Spider - Michael Morley [50]
He lays the newspaper on the floor, as though covering a damp spot, and sets the shake down on the edge of the bondage table. ‘I’m going to slacken the chains a little so you can sit up again and you can have the drink,’ says Spider, adding with a touch of black humour, ‘but not as much as last time, eh? Old Spider has learned his lesson, and I’m afraid you won’t be free enough to bite the hand that feeds you.’
Lu’s head roars with pain as he manoeuvres her into an upright position and blood pumps back through her body.
‘Sip it slowly,’ he says, angling the straw her way and putting it to her lips.
She sucks hard and the ice-cool liquid slips comfortingly down her raw throat. Her shrunken belly growls and rumbles its surprise at finally having something to digest.
‘Good, good,’ says Spider, taking the shake off her. ‘Now, let’s lie you down again.’ He pushes her forehead back and dips below the bondage table to re-tighten the restraining chains.
Lu feels better for the drink, and allows herself a moment of brief optimism. He just fed you, Lu. If he’s feeding you, he plans to keep you alive, at least for the time being.
Spider leans over her again, pulling at the chains, checking their tautness. ‘That shake should make you feel a little better. It will help you settle down for a while now – while I’m gone.’
Gone? The word sizzled, as though he’d branded her with it.
‘That’s right,’ he says, noticing the change in her eyes. ‘I’m going to have to leave you now.’
Leave me? For where? For how long? Why?
Spider bends close to her face and points a finger upwards. ‘Look closely at the ceiling and you’ll see a camera.’
Lu stares at the blackness above her and finally spots the camera lens. A red light is blinking near it, like the eye of a rodent staring down at her.
Spider twists her head to one side. ‘And over there, there’s another little camera eye watching you.’ He lets go of her. ‘In fact, there are cameras all over the room, watching you all the time. And guess what? Wherever I am, I’ll be watching you too. Isn’t technology a wonderful thing?’ He takes a small black device, about a quarter of the size of a cell phone, out of his pocket.
Lu can see that there’s a blue light flashing on it and that it has three different coloured buttons, like the red, green and blue ones on a TV remote.
‘This is a blue-toothed trigger device. As I leave here, I will activate several pressure pads on the outside of this basement. Should you try to escape, or should anyone try to get in while I’m gone, the devices will explode and this whole house will become a fireball. Even better than that, no matter where I am, I can dial in a number and press this little red button here and kaboomb! No more Sugar.’
Lu feels her face drain of what little colour she had left.
‘I hope that milkshake was good, Sugar, because it is the last thing you will ever taste. You’re going to get hungry soon. Then you’re going to experience what starvation feels like. And then, after a certain period of time, your body will literally start to eat itself to death. And all the time, I’ll be watching, right up until your last breath.’
PART THREE
Tuesday, 3 July
35
Rome
None of the offices smelled more of stale tobacco than that of Massimo Albonetti, head of the Ufficio Investigativo Centrale di Psicologia Criminale, an elite offshoot of the Unita di Analisi del Crimine Violento, modelled on the FBI’s famed National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico. Crammed inside Massimo’s nicotine den, in preparation for Jack King’s visit, were Orsetta, case coordinator Benito Patrizio and assistant analyst Roberto Barcucci. In readiness for working with Jack, they were instructed to speak English, not Italian, though they all knew Massimo would be the first to lapse into their native tongue.
The Director’s desk was cleared of all unrelated papers and files, leaving only