Nothing.
I frantically ran my palms across the smooth surface of the door. Wondering whether I should be pushing, I pushed. It didn’t budge. I kicked the door furiously, becoming crazed with fear. ‘Open the door!’
‘Move back,’ instructed Mr Cool’s voice.
‘Why?’ I shouted.
‘So I can open the door!’
I heaved a sigh of relief. ‘It accidentally shut on me. Sorry, I just panicked because it’s so dark in here.’ The door scraped outwards, revealing the welcome view of the now properly lit cellar. ‘Thank you, I was terrified.’
Mr Cool smiled. ‘Were you?’
Something in the tone of his voice unnerved me. ‘Yes,’ I replied slowly. ‘You never told me there was a secret room down here.’
With the reassuring, artificial, light from the main cellar, I turned my head to study the dark room. It was painted black and a single bare bulb hung from a wire in the centre of the ceiling. Another door stood ajar on the left hand wall.
‘Saze,’ Mr Cool said in the same strange tone.
Knowing I really shouldn’t yet for some inexplicable reason unable to stop myself, I ran into the room and pushed the other door open. It was difficult to make much out in the darkness but, unlike the first room, the second wasn’t empty.
Mr Cool’s footsteps sounded behind me.
I turned around slowly.
Mr Cool tut-tutted and snapped a switch, flooding the rooms with artificial light. ‘Why did you have to look?’
He pushed me, flinging me against a wall of wire so hard I slid to the floor. Terrified, I wrapped my fingers through the wire and pulled myself to my feet.
‘It was you,’ I whispered, gesturing at the two, floor to ceiling wire prisons, each equipped with a single mattress and dirty duvet. ‘Just like the newspaper report. The girl who was found wandering said she’d been kept in a cage next to another victim.’
Mr Cool laughed. ‘And you assume this is the room in which they were kept?’
‘Tell me I’m wrong.’ I wanted him to, more than anything in the world. I wanted to be wrong. ‘Tell me you used to keep dogs.’
Mr Cool’s strong fingers clasped my upper arms. I remembered how he had carried me with little difficulty from Mr Dry’s house. His lips brushed my forehead. ‘Oh, Saze, you’re wrong.’
Fearfully I tilted my chin to meet his eyes. ‘I am?’
A glimmer I had not seen before danced in his eyes. ‘No, you’re not.’
I struggled but Mr Cool held me in his iron grip and I felt bruises already forming. ‘Let me go.’
‘I can’t do that, Saze.’
‘Of course you can, it’s easy.’
‘It’s not an option.’ Mr Cool reached the door in two strides and softly closed it, sealing off the way into the first secret room and escape.
He turned and smiled, making my blood cold. I was frozen; my voice, vanished.
‘You weren’t supposed to have seen this.’ Mr Cool’s muscular shoulders seemed larger than ever, his hands bigger than they had felt when he touched me when we had kissed. He reached into his pocket and drew out a small gun. ‘Will you oblige and not fight or do I have to use this?’
‘You’re going to shoot me?’ I managed to croak. I couldn’t die without rescuing my daughter! I realised Daughter was safer where she was. Mr Dry wasn’t the murderer. Why the hell had he drugged me? He must’ve had suspicions about Mr Cool… he had been trying to keep me safe and me, with my stubbornness, had gone and got myself into trouble.
‘Drug you. It’s a dart gun.’ Mr Cool gestured for me to sit on the floor.
I eyed up the gun and obeyed, not fancying being drugged again. The floor was cold. My feet were still bare and I shivered, pulling my dressing-gown tighter. The dank smell of damp hung heavy and clogged my nostrils.
‘Sorry about the temperature,’ Mr Cool said. ‘But you’ll understand why I’m not offering to warm you up.’
I raised my chin defiantly. ‘Why?’
‘You’re going to die.’
I opened my mouth to speak; to tell him I wouldn’t say anything but he guessed my unspoken words.
Mr Cool wagged a finger at me. ‘No, you won’t keep it a secret. You’ll run straight to the police. If only you had not seen these rooms, everything would have been perfect.’
I closed my mouth, there was no point denying it.
Mr Cool lowered his powerful limbs to the floor opposite me. ‘I suppose you want to know the details?’
