Cruel Comfort (Evan Buckley Thrillers Book 1) (20 page)

He slumped down into a rocking chair
in the corner of Hendricks' bedroom and wondered what to do next. It was now
too dark to do anything useful without turning on the lights. After Guillory
and Ryder's visit he didn't feel comfortable doing that. Driving away could be
a ploy and they might come back. Then he remembered the basement. He could turn
the lights on down there and it wouldn't be visible from outside. It was
probably his best bet anyway - wasn't that where the bodies were always buried?

He went back downstairs and round to
the basement door. The house was eerily quiet. It seemed very different in the
dark and he felt for the comforting presence of the SIG-Sauer. He patted his
pocket - nothing. He patted the other one - again, nothing. A slight frisson of
panic went through him.  It must have fallen out when I fell, he thought. He
turned round and started back up the stairs. A number of the treads creaked as
he stepped on them, sending a shiver across his skin. They hadn't creaked
before. At the top of the stairs he groped his way round the wall to the
doorway that he'd crashed into. His ear throbbed in sympathy. He got down on
his hands and knees and explored the area immediately around the doorway. No
gun. It must be in the bedroom. He did a methodical sweep across the floor
starting at the door and moving towards the window, but still couldn't find it.
Under the bed? He got down on his belly and slithered underneath. Sure enough,
he felt it in the furthest corner. It had come to rest against a pile of other
junk. If he'd had some light he might have had a look to see what was under
there. But not in the dark. From the smell he'd have said there was at least
one successfully deployed mousetrap with its decomposing victim. It didn't make
him want to feel around blindly.

He slid back out with the gun in his
hand feeling much better. He didn't want to lose Faulkner's property, after
all. He straightened up onto his knees and glanced out the window. He did a
double take. There was a sliver of light showing under the doors to the smaller
barn. Then it was gone. Had he imagined it? He knew it hadn't been on before.
Guillory and Ryder would have noticed. But how was it possible for someone to
be in there, if the doors were padlocked from the outside? There must be
another door. Guillory and his fat partner should have checked. He’d have a
word with Guillory about his sloppy work next time he saw him.

What should he do now? He could
phone Guillory and pretend that he'd just got there and seen the light. Perhaps
he should go down and check first to see if there really was another door. He
might be able to lock it from the outside so that whoever was inside -
Hendricks presumably - couldn't escape.

Before he could decide he heard a
faint noise from downstairs. He held his breath and listened. He heard the low
rumble of two men's voices. Had Guillory and Ryder sneaked back on foot? But it
sounded like it was coming from somewhere inside the house, and he hadn't heard
the door open. He'd checked all the rooms - except the basement. Had they been
down there all the time? It wasn't possible - they would have heard him,
especially when he fell over. He was trapped. Even if they stayed in the
basement, they would hear him if he tried to sneak back downstairs - the stairs
would creak for sure if he did.

Any kind of decision was abruptly
taken out of his hands as he heard the unmistakable sound of the basement door
opening. He fought to control the panic that he felt rising inside him. He was
still on his knees by the side of the bed. As quietly as he could he lowered
himself back down onto his belly and slid back under the bed, turning his head
so that he could see out. From where he was he could see the rug still rucked
up on the landing.
Shit. He couldn't do anything about it now.
He wormed
his way in as far as he could go, and brushed something soft with the back of
his head. The smell of rotting rodent assaulted his nasal passages and made him
want to retch.

The light over the stairwell
suddenly came on and someone heavy started up the stairs. Evan tried to draw
himself further back under the bed. He touched something with the back of his
head and heard the snap of another mousetrap going off. The unexpected noise
made him jerk his head away and bang the wooden slats supporting the mattress.
It sounded like a thunderclap to his hyper-sensitive nerves.

'Hey Jason, I just need to get
something from my room before we go,' a voice he didn't recognize called. The
voice didn’t seem to have heard anything.

'For Christ's sake, I've told you
it's Carl now,' he heard Hendricks reply with obvious irritation in his voice.
‘Do I have to wear a name badge?’

'Yeah, right. Sorry, I keep
forgetting.’        

The voice had reached the top of the
stairs. Evan couldn't see his face from where he was lying, just his feet and
the legs from the knees down.

