Al finished his ritual and then washed his sore skin with water and a harsh soap that he had found at the local chemist. He wanted his skin to feel the effects of the shaving and the soap exacerbated this. He wanted his body to know that something different was happening. It did when the sting of the soap hit the open pores that has just been shaved. He was practised enough to be careful and not cut himself, but he shaved every part of his body whether it showed signs of hair developing or not. He felt invigorated and dried off to get dressed. It would be a few days at least until his next target could be identified, tracked and established fully, but he wanted to stay on top of his skin. Al dressed and went back to his room to look at all the research he had done. He looked across the walls. Each was dedicated to a different element of his work.
The one above his desk and computer was for the people that he was targeting. This has photographs that he had taken from afar, name and address details as well as proposed places to end their life based on the research he had carried out on their daily routines. In many ways, it was the wall of the damned. These were the people who led a life that Al had identified should be marked as unacceptable. They had chosen a path that he did not agree with and they must pay the price for this decision. It was the ultimate price to pay. In good time, he would take their life. Al sat at the desk and looked around the room. He looked up at the wall that contained the people he had personally selected. He wondered if they had any idea if their time on this planet was coming to an end. They had made a poor choice at some stage, in his eyes, so they must have foreseen that this choice would wind them up in a great deal of trouble. Al was that trouble.
He looked to his right and saw what started out as an empty wall start to be populated with pieces of paper, newspaper cuttings and yet more photographs. These corresponded with similar gaps on the main wall. This was the wall of people who he already taught a lesson. These were the people that had travelled from the wall of targets to what someone in the police would call the wall of victims. Not Al, however. He saw this as completed work. Once he had been successful in converting someone from the main wall, he would remove their details and photographs before placing them on the wall to the right. This would be accompanied, often a few days later, by a newspaper clipping or two about the murder. This reminded him that all of this was real and not some giant video game that he was playing. With the amount of research and preparation Al went to for any murder, it sometimes felt like he was at the computer in front of him rather than occupying the real world. He went into some kind of new world when he was killing the person, so he could be sat at home thinking about what had happened with a sense of detachment. The newspaper articles were confirmation for Al that he was there, he had killed those people and he was building his work. It was his reality check.
Al listened at the window to his left. He was as astonished as always that in this big town he lived in a place where there was almost no noise pretty much all of the time. It made his work a lot easier and allowed him to prepare in privacy but is was an amazing thing to hear, even after being there for a few years. Simply the hum of traffic from the A1 and A19 either side of the town. Just a few hundred yards away the streets would be filled with people and traffic and the noise would be incessant for all the daylight hours and many of those in darkness too. But he could sit there and the whole world wouldn’t know he existed. But he was sure they would soon. He saw a day in the none-too-distant future where news reports across the world would speak about what he was doing and the message he brought with it. He could see days where he was the top trending topic on all social media outlets as people tried to guess who he was and what he was trying to build. This made Al excited. He had a message to deliver, first and foremost, and the more exposure he got the better. That was what pissed him off so much about his reaction to the article in the Daily Gossip. He wanted people to talk about him, write about him and discuss him. It was the best way to spread the word. He wasn’t naïve enough to believe that everyone would understand the importance of his work.
He looked around the window at the rest of the left-hand wall and the work that it contained. It was essentially a large map of the town of Washington and then smaller maps showing pockets of Newcastle Upon Tyne. It was expertly drawn on a white board wall that was sat to the left of the window. He had marked all the CCTV cameras, the areas where he could walk uninterrupted and there were also colour-coded dotted lines that signified the routes his targets took. These were cross-referenced by dots of the same colour on the top right-hand corner of the sheets and photographs that corresponded to the targets. This was something that wouldn’t have been out of place in a military operation. Al was ready for whatever came his way. He would be able to locate the likely whereabouts of any of his chosen victims at any point of the day and act accordingly. It was this level of detail that had allowed him to kill the entertainer in the theatre that night. He just knew where he would be. There were over twenty more identified at that point in time. Some had more details than others attached to them, but all were in the process of being stalked. Their information was being gathered without their knowledge. All so Al could use them to send his message to the rest of the world.
The wall directly behind Al and the desk didn’t have anywhere near as much detail as the others. It was where the door was, so there was a big part of the wall missing. The rest was filled with a series of letters printed on small white squares of paper. He turned and looked at the wall. Al knew that each of these four walls was an integral part of his plan. He had missed the proximity to his research when he spent two days away from his home. It comforted him when he had the tiny doubts that would sometimes enter his brain. But he had been back for a while now and was trying to make up his mind which one of his targets was next. He thought long and hard about this and nothing else for a few hours. It was a big decision. He wanted the next one to go perfectly again so he could get the feeling that he was in control once more. He decided. This person was the perfect choice. Al looked again at the details he had gathered on this person. They had the right kind of profile to take his message to the next level. Al grinned again. It was time to enact the next plan.
