Legacy (16 page)

              “Bingo!” he said to Harran, “The living-room! The patio doors are open and there’s no sign of any forced entry through them.”

              “Where do they lead?” asked Harran.

              “Into a garden and there’s an open gate which leads out into an alleyway.”

              “Well, there’s your escape route!” exclaimed Harran.

              “The woman must have made her escape this way and whoever had come looking for her was obviously not impressed when they found an empty flat and took out their anger on anything they could find, which explains all the damaged objects in the bedroom. After all, we are dealing with some sort of madman here who’s capable of anything!” Short added.

              “Short,” Harran said, “you are a bloody genius! You’re better than Columbo sometimes and I swear you’re way too good to be working for this backwards force.”

Even though they had managed to piece together the events inside the flat, Harran and Short were no closer to knowing where Naomi had gone and without her close to them, they had no chance of finding the killer before he struck again. 

One police officer was lying dead outside and another one was on his way to the hospital with serious injuries, the police coroner was lying on a slab in the morgue where he had worked in for so long examining other people’s bodies in the fight against crime, not to mention a dead nurse back at the hospital - and lastly, the young man who had so nearly raped Naomi the night before.

All were victims victims at the hands of what could only be described as a cold-blooded serial killer who did not care about the consequences of his actions, who was ready to attack at any time of the day, in any part of the town – even having the audacity to claim a victim in the police station car park in broad daylight.

Death and destruction remained wherever he reared his head, but one pattern was emerging - he was never too far away from one scared young woman by the name of Naomi Gallagher and right now nobody knew her whereabouts.

And that meant that the cold-blooded killer may not be far behind her and could strike at any time, with the police completely helpless if he did.

At least with her in their sights, they had him contained to a small degree.

But the public were beginning to get wise to all the killings that had happened in such a small amount of time and obviously human nature would make them worry about their own safety – and right now the crowd of onlookers out on the street was beginning to grow steadily as more and more people wanted to see what all the excitement was about, all sharing in the goriness of the incident.

And these were the people that Harran knew he would have to face soon as he was so promptly reminded on the telephone by the Chief Constable outside the hospital when the local and national newspapers begin to get their claws on the story as the number of dead continues to build.

The parasites who call themselves journalists would just feed off the negativity and print never-ending lies to satisfy their reader’s lust for gory details and ultimately put so much pressure on other human beings working on the case that they crack under it, giving them another story to report.

But Harran was determined that his family, along with Short’s and all the other officers would not have the humility of being made scapegoats by the press if it was the last thing he would ever do.

His mind was set on one thing and one thing only – the capture of the killer who was still loose in their town.

Normally, his main priority would have been the safety of Naomi, but right now he felt in his heart that her death may bring an end to all these killings, seeing as everyone who had ever been close to or protecting her became victims themselves.

It was a hard choice for Harran to make, but right now Naomi was just a pawn in his little game of catch.

And as he was about to end his phone conversation with Short, he was relieved to see the forensic team he had so eagerly waited for walk down the hospital corridor towards him.

The last place Harran wanted to be right now was stuck inside the hospital twiddling his thumbs while other crime scenes needed his urgent attention and he wasted no time in instructing Short to get the police officers with him to keep guard over Naomi’s flat whilst he drove back to collect Harran immediately.

And as the lights came on along the hospital corridor, Harran advised the head of the forensic team what had happened and told him that he would make a full report when he returned to the station.

And without a moment’s hesitation, he made his way through the doors and down the stairs to wait outside in the welcoming evening air for Short to arrive.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Lucius and I had surprisingly made good distance in our attempt to escape Zephal, but I began to struggle with the pace we were walking at and as I began to tire drastically, I was amazed at how Lucius continued on his way with hardly any effort at all, showing no signs of fatigue whatsoever.

Pure adrenalin was the only thing that was keeping me going right now, but I knew that I would have to stop for a well-earned rest very soon.

I managed to muster up enough breath and energy to speak to Lucius, who was a couple of yards in front of me, looking back every now and again to check that I was still keeping up with him.

              “Can we stop soon?” I begged.

Lucius looked back once again and gave a wry smile before replying to my request.

              “If we do, we will have to make sure it’s safe enough for us not be spotted by Zephal – maybe we should aim for higher ground rather than on this dirt track.”

I immediately stopped, bringing us both to a halt.

              “I’m not climbing up any mountain!” I said sharply, “I can just about make it on flat ground!”

