‘This guy’s insane. He’s trying to convince us this is a service they’re providing and not exploitation,’ Decker said, cracking his knuckles.
Tazeem closed the filing cabinet he’d been searching. ‘Mangle, have you found anything on Ermina?’
‘No,’ he said holding onto a folder and closing the last cabinet. ‘She isn’t in here, but I found the girl from the warehouse that we saw here and in Seven.’
Mangle turned to the doctor and started to say something but the words fell silently from his lips and he stood still. Tazeem and Decker whirled around to see what had startled him and saw Benjamin sitting back in a chair with a black pistol levelled at them.
‘I protested against a lot of the security measures, as I considered them ridiculously heavy-handed. Who’d have thought I would be the one to benefit from them? The security guard isn’t called Tom. “Tom” is the code word for entry under duress. The gun fixed to the underside of the desk another touch that came in rather handy.’
‘You son of a bitch, I’m just trying to save my cousin,’ Tazeem protested.
The door handle turned and a security guard stepped into the room, armed with a handgun of his own.
‘I made the call. They should be here within a half hour,’ he informed the doctor.
‘OK, great,’ Benjamin said. All trace of fear was gone, leaving only a look of irritation at the position he had been placed in. ‘Do you know how close you came to destroying everything I have worked for? If these files got out and compromised my research, the clinic would be finished. Put that folder down on the desk please,’ he said to Mangle.
‘No,’ Mangle said, looking from the doctor to the security guard, then back again.
The tension in the air heightened. Mangle looked worried and Decker took a step back towards the wall.
‘Take that file off him,’ Benjamin said to the guard.
The guard shuffled uncomfortably before stepping forward. He repeated the command to put down the file but Mangle remained defiant.
‘I have a gun on him, just walk over and take it,’ Benjamin said impatiently.
The guard took two more steps, past Decker and within a few feet of Mangle. This was clearly more than he had anticipated from the job and he looked as if he wished he were somewhere else.
‘Just take it, he isn’t armed!’ Benjamin shouted at the reluctant guard.
He looked nervously at the doctor and then as he stepped towards Mangle, Decker lunged forward and grabbed his gun arm. The guard threw himself back into Decker and they both fell heavily against the wall. Benjamin jumped to his feet, his arm outstretched, trying to get a clear shot at Decker. Decker struggled with the guard, both of them fighting for control of his weapon, the guard’s arm waving frantically in front of him.
The sound of the shot was impossibly loud in the small room. Mangle and Tazeem backed up, unsure which gun had been fired. Benjamin saw the large-calibre bullet hole in the plaster, mere inches from his head. He panicked and squeezed off three successive shots.
The guard looked blearily down at the scarlet bloodstains blooming on his chest. He appeared to think of something that he needed to say, but as his lips began to form the words his knees gave up the strain of supporting his ruined bulk. He collapsed to the floor, his throat issuing a final sound like a bubbling casserole.
Decker quickly patted himself for wounds, but two of the bullets had hit the guard and one the wall behind. Benjamin looked surprised by the result of his actions, but quickly regained his composure and raised the weapon again.
‘Enough of this shit,’ he cried at them. ‘All three of you back up against that wall.’
They obeyed, eager to avoid provoking him. The doctor stepped forward and retrieved the guard’s gun.
‘The others will be here soon, and I’m not taking any more chances. I’m locking you in here. And don’t bother thinking about going through the window. That glass is two inches thick.’
Benjamin reached behind him, turned the door handle and stepped through the door. There was a sudden blur of movement from the corridor as a pair of balled fists were brought down against the back of his neck. He gave a startled ‘Ohh’, as if somebody had highlighted a point in debate that he hadn’t considered.
Decker seized the opportunity, quickly strode forward and kicked the doctor in the side of the head. He picked up the pistol and shoved it into his waistband.
‘We have to get out of here now,’ the trembling voice of the woman in the beige jumpsuit said.
