The Colour of the Soul

by Richard T. Burke

  Lying on her back, Annalise twisted her head to follow its trajectory as it bounced over the tiles towards the doorway. A wave of despair swept over her. From the opposite side of the room came a muffled moan.

  “Ah yes, the lovely younger sibling. You two are quite a pair, aren’t you?”

  Beatrice’s body quivered in fright as her eyes darted from the man to her sister and back again.

  “I think it’s time we got started,” Mark said in a bright tone, his anger seemingly dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. “I really don’t feel like carrying you, so I’m going to untie your legs. If you try to escape, I’ll make sure you pay a heavy price. I know a lot about hurting people.”

  He withdrew a knife handle from his back pocket. Flicking the blade open, he crouched beside Annalise and parted the nylon rope with a brief sawing motion. He rose and strolled the short distance to Beatrice. She whimpered as the razor sharp edge approached her bare feet.

  As soon as he had removed the binding, he roughly grabbed a forearm and hauled her to a standing position. Mark returned the knife to his pocket and prodded her in the back. “Into the lounge.”

  Annalise lay on the floor, unable to stand without the use of her arms.

  “Come on, Princess,” he said, dragging her up by the elbow. “We need you too.”

  Her vision turned grey at the sudden movement. She remained still for a moment until her head cleared then limped towards the open door.

  The lounge seemed dark after the dazzling illumination of the kitchen. In each of the two far corners of the room, a desk lamp rested on a wooden table. A tatty red sofa occupied the space between the pair of matching armchairs, all three facing a flat screen television. Against one wall stood a writing bureau made from a hardwood with a drop down top. The walls were papered in a striped pattern, the paper lifting and frayed in several places. In the centre of all four sides, a lighter coloured patch highlighted where a painting had once hung. Now the picture hooks stuck out like thorns, uncovered on the bare surface.

  Annalise barely took in the barren decor. Her gaze centred on the figure hunched forward on the right armchair. The man’s arms were bound behind his back. Sensing movement, he slowly raised his head. Despite the gag, she inhaled sharply. In confusion she turned to the person bringing up the rear.

  “Sit,” he said, pushing her towards the sofa. “You too.” He shoved Beatrice in the same direction. They both sank onto the stained upholstery, one on each side. The faint odour of rotting food rose around their nostrils. Despite her predicament and the shock at seeing the identity of the third captive, Annalise couldn’t prevent herself feeling a wave of revulsion at what might lie beneath the lumpy cushions.

  “Right. We need to have a conversation, so I’m going to take off your gags. If anybody screams or calls for help, they’ll get a knife in the throat. Don’t think for a minute I’m not capable. I’ve already killed three people tonight.”

  Starting with Annalise, he reached out, lifted the edge of the tape and ripped it off in one rapid tug. She stifled a cry, sure from the sharp sting that he had removed a layer of skin together with the restraint. She spat the rag out and sucked in a deep breath. The foul taste lingered, and for a moment she contemplated spitting on the carpet. A glance at the man now leaning forward to remove the grey strip from her sister’s mouth made her think again.

  The rasp of the adhesive drew a cry from Beatrice. Tears ran down her face. “Why are you doing this?”

  He shot out a hand and cuffed the back of her head. “Be quiet unless I tell you to speak.”

  She sobbed quietly. The tip of her tongue explored the newly exposed raw skin.

  He turned his attention to the third person and repeated the process. The scrunched up scraps of tape littered the filthy beige carpet. He backed up until he stood six feet away from the sofa.

  “Well, this is nice, isn’t it?”

  “Who are you?” Annalise rasped.

  The man’s eyes narrowed, and he took a pace forwards.

  “That’s my younger brother,” the figure in the armchair said. “He’s called Kevin.”

  “I don’t use that name any more thanks to you. You can call me Steven. They changed your name too, didn’t they Frank? Or should I say Mark?”

  Annalise stared from one to the other. The resemblance was uncanny. Now that she could study them side by side, the man who called himself Steven did appear slightly younger. Their hair was cut in similar styles although Mark’s was perhaps a fraction longer. Both possessed vivid scars, Mark on his wrist and Steven by his temple. The major difference between them was the swirling cloud of darkness around the younger sibling’s head. Even from the corner of her eye, Mark’s aura was barely visible. “But you look identical.”

  Steven glowered at the seated girl. “Our parents couldn’t have children by natural means, so they turned to IVF. The procedure resulted in twins. Rather than implanting both of us, they froze my embryo and inserted his. A couple of years later, they decided one son wasn’t enough, so they returned to the clinic and went through the same process a second time. Technically, we’re identical, but my elder brother was born two years earlier.

  “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about that. There are far more interesting things to discuss. From what I overheard at that hypnotherapist’s house, it seems that a certain person has retrieved her memories. It appears my brother isn’t quite as angelic as he makes out, is he?”

  Annalise shot a glance at Mark then refocused her attention on Steven. “I remembered it all, at least up to the point of the crash.”

  “Maybe you’d like to explain your behaviour, dear brother.”

  “I’ve got nothing to say.”

