by Aaron Gales
“So you grabbed the knife?”
“He dropped it, I picked it up but I didn’t immediately go for him. Despite him trying to hurt me I knew I had been in the wrong and had caused the fight. I just wanted him to stop.”
“What happened then?”
“It was like he was possessed. He didn’t even seem to realise I had the knife, he just ran straight at me and put his hands around my throat.”
“And you stabbed him?”
“Not at first… I was so shocked about everything that was happening. All I could think about were his hands around my throat. But yes, eventually I became aware of the knife I had in my hand. I stabbed him once in the stomach. Nothing more than a puncture wound. I don’t think he even noticed the first one. He barely loosened his grip.”
“So you attacked him again?”
“Yes I stabbed him three more times and eventually he let go.”
“What happened then?”
“I don’t think he could believe what I had done. He was still shouting at me. Then he sort of looked down at his stomach, saw the blood and collapsed on the bed. That’s when I phoned the police.”
“Did you call an ambulance at this time?”
She looked confused by the question.
“No I don’t think I did. I meant to but I think I just called the police and then I heard the sirens about two minutes after so I just waited for you to arrive. I was in a state of shock.”
“I’m sure you were,” said the policeman sympathetically and she smiled back shyly at him.
“Did you do anything to try and help him?” he asked.
That question threw her off slightly.
“No,” she hesitated. Tears started rolling down her cheeks. These quickly turned into heaving sobs.
His boss seemed to take pity on her then.
“Sorry I know you’ve had a traumatic day. We’ll press pause there for now. We will have somebody drive you home. We will need you to come in tomorrow for a couple of further questions but then you should be free to go. How does that sound?”
She nodded through the tears.
As the policeman got up to leave the room she spoke up.
“Is the man who found me still here?”
“He is off duty now but I believe he is still in the building yes.”
“Would he be able to take me home?”
“I’ll have to ask him but if he doesn’t have any objections I can’t see that being a problem.” He turned and left the room leaving her on her own.
His boss then entered the viewing room where James had watched the interview taking place.
“I assume you heard her request? Are you happy to take her home?”
“Yeah I think so. How long will she need?”
“You can take her now. Will you be able to pick her up on your way in in the morning? I have a couple more questions for her but nothing that should take very long.”
“Yeah no problem.” With that his boss walked out, probably to tackle the mountain of administrative work that had built up while he had spent the afternoon dealing with this appalling crime.
He opened the door and Madeline looked up at him. Gone were the tears of just minutes ago.
“You ready?”
She nodded that she was and followed him out the room.
They got in the car. They were silent on the journey back to her house. They pulled up outside. Neither of them made any move.
“Do you want me to come in with you?” he asked.
“I don’t want to go back in there,” she replied.
James didn’t know what to say to her.
“Can I stay with you?”
“I think that would be inappropriate.”
“Just for one night. I know you’ve been told to come and pick me up in the morning anyway.”
She looked at him and he knew he was fighting a losing battle. There was something about her that was intoxicating to him. Nobody at work would ever have to know.
He started the engine and drove for 15 minutes until he pulled up outside his small detached house. Although it was small he was proud of it. He had worked and saved hard for what he had. She smiled at him and they got out of the car.
He unlocked the door and they went in. He put his bag down and she followed him. Before he knew it she had grabbed him and was kissing him violently. He was taken aback. He pushed her away. She didn’t seem shocked. Instead she took off her clothes and moved into the bedroom.
He had wrestled with his conscience for about 30 seconds and then followed her in.
The next day he had taken her to the station with him as instructed. She had faced a couple of difficult questions but James’s statement worked in her favour and she was released without charge.
She had come home with him after being cleared and had never left since.
The last six months had been among the best in his life.
She had brought out the best version of him.
After three months she had told him the truth about exactly what happened. Her boyfriend had always been violent towards her. She had tried to break up with him but he wouldn’t let her. Rather than fight and scream she had come up with a plan to murder him. She had always had these dark urges and now she got to indulge them as well as get this awful man out of her life. He had come home that morning and she had coaxed him to the bedroom. He had never been able to resist her. What he hadn’t seen was the knife on the bedside table. She had picked it up quickly and stabbed him.
He had never stood a chance. What he didn’t know was that she had stabbed him in such a place that he wouldn’t die quickly. She wanted to watch him bleed. She had been so turned on by what she had seen. Then she had called the police and waited for them to arrive. She had hoped that her boyfriend would be dead by the time help arrived but he wasn’t, which is why she had to finish him off there and then. She couldn’t risk him surviving and telling his side of the story.
