Читать книгу For Evil to Flourish - Dubya Ph.D Lorimer - Страница 8

Five-thirty a.m. and Allan Ross reluctantly stirred and silenced the alarm on his side of the bed. He yawned and stretched and scratched before heading towards the bathroom, while on the other side of the bed, Julie slept on, oblivious.

After washing and dressing, Allan practically sleep-walked through his usual routine of toast and coffee for breakfast, making up sandwiches for his packed lunch and filling his flask. As he finished, and rinsed off the dishes, he heard Julie begin to move around upstairs. He would be on his way to work before Julie had the kids up and ready to go to school.

She appeared at the kitchen door, and stepped over to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

'Morning.'

'Morning, pet.'

'Were you planning anything for this evening?' she asked.

'Not at the moment,' he answered, 'Oh wait a minute, Chalky did ask if I would be free tonight, but I can put him off if you want, what did you have in mind?'

'Well, you know Emily, my friend from the gym?'

He thought for a moment then nodded,

'Vaguely, yeah, I've heard the name'

'She's been given a couple of vouchers for a pampering session up at The Bonnyton Hotel, you know, mudpacks, manicures, massage, sauna...... the thing is, her hubby isn't interested in going, reckons it's too girly for him, so she asked if I would like to go with her, keep her company. And it wouldn't cost anything, it's a freebie through her business.'

As he thought for a few seconds, she hurriedly added,

'Of course, if you wanted to come we could just pay for a room for ourselves, maybe you could have a round of golf or something while Emily and I were getting the luxury treatment. Unless you fancied a manicure or something like that for yourself, a chance to get in touch with your feminine side!'

He laughed,

'Thanks, but I think I'll give it a miss. You go ahead, enjoy yourselves. As I said, I may have something on with Chalky anyway.'

'Thanks, pet.'

He gathered his things, gave her a kiss before heading for the door.

'See you tonight, love you.'

'Yeah, see you, love you too.'

And he was gone.

Julie suddenly found her legs were shaking so much she had to sit down. She had never lied to him like this before. Yes, she had perhaps been a little economical with the truth sometimes, the little white lies about the price of shoes and suchlike that oiled the wheels of married life, but this was different. The consequences of being found out were potentially life changing.

Again, a wave of guilt washed over her, the doubts flying around inside her head, until she forced herself to push them away. The time spent with David would help her make up her mind about her future..... their future, if they had one together.

She got to her feet with a fresh sense of determination and went upstairs to shower before she wakened the kids.

Strangely, she hardly gave any thought to Allan's place in this new beginning, despite hardly having made a decision in the last twenty years that didn't involve him. Perhaps that was a sign she was already moving on.

Allan headed towards the Craigends area, where he picked up Jim at his usual spot, Shamir's convenience store at the end of his street. After his usual mumbled 'Morning' by way of greeting, Jim promptly fell asleep in the passenger seat of Allan’s pickup truck. He was not a morning person.

Leaving Craigends, Allan picked up the ring road and began the half hour journey to their current job, which involved blasting rock on a new stretch of road currently under construction. This was a change for them, they were more accustomed to working in a quarry environment, which tended to follow the same routine day after day. As the rock from the previous blast was being crushed and graded by the quarry operator, Allan and Jim would prepare the next section, with Jim operating the machine to drill holes in the rock to a consistent depth in a grid pattern, followed by Allan filling the holes with explosives. Each blast was much the same as the one before, they were familiar with the spacing and the amount of explosives to create the product demanded by the customer. It was almost boringly repetitive.

As long as they didn’t accidentally blow themselves up!

Arriving at the road job, Allan got out and had a stretch, before walking around the area they planned to blast today. This was an altogether more technically demanding task than working in a quarry as it involved dealing with rock outcrops of varying depths. Shallow blasts were notoriously difficult to control, often causing 'flyers', where rocks could be hurtled hundreds of metres in any direction, a particular problem in a location like this with an existing public road to one side of the new road, and a railway to the other.