  Steven approached to within two feet of his sibling. “You’ve got nothing to say?” He reached into his pocket, grabbed the knife and extended the blade. He waved it an inch in front of Mark’s face. “I’m the person who decides what will happen around here.” In one swift movement, he launched himself onto the sofa, his knees straddling Beatrice’s body. He placed the tip beneath her chin and pushed upwards. She tilted her head back until it would go no further.

  “Okay, don’t hurt her,” Mark muttered. “I’ll do it.”

  “I didn’t quite hear that.”

  “I’ll do it,” Mark said in a louder voice. He flashed a glance at Annalise. “I’m sorry. I should have told the truth.”

  The blade retreated a fraction. “Carry on then. What happened?”

  “We were in the car. I was trying to explain about our past.”

  “Don’t tell me. Tell her.”

  “If you’ve remembered, you’ll know I tried to come clean about some of the background surrounding my—our—family’s history. You weren’t particularly sympathetic.” His voice hardened. “I thought you’d understand, but you made up your mind before you heard the full story. I’m not sure what came over me. Everything I’d been planning—well I lost it. It wasn’t premeditated; I just ... flipped.”

  “We could have talked about it,” Annalise said. “It was a hell of a lot to take in.”

  “I had no idea what I was doing. My brain was spinning in circles. I couldn’t think about anything else. You tried to grab the wheel. That only made me more determined.”

  “Oh, this is good,” Steven said, grinning. “So now it’s her fault.”

  “I didn’t say that. We collided with the other car. It was a glancing blow. Even so, we were going so fast it swung my car around. It turned on its side and I’m fairly sure that’s when you hit your head. Then it spun through the air. Luckily it came down on the wheels. I think it went through a couple more somersaults before coming to rest. Somehow it stopped the right way up. The police said we’d probably both be dead if it had landed on the roof at any point.

  “All the airbags had gone off. I was banged about but still conscious. I sat there for a few seconds. Then all of a sudden, I picked up the smell of petrol. I knew we had to get out. You were unconscious
. I managed to force my door open. Yours was badly damaged and wouldn’t budge. I went back around. All the time I thought it would burst into flames. I unclipped the seatbelt and dragged you out across the seat. As I hauled you onto the road, another car turned up. The man saw me pulling you out of the driver’s side. He just assumed you were the driver and I was the passenger.

  “When the police questioned me, they told me your injuries were so severe there was little chance of you surviving. They had the statement from the other bloke and thought you were the one driving. I was the only person who could tell them what really happened. I ... I ...”

  “So you said your girlfriend was behind the wheel at the time of the crash?”

  Mark nodded and lowered his head. He inhaled deeply and turned to Annalise. “I’m so sorry. If I’d known you were going to survive, I’d have confessed straight away. I tried to put it right by proposing to you when you woke up. I knew if we were married, they couldn’t force me to testify against you.”

  Annalise stared back at Mark with a stony glare. “So when that policeman paid you a visit this afternoon, you finally admitted you were driving. And yet you still insisted I was responsible because I grabbed the wheel even though I was trying to steer us away from the other car.”

  “He kept asking if you contributed to the accident in any way. I told him it was all my fault, but it seemed like he didn’t want to listen. As soon as I mentioned that you pulled the steering wheel, he zoned in on that. He wasn’t interested in anything else.”

  Steven pushed himself off the sofa and stood in front of Annalise. “It appears your boyfriend has some dark secrets, and we’re only just getting started.”

  Beatrice sniffed. “Why are you doing this to us?” She flinched as Steven focused his gaze on her.

  “Isn’t it obvious? We’re here to try my brother for his crimes. If he’s found guilty, you all die, him last of all so he can watch. I’ll make it look like a murder-suicide. The little rich boy kidnaps and kills the two sisters in a fit of rage when they both reject him and threaten to expose his criminal past. Now he’d rather kill himself than spend a lifetime in prison. A short note left near the bodies should do the trick.”

  Steven’s eyes glittered with malice as he laughed. “From what we’ve heard so far, I don’t think the verdict is in any doubt.”

  Chapter 53

  The door to the interview room opened and a weary-looking Alan Billings entered. He shook his head at the hopeful glances cast by Dan and Sophie Becker. “I’m sorry, but we’ve got nothing new to report. PC Smythe mentioned your suggestion of tracking the mobile, and I thought it was worth having another chat.”

  Dan leaned forward. “Obviously we’ll do anything we can to help.”

  “You’ve not had any more thoughts about the access code for Beatrice’s phone, have you?”

  Both parents shook their heads.

  “You told us you were going to get the records from the telephone company,” Sophie said.

  “We have put a request through, but nothing will happen until later in the morning. Just to confirm, you had no idea Beatrice was in communication with Mark Webber?”

  “None whatsoever.”

  “What about contact between Annalise and Mr Webber?”

  “The bastard proposed to her a few days ago,” Dan said. “They spent loads of time on the phone when they weren’t together. So you think he tracked her to the hypnotherapist’s house through her mobile?”

