The Death List (26 page)

“Matt Stone,” the man in the mask confirmed. “Also known as Wells. Do you know what you’re going to do with these books, Christian? You don’t mind if I call you Christian, do you? Though behaving like a barracuda is hardly very Christian, is it?” The man let out a laugh that suggested unfathomable depths of depravity. “I’ll tell you.” He paused to ratchet up the tension. “You’re going to eat them. Every last page of them. Not forgetting the jackets.”

Fels choked before anything had been stuffed into his mouth. “What?” he gasped. “Why?”

The man looked at him with cold, dark eyes. “Because you consumed Matt Wells’s career. Now you can consume his books.” He tore out some pages and rammed them into the agent’s mouth.

“Aaaach!” Fels groaned, unable to scream, and unable to chew or swallow. “Nnnnggmmm!”

Then something very strange happened. The man and his accomplice suddenly moved away from him. He twisted his head round, frantically trying to spit out the semisodden paper. A tall, fair-haired man in a tracksuit top was standing at the door, a spade in his hand. He wasn’t Vlado.

“Well, now, what have we here?” the man asked in a strong American accent. “I think I can hear Klaxons,” he said, cupping his hand to his ear. “I can definitely hear Klaxons.”

Fels could hear them, too. Oh, blessed relief! He would reward his good-looking savior handsomely.

“No, no, you’re not going anywhere, shitheads,” the American said, moving to block the two intruders’ passage to the door.

“You’re making a mistake,” the man in the mask said, his voice icy. “Let us past.”

“Screw you, pal,” the big man said, brandishing the spade.

“Dolt,” the attacker said. There was a flash of highly polished metal and the sickening sound of flesh being punctured.

Christian Fels managed to spit the mass of pulp from his mouth. He twisted his head round as far as it would go, strands of his hair dangling over his face like jellyfish tentacles. He was in time to see the two men in caps turning toward the rear of the house.

“Vlado!” he said with a gasp.

“Never mind bloody Vlado,” said the American. He’d collapsed against the wall, his eyes fixed on the haft of the knife that was protruding from his upper chest. “What about Andrew Jackson?”

As his rescuer’s golden locks fell forward, Fels swooned clean away.

21

I called Andy’s mobile from a public phone on Oxford Street and let it ring four times. Then I hung up and pressed Redial.

“Hello?”

The male voice was familiar, but there was something wrong about it.

“Andy?” I said in a low voice.

“Who is this, please?”

I clocked the Welsh tones. They belonged to D.I. Turner. I cut the connection quickly. What the hell was going on? Before I could think further, my mobile rang. I wondered if it was the detective, having recognized my voice. I’d given his superior my number.

“Hello?” I said cautiously.

“Matt Wells.” The Devil’s voice was colder than I’d ever heard it. “You just made a very big mistake.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rose. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” he shouted. I’d never heard him so fierce. It was as if an even more terrifying monster had burst from inside him. “That man at Christian Fels’s house was one of your friends.”

“At Christian Fels’s house?” I repeated. Playing dumb was all I could come up with. “You were there?”

“Don’t fuck with me!” the Devil shrieked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, trying to sound surprised.

“Big guy, fair hair, American accent.”

Christ, what had happened to Andy? What was the detective doing answering his mobile?

“I’ve no idea. Maybe he was one of Christian’s people from the agency.”

“No!” the Devil yelled. “Andrew Jackson is his name. Do you think I’m a fool? I’ve had your house under surveillance for months. I know everyone who comes and goes. Listen to me. If you play games with me, your daughter will be the next to scream her life away.”

Jesus. The phone was shaking in my hand. “What…what did you do to Christian?” I’d hated my former agent since he cut me loose, but I didn’t want him hurt—that was why I’d sent Andy up there. Christ. “What did you do to Andy?”

“You’ll find out. I’m expecting a chapter from you about Drys’s killing. Make sure I have it by tonight. This conversation is over.”

I stood on the street with my fists clenched, lines of shoppers flowing past me. What had happened to Christian and Andy? I had to find out. I called D.C.I. Oaten’s mobile from the public phone.

“Yes?” she answered curtly.

“This is Matt Wells.”

“Mr. Wells.” She sounded both surprised and relieved. “Where are you?” Her question was good news. I’d obviously lost the police tail. “I very much need to talk to you.”