‘Who the hell are you?’ Mangle asked, struggling to accept their turn of fate.
‘I don’t know any more,’ she said. Her eyes were misty and seemed to focus on a point far behind them. ‘I just know I need to go.’
11
‘You said you don’t know who you are,’ Mangle spoke tentatively as he looked over his shoulder at the woman in the back seat.
They’d parked the Aston Martin under cover of the fir trees and climbed back into the Volkswagen and were waiting for whoever the guard had called to pass by on the road.
‘They call me Laura.’
‘But that’s not your real name?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t think so, I don’t know.’
Decker and Mangle exchanged a look. Tazeem shifted uncomfortably in the back seat.
‘Do you know how old you are?’ Tazeem asked. ‘Or how long you’ve been there for?’
Laura shook her head. She moved a hand up suddenly and touched the side of her neck. There was a noticeable tremor.
‘There are headlights coming on the road,’ Decker said. They fell silent and listened as two cars whispered past.
Mangle waited a few seconds before starting the engine. He backed out without turning on any lights and drove away.
When he felt they’d put enough distance between themselves and the clinic, he turned on the headlights and asked Laura, ‘How many girls have been through the clinic since you’ve been there?’
‘I don’t know the answers to any of your questions. That is how they control us. I remember what I had for breakfast this morning, and I’m sure I had breakfast yesterday, although I don’t know what. Before that I have no idea. I could have been here for three weeks or three years, I just don’t know.’ Her voice cracked as she succumbed to the tide of suppressed emotion, and she began to sob uncontrollably into trembling hands. ‘I just don’t know.’
Tazeem reached over and awkwardly tried to comfort her. One thing was clear: she’d been afforded a certain responsibility so she must have been there for quite a while.
Tazeem led the way into the bungalow and drew the curtains in every room. Laura sat in a straight-backed chair in a corner of the living-room, furthest away from the other seats and with the door in her field of vision. She pulled her feet up and hugged her arms around her shins. The trembling that had affected her hands had gotten worse and was now evident in her arms and legs.
‘Are you cold?’ Decker asked. The property was centrally heated and none of the others felt a chill.
‘No,’ she said, attempting a smile. ‘This is from missing my medication. That’s where I was going when I heard the commotion in the office. I went looking for the guard to open the medical locker. They let me give my own shots.’
‘Do all the girls receive this medication?’ Mangle asked.
Laura nodded. Her shoulders were hunched with what appeared to be anxiety. ‘Every day we get two medication shots and one session in the Audiology Suite. It keeps us well.’
‘Audiology is the treatment of hearing disorders. You aren’t all there for ear defects,’ Mangle said, bewildered.
‘I’m starting to feel a little strange,’ Laura said. Her physical symptoms of medication withdrawal were visibly heightening by the minute.
‘You can sleep in my room,’ Mangle said. He walked into the hallway and pointed to one of the bedrooms. Laura walked past and nodded her thanks. Her teeth had begun to chatter.
Mangle
slept on the couch and was the first to wake the following day. He rummaged through the cupboard to find something for Laura to eat. Hopefully, he thought, she’d feel better after resting and maybe they could get her to a doctor. Tazeem and Decker joined him in the kitchen shortly afterwards and the three ate toast and drank coffee while waiting for Laura to rise.
‘You should go knock on the door, Mangle,’ Decker said after a while.
They’d talked things over and decided their next move should be to locate Sadiq and get him alone to question over Ermina’s disappearance. Tazeem was eager to leave and had frequently checked his watch while they sat eating breakfast.
Mangle went to the bedroom door and knocked, softly at first, and then louder after Laura failed to answer.
‘Laura?’ he said again. ‘I’m coming in.’
Mangle turned the handle and walked in. The bed sheets were tousled, as if after passionate sex or an uneasy night’s rest. The door into the en-suite bathroom stood ajar and he could hear running water. Mangle again said her name as he walked towards the bathroom. He pushed the door an inch and saw Laura’s pale foot on the tiles. He stepped in and was stunned by the sight of the stark red puddle of blood that covered much of the floor. Laura’s eyes were wide and startled. Her face was milk-white and her lips thin and grey.
