Deadly Game

by D. S. Butler

  There was no point waiting around for someone to save them. They had to save themselves.

  Chapter 59

  Charlotte made her way to Marston Street. She’d left Benny happily enjoying some jelly in his private hospital room. He seemed happy enough there even though he constantly asked after his brother. One of the nurses had located Benny’s medical records, and she let slip the fact that Benny had spent much of his childhood in and out of hospital with various ailments. He clearly felt at home in the medical environment.

  Marston Street looked just as it had on Street View. Although Charlotte was familiar with East London, she didn’t know this area very well. It was just outside city limits, and there were no sixties tower blocks, only old-fashioned Georgian houses— lots of them had basements with grilled windows, allowing some light to get to the downstairs rooms.

  She guessed most of the houses had been converted to flats a long time ago. But none of the basement windows matched Benny’s description. Each house had steps leading down from the pavement to a small paved or gravelled area and the basement rooms all had square windows.

  She was halfway along Marston Street when a large, brightly-coloured poster on the opposite side of the road caught her eye. It was huge and hung on the side of the first building in a row of shops. Charlotte smiled. It was an advert for a type of banana yogurt, and there was a cartoon image of a banana, complete with a happy smiling face.

  “Well done, Benny,” she murmured. She shouldn’t have doubted him after all.

  The images from Google Street View had been out of date. The poster on the images she’d shown Benny had been for an insurance company.

  Knowing that Benny hadn’t been away with the fairies when he was describing the location gave Charlotte more confidence. She had a good feeling about this location. Benny had been telling the truth.

  If the girls were still being held here, she could use some backup. She quickly called Mackinnon and filled him in. Right now, the team were focusing heavily on trying to extract information from Addlestone, but Mackinnon promised to give DI Tyler an update and said he would meet her in Marston Street as soon as possible.

  Not wanting to waste any time, Charlotte began to look carefully at the buildings.

  She was looking for a basement flat with horizontal, narrow windows. As all the houses in this area were terraced that meant the windows had to be at the front of the house or at the back. She couldn’t see the windows at the back without knocking on every door and asking to go inside, so she decided to walk the length of the street in both directions to see if she could find any windows matching Benny’s description.

  She’d only walked past six houses when she saw a change in the buildings. Instead of red brick, the next row of houses were a sandy colour and slightly taller. And more importantly, the windows were horizontal strips of glass at the basement level.

  This could be it. The girls could be in one of these basement flats.

  She walked quickly onwards, looking at the next row of houses and then felt disappointed to see just how many basement flats had the same horizontal windows.

  She cursed under her breath. Finding the girls would take a lot of manpower. They’d need officers knocking on all these doors.

  If she requested uniform’s help, Tyler would ask her whether she thought Benny’s information was credible. She believed him, but she knew Benny wouldn’t be considered a reliable witness, which meant when it came down to prosecute this case or her bosses examined any failures in procedure, this would be something that was looked into thoroughly.

  Modern police work was nothing like it was on the TV. If this was a TV show, Charlotte would barge into each flat, find the girls and rescue them dramatically. Instead, she was faced with half a street of identical basement flats on both sides of the road.

  She would have to call in and speak to Tyler. He would then arrange to get local CCTV analysed, and they would narrow it down from there. A huge door-to-door operation would certainly alert the abductors to the fact the police were closing in on them and that was the last thing they wanted.

  Feeling suddenly despondent, Charlotte turned and was heartened to see Mackinnon walking towards her already.

  “That was quick.”

  “I wasn’t far away,” Mackinnon said, covering the distance between them in a few long strides. “What exactly did Benny tell you?”

  Charlotte’s gaze flickered to the huge poster and thought it was best not to mention the confusion over the banana. “Benny told me it was Marston Street. He positively identified it from images on Street View, and he also told me about that poster.” Charlotte pointed to the bright yellow banana. “He told me the girls are being held in a basement flat that has thin, horizontal windows. I am guessing something like these,” she pointed to one of the basement flat windows, and Mackinnon nodded.

  “The Street View didn’t show the windows properly, so I couldn’t get Benny to ID them, but I’m reasonably confident the girls could be in one of these flats.”

  “Unless they’ve been moved since Benny was last here,” Mackinnon said.

  Charlotte nodded. That was a possibility, but one she didn’t really want to acknowledge. If the girls had been moved, they would have to go back to the drawing board.

  Chapter 60

  When Lila heard the key turn in the lock, her stomach clenched in fear. She shot a quick glance at Ruby and saw that she was just as afraid. There was no time for reassuring words, though.

  As soon as that bastard stepped inside the room she was going to run at him, and even if she didn’t escape, she was determined to do some damage.

  She tried to act bravely for Ruby’s sake, but Marlo terrified her. She’d understood why Benny had sat quivering on the floor rather than fight back the first time they tried to escape. There was something about Marlo’s eyes— dark, and dead. They reminded her of shark eyes.

  Lila moved up from her crouched position as the door opened.