Needing to stall for time, I nodded. In truth I did want to know. My eyes scanned the room for anything that could pass as a weapon. The cage doors were padlocked shut, the room devoid of anything else except me and Mr Cool.
Talking was my only weapon. I hoped Darrelle would open the door and let me out. Where had she disappeared to?
Mr Cool began, ‘These rooms are hidden from the cellar as you saw. Wine shelving runs across the door, completely obscuring it from the other side.’ He reached into his pocket and waved a key-fob in the air. ‘This is a remote locking device. I can lock these doors from the inside and open them without the need for door handles.’ The tiny control disappeared back into the depths of his pocket. ‘The rooms aren’t part of the original house, or any extensions built thereafter so don’t appear on any plans. I dug these rooms out and built them myself.’ A proud look spread across his chiselled features. ‘My father was a structural engineer and he built his own house with a subterranean level when I was a teenager. I paid attention, I learnt fast.’ Mr Cool’s face contorted. ‘But my father,’ he spat. ‘Was a bastard. This is all because of him. Because of what he did.’
‘You’re a lunatic,’ I whispered. ‘You’re not who I thought you were.’
‘I’m not a lunatic,’ he snarled. His shoulders hunched lion-like, even his teeth seemed larger and his once handsome face was unrecognisable. He slid across the floor to me.
I recoiled, wondering how I had ever fallen for his charms; how I’d ever allowed him to sleep beside me. I opened my mouth but Mr Cool shut me up in the blink of a crazed eye.
‘My father killed my mother. She’d been having an affair. My father found out and killed her. He never had the opportunity to tell me where he’d buried her because once I knew what he had done, I killed him.’
I gasped. ‘You killed your own father?’
‘Don’t sound so surprised, I did it for love. It wasn’t like I did it just because I wanted to.’
Mr Cool’s heavy thigh pressed against my leg and I shifted uncomfortably.
‘Don’t,’ he warned. ‘Don’t you dare move away from me. He was my first kill. I was sixteen but strong from playing rugby. He was surprised when I slit his throat over breakfast.’ Mr Cool squeezed me to him. ‘This is actually very therapeutic sharing this with you. I do love you.’ His lips found mine and he kissed me.
Bile rose in my throat and I dry-retched.
Mr Cool grabbed my throat. ‘Stop it.’
‘Don’t touch me.’
His grip loosened and, instead, he stroked my cheek. ‘You’re just frightened I know you don’t mean it. You and I have a connection. You are my perfect girl.’
‘We don’t have a connection, you broke it the moment I saw these rooms. You’re a murderer who killed his own dad!’
‘Admittedly I chopped him up,’ he said. ‘With every slice of his flesh, I appeased my mother’s death. I was working shifts at the local kennel at the time, to earn some money for a car, so I fed him to the dogs. They seemed to enjoy him.’
‘What?’ I opened and closed my mouth, imagining the sixteen-year old Mr Cool gleefully tossing hunks of his father to the unsuspecting canines. My bottom was numb from the cold floor and my throat dry with dread. ‘The girls?’ I asked finally. ‘You murdered them?’
‘There’s no point lying to you. You are in here now and there’s no escape for you, my perfect girl.’
I wondered how I was perfect but didn’t want to ask in ca
se I was only perfect because I was close to dying. ‘Tell me about the girls,’ I said, needing more time to think about escape.
Mr Cool licked his lips. ‘Amy. She was first to be reported in the paper. She was a feisty one but she had a fantastic bottom. Round. Her breasts.’ He made a cupping motion with the hand not holding the dart gun. ‘Were bouncy. We actually made love but she wanted different things to me. She wasn’t the one, she wasn’t my perfect girl. Her body looked beautiful surrounded by tomatoes. She fought hard, scratched the hell out of my back.’ His face took on an animated expression. ‘Sweet Ceri was next. She cried as we made love. I really thought she’d be the one but she tried to escape. She was such a screamer. I had to take her head off. The truth is I killed Ceri before Amy but her body just wasn’t found quick enough. If she’d been found earlier, she’d have looked far prettier with her ivory white flesh.’
A loud banging at the door interrupted him. ‘Open this door!’ screamed Darrelle.
‘Go away, Darrelle,’ boomed Mr Cool. ‘It’s nothing to do with you.’
‘Saze!’ Darrelle screamed. ‘Are you in there?’