What she had realised that day was that she enjoyed killing. She wanted to do it again. He had been surprised at her words but not shocked. He had seen the thrill of pleasure as she had plunged the knife into her boyfriend that last time. The truth was he had enjoyed watching. He wanted to experience what she had that day. Living dangerously, life on the edge.
He had promised her that day that they would kill again. They had the taste for it and they would have to placate their appetites. A couple of months later he had been working quietly at his desk when his boss approached him.
He looked up from the email he was typing.
“I’ve got a job for you. We’ve had a couple of missing person’s reports that have been irritating me recently. Are you familiar with them?”
“Yeah just what I’ve seen on the database. Couple of girls in their early twenties, missing without trace?”
“That’s right. Now we know from plans they had made that they were going to go hiking in the local national park. It was assumed that they got into difficulty when out there and died and that sooner or later they would turn up. But they haven’t. I want it looking into in more detail. I think you might be the man for the job.”
“Why do you think there is anything suspicious?”
“A fair question. The problem we are having is that if they did die in the forest, even if we haven’t managed to locate their body you would think we would have found some trace of them. An abandoned tent, a rucksack, something.”
He nodded his head.
“Will you look into it?”
“Yep no problem boss.”
“Thanks.”
When he had got home that night he had explained the situation to Madeline. Her face had lit up with glee.
“This could be our chance.”
“Our chance to what?”
“To kill.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, obviously there is some sort of sick fuck living in the woods killing women. Let’s go and find him.”
“My boss might get s
uspicious.”
“How will he know? Just go through the motions at work, make some enquiries and look like you’re doing your bit and then we’ll go up there at the weekend and see if anyone makes their presence known. I’m an attractive girl, if there is somebody up there killing women I’m sure we will find out pretty quickly.”
He had to admit he liked her plan. And even if he didn’t he would have done it anyway. She had him under her spell and there was nothing he could do about it.
That Friday evening they had driven up to the forest. They had looked over maps beforehand and had found a clearing that seemed to be relatively well known as a place that people stayed when camping out for the night. They set off along a deserted track and eventually came into a clearing.
At this point the passion that was still burning so strong in their relationship overcame them and as soon as they got out of the car, they made mad passionate love. Her sexual appetite was insatiable and he loved it.
What they hadn’t realised at the time was that they were being watched from afar. When they were getting their tent set up she spotted a man amongst the trees looking at them. She didn’t stop what she was doing but whispered quietly to him.
“Carry on what you’re doing but listen to me.”
He raised his eyes at her, confused, but continued putting up the tent.
“We’re being watched. There’s a man in the trees over there who has been looking at us for about five minutes. I don’t think he knows we have spotted him otherwise I think he would have gone. It’s certainly odd behaviour. Do you think we might have struck lucky at the first attempt?”
He considered what she had said. It certainly was odd behaviour but they couldn’t just assume that this man was the killer. They would need some proof before they murdered him.
Just then the man emerged from the trees with some camping gear. He started setting up but he was clearly having trouble. She urged him to go and talk to him and see what the stranger was like.
He did. She watched their exchange from the safety of her tent. She didn’t like this new arrival. He moved too smoothly. It was him. She knew it. He was a killer.
When James came back she told him what she thought.
“I agree,” he said. “There is something not right about him. The question is what are we going to do about it?”
She outlined her plan. When he came over later for a drink (which James had invited him to do) she would seduce him. She would pretend to drug James and he would then pretend to pass out. She would distract the man using her female talents leaving James to take care of business.
They had agreed that he would do the killing. He had only ever seen her do it and they both wanted him to feel the thrill of it for the first time.
The plan had gone like clockwork. He wasn’t sure how he would feel seeing her on her knees pleasuring another man but if anything it had just made him horny as hell. He wanted to reclaim her, to dominate her, to let her know who she really belonged to.
While she had been doing her thing, he had slowly opened his eyes. She was blowing the man and he had his eyes closed in sheer pleasure. He knew the feeling. He moved as quietly as a cat until he was behind the man. As Madeline finished him off, he saw the man’s body visibly tense as he looked around and realised that James was no longer there. It was already too late for him. James brought his knife to the man’s neck and slashed.
He saw the blood spurt over Madeline and felt the hardness in his trousers. The man dropped to his knees and died right in front of them. They were so turned on by what they had done that before the clean-up operation had begun they had sex again.
Then they burnt the body and left no trace of evidence behind.
Chapter Eight
She gradually began to stir as he considered all the events of the previous days. She looked at him with love in his eyes and kissed him gently on the mouth. She looked so beautiful in the mornings. But today, he couldn’t quite appreciate it. He knew something wasn’t right about last night. They shouldn’t have tried to kill again so quickly. Their desires had got the better of them. That fire alarm going off had been no coincidence. Somebody had known what they were about to do and had made it their business to stop them.