  When he stepped inside, Marlo blinked a couple of times, surprised that the girls weren’t in the middle of the room, where they had been the last time he’d checked on them. Seeing him so close and smelling his sweat paralysed Lila. For a split second, as her mind ran through her options, she froze.

  What if this was a mistake? What if this made him even more angry and he punished them and…

  Lila was jerked from her thoughts by Ruby hollering at the top of her lungs and running at Marlo with her fists flying.

  Lila joined in, kicking out at Marlo. She aimed for the side of his knee, lashing out hard.

  She’d heard somewhere that the knee was a weak point, and it seemed to work because he went down like a ton of bricks sprawled all over poor Ruby.

  The scream of terror Ruby let out made Lila’s heart skip a beat.

  She knew she was supposed to run. She knew the plan. It was her idea after all, but seeing her friend helpless with that monster looming over her, made every muscle in Lila’s body go rigid.

  It took Ruby screaming at her again to make her move. “Run, Lila. Run!”

  Lila turned, intending to dart through the doorway, but Marlo was wise to her. He reached out, his long thin fingers wrapping around her ankle.

  She yelped in terror as she fell forward.

  His gaze clashed with hers, and she saw the smirk on his face.

  He didn’t think she would be able to get away. He thought he had won. He was enjoying this.

  The thought made Lila furious, and she kicked out at him with all the power she could gather.

  She felt, rather than heard, a satisfying crunch as the bottom of her heel smashed into his nose. The contact, made him loosen his grip on Lila’s ankle, and she quickly scrambled to her feet, grabbing the handle, pulling the door closed and locking Ruby in the room with Marlo.

  Thank God Marlo was a creature of habit and had left the key in the lock. She had to act fast. Who knew what Marlo would do locked alone in that room with Ruby?

&nbs
p; He would be angry and frustrated and he was bound to take his anger out on her.

  She rushed into the kitchen, remembering clearly that Benny had told them that the spare keys were in the kitchen. But was the front door key still there? And whereabouts in the kitchen did Marlo keep it?

  She staggered down the hallway, bursting into the small kitchen and looked around frantically.

  There wasn’t much in the way of kitchen equipment, which made it easier to search. She scanned the tops of the counters first. Nothing.

  She yanked open the drawers. The first one was cutlery and there was no sign of any keys, but the next drawer contained takeaway menus and a set of keys with a bright green label on the keyring.

  She snatched them up quickly and ran down the hallway, trying to block out Ruby’s screams coming from inside the bedroom.

  Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she tried to force the key into the lock. In her desperation, she fumbled and thought for one horrifying moment that it wasn’t the right key. But finally it slid in the lock and turned smoothly.

  She tugged the door open and stepped outside, breathing large gulps of fresh air. There wasn’t time to hesitate. She raced up the steps to the pavement level and looked around wildly for someone to ask for help.

  It was a busy street. Lots of cars were passing by, and she wondered whether she should step out in front of one of them and flag them down, or whether she should go to a neighbour’s house.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two teenage girls approaching, holding their phones in front of them. They were chatting about Pokemon.

  She turned and started to run towards them. Surely they would let her use a phone to call the police.

  She willed her legs to move faster, but they felt like jelly. She didn’t know whether that was because she was so scared or because she’d been sitting for so long.

  “Can I use your phone?” She practically screamed the question at the girls.

  They were younger than they had first appeared and looked up at Lila in horror.

  She guessed she must look quite a state.

  “Please, I am not gonna steal it. I just need to phone the police. I was –” Before she could finish what she was saying the two girls dodged past and started to cross the road to get away from her.

  “No! Wait! I just need to borrow your phone,” she considered chasing after them and then decided against it. There were other people around, other people she could ask.

  She turned quickly, without looking where she was going, and slammed hard into a man’s chest.

  Chapter 61

  “Lila George?”

  Lila looked up at the man towering over her.

  How did he know her name? She tried to take a step back but his hand was on her elbow, keeping her upright, and gently but firmly preventing her from running away.

  Oh, God, was he involved? Had she just escaped only to run into another one of the abductors?

  “Help! Police!” she screamed out, determined to get someone to help her.

  Then she noticed there was a woman standing behind the tall man. “Lila, it’s okay. I am DC Charlotte Brown, and this is DS Mackinnon. We’ve been looking for you. You are going to be okay now.”

  “My friend, Ruby, is still inside with that psycho. They’re both locked in the bedroom.”

  The tall man put his hands gently on Lila’s shoulders and turned her around. “I need you to tell me which flat she’s in, Lila.”

  Lila looked back at the female police officer, who was now talking urgently on the phone.

  It suddenly struck her as odd that there weren’t any police cars or sirens to be heard.

  “Is it just you two? Where are all the police cars?”

  “Never mind that now, Lila. Show me which flat Ruby is in.”

  Lila clenched her teeth as she walked quickly towards the flat. Every part of her body wanted to resist going back there, moving closer to that nasty bastard made her feel sick, but she had to for Ruby’s sake.

  “It’s this one,” she said pointing down the steps to the basement.

  The front door was still ajar.

