TRACE - CSI Reilly Steel #5 (Forensic novel Police Procedural Series) (24 page)

Chapter 45

When Constance turned up at the address on Baggot Street that Danny had given her, she wondered if she had misunderstood his invitation. Was he actually taking her out for dinner? She hoped not, that would seem too much like a date. But the restaurant looked closed. She pushed against the partly open door, and called: ‘Hello?’

The dining room was empty of people. The tables were all still set up, hung with ghostly white cloths. The cutlery was glinted like ice and reflected the dim light from the candles that had been lit and placed around the walls. One table, in front of the fireplace, was set with a twisted bunch of flowers. A picture of a woman was propped up in the centre of the table, too. Constance went closer and picked it up.

It showed a woman, smiling shyly at the camera, her hair twisted into a knot, a scarf tied stylishly around her neck. A small boy hugged her knee, beaming up at her.

‘My mother.’

Constance was so startled when Danny spoke that she almost dropped the picture. ‘She’s beautiful,’ she said, gulping a little.

‘Yes, she was,’ said Danny. ‘It’s the only picture I have of her.’ He clapped his hands together. ‘Now. I hope you are hungry.’

‘I’m starving,’ admitted Constance. ‘I’ve been fasting in anticipation. But, Danny, what are we doing here? This place is one of the best restaurants in town.’

‘Why, thank you,’ he said, with a slight bow.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Didn’t you know? I own this place,’ he said.

‘Are you serious? That’s amazing. Everyone wants to eat here.’

‘Yes, it’s been fun,’ he said. ‘But in light of recent events, I think it’s time for a fresh start. An exciting, new venture.’

‘Oh, yes,’ she said with a slight shudder. ‘I heard about the chef here. That he was arrested on suspicion of murder. It’s terrible. You must feel strange, having known him and had him work for you.’

Danny shook his head. ‘I didn’t know him all that well actually. I think people like that are always slightly unknowable, don’t you think?’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she said. ‘I can’t imagine what makes people do things like that. Though they should also be pitied, I suppose. Clearly they’re not in their right minds.’

His smile faltered a little. She supposed it must be hard for him. The actions of his chef had cost him his business. ‘Nico was a very frustrated man,’ he said. ‘A lot of anger. But let’s talk of more pleasant things, shall we? Wine?’

She readily agreed. It wasn’t every day that you got to drink from the cellar of a place like this. She found that she got tipsy quite quickly, probably because she hadn’t eaten all day.

‘Goodness,’ she said. ‘I’m all over the place. But this wine is amazing.’

He laughed. ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s nice to have such festive company. My mother, from the little that I remember of her, was a lively person.’

‘Did your father raise you after she died?’

He shook his head. ‘I never knew my father. I suspect he took off when he discovered that my mother was pregnant. And she wasn’t around long enough for me to get old enough to ask. So I’ll never know. I was raised by my aunt after she died,’ he said.

‘And that wasn’t a happy experience?’ she ventured, seeing the way his face had changed.

‘God, no. It was awful. I would rather live through anything than face that again. No child should have to go through that.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It sounds hard. Some people aren’t equipped to deal with children.’

‘No,’ he said, with an odd look on his face. ‘They’re not. Let me go and get the first course and we can continue this discussion.’

‘Sounds good.’

She looked around after he had left. It was a little spooky, eating in a completely empty restaurant, especially one as large as Hammer and Tongs, but it would make a good story for her friends later on.

She looked at the picture. It was so sad. Danny was a nice guy, if a little odd. She guessed that he spent a lot of time alone. But who knew what he would have been like if his mother had lived.

He set the parfait in front of her, with delicate croutons next to it.

‘Bon appetit.’

After the first bite, she had to hold herself back from eating the rest in a single bite. ‘This is amazing,’ she said. ‘I’ve truly never eaten anything so good.’

‘Well,’ he said. ‘After you told me you wanted mac and cheese, I thought I had better do something slightly flashier to start. But tell me, what was your childhood like? You seem to be the kind of person who radiates with the happiness of a great childhood.’

