Spider's Web (31 page)

‘What makes you think Gavin intends to leave the country?’

‘Because he said he does.’

‘And did he also say where they’re going?’

‘No. I’ll be praying for you.’

The line went dead. Jim didn’t need prayers when he had GPS. He phoned his contact in the Met. Considering Special Branch’s involvement, he’d rather not have risked it but he had no choice if he wanted to track Gavin’s phone without alerting Garrett. And he knew Garrett wouldn’t let him play things the way he wanted to. Not after what had happened to Anna. ‘I need a big favour, Harry. No questions asked.’

‘No can do, Jim. I’m still in the shit bin after the last one I did you.’

‘There’s a young girl’s life at stake. If you don’t help me, she’s as good as dead.’

‘Oh you bastard,’ grumbled Harry. ‘That’s a low blow.’

‘I’ll beg too, if it saves her life.’

Harry heaved a breath down the line. ‘I’m almost tempted to take you up on that offer. But first tell me what you need.’

‘I need you to track my suspect’s mobile phone.’

‘I can’t do that without a court order.’

‘C’mon, Harry. We both know the Met has its ways of getting around little complications like court orders.’

There was a moment’s silence, then Harry said, ‘Give me the number and I’ll see what I can do. No promises.’

As Jim waited for Harry to get back to him, Reece approached him and asked, ‘Who was that? What’s going on?’

Holding up a hand, Jim moved away from Reece. After what seemed more like hours than the minutes that had actually passed, Harry phoned and told him what he so desperately wanted to hear. ‘The phone’s stationary, close to the A169, about six miles north-east of Pickering and half a mile east of the turn-off for Lockton.’

Jim rolled his eyes skywards as though offering up thanks. ‘I owe you big time, Harry.’

‘No kidding you do. I’ll let you know if the position changes.’

Jim brought up a map of North Yorkshire on his phone. Lockton was a village on the edge of the moors. The area was isolated and not far from the east coast. A good place to lie low whilst waiting for a private boat or plane out of the country to be arranged. A mile or so east of the village and the A169 was a belt of woodland that ran roughly parallel to the road. ‘More fucking woods,’ muttered Jim.

He hurried towards his car, motioning for Reece to follow. He punched the destination into the satnav. The journey was a little over a hundred miles, roughly two and a quarter hours’ drive if you observed the speed limits. Which he had no intention of doing. ‘Lockton. That’s in North Yorkshire, isn’t it?’ said Reece. ‘What’s in Lockton?’

Without answering, Jim twisted the ignition key.

‘Whoa,’ said Reece as Jim turned the car around. ‘I can’t just leave the crime scene.’

‘This is more important.’

‘You’ve got a line on Gavin, haven’t you?’

‘That was his mother who phoned me in the command unit. She gave me his mobile number. GPS indicates he’s hiding out near Lockton.’

Reece’s eyebrows lifted high. ‘Shit, his own mum rolled on him. What does she want in return?’

‘She wants her granddaughter not to be raped and murdered.’

Reece nodded as if to say,
Understandable
. ‘So I take it we’re doing this alone.’

‘No back-up, no chance of anyone leaking the surprise.’

‘Garrett’s not going to be happy.’

Jim smiled grimly. ‘He never is.’

Reece’s forehead creased suddenly. ‘Hey, I just noticed.’ He tapped his upper lip. ‘Where’s the tash?’

20

There was the metallic snap of latches being undone. The cushions were lifted. Light streamed into Emily’s blinking eyes. Through a blur of tears, she saw Gavin stooping towards her. He’d taken off the wig. Her heart kicked against her ribcage. He was holding the skinning knife! He slid it between her numb ankles and cut off the plastic cuffs. Then he lifted her into a sitting position. He didn’t cut the cuffs off her wrists. ‘Wriggle your toes,’ he said, removing the gag.

Emily did so, slowly at first, gradually regaining normal movement as the blood tingled through her feet.

‘Are you thirsty?’ asked Gavin.

Emily nodded. He put a bottle of water to her lips and she drank deeply.

‘Hungry?’

