Retribution

by Heather Atkinson

  “Yes, I remember you told me that before when I was strangling the life out of him. You have my word you’ll all remained untouched as long as you give me the name I want.”

  “Reid,” he blurted out. “Reid Miller.”

  “And where can I find this Reid?”

  “I don’t know, he worked for my company three years ago and we didn’t keep tabs. Like I said, he was always moving about.”

  Ryan drew out the silence, making him sweat. “Alright,” he eventually said. “I believe you.”

  Gerard sagged back in his chair with relief.

  “I’ve got what I came for,” he said before getting to his feet.

  “You’re leaving already?” said Gerard.

  “Certainly. I don’t wish to spend a moment longer in your company than I have to.”

  “But I thought we could talk,” he called as Ryan walked to the door.

  “What on earth do we have to talk about?”

  “Well, anything. It’s so fucking boring in here I can’t stand it. Only Brian gets me through each day.”

  “Then go and have a conversation with him. We’re done.”

  “There’s another body,” he cried when Ryan raised his hand to bang on the door.

  He hesitated and lowered his hand, looking back over his shoulder with a frown. “This had better not be a trick.”

  “It’s not. Honest,” he said with wide-eyed innocence.

  “Whose body?”

  “Sit back down and I’ll tell you all about it.”

  Ryan sighed and retook his seat. “Well?”

  “George Romer wasn’t our first victim,” he began almost eagerly. “We had a practice run before him.”

  “On Dartmoor?”

  His grin increased and he nodded. “Me, Brian and Eddie had killed game but we’d never killed a human before. We needed to make sure we were capable first. Things are a lot harder in real life than they are in theory. We kidnapped a jogger. Brian had often noticed him while doing his rounds as a ranger. He always jogged at the same time every evening, taking the same route along the edge of Dartmoor Forest. It was an easy thing to catch him. Brian stopped him. As he was a ranger the jogger didn’t think anything of it. He knocked him out and we bundled him into the boot of a cheap motor I bought just for that purpose and we took him deep into the forest, on the opposite side of Dartmoor, away from Brian’s shack.”

  “Yes,” said Ryan, face like stone. “I remember that shack.”

  “We didn’t hunt him, we didn’t want to risk him running off if we were unable to kill him. We just forced him to his knees in the middle of some dense woodland on an overgrown trail only Brian knew about, where there were no hikers. We all shot him in the head at the same time, on the count of three, you know, united in our first kill and all that?”

  Ryan’s only reply was a disgusted curl of the lip.

  “Poor bastard was on his knees begging for his life,” he chuckled. “Said he had a wife and kids and all that. Like we gave a shit, we were reborn as gods that night,” he exclaimed zealously.

  Ryan rolled his eyes. “What was his name?”

  “Liam Howard. Brian hates people with first names as surnames.”

  “Where’s his body? I want the exact coordinates.”

  He rhymed them off without hesitation.

  “You’re a sly bastard,” said Ryan. “The information you gave me will open a murder inquiry. Police officers will come here to interview you. The media will be talking about the Dartmoor Butchers all over again.” He sighed and hung his head. “And, as you gave this information to me they’ll hound me and my family again, like they did before. Have you forgotten what will happen to you if you displease me?”

  “I didn’t mean to do that,” he said, eyes widening, giving him that childlike look again. “But it’s so boring in here, I need something to do or I’ll go insane.”

  “I think that ship’s already sailed.”

  “I didn’t mean to displease you,” he went on. “Please don’t hurt me. Or Brian.”

  “Aren’t you going to plead Eddie’s case too?”

  He shrugged. “I’d prefer you took it out on him, if anyone.”

  Ryan’s stare skewered Gerard to his seat. “I’ll leave you to wonder,” he said before banging on the door.

  “Ryan, get back here,” he heard him yell but Ryan ignored him as he exited the room.

