A Clattering of Jackdaws (The Birdwatcher Series Book 2) Read online

  “I can’t.” Now it was Sarah who was playing her cards close to her chest. Tyler couldn't read her at all, but he thought it best to call Carson and warn him to be on the lookout for any cars coming up the drive before Tyler got back. “He’s innocent,” he added.

  “So you keep saying,” Sarah replied.

  “If you talked to him you’d understand why I’m so sure,” he said.

  “If you let me come along like I wanted to, I would have talked to him by now,” Sarah said, and Tyler was glad to see something of her natural playfulness was back in her tone. For a second he thought about telling her where Carson was, but it was only a second and then it was gone. There was no upside to her having that information.

  “Touché,” he smiled. It was time for Sarah to tell him about the decoding of the message and for him to tell her everything he’d learned with Carson. Well, almost everything.

  Chapter 30

  DESPITE HIS NERVOUSNESS and doing all he could to remain alert, Carson Lemond’s body wasn’t up to the task of staying awake when Tyler left. He turned off all the lights in the house and walked from room to room looking out every window in turn. It really was isolated here, you couldn’t see so much as a street light even in the distance. The night sound of the woods, unfamiliar to him, carried on the still night and while he was awake each new sound made him more nervous than before.

  “It’s all in your head,” Carson told himself aloud. It was mental exhaustion getting the better of him and the only way to combat it was to go to sleep and try to regain some of his strength.

  He did one more circuit of the windows and made sure they and the door were locked and then went to the spare room Tyler had showed him. Laying down in the bed, Carson was at once the most restful he’d been in what seemed like years. Meeting Tyler had been a turn of luck, but the idea of who the man was that put them in contact didn’t go away.

  Tyler hadn’t asked where Carson had got his number from, but it was clear Tyler thought it was from Buddy. Carson wasn’t sure why he hadn’t corrected Tyler on this. Now he wondered why.

  But not for long.

  Even as dull answers began to come to his mind, his eyes drooped and then closed and soon he was fast asleep. A sweet dreamless sleep any man would kill for.

  Waking with a start and sitting bolt upright in bed, Carson knew there was someone else in the house before he heard a thing. It was like a dark presence and it scared the hell out of him. For a fraction of a second he wondered if he was asleep and dreaming, but he dismissed the idea instantly. No, he was not asleep and nor was he alone. Someone was in the house and for whatever reason his unconscious mind didn’t think it was Tyler.

  Carson looked to his watch and saw that it was only one in the morning. He hadn’t even been asleep an hour yet. He wished he had a gun. Sitting on the side of the bed, Carson listened intently. Something had woken him up; he was sure of it. The wind sighed through the trees on the other side of the river and it sounded like the sea crashing on a rocky shore. Had that been it? He didn’t think so.

  He got to his feet and silently crossed the room to the door. He’d closed it when he went to bed and regretted that decision now. Using all his powers of recall he tried to remember if the door made noise as it opened and closed. If whoever was in the house didn’t know where he was, there was no clearer calling sign than a loudly creaking door to let him know.

  The handle dipped quietly and then Carson pulled gently and felt the door glide easily towards him. These must be the best oiled hinges in the world, it was completely soundless. Sticking his head through the small gap he’d made, Carson looked up and down the short hallway. No sign of anyone. He wondered if Tyler had a gun and supposed he did, living out here in the country like this. There had to be at least a hunting rifle in the house. The question was where was it and was he closer to it than the other guy.

  Carson held his breath and stepped out into the hallway, looking to the floor so as to not kick anything over and cause a ruckus. His heart beat hard and fast in his chest and he inhaled a long deep breath and slowly exhaled in an effort to bring it back under control.

  Movement caught Carson’s eye and he instinctively pressed his back flat to the wall and looked where he’d seen the shape. It hadn’t been anything solid, perhaps a shadow but it was proof enough that he was not alone. All thoughts of it being Tyler were gone now. Whoever it was, they were here for him and it was up to him to make sure they didn’t get him.

  His mind was drifting towards the idea of a hitman for the Castino family who had managed to track him down. It was the most likely thing. If it was the police or the FBI the whole house would have been bathed in light by now and someone with a bullhorn would be shouting for him to come out with his hands in the air.

  No, whoever this was didn’t want to disturb Carson at all; that would only complicate his job. Well, Carson thought, too late now, I know you’re here. He looked around for something he could use as a weapon. There was no doubt his opponent would be armed and it would be nice to have something other than his bare fists to bring to that kind of fight.

  “You can come in to the sitting room,” a strong voice startled him from the darkness. “No one is here to hurt you.” Carson recognised the voice but it took a couple of seconds before he could place it. When it hit home, however, it was like a thunder stick to his head. It was the killer who’d been washing his hands in the bathroom in Vito’s! The man who had set him up!

  “Who is it?” Carson called, knowing he was discovered but trying to buy some time.

  “You know who it is,” the voice said, “Well, perhaps not my name, but we have met before and only very recently.”

