Faceless

by Rob Ashman

  ‘Got it in one, Detective Inspector. I do like working with bright people.’

  ‘But you selected the other women from the Boston Magic website. I’m not a member of that site.’

  ‘No, you’re not.’ Strickland removed a newspaper cutting from its protective cellophane wrapping and placed it on the floor in front of Kray. She peered at the picture. The headline at the top read: ‘A Full House for Operation Clean Sweep’. Next to the write-up was a picture of the team, taken on the steps of the police station.

  ‘I don’t get it, I wasn’t part of Clean Sweep,’ she said.

  ‘Look again.’

  Kray examined the photo. On the second row, smiling at the camera, she saw her own face. Tiny triggers of memory fired off in her head.

  How the fuck can that be? Then she remembered.

  The force wanted to publicise its success in taking down a major drug ring in the heart of Blackpool. But the Chief had one eye on the publicity and the other on how his force was portrayed.

  ‘Brownlow, I want more women in the shot,’ barked the Chief. ‘All I can see are white middle-aged men, get it sorted.’ So that’s what Brownlow did and why Kray ended up in the news article when she had nothing to do with the bust.

  ‘I still don’t get it?’ she asked looking up into his eyes.

  ‘No, you don’t get it, but Carl Rampton did.’

  63

  The very mention of his name made Kray’s scars ignite, her skin burnt, she flinched.

  ‘You see, Rampton was sent down as part of that operation and as a memento of the hatred he felt for everyone involved, he kept this article. Every night he would take it from its hiding place and swear and curse at it. That man needed revenge, he needed someone to hate. So, I gave it to him. You possess the same features of evil, Roz, and you have to die. I spotted you in the picture and convinced Rampton that you had planted evidence which got him put away. He was like putty in my hands. He wanted a target, I gave him you. When he came out he sliced you up but failed to finish the job. So that got me thinking that I should do a proper job and, while I’m at it, what about the other witches of Satan? They deserve to die as well.’

  A memory went off in Kray’s head like a cannon.

  ‘By the way,’ Strickland continued. ‘Did you enjoy your trip to the Trafford Centre? I wanted to take my time, I wanted to be sure you were otherwise engaged and I wasn’t going to be disturbed when I picked out this lovely dress. The look on that Polish woman’s face was an absolute picture. I hope you appreciate the trouble I took to fuck with your head – were you late for work? It made me laugh thinking of you staring at that clock, wondering how the hell it had lost an hour.’

  But Kray wasn’t listening. Her mind had catapulted back to the house party. It was a warm night in August, Strickland was there, he went crazy when he clapped eyes on her. He fought with a copper and was led out of the lounge. Kray stepped in front of the officer and … Fuck!

  She was reeling, struggling to hold herself together. The final piece of this horrific jigsaw fell into place. Kray felt her stomach heave, she was going to throw up.

  It was me, it was down to me after all.

  Kray snapped out of her daydream to see Strickland standing by the freezers.

  ‘To chill her blood, how so divine,

  Walk in her shoes, her face is mine.’

  He opened the door to reveal the black mannequin heads with chicken skin textured faces stretched across them. It took a few seconds for Kray to process what she was seeing.

  ‘This is Madeline,’ he said pointing to the top head, ‘and this is Lucy. Aren’t they beautiful? Say hello, girls. I hope you enjoyed discovering their bodies in the dark? I thought turning the electricity off at the mains would add to the drama.’

  Kray stared at the frozen faces, her mouth gaped open. Tears streaked down her face.

  ‘With evil dripping from your pores,

  The next face I need to take … is yours.’

  Kray stopped breathing, she tore her gaze away from the hacked flesh and saw the empty black frosted head sitting on the bottom shelf.

  ‘That’s right, DI Kray. The last one is for you.’

  Kray shook as waves of fear washed through her. A ball of vomit hit the back of her mouth. It splashed onto the floor.

  ‘But first we need to complete the ritual. Chris Dodd, with a double D, has to die.’ Strickland walked across to the shadow board and ran his hands over the tools. ‘Which one do you think, Roz?’

