House of the Dead, page 19
The door buzzed and opened inwards just enough that Dani could see lights flickering to life in the room beyond.
She remained on the bed.
”Go through the door, detective.”
“Why? So you can kill me?”
He sighed. ”Look at the timer. There are forty-fix minutes to go before your live feed begins. The contents of the room beyond your cell are just there to jog your memory.”
She considered her options and realised she didn’t have any. If the GameMaster wanted to kill her, he could do so at any time. She’d seen the traps he’d constructed. This cell and the room beyond the door were probably rigged in some way. They could probably be filled with poison gas or flooded with water.
She might as well see what awaited her in the next room.
Getting up off the bed, she went to the door and pulled it open fully, revealing a room larger than the cell she was standing in.
The room was devoid of furniture but the walls were festooned with photos and pieces of paper.
Dani stepped over the threshold and the cell door swung shut behind her. She heard a click as it locked.
The papers on the wall were all copies of news articles from various papers. They were all related to an incident that had occurred twelve years ago.
SCARBOROUGH MAN KILLS FAMILY AND SELF
MAN DRIVES OVER CLIFF EDGE WITH FAMILY IN VEHICLE
RONALD GRAVES KILLS HIMSELF AND FAMILY IN CAMPERVAN TRAGEDY
The photographs on the wall were pictures of a woman and three children. They’d all been taken at campsites, or by the sea.
Dani knew this family. She remembered being called out to the Graves house in the middle of the night with Greg. She also remembered the tragedy that took place the following day.
A click, and then, “You killed them, detective. You and your partner killed them all.”
She shook her head in defiance of the GameMaster’s accusation. “No, we didn’t.”
“That’s a lie. If you hadn’t released Ronald Graves from the police station, that family would still be alive.”
Dani searched her memory. She remembered that one boy had survived the tragedy. The boy she’d seen on the stairs in the Graves’ residence the night before.
“Jason,” she said. “You’re Jason Graves.”
Silence. Then, “So you remember me.”
“Of course I do. I won’t ever forget what happened to your family.”
“The guilt eats away at you, doesn’t it?”
“I’m not guilty of anything, Jason. We had to release your father because your mother wouldn’t press charges.”
”Liar!”
“It’s true. She spoke to Greg on the phone before you all left in the campervan. She was running away from your father. She didn’t want to be involved in legal proceedings.”
“It doesn’t matter. You knew what he was capable of, and you released him.”
She wasn’t sure why he’d said that. The papers may have reported that Ronald Graves had killed himself and his family on purpose, but Jason knew the truth, didn’t he? He’d been at the scene, after all.
“You father didn’t kill anyone, Jason. What happened was a terrible accident.”
”No, it wasn’t,” he said with conviction. “He killed them. Everyone knows that. It was in the papers.”
“They reported a story that would sell more papers. It wasn’t the truth. Your father swerved to avoid running you over and accidentally drove over the edge of a cliff.”
”No!”
“It’s true. There were witnesses. They saw what happened. You don’t remember it clearly because you banged your head on the campervan’s wing mirror. You were unconscious in the hospital for twelve hours.”
”You’re lying. You let him go and he killed my family. I spent my childhood in foster homes because of you. I was brought up by strangers.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you, but—“
“I tried to move on from it. Tried to forget what you and your partner did to my family. I worked hard. Became successful. But the hatred festered inside. Always there, beneath the surface. And then, one day, I read in the papers that Greg Hughes has rescued a homeless man from drowning. Not only that, you’re on the TV rescuing women from a serial killer. How do you think that made me feel? You could save these people, but I had to suffer a life of loneliness and abuse because you couldn’t save my family.”
When Dani realised how irrational his thinking was, she knew she had no chance of talking her way out of this. As far as Jason was concerned, she and Greg were to blame for everything bad that had happened in his life. He’d already exacted his revenge on Greg, and now it was her turn.
She looked about the room for the timer. There wasn’t one in here.
“How long do I have left?” she asked.
”Twenty-two minutes. Then the world will watch as you are punished for your sins.”
“I’m not responsible for anyone’s death,” she insisted.
There was a moment of silence and then he said, “You soon will be.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY
0:13
As the helicopter raced above the coastline, Tony gripped the edges of his seat. The pilot had already made it clear that they wouldn’t get to Horseshoe Island before the countdown timer reached zero.
Sitting next to Tony, Battle had a stoic expression on his face as he watched the landscape rush beneath them.
Ryan was also looking out of the helicopter window, but his attention was directed at the sea and the distant horizon.
No one spoke. After boarding the chopper and taking their seats, they had all become lost in their own thoughts.
Tony had spent most of the time trying to work out what the live feed was going to show when it went live.
A tablet lay on the floor at his feet, its screen displaying the website which would shortly broadcast an image of Dani. It might be the last time he saw her alive.
