Shadows of Hunters Ridge

by Sarah Barrie

  ‘It blocked initial access to the surgery,’ Ben said. ‘Gave him a couple more minutes to get her in a car and away without the risk of more police following. The smaller devices would have been extra insurance – police were suddenly spread thin.’

  ‘The roadblocks haven’t turned anything up,’ the young officer reported.

  Ben nodded. ‘If you don’t find them in the next hour, call it all off.’

  ‘What?’ Cam and Lee demanded in unison.

  Ben held up a hand. ‘Thank you, constable.’

  When the uniformed man left, Ben explained, ‘We can’t have roadblocks on major roads and choppers circling the skies when the hunters turn up. If they get spooked, they call it off. They call it off, Ebony becomes expendable. Remember Bella? We don’t want that. The hunt has to go ahead.’

  ‘I hate to mention this, but if we don’t find Ebony, the result is pretty much the same for her either way.’

  Lee heard the distress in Cam’s voice, and knew if he let himself feel it, he’d fall into too deep a hole to pull himself back out. He wouldn’t be able to help her. And he had to help her. So he had to think. He couldn’t afford to feel.

  ‘I’m going to get her back. You need to trust me.’

  ‘There’s something you’re not telling us.’ Lee thought it through. ‘The way you’re going about this, it’s almost as though –’

  ‘Remember we got into the website. I have the location,’ Ben told them.

  ‘Then why are we sitting around in a police station?’ Cam demanded.

  Ben got to his feet. ‘Good question. I suggest you get some rest. You’ve got several hours of waiting in front of you.’

  ‘You’re not looking for her now?’

  ‘And risk pushing them underground? No. Everything is being set up. I can’t have you with us during the raid, you know that, but I can have you close by, and when we get Ebony, she’s going to need you. Get some rest, Cam.’

  CHAPTER

  35

  Ebony kept her eyes closed in defence against the grittiness that greeted them whenever they opened. She couldn’t see anyway, everything was pitch black. Whatever was over her head was scratching her face, stinging the cheek that was pressed to the ground. She felt flushed – hot and cold at the same time. Her shoulders ached. She moved her head a millimetre to escape a wet and stale smell and pain shot through it, accentuating a dull thudding rhythm she’d been dimly aware of longer than she’d been awake.

  How long had she been here? Hours? Days? She tried to move her arms but couldn’t manage more than a couple of centimetres – they were tied behind her, the restraints cutting into the flesh of her wrists. Worse, trying to move them sent painful cramps through her shoulders and up her neck. She curled her shoulders forwards, made it an inch, gained the smallest hint of relief, twisted her body and moved them some more. She frantically tried to shake off the thing over her head, which only caused the scratchy material to graze her neck, where it was fastened the tightest.

  She was where he wanted her. Nick was the Demon.

  No, that’s silly, that’s not possible.

  Except she knew it was. Knew it had to be.

  Light filtered dimly to the back of her eyelids and she opened them cautiously. The hood was hessian, she realised, getting an impression of the roughly woven material from the light behind it. Footsteps clanged as a dark shadow moved down from the top of the soft beam of light: one, two, three, four … then a brighter light flooded the room, and a loud bang told her something had closed.

  ‘Nick? Is that you?’

  ‘Yes, it’s me.’

  A million accusations, curses and pleas ran through her mind. She quietened them. ‘Can you please take this thing off my head? It hurts and I can’t breathe.’

  ‘Of course.’ He approached and untied the string from the back of her neck, removing the bag gently.

  She took several gulps of unimpeded air, felt the cool on her face.

  ‘You should sit up.’

  She tried to focus, found herself in what looked like nothing more than a large concrete box. ‘I can’t. My hands are too tightly tied to something. I can’t move.’

  She heard him curse under his breath as he moved around her to untie her hands. She couldn’t help but moan in agony as the sensation returned to her arms when she moved them. He rubbed them briskly. It helped. Kindness? Perhaps there was hope.

  ‘What’s in the bucket?’ she asked, noticing it for the first time.

  Nick pulled out a bottle of water and some tablets. ‘You should take these.’

