If this opportunity hadn’t been so absolutely perfect – so unexpectedly close to home – the Man in Black would have moved on to another pregnant woman, but this target had fallen into his lap like a ripe plum, and, even if it meant adapting his usual plans, he would use it to maximum effect – for maximum destruction. Careful questioning of his companion earlier had made his heart pump with joy. Everything was falling so deliciously into place. Even his target’s partner would be absent – he’d reconciled himself to having to deal with both expectant parents in order to make his final act work, but learning that dog sitting duties had separated the two for a few nights made his task so much easier.
Crawling in silence along the attic in the dead of night, the dull light from his head lamp the only light in the confined space, gives him a thrill like no other. Everything is ready in his bag and the only difference this time is that he’s going to take his time with this one. Eke out every morsel of pain and confusion and terror that he can before the final strangulation. The thought of his hands round her neck, her flaccid, unresponsive body beneath him, her eyes – pupils dilated, hope fading, flickering to an agonising close – makes him hard. Oh yes, despite the fact that he can’t stay in his usual spot in the attic to observe everyone’s reactions he is going to enjoy this one.
Without a sound, he lifts the trapdoor and listens for a moment or two before extending his collapsible ladder and hooking the ends on the lip of the attic door, he climbs down, bag on his back. A cursory glance round the house tells him he’s alone except for the sleeping behemoth, lying on her side, duvet only half covering her, in the main bedroom. Since he last saw her, her abdomen has swollen, and she looks ready to pop. All the more enjoyment for him.
He opens his bag and selects the syringe, already filled with ketamine, and approaches the sleeping woman and begins to sing, his voice soothing and gentle.
Lavender’s green dilly dilly,
Lavender’s blue
If you love me Dillly Dilly,
I will love you
Her eyes flick open, blinking, for mere seconds before the fear sets in and that’s when he injects her. Smiling at her, still humming verse five of the nursery rhyme under his breath he unpacks his bag, telling her what each object is as she stares unmoving at him a single tear sliding down her cheek.
‘Nail polish, do you like the shade? It’s perfect don’t you think?’
He moves over and checks her toenails. ‘Oh dear, that varnish needs removing. How could you let it get so chipped, my dear? Never mind, I have polish remover too.’
Busying himself he takes out the nail polish remover, the rope, the pulley system the lavender, the candle, the packet of biscuits, the sketches, the nursery rhyme verse, and the foetal scan image he accessed and printed off – all the while chatting to his latest prey. He enjoys this part of the process. He feels like God as he forces the biscuit between her teeth before none too gently forcing her jaws together. He enjoys taunting her, telling her what to expect, how slowly he’ll strangle her, how her partner will find her hanging naked.
Chapter 77
Bradford
Gus placed his laptop on the kitchen table and Carlton, Alice, and Gus studied the image Rory had drawn.
‘Fuck’s sake. The nasty little fucking murderer.’ Alice’s face was flushed, all traces of her earlier tiredness dissipated by the reality of the image before her.
Rory had captured Brian call me Bri AKA Ben Cameron perfectly. But instead of the slightly ridiculous obsequious expression Gus had seen in his limited interactions with the man, Rory had imbued his sketch with a slyness – a nasty sneering look around the eyes and a mouth twisted in dismissal – more in fitting with a serial killer.
Gus’s voice was cold. ‘Pull it together, Al. This isn’t about you. Deal with that later. Right now this little fucker needs to be brought in. Compo’s sending the troops. I ordered no sirens, but we’re here now. Let’s go get the little bastard – hopefully he’ll be sleeping like a baby and will come easily.’
He turned to Carlton. ‘Prof, I want you in the street, directing the team when they come and then when we bring him in, he’s all yours, OK?’
The adrenalin coursing through him was enough to suppress Gus’s pain receptors as the unlikely trio left the house and crossed the street to the house opposite. The little bastard had been under Gus’s nose all this time and that fact only served to pump Gus up even more. ‘I can smell gas, Al, can you?’
Alice nodded, they both knew this was only to cover their backs for entering the house without a warrant, but it gave them due cause and when they caught Brian call me Bri, nobody would look too closely at their reasons for entering the property. ‘I’ll take the front; you take the back.’
Gus approached the front door. The house was in darkness, but he wanted to gain entry without alerting Cameron. Behind him, Carlton hopped from foot to foot, his head swivelling between observing Gus and peering down the road for signs of the cavalry approaching. Trying the door handle, Gus couldn’t believe his luck when it opened. The momentary frisson of joy was immediately replaced by one of caution. Ben Cameron was too smart to have left his door unlocked accidentally. Which meant either he’d flown the coop or he’d booby trapped the property. Wondering if he was dicing with death, Gus flicked the nearest light switch, jumping backwards almost immediately in case Cameron had rigged it. Feeling foolish when his actions
