Cold as Ice

by Lee Weeks

When Ebony opened her eyes she shuffled forward in the dark. She had no sense of time or place. She didn’t know where she was. The floor was crunching beneath her palms, something was sticking to her hands and knees. Her shoulder brushed against something that moved back and forth, banging, tapping her lightly. She recoiled quickly as she thought it was him, then in the silence that followed she inched forward again and reached out with her hand to touch the hanging object; her fingers touched a woman’s feet covered in silken thread.

  At the same time as she recoiled the lights went on and she saw that all around her on the floor, the crunchy paper particles were dead insects and above her, hanging from the ceiling, was a woman’s body embalmed in spiders’ webs. In the corner of the room she saw a woman she recognized as Danielle, suspended by her wrists from a hook in the ceiling; she was gagged, staring at Ebony. Her eyes were glaring at her, willing her to understand something that she couldn’t say.

  Ebony couldn’t focus, she tried to keep her head very still as she crawled towards Danielle. Danielle began whimpering. Her eyes were fixed on Ebony; the nearer she got to her the louder the sounds she made. Ebony stopped where she was. She kept her head very still as she focused on Danielle and saw why she was crying. Yan was watching them. He had slipped into the room.

  ‘What’s this? A party? We need some music.’

  Classical music started blasting out from a speaker on the wall. Yan moved to the middle of the room and held onto the hanging corpse as he pretended to waltz in a small circle. He lay on the floor breathing hard and laughing as he looked across at Ebony, who was retching now as the pain in her head distorted her vision and took away her balance. She couldn’t stand; she swayed on her knees.

  ‘Ebony, Ebony, Ebony.’ She watched him as he circled her. She realized that she only had underwear on and it wasn’t hers. It was a red metallic bikini. Her pendant was gone. She glared up at him.

  ‘Yes, you’re angry, I know. You fell for the oldest trick in the book, didn’t you? Oh Ebony, I can be your boyfriend.’ He simpered then laughed loudly. ‘You’re all the same. You’re all pretenders: selfish liars, mercenary cheats, uncaring, ruthless in your pursuit of selfish dreams. And you, Ebony, are the lowest of the low. I intend to put all my skills to use on you. You are my pièce de résistance.’ he said flamboyantly, waving his arms in the air as he struck a dancer’s pose.

  Ebony closed her eyes and sank to the floor. How could she have messed up so badly?

  She heard Danielle try and say something to her from the corner of the room.

  ‘You jealous?’ He danced across to Danielle and ran his fingers slowly down her body whilst she twisted from his touch.

  ‘Your turn will come.’

  Ebony looked around the room, trying to get her bearings. There was no window. She thought they must be in the basement. Her heart sank – no way of tracking her anyway, all her devices were gone. If she was ever going to get out she had to outwit him and this place had to become as familiar to her as it was to him.

  ‘I’ve been waiting for them to send someone to try and trap me. I knew if I left enough clues you’d narrow it down to the college but there were so many choices in there. I wouldn’t have known for sure it was you if you hadn’t failed. You didn’t know a basic fact about your supposed home town. In the café, you didn’t get my text because you were on a different phone, which I saw you stuff into your bag. But don’t feel bad, I saw you way before that. I saw you from the bridge the day that Emily rose to the surface. For weeks I’d been coming this way and that, different routes, different viewpoints. I had a feeling something would happen that day. I felt her beginning to rise beneath the surface. I saw you walk along the towpath and you didn’t see me. You had your eyes on the man with you – Detective Inspector Dan Carter. With his expensive clothes and his black shiny hair like a raven’s. That’s all you were worried about. “I’m not your mate . . . you all right Guv?”’ He mimicked them both. ‘If you had walked up onto the bridge, past the press, you would have seen me. But I saw you. And you know what? I’m glad you’re here now because we are going to play a special game, just me and you and Danielle and Jenny here. Just the four of us. We have plenty of time.’

