Хилари Боннер - Deadly Dance

I was the one who would have to clean up the mess that Saul left behind in his foolish wish to meet Sonia. But, no matter, I was strong. I was clever. I could handle this. I’d handled everything else, after all. I controlled the winds. I could whip up a hurricane. I was all powerful. These people would never understand me. Never get close to me or be able to guess what I was capable of. They would never get inside my head.

I had always known, I suppose, that I would have to reveal myself one day. Show them who I was. I was proud of what I was capable of. Proud of what I had done right under their foolish noses. In some ways, I wanted it out there. I wanted the world to know who I really was. And there were people in my life I would quite relish bringing down with me too. Smug bastards who thought they were smart but, compared with me, they were stupid.

So it annoyed me immensely that they could now take credit for having brought me down. I had always imagined that I, and only I, would decide how and when to show myself. That I would reveal myself on my own terms, as I pleased and right now I wasn’t ready. Not yet.

I had to remind myself that it still might not happen. Not any of it. They had all repeatedly shown how slow they were. How clumsy their thought processes were. I told myself I was quite likely to continue to get away with it. They could not unmask me. I was Aeolus. I governed the winds. I governed a force that made all the sources of power and energy created by man look as pathetic as they really were.

It was at that moment that the phone rang.

Saslow was mildly surprised at Vogel’s instruction, not least because the DI was overriding a direct order from DCI Hemmings, but she wasn’t in any way alarmed. That’s how it was with policing. People kept changing their minds, particularly senior officers, it seemed to her.

‘I need you and Willis back here sharpish,’ said Vogel. ‘Something urgent has come up.’

‘Right, boss,’ said Saslow. ‘Are you sure you don’t want us to check out the Avonmouth Aeolus first? We’re nearly there.’

‘I said it was urgent,’ snapped Vogel. ‘Please don’t argue with me.’

‘I… I wasn’t, I mean, uh, sorry boss,’ said Saslow, stumbling over her words.

She was surprised and curious. This wasn’t like Vogel. He was almost always measured and quietly spoken.

‘Who’s driving?’ asked Vogel

‘Willis,’ replied the detective constable. She was really curious now.

‘Are you in his car?’

‘Uh yes, it was parked right outside, so…’

‘Of course,’ responded Vogel.

Saslow felt he was making an effort to sound as if everything was fine, when it wasn’t. Whatever he wanted her and Willis for, was something major, no doubt about that.

‘All right, well ask him to turn around soon as he can and get back here, OK?’

‘OK boss, will do,’ said Saslow.

She was aware of Willis glancing at her sideways.

‘What was all that about?’ he asked, turning his attention to the road again.

‘The boss wants us back straight away,’ Saslow told him. ‘Said something urgent has come up.’

‘Did he say what it was?’

‘Nope. Think it’s something big though. He practically bit my head off when I suggested we check out this alleged Aeolus first. After all, it was Hemmings who dispatched us…’

Saslow paused, suddenly aware that Willis had made no effort to find a place to turn around or even to slow down. In fact, he seemed to have speeded up.

‘Come on, John,’ she said. ‘We’d better get back there. The boss is in no mood to be messed about, I can tell you. In any case, I want to know what the hell is going on.’

‘Of course,’ said Willis. He aimed a smile at her, began to slow down and swung his vehicle into a side street, which appeared to lead only to a row of deserted lock-ups.

‘This will do,’ he said, putting the car into reverse.

Saslow was still musing about Vogel’s manner.

‘He sounded really stressed out,’ she said. ‘I’ve never heard him quite like that… just can’t imagine what’s got him going. He’s usually so bloody cool…’

They slowed to a halt. Willis switched off the engine.

‘For God’s sake, what are you doing now?’ asked Saslow.

‘I think I need a slash,’ said Willis.

‘Well hurry up then…’ began Saslow.

She managed no more words. Willis’s fist caught her full on the right side of her head. It was a good punch. He was a fit man and he’d trained as a boxer, earlier in his police career. Saslow wasn’t knocked unconscious but she was stunned.

By the time she became fully aware again, she realised that Willis had used his handcuffs to fasten her hands behind her back, then pulled her seatbelt tight around her. Too tight. Her hands and arms were twisted uncomfortably. She was aware of shooting pains in her shoulders and her chest. It felt as if she could hardly breathe.

She began to shout and struggle, kicking out at the man she’d thought was just another colleague. The one she spent the most time with.

‘Stop that,’ Willis commanded. ‘If you do not stop I will kill you, here and now. If you do as I tell you, there is a chance that you might live. I have no wish to hurt you. I am not a common murderer. I need to protect myself, that’s all.’

His voice was very calm.

Saslow was afraid she was going to be sick. She’d heard and used the expression sick with fear, but she didn’t think she’d ever really understood what it had meant before now. She stopped struggling. She would do as she was told. Maybe he was going to hold her hostage. She had been trained for hostage situations but nothing, she thought, could ever prepare you for the real thing. The very thought of it terrified her even more, but she guessed it was her best chance of survival.

She stared at him. The man she knew only as DS John Willis. His eyes were dead and his lips were contorted. His voice sounded different. The tone was deeper than usual and he spoke with the hint of an accent she could not quite recognise. It could have been Greek, or perhaps Latin. Although Saslow, like most people, had never heard much Latin spoken. She wondered how she could not have seen something in that face, heard something in that voice before to make her at least suspicious of John Willis But she never had.

‘You are Aeolus,’ she murmured.

It was not a question, just a statement of fact, which she now accepted with a terrible, clear finality.

‘I am.’ He hissed the words at her, his face close to hers. ‘I am the ruler of the wind. I can dictate the direction the world will take. I can be whomever I want and I can do what I want, just as I have always done. You cannot stop me. No one can stop me.’

His eyes were quite mad. Dawn could not understand how he had been able to hide his obvious insanity so well that neither she, nor Vogel, nor anyone else had suspected anything. How could they have missed it and for so long?

His words were those of a madman too. A madman who had killed three times. At least three times. How many more times might he have killed in his crazy mixed-up life, she wondered?

Her mouth was dry. Her throat was dry. There had previously been frightening moments in Dawn Saslow’s time as a police officer, but she had never before experienced blind terror.

So this was what it felt like.

Almost involuntarily, she began to scream. The uncontrolled wailing of a creature suddenly aware that it is in mortal danger. A sound common to all living things.

He hit her again in the side of the head. It was an even more powerful blow than before.

Afterwards there was nothing.