Mangle knelt down next to her but could clearly see there was nothing he could do. He cupped her forearm around six inches below the wrist that bore the fatal laceration she’d bled out from. Her skin was cool to the touch. She’d broken out from the clinic, but he wondered how long she’d been able to hold out before taking her own life had been her only real way of escape.
‘Fucking hell!’ Decker exclaimed. He and Tazeem stood in the doorway behind Mangle.
‘What the hell do we do now?’ Tazeem said.
‘Shouldn’t we call the police?’ Mangle asked, looking back at them.
‘I’m a murderer out on licence. You think I’ll be able to explain this away?’
‘And I might have been spotted right before Latif ’s restaurant went up. We have to hide her,’ Tazeem said. ‘There’s a storage space under the house.’
Decker walked into the living-room, pulled the coffee table to one side and rolled up the rug. He carried it to the bathroom and dropped it beside Laura’s stiffening body.
Dan’s clothing store sold a range of casually fashionable lines and was popular enough that parking bays outside were never vacant for more than a few minutes at a time during business hours. The stairwell to Sadiq’s apartment had an adjoining doorway. Tazeem, Mangle and Decker parked almost a block further up and waited for any sign of Sadiq.
Tazeem sat wiping at his hands with his shirt tail and muttering to himself.
‘Having something of a Lady Macbeth moment are we, Tazeem?’ Mangle said flatly from the back seat. There was no humour in his voice, he just wanted to elevate the mood in the car.
‘I don’t know what the fuck that means,’ Tazeem said, continuing to scrub. ‘But I’m sure I still have some of her blood on me.’
They’d moved Laura’s body in the rolled-up rug and washed out the bathroom with a strong solution of bleach. They all took showers and changed their clothes, but despite this, Mangle was pretty sure they all shared Tazeem’s frame of mind.
After just over 20 minutes, Sadiq came out of the entrance to his apartment and walked to the kerb. Tazeem spotted him and immediately made to get out of the car, but Decker grabbed him by the arm.
‘Wait. There’s more of them coming out.’
Two more men they didn’t recognise filed out of the building, and following them was Ermina and another man.
‘Fucking hell, there she is,’ Tazeem exclaimed, and attempted to throw off Decker’s grip and get out of the car.
‘Jesus! You see who the last one is?’ Mangle said.
As the large man turned, the mid-morning sunlight caught on the shiny pink scar tissue across his face, making it look like melting ice-cream.
‘That’s the guy we saw at the warehouse, the one who was in charge,’ Decker confirmed. ‘Taz, you can’t help her right now, but at least we know she’s OK.’
Tazeem watched them, frustrated by his inability to help his cousin. She was arguing with Sadiq. They were too far away to catch what was said, but her body language was clear. Ermina slapped Sadiq as hard as she could across the face, turned and climbed into the back of a black Mercedes that had pulled up at the kerb. Sadiq clutched his face but didn’t retaliate.
The other three men, visibly amused by her tirade, climbed into the car, leaving Sadiq standing watching as they drove away. After a moment he turned and walked back into the building. Tazeem shook off Decker’s grip on his arm and bolted up the street as fast as he could.
‘Shit,’ Mangle said, as he and Decker threw open the car doors and went after him.
Sadiq had already vanished inside the stairwell and the autocloser was slowly pulling the entrance door shut behind him. A red light had gridlocked traffic back along the street, and a delivery truck wheezed to a halt outside the building as Tazeem reached the door with only a few inches left before it locked. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open wide. Within seconds, Mangle and Decker caught up and they ran into the building together. Tazeem took the stairs three at a time, hauling himself up with the wooden handrail and peering up to see if Sadiq was still in the stairwell.
