Kiss & Die (16 page)

Ruby was satisfied. She opened the vent above the cooker to let out the steam. She had an urge to clean. She had washed the white tiles, scrubbed the bed, she had cut up Steven Littlewood’s body, stripped the flesh from his bones and now they were sawn into manageable pieces and boiling on top of the stove.

Ruby pushed her hair back from her face, she was sweating. She was naked. She had such a lot of work to do. Why were men always so messy? Did he have to get his blood everywhere? Ruby had worked for hours, cutting up his body. When she was finished she placed her dolls back on the shelves in the lounge. Some of them still had bits of flesh stuck in their hair. They had drops of blood on their faces but Ruby had decided she had better things to do than keep cleaning. Some things just didn’t matter any more. She mustn’t waste her precious time now.

She was going down to the government hospital that morning. She had been there many times. Ruby walked along the corridors and no one noticed her. Sometimes she wore a nurse’s outfit. Sometimes she wore a white coat.
Now she could give a decent injection. She could keep someone alive long after they wanted to die. Today she wanted to see if any of the babies there needed her.

The government hospital. There weren’t enough beds. There wasn’t enough staff. They always needed another pair of hands.

Ruby smiled at the good-looking young doctor as she made her way along the corridor. It was late afternoon. It was a good time for her to visit, between the doctor’s rounds. There were people asleep on the floor in the corridor. There weren’t enough beds. People lay on mattresses. Their relatives cared for them. Ruby stopped by a family: an old woman was being fed by her daughter. It was hospital congee; a watery rice soup. Ruby knelt down beside them.

‘You must be very tired,’ she said to the daughter. ‘Go home now and rest. I will look after your mother. Don’t worry.’ Ruby smiled.

The daughter hesitated but accepted gratefully. ‘Thank you, nurse.’

Ruby smiled reassuringly at her. ‘That’s what I’m here for.’

Ruby watched the daughter leave. She tied a tourniquet around the old woman’s arm and tapped the inside of her elbow to raise a vein. She slipped the needle beneath the woman’s papery skin and into the vein and then she depressed the plunger and emptied the syringe. She repeated the procedure again. Then she moved to the other arm and delivered two more ten ml doses of air.

She leaned in and whispered, ‘Thanks for letting me
practise on you.’ Then she stood and went on down the corridor to the maternity unit.

As she was walking out she heard the old woman scream in agony.

It was 2 p.m. when Nina knocked on Lilly’s door. Rizal answered. He looked at her, intrigue in his eyes.

‘Yes?’

‘Is Lilly in?’

He shook his head, pulled up his vest and scratched his stomach.

‘Do you know when Michelle will be back?’

He shook his head, his eyes glued to the flesh showing around her slim midriff.

‘Who’s going to make the curry for the stall? I have brought the meat, the spices.’ She lifted up her arm with the carrier bag in her hand.

Rizal shrugged and walked back into the flat. He sat down on the sofa and opened a beer, put his feet on the table and kicked off the newspapers. Rizal looked at her. She was still waiting in the doorway.

Nina looked at her watch. ‘Do you want me to do it? You will lose customers otherwise and Michelle will lose money. Plus I can’t get rid of this pork anywhere round here.’

Rizal waved the beer bottle at her. ‘Sure. That would be
very nice. You’re a good girl, Nina. Come in, close the door.’

Nina glanced nervously backwards. She didn’t like being alone with any man, let alone Rizal, but Michelle was a good friend to her. If Ali caught her coming out, she would be punished. She was going to be married next month to a man old enough to be her father, but it wasn’t for her to choose. The one thing she had to be was pure. Any scandal and the man might call it off. She was already at the age when she should be married with three children. She had delayed whilst she was needed to run the restaurant but now she must bend to her father’s will. She must marry a man she didn’t love. She looked back at the landing. It wouldn’t take her long. She could have it done in half an hour and then it would slow cook for the next eight and that would be all she had to do. It was worth it to help Michelle. They relied on one another in the Mansions.

Nina placed the groceries on the kitchen surface. The kitchen and the lounge were all one room. Rizal rested his arm on the back of the sofa, turned to watch her over his shoulder. She worked with one eye on him and one eye on what she was doing. She chopped the meat and fried the spices and onions. The room filled with the familiar smell that the whole landing had come to know. She worked quickly, her hands flew around as she tried to finish the job and get out. She was so busy stirring she didn’t notice Rizal standing behind her until she turned. He was watching her bottom moving beneath the silk sari as she stirred vigorously. She turned and nearly fell into him as she went to put a pan in the sink. She jumped back.

He laughed. She stepped to the side and placed the pan in the sink.

‘It’s a joy to watch you work. You have really quick hands. You love to keep busy, don’t you? I see your whole body moving when you’re working like that. You have a nice figure. I hope you have someone to show it to, do you, Nina?’

Nina ignored him and began to tidy away the things she had used. She had finished. She could leave it now. He stepped forwards and pulled her to him from behind. His hands around her waist…

‘Please…no…’ She pushed down on his hands, she struggled to get away. He held her tighter. His rough hands slid up under her top. Nina screamed, struggled.

