Slasher: the Escape of Richard Heinz
Author: Iain Rob Wright
Date: 2014-12-02 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Horror; Thriller; Suspense
Description: ***Visit iainrobwright.com to get the Iain Rob Wright Starter Library (4 best-selling books, hundreds of 5 star reviews.)***"Iain Rob Wright blows me away." - J A Konrath, author of the Jack Daniels books.When convicted killer and certified psychopath, Richard Heinz, escapes from a secure mental hospital, his re-capture falls on the shoulders of MCU agents Dr Jessica Bennett and Howard Hopkins. Entering a dark wood on a rainy night, they must try to understand and anticipate the mind of the sick killer before it's too late.Richard Heinz is out for a reason, and he’s just taken a hostage.IF YOU
Publisher: SalGad Publishing Ltd

BOOK SUMMARY

When convicted killer and certified psychopath, Richard Heinz, escapes, his re-capture falls on the shoulders of MCU agents Dr Jessica Bennett and Howard Hopkins.  Entering a dark wood on a rainy night, they must try to understand the mind of a sick killer before anyone else is harmed.

The problem is that Heinz is out for a reason, and he’s just taken a hostage.

IF YOU GO INTO THE WOODS TONIGHT, YOU’RE SURE OF A BIG SURPRISE…

“Even when she was dead, she was still bitching at me. I couldn’t get her to shut up!”- Serial Killer, Edmund Kemper

“She can't hide; no place to hide.” – Pamela Voorhees, Friday the 13th (1980), Paramount Pictures

SLASHER

By Iain Rob Wright

1

Rain battered the windshield like machine gunfire as MCU officer, Howard Hopkins, stopped the Range Rover outside the nature reserve.  Redlake’s police officers were already on scene, busily cordoning off the area.

Dr Jessica Bennett turned to her partner and raised her eyebrow.  “Tell me where we are again?”

“Redlake,” said Howard. “I know, I’d never heard of it either.”

“Why did our fugitive trek halfway across the country to some place most people have never heard of?”

“One of his victims lives here.  That big Thriller writer—Blake Price, you know the one—moved his family here in 2009 after what Heinz did to them.  Heinz has been obsessed with Price for most of his adult life, thinks the guy’s books were written specifically for him.  Local police have his home on total lock-down as that’s likely where he’s heading.”

Jessica reviewed her mental notes.  Twenty-four hours ago she’d been entirely unaware of Richard Heinz and his sickening acts, but when Director Palu had slapped a dossier across her table, his only instructions had been: “Learn all you can about this monster.  He’s escaped and we’re going to catch him.”  She’d been surprised because she’d thought the Major Crimes Unit existed to stop terrorism, not recapture escaped inmates. However, once she’d read the file on Heinz, she understood how the man qualified as a special case.

Howard switched off the engine and looked at her.  “You ready?”

It was Jessica’s first time out in the field.  She had zero experience and zero desire to be out there in the rain and wind, but she nodded.  “Yes, I’m ready.”

They got out of the car.  Together they headed through the downpour towards a group of uniformed police officers who’d been waiting for them. Back home in Savannah, Georgia, the local police were never pleased to see badges with initials—FBI, CIA, ATF, NSA, EPA, DEA, America had dozens of them—but here in England the various crime enforcement agencies always seemed happy to cooperate.

Tonight was no different as one of the police officers broke away to greet them with a grim smile.  “Sergeant Mike Young,” he said, thrusting out his hand.  “You’re both from MCU, I take it?”

Howard wiped his wet hair out of his eyes and returned the handshake.  “Officer Hopkins and Dr Bennett. We’re here to help you with your unwanted visitor.”

The officer chuckled. “Great, well, we’ve got all the exits from the town’s nature reserve covered and we had eyes on Heinz just under two hours ago. He entered from this direction.”

Jessica eyed the tree-line.  A paved pathway cut through the middle of the dark woods, but it melted into the shadows after a dozen feet or so.  “Where does that path lead?” she asked.

“It leads to the town’s lake, but branches off in a few places.  There’s a bridle path and cycle route, plus a path to the old abbey and museum.  It’s hard to know where Heinz will go, but like I said, we have all exits covered.  I’ve also stationed a team at the abbey.  It makes a good lookout over the northern end of the lake.

“Your director, Palu, has coordinated with our guv and asked us to stand off until you call us in.  The press are just waiting for us to shoot the guy down for a story, so we’re happy to let you try and bring the guy in alive.  Especially since Heinz may have knowledge of a missing girl.”

Jessica frowned. “Missing girl?”

“Yeah, young lass by the name of Chloe Tanner, thirteen years old. Disappeared eight years ago, but Heinz has been making reference to her lately. Problem is the guy’s so nuts they haven’t been able to get a straight answer out of him. Least if we can bring him in alive they can up his dosage or something, keep trying.”

“We’ll bring him in, don’t you worry,” said Howard. He patted a radio fastened to a strap above his chest.  “Are you reachable by radio?”

The sergeant nodded.  “Usual band.”

“If you get any sighting of the fugitive, make sure we’re first to know.”

“Will do.  Hope you catch the sick bastard.  He’s killed three since he escaped.  I don’t know how they ever thought it was safe to send a nutcase like him to a hospital instead of a prison.”

“It was a secure facility,” said Jessica, “and it was the appropriate place to send an offender like Heinz. He has a multitude of psychological issues.”

The sergeant shrugged.  “There’s no curing evil, luv.  They shoulda locked him up and tossed the key.”

Before Jessica had a chance to tell the officer how ignorant he was being, Howard strode towards the pathway.  His gait was confident and authoritative.  Jessica hoped she came off the same way as she hurried after him, but the truth was her stomach clenched unhappily.

She managed to catch up to Howard and nudged him.  “Let me know the next time we’re going for a swift exit so I don’t end up trotting along behind you like a numpty.”

Howard grinned at her.  The water dripping off the dark tips of his hair, along with his square, jutting chin, made him look like some lothario off the cover of a bad romance novel.  “Numpty?  Why Dr Bennett, we’re going to have to make you an honorary Brit if you keep talking like that.”

Jessica smirked.  British slang wasn’t something she consciously tried to adopt, but the longer she was in the country, the more she seemed to absorb.  In fact, it might have been several weeks since she’d last said “y’all.”  “Hey, I’m a daughter of the South,” she said.  “You folks are just borrowin’ me for a time.”

Howard touched her elbow.  “Come on, quicker we make it through these woods, greater chance we have of finding Heinz before he moves on through.”

Jessica felt a lump rising in her throat but held it down. This was really happening. She was going into the woods to catch a killer.

She followed Howard into the tree-line, sticking to the path.  Every now and then there would be a lamppost lighting a short stretch, but other times they navigated only by the glow of the moon.  Each of them carried flashlights, along with a can of CS gas and handcuffs, but it was the Glock strapped beneath Jessica’s blazer that she thought about now.  She hoped her aim in the field was as competent as it was at the firing range.

Part of her had wondered if a time would even come when she’d be required to wear her weapon—she was a medical doctor and a criminal profiler, not a soldier—but Palu had surprised her by deciding to send her as Howard’s backup.  MCU was currently short of officers and most of the usual task force were nursing wounds from a previous mission, so Palu was forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel.  Her inexperience had shown immediately when she’d turned up wearing trousers and jacket, instead of the black fatigues Howard was wearing.  Her polyester threads clung to her now as the downpour soaked her through.

“So what did you get from this guy’s file?” Howard asked her.  “Do we know what kind of crazy to expect?”

Jessica thought about Heinz’s crimes: several major sexual offences had led to his prosecution and incarceration to a secure hospital, but his psychosis had only worsened from there.  One day he attacked a nurse, chewing off her nipples and part of her face, leaving her to bleed from a torn artery in her neck.  Heinz also managed to kill two fellow inmates before he was finally restrained and placed in solitary care, where he’d remained for the last eighteen months.

That was until Heinz had escaped two days ago, killing the pair of guards transporting him to an MRI appointment at a local clinic.  Heinz had complained of excruciating headaches and the Prison Service could not refuse him his human right to medical care.  Now two prison officers were dead along with an innocent woman who’d been at the wrong place at the wrong time.  The young schoolteacher had run into Heinz on her lunch break.  By the time she was due back at her primary school, he’d cut a hole in her belly and raped her in the backseat of her car while she’d bled to death.

Jessica swallowed, took a deep breath, then recounted what she’d theorised from the case file Palu had given her.  “Richard Heinz is unlike most serial killers in that he had a pleasant childhood.  He was the son of an architect and his mother stayed home to raise him.  He was an only child who socialised normally and performed well at school, eventually training as an accountant.  He was completely ordinary.”

“So what changed?” asked Howard.  “What was his…trigger?”

“I believe his attachment to his mother is key.  The reports I read suggest she doted on his every need, until her death when he was aged twenty-three.  When Heinz eventually married, he found that his wife was not the accommodating, subservient, surrogate mother he’d been searching for.   His frustration led to violence, and his wife left and divorced him the very first time he dared to strike her. Good on her, it might have saved her life.

“Heinz tried several times for a reconciliation, but his ex-wife totally cut him off, making him feel insignificant and weak.  He blamed her for not pandering to his ego the way his mother had taught him women should. He projected his anger onto innocent women by raping them.”

“Thus making himself feel powerful again,” said Howard.

Jessica nodded.  “Heinz’s sociopathic tendencies are exacerbated by mental illness. Paranoid Schizophrenia has long been associated with serial killers: David Gonzalez, David Berkowitz, Richard Chase, Albert Fish, Jeffrey Dahmer, Kenneth Bianchi, and Ed Gein, to name the most prominent.  It’s believed Heinz also suffers from the condition.  His version of reality is not the same as yours or mine.  That must be why he’s here chasing down some author: he’s fantasising.”

“Not just some author,” said Howard.  “Blake Price.  He wrote Twinkle.  It was amazing.”

“I didn’t read the individual crime reports,” admitted Jessica,  “but Mrs Price was Heinz’s final victim before he was captured, correct?”

Howard nodded.  “Heinz turned up looking to meet Blake Price, but only his wife was home.  After she tried to make Heinz leave, he attacked her with a bottle of Scotch.  I won’t go into detail about what he did, but he said afterwards that he did it for Blake—that his wife was restricting his brilliance.”

“That fits with the paranoid delusions,” said Jessica.  “Heinz probably believes that he and Blake are best friends—even soulmates.”

Howard shook his head and sighed.  “He wrote Blake Price over three-hundred letters from the hospital.  He didn’t get a single reply.”

