Lee Weeks - Kiss and Die

Ruby began dancing. She twirled around the room spinning and laughing. She clapped her hands in the air. From the cupboard came the noise of a baby crying. Ruby stopped, walked slowly to the cupboard and opened the doors. She stood at eye level with the baby on the shelf. Its mummified remains wrapped in muslin. Next to it the crying doll was smiling again. ‘Look after your sister. Don’t let her be lonely.’ Ruby talked to the blue-eyed doll. ‘Mummy has a special treat coming for you. For all of you.’ She turned and held her arms open addressing all of her dolls. ‘We are going to have the one daddy I have been searching for all this time. He is going to be the one and we will keep him. We will keep him forever.’

Ruby felt a pang of sadness. Her eyes became blurred. A tear fell. She hid it from her dolls and wiped her face, annoyed. For the first time she realized she was afraid of dying. Her world spun at that thought and she let out a small cry from deep in her chest. Maybe it wasn’t too late for her to run away, start again? She looked around at her dolls and shook her head. They needed her. They relied on her. She was their mummy. They belonged together in this room. Every day she heard the news that the police were searching the Mansions, coming nearer to her. They were closing in. One day they would find her. But…Ruby took a deep breath and stood tall, she was the mistress of her own destiny. She would let them find her but, by then, it would be too late and she would not die alone.

Shrimp set his bag down at the reception desk in Vacation Villas. ‘My name is Ian Townsend. I have a reservation for three nights.’

The receptionist scanned down her computer screen. ‘Yes, Mr Townsend, we have you here. You’re in room sixty-one on the sixteenth floor.’

Shrimp knew he would be-they had requested it. It was the same floor they had found Max Kosmos’s body on. This was the floor for businessmen on large company expense accounts.

‘It’s our executive suite. Morning paper, wake-up call?’ She passed over a form for Shrimp to fill in. He gave it back along with a credit card, false documentation that had been rushed through.

‘Neither, thanks.’

‘Do you need help with your luggage?’

‘No. I’m good, thanks.’

Shrimp took the lift up to his floor. The piped music was playing a mix of classical and what sounded like Bavarian folk music. He came out of the lift and followed the room number signs, took a right at the end and found his room. He put his card key in the slot, opened the door and stepped into the suite. It was the opposite layout to Max Kosmos’s room, this room had the bathroom to his left and the wardrobe to his right, the lounge area was straight ahead, and the bed to his right. Shrimp laid his case on the space provided. He walked around, inspecting every part of the room, behind the curtains and under the bed. He checked the minibar. What was it about minibars and the fascination for stale Mars Bars and expensive packets of nuts? When he was satisfied he knew every inch of the suite he knocked on the adjoining door. After a delay of three seconds there came a knock back. It was faint, but it was there. The two undercover operatives were in place.

He phoned Mia. ‘I’m in, Boss.’

‘Okay. You know the brief. We don’t think she will operate in the day so your work starts from five. The rest of the time you can carry on as usual but we’ll keep you off the streets in the day. You can help Ng in the incident room; he’s inundated with dealing with the crossover between the crimes. Did you get anywhere with Mahmud?’

‘No, but he’s very fragile. He’s been beaten badly. I don’t think he is guilty of Tammy’s murder. Someone handed him the knife. I don’t know why he went there to the market that night. Now with Hafiz dead I was hoping he might not feel the need to cover for him any more, but he still refuses to say any more about what happened. I am hoping Daniel Lu might come up with something that might help us. Unless he talks no one else will.’

‘Yeah, the facts are pretty plain. Tammy was stabbed with the bundi knife Mahmud was carrying. Chase it up tomorrow with Ng. Don’t forget the wedding ring. Keep safe, Shrimp.’

‘Okay, Boss. If nothing happens I’ll see you back at the office in the morning. Has Mann checked in today?’

‘No, not yet.’

Shrimp unpacked. He’d brought with him the usual striped blue and green shirt that the businessmen seemed to favour, even with jeans. He laid out his toiletries in the bathroom. He lined his hair products up. He had studied the businessmen abroad. A lot of them liked their hair. It seemed to be the one thing they spent money on-that and their glasses. They liked expensive specs. He checked his mike and got an affirmative from the men who were waiting for him downstairs and the ones in the room next door. Shrimp checked himself once more in the mirror and then prepared to leave.

At the same time, Ruby slipped into Vacation Villas with a group of tourists.

She kept her glasses on, her head down. Her hair was tucked up into a blond wig. The hotel was busy-no one noticed her. They had people coming in off the street all the time, sometimes they headed down to the bakery, sometimes they came into the small shopping mall at the entrance, but no one thought twice about a woman walking through the doors of Vacation Villas, straight into the lifts to the upper floors. Her mouth was dry, her bag heavy. She had Peter Thorne’s head in it. She got to the sixteenth floor. The lift doors opened. She stepped out to the Bavarian music and the floral spray that swamped every hotel floor.

Shrimp stepped into the lift opposite.

The landing was quiet. She came to the end, turned right and stopped outside Peter Thorne’s room. She checked her phone. She had a message. Ruby read it then shook her head. Didn’t Victoria realize it was too late now? She hovered for a moment outside the hotel room, unsure, and then she turned and walked back down the corridor. She smiled to herself as she patted her bag. She had thought of a much more fitting place to leave it. If Victoria was going to play a game then Ruby would up the stakes. Victoria would have to learn that the game had taken on a life of its own. When you start a fire you can’t always predict which way the wind will blow it. Ruby was seeing things differently now. She no longer cared for the promises. She no longer held the dreams she once had. It was all gone now. Ruby must prepare for the end of the game. She would go hunting tonight and this time it would be for someone very special.

That night she headed to an Irish pub she knew. Ruby walked down the steps, past the Guinness posters, into a bar with dark alcoves and dark wood, shamrocks a plenty. The Pogues were playing. On the screen at the end of the bar Manchester United was playing Arsenal.

Ruby chose a different table to last time. It wouldn’t do to form a pattern, a recognizable trait. She went to the left of the bar, beneath the TV screen. She could watch them as they watched the game. She tucked herself away with her glass of Coke. This place was good. The clientele was businessmen. There were several sat at the bar. Several more alone at tables, eating dinner; pub food that they found familiar, comforting when they were away from home. This was a good place to start the night’s hunting. She slid from the stool and took off her mac and then sat back down and crossed her legs.

A group of three men were sat at the bar talking business and football. Well, two of them were, the third looked bored. He was dark haired, red faced. He looked a little bit the worse for wear. His eyes wandered round the room and came to settle on Ruby. She stared back and allowed a small smile as she sucked her Coke through the straw. The man continued staring. Ruby watched him staring at her legs. He was going to be easy, she thought. He had only one thought in his mind and it wasn’t business and it wasn’t football. Ruby was looking for someone specific tonight, she could spot a policeman a mile away and he wasn’t one. Ruby knew where she could find one.