  ‘What are they?’

  ‘Strong asprin. For the head.’

  She wanted to throw them at him, but it was more sensible to take them so she did as she was told, and the water was a relief.

  He handed her an icepack. ‘Put this on the bump at the back of your head. I’m sorry about that.’

  She did, and winced when she made contact with the egg at the back of her skull. ‘Why am I here?’

  He looked at her with a small smile. ‘You know the answer to that.’

  ‘Then why are you helping me?’

  ‘I find the Devil’s tactics a bit … overenthusiastic. I would have preferred a milder approach. We need you fit for tomorrow. Not stiff and sore and concussed.’ He got to his feet and moved away, lit a cigarette. After a long drag, he expelled the smoke slowly. He was so calm, so matter of fact, so Nick. And that, with his words echoing in her head, frightened her more than anything else.

  ‘I thought we were friends.’

  ‘Yes, I got that impression.’

  ‘Why me?’

  ‘Because Rob promised you. After what happened here last year, a debt had to be paid.’

  ‘But Ally’s safe, isn’t she? You can’t go after her – she’s pregnant. You wouldn’t –’

  ‘No, no, you don’t get it. Ally’s name was never on the list. She was an annoyance to be discarded to protect the hunting ground. As it turns out, her being alive and having no one living down here works just as well. But after his massive stuff up, Rob put you forward for the list. You’d bled under a Master’s knife, and you’d survived. He has to deliver. The Masters don’t tolerate failure. You’re his only chance to redeem himself.’

  ‘Do you really care?’

  He seemed to find that amusing. ‘About Rob’s reputation? No, not at all. This is simply about profit. Once you’re on the list, your face is on the website. And this is a big hunt. You’re worth much more than the more common street whores we often end up with. The Masters who are coming, Ebony, are paying big.’

  ‘Are you … hunting?’

  He took another drag, smiled softly. ‘Yes.’

  Her stomach twisted. ‘You’d kill me for five minutes of fun?’

  ‘Do you know the rush of feeling someone’s lifeblood drain into your hands? Watching their eyes go blank? Being the last thing they see? It’s indescribable.’

  ‘And you wanted to take Martin’s place. Ben guessed that. So you killed Louise and set him up. I suppose when you attacked him you were trying to kill him under the excuse of saving me.’

  His eyes gleamed. ‘Clever. I do admire the detective’s logic. Apparently you’re not stupid either.’ He took one more drag on the cigarette, tossed it to the floor and slowly destroyed it under his foot. ‘Martin was an idiot. A drunken fool with no self-control. I came here to organise, to host. I make a lot of money out of what I do. But as I was here, I couldn’t resist getting close to you, studying you. As I got to know you, I wanted to be part of it. But I hadn’t bid, and it was too late. Numbers are set at ten hunters per event, and ten places were filled. I needed his place.’

  ‘You could have just killed him. You didn’t need to hurt Louise.’ She couldn’t help the tears that pooled in her eyes.

  ‘Oh come on,’ he crooned, seeing them. ‘I did you a favour. Louise was a whinging little bitch. Wanted everything her own way – all the entitlements and none of the responsibi
lity. She was hopeless with clients. Didn’t care for people at all, that one.’

  ‘You’re hardly one to talk.’

  He laughed at that. ‘True. But I can pretend I care. I can pretend a lot of things. There’s been so many occasions when you could have put it together, so many times I’ve almost given it away. But you didn’t see it. It’s amazing how the mind works, Ebony. Once you believe something isn’t a threat, you miss signs and signals your instincts would normally pick up.’

  ‘Why did you kill Fiona too?’

  ‘Oh, Fiona.’ The look of pleasure on his face was sickening. ‘We had a few good nights together. She thought she was so clever, fucking me behind your back. She thought you and I were together. Got a bit of a shock when you told her we weren’t – remember? Then she got me into trouble with you over that stupid cat. Couldn’t have that.’

  ‘You killed her because she got you in trouble?’

  ‘I like killing, Ebony. I don’t need a life-altering reason. You should drink some more of that water.’