‘You’re strong.’

Nina
was
strong. She lifted her grandmother in and out of bed every day. She carried heavy groceries all day long. She pushed him off and lurched forward out of his grip, knocking the spoon out of the pot, showering Rizal in scalding curry.

He screamed in pain. ‘All right. All right.’ He lifted both his palms in the air as if he hadn’t meant to touch her and it was all a mistake.

There was a knock at the door. After much cursing Rizal answered it, still wiping the curry from his face. It was Shrimp and two other detectives..

‘Please…’ Nina stepped past Rizal. She kept her eyes locked on Shrimp’s, willing him to help her.

‘Are you all right, miss?’

She nodded and hurried past, disappearing down the stairs.

A dirty-faced, naked child came to cling to Rizal’s leg and there was the sound of another one crying somewhere in the flat.

‘What?’ He looked nervously at Shrimp. ‘What do you want?’ He shook the child away from his leg, irritably.

‘We just want a word. Can we come in?’

Rizal muttered under his beery breath as he turned and walked back into the flat and Shrimp and the detectives followed. Shrimp could see that it hadn’t taken long for the place to fall apart without Michelle.

‘When is she coming home? I can’t cook. My business is going down the pan. I’m lucky Nina helps.’ Rizal handed the crying child a piece of bread and pushed it protesting into another room. He threw off the papers from the couch and half fell, half lurched as he sat heavily down. He broke the top off a beer and drank it. He offered one to Shrimp. Shrimp declined.

‘Michelle’s still helping us with our enquiries. These gentlemen have come to tidy your flat for you and collect the samples that you forgot to give us downstairs. Is Lilly about?’

Rizal wiped his mouth with a disgusted growl. ‘She doesn’t come near here unless she wants money. She should be here to help me with all this.’ He swept a drunken arm around as the noise of the crying child in the next room began to rise again. ‘She should be cooking for the food stall. She should be doing something to help her family, right?’

‘Where do you think I would find her right now?’

Rizal leant the rim of his beer bottle against his cheek as he thought. ‘Right now? How the fuck should I know?
Out with her boyfriend probably. The girl’s got no morals. If you know what I mean. She gives it away to a lot of boys.’ He looked at Shrimp questioningly. He got a blank face back. ‘Not just boys. She likes her men does Lilly. Way older than she looks. Likes to hang around the bars at night-time, if you know what I mean. All dressed up. Skirt up to here.’ Rizal ran a hand across his lap. Then he wiped his hand on his filthy trousers before finishing his beer and slamming the bottle down on the table.

‘I will leave these officers here to do their job. Do what they ask; otherwise you’ll be taken down the station.’

Rizal sat back on the sofa and put his feet on the table. He lit a cigarette. ‘Tell Michelle I miss her. Tell her her loving boyfriend is thinking of her and misses her,’ he said to Shrimp’s back as he left.

Shrimp looked around for Nina, she was gone. He took the stairs down to the Delhi Grill. He went to find her.

It was 4 p.m. when Mann got back for the meeting. Forensics had come back with some answers.

‘Have you heard from Tammy?’ Mia asked. She looked straight ahead as she walked purposefully. Mia had a spring in her stride. She walked like a dancer, shoulders back, chin up.

‘Not since I told her to lay low. I’ve been caught up in the murder.’ Mann took out his phone and sent her a text telling her to phone him.

The incident room was full. Mann walked in with Mia. Ng and Daniel Lu were already there. Sheng joined them as Daniel picked up an e-mail he’d just printed off.

‘Saheed sent over some results. They identified a drug called Haloperidol in Max Kosmos’s body. It’s an antipsychotic drug and a major tranquillizer. It blocks a number of receptors in the brain. It’s given to elderly patients to keep them calm. It’s given to schizophrenics to stop delusions. It was given to prisoners in Russian prisons to break them, as a sedative. It numbs the brain.’

‘Why would our perp use that?’ asked Mia.

‘My guess is because it would allow them to torture
more effectively. It sedates the victim but it doesn’t affect the short-term memory. The victim will feel the pain but not be able to react to it.’

‘The perp is one sadistic son of a bitch.’ Sheng swigged at a bottle of water.

‘Yes. But crucially also a sexually active and a female one,’ Daniel continued. ‘His penis was found in his chest cavity and it has traces of glycogen-containing epithelial cells on it – that’s vaginal fluid. It had injection marks around its base. There are traces of a drug called Papaverine used by paraplegics.’

‘Did Michelle mention it, Mann?’

‘No.’

‘It makes the penis hard,’ continued Daniel. ‘A thirty milligram dose injected into the base of the penis should keep it hard for six hours. The more you inject the longer it lasts – days if given enough.’

‘What a way to go,’ someone muttered from the back of the room.

‘Not if she bites the head off after she mates. No sex, no matter how good, is worth that,’ answered Mann. ‘This isn’t about sex. Just like rape isn’t about sex, it’s about humiliation, dominance. Was he anally raped, Daniel?’

