Death On a No 8 Hook (A Willows and Parker Mystery) Read online

  Turning, he made his way carefully out of the water and back up on the beach. His line drifted downstream, bellied in the current. He could feel the living weight of the trout on the end of the line, now. But there was something else there too, something stiff and unyielding.

  Intending to break off, Willows gradually increased the pressure on the line.

  A human hand, the wide-spread fingers pale and bloated, rose slowly out of the water and then fell back with a splash.

  Willows stood motionless, unwilling to believe his eyes. Surely what he had seen was nothing more ominous than a freak arrangement of branches? He raised the rod and the hand appeared again, puffy and splayed and very white. Then the leader snapped.

  Willows slowly reeled in his line. The hand was on the far side of the pool, at the base of the cliff. To reach it he would have to make his way upstream past the rapids, find a place to cross and then circle back down.

  He leaned his rod against the bank and started up the beach, gravel crunching under his boots. At the head of the pool he had to enter the woods to get around the huge, egg-shaped rock. It was tough-going through the thick brush, fallen trees, and waist-high salal.

  He made his way back to the stream as quickly as he could, and by lucky accident came across a natural bridge; a pair of uprooted fir trees that straddled the creek. The trees were exactly parallel and no more than six inches apart. The gap between the trunks was filled with a long and intricate web of sand, pebbles, and small stones, each fragment and grain wedging its neighbours in place. Under different circumstances Willows would have paused to examine this strange jigsaw puzzle, a puzzle that seemed logically impossible to construct except all at once. But his mind, as he crossed the stream, was filled with recurring images of the dead hand rising from the water and falling back with a soundless splash.

  Arms spread wide for balance, he crossed the creek and then climbed and slid down a rocky overgrown slope to the base of the falls.

  The girl was naked.

  She lay on her back, facing into the current. Her long blonde hair drifted languidly across her shoulders and small breasts, shifting endlessly in the confusion of currents. Her body was so badly swollen that it had a rubbery, pneumatic look.

  On the third finger of her left hand a gold and diamond chip ring had almost been swallowed by the expanding flesh. There was a smudge of blue on the inside of her forearm. Leaning precariously out over the water, Willows saw that it was a tattoo.

  The girl’s left foot protruded a few inches above the surface of the water. Part of the fleshy pad at the base of her toes had been eaten away. Now Willows knew where the drowned wasps had come from.

  Icy water slopped over the rim of a wader, trickled down his leg. Heart thumping, he retreated gingerly to safer ground. The rapids and sheer wall of the cliff conspired to keep him from getting close enough to the body to retrieve it. He was going to have to go for help, and that was something he couldn’t do until the morning.

  Stumbling repeatedly in the gathering darkness, he made his way back to the meadow. The fire had been reduced to a glowing heap of coals. The enamel coffee pot rumbled and hissed on the grate, belching miniature clouds of steam. Willows kicked the pot as hard as he could, sent it tumbling and clanking through the grass and sleeping flowers. He piled chunks of maple on the fire, poked at the embers with a stick. A handful of sparks blossomed and died. The tent, illuminated by the growing flames, was a pale blue triangle in the night. He fumbled in his pack for the mickey of Cutty Sark he’d wrapped in his spare pair of socks, unscrewed the metal cap and took a stiff drink.

  High above him, the night sky was crammed and choked with stars. Somewhere in the darkness a saw-whet owl uttered its monotonous series of low, whistled notes. Behind him, mist rose from the creek and drifted silently across the meadow, and the stream muttered endlessly to itself, like a drunk slurring his words.

  Willows imagined the trout holding position through the night, the black water flowing around their sleek shapes just as it flowed over the corpse of the girl. He took another sip of the whiskey. He wondered how long the girl had been dead, and how she had died. It was nonsense, but he wished he hadn’t left his revolver locked away in the boot of the Oldsmobile.

  The saw-whet owl hooted again, despondently. There was a chill in the air. Willows picked up another piece of wood and threw it on the fire.

