House of the Dead, page 12
Dani watched the timer count down above the blank square. What face from her past was going to appear there? What new horror had the GameMaster dreamt up?
The timer was down to two minutes now.
A title appeared beneath the timer.
The camper van
“Does that mean anything to you, Dani?” Tony asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
Battle let out a breath. “We’ll find out what it means soon enough.”
Dani’s phone buzzed. The screen simply said, Unknown Number.
She felt a sudden tremble in her fingers. “I think this might be him.”
“Put it on speaker,” Battle said.
She hit the speaker button and answered the call.
“Detective Summers,” the computer-altered voice said. “This is the GameMaster speaking. In a moment, an image will appear of a camper van. Someone is trapped inside. Your colleagues can deal with that. You have another part to play. I’ve sent a coordinate to your phone. I could tell you to come alone, but I know you’d never do that. Bring your psychologist friend. You might need a shrink when you see what I’ve left you.”
The line went dead.
The phone buzzed again and a text message appeared with map coordinates. A screenshot of a map, showing the destination as a red pin, also appeared.
“It’s in the moors,” she said.
The timer reached 0:00.00
The square on the website expanded to show a camper van sitting in a field on a clifftop. The camper van sat alone. There were no other vehicles or signs of movement behind the curtained windows.
A sign on a fence in the distance read, Sunnyside Clifftop Campsite.
Toombs went to work on his keyboard. “The Sunnyside Clifftop Campsite is near Whitby.”
“Send me the coordinates,” Battle said. He turned to Dani and Tony. “You two, get to the moors. Stay in radio contact. And take Ryan with you. He’s upstairs. This could be a trap, so you could do with some extra firepower, if you know what I mean.”
Dani nodded. She knew exactly what the DCI meant. Ryan was armed.
“Got it, guv.”
She and Tony left Toombs’ office and went upstairs to the main floor. Ryan was sitting on the edge of an empty desk. He wore a black bomber jacket, black T-shirt, blue jeans and boots over his wiry frame.
When he saw Dani and Tony, he slid off the desk, grinning.
“Looks like the band’s back together.”
Dani had to admit she was glad to see him. He may have lied to everyone about working for MI5, but his strength and no-nonsense attitude was something they needed at the moment.
Like Battle had said, this journey to the moors could be a trap. Tom Ryan might have deceived them about his role in the secret service, but Dani trusted him to protect her and Tony.
“Come on,” she said. “We’re taking a trip to the moors.”
“Ooh, nice. Are we taking sandwiches?”
“No, but you’re bringing your gun.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Sounds intriguing.”
“We’ll brief you on the way.”
They went downstairs and out to the car park, where Dani and Tony got into the Land Rover while Ryan fetched his gun from the boot of his Aston Martin. A minute later, he was climbing into the backseat of the Land Rover, the weapon concealed beneath his jacket.
A number of vehicles were leaving the car park, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Battle had obviously decided to eschew the stealthy approach this time. It meant the press would be hot on his heels, but probably didn’t care about that; his only focus would be the person trapped inside the camper van.
Dani had large scale maps of the moors—a holdover from when she was investigating the Snow Killer—in the glove compartment. She asked Tony to hand them to her and she checked them against the coordinates on her phone.
The location the GameMaster was sending them to was a remote section of moorland. The nearest road was three miles away.
“We’ll park here, at this gate, and proceed the rest of the way on foot.” She pointed out the location on the map to Tony and Ryan.
“Sounds good,” Ryan said. “Now, does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Tony filled Ryan in as they left the city behind and headed towards the moors.
Dani’s radio crackled and Toombs’ voice said, “Just to let you guys know, another video feed has appeared on the website. I can see moorland, but nothing else.”
Whatever was going to happen at the location he was sending them to, the GameMaster obviously deemed it worthy of being captured on film.
“Who is this maniac, Doc?” Ryan said from the backseat. “You must have a theory in that massive brain of yours.”
“I don’t know,” Tony said, shaking his head. “He seems to identity with a young boy whose family is dead. I think he suffered a similar tragedy at a young age and blames Dani and her old partner for it.”
“Her dead old partner,” Ryan said.
“Yes.”
“Do you have a security detail protecting you, guv?” the MI5 agent asked Dani.
“No,” she said, looking at Ryan in the rearview mirror.
He pursed his lips. “Seems to me this nutter might want to do the same thing to you as he did to your old partner.”
The thought had already crossed Dani’s mind. She hadn’t been sleeping well lately.
“Do you think this is a trap?” she said.
“Yeah, it could be. Sending you out onto the moors while everyone else is busy at some campsite. It could very well be a trap.”
When they reached the roads that cut through the moors, the radio crackled again.
”Umm, guys,” Toombs said. “I can see you.”
“What do you mean?” Dani said.
“A smaller, inset window has appeared over the view of the moors and I can see your Land Rover driving along the road. It’s shot from above. Must be a drone.”
