Cold Death (8 page)

“I’m Hannah. I’m Jay’s girlfriend. He left me to carry on the business after he was stabbed,” Hannah said bravely, patting her bag deceivingly. “So, do you want anything?”  

“Come with me. And keep your voice down!”

Hannah followed obligingly, keeping an eye out for quick escape routes, just in case. She wanted to find out what happened to Jay more than anything, but her senses were heightening; she did not feel safe.

“In here,” he snarled, pointing to a cupboard.

“You must be joking!” Hannah mocked, “You first.”

He led the way into the cupboard. Quick as a flash, Hannah closed the door, turning the key she found on the outside. Running away, she hoped nobody would recognise her for the second time that day.

When she got back to the shop, Hannah sobbed. Not from grief, but from frustration. Why did she think she could do this? Why did she think she was better than the police? She thought of all the crime novels she had ever read. What did the detectives all have in common? They looked at the situation from different angles.

“Think! Think Hannah, what do you know about the situation?” She muttered to herself.

She thought back over the details of Jay’s murder. He was dealing drugs to young guys desperate to bulk up. She’d been approaching this all wrong; she’d been going for the people taking the drugs. What if it wasn’t the user… but the dealer? Excited once more, Hannah ran into the office, tearing it apart for details of someone above Jay. Hannah got lucky. She found an address on one of the invoices for one of the Victorian manors in the nicer area of Newark. Looking at the address with a twinge, Hannah noticed the address was the same street as Alfie’s, although she couldn’t remember the number of his house.

Quickly leaving the shop, invoice clutched in her hand, Hannah practically ran the two miles to the address. Head fixed on her phone, looking at a map, Hannah did not notice footsteps echoing near her. Looking up, she saw a shiny number 72 on a door. This was it. Hannah walked up the front steps, and knocked on the door. Waiting for a response, the world went black.

Hannah woke up, screaming. She had no idea where she was or what had happened. The last thing she remembered was knocking on the door of number 72. Now, here she was in a pitch-black room; she could feel her arms and legs tightly bound. There was no way of escaping.

Still, she reasoned with herself. There was always a bright side; it seemed she was on the right track looking for the supplier rather than the users. In doing so, she had probably found Jay’s killer. The dark side was; she was probably going to die herself, unable to share her triumph with another soul.

Hearing footsteps, Hannah tried to look around. She wanted to face her kidnapper, her resolve growing stronger with the oncoming footsteps.

“Hello?” She called. “Is someone there? Why am I here? Why have you kidnapped me? If you let me go now, I promise I won’t say anything.”

“Oh yes, a likely story,” came a male voice from the darkness. “Do you really think I’d believe that?”

Hannah paused, momentarily distracted. The voice she heard was familiar; she associated it with playgrounds and her childhood, not being attacked and kidnapped. What was going on? Was she losing the plot? A light came on, dazzling Hannah, rendering her vision impaired for a short while. As the figure merged into focus, Hannah let out a whimper.

“No. It can’t be you. Anyone but you. I would never have thought…” Hannah broke off, voice wavering and tears spilling from her bright blue eyes. “Why have you kept me here? You know I wouldn’t have said anything, there’s still time to set me free,” she encouraged.

“Come on, Span. You’ve been running around trying to find out what happened to your boyfriend. So keen to clear his name from the filthy muck he was involved in. Of course you’d have said something,” the voice snarled.

The use of her nickname affected Hannah more than anything else he’d said so far. “Alfie used to call me that, Mr. Chamberlain,” she said, her voice strengthening with every word. “He was such a wonderful person; I always thought he must have been raised incredibly well. Maybe his good genes came from his mother, as his father appears to have abducted me. Where am I? Some kind of cellar?” Hannah spat, rage coursing through her veins now. How dare he do this to her? He knew what she’d been through. She had always liked the Chamberlains.

“I couldn’t have you going round trying to find out what happened to him, spreading your version of his reputation. I’ve been looking into him for a while. You must have known the kinds of things he was into, there’s no way you were that naïve.” Mr. Chamberlain spoke, matching Hannah in anger.

“What things? I wanted to bring justice to Jay’s death and his faceless, cowardly murderer. Was it you, Mr. Chamberlain? Did you kill him? Hannah demanded.

“Yes. Yes and I’d do it again!” Mr. Chamberlain cried. “Jay was a terrible, evil man. Alfie used to show me these pills he had. I didn’t want to interfere; most kids don’t show their parents anything, I was proud of Alfie for being able to come to me. I didn’t do anything at first; I was just happy he was happy, especially after hating the skin he was in for so long. The pills began to consume him; Alfie needed more. His regular dose never seemed to be enough, he even began to shake if he didn’t have his pills.” 