11
Sally Archer sat on the sofa trying her best to ignore the dog. It has been in and around her feet for at least ten minutes. She knew that JoJo wanted to be taken for a walk but she didn’t feel up to it. It was drizzling outside although it was still a warm late summer evening. The first signs that summer might be over soon were appearing in the skies with a cooler wind and the odd rain shower. Sally didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that the world was changing in that direction so she buried her head in the sand as much as she could. The grey sky and falling rain were just a step to far for her at that moment. But the prospect of cleaning up after JoJo was something more persuasive than facing up to the changing seasons.
“Alright JoJo. Give me a minute to get ready,” exclaimed as she got to het feet. The first thing she would need to do was visit the toilet and she knew that the reaction from her dog would be that she was running away. She swerved her body towards the front door so JoJo would head that way before walking off quickly in the other direction to visit the toilet in some peace. She got the toilet door closed behind her before the dog has even realised she wasn’t at the front door. It was as close as Sally was going to get to peace, but she was happy at that small victory. She washed her hands and opened the door to stop the sound of scratching and low barking coming from behind it. She looked out of the window again to confirm that the rain was still hanging in the air before picking up her summer coat, the one without a hood, and set about opening the front door. She wasn’t totally comfortable in the Sulgrave part of town, but it was all she could afford. She lived on her own and had no idea how single people could afford the rent in any part of the town without having to make sacrifices somewhere else in life. She worked full-time in the planning department for Newcastle City Council and still had to cut her summer holiday b
ack to one week instead of two and go out once a month with friends just so she had enough cash left to pay all the bills and keep decent food on the table. Sally longed to have enough money to relax and even look forward to retirement but with the ever-increasing state pension age, she couldn’t see far enough into the future to even contemplate her retirement. The money she had in her pension would provide for something reasonable, but not even up to the standard of living she had now. It was a nagging worry at the back of her mind but she tried to get on with life and ignore the distant future wherever possible. She didn’t know if she would make it there anyway.
The front door was growing more locks and security devices all the time. Every time Sally heard about another murder in the local news or break in near to her home she saved a little money every week until she could afford another lock, chain or spy hole. She wanted to be able to see whoever was near her door and stop them from entering if needed. One lock, two locks, three locks and more were added over the four years she has lived there so it always took a few seconds to check the coast was clear and then get all the security devices unlocked to get out into the world. Sally hoped that JoJo hadn’t developed a desperation to go to the toilet in the few minutes or so she had been stalling. Finally, the door was open and the two were out in the miserable summer evening.
Sally looked around and there was no sign of any other beings in her neighbourhood braving the damp weather. It was way past the time that the few commuters in her street came home and before any strays would return from the pub that was situated only around 400 yards away, if you turned the corner and walked in the opposite direction to Concord shops. Sally had owned JoJo for nearly ten years and they both knew the area well. She didn’t feel the need to keep her dog on a lead anymore because of this. She would just wander along behind wherever JoJo took her. The walk wasn’t usually far as JoJo would do what a dog does and then want to be back inside again, especially on a wet night like this one. It was a call of nature rather than a ramble through nature for the dog. But on this occasion JoJo started to walk a little faster than usual. After a few minutes Sally was left behind and was starting to shout the name of her dog in between phrases like “stupid dog” and “don’t do this to me.” Sally was ready to go home. Obviously JoJo was not.
After walking aimlessly for a couple of minutes, Sally spotted a white flash along a side street that looked like her dog. JoJo was mainly brown, but with a white marking that ran for around 8 inches along her back and tail. This made her easier to spot and Sally was sure that there wasn’t anyone else mad enough to be walking a dog in this weather. She headed down the side street and then followed the likely route of first right, because only around 50 yards further on was a main road. Sally knew that JoJo didn’t like the sound of traffic and main roads. There was the odd slush of tyres from cars and buses going along that road. Sally bet that was enough to put her dog off. She knew vaguely of the streets they were now walking but had rarely been down them herself on foot. The main road was one of the bus routes into The Galleries bus station but not the one she used. The buses seemed dirtier and as for the fellow passenger, well there wasn’t much she was willing to say about them.
She was now closing in a few steps behind JoJo but didn’t feel the need to rush. The dog was far too short for her to walk alongside with the collar in her hand and she hadn’t brought a lead. She just admonished the dog for running off and walked beside her. Sally walked along. She assumed that JoJo had done her business in the few minutes that they were apart but couldn’t be sure. The fact that the dog was continuing to walk away from home suggested that this wasn’t the case. As they neared a piece of woodland in the town, JoJo scuttled off again. Sally waited at the kerb to give the poor dog a minute or two to visit the toilet in privacy, the same way that Sally wanted privacy in the loo back at home. She could usually hear JoJo in the leaves and grass looking for the ideal spot to leave something behind. But silence was all that greeted her. Sally wanted to give it one more minute but the creepy nature of the streets she was on and the lack of a signal that there would be any end to the rain prompted her to follow in after the dog. She wanted to get back home, dry her hair and fall asleep in front of the television. A regular weekday evening as far as she was concerned.