Allan felt justifiably pleased with the way thing had gone so far, taking real pride in his skill at judging and calculating the drilling and placing of explosives in these variable conditions. He was actually looking forward to his day ahead.

At her desk at the council offices, Julie took a quick glance around before slipping a memory stick into the computer. Her fingers danced over the keyboard, an artist at work. Allan had only ever shown a polite interest in her work in the council’s I.T. department, she could practically see his eyes glaze over if she talked about problems with updating the council’s web site, checking for misuse of the e-mail system, or tracking down staff surfing the net for porn.

David, on the other hand was always interested and respectful of her knowledge of computers. And although he had told her not to, she was going to do him this small favour.

She had been with him when he had received the call from his partner telling him about the small fire in the office, discussing the files lost, their stupidity in not having separate backups. No, they couldn’t contact their clients and ask for copies, that would be commercial suicide, apparently.

He had been tired when they last met, the result of working late into the night trying to recover what data he could. She had learned that much of it related to council contracts and property deals, but he refused to give her any details, insisting that she didn’t get involved.

She smiled to herself as she removed the memory stick and slipped it into her pocket, picturing his face as she presented it to him.

Tonight was going to be extra special.

Benny Patterson was a creature of habit, and anyone following his routine would know that on a Friday evening he would pop into the Black Bull where he would catch the eye of one of the regulars. A few minutes later he would meet with the man, one of Darren Hills' associates, in the car park at the rear of the pub. Money and small packages would be exchanged, and the two men would part, one back into the pub, the other to his car. From here, Patterson would tour round the area, visiting seedy flats and drug dens where the packages would be exchanged for wads of cash.

This sticking to the same routine when involved in criminal activity suggested a distinct lack of intelligence on Benny's part, when with perhaps just a little forethought, and an occasional change of modus operandi, he might have avoided being grabbed from behind, having tape placed on his mouth, hands and ankles tied and a hood pulled over his head, before being bundled into the back of a van.

Julie and David's route had taken them out into the countryside, at first heading towards Lethamfield where Allan was working on the new by-pass, before making a right turn onto a road she recognised as leading to the coast. She and Allan used to go on holiday in the area when the kids were small, to a caravan park. Usually they would be accompanied by his mum and dad, who would look after the kids in the evening while Julie and Allan went out for a meal or to a club. Latterly they had been able to afford to go to Spain, and last year it had been Turkey. It had been a little too hot there for Julie's taste, but the hotel was gorgeous and the kids had loved the pool and the beach.

She came back to the present with a jolt as they passed the entrance to a grand hotel situated a short distance up a hill on their left. It was the Bonnyton Hotel, the place she had told Allan she and Emily would be staying in. She prayed Allan didn't decide to call the hotel looking for her, she hadn't thought of an excuse for not being there.

Just after the entrance to the Bonnyton, David made another right turn, now they were on a single track road, with passing places marked with little diamond shaped signs and high, overgrown hedges cutting off their view. They crossed an old stone bridge then came to a fork in the road, where David again took to the right. A few hundred metres further they passed a deserted-looking farm, then almost immediately came to a whitewashed cottage sitting in isolation, facing onto a small lake and some empty fields.

She read the hand-painted sign “Honeysuckle Cottage”.

'Sounds lovely.' she said.

'Wait till you smell it.' David replied as he parked the car next to the gable end of the cottage, which she could now see was adorned with the flower that gave the cottage it's name.

'Oh my goodness, it's gorgeous!' she exclaimed as she opened the car door and took a deep breath. David was smiling as he opened the boot, and took out the two overnight bags.

'Thought you would like it.' he said, as he carried the bags towards the small porch at the front of the cottage. Behind him, she stopped to sniff the roses growing at the front wall, and ran her hand over the flowers at the side of the path.

'They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful.'

'Not as beautiful as you, you're more gorgeous than all these flowers put together.'

'You're such a liar!'

But she was delighted and flattered anyway, and kissed him to show her appreciation.

'Hang on, at least let me get in and put these bags down.'