  Chapter 5

  The boy caught the repeating bright orange flash of the turn signal in his peripheral vision, and turned just as the Econoline pulled up to the curb beside him.

  The van had come from the opposite direction he’d expected, catching him by surprise. He made his face go blank. The driver smiled and waved, beckoning him over.

  The boy hesitated. He didn’t like vans. Street wisdom said stay away from them. Once you were in the back of one, nobody could see you. You were all alone. But business had been anything but brisk. He needed some cash, and he needed it badly. Taking his time, trying not to seem over-anxious, he sauntered across the sidewalk towards the gleaming vehicle.

  The window on the passenger side was open. He rested his forearms on the sill and leaned inside. The first thing he saw was several gay magazines, some of them with the plastic wrappers still intact. Then, as his eyes adjusted to the dim interior, he took in the ridiculous red plush and the mirrored bed.

  Mannie took the cigar out of his mouth. “Hi,” he said, “my name’s Opportunity and I’m in the mood for love.” He patted the seat beside him. “Hop in, big fella. Let’s talk contract.”

  The boy stared at Mannie, openly assessing him. He saw a man in his forties, maybe five foot nine inches tall, about twenty pounds overweight. Flabby, with watery blue eyes and a complexion like the inside of a bagel. Hair combed sideways across his scalp in a pathetic attempt to hide his bald spot. Big nose. Small mouth. And the hands nervously clasping the steering-wheel were the hands of a woman, soft and white.

  The boy opened the door and got into the van.

  Mannie saw a gap and pulled out into the traffic with a squeal of burnt rubber. The boy grabbed at the dashboard to steady himself. The van accelerated. He managed to slam the door shut.

  Mannie held out his hand, fingers curled to form a tight little nest cradling a single bill folded into a square box so small it was impossible to tell the bill’s denomination.

  “It’s a hundred,” said Mannie.

  Something about Mannie’s voice made the boy believe him. He snatched at the little square of paper much as the trout had plucked the Western Bee from the roof of Jack Willows’ mountain pool; instinctively and without conscious thought.

  Mannie waved the empty aluminium tube. “Want a cigar, kid?”

  The boy shook his head distractedly. His mind was wholly occupied with the money. The stiff, unyielding little box of paper was so tightly folded that he was afraid he might tear it. Lips pursed, he plucked at the crisp, accordioned edges.

  At Broughton, Mannie spun the wheel sharply to the left without slowing down or signalling his turn. They cut diagonally across the intersection in front of two lanes of oncoming traffic. The van slewed, a horn blared. The lead car in the outside lane flicked its brights, washing them in light. Mannie squinted and swore and kept his foot on the gas. The rear end broke free, and there was a peculiar and very unpleasant impression of weightlessness. Then they were through the intersection and tearing up Broughton, parked cars tight on either side.

  “Where you going?” the boy said. He was sitting bolt upright, radiating tension.

  “Almost there,” said Mannie. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Nobody was pursuing them. He tapped the brakes and turned right, down a narrow lane.

  The boy frowned. He was about to say something when, abruptly, the paper box began to fall apart, blossoming in the dim light like a time-lapse flower. It was a hundred, all right. His first three-digit trick. He laid the bill across his thigh and tried to iron the wrinkles from Robert Borden’s face with the palm of his
hand.

  The van bounced down the lane, headlights jabbing crazily through the night. Mannie shifted down into second gear. The nose dipped as they turned down a short, steeply pitched asphalt driveway and into the parking area beneath a stuccoed apartment block.

  Light rippled on the short hood and near-vertical windscreen as they passed beneath row upon row of long fluorescent tubes. Mannie braked, and eased carefully into a slot bounded on one side by a concrete wall and on the other side by a dusty camper top on blocks. He put the van in neutral and yanked on the emergency brake. Turning towards the boy he suddenly wedged his hand between the seat and white trousers, grabbed a cheek and squeezed hard. The boy gasped and arced his back, struggling to get away. He cried out, his voice shrill.

  “Hush!” warned Mannie.

