Dead Scared

asked to have her locks changed, he’d probably been the one who’d done it. When she’d had her tank checked after the blood-bath incident, Tom could have been the one who’d gone there. Every time she tried to make her home safe from stalkers, the stalker himself was one step ahead of her. I dialled in turn every number she’d given me. Home, office and mobile. She wasn’t answering any of them and that didn’t feel good. I needed to find her.

Before anything else, though, it was time I took out a small insurance policy.

I fished a notebook out of the glove compartment (never met a copper yet who didn’t travel with one of those things) and jotted down notes of where I’d been the last couple of hours and what I’d seen. I folded the note and pushed it into the crease of the driver’s seat.

If anything happened to me, my car would be searched by expert crime scene investigators. They’d find the note in minutes. Whether it would be admissible as evidence was a moot point – I’d been in the warehouse illegally – but they would know what I knew.

I was just about to set off again when my phone rang. Thank God. I grabbed it so quickly I almost dropped it.

‘Laura, it’s Nick Bell.’

All air seemed to have been sucked from the car. Bell could not have this number. The phone was new and I hadn’t given the number to anyone. Only Joesbury knew it.

‘Hi,’ I managed.

‘What’re you up to?’ he said, and he sounded so normal that for a second everything that had just happened seemed unreal.

‘Been out for a run,’ I told him. ‘Just heading back now.’

‘Any chance of you coming by?’

‘You’re at home?’ I glanced at my watch. Just after one o’clock.

‘Vet’s coming out to see Shadowfax,’ he told me, and he sounded like he was stifling a yawn. ‘He’s had me up half the night. I have to be around to suck my teeth and look horrified when I’m presented with the bill. Thing is, I’ve got something for you.’

‘Oh?’ I said.

‘Bryony left you a note. It fell under her bed. Your nutty room-mate found it this morning when she went to the hospital to pick up some books. She asked if I could pass it on. Seemed to think I’d be likely to see you before she did.’

Bryony had left me a note. Or had she? No way of knowing. What the hell did I do?

‘To be honest,’ Nick was saying, ‘I rather jumped at the excuse to call you. It’s been a tough couple of days.’

Tell me about it. ‘I’ve got a couple of calls to make. Let me get back to you in five minutes.’

As soon as the line disconnected, I tried Joesbury again. Come on, come on. An anonymous voice told me to leave a message. I told it to have him call me immediately.

Shit, shit, shit. Well, no way was I going to Bell’s house. I wouldn’t even call him back. Evi’s then.

I’d just started the engine when a text came in. Well, speak of the devil.

Can’t talk right now, Flint. What’s up?

What was bloody up? My fingers wouldn’t move fast enough.

Snuff movies is what’s up. Unit 33, Bell Foundries Industrial Estate. Nick Bell has this number. He wants me to go to his house now. I’m heading to Evi’s instead.

I pressed Send. Waited. Had no idea how fast Joesbury could type. Quite fast, it turned out.

Bell’s kosher, Flint. Been working with us. On my way to his place myself, with the boys. Meet you there in 15.

West Wales, twenty-three years earlier

‘ALL THE KING’S horses and all the king’s men.’

Iestyn realized that his young sister was in their father’s study. He pushed open the door and stepped inside. His dad was lying on the floor, face down, his sister sitting beside him. Iestyn’s first thought was that they were building something together. He opened his mouth to grunt. He’d leave quick, before he got drafted into babysitting duties.

Then he realized his sister was sitting in a shiny pool of thick, gelatinous liquid, the colour and consistency of runny strawberry jam. Her hands were the same shade and her hair sticky with it. Her cute, pale face glanced up at him once before she went back to her task. She was in the process of rebuilding their father’s head, picking up bone fragments from where they lay on the carpet, and trying to fit them together again like a three- dimensional jigsaw. And as she worked, she sang.

‘Couldn’t put Humpty together again.’

NICK’S RANGE ROVER was parked close by the side door when I arrived ten minutes later. There was no sign of any other vehicle.

Bell’s kosher. Been working with us.

Good God, what else was the bugger going to throw at me?

You think you’re the only undercover officer we have in town?

Nick Bell could not be an undercover police officer. A GP was far too complicated a cover story. But covertly working with SO10, in the same way Evi was? That wasn’t impossible. So did he know who I was? Or had he been covertly investigating me while I’d been … oh, Lord, it didn’t bear thinking about.

The back door was open and a handwritten note had been stuck to it with a drawing pin.

Upstairs, it said.

We’d almost had sex. Christ, this was going to be embarrassing.

A musical tone told me I had another text. Joesbury again.

ETA three minutes. Don’t let me catch you snogging.

It was beyond me. I was handing over to Joesbury and his ‘boys’ as soon as they got here and then I was never having anything to do with SO10 as long as I lived. I might even apply to join Traffic.

I pushed open the door and went through into the kitchen. No sign of the dogs. The room was warm but the house had an empty feel about it.

‘Hi!’ I called from halfway up the stairs. ‘It’s me.’

There was no response. Nick could be outside with the animals but the note had definitely said come upstairs. I stopped at the top. Still no sign of him. The master bedroom where I’d slept the other night was at the front of the house, behind me, as was the main spare bedroom. Both doors shut. The bathroom was to my left. Door shut.

‘Hey, gorgeous, I’m in here,’ he called.

I stepped forward, pausing on the threshold of a room I hadn’t seen before. I’d just registered that Nick was leaning over an old desk with a tin of polish in one hand and a leather bridle in the other when I heard the creak of a stair behind me. Joesbury.

I turned just as Nick straightened up and we both looked towards the door, the goofy smile freezing on my face. The man blocking our way out wasn’t Joesbury.