Hunter Hunted by Jack Gatland (best value ebook reader .TXT) 📗

walked back into the living area. ‘I think I know who’s trying to ruin us. And I need them stopped.’

Outside the apartment complex, Frost yawned as he sat in the driver’s seat of the black Lexus that he’d requisitioned the previous day. He’d followed Billy Fitzwarren from his house that morning, through London and had stopped here, across the road, watching him buzz for entry and enter the building. Frost knew who lived there; he knew the addresses of everyone connected to Rattlestone, and this was top of the list. Well, almost. He considered entering himself, of walking in on Fitzwarren, snapping out his baton and smacking the stupid expression off the idiot boy, but before he could decide on the best way to attack, the door opened and Billy emerged again, writing in his notebook as he passed a blonde woman that entered past him, not even paying attention to her as he did so. Frost tutted to himself.

And he called himself a police officer.

The woman had been Laurie Hooper. Frost had met her twice over the last year or so, she’d been Donna’s right-hand woman until the unstable bitch offed herself. Since then she’d been Charles Baker’s charity case, and the thorn in Will Harrison’s arse cheek. Frost watched Fitzwarren enter his stupid little car and for a moment considered following him. But the thought of catching Hooper and Harrison together was an opportunity for both blackmail and promotion.

Climbing out of the car, he checked his pockets to ensure he was armed, and then walked across the road.

Will was pacing in his living space, frantic and nervous as the doorbell went again. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Will saw that it had been literally two minutes since Fitzwarren had left. The bloody idiot had probably forgotten his way out of the building or something.

‘Bloody detectives,’ he said as he opened the door, facing his second visitor in as many minutes, locking eyes with them as he spoke. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

Laurie Hooper stood there, uncertain, tears streaming down her face.

‘I know you killed her,’ she said, looking around the hallway before pushing past Will and entering the living area. ‘Malcolm explained it to me.’

‘Killed who?’ Will observed the woman, wondering whether he should call the police, an ambulance or both. ‘Kendis Taylor?’

‘Donna!’ Laurie hissed. Will opened and shut his mouth at this.

‘You’re serious?’ he eventually said. ‘Donna Baker was a bipolar manic-depressive who realised she was married to Charles Baker! I’m stunned she didn’t off herself before!’

The backhand from Laurie was unexpected and surprisingly forceful, and Will staggered backwards across the room, only faintly aware that the door to the apartment was still open. With luck, someone would hear this. Maybe the police officer, Fitzwarren, would return with another question.

But nobody did.

‘You convinced her to kill herself!’ Laurie continued. ’Sir Hiss, that’s what they call you. The hypnotic snake in Robin Hood has nothing on you, though!’

‘You’re hysterical,’ Will rubbed at his cheek, aware that no matter what happened, people would see this. The mark would be public until it faded. ‘Have you taken your meds today? I ask because you’re utterly mental, so I’m guessing you take a lot.’

‘You killed Donna, and you killed Kendis,’ Laurie was on a roll now, her eyes bright and wide. Will wondered if she’d taken something, maybe a small amount of coke, to give her Dutch courage for the confrontation. Will almost laughed at this. ‘You killed them both because of Rattlestone.’

‘Well, there you’re right,’ Will clapped his hands. ‘Both of them died because of that. But tell me, how the hell was I supposed to kill Taylor?’

Laurie reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a small, gunmetal blade. Will glanced down at it, his eyes widening in horror as he recognised it.

‘Where did you get that?’ he asked, now backing away from Laurie and the door. ‘Seriously, where did you get it?’

‘A friend gave it to me,’ Laurie was stalking her prey now, licking her lips as she warmed to the task at hand. ‘He told me you tried to hide it, that you were foolish to use it because it’s easy to track back to you.’

‘Look, I’ll admit I bought it, but not for myself,’ Will insisted. ‘I wasn’t the last to speak to Donna, either. Malcolm was. And I bought that bloody thing for—‘

Will Harrison didn’t finish his explanation; as he stared into Laurie’s eyes, trying desperately to invoke some kind of empathy from her, she rammed the Montblanc letter opener in metal Ruthenium and plated with a black inlay into his chest.

Holding it, as if trying to pull it out but unable to work out how, Will stared down at the letter opener, his mouth bubbling and filling with hot, sticky blood, spattering out across his shirt front as he tried to form words. But there were none to come from his lips as he slid to his knees, the blood from the wound now pooling on the surrounding carpet. He made one last, faint gurgling, keening sound, his eyes focusing onto the door behind Laurie, as if willing himself to escape, and then he slumped to the floor, his now lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Laurie stared down at the body for a moment before spitting on it.

‘That was for Donna, you prick,’ she muttered.

There was a sound behind her, a small scuff of the carpet, and Laurie turned around quickly, scared that someone had walked past the open door and seen her premeditated act.

She saw the figure behind, her eyes widening even further with surprised recognition as the taser torch rammed into her sternum, pulsing the electricity through her and sending her twitching to the floor.

28

Grave Robbing

It wasn’t the most comfortable bed he’d ever slept in but he’d had worse, and Declan managed a broken three and a half hours before finally giving up and, rubbing at his