Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers (106 page)

His gaze homed in on Linda. Fiona suspected that he thought it wouldn’t take much to unnerve her. Fiona took up the verbal challenge. “Oh, right! So you don’t reckon rape is a crime, then?”

Gibson’s mouth turned up in a sneer. “In case you need reminding, I was found not guilty by a court of law.”

“Yeah, and we all know why, don’t we? Money talks.”

Gibson snorted. “The jury recognised that I was the one telling the truth. That’s why I got off. These two were begging me for it.”

Fiona heard Linda’s breathing become more pronounced and saw her stiffen with anger. Defending her sister’s honour, she stepped towards Gibson and backhanded him hard across his face. “Bastard! I’d watch your mouth, if I were you.” Fiona glanced pointedly down at the tools in front of her.

Gibson shook his head and twisted his jaw from side to side. A trickle of blood ran down the side of his mouth from where Fiona’s hand had made contact. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Big mistake, buster.” Fiona reached down and picked up the pliers. She turned to Ami and Linda. “Grab his right arm.”

Both of the girls pounced on Gibson. Ami held the lower part of his arm near the wrist, while Linda grasped his upper arm. They held it tight as Fiona approached the struggling hostage.

He cried out, all his bravado forgotten as Fiona pulled the thumbnail from his right hand. “Jesus, no! Don’t touch me! Ahhhhh!”

“That’s just the beginning, Gibson. We demand an apology.” Fiona searched in her handbag and pulled out a mini tape recorder. She pressed the Record button.

Gibson seized his opportunity. “Help! They have me tied up. They’re torturing me to get an admission of guilt. Anything I say will be said under duress.”

Fiona ripped another nail off the same hand and his scream filled the room.

Fiona was lost in a manic haze and at first didn’t feel her sister yanking on her arm pleading with her to stop, as she delighted in the sight of the pool of blood trickling down and settling on the floorboards behind Gibson’s chair.

“Fiona, please. Don’t do any more.”

Fiona narrowed her gaze and pulled her arm out of her sister’s grasp. She leaned down and whispered in Gibson’s ear, “It’s only going to get worse. Admit that you lied now, or there will be no turning back. This is your final chance.”

Gibson shook his head adamantly. “Never! You haven’t got the balls to go through with this,” he added naïvely.

“Really? And just how attached are you to your balls, Gibson?” Fiona snarled, her gaze dropping down to his crotch.

Her words hung in the air for several seconds before Linda said, “Fiona, please don’t do it.”

Fiona turned on her sister. “After what he did to you, how could you possibly stick up for him?” Linda reeled at the viciousness in Fiona’s voice. Am I taking this too far?

“He’s not worth it, Fi. You can see how stubborn he is. He’s never going to admit to raping either Ami or me. Please rethink what you’re doing.”

Fiona shook her head from side to side in defiance, slowly and deliberately—almost tauntingly. “There’s no turning back now, Sis.”

“Listen to your sister, you dumb bitch. Let me go now, and I won’t press charges against you,” Gibson shouted.

With her face inches from his, Fiona sneered. “You won’t get the chance to press charges, smartarse. By the time I’ve finished with you, you’ll be a quivering wreck—an ugly one, at that. No one will take any notice of you. You’ll be a nobody.”

The room fell silent. The only noise that could be heard was Gibson swallowing.

Fiona reached down and picked up the hacksaw. Gibson’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Unconcerned Fiona walked behind the chair.

Gibson’s head turned swiftly to follow her. Disbelief written all over his face. Fiona gripped the little finger on the hand that had escaped pain thus far. His screams rebounded off the inanimate walls as the blade slowly sliced through the flesh and bone.

Fiona heard her sister gag and spit on the floor. “Please, Fi. I’m begging you to stop it!”

But Linda’s pitiful pleading only enraged Fiona more and spurred her on.
How could she beg me not to hurt him after all he’s done to her?

