Eye Snatcher (27 page)

Brian did his best not to turn around and throttle Adrian on the spot. He knew he was goading him, as he held that knife to the crying Ainsley’s throat. Deep breaths. Keep cool. Think.

Adrian waved off the question, like a prosecutor withdrawing a line of enquiry. “Anyway. Me and Sam had our fun. Finished with him on the Friday. Took his horrid little ear piercing, ‘cause I figured why the hell not dick around with the police. And then there was Beth.”

“The number four broke down,” Brian cut in, finishing his story for him. “You… you followed her to the Selter’s farm. Paid for sex, or something?”

Adrian’s smile widened. “Wow, you are good. You’re right though. I wanted to kill her down that dirt track again. Thought it’d show the police up if
two
kids went missing down there. But then I saw her meeting Patrick Selter. Figured she was one of his girls. Filthy bastard. So I… Yeah. When killing doesn’t suffice, there’s always other ways to enjoy yourself. A right here.”

Brian gulped down a sickly taste from his mouth. That’s why they’d found Beth Turner’s coat down the dirt track. Something had happened in Patrick Selter’s house. Patrick had panicked, ditched Beth’s coat. “Why did Beth meet Patrick in Booths that night? And why were you there?”

Adrian twirled the knife around in his hand. Ainsley looked on, struggling to breathe underneath the duct tape. “I wanted to show Beth Turner what enjoyment really was. I got carried away, to be fair. Should’ve killed her right there, when I pushed the blade up to her on that bed. But Patrick was a pussy. He panicked. Worried how his girls might ‘see’ him in future. And I… I worried she was gonna go to the police. Put two and two together, once the Sam Betts news came out. So I followed Patrick when he arranged to meet her in Booths to apologise later and I killed her.”

The matter-of-fact manner in which he spoke freaked Brian out more and more. He carried on driving into the darkness. Brad’s blood-soaked body tumbled from side to side, rain obstructing his already limited view ahead.

“And the third girl was just a bit of fun really. Good way to implicate my old pal Andrew Wilkinson by getting Darren to drive his car near where I abducted her. But she was too quick, to be honest. Didn’t satisfy me.”

He caressed Ainsley’s short dark hair.

“Which is where you two come in.”

Fear embraced Brian. They passed over a bridge. A railway bridge, something like that. He saw himself turning to the right. Sending the car over the edge. Ending Adrian’s killings right here, right now.

But doing so would kill Ainsley too. Doing so would result in more of a failure from Brian.

Doing so would mean no justice for Sam, for Beth, for Janine.

Doing so would mean never spending a moment with Hannah or Davey or anyone again.

“Up here on the left. There’s a dirt track. Turn down it. Pull up when I say. And don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Jump out of the car.

Crash the car.

Fight Adrian, for fuck’s sakes.

But he couldn’t. He didn’t have it in him.

So he took a left and he turned down the claustrophobic, tree-lined dirt track.

He heard the tires squelch through mud as he moved down the track. Felt them sink. His lights only revealed a metre ahead. But Brian knew he didn’t even need to know what was ahead because the road ended with his death, with Ainsley’s death, with everyone’s death.

“Stop. Now.”

Brian lifted his foot from the accelerator. Slowed the car to a halt. Pulled the handbrake.

“Kill the engine.”

He turned the keys and they were engulfed in complete, perfect darkness.

They sat there in silence for what felt like hours but was probably just seconds. Brian could hear Adrian breathing heavily behind him. Could feel Brad’s cooling, still body on the passenger seat beside him.

“Now get out.”

He was about to drag his lead-filled legs out of the car when he heard Brad’s phone vibrating in his leather jacket pocket beside him.

They waited. Brian and Adrian both waited, listened to the vibrating.

“Answer it. Tell them you’re okay,” Adrian said.

Brian wasn’t expecting this from Adrian. He was expecting him to tell him to let it ring out. And Brian was half-tempted to. Letting it ring out might increase suspicion. Answering it would mean diffusing suspicion.

“Answer the phone or I’ll cut his—”

“Okay!” Brian said. “Okay.”

He reached into Brad’s pocket. His lifeless body didn’t even feel human, more like a waxwork model, as it sat there all rigid and static.

He pulled the phone out. Sammy. His heart dropped. Carter. She didn’t know Brad was dead. She had no idea.