Ryan turned around in his seat and looked up at the sky through the back window. “Yeah, it’s a drone. I can see it.”
“How many people are watching this, Chris?” Tony asked.
“More than half a million,” came the reply.
The psychologist sighed. “They’re probably hoping to see some sort of spectacle involving death. Nothing has changed since the days of the Roman arenas.”
“Well, we won’t give them what they want, will we?” Ryan said. “We’re going to come out of this unscathed.”
“Chris, what’s happening with the camper van?” Dani asked.
“Everyone’s still en route, including an armed response unit. Battle isn’t taking any chances.”
She wondered who was trapped in the camper van on the cliff. Someone she knew? Someone she’d helped in the past?
She shouldn’t divert her focus. She had to trust Battle to do his job while she focussed on the moors.
They arrived at the old gate on the map and got out of the Land Rover. Dani looked up and saw the drone hovering overhead. She had half a mind to get Ryan to shoot the bloody thing out of the sky.
“It’s that way,” she said, pointing at the bleak moors. Although the sun was shining and the sky cloudless, the landscape ahead of them looked cold and desolate. A strong wind blew from the North, agitating the grass and heather.
The gate was chained and padlocked, so they climbed over it one by one and made their way across the moors. The drone followed, whirring incessantly.
Battle gritted his teeth as he drove towards Whitby. In front and behind him, the police car sirens wailed and lights flashed. In the rearview mirror, he could see the black van that the FSU—Force Support Unit—team were in. He wasn’t taking any chances; when he got to that camper van, he wanted to be prepared for anything.
He was damned if he was going to let the GameMaster get one over on him again.
He keyed his radio. “Toombs, what’s happening?”
“Nothing so far, boss. The camper van is just sitting there.”
“What about Summers?”
“She’s making her way over the moors with Ryan and the doc.”
“Keep me informed if anything changes.” In the distance, he could see Whitby, the fishing town that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. High on the East Cliff, the ruins of the abbey loomed over the harbour.
Sunnyside Campsite was situated north of the town, on the rugged coastline.
The convoy of police and emergency vehicles turned in that direction before reaching Whitby and soon arrived at their destination.
A large sign read, Sunnyside Clifftop Camping. And beneath that, Closed Until Further Notice.
As he got out of his car, Battle thought it odd that the campsite was closed at the time of year when it must do most of its business. It wasn’t as if it was closed for refurbishments or anything like that; the place consisted of nothing more than a field.
Now that he was standing at the fence that marked the campsite’s boundary, he could see the camper van in the field. The grass was overgrown, yet there were no visible tyre tracks cutting through it; the camper van had been here for some time.
Carmichael, who was in charge of the FSU came over to Battle. “Shall we send the drone in to have a look before we go barging in there?”
Battle nodded. “Try and have a look through the windows. I want to know what’s inside before we send our men in.”
Carmichael nodded and waved his arm at one of the black-suited FSU officers. The drone lifted up into the air and angled across the field towards the camper van.
The airborne unit descended and hovered near the windows.
“They’re painted black, sir,” the drone operator said. “I can’t get a visual on anything inside.”
“All right, bring her back.” Carmichael directed his attention to Battle. “You want me to send my men in?”
Battle leaned on the fence, considering his next move. They knew the cabins at the Sutton Forest Campsite had been wired to explode, so who was to say the camper van wasn’t a similar trap?
Except at Sutton Forest, the cabins had been the wrong choice. Being blown up had been the GameMaster’s idea of punishment for choosing wrongly.
Here, there wasn’t any choice. No cryptic sign telling them to choose wisely. There was just the camper van.
He let out a long breath. What if they did nothing? They only had the GameMaster’s word that someone was trapped inside, and Battle trusted that not at all.
The radio in the Range Rover crackled and Toombs’ voice said something Battle couldn’t hear. He opened the car door and leaned in, snatching up the radio. “Say again, Toombs. I didn’t get that.”
“There’s a camera inside the camper van,” the technician said. “Another window has opened up and I can see someone in there.”
“Tell me what you see.”
“A woman. She’s lying on the floor.”
“Is she alive?”
“I can’t tell. She’s not moving.”
Battle had no choice now. He had a responsibility to the person inside the camper van.
“Carmichael,” he shouted to the FSU officer. “Get a team in there. There’s a woman lying on the floor.”
Carmichael nodded and gathered four of his men together. He had a quick word with them, and then they were climbing over the fence one by one and assembling on the other side.
Carmichael came over to the Range Rover. “Don’t worry, we’ll get her out safe and sound.”
Battle looked towards the field, where the four black-suited, helmeted officers were proceeding through the long grass in single file to the camper van.
Carmichael raised a radio to his mouth and said, “Talk to me, Blue Leader, over.”
“This is Blue Leader. No signs of life. About to make entry. Checking door.”
Battle saw the lead officer reach for the camper van door and try it. He tensed, half-expecting an explosion.
The door swung open.
“Ready to make entry on your signal,” Blue Leader said.
