Force Of Habit v5

by Robert Bartlett

  Mason enjoyed the surprise all over North’s face.

  ‘She always popped into the boozer near her work on the way home. I started popping into the boozer too, listened to the whiny bitch until I thought my ears would bleed, until, at fucking last, one thing lead to another and she took me back to the practice for a session on the waiting room sofa. I watched her type in the alarm code and took a quick mould from her keys when she went to the khasi. It’s a small practice with everything kept on site. I attached a keyboard key recorder to a USB at the back of her PC, unplugged it at our next session, and walked away with her passwords to their systems. I popped back in the wee small hours and did the necessary. No one ever knew.’

  Mason had been bursting to tell someone of his exploits. To gloat. He saw himself as superhuman. Alan Sugar and Donald Trump types could show themselves to the world, bask in their achievements, shove it down millions of throats on national television week in week out about how they started out with less than zero in some total shithole and just take a good long look at me now, fuckers! Mason hadn’t been able to say jack about what he saw as his great achievements and now it was bursting from him like ash out of an Icelandic volcano.

  North tried his arms, pulling at the wire extending out to the beams but they wouldn’t budge. They were all fucked. North scoured the place for the first time. It was a large space with a high ceiling made from corrugated iron. There was very little in it. A few bales of hay. Maybe he was planning another fire with the three of them in it. Chances are no one would even notice it out here. When the ashes cooled they would be scattered to the four corners by the winds.

  ‘Don’t worry; your pals will be along soon enough.’ He regained North’s attention. ‘Same way you got here,’ he smiled. ‘I never forgot why I needed the insurance in the first place. I knew it couldn’t last forever. We were getting too big not to be noticed and we had wiped out any real competition. Drugs were rife and arrests were low. The day would come when someone would start to look internally. Then you showed up.

  ‘A phone call, a form, a fax and an email may well tick all the procedural boxes and satisfy the old man but I needed a whole bunch more. You'll understand that in my line of business any new face is a potential threat. I had certain precautionary processes of my own to undertake and I have to declare that you did not stand up to the rigours of due diligence.

  ‘I don't know who or what you are North, but you are no Detective Inspector in the Met, as you would have us believe. You are no DC, DS, DI, DCI or D anything else either. If you work for the Met at all you must belong to one of their special ops teams, or the ghost squad. Something.’

  North could feel Deacon and James looking at him.

  ‘So I had my people on the street steer you into harms way, but that little bitch,’ he indicated Deacon and his voice began to rage, ‘came running to the rescue. But you are going to pay,’ he slammed his fist into her face as metal flashed in his other hand and a thin blade plunged into the top of her thigh. Deacon let out a scream that silenced the rain. Mason stood watching the blood and pain on her face. Deacon puked up and kept retching long after the liquid had ceased to pour. She slumped forward, held by her bindings and moaned. Mason turned to the others. ‘You will all pay. You,’ he pointed the blade at North, ‘you should have been sorted already but another attempt would have been too obvious. I had to bide my time, but it got you stuck indoors, out of harms way and where I could keep an eye on you and as time went on I started to think that maybe you'd been gotten rid of by your previous employers. You were clearly burnt out. They had put you out to pasture, I mean look at the state you were in - but it was probably all part of the act and I fell for it. I underestimated you big time. Everyone did. Now I'm not on the inside anymore. I can't control things. You have made life very difficult for me and my organisation and you wouldn’t believe how much fun it has been running an illegal multi-million pound drug cartel.’

  ‘As much fun as it is torturing, raping and killing defenceless girls?’

  ‘What can I say?’ he grinned. ‘I have an extreme taste in extracurricular activities.’

  North was genuinely surprised about the initial attempt on his life. It had never occurred to him that it was anything more than the act of a desperate man he’d interrupted in the course of a burglary. Mason wasn’t smiling anymore. ‘Rest assured that fuck-up paid for his mistake just as surely as I have had to pay for mine and now you are going to pay for yours.’