“Paranoid schizophrenics tend to fixate.  Every single letter Blake Price ignored probably made Heinz’s obsession even worse.  He’ll be wanting to meet Blake Price and find out why he doesn’t value their friendship the same way.”

“Maybe because he raped the guy’s wife,” said Howard.

“That was a favour in Heinz’s mind, remember?  It was a way to cement their friendship, like a cat bringing its owner a dead mouse.  An animal’s love is not like our own.”

“Let’s just find the guy before he hurts anybody else.”

Jessica slid a hand over the Glock beneath her sodden blazer, ensuring it was still there. “Or hurts us,” she said.

They headed along the path for another five minutes, at one point crossing over a quaint wooden bridge spanning a stream.  Then the woods got thicker.  Every crunching twig, rustling bush, and hooting animal made Jessica flinch, ready to grab her weapon and shoot.  The endless pitter-patter of the rain on leaves was disorientating and made her even more uneasy. Howard had quietened and started walking with a slight bend in his knees.  If Heinz appeared, Howard would let his training take over.  By watching him, Jessica hoped she would know how to behave and when to act.  She was still mad at Palu for sending her out here in the wind and rain—and danger.  This was not the place for a doctor.

A shadow skittered across the path.  It was only a rat, but that didn’t stop Jessica’s stomach from lurching.  The small rodent paused briefly to look at them and then disappeared into the thicket.

Howard sniffed the air.  “I think we must be getting nearer the lake.”

Jessica smelt the faintly pungent stink of standing water.  Would Heinz be heading to the lake, or would he be moving deeper into the woods?  He’d been heading for Blake Price’s home before the police chased him towards the nature reserve, and that would still likely be his ultimate destination.  Richard Heinz was a brazen sociopath; he wouldn’t hide in the woods.  He might hunt in them, though, which Jessica thought about as she glanced around at the grey and black shadows.  The leaning trees and tangled bushes provided a hundred places for a killer to hide.  She felt like an extra in a horror movie—one of those airheads whose only role was to be hacked to pieces.

Several more rats scurried across the pavement and into the bushes.  It was unsettling enough to stop Howard in his tracks, who held up his hand.

Jessica allowed her fingers to hover over her Glock.  “Rats are solitary animals,” she muttered.  “You only find them in packs if there’s—”

“A food source,” Howard finished.  He yanked his sidearm from the leather holster at his thigh.

Jessica followed suit and snatched her Glock from beneath her blazer and pointed it at the ground, ready.  The two of them stepped forward carefully, treading softly, creeping silently. Jessica’s heart pumped against her chest, her stomach turned over in an endless wave, but she remembered her training and concentrated on it now.  Her safety was off, a round was in the chamber, and she kept a smart distance from Howard.  If Heinz was nearby, there was no way he could jump one of them without being shot and killed by the other.

More rats appeared.  They scurried away as soon as they spotted Howard and Jessica.  It wasn’t long before the source of the rodent-gathering became clear.

At the edge of the path, half-buried in the weeds, was a backpack.  Howard grabbed his torch and shone it.  The backpack was purple, suggesting a female owner.  Rats had gnawed a hole in its side and dragged out a packet of crisps and what looked like a cellophane-wrapped sandwich.  The straps were adorned with an assortment of whimsical patches and shiny badges:  PORN DESTROYS, FUJI FILM, BAZINGA! REDLAKE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, GOOFY’S GIRL.

Howard turned a circle, sweeping the area with his torch.  The only thing with them was the wind, the shadows, and the looming woods.

As the torch beam cut through the darkness, Jessica spotted a dark patch on the ground several feet ahead.  Her fear gave way to curiosity and she found herself heading towards it.

“Jessica, where are you going?  Stay close to me.”

She ignored Howard’s warning and kept on going.  “There’s something over here,” she said.

Howard gave a brief hiss of frustration, but he followed her.  By the time she reached the dark patch on the path, he was right by her side.  “What is it?”  he asked.

“I don’t know.  Shine your torch on it.”

Howard did as asked, revealing the stain.

“It’s blood,” said Jessica flatly.  There was perhaps an entire pint of it staining the pavement, by her estimation.  She knelt and prodded the stain with her finger.  It was sticky and cold.  “It’s fresh,” she said, “not completely fresh, but still pretty recent.  It hasn’t washed away in the rain.”

Howard scanned the area with a clenched jaw.  “About two hours ago, then?”

Jessica nodded.

Howard kept his gun raised, but placed the torch through a loop fastener on his shoulder.  He pulled the radio from his belt and hit the ‘talk’ button.  “MCU Officer Hopkins to local Redlake authorities, pick up, over.”

A voice came back immediately.  “Sergeant Young, reading you, over.”

Howard took a breath, then said, “Check missing persons reports.  I think Heinz has a hostage.”

2

Jessica searched inside the backpack while Howard kept watch.  She found a sketchpad and some pencils, as well as an expensive-looking camera with two different lenses.

“I think maybe she’s a photographer or an artist.  There’s no ID.  From the look of these professional camera lenses, I’d say we’re looking for an adult.”

Howard frowned. “Anything else we can use?”

Jessica shook her head. “Perhaps she’s a student.  We should check the roster of local art classes, see if anybody’s missing.”

It was the only lead they had, so Howard passed the info on to Sergeant Young, who said he would get right on it.

“We have to find Heinz,” said Jessica once Howard was done on the radio.  “If he has a hostage, the best way to save her is to find him quickly.”

“I don’t know,” said Howard. “We’re here for a manhunt, not a hostage negotiation.”

Jessica straightened and stepped away from the backpack.  “There won’t be any negotiation.  Heinz is a deluded sadist.  All he wants is to satisfy his urges.  If he has a girl with him, she doesn’t have long for us to rescue her.  Even now it might be too late to save her from whatever sick games he’s playing.  If we hang back and do nothing, the girl will have no chance at all.”

Howard seemed to sense her despair and held a hand out to her.  “We don’t know for sure he even has a girl with him, but you’re right.  We’re here to bring in Heinz, so let’s bring him in.”

Jessica nodded.  “Times already a-wasting.  Let’s move.”

They picked up their pace, the possibility of an innocent girl in peril spurring them on.  The rain kept hammering, but Jessica found the weather comforting now; it kept her in touch with her senses, prevented her from relaxing.

“The fact that Heinz encountered someone on the path tells us he’s not hiding in the woods,” said Howard.  “If we keep heading towards the lake, we might find him.”

Jessica was about to agree, but a voice in her head couldn’t.  “No…no, he’ll be in the woods now.”

Howard stopped and faced her.  “The girl was attacked on the path.”

“Yes, she was.  Heinz wouldn’t usually hide, I agree, but now that he has a girl things are different. Once his sadistic urges take over he won’t want to be disturbed.  He’ll take her someplace where he can take his time: the woods, not the lake.”

Howard seemed to momentarily doubt her, but then he nodded.  “Alright, you’re the one that understands these sickos.  You say he’s gone into the woods, I believe you.”

“Good, because I’m sure of it.”  She turned towards the woods, staring into the unbroken shadows that faded to absolute black.  “Problem is, finding a killer in the woods is a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

“Yeah,” said Howard, “and usually when you find the needle, it pricks you.”

Jessica took a breath and stepped into the woods. Howard was one step behind her. Beneath the canopy, the rain fell in clusters instead of in an unending torrent.  The ground here was uneven, thick with roots and weeds, but the trees were spaced far enough apart that it was possible to walk in a mostly straight line.  The problem was visibility.  It was impossible to see more than five-feet ahead and, if they used their torches, Richard Heinz would see them long before they saw him.

Howard tugged Jessica’s blazer and took the lead.  He was the senior officer and this was her first time at the rodeo, so she was relieved when he walked ahead.  She remained three steps behind Howard and concentrated on not tripping as they crept far enough that the pathway completely disappeared.  Five minutes later, Howard put his hand up to stop.

“What is it?” whispered Jessica.

“I think you were right.  Look.”

Jessica had to scan the area for several seconds before she spotted the flattened bushes ahead.

“He’s probably carrying the girl,” said Howard.  “He must have gotten tired and taken a rest here.  He dumped her down in the bushes, by the looks of things.”

Jessica sighed with relief.  “Sounds like the girl is unconscious.  That’s good.  He’ll want her awake, so it’ll buy her some time.”

“He may be near, so hand signals only from here.”

Jessica chewed at her bottom lip.  “Yeah, I…think I remember most of them.”

Howard wheeled on her. “Damnit, Jessica.  You need to remember all of them.”

“This is my first time in the field.  Tell the truth, I never expected to ever be out like this.  I’m a researcher.”

Howard stepped right in her face.  “No, Jessica, you’re a member of MCU and you need to be battle-ready.  Things are gearing up and Palu wants all of his senior agents to lead from the front.  You can’t hang back at base while everyone else risks their lives.  How do you expect new recruits to respect you?”

Jessica took a step back.  “Well, I…never really considered.”

“Look,” said Howard, “our headquarters was hit not so long ago, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten.  There’re no guarantees anymore that being behind a desk is safe.  You need to be able to defend yourself, and right now I need to depend on you.”

Jessica raised her left hand and made a circle with her thumb and forefinger—okay.

Howard nodded.  He gave the okay signal back, followed by a hand wave that meant come.

They crouched down and trekked another hundred metres or so until they made it over to a large oak tree in a clearing; the rain once again became ferocious.  Snagged against one of the tree’s bulbous roots was a wool scarf.  Several feet away, lying in the bushes, was a purple fleece.  They searched the area for a few more minutes until Howard signalled that he’d found something else.  When Jessica made her way over she saw her partner was holding a knitted jumper in one hand and a bra in the other.

Jessica felt bile in her throat and it made her speak in a harsh rasp.  “He’s stripping her,” she said.  “She must be waking up.”

As if to mark her theory correct, a shrill scream echoed from the trees in the distance.

Howard pulled his weapon and tried to pinpoint the sound.  Jessica’s senses were quickest. She raised her Glock and started sprinting in the direction of the screams.  Howard took off after her, apparently torn between shouting at her to come back and remaining silent, so he settled on a weird warbling pitch that was neither shout nor whisper.  “Officer Bennett, stand down.  Stand down!”

But Jessica couldn’t stand down, not while screams still pierced the air.  She dodged between trees and leapt over bushes.  The thought of a poor girl being tortured consumed Jessica’s mind and controlled her body.  Palu had been right to send her into the field.  She needed to help the innocent, not just patch them up after they’d already been hurt.  Her job was to stop monsters like Richard Heinz, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

She managed to pick up even more speed as she hurdled the hanging branch of a dying ash tree.  She didn’t realise it was a trap until it was too late.

