Tuesday's Child (23 page)

Vianne scrunched her face, signing back. “But it’s thundering and raining.”

Adeline signed back. “Please, Vianne. The bad man is here, and the phones aren’t working.”

Two hands landed on the counter, and the man leaned on the desk. The stench of garlic almost overpowered her, and she gagged.

His eyes were hauntingly familiar. He was a man she’d only met the once.

Susie’s boyfriend. Storm.

But the eyes…she knew the eyes from her dreams and visions.

She sucked in a deep breath. “Can I help you?”

“Yes. You can die.”

Petrified, Adeline swallowed hard. She signed frantically under the counter. “Go now. Take Ben. He and Jesus will protect you.” She glanced down as Vianne tugged on her leg and shook her head. She signed again. “Please, go now.”

Storm leaned over the counter. “What are you doing?”

“Run!” Adeline shouted.

Vianne darted from under the counter taking Ben’s collar and leash.

Storm tried to grab her, pulling her hat from her head.

Vianne froze. “My hat. He took my hat.”

Storm reached for her again, but Adeline knocked his arm away. “You wanted me, not the child.”

PC Jones came back in. “What’s going on?”

Storm turned as lightning flashed.

Adeline moved around the counter and grabbed Vianne, bundling her out the door. “Go and get Uncle Nate, now.”

“But my hat…”

“Just go. Never mind your hat.” She clipped on Ben’s leash and gave it to Vianne as a hand gripped her, pulling her back into the room. She saw Vianne run off before Storm swung her around to face him.

PC Jones lay on the floor, eyes staring sightlessly, blood oozing from a head wound. Vianne’s hat lay on the floor. A smoking gun waved in Adeline’s face.

A hand flipped the closed sign over, locked the door, and pulled down the blind.

She looked into the hate-filled eyes.

Please, Lord, protect Vianne out there. Let her get to Nate safely.

She sucked in a deep breath. “What do you want with me?”

“It’s time for some fun. And then you die. Just like all the others did. But you? You complete the pattern.”

16

Nate sat at his desk, his mind focused on Adeline. His fingers traced a small photo of her. She’d objected when he took it, but he’d done it anyway. A diamond and amethyst ring that he’d slipped out and bought at lunchtime nestled in its box in his pocket.

How could things have changed so quickly? Last night he’d proposed and been on top of the world. The next moment everything had transformed into a nightmare.

He forced his mind to concentrate on the current situation. Dane was back in the interview room, interrogating the man they had assumed was the Herbalist. His fingerprints weren’t in the system. They could find nothing on him at all. He gave his name only as Lightning. DI Welsh was tracking down traveler and hippy communities, but persuading the travelers to talk was worse than getting blood out of a stone.

Where there two killers working in tandem like pair of Jack-the-Rippers? Could one be a cop? The killer always seemed a step ahead of the police.

The phone rang, and he grabbed it. “Holmes.”

“It’s Constable Riggs on the front desk, sir. Could you come down immediately? There’s a small child here by the name of Vianne asking for you.”

“I’ll be right there.” Nate dropped the phone and ran from the office. He sped towards the fire door. What was she doing here? And if she was alone, where were his parents? Had something happened to them?

The door hit the wall with a resounding thud, and echoed down the stairwell, as Nate took the stairs two at a time. Through another fire door and down the hallway to the main reception he ran, his heart pounding in his chest and a dozen worse case scenarios filling his brain.

Letting the door to the front office slam, he ignored Constable Riggs, his attention riveted to Vianne who sat on a plastic orange chair sobbing, Ben by her side, almost as if he were guarding her.

Something hit him with the force of ten sledgehammers, sending a portent of doom shuddering through him.

Vianne isn’t wearing her hat.

He couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken it off, never mind outside of the house. Why was she alone? Why was Ben here? Why had Ben left Adeline? Where were his parents?

Nate dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the distraught child. “It’s OK, I’m here. You’re soaked, pumpkin. What happened? I thought you were with Nanny and Grandad.”

“I was. They left me with Adeline, while they went to the bank…”

He glanced around for Adeline. A chill of looming disaster filled him. Now he knew something was very, very wrong. His voice caught in his throat, questions tumbling from him in his need for information. “Where’s Adeline? Where’s your hat?”