He pushed her away and she frowned at him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I’m just not in the mood ok.”
“Is this about last night?”
“Of course it is. If we hadn’t got lucky we both could have been waking up in a jail cell this morning.”
He pushed the covers back and trudged slowly downstairs, on the hunt for something to eat. He saw the pile of post on the floor but ignored it for now as he went to the kitchen.
He opened the fridge and took a long glug of milk from the carton. He took it with him and poured it over some cereal. When he finished eating he headed for the shower picking up the post as he went. The usual bills and junk mail.
His attention was drawn to the last envelope which was unmarked. He felt a shiver go down his spine but wasn’t sure why.
When he opened it he knew his instincts had been correct. He read the words on the paper.
I KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE. MEET ME AT THE CLEARING IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR SECRETS
Panic shot down his spine. He had felt like someone was watching them last night and this confirmed his suspicions.
He ran up the stairs. They needed to come up with a plan and come up with something fast.
Madeline saw the panic in his eyes as soon as he came through the door.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Somebody knows.”
“Knows what?”
“About us, about what we did.”
“How is that possible?”
“We’ve been too careless Madeline. We’re cocky, we’ve taken too many risks.”
“I want your cocky.”
“Enough Madeline. Can you think about something else for once in your fucking life?”
But it was already too late, her hand was on his cock, playing with it through his boxers. He tried to protest but he knew it would be in vain.
Afterwards as they lay on the bed together their bodies entwined, she became serious.
“We need a plan,” she said.
He nodded in reply.
Chapter Nine
The man was watching their house. He had seen the man through the window reading his note. They had got his message. But what would they do now? How would they react?
They didn’t leave the house all day. This frustrated him greatly. He couldn’t understand why his message hadn’t provoked panic. Maybe he hadn’t been clear enough. He would need to be more specific.
He waited until night fell and the lights turned off in the house. He wrote another note which told them both that they must meet him at dusk tomorrow evening at the place where they had killed his brother.
He popped the note quietly through the letter box and retreated back to the car. He wasn’t going to stick around this time. He was going home to prepare. They wouldn’t ignore him a second time. And if they did, they would face a wrath from him that would leave them praying for the sweet release of death.
As the sun set the next day he lurked in the forest, with a clear line of sight to the clearing. Waiting. He was good at waiting, he was very patient. He knew that this time they would come.
Just as he felt his temper rising, he heard the sound of an engine running. He picked up his binoculars and picked out the car in the distance. It was them.
They drove into the clearing. They opened both doors and got out slowly with their hands in the air as he had instructed them in his note yesterday.
He put down his binoculars and picked up his gun. He looked through the sight at them both. He fired twice in quick succession.
She dropped first, swiftly followed by the man.
They weren’t dead, but had simply been shot by a strong tranquilizer dart. It would knock them out for at least a c
ouple of hours. That was all he would need.
Chapter Ten
Her eyes opened first, and then a couple of seconds later his followed. They both tried to sit up but found that they couldn’t. They were tied tightly to a table. They were in a small wooden house. They could hear a fire roaring and the heat of it was cascading over their naked bodies.
He could see the fear coursing through them. He had them and they both knew that their lives were going to end in this room.
He pulled up a chair between them and their eyes were both drawn towards him. He smiled at them both, like they were children.
“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked.
The girl shook her head vigorously.
The man spoke.
“No, we have no idea. What are you going to do to us? Why are we tied up?”
“You know why. You murdered my brother.”
“Murdered your brother?” the girl exclaimed.
“We did no such thing. We came out here camping a couple of nights ago. We spoke briefly to a man and then he went on his way. We left the next morning and never came back. When we got a note through the door we had no idea what it meant but we thought this could be the only place. We were intrigued to see who wanted to speak to us and who had gone to the effort to track us down.”
“Such lies,” he spat back at them and they flinched.
“I watched you murder my stupid, pussy obsessed brother with my own eyes. You killed him in cold blood.”
“That’s not true,” they protested from their beds.
Anger fizzed through his body. Why were they lying? This infuriated him. He had planned to keep them alive a while longer but now he changed his mind. They would regret their untruths. He was going to kill them now. He got up, walked over to the kitchen and pulled the biggest knife he had out of the kitchen drawer. He raised his hand as the girl screamed. As he was about to plunge the knife between her breasts, there was a loud bang.
The glass window to his right shattered, startling him, before he felt a hot pain in his right shoulder and he saw a spurt of blood shoot from the wound.