He moved a small garden ornament to reveal a door key.

'That's not very safe surely?'

'You're not in the city now you know, nobody bothers you out here, and even if a stranger came around, the locals would spot them a mile away.'

'Do you think someone's watching us just now?'

'Bound to be, but don't worry, they'll recognise my car. I've been here before.'

'With another woman?'

'Yes.'

He laughed at the look on her face,

'Only She Who Will Not Be Mentioned. And the kids.'

'Oh well, I'll let you off with that then.'

He unlocked the door and they stepped inside. A small hallway led to a comfortable, homely kind of a sitting room with a wood-burning stove and comfortable old-fashioned armchairs. On the opposite side of the hallway, there was a kitchen, very rustic, right down to the old fashioned range.

'I hope your not expecting any cordon bleu cooking from me,' she said, eyeing the antiquated looking contraption.'

'Don't worry, there's a microwave in here as well,' he said, pointing to the shiny modern appliance behind the door. 'Anyway, we're not here to cook,' And he took her in his arms, adding, 'Although I do think I'm developing a bit of an appetite. How would you like a look at the rooms upstairs?'

'That sounds like a very nice idea to me.' she said, and allowed him to lead her up to the bedroom.

Benny Patterson tried to resist and struggle as best he could, but he was powerless against so many hands, carrying him up some stairs, dragging him across a rough floor and finally hauling him upright by a rope tied around his wrists. With his feet still tied together, he could feel himself swaying unsteadily. This was one of the few times in his life he had been really afraid, certain that this must end with a beating, or maybe worse.

His fear grew when the hood was removed and he had his first glimpse of his captors. There were four of them wearing disposable overalls, dark blue, not white like the police forensic people wore. They also wore rubber gloves, but most incongruously, they wore rubber masks of politicians or royals. There was the Queen, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

The man wearing the Queen mask stepped forward and undid the belt and buttons on Patterson's jeans and pulled them, along with his underpants, down to his knees, while he writhed and twisted. He was obviously trying to swear and threaten them, but nothing intelligible was getting past the tape over his mouth.

The man then tied a piece of string around Benny's manhood, no easy task under the circumstances.

The gang member in the Margaret Thatcher mask, meanwhile was tying the other end of the length of string around a concrete block which 'she' then placed on the sill of an open window next to Benny. Knowing he was at least one storey up, he realised with horror what would happen if the concrete block went over the edge. So absorbed was he with his immediate problem, he didn't notice he was now being filmed on his own camera phone.

'Now young man,' said 'The Queen', imitating her majesty's voice,

'We have some questions for you, and if we think you're lying, we toss that block out the window, and I'm sure you know you're not going to enjoy that. Also, if you scream and shout when we take the tape off your mouth, we will push the block out the window. But on the other hand, if you're a good little boy, and do as we ask, we will let you go in one piece. Do I make myself clear?'

'The Queen' couldn't make out what Benny was trying to say, but it didn't sound like a yes, however 'Mrs Thatcher' gently pushing the concrete block a little way over the edge suddenly had Benny turn very still, apart from the frantic nodding of his head.

'That's more like it, now we can talk properly.' The man in the Queen mask then none too gently removed the tape.

'You supplied the drink and drugs to that girl who died, didn't you?'

'No way, I didn't even know they were there, honest to God!'

'Mrs Thatcher' sighed theatrically, then pushed the block a little further over the edge,

'Not what we want to hear, Benjamin.'

'Stop. Okay, okay, I was there.'

'And you raped them?'

'No, no, that's bullshit, I didn't touch them!'

'You gave them drugs, you raped them, and then you did nothing to help them when they became ill, isn't that right?'

'I didn't know there was anything wrong with them, honest, I thought they just fell asleep.'

The block was moved another inch, teetering now on the brink.

'I swear, I swear on my mother's life, I just thought they needed to sleep it off.'

Benny was blessed with such stupidity that it was probably true, he may well have imagined that he could return after a few hours and find the girls none the worse for wear.