  Carson’s head began to swim as he backed a little towards the bedroom he’d been sleeping in. It was a good thing he was up against the wall as his legs felt suddenly as though they were made of jelly and wouldn’t hold him up for much longer.

  ‘What the fuck is happening to me,’ he thought; was he having an anxiety attack or something? He’d never felt like this before in his life. The back of his neck felt hot and as though an insect bite was starting to make itself known. He ran his hand over the skin and scratched at it.

  “The effects of the injection I gave you should be kicking in around now,” the voice from the living room came again though it sounded much farther away now. Carson’s eyes were blurring and the hallway grew and extended in length and width as he tried to get his bearings.

  A man, a huge man appeared at the end of the hallway and Carson tried to see his face. It was no use though and he couldn’t focus on it at all. He heard warped laughter and the man was coming towards him now and there was nothing Carson could do about it at all. He felt his back sliding down along the wall.

  “Don’t worry,” the man said and this was the last Carson knew before losing consciousness completely.

  Chapter 31

  THE HOUSE, OR SHOULD she say basement lockup, was abuzz with the news. There was another new one coming to the house today. Eric had come into the common room with the news which had been delivered in a note thrown down the shaft the meals come from.

  “Who is it?” Megan asked, curious to think it had been like this that day she came here, which wasn’t all that long ago.

  “We never know that until they arrive and tell us,” Suzanne said. There was a clip to her tone as usual and Megan saw Ellie roll her eyes and shake her head at it.

  “It doesn’t say when, but all the rest of us here arrived after dinner on the days we came,” Eric said musing.

  “They day we ‘arrived’!” Megan scoffed, “You make it sound like a good thing.” Eric cast a bitter look at Megan but ignored her words; there had been enough arguments with the new troublemaker already.

  “Well, hopefully our new housemate will be of a more optimistic bent than the last ‘delivery,’” he said and she knew he’d changed the word for her benefit. Megan didn’t rise to the bait. She planned to get out of here and didn’t wan
t to spend her last days arguing with these brainwashed assholes. Her spine tingled at the idea of getting out. She’d found a way, or at least was close to it. Ellie agreed.

  Behind the shaft where the food came down there was a mechanism that controlled the lift. It was a basic design that wouldn’t require much maintenance, if any at all, but when Megan had collected the food a few nights ago, she felt an air flow coming. It was not coming from above but from behind the pulleys and weights. She was sure there was an open area, or crawl space behind it that led to outside and that was where she and Ellie were going to get out. She’d told Ellie about it already and when it was her turn to get the food, she nodded in agreement with Megan’s evaluation when she came back to the rest of the group. It was hard to sit through that meal without a smile beaming all over both their faces.

  The day carried on as normal with the exception of the growing excitement of a new person coming. Megan wondered how many people it would take, shoved down here in an ever shrinking space, before the others would accept it as a bad thing. There probably wasn’t a number so long as they were still alive and getting fed every day.

  Megan was on one of her many daily walks around the basement rooms when she heard a thumping noise and then the sound of someone having the breath knocked out of them. She went to the room with the slide from upstairs, the same one she’d been sent down here on and sure enough, a man lay on the ground trying to catch his breath. Without thinking Megan started to run up the slide but the door was already closed and she stepped back down to the floor.

  “Who are you?” Where am I?” the man asked. He was sitting up now and looking at her, his back pressed to the wall on the far side of the room. She saw him looking her over for weapons

  “Don’t be afraid,” she said, “This is probably the safest place you’ve been for a long time.”

  “Where is ‘here’?” he asked, getting to his feet slowly, his eyes roving the room.

  “You're in the basement of a farmhouse I don’t know where exactly, but you are a hostage of a serial killer called Dwight Spalding, just like the rest of us.” Megan surprised herself with how coolly she described their joint predicament.

  “Serial killer?” The man looked suddenly very panicked. Who could blame him?

  “I’m Megan Stanver,” she answered nodding to his question, “What’s your name?”

  “Carson,” he said. “Why are we here?” His eyes looked so unfocused and she could see his mind was whirring around faster than it ever had in his life before. He was so confused.

  “Most of us are here to make sure members of our family did horrible things for Spalding,” Megan said. “Is that the case with you?”

  “What? No,” he shook his head, “I’ve never heard of this guy before in my life. I have no family.” Megan felt herself take a half step backwards at this statement. The idea this man was planted down here to keep an eye on them was suddenly foremost in her mind.

  “Why are you here then?” she asked, her eyebrows raised and her eyes more alert to his movements now.

  “I don’t know,” Carson said, tears welling up his eyes. “Someone came to a house I was staying in, I was drugged and I woke up in a chute and then right away I was sent falling down here.”

  “You didn't see the man who drugged you?”

  “No,” he said, weeping softly, turning his head from her in embarrassment. Megan felt bad for him and said nothing for a few moments.

  “You better come and meet the rest of us,” she said when he composed himself, “You’ll only have to tell your story once that way.”

  They were all shocked to see Carson Lemond sitting in the common area, each of them having been summoned there by Megan. They sat and listened to his story and Megan watched both Carson as he spoke and the reactions of the others. The story was wild and fanciful, but then who amongst them didn’t have a story just as crazy? This wasn’t a normal world they were all living in now and who knew what was true and what wasn’t.

