Holding her breath, Ruby entered the long, dank corridor. Having stood empty since its closure twenty years before, the building carried an eerie sense of desolation. She masked her face with the back of her left hand as the smell of rat urine clawed, thick and heavy, on her senses. In the distance, a scratching noise ensued. Darkness closed in as she entered the bowels of the building. Was Ash creeping down the corridors too? Was the doctor, more to the point? Ruby thought about the post-mortem, and the rat droppings attached to the victim’s hair. To end up in a place like this with only the rats for company. . . But it had been searched; she had read the report with her own eyes. She gathered her thoughts as she tried to formulate a plan. Calling out to Ash would only serve to bring attention to her whereabouts, but the building was a literal rat run, a maze of decaying rooms, rotting stairwells and floor upon floor of hollowed spaces. She would never find him in here but she could not sit in the car and wait for backup: she was Ash’s sergeant, and wholly responsible for his welfare.
She strained to listen for signs of life and was rewarded with the patter of tiny claws from the floor above. There was more than a nest of rats in this building; there was a commune. And that was exactly where she needed to go. Then she heard it, the echoing tap, tap of leather shoes as they took the stairs. It was Ash; it had to be. Turning right, she followed the sound until she came to a stairwell. Her breath caught in her throat as she heard a voice in the distance.
‘No, please, let me go! Please, no, no, no. . .’ Hairs stood sentry on Ruby’s neck as the young woman’s cries for mercy went unanswered.
‘Ash,’ Ruby said, trying the radio once more. She dialled his number directly. He was much more likely to answer a private point-to-point than talk on the busy main channel.
His voice was sharp and to the point. ‘Sarge, I’m fine. Just wait outside for backup, over.’
The woman’s cries were silenced, briefly, until continuing for the second time. ‘No, please, let me go! Please, no, no, no. . .’
Ruby frowned. There was something off-kilter about this. Her instincts screamed at her to stay put. ‘I’m coming up the first set of stairs. We need to regroup. Don’t go rushing in there, over.’
‘I know what I’m doing,’ Ash said. ‘Back off, over and out.’
The woman’s cries paused for seconds before beginning again. Ruby’s heart thundered in her chest as she realised what was going on. ‘Ash—,’ she said before he cut her off. ‘It’s a trap. The screaming, it’s on a loop.’
‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to do this,’ he said, before disconnecting the call.
Swearing under her breath, Ruby fiddled with her radio as she tried again. But Ash had switched his off. She clipped it to her belt before resuming the defence stance and galloping up the stairs. Her muscles tensed, she peered through the gloom as shadows danced on the walls. If someone tried jumping out on her now, it would be a decision they would come to regret. She followed the cries, pausing as she passed the array of open doors. A black rat scuttled past, followed by one more, then another, and another, skimming her shoes as they squeaked in annoyance at the disruption. Was this why the previous officers had denoted the building all-clear? Because they had been put off by the army of rats? Ruby’s fingers tightened around her baton. She was used to rodents in the alleyways where she grew up, but she was no fan. She felt the cold release of adrenalin preparing her for what lay ahead. In the distance, a scuffling noise ensued. Footsteps? Had Ash caught up with the doctor?
A choking, gurgling sound echoed in the corridors. That was no recording; that was real. Sprinting towards it, Ruby tried to ignore the possibility that she was heading straight into a trap. Where the hell was backup? Rats streamed from every direction, plump and slick as they scuttled past. The stench was overpowering, but she powered forward through the decay and the desolation, aware of the distant sounds of sirens. Nothing could stop her now because her eyes were set on the open doorway where, cloaked by a layer of rats, a body lay motionless on the floor.