Tania Carver: Choked

And immediately crashed face forward on to the deck.

Anni emerged from behind a stack of containers swinging a length of wood in her hand. She dropped it, bent over the man, brought his arm sharply round, cuffed him.

‘Gotcha,’ she said. ‘You’re nicked, mate.’

‘Oh, very good … ’ The man was wriggling, trying to get up. Hurting himself even more in the process, but not stopping. ‘Just you wait, bitch … Do you know who I am?’

‘No sir, I don’t,’ said Anni. ‘But we’ll find out soon enough.’

‘I own this ship … and when I get up … I’ll take out your fucking eyeballs with my fingers … ’

‘Whatever.’

‘Bite your tongue out … ’ He wriggled some more. ‘Let … me … go … ’

Anni looked over at Mickey. ‘Give DI May a call, will you?’

‘You are in so much fucking trouble … ’ Fire burned in the man’s eyes. An ugly, twisted rage. ‘I’ll have your fucking jobs … I’ll take your fucking life … ’

‘That’s all well and good, sir,’ said Anni, tightening her grip on him. ‘Now can you tell us why two police officers have been kidnapped, brought on board and detained against their will?’

The man fell silent. Stopped moving.

‘I want my lawyer.’

Damn, thought Anni. The magic words. The custody clock had started ticking. She looked over at Mickey, who was still lying on the ground. ‘You OK?’

Mickey tried to sit up. Couldn’t. Flopped back down again. Winced from the pain. ‘What … d’you think?’

‘Chuck me your radio.’

It took a great deal of painful effort, but Mickey managed to send his radio sliding along the deck towards Anni. She picked it up and spoke into it without loosening her grip on Michael Sloane.

‘DI May, DC Hepburn here. We’ve apprehended a suspect who’s attacked DS Philips. He needs medical attention.’

DI May’s voice crackled back. ‘Good work, DC Hepburn. We’ll get that to him. And I was just about to call you,’ he said. ‘We’ve found them. Jessie and Deepak plus Helen Hibbert.’

‘They OK?’

‘They’ll need looking over by the paramedics too. They say it was the Sloanes who did this to them. Michael and Dee Sloane.’

Anni looked at the prone man, who had reacted to the name. ‘I think we’ve got Mr Sloane here.’

‘Don’t let him get away, DC Hepburn.’

She gave an extra squeeze. He wasn’t happy about it. ‘He’s not going anywhere, don’t worry.’

She cut the connection, looked over at Mickey. Smiled. ‘We make a good team, don’t we?’

Mickey managed to return the smile. ‘Yeah … ’

‘That it?’ Sandro peered through the windscreen. ‘Looks like it’s falling into the river.’

‘Looks like the river’s sucking it down,’ said Marina.

They had driven along the narrow road Marina had walked two days earlier. She found it hard to believe that it was only two days ago. So much had happened in such a small space of time. She parked in front of the house, turning her lights off as she made the approach. There were two cars there already. One that matched the kind of clunker Sandro would buy, the other a small, expensive sports car.

No police. They had managed to get there first. But they wouldn’t be far behind, so every second had to count.

Marina killed the engine, made to get out. Sandro placed a restraining hand on her arm. She looked at him, irritated to be held up. His eyes showed nothing but concern.

‘You sure about this? You don’t want to wait for your lot to arrive? There’s people there already. Might get a bit hairy.’

Marina closed her eyes tight, shook her head. ‘No, I can’t. Can’t wait. Josephina’s in there. We can’t wait any longer. We have to get her out straight away.’

Sandro nodded. ‘Fair enough. I’m coming with you.’

Marina didn’t answer. She just wanted to close her eyes, go to sleep. Make it all go away. Have a normal life again. She didn’t want to walk into a haunted-looking house to get her daughter back from a psychopath. She felt tears squeezing their way out of the corners of her eyes. Put her fists there to stop them.

‘Hey … ’ Sandro made to hug her.

‘Don’t,’ she said, pulling away. ‘If you do that, I’ll crumble. And if I crumble, I won’t want to go in there … ’

Sandro nodded, moved away from her. ‘OK. But don’t worry. I’ve got you, sis. We’re good.’

She squeezed his hand. Gave another nod.

They got out of the car. Made their way cautiously but quickly towards the house.

‘What’s so funny?’ asked Dee.

Amy shook her head. ‘Nothing. Nothing.’ She laughed again, as if she had just heard a great joke and was savouring the punchline.

Despite the reassuring presence of the Golem at her side, the laughter was starting to unnerve Dee. ‘I said, what’s so funny?’ she asked again, her voice louder, higher this time.

Amy straightened up. Retrained the gun on Dee. ‘You are.’

‘Me.’

‘Yes. You. You’re so sure of yourself, aren’t you? Always right. And even if you’re not, you’ve got enough money to convince everyone that you are. My money.’

Dee said nothing. Just waited. Let her say her piece, she thought. Then the Golem can deal with her and we can be gone.

‘So,’ said Amy, circling the gun, looking down the sights, smiling still, ‘what d’you think you’re going to do now?’

‘Me?’ said Dee. ‘Nothing. Not a thing.’ She gestured with her thumb towards the Golem, who had moved close beside her. Almost behind her. ‘He is.’

Amy kept the smile on her face, the gun pointed. She looked like she was struggling not to laugh.

Mad bitch, thought Dee. Time to finish this. ‘We can’t have you around any longer. Making accusations. Planning and plotting against us. Getting in the way … We’ve had enough. Time for it to stop.’

Amy giggled. It infuriated Dee.

‘You played a long game this time. And it failed. There’s no prize for second place.’

‘Oh,’ said Amy, ‘you’re so right. So right.’ She moved her attention from Dee to the Golem. Addressed him directly. ‘Remember our agreement?’ she said, her eyes suddenly unclouded by madness, just vicious, businesslike. ‘The money? The shares?’

The Golem nodded.

‘Good. Get on with it.’

Dee felt the Golem’s hand encircle her throat. She had no time to shout out, to plead for mercy. She had no time to prepare herself for death.

He snapped.

She only had time to die.

Marina and Sandro walked towards the house, the mist parting with their footsteps. Whatever front door had once been there had fallen off and was rotting away. Marina stepped over the threshold, stopped. Listened. Heard creaking, groaning. Heard the river water sloshing round the foundations of the house, lapping away at it.

And something else. Faint and muffled. Small screams. Small hands hitting something.

Marina gasped. ‘Josie … ’

She made to run inside the house. Sandro stopped her. Marina glared at him, tried to shake off his grip.

‘Wait,’ he said, voice a hissed whisper. ‘The cars outside, remember? We don’t know who’s here. Let’s go carefully.’

The words didn’t penetrate. All she could hear was her daughter’s screams. She shook Sandro off and ran into the house.

She found herself in a central hall, huge, tall, a rotting staircase in the centre. She looked round, tried to get her eyes accustomed to the change in darkness. Saw movement, a light coming from a room off to her left. Ran towards it.

And found herself in what must have once been the living room. There was a woman lying on the floor, unmoving. Standing over her was one of the biggest men she had ever seen. And standing opposite, a naked, bald woman holding a gun.