“Answer the phone.”

Brian hit the green answer button. Brought Brad’s phone to his ear. Waited to hear Carter’s voice before saying anything.

“Brad?” Carter said. It was a fuzzy line at the other end.

Brian licked his dry lips. Cleared his throat. “It’s, er… it’s Brian.”

The blade got closer to Ainsley’s neck.

“I… Brad’s just out the car. We’re in Fulwood. At the Fulwood woods.”

Silence on Carter’s end. Brian heard his pulse. “But we’re there. We’re— the other side. The… near the services. The location near the… near the services. You know where I mean?”

Brian prayed Carter had bitten the bait. He didn’t even know if Brad had frigging Location Services switched on.

“Alright,” Carter said, with a sigh. “Just get yourself to this side of the woods ASAP. We found Ainsley’s bike.”

She put the phone down before Brian could even thank her, or drop another hint.

He didn’t know whether she was playing dumb or not.

And in that darkness with a killer in the back of your car, that was a very painful state of mind to be.

“Now drop the phone and get out of the car,” Adrian said. “I want you to watch what I’m going to do to Ainsley. It’ll be fun.” He smiled. “And then—only when you’ve seen what I want you to see—I’m going to take your eyes out.”

Brian stepped out into the darkness.

It really was dark, too. Dark like he’d never seen darkness before. The stars and the moon in the sky were hidden by the thick rainclouds. Where the sky broke, thick evergreen trees rustled in the wind. Deep baths of mud swallowed up Brian’s feet as he staggered further away from Brad’s car, further into the abyss.

Adrian was right behind him. Right behind him, with the knife to Ainsley’s neck. He knew he could try to run away. Try to flee into the night, most likely get away knowing how utterly invisible he was in this blanket of nothingness.

But he knew that any wrong move would result in Ainsley’s death.

He didn’t want a child’s death on his conscience. He couldn’t handle it.

“When I tell you to get on your knees, you get on your knees. No funny business. Understand?”

Brian nodded, and then he realised it was so dark that Adrian wouldn’t be able to see him. “Yes.”

He knew he was going to die here. He knew that there was no way out. The conversation with Carter, she didn’t show any signs of letting on to his Location Services hint. Besides, Brad’s phone might not have had Location Services switched on in the first place.

He was trapped, alone in the dark, and he was going to watch Ainsley die and then he was going to die.

“I don’t have an eye fetish, you know,” Adrian muttered. His voice was still jovial, not a note of it sinister. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like removing eyes. But it’s nothing weird. Just like the idea of doing nasty stuff to people. Then taking out the one thing they’ve witnessed all that pain with. Kind of like a souvenir. You get that?”

Brian shook with fear. Or coldness. Probably both. “They… they know you’re the killer,” he said, clutching at anything now. “They’re coming for you.”

“And they can come,” Adrian said. “They can come and they can search for me. Maybe they’ll find me.”

“They will find you.”

“Then so be it. What’s your point?”

Brian stopped walking. He took in a deep breath of the icy night air. He had to try something. He couldn’t just walk to his death. To Ainsley’s death.

He turned around and faced the dark silhouette of Adrian.

“You don’t have to kill another kid. You’re just… You’re just adding time onto your sentence. If you—if you stop this right now, we’ll bear that in mind. We’ll remember that. I swear.”

Brian couldn’t see Adrian’s face, but he sensed from the tut what he thought of his plea. “You’re pathetic. Pitiful, even. You’re supposed to be a strong, upstanding member of the law. And here you are trying to bargain with a killer. Do you know what I do to people who beg? Do you know how begging makes me feel, hmm?”

“You have a son,” Brian said.

Adrian tightened his grip on Ainsley as the wind rustled the leaves of the trees. “Again, what’s your point here?”

“Ainsley is—is just someone else’s son. He’s innocent. He hasn’t… he hasn’t done a thing. He shouldn’t have to die here.”

Another tut from Adrian. “You excite me, you know.”

“Then kill me,” Brian said. “Kill me first. In front of him if you have to. Go on. Gut me. Take my eyes out. Just… just leave that boy alone. Please.”

Adrian didn’t respond at first.

