Wilderness (Arbogast trilogy) (30 page)

“You weren’t there. What happened was fate.”

Karim laughed, “Fate yes, but not the way you think. I came to Hanom that night and on many others too. I am not accustomed to people saying no to me and I made the situation quite clear. The child is mine, Onur. Kovan is my daughter not yours. All these years you have been the family man, admired and respected while people have feared me. Where is the justice you might ask? But the last laugh is mine. This has all been for you, for my revenge and for what will be my family.”

Onur was speechless. Hanom and Kovan had appeared at the door. Hanom held Kovan with both arms draped around her chest from behind, holding her close. It was Kovan who spoke first.

“Daddy Karim has been keeping me in a tower. He says I’m his little princess but I did miss you and mummy. Now we can all live together.” She looked up at Hanom who was staring at Onur.

Hanom broke the silence, “I could not tell you for shame my love. He came in the night and threatened your life. He said he would say nothing if I agreed. It has been a dreadful secret but it is you that has been Kovan’s father, not this...animal,” she spat at Karim but he didn’t move.

“All this time Karim and you knew. Were you so consumed with hate?  Everything that has happened: the assassination in Istanbul, our flight into hiding – all that just to get to me. I don’t understand.”

“I am connected brother and I can disappear. We all can and you certainly will.”

Arbogast had come round now but he lay still with his eyes closed – listening, trying to think of a way out.

“Look around brother and what do you see? Nothing but the seeds of your own work. Do you know the police are looking for you? They think you are me, such is our likeness.”

“We are nothing alike.”

“I have never thought so, but perhaps I have been wrong. Many people have confused us for each other, even the policewoman. She should have died but the mistake was to my advantage. It all comes back to your notion of fate.”

Karim pointed the gun, “Game over.”

Sanderson felt like death. He had lain looking up at the ceiling unable to move for some time. His body ached. He had been beaten and shot, fortunate the bullet had passed straight through, missing his heart. Slowly and painfully he turned himself over and made his way back to the surface. Raking through his bedroom chest he found what he needed and made his way back to the family home for what he knew would be the last time.

“Move,” Mary said, the gun pointed in the small of Rosalind’s back. Rosalind was nervous, unsure of how she was going to get free. She could see they were going to the farmhouse and watched for signs of life inside. The back door was open. She focused on the bronze hexagonal handle, looking for a possible break, but Mary was focused on Rosalind and before they reached the door she swung the gun again and knocked her down. Checking that she was out cold Mary took out her handcuffs and bound the detective before entering the house. Slipping in through the front door Mary stood unheard in the hall and listened. She heard the story from brother to brother and understood what she had become part of. Mary watched as Karim pointed and said “Game over.” Standing perfectly still she aimed and fired. The shot left only a small hole in the back of his head but the front was blown away, the contents smeared over the floor, with thin rivulets of blood sprayed onto the Kocack women.

Arbogast knew that if he was going to do anything now was the time – but he was badly concussed and the events of the next few minutes would spin by in a blur. Onur sprang forward and prised the gun from Karim’s hand. At the same time the walking corpse of Eric Sanderson crashed through the door brandishing a large hunting knife. Mary turned, surprised as Eric plunged the knife deep into her chest. Mary’s eyes bulged in disbelief as father and daughter collapsed to the floor. Onur stood having retrieved his brother’s gun. Perhaps he had meant to attack his brother but he was now very dead and getting cold. Outside Arbogast could see the outline of two uniforms coming up the hill.
‘Here comes the cavalry – they must have been sent back from the ruin.’
Mary was lying on her side, a thick pool of blood was beginning to form around her and her father now had her gun. It was pointing at Arbogast.

“Time’s up officer, for me anyway. Take the family and go.”

Onur had been staring hopelessly at the lifeless figure of his brother. He raised the gun to point at Sanderson.

 “This was your doing my friend.”

