My Heart Belongs To You: A Psycho Thriller (13 page)

‘That’s correct, what’s your question?’

‘Firstly
,
I assume there were no other reports of any other couples going missing
?
’

‘Correct.’

‘Give me a twenty second
report
of how you received the information on Tom and Karen.’

‘The owners of the restaurant, Colin and Andrea Bartlett
,
called to report a car abandoned in their car park when they
closed
shop at 10.30 p.m.  Mrs. Bartlett gave us the number and we informed her that it belonged to a Mr. Thomas Wilson.  She said he had been eating there with a woman that evening
,
but
after receiving a call on her mobile, they
left before
finishing
their meal.  She said the woman seemed to be quite distressed after the call.  Mrs.
Turner
placed that call at about 8.45 p.m.’

‘Did she see them leave?’

‘
No but a waiter did. 
He saw
them leave through a side door and head towards the car park at the rear of the restaurant after paying their bill.
The waiter assumed
they were collecting their car.  Next thing
that
she knew was at 10.30 p.m.
,
when she was locking up at the back of the kitchen
,
she
spott
ed
their car still in the car park.  She called us and then the pieces started to slot together
.’

“Where’s Tom’s car now?’

‘We had it transported back to a holding area
.
Not
that we think it is going to provide any clues.’

Hanson nodded agreement.  ‘Do either of the restaurant owners have any
priors
?’ checked Hanson.

“No, but Blue Eagle has dug up something on Darren Simpson
,
the waiter working last night
,
who would have served Tom and Karen.’

‘Anything of relevance?’

‘He’s had a string of convictions for possession of every nasty
substance
from pot to crack cocaine.  Last one was six months ago
.
’

‘Surprised he’s still holding down a job.’

‘
Owner’s
wife is his sister.  I suspect
that
he is her cross to bear.’

‘Is there any CCTV footage from this restaurant?’

‘Unfortunately not.’

‘Any in adjoining premises?’

Turner
went quiet.

‘Your guys checked
,
right?’

‘I… I can’t be certain
,
’ stuttered the blushing detective.

‘
Be certain
,
’
snapped Hanson, ‘
Call
your people now and get back to me.  Maybe you’ll get your first solid lead
,
’
shot
Hanson.  He closed the line as the restaurant came into view and prepared his game face.  His watch told him that Tom’s life had dwindled to less than
thirty-one
hours
;
thirty-one
hours to do the impossible,
thirty-one
hours to do what a whole team of detectives had failed to do
,
but that was what Hanson did, he and the impossible were old comrades,
and
he was about to re-new the friendship.

Chapter
Twelve

13 February
-
12
:
05

(
L
ife remaining 30 hrs 55 mins)

‘It is going to be a wonderful night, a truly wonderful night’

Cupid
snapped shut the padlock
that
looped through two links of the heavy chain
which
snak
ed
around the two uprights of sturdy tubular steel
. It made
up the frame of the pair of gates,
with
their combination ensuring that the world remained on one side and his prize on the other.  The only other person with a key was Adam
.
Loyal
and
trusting Adam
,
who never questioned his instructions, never questioned his calling to gather couples who had that most fragile, most precious of all things
,
love.  He had it once
.
He
had given of himself, and laid bare his soul to the woman he wanted to spend his life with
,
only to have her… Cupid found he was starting to shake at the very thought of her,
so
he cleared his mind
and
forced himself to fo
cus on the ceremony, the coupling
.  Each year its sheer beauty, its magnificence reinforced his commitment to his mission to seal for all time that bond between two people who had made a vow, a vow that should never be broken, never be withdrawn.

Cupid
´
s mobile brought his mind back from the badlands of his reasoning to the present.  He glanced at the caller ID before answering.  ‘You have the liquid
,
Adam?’ asked Cupid after opening the line.   He knew the answer would be yes.

‘I have it
,
sir.’

‘Good, that’s very good
,
Adam.  Bring it to my couple and…’ Cupid hesitated, ‘and while you’re
t
here
,
purify them.  Check them again before I return tomorrow night.’