Fiona took hold of Gibson’s little finger, and despite his futile attempt to dislodge his finger from her grasp, she hacked away just below the joint, severing it in half.

#

“I’ll get it!” Lorne shouted when she heard the phone ringing in the lounge. After six impatient rings, she finally answered it. “Hello?”

“Thank God! I thought you were out.”

“Carol, is that you?” Lorne asked, trying to catch her breath.

“Lorne, oh Lord! We have trouble. I can see this ending badly.”

“Whoa, hold on a minute. What are you talking about?” Lorne looked up to see a worried Tony lean his head against the doorframe, a quizzical expression on his face. She shrugged her left shoulder slightly in response and turned her attention back to the psychic.

“We need to act quickly, before it’s too late. The girls are out of control—”

“Right now, Carol, I need you to tell me what you mean. I haven’t got a clue what the heck you’re talking about.”

“Can you and Tony come and pick me up?”

Lorne blew a heavy breath out in exasperation. “We can’t both come. There’s Dad to consider. Just tell me what you’ve seen or felt?”

“The three girls have that Gibson fellow. Lorne, they’re doing dreadful things to him. If we don’t try and stop them soon, I fear it’s going to be too late.”

“Shit! Any idea where?”

“We don’t have time for this, dear. Get over here immediately.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Hold tight, Carol.” Lorne hung up and rushed past Tony.

He gently grabbed her arm. “What is it?”

“I have to get over to Carol’s right away. Gibson is in danger.”

“You’re not making any sense, love.”

“Carol’s had one of her visions, and the girls are holding Gibson captive and doing terrible things to him, apparently. I need to pick Carol up. Will you be all right here with Dad?”

“Go. Although if I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t rush to save that scumbag. Let the girls have their fun with him.”

Lorne smirked but shook her head. “You’re a wicked man, Tony Warner. You know I can’t stand by and let something like that happen, even if I wanted to cheer the girls on. I’ll give you a ring later.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard on the lips. “Be careful out there.”

“I intend to be.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

As Lorne turned into Carol Lang’s road, she spotted the woman standing by the curb, anxiously pacing up and down in front of her tiny terraced house.

“What took you so long? You’ve been half an hour or more,” Carol said, falling into the passenger seat.

“Damn rush hour traffic. I’m here now. Have you seen anything else?”

Carol’s hands went to either side of her temples, and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “They have him tied to a chair. I’m seeing a green area opposite the house. Is one of the girls an estate agent?”

Impressed, Lorne replied, “I believe Linda is, yes. Why?”

“They laid a trap for him, and he walked right into it. What’s the term—”

“Jesus, I think you’re thinking of a honey trap. I’m not sure it could be called that, but I get your drift.” Lorne knew the girls had been destroyed by the verdict, but she wouldn’t have thought it possible for them to do something as despicable as this. A scorned woman was someone not to tackle lightly. Two scorned women were a force to be reckoned with, while three scorned women would and could be downright dangerous, as Gibson was finding out. “Any idea where they are? Can you see what type of house, Carol?”

She gave a defeated shrug and ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “I’m not getting an image of the house yet, only the green space near it.”

“Great! There are tons of green spaces in London and on the outskirts too. Anything else?”

“All I can see are the three girls surrounding Gibson. The room appears to be empty of all other furniture. Let me look deeper,” Carol told her before she fell silent again.

Lorne scanned all around her as she thought of possible areas they could try that were relatively close by. With the darkness descending around them, she knew it was imperative to get moving soon. She glanced back at Carol hoping for further details.

“The house is huge. Empty and huge. Hang on—the green space is a park. It’s opposite the house. Let me see if I can go outside.”

Carol drifted off again. Lorne studied her closely and saw her begin to squirm in her seat. What the heck is she doing?

As if hearing her or reading her mind, Carol explained, “I’m walking out through the front door. It looks like a large Georgian mansion. Wait, I can see the edge of the road sign—something Gardens.”

