“Have you been talking to my therapist?” she teased.
Darren chuckled. “No, but I’ve seen my own. Sometimes they have something good to say.”
The light flickered above them and Darren looked up curiously. Kalli picked up her papers again, not paying it any mind.
“After everything,” he said, “you have seen and experienced and that doesn’t worry you?”
“Not everything is supernatural, Darren” she responded. “I accept some strange stuff has happened, but a flickering light could just be ...”
The light suddenly exploded and they both shrieked. Kalli wrapped her hands around her head to protect herself. She was about to look up when the two windows in the room blasted inward. They got up and ran for the door, bumping into furniture as they went.
They got out of the room and the lights in the hallway also exploded. Kalli moved closer to Darren as mirrors along the wall cracked and shattered outwards; picture frames followed suit. Darren took Kalli’s hand and pulled her through the house. Everywhere they went the glass shattered around them, cutting them. The pictures along the wall as they descended the staircase exploded as they passed them, making Kalli yelp repeatedly.
They reached the front door and all the lights downstairs burst, plunging them into darkness.
Kalli didn’t understand why there was no light shining through the windows, as it was still day. Why was the house so dark?
Darren pulled something from his pocket and with a click a torch turned on. He glanced at Kalli and then shone it towards the kitchen.
Standing there was Robyn, her mouth open in a silent scream. Kalli shrieked in terror and Darren yanked her towards the front door.
They reached it, the glass panes in the door cracked, and Darren swung around quickly, wrapping Kalli in his arms to protect her as they too shattered, cutting his shirt and back open. He then turned back and grabbed the door handle, yanking the door open and dragging Kalli into daylight.
Mike was just pulling into the driveway when they stumbled into the yard, scared witless and glancing behind them when the door slammed shut on its own. Mike got out of the car and ran.
“What happened?” he yelled, looking at their various and multiple cuts. “Are you okay?”
Kalli shook with fright. “Robyn, she was there ...”
She burst into tears, adrenaline leaving her body and shock replacing it quickly. Darren looked pale and kept glancing up at the house with a terrified look on his face.
Mike hugged Kalli in silence while she gathered herself. Darren stood by, rubbing his own arms, and shivered.
“Should we go stay in a hotel?” Mike asked eventually, looking down at Kalli still in his arms.
“No,” she said. “All our research is here and she’ll follow us, wherever we go. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
Mike nodded. “Well, I guess we should go clean-up then.”
The three of them walked towards the house and Darren cautiously opened the door.
There was no sign of shattered glass. The panes in the door were intact. The pictures on the staircase hung as neatly as they did before and all lights were perfectly fine. If it wasn’t for the cuts on their bodies as evidence, they would be forgiven for thinking they had hallucinated the entire event.
Kalli led Darren to the bathroom where she cleaned up his cuts before tending to her own, allowing Darren to see to the hard to reach ones.
She looked at him and said, “This isn’t going to end, is it?”
Darren closed the lid of the toilet, sitting down. Mike had joined and stood now in the doorway as Darren said, “No, it won’t. Not until we do what she wants.”
“But how do we know what she wants?” Kalli asked.
“Well, she’s targeting the three people that were related to this case in some way or another, and we are the only people trying to actively solve all the murders. I think that’s what she wants. She wants her killer to be caught.”
Kalli shivered again. “What if we don’t catch him? Will she haunt us forever?”
Darren sighed. “Look, from what I have learnt, the presences get stronger the closer you get to solving it. They feel they are driving you. Clearly whatever we are on to is what we should be on to and it was just Robyn’s way of telling us so.” He looked up at Mike. “You get the address?”
Mike nodded. “Yeah, she’s in the next town over. I was thinking we could leave first thing in the morning and go see her.”
Darren appeared relieved; his shoulders slumped as though a huge amount of tension was taken off his shoulders.
Kalli rubbed her arms again and Mike said, “Hey, why don’t I go get us some dinner and we can just relax tonight?”
Darren waved him off. “I don’t think there will be another sighting tonight.”
“Still,” Mike said tersely, inclining his head in Kalli’s direction, “a distraction might help. We can have pizza and watch a movie or something.”
Darren caught on quickly. “Oh, yeah, okay. Well, why don’t you guys go get pizza and I’ll wait here.”
Kalli shook her head. “No! What if she comes again?”
“Don’t worry, Kalli,” Darren reassured her. “I have been studying the supernatural for ten years; I think I can handle it.” He smiled. “Now off you kids go and bring me back something with lots of sauce and lots of bacon.”
Kalli looked at him nervously before allowing Mike to lead her away, leaving Darren to go downstairs, make himself a strong cup of coffee and sit at the kitchen table to make notes on what just happened.
He wrote quietly, not paying much attention to anything. At one point he thought he heard something and glanced at the back door, but there was no one there. He glanced around the kitchen next and, standing by the pantry cupboard, making his heart skip several beats, was Jacqui. She held her hand out to him and smiled.