“I lost it. The bad man has it.”

“The bad man? What bad man?” He gently brushed the tears from Vianne’s cheeks, desperately trying to calm her, so she could speak without sobbing. Ben licked her hands. “Vianne, where’s Adeline?”

“Not here. The bad man’s got her. At the doll hospital. She told me to come here where I’d be safe. She told me to find you.”

Nate twisted around to the desk officer. “Get DS Philips and DI Welsh down here now.”

As Constable Riggs lifted the phone, Dane rushed though, several uniformed officers behind him. “Nate, we’ve got to go. Shots fired at the doll—” He broke off seeing Vianne. “—At Datura,” he amended. “CO19 are on the way.”

Nate swallowed hard.

‘Shots fired’ was something else. CO19 or the Armed Response Unit would take time to arrive. Time Adeline might not have.

“Vianne, I need you to stay here.” Nate turned to the desk. “Constable Riggs, please ring my parents. Here’s the number. Tell them to stay here until I get back.”

Vianne looked worried as more uniformed officers ran past. “What’s happening?”

“We’re going to go rescue Adeline.” He kissed her cheek. Nate pulled out his handkerchief from his pocket. He pressed it into her hand. “Stay here. Constable Riggs will look after you until Grandad gets here. Keep this for me until I get back.” He turned to the officer. “Don’t let my parents leave. Put them in the interview room or something. They’ll be safer here for now.”

“Yes, sir.”

Nate nodded and kissed the top of Vianne’s head.

DI Welsh ran towards the door, barking orders on the phone as she ran. “CO19 are en route. Good. How did MI5 hear about this? If Agent Debone wants to attend that’s fine, but I have jurisdiction here. Yes, I understand that. Nate, let’s go.”

Rain thudded against the window, lightning flashed, the thunder echoing.

“I’m right behind you. Keep an eye on Ben, pumpkin. He doesn’t like storms.”

“Jesus will look after us both. Is He going to look after you, too?”

“You bet. You, me, and Adeline. I’ll see you soon. Remember I love you.” Nate ran out after the others, praying hard.

****

Storm forced Adeline against his body, making her walk into the main ward in front of him. She tried to turn around. “If I can’t see you, then I don’t know what you’re saying.” The gun shoved harder into her side, and she swallowed hard.

Lord, if I’m going to die let it be swift, please. And be waiting for me when I arrive in heaven. Keep Vianne safe out there. And don’t let Nate be filled with a desire for vengeance. Nate, I’m sorry things turned out this way. I should have listened to you.

An image of Nate with the white bandage over his nose flooded her mind. Instantly, she knew what she had to do. Adeline stamped hard on Storm’s instep and pushed her elbow back sharply into his groin. As the man bent over, she flung her head back sharply into his face.

He let go and she fell to the floor. Pushing the pain in her hands and knees aside, she struggled upright and ran to the door. The lock jammed and her panic-stricken fingers made it as impossible to undo as a metal puzzle from a Christmas cracker.

“Please…” She screamed as someone grabbed her hair, yanking her backwards away from the door. Her heart pounded, breath came in gasps as he dragged her across the room and into her office. Forcing her into a chair, Storm pulled her hands behind her back tying them with the thin twine she used to reattach doll eyes.

He swung the chair around to face him, the gun pointed at her. Dark, hollow eyes burned into her, the same evil as before oozing from him.

As terrified as she was, Adeline wasn’t going to show it. After all, no matter what this man had planned for her, God was in total control. She could feel His sheltering arms and hear His voice whispering peace to her. Perhaps if she kept the man talking, it would give Vianne time to get Nate.

She twisted her hands behind her, trying to loosen the bonds. The metal twine bit into her wrists, but the pain was good. It would keep her mind focused as she concentrated on the man in front of her. “What do you want?”

“I want you.”

“Why me?”

“Why not you?” His eyes glinted and his lips curled into a snarl.

“I’m nothing special.”

“Oh, but you are. It’s all about you.”

“Did you kill all those women and the Prime Minister just to get to me?”

“The Prime Minister was an accident. She got in the way. Literally.” Storm laughed. “I’d just lined up the laser sight on you, and the stupid woman steps right in the way, blocking my line of sight. You had to die because you knew too much, and now you know who I am.”

