Dying Games (Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mystery Book 6)

by Steve Robinson

  This was all going so delightfully well.

  Levant watched until he could no longer see or hear the car. Then he took out the remote trigger to watch the countdown. It now showed that Tayte had just three minutes and twenty seconds of precious life left. He opened his laptop again and saw that Tayte was staring right into the camera. There was a look of resolved defiance on his face that did him credit, but it was of no consequence now. In three minutes the game would be over, and the game master would have won.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Three minutes . . .

  A bead of sweat ran off Tayte’s brow and he let out a long sigh. It was so quiet in the cage, and he savoured these last moments of silence, knowing it would all change when the timer reached zero, detonating the explosives above him. He might have felt alone in his last moments were it not for the CCTV camera above him. He still had his torch, which he shone up at it, wondering whether the Genie was still watching.

  Of course he is.

  Tayte was in no doubt that the true Genie and Michel Levant were the same person, and he knew the Frenchman would not want to miss his moment of triumph.

  But what did any of that matter now?

  This was the cruellest end to the game Tayte could imagine, carefully planned so that it would always come down to him having to give his life to save the woman he loved, or watch her die. Either way, it was a game he was destined never to win. When Tayte had thought Jean was dead, he hadn’t wanted to go on living himself. Now that he’d found her again, he did not want to die. He supposed that at least his death would not be in vain. He had been going to end his life anyway that night at Beachy Head. At least now he’d managed to do some good with it before he went. He’d saved Jean.

  Two minutes . . .

  As the seconds continued to count down, his mind began to drift through the happy, yet all too brief time he and Jean had spent together. He hoped she would not shed too many tears for him, but he knew she would. They had become very close since their visit to Germany the year before, and he wished with all his heart that he could spare her the emotional pain. The only way he could do that was to stay alive, but the odds were turning more and more against him with every passing second.

  Tayte drew a deep breath and stared up at the camera again. He thought back to the day these terrible events began—to the day he was called back to Washington, DC, to assist the FBI. He pictured the faces of Adam Westlake’s victims, his former clients and their close family members who had been murdered simply to make him suffer. He glanced down at the timer to see one minute, eleven seconds remaining. It briefly entered his head that maybe it was possible to leap clear in time, just as the timer expired, as Rudi had suggested, but he doubted he’d make it. When the timer reached zero, the lift cage would begin its immediate and rapid descent, and he shuddered to think what would happen to him if he made it halfway out. He’d be cut in two. He stared down at the timer again and braced himself, wondering if he would feel any pain when the lift cage reached the bottom of the shaft. He imagined that if he did, it would be fleeting.

  One minute . . .

  Tayte closed his eyes, counting down the remaining seconds in his head. Then as his own countdown reached zero, he clenched every muscle in his body and shouted, ‘I love you, Jean!’

  But nothing happened.

  He opened his eyes and looked down at the timer again. It showed that there was still one minute remaining. The timer had stopped. When he looked up he saw why. Standing ten feet in front of him, just outside the cage, appearing pale and ghostly in the glow of the torchlight, stood the Frenchman, Michel Levant.

  At seeing Levant standing before him, Tayte instinctively leaped out of the chair. With his free hand he tried to grab him, but despite his long reach he might as well have been chained to the back of the lift cage for all the good it did. Without letting go of the steel bar—the trigger—he was unable to make it even halfway.

  ‘Levant!’ he said, shining his torch more fully at the man, seeing his thin smile and wanting all the more to go out there and knock it clean off his face.

  Levant had on a long grey overcoat that seemed to drown him. His hands were thrust deep into his pockets, but now he took them out and shone his own torch back at Tayte. ‘I couldn’t resist saying goodbye in person, Monsieur Tayte. I hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘Why don’t you come in here and we’ll talk about it.’

  The idea seemed to amuse Levant. He laughed to himself and gave a sly grin as he stepped closer, until he was at the very edge of the lift cage. ‘That was a very touching scene I just witnessed through the camera lens as your friends were saying goodbye. By the way, who is this new acquaintance I keep seeing you with?’