The screams stopped and were replaced by spiteful laughter.

3

Howard tried to stop Jessica from running off half-cocked but she was as bull-headed in the field as she was at the office.  At MCU headquarters, known affectionately as the Earthworm, Jessica was the smartest member of the team and in charge of the facility’s infirmary.

Out here she was a bag of nerves and unbridled emotion.  That emotion had sent her barrelling off in the direction of a scream that Howard thought sounded too deep to be female. It was shrill and high-pitched, but there was a throaty quality that made Howard think it belonged to a man; a man trying to scream like a girl.  Howard chased after Jessica, but struggled to catch her in the dark labyrinth of the woods.

The screaming stopped abruptly.  Howard couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard laughter.  His foot caught on a tree root, sending him tumbling to the wet mud, but his momentum brought him back up again.  He forced his way through a crop of thorny bushes and emerged inside a clearing.  The rain flooded down his forehead into his eyes.  He blinked.

“Welcome,” said a voice. “Welcome to my party.”

Howard skidded to a halt and raised his gun. Jessica was sprawled on the ground nearby, holding the side of her head and trying to get up.  In front of Howard was the man they were searching for: Richard Heinz.

The escaped killer was topless, with deep gouges down each side of his chest that glistened in the moonlight. He was also barefoot, his feet blackened and muddy. In front of him, on her knees, was a young girl wearing only muddy white knickers.  She was sobbing pitifully and had obviously taken a beating. Her swollen, bloody face was a picture of misery.

Heinz had a screwdriver pointing at the top of the naked girl’s head. “Come any closer and I’ll pierce her skull.  I won’t allow her to escape punishment.”

Howard took a very cautious step forward. “What punishment?”

“I said stay back,” shouted Heinz.  “You’re disobeying my rules. This is my party.”

Howard stepped back.  “Okay, I’m sorry. You’re in control here, Richard, but you wouldn’t want to hurt anybody, would you?”

“Of course not. I don’t want to. What kind of a man do you think I am?”

Heinz seemed to think that wasn’t a rhetorical question, but Howard was stumped.  What kind of a man?  A sick, twisted nut case.  “I think you’re a…good man.  I think you want to let that poor girl go.”

Heinz huffed.  “Poor girl?  What kind of girl walks around in the woods after dark?  Good girls should be at home, not flaunting themselves around in too much make-up and fake nails.”

“I know,” said Howard, “but this girl is a photographer.  She’s out here to take pictures.”  He didn’t know for sure it was true, but Jessica had seemed sure enough.

Jessica had now recovered enough to make it onto her hands and knees.  She was shuffling through the wet leaves, spreading out her hands.  Howard knew what she was doing: she was looking for her gun.  She must’ve dropped it when Heinz clocked her. If Howard was aware of her movement, Heinz would be too.

Heinz shook his head and looked at Howard like he was a fool.  “The girl had condoms in her purse.  She’s just another slut like all the rest.  She’s out late at night looking to lead men to their ruin.  She needs to pay.  They all need to pay.”

“Okay,” said Howard.  “Then let me take her in.  I’m a police officer.  I can punish her.”

“No, you’ll let her off with a warning.”

Howard had to tell Heinz whatever he wanted to hear.  “No, I won’t.  She’ll get what she deserves, I promise.”

Heinz’s eyes narrowed.  “Really?”

“Really.”

“Show me.”

“What?”

“Show me you’re telling the truth.  The girl deserves to suffer for her sins, so come over here and beat her.”

Howard swallowed. This could be his chance. If he could get close enough to Heinz, he could move the girl away and take him down.  All Heinz had was a screwdriver, and that could be taken care of easily enough.  The naked girl looked up at Howard with her swollen eyes and trembled.  She seemed to sense that her rescue was about to go down.  Whether or not the girl would ever get over this was another matter.

“Please…” she whimpered.

Howard glanced down at Jessica through the corner of his eye.  She was still searching for her gun, still a little clumsy from the blow to the head.  If she could find her weapon while Heinz was occupied, they might have a chance of taking in their fugitive quietly. But there was no way Heinz couldn’t have spotted her moving. So why was he behaving as if he were unaware.

“Come on!” barked Heinz.  “If you understand that this slut needs punishing, then show me.  Show me or I’ll pierce her skull right now.”

“Okay, okay.  Just stay calm.”  Howard approached slowly.

“Wait!”  Heinz pressed the screwdriver’s tip against the girl’s skull, which made her whimper.  He nodded towards Howard’s gun.  “Drop it.”

Howard looked at the Ruger P95 in his hand and was suddenly aware of its weight.  Often it felt like an extension of his arm, but right now it was like a heavy lump of metal and plastic in his hand.  Could he let it go?  Was it a bad call?  Would refusing to drop his weapon result in the hostage’s death?  Heinz was crazy, there was no way of telling what he would do.  Howard’s best bet was to play into the sicko’s fantasies and keep him calm.  With a bit of luck, Jessica would find her gun in the dirt and regain control of the situation.

So, Howard’s plan was to rely on his partner, who had no experience and had just allowed herself to get ambushed.

He dropped the P95 and held both empty hands in front of him.  If he could get between Heinz and the girl, he would try to take the fugitive down hand-to-hand.

Heinz grinned, more animal than man.  Rain cascaded down his bloody chest.  His sharp teeth glinted in the moonlight.  At his knees, the naked girl sobbed.

“I’m coming over,” said Howard.

“Make it quick.”

Heinz watched Howard’s every move as he crept forwards.  He made eye-contact with the girl, who silently begged him to save her.  This was his opportunity to do so.  Howard could end the girl’s nightmare right here and now.  In the corner of Howard’s eye, Jessica continued to shuffle.

Heinz’s grin grew wider.

Howard crept closer, almost close enough to touch the girl.  If he could just grab her, pull her out of the way…

“I think your partner is searching for something,” said Heinz, nodding towards Jessica.

Howard glanced at Jessica who froze.

“Is it this she’s looking for?”  Heinz pulled Jessica’s Glock from behind his back and held it up.

Howard didn’t think, he just acted.  As Heinz focused his attention on the gun in his hand, he forgot about the screwdriver over the girl’s head.  Now was the time to shove the girl aside and take Heinz down.  Heinz thought he had the power now that he had the Glock, but he wouldn’t have the experience or training to fire it properly.

Howard planted his feet, sprung, and went airborne.

Crack!

One second, Howard was flying towards Heinz, ready to push the girl aside and take down his man.  The next second, he was changing direction, barrelling sideways, his vision completely tilted.  When he hit the dirt, he was unsure which way he was facing.  When he tasted wet soil in his mouth, he knew he was sprawled face-down.  He heard the screams of a woman, then more gunshots.

More silence.

More gunshots.

More screams.

Then a lasting silence.

Footsteps.  Twigs breaking.  The sound of a hurried escape through bushes. A young girl screaming.

Howard remained face-down, fighting for breath and squirming in agony.  His entire body felt white hot, but the pain was beginning to localise in his chest, just beneath the left collarbone.

He’d been shot.  His first time.  It hurt like hell, but somehow it was bearable.  His mind was foggy and his body felt loose.

A hand tugged roughly at the back of his vest and rolled him over.  The rain fell into his eyes, forcing him to blink.  Part of him was glad; he didn’t want to see Heinz’s maniacal face again.

“Howard, are you alright?”

Howard felt himself being patted down.  He blinked the rain from his eyes, trying to see.  He was relieved to see Jessica kneeling over him.  “Wha…what happened?”

Jessica held up the Ruger P45.  “I may have lost my gun, but I managed to pick up yours. Heinz got away with the girl though.”

Howard groaned.  The pain intensified.

“Try not to move,” said Jessica.  “You’ve been shot, but you’re going to be okay.  From the look of things, the bullet hit your body armour, but the force probably fractured a couple of ribs.  Obviously at such close range, body armour is only of negligible use.  It’s a pity that—”

“Jess…Jessica?”

“What?”

“You need to go after Heinz.  He has your gun.”

Jessica sighed and let her head drop.  “I know.  I was so stupid.  This is all my screw up.”

“Yeah.”  Howard coughed and wheezed; it was agonising to breathe.  “Just take the son-of-a-bitch down and we’ll talk about our mistakes later.”

“I can’t leave you here.  What if he comes back?”

“He won’t.”

“He might.”

Howard grunted.  “Call it in and leave me here.”

“Okay.”  Jessica’s hands shook as she reached towards the radio on his vest.  She thumbed the button on the side.  “MCU officer Bennett, requesting immediate medical attention in…in the woods somewhere.  Officer down, none fatal gunshot wound.”

Silence.  They both looked at each other and frowned.

Jessica looked down at the radio and Howard watched as her face dropped.  “What is it?” he asked.

She showed him the radio unit.  The module at the top, the piece with the antenna, was missing.  The plastic was badly splintered.

“It must have taken a hit from the bullet before it struck your vest,” said Jessica.  “Let me try my phone… Damn it!  No signal.  It must be the woods.”

“You’ll just have to go for help yourself.”

Jessica shook her head.  “That young girl doesn’t have time to waste, and I can’t leave you here wounded.  Come on, get up.”

“I’ve been shot.”

“Not anywhere that matters.  Come on, on your feet.”

Howard waited for her to start laughing, but she was deadly serious.  She was staring at him like a disapproving school mistress.  He swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to sit up.  “Narghh!  Shit, damn it!”

“Stop being such a Jessy.  You’re a soldier, Hopkins, start acting like it.”

Howard managed to make it to his feet but immediately wobbled.  Jessica caught him and steadied him.  After a few seconds, he felt more secure. “I…I think I’m okay.”

Jessica handed him his gun. “The bruising is going to come out quickly and make it painful to breath, but just stay calm and you’ll be okay.  I believe this is yours.  I still intend on getting mine back.”

Howard chuckled, but immediately regretted it and grabbed his chest.  “Argh…okay, but once you get your gun back, can you…try to keep hold of it?”

Jessica placed her hands on her hips.  “I promise, so long as you can promise to avoid getting shot again.”

“I got shot one time.”

“And I’ll never let you forget it.”

4

Howard pulled off his tactical vest and body armour as they walked because it was causing him pain.  Once he was down to a simple black vest he could move easier.  The adrenaline coursing through his body kept the weather from chilling him too badly.  In fact, the cold wind and stinging rain kept him alert.  In his right hand he held his P45; he wouldn’t be parted from it again.

“He can’t have gotten far,” said Jessica.  “He’s dragging a hostage.”

Howard checked the glow-in-the dark hands on his watch.  “We’ve wasted about ten minutes and I’m slowing us down.  You should have left me.”