  He had a cruel twist to his grin and his eyes burned. North saw madness in the fire. Mason's head move fast and powered into North's nose. There was a crunch and claret flowed. North was dazed. He felt himself falling forward and pain flared as the wire went taught and the barbs tore deeper into his flesh. The red pool he knelt in grew. Mason kicked out and set fire to his balls. More blows rained in, aimless in their anger. North’s body went limp and the barbs took the strain. He lay hanging in the wire.

  ‘That's for fucking my wife in my bed. I only wish that we could spend a little longer together, but time is pressing. That dental practice manager will never know just how lucky she was. Not like you two,’ he chuckled, looking into Deacon’s eyes, smiling, and then James’. ‘You two will know just how very, very lucky she was.’

  North wanted him to keep talking for as long as possible but this line of talk was liable to kick things off again. He had to try and stall him. His trap had worked on North but the lads would work it out. They wouldn’t fall for the same thing again – assuming they also worked out that they’d been rumbled as a second tail. North didn’t like the 'ifs' that were piling up.

  ‘I thought you had to beat the shit out of women and cut them up to get a hard on?’

  ‘Now, now, sticks and stones. There was plenty of material in that dentist to get me going: scalpels, drills, pliers,’ he shuddered at the thought. Smiled. ‘I had to take some with me, of course.’ His eyes took a stroll all over Deacon, then James. Shiny, surgical steel appeared in his hand. He came closer and lingered over Deacon. This wasn’t working as North had hoped. Mason ran his fingers through Deacon’s hair. Across her skin. Deacon swore at him and yelled, struggling. He looked at Deacon with admiration. ‘That’s it, make some noise. There will be plenty of noise,’ and he slammed his fist into Deacon’s face. Her head dropped. ‘There is no one for miles. All this is an environmental rejuvenation area, out of bounds to the public. And the weather is absolutely perfect. It’s been pissing down all day. No stray ramblers – and no stray noise. Cosy.’ He concentrated on Deacon. ‘I’m going to cut you some more,’ the blade reappeared. It was a scalpel. Deacon screamed as it went into her and red came out and ran down her side and dripped onto the concrete floor, ‘and fuck you in every hole – old and new – and you are going to make noises that don’t even sound like you, that don’t even sound human! You are going to scream and cry and beg for mercy and then you will beg for death!’

  ‘How could you string Jennifer Yates along?’ North tried to get Mason’s attention. ‘Did you tell her you should wait until marriage?’

  ‘For that little mouse it had to be the little blue pill, a condom and a fake orgasm every time - until the final en flagrante that is.’ He smiled like the Joker. Cackled.

  ‘Ted Bundy would be proud.’

  ‘You’re right, he would,’ Mason agreed. ‘I believe that he really would - if he wasn’t already dead, like me.’

  North just wanted to keep him away from Deacon.

  ‘But you couldn't just swap dental records over. Sooner or later someone would need some work done and the records wouldn't match.’

  ‘Unless you swap them with someone who isn't going to be needing them anymore.’

  ‘You pre-selected the victim to be the body in the church.’

  ‘Now them’s the smarts that brought you here!’ he was enjoying himself. ‘I took out insurance way in advance. Fortunately, lonely fuckers without a soul in the world to care whether they live or die are not so h
ard to find these days. It’s indicative of the me-me fuck-you society we have become. His information, DNA, it all went to Jenny way back. I had her future all worked out too. She was out of the picture long before I had to claim on the policy. I tried my best to get into a position where I wouldn’t have to cash in, not yet. From the moment Donna Ward got away from me the clock was ticking – I was in a race against time and I bought myself a decent fighting chance by getting myself assigned to the Lumsden case. I thought that I would be able to take hold of any leads and march you all right up the garden path and I could have controlled events just fine, but I couldn’t control you, super cop. Well you don’t look so fucking super now do you?’ He clapped his hands together. It was surprisingly loud as the sound bounced off the tin walls and echoed in the large space until it was smothered by the rain drumming down.

