Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense (102 page)

Jim’s legs became numb, so he stood up and started to walk around the room, sliding his hand through his hair as he thought.

“Jim.” Brian pointed at Ellen’s handbag lying against the bookshelf. “Damn.”

“Ellen’s?”

“Yep, I put a tracking device in her bag. She didn’t know that, of course.”

“Great! How the hell are we going to find her now?” Jim wracked his brains for the answer while he walked in a circle around the small room. He snapped his finger and thumb together. “I know.”

“What?” Brian asked, frustrated.

“Sandy Cox said that Fallon kept them in a barn somewhere,” Jim said, eyeing the doctor to see if she had any kind of reaction. She glanced up at him, her eyes suddenly wider and more alert.

“You know where he’s holding them, don’t you?”

She shook her head.

“We’ll tear this county apart until we find him. If you don’t tell us where he is, I’ll arrest you for being an accessory.”

The doctor vehemently shook her head in defiance. “You can’t do that. I didn’t know what he was up to. I swear it. He’s always been a wayward child, unpredictable at the best of times.”

“Not what I wanted to hear, Doctor. You must have some idea. Has he got a relative or friend out in the country somewhere?” He bent down and shook her shoulders.

She thought long and hard before answering. “Wait a minute. My brother died a few years back. We weren’t that close. I believe he left something in his will for Mike.”

“Something as in a barn or farm?” Jim asked, hopeful that they were at last getting somewhere.

“I don’t know the particulars. Like I said, we weren’t that close, so I wasn’t really interested in the details.”

“Where?”

“Out the other side of town, past Martley, I believe. I have no idea of the address. I went there as a youngster, but couldn’t tell you the exact route. All I remember is that it’s down a long dirt track.”

Jim eyed her questioningly.

“You have to believe me,” she pleaded.

“Can you call another family member to get an address?” Brian asked.

“There isn’t anyone else. They’re all dead. That’s why the place was left to Mike. It came as a surprise to us both when the will was read out.”

“We’re wasting time,” Jim said. “Brian, we need to head out that way.”

Brian nodded. “I agree, but we can’t leave her here unattended. She might ring him, warn him that we’re on to him.”

The doctor was quick to reply. “I won’t. I promise. I want those girls released safely as much as you do. He needs help, desperately.”

That really wasn’t what Jim wanted to hear, knowing that Ellen was in Fallon’s grasp. “I don’t think we have any option other than to believe you, Doctor. I need to try and find my sister before…”

“Yes, please go. Now. You have my word that I won’t warn him. Enough people have been hurt because of him already. It’s my fault he’s turned out the way he has. He told me so earlier. I’m riddled with guilt as it is. I promise I won’t do anything to stand in your way of getting your sister back.”

Jim issued a final word of warning to the doctor. “You better not, or I’ll make sure we throw the book at you.”

The doctor nodded and dropped her head to her chest. “You have my word.”

“Come on, we’re wasting time.” Brian pulled Jim’s arm, then they ran to the car park. “We’ll go in your car. It’s faster.”

Jim agreed, and they jumped in his Astra. Before he started the engine, he reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a map of Worcester, which he tossed into Brian’s lap.

Unfolding the map, Brian pointed out the area where they should be heading. Jim’s eyes creased up at the sides as he mentally planned out the quickest route.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Within twenty minutes, they had successfully skirted the edge of town, avoiding all the Saturday-morning shoppers driving en masse into the centre to start their Christmas shopping. They were roughly in the area where their search could begin.

“Damn, every road we come across could be a possible.”

Jim glanced sideways at him. “We need a more in-depth map, something that tells us about properties in the area.”

Brian pulled out his iPhone. “Christ, I should have thought about that earlier. I’ll see what Google Earth can come up with.”

Jim bit back the expletive that had settled on his tongue.
No wonder he was a hopeless copper.
“I’ll keep driving around. From what I can remember of that app, it can be bloody frustrating, the length of time it takes to find what you’re looking for.”

“Have faith, Jimbo. I might be rusty on the investigative side of things, but I’m shit hot on the tech side to make up for it.”

“If only you had bothered to tell Ellen that there was a tracking device in her bag…”

“All right, mate. I feel guilty enough already. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

As Jim drove past several possible roads and lanes they should be trying out, Brian tapped his phone, mumbling under his breath. “Hurry up, Brian. I’m losing the will to live, mate.”

“Two more seconds. Eureka!”

“What?”

“I’ve got a barn in the middle of fields. No farmhouse in sight and no other neighbours for miles. Looks an ideal place to start, don’t you think?”

“Just give me the location and less of the self-praising shit. That can come later, after we find her.”

“Okay. Let’s see.” He compared the map on his phone to the ordinance survey map sitting in his lap. “If I zoom out like this… bingo! I think it’s about half a mile away back there.”

“Are you sure about that, Brian?”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

Jim reversed into a junction just ahead of them and turned back the way they’d come. The car fell silent as each of them got lost in his own thoughts.

Brian pointed to a track up ahead, and Jim drove slowly down it.

“I wouldn’t drive all the way down if I were you.”

Jim shook his head. “No shit, Sherlock. Just leave this part to me, all right?”

Luckily, a high hedgerow shielded the bumpy track from view. Seeing the track open up in front of them, Jim stopped the car and turned off the engine. “We’ll leave it here. If this is the only road out, at least his escape route will be blocked.”