“What, and embarrass the MCU?  We need to finish this mission together.  We’ll lick our wounds later, in private.”

“Easy for you to say.  I’m the one with all the wounds to lick.”  As if to drive home his point, a twinge of agony in his chest caused him to double over and groan.

Jessica ran to his side.  “Are you okay?  Look, maybe you’re right.  I should go get help and—”

Howard straightened back up.  “You mean like I told you before you dragged my arse off the ground?  No, no, I’m not stopping now, I’ve just gone through the agony of getting going.  But the mission has changed.  We see Heinz, I’m going to employ lethal force.  He has a firearm now, so the parameters of the mission have changed.”

Jessica rubbed at the bump on her temple.  “Palu’s going to chew me up and spit me out for losing my weapon, isn’t he?”

Howard huffed.  “You have no idea, but you’ll come out the other end of it.  Just learn from it.  Don’t go running off on your own again.  We had a woman like that in our ranks for a while once, remember?  You don’t want to end up like her.”

Jessica nodded. Sarah Stone had been a temporary officer of the MCU; a raging bull of a woman, badly scarred both physically and emotionally.  She’d disappeared off the face of the earth a few months ago, likely the victim of a revenge killing by the terrorist cell she’d helped decimate.  Sarah Stone had been a good lesson on how being alone meant being vulnerable.  If the woman hadn’t been such a loner, she might not have been singled out and abducted. It might have also given the MCU half a chance to track her down.

“I think I see light up ahead,” said Howard.  He lumbered over to a towering poplar and leant against its trunk.

Jessica moved up beside him.  She could see the light as well, a faint twinkle coming through the edge of the treeline.  “The abbey?”

“Maybe.  Sergeant Young said he had men stationed there.  Heinz is unlikely to go anywhere near it.”

“He has to go somewhere,” said Jessica.

Gunfire sounded off in the direction of the lights.  Howard looked at her. “Looks like I was wrong.”

Jessica pulled at his arm.  “Come on.”

Howard managed to jog and they made it to the edge of the woods.  They exited onto a pathway that could have originated from the one they’d started on.  Before them lay a vast lake.  Beyond it was the imposing stone facade of the town’s ancient abbey.  Its towering spire pierced the air like an upwards facing spear.

“That place doesn’t look too cozy,” said Howard.

“The perfect place for a guy like Heinz, then.”  Jessica took a deep breath.  “The gunshots came from over there.”

“Maybe the local police managed to take him down.”

Jessica nodded. “Perhaps, but only one way to know for sure.”

Howard pushed himself upright from the tree trunk. “That means more walking, doesn’t it?”

Jessica helped him get moving.  “The drinks are on me after all this is over.  Soon as we get Heinz pinned down, we’ll find a way to call back-up.  I still want Heinz alive, if possible.”

Howard no longer cared.  Heinz was already a killer, but now they’d made him an armed killer.  The gunshots at the abbey might not have been aimed at Heinz; they may have come from Jessica’s gun.  More innocent people might be dead, and that would be on them.

They kept to the edge of the lake, eyes pinned on the abbey.  The lights affixed to its stone walls lit the building from the bottom, bathing its base in shadow.  It was the type of place ripe for stories about hauntings and grizzly executions, the perfect place to set a ghost story; only they weren’t heading into a ghost story, they were heading into a slasher flick.  Richard Heinz was both evil and insane.

The abbey was perched on a rise.  The pathway snaked round the lake and eventually led up that hill.  Standing at the bottom of it now, Howard and Jessica looked up at their destination.  It was quiet, still, foreboding.

Despite his pain, Howard put his arm out and placed Jessica behind him.  His black t-shirt helped him blend with the shadows better than the white blouse beneath her blazer.  He also didn’t want her running off half-cocked again, so he’d feel better with her behind him.

Out in the open, the rain was relentless.  Thunder rumbled in the distance and the wind whistled across the lake.  The dark wood seemed to close up behind them as they left it.  The bullet wound in Howard’s shoulder cried out, but it was the fear in his belly that was hardest to overcome.  It was only the feeling of Jessica placing a hand on his back that managed to get him moving up the hill, but once he started nearing the abbey, he knew he was heading into danger.  It wasn’t his first time, but it might be his last.

5

The adrenaline that coursed through Jessica’s system when she’d first encountered Heinz was beginning to wear off, and in its place was a growing sense of dread.  Howard was hurt.  He wasn’t losing blood and nothing major had been hit, but she knew the pain would be enough to drop most men.  Howard wasn’t most men, of course, but he was still human.  He wasn’t in a fit state to take down Heinz on his own, which was why she needed to step up.  Her recklessness had placed a gun in Heinz’s hand.  Her gun had been used to shoot her own partner; it was negligence of the highest order.

Howard had taken point—no doubt to protect her—but he was slow and laboured.  The young girl Heinz had stripped naked didn’t have time to waste.  They needed to get moving, but Jessica couldn’t afford to rush off again.  Last time she’d been armed and Heinz still got the jump on her.  She needed to stay calm and let her brain do the thinking instead of her heart.

Modern security lamps were fixed on the abbey’s walls and green-painted aluminium benches lined the path leading up to it, but otherwise it was like stepping into the past.  The harsh grey stone was the type seen only in ancient churches and ruins.  Its windows were carved squares lacking glass.  Its square tower looked like it could come down at any moment—yet it had stood for centuries.

“Any sign of Heinz?” whispered Jessica.

“No, it’s quiet.  I don’t like it.”  Howard had his gun unholstered, risen to shoulder level.

They entered the abbey’s boundaries.  Parts of the old buildings were only foundations rising three feet out of the mud, but the main tower and the attached cruciform church still stood fully erect.  Further on, there was a modern bridge built over a narrow stream which seemed to lead to a crop of modern glass-and-red-brick buildings.

“Wait here while I clear the church,” said Howard.

Jessica nodded.  She hovered a few metres behind Howard and watched him disappeared into a rectangle of darkness.  The rain hitting the old stone made a hissing sound, making her feel like her hearing was malfunctioning.  She wanted to shout out for Howard, but doing so could compromise him.  She had no choice but to wait.

Eventually enough time had passed that waiting no longer was an option.  Jessica pulled the CS canister from her belt and took a step towards the dark rectangle, dreading what she would find inside the abbey.

“Jessica!”

She flinched and wheeled around, wondering where the voice had come from.

“Up here!”

Jessica looked up and saw Howard staring down at her from the top of the abbey’s square tower.  “What are you doing up there?” she hissed.

“The church is clear, but I saw a staircase and headed up.  Seemed like a good place to recon.”

“Can you see anything?  Can you see Heinz, the girl?”

Howard left then reappeared a moment later.  “I don’t see…wait, hold on.”

“What is it?”

“I think I see something.  I’ll be right down.”

Jessica waited patiently.  When Howard returned, he was huffing and puffing.  Climbing fifty feet of old stone steps probably wasn’t the best idea in his condition.  “You okay?”

Howard nodded.  He took a second to catch his breath, clutching his chest.  “I’ll be…fine.  I’m just feeling a bit…out of…breath.”

Jessica didn’t say anything.  Her partner needed help, but perhaps not as much as the girl they were trying to save.  It was a matter of triage.

“I saw something over there,” he eventually said, pointing past her.  “There are more buildings, looks like a visitor centre or something.”

“What did you see?”

“I’m not sure yet, just…something.  A light.”

There was more to it, that much was obvious.  Howard looked worried and it was clear he didn’t want to waste time speculating.  They headed for the visitor’s centre immediately.

They crossed over the little bridge and joined a path leading away from the abbey, towards the modern buildings.  The first building they came upon was a heritage museum, but Howard didn’t stop there.  He continued towards a building which turned out to be a set of stables.  As he’d suggested, there was a light coming from there, from inside one of the stalls.  A shaft of light rose upwards and bounced off the open door.

They both took things slow.  Howard had his gun at the ready and was staring hard, unblinking.  Jessica had his back, her CS canister her only defence.

Howard moved up to the edge of the stall and took a ready position.  He made eye-contact with Jessica and then nodded.  Stepping into the doorway he thrust out his gun, then lowered it and shook his head with disgust.

Jessica stepped up beside him and looked into the stall as well, then covered her mouth.  Two police officers lay inside the stall, their white shirt’s stained red.  The light source came from the men’s torches. One of them lay across a lifeless leg, which was what Howard had spotted from the tower.

Jessica stepped inside and flicked on her own torch.  She shone it on the two dead men and examined them.  The first had died from a stab wound to the temple, clear from the screwdriver handle jutting out the side of his head.  Heinz must have driven it with unbelievable force to shove it all the way up to the handle.  The second officer had died from a gunshot wound to the gut.  Luckily the shock would have protected him from the pain until he passed on.

Howard rubbed at his forehead with the back of his free hand.  “Heinz must have gotten the jump on this first guy, stabbed him in the head, then used the gun when the other officer got alerted.  Probably dragged their bodies in here to cover his tracks.”

“My gun,” said Jessica.  “These men are dead because of me.”

“No,” said Howard.  “Heinz had the screwdriver long before he got the jump on you.  The guy’s out for blood regardless of the methods he uses.  Your gun didn’t convince him to kill.”

Jessica worried she was going to throw up, not because of the gory scene they were standing in—she was a doctor, she could handle it—but because of the guilt working its way into her gut.  “I need to save that girl,” she said.

Howard looked at her with understanding.  “Save the girl and you balance the books.”

Jessica nodded.

Squawerk!

Sergeant Young, all units report in, over.

Howard stared down at the dead police officer and didn’t move.  Jessica leapt down beside the man and patted him down.  She found the radio on his belt and yanked it free.  She hit the talk button.  “MCU Officer Bennett responding.  Your officers at the abbey are KIA, Officer Hopkins is injured.  Send immediate reinforcements and medical care.”

There was a long pause, then: Roger that.  Secure casualties.  Backup units to arrive in fifteen.  Over.

The voice had sounded sad.  There was nothing further to say, so Jessica simply said, “Roger that.  Over.”

Howard stumbled out of the stable and leant against the building.  “Heinz didn’t have that big a lead on us,” he said.  “The gunshots were only five minutes ago.  He must be close.”

Jessica looked around at the darkness and agreed.  The buildings were all lit with security lamps, but that only made the surrounding darkness blacker.  Heinz could be twelve feet away and they couldn’t know it.

Jessica shone her torch into the darkness, lighting up the muddy flower beds, bins, and benches lining the paths.  Every dozen feet was a sign spiked into the earth reading: STAY OFF THE GRASS.  There was no sign of Heinz, no movement at all, but Jessica did spot something.  She stared down at the path; there was a small speck of colour a few feet in front of her, and as she knelt closer she saw that it was a bright-pink acrylic nail.  “Howard!  Howard, come take a look at this.”

