She's Not Coming Home (23 page)

Chapter Forty-Seven

‘
Matt? Are you
all right?’

Matt groaned. He tried to rub his head, but his arms wouldn’t move.

As headaches went, this one was off the scale.

He squinted as he tried to get his bearings. He realised he was sitting on a chair, his arms tied with duck tape behind the chair. As he began to come to, he recognised two sensations. The smell was familiar; a perfume he recognised, although he couldn’t remember the name. Then there was the voice.

It came again. ‘Matt? Can you hear me?’

Still blinking, he looked up into Ruth’s face.

For the last two weeks, ever since the night she failed to return home, he had visualised this moment, and gone over in his mind time and time again what he would say to her when – if – he saw her again.

Only one thing came into his mind now.

‘Where’s my son, you bitch?’

Ruth recoiled as he shouted at her. She looked around as the door opened. Gail walked in.

‘He’s come round,’ Ruth said.

‘So I see.’ Gail walked over and looked down at him. ‘Someone’s going to have a sore head.’

‘Where’s Nathan?’ Matt asked again.

‘You tell him,’ Gail said to Ruth as she walked back out of the room.

Matt craned his neck so he could take in a 360 degree view. He was in some kind of kitchen. Not a kitchen in somebody’s home, rather one in a place of work.  Larger, with less comfortable chairs. But there was no sign of the kitchen being in use: no pictures or notices pinned on the wall; no papers or magazines lying around.

‘Can’t we untie him?’ Ruth asked as Gail stood in the doorway.

‘I’ll go check. Leave him there for now.’

‘The police’ll be here soon,’ he called out after Gail.

‘Yeah, right. In your dreams,’ she called back.

‘The guy with me was a cop, you idiot,’ Matt shouted out.

‘The police…?’ Ruth said, looking at Gail.

‘Wait one second.’ With a less confident expression on her face, Gail left the room. Momentarily, she returned with Danny Clark.

‘You!’ said Matt as he saw Clark.

Clark smirked. ‘Surprise, surprise.’

‘I knew there was something about you. That you were mixed up in this,’ Matt spat.

Clark smirked again. ‘Untie him,’ he said to Ruth. ‘You,’ he said to Gail as he passed her the gun, ‘cover him. And her.’

He left the room. Matt could hear him in the corridor outside, unlocking some doors.

‘This way.’ Gail prodded Matt in the back with the gun.

‘Where’s Nathan?’ he asked Ruth again.

‘He’s okay. He’s in here.’ Ruth opened a door and Matt saw Nathan playing on the floor with five garishly coloured plastic dinosaurs.

‘Look, Nathan,’ Ruth said. ‘Daddy’s come to join us.’

‘Daddy!’ Nathan leapt off the floor and into Matt’s arms.

‘Quick. This way.’ Ruth hustled Matt and Nathan along the corridor to where Danny Clark was waiting. Gail remained behind them with the gun. Once they had all passed through the door, Clark slammed it shut, locked it in two places, and pushed across two heavy bolts.

‘There. That should do it,’ he said to Gail.

‘Go on. Forward.’ Gail pressed the pistol hard into Matt’s back. ‘This leads to an adjoining building which we’re also leasing. If the police arrive downstairs, they’ll go to the building you came in. It will be some time before they figure out where we are.’

‘What’s going on?’ Matt asked Ruth. ‘You never show up at home, no word. Then this,’ – he pointed over to Gail – ‘abducts Nathan. Then, you send me that text message…’

‘You sent him a text?’ screamed Gail. ‘Then that’s how they know -’

‘You stupid bitch,’ Clark said, and slapped Ruth full in the face. She collapsed back against the wall, holding her cheek. Matt moved to intervene, but Gail had him at gunpoint.

‘She’s fucking ruined it now!’ Clark yelled at Gail. He reached into one of his coat pockets, and pulled out a gun, almost identical to the one Gail was brandishing. ‘Let’s cut our losses, do them all, then get out. Now.’

‘No,’ said Gail firmly. ‘We can still figure this through. If we bail out now, all the last year’s been wasted.’

‘The last year?’ Matt said. ‘What’s he talking about?’

Nathan was beginning to get upset with all the shouting. He clung onto Ruth’s leg.

‘It’s all right, baby,’ she said softly, stroking his hair. ‘Everything’s going to be okay. Go sit down over there. Look, one of your dinosaur books is over there.’