“JoJo, where are you?” Sally asked as though she would receive an answer. She thought it better than walking silently and wanting the dog to know she was cross. The tone in her voice was angry but resigned too. She didn’t know whether dogs could pick up these small signals so resolved to speak again, but this time without the resignation in her voice.
“JoJo come out here at once. It is time to go home. Time for bed,” Sally was pleased with the way this went in her own mind, even though there was no sign of the dog reappearing.
Sally tiptoed in the way that cartoon characters do. She made deliberate slow strides with her knees raised so that anyone who saw her would know that she wasn’t trying to disturb them. She would rather have walked through the wooded area with her dog at the end of a lead so any passers-by could see what she was doing there, but exaggerated movements of her legs were the best way Sally could think of to let people know she wasn’t there to do any harm. She was now whispering the name of her dog and to keep the noise level to a minimum. Sally was just as concerned that she would be in peril if someone else came along and spotted her as she would be if she was spotted looking suspicious in this area. Sally became very aware of every noise and potential movement that came from behind her. The rain falling onto cars on the road she had just left was pitter-pattering away and was fairly constant, but it was small noises like a splash from a bus passing on the main road or the wind blowing through the top leaves on the trees made her jump slightly, even if it was barely noticeable to anyone else. All along she was trying to find JoJo with the minimum of fuss and noise so she could get away from the streets that she was starting to fear and get back behind the several locks of her front door.
Sally walked further still into the wooded area. It was only around a hundred square yards and was probably the remnant of an ancient protection order but with the grey from the sky it started to look dark and Sally wasn’t happy in just wading in to look for her dog. She walked slowly further all the while hoping that JoJo would bound out in front of her and start the journey home. But there wasn’t even the sign of the white flash on her back and tail. Sally knew she would have to walk deeper.
Even though the wooded area had been protected when the rest of the neighbourhood has been built on, there was no maintenance carried out. The undergrowth grew thicker the further Sally stepped in and what was at first swallowing her ankle at every step was now fast approaching her knees. It was alright for JoJo. She could just find a way in and out, even under, the plant life and keep going. Sally had a more difficult time of it. She was about to give up and turn around again when Sally thought she saw JoJo’s white flash in front of her. Around five yards ahead there was a cleared area, which looked circular around seven feet in diameter. But there appeared to be a block through the middle of the circle that hadn’t been cleared. In the near-darkness under the grey sky and the canopy of the oak trees it looked like a primitive crop circle. The darker area in the middle was occupied was where JoJo was now stood with her tail wagging. Sally fought her way through the last few strides to join her pet.
JoJo was very excited about something that was in that circle, and Sally was eager to find out what it was. As she made the last few strides, she looked for her mobile phone to use the torch function and shine some sort of light on JoJo’s find so they could get it over and done with and get back home. Sally was sure that the rain was still in the air, even though by this stage she was covered by the trees and didn’t feel any. Her jacket was wet and she wanted to get into the dry for the rest of the night. Whatever she found on TV was bound to be better than walking through the rain in a neighbourhood she didn’t totally trust. As Sally looked for the right button to push on her phone, she loo
ked around again at the neighbourhood. It struck her that she couldn’t be seen by anyone from this exact point. It wasn’t in any way possible to view the place where she and JoJo were stood from the street, the road or any of the homes. ‘Where else in this town can you get that this close to where people live?’ Sally asked herself. She then turned to where her dog was, now only around two feet away and shone the torch.
“Holy shit.” Sally dropped the phone. JoJo barked and then let out what might have been mistaken for a howl. When Sally recovered the phone from the deep plantation by following the light of the torch she stepped towards what looked like a person laid directly along the middle of the cleared area. Sally got closer still and looked at the strange shape. The light from her phone was poor and she needed to get very close to the shape to identify what it was. When she was only a few inches away she realised that she was looking at the leg of someone. It was a body. The person was dressed in shorts and Sally guessed it was a woman by the shape of the legs and the fact that there was no hair at all present. She shone the light along the body, up the right arm and looked at the face. She was right. It was a woman. Sally assumed she was dead because there was no sign of life and this wasn’t the type of place where someone would have a lie down. She checked the pulse on the wrist and then on the neck and found nothing. But there were no signs of an injury. The cause of death wasn’t immediately obvious. Sally called 999 and told them what she had found. She explained as best she could the place where she was and told them to send an ambulance and the police. She didn’t hold out any hope that the person could be saved but didn’t give up on anyone.
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