Chapter 10
THE GRAVEDIGGER
“Come on,” he says. “Come back out to play. I’ve been a very good boy.”
The moor grass rustles beneath his feet as he moves. She can’t have gone far. She must be aching and confused as she stumbles through the dark. And yet she has managed to evade him twice now and that is starting to make him angry.
Movement. The barest hint of it to his right.
He spins, picking up the sight of her with the torchlight.
He breaks into a sprint, his boots sliding on the damp grass.
He’s moving up an incline, his thighs working hard.
His foot slips and he reaches out, grabbing hold of the grass to steady himself.
A breath squeezes out of his lungs as he pushes himself forward.
Her panting breaks the silence. She must be struggling now.
He sees her fifty-year-old body lumbering up ahead, arms pumping.
He reaches the top of the incline and stumbles down, letting the momentum accelerate him towards her.
The torch shudders as he moves, revealing her position every other second.
In one flash she’s staring over her shoulder, her eyes wide with terror as he approaches.
“No!” she cries out.
He runs. He throws every last effort into gaining on her.
“Please!” she begs.
He raises the torch. It’s metal cased and solid.
He throws himself forward, bringing the torch down on the back of her skull.
There is a loud crunch as she folds in on herself, hitting the ground.
Her body drops so quickly that he trips over her, losing his balance and stumbling down the hill.
His feet lose control, and his arms grab at the air around him, touching nothing but the cold night breeze.
His next contact with the ground is his head smashing against a rock. Then the torch goes out.
His mind swims. The blow almost knocked him out.
When he lifts his fingers to his temple they touch the warm, wetness of blood.
That isn’t good. He’s leaving DNA all over this moor.
Enough for a sniffer dog to trail. A deep echoing pain rumbles across his forehead and his vision blurs.
He rests his head against the ground and pulls in a few deep breaths. The night seems darker all of a sudden.
Do not go to sleep, he thinks. She must not get away. Do not close your eyes.
But it is the second time he reminds himself not to fall asleep that a dark veil slips over him, and he drifts into unconsciousness.