Howard hurried to join her.  He looked down at the nail and shrugged.  “You think it belongs to the girl?”

“I don’t know, but Heinz mentioned something about fake nails and make-up.  Plus it’s pink.”

Howard switched on his own torch and headed a few metres further down the path.  “We’ve got another one here.”

They found another four before the trail ran dry.  “She must have been biting them off as he dragged her,” said Jessica.

“Clever girl.  They stop here, though.”

Jessica took in her surroundings.  There was a café and shop nearby, but their glass fronts gave away that they were both locked and empty.  A blinking alarm system made it an unlikely place for Heinz to take refuge.

Jessica shone her torch in every direction.  Left…right…

She spotted it.  The pink acrylic nail caught the light.  Jessica stepped off the path and onto the mud.  “They went this way.”

“What’s over there?”

Jessica shone her torch into the distance, spotting a familiar sign.  “A block of toilets.  We should check it out.”

“We should wait for backup, but that’s not what we’re going to do, is it?”

Jessica looked at her partner.  He was soaking wet and panting, in obvious pain.  “I can’t help it,” she said.  “The girl…”

Howard nodded. “I know.  Come on, let’s go save her.”

They headed towards the toilet block, spotting another pink nail on their way.  The girl was smart; even in her terror and agony she was thinking pro-actively, not behaving like a victim.

“How you want to do this?” asked Howard.  He pointed his gun towards the gentleman’s entrance.

Jessica shook her head.  “He’ll choose the lady’s.  He’ll get a thrill going where he’s not supposed to.”

“Lady’s it is then.  Stay back.  If things turn sour, you need to take cover and wait for back up.”

Howard crept forward, his P45 held out in front of him.  There was a spotlight over the door and as he stepped into it, Jessica saw what a mess Howard was.  Dirt and blood plastered his clothing which was sodden from the rain.  His entire body tilted to the left, contracting around his wounded ribs.

While they had discussed which toilet Heinz might have been hiding in, they had not considered the possibility that he might have been above them.  The first shot rang out and lit up the shadows.  The bullet had been meant for Jessica, but it missed and struck the dirt next to her feet.  She leapt forwards and shoved herself flat against the wall, clutching her CS canister as her only lifeline.  The roof overhung by a foot and gave her some cover.  Howard ducked inside the entrance to the lady’s, but leant out to get her attention.  He gave a hand signal: stay.

Jessica nodded. She looked upwards and tried to pinpoint Heinz’s location.  His bare feet made slapping sounds that joined the endless pitter-patter of the rain.  Howard crouched down, pointing upwards with his gun, trying to find a target.

Unfortunately, the target found them first.

Howard’s eyes went wide, then he leapt up and pointed his gun.  “Jessica, get down.”

Jessica was facing Howard, but she felt the presence looming behind her; she heard Heinz’s bare feet slapping in the mud.  She spun around, just in time to see the escaped psychopath rise up, bare-chested and bloody.  He aimed the gun at her forehead and pulled the trigger.

6

Jessica managed to leap aside just as the gun bucked in Heinz’s fist.  The sound was deafening and the muzzle-flash blinded her.  All she could do in her frightened desperation was press the release on her CS canister and hold it out in front of her.

Hissssssss!

Her legs gave out and she tumbled onto her hands and knees.  Her palm slipped on the wet mud and a jolt of pain ran up to her elbow.  She screamed.

There was more gunfire.  Jessica looked up to see Heinz dodging back, firing blindly as he covered his eyes with his forearm.  Howard was taking cover in the toilet’s entrance, but he returned fire as best he could.  Jessica considered getting up and trying to take Heinz down, but when she tried to push herself up, she instantly yelled out in agony.

Heinz continued firing blindly, his face a mask of agony as the CS gas burned his sinuses.  Jessica had managed to save her own life by holding on to the canister.  Turned out that it had been a match for a gun.

Click click click!

Heinz thrust the gun out, trying to make it fire, but it was empty.  He tossed the gun aside, wiped at his eyes madly, then sprinted away into the shadows.  Howard leapt out and took a shot at the fleeing killer, but his gun too was empty.  “Damn it!”  He reached into his pocket and pushed another clip in, but Heinz was already gone. He rushed over to Jessica and propped her up.  “Are you okay?”

“I…I think my wrist is broken.  No…no wait, it’s just a sprain.  Did you manage to hit him?”

Howard shook his head.  “The rain, the wind, the dark…”

Jessica nodded.  Trying to hit a target in conditions like this was a challenge.  She marched forward and shouted into the darkness.  “You better give yourself up, Heinz, because if I have to come and find you, you’re going to regret it.”

“Jessica?”

Jessica was breathing like a wound-up pitbull.  She spun on Howard with fury, but it wasn’t meant for him, so she reigned herself in.  “We need to catch him, Howard.  He’s a monster.”

Howard was leaning in the doorway of the lady’s toilets.  In the entrance light he looked ghostly and pale.  He was holding his palm up to her, which appeared black.

“What is it?” she asked him.

“I think it’s blood.”  He indicated a glistening wet streak on the wall.  Jessica got close enough to see that it was, in fact, a fresh blood stain.  The tangy, metallic odour was unmistakable.  The real question was did the blood belong to Heinz?

Jessica wiped the rain from her face and blinked.  They were going to have to step inside the toilet block, but she didn’t want to.  Something in her guts told her to run the other way.  “The girl,” she said.

The lights inside came on automatically, presenting the scene like a crime scene slide suddenly appearing on a projector screen.  Jessica went still, her eyes the only thing moving as they took it all in.  The girl lay on the bloody tiles, her underwear completely missing.  Her exposed flesh was grimy with mud and mostly unharmed, but her face was a ruined mess.  As Jessica glanced to her left, she saw a shattered mirror above one of the sinks.  The spiderweb of jagged shards were bloody and lined with chunks of flesh.  Heinz had smashed the poor girl’s face into the glass over and over again, until her features had turned to putty.  Then, obviously in a hurry, he had taken the time to quickly violate her.  The slender tree branch still poked out from between the girl’s legs.

Jessica couldn’t blink, couldn’t swallow. “We didn’t even learn her name.”

Howard felt for a neck pulse, then looked over his shoulder at Jessica and shook his head.  “Looks like he killed her in a hurry,” he said.

“He didn’t want to risk us saving her,” said Jessica.  “Us chasing him probably lessened her time.  Damn it!  If I hadn’t let Heinz get the jump on me…”  She suddenly lost control of herself, booting the door to one of the stalls, sending it crashing open on its squawking hinges.

Howard jumped up.  “Hey, this is a crime scene.  Keep your shit together, Bennett!  This girl’s family is depending on you now.  We still need to bring Heinz in.  He’s out there, unarmed and tired.”

Jessica clenched her fist.  “We don’t even know who this girl was, so we don’t know she even has a family.  As for Heinz, we’re as weak and tired as he is.  You can barely stand and my wrist is useless.”

Howard was hunched over and made no attempt to straighten.  “Maybe, but there are two of us and we have guns.”

Jessica was about to argue but then realised that Heinz had tossed her Glock when it ran out of ammo.  She went back outside and shone her torch where Heinz had fled.  She found her Glock buried in the grass.  Pulling a new clip from her belt, she loaded the handgun and suddenly felt more confident.  The thought of unloading the entire magazine into Heinz’s forehead gave her impetus to carry on.

Howard joined her in the rain.  His P45 was freshly loaded and ready to fire.  If they couldn’t take down Heinz now, they didn’t deserve their roles protecting the public.  One way or another, Heinz was leaving in custody, either in cuffs or a bodybag; Jessica didn’t care which.

In the distance, she spotted several lights.  It didn’t take long to realise that they were torch beams.

“Back-up’s here,” said Howard. “I hope somebody brought painkillers.”

Jessica watched the silhouettes of police officers rushing up the hill and wished they’d arrived five minutes sooner.  She headed down the path and met Sergeant Young at the head of the pack.  He looked at her eagerly, his rotund belly heaving as he caught his breath.  “Heinz?”

Jessica shook her head.

“How about the girl?”

Jessica chewed at her lip.  “We were too late.”

Young let his head drop.  “Bugger it!”

The small group of arriving police officers let out a collective moan.  It was then that Jessica noticed a man out of uniform: he was mildly handsome with wavy hair and dark eyes.  He looked nervous and sick, not dejected and angry like the police officers.  “Who’s this?” Jessica asked Sergeant Young.

“This is Blake Price.  He’s an author, one of Heinz’s original victims.”

“You mean his wife was,” corrected Jessica.

“Yes, my wife was a victim,” said Price.  “I wasn’t there to protect her.”

“So what are you doing here now?”

Sergeant Young interjected.  “When Heinz escaped, we informed Mr Price that he was in danger.  His family have gone to stay with friends, but Mr Price was insistent on helping.”

Jessica frowned. “Help how?”

Price pushed his way to the front of the group. He kept his voice low, almost a whisper.  “Heinz is obsessed with me.  He thinks we’re friends.  If I can get close to him, I might be able to talk him round.  He’s delusional, but I’m a big part of those delusions.”

Jessica didn’t like it.  “Pretty risky.  Why not leave it to the police?”

Price stared hard at her for a moment.  “Six months ago, my brother died.  He was a brave man and died trying to protect other people.  At his funeral I promised him that I would do my best to honour his memory.  Believe me, my first instinct is to get as far away from this place as possible, but if I can help bring an end to this before anyone else is hurt...  Heiz might have information about a missing girl, right?”

Jessica saw a deep sadness in Blake’s eyes, especially at the mention of his brother.  She trusted his convictions; Price really did want to help.  “Okay,” she said.  “Just stay with Sergeant Young until I call for you.”

Sergeant Young bristled.  “I think your time calling the shots is over.  Two of my officers are lying dead in a stable, your own man is injured, and now Heinz’s hostage is dead.”

“You’re right, I made a complete pig’s ear of this entire thing, which is why I’m not going to allow any more of your men to risk their lives.  Office Hopkins and I will get you your man, even if it kills us.  You have my word.”

Sergeant Young went to argue, but ended up sighing.  “So far, all this is on you.  Less I get involved the better, but if Heinz escapes the nature reserve, it’s over to me and my men.  We’ll maintain a perimeter until then.”

Jessica nodded.  “Don’t worry, Heinz is done escaping.”

She checked on Howard who’d taken a seat in the mud.  He was taking slow, steady breaths, but he managed a grim smile as he noticed her approaching.  “Hey,” he said.  “The cavalry here to take over?  I was hoping we had a little more time to fix our screw-up.”

