The Jade Garden (The Barrington Patch Book 2), Emmy Ellis [best ebook reader under 100 TXT] 📗

“Fine.” Cassie pushed the door open and went inside, turning to grip the end of the trolley and pull while Mam pushed. She stopped beside the mincer. “This is Marlene.”

Doreen looked around, her forehead stitched with confusion, trying to find the woman her mind had conjured up since Marlene had first been mentioned to the residents via The Life. “Where?”

“It’s the machine, Dor.” Mam laid a hand on their new associate’s shoulder. “We feed people into that chute, and they come out of that tube on the other side. Sometimes they’re alive when we do it.”

Doreen staggered a little, reaching behind her to grip the edge of the sink unit. “Oh my life, I would never have guessed. Lenny had me believing some mad woman murdered everyone, not this…this effing mincer.”

“Are you disappointed?” Mam got on with taking Karen’s clothes off. “I suppose it could be a bit of a letdown.”

“No, I’m…relieved there isn’t some bint watching us all, waiting for us to mess up. What are you doing?”

Mam threw one of Karen’s shoes on the floor. Snow escaped from the treads and scattered. “Marlene doesn’t like clothes.”

“Lord above, what have I got myself into?” But Doreen hadn’t said it with regret, more fascination. “So you really just put people down that chute?”

“Watch,” Cassie said.

She switched Marlene on, the grinding choppers inside her rumbling and scraping metallically. Cassie climbed up the set of steps, took Karen’s stomach skin out of her pocket, and threw it inside. She waited for Mam and Doreen to angle Karen’s legs towards her. Cassie fed them into the chute, then pushed Karen’s shoulders so only her head sat in the opening. She applied pressure, and Karen slowly moved downwards now Marlene had a grip on her.

Doreen stared, eyes wide, hands fisted at her neck. A stream of clotted blood shot out of Karen’s mouth halfway down, landing on the steel above, and Doreen covered her mouth and heaved, but she remained where she was, stoic, clearly wanting to see this through until the end.

Mam got busy with the mince, pressing it down tight in the tall plastic box so more could land on top. Doreen switched her attention there, shaking her head, entranced. Yes, there was a monster inside her, one Cassie hoped to learn about—the reasons why Doreen was okay with this happening, okay with keeping their secret.

Like Mam had said, you thought you knew someone…

* * * *

Tubs packed into the car boots, Cassie drove towards Handel Farm, Doreen following. It was a test letting her have a minced body in her vehicle—any moment now she could take a turning and give the police everything they’d need to put Cassie and Mam behind bars for life. But her headlights still bobbed behind them.

Mam nodded to herself. “Doreen doing what she did to Karen. Who’d have thought she’d have the balls to slice her neck?”

“Hmm. And you. Who’d have thought that, too?”

Mam laughed quietly. “Shooting Zhang Wei reminded me of being with your dad, how we used to be. He stopped me once I got pregnant, said he didn’t want me in any danger, that one of us getting nicked was better than two. I had to be good so you always had a parent around.”

“I gathered. I found the diary.”

“Good. I put it there yesterday. You were meant to find it. Saved me telling you myself. I did what you do now, that’s all. I’ve missed it.”

“Well, the offer’s there if you want to jump back in and get your hands dirty again.”

“Maybe I will.”

Cassie veered onto the track and drove towards the farmhouse, parking around the rear. She’d messaged Joe prior to setting off, and he stood at the back door, Lou beside him, shrouded by her usual tartan blanket. Doreen came to a stop beside Cassie, and she glanced through their car windows at her, eyebrows meeting in the middle.

Cassie and Mam got out, and Doreen did the same.

“What the hell are we doing here?” Doreen whispered.

“This is where the mince ends up,” Mam said.

Doreen lifted a hand to her brow. “Please don’t tell me Lou puts it in her pies.”

“No, in the pigs.”

“Deary me, and we eat the pigs…” Doreen flapped a hand over her face.

“Something like that.” Cassie waved Joe and Lou over. “Doreen’s on the payroll and won’t be telling anyone a thing, will you, Dor?”

Doreen didn’t have a chance to answer.

“No, she won’t.” Lou smiled. “Welcome to the fold. I wondered when we’d create mischief together again.”

“What have we missed?” Cassie asked.

Lou shuttered her face. “Some things are best left unsaid.”

* * * *

Pigs fed, Doreen wondered whether her guts would ever go back in the right place. They’d churned throughout the Marlene business, and seeing those pigs going stark raving bonkers for the meat…well, she’d nearly been sick. Saying that, she’d pushed through, trying to convince herself she’d never eaten a human being via one of the meat factory’s sausages or chops—surely part of those people had to get in the food—and she considered vetoing pork and sticking to beef. She was fair put off for life.

Still, it was a brilliant system, one she’d never have believed had someone told her. No, she’d had to see it with her own eyes, and now she had, she understood exactly what ‘disappeared’ meant.

At the farmhouse kitchen table, everyone else chatted as if they hadn’t just been involved in murder, discussing the recent cold winds, the snow, and how Lou’s sheets had frozen then snapped off the line yesterday. Why the hell Zhang Wei had turned up, Doreen didn’t know, but maybe Cassie would explain it one day.

Francis leant closer. “Are you okay, Dor?”

“Yes, I just don’t fancy a bacon sandwich anytime soon.”

Francis laughed. “You get used to