Dead or Alive (16 page)

‘Woman has stopped at the gate twice in the last few minutes. She is there now. No, she is opening the gate and coming up the footpath. She is carrying something … a book.'

Whitey went to the door and opened it. Winnie was just a few paces away. She gave him what she hoped was a beatific smile.

‘Hello, sir. My name is Maria. I'm not here to sell you anything, I simply wondered if I could interest you in a bible reading. In these difficult times people find a reading from the gospel according St John to be most uplifting.'

Whitey stepped down and grabbed her by her coat, dragging her into the house. ‘You an't no fucking bible-basher, lady. Not with all that make-up on your mush!' His accent was southern, London maybe; his face was mean and unshaven with a thick moustache and dark eyes; his hair was dark, thick and combed straight back; his lips were full and formed a permanent sneer. She guessed him to be Whitey, the boss.

‘I am,' protested Winnie. ‘If you're not interested, that's OK.'

He took the bible from her. ‘All right, give me a quotation and tell me exactly where it comes from. You know, like St Paul chapter fifteen, verse nine and all that stuff. All you bible bashers can do that. Should know a hundred quotations, just give me one.'

Winnie racked her brains for a quotation. ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,' she said.

‘Everybody knows that one,' he sneered. ‘Where's that from?'

‘Er, I'm not sure.'

‘Then tell me one I haven't heard before and tell me where it's from.'

‘Look, sir, I'm sorry to have troubled you. I'll be on my way.'

‘You're not going anywhere until I find out who you are. Why have you been snooping round outside? You're the law, ain't yer?'

‘What?'

‘You're a copper come snooping round.'

‘No, I'm not. I'm just a bit new at this, which is why I don't know the bible as well as I should.'

Dragos had come downstairs and was standing behind his boss, who handed him the bible. ‘Take this and take her down to the cellar and lock her in until I find out who she is and what to do with her. While she's in there, strip her naked and see if she has any police identification on her. Bring her clothes out with you. Naked people always find it difficult to escape.'

Winnie drew her fist back and punched Whitey as hard as she could on the end of his nose. He slapped her to the floor then put his hand to his face to stem the flow of blood. He snarled at Dragos. ‘When you've got her stripped give her a good fucking. Teach her a lesson.'

Dragos gave a yellow-toothed grin and said, ‘Yes, boss.'

Winnie struggled with all her might as the big Romanian dragged her down the cellar steps. Whitey called out for another of his men, ‘Grigos!'

A man appeared from one of the downstairs rooms. Another Romanian, younger and not quite as big as Dragos. ‘Yes, boss?'

‘Get up to the top room and take over from Dragos. I think we've got snoopers interested in us. Snoopers we can do without. I'm not expecting any punters today, so if anyone at all stops at the gate and looks down the path I want to know immediately. I want to know who they are and what they want. It is possible they have some connection with the missing girl.'

Loud, distressed screaming was now coming from the cellar. Grigos looked questioningly at his boss who ignored the noise and waved him up the stairs.

Dragos bent Winnie's arm up her back and dragged her down the cellar steps. She knew what was in store for her – this monster who smelled like a pig. At the bottom of the steps he opened a door on the right and pushed her in. She turned to face him, shivering with fear.

‘Please don't do what he said. I don't think he meant it.'

Dragos undid his belt and sneered, ‘When Whitey says something, he always means it. Now strip you fucking bitch!'

Winnie made no move. Dragos took out a gun and stuck it in her mouth and snarled, ‘Do as you're told or I'll fuck your dead body!'

Winnie took off her top, kicked off her shoes and slipped out of her jeans. He took them and searched the pockets, finding only a mobile phone and a wallet containing thirty pounds and a few cards. Nothing to identify her as a policewoman.

‘Winifred,' he read from one of the cards.

He smiled at her, unzipped his fly and brought out the biggest penis Winnie had ever seen.

‘Do you like what you see, Winifred?' he said, lasciviously.

‘I see a pig's dick – attached to a filthy pig.'

