He tried the door handle and wasn’t unduly surprised to feel it give and turn in his grasp. Slowly, he pulled the handle down and then entered the kitchen.
‘I don’t like this, Erasmus,’ said Karen from behind him.
‘I’m just going to check that everything is OK?’
He knew already from the familiar, sweet smell that had hit him in the guts as soon as he opened the door that everything was most definitely not going to be OK. He turned back to Karen. She looked frightened. Erasmus guessed that the smell, unfamiliar to her, but horrific and primal, had sparked an urge to run and run quickly.
He placed both hands on her shoulders.
‘Wait here.’
This time there was no objection. She nodded.
Erasmus walked into the kitchen and then out into a small hallway. There were framed pictures on the wall. Some showing the same young middle-aged woman in various far-flung places. She was tall and not unattractive but not in the same league as Karen. He recognised Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, skiing shots and group holiday photos.
He cursorily checked the front living room that they had seen from the window, carefully avoiding the fresh dog turd. He looked at it though and saw something glint. He kneeled down and studied it more closely. There was the pin of a silver earring entombed in the shit.
He stood up and walked back into the hallway, pausing at the bottom of the stairs.
Slowly he climbed. At the top of the stairs there was a landing and a small bathroom that led off it. He ignored it and walked towards the far, front bedroom that looked out onto the street. It was from here that there came the sound of something wet and sloppy being moved and from where the sweet, sickly smell was clearly emanating.
The door was closed. He took a deep breath and pushed it to one side.
Everything happened quickly.
From out of the bedroom sprang a fat, angry Alsatian, yellow teeth bared and drooling. Erasmus dropped his shoulder and ducked, the snapping jaws of the dog missing his bandaged hand by a whisker. He span and with his right arm he pushed the dog faster along its trajectory and smashed its large head into the wall behind him. The dog let out a whimper and sank, lifeless and heavy, to the floor.
Erasmus let out the breath and stepped into the room. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom he struggled not to vomit. What lay on the bed wasn’t recognisable as Louise. The face and most of the flesh from the legs had been scraped away by canine teeth. He felt the bile rising and dry retched a few times. When the retching stopped he took another look at the remains of Louise. Her left arm hung lifelessly from the bed. The deep cuts on her wrist that had run deep and long had now dried and the crusted blood was like a ruby bracelet. Below her, where most of the blood had pooled, were streaks where the dog had greedily licked.
He felt his stomach begin to give way again and at the same time he heard Karen coming up the stairs. With one hand holding his stomach, he pushed the door open and stumbled out just in time to catch Karen in his arms.
‘Don’t go in!’
He saw her look at the dead dog, than at his face and recognition was followed by despair.
‘Oh Louise!’
He held her in his arms and slowly moved her away from the door.
‘Oh no, oh fuck, look Erasmus!’
Erasmus looked down at the dead dog. Hanging from its collar was a small metal badge. Unmistakably, it was the shape and colour of a black rose.
‘We need to call the police.’
***
The police had been sympathetic. The crime scene officers had taken a look at the scene, taken pictures and measurements and then in a bored manner had taken statements from them both, interjecting their work with stock phrases and prefacing most questions with ‘so sorry for your loss’.
The lead officer, who still bore signs of recent acne, once he had established Erasmus didn’t know Louise, had taken him to one side and whispered conspiratorially, ‘Single women in their late thirties are the worst, we must mop up two or three a week. Ovaries drying up, you see.’
Erasmus had felt the urge to punch him but instead just thinly smiled and asked whether they could leave. The officer had shrugged and said they could leave any time: there was no evidence of foul play, it looked like a pretty standard suicide, and they would be in touch in due course about the inquest.
They travelled back to Liverpool in silence for most of the way until at the top of Snake Pass Erasmus broke the silence.
‘Why did you tell me to not say anything to the police about why we were really there? I thought you wanted them to investigate?’
Karen grabbed his arm, a look of despair on her face that he had never seen before.
‘Pull over!’
The rain was driving onto the windscreen, exploding in huge splats, but Erasmus steered the car onto the grass verge. Before he had even applied the handbrake Karen had opened the door and was out. She slammed the door shut and he watched her through the rear view mirror as she placed her hands on the stone wall that ran alongside the road. The moor that sloped away on the other side was spartan and turning the colour of prison walls in the fading light.
He left her to cry for a few seconds and then stepped out. The rain and wind hit him like a slap to the face, snapping his breath away. A car hurried by.
When he reached her he could see that she was sobbing, the sound softened by the howl of the wind and rain.
He put his arm around her but she pushed it away and turned to face him.
‘What can I say! I didn’t tell them because they won’t believe me! No one believes me! I don’t know whether I believe myself but I don’t want to leave my daughter alone for a minute longer. She’s coming back from school now, I should be there, and waiting for her making sure she’s safe. What if Ethan is waiting? I don’t understand why this is happening!’
She was hysterical now.
He went to hold her gain, she pulled back but this time he wouldn’t be denied. He put his arms around her and she collapsed onto his chest.