  Yan walked across to the side of the room and picked up a box. He came across to Ebony and slid open a door at the front of the box. It came level with Ebony’s face. She tried hard to focus. Inside she could make out something hanging, wrapped in silk. It had a tail, an ear poking out of the white bag that wrapped it. She focused on the mouse first, its beady little eyes watched hers. Then her eyes shifted to the right and she saw the massive spider that had wrapped it in white silk. He began swinging the box in front of her face.

  The spider moved to the back of the box. It began to rear and sway; in the dark she saw its bright yellow markings.

  ‘Tell me, Ebony, does the brown recluse spider always bite?’

  ‘No,’ Ebony whispered, keeping as still as possible.

  ‘No. That’s right,’ he said, allowing the spider to stay still in front of her face. ‘Very good, Ebony. But this isn’t the brown recluse spider, this is the jumping tree spider, highly venomous and aggressive and she . . .’ The spider reared onto its back legs and showed two red fangs. ‘. . . does.’

  ‘Tell me about Australia.’

  ‘My client . . .’

  Christian Goddard turned to his lawyer to indicate he wanted to speak for himself.

  ‘Look, I’ve got nothing to hide here. I’ll tell you what I know about Yan but I’m not sure it will help. I am fond of Ebony and Danielle. If I can help I will.’

  ‘How did you meet Yan?’

  ‘In a bar in Adelaide. He was with his mother. She was a hippy type. They’d travelled the world. By the time I met them they weren’t getting on very well. His mum had a really wild side and a habit of sleeping with Yan’s mates.’

  ‘Including you?’

  Christian shrugged. ‘Actually no – it didn’t work for me.’

  ‘What were you doing at the time?’

  ‘Drifting, working where I could. I got work in a bat sanctuary and then a zoo. That’s when I learnt about looking after pets.’

  ‘And Yan?’

  ‘They had enough money sent over by his dad to keep them going but they lived very frugally. They rented out shitty old places and lived like tramps. Yan had been brought up like that. Ever since his mum left the UK supposedly to find herself and left Yan’s dad and never came back. By the time I met Yan he was bitter and angry and seemed to be on the brink of just flying back to the UK without his mum. Then his dad died over here and it seemed to be a massive blow to him. All he ever talked about was his memories of his dad. He talked about getting back here and making up for all the lost time. He really hated his mum then.’

  ‘What happened to them then?’

  ‘I didn’t see him for a while. The next time I met him out in a bar on his own I asked after his mum. He told me she was back at the farm they were renting. She was pretty ill. He said he was waiting for her to get better then he was definitely coming back to the UK and he had inherited his dad’s house.’

  ‘Where – did he say?’

  ‘Yes, off Upper Street somewhere. I didn’t see him again until he contacted me on Facebook and I found out he was working at the college. I decided I would take a couple of courses and it just snowballed from there.’

  ‘So you are friends?’

  Christian shook his head. ‘Not really. I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me.’

  ‘Would it surprise you to know that his mother died in that remote farm outside Adelaide?’

  ‘Not really. How?’

  ‘Strangled. By the time they found her she was cocooned in spiders’ webs.’

  Chapter 51

  Ebony’s face felt like it didn’t belong to her. The bite was throbbing. She raised her hands to touch the swelling on her face. She could feel the poison working. Her ribs were in agony when she breathed. She had passed out
after killing the spider – she hadn’t meant to but her instinct was to crush it in her hand. He’d beaten her unconscious for that.

  Her wrists were bound together. She must have slept. Her vision was slightly better although her face throbbed. She looked around her. The corpse he called Jenny was still hanging, mummified and cocooned, from the hook in the ceiling. As she focused on it she could see that beneath the white web there was movement – hundreds of spiders had colonized the body.

  Danielle was watching her from her place, strung up by her wrists, her legs opened and chained to anchors in the floor. There was blood dripping down to her feet. Yan was in the corner of the room. A bottle of vodka was open beside him. Ebony looked at the photos on the walls. There were large prints of a young boy with a man. She recognized Yan from the photos.