Something was coming for him, he just knew it.
Jacqui was trying to warn him.
Chapter 17
The Butcher
HE KEPT A CAREFUL EYE on them once he saw that Kallista had returned. At first, he thought he was simply getting new neighbours, but once he saw her he knew, he just knew, why she was here. It didn’t take long for him to confirm that she was back to solve her sister’s murder. After a few quick searches, he discovered she went on to study criminology and profiling, and obviously did so in order to solve the case.
No way would he let that happen.
He had been working on a plan to end her, but was hesitant to do so, as this would reopen the case and the local police would once again start the manhunt. Ever so careful since he completed Tatum, he went out of town to satisfy his itch, and he always managed to satisfy it for long enough to help him maintain his facade.
With her back, it meant he needed to dispose of her and thereby possibly alert the local authorities that the killer they hunted all those years ago had never left.
His hesitation cost him dearly. Before he could do anything, Darren Blackwood, the local nutcase and pariah of their community, and Detective Mike Smith had offered to stay with her and help her solve the case.
She wasn’t careful though, he picked that up immediately. She didn’t even bother to close the curtains. She probably assumed that the house next door was still empty, especially because it looked as if it fell to pieces. She didn’t realise he was there, watching, while he witnessed her every move. Using a pair of binoculars, he could read what she wrote, how she narrowed down the suspects.
The only factor that elevated his heart rate was her note on Kyle’s murder, which clearly said, NOT ADULT - POSSIBLY TEENAGER.
She had uncovered something he thought had been long buried. Never mind the fact that she figured that the first two murders, Morgan and Kyle, were his first murders. No one had ever made that connection. She was dangerous.
He considered his options. A part of him thought it was time to leave, that it would be safer that way. But how safe would it be when they found
a picture of him and started plastering it on the news for everyone to see? He would probably have to leave the country, and he wasn’t prepared for that.
The option of silencing her was out, unless he made it look like an accident. How, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he needed to observe her closely to figure out her weak spots.
The detective was one of them. He had watched them have sex on occasion, saw the way Smith protected her and how she beamed at him with loving eyes. He knew, if something were to happen to the detective, Kalli would be vulnerable.
The other weakness was Darren; it seemed they had gotten closer as friends since he moved into the house to assist her with the case. There wasn’t an evident emotional connection as there was between Smith and Kallista, but she was fond of the man whose life had been ruined, and Darren was protective of her.
He decided the best course of action would be to take one of them out first, and then, when the other two were vulnerable, he would dispose of them as well, and make it look like one of them was the killer.
If he got this right, the police would accept that scenario and not continue the search, and he could continue to live his quiet, suburban life. He would have to be ready at a moment’s notice.
As soon as one of them was left alone in the house he would have to act, and be quick, and string it up as bait for whichever of the two came back first. He didn’t care who he killed first; this wasn’t for the itch, this was for his own protection.
THEY NEVER SEEMED TO leave someone alone at the house. There were usually two of them at any given time, and it seemed one of them was always Kallista. Then Darren left on his motorbike. He got excited, thinking he would have the perfect opportunity to take out the other two, but they always seemed alert.
The first time he thought he stood a chance, the two of them went out and came home drunk in the early hours of the morning. He thought it would be the perfect opportunity, and then they decided to have sex.
He waited for them to fall asleep. He approached the house stealthily, but, just as he was looking for the back door key, which he knew had never been moved, he heard screaming and shouting.
He froze.
The kitchen light came on.
He moved swiftly back to his lair.
Every time he tried to sneak to the house while Darren was away something either woke them up, or they were up working on the case. They weren’t children so sneaking in while they were awake wasn’t an option. He cursed his luck.
Then Darren returned.
He wasn’t sure what it was that Darren found out, but whatever it was could not have been important because, while he was downstairs with the detective, Kallista went upstairs to start on her sister’s board.
The way she looked at the photos, the angle she was at, he could use his binoculars to look at them with her. It thrilled him, seeing his work like that all over again. He made a note to take those when he left. Another memento. Something to remind him of his greatest success.
The photos were put away and she stared at Robyn’s board again. He didn’t understand her obsession with Robyn. At first, he thought he had perhaps made some huge mistake and left critical evidence behind, but it seemed Kalli just felt particularly sorry for Robyn, or something like that, because she was always talking about her.
As though the dead girl haunted her in her dreams.
This look of realisation dawned on her face - it was clear even to him sitting in his room in the other house - and she bolted out. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck. He needed to know what was being said, but how could he risk it?
He had to. He had to know what Kallista had figured out.
As quickly and quietly as he could, he made his way to his back door. He slipped out and crept over to the house, squatting underneath the kitchen window. He heard them talking inside and his blood ran cold when Kalli mentioned Robyn’s cousin, Penny. He had known Penny in school, not personally, but more in a ‘we-are-in-the-same-grade’ kind of way. Kalli mentioned how the teenagers could have lied in their statements and that they had to find her.
