D. Mitchell - The King of Terrors

‘Go ahead. It doesn’t matter to me.’

‘Tremain,’ gasped Lambert-Chide, ‘don’t…’

He ignored the old man. Pushed the gun harder, forcing Gareth’s head to one side. Gareth closed his eyes, expecting the worst.

‘You still don’t get it, do you?’ said Erica. ‘Muller told me you’d fall for it, because you’re so focused on what you want to see you’re blind to everything else. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.’ She shook her head, putting her lips close to Lambert-Chide’s ear. ‘You stupid old fool, don’t you understand? I’m not Evelyn, this man isn’t my son, and I’m certainly not four hundred years old. Sorry to disappoint you all. You’ve been conned and I want out of here!’

She dragged Lambert-Chide backwards, towards the door through which Tremain had first brought her.

‘You can’t get out,’ said Tremain. ‘Let him go.’

‘Throw me the gun,’ she said.

‘Take a leap…’ returned Tremain.

She crushed Lambert-Chide’s neck tighter and he croaked in pain. ‘Throw me the gun, you merciless bastard!’

Tremain saw the fear in Lambert-Chide’s eyes, sighed resignedly and held the gun between index finger and thumb, holding it out at arm’s length, then bending and sliding it across the floor. Erica had to release Lambert-Chide long enough to bend and retrieve the weapon at her feet, but as she did so the door behind her flew open and two men threw themselves into the room, barging into Erica’s unprotected back. She fell to the floor. One of the men brought his gun crashing down on her head, once, twice, a third time. He fell on top of her, flattening her to the ground, blood seeping through her tousled hair. The other man went to Lambert-Chide’s aid, supporting him. Lambert-Chide pushed him away, clutching his sore throat. He sent a foot into the woman’s unprotected side and she gave a pitiful yelp of pain.

Tremain retrieved his gun, aiming it at the woman. His breathing was laboured and his eyes betrayed his desire to send a bullet into her back. ‘Now do you believe me? There’s a reason she was kept sedated!’

‘You gullible fools…’ Erica said faintly, her breath pumped from her by the weight of the man.

Lambert-Chide signalled for him to get off her. ‘Don’t listen to her,’ said Tremain. ‘She’s lying. She’s the one.’

‘So you’d like to believe,’ Erica said, rising to her knees. She ran a hand over her head; her fingers came away smeared in scarlet and she glowered hard at Tremain.

‘Shut your mouth, you lying bitch!’ he said.

‘Let her have her say,’ said Lambert-Chide, being helped to one of the chairs. He massaged his neck.

‘Surely you don’t believe her?’ he said.

‘Quiet, Randall,’ he said. ‘Go ahead. Let’s hear it.’

Erica sat up. She glanced briefly at Gareth, who appeared totally dumbstruck. ‘Muller and I were in on this together,’ she said. He’d been tasked with finding this Evelyn Carter woman. OK, so he wasn’t entirely sure why, but that didn’t really matter. What mattered was that he found her and deliver her to you. He wasn’t stupid; he knew she was immensely valuable to you. Knew how much manpower and money you were willing to put into this. The reward for delivering her to you was enough to suggest she was special, very special. After all, it would make him a very rich man.’

Lambert-Chide saw Tremain was about to interject and he held up his hand for him to remain silent. ‘You recruited Muller personally, didn’t you, Randall?’

‘He passed through all the checks.’

‘But it took another, Caroline Cody, to spot what his game was, to double-cross us.’

‘What are you saying?’

He ignored his head of security and addressed the woman. ‘So, tell me who you’d like us to think you are.’

‘Muller figured he’d help things along. He’d guarantee that he’d be the one to find this Evelyn Carter for you. Except that it wouldn’t be the real one, it would be her double. I was working for a small-time modelling agency when he approached me with an offer. He wanted you to think he was hot on the trail of Evelyn, and I helped create that illusion. You were never going to get her, of course; once we had the money we’d divide the proceeds and disappear, a whole lot richer. But he got greedy. He decided that he’d double his chances, by leading you on to believe that Gareth here was her son. Everything, me falling in front of his car, the brooch — an expensive replica; we had all the details from your website — all an elaborate setup. I didn’t mean to end up in hospital; I slipped. But it inadvertently helped convince you that I was Evelyn. We even convinced Doradus, whoever he is.’ She looked over to Gareth, whose face displayed a rising anger. ‘My guess is if Gareth is here then Muller is either dead or has taken the money and run. Either way it’s time to come clean. Game over. I’m pissed off with having those fucking needles stuck in me.’

There was a strained silence that hung in the air for a minute as Lambert-Chide digested her words and marshalled his thoughts. ‘What is it you hope to gain by all this? Even if what you say is true, you can see your position is hopeless. I can’t let you live.’

She shrugged. ‘First of all, this man is no more than an unwilling and unwitting pawn in all this. He isn’t, and never was, that special person you thought he was. Second, my position isn’t as hopeless as you’d like to believe. At the start of all this I took out a little insurance. I paid a visitor to a solicitor and left him a letter in a sealed envelope. If I don’t return to claim it then he’s instructed to open it and act upon the contents. It’s all there, trust me. You and your company won’t come out of this in a good light. Muller knew enough about your secret project for it to damn you if it ever got out. Oh, and don’t feel left out, Tremain, you get a hefty mention too.’

Gareth was reeling with this latest revelation. The knowledge that he’d been nothing more than a helpless tool in someone’s lust for money made his insides boil with rage. He looked over to Lambert-Chide, whose face gave nothing away. He was nodding slowly, his eyes staring at the woman but his mind obviously working over other things.

‘All I ask is you let me go and pay to keep me quiet,’ she resumed. ‘Whatever you do with Gareth is up to you. I don’t care.’

At last Lambert-Chide rose from the chair. He picked up the photograph album. ‘I admire your audacity and creativity.’ The image of Evelyn Carter was smiling up at him. ‘But of course we can prove it in very little time. A simple DNA test from you both will settle things once and for all. Either way, you are mine to do with as I please, in spite of your pathetic insurance policy. Solicitors are notoriously materialistic. A suitable payment will buy silence. And if not, well there are many different ways to get people to stay silent.’

‘You can’t believe her, surely? It’s all a pack of lies!’ complained Tremain.

‘There is the small possibility she might be telling the truth. Time will tell. Take them both away. Put them in the same detention room. I think they need more time to get to know one another.’

Tremain disagreed. ‘I don’t think — ’ he began.

‘What have I told you about thinking, Randall?’ he burst angrily. ‘I’ve had enough of these games. Take them away, and you’d better pray that she is telling lies, Randall.’

Lambert-Chide was clearly incensed by all this, thought Gareth. Irate at the fact that he may have been so easily duped. Or perhaps that his plan, his precious project, was in danger of collapsing like a pack of medical cards. Things weren’t looking good, he thought, whichever way you viewed it. If anything, the woman’s revelations had made things a whole lot worse.