He put his lips next to her ear. ‘I believe you. I think someone killed or persuaded Louise and Melanie to kill themselves. It’s you, Karen, someone is trying to punish you and you need to think why they would do that? What connects you, Ella and Louise? Find out that and we find Ethan.’
The sobs began to subside.
‘What is it, Karen, what connects you? There’s something you’re not telling me? Why didn’t you mention the Black Rose to the police?’
She shook her head.
‘We were friends that’s all. Maybe Louise had the badge made as a reminder of those days, I don’t know, Erasmus, I don’t know why. You’re the only one who is taking this seriously. I knew the police wouldn’t believe me.’
‘I think I may know a police officer who will take you seriously.’
Karen gripped him tightly.
‘Thank you, Erasmus,’ she moved forward and kissed him long and deeply.
‘I love you,’ she whispered.
She looked up at him, her beautiful face, tender and raw. It was like he was looking into the eyes of the twenty-three-old he had betrayed all those years ago.
‘I love you too,’ he said. He didn’t add that he had never stopped.
CHAPTER 41
There was an unmarked police car waiting for them as they turned into Karen’s driveway. As they got out of the car Inspector Pobrosky emerged from the driver’s side. She parted her dark red lips and smiled. Erasmus couldn’t but help notice her toned, athletic calves and the fitted dark blouse she was wearing. He put an arm around Karen, an instinctive protective gesture for his sake more than hers.
‘Erasmus Jones, I got your message and – ’ she noticed Erasmus’s swollen face. ‘Christ, what happened to you?’
‘Allergic reaction.’
‘To what?’
‘A fist.’
‘Is this what you wanted to speak to me about because you could have reported an assault at your local pol
ice station.’
‘No, this – ’ he pointed at his face ‘ – has nothing to do with what we want to tell you.’
Karen took her keys out.
‘Is this the police officer you told me about?’
‘Yes,’ he replied.
‘You didn’t mention she was pretty?’
Pobrosky visibly blushed, her freckles darkening in the crimson glow.
‘Come inside, we need to chat,’ said Erasmus following Karen into the house.
Thirty minutes later DCI Pobrosky sat back in her armchair and looked at them both.
‘So let me get this straight so I understand. Your child has been cutting herself and is having some kind of internet relationship with this “Ethan” who you have never met. Your old school friend, who you have not seen in fifteen years, her teenage daughter was cutting herself and has now committed suicide. And you have just discovered the body of another school friend, by your own admission, a lonely woman, who apparently has also committed suicide.’
‘It can’t be a coincidence,’ said Karen. She leant forward, reducing the space between her and Pobrosky.
‘OK, you think that someone is out to get you and the link is you and your friends. So, why would someone do that?’
Karen opened her mouth to say something but the words didn’t come. She sank back into the sofa’s embrace.
‘Tell her about the Black Rose.’
Karen paled visibly but told Pobrosky about what Ella had said in her email and then the badge they had seen on the dog.
‘You haven’t been to the police yet because you know how it looks. The most likely causes of death in teenagers are car crashes and suicide. Your daughter cuts herself and has an online boyfriend – how many teenage girls do you think that description applies to? And your friend has killed herself. Maybe it’s just a case of pattern recognition on your part? And this Black Rose, well, the connection is you three were part of the gang but that’s where the connection ends, and, as I say, suicides are not a rare occurrence.’
Erasmus looked straight at Pobrosky
‘Two suicides within the space of three weeks? The timing narrows the odds, wouldn’t you say?’
Pobrosky turned her gaze to Karen.
‘I haven’t got any children so I can’t know what you must feel but at the moment I know you would do anything to protect your child. I can’t open a formal investigation; there is no evidence at all that any crime has been committed. But what I will do is talk to the officers investigating Louise’s death and I will drop a line to the Australian officers and see if any of them will play ball. But that’s all I can do.’
Karen took hold of Pobrosky’s hands.
‘Thank you.’
Pobrosky let go of Karen’s hands and her expression of concern disappeared.
‘But do me a favour, speak to your daughter, Mrs Kelly. Erasmus, can I have a word.’
Erasmus stood up.
‘Sure, let me show you out.’
He guided Pobrosky to the front door and saw her out. She turned quickly catching him looking at her. She was so close that her perfume filled his nostrils and he couldn’t help feeling the stirring in his stomach radiating out to this groin. He shut his eyes for a moment, willing the sensation away. When he opened them again a fraction of a second later Pobrosky’s ice blue eyes were regarding him with amused interest.
‘Thanks for coming out and listening to us. And thanks for not mentioning the situation with Natalie to Karen.’
Pobrosky took a step towards him, bringing her uncomfortably close and well within what he regarded as his personal space.
‘That enquiry is still open and you are still a person of interest. I respect your confidentiality like all suspects and persons assisting us so don’t think you’re getting any special favours. I’ll do what I promised Karen but for her not for you. And Erasmus?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Look at me like that again and they will be looking for my truncheon with X-rays.’
Rebecca heard the door slam and from her sitting position at the top of the stairs she slowly stood up and tiptoed her way back into her bedroom. She walked past her computer and lay on her bed surrounded by the rainbow corona of soft toys that she couldn’t quite bring herself to throw away. She had placed them there after failing to meet Ethan.