Carmichael looked at Battle for confirmation. Realising he had no choice, Battle nodded.
“Go, go, go,” Carmichael said into the radio.
Battle heard Blue Leader shout, “Armed police! We’re coming in!” and then the four men slipped inside the camper van.
“Talk to me,” Carmichael said into the radio. “What do you see?”
“Female on floor. Checking for vital signs.” There was a pause, then Blue Leader said. “Is this supposed to be a joke? It’s a mannequin.”
“Get them out of there,” Battle said, feeling a sudden hollowness in his gut.
The camper van door swung shut.
“What the hell?” Blue Leader said.
Battle heard the camper van’s engine turn over and then roar into life.
“Get out of there,” Carmichael shouted into the radio.
“The door’s locked.”
The camper van’s engine revved and the vehicle began to move forward, towards the edge of the cliff.
Carmichael was shouting into the radio again. “Blue Leader, exit the vehicle by any means possible.”
“There’s no way out.” A hint of panic had crept into Blue Leader’s voice.
The camper van picked up speed.
“Turn the engine off,” Carmichael said. “Put the handbrake on.”
“Negative. There’s no handbrake. All the controls have been stripped out. There isn’t even a steering wheel.”
Carmichael vaulted over the fence and sprinted through the long grass towards the runaway vehicle, even though there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The camper van reached the edge of the cliff and went over.
Battle found himself climbing over the fence, joined by other officers and paramedics.
A growing feeling of dread overtook him as he crossed the field and when he reached the edge of the cliff and looked down at the mangled vehicle on the rocks hundreds of feet below, he knew there couldn’t possibly be any survivors.
“Get a rescue team down there,” he told the nearest officer. “Get the Coast Guard if you have to.”
He turned away, afraid that any rescue attempt would be in vain.
That fear was confirmed when an explosion ripped through the air from the rocks below the cliff.
There were no survivors.
The GameMaster had made sure of that.
Dani, Tony, and Ryan finally reached the location on the map. There were a few trees here, but nothing else, as far as Dani could see.
“What are we looking for?” Ryan asked.
She shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Her phone rang. Unknown Number
She answered it and said, “We’re here.”
“I know you’re there, Detective. I can see you, and so can half a million people. They are going to witness the moment when you realise your efforts in the Snow Killer case were futile. You may have caught the killer, but was anybody saved?”
A sudden, sinking feeling made Dani feel sick. She had saved someone from the Snow Killer. Kate Lumley.
“This didn’t turn out exactly as I’d planned,” the voice in her ear said. “Even I couldn’t get a pool of ice to remain frozen outdoors in this weather. So, I used my ingenuity and came up with something just as good.”
“What have you done?” Dani said in a weak voice. At the mention of ice, her mind had become filled with images of the girls who had been found on the moors. The Snow Killer’s victims. Each one frozen in ice, with a red ribbon in her hair.
“Behind the tree to your left is a hollow in the ground,” the Game Master said. He hung up.
With trembling legs, Dani approached the tree and saw the place where the ground dipped in to a hollow.
Don’t let it be Kate, she recited over and over in her mind. Don’t let it be Kate.
When she stood on the edge of the hollow, her worst fears were realised. Kate Lumley lay in the natural depression. Her body had been encased in clear resin—the GameMaster’s substitute for ice—and a red ribbon had been tied into her hair.
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
“You can’t go home tonight,” Ryan told Dani. “Not without some sort of security measures in place.”
He was pacing near the fence while Dani sat on the back seat of the Land Rover, the door open.
The road around them—which had been deserted earlier—was now busy with emergency vehicles. A dozen uniformed officers and a SOCO team were trudging over the moors to recover Kate Lumley’s resin-encased body and examine the scene.
Dani had a blanket over her shoulders—courtesy of a paramedic from the ambulance that was parked by the gate—but still felt cold. She couldn’t stop shivering.
“I have to go home,” she told Ryan. “I’ve got to look after my dogs.”
“I thought your neighbours did that if you weren’t there.”
It was true that Dani had an agreement with her neighbours that if she didn’t arrive home in the evening, they went around to her cottage and fed Barney and Jack but she didn’t want to rely on Elsie and Bob if she could help it.
Besides, the real reason she wanted to go home wasn’t only because of the dogs. She didn’t want to live her life in fear.
If she stayed away from the cottage, or changed her life in any way because of the GameMaster, then he’d won.
“You can stay in a hotel for a couple of nights,” Ryan said. “I’ll arrange a security detail.”
“No,” she said.
“Just a couple of nights.”
“What happens after that? As soon as I go back home, I’m in the same danger. The only way I can be safe is if the GameMaster is stopped.”
“That could take some time.”
“Yes, it could. And I can’t spend that time looking over my shoulder every minute of every day.”
He came closer to the Land Rover and lowered his voice. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
“What? No, I don’t need a gun.”
“All I’m saying is, I can get you a revolver. Simple to use. You might not even need it, but if you do, it’s there.”
