DARK JUSTICE

by Taylor Leon

  ‘Mmm, there is that,’ she laughed softly. ‘That’ll hold them for, let’s see. Ten seconds.’

  ‘Are you threatening me?’ I could feel my anger rising. I didn’t remember Frankie being this cocky when we were young. Then again, I didn’t imagine she’d turn out into some sort of criminal either. I guessed someone or something had changed her.

  She looked like she was seriously debating whether to answer me. Instead she sighed, and whispered for the other two to sit down.

  ‘Good,’ I said. ‘Now I want to see their IDs.’

  ‘We don’t have any,’ Moira said.

  ‘Credit cards. Anything.’

  ‘Nothing. Nada,’ she said.

  ‘What about you?’ I said to Bella next to me.

  ‘Same here.’

  I sighed and looked across at Frankie. ‘I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I think it’s time I called for some back up and got the three of you down to the station. We can figure everything out there.’ I looked Frankie dead in the eyes and blanked the other two out. ‘Talk to me,’ I said. ‘Or I take you all in.’

  Frankie nodded. ‘Okay, okay.’ She cast a sideways glance at the other two.

  When she swung back to me her eyes looked like they were ablaze, her irises a bright yellow.

  And now I know that instead of reading me, she reversed it and read to me, planting scores of images into me that told the story. And so, within seconds I knew exactly what she wanted to tell me.

  A small coven of modern day witches, led by-----. That part was deleted for now. Like a confidential report which has had the sensitive bits blanked out. There were the five of them, all playing vigilante, going after criminals who for whatever reason had not paid a price for their crimes.

  ‘You’re crazy,’ I said when it was over.

  Frankie’s eyes had returned to their previous dark green. She shrugged and didn’t say anything. This was the initial test Victoria had agreed with the girls. If they ever found a potential recruit, then they were told to ensure ‘plausible deniability’ by saying nothing. If they were proven right, then the recruit’s brain would read and interpret the images, and more importantly they would accept.

  The Coven didn’t have time for sceptics.

  Believers only welcome.

  Frankie later told me that she’d planted the same images with someone else once before, but that person hadn’t realised what they were seeing, just thought it was their own wild imagination.

  I looked around the table at the three of them. ‘You send bad people to hell?’

  ‘Very bad people who can’t be turned,’ Moira said.

  ‘We in turn are fed our power,’ Bella added.

  ‘You’re Satanists?’

  Frankie laughed. ‘Satan’s only a relative term.’

  ‘Two sides of the same coin,’ Moira added.

  It did sound crazy, but at the same time I found myself drawn in. Frankie later told me that when she initially read me she could tell I would accept. I had a profile and morale view like theirs.

  She’d hooked me with the last image, and she knew it. Some alleged serial rapist I’d heard of called Gary Cobb. I watched as he fell to his knees crying, small demons covering his body, like tar, rising up his body, until they fell away and left an empty space.

  And Frankie’s whisper accompanying the images. Chanting two words over and over. The same name over and over. She’d known me at school. She knew which buttons to press. Everyone knew what happened back then. It had been splashed right across the papers at the time.

  The man who killed my mother.

  Frankie chanting the same two words over and over.

  Edward Cryle.

  Edward Cryle. Edward Cryle. Edward Cryle.

  Gary Cobb could be Edward Cryle.

  ‘Can you find him?’ I said.

  I noticed Moira and Bella were looking on blankly. They didn’t have a clue what we were talking about.

  ‘In time, we can find anyone,’ Frankie said. The smile had gone. This was serious now. I was a potential recruit, and a cop to boot. The stakes for them were incredibly high. If I was in, then they had an insider into London’s criminal comings and goings. Names and rumours to follow up, suspects that without me they’d never know about. If you want to try and wipe out as much of the criminal fraternity as you can, then it helps if you have an inside professional on your side.

  It would take more time and persuasion before I could be brought over, but Frankie knew I had potential. It was just a matter of when.