I attempted to jump up but Mr Cool held me down. ‘I’m here, Darrelle!’ I yelled. ‘Help!’
‘I’m calling the police!’ Darrelle cried. ‘This is too much.’
‘I told you, it’s nothing to do with you!’ Mr Cool yelled. ‘She has seen things she should never have seen.’
‘It is everything to do with me!’ Darrelle shouted through the closed door. ‘She was never meant for this!’
Mr Cool sprung up and aimed the dart gun at me. ‘Don’t worry, it’s very fast. It will only sting for a moment. You’ll still be conscious, just unable to move.’
I moved but the dart pierced into my thigh. I tore it out and tossed the tiny, metal tipped spike to the floor. The effect was almost instant. The drug weighted my limbs. I willed them to move but they wouldn’t, as if they no longer belonged to me. The sensation travelled up my body and I was paralysed.
All I could do was watch and to think: Why had Darrelle said I was never meant for this? Was I really about to die?
‘The effects last an hour or so.’ Mr Cool opened the door. ‘But I’ll be back before then.’
‘What have you done?’ Darrelle screeched once Mr Cool opened the door. ‘Saze!’ she screamed, her arms clawing ineffectively at Mr Cool’s unyielding arms. ‘This is enough. Enough now. You’re my brother and I have done everything you asked. I wanted the perfect family as much you did but you can’t do this to Saze, not her. Not another one I love.’
Brother? I wanted to scream at Darrelle, to ask her if that meant she knew about the murders but I knew by then that she did. Another one? If I could have trembled I would have.
‘Darrelle, you should have kept away,’ Mr Cool said. ‘I told you the same thing about the wretched other woman.’
I watched silently as Mr Cool dragged Darrelle by her hair back into the first, hidden room. I heard them shouting but was powerless to move. A prisoner trapped in my own body unable to even open my mouth.
‘I told you,’ Mr Cool shouted. ‘To do exactly as I said. I told you to make sure the door was closed properly. It is your fault she found our rooms!’
‘It’s not my fault, you left the door open in the first place!’ Darrelle screamed. ‘This was supposed to be it; our perfect family. You’ve ruined it.’
‘Whose idea was it to have the perfect family in the first place?’ Mr Cool shouted. ‘Mine, when Grandfather disinherited Father and split us up I told you I would come back for you. I told you I would make things right, that I loved you and always would. You are my perfect sister and I love you.’
From my position, stuck on the floor against the wire wall, I heard the sound of kissing and was glad I couldn’t see anything as it most definitely did not sound like a sisterly kind of a kiss.
‘I love you, too, Nathan.’ Darrelle sighed and her voice lowered a fraction. ‘But not Saze, please not her. She has a daughter and we love them both.’
‘I know we do,’ Mr Cool replied. ‘That’s why we have to do this, can’t you see? Saze is perfect as she is right now. This way she will be perfect for ever. Just like Mum. For ever young, forever beautiful.’
‘But she won’t be alive!’ Darrelle cried with a sob. ‘I want her alive!’
‘There will be other chances,’ Mr Cool shouted, losing his cool. ‘We will find the perfect family again, we deserve it!’
‘But we’re not perfect!’ Darrelle shouted, her voice wild. ‘It took finding Saze to make me realise that. After Catherine I thought we’d never find another I’d think was perfect but she is, she’s like Catherine. I loved Catherine and you ruined it with her and now you’re making the same mistake with Saze. I can’t do this anymore, I don’t think I’m perfect. I don’t deserve a family!’
‘We both do!’ Mr Cool screamed. ‘You wanted Saze as much as me. You killed for her, to show her how much you care for her.’
Shock made my heart stop beating for a second. In a bid to make up the lost beat it pounded in my ribcage, the sound echoing throughout my immobilised body.
‘Kelly deserved it!’ Darrelle screamed in return.
Mr Cool laughed, a strange sound compared to his usual laughter. ‘Welcome to the dark side, my sister. You finally admitted it. You really are my perfect sister, you are the perfect murderer just like me. What we do, we do for love.’
‘And for love I am doing this.’
‘Put the phone down!’ Mr Cool shouted.
‘It’s too late,’ Darrelle replied. ‘I dialled the police before I came in here. With any luck they’re tracing the call. I am not perfect but neither are you. In fact we are both so imperfect it’s a wonder we have come this far. We are united, you and I, Brother, by the same delusion of perfection. That’s all it is, a delusion. I see that now.’