Through the closed windows they could hear the distant wailing of a police siren.

‘Listen,’ Clark said to Gail. ‘Can you hear that?’

Gail listened for a moment. ‘It’s nothing. It’s going in the other direction.’

Matt tried to take the initiative. ‘Who’s Ruth Dubois?’ he asked Ruth.

Open mouthed, all three of them stared at Matt.

‘How – how did you….?’ Ruth stammered.

‘Is that you?’ Matt asked. ‘And if it is, who was that poor devil in the car crash? And is Elisabeth Dubois your mother? The mother who died years ago?’

Ruth put her hand up to her mouth. ‘You’ve been to see...?’

‘Mummy,’ wailed Nathan. ‘What does Daddy mean?’

‘Shut that kid up,’ snapped Clark, walking over to the window. He cautiously peered out of the window, down at the street. Matt estimated they were on the fourth or fifth floors.

‘Can you see anything?’ Gail asked.

Nathan started crying again. ‘Shush, baby. Mummy’s here,’ Ruth soothed.

‘And Daddy,’ Matt snapped.

‘I told you: shut that kid up,’ said Clark, still looking out of the window. ‘Or I will.’

‘Can you see anything?’ Gail asked again, this time more urgently.

‘What? No, nothing.’ Clark walked away from the window as Nathan was still sobbing. ‘I told you to shut him up,’ he yelled, taking two strides over to Nathan and slapping him round the face, knocking him to the ground.

Then Ruth erupted. Before Matt had the chance to react, she leapt over at Clark, almost crossing the room in one bound. ‘You bastard!’ she screamed, leaping onto his back. Wrapping her legs around him, she tore at his hair, raking his face with her nails. He staggered around, trying to get her off, dropping his gun in the process.

Gail remained frozen in shock, not knowing what to do. Her right hand was still pointing her revolver, but now she was covering a blank space. Ignoring her weapon, Matt dove down to Nathan, picking him up and cradling him.

‘It’s all right,’ he whispered. ‘Daddy’s got you now.’

By now, Clark had shaken Ruth off. She lay in a crumpled heap. They both noticed the gun he had dropped lying on the floor. Both made for it, but before either of them could reach it, there was a loud
crack.
Silently, Ruth slid down onto the floor, and crumpled in a heap on the corner. Matt shielded Nathan from this sight, and looked up at Gail. She was standing on the same spot, her arm still outstretched, holding the gun, which was smoking slightly.

‘Quick. Let’s go,’ Clark barked at Gail, who remained frozen to the spot. ‘Gail!’ he repeated. ‘Let’s go.’

Gail appeared to come out of her trance. Not even looking down at Matt and Nathan, she ran after Clark. Matt could see the door by which Clark was standing led to the fire escape.

Matt looked over at Ruth’s still form, and stayed where he was, cradling his son in his arms.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Matt could hear
shouting and commotion coming from the fire escape. Then a couple of shots being fired. He could hear footsteps coming up the iron stairs. He looked up and, flustered and out of breath, Gail came running back in. She was not holding her gun. She ran past Matt and Nathan and out into the corridor leading to the building next door. He could hear her pull open the bolts, then swearing as she realised she needed keys.

It turned out she did not need keys after all as there was a loud crash and the door flew off. Gail screamed. Still holding Nathan, Matt leaned over and looked up the corridor. The door had indeed been broken open, and Matt could see the large form of Lieutenant Weber in the doorway. Weber grabbed hold of Gail, and manhandled her against the wall, cuffing her hands behind her back. Her thin slight frame was no match for his burly figure as he almost threw her into the room.

‘Matt, are you and the boy okay….Jesus Christ!’ he exclaimed as he saw Ruth’s body. He rushed over to her and knelt down beside her. Felt her pulse, then put his ear to her mouth. He pulled out his phone and speed dialled.

‘’This is Weber here. I need an ambulance like five minutes ago. Fifth Floor, 680 East 58
th
Street.’

‘An ambulance?’ Matt croaked. ‘She’s alive…?’

‘Just,’ said Weber. ‘Touch and go.’ He looked over at Gail, who was sitting on the floor, her hands cuffed behind her back. ‘Was it just her?’

‘No, there’s another,’ Matt said. ‘Danny Clark. Remember him?’

‘The son of a bitch,’ said Weber. He walked over to Gail. ‘Where’d he go? He won’t get far downstairs. There’s two squad cars down there.’

