Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(114)

‘My game, Ebony.’

She heard his footsteps fade. She looked around her in a panic. She had to get out of there. She’d become like the women she saw all around her.

Yan went back to Danielle in the front room and stood back to look at his handiwork.

‘One more thing and then you’re ready, my dear.’

He tied Ebony’s pendant around her neck.

Robbo leant towards the screen.

‘What is it?’ asked Jeanie.

‘For one second I thought that Ebony’s GPS signal was back.’

‘Can you trace it?’

‘No, it’s gone.’

Ebony tried the handle but it wouldn’t budge. She kept telling herself she had to get out to save Danielle. If she stayed in that room they would both be dead. She looked around for anything she could find to unscrew the lock. She looked at her snake hook and tried prising it under the brass plate but it wouldn’t go, it was too thick. She couldn’t see properly in the gloom. The chandelier didn’t throw off enough light – it was broken, bits hanging off it. Her eyes stayed on it. She hooked the pole over it and dragged part of it down. She smashed the fitting and was left with a bulb holder. Ebony took it across to the brass door plate and tried to slot it into the top of the screws to undo them but it was too thick. She turned it over in her hand until she found the narrowest part, made of tin, and she bit it hard between her teeth. She tried again and managed to loosen one of the screws a little until the top of the plate was free and then she hooked the snake hook inside and levered it out into the room. It crashed down and the door splintered and swung open. She stood listening for any sound from below. She picked up the snake hook and held it in her two hands as she edged downstairs in the darkness.

At the end of the street Carter was examining a van that had the college logo on the side. There was a deep scratch along the side. The bumper was dented on the driver’s side, soft impact, thought Carter. He knelt down and ran his hand around the inside of the wheel arch and looked at the residue on his fingers. Dried blood. He rang in.

‘Robbo, I’ve found a van which looks like it could have been the one used in the attacks on Jeanie and Jackson, and Niall Manson.’ He gave him the registration number. ‘Find me the address.’

‘Okay.’

‘Any sign of her, Robbo?’

‘I thought I had a signal but then it went.’

‘Jesus! Okay, I’ll keep going. Let me know if you find anything.’

Carter continued up the street. He knocked at a house five doors up from Yan’s.

‘Did you ever hear of anyone with a pet snake living in this area?’ The tenant shook her head.

‘Has it escaped?’

‘No, nothing like that. Do you know of a man name Yan Stevenson?’

She shook her head. ‘Sorry.’

Ebony got back down to the kitchen level. The music had stopped. She knew he was waiting for her but she didn’t know where. Gripping the pole with both hands, she edged along the corridor. She knew it would take all her strength to knock him hard with it. She wouldn’t get a second chance. She had to hit him and make it good.

‘Ebony?’ She gasped. Out from the shadows he appeared, his face smiling in the gloom. The scarf was in his hand. He came towards her, twisting it between his hands. Ebony swung at him but missed him in the dark. She turned and fled back through the kitchen, tried the back door and couldn’t smash it, and then she ran back down the cellar stairs, along the hallway and into the room with the coffin. He came slowly down the cellar stairs after her.

Ebony unscrewed the light bulb from its pendant fitting and hid behind the coffin in the dark with the snake hook in her hand. She had to focus – to keep calm. She heard him calling from outside the door. She heard the door opening slowly and a small shaft of icy air came into the sweltering hot room. He had a torch in his hand. He shone it around. Ebony started crawling around the room. From the corner of her eye she could see Miranda near her. The snake was coming her way. She dashed to the other side of the room and the torchlight flashed across her.

Leaping forward, she knocked the torch out of his hands with the snake hook. It rolled and clattered on the floor and pointed a beam of light towards the far wall and then went out. He made a grab for her and just caught Ebony’s arm as she lunged forward. He held on tight. She smashed his forearm with her fist. He let go and made another grab as she threw herself forward. He held on to her ankle.

Ebony dragged his weight forwards as well as her own as he smashed his foot down into the back of her knee. She turned and kicked him with a sweep of her foot and caught him off balance as he hit the ground and she scrabbled forwards in the dark. Ebony whipped her upper body round and smacked him hard with the snake hook. She heard it contact with something hard. She heard him groan and he seemed to slip back. Ebony lashed out at him again in the same place and the pole hit and slid over the top of his head. She heard him fall backwards into the pit. But not before he had grabbed hold of her leg and pulled her with him. Miranda paused to listen, she smelt the air with her tongue and turned towards the pit.

Danielle lifted her head to listen to the noise from the cellar. The pendant shifted slightly where it rested on her collarbone.

Robbo leaned towards the screen, hardly daring to breath or blink in case it disappeared.

‘Signal, Jeanie. We have a signal. Get Carter. It’s finding an address. Go, go!’