“They’re going to maintain a perimeter while we bring him in.  MCU still have the lead.”

Howard raised an eyebrow suspiciously.  “How’d you talk the Sergeant into agreeing to that?”

“I used my Southern charm.  Okay, maybe it had something to do with Young not wanting to put his name to our mess.  We have one last shot to bring Heinz in, and this time we have an added advantage.”

“What’s that?”

Jessica pointed at Blake.  “You may have heard of him: his name is Blake Price.”

7

Howard was torn between passing out and wanting to salvage what was left of the MCU’s reputation.  When it came to terrorists, Howard knew what to expect: they were maniacs with rules and beliefs.  Monsters like Heinz had no rules or beliefs, entirely unpredictable, which was why a half-naked serial killer leaping from the roof of a toilet block had taken Howard by surprise.

The next surprise might kill him.  His ribs felt like broken glass, stabbing into him with every movement.  The more time that passed, the harder it became to breathe.  If he was forced into action one more time, he feared he might lose consciousness.

Jessica was busy checking in with Sergeant Young.  It was surprising how much she’d changed in only the last few hours.  She’d gone from being his reluctant back-up, to throwing herself into the task with gusto.  She’d started to resemble the headstrong woman he knew from MCU’s headquarters.  He just hoped her impulsiveness wouldn’t lead to any more mistakes.

The truth was that MCU had been tasked with bringing in Heinz to show that they could operate within a broader spectrum than only domestic terrorism.  If they succeeded in bringing the escaped killer in, the MCU’s remit might grow, along with its prestige. There was a lot riding on their success; Palu was counting on them.  Sending Jessica into the field to help Howard had been unavoidable.  The MCU was recruiting and most of its senior members were recuperating from a previous mission.  Jessica and Howard were all that was left, and Howard himself had only just recovered from a fractured radial bone.

Now, Jessica came hurrying over, her eyes lit.  “They have Heinz,” she said.

Howard frowned.  “They’ve captured him?”

“No, but they have him surrounded at the abbey.  They found him there, trying to shake off the effects of the CS gas.”

Howard rolled onto his side and tried to get up.  Jessica assisted him, grabbing him under the armpit.  “You need to sit this out?”

“I’m good for now.  I’ll quit when I pass out.”

“Okay, great, because we’re going to finish this now.  I want that crazy son-of-a-bitch locked up for the rest of his life.  Either that, or—”

“I know,” said Howard.  “I want to put a bullet in the guy too, after what he did to that innocent girl, but he’s sick, right?  You said that he belongs in a hospital.”

Jessica nodded, but she was obviously angry.  “Let’s get back down to the abbey.”

They headed down the hill and slowly the abbey emerged.  This time the harsh stone walls were surrounded by a dozen police officers.  Sergeant Young stood in front of the large square tower, waiting for them.  “Heinz is inside.  He managed to attack one of my men, but it’s nothing he can’t walk off.  It’s pitch black in there, though, so it’s going to be risky for whoever goes in there.”

“Is Heinz still unarmed?” asked Howard.

“No, he’s managed to get hold of a metal spike.  He may have pulled it from one of the signs in the ground.  There’s a ton of them dotted around the park.”

Jessica grunted.  “Great. Is there no way we can get this place lit up?”

Young nodded.  “Sent some men to fetch a spotlight.  It’ll probably take about twenty minutes.”

Howard shrugged.  “We have twenty minutes.  Heinz isn’t going anywhere.”  He folded his arms and shivered.  He was covered in mud and soaked through.  His reward, once this evening was through, would be a soaking hot bath; but with the endless briefings required after an incident like this, that would likely still be hours away.  Dawn would be near by the time he made it back to his flat in London.

Howard took a short stroll and stopped in front of the black rectangle that led inside the ancient abbey.  Somewhere inside, Heinz took shelter.  Was the man cowering like a trapped animal, or was he beyond fear?  Was he waiting inside with no other instinct but to harm the first person to come in after him?

Jessica came up beside Howard and shouted.  “Heinz, we have you surrounded.  You’re not going to hurt anybody else.  You’re going back to the hospital.  Throw down your weapon and come on out.”

Silence.

“Richard Heinz, you will be returned to the hospital tonight.  The only question is whether or not we have to shoot you first.”

“Whore!  You speak to me no more.”

“Oh, I’m going to speak to you, Heinz.  I’m going to speak to you like the sad little boy that you are.”

Howard looked at her.  “Jessica, what are you doing?”

She shrugged.  “What harm will it do?  If he runs out to attack me, I’ll shoot him.  If not, we’re no worse off.  Until then, I want Heinz to know what a piece of slime he is, mentally insane or not.”

Howard wanted to say it was a bad idea winding the psychopath up, but he just sniffed and said, “Fair enough.”  Jessica was right, what was the harm?

“Heinz!” shouted Jessica again.  “I can see why your wife left you.  You’re not a man.  You pick on young girls and innocent, unsuspecting women.  Why don’t you come out here and try picking on some of these men?”

“Shut up, bitch!  I took care of those men at the stables, and no women are innocent.  They are all whores.”

“Did those police officers even see you coming, or did you jump them from behind like a coward?”

Silence.

Jessica laughed cruelly.  “That’s what I thought.  You’re such a loser, Heinz.  No wonder Blake Price doesn’t want to know you.”

“Don’t you do that…don’t you talk about him.  He’s my friend.”

“Friend?  Blake Price hates you.  He thinks you’re pathetic.”

“No!  Shut your whore mouth.”

“The only whore was your mother.”

Heinz let out a scream.  Something flew out of the darkness straight towards Jessica.  Howard nudged her aside just as the metal spike embedded itself in the mud, jutting into the air like a javelin.

Jessica turned to Sergeant Young and grinned.  “Heinz isn’t armed anymore.”

Sergeant Young nodded and looked at her admiringly.  Howard was also impressed.  Jessica had obviously hoped her taunts would drive Heinz out, but disarming him was still a decent result.

“Good work,” Howard nodded.

“About time things started going right.”

“Come in here, whore, and I’ll kill you.”

“Why would I do that?  I think I’m going to send these men in to get you.”

“No!”

Jessica faced Sergeant Young.  “I’d rush him now, while he’s unfocused.”

Young nodded and his men ran inside the abbey.  There was shouting, but no sound of a struggle.  After a few moments, Howard thought she heard pleading.

One of the officers headed back out of the abbey and hurried over to Sergeant Young.  “He legged it up to the bloody roof soon as he saw us coming.”

Just as the officer said it, Howard saw the shadow of a man on top of the square tower.

“I don’t want my officers going up there,” said Sergeant Young.  “We’ll wait him out.”

The officer nodded and went back inside the abbey.

Heinz began shouting from atop the tower.  “I will not be imprisoned again.  I am a great man and I will do as I please.”

“What the hell is he doing up there?” asked Howard.

“Losing it,” said Jessica.  “He’s trying to re-empower himself.”

“I would rather die than let you whores take me back to that place.  I am not insane.  I do not need a hospital.”

“There’s no word for what he needs,” muttered Howard.

Jessica remained silent, staring up at the silhouette of Heinz.

“I will not be beaten and humiliated.  I judge the slags and harlots of this world, they do not judge me.  I was put here to do great work, but if my work is finished, then so am I.”

Jessica hissed and spun around.  “Get Price here now,” she said to Sergeant Young.

Young nodded.

Two minutes later, Blake Price arrived at the scene.

“He’s going to jump,” said Jessica.

“How are you sure of that?” asked Howard. It seemed like you couldn’t be sure of anything when it came to Heinz.

“Believe me.  He’s so deluded that he’s romanticised death.  He’ll embrace it long before he allows himself to be imprisoned.”

“I see,” said Blake.  “Can’t say I wouldn’t like to see that.”

Howard sighed.  “Mr Price, I know this man has done terrible things to you, but if we take him alive then we can continue to punish him for his crimes.  Killing himself is the easy way out.”

Jessica added her opinion.  “The more time we have to study people like Heinz, the more chance we have of protecting future victims.  Heinz is mentally insane, and there are biological reasons behind that which we cannot learn if he is dead.  Nor can we learn any information about the missing girl he claims to know about.”

Blake rolled his eyes.  “Believe me, as much as you think you know about killers, I know more; but I came here to help, so what would you have me do?”

“Talk him down,” said Jessica.  “Just like you said you could. Be his friend.”

“You want me to play nice with the man who raped my wife?”

“Yes.”

Blake shook his head and walked off in disgust, but he did so in the direction of the abbey.  He approached the square tower and shouted to Heinz.  “Hey Richie, what you doing, buddy?”

There was a long silence while the silhouette of Heinz flickered and shifted atop the tower.  Howard felt his fists clench while he waited for the author to put their plan into action.

“Blake?  Blake Price, is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“W-why…what are you doing here?”

“I came to see you, of course.”

“They…they said you weren’t my friend.”

“Of course I’m your friend.  You’re my biggest fan.”

“I am your biggest fan.  I’ve read everything you’ve ever written.  Even that one with the vampires, Twinkle.”

Price let out a strained laugh.  “Yeah, that isn’t one of my favourites.  So, how you been?  Why don’t you come down and we’ll catch up?”

It was working, Howard saw. Heinz truly believed Blake Price was his friend.

“They locked me up in a bad place after what I did for you.”

“After what you did for me?”  Price couldn’t hide his anger for a brief moment and Howard held his breath as he waited for things to unravel.

“Yes.  I fucked that bitch of yours with a bottle of your favourite whiskey.  I told her to let you be free.  She was holding you back, Blake.”

Howard put a hand on Blake’s shoulder.  The author was trembling with rage.  “You’re helping us catch this son-of-a-bitch,” whispered Howard.  “Just remember that, Mr Price.  Everything Heinz says, he’ll pay for, I promise.”

Blake nodded.  “I know what you did for me, Richie,” he shouted up, “and I appreciate it.”

“You’re glad I did it?”

Price looked like he might vomit, but he said, “Y-yes, I’m glad you did it.  My wife was a bitch.  She…she…she deserved it.”

“Then why didn’t you reply to any of my letters?  Why did you move away to this horrible little town?”

“What letters?”

“I wrote you hundreds of letters, Blake.  Hundreds.”

“I…I never got any of them.  I sent you letters, too.  Did you not get them?”

Heinz sounded confused, like a little boy learning that Santa wasn’t real.  “I…I didn’t get any letters.  You definitely sent them?  You’re not lying?”