Adam knew what
purify meant
.
It
meant wash down the urine, often as not
,
the f
a
eces, from the table where the couple w
as
strapped. 

Cupid’s tone carried annoyance, an accusation that his couple would do such a thing
,
but what did he expect.  His couple
,
as he liked to call them
,
had been strapped down for over thirteen hours and
they
would remain so for another thirty more before the joining.  He
knew he
would have t
o purify them again
,
keeping them pure, prepared for the ceremony and their
ultimate
journey.

‘I will see that it is done
,
Sir.’

‘Do you have everything else
,
Adam?’

‘Yes, I have it all with me.  I will deliver it later today.’

‘Excellent
,
Adam, excellent
.
It
is going to be a wonderful night, a truly wonderful night
,
’ and with that
,
he was gone.  The line closed
,
and
another chapter in Cupid’s odyssey
a
waited to be written.

‘Yes
,
’ whispered Adam
,
laying down his own mobile, ‘
A
truly wonderful night.’  He glanced at the black holdall sitting in the foot well of the passenger seat of his car.  Within it
,
sat the items that over the last six years he had come to know well
.
It contained
items that at first were a mystery to him
,
but now
they
all held a purpose, a place in the jigsaw that was the joining, the ceremony that meant so much to the man who had been his savior, the man who had given him back his life.  The
most bizarre of all of the things the bag contained
was the liquid,
lactated ringer solution
. 
His employer had taken great pains to explain how crucial it was to the ceremony.  It was loaded with sodium, calcium and potassium
.
The
combination
helped create electrical activity if a heart was immersed within it.  A heart, it had been explained to him, contained multiple pacemaker cells within its form that could be stimulat
ed by the liquid. It could keep a heart
beating for up to thirty minutes when removed from the chest cavity.  Adam had seen it first hand on
the first occasion six years ago
.
Following
that first experience
,
he never stayed
to
watch as
Cupid wielded his
scalpels
,
preferring
to wait some distance away until the screaming stopped. He would never voice his thoughts
,
but he knew his employer was insane. To do what he did
, one would have
to be, but Adam was loyal
.
He
owed him his life and so he would close his ears, close his mind and shut out the screams, the horror. He owed the couples nothing
, but
he owed Cupid
everything
,
and so Tom and Karen’s journey to the
afterlife
could not be avoided. As far as Adam was
concerned,
it was carved in stone and shortly
, very
shortly;
it would be written in blood.

Chapter
Thirteen

13 Febru
ary
-
12
:
02

(
L
ife r
emaining 30 hrs 58 mins)

‘All we need now is some remarkable information.’

‘What is she doing?’ whispered
Turner
.

Jane followed his gaze to where Stephanie was shuffling back and forth in front of the large white board wall, the wall that just hours before was a blank canvas
,
but now had become a sinister portrait, a collage of notations and photos reflecting a
six-year
reign of terror of the serial killer Cupid.  The photos ran from left to right, from 2004 through to 2009
.
Each
set began with an A4
snap
of each couple, photos that reflected normal life prior to being snatched by Cupid.  Some were smiling, some were looking serene, some looked like passport shots
,
but all had that common theme, normality
, life
.  The final shots of each were far from normal
.
The
final shots were the
ones that chilled the blood, transporting
you into
the
dark world occupied by Cupid.  These
photos
linked the couples, bound them together into a club where the required membership was simply love. In
each,
the couples were shown naked, strapped to a large flat surface side by side, hands held together for their final journey into oblivion
,
thanks to the tortured twi
sted mind of a
maniac.

‘I´m not sure
,
’ frowned Jane, ‘but… my
instincts tell
me
that
we should give her a moment or two without interruption.’

Stephanie stopped in front of each group of photos
,
forcing herself to look up at each
year;
each set that culminated in the final shot of innocent couples frozen in macabre unity, their lives extinguished at the perverse whim of a monster.

Donald
Myers
joined Jane and
Turner
at the refreshment table
,
‘
Rude
to whisper
,
guys
.
Care
to share?’

‘It’s John’s sister
,
’ responded
Turner
,
nodding his head in the direction of Stephanie
.
‘Jane thinks she might be on to something
.
’