  It was only once Ryan was alone in his car that he allowed his body to slump with relief that it was over. It had been difficult seeing Gerard again, he’d been thrown back into the nightmarish cabin in Dartmoor National Park. But seeing Gerard so broken and pathetic had helped, had made him feel even stronger in fact. Plus he’d left that cabin alive, unlike so many other men.

  Ashley sighed when Ryan walked into his office. “You again? Do you want me to see if we’ve any vacancies?”

  “Amusing,” he said before taking a seat without being invited.

  “If it’s to do with your mysterious dog walker I’m afraid I haven’t made any headway.”

  Ryan’s gaze hardened. He knew Ashley probably hadn’t even bothered. Well, in that case he wouldn’t bother to tell him what he’d learnt about the not so mysterious dog walker. “It’s not about that. I’ve just been to see Gerard Kerrell.”

  Ashley’s eyes widened. “My God. Are you okay?”

  “Of course. It takes more than a great pudding like that to disturb me.”

  “Was it one of those restorative visits?”

  “Yes and it helped mightily. He gave me some very interesting information.”

  “Go on.”

  “There’s another body.”

  “Seriously?”

  Ryan nodded.

  “You sure he wasn’t just feeding you a line?”

  “Who knows? But I do feel it’s worth looking into. Apparently George Romer wasn’t the first victim.”

  “We found no evidence of that.”

  “But you weren’t looking for another victim. Gerard, Brian and Eddie all said George Romer was the first. Plus he wasn’t killed at the shack, he was killed on the other side of Dartmoor.”

  “Which makes me inclined to think Kerrell’s lying.”

  “Don’t serial killers tend to keep back important information, to give themselves power and control?”

  “Yes, there is that too.”

  “He gave me the exact location of Liam Howard. I’m handing it over to you and you can sort it,” he said, scribbling the coordinates Gerard had given him on the notepad on Ashley’s desk. “I’ve done my bit, it’s out of my hands.”

  “It will stir everything up again,” said Ashley as Ryan headed to the door. “If Kerrell’s telling the truth of course. It was a brave thing bringing me this information. You could easily have buried it.”

  “See, I’m not all bad,” he said before leaving.

  After leaving the police station Ryan went straight home to an anxious Rachel. She was waiting for him at the front door and as soon as he walked through it she threw her arms around his neck.

  “How did it go?” she said. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m perfectly fine,” he said, kissing her and taking her hands. “Gerard cuts rather the pathetic figure. He’s lost a lot of weight and most of his hair. In fact it did me the power of good seeing him brought so low.”

  “I’m so glad,” she beamed.

  “See, I told you I’d be fine.”

  “And did he know who the dog walker was?”

  “Yes,” he said with distaste. “He worked on one of Kerrell’s building sites and they were all for hunting him.”

  “Sick bastards,” she hissed, eyes turning black.

  “Quite. Anyway, it seems our dog walker - whose name is Reid Miller - was quite the rebel and Eddie was forced to sack him. Apparently Reid moves around a lot, staying on a succession of friends’ couches, luckily for him as it meant they couldn’t find him when they were ready to hunt him. I do hope the fact that they failed
doesn’t cause us any trouble.”

  “What a horrible thing to say.”

  “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking the same thing.”

  “Well, maybe a bit but only because we’re entitled to some peace and quiet. At least we have a name now. Ashley didn’t take our suspicions seriously so I’ll ask Battler and Bruiser if they know this Reid.”

  “It certainly sounds like a good place to start.”

  CHAPTER 20

  “Jules, slow down,” said the physiotherapist. “You’re going to injure yourself.”

  “Need to walk,” she muttered before gritting her teeth and dragging her left leg forward through the water, her muscles aching. All she could think of was Cara’s last visit, the fear in her little girl’s eyes when she looked at her. All Jules wanted was to become the woman she remembered so she’d get her daughter back.

  “That’s enough,” said the physiotherapist sternly. “Sit back down or I’ll make you.”

  “You threat me?” she glowered

  “Yes I do threat you Jules but only with your own stubbornness. If you injure yourself now you’ll set yourself back weeks. Is that what you want, just when you’re getting back on your feet?”