‘Jas…Carl, what’s been going on with
the rug up here?’ the voice called.

Evan closed his eyes and prayed
silently to a God he didn’t believe in.

'What the hell are you talking
about? We haven't got time for housework. Just get what you need and get back
down here. We need to go.'

The guy grumbled something under his
breath that sounded a lot like
dickhead
and went into the room that Evan
had searched earlier. The light went on and Evan heard him get something out of
one of the drawers. He couldn't remember seeing anything more important than
clean underwear in them but he might have missed something. The light went off
again and the guy came back onto the landing and suddenly stopped dead.

Evan could see his feet facing
towards him. He held his breath. The dust under the bed was starting to irritate
his nose. He daren’t sneeze. He was sure the guy must be able to hear his heart
thumping wildly in his chest. Had he seen something else? Maybe there was blood
smeared on the door frame. Seconds passed. What on earth was the guy doing? His
feet hadn’t moved but had he pulled out his gun?

The tickle in Evan’s nose was
getting unbearable. He was going to sneeze any second. He could feel it
building. Carefully he turned his head to face the floor and pressed his nose
into it. He forgot that it was broken. A sharp stab of pain made him gasp.

‘Did you say something?’ he heard
the guy call down the stairs.

‘No, I did
not
say anything,’
Hendricks’ taut voice came back. ‘What the hell are you doing up there?’ Evan
heard him step onto the first tread. He could imagine him peering upwards,
trying to see what his friend was doing. He stepped up onto the second tread.

‘Nothing. I’m just coming,’ the guy
said as his OCD kicked in. Despite Hendricks’ increasing impatience, he hadn’t
been able to just walk past the rug. He took a second to straighten it out
again and then went back downstairs.

Evan heard Hendricks say, 'Got
everything you need? Don't forget your hairdryer, you pansy.'

'Up your,
Jason
,' the guy
said. Evan could hear the smirk on his face.

Hendricks ignored him. 'Come on,
let's go.'

Evan didn't know whether they were
just popping out for Pizza or whether they were about to leave for good.
Hendricks couldn't possibly think he could stay hiding in his basement forever.
On the other hand, was he going to simply walk away from everything he had
here? The most likely answer was he was going to lie low until he could find
out if Faulkner died or not. That meant they were probably coming back.
Although the crack about the hairdryer suggested they were going away for a
while.

He thought about going down and
confronting them. He had the gun and he could hold them until Guillory got
there. He decided it was too risky.
He
knew Faulkner was making a good
recovery and might not even press charges against his brother-in-law, but
Hendricks might think he'd killed Faulkner and that would make him desperate to
escape. Added to that, the other guy had a gun too and, if it was the army
buddy, knew how to use it a whole lot better than Evan did. Discretion was
definitely the better part of valor on this occasion, he decided.

He heard them go into the kitchen.

'Where's the damn key?' he heard
Hendricks say. He was starting to sound very pissed indeed. 'It was in the
lock.'

Evan felt a sudden tightness in his
chest. He had the key in his pocket. Why had he done that? He should have left
it where it was.

'Don't look at me,' the other guy
said in a defensive tone, 'I didn't touch it.'

‘That makes a change.’

It went very quiet in the kitchen.
Were things falling into place in Hendricks' mind - the rug and now the missing
key? Evan's heart was pounding. Surely it was obvious there was an intruder in
the house. Or was he blaming his friend?

'Haven't you got a spare?' the guy
said.

'Of course I've got a spare. It's in
this drawer. But I want to know what happened to the one that was in the lock.'

'What the hell for? Was it your
favorite?' Evan could hear the smirk again.

'Don't be stupid.'

'You want to watch who you're
calling stupid.’

‘Is that so?’

‘I'm not the one who brained
Faulkner. Now
that's
stupid.'

'Really. What would you have done?
You’re not exactly the go-to person for useful suggestions.’ Their voices were
starting to get raised now. Evan prayed that it would turn into a full scale
fight and they’d forget about everything else.

'I don't know. I wouldn't have
brained
him
, that's for damn sure. If I was going to brain anyone, it'd
be that other interfering bastard.'

