Lee Weeks - Dead of Winter

In the basement below them, Ebony left the room and doubled back along the corridor; she opened the first door on her left and heard the sound of a ventilator. She saw a young lad amidst a sea of tubes and machines that flickered and beeped. She crept nearer to look at his face. It was hard to tell whether it was Alex: his face was so bloated. She looked around the room and saw the Arsenal shirt on a chair. She backed out of the room and sent a text: Have found Alex.

Nikki walked down the corridor to the service lift at the end. She checked her phone on the way and saw a message from her father:

. . run, my darling, run. .

Carmichael packed up his belongings from the office in the Velvet Lagoon. He took his rifle from behind the bar.

‘Alex Tapp? Is he still alive?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is he?’ Carmichael let a minute pass then he aimed his rifle. A bullet burned past Justin’s earlobe.

‘Fuck you, Carmichael. Fuck you. .’ He screamed as the pain pumped into the ends of his finger stumps.

Carmichael watched Justin hanging; he saw his shape sway in the darkness.

‘Who else? Tell me everyone who was involved that night thirteen years ago.’

Justin’s breathing grew coarse, laboured. His voice rasped through the air:

‘We didn’t go there that night to kill your wife. We went to harvest Martingale’s daughter. It’s your fault your wife and child are dead and you know it is.’

Carmichael lowered the chain until Justin hung a foot from the ground. He was bleeding badly from his gunshot wounds and his hands. He could see the floor now. He struggled against the chain as the rats watched him and crept forward in the darkness.

Ebony was walking back along the corridor towards Alex’s room when she heard the click of the lock releasing on the door. She stepped into the treatment room and hid behind the door as she heard what sounded like a very agitated woman running along the corridor and straight past her. Someone was crying, hysterical. The door to the far room opened and Ebony listened. There was a frantic pulling-out of drawers. Ebony stepped out into the corridor and walked towards the open door. Nicola stopped and turned as she saw her in the doorway.

‘You are under arrest, Nicola de Lange. You have the right to remain silent. You-’ Ebony didn’t get the chance to finish her caution as Nicola picked up a knife from beside the microwave and took a step towards her. Ebony fought the urge to run. She looked at the knife in Nikki’s hand and saw her mum turning on her too as Ebony had walked into the kitchen and seen the blood. ‘Nikki de Lange, you are under arrest-’

‘You move or I’ll kill you. I’m leaving now. I have to go. . please. . I don’t want to hurt you. .’

Ebony could see how her hand was shaking. With her other hand Nikki picked up her passport and a small bag she’d hastily stuffed with a few possessions and she walked towards Ebony.

Ebony instinctively looked away from the knife. . ‘Nicola de Lange, I am arresting you. .’

‘I haven’t done anything wrong. I’ve been looking after him. I’ve kept him alive down here.’

‘You helped to kidnap him and you’ve kept him hostage down here with the intention of murdering him and stealing his organs. You have to give up now. You’re not going to get any further than this hospital, Nikki. Believe me. . it’s the only way. Alex is alive. That’s the main thing.’

‘No. The main thing is he was my only hope of life. Let me go; I’m dying. You need to look after him. He needs constant care. Bring him back slowly.’

Nikki de Lange was edging closer to Ebony as they spoke. She knew she had one purpose and that was to escape.

‘Put the knife down. .’ Ebony hadn’t faced this fear since the day she faced her mother in the kitchen. She couldn’t stop her mother then. She couldn’t stop Nikki de Lange now. But she knew she had to. She stood in the middle of the doorway.

‘I’m not going to let you pass, Nikki. Put the knife down.’ Nikki just stared. Ebony steeled herself ready for Nikki’s attempt at passing her but when it came she looked away for a second and was knocked backwards as the knife sliced across her jacket. She fell against the doorframe as Nikki de Lange got away.

Nikki ran down the corridor, through the doors, and turned right into the delivery area towards the doors to the ambulance bay at the back.

Outside, Jeanie called Ebony on her phone and got no reply. She began walking back around the side of the building and stopped as she heard the back doors being unlocked. She came back to see Nikki de Lange running towards the ambulance bay.

Ebony rolled over onto her knees and traced the slash across her chest. It had gone right through the first layer of her stab vest and nicked the inside of her arm. She was angry with herself. ‘Shit.’ She looked at her phone and saw that Jeanie had tried to ring her. Ebony felt a new rush of panic now. She’d left Jeanie vulnerable. She’d failed in her job. She got to her feet and raced down towards the doors.

‘Don’t come near me. .’ Nicola was fifteen feet away from Jeanie.

Jeanie stayed where she was. ‘I’m sorry for you, Nicola. You are just as much a victim here as all the others your father has killed. He’s used you all these years. He’s used you to help him murder just to make sure he created the perfect world. Just to make sure he went down in history as a genius.’ Jeanie took a step towards her.

Nikki shook her head. ‘Please. . don’t come near me. . I don’t want to hurt you.’

‘I only want to help you, Nicola. I can’t let you get in the ambulance. Trust me. . I can help you.’

‘Let me go. You don’t understand.’

Jeanie walked quicker, her feet crunching over the gravel. She wasn’t as fit as she used to be. She needed to get back to the gym. She was still a stone overweight from having Christa. She broke into a jog. She had to get there. She began running. Nicola’s hands were shaking so much she dropped the keys to the ambulance. Jeanie reached her as she bent down to pick them from the gravel.

Jeanie felt the pain as she looked down and saw the knife sticking out of her groin before Nikki pulled it back out and ran. Jeanie remembered that as a child she’d been running with a bottle of red lemonade in her hand and had dropped it. It had hit the pavement and smashed and sent a jet of red liquid out into the air just like now; but this time it was her blood. Every beat of her heat sent another spurt out from the wound. She fell slowly to the ground. . slow motion. . such a long way. . she stayed where Nicola had stabbed her, sandwiched between two ambulances, and watched Nicola drive away. She heard the sound of the helicopter above whoosh-whoosh, as it glinted in the sky. She shivered and she looked down: the blue of her trousers was turning red.

With his rifle on his back, Carmichael kicked his bike off its stand and into life. He was near to the Mansfield hospital now; he looked into the sky and saw the helicopter hovering over. He spun his bike around and kept the helicopter in his sights as he headed past the roundabouts and joined the M25; caught up with the ambulance speeding along the outside lane.

Ebony ran around to the back of the hospital towards the ambulances. She found Jeanie on the ground. ‘It’s alright, Jeanie. .’

She grabbed Ebony’s arm. ‘Don’t let me die here. . I want to hold my baby. . please, Ebb, don’t let me die here.’ Ebony looked up at the sound of a helicopter in the sky above. She looked around; there was no one about.

‘I’ll go and get help, Jeanie.’