Ruthless (41 page)

‘Where’s he going to take her?’ hissed Max into Molly’s face. ‘If you know something, you better start talking, or Junior here’s going to get the kicking of his life. Christ knows, it’s way overdue.’

Molly said nothing. Tears were trickling down her face.

‘Fine, have it your way,’ said Max.

He grabbed Junior, started frog-marching him towards the door.

‘No!’ howled Molly. Layla came to her feet, distressed. Alberto shot her a quick look.
Shut up
, his eyes said.

Max was at the door, holding a struggling Junior.

‘All right, I’ll tell you what I know,’ said Molly. ‘Just don’t hurt him, OK?’

‘I’m not making any promises,’ said Max. He shoved Junior back on to the sofa. ‘Go on then,’ he said to Molly.

Molly pulled her hands down over her face, wiping her tears away. She cast a wild look at Junior, then at Max and Alberto.

‘I knew Junior was in the money all of a sudden,’ she started unsteadily. ‘So I . . . I just wanted to find out where it had come from. I knew he hated having to take money off Annie, he’d said so to me often enough, so where was he getting it all? Anyhow, when I heard him on the phone talking to someone he called Rufus, I thought it might have something to do with it. Then Rufus came to the house when Mum was out. And while him and Junior were talking in the kitchen, I was in the hall, listening.’

‘You sneaky little cow,’ said Junior angrily.

‘Oh yeah? Well, you could have cut me in on it,’ returned Molly.

‘For what? It was me he wanted to help him out, not you.’

‘Cut the yap and go on,’ said Max.

‘Then . . . then I heard them coming out into the hall. I ran up the stairs and into my room so they wouldn’t know I’d been listening. Junior went into the upstairs loo, and I crept out on the landing and heard this Rufus guy pick up the phone in the hall. He said a name, I think it was Dickon.’

Max exchanged a look with Alberto. They knew Dickon.

‘Rufus was telling Dickon that when he got the chance he was going to do the Carter bitch out at the Essex place, on the marshes.’ Molly looked around at them all. ‘And you know what? I thought that just about served her right, because she’s looked down on my mum all her life. She’s always had everything, and my mum had nothing.’

There was a long, deadly silence. Then Layla reached out and grabbed Molly’s arm, shook her.

‘Is this the truth? Or is it just another set-up, another trap?’ she demanded.

Alberto and her father had been led there once before;
this
time, they might not be so lucky.

‘No! I’m telling you the truth. That’s what I heard.’

Max was silent, watching her, weighing it all up. Then his eyes went to Alberto. ‘Get some of the boys to check out the amusement arcade, in case this
is
another false trail.’

Alberto’s eyes were flinty. ‘It’s done,’ he said. He glanced at Molls, back at Max. ‘We have to risk it,’ said Alberto.

‘Yeah,’ said Max. ‘We do.’

92

Annie felt sick with fear and she was fighting flat-out hysteria. Time had passed, and it was all a blur, a horrible nightmare. She kept telling herself this couldn’t be happening. But it was.

The taser-blast meant she’d been unable to move to begin with. She knew she was lying in the back of a car, and she could see the night sky, street lights, and buildings that were at first familiar and then unknown.

Within half an hour her arms and legs were tingling. She started tentatively moving her limbs, wondering whether she could throw open the door, jump out. There was a chance she’d be hurt, given the speed he was driving, but what other option did she have? Nauseous and terrified, she resolved that if she got the slightest chance, she would take it.

But her chance never came.

He stopped the car in a quiet side road, threw open the back door.

‘Wait!’ she managed to gasp out. ‘Just wait—’

‘Shut up,’ said Rufus, and slapped duct tape over her mouth to silence her.

Then he bound her hands and feet, and put a sack over her head. Mould and dust filled her nostrils as he hauled her bodily out of the car. Swaying sickly as he carried her, Annie heard him open doors, then she was thrown painfully down on to cold ridged metal. The impact knocked all the breath out of her. Metal doors slammed shut.

It was an effort to breathe when every fibre of her being was screaming out a message of panic, nevertheless she forced herself to keep thinking. She must be in a Transit van, something like that. An engine started up, and the van lurched and began to move.

