Eye Snatcher

by Ryan Casey

  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.”

  FORTY

  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.

  He stared down at Adrian. Stared down at his bloodied, swollen face. Another punch or two and he’d be gone. Another punch or two and this man would hurt no one ever again.

  “You’re a killer, detective. Just like me. I see it in your eyes. You’ve not got the barrier. Just like I don’t have the barrier. So go on. Enjoy it. You… you deserve it. Kill me. Kill me for what I’ve done. For what I’ll do again and again and—”

  “Brian!”

  The soft female voice came from just ahead. It seemed distant, distorted.

  “Go on,” Adrian said. “For all the times I fucked their dead little bodies. For all the times I made them scream. Go on.”

  Brian grabbed the knife.

  “Brian! Don’t do this. Seriously, step away right now. We’ve got him. This is over. It’s all over.”

  “She’s just trying to save your job,” Adrian muttered, blood drooling out of his mouth. “Trying to save her own job, in fact. Police reputation, all that. But you know what you’ve gotta do. You know where to put that knife.”

  “Don’t do this, Brian. Don’t listen to him.”

  He held the knife tightly. His thoughts were blurry. All of his senses were out of tune.

  He wanted to make Adrian pay for what he’d done. That’s all he knew right now.

  Adrian forced the best smile a man with a broken face could. “Do it. End it. End it.”

  Brian heard more footsteps surrounding him. Realised there were torches lighting up the scene. Heard voices all telling him to step away, to not do anything stupid.

  He was about to ram the knife into Adrian’s throat when he saw Hannah in his mind. When he saw an image of her holding a bump on her tummy. When he saw her in hospital, Brian beside her as they welcomed a new life into the world.

  “Do it,” Adrian whispered. “Do it.”

  The knife started to shake in Brian’s hand. Tears dripped from his cheeks and onto Adrian’s body.

  “Don’t do it,” Samantha shouted.

  “Do it,” Adrian said.

  Brian lifted the knife.

  Then he dropped it and he rolled off Adrian’s body and into the mud.

  He didn’t see the officers rush towards Adrian and cuff him. He didn’t see more of them flock around Ainsley’s body, dead or alive, and drag him away from the scene. But he knew that’s what they were doing. They moved around him, passed by him, but he was just a passenger.

  A passenger who had nearly killed Adrian and ended his police career, his life.

  A passenger that had so, so wanted to kill.

  He felt a hand on his head. Heard a voice. “It’s okay. We’re here now. We’ve got you.”

  Carter.

  Brian moved his head into the curvature of her neck. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I—I shouldn’t have left him. I shouldn’t have… I’m so sorry.”

  “Left who?” Samantha asked. “We’ve got Adrian now. We’ve got them all. It’s over.”

  Brian sniffed. “Not Adrian. Brad. I… I shouldn’t have left him.”

  Carter narrowed her eyes as the police who were at the scene struggled to drag Adrian away, to get the scene in order. “Where did you leave him?”

  “The car, I…”

  It was that look Samantha gave him that terrified Brian. That realisation that something wasn’t quite right. The realisation at her end that something was amiss.

  She didn’t know about Brad yet.

  “You… Don’t go to the car. Carter, please. Don’t—”

  “What’s in the car?” she asked.

  Brian shook his head. Grabbed her arm. “Don’t go to the car.”

  But it was too late.

  Carter was already on her feet. Her wander through the mud turned into a little jog. A few officers were already gathered around Brad’s car. Some of them had their heads in their hands, some of them were covering their faces.

  “Don’t go to the car,” Brian whimpered, but Samantha was already there.

  He knew she knew from the way her entire body froze.

  The way she just stood by the window and stared.

  She waited, completely still, for a few seconds, while another pair of officers dragged a cuffed Adrian away.

  And then she pulled something out of her pocket and Brian didn’t quite understand at first, but he understood enough when he saw her walking towards Adrian.

  Jogging towards Adrian.

  “Samantha,” he shouted. “Don’t!”

  But it didn’t matter what Brian said because Carter was stabbing Adrian in his back and his neck, and then officers were dragging her away, dragging her to the ground, and the last thing Brian remembered seeing before the scene erupted into chaos again was Adrian’s relieved smile as he let out his final, blood-splattered breath.

  FORTY-ONE

  “You really should be getting some rest, Brian. You’ve been through an ordeal yourself.”

  Brian stood outside the secure ward where Jed Green was recovering. The smell of disinfectant was as rife as it always was in hospital, bringing back all the bad memories he had of being in the place. When he’d woken up with burns after the Nicola Watson case. When he’d had his heart attack. After his suicide attempt.

  And now, looking in through the small window of the secure ward at one of the two men involved in the Eye Snatcher killings.

  DC Arif was beside him crunching away on some hard boiled sweets. It was early morning, but Brian had been here all nigh
t. He’d called Hannah. Explained to her what had happened, even though he couldn’t quite wrap his head around what happened himself.

  Brad’s death. The standoff with Adrian. Adrian slicing Ainsley Pratt’s belly open.

  Resisting the enormous urge to beat Adrian to a pulp.

  Carter stabbing Adrian in his back, in his neck.

  “You’ve been awake all night,” Arif said, taking a sideways glance at Brian and crunching down on another sweet in a way that went right through Brian.

  “Expect me to sleep?”

  Arif sighed. Shook his head. “Still can’t get the image out of my head. Of… of Richards. Of seeing him in that car.”

  “You’re telling me,” Brian said. “I had to shift his stiff body out of the driver’s seat and drive a car into the middle of nowhere while his blood seeped through my trousers.”

  Brian didn’t have to look at Arif to know he was going red. “Sorry,” he said.

  Brian shook his head. It was tender, tired, completely and utterly worn out. “This whole situation’s sorry. Any idea when we can have a chat with Jed?”

  “He’s still in a bad way. Lost a lot of blood when he slashed open his wrists. Hopefully later this morning.”

  “And Adrian?” Brian asked.

  Arif looked at Brian with a dread-filled stare. Gulped. “Still as dead as when you last asked.”

  The news never seemed real to Brian when he learned of Adrian’s death. Even though he’d seen Samantha Carter step up to him and stab him in a revenge-fuelled rage for what he’d done to Brad. Even though he’d learned of his death a couple of hours ago. It was like he couldn’t be dead. Like he couldn’t accept it, because being dead was exactly what Adrian wanted when he’d egged Brian on, and it seemed so unfair that he’d got what he wanted.

  “I don’t know what it means for her,” Arif said.

  He stared through the little glass doorway of the secure room which a member of security had the key for. He’d read Brian’s mind. Nobody knew what the stabbing meant for Samantha Carter. The way she’d succumbed to rage, walked up to Adrian West in the middle of an arrest and stabbed him. There were some cases where a police officer could get away with murder, quite literally. In that basement last year, what Brian had done to Luke. It was self-defence. It was kill or be killed.