‘Nah, he’ll let her sulk for a bit. Come on, let’s do it.’
She began to open the door to go and ask her for a light when the sound of heavy footsteps running across the gravel path made her stay where she was. The boyfriend turned the corner and ran across to his girlfriend, pulling her into his arms.
‘Bollocks.’
‘What did I tell you? Far too risky. Megan, you really need to learn to be patient. You are going to get us both caught if you don’t start to assess situations and think of the risks.’
‘Why can’t you be wrong? Just for once. You get on my nerves sometimes, Henry.’
‘Because, my dear, I’m older and an awful lot wiser. I’ve been there, done that and worn the ‘Keep Calm I’m Only a Serial Killer’ T-shirt. Trust me, I don’t want to spoil your fun, but we need to do things properly. It’s not as if we have anywhere to be rushing off to now, is it?’
Megan grunted and he smiled to himself. The couple who had kissed and then kissed some more had made up and were walking back hand in hand to the hotel entrance. He wondered if she would ever realise how close she had come to her life ending in a bad way – probably not, unless she read the papers and was intelligent enough to put two and two together. Megan began to pick at the pink varnish on the end of her nails and he tutted, but stopped himself from complaining. It might just push her over the edge if he kept on finding fault with everything she did. All he wanted was for her to listen and learn and be happy.
He wasn’t sure what you would call their relationship. She was his only friend and, yes, he found her attractive and sometimes the need inside him for her was so fierce it scared him, but then at other times he found her immature, impatient and annoying. He supposed they were like any other couple who had their ups and downs, only all they had at the moment was each other, so they should really make the most of it. After another forty minutes a woman a lot older than the first one came out. She was clearly on her own because she was rooting around in her clutch bag for her car keys. She stumbled over the borders of the path and almost fell over. Catching herself in time, she began to giggle to herself.
‘She’s pissed. I hope she’s not thinking about driving home in that state.’
Henry nodded in agreement. He knew that she was the one and his senses had gone into overdrive. Like a predator circling its prey he watched her every move. Her car wasn’t too far away from the van and still out of range of the cameras. She walked over to the shiny white sports car that was out of most people’s price range and began pointing the keys and clicking them at the car. Nothing happened so she tried again, this time managing to tip the entire contents of her handbag all over the ground.
Before he could say anything Megan was out of the car and running towards her. She stopped and bent down to pick up the phone, purse, expensive lipstick and perfume and hand them back to her. The woman took them from her without so much as a thank you and Henry got out of the van and strolled around behind her. He looked around to make sure no one was heading their way and then he pulled the hammer from his pocket.
Megan tried to make conversation with her but she just ignored her as if she was something on the bottom of her shoe, so she stepped back and nodded at Henry who shrugged his shoulders. The woman, even though she was drunk, realised there was someone standing behind her and opened her mouth to scream, but he already had the hammer mid swing and it connected with the back of her head before a sound left her throat. The woman fell forward and Megan caught her. Between the two of them they managed to manhandle her across the car park and into the back of the van. Megan slammed the doors shut and stared at Henry.
‘What an absolute, ignorant bitch. She deserves everything she’s going to get.’
Henry agreed wholeheartedly with her and they both got into the car. He began to drive out of the car park onto the main road. Now as long as they didn’t get pulled over by the police they would be fine, because it would be pretty hard to explain the semi-conscious woman in the boot. He headed in the direction of Walney and their small torture chamber. He had two paper suits, latex gloves and hats they could wear once they got there because they didn’t want to risk leaving any evidence at the scene and the last time it had got messy, really messy.
‘Did you see her face when she realised you were standing behind her? Serves her right. Who did she think she was? She didn’t even say thank you. Would it have hurt to have said thank you? Urgh, people like her make me so angry. They think they’re so much better than everyone else when really they are worse. Normal people don’t treat anyone like that. I can’t wait to shave her fucking hair off and watch her face then – see if she manages a ‘please don’t shave my expensive hair extensions off’. Fuming I am, totally fuming.’
‘Really, I’d never have guessed.’
They drove the rest of the way in silence, with the occasional groan from the back of the van. They passed through the town centre without so much as seeing a police van. When they finally approached the field with the barn the road that led to it was deserted as well – no farmers tending to animals and no tattered blue and white crime-scene tape fluttering in the breeze surrounding the ramshackle barn. So the local police hadn’t yet located the body, which meant it would stink in there, really stink. It was just as well that he’d had the foresight to buy the protective overalls.
Megan jumped out of the van and opened the gate for him to drive straight through towards the barn. He drove around to the back where they were hidden from view from the roadside and switched the engine off. His heart had begun to race. As much as he liked to deny the enjoyment this gave him he couldn’t, because it wasn’t just fun for him. Killing was the biggest thrill ever and he relished it.
Chapter Ten
Annie, Cathy and two PCSOs got into the police van. Annie drove. She’d been to Beckett House before and knew exactly where she was going. The PCSOs chattered away in the back of the van and Annie smiled at their conversation. She was too nervous to join in and from the thunderous look on Cathy’s face she was probably thinking of the headache another serious crime would do for their figures at the next monthly meeting at headquarters. They drove past a couple of officers and Annie slowed, winding the window down.
‘Any luck finding our man?’
‘Nope, sorry; we’ve done the whole caravan park and spoken to loads of people and it’s a negative. We checked the cameras on the entrance to the park and there is no sign of a single male who matches the description even entering the park through the main gates.’
It was Cathy who leant forward to speak. ‘Well done; nice work. Where are the other two?’
‘Door knocking the houses to the left of the park – we were just going to visit that big house on the right.’
‘No need, we’re going there now. The elderly occupant told Annie on Thursday that a man had come to her house and then disappeared again. We’ll go and speak with her first and then can you two do the house a bit further down? Give us a shout when you’re finished and we can pick you up.’
Annie smiled at them and continued driving towards Beckett House. She turned in and drove slowly along the gravel until she reached the front of the house. Cathy whistled in admiration.
‘That’s a serious house for one person to live in, don’t you think? Our man could be anywhere inside there. For all we know she might be keeping him hostage. Have you seen that film Misery?’
Annie had seen that film but she doubted that frail old Martha Beckett had kidnapped an Irish traveller and was keeping him tied up somewhere in the house. And besides, she’d checked it the other day with George and hadn’t found anyone. She wondered if Cathy did anying but watch movies in her spare time, seeing as how she compared every scenario to a scene from one.