  Kray didn’t know where to look. Her head snapped between the dissected skin staring at her with black frosted eyes from the confines of the freezer and Strickland selecting his weapon of choice. He had the nonchalant air of a man selecting a golf club.

  ‘I’ve done the lump hammer and the screwdriver already, umm, how about this?’ He lifted a wood chisel from the board and weighed it in his hands. ‘It doesn’t matter that events are happening in a different sequence. Normally your face would be with the others by now, and then we would have the pleasure of despatching dear old Chris. I say we because of course to the outside world it would be you watching the life die from his eyes. But with you turning up unannounced, my plans had to be amended. I can live with that.’

  Kray shuddered as she watched a version of herself toy with the chisel.

  Strickland walked to where Kray was sitting and held out the tool. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Don’t.’

  ‘Oh, but I have to.’

  He knelt beside the stricken figure lying on the floor and tilted Dodd’s head from side to side. ‘Which jugular vein do you prefer, right or left?’

  ‘Don’t kill him.’

  ‘I don’t mind changing my plan, but I’m not going to ditch it altogether.’

  ‘Let me do it.’

  ‘What?’ Strickland stopped in his tracks. ‘Why would you want to do that?’

  ‘I kill him and you let me go.’

  ‘I ask again, why would you want to do that?’

  ‘Because then people would see how evil I am for real. It would not be pretend, it would be a true representation of what you have known all along.’

  He scraped the underside of his chin with the cutting edge of the chisel. ‘That’s an interesting proposal, DI Kray.’

  ‘You want people to see evil, I will give them evil.’

  ‘But then I would have to let you live and I so want to complete my set.’ Strickland motioned towards the naked head at the bottom of the freezer.

  ‘What do you want the most, another trophy or … for the whole country to finally take notice? Just imagine that, Jason, your moment of triumph at last. People would finally see the truth of what you have known all along. You would be proved right.’ Kray shuffled forwards keeping her left wrist covered. ‘Just think about that.’

  ‘That is an attractive proposition.’ Strickland came in close and stared Kray in the face, brandishing the weapon. ‘But to do that I would need to release you. How do I know you wouldn’t use this chisel on me?’

  ‘How could I? You release one of my hands, I am still anchored to the floor. People turned a blind eye to the terrible truth for all those years and now you have the chance to be finally proved right. You were right all along. That has got to feel good, Jason. That has to be worth deviating from your plan.’

  ‘I can see how that would work.’ He got up and rummaged around in the handbag, returning with a mobile phone. ‘You kill him and I record it, that way everyone can see what a cruel, sadistic bitch you are.’

  ‘You would be proved right Jason, just think how that would feel.’

  ‘I like this. I like this a lot.’

  ‘Give me the chisel Jason, and I will take this innocent man’s life to save my own.’

  ‘This is good.’ Strickland moved forward with the tool outstretched.

  Kray struggled against the ties. ‘You will have to release one of my hands, Jason. I can’t kill him if my hands are bound.’

&nbs
p; Strickland gazed into Kray’s eyes and his face hardened. ‘You must think I was fucking born yesterday. You evil bitch!’ He grasped the chisel with both hands and raised it above his head.

  64

  Kray lunged forward and smashed her fist into Strickland’s throat with every ounce of strength she had left. The blow sent the chisel spinning into the air and he staggered backwards clutching his shattered larynx. Kray felt a searing pain in her hand as the pin impaled itself into her palm. She ripped her right hand free from the loosened tie, dug the metal pin out of her hand and stabbed it into the cable tie looped around her ankle. The point wouldn’t locate properly between the teeth.

  Strickland lurched around choking and coughing. His eyes bulged from their sockets as he tried to suck air into his lungs. He toppled back and fell hard against the shadow board.

  Kray forced the pin between the plastic teeth and the tie sprung open. She tore her right foot free and jabbed the point into the final lock.

  The shadow board came away from the wall in slow motion, tipping forwards under the weight of the tools. It fell against the tank, shattering the glass. Strickland was kneeling on the floor with his head bent forward, clutching at his throat. His face was turning purple.