“What happened to Christian Fels and Andrew Jackson?” I demanded.

“Where are you?” she repeated, her tone hardening. “I’ll send a car.”

There was no way I was going to get caught up with the police. I needed freedom of movement if I was going to deal with the Devil. “Never mind that,” I said firmly. “Tell me what happened. Was Fels attacked?”

“Why do you think that?” She wasn’t giving an inch.

I banged the receiver against the glass. “Stop playing games!” I shouted, only realizing after the words came out that I was parroting what the Devil had said. “I’m not telling you where I am, but I need to know what happened to Christian and Andy.”

“Mr. Wells, I know that you’re keeping information from us. I can arrest you for obstructing an inquiry.”

“Only if you can find me. Listen, there are things I can tell you about the murders, but I’m not coming in. People are in danger. Tell me what happened to Christian and Andy, then I’ll cooperate.”

Oaten gave that some thought. “I have to tell you that you are a potential suspect in the murders, Mr. Wells. I can’t make deals with you.”

I needed to sweeten her. “All right.” I gave her the names of my Internet provider and my Web site operator. “I’m sure you can get a warrant to access my incoming and outgoing e-mails.” I took a deep breath. “They prove that the killer has been in contact with me and that I’ve been replying to him.”

“What? You really are in an ocean of trouble. I strongly advise you to surrender yourself.”

“No chance. Come on, Karen,” I said, deciding that familiarity couldn’t make the situation worse. “Cut the crap. I need to protect my family and friends, can’t you understand that? You know I’m not the murderer. I was sitting in the same room as you were when Drys was killed.”

There was a long pause. “I repeat, I’m making no deals with you, Matt.” At least she was responding to my informality. “Christian Fels was attacked in his house by two masked men. Andrew Jackson interrupted them as they were stuffing pages from your novels into Mr. Fels’s mouth. He has a knife wound to his upper chest that the paramedics say is not life-threatening. He’s been taken to the Whittington Hospital. Mr. Fels has a head wound, but it isn’t too serious. He’s…how can I put it? Screaming blue murder?”

I laughed, the relief that Andy and Christian were okay breaking the tension that had been building up all day. “I’ll bet he is.” My ex-agent’s fuse was notoriously short.

“He hasn’t been very complimentary about you,” Oaten added. “No doubt because he thinks you were behind the attack.”

“Tell him I sent Andy Jackson to keep an eye on him.”

“Not good enough,” she said, her voice hardening again. “This is a multiple-murder inquiry. Members of the public are not entitled to take the law into their own hands. Why didn’t you tell us that Fels was going to be attacked?”

“Because I didn’t know. You’ll understand when you see the e-mails. This guy has got a hold on me. He’s stringing me along. I can’t risk antagonizing him.”

“I think your friend Mr. Jackson just did,” she said dryly. “Matt, if you’re in as much danger as I think you are, you have to come in. We can protect you and anyone else he’s threatening.”

I wished I could believe that, but there wasn’t time. The Devil was on the loose and he was angry. I had to move my plans ahead. “Got to go, Karen. Don’t bother calling my mobile. I know you can locate me by it.”

“Wait,” she said hurriedly. “There’s a cost to what you’re doing. Mr. Fels’s gardener had his neck broken when the assailants left. Think about it, Matt. Innocent victims?”

My stomach constricted. I couldn’t come up with anything to say, so I hung up and dialed Dave Cummings’s mobile.

“Hallo!” he shouted above a lot of machine noise.

“It’s Matt.”

“Hang on,” he said. The noise reduced in volume. “Just disposing of a derelict factory. What’s up, mate?”

“Forget demolition,” I said. “The shit’s hit the fan. You need to get out to the cottage as soon as you can. I’ll meet you at the school in an hour.” I hung up.

Before I left Oxford Street, I went into a phone shop and bought a pay-as-you-go mobile, insisting that they give me one with a fully charged battery. I saw a cab stop and pushed a tourist out of the way. He yelled at me in some Romance language, which made the cabbie laugh. I scowled at him, told him where to go and got my new phone into commission. The first person I called was Roger van Zandt.

“Where are you, Rog?”

“Baker Street,” he said. “I’ve got the gear you wanted.”

It was no good to me now. The police would definitely be watching my flat so I couldn’t go back there.