Upstairs, Evan's blood ran cold. A
cold sweat broke out on his forehead and he felt his legs go weak. Jacobson had
been right. He was in real danger from Hendricks and his partner. Thank God he
hadn't gone down and confronted them.

Then a sudden realization took hold in
his mind. He actually started to tremble. He didn't know if it was from fear or
excitement. He'd been worrying about them finding him in the house while they
were trying to make their escape – that, like Guillory, he was after them for
attacking Faulkner. But the
interfering bastard
remark couldn’t be about
that. He'd only spoken to Hendricks once and that had been before Faulkner was
attacked. Meaning, if they saw him as a threat, it was because his interfering
was getting close to something else. And that could only be one thing - the
disappearance of Daniel Clayton.

'Maybe I'll do that too,' he heard
Hendricks say downstairs.

'Well if you do, make sure you do a
proper job this time.'

Hendricks laughed derisively. 'That's
great coming from you. At least I've got the balls to do it.'

'Is that so? It was you who got us
into all this shit in the first place.'

'Me? You...'

Evan didn’t catch the end of the
sentence as it was drowned out by the sound of someone crashing into the table.
One of them had shoved the other one. He heard the scrape of chair legs on the
floor. There was a slap and one of them grunted.

‘You better put that back down, you
retard,’ he heard Hendricks say, ‘or I’m gonna shove it up your ass sideways.’

Then, before it could go any further
there was a sound that stopped them in their tracks. Evan pictured them
standing staring into each other's faces, panting, their mouths hanging open,
all thought of their argument gone as they heard it. The sound of a car pulling
into the driveway.

'Shit. It must be the police again,'
Hendricks said. 'Come on. Before they see us.'

Evan heard the pair of them run
across the kitchen and out into the hallway. He heard the basement door open
and then slam shut again before everything went quiet. Outside the car had
carried on round the side of the house and pulled to a halt outside the back
door. The light in the kitchen was still on, spilling out into the yard. Evan
heard the car doors open and two men jump out. Seconds later he heard banging
on the back door and Guillory's voice shouting over the top of it.

Evan slid out from under the bed and
stood up. He was happy to let them in now. Hendricks and his accomplice were
down in the basement and he'd be able to send them down there after them. With
any luck Ryder would go first and get shot before Guillory saved the day. His
only concern was Faulkner's gun. He didn't want to be caught with it. He turned
the landing light on and called down the stairs that he was coming. Then he ran
into Hendricks' room, pulled open the drawer to the nightstand and dropped the
SIG-Sauer in.
You can explain that to them as well, you bastard.

Guillory was still pounding on the
door as Evan trotted down the stairs and along the hallway to the kitchen.

He didn't want to use the key he had
in his pocket. He wanted to keep that one in case he decided to come back
again. He remembered Hendricks saying that the spare was in the drawer. He put
his hands on his head just to be on the safe side and stepped into the kitchen.
The table had been knocked across the room and one of the chairs was upended.
There was a large kitchen knife sitting on the table.

 Too late he realized he was still
wearing the cotton gloves. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice with the shock of
finding him there. Guillory's face through the glass door panel was a picture.
Evan scanned the room quickly and saw one of the drawers pulled half way out.
Hendricks must have been in the middle of getting the spare out before they
started arguing. Evan dropped his hands and held up his finger to say
wait
just one minute
. Then he walked over to the drawer and opened it all the
way. He was in luck. There was a bunch of spare keys on a ring. He took them
out and crossed the kitchen to the back door.

Guillory was standing outside with
his hands on his hips with a hurry-up look on his face. Ryder was eating
something without closing his mouth properly. Evan hadn't paid a lot of
attention to the key he used to lock the door but there was one on the key ring
that looked like a probable match. He slipped it into the lock and it turned
first time.
Yes.
Then he pulled the door open and stood aside.

'What in God's name are you doing
here?' Guillory said as he stepped past Evan. Ryder followed him without saying
anything. Be thankful for small mercies, Evan thought. Ryder had chocolate on
his chin. Evan pointed to his own chin and mouthed
mucky pup
.

Evan hadn't had enough time to get a
story together. He decided to say as little as possible. People with a guilty
conscience always give too much information.

'I wanted to have a look round.'

