by Helen Phifer
There was a pause while Annie asked. ‘John said that Sean has a scar on the left side of his cheek, he fell out of a tree onto an action figure. Of course it will have faded by now but it should still be there. I know for a fact that Joe doesn’t have a scar on his cheek, he’s the one who is so vain he spends more time grooming himself than he does doing jobs. The last briefing I went to I remember staring at him and trying to figure out why on earth he loved himself so much, I’m positive it’s not him. I can’t remember about Sean though, I’ve never paid much attention to him really.’
‘Thanks Annie, it looks as if Sean Black is our man. I’ll get someone to run some background checks on him. I don’t really know him and I haven’t got a clue where he is or what he’s up to. It goes without saying if Sean or Joe Parker turn up, hit your red emergency button and don’t let them in. I’ll ring the boss now and ask him to get the ball rolling at this end. As soon as we know what we’re doing I’ll ring you back.’
‘Good, try and make it soon because he already has his next victim lined up. I don’t think he’ll do anything while it’s daylight but once it gets dark it’s a whole different game.’
‘How do you know so much Annie?’
‘If I told you that a dead girl told me would you believe me?’
The phone went silent, finally Will found his voice. ‘Yes, I would believe you Annie and I do believe you. Please be careful.’
‘You too Will.’
He ended the call and looked at Grace, ‘I’m sure that Sean Black is our man, from what Father John has said, but until we get those background checks done we can’t be positive. According to Annie he already has another victim lined up.’
He dialled the DI ‘s number, relieved when he answered it on the second ring, then he spent the next ten minutes relaying everything to him. Will had to hold the phone away from his ear while the DI had a complete shit fit on the other end. After a minute he put the phone back. ‘So boss, how are we going to play this? We don’t have much time; he needs picking up before he kills again.’
‘I’m not disagreeing with you Will but seriously, one of us, how or even why? This is going to cause the biggest scandal since the Yorkshire bloody Ripper. Have we got enough proof to bring him in? Grace’s profile is all very well but if we bring him in and there is nothing concrete his solicitor is going to walk all over us and he will be let out again to kill, not to mention lodge a complaint for harassment. I admit a matching boot print puts him at the scene but it will get dismissed, CPS will throw it out. They will want more evidence than a boot print and a hunch and you know it as well. Unless there is any forensic evidence at his house - we need to go in and search it. Let me get hold of his personnel file and think this through for a bit, I’ll get back to you soon.’
Will put his phone down on the paper-strewn table, ‘Well that went better than I expected but not as good as I’d have liked. We really do need to find something concrete that ties him to the scene but time’s running out. It’s going to be hard to keep this quiet the more people find out about it, there’s a greater chance he’ll realise that we’re onto him. We need someone to keep tabs on him but it can’t be any of us, he’d recognise us, it needs to be someone from another area.’
‘I could do it.’
‘No way, it’s kind of you to offer but you’re not trained for any of this and you have blonde hair and would be just his type. I can’t let you put yourself in danger Grace.’
‘Yes but you could give me a radio and show me how to use it, I could park up near to his house and watch for while, you could be around the corner with back up and run around to save the day if needs be.’
As tempting as it sounded he couldn’t do it. ‘Thanks but no thanks, we’ll think of something.’
***
John finished telling Annie about the terrible year back in 1984, he didn’t leave anything out. He told her about the awful time he’d had choosing between Beth and God; it was about time he confessed to someone. ‘If I had been a real man I would have turned my back on God and taken Beth, Sophie and Sean away from here but I was too scared. I think that’s what Sophie is trying to say, that because of how I was feeling my faith wasn’t strong enough to fight the shadow man back then.’
‘What about now John, how strong is your faith now?’
‘It has never been stronger, the older I get the stronger it becomes. The thought that sooner rather than later I will meet my maker strengthens it every day.’
‘Good because what do we need? I can feel him hanging around, although I only keep getting a faint whiff of him now and again but I know he is waiting for the right moment to make his move.’
John went into the lounge and returned with an old leather bible and a crucifix. He placed them both on the table and laid some rosary beads on top of the bible and then he began to pray. When he had finished he crossed himself and then he turned and placed his hand on her head and said a different prayer, this one was to St Michael:
‘Saint Michael the Archangel,
Defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him we humbly pray;
And do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
By the Divine Power of God,
Cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
Who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls’.
He made the sign of the cross on Annie’s forehead and placed the rosary beads around her neck.
‘I can be strong Annie, this time I won’t let him win and no matter what happens you have to let me get on with it. If this is my time then so be it but I will not die and go to the darkness, I refuse, and as God is my witness I will not let him hurt you.’
Annie lifted the hands she had been sitting on to stop them from shaking and squeezed his hands. She hoped Jake would arrive any minute now because John had gone into serious priest mode and if she was honest she was terrified, the atmosphere in the house was charged like static electricity and she was waiting for it to start to crackle.