  Kray fumbled around trying to open the last of the ties. The fucking thing wouldn’t budge.

  The flat copper coloured head of Sampson glided through the gap in the broken glass. As Kray noticed the snake for the first time, her jaw dropped open. Sampson lowered himself to the ground, his tongue darting out, tasting the strange new molecules in the air.

  The pin was stuck in the mechanism, Kray’s fingers clawed at it but couldn’t dig it out.

  Sampson dropped to the floor and headed straight for Kray. She froze. Her eyes flicked between watching Strickland regaining his breath and the snake advancing towards her.

  Kray could hear her heart pounding in her chest. The snake was only feet away. She tensed her body and kept absolutely still. The snake glided over her captive leg, over the back of her hand and back onto the floor. He paused when he encountered Dodd lying on the floor but he wasn’t interested. He doubled back on himself.

  Strickland was on his feet. Kray could hear a gurgled rasping sound as he tried to suck air into his lungs. He saw the broken glass and freaked out. Sampson was heading his way. He stumbled across the room to reach his snake rod and calliper. The snake wound itself into a coil, adopting his terrifying S-shape. Strickland crashed around looking for his tools.

  Sampson struck.

  His deadly fangs sunk into Strickland’s thigh and he let out a scream. He tried to grab the snake, but Sampson disengaged and struck again, latching onto his arm. Strickland whirled around trying to shake him off but the fangs held tight, sinking deep into his flesh. Then as fast as it had happened Sampson let go and slithered off into the corner.

  Kray jolted herself into action. She yanked the pin from the lock and rammed it back in, this time the ratchet disengaged. She was free.

  Strickland collapsed on the floor holding his leg. Kray leapt to her feet and launched herself at him, punching and kicking for all she was worth. He was in shock and couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Kray kicked him twice in the head and landed him a heavy blow full to the face. Strickland keeled over and went limp.

  Kray backed away to the other side of the room and looked under the tank to see Sampson coiled up in the corner, watching the proceedings.

  So that’s what one looks like. She unfurled Dodd’s belt from his trousers then placed her fingers on his neck. He was gone.

  Kray dragged Strickland across to the other side of the room and rolled him onto his front. He was groaning and regaining consciousness. She wound the belt tight around his wrists and secured them behind his back. She slumped to the floor, exhausted.

  Strickland flicked open his eyes. His cheekbone was swelling and turning black. He rolled over onto his back.

  ‘I need a hospital,’ he croaked through broken lips. ‘I’ve been bitten.’

  Kray observed him from a safe distance.

  ‘He doesn’t like you, does he?’ she said.

  ‘Call 999, tell them I’ve been injected with the venom from—’

  ‘A Russell’s Viper,’ Kray interrupted.

  ‘How do you …’

  ‘I just do.’

  Kray leaned over and kicked the freezer door shut.

  ‘Please, I need anti-venom. I can feel the bites starting to burn, I don’t have long.’

  Kray wasn’t listening. She was remembering being angry, walking down the Promenade. Joe was in the car yelling for her to stop. She could see the blade as it sliced through her clothes, tearing through her flesh. Then Rampton was in mid-air being propelled backwards by Joe. They landed on the pavement with a splat. The knife was sticking out of Joe. The blood … there was so much blood. Then she saw the house party, Strickland was being manhandled out of the room. She stepped in front of them and …

  ‘Kray!’ Strickland shouted, forcing himself into a sitting position. ‘Listen to me, you have to call 999, you cannot leave me to die from a snake bite. You are a police officer, remember that. First and foremost, do your duty.’

  Kray snapped out of her thoughts. ‘You’re right. I can’t leave you to die from a snake bite.’ She got to her feet, picked up the chisel and plunged it into his neck.

  65

  ‘Self-defence. The internal investigation came back with a verdict of self-defence. Mind you, this was against a man who kept the faces of two dead women in his freezer, had a dead man in his basement and a venomous snake in a fish tank. I didn’t need to pull off an Oscar winning performance to convince them, the decision kind of made itself. I did have to untie his hands before they arrived though – would have been a bit of a giveaway.’