“No Onur I was only told to keep you here. The child was a mistake and I can say nothing to make that better. But this is the end of the road for me. My family line ends here.” With his free hand he took out a single stick of dynamite. He motioned to the crack in the floor by way of explanation, “There are five more planted in the foundations. I have been in the pocket of Madoch for years. He came to me in the 80s after finding out about my secret, but he was good to me. I hid people here during the dark days and he allowed me to indulge in my...well I make no excuses. The heart wants what the heart wants. I am what I am and I don’t expect you to understand.”

Arbogast stood up, holding the side where he had been shot, and made his way over to Onur.

“Give me the gun,” he said, softly, laying his hand on Onur’s wrist, edging towards the warm steel of the chamber.

“It’s over. You have your family and he’s going with me.”

Onur released the gun and Arbogast stood back.

“We’re leaving now Eric.”

Eric nodded as Hanom took Kovan through the front door, the girl’s hand reached out for Onur who followed silently. Arbogast stood and watched Eric Sanderson for a few seconds. He had raised Mary’s head onto his lap and sat stroking her hair. She looked happy.

“I’ve made too many mistakes but this was my worst, allowing that man to corrupt that family. I have no more words.”

“You can’t leave here, you know that.”

Sanderson nodded.

Arbogast turned and left, leaving the Sanderson family alone, for the last time. Sanderson took a cigarette lighter from his pocket and waited.

The timber had stood firm for 160 years. Today the wooden supports creaked and groaned under the increasing pressure of earth and rock from above. Melted ice dripped through fissures and slowly weakened the limestone. The land had started to reclaim the house the previous winter and the great thaw of 2010 meant that the bedrock under the Sanderson Farm could no longer take the strain. Above the chasm and inside the house, Eric Sanderson lit the fuse and shared a final tender moment with his daughter as the flame worked its way down towards its final destination.

Sandy Stirrit’s TV crew arrived as Arbogast emerged from the farmhouse. Sandy stopped when the explosion hit. The house quivered briefly before disappearing under its own weight into a cloud of rubble, filling the void below.

“Get the camera on now,” he said, but the tripod was already down and the camera had caught every moment. Watching TV that night the pictures caused a sensation. The report also featured aerial shots, taken later in the day, which showed the extent of the blast after the dust had settled. Where the farm had stood was now a one hundred foot crater, the house reduced to nothing – the landscape transformed. Sandy Stirrit told his viewers about sinkholes caused by mine workings. Footage from earlier in the day showed five people being taken to hospital. One was understood to be the missing girl.

As the ambulance pulled away Arbogast allowed himself to fall into a deep sleep. Exhausted he consoled himself with the fact that at the very least he had found the girl this time. He had found the girl but failed to solve the case.

Epilogue

Daily Record, February 24th 2010

EXPLOSION UNCOVERS PAEDO RING

The 5 year old young girl missing from a bus in Lanarkshire two weeks ago has been found along with her mother and father following an explosion at a farmhouse near Bishopton, Renfrewshire. Kovan Kocack, Hanom Kocack (36) and Onur Kocack (43) had been held prisoner in an underground sex lair at a farm, which has been used by an international paedophile ring. Chief Constable at Strathclyde Police, Norrie Smith, said this marked the successful conclusion of the largest manhunt in living memory, “This is the end of a massive search for a missing girl, which has uncovered a circle of sickening human trafficking that sadly is becoming more and more common. I am pleased that we have reunited a family torn apart by a criminal gang. We have had our best people working on this and I would like to thank everyone involved for their tireless dedication.”

Following a tip-off from Glasgow businessman, John Madoch, police arrived at the property to find the owner Eric Sanderson (56) had blown up his family home. Our sources suggest he had used dynamite stolen from the industrial site which he worked at as an engineer. Eric Sanderson was inside the building at the time along with his daughter Mary Clark (34) and an unknown third man, thought to be a Turkish national. Daily Record readers may remember that Sanderson made headlines in 1985 after his daughter Mary accused him of abusing both herself and a young boy. At the time the allegations were ignored but it has since emerged that the driver of the bus Kovan Kocack was taken from had been driven by the known sex offender, Stevie Davidson, who was recently found dead at the Kirk o’ Shotts in Lanarkshire. A major investigation has now been launched to locate the rest of the paedophile ring, which has been operating across Scotland for some time.