  The boy wriggled. “Just…tell me what you want me to do,” he said.

  Mannie gave him an enquiring look. “What do you like to do?”

  “Whatever you want,” the boy whispered.

  Mannie had lied often enough to recognize the truth when he heard it. He realized that the Econoline had become an ersatz confessional; he a priest of the moment and the boy a penitent about to atone for a deficiency of character, flawed genes, an unfair share of bad luck. He looked at the boy, measuring the depths of his weaknesses and the vast breadths of his fears. Cigar ash spilled unnoticed down his chest, across the tie of many colours. He squeezed a little harder, kept up the pressure until there was no doubt in his mind that the boy knew who was in charge. Then he let go.

  “Get in the back, kiddo.”

  The boy nodded. He was crouched in the narrow gap between the bucket seats when Mannie stabbed him in the small of his back. The force of the blow and his own momentum sent him tumbling across the foot of the bed. He opened his mouth to scream. Mannie fell on top of him, knocked the wind out of him. Blood gushed from his side. He felt Mannie’s plump white fingers clawing at his scalp, pushing his face down into the silvery sheets. He tasted metal, his own sour bile.

  Mannie tried to pull the knife out but it was stuck. He worked the blade up and down, savagely twisted it from side to side.

  The boy wriggled and squirmed. He corkscrewed frantically across the bed. The knife came free. Blood geysered. Mannie drew back his arm so far that a seam in the bargain basement suit gave way with a strident ripping sound. He put the knife in again and hit bone, the force of impact jarring his arm all the way to the shoulder. The boy kicked out. The mirrored headboard exploded, showering them both in a storm of silvered glass.

  Mannie stabbed and stabbed and stabbed again, splattering himself with tiny cutlets of flesh, digging like a frenzied archaeologist of the human soul. The air filled with a fine red mist that turned deep purple where it was touched by the fluorescents. Mannie felt himself tiring. He didn’t let up.

  Finally the boy made a raspy clotted sound deep in his throat, and went limp.

  Exhausted, Mannie fell back against a wall of red shag. His breathing was fast and shallow and ragged. He was hyperventilating. He felt dizzy and disoriented, as if he’d just been whacked on the gyroscope. Letting go of the knife, he closed his eyes.

  When his heart had slowed to the point where he could distinguish individual beats, he wiped gore from the crystal of his watch and saw that a little over twenty minutes had passed since he’d bagged the van.

  Wearily, he made his way back to the driver’s seat. There was a full box of Kleenex on the shelf under the glove compartment. The box was decorated with a variety of cartoon animals that had found a use for the product. Mannie used most of the box to scrub the blood from his hands and face. When he was finished, he pulled off his suit jacket. There was blood all down the front of his shirt, so he took that off too. Then he put the van in reverse and backed out of the parking slot.

  His hands, as he drove, were slippery on the wheel. The blood was gone, but now he was sweating. Directly above him, the rows of fluorescents made a faint crackling sound, like distant laughter.

  Mannie listened for a moment, and then joined in. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He laughed so loudly that he frightened himself.

  And when he tried to stop laughing, he found he couldn’t.

  Chapter 6

  Eddy Orwell arrived at the door of Claire Parker’s apartment at eight-thirty sharp. Parker lived on the third floor of an old converted Victorian house. Orwell buzzed himself in and took the carpeted steps two and three at a time, the snubbie in its shoulder holster bouncing against his chest.

  At the door, he paused to take his pulse. It had accelerated from its usual 48 beats per minute to more than 120 bpm, but Orwell was confident that the swift ascent had little or nothing to do with the increased rate. He was in great shape. It was his emotional state of mind that had sent the blood thundering through his veins. He straightened his dark blue tie, combed his brush-cut with his fingers, and knocked on Parker’s door with a fist the size of a large coconut.

