Split. Part 30

A hospital. I am in the hospital.

At first she thought she might have had a car crash. She thought of all the warnings she'd had about not having an airbag in her BMW. Had she crashed her car? No. No. Something else had happened. Something at home.

She felt terrible, and worse than the physical pain she felt was a gnawing dread that she could not place. There was something she desperately needed to recall. Someone was in danger. Who?

"Doctor..." she began, but her voice would not cooperate.

He leaned over her again. There were other faces around him now. "Don't try to speak," he said.

A flood of memories rushed into her mind. The filing cabinet. The name "Blake". Makedde...

Makedde.

Have they found Makedde?

She remembered the struggle. She remembered the sound of breaking gla.s.s, the gun blast, the jolt of pain. The blood.

"Makedde..."

"Shhh. Don't speak. Just relax. Relax. You're going to be okay," the doctor said.

"But..."

Her body wanted to drift away and she needed to stay with it, to keep alert, to think.

"Just relax."

Somewhere in the background came a voice. "We need to calm her down..."

"Makedde was..." she tried again, but they weren't listening.

She barely felt the needle go in.

CHAPTER 58.

What have you done, my brother? What have you done?

If Danny had got himself into trouble, it was Roy's fault. He should have taken care of his brother like he promised Mom. It was his fault for bringing him out here, and setting him up at the cabin where he thought he wouldn't hurt anyone, where he was away from the prying eyes of specialists and shrinks. Here at the cabin, where he could indulge his love of hunting.

The boys were only seven when their mother packed her suitcases and left them and their father. Their dad was still at work at the time. She had left with a black eye and she had never come back.

"Take care of Danny now, Roy," their mother had said with tears in her eyes. "Protect him. He's the weaker one. He needs you. I'm leaving you in charge, okay? Don't you let him out of your sight. And don't you let your father touch him..."

Roy looked back up the wall towards the antlers and the place from where the locket had fallen. As his eyes slowly adjusted, he noticed more things hanging there, jewellery-women's jewellery. There were three gold and silver rings looped over one of the points, and a pendant hanging from another horn.

Roy heard sounds in the cabin-shuffling, movement, a clanging. Someone was awake. It had to be Danny. Perhaps he could explain the jewellery? Perhaps he could explain why Roy had woken up in his bedroom? Perhaps Danny could explain why he felt so horrifically off?

"Danny?" Roy called out, alarmed by the slowness of his mind and body. Then he thought he heard the movements stop. He called out, "Danny?" again, more loudly, and this time his cry was met with the sound of footfalls in the hall.

Soon the door was pushed open and he saw his brother.

"Ah, you're up," he said simply.

"Danny...?"

"Don't worry. I've taken care of everything," he said.

Danny was dressed head-to-toe in black. He wore a zip-up jumpsuit and a vest with various pockets. On his feet were lace-up black army boots. Roy thought he looked like a cat-burglar or some jewel thief from the movies.

The jewellery...

"I got rid of her. I got rid of Ann," Danny said.

Roy tried to comprehend what his brother was telling him.

"We won't have any trouble," he went on. "We won't have to run. It's all taken care of."

"What? What are you saying?"

"I got rid of Ann. We won't have any trouble with her."

Roy's head spun once again and he pressed his hand to his forehead. His palm felt cold and clammy against his skin.

"Danny, what did you do? What did you do?" he shouted.

Daniel's eyes went to the locket on the bed, and they lit up.

"I'll show you."

CHAPTER 59.

"Do you know where my daughter is?"

Andy blinked and looked at the digital alarm clock in his hotel room. It was twelve twenty-five.

"I said, do you know where my daughter is?"

Andy's voice cracked when he tried to speak. He had been woken out of a dead sleep. "Is this Mr Vanderwall?"

"Yes. Do you know where Makedde is?"

Andy wanted to ask why he was calling at such an hour, but the question did not seem appropriate. There was alarm in the former detective inspector's voice, and his tone didn't have the air of a social call.

"We tried to contact Makedde earlier tonight, but with no luck," Andy admitted.

He refrained from telling Makedde's father that they had wanted to ask her about a possible murder suspect she may have been dating. They had eventually packed it in for the night, thinking that they would have to wait till morning to ask her what she knew about a man named Roy Blake.

"She's not with you?" Les said in a slightly accusatory tone.

"No. She's not. Is something wrong?"

"My daughter is missing. She's not home. She's not at Ann's house."

"Les, hold on, what are you saying? Who is Ann?"

"Ann Morgan is a lovely dear friend of ours who was attacked tonight. She's in hospital now, drugged to the gills. Makedde's purse was in her living room. Her car is parked outside. She's gone."

Oh Christ, Andy thought.

"I want to know where she is. I'll be touching down at the helipad near the Trade Center in thirty-five minutes and I want you there. It's not far from your hotel. Any cab driver will know it."

"Les, I'll be waiting for you when you arrive," Andy promised, flinging back the sheets even as he set down the phone.

CHAPTER 60.

" We have to do this right," Daniel Blake said, eyes ablaze with excitement. "I can't show you unless you do it exactly right."

"Okay," Roy agreed, unsure of what else to say.

Though Daniel was Roy's mirror image, his other half, and the closest person to Roy's heart, there was something foreign about him at that moment. There was something in him that was unsettling, and that Roy had not seen for a long time. It was something he had thought, or hoped, had been banished.

Roy and Daniel knew each other so well. They were twins-split from the same egg, and they were alike in ways that no other person could be. Yes, Roy was the "older" one, born two minutes before Daniel, and he had always taken on the big brother role, but still they were one, they were brothers, they were blood, and they had an unbreakable bond.

Now Roy did not know what to do. This was something else. When Danny was like this, it was as if he was not Roy's brother at all.

"Zip it up," Danny said.

Roy himself was now dressed in identical head-to-toe black hunting gear. He zipped it up as his brother told him.

They had gone out in day gear this way before, but never at night. Roy didn't even know his brother owned such outfits, but he was willing to play along with Danny's wishes so that he could find out exactly what was going on.

"Here," Danny said, pa.s.sing him a hunting rifle. Roy took it.

"Danny," he finally dared to ask his brother, "how can we go hunting at night? How will we be able to see?"

"It's okay. I've got everything we need. I'll show you. I'll show you how I do it."

Roy considered the consequences of what his brother may have done, the consequences of what he had let his brother do.

Will we have to go south and start again? Or north? We could get jobs in Alaska and no one would ask questions up there. Whatever he's done, we could leave it all behind and start again...

The twins walked down the hall, Roy tagging along behind, still in shock, and still suffering some after-effects from the small dose of Rohypnol his brother had given him. Before long Danny brought them to the door of the den.

When the door opened, Roy saw that a woman was handcuffed to a metal chair in the centre of the room.

The woman was Makedde Vanderwall.

CHAPTER 61.

Mak heard footsteps.

He's back.

But she could have sworn she heard two sets of feet. Her heart rate sped up as she watched the doork.n.o.b turn, and when the door finally opened, Makedde couldn't believe her eyes.

Two Roy Blakes.

Two.

Identical.

Both in matching black commando gear. Both armed with rifles.

Holy f.u.c.k.

Okay, stay calm. You are looking at twins, Makedde. She fought to keep her breathing even, to slow the panicked racing of her heart. Ann told you Roy has a brother. So, Roy's brother is a twin.