Then, he stepped up to Brian, Ainsley in front of him. Squared right up to him. Brian could smell his breath, which reeked of cough lozenges. It made his stomach turn. “You see, you haven’t really got it yet, have you? I know how watching Ainsley die will make you feel. I know what it will do to you. I know how much you’ll try to struggle, try to fight. I know how much you’d rather die than watch this boy suffer.”

Brian stood his ground, but his breathing was going shaky.

“That’s exactly why I’m not going to kill you first. That’s exactly why.”

“But
why
?” Brian asked. He realised how pathetic he sounded. Truth was, he was shitting himself. “Why do you have to do that? I’ve—I’ve done nothing but do my job. This kid has done nothing but live his life—”

“Because I enjoy it, okay? Like you enjoy pies, looking at that flabby belly of yours.” He laughed after the last remark, like they were two twenty-somethings bantering in the pub. “Get on your knees. For what it’s worth, I’ll do my best to keep the pain to a minimum on this boy if you want. I mean, my methods guarantee
some
degree of pain, or what would the point of it be? But I’ll do my best. For you. ‘Cause this is nothing personal. I swear. On your knees. Now.”

Brian stood firm. “We can walk away from this. I know you don’t want to kill again. I know you—”

“You don’t know the first thing about me,” Adrian shouted. A flicker of spit peppered Brian’s face. “You don’t know when I first killed. You don’t know how many times I’ve killed. You don’t know how many times I’ve been face to face with people like you in situations like this. Whack out your missing persons reports from the last twenty years or so. Drop your finger somewhere. Chances are, you’ll find one of the kids I killed.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Brian felt something hit his left shin and realised it was Adrian’s boot. He tumbled over, hit the muddy ground with his palms.

“You don’t even really know what happened to me to end up in New Blue Brook in the first place, do you? Or the progress I made? Because I swear I was making a recovery. The red mist was fading. Just a pity Jed Green is—was, sorry—such a pushover. Just a pity how much dirt a man could dig up on him, on how twisted his morals were. Because I swear, if I’d had a stronger social worker than him, maybe we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“You’re a killer,” Brian said. “There’s no changing what you are. That’s how you’re wired up.”

Adrian crouched opposite Brian. His eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and the moon peeked through the clouds now, so he could just about make out his smiling features. “Maybe so. Or maybe I’m just making the most of my life.”

A punch smacked across Brian’s face. He tumbled back into the shitty-smelling mud, the coldness of it doing nothing to soothe the blow.

Adrian lifted Ainsley’s coat and shirt. Ainsley tried to wriggle free, the smell of piss spreading. He pressed the knife against the kid’s body. “So where shall we start? Just above the belly button? Below the belly button?”

“No!” Brian shouted.

He wasn’t thinking straight because he threw himself at Adrian. Threw himself at his legs with all the strength, all the power he had inside his body.

He heard a shout from under the duct tape as he pushed Adrian over. Felt warm blood splatter against his ear.

He’d put Ainsley in danger. He knew he’d put Ainsley in danger.

But he had to do something.

Adrian went tumbling back into the mud. Brian was on top of him. Ainsley was to the side of them now. Brian couldn’t tell what had happened to him, but he was still.

Brian lifted his fist. Punched Adrian in the face.

Lifted his fist again. Cracked another punch right into his nose, and then another and another.

He felt Adrian’s blood between his knuckles. In the moonlight, he saw Adrian was still smiling. The knife was to the right of him.

“Go on,” Adrian said. In the distance, Brian could hear sirens. He could see red and blue lights.

Location Services. Shit. It’d worked.

Adrian spat in Brian’s face. Something solid was in his saliva—a tooth, something like that.

“Do you know how long I raped Sam Betts’ tight little ass for, hmm? Do you know how much he bled when I shoved my knife in his anus? Or how hard it made me when I masturbated with his blood as lube?”

Brian lifted his fist again. Cracked another punch into Adrian’s face.

Adrian kept on smiling. His face was completely blood-drenched. “You’ve killed Ainsley, you know? You killed him. No one else. So go on. Finish me off. Or I’ll get out again. I know people. The people at Galaxy, other people around the city. I know people sicker than me who’ll put their cocks in your little boy’s ass cunt without a heartbeat—”

Another punch. Brian’s knuckles stung as he knocked out a few of Adrian’s teeth.

Police car doors slamming shut up ahead. Voices, gradually getting louder. Lights flickering in their direction.