Hannah grew silent, recognizing pain and blame in Mr. Chamberlain’s voice. She recognised it because she had felt it herself when Alfie died; she could see that he wished he had said and done more.

“I knew he was taking too many. I knew it. But I couldn’t do anything. What could I do? I began to watch Jay myself. It wasn’t just steroids this guy dealt. He was a big-time drug dealer; he had kids on every corner selling cocaine and marijuana. I knew he was nasty. Here he was, ruining my son’s life and tearing other families apart, by turning sons, brothers and cousins into drug addicts and dealers. That’s why he insisted on knowing everyone’s name; he made sure he knew everyone around him to protect himself.” He paused, giving Hannah time to think.

Was this true? It made sense; he
did
always know everyone around him, made an effort to learn everyone’s name and background. Hannah felt physically sick; she had not known her boyfriend at all. She thought he was innocent; a blameless victim in a savage stabbing. Nobody deserved to get their life taken away, but Jay was not the innocent man she thought he was.

“Span, I’m sorry. But I’m going to have to kill you too. You know too much. My wife is already a wreck; she’s lost her only son. Our lives have been torn apart. I don’t think she can face a jailed husband too. I’ll be quick; I promise.” Mr. Chamberlain edged towards Hannah; sorrow etched over his face.

“No!” Hannah cried. “Please tell me more about Jay? I didn’t know any of this; I can’t believe we’re talking about the same person. Please? As my last wish? My life has been torn apart too,” she pleaded, scared for her own life. She wanted Mr. Chamberlain to keep talking so she could think; there must be some way out of here. What would her beloved detectives do?

“Span, are you sure? Either way it will end the same, knowing might make this all hurt more. I wish you didn’t poke your nose in. I wish you didn’t look. You were running around; questions were being raised, and I can’t have people point fingers at me; I just can’t.” Mr. Chamberlain looked genuinely sorry. Hannah almost pitied him before remembering he was going to kill her.

“How do you know all this? What else did he do? What did he do with the money?” Hannah asked wildly. If this man had a shred of compassion left; Hannah was going to try and talk herself free. It was the only option she had left. She was nervous, but it had to work, there was no other choice.

“I posed as a supplier; I sold Jay the supply of drugs Alfie had built up. I wanted to see if he would buy it. He did. He got rid of the money through laundering,” Mr. Chamberlain said with exhaustion. “He was laundering money through the shop; I can’t see any other way he was achieving it. I’m assuming when you both went out, he paid for everything in cash? He wanted as little as possible to come back to him. He was clever; he had fingers in every pie. As well as street drugs, he had steroids. He killed my son, Span.” Mr. Chamberlain’s voice began to crack, and Hannah heard him sobbing.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Chamberlain,” Hannah sniffed. “This is all too much for me, you’re right. He was an evil man. You did what you thought was right. To think I never knew what was going on, right under my nose. He was probably laundering money through my Kupcake business; everything I’ve earned from that is tainted now. He’s left me with nothing. Mr. Chamberlain, what do I do?” Hannah made it sound like she was sobbing too; she wanted him to think they were going through the same emotions. If he could relate to her on a personal, emotional level, he might let her go. He had been calling her Span all night, the more he opened up to her, the more chance she had of being set free.

“I’m so sorry about Alfie. He was an amazing person who always had the ability to smile. The light he left in this world will always counteract the darkness Jay left.” Hannah was laying it on slightly thicker now, in a final bid for freedom. Mr. Chamberlain’s shoulders had stooped; his posture that of a completely defeated man with nothing left. He looked small, exhausted. 

She continued, “To think of all the lives Alfie touched in a positive way. You know we remained friends all through school? I used to see him almost daily. We’d joke and laugh like old times. I’ve known this family my whole life; I never would have thought it would be torn apart by someone else I knew. I’m so sorry, Mr. Chamberlain. I had no idea what was going on. I’m a victim in this as much as you are.”

At the word victim, his head snapped up. “Victim? You’ve lost your family, have you? You’ve lost a life you spent years moulding, shaping and guiding? Your greatest accomplishment? You lost your world? A son you taught everything to, sacrificed everything for? The only thing I didn’t give for that boy is my life. I blame myself every single day for not acting sooner. We’re not equals, Hannah. Please don’t try and pretend that we are. You know nothing of being a victim.” Mr. Chamberlain took a deep breath. “How dare you snoop? You would have known what an evil man Jay was after five minutes of asking around. Why did you need to know his killer? Why does he deserve justice? Why did you have to involve yourself, Hannah? You should have left this be.” His voice grew alongside his rage. Hannah was terrified now; she had used the wrong word. It was over. Mr. Chamberlain continued to rage and shout. He was coming towards her with a knife. It had a serrated blade; probably the same one he used to kill Jay.

