London Noir: A gripping crime suspense thriller (Kal Medi Book 2)

by Ann Girdharry

  Sugar G ripped out his headphones and swung his chair to face her.

  ‘You think I’m so stupid I don’t know my own house? That I can’t simply smell an intruder?’

  He flung aside the leads and the metal ends bounced on the table top. ‘I knew from the start you weren’t looking for work.’

  Yes, he hadn’t been fooled. Sugar G put both hands to rest lightly on his thighs and he sounded icily calm which told her she’d better be very careful. People who kept the anger out of their voice and kept it in their body were those who would snap in an instant. A trickle of sweat ran down her back.

  ‘I don’t like to be played with,’ Sugar G said. Menace and warning filled the room like something solid. ‘Who the hell are you?’

  Kal flicked through her possible replies. Should she carry on her cover story? Spin him a yarn about running away after Penny’s murder and now being scared? No, there was only one strategy that might take the sting out of Sugar G’s obvious desire to slice her.

  ‘I’m nobody, but my father was a highly skilled infiltrator. So, if you like, I take after him.’ She left out the bit about David Khan being a trained killer.

  Kal saw a response in the pimp that wasn’t relaxation, rather the slight softening that comes when something you’ve puzzled over becomes clear. And she noticed Sugar G didn’t let his vigilance slip. Yes, he was a cunning one.

  ‘And so what?’ he said.

  ‘I’m here for Sophie.’

  At the mention of Sophie’s name, Sugar G tensed and she knew he wanted to draw his knife. Damn. One more blunder like that and she’d be up against the wall with a blade at her throat. Kal flexed her legs and let her arms hang relaxed and an iota away from her sides, ready to defend herself. Ready to strike back with everything she’d got.

  ‘What I mean is, I’m here for Sophie’s welfare.’

  She could see Sugar G’s veins bulging, his forearms tensing at each mention of Sophie’s name. If she riled him any further, he’d spring, and when he did, a low dive or a somersault, aikido style, would take her under the arc of his arm and bring them both to the floor. Then it would be a question of luck and skill for her, because Sugar G would have the physical advantage. And, deadliest of all, he’d have the force of passion.

  ‘I’m going to help her whatever it takes,’ Kal said, and she took a step back.

  Normally, backing down is a bad tactic. Except in this case, where she hoped it would allow Sugar G to keep his anger under control, and she’d better follow up with some fast talking and with precisely the right tone to not trip his trigger. Kal swallowed.

  ‘Yes,’ she said nodding, ‘whatever it takes I’m going to help that girl, and that’s why I came back here. You and I need to talk. Eliza, Sophie’s best friend, is dead. If you want to protect Sophie, you’d better help me find Eliza’s killer because I’m pretty certain Sophie is the next target.’

  Sugar G stared at her, his dark eyes liquid hatred. ‘Liar,’ he said.

  The veins on his neck were standing out, his system packed full of adrenalin. But she also knew she’d got his attention.

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  Kal waited to see what he’d come up with next. She didn’t peg Sugar G as Penny’s killer. He was cruel – yes. Sadistic – probably. A man who would cut a girl’s face to warn her, or gut a rival pimp, but not a killer who’d brutalised women for decades and not a man to kill a young girl like Eliza. And Kal was sure the same person murdered both Penny and Eliza.

  Sugar G kept staring, his one drooping eyelid enhancing the violence.

  ‘I’m telling you the truth.’ Kal’s phone vibrated in her pocket and for an instant, she lost her concentration.

  ‘And… and Sophie told me you came out of the bathroom on the night of Penny’s death. So what were you doing in there?’

  Damn, that was an amateur fuck-up. She’d jumped too far ahead and she’d made it sound like an accusation. She’d lost the ground she’d gained and now Sugar G was coiling up again like a tiger, ready to spring. Think fast, she commanded herself. A drop of sweat rolled into her eye and she resisted the urge to wipe it.

  ‘Wait! The killer had time to clean down the surfaces,’ she said. ‘It must have been someone Penny knew.’

