Little Red

it….so’ she moved to the side of the barrel.

‘We placed this trough under the drum, to catch the liquid. We then punctured a hole in the lid and one at the bottom, just here’ her finger aimed at the slow trickle of brown water.

‘The liquid inside started to drain, the hole in the top allowed to empty without bubbling or curdling any more…..good isn’t it!’

‘Fabulous, what else?’ quizzed Jack

‘Easy tiger, I’m getting to it’ she hissed.

‘We allowed the contents to drain for several hours, as you can see it is still flowing as we speak. The liquid had curdled more than we had hoped’

‘What was the liquid?’ asked Nathan, intrigued by the process

‘Water, old water….and decayed flesh, mixed with an array of stomach acid and broken down muscle, slash, organs!’ her hand moved diagonally across her body upon issuing the word slash.

‘Jesus, he put the whole body in there!’

‘Two whole bodies’.

‘Two?’ Jack stood wide eyed.

‘That’s why I wanted you to come down as soon as possible Jack. When the contents had half emptied we began removing what we could see and grab a hold of, come on, I’ll show you’.

They followed her into a side room, upon the table lay a variety of objects. They stood around the large square table and gazed at the items.

‘This is what we pulled first’ the skull starred back from the white surface.

‘That’s what I saw when we opened it!’ confirmed Jack

‘It is. You can see where a blow had been taken, just here, at the back of the cranium’ the small hold held several cracks as the bone had splintered.

‘Any ideas on what type of weapon was used?’ asked Nathan

‘Hard to say really, judging by the size of the impact it would appear to be a rounded object, possibly a ball hammer or piece of piping’

‘Right, so the impact area is at the back of the skull, that would indicate that they were hit from behind, taken by surprise?’ Nathan threw a couple of ideas into the mix, it helped him to create a picture of the attack in his mind’s eye.

‘Yes…..very likely actually’ agreed Sally. She placed the grey object back onto the table and moved to the next.

‘This one was at the bottom of the barrel, we only just discovered it this morning’ the second skull had been shattered in a larger area, the jaw was dislocated on one side.

‘Jesus, where’s the initial impact on this one?’ Jack was intrigued by the find’s, he saw the puzzle coming slowly together.

‘Well, if you look around the back, just here above the base of the skull, you can make out the similar strike mark from the other skull’

‘But, judging by the deformity and mass damage, I would say this one put up more of a fight. The blow was delivered and hit lower than planned, which could mean that the victim was the same or similar height to the attacker. The initial hit, which should have been the killing strike, failed and the victim defended them self…..resulting in the face being bashed in with the weapon, reference the caving in of the temple and separation of the jaw’ Nathan stopped for a breath.

‘My god Nathan’, started Sally, ‘Who says C.S.I doesn’t teach you anything!’ laughing. Nathan accepted the humour as a well done remark.

‘Well what you just said is exactly what I believe had happened. In between the two skulls were the rest of the bodies. Broken rib cages, snapped Femur’s and the other bones located in a human body’.

‘Right, so we can say, that judging by the remains we have here, the first victim was male, roughly six-two. That would be a good match for Mr Breen. But what about the second?’ stated Jack.

‘Good question, that’s what I’m hoping to find out by tomorrow. We are sending the teeth away for screening, after the tests are complete we should have two matches to the victims’.

‘Sal that’s great, I can’t thank you enough for showing us this, really…thanks’

Sally blushed at Jacks heart felt appreciation.

‘You guy’s……go on, out you go. You’re cramping my style’ winking as they took the hint.

‘So we have two bodies, both with similar attacks, one worse off than the other. Both hidden away in the barrel in Mr Breen’s garden shed. Decayed badly, must be a week or more’ Jack rolled the words out as they walked, both men picturing a similar image in their heads.

‘Well we can only guess that the second body belongs to the teacher that went missing from Abby’s school’

‘Miss……’ Jack browsed through his notebook, ‘Carrigot, Miss Carrigot’.

‘Okay, so we have two missing people possibly located. One of which is the alias that the Wolf has being using to acquire a job at the schools’

‘He won’t be using it anymore, if he watches the news he would have seen the raid plastered all over it’ suggested Jack.

‘Good point, but it’s not what I’m thinking. The school that gave the others a reference, St Paul’s, they all said that the picture we have of the Wolf is not Mr Breen’

‘So what are you saying Nathan?’

‘That Mr Breen and the Wolf must have known each other in some way!’

‘You think?’

‘Oh yeah, I’m not putting it down to luck that he decided to kill Mr Breen, not knowing who he is, and used his name and occupation as an alias to abduct girls and torture, eventually kill them’.

‘I see what you mean. We need to check Mr Breen’s tutor schedule for the last, say, six months…..see if anything pop’s up!’

‘It may be longer than that Jack but it’s a start’.

They departed the building and climbed into the car that had been sat waiting for them. Jack ordered Malcolm to drive back to the hotel so they could drop Nathan off. The ride was silent as both men created a plan of actions in their heads.

***

The Wolf decided to take a nap. He had burned energy whilst attacking the girl and the lack of sleep from the recent abduction had tired his brain. He removed his clothes and sat upon the large arm chair, its leather surface cooled his sweating skin. His mind raced with what had just happened, the throbbing sensation still housed within his nose. He allowed the blood to dry to his face, he wanted to see his appearance when waking, to see the old life upon his lips. He drifted slowly, his body becoming relaxed.

The girl sat slumped over in the chair, her body jerked as she whimpered. Her mind raced with worry and fear, the same questions spinning around in her mind. Where am I?.....Why am I here?.....Who is doing this?......Why are they doing it?......, the answers never came. The light had been left on for her to look upon the carnage he had caused, the biting of her cheek had aided in loosening the rag in her mouth. She licked at it slowly, the pain shooting through her head. The gag moved inch by inch, she wriggled her jaw delicately to help slip it off. It dropped and hung around her neck, her chest grew as the oxygen filled her lungs. She gasped for several minutes, the air soothing her.

Chapter Nineteen

He ran as fast as his body could take him. The invisible beast ran by his side. From the corner of his eye he