Cassie glanced over. Faint splashes marred the whiteness of the statue. That would have been okay to leave if Zhang Wei hadn’t turned up, but now…
Galvanised into action, Cassie got up and handed Doreen the knife. Mam and Doreen dragged Zhang Wei, creating a trough in the snow, pausing to climb over the chain. They picked his wrists up again on the other side, then tugged him behind them towards the alley. Cassie snatched up Karen’s stomach skin and wedged it in her coat pocket, then gripped Karen’s wrist, her whip in her free hand, and struggled to pull the woman’s weight. She managed to get to the chain using Zhang Wei’s trough and let her go, stepped over, and stared across at the houses on New.
Still no lights except for the one in the porch.
Doreen came running back, out of breath, and snagged one of Karen’s wrists. “Come on, your mam wants us to go to the meat factory, don’t ask me why.”
“I know why.”
“Right.”
“When Karen’s in the car, go over to yours and meet us at the factory.”
“Okay.”
They hurried towards the alley, Karen bumping along, blood no doubt leaking on the snow—the cleaners would have a job on their hands. Cassie scanned the houses on Old, the odd light on but no people silhouettes showing they were being observed. At the stolen car, Cassie and Doreen pushed Karen’s body into the back seat, folding her in, Mam closing the boot where she’d packed Zhang Wei, then they converged by the bonnet and bent their heads together.
“What you’re about to see must never be repeated, Dor,” Mam whispered. “If you need to talk about what you’ll have seen afterwards, you come to one of us, because the first time isn’t pretty, and it can take a while to get over it.”
“What are you on about?” Doreen whispered back, confusion riming her voice.
Cassie smiled. “You’re about to finally find out who Marlene is.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
At the meat factory, Cassie switched the alarm off and turned the light on. Doreen stood by the boot of the stolen car and stared at Cassie, the illumination from the factory splashing on her face, revealing her bewilderment and dotted stripes of blood.
“Is this where you meet Marlene?” She peered around as if the feared woman herself would come strolling around the side of the building.
“It’s where we keep her.” Mam bent over to lug Zhang Wei’s top half upwards.
“Keep her?” Doreen frowned.
“You’ll see.” Cassie went inside and collected a double-shelf steel trolley from Marlene’s side room, wheeling it out to the car.
Mam and Doreen held Zhang Wei beneath the armpits, Doreen casting the trolley a wary glance. Cassie studied Zhang Wei. What a silly man. He’d probably followed them to Sculptor’s Field, to get her to reconsider Helen’s and Geoff’s culpability. A pity she’d never know whether he’d have backed down on it, Mam shooting him so fast, but perhaps it was better that way. Speed was needed to vacate the field, and arguing the toss with the takeaway owner would have slowed them down. He’d have been killed regardless, only it would have been Cassie and her whip in action, not Mam with a gun Cassie hadn’t known she’d bloody well brought with her.
Zhang Wei seemed to stare at her, as if a speck of life still resided in him, his face so red from blood, the exit wound in his forehead a nasty mess. She stared in case Li Jun wanted a description of the injury—if she bothered to tell him what had happened. She may well leave it, let Li Jun come to her and ask if his brother had been ‘disappeared’. God knew she had enough to do soon with Jason, then there was burning their clothes.
“Let’s put him on the lower shelf. He’s lighter than Karen.” Mam was all business.
It brought it home to Cassie that her mother wasn’t just that—she’d been a person in her own right before Cassie had come along, one adept at this sort of thing if her no-nonsense attitude was owt to go by.
Mam helped Doreen, who slid the body on from one end while Mam yanked at it from the other. Zhang Wei’s feet pointed ten to two, and his arms draped over the edges, his hands resting on the snow.
Doreen stood upright and huffed out some breaths, a hand to her chest. “I’d have got fit if I’d known I’d be getting up to this sort of lark, except I’m the woman who ate all the pies.”
Their laughter broke the tension, then they got to work with Karen, loading her up, Mam commandeering the trolley and pushing it inside despite how heavy it was, Doreen following her, Cassie locking up. At the side room door, they all stopped.
“Marlene is in here,” Cassie said. “She ends lives and chops up the bodies.”
“Fucking hell, do we have to watch her doing it?” Doreen’s mouth twitched.
“We usually do in case she chokes,” Cassie said.
“Chokes? What, does she bloody eat them or something?”
Cassie smiled. “You’ll get it in a sec. Once Marlene’s dealt with these two, we still have work to do. When you step through this door, everything changes. When we go to our next destination, you’ll find things will never be as they were, you won’t look at certain people in the same light. But this is how we operate, have done for many years, and only the most trusted people know the procedure. Now’s the time to drive away if you’ve got any doubts you won’t be able to keep your mouth shut.”
Doreen closed her eyes. “I’m…I can do this. I said I’d do whatever you wanted, and I will. I know how to keep secrets.”