“All right,” I said. “You know that Internet café we met at about a month ago? Don’t say the name.”

“You what?”

“I’ll explain later. You know the one I mean?”

“’Course. Are you all right, Matt?”

“I’ll meet you there at the number you used to wear on your back. Get it?” Rog used to be a center on the rugby team and his number was four.

“Bloody hell, you’re being mysterious. Okay.”

I rang off and watched the boats on the gray-brown river as we crossed Waterloo Bridge. The Devil was somewhere in the city. He knew it as well as I did, as well as John Webster had done back in the seventeenth century. But where was he? Could he already be on his way to Lucy’s school?

I told the cabbie to hurry up and was greeted with more laughter. For a moment I wished I was in a foreign capital where taxi drivers didn’t care about the speed limit. That made me think of my mother and Jeanie. They should both have been abroad by now. I would call them later from a public phone to make sure.

I rang Dave again. “Where are you?”

“Denmark Hill. Should be there in under ten minutes.”

“Okay. Same here.” I rang off and had a thought. If the Devil had a legion of helpers, maybe Dave’s cottage wasn’t safe.

As I paid off the cabbie, I saw Dave’s large four-by-four pull up outside the school.

Looking around and seeing no sign of anyone suspicious, I went over to him. “Thanks for dropping everything.”

“No worries. It’s only a two-hundred-grand contract.” He grinned. “I can always use that ten grand you gave me as partial restitution.”

I glared at him. “Don’t even think about it.”

He slapped me on the back. “Joke, you pillock. Right, what are we doing?”

“Pulling Lucy and your pair out of their classes. We’ll tell the teachers that there’s been a family emergency.”

“What, in both our families?”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

“Okay. Then what?”

“Get home and pick up Ginny.” I grabbed his arm. “Listen, Dave, it’s not safe for you to go to your cottage. The bastard may have been watching you.”

There was a flash of anger in his eyes. “Is that right? Fucker.”

A cleaner who was passing us in the playground tutted her disapproval.

“Don’t worry,” he said, with a grin. “I’ll think of something. Better if you don’t know, eh?”

I nodded. He was way ahead of me. In the same spirit, I decided it was better if he didn’t know what had happened to Andy. I gave him my new mobile number.

“Just one thing, Matt,” he said, his tone more serious. “Does Caroline know about this?”

“Not yet,” I replied, avoiding his eyes. He was aiding and abetting the abduction of a child without her mother’s permission. I couldn’t tell my ex-wife till Dave was well clear of his home.

“It’s okay,” he said, giving me a thump on the shoulder. “I trust you.”

As we headed into the school to interrupt classes, I heard him mutter, “Christ knows why.”

Karen Oaten watched as the mortuary attendants removed the body of the gardener. Christian Fels had identified him as Vlado Petrovic, a Bosnian national whose papers were in order. Judging by the way Fels’s eyes had dampened when he saw the body, he’d had more than employer-employee relations with the unfortunate immigrant.

Fels had been treated by a paramedic, having refused to go to hospital. There was a bandage round his head, thin strands of hair hanging over it like those on a cheap Halloween mask.

“Have you arrested that lunatic Wells yet, Inspector?” he said, glaring at her.

“Chief Inspector,” Oaten corrected. She’d always had a problem with bullies like Fels. “We’re working on it. Although, by your own admission, Mr. Wells is taller than either of your attackers.” She gave him a tight smile. “And he provided a bodyguard for you.”

“Is that what he’s saying?” Fels scoffed. “I always knew that man was a waste of my time. If he wasn’t behind the attack, why did those masked maniacs try to make me eat his books?”

“Good question.”

The literary agent stared at her. “Well?” he demanded.

“
I
ask the questions,” she said. “
You
answer them.”

Fels took a step back, and then retreated farther into his sumptuously furnished drawing room. “Have a seat, Chief Inspector,” he said, flapping his hand at the leather armchairs.

“No, thanks,” Oaten said. “Taff!” she called through the open door.

The inspector appeared. “Yes, guv?”

“Have you got any more questions for Mr. Fels?”

“No, he’s given us a provisional statement.”

“All right.” Karen Oaten turned from examining a row of plastic-covered first editions. “Tell me, Mr. Fels, why did you part company with Matt Wells?”