At precisely that second it rang, and all hell let loose.
Sonia Knight jumped as hard as her situation would allow, the chair leaving the floor by at least six inches. Even though her lips were sewn together, she let loose a spine-tingling mewl. Gardener sensed that if it had been at all possible, she would have screamed loud enough to wake the dead. He stepped back very quickly.
The phone rang again, and Sonia Knight frantically tried to part company with the wooden frame.
She must have succeeded in some way, because Gardener heard a tearing sound, and the skin on her arms gave a little. He glanced down, noticing how far it had actually stretched despite the fact that it was still connected to the chair. A bloodstain marked the area. Sonia Knight was lathered in sweat, her body shaking violently.
“Sean, call an ambulance. If we don’t do something soon this is going to be fatal.”
Gardener reached out for the phone, and Sonia Knight flinched, struggling to keep out of his way. He put his hands up in surrender. “It’s okay. Please, try to keep still. I’m not going to hurt you.”
As soon as Reilly called the emergency services, the phone strapped to the chair chimed again. It rang only once, but that was enough.
Sonia convulsed, and with a stomach-churning, ripping sound she managed to free her limbs. Splashes of blood landed across the floor and splattered both officers. The chair shook so hard it left the floor a number of times, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not remove herself completely.
Sonia brought her hands to her mouth with arms that were torn red-raw, her fingers trying to work at the stitches binding her lips. Gardener reached out to stop her, to try and calm her and keep her from hurting herself further.
As he restrained her, a picture entered his mind of the man they had seen when they arrived.
“Oh my God, Sean.” He glanced at his sergeant. “That man we saw outside posting letters. Go and see if he’s still around. Take the car if you have to, but find him.”
Reilly left without question. They had worked together for so long, that when Gardener asked him to do something even in a situation so intense, he did it without question. He knew his superior would have a bloody good reason.
Gardener reached down and grabbed the mobile attached to the chair, but it didn’t move. It was held in place by a fancy round bracket that covered all of the buttons, which in turn was held in place by two screws drilled into the wood,
He called out to Steve Graham. “I need a screwdriver.”
Graham suddenly disappeared as if by magic.
“What the hell is going on?” asked Nice.
“We need to get the phone away from the girl.”
“Why?”
“No time to explain,” replied the SIO. “Just trust me.”
Gardener wondered where the ambulance was. He noticed Sonia Knight was shivering. It had to be shock, because he doubted she was cold. He removed his suit jacket, intending to cover her, for what use it would be.
The phone rang again. And kept ringing.
Knight hit the roof. The pain barrier must have been indescribable. She jerked hard against the chair. He heard another ripping sound, and one of her legs came free, the wound so severe he could see bone.
More blood and further muffled screams invaded the enclosed space. Even with her mouth sealed, the girl was capable of a sound so guttural, it had to have emanated from deep within her bowels.
Knight put her hands to her mouth, then her head and her ears. The poor girl seemed to have no idea what she wanted to do. She stood up on her one free leg and tried to shake the chair free.
Still the phone kept ringing, accompanied now by a siren outside, closing in on the small country railway station.
Nice entered the room in an effort to try and restrain Knight. She proved to be a real handful, as if in some bizarre, surreal parody of a dance with him. Graham approached with the screwdriver Gardener had asked for. Knight quickly lashed out and caught him square on the jaw, sending him back towards the waiting room door. The screwdriver fell out of his hand and rolled towards Gardener. Still the phone kept on ringing, and Knight continued screaming behind the stitches, skipping all around the room, trying to put distance between herself and the chair, regardless of the pain.
A paramedic appeared in the doorway, the expression on his face one of complete disbelief.
As the phone rung on, Gardener suddenly realized it must have been tampered with, so it would continue to do so without diverting to the messaging system. That meant if she was in the same situation as Wilson had been, it would continue to create the most unbearable pain for her. He had to stop the bastard ringing.
Suddenly, Sonia Knight finally released herself from her prison. She had literally torn free of the chair, which fell to the floor with a clatter. She turned her back to them. Her body glistened with blood and raw muscle, resembling a freshly skinned carcass hanging in a butcher’s window.
Gardener noticed that the mobile phone had abruptly stopped ringing during the confusion. But no sooner had that thought entered his head, when it started again.