  ‘Where’s Rob?’

  His face registered his surprise. ‘You want Rob? Really?’

  ‘I don’t think even he’s as sick as you are.’

  ‘He’s busy on the website tonight but he’ll be along tomorrow. Doing some last-minute updates for me.’

  ‘For you?’

  He came and sat beside her, shifted uncomfortably, then pulled a gun from his back pocket and laid it beside him. ‘The website is how I organise the hunts. It’s damn annoying how Ben and his team keep cracking it, but it’s a novelty to have such an intelligent adversary. Keeps me on my toes. And tonight, it’s actually working to our advantage. But enough about that. Did I mention I’m not actually a vet?’

  ‘What? But how –’

  ‘Good job, wouldn’t you say? I told you my father was a vet – I had to help. A lot. Even with routine surgeries. Being brilliant, I learned fast. When I decided to get close to you, I did some revision.’

  ‘I liked you.’

  ‘And I like you, Ebony. Which is why I’ve gone to so much trouble for this. Do you know where you are?’

  ‘No. Should I?’

  ‘About five minutes from your brother’s house.’

  The old military range. ‘No. No one hunts there anymore.’

  ‘We’re reopening for business. I checked it out weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when you turned up with Ally. I admit I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t even have my mask with me. You think I gave you a fright that day? I would have given you a better one if I could have put that mask on.’

  ‘Like you did in the beginning, on the street at night.’

  ‘I was studying you, figuring out your routines, what you did, when you did it, and I couldn’t resist giving you a fright.’

  ‘There’s police everywhere in town. You won’t get away with this.’

  ‘Oh, it’s safe enough. I must admit, though, after going to the trouble of getting rid of the local cop, I hadn’t thought I’d have to draw so many more in order to secure you.’

  ‘Melanie ran off the road because of cows.’

  ‘It took me two weeks to coax those cattle up to that gate reliably every evening. Once I had them at the gate, it wasn’t difficult to drop a couple of bales of hay onto the road just before she was due to take that drive home and let them through. Hers is the only house at the end of that road, so no one was going to drive through by accident. It was almost too easy.’

  Ebony wrapped her arms around her chest, trying to protect herself from a cold that had nothing to do with the damp, dark space and everything to do with the man sitting beside her.

  ‘Cold?’ He traced a finger down her arm and she froze. ‘You know, not everything went to plan. You turned me down, but there’s still time …’

  She snagged the gun and leapt to her feet, pointing it at him.

  ‘I was wondering if you’d do that. Good for you.’

  Ebony backed away, gun in front of her, hands shaking. She moved towards the steps, glancing over her shoulder to find them.

  ‘I’m afraid it won’t do you any good. I locked the trap door.’ He held up a small set of keys, jingled them.

  ‘Throw them to me.’

  ‘I can’t do that, sorry. You’re going to have to shoot me.’ He got lazily to his feet and approached her.

  She lifted the gun higher, straightened her arms. ‘I don’t want to shoot you, but I will.’

  ‘Will you?’ He stopped two feet in front of her, held his arms out at his sides, palms open. ‘Go on.’

  She wanted to; her finger twitched. She needed to – it was the only way out. Her palms were slippery with sweat as she fought with herself.

  ‘Pretend it’s a tranquiliser, if that helps.’

  ‘Shut up!’ She tried to walk around him, keeping the gun between them, but he sidestepped, then moved in until the barrel was pressed into his stomach.

  ‘You can’t do it, can you? Shoot me!’ he yelled in her face.

  She flinched and tears overflowed and streamed down her face as he reached out and took the gun from her lax fingers. She staggered to the wall and slid down it, head in her hands.

  ‘Never mind,’ he said nicely. ‘Some of us are predators, some are prey. That’s how the world works, Ebs. You see, I like you, but I could put a gun to your head –’ he pressed it to her temple, ‘– and pull the trigger without a second thought.’ He did so.

  The gun clicked, and Ebony convulsed, but it wasn’t loaded.

  ‘Because it’s my nature, you see?’

  ‘Why did you bring it down here if it’s not loaded?’

