She pushed the tissue into the wound, which was back to bleeding freely. Rhiannon pulled some more tape from the roll, it crackled loudly and the driver’s eyes were back on her.

  ‘You okay, love?’

  ‘I’m fine, thanks.’

  ‘Is that blood?’

  ‘Only a little.’

  ‘What happened to you?’

  ‘It’s nothing. I walked into a nail or something I think. I’m clumsy like that.’

  ‘I can take you to the hospital. We’re kind of going away from it otherwise?’

  ‘No need, thanks.’

  ‘You sure, love? I mean . . . it’s just up the road. I’ll give you the money back, I don’t—’

  ‘No!’ Rhiannon cut in. She calmed herself down immediately. ‘No, it’s fine. My aunt’s a nurse. She can patch me up. It looks worse than it is.’

  ‘Okay, love, whatever you say.’

  Rhiannon managed a patch job. It was the best she could do in the back of a moving taxi with only the weak bulb of the interior light. She put an extra top on, a black hoody to give her a little more protection from the bag straps.

  When they reached McDonald’s in Langthorne town centre, the driver asked her one last time if she needed his help. She refused again, did her best to give a smile that was reassuring. He offered her her twenty back and she refused that too. She waved the taxi away, waiting for it to roll out of sight.

  Rhiannon checked around. She was on her own. She sprinted for the Leas and the gate that led off it. It was still locked. She shimmied over and ran along the path until it turned back on itself. She turned the corner and froze. She could see a shape leaning against the railings, the outline of a man. He wasn’t moving. There was no sound but the distant crashing of waves onto the beach and the clatter of rolling pebbles. The trees around shook and shushed. She moved along the path.

  ‘William!’ she called out, gently at first. ‘WILLIAM!’ Louder this time. She thought there was movement — from the head at least — but it might just have been moving shadows tricking her eyes. She got close enough to stand over him. He was still in the same dark, hooded top and woolly hat he had been wearing the last time she had seen him. His lower half was tucked into a sleeping bag, the cardboard under his buttocks was stained a dark red. If it was blood, it looked dry. ‘William! Can you hear me?’

  This time the movement of the head was definite. It lifted a little, the movement jerky. His hands appeared from where they had been tucked into the sleeping bag. The light was dim, just the silver of the moon, but she could see his hands were dark with blood, some of it fresh.

  ‘Jesus, William, you’re hurt! Danny told me what he did. I need to get you to a hospital.’

  William seemed to smile. ‘Ah, my little cuckoo!’

  ‘You’re hurt, William. I’ll get an ambulance.’

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was so bright she had to squint. She didn’t see William reach out. He pulled down on her phone in a clumsy movement. She dropped the phone. ‘What
are you doing?’

  ‘You can’t speak to the police. I thought I told you that!’

  ‘I was calling an ambulance.’

  ‘Same thing!’ He chuckled a little, his voice just above a whisper. Rhiannon had bent down on one knee to be closer to him.

  ‘You need an ambulance, William. You’re bleeding. A lot.’

  ‘It hurt a lot at first, Rhiannon. But it doesn’t hurt anymore.’

  ‘You’ve lost a lot of blood and its cold out here. You don’t know what you’re saying. I need to get an ambulance here. I don’t have to go to the police as well.’

  ‘You call in a stabbing and the police will come first. They have to. They have to be sure the ambulance staff aren’t in danger.’

  ‘Well, fine. I don’t even need to be here. I can call and then walk away.’

  ‘No, Rhiannon. They’ll know it was you. They’ll find you and they’ll make you talk — about your mate, about what he told you.’

  ‘He’s not my mate.’

  ‘Even more reason to keep you away from the police.’

  ‘I’m not scared of him.’

  ‘You should be.’ William was struggling to talk now and his breathing was shallow.

  Rhiannon picked her phone back up. She activated the torch. Immediately she could see that William was in a lot of trouble. His dark-coloured top was slick with blood, he had pulled it up a little from the bottom and his left hand was covering an open wound. Rhiannon pulled his arm out of the way. Immediately she could see puncture wounds. They were close together and some of his intestines were pushing through.

  ‘I need to take you to hospital.’

  William chuckled again. ‘How are you going to do that? You got a car?’

  ‘No. I can get a taxi.’

  ‘You can’t do that. The second we get in the taxi he’ll be on the phone to call an ambulance. We can’t call an ambulance here. There will be CCTV reviews and all sorts and they’ll know you were here.’