0:11
Tony gripped the seat even harder. He felt useless. His friend was in danger, and there was nothing he could do. Whatever was about to happen, Dani was going to have to face it alone.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Battle said. His voice came through the headset built into the flight helmet Tony wore.
“We’re going as fast as we can, sir,” the pilot replied.
“Well it’s not bloody fast enough.”
Although he didn’t say it, Tony had known they didn’t have enough time, ever since the timer had changed to one hour. That single hour hadn’t been an arbitrary on the GameMaster’s part. He’d chosen it because he knew it didn’t give them enough time to save Dani.
As usual, the GameMaster held all the aces while Murder Force’s hand was useless.
Unable to look at the tablet and the damned counter any longer, Tony shifted his attention to a file on Jason Graves that had been hastily put together by the support team.
Jason’s upbringing had been anything but ideal. He’d been a troubled child. That was understandable, given the fact that he’d seen his entire family die, and probably knew, deep down, that he’d been the cause of the tragedy that had taken their lives.
Despite bouncing from foster home to foster home, Jason had somehow excelled in his studies and, after earning two degrees, had started a company that created apps. The company had been called Beyond the Graves, and its motto had been Make your day great, the same words Jason had written on the letter to Thomas Rayburn.
He’d purchased Horseshoe Island with his profits from Beyond the Graves, and had employed a number of construction firms to build a warehouse and other buildings, as well as a dock for his boat and a helipad.
Tony checked the pages for any mention of a helicopter. According to the support team’s hurried research, Jason had a pilot’s licence and owned a Bell 206B Jet Ranger helicopter. Was that how he hoped to avoid capture? Was he going to kill Dani and then escape in the chopper?
Tony showed the page to Battle and pointed at the part that said there was a helipad on the island.
“He might try to escape that way,” he said into the flight helmet’s built-in mic.
The DCI nodded once and cast a wary glance at the tablet on the floor.
0:04
Ryan, probably sensing the DCI’s nervousness, asked, “How far out are the boats, guv?”
“Too far. We’ll get there before they do.”
Ryan nodded and sighed. “So, we’ll be first on the scene.”
Tony didn’t want to contemplate everything that entailed. If Dani was dead, it would be them who found her.
Someone would have to tell Dani’s daughter.
He decided not to dwell on the subject. His thoughts were becoming too morbid. He needed to keep his wits about him in case there was a chance—no matter how slim—that Dani might get out of this alive.
When he looked back at the tablet, there was less than a minute left.
Tony gritted his teeth, his eyes glued to the screen.
The timer reached zero and the live feed began.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
0:00
”It’s time,” the GameMaster’s voice said through the speakers.
Dani tensed, ready for anything.
A door at the far side of the room slid aside, revealing a flight of stone steps leading up into darkness.
”I said, it’s time,” Jason repeated.
Dani didn’t move. She refused to be rushed. The longer she stalled, the more time the others had to get here. Jason had said they’d found out where she was. If that was true, Battle and the others were on their way here now.
She heard a hissing sound coming from above her head. She looked up. Smoke drifted down out of a vent in the ceiling. When it reached her, it made her gag.
The room would soon be full of it. She had no choice. She had to move.
Holding her breath, she strode through the open doorway and stood at the foot of the stone steps. The door slid shut behind her, making sure she had nowhere to retreat to. She could only go forward.
The stairs ascended to a closed, metal hatch. Dani went up to the hatch and pushed against it. The hatch opened. Dani squinted her eyes against sudden sunlight and climbed through the hatch into a grassy area.
She looked around, realising she was on an island that was vaguely the shape of a crescent moon. She estimated the distance from one end to the other to be no more than a couple of miles. She could see the mainland in the distance and estimated the island to be ten miles offshore.
Several buildings huddled together some distance from her position. The rooms she’d just come from had been built underground, beneath a grassy field.
The only other thing of interest was a small helicopter sitting on a helipad beyond the buildings.
She looked around, at the field in which she stood. There were no traps that she could see. There was, however, a cardboard box a few feet to her left.
She heard a low buzz and saw a drone hovering in the air above her. A flashing red light indicated that it was filming her.
”Open the box, detective.” The GameMaster’s voice came from a speaker on the drone. ”When you see what’s inside, you’ll understand what you have to do.”
Dani swallowed and regarded the cardboard box. It looked innocent enough, but there could be any number of deadly devices inside.
She hesitated. Was the GameMaster’s plan for her something so simple as a booby-trapped box?
”Open the box. There’s something inside you need to see.”
Dani didn’t move.
“Someone’s life depends on you opening that box, detective.”
Her most basic instinct—to protect others—spurred her into action. She knelt next to the box and examined it. It wasn’t sealed. She could see a computer tablet inside. That was all. Nothing else.
Reaching inside and taking the tablet out, she was surprised when the device flickered into life. The screen showed two people—a young man and a young woman—chained to a rocky wall. Their heads were drooped and their features were obscured by shadows. Water lapped about their knees.