“I wouldn’t lie to a friend, not my number one fan.  You know what I think happened?  I think those bastards, the police, kept our letters from each other.  They didn’t like us being friends.”

“They don’t understand us, Blake.”

“Come down here and we’ll make them understand.”

There was a pause before Heinz finally answered.  “No, I can’t come down there.  They’ll get me.  You need to come up here.”

Howard looked at Blake and shook his head.

Blake took a series of deep breaths.  “You sure you won’t come down here, Richie?  I’d like it if you did.”

“If you’re really my friend, you’ll come up here.”

“Okay, I’m coming up.”

Before Howard could stop him, the author was marching into the abbey.  Two minutes later, he appeared on top of the square tower, fifty feet in the air and trapped with a serial killer.  Howard suddenly understood what having guts looked like.

8

Here was the man who had ruined Blake’s life and destroyed his family.  Only now, years later, had his wife even begun to put back together the pieces of her self-esteem.  This man—this monster—had broken into their home and filled it with nightmares.

Heinz smiled warmly at him.  It looked strange in contrast with his bloody chest and red, swollen eyes.  “Blake, we’re finally together.”

Blake nodded.  “Yes. I’ve been imagining this moment a lot.”

“Me too.  It’s so good that you’re here.”

Blake didn’t want to waste any time on top of the rain-soaked tower.  The wind was so strong it was capable of whipping them both off.  “You need to come down, Richie.  They’ll shoot you if you don’t.”

Heinz shrugged his bony shoulders.  “Let them.  I’m not afraid of dying.  If my work is done, what do I have to live for?”

Blake cleared his throat and tried to keep himself from gagging on his own words.  “You have our friendship to live for.”

“I haven’t seen you in years.  How do I know you won’t disappear again?”

“I promise.  Now that we’re together, they won’t ever keep us apart, but only if you come down now.  If you stay up here, they’re going to split us up again.”

Heinz looked torn.  He glanced over the edge of the tower.

Blake took a step towards the man who raped his wife.

Heinz straightened and looked at Blake.  “Why won’t they leave me alone, Blake?”

“You really don’t know?  You hurt all those women.”

Heinz flapped his arms and shook his head indignantly.  Blake stepped back.  “They deserved it, Blake.  They were all whores, like the ones you write about in your books.  You kill the whores in your books, but people love you for it.  Why do they hate me?”

Blake couldn’t believe he was having to explain why murder was wrong to a grown man.  “The women in my books are victims, not whores.  I write about bad men who need to be locked up.”

Heinz’s expression darkened.  “Like me?”

“No…not like you.  You’re sick, Richie.  You can’t help what you do.  Let them help you.  You could get out one day and have a real life.  Don’t you want that?”

Heinz looked down at the police assembled below.  “I had a life once, before they locked me up.  They punished me for what I did to your wife.  I tried to explain it was what you wanted.  You were never home and you ignored her calls all the time.  I used to follow you, I saw.  She was holding you back, irritating you.”

“Yes, you’re right, I used to ignore her a lot.  I was a bad man back then…a bad husband.  I’m trying to be better now.”

Heinz looked at Blake with pity.  “She’s got inside your head.  You don’t get it, do you?  Did you ever get it, or have you been lying to me this whole time?”

Blake felt the situation slipping out of control.  It was only a matter of time before Heinz figured out that Blake was just telling him the things he wanted to hear.  “Where’s the girl, Richie? You said you knew about a missing girl.”

Heinz scowled.  “Chloe Tanner?  She’s rotting in the ground where she belongs.”

“She has a family, Richie.  Give them some peace.  Let them have her body.”

Heinz was trembling.  He looked ready to fly off the waterlogged tower like a firework.  “They raised a whore.  They don’t deserve peace.  One day, I’m going to come back and get their other daughter.”

Blake did his best to stay calm.  He had to keep Heinz talking.  “Richie, listen to me.  In my books, I always tie up the loose ends, don’t I?  I can’t finish a book without letting the readers know what happens.  How would you have felt if I left all my books with no endings?”

Heinz shifted his feet.  “I…wouldn’t like it.”

“Exactly.  I always give away the secrets by the end.  The killer always takes pride in all his crimes.  Do you really want to leave your own book without an ending?  What if you died of a heart attack this very minute?  What would become of your work?  It would be incomplete.”

Heinz swallowed, his thick Adam’s apple bobbed and glistened in the rain.  Then he grinned sheepishly.  “I don’t know where I buried her.”

Blake frowned.  “What?”

“It was some wood in some town, but I have no idea where.  I was just driving around, looking for a girl.  It was late, dark.  When I picked her up and killed her, I had no idea where I was.  Somewhere on the M5, maybe, or the M6.”  He began laughing.  “I have no fucking idea where I buried the little whore.  All I remember is that I buried her nice and deep where nobody will ever find her.”

Blake closed his eyes for a second and took a few long breaths.  “So you really don’t remember?  Do you think with time, you could?”

“No.  Why don’t we talk about something I do remember, like how your wife screamed when I shoved the bottle in?”

Blake flinched.  “Why are you doing this, Richie?  We’re supposed to be friends.”

Heinz tilted his head, suddenly taking on the mannerisms of a hungry snake.  “I thought we were friends, but you don’t get it.  I think that you did get my letters.”

Blake didn’t break eye-contact with Heinz.  If he couldn’t say where he’d buried Chloe Tanner, then this whole situation was pointless.  There was no point keeping up with the ruse.  “You’re right,” he said.  “I did get your letters.  I got every single one of them and I used them to wipe my arse; but first I read them to all my wife so we could both laugh about what a pathetic loser you are.”

Heinz exploded.  He flew at Blake with his hands outstretched, reaching for his neck.  Blake was ready and shoved Heinz hard in the chest.  The psychopath went tumbling towards the edge of the tower, but managed to right himself against the stone crenulations.  He spun on Blake and attacked again. This time he landed a heavy fist under his chin.  Blake felt his knees give out and slumped against the edge of the tower.  Heinz continued his onslaught, driving a kick into Blake’s ribs, knocking the wind out of him.

“I’m your biggest fan, Blake,” hollered Heinz, “and you betray me like this.  Do you think you’re better than me?  Do you treat all of your fans like they don’t matter?  Are we beneath you?”

“No,” said Blake.  “Just the bed-wetting sociopathic ones.”  He pushed himself up and barrelled into Heinz, shoving him back against the crenulations.  They wrestled and punched at one another at the edge.

“I should have killed your bitch of a wife.  Maybe then you would understand.”

Blake managed to land a fist on Heinz’s chin.  “You’re a fucking lunatic.  There’s nothing to understand.  You’re just another mundane psychopath taking their anger out on women.  You know how many men I’ve researched that are just like you?  You’re not special.  You’re nothing.”

“I’ll kill you!”  Heinz managed to clamp down on Blake’s shoulder with his teeth, tearing into flesh.  Blake cried out and shoved Heinz away from him.

The two men then stared at each other from opposite ends of the tower.

“I’ll kill you,” repeated Heinz.

“You only pick on girls, remember?”

Heinz snarled and ran at Blake who ran to meet him, and the two clashed in the centre.  Blake swung his fist but was knocked dizzy by the top of Heinz’s head smashing into his nose.  He felt his nose burst open in a gout of blood.

Heinz tackled Blake to the stone floor and mounted him, raining down fury with his fists.  Blake tried to cover up, but several blows managed to get through.  Each one sent his consciousness a little deeper into the background.  Eventually his arms dropped to his sides and he could no longer defend himself.  It was then that Heinz dragged him up by his hair, got him on his feet, and shoved him towards the edge of the tower.  He felt a rib crack as his front collided with the stone wall.

Heinz spun Blake around and got in his face.  “I love you, Blake.  Your books speak to me.  They were written for me.  We are connected.”

Blake spat blood and laughed.  “I didn’t write them for you.  I wrote them for the money.”

Heinz raised his fist and struck Blake between the eyes.  He moaned and flopped lifelessly, but Heinz kept him standing.  Then he grabbed Blake under the arms and lifted him onto the wall.  “Time for your big finale, Blake.  It’s like we’re coming full circle.  If only you’d been at home that day, instead of your wife, things could have been so different for us.”

Blake tried to speak but his words came out as an incoherent slur.  He was only half-conscious, but he understood that Heinz was about to shove him to his death.

“Heinz, step away from the author before I autograph your face with my gun.”

Heinz spun around.  A few feet back, Blake could make out the hazy image of a woman; the same one who’d had sent him up here in the first place.

“What do you want, whore?  Have I not beaten you enough for one night?”

“I’m still standing, ain’t I?”

While Heinz was distracted, Blake slowly slid himself off the crenulations and slumped to his knees.  There, he took deep breaths and repeatedly blinked to try to get his focus back.  He managed to see that the woman had a gun drawn on Heinz.  Heinz, so far, was keeping his distance.

“You won’t shoot me,” he said.  “You want to know where I buried the girl.”

“He…he doesn’t know,” shouted Blake from the floor.  “Shoot him.”

Heinz didn’t turn around, but kept his eyes on the woman.  “Or do I know?  No way to tell, is there?”

The woman glanced past Heinz at Blake.  “We’re going to get you out of here, Mr Price, but we need to know where Chloe Tanner is.”

Blake managed to drag himself to his feet.  “J-just shoot him.  Shoot him.  He doesn’t know.”

Heinz spun around.  “You can’t help it, can you?  You have to take the side of these whores.”

Blake snarled.  “The only whore here, is you.”

Heinz exploded again, like a predictable bomb.  He rushed Blake, tossing him towards the crenulations.  Blake grabbed the half-naked psychopath around the waist and held on tightly.  The combined momentum took them both onto the stone wall.  Heinz tried to throw Blake over, but Blake held strong, and as Heinz shoved him they both tumbled down.

They both went over the edge.

The woman atop the tower shouted out in panic.  “Mr Price!”

9

Jessica raced forward as Blake and Heinz disappeared over the walls of the tower.  The author had wanted her to shoot Heinz, had said the killer held no knowledge of the missing girl, but she had to finish things by the book.  She had to do things clean, but that had all gone out the window when Heinz and Price went off the top of the tower.

“Mr Price!”  She made it up to the edge and was stunned to find the two men hanging on.  Price had both hands wrapped around one of the jutting stone teeth of the tower wall, while Heinz clung to his waist.  It was a reversal of how the two men had gone over.

Price looked up at her pleadingly.  The waterlogged ground beneath him looked a hundred miles away.  “Hold on, Mr Price.”  She grabbed the back of his coat, tried to heave him up, but he was too heavy and her left wrist was sprained and useless.  Heinz reached up and tried to rise, but the rain lashed down at him and he went back to gripping Price’s waist.