Hannah closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Was it going to hurt? She didn’t know. Suddenly, she heard a loud crashing sound. She opened her eyes in shock.
Jay? How was he here?
Her brain barely had time to process what her eyes were seeing. Mr. Chamberlain had been knocked over, the knife kicked away from his hand by Jay. No. It wasn’t Jay. It was Adam! He had come to save her!

Hannah experienced a rush of gratitude, like nothing she had ever felt before. “Adam! Adam I’m here!” She cried, desperate for her arms and legs to be free once more.

Adam rushed over, taking care to make sure Mr. Chamberlain wasn’t getting back up. He grabbed the knife and cut Hannah’s restraints; ugly red grooves showing on her wrists where the ropes had cut in. They ran together to Adam’s car outside.

“How did you know I was there? How did you know to save me?” Hannah asked, bewildered.

“When I couldn’t get hold of you, I went to the shop. I figured it had all gotten too much for you. I wanted to make sure you were okay; I think of you as my sister now and I needed to look after you. When I got to the shop, you weren’t there. There was a letter on the floor with this address on it. I came here. I knew you were in trouble.”

“How?” Asked Hannah. She hadn’t been able to get to her phone; she had no idea how Adam knew she was in danger.

“This.” Adam said simply, holding up a sapphire earring. “Jay got you these and I found it in the grass outside this house. I knocked but nobody answered. The door was unlocked. I could hear muffled shouting so I came inside. I’m so glad I did. Are you hurt? Do we need to go to the hospital?”

“I’m fine. Thank you so much for saving my life. I suppose we ought to call the police though.”

With that, Hannah filled Adam in on everything that she experienced, from the men in the car park to the antics in the cellar. She wasn’t afraid to hold back; she finally had the sibling she had always wanted. Adam gasped with horror at all the right places and still she carried on.

“I had no idea that’s what Jay did.” Adam whispered. “He always looked after our parents; I was happy and proud of him. What do we do next?”

“Well, I think we need to tell the police everything Mr. Chamberlain told me. If it’s true, then there are lots of families out there affected. I don’t think I can bear the thought of someone else dying or another family suffering. Hopefully they can find everyone and put a stop to it. I assume the money will be confiscated; I don’t know enough about that. But I don’t want to profit from what’s happened. Do you?” Hannah asked Adam.

“I agree. Maybe we can do something to help the community as well though, I’d like to… after everything.” Adam ventured.

“Like what?” Hannah was so impressed; Adam’s first thought was to help others, she was so glad she had told him. He was stronger than she thought he was.

“Well, when I got to the shop, I looked through a couple of other papers. You know we thought it was leased? Jay actually owned it outright. He must have bought it with the cash that was coming in. It would be nice if we could use the premises. Maybe offer advice to people training and bulking to avoid steroids, or have an outreach programme for young drug addicts. What do you think?”

“I think that is an amazing idea; I’d love that.”

With that, the pair went to the police station to tell the police everything they knew. They weren’t scared; they had each other.

*** ***

Six months later

“Remember, don’t avoid complex carbs, they’re great for training. Avoid sugary cereals; think more of sweet potato and wholegrain pastas. You’re in great shape, keep up the work!” Hannah beamed at the bodybuilder in front of her. She was in her final year of nutrition and was getting some excellent work experience in the drop-in centre her and Adam had set up.

“Nice one, Han!” Adam called over. “Want to give me a hand with this display?”

“Sure; we’re getting so busy now, I love it!” She replied.

It was true. Since setting up the centre, they had a lot of interest. Adam focused on helping the young drug addicts, encouraging them to join sports teams or take up a hobby. Hannah often watched fondly as Adam spoke with teenagers. He was so good at understanding them. She worked with the reformed steroid users, teaching them about the benefits of a good diet while exercising. She could see the results before her eyes and felt pride; they were natural results and they were fantastic. She had second thoughts about Australia; after everything that happened, she realised family were the most important of all. She didn’t want to leave her mother.

Instead, Hannah and Adam were going into business together. Legitimate business this time: a sort of Kupcake mark two. They were selling her delicious muffins and bars, using the money to keep the centre open. They had already expanded in the six months they had been in business, and both were extremely happy.