To hold the fear in check and keep herself calm, she tried not to dwell on thoughts of where Rufus Malone was taking her, what he would do to her when they got there. Instead she filled her mind with thoughts of Layla, of Alberto, and lastly of Max. She was still in love with him. Had never been
out
of love with him, not even when he was at his most vicious and bitter.

Now, she was never going to see him again.

This was it. This was the end.

93

Hunter had been about to head home when the Super called him into his office.

‘Had a call from the boys who are watching this mob guy,’ Cyril told him. ‘They saw a bloke come out of the house carrying Annie Carter over his shoulder. Stuffed her in the back of a car, drove off.’

‘Over his shoulder? Was she unconscious?’

‘Looked like it, they said.’

‘Do we have a description of this man?’ asked Hunter.

Cyril flipped his notepad open. ‘Beige cord jacket, jeans. Big bastard, built like a rugby player. Long curly red hair.’

‘They get the registration number?’ Hunter was thinking that the description Cyril had just given sounded very much like the guy who had bombed out Annie Carter’s car a couple of weeks ago.

‘They did. And we found the car, abandoned in a lane in Essex.’

‘Prints?’ he asked.

‘Yep. And we’ve got a match on the system: Rufus Malone. Irish hard case, been all over the bloody world by all accounts. Done time in his youth, nothing recent.’ The Super blew out his cheeks. ‘This is a criminal act – an abduction.’

Hunter looked at him. ‘But we’ve been warned off. We can’t touch this.’

‘We can’t let our citizens be snatched off the street, either.’

‘Out of the house, anyway.’

‘You know what I mean. The car’s a rental, we’re waiting for further verification on his ID with Avis.’

‘But we can’t get involved.’

‘No. Technically speaking, we can’t.’

94

A fear had been eating at Annie, chiselling away at her composure, ever since Orla Delaney had bludgeoned her way back into her world. She had tried not to voice it aloud, because that would make it real and even more terrifying. But that fear was enveloping her now, snatching the breath from her throat, stealing away what little composure remained to her.

That fear was . . .

Oh shit, no, I can’t think it, I mustn’t . . .

That fear was that
he
would be waiting for her at the end of this journey.

Redmond Delaney.

If Orla was alive, then he could be too.
She shivered as the words trickled through her mind, corrosive as liquid poison.

No, Redmond was dead. He was
meant
to die.

But then – so was Orla. And she had come back from the grave, started up this whole mad thing that was now playing out to its bitter end.

Annie closed her eyes, tried to blank the fear out. But it was too strong.

Maybe she was the one who was meant to die. Maybe, after all these years, Redmond was finally going to have his revenge.

95

‘He gave false ID,’ said the Super. ‘To the car hire people. Banged it up a bit too, they’re not happy.’

Hunter leaned back against the closed office door and gazed out through the half-open Venetian blinds at the darkening sky and the drizzling rain, seeing nothing.

‘Funny-looking fucker. Like the Wild Man of Borneo,’ said the Super.

Red hair, same as Orla and Redmond Delaney,
thought Hunter.

‘You got the word out on the ports and airports?’ he asked.

‘Of course. But both you and I know it’s easy enough to sneak in and out from a quiet spot on a dark night, pay a skipper, no questions asked.’

‘Any relatives, known associates . . .?’

The Super flicked open a page on the pad in front of him on the desk. ‘Benny O’Connor – your gunshot victim. I sent a couple of the lads over to the hospital to question him and at the mention of Rufus Malone he started singing like a ruddy canary. Sounds as if he’s a very frightened man. He says Rufus has been in the UK two or three weeks; told Benny he was staying at an amusement arcade in Southend called Partyland and then at another place out Essex way.’

‘And . . .?’ prompted Hunter.

‘Partyland, it turns out, has had a visit from some hard boys. They wrecked the place.’

Hunter nodded. ‘Someone else is looking for Rufus Malone.’

‘Looks that way.’

‘I’m thinking Max Carter; that would fit with the description the nurse gave of the man who assaulted O’Connor. What about the Essex address?’

‘O’Connor reckons it’s a derelict property. Claims he doesn’t have an actual address.’

‘Can we get a fix on that?’