'You mean you fancied a bit of
breaking and entering.' Guillory said. ‘I see you came prepared.’ He pointed at
Evan’s gloved hands. ‘Or do you just feel the cold more than most people?’

So much for not noticing, Evan
thought, pulling the gloves off and stuffing them in his pocket.

'No, the door was unlocked. I locked
it behind me.'

Guillory didn't look as if he
believed him but there was no evidence of a break-in. 'What time did you get
here?'

Evan knew he had to tell them the
truth. He couldn't pretend he hadn't been in the house the last time they came.
He’d just told them the door was unlocked, so if they’d got there first they
would have found it open, not locked. 'I got here just before you did.’

‘You can’t have. We’ve been sitting
down the road waiting for the past fifteen minutes at least. Nobody passed us.
You didn’t walk across the fields did you?’

‘I meant just before you arrived the
first time.'

'You were in the house the whole
time?' Guillory's voice had taken on a sharp edge.

Evan nodded.

'Why didn't you let us in?'

'Because I was hoping to avoid this
conversation.'

'I bet. And stop us doing our job at
the same time.'

Evan started to say something but
Guillory cut him off. 'If the door was unlocked like you say, we could have had
a look around ourselves.'

'And not had to come back again,'
Ryder added.

Evan wanted to say, 'Sorry for
wasting your valuable donut eating time,' but was sensible enough to hold his
tongue. He wasn't in what you'd call a position of strength. It was time to
play his ace.

'You'll be glad it worked it that
way,' he said.

'Oh, really?' Ryder said.

'Yes, really. Because I can tell you
exactly where they are.'

'They?'

'It means more than one person.'

'Okay Buckley, drop the wisecracks,'
Guillory said. Evan was sure he'd seen a smile cross his face. 'Who are
they
?'

'Hendricks and a friend...' He'd
been about to say he thought it was the army friend that Hendricks went to
prison with, before he caught himself. He didn't know how much Guillory knew
and didn't want to have to start explaining it all from the beginning.

'Okay. Where are they? And what’s
been going on in here?' He walked over to the table and picked up the knife.

‘They were starting to have a fight
just as you got here. They’re in the basement now. This way.'

Evan led them to the door leading
down into the basement. 'I heard them run down there when you arrived.'

'You heard them?'

'I was upstairs.' He decided they
didn't need to know he'd been hiding under the bed. He wondered if he smelled
of rotting rat. If he did Guillory wouldn't be able to smell it over the less
than fresh odor coming off his partner. Evan wondered how he could spend all
day in a car with a smell like that. He supposed you got used to anything.

'Upstairs doing what?' Ryder said.
'You weren't hiding under the bed were you?'

Evan said nothing but his face must
have given him away.

'Ha! I don't believe it,' Ryder
exclaimed, a huge grin splitting his normally sour face. 'The big, tough
detective was hiding under the bed while the bad men were downstairs.' He
started laughing.

Evan felt his face color. 'At least
I can fit under the bed,' he said but Ryder was laughing so hard he didn't
hear.

'Okay children,' Guillory said,
'that's enough.'

Ryder wiped a tear away from the
corner of his eye. 'We'll have to try extra hard to keep that out of the
papers.' He started laughing again.

Evan wanted to punch him in the gut
but wasn't sure he'd get his arm back. He turned to Guillory. 'I think
Hendricks' friend has got a gun.' He told him about the empty shoe box in the
closet. 'Why don't you send Ryder down first? He'll provide an impenetrable
shield for the rest of us.'

They both ignored him. It was all
business now at the mention of the gun. Guillory told him to move back out of
the way and they both drew their own pistols. Evan could see that Guillory's
was the same as the one he'd taken from Faulkner's trailer. Guillory pressed
himself flat against the wall, turned the door knob and pushed the door open. On
the other side of the doorway Ryder reached round and flicked the light switch
on. Guillory called down into the basement, telling the men down there to come
up with their hands on their heads. Nobody came forward. Guillory repeated his
order. There wasn't a sound coming up from the basement, and no movement
either. Guillory looked over and nodded at Ryder then took a deep breath and
started slowly down the stairs. Ryder followed him down. It was only about
fifteen seconds before Guillory called up to Evan that it was okay to come
down. Evan hadn't heard a thing.