She laughed. ‘Well, I’m glad I give off that vibe. But it’s not exactly true.’ She paused. ‘It feels weird to complain at all, actually, knowing that what you went through was a million times worse.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Don’t feel like that. Pain is all relative, isn’t it? Especially to a child. The smallest thing can seem like a devastation.’

She nodded. ‘You’re very balanced and perceptive. Sometimes people with such awful backgrounds wallow in self pity for the rest of their lives.’ She took another bite of the parfait and smiled. ‘My mother wasn’t a bad person, but she was very conflicted. She would love me with all of her heart one day, ignore me the next. A lot of the time, I had to reassure her that she wasn’t a bad person and that I loved her. When she did something horrible to me, she would just feel flayed with guilt the next day. It was just weird. I mean, I know she went through some stuff before I was born. Sometimes I feel like she had me just to prove that she could.’

‘I’m sure she loves you, thought.’

‘Yeah, she does. I love her, too, but it’s definitely better now that I’m older. We’re on more even ground, and I get more distance.’

He nodded. ‘It sounds…complicated.’

‘Well, nothing’s ever simple. At least I’ll have something to tell my therapist about in ten years.’

When Reilly finally arrived at the restaurant, she was so tense that every particle in her body was screaming with the need to act. She swung her car onto the curb in front of the building. She didn’t have a plan beyond exposing this guy and saving this poor girl. However she had to do it, she must stop Tony Ellis, the Chef. She only hoped that she wasn’t too late.

When she entered the restaurant, her eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light inside. Two people were sharing an intimate dinner at a table by the fire. They turned to look at her, surprised by her intrusion.

‘Don’t eat another bite!’ she yelled to the girl. ‘He’s a killer.’

The girl half stood, looking confused. Who was this crazy woman? ‘What are you talking about,’ she said, uncertainly, as though unsure of whether it was possible to reason with someone as unbalanced as Reilly clearly was. Then she frowned. ’Wait, aren’t you the woman from running group?’

‘I’m with the police,’ said Reilly. ‘You need to get out of here. This guy is dangerous.’

In the seconds that it had taken them to have this conversation, Tony Ellis had begun to move towards her, his hands outstretched in a placating manner, an apologetic half-smile on his face. ‘I’m sure we can sort this out,’ he said. ‘This terrible mix-up. You poor thing, you’re in a terrible state.’

If he had reacted with less concern, Constance might have run. But she was rooted to the spot. She saw Danny approach the woman, as if to comfort her. She saw the woman put her hands up to protect herself, but it was too late. Then, at the last moment, he sunk something into her neck and she slumped to the floor. Before they closed, her eyes flashed a last plea to Constance: get out of here.

But when Danny turned to her, a terrible smile on his face, Constance knew that it was too late. She had made a terrible mistake.

‘No use running,’ he said. ‘I saved some of this for you, too.’ He held up the syringe and she saw the clear liquid slosh in the tiny glass tube. ‘But I wanted us to have a civilized conversation. Things were going so well, and now they’re ruined. But even best laid plans sometimes need to be adapted. You learn that early on, working in a kitchen.’

He sounded so normal, spoke so reasonably. But Constance had just seen him kill someone. Hadn’t she? Certainly, the woman on the floor showed no sign of life. Her body was loose, her skin pale. She watched for the rise and fall of the woman’s chest, but couldn’t see it.

‘Who are you?’ she asked.

‘The Chef of course,’ he replied. The simplicity of his answer chilled her to the bone.

Chris was, as Reilly had been, stuck in traffic. He rang her phone a hundred times, but he kept getting her voicemail.

He rang Kennedy instead. ‘It’s me. Something’s gone very, very wrong. I need you to get down to Hammer and Tongs straight away, with back up. Reilly thinks she’s got the killer, but I can’t get through to her.’

‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ shouted the older man, as if he was yelling through a storm. Chris looked outside and saw that the weather had gotten worse. He could barely see the car in front. The rain swirled white and then yellow, illuminated by the headlights.

He knew he could count on Kennedy. His partner would do everything in his power. But would it be too late? Why, oh why, had Reilly done this? If she had just waited half an hour, they could have gone together. It was the kind of typical behavior, she always engaged in, this belief that she could control everything. They’d been down this road more than once and while he’d always admired her tenacity there was no doubt it was dangerous. Especially now.