  North kept him going. ‘You murdered Dawn Ward’s friend. She was your first wasn’t she? You had probably been beating on prostitutes up until then, but your urges were getting stronger and stronger until that day you just couldn’t stop yourself.’

  ‘I must confess that I didn't handle the situation at all well. Live and learn, eh?’

  And he had had the luck of the devil.

  ‘Then Mitchell shows up and I bet that you couldn’t believe what started to go down. She covers up for you and makes you an offer you can’t refuse. She needs a bent copper she can trust and who better than someone she can put away for life any day of the week she pleases? A match made in hell. She took you under her harpy wing. She was already on the take and probably even starting to exert some control over the drug market. The missing case evidence - she probably took it and still has it locked up somewhere to this day, just in case, no matter how chummy the pair of you may have become since.’

  Mason nodded. ‘She took care of the whole thing. Had access to the necessary, fed it to Dawn Ward, fried her brains and threw her to the wolves. She never stood a chance and she came in handy when we started running the h into prison.’

  ‘Eddie has no idea, does he? You use his infrastructure as cover and make full use of the available tools, such as transportation. You use his land, his charity, Mitchell probably even used his money to start up, when you began to become a major player.’

  Mason grinned.

  ‘Where do you get that white heroin? How?’

  ‘No, not so super at all,’ he laughed. ‘Using the charity and contacts in the forces. It comes over from Afghanistan into RAF Barstow and we pick it up in the van when we drop off aid to be flown back.’

  ‘There’s another thing I don’t understand. Why did you have the Pond House burned down? Was it being used to store the stuff?’

  ‘I was under a lot of stress that night. That old whore escaping from me the day before had mashed my swede, I was in a right state, seeing her picked up, admitted to hospital, knowing she could come round and ID me at any time. I couldn’t afford to have her do that. I was working out how to make it happen when that fuckwit Rawlins calls me from a landline that can be traced and he’s crying that his girlfriend is all cut up and dead. As you can imagine, that freaked me out in itself, having the same MO as I use myself.

  ‘So I was trying to work out how to get to Donna Ward and now I thought someone was trying to move in on our action, killing Denise like that, and I was also worried that somehow they knew about me and my little hobby. And then there was Rawlins, he had to be silenced before you caught up with him. He was pathetic and would blab everything he knew which was enough to get you started down the right track. It was easy to arrange his exit from the Pond House and I was going to lose him as he was taken away, never to be seen or heard from again, but then she,’ he jabbed the knife at James. James didn’t flinch. She stared right back at him. Gave him the evils. ‘She has to push her way into the car and keep on at me all the way after them. Now I had to take care of her somehow. My brain was in overload in that car. It short circuited, but I was still getting by. I was going to make like me and her were overpowered, and I’ve knocked out James no problem, but then it all starts to go from bad to worse. As I’m trying to explain it all to Harris, Rawlins gets all scared of the dark and comes in and he sees me, a cop who just got out the car chasing him plotting his demise with Jed, maybe he even recognised my voice from the phone, and he is off on his toes again. I thought I had to send out a message to people, not to hide Rawlins, so I had the pub torched.’

  ‘You got Rawlins working for you by convincing him that he’d killed a girl by dealing her bad dope. You held it over him just as Mitch Mitchell held the Evans murder over you.’

