A Room Full of Killers - Michael Wood (motivational books to read txt) 📗

foot four, everyone else towered over her. However, she was strong and fit and made up for her lack of height with her no-nonsense attitude.

‘Sweet dreams, Rebecca,’ he said, lowering his voice. There was a flirtatious, yet sinister edge to his voice.

Kate kept her eyes on Callum until his door was closed and securely locked. She watched Rebecca turn the key and try the handle to make sure it was completely locked. It was. She watched carefully while all the doors were locked by either Richard or Rebecca and then double-checked by Oliver. Satisfied, they all left the corridor, locking the gate behind them.

Oliver and Richard were finished for the night and were to retire to their bedrooms. Rebecca, along with junior guard, Peter McFly, was to remain on duty throughout the night should anything happen they may be needed for.

Kate followed Rebecca back to the staffroom where Peter was waiting for the kettle to boil. At twenty-three, he was the youngest guard at Starling House. He was well over six foot and beanpole thin. An unruly mound of fiery ginger hair and pale skin gave him a fragile, almost petrified look. However, he had already wrestled Jacob Brown from Callum Nixon and jumped in without a second thought. Looks, in his case, were very deceiving. A new recruit of only two months, he seemed unfazed by the inmates and their crimes and didn’t shy away from the night shifts. Kate believed him to be an ideal candidate for the job. But since Ryan’s death and Matilda planting the seed of suspicion in her mind, she was looking at everyone with an unnerving frown. Was one of her staff a killer?

Oliver? No. He was good at his job and had a great deal of respect for her.

Richard? No. He walked around Starling House as if in a daze. He didn’t have the energy to commit murder.

Rebecca? No. For one thing she was a new mother. She had more things on her mind than planning a murder.

Peter? He was very useful in a ruckus but was he capable of starting one? Maybe.

Gavin? As head of security he knew where the black spots in Starling House were. He knew the weaknesses in the security system. Maybe.

Kate shook the thoughts from her head. This was insane. She didn’t care what Matilda said, none of her staff were murderers. There were seven killers living here who had admitted their crimes, of course it was one of them.

‘Are you two all right?’ Kate asked Rebecca and Peter as they sat down with a cup of tea and a sandwich.

‘Yes. Fine thanks,’ Rebecca answered for them both.

‘Good.’ Kate’s smile was forced and fake. ‘I doubt there’ll be any problems tonight. I’ve just looked and all the press have gone. I never thought I’d be so happy to see a torrential downpour,’ she laughed; again it was forced. ‘However, if the phone does ring, and it is someone from the newspapers, be polite and end the call as quickly as possible without giving anything away.’

‘Will do,’

‘How are you settling in, Peter?’ Kate seemed reluctant to leave.

He quickly chewed and swallowed his bite of sandwich. ‘Fine. Yes, it’s OK. Good group of people to work with.’

‘Good. Rebecca, how’s … ?’

‘Lucy? She’s fine. She stays with my mother while I’m here.’

‘Oh, doesn’t your husband look after her?’

‘No. He works in the middle of the North Sea.’

‘Oh, I see. Well, we all have to do whatever we can to earn the money these days, don’t we? I’ll leave you to it then. I hope you have a quiet evening.’

Kate left the room and headed back down the corridor. She walked slowly and tried to lessen the sound her heels made against a background of nothing, but it wasn’t easy. She looked up at the high ceiling, at the intricate carvings in the corners, the ceiling roses, the cornicing, all covered with cobwebs. She really must find a feather duster with a long handle.

At the end of the corridor she turned around and looked back. The lighting was soft and muted. A faint glow came from the room at the end where Rebecca and Peter were currently enjoying their late-evening snack. She heard their distant chatting and giggling. From this angle, taking in the framed prints and the solid oak wooden doors, Kate wondered why such a beautiful old building was being used to house such violent and evil boys. It didn’t seem right. She unlocked the door behind her, went through, and locked it.

Two floors up from A corridor, Kate sat at her dressing table looking at her reflection in the mirror. She looked tired and worried. For the first time in her twenty years of working here she questioned her role and her ability to carry it out. In the background, the theme tune to yet another episode of Friends began. It was really the only time she could relax at the moment, watching her favourite programme.

She leaned back on her bed and watched as, in a candlelit apartment in New York, Chandler romantically proposed to Monica. This episode never failed to bring a tear to her eye. She smiled as the audience whooped and the rest of the friends entered the apartment for a group hug. Kate really was relaxed. If only she knew what was about to happen two floors below.

FORTY-ONE

With the fire blazing in the living room for the first time since James’s death, Matilda had decided to stay up beside the fire rather than go to bed early or sit in her library with a mug of tea and packet of biscuits.

She was glad she didn’t have to go out anymore tonight. When she opened the door for Pat and Adele to leave, the rain had intensified. They didn’t linger on the doorstep. A quick goodbye before they ran to their cars. Matilda waited in the shelter of the doorway before they drove away. She closed the door on the foul weather and shivered.

Adele and