Jessica holstered her gun and tried to pull the author up with her one good hand, but he was a dead weight.  She could hear the frantic footfall of Young’s officers climbing the tower, but they would arrive too late.  She knew there was only one way Price would make it back up again; it also meant any chance of finding Chloe Tanner would be extinguished.  “Price, you need to free yourself.  I can’t get you back up here with Heinz hanging off you.”

Price’s face bulged as he strained to hold on.  He glanced down at Heinz and then back up at Jessica.  “How am I…?”

Jessica nodded.  She understood Price could do nothing.  Both the man’s arms and legs were incapacitated.  She needed to do something to help him, before his strength gave out and both men fell.

“Hey, Heinz,” she shouted down.  “When I get hold of you, I’m going to lock you up in a woman’s prison.  They can make you their bitch.  Would you like that, being made a slave to some big butch gal?”

Heinz looked up at her and snarled.

“Maybe you’ll meet someone to remind you of your mother?  I bet she was an ugly lady, huh?  I mean, if your looks are anything to go by.”

Heinz ground his teeth like a salivating animal and tried to climb Price’s body.  Price moaned under the exertion.  Jessica just hoped he could hold on long enough.

“Heinz, I don’t even care where Chloe Tanner is.  You probably never even knew her.  You’re just lying to impress your best buddy, Blake Price.  I bet Chloe Tanner is alive and well, hooked up with some boyfriend.  She’s probably with a real man.”

Heinz growled.  “I killed her. I…I fucked her and buried her while she was still breathing.”  He grabbed a handful of Price’s coat, yanking himself up a few inches.

Jessica leant over, glaring right back at Heinz.  “I. Don’t. Believe. You.”

“Fuck you.  I buried…that bitch at some…abandoned petrol station in…Reading.”

Jessica grinned.  “Thank you.”

Heinz snarled, realising he’d been goaded.  “I’m going to slice your fucking tits off.”

Jessica laughed pitifully.  “Come get ‘em.”

Heinz reached up again, trying to climb higher.  The rain lashed down at him, making him blink and splutter.  Price held on for dear life, straining and trembling as a serial killer attempted to climb up his back.

Heinz was almost to the top when his hand slipped from Price’s wet shoulder.  At first, Heinz simply slipped half-a-foot downwards, but then his eyes went wide and he was suddenly falling.  There was anger in his eyes as he plummeted from the top of the tower, but also a hint of fear.  The man was human enough to fear death, and Jessica enjoyed seeing that.

“Mr Price, hold on.”  She grabbed hold of Price’s shoulders.  Her sprained wrist cried out in pain, but they worked together to gradually get Price back up.

When she managed to pull him onto the wall, Price let out a deep moan of desperate relief.  “Oh, god…Jesus Christ.  I thought that was me done.”

Jessica held his hand.  “You’re safe now, Mr Price.  Everything is okay.”

He smiled at her.  “You got the girl’s location.”

She nodded.  “Enough to go on, yes.  Thank you for all your help.”

“I want to get back down on the ground.”

Jessica laughed.  “Me too.”

10

Howard sighed with relief when Jessica emerged from the abbey with Blake Price and a police escort.  He’d been standing with Sergeant Young in horror as the Blake Price and Heinz had battled atop the tower and gone over the edge.  Jessica had gone up there as soon as it became clear that things were going badly, but she had been unable to defuse the situation.

Now Jessica and Blake were safe.

Heinz had slid down Price’s outstretched body before finally plummeting to the wet ground.  He lay motionless now in a puddle deep enough to submerge him.  Young’s officer had gone to him immediately, but there was slim chance he could’ve survived the fall.

Howard limped over to his partner and broke protocol by hugging her.  “I was worried there for a minute.”

She huffed.  “I’ve been worried since four hours ago.  I think it’s going to take me a day or two to stop being worried.”

“You did good.”

She gave him a look.

“Okay, you did…alright, after all the screw-ups stopped.”

“Saved my life,” said Blake.  “If she hadn’t got under Heinz’s skin, he would’ve dragged me down with him.  I’m just glad it’s all over.  I prefer writing books about men like Heinz, not coming face-to-face with them.”

“I’d appreciate an autograph,” said Howard, “if you want to go back to being a writer again.  Not that police work doesn’t suit you. You were brave up there.”

“No,” he said.  “I was terrified, but I was there for my wife.  I needed to face that monster.  I needed to put the past behind me so I can move forward with my family.”

“We have Chloe Tanner’s location,” said Jessica.

Howard smiled.  “Maybe Palu won’t completely rip you a new one, now.”

“Yeah, maybe.  I—”

“You fucking whore!”

They all spun round to find Heinz on his feet.  He thrashed at the two police officers holding him, but they were able to restrain him easily enough.  He was bloody, wet, and physically beaten; but emotionally he was as defiant and animalistic as ever.  He cursed at them all, fought them, bit them, scratched them, but they had him under control.

“How is he still breathing?” asked Howard in dismay.

“The ground’s wet,” said Blake.  “The puddles broke his fall.  Or maybe he’s immortal.  Most serial killers are, in a twisted way.  We never forget them.”  With that, Blake lowered his head and walked away into the rainy night.

As the police officers ushered Heinz down the hill, they passed Jessica and Howard.  Heinz’s entire body was battered and bruised, but he still managed to give Jessica a look of absolute hatred.  “When I get out of here,” he spat, “I’m going to find you and rape you.  I’m going to rape you over and over.”

Jessica strolled up to Heinz with a scowl on her face.  “How are you going to do that without a dick?” She swung her leg and punted the psychopath right between the legs.

Heinz bellowed.

“What the hell!”  Howard stared at Jessica in disbelief.  Heinz was cupping his mashed genitals and screaming on the ground.  “You can’t assault an unarmed man.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, fella,” said Sergeant Young.  “I never saw anything.”

Howard shook his head, confused.  “What are you talking about?”

“I said I didn’t see anything.”  Young took that moment to turn a circle, nodding at each of his men.  “Did anyone see anything?”

“Nope.”

“Nothing.”

“I weren’t even looking.”

“I saw whatever you saw, Sarge.”

Sergeant Young turned to Howard and shrugged.  “See? You two go on back to the city and start on all that paperwork.  I’ve got things covered here.”

“You’ll get Heinz back into custody?” asked Jessica.

Young nodded.  “I don’t think he’s in any mood to run now.”

“Go on, then,” grunted Young at Jessica and Howard.  “Get out of my bloody town before you do any more damage.”

“Thank you,” said Jessica.

Howard said nothing; he only nodded and hurried to catch up with Jessica.  “That was not okay,” he told her a couple of minutes later, once they were away from the officers.

“It’s not about what’s okay, it’s about what happened.  I kicked a serial rapist in the balls.  Is that not justice?”

“That’s one word to describe it.”

“Only word to describe, far as I see.”

They walked back to the car in silence.  Halfway there, Jessica spoke again.  “You going to tell Palu?”

Howard thought about it, then shook his head.  “I guess there’s nothing to tell.  I just want you to know that you scare me.”

“I scare me too.”

Howard huffed.  “That’s why I’m glad you’re my partner.”

“You looking forward to the next one?”

“No, not at all.”

Jessica punched him on the arm playfully.  “Don’t worry, I won’t let you get shot next time.”

“You’re not going to let me forget that, are you?”

“No,” she said.  “Never.”

You can catch up with the characters Jessica Bennett and Howard Hopkins in SOFT TARGET, available here:   UK    US

You can catch up with Blake Price in the Picture Frame: available here:    UK    US

For a free Kindle copy of THE PICTURE FRAME, email the word ‘PICTURE’ to:

iain.robert.wright@hotmail.co.uk

PLEA FROM THE AUTHOR

Hey, Reader.  So you got to the end of my book.  I hope that means you enjoyed it.  Whether or not you did, I would just like to thank you for giving me your valuable time to try and entertain you.   I am truly blessed to have such a fulfilling job, but I only have that job because of people like you; people kind enough to give my books a chance and spend their hard-earned money buying them.  For that I am eternally grateful.

If you would like to find out more about my other books then please visit my website for full details.  You can find it at: www.iainrobwright.com.  Also feel free to contact me on Facebook, Twitter, or email (all details on the website) as I would love to hear from you.

If you enjoyed this book and would like to help, then you could think about leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else that readers visit.  The most important part of how well a book sells is how many positive reviews it has, so if you leave me one then you are directly helping me to continue on this journey as a fulltime writer.  Thanks in advance to anyone who does.  It means a lot.

About The Author

Iain Rob Wright is one of the UK's most successful horror and suspense writers, with novels including the critically acclaimed, THE FINAL WINTER; the disturbing bestseller, ASBO; and the wicked screamfest, THE HOUSEMATES.

His work is currently being adapted for graphic novels, audio books, and foreign audiences. He is an active member of the Horror Writer Association and a massive animal lover.

Check out Iain's official website or add him on Facebook where he would love to meet you.

www.iainrobwright.com

FEAR ON EVERY PAGE

More Books by Iain Rob Wright

THE FINAL WINTER:  UK  US

Apocalyptic horror novel where it never stops snowing and something ancient stalks the earth.

ASBO:  UK  US

Innocent family man is targeted by a gang of sadistic youths.

ANIMAL KINGDOM:  UK  US

Animals turn on mankind and try to make humanity extinct.

SEA SICK:  UK  US

A deadly virus is unleashed on board a luxury cruise liner.

SAM:  UK  US

A young boy seems to be possessed.  But is he?

RAVAGE:  UK  US

Apocalyptic horror that culminates in a fight for survival at a hilltop amusement park.  Say goodbye to the world.

THE HOUSEMATES:  UK  US

Reality TV turns deadly.  12 competitors but only 1 winner.

SOFT TARGET:  UK    US

Nonstop Thriller where the future of the United Kingdom is at stake.

HOLES IN THE GROUND:  UK    US

Collaboration with J A Konrath.  Some things should stay buried.  And guarded forever.

THE PICTURE FRAME:  UK    US

Spooky horror novel about a picture frame that curses anyone who has their photograph placed inside.

Copyright

* * *AN SG HORROR RELEASE* * *

Part of the SALGAD PUBLISHING GROUP

Redditch

UK, Worcestershire
www.SALGADPUBLISHING.com

SLASHER copyright 2014 by Iain Rob Wright
www.IAINROBWRIGHT.com

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the consent of the publisher, except where permitted by law

Table of Contents

- BOOK SUMMARY
- SLASHER By Iain Rob Wright
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- PLEA FROM THE AUTHOR
- About The Author
- More Books by Iain Rob Wright
- Copyright