No Safe Place(Detective Lottie Parker #4)(33)

She tried Mollie’s number once more. No reply.

Leaving the apartment, she pulled the door shut behind her in frustration. She was a tiny bit angry. First Kirby and then Mollie, who hadn’t even had the decency to tell her she wouldn’t be around. Some friend.

As she headed along the path, she wondered if perhaps Mollie had missed the last train home and was spending the night in Dublin with one of her colleagues. But wouldn’t she have let her know? Wouldn’t she answer her phone? Then again, she could be wrapped around a new fellow. Feck you, Mollie.

Now she had to go home and take off her damn make-up. And she hadn’t even had a drink.



* * *



Mollie’s teeth were literally clinking against each other as she tried to recall the sequence of events that had led her here. Her head was woozy and her stomach churning. She’d been drugged, she was sure of it. Her tongue felt like coarse fur was growing on it and her throat was raw.

He had seemed so nice. Offering her a lift. And she hadn’t thought twice about taking him up on his offer. After all, he’d brought her home safely yesterday.

Her train companion had been a pain in the butt. Asking a million questions. Did people no longer respect the unspoken rule of commuting? The unwritten law to keep quiet? The continuous talking had caused her to jump at the chance of escape at the station and accept the offer of a lift. Stupid girl. She didn’t even know him.

The smell, like sour milk or sick wafted around her. Felt like it was stuck to her face. He’d clamped the cloth against her mouth and nose, and the chemicals had hit her brain. Everything she’d ever heard about accepting lifts from strangers reverberated in her mind. But those were warnings for children. Not for a twenty-five-year-old like herself. She realised she had done the most moronic thing of her whole life.

He was here now, sitting on a chair beside the makeshift bed on which she lay. She tried to cover her nakedness, but her hands wouldn’t move. Couldn’t move. They were tied to her sides by the rough rope across her waist keeping her horizontal on the dark-coloured sheets. The room was too small. The walls were too close. He was too near.

‘Where am I?’ she asked. Her vision blurred again before refocusing in the thin light filtering through a hatch in the ceiling.

‘You’re safe. With me.’ He laughed, and the beam from the torch in his hand bumped up and down.

‘Come on, this isn’t funny. Take me home.’

‘Shut your mouth. There’ll be time enough for talk.’

When she’d first met him, he’d appeared normal. She’d seen him around town. He was an ordinary-looking commuter taking the train home from work. Was he the reason she’d felt like eyes were following her every move over the last few days?

‘I’ve been watching you,’ he said. ‘Morning and evening. But you never noticed me. I was either brilliant at concealing my stare, or you had no interest in me. Whatever the case, I can watch you now without disturbance. And you have no choice but to look at me. Just the two of us here. Nice and quiet. The way I like it.’

‘You’re a fucking pervert. Let me go!’ She pulled at the rope, feeling it rip into her skin. But it was the connection of his hand across her cheek that stopped her struggle.

‘Take that back! Say you’re sorry!’ he shouted.

Who the hell was this jerk? No way was she going to apologise to him. Clamping her lips shut, she closed her eyes. Be strong, she willed her bruised body.

Fingers, rough and probing, pulled her eyelids upwards. A sharp scream escaped from her throat before he clamped his other hand over her mouth again.

‘Pretty mouth,’ he whispered, bringing his face down to hers. ‘I have to leave you alone for a while. Don’t try to escape like the last bitch. She’s dead and buried now, and you don’t want that, do you?’

She whimpered and nodded, despite herself.

‘When you learn to live by my rules, I will reward you. Little by little.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You need food and water, don’t you?’

‘I’m not going to be here long enough for that,’ she spat.

‘Let’s see how long it takes for that fight to desert you. And when it does, I guarantee you’ll beg for the things you’ve taken for granted all your life.’

‘You know nothing about my life.’

‘True. But now that I have you here, I’ve plenty of time to find out, and you will tell me what I want to know.’

‘Where are you going?’ She tried to lean up on her elbow but flopped back down. She watched as he moved to the iron ladder leading to the opening in the ceiling. Taking the torch with him. ‘No! ‘Don’t leave me here in the dark. Please.’

‘Begging already. See, I told you so. You had no one in your life, but now you have me.’

‘You’re wrong there. I’m supposed to be meeting a friend. She’s in the guards. And the girl I met on the train, she has a brother. They’ll come looking for me.’

As soon as she’d blurted out the words, Mollie knew she had made a mistake, but she wasn’t sure what it was. His eyes darkened and his face took on a ghoulish glow in the semi-darkness.

‘You are alone now,’ he said flatly.

She watched as he climbed the ladder and hauled himself through the hatch. When the small square door banged shut, she was plunged into darkness.