“There is that. Going in on foot makes sense. Shame it’s the middle of the day and not night-time.”

“Yeah, but we have to go with the cards we’ve been dealt.”

Before they set off, Jim opened his boot to look for anything they could use as weapons. A tyre lever and one of the boys’ cricket bats were all he could come up with.

“This will have to suffice.” He handed the bat to Brian, and they snuck along the hedge towards the barn. As they neared the clearing around the barn, they crouched down, one behind the other, and listened. Jim heard nothing but the odd bird or two singing.

Jim poked his head around the end of the hedge. The barn door was open, and a car he presumed to be Fallon’s was parked outside on the gravel area dotted with large tufts of weeds. He turned back to Brian. “Try not to walk on the gravel. We don’t want to alert him. Keep to the grassy parts close to the edge until we get alongside the barn. We’ll take it from there.”

Brian nodded. “You think they’re inside the barn?”

“There’s a car outside. I’m taking a chance that it’s his. Are you ready for this?”

Brian swallowed hard before he nodded.

“I’ll charge him when I get the chance. You’re just there for backup, all right?”

“Yeah, okay. But if Ellie’s in need of help, I’ll be there for her.”

Jim squeezed his shoulder. “She’s going to need us both to be strong in there, Bri. There’s no telling what we might find when we get in there. Stay strong and focused.”

“You’ve got it, mate. I’m ready to teach this guy a lesson he’ll never forget.”

Jim laughed at Brian’s bravado, but he knew that the other man would overcome any of his fear for Ellen’s sake. They edged towards the barn, stopping now and then to listen for movement coming from inside the building. Once or twice, Jim heard a clanking sound as if metal were connecting with metal.

Jim carefully looked around the edge of the barn door. He heard talking inside, but couldn’t make out if the voices were male or female. “On the count of three, we go in, right?”

Brian nodded, appearing doubtful that was the right action to take.

“Trust me. We can do this.”

Brian gave Jim the thumbs-up, and the countdown began. A woman’s faint cry for help made them charge into the building.

“Leave her alone. Step away from her now!” Jim had the tyre lever in his hand, ready to attack Fallon, who was leaning over Ellen, removing her clothes.

Fallon didn’t seem too surprised by their arrival. “Not going to happen, chaps. Run along now, unless you want a lesson in how to treat a woman properly.”

Jim took a step forward.

Fallon’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned closer to Ellen’s face and sneered. “Tell them to piss off, or you’ll suffer the consequences.”

Jim noted how dazed and confused his sister appeared to be. She turned her head away from Fallon, but he gripped her chin and forced her to face him.

“Jim, do as he says, please,” Ellen slurred.

When Fallon glanced up at them, Jim saw Ellen wink at him.
Good girl, she’s faking her state for his sake.

Brian tugged on Jim’s arm. “Come on, mate. We’ll wait outside for the reinforcements to arrive.”

With Fallon momentarily distracted, Ellen raised a knee and caught him full in the face. He stumbled back, and Jim pounced on him. Jim raised the tyre lever and brought the heavy bar down on the back of Fallon’s head. He slumped to the floor, out cold. Brian sat on Fallon, in case he regained consciousness, while Jim untied Ellen and tore the drip needle out of her arm.

Ellen sobbed and hugged her brother. “I’ve never been so glad to see you.”

“What’s that?” Brian asked, tilting his head.

Jim heard some kind of crackling noise, and it wasn’t long before smoke drifted into his nostrils. Ellen shoved her brother away, then grabbed her jeans and jumper, which were lying in a pile beside her. “Quick, he must have set the place on fire, go and help the others.”

Brian faltered before he jumped off Fallon. Ellen dressed as Jim and Brian left the stable.

Thick smoke billowed through the barn, hampering Jim’s vision as he searched the stables for any other occupants. “Here. I’ll get this one. Try and find the others, Brian,” Jim said as he hurled himself at the naked girl and yanked the drip out of her arm. He covered her chilled body with a nearby hessian sack and lifted her over his shoulder. Carrying another unconscious girl, Brian joined him outside the stable. They ran to the opening, placed the girls gently on the grass outside, checked their pulses and then turned to run back in.

Jim pulled Brian’s arm. “Stay with the girls. Ring the emergency services—all of them.”

“Okay. Get Ellie out of there, Jim.”

“I intend to,” Jim called back over his shoulder, already halfway to the barn.

He could feel the heat intensifying, singeing the hairs on the back of his hands as he protected his face when he entered the barn. He made his way back to the stable where his sister had been, but she wasn’t there. Neither was Fallon.

“Ellen? Where are you?” Thinking he’d made a mistake and the smoke was playing havoc with his vision, Jim searched the rest of the stables with the same result. Ellen and Fallon were nowhere to be seen.

Above the sound of crackling wood, Jim got down on all fours and crawled back to the entrance, constantly checking above him, afraid the roof would cave in. When he retraced his steps back out into the open, he found Ellen in Brian’s arms. Fallon had his back to Jim and was holding a shotgun, aiming it at Ellen and her partner.

Brian was calmly talking to Fallon, trying to dissuade him from using the gun. Jim got to his feet and searched the area for some kind of weapon. A rusty pitchfork was propped up against the wooden boards. He slowly made his way over, picked up the fork, and gingerly walked towards Fallon, stepping on the tufts of grass, rather than the gravel.