  ‘He’s none of your business,’ Tayte said, thinking it best not to let on that Rudi was his brother—someone else he cared about.

  ‘It’s such a pity they had to leave you,’ Levant said, ‘but I suppose Jean must have told you all about my explosives and the extent of the damage they will cause. I’m afraid I lied to her so you would send her far away from here. My explosives are only set to break the steel cable holding this cage in place, little more than that.’

  ‘Just so we could be alone together,’ Tayte said. ‘I figured you couldn’t resist letting me know it was you.’

  Levant pursed his lips. ‘At least now you won’t have to die alone, as you have lived so much of your life.’ He raised his other hand then, revealing the remote trigger he’d used to pause the countdown. ‘And I suppose you could say that your life is now in my hands.’

  ‘Does that make you feel powerful?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Very much so. I simply press this little button and you have sixty seconds to live.’

  Tayte shook his head. ‘Why are you doing this?’

  Levant scoffed. He threw his hands in the air. ‘Mon Dieu! Where do I start? It began in London, of course, when our mutual friend, Marcus Brown, was murdered.’

  ‘He was no friend of yours.’

  ‘Perhaps not when I had him killed, but once upon a time.’

  Tayte clenched his fists. He’d always thought Levant was behind Marcus’s death, but to hear the Frenchman confirm it so coldly made his blood boil. ‘All you wanted was the contents of his briefcase. You could have just taken it. Why have him killed for it?’

  Levant drew a sharp breath through his teeth. ‘When you send a killer on an errand, you have to expect that someone will die. I’m sorry it had to be Marcus, if you can believe that.’

  ‘No, I can’t. I don’t believe you have a sorry bone in your body.’

  ‘Well, it’s of little consequence now, isn’t it? Marcus is dead and very soon you’ll be joining him. Did you really think you could cross me as you did, deny me the prize I had worked so long and so hard to attain, and then go on with your pathetic little life as though nothing had happened? The audacity! My reputation could not allow it.’

  ‘So why not just kill me and have done with it? Why have Westlake go after my clients first? This had nothing to do with them.’

  ‘You still fail to see it, don’t you?’ Levant said, smiling that thin smile to himself again. ‘I loathe you. I wanted to destroy your life piece by piece for what you had done! And I must confess that once started, the game became something of an addiction to me. I enjoyed pitting your genealogical mind against mine, setting my little puzzles for you to solve, if you were able to.’

  ‘You’re as much a psychopath as Westlake was, if not worse,’ Tayte said, thinking that Levant was certainly the more calculating.

  ‘Ah, poor Adam Westlake. He was just another pawn in the game, of course. He was an easy man to manipulate because of his blind hatred for you and our common desire to see you suffer. He would have killed you as soon as he was released from prison had I not gone to him first and offered him a more satisfying solution to his problem.’

  ‘Don’t expect any thanks from me,’ Tayte said. ‘And what about Donald Blackhurst? How did you m
anipulate him? I knew it had to be you posing as that journalist who went to see him.’

  Levant nodded. ‘I was heavily disguised, of course, so I couldn’t be recognised by the security cameras. Once I’d explained to Donald why I was there he became very excited, and he laughed and cried with joy by the time I left. It was easy to draw him into the game. All I had to do was play to his madness. I showed him a photograph of Jean Summer and I told him it was his sister, Stephanie. He thought Jean bore such a striking resemblance to the woman he imagined his sister had grown up to become that he readily believed it was her, just as he’d previously believed that Jean’s sister was Stephanie. He became so excited when I told him I could take Stephanie to their special place one more time, if only he would tell me where it was. Manipulating people is easy. You simply have to understand their needs.’

  ‘What are your needs, Levant?’ Tayte asked, both out of curiosity and the desire to keep him from pressing that button.