As Dani looked more closely at the couple, her blood ran cold.
Charlie. The girl on the screen was Charlie.
And now that she realised she was looking at her daughter, she recognised the young man as well. Charlie’s boyfriend. Elliot.
Dani tried to speak. To demand that Jason let them go. But the words lodged in her throat and refused to come out.
She looked up at the drone imploringly.
“Where are they?” she managed.
”There’s a cave on the north side of the island. The tide fills it completely. And the tide is coming in. You don’t have time to save both of them.”
“You bastard!” she shouted at the drone. Tears filled her eyes. Her chest tightened.
”Look under the box.”
She kicked the box furiously. It flew across the grass and came to rest some distance away.
On the ground at Dani’s feet lay a metal ring full of keys.
Dani picked it up. The keys were identical. Dozens of them hung from the ring.
”Perhaps you’ll make the right choice,” the GameMaster said.
She darted her gaze about. She had no idea which way was north.
”Turn to your right.”
She did so. She was facing the far end of the island.
”That’s where the cave is. Tick tock, detective.”
Dani sprinted over the grass, the keys jangling in her hand as she pumped her arms. The drone followed, buzzing through the air behind her.
As she ran, her eyes streamed with tears. She knew there was no way to win Jason’s game. He had told her that she was here to atone for her sins. He wouldn’t let her simply rescue her daughter and Elliot, and then leave. He intended to kill her. Of that, she was certain.
She tried not to think of how this day was going to end. She had to focus on her immediate task. She had to try to save lives.
By the time she reached the edge of the island, her legs and lungs burnt. She gasped for breath. Her racing heartbeat thrummed in her ears.
A low cliff swept down to a rocky shoreline that was already being overwhelmed by the sea. Large boulders were half-submerged in the roiling water. If there was a cave down there, it would soon be underwater.
She scrambled down the cliffside. The drone followed, hovering over the waves, its camera pointed towards her as she descended the rocks to the angry sea.
When she reached the water, she stood thigh-deep in it, searching the base of the cliff for an opening while crashing waves drenched her with cascades of salty spray.
She spotted a dark crack in the rock face that might be the cave she was looking for, and waded through the waves towards it, praying it wasn’t just a fissure in the rock.
When she reached it, she peered inside. Light bulbs housed in protective cages had been hung there, illuminating a tunnel that ran deep into the cliff. No doubt there were cameras in there, as well. This was the place.
Dani squeezed into the opening and waded along the natural tunnel, which was barely high enough for her to stand up straight. She ducked her head at places where the ceiling seemed to droop, and found herself half-crawling, half-swimming in sections where there was barely any headroom at all.
As she progressed deeper into the bowels of the cliff, she understood Jason’s plan. She was moving into a trap. When the water completely filled this tunnel, there was no way she would be able to hold her breath long enough to swim back out.
But she couldn’t turn back now. What if Charlie was chained up at the end of this tunnel? She couldn’t leave her daughter to die down here alone.
Splashing through the water in the dim light provided by the bulbs, she reached the end of the tunnel, where the water poured into a small cavern.
Chained to the wall at the bottom of the cavern—fifteen feet below Dani and illuminated by a string of bulbs that hung from the cavern’s ceiling—were Charlotte and Elliot.
“Charlie!” Dani shouted. Her voice reverberated around the enclosed space but Charlie didn’t move. Her chin rested on her chest. Her hair obscured her face. The water was rising quickly and had already reached Charlie’s waist.
Dani lowered herself down as much as she was able before the force of the water rushing through the tunnel swept her into the cavern.
She went under for a second, then righted herself and—spluttering—found her feet.
She lifted her daughter’s head and wiped wet hair from her face.
“Charlie, can you hear me?”
Charlie groaned, but her eyes remained shut.
Dani checked Elliot’s pulse. It was weak.
She returned her attention to her daughter. The heavy chains had been arranged so that they all interlocked into a mechanism on Charlie’s chest. Dani frantically ran her fingers over the device, searching for some sort of release button, but all she found was a keyhole.
She still had the keys in her hand. She tried one. It fit into the hole but would not turn. She pulled it out and tried another, getting the same result.
Gritting her teeth against the frustration, anger, fear, and the cold, she tried another and then another. None of them worked.
The rising water now almost reached the bottom of the mechanism.
Dani told herself to calm down. If she panicked, she could blow this and her daughter would die.
Forcing herself to take a deep, slow breath, she remembered something the GameMaster had said when she’d found the keys.
Perhaps you’ll make the right choice.
She remembered the sign Tony had read when faced with three identical cabins.
Choose wisely.
The GameMaster had set up the situation so Tony would think the choice related to the cabins. But the cabins had been traps. The wise choice was elsewhere.
She held the keyring in her palm and inspected it. Were all these keys useless? Was this keyring a decoy?