With no Sat Nav in her father’s car, Lorne reached in the glove compartment and got out the London street map. It took her a while to find anything remotely similar to what Carol had described. Two possibilities immediately caught her attention. She indicated the two spots on the map with a pen and handed it to Carol. “Either of those locations look familiar?”

Silence filled the car, then Carol tapped the map with her forefinger. “I’m leaning more towards this location, Lorne. How far are we from it?”

She quickly worked out a route and then folded the map back on itself. Leaving the route she was going to take uppermost, she handed it to Carol. “I’m guessing it’s a good twenty minutes from here—providing the traffic isn’t too bad, that is.” Lorne started the car and drove off.

“Shame you don’t have one of those little blue lights attached to the roof.” Carol let out a large sigh. “I fear it’s going to be too late.”

The words hung menacingly in the air between them. Unusually Lorne drove like a professional, possibly due to the urgency of the situation. As she drove, her mind raced at a hundred miles an hour.

With one hand gripping the steering wheel, she delved into her jacket pocket, located her mobile and punched number three on the pad. “Katy, I need a favour.”

“Of course. What is it?” Katy replied, thankfully without pausing.

Lorne ran through the sketchy details they had about Gibson’s possible abduction, because it had yet to be proven, and asked if it would be possible to get a patrol car to search the area.

“There’s no need, I’ll do better than that, Lorne.” She lowered her voice. “I’m just leaving for the day, anyway. I’ll take a detour and meet you at the location.”

Shocked, she replied, “Katy, I can’t ask you to get involved in this, it could jeopardise your career.”

“Nonsense. See you there.”

Katy hung up before Lorne could argue further.

A thrill ran through Lorne. It was good to be working with Katy again.

#

“What have you done?” Linda cried out.

Fiona looked at her frantic sister’s tear-stained face and stammered, “I don’t know. I never meant to go that far.” She sunk to her knees beside Gibson’s limp body and buried her head in her hands.

Rocking back and forth, she had to fight back the urge to throw up. She truly hadn’t meant to take things quite that far, never intended to end the rapist’s life like she had. But once she’d seen the suffering on his face, an uncanny evilness had taken over and driven her on. An unknown rage had guided each action using the different implements—a rage that, once it begun, had been unstoppable.

Ami tried to help Fiona to her feet. “We have to get out of here, now.”

Linda shook her head. “What? We can’t leave him here. I have the keys, remember. I was the last one to see him alive. There are records to prove that back at the office.”

Ami asked quietly, “What will we do then? Dispose of the body?” Both Linda and Fiona’s heads snapped round to look at her. “Well, what other option do we have?”

Fiona rose from the floor, and her legs almost gave way again. She leaned against the wall for support. “We need to think this through.”

“I thought we had already,” Linda retorted. “You’re the one who went over the top, Fi. Make him suffer, you said. You didn’t tell us your plan included killing him.”

Fiona widened her eyes at the accusation. “I didn’t have plans to kill him. What do you take me for, Linda?”

“After that little display I’m beginning to wonder if I know you at all.”

Ami stepped between them, placed her hands over her ears, and shouted, “Stop it! Stop the arguing. What good will it do? What’s done is done. What we need to think about is what the fuck we’re going to do with the body. It’s getting dark. Now would be an ideal opportunity to get rid of it—of him.”

Fiona sucked in a shuddering breath. Ami was right. It was the perfect time to get rid of Gibson, once and for all. “Is there a rug in any of the rooms, Linda?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll go and check.” Linda ran out of the room.

Fiona could hear her footsteps above as she went from one room to another. The look of disgust on Ami’s face tugged at Fiona’s heart. Needing reassurance that Ami didn’t hate her, she said, “I didn’t mean to kill him, Ami. I couldn’t stop myself. Images of him raping the pair of you… And what he did to Blackie…”