  ‘I didn’t kill her if that’s what you think,’ he snarled.

  Kal knew that already. Sugar G wasn’t a sociopath. And he’d cared for Penny.

  ‘I know,’ she said. Could he hear the edge of desperation creeping in? Recognise her panic?

  ‘Did Sophie tell you I almost ran her over that day we had the storm? That’s how we met. When Sophie was running away from Melrose. She needs protection. I took her to my apartment to protect her.’

  She could see something was sinking in, gradually filtering into Sugar G’s awareness.

  ‘That’s what Penny always tried to do,’ he said.

  Kal kept her mouth firmly shut, knowing she mustn’t put on any pressure.

  ‘Penny, she… she always tried to protect Sophie. I think she died for it,’ Sugar G said.

  Sugar G slowly drew his knife from the back of his belt but she understood he didn’t really draw it for her. He did it because he was thinking of gutting Penny’s killer. And because he’d just admitted something important to Kal, and now he wanted to scare her so what he said didn’t make him appear less dominant.

  ‘I think Penny died for it too,’ Kal said. The energy in the room had shifted. The game was changing. Wait. Wait.

  Sugar G shook his head. ‘What’s the damn point? This place is the bottom of the fucking list. What’s the damn point in me talking to the police? They’d pin the murder on me quick as that.’ He clicked his fingers. ‘And Penny’s gone now. Nothing’s going to bring her back.’

  ‘So what were you doing in the bathroom?’ She said it softly.

  ‘When I arrived, that stupid girl was trying to wake Penny up – blood everywhere, getting her prints all over the place. I knew I’d be wiping away evidence but I swabbed the surfaces to protect Sophie. Penny wouldn’t have wanted Sophie to be…’

  ‘To be implicated? You wiped down to protect Sophie?’

  Yes, that made sense, and just like Sugar G, that’s exactly what Kal had done when she removed the gold smear from Penny’s shoulder. She’d removed it to protect Sophie.

  Sugar G was wary. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Because Penny swore she’d look after Charlotte’s daughter, didn’t she? And she ended up loving that little girl.’ No need to say out loud what she knew about his feelings for Penny, and therefore he’d acted on impulse out of respect for Penny and carrying on her wishes.

  Sugar G didn’t nod. But he didn’t need to.

  ‘So how did Penny and Charlotte get so close?’

  ‘You’re the clever one, work it out for yourself.’

  ‘Sophie’s mother was a prostitute?’

  ‘Not on the face of it. Charlie was married to a wealthy doctor who doted on her, but she became a high-class call girl when she was at art college, and you know what? She never completely kicked the habit. Her husband didn’t know but there were one or two clients she kept in contact with. She’d see them occasionally just for fun. I suppose being the wife of a rich man can get boring. And Charlie adored being admired. Perhaps he didn’t have what it takes.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Nobody cares about a dead prostitute, you know that don’t you? Nobody gives a damn. The police would sooner piss on me than investigate. So what you gonna do about it?’ Sugar G rested back on the edge of a desk.

  ‘Whatever it takes,’ Kal said.

  He ran his finger across the flat of his knife, the light glancing off steel as he twisted the hilt backwards and forwards. ‘You’re a strange one. You’ve got some balls walking in here. Either that or you’re stupid and I don’t think that’s the case. Whoever he was, I can see your father in you and you know what the funny part is?’

  She shrugged.

  ‘When you’ve got t
hat in you, you can never lead a normal life. Take it from me – I’m talking from experience. And when someone like you stands there and says they’re going to do whatever it takes, it comes out like you mean it.’ Sugar G held her gaze. He walked towards her and for a moment lifted his knife to her cheek. Then he swung the point over her shoulder, towards the door.

  It was a dismissal. He was letting her go in one piece.

  As Kal reached the door, he said one last thing.

  ‘I’ve done all I can for Sophie. I hope you find the killer, and when you do, before he’s properly dead, give him a stab in the eye from me.’