‘I think we should try. And there’s another person of interest we’re on the lookout for – name of Dickon, nasty little tit with a record as long as your arm, but we can’t find him. Hasn’t been seen in any of his usual haunts and his friends claim they’ve no idea where he’s got to. And there are still some Delaney family members in Ireland. Living at a place called Fallowfield Farm in Limerick. Maybe this Rufus could be thinking of making his way there? I dunno. This goes beyond making waves for the American boys, don’t you think? This is about tracing an abducted woman, a British citizen.’

96

They were heading for Essex. Steve was driving, with Max in the front passenger seat. Layla was crammed in the back between Alberto and Sandor, and she was thinking she might choke from all the testosterone floating about in there. The mood in the car was grim.

‘Layla?’ said Alberto quietly.

She didn’t answer: she stared out at the encroaching night.

‘Oh for God’s sake,’ he muttered.

Layla turned a freezing glance on him. ‘What?’ she hissed.

‘Can we try and behave like grown-ups?’

Layla’s eyes flashed with temper. ‘Oh sure. You’d love that, wouldn’t you. Sorry – I wasn’t aware I was being juvenile.’

‘Well, you are.’

Layla leaned forward and said for his ears only: ‘My dad would
kill
you if he knew what you did to me.’

Alberto opened his eyes wide. ‘Yeah? He’d better just get in line. We made love. Get over it.’

‘
Made love?
’ Layla gave a low, bitter laugh. In a fierce whisper she went on: ‘We
had sex
because I was upset and you took advantage of that. You used me. Then you dumped me. I apologize if I don’t like that.’

‘Jesus, don’t we have more important things to think about right now?’ asked Alberto in exasperation. ‘Look – I did you a favour. Believe me, I did.’

‘A
favour
? No, you did
yourself
one,’ said Layla. She closed her eyes and moaned softly. ‘Oh God. He could kill her, couldn’t he? She could already be dead. She might not even
be
at this place.’

‘Talking like that won’t help.’ They knew at least that Annie wasn’t at Partyland; that had been checked out. Their only hope was that Malone had taken her to the place out on the marshes. If not, they were stumped. And Annie was finished.

‘
Don’t
tell me what I can and cannot think. You might boss everyone else around, but not
me,
OK?’

‘What’s going on?’ asked Max, turning in his seat. He looked at Sandor, sitting there like a slab of rock, then at Alberto, and finally at Layla.

‘She’s upset,’ said Alberto smoothly, his eyes holding hers.

Max reached back and took her hand. ‘I said this was a bad idea. I told you not to come.’

‘I
had to
come,’ said Layla. Her brain kept presenting her with nightmare images of Precious, beaten to death. And the same man had Mum now. ‘For God’s sake, how could I not? Anything could happen to her, I
have
to be here.’

Max and Alberto exchanged a look. They both thought that Layla would be in the way, a liability; that they might have to waste time protecting her, when they ought to be able to focus on getting Annie out of danger. They had told her as much before leaving London. But Layla was having none of it.

‘What’s going on with you two?’ asked Max, his eyes moving from his daughter to Alberto and back again.

‘Nothing,’ she said.

‘Nothing? You sounded like you were ripping lumps out of each other a moment ago. You had a fight?’

Layla stared hard at Alberto, who returned her look coolly.

He’d kill you if he knew,
her eyes said.

Yeah?
Alberto’s gaze said.
So do it
.
Tell him
.

‘It was nothing,’ said Layla, dropping her eyes to her lap. ‘Really, nothing.’

Max looked at Alberto.
Something
was going on with these two.

‘I’d take a dim view of anyone upsetting my daughter,’ he said to Alberto.

‘Of course,’ said Alberto.

‘So don’t,’ said Max.

‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’

‘Good,’ said Max, giving Alberto one last thoughtful look and Layla’s hand a brief squeeze before he turned to stare ahead again.

‘Can’t you go any faster?’ Layla asked Steve.

‘We’ll get there,’ he said.

‘Yeah. In time for
what
?’

97

Annie couldn’t quite believe it when the van finally came to a halt. Her mouth was bone-dry. She was so cold that she shivered constantly, and so frightened that she was barely keeping a grip on herself any more.