Souls At Zero (A Dark Psychological Thriller)

by Neal Martin

  As Edger stood by the closet, memories of being a Legionnaire flooding back to him, he put the white Kepi on his head and stood to attention, allowing that sense of pride and confidence he once felt so often to wash over him. "Legio Patria Nostra," he said, which was the Legion motto, "The Legion Is Our Fatherland". The words meant little to him when he first saw them inscribed on the Legion base at Aubagne. But after a few weeks, those words began to fill him with strength, inspired courage in him, just as they were doing now as he thought of his daughter. "Whatever it takes…."

  Edger removed the Kepi and put it back on the shelf. He bent down to the floor and found a canvas satchel amongst pairs of boots and surveillance equipment. Opening the bag, he took out a spare magazine for the Glock and put it in his jacket pocket, along with a lock picking set that he acquired years ago from a Blackwatch guy in Iraq. He also pulled out a black wool balaclava that he had purchased from an army surplus store just two days ago. He had planned to wear the balaclava the other night while he sorted out Speedy and his gang, hitting them on the street, paramilitary style, with a baseball bat. In the end, he had dropped that plan and decided to wait on Speedy coming to him at the old man's house. Now it looked like he would find a use for the balaclava after all. He put it inside his coat then closed the closet door, stepping out of the bedroom and going to the kitchen where he retrieved a roll of duct tape from one of the kitchen drawers. He put the duct tape in his coat pocket and looked at his watch. It was now 6:41 p.m.

  He hoped he would make it to Andersonstown before the Lord Mayor did.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Black sat in his car and opened the whiskey bottle in his lap, his eyes hardly ever leaving the black security gates that led into the apartment complex where Edger lived. He had seen Edger's car drive in less than ten minutes ago, and Black now wondered how long it would be before Edger came back out again. He was doubtful Edger was the type to just sit around his apartment while his daughter was still being held by her kidnapper somewhere. No, Edger seemed the type to go out there and try to find her, or at least do something to try and get her back. Perhaps do whatever the kidnapper had asked him to do, which Black figured was more likely the case. The detective had no idea what that could possibly be, but he knew if he stayed on Edger's tail, he would find out soon enough. Whatever it was, it would probably turn out to be illegal, in which case Black would be there to arrest the ex-Legionnaire. Not that he would relish doing so, but he had a job to do at the end of the day. Or so he told himself anyway. What else was he going to do?

  As he screwed the lid back on the whiskey bottle, Black felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled out the phone and looked at the caller ID, which said Jessica. His thirteen year old daughter. "Hiya love," Black said upon answering. "Everything all right?"

  "Fine, Daddy," Jessica Black said. "I was just phoning to say hello, that's all. I haven't seen you since last week. I miss you, Daddy."

  "I know, love." Black felt a familiar ball of guilt form in his stomach. He had yet to inform his family that he was dying. He couldn't bring himself to, especially with all the hurt he had caused them already. "I'm sorry. I've just been working a lot. Catching bad guys, you know the score." He laughed softly, but his daughter never responded.

  "Mum's going out tonight. I thought maybe you could come around and spend time with me and Lisa."

  Lisa was Black's other daughter, two years older than Jessica. Black's relationship with his oldest daughter was somewhat more strained since she blamed him for breaking up the family after he had an affair with a colleague at work. "How is Lisa?" he asked, his eyes still on the black security gates up the road.

  "She's a total bitch, Daddy," Jessica said. "She hates everyone."

  Black sighed. "Don't talk about your sister like that, Jess. She's just going through some stuff at the moment, that's all. Give her a break."

  "Why? She never gives me break. She's always giving me shit about something."

  "Hey, remember who you're talking to."

  "Sorry, Daddy. So when will I see you?"

  "I'll try to come round tomorrow, love. Maybe go to the cinema if you want."

  "Yes! That new Kristen Stewart movie is out that I really want to see."

  "Who?"

  "From Twilight, Daddy? You remember you watched it with me on DVD last year?"

  Black couldn't remember. "Oh yeah. That one."

  "So what time are you picking me up? I doubt Lisa will go so there's no point even mentioning it to her."

  Black sighed again and shook his head. "Lisa will be going. I'll phone you tomorrow and let you know."

  "You promise?"

  "I'll call you tomorrow. Where's your mum going tonight?"

  "Out with Auntie Trish."

  "Right. You call me if you need to, alright?"

  "I will. Love you, Daddy."

  "I love you too, sweetheart."

  Black hung up the phone just as the security gates up ahead opened. Edger's silver Skoda came driving through and Black quickly slid down in his seat as the Skoda came down the road and sped past him towards the main Stranmillis Road. Black sat up, started the car and turned it around on the narrow road before driving after Edger, pulling his seat belt on as he did so. "Right, Mr Edger," he said as he came upon the silver Skoda up ahead. "Let's see where you're heading."

  Black ended up on the main road, travelling about two cars behind Edger's Skoda as they passed Stranmillis University College, and then turned left on to the Malone Road. A few minutes later, Black followed Edger on to the A55 and stayed about one hundred yards behind him, wondering where Edger was heading to and what he was going to do when he got there. When Edger carried on over the M1 flyover onto Kennedy Way, Black realised he was probably heading for Andersonstown.