  “Why do you think you are here?” Eric asked when they had all told their own stories. It was a good question, but what annoyed Megan about it was that Eric was only curious. He wasn’t hoping to glean some information that might help them all in their fight against their captor.

  “I have no idea why any of the things that have happened to me lately are going on,” Carson said and he looked close to tears again. He seemed believable, Megan thought. Should she try to include him in her plans to escape before the rest of them started turning him over to their side? It would be good to have a man with them, to add some more strength and they might stand a better chance of one getting away if there were three trying. Even if only one got away that should be enough to get help here soon. Probably not soon enough to save anyone else, but soon enough to stop Spalding from destroying every bit of evidence that was here.

  It was a risk though, what if he was involved with Spalding somehow, or told one of the others here? All of her hopes would be crushed with one uttered word. Her eyes went to Ellie who was looking at Carson as he spoke. Megan couldn’t make this decision without talking to Ellie first. She would bring it up tonight when everyone was in bed.

  Chapter 32

  IT WAS DEEP NIGHT AND dark by the time Tyler swung off the main road and onto the short access road that led to his house. He was tired from so much driving over the last twenty four hours and he was looking forward to a solid six or seven hours of sleep. He assumed Carson would be just as tired, if not more and so and would sleep late in the morning. He certainly hoped so.

  There were no lights on in the place and it felt strange to think that someone else was inside. Tyler had long been used to coming home to an empty house. As soon as he stepped out of the car, however, Tyler knew something was not right. He wasn’t sure what it was, some faint smell on the air or just a feeling, but he was sure he was right. He always trusted his instincts and they rarely let him down. An image of Carson lying dead inside came to mind; that was the most likely thing.

  Tyler rounded the house and came in by the back door. The house was silent and he got the sense that whatever it was that had happened was long over by now. There was no point in calling out Carson’s name. He crept around the ground floor looking for signs of disturbance. The things on his desk had been moved but not in a searching way and he thought that had been Carson being curious. Had the mob somehow tracked him down and put a bullet in his head to keep him quiet for the trouble he had caused them?

  There was no sign of a struggle and he went to the room Carson had been supposed to sleep in. The bed had been used but was cold to the touch. Hours too late to help. Satisfied that the house was empty, Tyler turned on some lights and gave thought again to the idea of getting some German Shepherds to guard the house when he was not here. Someone had been in this place tonight and taken Carson away. They only questions were, did he call them here himself and was he dead or alive when he left?

  This question was answered when Tyler went back to his desk to see if anything was missing. Between the shuffled pages, there was a small sheet of paper that wasn’t his. Scrawled in green letters made with a marker on yellow legal pad paper, read: I have him. He is alive and you will see him very soon.

  There was no signature but Tyler knew who this was. It also confirmed his suspicions that Dwight Spalding had been at his house before. His mind flashed to the view of his house from the far side of the river. Anger rose in him to the extent that his vision was blurred and Tyler put his hand on the desk to steady himself. Having a suspicion was one thing but having it confirmed was quite another. Spalding had gone too far this time and Tyler wasn’t going to let this one go. Up to now he’d been working on a lot of stories in the background and doing research for this book, but right now he had a new idea for a book. It was going to be about how he brought down the most notorious serial killer in American history.

  Forcing himself to take some deep breaths and calm down, Tyler poured himself a scotch and downed it in one.
He was not going to get anywhere losing his head, he knew this from past experience. Though he hadn’t made the decision, he knew he was going to call Sarah tonight and tell her what had happened. You couldn't get more honest than that and it wouldn’t do any harm to his goal of keeping her on side. As he thought this, Tyler realised instantly that any phone or computer he had in this house were now useless to him. Spalding seemed to have a great deal of tech knowhow. He could have done anything to any of the laptops or untraceable phones that were littered about the place. Tyler would have to go to his backup stockpile and buy a new laptop in the morning. It was the only way to be sure.

  For now, though, it meant another drive. He needed to get far away from here and call Sarah from a public phone. Wearily he went out and got into the car once more. It felt like he’d been behind this wheel constantly for the last few days and his back cried out at sitting in that same position again. If only he’d been able to get some sleep before any of this happened.

  Tyler let the windows down and the cold night air washed in over him. How many times had he driven at night like this, his the only car on the road and his body crying out for rest. Too many to count; came with the territory. He kept his eyes on the mirror and to the sides of the road for any cars that might appear or were parked in the darkness this far out from any town. Spalding could still be around, watching him and toying with him.

  He drove through the first three towns he came to, thinking it best to get some distance from his home before trying to call Sarah. It was likely she was in bed by now and probably long asleep but he had to get to her now.

  There was a diner on the outskirts of town and he pulled over. The need for coffee was as powerful as the need for a phone. He went inside and ordered and saw a payphone at the end of the counter. He weighed up the odds of Spalding having been able to get to that phone and thought it very unlikely indeed. He called Sarah and sat back against the wall waiting for her to answer.