A layer of snow glistened, sparkling as if dotted with speckles of glass, and the silence that always came with the dumping of the white stuff gave the night a creepy feel.
Doreen’s recording had incensed Cassie and sent Mam off on one, raging about disrespect, that Karen and Sharon hadn’t really run the Barrington back then, they were more like a bully and her sidekick roaming around raising their fists and gobbing off.
“Nowt like your dad,” Mam had said. “No revenue created, no real fear, not like he inspired. She always did think she was some tough nut, but we’ll show her she isn’t.”
Cassie stared across, past The Beast inside its white chain-and-post cordon surround, to the line of houses on the other side of the field. As expected, all the lights were off bar one in a porch, the residents tucked up with no clue, thankfully, of what was about to happen. A set of headlights speared the night, a car coming down a street at the end of the row, then turning to nip into a space parallel to Cassie and Mam’s position.
Doreen convinced her to leave the car on New then.
“Are you ready, Cass?” Mam whispered.
“Yes, you?”
“Yes.”
Mam would remain in the alley, keeping watch for anyone coming by. Sometimes, folks used the cut-through after work, but as they’d planned, people who walked home from a late shift wouldn’t be here until around twenty past, later if the snow slowed them down, and if they did walk, they were mental being out in the dark.
“They’re early,” Mam said.
“Fine by me.”
Two figures got out of the car, just about discernible by the light of a streetlamp. The sound of the doors closing seemed overly loud, and Cassie grimaced. They didn’t need people peering out of windows and watching a murder, and they especially didn’t need to see a stripe of light from a bloody torch bobbing.
Cassie twigged then that the usual solar lamp that lit up The Beast wasn’t working.
“What the sodding hell are they doing?” Mam muttered. “I broke the solar lamp earlier because I didn’t want any light. It’s bright as it is with the snow.”
“It’ll be Karen’s idea, the torch. Doreen’s not that stupid.” Cassie clenched her teeth, the urge to shout at them immense. What, did Karen want a spotlight on Cassie? Did she want to see the red of blood instead of the black it would be in the darkness? Was she looking forward to watching the knife go in, right up to the hilt, her hand in contact with the centre of Cassie’s pierced stomach?
Karen and Doreen tromped over the snow, reached the chains, and climbed over. Karen wiped a large patch of the plinth beneath The Beast and set the torch down, positioned so the light created a horizontal band across the gloom. With the moon’s help, they were clearly in view as they sat on the plinth, Doreen’s shoulders hunched, her hands in her coat pockets—Cassie had told her to wear all black, clothing she didn’t mind burning after—Karen ramrod straight, glancing all around. Cassie had already checked what could be seen from there, and Karen would spot nowt but murk down the alley, a slanted shadow created by the house, with a faint portion of the whitened street at the other end.
In the car, Cassie had already taken her weapon out of the briefcase and held the handle tight. Mam’s breathing was heavy, quick. Was she recalling the days when she’d gone out with Dad, on the prowl, there to have his back when he did things only those two knew about? Cassie had found another ledger last night, smaller, a burgundy diary with 1991 on it, and inside… God, so many little jobs Mam had participated in before she’d got pregnant. Mam had groused about Dad not telling her everything, but the pair of them had omitted to mention Mam’s involvement in the early days.
There was no doubt Mam knew what she was doing, that she’d cope with this. Cassie just had to hope her mother didn’t need to get involved. She wasn’t sure she could stand seeing an older, brunette version of herself doing Karen harm. It would show her what she looked like doling out pain.
Time seemed to still. Karen and Doreen must be whispering. Clouds of their breath drifted through the torchlight, reminding Cassie of the dry ice at discos in The Donny and the way it loitered in the multicoloured strobes. Maybe they were going over their plan one last time, but she’d bet Doreen was right on edge, wanting to get this over and done with so she could go home and forget her part in it.
Or maybe she wouldn’t. She might have a monster inside her, too, one that enjoyed every second.
Mam’s watch alarm vibrated, and the buzz seemed more like a shriek. “It’s time.”
Cassie held her weapon behind her, the handle in one gloved fist, the looped whip in the other. She left the alley, her heart going mad, and strode towards The Beast, the snow creaking beneath her boots. If she didn’t know Karen planned to stab her, this would be a pathetic move, leaving herself open to getting shot. It wouldn’t harm her torso, she had a bulletproof vest on, absolutely no intention of allowing Karen to stab her there at all, but a head shot, one in the thigh, they’d do fatal damage.
She cocked one leg over a chain, then the other, and approached a now standing Karen and Doreen. “What’s with all the cloak and dagger?”
Karen eyed her up and down then flashed a kitchen knife out, waving it