'Who else was in the flat with you?' Patterson hesitated just a second too long before answering.

'Nobody. Just me and the girls.'

'So it had to be you who gave the girls drugs, then?' Patterson shook his head, but didn't reply.

'The drugs were supplied to you by the Hills, were they not?'

'No way, I don't know anything about drugs, or the Hills, no way!'

'And I suppose your going to try and tell me you're not a pimp and the Hills don't get a cut of your profit?'

'Course not, I've never had anything to do with whores, nor worked for the Hills, you're mixing me up with somebody else, I swear!'

'The Queen' shook her head sadly.

'Oh, I don't think so, Benjamin, we know exactly who and what you are, and if you're not willing to admit to what you've done, well, we're obviously wasting our time here. I don't think I can watch this, it won't be pretty.', and he turned away from Patterson as Mrs Thatcher started to push the block over the edge.

'Aaagh, no, no, don't, I'll tell you.'

The man in the Thatcher mask held the block right over the edge.

'No more warnings, next time it goes over.'

'Ok, I got some stuff from a friend of Darren, but it was just this once, just a little, for personal use. Honest, I swear, just this once, and it was for a party, I didn't know the lass was going to die!'

Benny was shaking and crying, the tears running down his face, but still he was lying, obviously even more scared of the Hills than he was of this gang.

'I warned you what would happen if you gave us any more lies.' and without hesitation, 'Mrs Thatcher' let go of the block.

For a split second Patterson was frozen, then suddenly he let out a high pitched scream........ Which gradually tailed away to a baffled silence as he realised the block had hit the ground, while, surprisingly, he was still intact.

'What the.....?'

The masked man's shoulders were shaking with laughter as he held up the cut end of the piece of string.

'Gave you a fright there, didn't we Benjamin,' Then leaning in close, he said menacingly,

'Just remember, next time we won't be playing with you.'

As Patterson started to curse and swear, he was silenced with a fresh length of tape across his mouth. Still laughing, the bizarre-looking foursome walked away together.

Julie was on the rug in front of the stove, leaning against the front of an armchair with David's head in her lap, feeling totally content.

After an hour or so in the bedroom, they had developed an appetite of a different kind, returning to the kitchen for a ready-made meal prepared in the microwave, washed down with a bottle of wine.

Unable to keep their hands off each other, they had made love again, this time in front of the fire.

'Mmmmmm'

'Do you like that?' she asked,as she stroked his face and head.

'Mmmmmm' he confirmed.

The grey spreading through his blonde hair made her feel a little better about the hair dye she regularly found necessary nowadays.

'Oooh, what's this?' she asked, her fingers exploring a small scar hidden by his hair.

'Never noticed that before, what happened to you?

'Car accident' he murmured.

'Bad?'

'Nope, just a scratch. It was years ago.'

'Poor you.' and she leaned forward and kissed the spot.

'You do love me, don't you?'

'I can't believe you have to ask, of course I do.'

'You won't be mad at me for doing something you told me not to?'

He opened one eye and looked at her quizzically.

'What have you done?'

She wriggled out from under him, and fetched something from her handbag, a small package wrapped in red paper and tied with a pretty bow.

'It's a gift to say how much I love you.'

He removed the paper to find a small plastic device, used to store data from a computer.

'Is this what I think it is, the files on the council contracts?' He seemed nonplussed, 'How did you know which ones to take?'

'Well, since you refused to tell me which ones were yours, I had no option but to take everything to do with contracts and tenders for the last six months. Are you mad at me?'

'No, of course I'm not mad at you, this is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me.'

He almost seemed close to tears.

'Please tell me you can't get into trouble for this, I would hate to see you lose your job.'

'It's all right, it was actually easier taking a copy of everything, that way I was able to make it look as if I was doing a routine virus scan. The only thing is, there is a lot of confidential material in there, I'm trusting you not to look at anything you shouldn't.'

'Of course you can trust me, I would never do anything to betray you, I love you.'

And he took her in his arms and kissed her, and they made love again on the rug in front of the fire.