  And Kal walked out and didn’t look back.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  I told my first victim I was a student of mathematics. This was a lie. In fact, my father was a top consultant in a London medical school and he forced me to follow the same profession. It was pointless to fight against his wishes. Since I’m of above average intelligence, my medical studies proved to be no obstacle and, besides, my compliance in all things acted as a smoke screen for my other “activities”. Of course, my studies also assisted me in drugging and slicing my targets.

  When I qualified, I continued in medicine, specialising in psychiatry. I satisfied my urges with victims – selecting, tracking and slicing, every few years when my urges became dominant. I became quite a master and prided myself on never leaving the slightest trail that would lead a police investigation to my door.

  And what of Charlie and her daughter? A good question because she is the one who got away. Or almost.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Marty stared up at the white ceiling. She felt nauseous. Her head hurt. Oh, yes, that’s right, she was in hospital, recovering from the alley attack. Turning her head to look out the window at the children’s playground, she found instead a blank wall. The window was located on the opposite side of the room, and looked out at the sky. That was strange. She must have moved room. Marty edged herself up the bed and was surprised to find her arm tugging on a plastic tube. A drip ran into her right arm. That was odd too, perhaps she’d had some kind of relapse because she thought she’d been taken off intravenous. Whatever they were pumping into her was messing with her head. She couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t remember how she’d got here. Marty slumped back on the pillows and closed her eyes. She’d gone home hadn’t she? Wasn’t all this over? She could remember her brother and LeeMing laughing together over drinks at her flat. Recalled her mother happy on the drive home. Or were they dreams? Or wishful thinking? Fantasies brought on by her struggle for recovery. Brought on by her frustrations. And the hard fact that she still had hours to put in on the bloody treadmill?

  How long it was later, Marty didn’t know, when the door opened and awoke her. A nurse came in and changed over the bag on the drip.

  ‘What’s happened, did something go wrong? Did I have a fall? I thought I could be discharged soon?’ Marty asked.

  ‘You lie back and rest, Ms King. Everything is fine.’

  ‘I don’t feel fine. I feel… strange.’

  ‘Dr Kaufman has you on sedatives so they might have an odd effect – they’re designed to calm you down.’

  ‘Dr Kauf-? I’m not sure I know him.’

  ‘Don’t you worry, just lie back and rest. You can speak to the doctor in the morning.’ The nurse smiled and pattered out.

  ‘Wake up.’

  ‘Go away.’

  ‘Wake up. It’s me, Seb. You’ve got to wake up, you’re in danger.’

  ‘What?’ It was night time now and Marty could make out the dark shape of a young boy standing by the side of her bed. He seemed like a young teenager. She reached to turn on the light and couldn’t find the switch.

  ‘Don’t. They mustn’t know I’m here.’

  There was an urgency in the boy’s voice that snagged at Marty’s memory.

  ‘Listen, if this is some kind of joke…’ she said.

  ‘Remember this?’

  The boy held up a glittering object. Street light filtering in the window reflected from it as he twirled it in front of Marty’s eyes. It was a crystal of some kind, or a stone. Thing was, she sort of did recall it, but the memory kept slipping away. He put it in her hand. It was cold and heavy.

  ‘You were giving this to me from Sophie. Then Dr Kaufman drugged you. You need to get that thing out of your arm and get your wits about you.’

  ‘Listen, I don’t know who you are or what you want, but you’d better get out of here.’

  ‘I’ve seen how Kaufman controls people. Kaufman controlled Sophie. Eliza and Sophie used to sleep in the same room a lot, you know, since they were kids. I think Eliza knew something. Maybe Sophie said some stuff in her sleep, I don’t know, but I know Sophie had nightmares. And Kaufman got it out of her.’

  ‘Got what out? What are you talking about?’

  ‘He got to know whatever Eliza knew about Sophie and then he killed her.’

  ‘Wait – I think you’re confused. This is a reputable London hospital with professional staff and there’s no need to be afraid. I’ll come with you and we’ll go and find a nurse and-’

  ‘Wrong. This is a loony bin full of people like me who’ve got no one. Kaufman can do what he likes. You’ve got to get out of h-’

  The door swung open and the light blazed on and in walked a man with short brown hair and a blue shirt and a doctor’s unbuttoned white jacket. ‘What are you doing here Seb?’ he said, in an easy voice. Marty saw he aimed the question not at the boy but at her.