‘Fuck you.’ Gail turned herself round and faced the wall.

Weber turned round to Matt. ‘He must have gone up. Gotten onto the roof maybe. You stay here with her. The ambulance and back-up will be here soon.’ He coughed and took a deep breath.

‘I’ll go.’ Matt stood up. He stood Nathan up and rubbed his head. ‘You stay here with the Lieutenant, sport. Help him look after Mummy.’

‘No way,’ said Weber. ‘No way you -’

‘You go up there,’ said Matt, ‘and you really will have a heart attack. I owe you one. Look after my family.’

He ran out to the fire escape. Looked down. Weber was right: he could see two police cars, and there was an ambulance pulling in from Sutton Place South. He took a deep breath, took a hold of the handrails and began climbing up the fire escape.

There were just two more floors to the roof. On the intermediate floor there were no signs of entry, so Matt continued to the roof. Once on the roof himself, he looked around: he could see Roosevelt Island across the East River, the towers of Midtown Manhattan, and the Queensboro Bridge. He could make out the outline of a subway train crossing the bridge.

Then he saw Clark. He was on the roof also, further along, darting between elevator buildings and air conditioning equipment. As Matt began to make chase, Clark must have heard his feet on the gravel on the rooftop, and turned round. As he saw Matt following, he turned and fired a couple of shots. Matt ducked but Clark must have fired wildly as Matt did not even hear the shells ricochet.

He chased further along the roof. Although Clark was now out of sight, Matt still took the same route across the roof. As he got nearer the far end of the roof, he paused: Clark was nowhere in sight. He looked around, then suddenly Clark was upon him, leaping out from behind a wall. Matt assumed the gun was empty, otherwise Clark would have used it.

The force of the impact knocked Matt to the ground, with Clark on top. Clark grabbed the sides of Matt’s head and began knocking it against the hard surface of the roof. On top of the previous bump, Matt felt himself losing consciousness again.

‘I’ll do the job properly this time, motherfucker,’ Clark snarled.

Matt gave a push against Clark’s right shoulder, and they rolled over. Now Matt was on top. Not sure what to do now, he tried to pin him down by holding his lower arm on Clark’s throat. He lacked the force to do this for long, however, as Clark managed to push him off. While Matt was getting back up off the floor, Clark started to run towards the other end of the roof, where there was another fire escape. Matt made a dive at Clark’s legs, but was just an inch or so too late to grab the legs. Instead, he succeeded in knocking Clark off balance.

All in one second, Clark wavered, tried and failed to correct his balance, and fell to his left, onto a dirty glass skylight. The glass panel on which he landed smashed and Clark’s body disappeared into the panel frame. Clark managed to cling onto the frame. His body hung in the void. Matt looked down. The building they were on now had some kind of atrium. There was a sheer drop down to the ground, where there were numerous tables, chairs and tall artificial trees, almost reaching the skylight itself. The floor downstairs was deserted. Matt guessed it was an office cafeteria area, closed as it was Sunday.

‘Help me up,’ Clark called out, glancing between Matt and the drop below. Matt shuffled over to the frame.

‘Help you up?’ he spat. ‘Why should I?’

‘It – it was all Gail’s idea,’ he said. ‘Selfish little cunt.’

‘And Aki Watanabe?’ Matt asked. ‘Her as well?’

‘That was Gail’s idea as well. She’s evil, man, evil. Help me up.’

Matt stood up at the frame, looking down at Clark and the floor below.

‘You hurt my son,’ he said calmly.

‘What?’ screamed Clark. One hand had slipped off; now he was hanging by the other. Panic stricken he looked desperately at the remaining hand, then up at Matt. He tried twisting his body in mid-air to try to get his hand onto the frame again. ‘I can’t hold on much longer. Please.’

‘You hurt my son,’ Matt said again.

Then, Clark’s weight was too much for one hand. He lost his grip and, with a scream, plummeted down to the floor below.

Matt watched him fall, brushing against one of the trees and landing on one of the empty tables below. The table collapsed, knocking over two wooden chairs in the process. Table, chairs, and Danny Clark’s body now lay on the floor below. As Matt leaned over and stared down at Clark’s prone body, a dark shape grew from the head as he lay on the ground.

Matt stood up and turned away. As he turned round he saw a figure standing by the fire escape, watching.

It was Lieutenant Weber.