The Dark Place Read online

  I dedicate this book to my great friend from the University of LK,

  Gerry (Blute) McDonnell and his wife, Christine,

  for their kind thoughts and deeds over the dark years of my life.

  May your gods watch over you everlastingly.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  PART ONE THE COMING OF EVIL

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTEr THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  PART TWO THE DARK PLACE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  About the Author

  Also by Sam Millar

  Copyright

  Prologue

  “He was a ferocious man. He had been ill-made in the making. He had not been born right, and he had not been helped any by the moulding he had received at the hands of society. The hands of society are harsh, and this man was a striking sample of its handiwork.”

  Jack London, White Fang

  “You smell so beautiful when you’ve washed,” said the woman, watching him towelling the watered beads from his body.

  He smiled shyly, loving the way she studied him, her eyes moving slowly over the map of his naked body, making it tingle.

  Moving beside him, she began sprinkling talcum powder generously over his skin, kneading it into the pores.

  “You like this, don’t you?” she whispered.

  “Yes …” he managed to say, his voice a croak of anticipation.

  He didn’t just like it; he loved it. Loved the empowering magic her probing fingers brought to his body; loved the smell and texture of talc on his skin, the way it made him feel brand new. Sometimes, when he had been very obedient and good, she used baby oil on his penis, making it glisten like a Greek warrior’s weapon preparing for battle.

  Finished with the talc, she made him turn his back to her, his face directed towards the slightly opened window with his ghostly reflection staring back at him.

  Leaves were moving eerily on one of the many large oak trees stationed outside the house. A bird nestling between the branches was strangely silent, its voyeuristic eyes watching his every movement, seemingly fascinated. It was a raven, and it kept moving its beak in and out, as if secretly communicating.

  Somewhere directly behind, he could hear the fabric of her dress rustling, his mind’s eye seeing her slip seductively out of it, panties and bra following obediently.

  Gently she pressed against him, the roughness of her thick pubic hair feeling like a Brillo pad on his smooth buttocks, and began gyrating her body inwards, her hands clasped on his hips as if he were some flesh and bone bicycle to be ridden. He could feel the coolness of her pale breasts sponging into his back.

  A small breeze suddenly entered the room and touched his nakedness. Like a dark whisper, tickling the pubic hairs rooted there. He could feel his penis slowly rising as the smell of freshly cut grass filled the room, mixing with the loving smell of the talc and her perfume, the one she used for special occasions. He could smell her other smell, also; the salty iron smell of menstruation.

  “You’re beautiful. So exquisitely beautiful,” she whispered, the words on his neck making his skin tingle.

  He continued watching his ghostly reflection in the open window; watched her distorted face stationed near his right shoulder. Slowly, her hands began sliding from his hips, down to his penis.

  They both let out a sigh simultaneously – a dark percussion so soft it was barely audible.

  “Nice?” she asked, pulling gently but firmly on the swelling penis.

  “I … I can’t hold it in,” he said, his voice lost somewhere in the large bedroom.

  “You can and you will,” she hissed, the tone of her voice suddenly changing while wedging fingers and thumb on the now fully erect penis, blocking its inevitable release. “Control is everything … it always brings its rewards … control is god. Repeat that.”

  “Control … control is god.”

  “Good. Now, listen very carefully,” she instructed, her voice slightly hesitant. “I need to tell you something. Something very important. We can no longer … do these things … the things we love. It has become … too dangerous. Do you understand?”

  Her words stole his breath.

  “But … you … you promised. Promised that you would always love me … always.”

  “And I will. Always. But not like this. Not any more. Do you understand?” she asked, squeezing tighter on his penis. The pain was excruciating. It was beautiful, filling his eyes with dark red shadows.

  “No … I don’t understand. You … you promised …”

  “You will understand, eventually. It’s the way of things. For now, you will control all feelings concerning me. Do. You. Understand?” The last three words sounded threatening.

  He could feel tears beginning to form in his eyes and immediately despised their weakness.

  “Please,” he pleaded.

  “Please please please! Always the please,” she admonished, shaking her head with disgust.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Shhhhhhh. It’s okay. It’s okay,” she whispered, kissing his neck, his back, guiding her lips down his spine. He could feel the lips mingling with the talc, her voice resting between his buttocks. “Just enjoy the moment … then we’ll get ready before the Thompsons and other guests arrive. I’m going to make this special …”

  She reached for the oil …

  The afternoon was beautiful, hardly a blemish in the normally moody Belfast sky. Perfect shooting weather. The gathering hunting party – chiefly though not exclusively male – was flawlessly kitted-out like a miniature army preparing for battle. Some of the participants were commenting excursively and confusedly, the good wine slowly erasing all common sense in their heads. For such a potentially dangerous situation, it was almost comically vaudeville. Bird dogs – pebbled leather noses crayoned black – began barking, excited by the potential to have blood and flesh clamped between their eager mouths.