“But the police arrested someone, so the case is closed. If it wasn’t you, then who is he?”

“My partner. I kill, and he dumps the bodies. He won’t keep quiet, he doesn’t know how to. He’ll blab to save his own skin.”

Adeline swallowed hard. “If you kill me, they’ll know it wasn’t him.”

“You know it isn’t him. You’ve known all along it isn’t him. How?” His hand tightened on her throat, and she gagged then struggled to draw breath. “How. Did. You. Know?”

“Dreams. I dreamt all the murders and the smell…”

“Smell?” Storm’s face contorted as lightning flashed.

“Garlic. Please, you’re hurting me…”

The grip relaxed just a little as lightning flashed again. The lights flickered and went out. Storm twisted as blue lights flickered outside the windows.

Adeline recognized the curse on the man’s lips and immediately turned it to a prayer.
Hallowed be Thy name.

Her mobile phone on the desk lit up, and Storm nodded to it. “Answer it. Put it on speaker phone so I can hear.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “My hands are tied behind my back. You’ll have to do it. It doesn’t work like that. I speak into it and get the replies as text. You can read the answers yourself. Hit the green button.” He did so and held the phone to her. She leaned towards the mouthpiece. “Hello.”

“This is Detective Inspector Welsh. Who am I speaking to?”

“Adeline Monroe. I own the doll hospital.”

“Are you all right, Adeline?”

“Not really,” she replied honestly. After all, who’d be all right with twine cutting into their wrists and a gun in their face? Never mind the police officer lying in the other room.

“Is there someone there with you?”

“Yes.”

“Who is it?”

Storm raised the gun. “You tell them and you die.”

Adeline caught her breath. He must have forgotten the police could hear her and wasn’t getting her speech as text. “I can’t tell you. He killed the police officer, said he’d kill me. There’s two of them, you caught the man who dumps the bod—” She broke off in a cry of pain, her head twisting with the force of the blow that she hadn’t seen coming.

“Can I speak to him?”

Adeline managed to focus on Storm, who shook his head. Her vision blurred, and she could still see stars. She kept working on the knots behind her, her wrists slippery with blood. “He doesn’t want to talk. He’s reading everything you say.”

“Reading?”

“I’m deaf. Whatever you say comes up on my screen as a text message.”

The connection died.

****

Nate groaned as DI Welsh hung up.

“He can read everything we say. It’s going to be impossible to communicate with her without him knowing.”

“I did try to explain that before you rang. There is a way. If I can get to a window, I can sign to her…”

“And have this maniac take you out with his gun the minute he sees you?” The DI rolled her eyes, irritation in her voice. “I don’t think so. He killed Denise—”

Nate staggered back as if punched in the gut. “What?”

“Adeline said Denise was dead, and she has no reason to lie. She also said there were two of them and we only caught one. She then cried out in pain. And it didn’t sound like it was the first time he hurt her.”

“Then we go in.” Nate stood up straight. “I’m not letting him hurt her again.”

DI Welsh looked at him, with a mix of frustration and exasperation. “My hands are tied. I can’t risk anyone else until CO19 get here. I especially can’t risk someone who’s personally involved. Once CO19 arrive, then we’ll just go in hard and fast. You can wait here.”

“Oh, no, there’s no way I’m just going to sit and wait. I may be personally involved here, but I’m working. You assigned me to protect her. I’m trying to do that.” Nate turned away. This was taking too long.

Lord, I have to get in there. Keep her safe, be with her.

He looked at Dane. “What about around the back?”

“Yeah there’s a way in there. Jas jokingly called it the tradesman’s entrance.”

Nate turned to DI Welsh. “Guv, please. At least let us go and look.”

“Just be careful. Don’t go in without telling me first.”

Nate jerked his head in response and ran off with Dane. He pulled up as Agent Debone’s car drew to a halt.

Agent Debone jumped out and strode over to Nate. “What’s going on? I thought you wanted minimal back up not the whole shooting match? I just got a call saying CO19 are on the way.”

“It’s the Herbalist. We only caught his partner. We have one officer down. Adeline’s been taken hostage. We’re checking out another way in. The guy has already hurt her once. I’m not going to let him do it again.”