Chapter 53
Fifty-Three
Unknown
This is all going perfectly to plan. Months of prep led me here and now it’s nearly over and I can’t wait to start my new life.
I didn’t anticipate that Claudia was going to be on a course and out of town so one message from ‘a concerned neighbour’, telling her about a party at her house brought her right back home.
I suspect she has a love interest because she was only an hour away.
Again, I’d have preferred her not to be away but I did it. I got her to come home.
As for Mindy, she was so predictable. Serves her right for being online with open profiles everywhere back when she lived with Carmen.
One infiltration of her laptop gave me the naked photos of her and a sexy neighbour to blackmail her with, then she moved, right where I wanted her to move to, close to her dear brother.
After that, she walked right into my plan with her regular-as-clockwork routine.
I let out a laugh. Dustin, so easy to manipulate. He was such a good and needy little puppet, desperately seeking approval regardless of what he’d have to do to gain it.
I scroll through my humungous database, knowing that very soon, all will be revealed.
Thousands of eager watchers all wait for what I’ve promised will be an exciting night.
I’ve given them Episode Two but I’ll continue to make them wait for the big finale that will be Episode Three.
Some things need savouring and what comes next will be just for me.
It’s time to go offline for that so I click to shut down my computer.
Goodbye, watchers.
I stare at the stupid pair of kids that I’ve chained together, back-to-back on heavy wooden chairs.
The last thing I wanted was to bloody my room up with the boy’s smashed-up nose but it is what it is.
I’ll deal with the mess later. As for the girl, she’s collateral damage but the company the boy keeps is much worse than hers.
Actually, I’m glad he’s in agony. His groans are my delight.
By the time daylight cracks through, I’ll be flying away to a whole new life.
This place will be burnt to the ground, taking the whole building down, and my mission will be complete.
I quickly check my bank account. Greed isn’t in my bones but needs must and a few of the people I lured in had good money so I added it to the money I got from Mindy and I now have enough wedge to get away from here and start a new life with a new identity.
Passport – check. Driver’s licence – check.
Brian tries to groan through the ball gag but he’s making no sense at all.
Tabitha, sweet little Tabitha – a cog in my wheel – she’s dazed and I do feel sorry for her but not sorry enough to unleash her.
By the end of all this, they will know too much.
I glance at the container full of petrol and the box of matches.
Do I just turn them all into ash? That’s a question I can’t answer yet. That all depends on Claudia.
I send her one last message, knowing she has no option but to obey my instruction.
Any police, they both die. If you’re not where you should be in five minutes, they will both die. Any veering off plan – they die.
I take my knife from the table, the same knife that is still encrusted with Mindy and Dustin’s blood and I hold it at Tabitha’s neck and take a photo. Her split, bruised cheek is alarming, even for me. I didn’t enjoy doing that but I had to shut her up.
Tabitha starts screaming under the gag, her dazed stare now wild with fear. I send the photo to Claudia.
Episode Three’s thumbnail is just picture-perfect.