If Penny had seen him, or had any clue who Robyn was with, it would be done. He would be done. He would have to act quickly.
He shifted carefully and went home to make his preparations. None of them could be permitted to live.
HE WATCHED AS THE DETECTIVE left the house alone, early the next morning, no doubt to track down Penny so they could interview her again. He considered taking on Darren and Kallista while he was away. The only factor stopping him was the uncertainty as to whether or not Darren was armed.
They went over documents in the main room. He was tense and worried and it aggravated him; it stirred in him a disquiet that made him feel as if he was going to be sick. This was worse than when he had killed Kyle; this was worse than when his father had stopped him from doing anything.
If he went to jail, it would be the end, not only of satisfying himself, but possibly of his life. If other prisoners heard he was a child killer, they wouldn’t share his view of his art, they wouldn’t understand, and they would punish him for the creativity that flowed through his body.
Suddenly Kallista and Darren were screaming. He gazed through his binoculars. They stood with their hands over their heads as though something fell on them. They shrieked again and then ran from the room.
They had lost their minds.
The screaming continued and then he saw through the living room window that Darren had taken a flash light out and was using it as though it wasn’t still daylight outside, as if they were plunged into darkness.
For a long moment he thought perhaps they were drugged and were hallucinating about something attacking them.
They made for the front door, looking over their shoulders as though someone, or something, was after them. They paused just before the front door and Darren turned as if to shield Kallista from some unknown force before pulling her into the yard.
Smith arrived at that point.
The detective took her in his arms and soothed her. Darren appeared pale and, for a moment, as though he was about to puke. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they went back to the house and looked around it as though something was off.
He had no time for these childish, drug-induced games. He needed to rest. He needed to decide on a final strategy, since it didn’t seem there would ever be only one person in the house.
Then Kallista and Smith left, and Darren was alone.
HE DIDN’T EVEN HESITATE. He donned his overalls, gloves, and quickly grabbed his bone saw and handcuffs. There was no time to lose because he wasn’t sure when Smith and Kallista would be back.
The sun was going down and the shadows were perfect for him to creep in. He saw Darren sitting in the kitchen and swore silently in his mind. He was about to go back when the home phone rang. Darren got up to answer it and he swiftly used the back door key to enter quietly. Closing the door behind him, he looked around quickly and decided the best space to hide would be the pantry cupboard. It was the only cupboard big enough to house him.
Once inside, he left the door open a crack so he could see what Darren was doing.
Darren returned and packed up his notebook. He sat at the table and sipped his coffee. He glanced around the kitchen and focused on the pantry cupboard. He stared for a moment, before setting his mug down and stretching. Darren finally got up and left the kitchen.
Now was the moment.
He crept out of the pantry and down the hallway. He listened carefully to hear if Darren went upstairs or not. When he didn’t hear anything, he checked the living room and dining room.
Nothing.
He was on edge, as though something was off, and decided that tonight was not the night. He moved to leave, but before he could enter the kitchen, Darren launched from behind the door and onto his back.
Darren tried to get his arms around his neck, but he was too strong, even though Darren was an adult. He managed to turn around and the tw
o of them started to wrestle for power. He could feel his strength slipping as the fight wore on, but Darren grew tired as well. He let go and punched Darren in the face. Darren returned the gesture by trying to kick him in the family jewels; luckily he missed and kicked his thigh. He had to take control of the situation, and quickly.
He used all his might and slammed Darren backwards into the wall, hitting his opponent’s head hard. He did it again and on the third blow Darren was disorientated, so he punched him in the face. Darren tried to hold on weakly and, as a last resort, reached up and scratched his neck open. He cursed and, using his weight, got Darren to the floor before taking two steps back and then one forward to kick Darren in the side of the head.
Darren slumped to the floor out cold.
He didn’t have time to savour it, so he handcuffed Darren’s one wrist and then, using the wall to assist him, hoisted him up high enough to handcuff his other wrist through the stair railing. It looked like Darren stood against the wall rather than hung.
Darren groaned and opened his eyes, staring at his attacker. “You ...” he groaned out. “Of course ...”
He couldn’t help the smile. “Of course it was me. You are all blind and death comes to those who do not see.”
Darren glared at him and then fixated a little to the left of him. He turned instinctively, but there was nothing there. Darren stared at that chosen point.
It was unnerving.
Then he said, “I’m ready, baby.”
He didn’t know what to make of that, but didn’t care. Smith and Kalli could be home at any moment. He took out his knife and slit Darren’s throat. The man gurgled on his own blood before his head slumped forward.
Working quickly with his bone saw, he removed Darren’s head and set it at his feet. He knelt, opened the mouth, and removed the tongue using his other knife. Satisfied that the deed was done, he moved to leave, rubbing at his neck where Darren had drawn blood.
Kallista Page 14
