Page 102 of First Blood

Chapter Ninety-Two

I drive away from the shelter undetected with a smile on my face. There are people trying to stop me and I don’t understand why. But I’m away now and they’ll never find me in time.

I know they’ve found the body of my last offering; the obese, despicable specimen that was Charles Lockwood.

The man was bent, dishonest, crooked. He told lies to the public to line his own pockets and that wasn’t even the worst of it. Wendy told me all about it. She told me how he’d been abusing poor Sasha right under her nose. Luckily I believed her or she would have been added to the list. Her voice, the slight trembling of the hand, the heavenward gaze as she’d whispered, ‘God forgive me’. She hadn’t known what the bastard was doing to his own daughter. I will leave her to live with that guilt.

Killing Lockwood revitalised me, enthused me after the disappointment of Hayley. The man showed himself to still be the vacuous, dishonest bastard I thought he was.

‘Take everything I have,’ he offered, once he realised I was a threat. He struggled to force himself out of the armchair not knowing he would never stand again.

I told him I didn’t want his possessions, pitiful as they were. There was only one thing I wanted from him, and once I explained why I was in his house the fear came. He wanted to continue his woeful existence with no friends or family. He was frightened that he was going to die. His eyes shone with it and I felt myself restored like a car spluttering into a petrol station on fumes alone.

Surely these people looking for me understand that Lockwood had to die after what he’d done?

I smile wider as I wonder if they’ve found my clue. Do they understand that there is no innocence in the world, that something as simple as a nursery rhyme hides evil and darkness? I learned that many years ago.

No matter, they’ll never know where I’m going next. A simple conversation today and my next victim has been presented to me. A few google searches, ten minutes’ research and I have a plan. I yearn for the fear and after the satisfaction of Lockwood I need to feel it again soon. I am like a vampire after it has fed for the first time.

I understand that cravings increase the more they are satisfied. The longing is a by-product of addiction, and the power of the life of abusers resting in my hands offers me a heady euphoria that hurts no one.

Another abuser will die tonight and there is only one thing left to do.

It is time to go buy an apple.

Chapter Ninety-Three

‘Anything on the phone records, Stace?’ Kim asked, realising she’d shortened the officer’s name.

‘Working on it and hope to have something for you soon.’

‘Okay, urgently I need a home address for Carl Wickes of Wickes Repairs. Maybe try Companies House to see where the business is…’

‘Yeah, boss, I’ll get it, and Dawson wants a quick word.’

‘Put him on,’ she instructed.

‘Boss, I think I’ve got the rhyme.’

‘Go on,’ she said, expecting to hear about singing a song and blackbirds.

‘Did you say the sixpence was damaged?’ he asked.

‘Keats said bent.’

‘Okay, it’s definitely linked to “There was a Crooked Man”.’

‘Huh?’

‘Listen it goes like this: “There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat that caught a crooked mouse and they all lived together in their little crooked house.”’

‘Err… I’m not sure…’

‘Boss, so far our killer has linked the murders to the darker meanings behind the nursery rhymes. This one isn’t about an old man with a cat and a house. It’s rumoured to be about General Sir Alexander Leslie and is from seventeenth-century history; Leslie was known for his lack of loyalty and dishonesty. It’s that kind of crooked.’

Kim saw his point. ‘In reference to Lockwood’s dishonesty in taking backhanders?’

‘I’m thinking so, boss,’ he agreed.