Dead of Winter

Chapter 56

Carmichael watched on the screen and saw the man approach the entrance to the Velvet Lagoon. He looked at the corner of the screen, where Micky was looking at the same screen image at the other end of the video link. The man looked up and into the webcam.

Carmichael logged into instant messenger and typed, You got it?

Yes, no problem. Identification beginning.

The camera zoomed into Justin’s face as the PC searched for feature recognition. Just like the finger-print-identifying program, it was comparing images, taking reference points and aligning them with other images to find a match.

Justin de Lange. Age 46. Managing director of the Mansfield Group of private clinics. . head of the Mansfield research and development programme. On the board of the Chrissie Newton Foundation.

Carmichael typed in a question:

Was he in the UK thirteen years ago?

Yes he was.

Justin looked at the vacant lots either side. Carmichael knew what he’d be thinking. . I’m screwed if this goes wrong. He also knew that Justin must want to talk to him very badly. He hadn’t checked Carmichael out thoroughly. He hadn’t met first at a neutral place before coming to see the girls on Carmichael’s home turf. He must want something very bad. Justin pressed the intercom to his left. He heard the door unlock. It opened just enough to let him through.

‘Hey, Hart? You about? Digger gave me your address, said you had something for me. I don’t have a lot of time. Hart?’

Carmichael was playing Green Day over the speakers. It boomed around the empty club; bounced off the walls. He was sitting in his usual place at the bar, his laptop open. He didn’t answer.

Justin stepped further into the club, past the cashier’s box on the left and the cloakrooms. The door swung shut and closed behind him. Inside was completely dark except for a light above the dance floor that circled and zapped randomly from space to space until it settled just in front of Justin’s feet and stayed there. Carmichael closed his laptop and walked across to stand in the dark corner beyond the dance floor, in the DJ’s box.

‘Over here. Follow the light. I’m over here, come across the dance floor,’ Carmichael shouted over the music.

Justin took a look around him. As his eyes got used to the dark he made out the bar, the booths, the blacked-out windows. He walked towards the beam of light now dancing in circles on the floor. He still couldn’t see Carmichael.

‘Yeah. . you know what. . not wanting to disturb your work but I’m a busy man. I need to see the girls now. Can we get on with it, Hart? Hart?’

‘I’m here.’ Carmichael stepped up in front of him and punched him in the throat. As he doubled up onto the dance floor Carmichael calmly walked around him and hogtied his hands and feet. He picked him up and hooked his feet onto the chain hanging from the ceiling. He hoisted him upside down high above the dance floor.

‘You fucking maniac. .’ Justin rasped as he spun in the darkness, the lights dancing over him. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

‘I’m seeking answers. I want to see how good your memory is. I want to see if you remember me.’

‘I don’t know you!’ Justin screamed as the chain dropped six feet. ‘Never heard of you.’

‘Oh, I forgot to tell you the rules.’ Carmichael tied off the rope and then sat down on the edge of the dance floor in darkness as Justin hung upside down. Carmichael picked up his rifle and aimed at Justin. The bullet grazed his arm as it passed.

‘Fucking maniac. .’

‘Possibly. I’m going to ask you questions. How you answer me will dictate how close I get to killing you. Let’s start. You killed the woman from Digger’s club. You butchered her and sold her organs. You alone?’

‘Yes. So what? What do you want from me? I’m a businessman. I set out to make money. If this is all about money, I will make you a deal. Fucking cut me down now and I’ll pay up.’

‘Wrong answer.’

Carmichael fired again and nicked Justin on the other arm; Justin swung screaming in the air.

Justin’s voice went high. ‘So what. .? She was sold to me for that purpose. What do you care about her? Why does it matter how she died? I did it on my own, for profit. Okay?’

‘The bodies at Blackdown Barn.’ Carmichael could hear him listening, trying to think of what he was going to be asked next.

‘What about them?’

‘Who is Chichester?’

‘Just a name.’

‘Is it yours?’

‘No.’

‘How many people did you kill there?’

‘I don’t know.’ Justin twisted on the rope.

Carmichael waited for him to calm down. Then he fired at him again. This time it just touched his thigh.

‘Shit. . stop fucking with me. The pregnant woman and the girl from the home. That’s the truth.’ He swung in the darkness. The soft patter of the first drop of blood landed on the dance floor. ‘Let me see you.’

‘In time. You forgot the baby. You killed the infant.’

‘What? Yes. Okay. She was pregnant. What do you want from me?’ Justin bellowed through the empty club. The chain creaked with his weight as he swung in the darkness. ‘I don’t even know you.’

‘Maybe you do.’

Justin hung still. He listened.

‘How?’

‘Someone from Blackdown Barn knows me. Maybe that’s Chichester and maybe that’s you. Someone who was in Blackdown Barn knows me from thirteen years ago.’

‘You’re mixing me up with someone else.’

‘No. I don’t think so. You have a sideline going where you carve up people and sell them as spare parts. That’s what you came here for now, to buy a girl and harvest her.’

‘Yes. Okay. So what?’

‘My wife was Louise Carmichael. She was killed along with my four-year-old daughter Sophie.’

‘You’re the policeman?’

‘I was. Now I’m the man who will decide whether you live or die.’