  “Good hunting!” shouted the master of the hunt, and immediately the group cheered, spreading out, following the pattern of the zigzagging dogs that were awaiting their opportunity for first blood to come flying from hidden niches in the ground.

  Wild heather was everywhere, mixing with the swamp of leaves and ferns. With little contrast, it was eas
y to get lost or disorientated.

  Less than fifteen minutes later, the dogs began growling softly, almost secretively. The ground-breeding birds were near.

  “Robert? Are you okay?” asked Frankie Gilmore, the gamekeeper’s son. “You look a bit dazed.”

  “What? … Oh … yes. I’m always okay, Gilmore. Now mind your own business!”

  But he wasn’t okay. She was ignoring him, refusing to glance in his direction, her bawdy laugh contagiously making the men – and even some of the women in the hunting party – laugh along with her. She was good at that. Manipulating. Was she talking about him? Telling them how pathetic he was, crying like a child in the bedroom? Was that the big laugh?

  Suddenly, his head began throbbing. Her laughter was drilling into his skull, her grinning mouth producing a donkey’s guttural bray. Haw haw. Haw haw. Haw fucking haw …

  He studied her face, one more time, before gently squeezing down on the shotgun’s trigger. The single blast abruptly cracked the sky open, its sound absorbed by the vastness. He watched the ejected orange shell parachute to the ground in slow motion, a split second after spreading tiny pomegranate seeds of black metal outwards like a swarm of flies.

  The sound from the shotgun was immediate and demanding. She stopped laughing. They all did. It was over in a split second; a split second that was the culmination of a decision made in cold, calculating blood.

  She turned to look at him, her face puzzled. Her mouth opened, but nothing came. Her hand went to the back of her head, probing. She stared at her fingers covered in thick blood, before suddenly collapsing into a tiny stream of murky water and warm dog shit.

  Everyone began rushing towards her. Everyone except him.

  A disturbing exhilaration of fear and wonder in equal measures suddenly flowed over him while watching her body twitching elliptically in the filthy muck. Almost immediately, her eyes began dimming. Eye sockets shadowed. The verdict was in. The penalty in his hands had spoken. Retribution demanded and received. The swift, fierce satisfaction he felt was almost sexual in its intensity.

  She was gone.

  It was truly beautiful.

  PART ONE

  THE COMING OF EVIL

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing …”

  Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

  Inside the tomb-like structure, dead light stabbed on to the red concrete floor from high, barred windows, bouncing off chipped tiles around the toilet and sink. Shadows formed on the heavy doors’ thick locks and peeling paint.

  The young girl, naked and terrified, walked stealthily on blistering feet and toes wet with blood. Running her hands gingerly along the leprous wall, she began feeling her way in the darkness.

  Immediately, the structure began crumbled at her touch.

  Shit! Flaky metal paint speared her fingertips, wounding and stinging. Blood began flowing freely. Quickly, she smeared the walls with the blood, sponging her fingertips with dust and cobwebs. It hurt like hell, but she uttered not a sound.

  Beyond each section of wall, an alcove disrupted the steady flow. Metal doors of some sort. If only she had better vision. The darkness was thick with stench and dread. It tasted alive.

  S-s-so c-c-cold, she thought, through chattering teeth. Shivering uncontrollably now, the combination of fear and cold began attacking. She bit down hard on her teeth, hoping to prevent their terrible castanet noise exposing her presence to him.

  Plodding slowly onwards, she felt horribly distended. Thighs too big. An unfamiliar weight of body preventing any sort of speed. She hardly recognised this alien structure of fat on her body. All the aberrant heaviness was crushing her ankles, making her breathing laboured.

  They can’t take much more of this pressure. Soon they’ll collapse, taking me with them. This fat, this terrible disgusting fat, is suffocating me. She suddenly felt ugly, as if her organs were disfigured and disproportioned, lacking any symmetry.

  Stopping only for a second, she listened for noise. Her heart was beating furiously inside her skull, blocking out all sounds. She wanted to suffocate it. She needed to listen. Where is he? Is he watching me, right at this moment, his night-vision goggles tight against his ugly, smirking face?

  Above the beating of her heart, she could hear water dripping on to the semi-flooded concrete ground. Where is it coming from? Is it the same incessant drip that has tormented me for weeks? Shouldn’t I be walking away from it, not towards it?

  The guiding wall was becoming more difficult, like a maze confusing every step.

  Without warning, she slipped, landing on jagged bricks. The searing pain forced a wince and a silent moan. Her skin was shredded, stinging like hell. Blood began spilling out, but somehow the leakage made her feel alive.

  Taking a deep breath, she slowly exhaled, repeating the process three more times. Felt slightly dizzy but moved cautiously on, the soles of her feet thwacking off the watery ground, echoing in pulses off the wall.