  The physiotherapist felt a little nervous when Jules’s eyes blazed with fury. She was fully aware who her patient was and what she’d done but she’d always seemed so nice. However that rage in her eyes had shown her what her polite patient was actually capable of.

  The moment was broken when Jules rolled her eyes. “Fine. You expert. Me arsehole.”

  The physio smiled with relief. “I know you’re keen to get back on your feet but it’s vital you don’t push your body before it’s ready.”

  “I remember,” she said with a self-deprecating smile.

  “Good and the next thing you know you’ll be walking around like you used to.”

  Jules glanced at Jackson who was standing at the edge of the pool to watch, looking desperately uncomfortable, as he always did whenever she was undergoing her treatments. She had hoped it would get easier for him but that didn’t seem to be happening.

  She feared one day she’d look around and he wouldn’t be there.

  “Yeah, we know the bell end,” said Battler from across his desk. Bruiser, sat at his own desk on the opposite side of the room, nodded. “I should have made the connection sooner but the case was a couple of years ago.” Battler was in his late fifties but sometimes he felt so fucking old.

  “How do you know Reid?” said Ryan. He was continuing the hunt alone. They had a few new business deals in the offing, which Rachel was concentrating on so he could follow up this lead. They both wanted to be absolutely sure Reid wasn’t a threat.

  “We don’t know him directly. It was a mate of his we dealt with, who was shagging the wife of a local barrister. He was only nineteen and she was forty nine. She looked good for her age mind, if she hadn’t been part of one of our cases I’d have been tempted…” He realised he’d got off track and cleared his throat. “Anyway, the lad in question was called Duncan Gates. The barrister was all for suing the arse off him but as he didn’t have anything he had to take his anger out on his wife, who he made sure didn’t get a penny in the divorce.”

  “What was this Duncan like?” said Ryan.

  “Nowt special. A skinny little shite. Don’t know what the barrister’s wife saw in him, she was such a looker, she could have had anyone. I think it was the bad boy image.”

  “Bad boy?”

  “He has a bit of reputation around town - vandalism, nicking cars, a bit of dealing. Nothing very heavy.”

  “How close is he to Reid?”

  “Dunno to be honest but Reid was dossing down in Duncan’s flat and he was willing to lie for him and say Duncan was with him when he was supposed to be shagging the barrister’s wife. Thick bastards didn’t realise we had photographic evidence so Reid ended up looking a bit of a tit. That was it.”

  “So it’s possible he’s still living at Duncan’s?”

  “Suppose.”

  “Do you have the address?”

  “We’ll have it in the files somewhere,” he said, gesturing to the filing cabinets lined up against one wall. “We want to go fully computerised but that’s going to take time and us stone age bastards haven’t the first clue about technology, so we’re going to have to hire someone to help us out on that score.”

  “Cooee,” called a voice seconds before the door opened.

  In walked a woman with long auburn hair wearing a tight skirt and dark blue coat.

  “Hi Ryan. How’s tricks?” she smiled, removing her jacket to reveal a very low cut blouse.

  “I’m good thanks Belle,” he replied. “You?”

  “Oh you know, fair to middling.” She gazed upon Battler with adoring eyes. “And how are you?”

  “Good thanks love,” he replied, as usual completely oblivious to the fact that she was in love with him. “I’m glad you’re here actually.”

  “You are?” she said, delighted.

  “Yeah. Ryan here needs some info and we need you to dig it out of those big bastards,” he said, jabbing over his shoulder with his thumb at the filing cabinets. “They play nice for you, you can find anything in them.”

  “They’d play nice for you too if you would have a little patience,” she said, sashaying over to them, Battler’s eyes slipping to her backside when her back was to him.

  “What am I looking for?” she said.

  “The address for Duncan Gates.”

  “Oh yes,” she said. “The barrister’s wife.”

  “Amazing memory this one,” beamed Battler.