  ‘My dad,’ he said, looking up. ‘The dad my mother never let me be with. She should have left me with him. I loved him. He would have looked after me. I could have nursed him back to health when he got ill. I never saw him again after we left. She was taking me on holiday, she said, taking me away for the summer, but we never came back and I missed all those years with my dad. Women shouldn’t have kids selfishly like that. They shouldn’t just up and leave the man who gave them that child. Women are fickle and vain and only think about themselves. They entrap a man with their looks, cover themselves in make-up, but inside they are worse than spiders, worse than the female spider for taking what they want and then destroying the mate that gave it to them.’

  He looked at Ebony. He picked up the vodka and swigged it back. ‘Did you really think I wouldn’t know that the police would try and trap me? I’m not going to let you stop me from finishing the game. I know that this will be my last game and I chose to end it here with you two – my last players. Danielle, you will die on my first mark . . . Ebony on my second.’ His laughter started deep and ended in a shrill squeal that left him doubled over and breathless. ‘We are going to play the game called “tighten the noose”.’ He got to his feet slowly – with deliberate precision he then walked across to Danielle; he walked like a ballet dancer. He took every step as if he were on stage – in a performance.

  ‘Ebony, you have to answer questions. If you get them wrong then I tighten the noose around Danielle’s neck.’ He took his mother’s scarf from his pocket and tied it around Danielle’s neck, looping it twice around and taking up the slack in his fist. She twisted and thrashed against his grip as the scarf tightened around her throat.

  ‘Here’s the question . . . ready?’

  ‘Leave her alone,’ Ebony shouted out.

  ‘What is your worst nightmare? What do you fear most?’

  ‘Pain. I fear pain most.’ She couldn’t bear to see Danielle struggling to breathe.

  ‘Liar.’ He squeezed the scarf and twisted it around his fist.

  ‘Being alone.’

  Yan shook his head, tutting, and gathered more of the scarf in his fist. Danielle started to lose consciousness.

  ‘Stop . . . stop . . . Okay – my worst nightmare is something I don’t understand. It’s dark. I hear my mother. I’m being touched . . . I feel violated, vulnerable . . .’

  He released the scarf and Danielle slumped forward and her shoulders rose and fell as she snatched the air back into her lungs. The gag was sucked into her mouth at each breath.

  ‘Good.’ He waited a few minutes for Danielle to recover. He turned to look at Ebony.

  ‘It’s all black and white with you. Did no one tell you the world is grey?’ He pulled the scarf tight around Danielle’s neck again. Her legs began to shake. Her chest rose and collapsed. Then he released the tourniquet.

  ‘Second question: have you ever betrayed anyone?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Liar. I looked you up. I found you. Wilson equals Willis. Ebony Willis – right age, right mixed-race kid from children’s homes and a fuck-up mum. I looked you up and I thought, you know what? We have a lot in common but still you were sent to trick me and you accepted the challenge willingly.’

  ‘I didn’t know it was you. Please stop. No. I don’t know what you want from me. I have never betrayed anyone.’

  ‘What about your own mother? You arrested your own mother.’

  ‘I had no choice. It was my job. She killed someone. Please. Please . . . let Danielle go. We can talk . . . yes, you’re right, we have a lot in common. My mum was sick. She did things.’ Ebony was fighting to think straight. She didn’t know what she could say to save Danielle. She would give anything to do that – even her life.

  ‘You betrayed her. You couldn’t wait. You hated her.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Ebony looked at Danielle and saw the urine run down her legs. ‘I am telling the truth.’

  He released the tension on the scarf and he took off Danielle’s gag so she could breathe better. She gasped and her lungs squealed and sobs erupted from her raw throat. ‘Please. Please, I’ve had enough; let me die,’ Danielle begged.

  ‘Not till I’m ready.’ He turned to Ebony. ‘Do you wish your mother were dead, Ebony?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Yes you do.’ He snatched up the slack from the scarf.

  Danielle twisted in the air and her feet beat against the floor as she tried to get oxygen and failed.

  ‘Yes. Yes . . . you’re right. I hate her. Please . . . please . . . Danielle doesn’t deserve it, kill me not her. Yes my mother doesn’t love me . . . is that what you want me to say? My mother doesn’t love me. Never did and never will.’

  Danielle’s legs stopped twitching and her body slumped. He pulled the scarf away and she stayed the way she was. Ebony watched helplessly. She was here to save Danielle and she had failed.