  "What's in Andersonstown, Edger?" Black said to himself as he watched Edger turn left up ahead on to the Glen Road. A moment later, Black turned onto the Glen Road himself and spotted Edger not far ahead as the silver Skoda indicated right. Black sped up slightly, fearing he might lose Edger in the network of streets the other man was driving into. He continued to follow Edger at a careful distance until he saw Edger slow down, and then park his car in one of the residential streets.

  Black pulled his Audi in behind a yellow Mini Cooper, about ten car lengths away from Edger, on the opposite side of the road, so that he could see Edger's car across the way and down. Black watched as Edger appeared to sit in his car for a few moments before getting out and walking up the drive of one of the terraced houses.

  He gave Edger a moment, then Black got out of his car and walked in the rain down the street to where Edger's car was parked. Edger had walked up the drive of the end terrace Victorian house. Black peered past the thick front hedgerow of the neighbouring house and looked towards the doorstep of the house Edger had apparently walked up to, but he saw no one standing by the front door. Either Edger had gone inside the house already, or he was somewhere else on the property. The lights were on in the house, so it seemed like someone was in.

  Black turned and went back to his car, where he had left his mobile phone on the front passenger seat. He picked up the phone and called the station on the Lisburn Road. When the duty officer answered the phone, Black identified himself and asked the officer to look up the address that Edger had walked into. "I need to know who lives there," Black said to the duty officer.

  A moment later, the duty officer said, "Councillor Brian McGinty, the Lord Mayor."

  Black went silent. He knew McGinty. Had tried to arrest the man once a few years ago but the charges didn't stick. Obviously the now Lord Mayor had moved house. He lived near the Falls the last time Black had spoken to him.

  "You there, Paul?"

  "Thanks." Black hung up the phone and stared through the rain soaked window towards Edger's car parked down the road.

  He shook his head.

  What the hell was Edger doing at the Lord Mayor of Belfast's house?

  CHAPTER S
EVENTEEN

  The downstairs lights were all in the house. As Edger walked up the tarmacked driveway towards the house, he paused by the front door and thought about knocking it. Obviously McGinty's wife was home. He could knock the door, show her his private investigator license, tell her he was making enquiries about something or other. But that would mean showing his face. There was also no guarantee the woman would open the door to him. A woman alone in the house would know better, especially the wife of the Lord Mayor, who had most likely been briefed on security protocols after her husband got the job. Besides, she was the wife of a Sinn Fein councillor from Andiestown. Edger was sure she didn't come up the Lagan in a bubble. She would know the score, know not to open the door to strangers, no matter who they said they were.

  There was a walkway that led up the side of the house to the back garden. Edger moved away from the front door and slipped up the side of the house. Before he reached the back garden, he dug into his coat, pulled out the balaclava and put it on his head, wearing it like a monkey hat for the time being. If he managed to get inside the house, he would pull the balaclava down over his face. He was already taking a huge risk doing what he was doing. No sense in showing his face if he didn't have to. And anyway, a hooded intruder was a more intimidating one, and he needed McGinty's wife—and the Lord Mayor himself when he showed up—to be scared of him. Easier to get information from them that way.

  The garden at the back of the house was long, with a greenhouse at the far end and lots of shrubbery in between. Edger moved past the three wheelie bins lined up along the wall and went to the back door. He was surprised and relieved to see that the door was not one of the modern UPVC doors, but an ordinary wood panelled door. Given his limited experience with picking locks, Edger doubted he would have been able to pick the lock on a modern door, not with the security pins those doors had. The door he was looking at however, seemed to have a simple enough lock that he would hopefully be able to pick. The last thing he wanted to do was to start breaking windows. The woman inside would probably have the police called before he even got a foot in.

  Edger carefully pushed down on the back door handle first, to see if the door was indeed locked, which it was. He then knelt down and took the lock picking tools from his coat, selecting the tools he thought would be right for the job. The same Blackwatch guy that had given him the picking tools in Iraq (the guy didn't take much persuading after a few drinks one night, and anyway, those guys were never short on equipment or tools) had also showed Edger the basics of picking a lock. Edger thought at the time that such a skill might come in handy at some point, so over time (when he was bored and had nothing to do in between assignments) he would go around the encampment looking for different locks to pick. Like any skill, it took some getting used to. It took him multiple tries at first to open even the most basic of locks, but eventually he was able to negotiate his way around most simple locks.

  The kitchen light was off in the house, so he had little light with which to work. Not that he needed much. Picking a lock was more a process of feeling your way through as you poked and raised each of the tumblers inside the lock in turn.

  His skills were rusty though. It took him over five minutes to eventually open the lock in the back door of the house. Not his best time, but he didn't care.

  He was in.

  Before he carefully pushed down on the door handle, Edger pulled the balaclava down over his face, then he opened the door, wincing as it creaked on hinges that needed oiling. Opening the door just enough, he slipped through into the dark kitchen, and then quietly closed the back door behind him.