John Madoch said he had come forward with the information after it was discovered a case of high explosives, meant for levelling foundations at his Moorland Wind development on Eaglesham Moor, had gone missing overnight, “Eric Sanderson had been acting oddly for some time but it wasn’t until he started asking questions about his co-workers that I started to become genuinely concerned. My company had brought Onur Kocack over from Istanbul to use his expertise during the construction of the wind farm. He was helping police with investigations into the abduction of his daughter when he went missing too. When the dynamite was reported missing from my site I suspected that Sanderson might be involved. I only wish I’d acted sooner and then maybe this tragedy could have been avoided.”

Read more on p 2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Arbogast sighed as he put down the newspaper.
‘If only I’d acted sooner.’ 
He could not believe the nerve of John Madoch, who had come forward and painted himself as the hero of the day. By the time he had left the farmhouse there was already a full blown media circus outside. Sandy was there along with a flotilla of uniforms and armed response teams. By that time of course there was nothing more to be done. The Sandersons and Karim were gone and Arbogast doubted that they would even find a trace of them. The truth of the matter was that the huge sinkhole which now occupied the space where the Sanderson farm had once stood was far too unsafe to merit further investigation. In his working life Arbogast had only seen total destruction like that once before, when he had to investigate a gas explosion in a small town. There had been nothing left. It had been a detached house and the force of the blast had taken away the sides of the two neighbouring houses. The only thing that survived in one piece was a fridge freezer which had been blown up on to the neighbour’s roof. Three generations of the same family had been asleep inside. And so it was with the Sanderson farm. The mineshaft discovered below the house had finally given way. The deep frost that had penetrated the limestone beneath had melted away to leave unstable holes in the rocks which could no longer support the weight above. Thousands of tonnes of earth simply shifted from topside to fill the chasm below. The force would have torn the three bodies to shreds. Arbogast sighed again. He was being praised for finding the family, for reuniting the girl with her parents, but he didn’t feel like a hero. Five people were dead; three officers including him had been violently assaulted, but they had found the girl and that was what the press and his superiors were focusing on. Maybe he was being too hard on himself but Arbogast felt as if he had failed, as if he had been once step behind all the way and had only got the result through sheer luck. The whole thing was obviously tied into Madoch but it seemed that would be impossible to prove. Arbogast had taken all the accolades for coming forward at a pivotal time but in reality he had changed nothing, other than to shift the blame away from himself. Having considered the case Arbogast felt that maybe Onur had been right, maybe their lives were bound by nothing more than fate and what had happened was meant to have happened just the way it did. Karim had been so confident of taking his brother’s place at the head of the family but something had gone wrong. He had gone wrong.

A few days later DI John J Arbogast paid a second visit to Madoch House.

“The hero returns,” Madoch said, from behind his desk, “My congratulations on all the good work Inspector. I’m glad to see the family made it through.”

“Cut the crap Madoch I’m not here on official business. You know your role in this. What was the brother doing over here?”

Madoch considered the question, slouched back on his tilting leather chair, arms draped over the rests. He had pulled in his chin for effect in a gesture which made him look fat.

“DI Arbogast you know I have a past – but it’s just that – a past. I live in the here-and-now and let’s say I have created a certain reputation for myself. The business with Sanderson was getting out of hand.”

“You knew about him – tell me about it?”

“Before we start,” Madoch stood up and moved to Arbogast. He frisked him, “A precaution.” Satisfied he didn’t have an extended audience Madoch sat back on the edge of his desk, “Eric had certain rather disgusting vices which I turned a blind eye to but his money allowed me to turn myself around. It made us both very rich.”