Hot Revenge Box Set 2

Chapter 8

*****

 

Michael

Back on the rear stairwell, we descend one level…

Another landing, again with a corridor to both sides, flanked by the ‘cells’ we saw on the security feed.

“Next one down,” murmurs Klempner. “This should be it.”

We pass under a single camera at the top of the next staircase, but it remains reassuringly off, its indicator light dark. Still, it’s unsettling to have the empty black eye follow us as we descend into the dank scent of basements everywhere.

At the bottom, the same single corridor, running right and left, doors off either side. Underfoot, slab floors are slippery with damp.

There’s no sound other than our own footsteps and, as I realise after a moment, my own heartbeat pulsing behind my ears. Down here, even the bass thump of the music doesn’t carry.

It’s cold. Not the iced night of outdoors, but a moist chill that creeps into lungs and turns breath to grey mist.

Klempner draws a fingertip through droplets hanging onto the brickwork, making a shining trail that trickles from the base, trailing fingers of water to the ground. “Looks like we're down to the river level.”

“Below it, I’d say. It's canalised here.” I try to get bearings in my head. “Could be it's just on the other side of that wall.”

And this is where they’ve kept her…

Klempner thumbs left along the corridor. “You try the doors that way. I’ll try these.”

He turns right, trying one door after another. None are locked and as doors open then close, the sound creaks, clanks then echoes away.

At the first room I try, rusted hinges complain as I turn the handle, then push. Resisting me all the way, the door opens. I already know she’s not here. This door’s not been opened since god-knows-when. Inside, all I find are stacks and files of papers; many mildewed, all yellowed, curling in the damp; battered ledgers, and ancient floppy discs, aged well past any possibility of there being a drive able to read them.

Finchby’s old business records?

The legal stuff presumably. He’s not going to keep hard copies of the kind of dealings he has…

… is he?

I pick up a ledger at random, checking the title. Winsbury Mill Inc. Purchase Ledger Y/E Dec ‘83

Not even cleaned the place out from the previous owners…

I enter the second room more easily. The door hinges are corroded, squeaking a protest as I enter. It’s a paint store: shelves stacked with tins and cans, brushes, bottles of cleaner and solvent, stepladders leaning against the wall. The walls run with damp and many of the tins are rusty or leaking.

As I back out, Klempner’s with me again. “She’s not down that way.”

“Only one door left, then.”

It’s solid. Nothing like the previous rotting remnants of a bygone time, this is new: bolts drawn at top and bottom, constructed in steel, set heavy into the wall, and with a high-grade security lock.

I run fingers over hinges and locks. “They weren’t taking any chances with her getting out.”

Klempner scratches at his scalp. “That may be my fault. I did mention to Baxter one time that Jenny had a talent for escape when she was younger.”

What do I say to that?

I have no idea.

So, I say nothing.

I try the handle, just on the off chance. Of course, it doesn’t open.

hand already, offered out to me. “I think you should be the one to go

keyring is heavy, jingling as I work my way through Yales, skeleton keys, what could be filing

That’s the one…

as the internal levers clunk. Then I try the handle

sound, the door swings

was ready

saw the ransom video. I saw

I was

I’m not.

unattended; the stink of drains and raw sewers and that sickly-sweet smell of rotten

All unmeaning, I recoil.

Don’t be a fool…

Charlotte: kneeling up from the concrete floor, supporting herself against the bare brickwork with her hands, without so much as a blanket or a towel. Her manacled ankle is swollen red, the flesh puffed and shiny where the metal cuff bites. Her beautiful

towards the drain where it seeps

eyes swollen, Charlotte’s foetid hospital robe is pulled up around her

God it's you. Michael… Oh, God… It’s you.” Her gaze passes to Klempner. Her eyes widen, then, her voice

see to her.” He casts an eye above the door to where a camera

the pack from my shoulders, tugging out blankets and towels. I drop to my

get you off the

Then her eyes flick to

brief, as he looks at her

the shoulders, holding her as close as I can while the contraction passes, then tugging at the putrid robe, “Let’s get

around herself. Then I wrap a space blanket around that; the silvery surface

of this. It’ll help warm

the soup enough to warm,

What has she eaten?

Anything?

scatter of empty packets: peanuts, jerky, chips… Bar crap that’s fine as a snack with a beer, but as food for

constantly glancing up to where the security camera indicator remains a dull black. “We need to get out of here. And fast. It’s only a

or less covered now, ‘decent’ as they

indecent

Not her…

hand, watching through the half-open door, looks back, taking her in properly this

Nodding vigorously. “I'll try.”

a hand under each armpit. She tries to step, then cries out, collapsing on

helping her down again. “Shh… It's alright. It's alright. We're here

this? Why do they want to hurt me

want. It’s your father they’re after. They took you as

beyond Klempner and

“Shhh… I’ll tell you everything later…” I roll eyes up to

Charlotte's belly. She tries to suppress the

over. “Hold her upright, would you. Support her for

dry area, well off the reeking drain, unroll it to the floor. “It’s not luxury accommodation Babe, but it gets you off the ground.” A blanket over the

Relatively…

Next…

as you can. Pull

the first time

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