She managed to say it dismissively. Since Cyril Johnstone, she'd had sex with many men but it had always been for love or money and on her terms. It had never been forced on her. She was beginning to think she wouldn't live through this, so why should she be submissive? She looked at him defiantly and said, ‘You're going to kill me anyway and I don't want to be around when a filthy pig like you rapes me!'

He reached out and grabbed her bra, ripping it off. Then he knocked her to the floor and did the same with her panties. She rolled over on her side, facing away from him.

‘Just don't expect me to help in any way you stinking pig! Is there no bathroom in this house?'

Dragos pulled her on to her back and slapped her into semi-consciousness then he forced himself inside her. She came round as he was thrusting inside her and trying to kiss her. She bit his tongue as hard as she could but, to Dragos, this only added to the passion of his moment.

He finished, withdrew from her and got to his feet, about to pull his jeans up, then he had a thought. He turned around and urinated on her, splashing her naked body with his vile liquid. He laughed as he did it. ‘There you go, bitch! You now got Dragos inside and out.'

Had Winnie got any shoes on, she'd be kicking herself. She was locked in a cellar, naked, freezing, stinking of man pee and violated by that vile brute. Why the hell had she tried the bible scam on these low-life pimps? Because she'd left the bible in the van, that's why. It was a scam she'd worked a dozen times. She'd follow people home from various churches, knock on their doors and offer to give them a free bible reading. More often than not she'd be invited in and, before she left, she'd just happen to mention how her main occupation was raising money for an orphanage in Kenya. In fact it was a genuine charity, with a most persuasive and heart-rending leaflet which would fall out from between the pages of the bible, giving her an excuse to tell them what it was all about. Quite often she'd leave with a sizeable cash donation. It was an amazingly simple scam, bordering on honest because she never actually asked for money, it was given freely, often forced on her. To salve her conscience she sent the charity ten percent of her takings which, she told herself, was more than some charities passed on to the people in need.

No thought whatsoever had gone into this version of her scam which had only occurred to her when she noticed the bible in the van. And she'd called Sep a lunatic for his plan!

She was frightened of what was going to happen to her. They could hardly set her free after what they'd just done to her and she wasn't some dumb foreign girl, alone and friendless in a strange land. If they freed her she could do them no end of harm, unless … unless Gabriela rang Sep, which is what she'd do.

It was a glimmer of hope, but what would Sep do? The best thing he could do would be to tell Cope to send armed police in. Smash the door down and rush in mob-handed, shouting and banging like they do on the telly. Shit no! Sep wouldn't risk that until he'd checked the place out for himself. He'd need to be a hundred per cent certain of his facts. He wouldn't want to blow the neat deception he had going with Cope.
Bloody hell, Sep! Come and get me!

Gabriela left it three hours before she rang Sep.

‘Mr Lennon?'

‘Er, yes.'

‘My name is Gabriela. Do you know who I am?'

‘Ah, yes, I believe I do. You're living with Winnie.'

‘That is me, yes. Winnie has gone off to the house where the bad men are. Do you know what I talk about?'

‘Yes, I do.'

‘She tell me she is going to get the correct address. We found the house by Google on the computer.'

‘Oh, Google Earth. Yeah, I see.'

‘But she has not returned. She tell me she will be back in one hour but she is gone three hours and she has not returned. I am most worried.'

‘OK Gabriela, I'll be round there in twenty minutes. Hopefully Winnie will be back by then.'

‘I hope so, Mr Lennon.'

Sep looked at himself in the mirror and hoped this young foreign girl wouldn't be shocked by his appearance. Maybe he should warn her? Ah, what the hell! Let her find out the hard way.

‘Have you tried to ring her?'

‘I do not have her number.'

‘OK, I'll ring her now.'

Gabriela didn't immediately open the door to his knock. Sep approved of this. She needed to be cautious under these circumstances.

‘Please, who are you?' she asked, through the door.

‘It's Mr Lennon.'

The door opened wide. She didn't seem taken aback by his appearance but he felt the need to explain. ‘Sorry about my scruffy appearance, there is a good reason for it.'