  ‘Very complex, Monsieur Tayte. Far too complex for the little time we have together. I’ve no doubt your fiancée, or that new friend of yours, has already called the police, but I’m afraid they will arrive too late. Now I must bid you au revoir.’

  With that, Levant held up the remote trigger to recommence the countdown, but suddenly, just as he was about to press the button, Rudi appeared behind him.

  Rudi had not left in the car with Jean. He’d climbed into the passenger seat, but he’d slipped out again unseen, losing himself in the darkness amidst the cover of the tall grey weeds just before Jean drove off. It had been a gamble for both Tayte and Rudi, and Tayte had doubted several times over the plan they had quickly hatched with Jean before she left him as he sat waiting in that chair, willing Levant to show. As Rudi reared up behind Levant, Tayte revelled in the shock that registered on the Frenchman’s pointy little face.

  ‘As I said, Levant, I figured you couldn’t resist letting me know you were behind all this. It was something I literally bet my life on, but I knew your ego wouldn’t allow you to walk away without stopping by for a farewell gloat.’

  Rudi grabbed Levant’s arm, but the small Frenchman was spritely for his age. Before Rudi could snatch the remote from his hand, Levant had dropped his torch and pressed the button. The timer on Tayte’s chest continued its countdown.

  ‘Fifty-nine seconds!’ Tayte called to Rudi.

  ‘He’s slippery as an eel,’ Rudi called back.

  By the light of his torch, Tayte could only sit and watch the action unfold in front of him, his life now firmly in the balance again. He saw Rudi’s strong arms restrain Levant. Then just as Rudi reached for the remote again, certain to get to it first this time, Levant dropped it.

  ‘I don’t mean to pressure you, Rudi, but this thing says I’ve only got fifty seconds left!’

  Rudi let go of Levant and dropped to his knees, grabbing for the remote, just as Levant kicked it away from him. Tayte watched it slide across the dusty floor towards him, and he hoped it would slide far enough for him to be able to reach it. He stood up, ready to grab it if it did, but when it reached the gap between the lift cage and the frame, it caught on the edge of the cage, which was slightly raised. Then Tayte could only close his eyes and sigh to himself as first the slim body of the remote trigger, and then the aerial, dropped from sight. It had slid through the gap, and for all Tayte knew was now on its way to the bottom of the lift shaft, where he would also be heading in exactly forty-six seconds.

  All eyes had been following the remote, and now everyone froze. Tayte saw Levant and Rudi staring at one another as if wondering what to do next. Rudi had two options as far as Tayte saw it. He could grab Levant and detain him until the police arrived, but in doing so he would seal Tayte’s fate. Or he could go for the remote in the hope that somehow he could retrieve it. Levant only had one choice open to him and he quickly took it. He turned and ran.

  Rudi snatched up the torch Levant had dropped. He leaped to the gap where the remote trigger had last been seen. The timer on Tayte’s chest was now down to thirty seconds.

  ‘Can you see it?’ Tayte asked, holding his breath as he waited for the answer.

  Rudi shone the torchlight down into the gap. ‘I can! There’s a narrow ledge. The tip of the aerial is resting against the cage. It seems to be the only thing that’s keeping it from falling into the shaft.’

  Breathlessly, Tayte asked the all-important question. ‘Can you get it?’

  Rudi was already trying. ‘It’s tight. I can only fit my little fingers through the gap.’

  Tayte didn’t think it would help Rudi’s nerves to know that the timer now showed that he only had twenty seconds left, so he gritted his teeth and kept that information to himself.

  ‘I have to be very careful,’ Rudi said. ‘If I knock the aerial the remote could tip over. If it does that it’s going to drop.’

  A few more seconds passed and Tayte could feel beads of sweat forming on his brow again. He tried to breathe slowly to calm himself, his eyes now glued to the timer as the seconds ticked away.

  Fifteen . . . Fourteen . . .

  ‘It’s hard to see what I’m doing,’ Rudi said. ‘I need both hands free and the torch is too big to hold in my mouth.’

  Eleven . . . Ten . . .