Another nod. Adrift in the darkness, she’d come to a decision. She would play along with Gavin’s insanity. Try to gain his trust. Wait for him to let down his guard. And when he did, she would make another run for it. Her legs trembled as he helped her to stand. He replaced the sofa cushions and indicated for her to sit. She obeyed and he smiled at her. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. The beard had disguised the meanness of his small, thick-lipped mouth. He took a tray of long-stemmed mushrooms and a lump of what looked like some sort of red meat out of the fridge. As he sliced the meat, Emily’s gaze flitted furtively past him. Outside the windows on both sides of the motorhome, rows of tall pines shivered in the wind. Creases gathered thoughtfully between her eyebrows. Were they back in Sherwood Forest? Surely they couldn’t be. Imprisoned beneath the sofa, she’d struggled to hold onto a sense of time. Even so, she guessed they’d been on the road several hours before arriving where they were. It occurred to her that Gavin could have driven around in circles to disorientate her. But she doubted he would have risked doing so. He might be crazy, but he wasn’t stupid.

‘Is extra-bloody OK?’ asked Gavin. Emily’s eyes jerked to him. The fear in them receded a fraction as he went on, ‘Cook a steak too long and you kill its flavour and nutrients.’

She nodded again.

He frowned slightly. ‘You’re allowed to speak.’

‘Yes,’ Emily said, her voice flat.

Gavin’s shrewd smile returned. ‘You know, you may look like your mum, but I think inside you’re more like me.’

I’m nothing like you!
Emily caught the words on her lips, not only because she wanted to stay on Gavin’s good side – if such a thing existed – but because she suddenly found herself wondering whether they were true. What if he was right? What if he’d passed something of his insanity on to her, like a hereditary disease? The idea of it was almost as frightening as her predicament.

‘I was the quiet type too when I was your age,’ he continued. ‘I was like a closed book. Lord Cernunnos taught me how to open up and let the world and all its pleasures in. His is the voice that can never be tamed. The voice of the wild things.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Listen to the forest, Emily. Can you hear it? It’s telling you to be yourself. To live without guilt, shame and remorse.’ He ran one hand down over his face and chest, stopping just short of his groin. He looked at her, his eyes faintly glassy. ‘I can see in your face that you don’t hear it. But don’t worry, my love. You will soon. And then we two shall be as one.’

Emily felt tears rising in her again. She held them back with everything she had.

Gavin speared the steaks and laid them in a frying pan with the mushrooms. The aroma of frying meat filled the motorhome. It was a smell Emily normally liked. But right then it made her stomach churn. After a few seconds, Gavin transferred the contents of the pan to a plate on a fold-down table. He sliced off a corner of steak. Blood seeped from the almost raw meat. He lifted a fork towards her mouth. ‘Open wide, my love.’

She forced herself to do as he said. The meat had a strong gamy flavour. It was as tender as any she’d eaten. As she attempted to swallow it, her throat contracted with the urge to vomit. Clamping her teeth together, she somehow managed to push it down her gullet. ‘Now for a mushroom,’ said Gavin.

‘If you take off the handcuffs, I’ll feed myself,’ said Emily.

Gavin cocked his head as though considering her offer. ‘I’d like nothing more than to remove the cuffs, but look what happened last time I trusted you.’

‘Please, Gavin, I promise I’ll behave.’

He blew a little laugh through his nose. ‘Who said I want you to behave?’ Emily held back a shudder as he slid his callused hand along her jaw. ‘I want to see the real you, the wild, untamed you.’ He resumed feeding her, adding, ‘And another thing, don’t call me Gavin. I rejected that false name when I shed the bonds of society. My true name is Clotho Daeja. We’ll have to find your true name too. To know your true name is to know your true self. And to know your true self is to know what is divine.’

I thought nothing was true
, Emily resisted the urge to sneer at him.

To her relief, he ate the second steak and half the mushrooms. ‘Do you smoke?’ he asked, seating himself cross-legged on the floor at her feet and rolling a cigarette.

Emily shook her head. ‘I tried it once, but I didn’t like it.’

‘That’s good. Smoking pollutes the body. I only smoke on special occasions these days. And what could be a more special occasion than this?’ He lit his cigarette and peered up at Emily like a disciple waiting for some revelation. ‘Tell me about yourself.’

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Everything.’

Emily was silent a moment, then began awkwardly, ‘I like hanging out with my friends, listening to music, going to the movies—’

‘No you don’t,’ broke in Gavin. ‘You just think you like those things because society has conditioned you to fit in, to be a consumer. I want you to look inside yourself and tell me what you
really
like.’