  Yan was angry with himself. ‘You did this – you made me lose concentration. You made me rush.’

  He reached down and pulled Ebony to her feet and threw her over his shoulder again. Ebony started to retch. She was sick over the floor as he walked. She looked up as they were leaving the room; Danielle was stirring, coming round. Ebony felt the hope in her return. It wasn’t too late. Yan carried on walking, almost jogging along the corridor. Ebony felt the cold air rush as she stared at the floor beneath her. Her stomach heaved. She counted the doors, she knew the direction. She was back where she started. He opened a door and the mustiness, the heat in the room hit her. He laid her back in the box and left her for what could have been days. She had no idea how long.

  She closed her eyes inside the coffin and tried to rest. She was thinking of Micky when she heard Yan return. She heard the three locks on the coffin being undone. As her eyes adjusted she saw him standing over her, something moving in his hands. Her eyes focused and she saw he was holding a rat; it was trying to bite him through his gloves. He held the rat one-handed as he reached into the box and pulled her up to a sitting position by her wrists. Then he dropped the rat in the box with her.

  Ebony struggled to breathe through the panic as she felt its warm body and its sharp claws scratch her as it scuttled nervously around the box. He reached in and lifted it out by the tail. He dangled it in front of her face. It squealed as Yan pulled and twisted – dislocated its back legs. Then he dropped it back in. She watched it drag its mutilated body around the box.

  Yan left her and walked to the corner of the room; she couldn’t see what he was doing but she heard the slide of a heavy glass lid being opened and the musty smell in the room intensified. He moved slowly back towards her carrying a huge snake coiled around his arms. Its girth was as thick as a man’s leg. He carried it looped over his shoulders and across his arms, walking slowly with the weight of it. Its head rose in the air as it smelt the room with its tongue.

  ‘Now this is my interpretation of a well-known classic: three blind mice. But this is one crippled rat and it isn’t the farmer’s wife coming after him, it’s my lovely Miranda.’

  Ebony breathed hard as the snake’s head appeared over the side of the box. It was watching both her and the rat.

  ‘St
ay still – I would – because she gets very jumpy when she’s hungry. She’ll strike at anything, even me. She has scores of sharp-as-needles teeth. The wound on my hand that you thought was made by a staple gun was actually Miranda’s teeth.’

  Ebony stayed still, slowed her breathing and watched. She felt the snake’s body against her own as it dropped into the coffin with her and she sensed its tongue against her legs as it slithered its way slowly along. The rat didn’t seem to know what was about to happen to it. It edged closer to the snake as if curious. Miranda moved across Ebony’s legs, slowly inching its way towards the rat until their faces were almost touching and then she made her strike. She bit into the neck of the squealing rat and wrapped her coils around it as it fought to escape. Yan didn’t move – he was watching Ebony. She could feel it – she had to play his game now if she had any chance of surviving this and helping Danielle. She turned her head away, disgusted, and refused to look at the rat whose feet paddled in the air at the crack of its spine.

  ‘Please let me go, Yan. I can help you. I’ll tell them you were kind to me – please don’t kill me this way.’ Yan smiled. He was pleased to see Ebony so upset.

  ‘Take a good look, Ebony. Every time the rat exhales she constricts tighter; imagine her squeezing the life out of you.’ Ebony shuddered.

  ‘Please, Yan. Please stop this.’

  She watched as Miranda opened her mouth wide and began taking the rat inside.

  ‘My game. My rules. I say when it’s over for you and Danielle. Stay here. Don’t move. You move and Miranda will strike.’

  ‘Please don’t leave me with it. Yan, please . . .’

  Ebony heard his footsteps as he left. She listened to them outside the door and counted his steps. She knew he’d gone into the room where Danielle was. After a few minutes she heard the door open again and his footsteps climbing stairs.

  Ebony didn’t dare breathe as she lay listening to the cracking of the rat’s bones and the sound of a door opening to the upper floor. He was planning to kill Danielle on the next floor of the house. If he’d left the door unlocked then Ebony could make it.