Darren Shan - Hell's Horizon

“Coward,” she laughed.

“Yes,” I agreed sadly. “I am.”

“I thought you meant business. I should have known better. You’re a waste of flesh. What sort of man are you, that you can’t take it upon yourself to avenge the murdered love of your life?”

“Who said I won’t avenge her?” I tapped the barrel of the gun. “I might not be able to torture, but I can kill.”

“Any fool can kill. You might as well leave me for the chair if that’s all you’re going to do. If you were a real man, you’d torment me the way I tormented Ellen. You should have seen the way she jerked and—”

“I don’t want to hear it. I took the gag off so you could make your peace with your god. I don’t know if an afterlife awaits, if you believe in one or not—”

“I do,” she assured me. “I do.”

“—But if you want to depart this world with as clear a conscience as possible, tell me what happened to Bill, where I can find him, who your sun god’s agent is.”

“Al,” she tutted. “You don’t go looking for one with the power of the sun— he finds you .”

“Even so. Humor me.”

“You won’t like it,” she mocked. “Ignorance is bliss. You’ll hate it if you make me tell.”

“Leave me to worry about that. Who is he?”

She let out a fake sigh. “Lean close and I’ll whisper his name in your ear.”

I expected her to spit or bite my lobe, but she had something far more effective in mind — the truth.

“Here’s a clue. His first name rhymes with kill .”

Then she kissed the side of my face, threw her head back and cackled hysterically until I fired a bullet through the middle of her eyes and sent her twisted soul screaming on its way to hell.

I left the gun by the corpse and went to the bathroom to wash. The water was cold, fast, fresh. I ducked my head under the tap to wet my neck and head. I needed the cold shock to the system. Things had been hot in that room. Hot as

(rhymes with kill )

hell.

My mind was stuck in low gear, reeling from her final blow. Maybe it had been a vicious final tease. I knew it wasn’t, but I prayed to whatever gods there might be that it

(rhymes with kill )

was.

I saw a couple of Priscilla’s vodka bottles lying around. I picked one up and sniffed from its open top. I could have done with a drink. More than ever before. One for the road, to gear me up for the confrontation to come. One wouldn’t hurt. Just one little…

I put it down.

Not yet. Not until this was over and there was nothing left but the drink and the grave. When the last hand was played, I’d toast my damnation and let the alcohol have its wicked way. But not before. Not while there was still a round

(rhymes with kill )

to go.

I changed clothes, grabbed the few articles I needed, stepped over the body and exited. There were facts to be checked. Deductions to be drawn. I knew what rhymed with kill but I didn’t know how he tied in with Priscilla, Nic and the rest. I wouldn’t face him till I’d pieced at least part of the jigsaw together.

One of the blind villacs was outside. His white eyes were fixed to my window and he was chanting in the strange language of theirs, his face a picture of rapture. I didn’t stop to question him. Priests, Incas and sun gods didn’t matter anymore. I got on my bike, turned a blind eye to the blind priest, and set off for Party Central.

It was quieter than it had been the day before. From what I gathered, the search for Capac Raimi had been called off, though nobody knew why. I wasn’t bothered. The Cardinal’s games meant nothing to me any longer.

With the aid of several secretaries, I took to the floors above the fifteenth and waded through the masses of paperwork. I was there all night — the secretaries called for replacements when it became too much for them — and well into the next day, becoming one with the records, picking apart the woven webs of deceit, layer by heartrending layer.

I started with Howard Kett because he was the easiest to connect to Bill. The pair had been colleagues for fifteen years. Though they were never close, it would have been a simple matter for Bill to keep tabs on his superior. Kett himself told me Bill had been with him when he first busted Nick. Bill must have known about them before he moved on Nicola. Known of the brother’s and sister’s penchant for playing tricks. Told Nick to set Kett up, so he could be used to lead me on.

I tried finding further insidious links between Bill and Nick, couldn’t, so moved on to Nic. There was no hard evidence that they’d ever met, but I didn’t need any. I could connect the dots using a little imagination. For starters there was the lie she’d spun about her reasons for joining AA. She had said her brother forced her to seek help. I’d thought nothing of the lie when it surfaced but now I reconsidered. If she’d set out to ensnare me, she must have known I was a member. I’d kept my membership secret from everyone except Ellen and Bill. Someone else could have found out and put her up to it, but I saw no reason to ignore the obvious — Bill sent her.

Allegro Jinks had been arrested several times, but it was only when I checked his files more thoroughly that I noted the name of his last arresting officer — the good Bill Casey. Jinks had been a perpetual offender, yet his record since being paroled (he got out early on the recommendation of Officer Casey) was spotless. Had he seen the light and mended his ways?

Had he, fuck! According to the files, he’d been as active these last few years as ever, but recently he’d had a guardian angel looking out for him, somebody who’d persuaded cops to change statements and drop charges, convinced informers to forget Allegro Jinks, kept things quiet. The records didn’t state the name of this upright citizen, but I had no difficulty supplying it.

Valerie Thomas was a tricky customer. Not much on her. Nobody knew where she came from, what her background was, how old she was, or even if that was her real name. She’d never been arrested or cautioned. She would have been entirely unconnectable to the case, except for a copy of the form she’d filled out years earlier when applying for a job at the Skylight. The two references she listed were a certain Rudi Ziegler and William Casey. There were no copies of the references they’d submitted, but I’m sure they had nothing but praise for the hardworking Miss Thomas.

Apart from their names appearing together on Valerie’s form, it took me a long time to find anything linking Ziegler to Bill. There was nothing in their immediate files to connect them, and it was only when I asked the secretaries to check for mentions of anything Incan that results rose like dead fish after an underwater explosion.

Over the years, there had been many public meetings of those interested in the city’s Incan history, and the names of Bill and Rudi cropped up regularly, usually as audience members, though in a couple of instances Rudi had given lectures. There was no proof that the two had met at the meetings, but I took it for granted that they had.

My inquiries were exhaustive. I even managed to link Bill to Ho Yun Fen, the unfortunate tattooist who created Allegro Jinks’s serpent design, only to run afoul of the original lord of the snakes. He used to return home to mainland China every few years and had brought back small parcels of valuable fireworks on a couple of occasions, for use by his friend Bill Casey.

Pinning down evidence of a partnership between Bill and Priscilla proved damn near impossible but I was determined to do so, not wanting to believe the very worst of my oldest friend until my nose was rubbed in it. Priscilla was the key link in the chain. She introduced Nic to Ziegler and dragged her into the world of sun gods and human sacrifices. Manipulated Valerie and Rudi, acting as the main line of communication between Bill and his team of puppets. I refused to leave Party Central till I’d tied her to him.