From under a large yellow bear called Tommy she pulled out a new, pay as you go mobile phone. He had told her what to do, what phone to buy and where to get it from. He had told her how to run a system check on her computer and just as he said, there it had been, a Trojan, placed there by her untrusting, unloving mother. Spying on her, for who knew how long. Ethan had known, had looked out for her, had told her that she could not speak to him in the chat rooms any longer. She had to buy the phone and text him the number.
She had bought it at a petrol station near her school. There was only one number in the phone, the one he had sent to her, and now, after two weeks there was a message symbol, a small yellow envelope, now almost a prehistoric relic of mobile phone iconography, flashing on the small display.
He had told her he would send her one last message.
The knot of excitement twisted in her gut. To think her stupid mother could think that Ethan had anything to do with her stupid friend killing herself. Jesus, if she was still single at thirty never mind as ancient as her mum’s friend must have been, she’d top herself. People killed themselves, why would she think Ethan had anything to do with it? Hadn’t that policewoman said as much? She had been polite and told her mother she would make some calls but Rebecca could recognise a brush off when she heard one.
Rebecca started to shake and twisted over onto her front. She brought the phone up close and, fingers trembling, she clicked on the message icon. Her heart burst like a ripening fruit.
It was from Ethan. A location and a time. Tonight.
CHAPTER 42
In the car he turned the radio on and tuned it to the local commercial station, Radio City. He didn’t have to wait long until the news bulletin. Wayne was the second item, following news of a bomb in the US but ahead of an earthquake in Chile that had killed a few hundred people. Sport was important in this city, more important than life or death on most occasions. The report confirmed that Wayne had passed his medical and was back in Merseyside before flying out to Moscow in a few days time.
Erasmus picked up his phone and called Wayne’s number. No response, the call rang out. He hesitated and glanced in the rear view mirror. The swelling had settled a little, but still the right-hand side of his face looked grotesque. He put the phone down on the passenger seat.
Five minutes later and he pulled into the drive of his apartment block. The driveway was dark until the security light registered his vehicle and switched on, illuminating the parking area and the front porch. Sitting on the wooden railing next to the front door was Cat. She was smoking a cigarette and even from inside his car he could see she had a black eye.
He pulled over and stepped out.
She flicked the cigarette onto the gravel path, jumped down off the railing and ground the stub into the earth with a leather boot.
‘What happened to you?’ he asked.
She smirked and cocked her head to one side.
‘Have you looked in a mirror lately?’
‘Walked into a door,’ he said.
She half laughed.
‘You needn’t worry, I haven’t come here to play the poor, misguided woman protecting her man, this – ’ she pointed to her black eye ‘ – was Ben’s doing. Turns out he really, really doesn’t like being talked back to.’
‘Drink?’
‘Nothing more that I would like better. Well, maybe nothing more,’ she winked at him with her unharmed eye.
Inside, she accepted the glass of Yamakazi and they clinked glasses.
‘To war wounds!’ she said.
‘To war wounds, and moving on,’ replied Erasmus.
She took a long swig of whisky and
then looked around the living room.
‘I was so drunk last time I was here I can hardly remember what the place looked like.’She sucked in her cheeks. ‘It can’t have been the décor that attracted me to you.’
Erasmus kept his eyes on hers, painfully aware of her long legs that she had stretched out on the couch after insouciantly kicking off her boots. He must not look at her legs or he would be done for. Not that looking at her face was making things easy for him.
‘Why did he hit you?’
‘Why do all men hit women? Because they are physically stronger and they want to control us. You know he’s jealous, look what he did to your car.’
‘That’s OK, it matches my face now.’ He stroked the side of his swollen jaw.
They laughed.
‘He hit me because I told him I’m leaving him.’
She sniffed and took another swig of the whisky. Her defiance and strength were obvious but there were tears beginning to form.
‘Not because … ?’ He gestured between the two of them.
She wiped the tears away.
‘No, Erasmus, it wasn’t to do with us. I’ve had enough of him, of the school, of this pissing country to be honest. I’m not just leaving him. I’m leaving the country, going to Australia. They need teachers out there and I want to put as many miles between me and this country.’
The words were strong but she looked vulnerable and Erasmus resisted the urge to move over to the couch and put his arm around her. He wanted to, it was the right thing to do, but the truth was he didn’t trust himself. Instead he poured them both another drink. He handed her the refreshed glass.
‘What happened between us, I’ve been meaning to apologise.’
A look of amusement appeared on her face.
‘Apologise? For what? I wanted you as much as you wanted me, Erasmus. Why do men always assume that it’s their choice? I enjoyed it.’ She crossed her long legs. ‘We could do it again sometime.’
He felt himself blushing for the first time in years as her question hung there between them. He felt the familiar sensations bursting like fireworks from his groin, setting fire to delicious nerve endings throughout his body, all he had to do was take a step forward, join her on the couch. He shut his eyes for a second and then opened them.
Sudden Death Page 25