Lucius just looked at me in dismay and ended his silence with a mocking laugh.

              “I don’t mean a mountainside! We could hide out on the roof of a building where we could keep watch to see if he’s close by.”

I stood there in silence as I began to realize that I was most certainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer and the embarrassment running through me after my last comment made me want the earth to open up beneath me and swallow me whole.

As I chastised myself for being so stupid, Lucius looked around for a suitable building nearby for us to hide out.

After getting over my momentary embarrassment, I finally looked towards Lucius and our gazes met for just a few seconds – and once again, I started to experience light headedness, which was soon accompanied by momentary darkness.

But the darkness would not last for long and I opened my eyes to find myself standing outside the house that I had seen in my last vision where a man had saved the life of Lucius.

I walked up towards the window of the house where the welcoming glow of the log fire that had completely fascinated me since seeing it previously was casting dancing shadows all over the walls. I stopped and looked in through the glass to see Lucius sitting next to the fire while another man walked out of the room - I instantly recognized him as the man who had taken Lucius in.

I continued staring through the window and watched Lucius sitting comfortably in his chair, looking a lot better than the last time I had seen him in that house lying on the floor close to death, but the man who had just left the room had obviously done a great job to nurse him back to health.

As I watched Lucius settling further into the chair, a shadow passed me and when I looked to see what it was, I saw the figure of the other man standing with his back to me, poking the fire to make the flames grow larger.

The man suddenly turned around and headed directly towards the window that I was looking through and finally his identity was revealed to me.

I fell back in shock as I realized that the man who had nursed Lucius back to health was none other than the psychopathic killer who was after us right now.

As my body landed on the ground, the darkness returned and the house once again disappeared from my sight.

I can’t tell you how long it was before I opened my eyes again – it didn’t seem like minutes and it certainly didn’t seem like hours, but when I did awake, I found myself looking up at Lucius, who was crouched down at the side of me checking if I was okay.

I could do nothing more than lay there for a couple of seconds to slowly regaining my bearings, but when I did, I immediately cowered away from Lucius.

As I was shuffling further and further away from him, I suddenly realized that we were no longer on the dirt track fleeing from Zephal, but somewhere in the open air without any walls or barriers surrounding us whatsoever.

I could see Lucius’s confused reaction to my present behavior and he began to walk slowly towards me. With every step he took, I slid further back and I was about to learn very quickly how bad a move that was.

Lucius suddenly leapt towards me and fearing for my life, I tried to get to my feet to make a run for it, but as I went to push myself up, I felt my hand slip off the concrete below me and now I was looking down at the ground which was quite a few feet below me.

Little did I know that while I had passed out a few moments ago, Lucius had managed to find a hiding place on top of a building and had carried me to it while I was experiencing another vision.

But right now, the only vision I was having was of the ground below and I was struggling to keep myself on flat ground. My body was balancing precociously over the edge and one sudden move could send me tipping the wrong way.

I desperately tried to lift myself up so the majority of my weight would be back on the roof, but my body just slid further to the edge and I prayed that I wouldn’t be seeing the ground close up in a few seconds.

That is when I saw the drainpipe attached to the wall on my right and I instantly gripped on to it, but as I tried to put more weight against it, even with my tiny frame, the years of wear and tear on the brackets made it come away from the wall and my fear of plummeting to the ground were heightened even more as I felt my body fall off the roof into thin air.

I didn’t let go of the drainpipe and I was now holding on to it for dear life – if that wasn’t bad enough, I suddenly caught a glimpse of Lucius looking down at me.

              “Get away from me, you bastard!” I shouted at him as he came into view.

              “Why did you call me that?” he asked me stretching out his arm for me to take his hand.

              “You lied to me! You and Zephal are working together, aren’t you?”

              “What are you talking about?” Lucius asked, “Just give me your hand and I’ll pull you back up and we can talk this over! That drainpipe could snap at any second, so let me help you up.”

              “I’d rather die!” I shouted, “You’re just tricking me so I’ll fall into the trap you two have set for me! I’ve even seen you staying in his house!”

Just as I finished shouting at Lucius, the air was filled with an almighty snap which sent me and the drainpipe quickly falling towards the ground.

In that split second, the physical and mental exhaustion that was running through my body made me think that maybe falling to the ground would be a godsend – for the first time in my life, I was not afraid of dying.

Death would mean that all the problems that had suddenly come into my life would disappear and only then could I experience some kind of peace.