When he got to Hammer and Tongs he saw her car parked at a wild angle on the street outside. Chris fought the urge to burst through the doors of the restaurant. Instead, he holstered his gun and headed for the back. It never hurt to make a surprise entrance.

Chapter 46

Reilly had felt the cold metal slide beneath her skin and then felt a quick descent into heat, then cold, then numbness. She tried to move her mouth, her limbs, but it was of no use. It was like being drowned in mud. She was powerless.

As she had sunk to the floor, her last coherent thought was: ‘Please don’t hurt the baby.’

Now she seemed to exist in a kind of fantasy world, a soundless place of images and faces. There was Chris, smiling ruefully at her, as though he was both pleased and disappointed. Todd with his usual implacable and unreadable stare.

Then her father, reaching out for her. Pete Kennedy, Daniel Forrest. All of them were looking at her like she was in bad trouble, and they couldn’t help.

Finally her mother watching and smiling at her from a place she couldn’t reach. She wanted to get to her, wanted to ask Cassie something, desperately. What was it? She couldn’t remember. She felt herself reaching out, trying to touch them. Her mother got up, shook her head and smiled at Reilly. Then Jess appeared, shutting a door between them that Reilly hadn’t even known was there.

That was the last thing. Then a long slow slide into darkness, which felt endless and irreversible. She was nowhere. She was gone.

‘But I don’t understand. My mother is your aunt? So we’re…cousins?’

‘That’s right,’ he said, ‘I must say, you’re taking the news that your mother was a heartless torturer of a young boy quite well.’

Constance shook her head. It didn’t make any sense. Or did it? Hadn’t her mother tried to tell her something like this? Hadn’t she told her that she had done unforgivable things?

‘I don’t understand,’ she said again. ‘Ruth was the one who did all this to you. I wasn’t even born. Why are trying to hurt me? I haven’t done anything.’ She wasn’t trying to be cruel to her mother, but Constance was nothing if not practical. She needed to understand Tony’s motives.

Tony shook his head. Really, she was deliciously innocent. ‘What good would killing Ruth do?’ he asked. ‘She might have a couple of minutes of fear. But if I kill you, she gets a lifetime of grief and regret.’

Constance saw, for the first time, that he really meant to do this. Until now, she had thought if she kept him talking long enough, that she might be able to talk him out of it.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be this way,’ he was saying. ‘But that stupid woman ruined the moment really. It was supposed to be a far more intimate affair. When the poison took hold, I was going to tell you why you were dying, as your body seized up and you could feel the life draining from it. But it’s going to have to be a little less theatrical now, I’m afraid. I don’t suppose I could persuade you to voluntarily eat your last meal?’

She looked at him with disgust.

‘No? That’s a pity. Luckily I have a little pure sample. Once you’re asleep, it will make little difference to you.’

As he moved towards her, she clutched the knife that she had slid off the table in her hand. It was just an innocuous butter knife, smeared with the remains of their parfait.

‘Just stay still will you?’

But she didn’t, she lunged at him and felt the needle prick her skin roughly as she thrust the knife wildly at his face.

She was unconscious before she knew if she had made contact or not.

Tony Ellis, his eye streaming blood, went calmly into his kitchen to fetch the hemlock.

No, it hadn’t gone to plan, not at all. But there was a silver lining. He would now have two victims, not just the one. Did it really matter how Constance died? Wasn’t the main thing that she did die, and that Ruth knew why? That was the main thing. It’s what he had wanted all these years. It didn’t matter how it happened as long as nothing stopped him.

In the kitchen, he prepared the syringe with the liquid hemlock. It would have to be half for each woman, but it wouldn’t affect the efficacy. Hemlock was deadly. There was no antidote.

Because of his concentration, and the extreme care he was taking with the hemlock, he didn’t see the big man lurking behind the door. In fact, Tony had no idea that his deadly banquet was over until he found himself face down on the shiny bench.

Someone roughly cuffed him, and though he struggled wildly, he was thrown into his own freezer. ‘Hope it’s not too chilly in there,’ said the voice. ‘But I can’t have you sampling your own concoction.’