  ‘He just walked in and started talking about his friends and this and that. I couldn’t follow anything he was saying.’

  The doctor held out a friendly hand and Marty noticed how Seb cowered.

  ‘He didn’t do any harm, doctor,’ she said.

  ‘Of course not,’ said the man in the white coat. ‘Come on now, Seb, let’s get you back to your bed.’

  As he led the boy out of the room, the doctor glanced back at Marty and Marty didn’t know why she did it but she closed her hand over the crystal, hiding it from his view.

  The light went off and Marty lay in the dark. Listening to their footsteps fading away, she turned the crystal over and over in her hands. It didn’t stir any memories. How odd. It disturbed her the boy was so scared. And how had he found his way up here from the children’s wards? Why had he been wandering around alone in the middle of the night? She didn’t see how that could have happened. Seb, he said his name was, and now Marty regretted not asking for his full name so she could go and check he was okay.

  Marty swung her legs over the edge of the bed and opened the door of her locker to find her phone. It wasn’t there. Neither were her clothes, nor her get-well-soon cards. She lay back down. It was giving her a headache trying to figure it out. Of course, the boy would be fine, the nurses and doctors would look after him. Perhaps the drugs he was on had made him confused? But still, the look of fear on his face didn’t sit well with her. And what had happened to her things? Why would she move room and her personal effects not come with her? Probably she was fatigued from all the bloody testing and she couldn’t remember the explanation. Yes, that might be it.

  Every time she closed her eyes, Seb was imprinted on her eyelids. What if he’d been telling her something important? No, that was ridiculous. Well, it might have been important to him but it was just made up, it was crazy talk. Come on Marty, you’re the one with your feet on the ground, there’s no room here for conspiracy theories. Still, Marty would have liked to speak to Kal. And to get it straight in her head.

  After over an hour of not being able to sleep, Marty couldn’t stand it any longer. What the hell, she thought, it wasn’t like she was at death’s door anymore, and a few hours without drugs wouldn’t do any harm. She’d do it simply to satisfy that little voice in her head that wouldn’t shut up – so she reached up and turned off the drip.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  This time it was just Kal, Raphael and Clarence the min
der. And that did not bode well. Kal sank into a dark mood, staring out of the car window, as they left behind the London suburbs and headed into the fields and countryside of Kent. She’d been dismayed to find their destination wasn’t the warehouse. Instead they were heading for the Kent coast.

  ‘All these lovely unpatrolled waters, miles and miles of it – the Kent coastline is a wonderland of estuaries and deserted marshes, literally minutes from London. Perfect for bringing in armaments under the radar, and,’ Raphael glanced at Kal, ‘other goods.’

  My god, the man was showing off. Use all information to your advantage, said the voice in Kal’s head. Yes, she must find Raphael’s weaknesses. This man who was the second favourite, what were his vices? What could she sense in him that she might exploit? That might give her a lever to walk out of this alive?

  After her encounter with Sugar G, Kal had struggled against a fatalistic, black mood. Maybe it was the pimp’s comments about her father which got to her. He’d not said it as a taunt – that she’d never lead a normal life with a legacy like hers, with a father like hers – but that’s how Kal took it. She’d thrashed against that truth all her life, and thought she’d won that battle, and now here she was, alongside Raphael and all he stood for. Which was everything she stood against. Everything she wanted to fight against. How the fuck can you turn that to your advantage, she thought, you tell me.

  Twenty minutes later, Kal spotted a sign for the Medway estuary and they drove alongside the marshland of the coastline. Mudflats stretched into the distance. She didn’t know this part of Kent but knew Raphael was correct. For someone with knowledge of this area, small boats would go undetected because it wasn’t high profile enough to have coastguard patrol. In fact, Kent had done everything in its power to build up the reputation of the estuaries as wildlife and significant wetland reserves, to be protected for nature and biodiversity.