  The morning sun felt cool and she stamped her feet on the ground to dislodge the grass that had stuck to her shoes. She took the top off a bottle of water and poured it into the vase of freshly cut roses. She was putting on a brave face. This was her first visit since her encounter with Strickland. Kray was trying to hold it together.

  ‘I’m still suspended from duty. It’s been five weeks now but that doesn’t matter, I could do with the time off to be honest.’ She crouched down to arrange the flowers and took a cloth from her bag to wipe the grime from the stone. Tears ran down her cheeks.

  She dug into her pocket and brought out the pin from Dodd’s lapel. ‘I brought you a present, this saved my life. A man I never knew gifted this to me. It saved me.’ She placed the pin on the headstone. It burned yellow in the sunshine.

  She could put it off no longer.

  ‘I have to tell you something and you’re not going to like it. I didn’t kill Strickland out of vengeance. I should have done, but I didn’t. After all, he was the one who convinced Rampton I was the devil incarnate and you died trying to save me. I think you would understand me killing him to avenge your death, but I didn’t. I killed him out of guilt.’ She began to sob, her shoulders rocked back and forth. She steadied herself by gripping the stone with both hands.

  ‘You died because of me. You died because of a moment of madness. I attended a house party, it had got out of hand and loads of coppers were there. I found a ball of heroin in the toilet and fished it out. There was this guy screaming at me, calling me an evil bitch and going crazy. Turns out it was Strickland. An officer bundled him out when it looked like he was going to turn violent. He was a nasty piece of work and kept screaming at me. I lost my cool. When he was being frogmarched out of the house I stepped into his path and crashed into him. And … and …’ The words dried in the back of her mouth. ‘I slipped the drugs into his jacket pocket.’

  She leaned forward and rested her forehead against the marble.

  ‘Can you fucking believe it? I shoved them in his pocket! I did it to teach the little bastard a lesson, that’s all. He was charged with possession with the intention to supply and ended up in prison with Rampton. He was there o
n remand and got off with it before it went to trial. It was all for nothing!

  ‘The only reason Rampton was locked up with Strickland was because of me. The reason you are dead is because of me.’

  Kray crumpled against the headstone, sobbing. She struggled to catch her breath. The recurring dream sequence that had relentlessly played in her mind over the past month pounded in her head.

  It was always the same.

  Joe was cooking a meal in their kitchen. It felt like summer. They were warm and the sun spilled through the window splashing sunlight across the worktops. The BBQ was on and he was putting the finishing touches to a salad. He had that rolling chopping action going on, the one that shreds the vegetables really thin. They were both drinking beer.

  Joe looked across at her. ‘We can have dinner whenever you’re ready, Roz. I have all the time in the world to cook dinner. When you’re ready, Roz, when you’re ready.’

  Roz drew the chef’s knife from her bag. It glinted in the sun.

  ‘I’m ready now.’

  The blade felt cold against her wrist. The sharp edge scored her skin.

  ‘I want to see you but not in my dreams, I want to touch you but not in my thoughts. I’ve had enough of just being me, when all the best times I’ve ever had in my fucked-up life have been about us.’

  She dragged the blade across her skin. Beads of blood broke the surface.

  ‘It’s fucking hard, you know, being one half of a jigsaw to find that the best part is missing. The part that makes everything else right. When it’s gone, nothing makes sense. I’m not sure I can live with myself, knowing what I know.’

  She rocked the blade backwards and forwards. More blood broke through her skin.

  ‘What am I supposed to do!’ She tore her gaze away from the rivulets of blood tracking down her wrist. The pin was glowing gold in the sun.

  ‘You gave me this, didn’t you?’ Kray picked up the pin, spinning it between her fingers. ‘You sent that man to me. You made Strickland select him out of the hundreds of men that evening. You wanted me to live.’ She held the pin in one hand and the chef’s knife in the other. ‘If I choose one you can cook for me for ever, if I choose the other - who knows? Help me choose. Help me …’