  Billings splayed his fingers on the table. “It seems like the only logical explanation. I mean, it’s possible he followed you from the hotel to here and then trailed Annalise when she left with my officer, but I don’t buy it. If she gave him permission to access her location, it would have been easy to work out where she was.”

  “And his phone can’t be traced?”

  “No, we tried that. It’s not generating a signal.”

  “Your colleague told us there was nothing useful in the file either.”

  Billings sighed. “Diane’s right. It relates to when he was ten years old, so I don’t see what relevance it has to the current situation. Obviously, I’m not allowed to tell you what’s written down because of privacy issues.”

  “She suggested it was something to do with criminal activity, though,” Dan said.

  Billings smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry, but I really can’t discuss that with you. One thing I can say is that it referenced a younger brother. Did Annalise ever bring that up?”

  Dan frowned. “She never said anything to me. What about you, Sophie?”

  Sophie shook her head. “No. I remember when she first went out with him, she mentioned he was adopted. I don’t recall her talking about brothers or sisters though.”

  “It’s another line of enquiry we’re following,” Billings said. “The brother was also involved in the incident described in the file, so his records were sealed too. I’ve put in a request to gain access, but I suspect it won’t lead anywhere. Our best bet at the moment is a member of the public phoning in with Webber’s location. His picture will be all over the breakfast news. Wherever he’s hiding, he’ll have to surface at some point. That was something else I wanted to discuss with you. I think it would be useful if you made a statement at the press conference. I’ve scheduled a session for six o’clock in the morning. That’s in a little over three hours.”

  “We’ll do whatever you ask if it’ll help find our daughters,” Sophie said.

  “Good. We’ll go through with you beforehand what you should and shouldn’t say.”

  “Have they turned up anything useful at the hypnotherapist’s house?” Dan asked.

  “It’s too early to tell,” Billings replied. “We’ve got a team there gathering all the evidence. The Superintendent is at the scene of crime coordinating things for the time being. He’s instructed me to concentrate on finding your daughters.”

  “Is that it, then?” Dan said. “We just have to sit and wait?”

  “We’re doing everything possible. Once people see the news, we’ll receive more leads. If there’s nothing else you can think of, I’ll get back to my team.”

  Sophie stood and placed a hand on the DCI’s arm. “Please find my girls before ... before anything happens to them.”

  The policeman covered her hand with his own. “We’re putting everything into tracking them down.”

  She sniffed as tears rolled down her face. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost them. The last week’s been a total nightmare: the attack on Annalise, the break-in, and now this.”

  “That reminds me,” Dan said. “The burglary; you don’t think it’s related, do you?”

  “I doubt it. In my opinion it was pure bad luck. The burglars saw the place was empty and took advantage.”

  “It doesn’t matter with everything else that’s going on, but I just remembered that we had an iPad that might have been taken.”

  “Hang on,” Diane Smythe said. “I’m sure there’s another app you can use to track iPads down if you lose them.”

  Dan’s voice rose in excitement. “You’re right. That one does run from my phone. I remember trying it out shortly after buying the iPad.” His fingertips danced over the glass. A few seconds later he showed it to the policeman. “Here we go. Well, that’s certainly not our address. It says St George’s Road.” A map filled the display. He pinched his fingers together to zoom out. “It’s on the south side of the city.”

  Billings studied the screen. “I’ll get one of our officers to swing by tomorrow.”

  “But what if they are related?” the policewoman asked.

  The DCI hesitated. “I can’t really spare anybody. Most of them are going through CCTV footage at the moment. I don’t want to drag them off that and send them on a wild goose chase.”

  “I’m free—if Mr and Mrs Becker are happy with that.”

  Dan nodded. “If there’s the slightest chance it might help find our daughters, please go ahead. We’d be happy to come with yo
u.”

  “That’s not a great idea,” Billings said. “These people could be dangerous. I mean assuming they are just burglars. And even if it was Webber—well, I’d want at least two officers present. Although ...”

  “What?” Dan and Sophie said in unison.

  The policeman tapped his index finger against his lips. “DCI Davies lives nearby.”

  Smythe raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Toenails, sir?”

  “Beggars can’t be choosers. He’s an experienced detective.”

  “Whatever you say, sir.”

  Billings stared at his subordinate. He inhaled deeply and held his breath for a moment before speaking. “Alright. It goes against my better judgement, but here’s what we’re going to do. PC Smythe, I want you to make yourself useful helping the team.”

  A look of disappointment flashed across the policewoman’s face. “But, sir ...”

  “I’ve made my decision. Mr and Mrs Becker, I’d like you to accompany me. You can direct us to the location, but when we arrive, you’ll have to stay in the car. I’ll call DCI Davies and ask him meet us there. This is probably a huge waste of time, but until the press conference, we don’t have many other active leads to follow. The roads are empty at this time of night, so it should only take us ten minutes to get there. I’ll just tell the guys what’s going on. Wait here until I get back.”

  Three pairs of eyes watched as Alan Billings strode towards the door with renewed purpose in his step.

  Chapter 54

  “Let’s talk about you.” Steven pointed a finger at Beatrice.

  The teenage girl sniffed loudly. “Please let us go. We won’t tell anyone.”