  Oh my God! In the distance, a light, a small rectangle of opaque glass.

  A window of some sort? Oh God, please …

  She began following the light, its rectangle shape growing steadily larger.

  Don’t take your eye off it. The light began stinging her eyes. Don’t you dare blink! Don’t you dare …

  There! In there!

  Swiftly, she entered a room of some sort with permanent light squeezing in from the outside. A rusted bedspring and frame housed in the room’s bare corner. Creepy shit, she thought, shivering uncontrollably. Old discarded newspapers carpeting the floor. Bits of magazines attached to the walls. Nude and semi-nude girls, posing provocatively. They seemed to be sneering at her.

  Her stomach began tightening.

  Above her, a large, wire-glassed window grilled with bars. Neck-breakingly high. Slightly open. She could hear the sound of distant traffic coming from it. Voices. Laughter. Welcoming night sounds of which she once was a part in the happy days of freedom. When? Weeks? Months? Time had become one elastic dark band, stretching beyond her understanding.

  She wanted to scream for help, but terror and street-smart instinct stilled her voice. Help may not be what comes along …

  Think! Stress and panic began building, burning her chest. The bed frame!

  Stealthily, she began easing it over towards the window, trying desperately to prevent its soft screeching on the bare floor.

  Standing on top, the bed brought her tantalisingly close to the iron bars. Another few inches … you can do it …

  Struggling to stand on tiptoes, her fingers finally touched, stretching before intertwining with the bars. Desperately, she tried pulling herself up. Too weak. Too much weight.

  Fuck that! You’re strong. Not weak. Pull! Pull that fat arse up; don’t allow it to win, weighing you down. Pulllllllllllllllllllllllll!

  With sheer determination, she managed to pull her face up to the bars at a section of damaged wired glass. Peering out, she could see thickets of greenery. Overgrown weeds? Grass? Other than that, there was little sign of life.

  “Martina?”

  The man’s voice startled her. He was on his stomach, gazing in at her through the window, only the filthy wired glass separating them. The night vision goggles on his grinning face made him look like a giant grasshopper hidden between the overgrowths.

  “You’re a very naughty girl, Martina. I told you not to try and escape from my kingdom.”

  “Please …” A croak. Her voice? Was that her voice? “Let me go. I’ll … I’ll do whatever you ask.”

  “You’ve already done what I asked, Martina. Remember? I’ll be with you in a jiff. Don’t lose that pose. Here I co-ome. Ready or no-ot …” sang the man, pushing himself up from the ground before disappearing.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean … a common man and yet an unusual man. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively s
ense of the grotesque …”

  Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder

  Karl Kane sometimes goes on a hunch – a feeling in his piss – and today, sitting in his favourite chair in his office/apartment in Belfast’s Hill Street, was no exception. Private Dickey running in the three o’clock race. The horse favoured firm ground. Last time it ran, it came fifth. An improvement from a previous race, staggering in eighth like a drunk on a Saturday night.

  Not to be deterred by cold statistics, Karl pencilled the eight-to-one long shot in with the rest of his certainties, all with the ease of casualness that Saturday afternoons bring.

  “I’ve a good feeling about you,” said Karl, wiping his forehead for the umpteenth time in a desperate attempt to shift the lazy sweat camping on his face and semi-naked torso. Despite two cold showers in less than an hour, the insufferable heat was saturating his body with uncomfortable sticky dampness, wilting a nicotine patch on his upper arm.

  Standing, he walked to an open window, trying to widen it further. The air travelling through felt gummy on his skin. A chugging ceiling fan directly above his head did little to moderate the stifling air. “Bastarding heat,” he mumbled, scratching vigorously on the legend of his underwear: Caution: Contains Nuts.

  Checking the newspaper again, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a voice screaming his name.

  “Karl!” exclaimed a young woman, popping her head in through the doorway, applying lipstick to her mouth while talking – a feat that always amazed Karl, no matter how many times he witnessed it. Extremely attractive and lissom, Naomi Kirkpatrick was dark-skinned with large hazel eyes, and wild black hair cascading in every direction. Despite the northern cadence in her voice, there remained a slight trace of the south.

  Twelve years Karl’s junior, Naomi had met Karl three years earlier during a fist-fight between Karl and a writer at the John Hewitt pub in Belfast. On the verge of being arrested, the spirit-filled Karl was quickly spirited into the night by an amused Naomi. Two days later – offered a job as secretary to the debt-ridden Karl – Naomi reluctantly accepted, with the strict understanding that there was to be no hanky-panky. Recently over a messy, financially draining divorce, Karl fully agreed. The last thing he wanted at that particular moment in his battered life was another relationship with a woman. Within one week of the agreement, they had become lovers.