  Belle blushed. “Well, you know, I’m not one to blow my own trumpet. I’ll have what you need in a couple of minutes.”

  As she delved into one of the filing cabinets, bending over, her skirt riding up her thighs, Ryan couldn’t help but smile at Battler, whose eyes were out on stalks. When he realised he was being watched Battler tried to make himself appear more relaxed, which failed, mainly due to the fact that his face was bright red.

  “Here we go,” said Belle, straightening up and holding a buff folder aloft in triumph.

  She plonked it down on Battler’s desk and began sifting through the papers inside. “Duncan Gates. Number seventeen West Park Parade. Torquay.”

  Battler scribbled down the address she read out and handed it to Ryan.

  “Thanks,” he said, accepting the post-it note from him. “I appreciate it.” With that he got to his feet.

  “You sure you don’t want any back-up?” said Battler. “If your theory about this Reid is right then he could be tooled up.”

  “I appreciate the offer but you’ve got enough on.” The truth of his words was proved when the phone on Battler’s desk burst into life.

  “Okay but if it gets heavy let us know and we’ll be there to help out, you’re family,” he said before snatching up the handset.

  While Battler began barking down the phone at whoever was on the other end, Ryan approached Belle. “Why don’t you ask him out for a drink?” he asked her.

  Belle blushed. “That obvious, is it?”

  “To everyone but Battler.” This wasn’t Ryan’s area and he felt uncomfortable. Rachel was usually the one who had conversations like this but he thought if he had to watch them mooning over each other any longer he would be physically sick. Plus Battler had come through for them every time they’d needed help and he wanted to do something nice for him.

  “Maybe,” she replied, careful to keep her voice low. “I don’t want to ruin our working relationship, I like my job.”

  “If you don’t, you’ll regret it. In the future I mean,” he hastily added before she thought he was threatening her. “You don’t want to look back and wonder what might have been.”

  Inwardly he cringed at how cheesy he sounded but she appeared to take his nugget of wisdom on board. “Yes, you’re right. Thanks Ryan.”

  “You’re welcome.”

 
With a nod in Bruiser’s direction he departed, leaving Belle gazing thoughtfully at Battler.

  “What do you mean you’ve not done it yet?” hissed Amber.

  “I already told you,” said Declan. “They’ve put tracking devices in all the deliveries. If I do nick anything they’ll trace it immediately to me and it’ll be goodnight Vienna. Then who will help you?” They’d met up at his flat for another of their secret trysts.

  It annoyed Amber that someone as stupid as Declan was right but she had to admit he was. “So what do we do then?”

  “First of all, you need to try and take it easy babe,” he said, moving behind her to massage her shoulders. “We can set him up but it doesn’t have to be drugs. It could be something else, something I can easily get my hands on.”

  “Like what?”

  “Turn around and I’ll show you,” he purred in her ear.

  Rolling her eyes, she turned to face him, taking a step back when he drew a gun.

  “Don’t look so afraid,” he said, hastily replacing it in the belt of his jeans. “I would never hurt you.”

  “I know,” she said, putting on her sweetest wide-eyed look. “Sorry, I’ve only seen them before on the telly.”

  “Because you’re so gentle and innocent and untainted by our world. It’s one reason I love you so much.”

  She resisted the urge to slap the soft bastard. “Where did you get it?”

  “It’s best if you don’t know.”

  “So you’re going to plant that on Mikey?”

  He nodded. “Being caught with a loaded gun carries a long stretch.”

  “How long?”

  “I once new a bloke who got seven years.”

  “Seven years? Oh that won’t do Declan. With his contacts he’ll be back out in no time, tormenting me all over again.”

  “Take it easy babe,” he said. “What do you think the plod will do when they’ve finally got their mitts on Mikey Maguire? They’re going to pry into every corner of his empire and pull it apart piece by piece. Mikey getting nicked is just the beginning. By the time the police are done with him he’ll be finished. Jez too probably.”