Chapter 36 #2
She held the dice in her hand and made a fist, then brought the first to her mouth and closed her eyes. She muttered something to herself, but I didn’t know what. But she seemed happy. And that made my fucking day.
I watched her get ready for work, and just before she headed out, I left.
My van was still parked out the front of the building.
I didn’t want her to see it or catch me here.
So, I drove a little way down the road, parked up, and when I saw her walk out of the building, I followed her to make sure she got to the bus stop okay.
The bus arrived and she got on, and I wanted to follow that too, but I had work to do.
There were people around. She’d be safe from here.
And besides, I had the tracker in her pocket that I could monitor.
If that veered off the bus route, I’d be there to find out why.
But it didn’t. She arrived at the council houses for her day at work, and I went back to my warehouse to dispose of my second body in twenty-four hours.
Gabriel Tolley looked like a bloated, blue whale. He sat in the murky water, his eyes like glass, his skin sallow and waxy. The thought of touching him repulsed me, but I had to do it. He needed to be thrown away like the piece of trash he was.
He had quite a few expensive gold rings on his chubby hands, so I got my pliers and cut each finger.
I fucking loved the crunch the pliers made as they cut through his flesh and bone.
I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as I snapped and snapped until he was left with nothing but stubby little fingerless fists.
Cutting him helped to channel my fucked-off energy.
I would call it nervous energy, but I didn’t get nervous.
That would involve having feelings of vulnerability, and those days were long gone.
I pulled the rings off each of the bloody fingers with the intention of selling the gold. I needed a trophy too, and what better than a skeletal digit from his murderous hand.
As I got to work draining the tank of water and pulling his carcass free, I heard the reporter on the radio...
And in other news, the police have issued a statement in regard to the monster they are now calling the Brinton Manor Bogeyman.
Detective Walters, who is leading the investigation, says they have reason to believe that the Bogeyman has claimed two new victims. Nial Fagin, of no fixed address, and Gabriel Tolley, a retired social worker and town councillor from Brinton Manor, have both been reported missing, and according to police sources, their disappearance may have links to this case.
Concern rises over the possibility of a serial killer stalking our streets and preying on vulnerable men. But rest assured, we are following this story closely, and will bring you all the updates as soon as we get them.
Vulnerable men?
They were about as vulnerable as a rabid wolf hiked up on cocaine, running feral through a kid’s playground.
But fuck me, he wasn’t wrong when he said they’d notice he was gone.
It hadn’t even been forty-eight hours since I’d taken him, and he’d already been reported missing, despite having no close family and living alone.
In all the time I’d watched him, no one had called or dropped by.
But he was right, they knew, the minute he left, they were on it.
I had to find out who this Q was that he’d spoken about. I couldn’t let another sicko slip through my hands.
Once I’d moved his body into the vat of acid in my polypropylene barrel, I headed back to my apartment and went online, trawling through the names of every person that’d worked at Clivesdon Children’s Home.
Not one of them had a name that began with Q.
Not first, middle, or last name. So, I moved onto the social services files from back then, but again, nothing stood out.
I did the same with the police files. Again, that came up with nothing.
There had to be something I was missing.
I continued searching, reading notes, and scanning lists until my eyes were sore and my brain hurt. I needed to focus on something else. I wasn’t getting anywhere with my search, and I didn’t like feeling hopeless. So, I hacked into Abigail’s credit card account.
She had maxed out her account. She had five figures of debt, and when I looked at the things she’d spent money on to get into that sort of financial trouble, I saw payments to local hardware stores, online stores, nothing that showed an extravagant lifestyle.
It all looked mundane, and yet, I knew this was weighing heavy on her, and I wanted to lift that off her shoulders.
So, I transferred cash from an offshore account where I kept the money I’d stolen from my players and put it on her credit card, paying off the balance and clearing her debt.
The payment would never lead back to me.
I’d encrypted those accounts too well for them to be traced.
But she wouldn’t have to make the monthly payment that she couldn’t afford anymore.
When I clicked to clear her balance and the zeros appeared, I sat back in my chair and smiled. At least those evil fuckers had been some use in their death. They’d paid her debt. They hadn’t fully paid back mine though. I still had work to do.