  21

  ‘FRANKIE’S HERE,’ THE voice said in the darkness, and when I opened my eyes there she was, smiling down on me like a face painted in the sky. Behind her, a blurred figure that quickly became clearer as I identified the voice that had woken me. John Cade.

  ‘You’re in hospital,’ Frankie said softly, ‘but you are going to be okay.’

  My head was pounding, and suddenly panic set in as I remembered what had happened to me before I found myself here.

  ‘Lloyd? Angel?’ I gasped, and tried to sit up. I felt tubes pulling at me, and then Frankie’s hand gently resting on my sternum to stop me going any further, her other arm around my shoulders as she eased me back down.

  ‘You’ve had an awful shock,’ she whispered.

  ‘Where are they?’ I insisted. I wanted her to tell me the explosion had been a dream and I was here for some other reason that I couldn’t remember.

  Frankie looked back over her shoulder and Cade took that as his cue to step forward and take centre stage. He sat down on the edge of the bed and rested a warm hand over mine. His breath was minty and I caught a small whiff of aftershave.

  ‘Lloyd? Angel?’ I asked him.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

  Even though I already knew the answer I twisted agonisingly in my bed, calling out ‘No!’ several times. A nurse appeared in the doorway but, like Frankie and Cade, she seemed prepared for this scene to just play itself out.

  Eventually I calmed down, Frankie lightly stroking my hair, encouraging me to take deep breaths. The nurse hovered in the doorway for a minute or so just to be sure I was okay, then left us.

  ‘Do they know who did it?’ I eventually asked Cade.

  ‘We’re working on it,’ he said, ‘but it looks like an NID revenge attack. The soldier who was trying to disarm the neck bomb was linked up to his team outside who were talking with him through the process. They’re saying the device came from the same stable as the ones the NID used several years ago.’

  ‘How involved was Lloyd in bringing the NID down?’ I felt breathless, and could hear myself wheezing the words out. I knew I needed rest, but I couldn’t stop now. My mind was awake and running on auto-pilot.

  ‘He shot and killed one of the pub bombers called Mark Riley, five years ago.’

  I tried to nod but my neck felt stiff and every move I made seemed to lightly tug at the tube running into the back of my hand.

  ‘This must be linked to Richard Hall’s murder,’ I said.

  ‘Too much of coincidence not to be,’ Cade agreed. ‘We’re drawing up a list of suspects.’

  He placed a gentle hand on my forehead, lightly stroking my hair. I struggled to reconcile this strong, kind figure with the upset drunk that had been waiting for me outside my front door just…

  ‘How long have I been here?’ I asked him.

  His voice was gentle, barely above a whisper. ‘Just a day. You woke up several times then drifted back to sleep.’

  ‘You’ve been here the whole time?’

  ‘I’ve been outside making calls but, yeah, I’ve been here.’

  ‘Thanks.’ I twisted around, trying to get more comfortable. My whole body felt stiff now, but I was stuck in this same prone position, flat on my back.

  ‘Did my Dad come?’

  ‘He came by this morning. Said he’s going to come back this evening. You are going to be okay. You’re lucky. Cut and bruises. They’ll just want to keep
you in another day for observation because you took a blow to the head.’ He looked back over his shoulder before he turned back and leaned in real close. He smelled good, and that filled me with a comforting warmth.

  ‘Frankie came over as soon as she heard what had happened on the news. You know you called out for her in your sleep?’ He ran his hand gently down my arm, stopping before he got to my tubed hand. ‘I’m going back to the station for a bit but I’ll be back later. You hang in there.’

  He stood up and let Frankie sit in his place. Her freckled elfin face smiled down at me. She opened her mouth to say something, but Cade cut across. ‘You also called out for someone else. Victoria.’

  I think my eyes must have widened and I looked up at Frankie. I hated not being in control, not knowing what I’d dreamed or said in front of Cade, or anyone else that had been inside this private ward.

  ‘She was an old friend of ours,’ Frankie replied without turning, keeping her eyes fixed on me. Saying, don’t worry I’ve got this.

  She waited until Cade had gone before she continued.

  ‘The girls were all shocked when they heard what had happened,’ she said.