Emily’s forehead puckered.
What do I really like?
she wondered. She’d never given it much consideration. She’d always just gone along with what her friends did. ‘I… I kind of like silence. And I like the night-time. My friends are afraid of the dark, but I’m not.’

Gavin nodded as though he approved. ‘Tell me, if you were a wild animal, what would you be?’

Emily’s eyes dropped in thought, then she said, ‘I’d be a bird.’

‘A bird flying free through the silence of the forest night.’ Gavin clicked his fingers. ‘Adaryn Purae. The pure bird. That’s your true name.’

‘Adaryn Purae,’ murmured Emily. It sounded like something from a fantasy novel.

‘Say it loud,’ said Gavin. ‘Let the Lord of the Forest hear your voice.’

She repeated the name. Gavin closed his eyes, breathing in deeply as though he was inhaling her voice. ‘Again, again.’

He began to sway in time to the name. And, almost unconsciously, Emily found herself swaying too. A warm woozy sensation was sliding over her. She felt like she’d swallowed dust and there was a bitter taste in the back of her throat. Gavin’s eyes snapped open and she saw that his pupils were huge and black. ‘I feel funny,’ she said.

Gavin burst out laughing. His laughter climbed to a hysterical pitch as Emily continued, ‘I think I’m getting ill.’

‘You’re not getting ill,’ he said, between gasps. ‘You’re getting well. The magic’s starting to work.’

Emily closed her eyes and when she opened them it was as though she was seeing Gavin through the wrong end of binoculars. He looked like a wizened laughing gnome.
What’s wrong with me?
she wondered.
Have I been drugged?

The gnome hopped to its feet and approached her. She shrank away as it reached for her with hands that appeared massively oversized in comparison to its arms. ‘Lie down, Adaryn,’ it said, manoeuvring her onto her side. ‘Sleep.’

She closed her eyes again. Lights were flashing behind them as though she’d looked into the sun for too long. ‘I can’t sleep.’

‘Shh. The Horned One is coming. He will be here soon. You must sleep and be ready for him.’

Emily shook her head weakly. The lights were making her brain pound. And there was a buzzing in her ears like she’d stuck her head into a beehive. The sound travelled through her, vibrating along her bones all the way to the tips of her toes. She could no longer feel the sofa beneath her. But she wasn’t falling like before. She was floating. No, not floating. Flying. She was a bird flying higher and higher into the sky. Far below – so far it was little more than a dark shape – was the motorhome. And all around, like a limitless ocean, was a forest.

‘I can’t sleep,’ she said again, opening her eyes. The gnome was gone. So was Gavin. She sat up with a gasp, her gaze darting around the motorhome. She was alone!
Am I hallucinating?
she wondered.
Or is this real?
She instinctively bit her lip. Pain. Pain was real. This was her chance! She stood up and, swaying precariously, tried to take a step. Her feet seemed impossibly heavy. She felt sweat pricking out on her face with the effort of moving them. There was the sound of a toilet flushing. A door adjacent to the kitchen area opened and Gavin stepped into view. He’d stripped down to baggy white underpants, over which his large, solid-looking stomach bulged like a sack of grain. The spider’s web tattoo seemed to thrum with a faintly irradiated light. He was holding a pen and a notepad.

‘I thought you were sleeping,’ he said, frowning knowingly at Emily.

‘I’m thirsty.’

Gavin retrieved the water from the fridge and put it to Emily’s lips. She gulped it down and exhaled with relief because it was like a cool hand caressing her throat. As he guided her back to the sofa, she asked, ‘What are you writing?’

‘Our wedding vows.’

Now it was Emily’s turn to laugh – a horrified laugh that wouldn’t stop no matter how hard she tried to stifle it.

‘That’s it,’ grinned Gavin. ‘Let it out. Let it all out, Adaryn.’

Upon hearing the name, her laughter grew even louder. She doubled over, gasping for breath, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Gavin’s a bad dream
, she thought.
And I’m going to wake up any minute now. Please let me wake up. Please…
But she didn’t wake up. She twisted away from him, pressing her face into the sofa. The laughter finally died away, but not the tears. They continued to seep into the cushions. Images danced behind her eyes – her friends, her on-off boyfriend, her school. People and things she would never see anywhere but in her mind again. Gavin wasn’t the dream. They were.

‘I know you’re in pain,’ said Gavin. ‘That’s because the old you is dying. But don’t be afraid. Soon the new you will be born.’