  He squatted in front of her. ‘Because a hunter should study his prey, know it, understand it. I studied you, Ebony, I know you, I understand you. That gives me an advantage in the hunt.’

  Lee sat in the back of the police car and tapped a nervous staccato on the car door with restless fingers. Cam was beside him, and an officer sat patiently silent at the wheel. Ben had told them they could be close by – for Ebony, once they got her out. As long as they stayed in the car. So they sat roughly a kilometre away from the grounds, shielded from the eyes of the hunters who might be travelling in and out, while surveillance teams kept Ben, two other detectives and an entourage of police in touch with the movements of those already arriving on the scene.

  The idea that Ebony was so close yet so unattainable was driving Lee quietly crazy. Cam’s face told a similar story. They’d been sitting here like this for nearly two hours. The sun was very close to setting. How much longer was this going to take?

  Cam suddenly opened his door and Lee followed suit – just in case. Ben said something to the three men flanking him, then they strode away as Ben approached Cam and Lee.

  ‘Everything’s set,’ he told them. ‘We just have to wait, and keep watching. The second we have confirmation Ebs has been brought in, or anything starts to go down, we move in.’

  ‘Bowden?’ Another suited man approached. ‘This them?’ ‘Yeah. Cam, Lee, this is Detective Manning.’

  He shook their hands, but there was no welcome on his face. ‘You’ve no business being here, but Detective Bowden seems to think you’ll be less trouble this way. You stay with that car. I don’t need to tell you the outcome of you stuffing anything up by trying to be heroes.’

  ‘Got it,’ Lee said.

  So they waited another hour. And another. Until Indy appeared at the window.

  ‘How you holding up?’

  ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Lee asked.

  Indy smiled wryly. ‘Thought so. Get out of the damn car. You were a cop, weren’t you?’

  ‘Manning’s orders.’

  ‘Yeah, well, he’s busy. Ben’s not happy about something. You coming?’

  Ben was surrounded by several others, and frowned briefly at Indy when he saw them coming. She shrugged as they caught up.

  ‘Two smart heads who know the case sitting in the car just seems a waste of resources.’


  ‘Indy said there’s a problem,’ Cam said.

  ‘This whole thing just feels wrong. They started coming in before dark. They’ve set up a canopy and a damn barbecue. There’s no stealth, no attempt to hide their movements.’

  ‘Cocky sons of bitches,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Those cars don’t fit either – unless locals are taxiing them in. These hunters should be coming in from all over. Would they bring their own vehicles? Would men participating in high-end hunts even own some of those pieces of shit?’

  ‘The locals theory could be correct,’ Gibson said. ‘There has to be a contingent here. We’re running plates now, and we’ll know in a minute or two.’

  ‘What are you two doing?’ Manning demanded, glaring at Cam and Lee as he joined the group.

  ‘Assisting,’ Ben said in a tone that brooked no argument. ‘This is not right. It’s too easy.’

  Manning wasn’t impressed. ‘What part? It took months to find and hack that site.’

  An officer appeared and handed a piece of paper to Manning, who read it and looked back at Ben.

  ‘They’re here. IDs on two of the vehicles match known identities from the forum. You’ve got them. We’re going to shut these guys down.’ He strode off in the direction of another group of officers.

  Ben stared into the distance, his expression strained.

  ‘You don’t think so?’ Cam asked.

  When Ben didn’t answer, Cam opened his mouth to ask again, but Indy quickly shook her head.

  ‘Let him think,’ she said quietly.

  Ben’s head snapped around. ‘Marshall?’

  The officer jogged over. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Those positive IDs you just handed over, do we have their real names or just their tags? And are they on the new website or only from the old forum?’

  ‘No, we have their full names, they were among the ones we managed to access before the old forum was pulled. I’ll go get the information.’

  Ben swore, then said, ‘Don’t bother.’ Again he appeared lost in thought for several moments. ‘The old forum was a cover for the black hunts. Most participants on the site were legit rec hunters. Get back on the net, see if the two names we have appear on the Hunters Ridge Hunt Group site. If they do, find out where and when their next scheduled event is.’