  I wasn’t interested in any of that. My mind was picking up quickly. Lloyd and Angel were dead. Right now, that was all that mattered.

  ‘I have to get out of here,’ I said, trying to sit up.

  Frankie once again put a restraining arm across my chest. ‘No way, Erin. The doctors are keeping you here.’

  ‘But John…’

  ‘Will manage,’ she said. Then offered a mischievous grin. ‘He’s your new partner, right?’

  Even in this state I could feel myself blushing, and she hadn’t even suggested anything. I dropped my head back onto the pillow.

  ‘Mmm, I thought so.’ She laughed softly.

  ‘“Thought so” about what?’ But my voice wasn’t convincing.

  ‘He’s a good-looking guy,’ she said.

  I stayed quiet, turned my head away to avoid eye contact which would have made my cheeks go redder.

  ‘Oh please. This is me you’re talking to.’

  ‘He has a son,’ I offered weakly.

  ‘He’s divorced and his ex-wife looks after their son.’

  Now I turned back to face her. ‘He told you that?’

  ‘We had to talk about something while we waited for you to wake up. He wasn’t in the mood to discuss work, and my teaching isn’t exactly the most scintillating topic.’

  ‘Fair point.’

  ‘You like him, huh?’

  ‘I told you, he’s my partner.’

  She sat and smiled at me until our eyes met and locked. Then I gave in and grinned back. ‘Okay, first impressions. If he wasn’t my partner, then maybe.’

  Frankie raised two clenched fists in mock triumph. ‘I knew it! And I didn’t even have to read you.’

  I tried to change the subject. ‘Will you take my keys and feed Sampson? Maybe take him out for a walk?’

  Frankie nodded. ‘Sure.’ Then, glancing around the small room, she added, ‘You were lucky to get this private room. Your boyfriend pushed hard for it.’

  I rolled my eyes in exasperation at her attempt to bring the conversation back to John Cade, and once again I tried to talk about something else. ‘You should tell the girls you’ve been here and I’m alright. There’s another damnation in a couple of days, isn’t there?’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about that. Since you told us about the redhead watching us and walking up walls, Victoria’s put everything on hold for the time being.’

  ‘So she knows who the girl is?’

  Frankie shrugged. ‘If she does, then she’s not saying.’

  ‘But the girls do believe I saw her, don’t they?’

  Frankie stood up. ‘Of course. We all believe you, Erin. It’s just…’

  ‘Just what?’

  ‘It’s just nothing any of us have come across before.’

  ‘You think it’s someone like us?’

  ‘Either that or a ghost,’ she replied deadpan. Her eyes narrowed, and I knew what she was thinking. Her little sister Emily, who went missing six years ago travelling abroad in Thailand. They never knew the identity of the tanned, bearded foreigner who had bought her a drink in the bar, the one she was seen leaving with. She’d never been found but Frankie and her parents knew she was never coming back.

  Maybe Frankie read me right then because she suddenly said. ‘If it was Emily then surely she would have been watching me.’

  ‘I never said it was her,’ I said. ‘I know it was dark but I would have recognised Emily.’

  ‘It was dark,’ Frankie agreed. Her voice was quiet and wistful, her eyes a little teary. This was her eternal hope. That her sister would one day magically re-appear. I think that hope tore at her everyday just like finding Edward Cryle did to me. That same pain and anger that had driven her into The Coven’s arms.

  ‘This girl had red hair,’ I said.

  Frankie was staring at some far away point over my shoulder. It spooked me when she got like this. It was why we girls never spoke about Emily.

  ‘Emily dyed her hair, just before she went away.’

  I gently took her hand in mine. I hated seeing her like this.

  ‘It wasn’t her, Frankie. If it was, then like you said, she would have come to see you. You’re her sister.’

  Her hand felt limp in mine. ‘Maybe she didn’t come back to me because we didn’t get on,’ she said. ‘And she hated my parents. But she always liked you, back when we were kids.’

  ‘Frankie, look at me.’ She came out of her reverie and met my stare. ‘It. Wasn’t. Emily.’