  ‘My, you have been busy. Trust that useless twat to actually tell someone. It’s all you could trust him to do - blab. We needed leverage. Mitch had someone on the force see to it, I don’t know who. I never knew the full picture back then and it was a long time ago. Things changed as time went on, as we grew. I became a major player, we had a stable workforce by the short and curlies and I guess we had things far too easy for far too long. The first sign of serious trouble and we lost our cool. You go sniffing round Dipton prison and I know you're going to be on my trail for sure. Then you show up in the hospital at the whore's bedside,’ he laughed an unfunny laugh. ‘I didn't even know who she was when I picked her up. She was just another skank. It explained why the bitch had a tazer and zapped me in the church. That’s how she got away. I didn’t want to make the same mistake with you. I had to find out more about you. I dug a bit deeper, found that you are quite the special one with an untraceable police record and I realise that you've definitely been brought here for a reason and the reason is probably me. Your Columbo act had everyone fooled but I knew that it was only a matter of time before you would find me. I was finished. So I had to disappear for good. Death was the only option for me. And now it’s the only option for you.’

  ‘You were talking to Harris while we were following him from the Dipton bookies. You sent him to that church so you could set yourself up. After I called you, you called him and told him that he was being followed and to go there and keep out of sight until he heard from you.’

  ‘I needed time to think, so I sent him there to stall in the beginning. Then it became part of the plan. The church needed taking care of anyway - I had more tarts in there than Greggs the baker. I put the gang tags up there. People tend to avoid gang territory and they avoid most places when it’s raining cats and dogs. It helps mask sounds too. You were getting closer, I had to protect myself. I had to get rid of Harris and myself. And you. The Choirboys had never been at the charity before. It was the genuine article, but only used during larger campaigns as a distribution centre, most of the time it is empty so we were using it as our base. Where better? I got our shit out and some booze and games sent in, a pool table, and told the elders to say it was a treat for an ongoing job well done – and arranged to have you throw yourself into the mix and stitch you up for Harris’ murder!’ He laughed and clapped again. Did a little dance on the spot. ‘But they couldn’t even get you to jail!’ His mood flipped again. ‘Enough of this bullshit!’ Spit flew and his eyes were wild, his whole body tight, out of breath, sucking in air.

  He cut Deacon free and pulled her up off the chair. She punched him but he punched back harder and she lay where she fell, across the hay bales. So that was what the bales were for. Committing the crime and destroying the evidence after. Steel flashed and clothing shredded. Skin sliced. Red ran. Mason pinned Deacon down and forced her legs apart. North was ripping his arms to shreds trying to twist and wrench himself free. Then he felt Mason’s gaze upon him.

  ‘I’d love for you to stay and watch but I just cannot take the risk.’

  Mason reached behind the hay bales and returned with a big butcher knife. He kicked North until he went limp and hung from the wire again. He gripped the knife with both hands and raised his arms, bringing it down through the air at speed and with great force. North went numb as the twelve inch blade penetrated him. Red coated steel was pulle
d free from his body and went back up into the air. A horn sounded outside.

  ‘That will be your friends now,’ said Mason. ‘Soon they’ll be dead, like you - like us,’ he smiled. Then the world fell in. The wall to the right went first. Then the roof above him. Metal screeched as it tore and folded. It all fell in towards them. A bright light hit them and a glint took North’s gaze back to Mason’s hand. The blade was driven down at him once more. North heard a loud crack and his head jerked forwards.

  Then everything ended.

  FORTY-THREE

  ‘Will you be going all the way with us, madam?’ he eyed her luggage.

  ‘Given half a chance, sonny’ she smiled at the young purser as she handed over her ticket and winked. He blushed. She giggled. ‘I’ve never pulled before I even set a foot on board before though.’

  He just stood there with his mouth open. The ships played host to all sorts these days. The exclusivity was being worn away. What was the world coming to? Dirty minded old dears cruising for casual sex on cruise liners. Some of them even had tattoos. He shuddered.

  ‘I’m just messing with you, Officer. I’ll be disembarking in Sydney. I’m emigrating to be with my boy and his family and take a look at a little bit of the world on the way.’

  He smiled and gave her directions. She thought that maybe she should have risked the plane after all. What if everyone was like him on board. She had weeks in front of her. Maybe she could work on lightening him up a little. Get that scaffolding pole out of his derriere.