‘You silly fool!’ Mr Cool roared.
Darrelle sounded calm. ‘I am sorry, Saze!’ she called out. She screamed and there was the sound of scuffling.
‘Now then,’ I heard Mr Cool say. ‘That’s better.’
I listened as he raced through the cellar and upstairs to the kitchen. Minutes later his footsteps pounded back and thudded to a halt. The sound of chopping metal hitting cold floor filled my ears. My heart froze as Mr Cool appeared in the doorway. A large axe hung from his hand, blood dripping from the blade. A satisfied smirk lay upon his crimson streaked face. He strode over to me and gave me a kiss which I could not feel. ‘I’ll be back in a moment, my darling, I’ll just clean up a little. I have to be perfect for you.’
He left me in darkness, locking the door behind him. I heard the second door close and after that, silence. There was nothing I could do except wait to die.
My body was still completely immobile when the door to the first room scraped back open. My heart jumped with hope when the door to my prison swung back and the light came on.
‘Did you miss me?’ Mr Cool grinned chillingly. He dropped the blood stained axe down and slipped onto the floor next to it. Heaving me onto his lap he asked, ‘Shall I continue with my story? No response? Never mind, I know you want to hear it. Where was I?’ He peered into my eyes. ‘You can’t speak yet, can you?’ He waited a moment as if he really expected me to respond. ‘Emily had a fantastic smile. Wide and full but her mouth was too big. She didn’t know when to shut up.’ He stroked my cheek. ‘Unlike you, Saze, you are perfect. I could do anything I wanted to you now.’
Although I was paralysed, bile still rose in my throat.
Mr Cool tipped his head to one side as if considering his next move. ‘I think I’ll wait until you are able to move, you’ll be more fun interactive. It is time we made love, my love. So far, I enjoyed Emily the most. It was fun removing her feet and hands. There’s something therapeutic about sawing. How entertaining to think a dog had eaten some of her, just like my father. Her legs were the most difficult to cut off. They were lovely, shapely legs. Her knickers kep
t falling off when I carried her torso to the car.’ Mr Cool laughed. ‘She was a bit of a slut you see.’ He rubbed his crotch over his jeans.
‘Jenny was weak,’ he continued. ‘She wasn’t worth killing. She simpered and begged for her life like a little puppy. It was quite disgusting. There was nothing I liked about her. She was a complete waste of time and effort.’
At that moment my lips began to tingle and I tentatively moved them.
Mr Cool didn’t miss the movement. ‘You can probably speak if you try.’
My mouth was dry and my tongue, sandpaper rough. ‘Weren’t you afraid she’d identify you?’
‘I’m not an imbecile. None of them saw my face until the moment of their death. Night vision goggles made it all very exciting. I felt like a soldier of mercy.’ He moved his hand from his crotch and squeezed my breast. ‘Can you feel anything yet?’
Startled, I realised I could but kept still.
Mr Cool pulled a disappointed face but didn’t remove his hand. ‘Melanie was a stunner with zero personality. I killed her in the field next to the hospital. I didn’t want to waste my energy bringing her back. Alison was far more entertaining, although older than the others. She kept going on about her fiancée and child. I didn’t realise she was engaged otherwise I wouldn’t have taken her. I killed her for you. I wanted you to hear what I could do, to know my power.’ He stroked my hair. ‘I took their wedding fingers because they belong to me. You belong to me. I keep the fingers in a jar of formaldehyde. It’s surprising what you can buy off the internet.’
My throat constricted. ‘You’re going to chop off my finger?’
Mr Cool smiled. ‘Of course and give you a permanent smile. I want you to always be happy, you deserve that. You will be for ever young and perfect. I will not dismember you, you must remain in all your glorious form.’
‘Minus a finger.’ A thousand thoughts whirred through my head: how Daughter would grow up without a mother; how she would have to live with her father; what the papers would say.
‘When Andrew turned up here, it was a sign telling me to carry on with my work. He was the perfect scapegoat. How dare he touch you so intimately?’ Mr Cool prodded himself in the chest. ‘I am the only one permitted to touch you.’ He pushed what he considered to be my immobilised body from his lap.
Lies Love Tells (Eastcove Lies Book 1) Page 28