  The kitchen was long and narrow and the smell of recently cooked food was in the air. Curry it smelled like. Straight ahead was another door, partially open with light seeping through from the hallway beyond. Edger crossed the kitchen to the door, opened it wide enough so he could peek round into the hallway. Seeing no one, he opened the door all the way and stepped out into the tiled hallway. To his left was the stairs and a door leading under them. To his right were two more doors. From the furthest door up the hallway, Edger could hear the sound of a television blaring. Some game show it sounded it like. McGinty's wife was obviously in there.

  Edger looked at his watch. 7:13 p.m.

  Brian McGinty should be home soon.

  Reaching inside his jacket, Edger took out his Glock 17. Over twenty years spent protecting people all over the world, and now he was about to terrorise an innocent woman. He didn't allow himself to think about the cruel irony of that though.

  I'm doing this for Kaitlin.

  Edger moved quietly but quickly down the long hallway, his Glock held at chest level. Stopping outside the closed living room door, the TV got louder as commercials came on. He heard a sighing noise from inside the room, then footsteps coming towards the door.

  Edger stepped back from the door and raised the Glock. The oppressive heat in the house pricked his skin and his scalp itched under the thick wool balaclava.

  The living room door handle was pressed down from the other side, and a second later the door opened to reveal a blond haired woman in her late fifties. The woman was carrying an empty tea cup on a saucer. When she opened the door and saw Edger standing there, his gun aimed at her, she screamed, dropping the cup and saucer, which smashed on the laminate floor of the living room. The woman put a hand to her chest and staggered back into the room, her heavily made up face contorted in sheer fright.

  Edger moved quickly forward into the living room, keeping his gun trained on the woman, who was backing away towards the fireplace. She was so scared, she couldn't speak. Tears ran down her rouged cheeks. "Do as I say and you won't get hurt," Edger said, closing the living room door behind him. "I'm here for your husband, not for you." Edger kept the gun trained on the woman, the look of fear on her face eating at him, but he chose to ignore it. "Sit on the sofa. Now."

  "W…What do you want?" the woman asked, whose name he remembered to be Maureen.

  "Just get on the sofa, Maureen."

  Her face registered shock when he said her name and she seemed to shrink further down in fear but she never moved towards the sofa. Maybe she thought if she did, Edger would have his way with her or something. She could have just been paralysed with fear. Edger was intimidating at the best of times because of his size. He was even more so with a hood over his face and a gun in his hand.

  He didn't have time to mess about. McGinty would probably be home soon and Edger needed the wife secured before the Mayor came through the front door. He firmly took hold of one of Maureen McGinty's thin arms and directed her onto the sofa, which she fell onto easily, her legs weak with fear and the adrenaline most likely overloading her system right now. If it wasn't for all the makeup, her face would match the colour of the white blouse and trousers she was wearing.

  "Please don't hurt me," she said in a shaky voice.

  Fair play to the woman. She was doing her best to contain her fear. "I'm not going to hurt you," Edger assured her, putting the Glock back in its holster inside his jacket. The woman was no threat to him. No need for the gun until McGinty arrived home.

  "There's money—"

  "I'm not here to rob you." He took the roll of duct tape out of his coat pocket and began to tape her wrists together.

  "My husband, he'll be home soon…"

  Edger wrapped the duct tape around the woman's ankles. "I'm counting on it."

  When he'd finished securing Maureen McGinty, Edger went to the still blaring TV and turned it off, then he went and sat in one of the single armchairs in the room. "Right, Maureen," he said. "Before your husband arrives home, I want you tell me why someone would want him dead."

  Maureen McGinty looked shocked. "Dead? Why would anyone want my husband dead?" Her face dropped as she thought about it. "Oh no, you're not…you're not going to…kill my husband are you?"

  Edger said nothing, just stared back at her through the balaclava.

  "My husband is a good man. He's the L
ord Mayor, a—"

  "A what, Mrs McGinty?"

  She sniffed back tears as snot ran down her face. "A decent man."

  "You don't sound too convinced of that."

  Closing her eyes, she looked away from him, almost in shame. Edger frowned. What was she trying to hide?

  Before he could ask her however, there was the sound of a car engine in the driveway, then the slamming of doors.

  Edger took his gun out again. "Not a sound," he warned Maureen McGinty, who stiffened up when she heard her husband's voice at the front of the house, saying goodbye to someone—probably his chauffeur—just before the car pulled out of the drive again.

  A second later, the front door was unlocked and then opened.

  Edger went and sat beside Maureen McGinty, pointed the Glock at her chest while he stared at the living room door.

  "Maureen?" Brian McGinty called from the hallway. "I'm home, love."

  Maureen McGinty sat shaking, her lower lip quivering as they waited on her husband entering the room.

  "Maureen?" Brian McGinty said again.

  Then the living room door opened.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Mayor Brian McGinty walked halfway through the living room doorway and stopped, his eyes widening in shock. "Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed. "Maureen!"

  Edger kept the gun pointed at McGinty's wife. "Mr Mayor," he said calmly. "Come in, close the door, and don't anything stupid, or I'll shoot your wife."