  Parker answered the door wearing six-inch spikes and a pleated black skirt, a white blouse with a high collar. Orwell felt the wind go out of him. In the heels, she was exactly one inch taller than he was, which didn’t do anything at all for his ego. Also, in those clothes, she looked more like a cop than a hot date. But he smiled up at her anyway, because he thought she looked terrific despite everything. He had an almost overpowering urge to take her in his arms, bury his nose in her glossy black hair, nibble at the lobe of a perfect ear, and see what happened next.

  Parker saw the look in his eyes. She’d seen that look before. She knew exactly what it meant, and she knew exactly how to deal with it.

  “I worked all through lunch, Eddy, and I didn’t get home until seven. I’m starving, and the thought of showing up late and finding that we lost our reservation does not make me feel all soft and warm inside.”

  “No problem,” said Orwell. “First things first, right?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Orwell shrugged. He grinned his pirate’s grin, conscious that his large, square teeth were very white against his midsummer tan. He lounged against the wallpaper while Parker locked up. This was their third date in less than two weeks. Orwell hadn’t been offered a key, and he wasn’t quite dumb enough to ask for one.

  The restaurant Orwell had chosen was located on Stanley Park’s Ferguson Point. When he’d told Parker where they were going, he thought he’d seen a flash of irritation in her chocolate-brown eyes. But he wasn’t sure, the moment had come and gone and she hadn’t said anything. So he’d let it go.

  Stanley Park is a thousand acres of mostly untended vegetation. It’s shaped like an elephant’s head, is situated at the west end of the city, and is surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean.

  The restaurant was renowned for its fabulous view of the outer harbour, and Orwell had reserved a window table. The restaurant was, by his standards, very expensive. But he had a little surprise tucked up his sleeve, and he was willing to pay almost any price to ensure that this would be an evening the two of them would remember with warmth and affection for the rest of their lives.

  Orwell didn’t argue with Parker when she suggested they take her Volkswagen, and leave his rusted Ford Fairlane at the curb. He was having problems with the automatic choke, and the car kept dying on him. He hadn’t fixed the Fairlane because he was thinking about buying a new car.

  Parker drove quickly and well. They arrived at the Point with ten minutes to spare, and parked on the road several hundred feet beyond the restaurant. Orwell noticed that Parker didn’t bother to lock her door when she got out of the car. He almost mentioned the skyrocketing crime rate, but managed to restrain himself. Nothing was going to spoil the evening. He simply wouldn’t allow it to happen.

  Probably because the restaurant was owned by the Parks Board, it had no bar. The Maître d’ greeted them warmly, as if they were old friends. Without delay, he led them through an archway of filigreed plaster and into the arboretum — a huge dome shaped
like an upturned wine glass with the stem knocked off.

  The air was warm and humid, heavy with moisture. Each of the thirty or more tables was surrounded by a miniature jungle of exotic tropical plants. The light level was very low. Somewhere off to Orwell’s left a flock of birds muttered peevishly, their voices low and insistent, vaguely troubled. Orwell knew that there really weren’t any birds. Three days earlier, when he’d cased the restaurant, he’d learned that the sound of their voices came from an endless tape.

  In single file, Parker and Orwell followed the Maître d’ along a narrow winding path of crushed white stone. All around them, candles flickered uncertainly; faint yellow sparks of warmth that only seemed to emphasize the depth of the surrounding gloom. It was a weird place. Orwell was just beginning to wonder if he’d rather be somewhere else when they arrived at their table, and all his worries and uncertainties fled in a moment.

  Out on the purpling water a dozen freighters rode hull-down on the ebb tide; a handful of sailboats tacked sluggishly into a fitful wind; and a deepsea tug hauled a huge pyramid of sawdust towards the curving rim of the horizon, into the heart of a fat orange sun.

  “Beautiful view,” said Orwell appreciatively.

  “Thank you,” said the Maître d’.

  “If you like postcard art,” said Parker.

  Orwell frowned. The Maître d’ busied himself arranging the menus and wine list on the cramped little table. He drew back a wicker-chair for Parker, and tried to look down her neckline when she sat down. Almost as an afterthought, he wondered if they might be interested in an apéritif.