The Forgotten Holocaust. Scott Mariani
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number.
Or it could have been them.
What if they’d discovered the things she’d had to leave behind in the cabin? What if there was something among them to identify her? Or else, what if Angela had innocently mentioned Erin’s visit to the cabin to her husband? Or what if Joe, the driver, had said something? There were any number of ways that her presence there could be found out.
They know where I live, she’d thought. And that was them calling. Now they know I’m home.
Convinced that it wasn’t safe to stay put another minute, she’d acted fast. The video evidence wasn’t great, but nonetheless she’d quickly burned it onto two blank DVDs. Like Daddy had said: always have a backup. Then she’d hurried upstairs to pull on an old pair of running shoes from her wardrobe. Stuffed a few more things into her backpack. Unlocked the steel ammo cabinet under her bed, taken out all three of the ready-loaded Springfield magazines she kept in there, and dropped them into the zippered side pocket of her backpack together with the pistol itself. There was a can of Mace in a bedside drawer, put there as a last defensive resort in case of a home invasion when she didn’t have her gun to hand. She tossed the Mace in the pack, too. Now she was ready.
Outside, the sleeping street had been empty. No suspicious-looking cars were parked nearby, no sinister watchers spying on the house. Hobbling slightly on her tender feet, she’d left the house at an awkward jog that quickly became a run.
And she hadn’t been back there since.
Now here she was holed up in this motel, two nights later and eleven miles outside the city, unable to sleep, barely venturing outside except when hunger drove her the quarter-mile to the greasy diner the other side of the highway. She was still racking her brains night and day as to how to deal with what she’d witnessed, and going nowhere.
All she knew was that she daren’t return home right now. There was nobody else she could go to, either. Darryl, her ex? Forget it. Her friends? How could she burden them with this? Her mother? No chance. Now she’d hooked up with her new man – was that the fourth since Daddy died, or the fifth? – she spent her days in the trailer they called home, steadily obliterating what was left of her brains with cheap liquor. They hardly even spoke any more, and Erin was damned if she was going to turn up there looking for help or shelter.
Maybe she should just take off. Hit the road in Daddy’s old car and keep going, get as far away from Oklahoma as she could and find a place to begin again.
It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to start a whole new life.
After a quick check, the doctor determined that Ben was in a fit state to receive the visitors. The police detectives sat either side of the bed and a screen was pulled around the three of them to serve as a flimsy shield against the curiosity of the old guys on the ward.
The male officer, who introduced himself as Detective Inspector Healy, was a nervous, sallow little man in his fifties, with eyes that wouldn’t stay still and never seemed to blink. Ben took an instant dislike to him, but there was nothing so unusual about that. His female sidekick, Detective Sergeant Nash, was about twenty years younger and looked a little more human.
Ben knew why she was there. Send a woman officer in for the gentle touch when there’s bad news to break. Just in case the weaker ones break down.
‘Let’s have it,’ he said to them before they could state the nature of their visit. ‘Was she killed or was she kidnapped?’
‘Why would you think she’d been kidnapped?’ Healy said with a curious look.
‘We’ll get to that,’ Ben said. ‘Talk to me.’
‘I’m afraid Miss Hall was dead when we arrived on the scene,’ said Nash, as gently as it could be said. ‘She suffered very extensive wounding. It wouldn’t have been possible to save her. Next of kin have been informed and family members are on their way. I’m very sorry.’
Ben took a deep breath. He remained silent for a long moment as he absorbed the news. So now he knew. His worst fears were confirmed. He’d let her down, and now she was dead as a result. If he’d had all his wits about him and hadn’t been rat-arsed on Scotch, weak and unfit and softened up by weeks of wallowing in self-pity, the two killers wouldn’t have had a chance. Not if there’d been three of them, or even four. Kristen Hall would still be alive now.
‘What kind of extensive wounding?’ he asked, and saw DS Nash almost flinch at the question. When he looked at Healy, he could see the sudden pallor in the man’s face. He knew right away that they’d both personally seen the body; and that whatever injuries Kristen had sustained were like nothing either police officer had seen before.
Nash began, ‘Mr Hope, I think it would be best if we didn’t—’
‘I want to know.’
‘Miss Hall suffered, ah, multiple stab wounds to every major organ,’ Nash said with difficulty, after a pause. ‘Extensive lacerations to the face. They … they—’ She stopped, as if she couldn’t bring herself to say it. She looked pale, almost ready to throw up.
‘They punctured her eyes and slit her throat,’ Healy finished grimly. ‘The cut was so deep it almost severed her head. We don’t know whether she was still alive by that point.’
Ben felt something rip in his hands, and realised he’d been gripping the hospital bed sheet so tightly that he’d torn it. Now he understood why Nash looked so sick. He thought about Kristen, saw her face in his mind, heard her voice, her laugh. He wanted to be sick too. He swallowed hard and steeled himself.
Healy cleared his throat and went on, ‘We have two witnesses, a couple on holiday from Antwerp who are staying at Pebble Beach Guesthouse and observed a pair of men get out of a vehicle and pursue Miss Hall along the beach. They witnessed the whole thing: the attack, your intervention, you being struck over the head and knocked to the ground, after which one of the attackers produced a bladed weapon. The male witness got a detailed view of it all through binoculars. He’s, uh, what do you call it?’
‘An ornithologist,’ Nash filled in.
‘So he saw the stabbing take place?’ Ben asked.
Nash nodded. ‘Moments later, the two suspects retreated to a vehicle that had been reported stolen from Ballyvaughan earlier in the day.’
‘The car was found abandoned and on fire late last night, down the coast near Lahinch,’ Healy said. ‘A local saw the blaze and called the Garda.’
‘And no sign of the two men.’ Ben wasn’t asking.
‘Everything is being done to trace their whereabouts,’ Healy replied insistently. It was the usual line, designed to make it sound as though the authorities were in full control of the situation.
‘Doesn’t sound to me as if you have a lot to go on,’ Ben said. ‘They’ve covered their tracks pretty well so far.’
‘We’re hoping you can help us there,’ Nash said.
‘Meaning I’m the only one who saw them up close and personal. The only one alive, that is.’
‘Would you recognise them?’
‘I’d know their faces.’
‘Can you describe them?’
Ben shrugged. ‘Both white. Not young, not old. Maybe around my age, late thirties, early forties. Both physically fit, lean build, able to handle themselves. Neither of them spoke a word, so no telling if they’re Irish, or English, or what. One a little taller than the other, say six foot. Short hair, military style. Navy jacket, synthetic, maybe nylon.’
Nash had taken out a pad and was rapidly scribbling notes.
‘The