‘That is OK. I am sorry to ask who you are, but I am afraid of those men.'

‘I take it Winnie isn't back yet?'

‘No, she is not and I am most worried about her.'

‘Hmm, can you show me this house on Google Maps?'

‘I know the name of the street so perhaps you can find it and I will show you the house.'

‘That's fine.'

Within a few minutes he was looking at the house that was now possibly holding Winnie prisoner, only he didn't know that for certain.

‘This is definitely the house you were kept in?'

‘Yes it is.'

His thoughts were now the same as Winnie's thoughts. He needed to be a hundred per cent sure that a police raid on this house would be a success, otherwise he'd jeopardise his relationship with Cope. But if Winnie was in there, she'd need help. Gabriela was looking at him as he tossed things over in his mind.

‘Will you go to help her?'

‘I really need to know just what she's done. Did she tell you what she had planned?'

‘She only told me she was going to look at the house to get its proper address.'

‘Yeah, she'd want that to give to me. Why the hell hasn't she come back?'

‘Did you phone her?' asked Gabriela.

‘I did, but there was no reply.'

‘Would she have known who was ringing?'

Sep thought back to Winnie changing his caller identification to Jimmy. ‘Yeah, she'll have known who it was.'

‘Then this is most worrying.'

‘I agree.'

‘Are you going to find her?'

‘I am.'

Five minutes later he was on his bike, heading towards Spencer Place. He now had a pretty good idea of the actual location of the house. He pedalled up the street, looking to his right all the time. A hundred yards past the house he saw Winnie's van. Riding up to it he saw she wasn't in it.

‘Bloody hell, Winnie! What have you done?'

What he didn't see was a man sitting in another large van facing his way, looking at him curiously. Sep rode back down to the house and stopped the bike outside the gate. The man sat up, more curious than ever now.

Sep remained in his saddle and looked across at the house to see if there was any sign of life within. His plan now was to knock on the door of the adjacent neighbour's house and ask if his friend Joe Robinson lived there. He'd say he wasn't sure if it was this house or the one next door. More often than not, if the house next door was being used as a brothel the person he was speaking to would tell him so in no uncertain terms, especially if it was a woman. She might give him more information than he'd bargained for. At that point he'd take a gamble and call in Cope and his troops. It was pretty much all he could do for Winnie.

Sep got off his bike and stood it up with a pedal resting on the kerb, still looking at the house. He wasn't aware of the man who came up behind him and knocked him unconscious with a heavy, cast-iron priest – a tool used by fishermen to render their catch dead. Within a minute the man had brought his van up alongside Sep and hauled him in through the side door, with no one in the empty street any wiser. He phoned for assistance, drove the van around to the back street, parked outside the back gate where Stefan was waiting to help him carry Sep into the house and then into the cellar to join Winnie.

Sep was just coming round when he was dumped on the cold cellar floor. Winnie greeted his arrival with very mixed feelings. She was glad she was no longer alone, embarrassed about being naked with Sep, and worried that her only means of rescue was now locked up with her. There was a small window near the ceiling, giving just enough light to see by. Sep sat up and waited for his head to clear. There was blood matted in his hair. He blinked at Winnie who was trying to cover her nakedness with her hands and arms. He checked his coat for his mobile, which had gone. Normally he would carry a wallet but not when he was Jimmy Lennon – and he thanked himself for that. He struggled out of his coat and handed it to her. She took it without a word and put it on. It was just long to cover her embarrassment. Sep shook his head slowly, anything faster would have given him even more pain.

‘Sorry,' he said. ‘I came to check the place out. How I ended up in here, God only knows.'

‘I knocked on the door,' said Winnie. ‘Told this man I was some sort of bible-basher. He didn't believe me.'

‘Did you actually think this plan through?'

‘Not at any length,' said Winnie. ‘It came to me, a sort of inspiration, you might call it.'

‘Winnie, I might call it a lot of things, but I don't think inspiration's one of them.'