  She nodded and gave me a fake smile. ‘I know,’ she said. But she had already filled her head with hope.

  22

  THE FUNERALS TOOK place three days later. The bomb disposal officer had been first. Like Lloyd Tanner, there had been nothing to bury. Death had been instantaneous, the body incinerated.

  I stood at the front of the small crowd that lined both sides of the grave. Through a thick fog that had lain in front of my eyes for the last three days, I watched as the second coffin was slowly lowered into the ground. Lloyd Tanner laid to rest between his wife Clare and daughter Angel who had been buried only moments earlier.

  Somewhere on my left I heard the priest. ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…’

  I was standing by my father’s side, Cade just behind me with Arnie and a seemingly endless number of other officers from the many years Lloyd had served. The blue skies and gentle morning sun did nothing to hide the pain we all felt inside. To many, Lloyd had been a colleague who had given twenty-eight years to the police force. To others he was simply a good and trustworthy friend. To someone like my father he had been both.

  My father was inconsolable. He and Lloyd had been close. I looked across at Arnie. The expression on his face told me another ex-partner felt the same.

  Then there were all the teenagers, come to pay their last respects to Angel, a beautiful young girl who had so much still to give and do in this life. All of them from this day on would know their own mortality. Any remaining innocence they had would be lost for sure. I cried for her, and for them.

  I called my sister up in Spain and told her what had happened. I said that even if she didn’t give a shit about me, Dad was pretty cut up. Despite everything he’d seen over the years, not since Edward Cryle came after us had he been so shaken to the core.

  Usually when we spoke, there were unnecessary extended pauses during which it seemed that Rachel was trying to formulate the right words to express how she felt. But not today. Today she had thought it all through in advance.

  ‘He’s lot tougher than you think,’ she said. ‘He’ll be okay. Besides if you are that worried about him then how about you two make up? Not that I have any idea what you fell out about.’

  She didn’t know and I wasn’t going to tell her.

  ‘It’s not so easy for me to just jump on a flight,’ she adde
d.

  ‘Yes, it is,’ I insisted. ‘These days it’s just like catching a bus.’

  ‘I can’t just stop work and besides I would need to make arrangements for the kids. I’d need more time.’

  No point in arguing. If she didn’t want to come, then she didn’t want to come.

  And we had no idea where Toby was or how to get hold of him. He’d turn up, when he needed something, or we’d hear about him when he was in deep shit. Again.

  As the service came to an end Dad gave me a small hug. ‘It could have been you,’ he whispered in my ear, ‘running into the house like that. What were you thinking? Never ever do something like that again. You hear me?’

  I pulled back from him. Tall, white haired with tough leathery skin, he still had the fatherly protective aura about him, despite what had happened to Mom fourteen years ago.

  I looked up into those warm brown eyes and nodded.

  ‘A tragedy like this makes you think though, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘Are you ever going to forgive me?’

  We’d never discussed why we had barely spoken over the last five years despite his best efforts. He’d assumed it was because I found out he’d been having an affair behind Mom’s back with that Madeline bitch. But he was only half right. The other half was in the actual police report from that night. That was the part I could never bring myself to talk about. Not then, and not now.

  ‘You should go see Lloyd’s family,’ I said, evading his question. ‘I need to speak with the boss.’

  He sighed. One daughter living abroad, a son who-knows-where, and another daughter that he barely had a relationship with. He paused, hoping I’d soften, maybe give him a hug back or at least a smile. I did neither and so with a small nod he shuffled across to join the mourners queuing to pay their respects.

  I knew Arnie had been pissed at me for disobeying orders and running into Lloyd’s house, but nothing had been said since. I guess he was just relieved I hadn’t been killed as well.

  ‘Good to see you back on your feet,’ Arnie said to me.

  ‘I’ll be back at work in a couple of days.’

  Arnie nodded and an uncomfortable silence fell between us. I shuffled uncomfortably on the spot before eventually saying I was sorry for ignoring his orders. With my head bowed low I could feel Arnie’s gaze boring into me. I felt like I was back at school.