They reached the fourth floor and Tazeem stopped outside one of four doors on the landing. He nodded at Decker who took two steps towards the door and rammed the sole of his boot against the lock. The frame gave a crack and the wood groaned in protest but the door remained in place. He stepped back and kicked it again. This time the door crashed inwards, revealing the startled face of Sadiq halfway down his hallway. Splintered shards of door frame littered the carpet within. Tazeem charged inside and grabbed him by the throat.
‘What did you do with my cousin?’ he snarled into Sadiq’s incredulous face.
‘I didn’t do nothing to her, yeah? The bitch just slapped me. She’s fuckin’ crazy,’ he said, tapping the side of his head.
Tazeem drew back an arm and punched Sadiq in the mouth. He fell to the ground and Tazeem knelt on his chest, grabbing a handful of his shirt.
‘What the fuck you doing man? You’re as crazy as she is,’ Sadiq said glaring up at Tazeem. He turned to the side and spat a thick wad of blood and saliva onto the floor.
‘You best start talking or there’ll be a lot worse than that still to come,’ Decker said, looming over him.
‘I don’t even go out with her no more. Soon as a chance at something better came along she dropped me and got with that Jupiter guy, yeah?’
‘Who’s Jupiter?’ Tazeem demanded.
‘The big ugly guy with the fucked-up scars on his face. She just left with him.’
‘You’re saying Ermina is with him, like as his girlfriend?’ Tazeem asked.
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying, yo. Now get the fuck off me.’
Tazeem stood and allowed Sadiq to get to his feet. He wiped the blood from his mouth and spat again.
‘We know about the clinic, the club the girls are being taken to. What else have you got Ermina mixed up in?’
‘You don’t have a clue, Tazeem. I was doing fine with my properties and everything else. She was the one pushing me to expand. It was her idea to bring the girls in and get involved with Jupiter’s crew. I had a scam going to bring guys into the country on tourist visas, and have them work for me as cheap labour. They were glad at a chance of making real money, man. They’d do anything I said. It was easy.’
‘Jupiter heard about us. He sent a message and a meeting was set up. He told me what he wanted from me and what the rewards would be in return. I told Ermina about it but said I wasn’t gonna get involved with them. She said I’d be crazy not to take the offer. Fuck, man, I was taking so much coke by then I’d have done whatever she said. After things kicked off with Jupiter she kept finding e
xcuses to talk with him, you know, wait behind after I had to leave. Man, she planned this all along, I swear.’
‘So if you claim that she got what she wanted, then why did she just slap you?’ Mangle asked.
‘I told them that I want out. I’ve had enough of all this shit, no matter how well it pays. I tried to get out before they blew up all of Latif ’s shit. We didn’t always see eye to eye but we all grew up together, Tazeem. Once they’d connected the dots, they killed him ’cause he happened to know these two idiots,’ he said, pointing at Decker and Mangle.
‘That was the night Ermina went missing,’ Tazeem said.
‘She didn’t go missing, man. She went off with Jupiter!’ Tazeem didn’t want to believe what Sadiq was saying, but if Sadiq was lying there was no trace of it in the way he spoke or his body language. He seemed genuinely defeated. Vulnerability clung to him like a shroud and all his usual traits of boasting and self-edification were now gone.
Tazeem walked to the window and looked down onto the street below. How could Ermina have been involved with this all along, yet he had known nothing about it? Mangle and Decker continued to question Sadiq behind him, but Tazeem wasn’t listening. So Jupiter had had Latif killed, not Sadiq? He would also have Mangle and Decker killed for what they knew. And would Ermina carry enough influence to have him spared? After all, he knew as much about the organisation as they did. The only way any of them could be sure of safety was to bring down Jupiter, and everything along with him.
‘We need to go to The Club,’ Tazeem turned and said to the others.
‘South of Seven?’ Sadiq asked.
‘No, the one where the girls are going –The Club, with The Zombie Room.’
‘Are you fuckin’ crazy? These guys don’t mess around. If they see any of you there you’re dead, no question.’