  When the timer entered single digits, Tayte couldn’t keep quiet. ‘If you’re going to get it at all, it has to be now!’

  ‘Almost!’

  Tayte closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.

  Seven . . . Six . . .

  ‘Five seconds!’ he called.

  ‘Got it!’ Rudi answered, sitting up with a smile on his face.

  Tayte watched him lift the remote back into view by the tip of its aerial, clasped between his two little fingers. As Rudi pressed the button, the timer on Tayte’s chest froze again with just two seconds to spare. Then every muscle in his body seemed to sigh with relief as he sank down into the chair.

  ‘Is it safe to let go of this bar now?’

  Rudi raised a cautioning hand. ‘Wait! Not yet.’ He studied the device with his torch. ‘It’s still active. I have to disable it first. If I can just get this panel open, I’m sure there has to be a switch.’

  Tayte watched him take a coin from his pocket, which he used to pop the panel open.

  ‘Here it is,’ Rudi said, flicking the override switch inside. ‘You can let go now.’

  Tayte did so very slowly. When nothing happened, much as he would have liked to go over and hug his brother, he stood and ran out after Levant, hoping there was still time to catch him. He knew Levant had the means to make himself disappear if he didn’t, and then he’d be back to looking over his shoulder again. He had to end this. He reached the gate and paused as he heard a car rev into life somewhere nearby. He ran out, following the sound. A moment later he saw the car’s headlights, and with all the strength he could muster, he ran through the crackling grey weed stems on an intercepting course, his eyes on those headlights the whole time. He noticed that the car wasn’t able to move very fast for now, and he knew Levant had to come back to the track he and Rudi had arrived by.

  Tayte quickly reached it, just as the car slid out on to the gravel, its tyres losing traction as the engine revved harder. Tayte was so incensed by all the terrible things Levant was responsible for that he gave no regard to what he did next. He leaped at the car as it screamed towards him and landed flat on the bonnet with a thud, blocking Levant’s view. The car immediately began to swerve on the loose gravel, but Tayte managed to hold on as the steering became wilder. A second later the car veered off the track, cutting down through the dead vegetation.

  It didn’t get far.

  One of the wheels must have hit something hard. There was an almighty crunch and the car came to a sudden, jarring halt that sent Tayte flying. He rolled into the brittle weeds for several feet, and when he sat up again and looked back at the car, he realised the engine had stopped running. He stood up. One of the headlights was out, broken in the crash
. He blocked the light with his hand, and through the windscreen he saw that Levant was trying to start the engine again. It turned over several times, but it wouldn’t start.

  Tayte clenched his hands into fists and strode up to the car. He saw Levant fumbling with his seat belt. Then just as he opened the door and began to climb out, Tayte ran at it. He kicked it into him, pinning him between the door and the body of the vehicle. He saw Rudi approaching from the rear of the car, but seeing that Tayte had the situation under control, he held back. In the distance, Tayte heard the wail of police sirens.

  ‘It’s over, Levant!’ he yelled. ‘You hear that sound? It means you’re going away for a very long time, and I hope they never let you out for all you’ve done.’

  Levant groaned, the weight of the door and Tayte’s determination to keep him there causing him to grimace, but he still managed to smile weakly through the pain he clearly felt, despite the fact that the tide had now turned so forcefully against him. ‘So, you win after all, Monsieur Tayte. You must allow me to congratulate you.’ Levant offered his right hand for Tayte to shake, drawing Tayte’s attention to it, misdirecting him as he quickly raised his left hand and swiped it at Tayte’s face.

  Tayte saw it coming. He grabbed Levant’s wrist just in time, preventing contact. He thought the blow would have been weak at best and he wondered why Levant had bothered to try something so futile, but then he looked more closely. He twisted Levant’s hand around until it was facing palm up. Levant immediately began to groan again, and it was then that Tayte saw the ring Levant was wearing on his left index finger. Protruding from the band he saw a small needle, and he could only imagine what might have happened had Levant managed to prick him with it.