‘No.’

‘Can they tell us if he had sex with another man?’

‘No, they can’t.’

‘So, we still don’t know whether she works alone or in a team. Could be two women. Or it could be just one very determined one.’

‘She must have sedated him well. He would have been in an immense amount of pain,’ said Mia.

Daniel continued, ‘We have identified Michelle’s and another set found in several sites. We have blood that is not the victim’s. It’s a tiny amount in the bathroom. It was found on the mirror. We will be able to extract DNA from it and we have a saliva swab that matches it from the champagne bottle. There is no shortage of the perp’s DNA.’

‘And Michelle’s DNA?’

‘No. We have just prints so far.’

‘If it’s a double act then maybe Michelle’s the torturing side and not the sex side,’ said Ng.

‘But then, if Michelle was there, why didn’t she steal his watch, his laptop?’ asked Mia. ‘That doesn’t fit her profile. We know she steals from guests. Why would she leave things in the room?’

‘Perhaps she was told to, maybe? To throw us off? But she didn’t mention the Papaverine either did she?’ said Sheng.

‘We can’t be sure she supplies that,’ answered Mann. ‘Plus, I don’t think she’s a murderer. Michelle’s an addict. She will try and leave out more than she says.’

‘Everyone’s capable of murder if they have to.’

Rizal took the back stairs up to the apartment. The flat was on the fourteenth floor, a landing where several families lived long term. Rizal texted Lilly on the way. He knew she couldn’t be far away. She would come if he worded it right. Rizal smelt the familiar aroma of pork curry along the landing. Nina had done a good job but she had left Rizal feeling frustrated; his mind was still on her body. He turned his key in the lock and stepped inside. The babysitter, a young woman who lived nearby, was watching TV, the twins were in bed. He dismissed her and she scurried off. She’d had trouble with him before. He opened a beer and sat on the sofa and waited.

‘I got your text. You said she needed me?’ Lilly stood in the doorway, leaning on the doorframe, a defiant look on her face. She was out of uniform she had on a micro mini and a tight top. She eyed the collection of empty beer bottles around Rizal’s chair and her expression changed to one of disgust. ‘What do you want? I thought my mother was back. I smelt the curry. Where is she?’

‘Still at the station.’ Rizal swigged from the beer bottle. ‘I want to talk to you. I don’t want to worry your mother.
I thought we could sort it out between the two of us. You’re in trouble with the law?’

Lilly shrugged, with a cocky smile. ‘They got nothing on me.’

‘I knew you’d get in trouble hanging about with those Indian kids. You think you’re smart running with those mangy kids, the Outcasts? You think it makes you into someone big?’ Rizal swigged his beer. ‘Is he your boyfriend? That Mahmud?’

‘No. It’s nothing to do with the Outcasts.’

Rizal wasn’t listening. His mind had moved on to other thoughts. His eyes slipped down her body as he swigged his beer.

‘I’ll be out of here soon. I have plans. I am going to make it big: live in my own penthouse, drink the best wines from France. I won’t have to live in this pit and smell your sweat and listen to you fart all night.’

Rizal stood, swayed on his feet a little. ‘You can’t do it alone. I can help you. You’re a little princess. I know what you like. You like it here. I’ve seen you watching us at night. I’ve seen your eyes open. I’ve seen you looking at me when I’m giving it to your mother. You listen to her moan. She loves it.’

‘She makes money whilst you sit on your drunken arse.’ Lilly made a dash for the bedroom.

Rizal knocked over the table in his speed as he lurched out of the chair and made it the couple of metres to the bedroom door and pinned Lilly to the wall.

She shrieked. ‘Don’t do it, Rizal. Dad, don’t hurt me. Please.’

He held her pressed against the wall and slammed the
door shut as her siblings started to cry; his beer breath was in her face. ‘Don’t call me Dad. My name is Rizal. Your father was some Chinese john that your mother dropped her knickers for. Just another john and she was just another whore, still is. She’ll never change. She has no ambition, not like you, my little princess.’ He released his grip a little and stroked her face. ‘You’re prettier than your mother. You’re a pretty girl and smart. You know what it takes for a girl to survive around here. She has to have something to give. You got money to give me, Lilly? You’re living here in my house. You got money, huh?’

Lilly shook her head.

‘Then you got to give me something else.’

She squirmed beneath his probing hands.

‘You like it. I know you do. Why else do you come back here? You’re a little whore like your mother. I will teach you a few lessons. Now…’ He took her hand and pressed it hard against his crotch. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and turned away in disgust. ‘It needs working, no?’ He held her face in his hands as he locked the door and made her look into his eyes. He looked at her mouth. ‘It needs something to bring it to life.’

Lilly left Rizal snoring. She felt sick to her stomach. She stood in the hallway outside the flat and took out her phone and called Victoria Chan. ‘I have thought about it. I want to do it,’ she said. ‘I am ready.’

‘Take ten officers with you. Teach her a lesson.’