  “Thank you Lila,” he said. “You should go with DC Brown now. She’ll make sure you’re safe, and there will be an ambulance here soon, okay?”

  Lila knew he wanted her to move away from the flat, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away as he walked down the steps towards the basement and then disappeared through the front door.

  Chapter 62

  Mackinnon hadn’t expected things to move quite so quickly. He’d assumed they would be conducting door-to-door enquiries after they’d had instructions from Tyler, but everything changed when Lila George barrelled along the pavement towards them.

  She didn’t look like the pretty girl in the photograph her parents had shown the team. Her hair was tangled, and she had blood smeared over one side of her face.

  It was the wild look of panic in her eyes that had hit Mackinnon the hardest. She’d looked up at him with fear and distrust.

  Now, he could feel her eyes burning into his back as he descended the steps, pushed open the door and slipped inside, moving as quietly as possible.

  He knew Charlotte would take Lila away from the scene and wait for backup.

  According to procedure, he should be waiting for back up, too, and he would have done if it had just been Marlo inside, but the thought of Ruby Watson being locked in a room with Marlo compelled Mackinnon to enter the flat. There was no way he was going to stand around, doing nothing while a seventeen-year-old girl could be being abused. He’d seen the injuries Lila George had sustained and guessed Ruby Watson would be in a similar state.

  As soon as he saw Charlotte leading Lila George away, Mackinnon quickly scoped out the flat.

  Directly in front of him was a narrow hallway, with bare floorboards. The kitchen door at the bottom of the hall was open and Mackinnon could see no one was inside. The open door to his right led to the sitting room and there was nobody in there either.

  The door to the first bedroom had been broken off its hinges and the wooden panels were splintered. The one remaining door to his left was shut and there was a key in the lock.

  He took a deep breath and reached for the key as a strangled moan sounded from inside the room.

  He heard a female voice say, “No, please, don’t hurt me.”

  Mackinnon gritted his teeth, turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open.

  He didn’t bother to try and keep quiet and flung the door open so hard that it crashed back against the wall.

  “Police,” he shouted loudly.

  He wanted to make his presence known and to attract Marlo’s attention, preferring Marlo to focus his anger on him rather than Ruby Watson.

  Shocked, both Ruby and Marlo turned to him at the same time. Ruby moved first. She quickly used the opportunity to scramble away from Marlo and then cowered in the corner of the room.

  Marlo stood rigidly still as he looked at Mackinnon.

  “Who the hell are you?” he demanded, his lip curling up in a sneer.

  “DS Mackinnon.”

  Before Mackinnon could say anything else, Ruby shouted out, “Be careful. He’s got a knife.”

  A thin, mean smile stretched across Marlo’s lips as he pulled his hand out of his pocket and held up the metal blade for Mackinnon to see.

  “I think you should put that knife down, Marlo. You’re already in enough trouble. There are police all around the building. I want you to put the knife on the floor and kick it towards me.”

  Marlo grinned as he looked Mackinnon up and down. “I don’t think so. Do I look stupid?”

  Mackinnon quickly assessed his chances. Marlo was tall, but still a couple of inches shorter than Mackinnon. He had a wiry build, with thin arms and legs.

  Mackinnon knew he was bigger and stronger, but he had a major disadvantage.

  He had no weapon.

  “Why don’t you let Ruby go and we can talk about this?�
��

  Marlo shook his head. “She’s not going anywhere. She is my insurance.”

  “What are you hoping to get out of this Marlo? Lila is outside, she’s safe. It’s over.” Mackinnon’s gaze drifted over to Ruby as he spoke and saw the relief on the girl’s face.

  She looked pale and terrified, and had a blue-tinged purple smudge just below her cheekbone where she’d been used as a punchbag.

  He clenched his fists at his sides. What kind of animal did something like that? What had Ruby ever done to him?

  “This has gone on long enough, Marlo. Put down the knife.”

  “I don’t think it’s gone on long enough. My game was just getting started. Did you like it? I bet you wondered what I was going to do with the parents at the school, didn’t you?”

  He was taunting him, and Marlo paused, waiting for him to reply, but Mackinnon was determined not to give him the satisfaction.

  Marlo shrugged and continued his story regardless. “The parents were supposed to take a child and bring them back here. I was going to pretend I would let Lila and Ruby go in exchange for the children.” Marlo lowered his head and winked. “Really, though, I was going to keep all four. Clever, huh?”

  Mackinnon shook his head. “Not really. The whole thing is a bit childish, if you ask me.”

  The smile disappeared from Marlo’s face in an instant. He moved forward and slashed the air just in front of Mackinnon with the knife.

  Mackinnon stood his ground and willed him to come just a little bit closer. If he got close enough, Mackinnon could grab his wrist and… Even as he thought about doing that, he realised he was being stupid. He had seen plenty of injuries from knife wounds during his career, and the thought of somebody having to tell Chloe and the girls that he’d been stabbed on duty, stopped him from trying anything foolish.

  He wouldn’t tackle him physically, but he could still get at Marlo another way.