‘I need to go into the church Annie; I want to meet him on God’s ground. He pretends that he can’t come inside but he can and he will, tonight he means business.’
‘I’m sorry John but we need to stay here, the church is far too open and I can’t watch your sister and you, it’s not just the shadow man, we have no idea where Sean is or what he’s planning.’
‘It’s okay I understand, you’re right and that’s fine. He’s waited almost thirty years for this, another hour or two won’t make much difference but I do need to be on my own somewhere. Do you mind if I go into the lounge to gather my thoughts and pray?’
‘Of course not, I’m sorry John I understand and when Jake gets here we can reassess the situation.’
She watched him pick up his bible and the crucifix, his face was grim and he looked much older than he did the first time she’d met him less than 48 hours ago. He meant business and she felt terrible for him. He went into the hall, moving the chair from the door handle and then turned to face her. ‘I will call you when I’m finished, please will you make sure that my sister doesn’t come in and disturb me, I really, really need to concentrate.’
‘I will, do you want me to knock on the door when Jake gets here?’
‘No, once I’ve said my prayers and prepared myself I will come and get you. Thank you Annie for everything, I’m so sorry we had to meet under such terrible circumstances but I’m glad that we did.’
Annie smiled then left him to it, she didn’t feel right about what had just sounded like a goodbye and she didn’t feel very good about leaving him to it; but she wasn’t a priest and didn’t know what they did in these situations. She didn’t have a clue what she should be doing in this situation either and not for the first time she wondered how on earth she got herself mixed up in these kind of scrapes. She went into the kitchen and texted Jake, ‘Hurry up, the priest is freaking out and I’m sca
red, I think you may finally get to see your ghost.’
Taking out her pocket notebook she began to write everything up, this was way beyond the call of duty but she was doing it for Will and she hoped he was safe and they had managed to locate Sean down in Barrow. She was engrossed in writing, leaving out the visits from the dead girl and anything to do with the shadow man. A loud knock on the front door made her jump up from the chair; she withdrew her baton and went to peer through the spy hole on the front door. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she saw the man mountain called Jake standing on the other side, blowing her kisses. She opened the door and he stepped in and hugged her, ‘Woman, how do you do it? How do you manage to get involved in all this madness? There is one advantage though; life is never dull with you around.’
His phone beeped and he pulled it from his pocket to read her text which had only just arrived, he looked at her. ‘Are you kidding me? Seriously don’t tell me you’re seeing dead people again.’
Annie blushed, ‘Not through choice, I don’t exactly pick and choose when to see them – they just appear. Come through to the kitchen and I’ll fill you in on everything.’
‘Where’s the Holy Father?’
Annie elbowed him in the side. ‘Shh he’ll hear you, he’s praying in the lounge and this is no joke. He’s preparing himself to do battle with a shadow man.’
Jake rolled his eyes, ‘Oh this is getting better and better, who is the shadow man?’
‘I don’t know exactly, but he smells really bad and he collects people’s souls and keeps them with him in the darkness. He has a young girl called Sophie trapped with him and it’s her brother who is killing everyone.’
Jake flopped down onto one of the kitchen chairs. ‘Have you started on any medication that I should know about Annie?’
She sat down opposite him. ‘I’m being serious; apparently this shadow man wants my soul and he’s coming to get me. I’m freaking out. Father John has known him for a long time and he is going to save the day and my soul – I hope.’
‘Good I hope so, I mean I’m here to defend you but if all I can smell is someone with a case of bad wind whilst you’re doing battle for your soul what am I supposed to do, stand next to you waving a cross around?’
‘I don’t know, I’m waiting for John to tell me. Do you think I should go and check on him? He’s been in there for a while now.’
Jake shrugged. Annie went and pressed her head against the wooden door, if he was still praying she’d leave him to it. The room was silent, she listened for any sign of movement but there wasn’t a sound. For the second time in thirty minutes she withdrew her baton. Jake who was watching from the kitchen door did the same and stepped behind her. She turned to him and whispered, ‘It’s too quiet.’ He nodded and then pushed her to one side taking hold of the door handle. Annie felt her heart hammering so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. He pushed it down and slammed the door open, stepping into the room; it was empty but the patio doors were wide open. Annie looked around. ‘Fuck, he’s gone to the church, now what? His sister’s asleep upstairs, I’m supposed to be watching her.’
Jake climbed over the sofa and pulled the doors shut, locking them. ‘Sleeping beauty should be just fine. If what you say is true then it’s John the killer wants, I bet he won’t even know about his sister. We’ll lock her in and go to the church.’
Annie knew he was right, they had no choice, but she felt uneasy leaving the house. Will had told her to stay put but he didn’t know about the shadow man. Jake opened the front door; she looked around and then followed him outside, taking the key and locking it from the outside then pocketing it inside her body armour.
‘How far is the church?’
Annie pointed to the massive building next door and he laughed, ‘Well thank the good Lord for small miracles; I didn’t fancy running a mile in this heat.’
He took off and she followed close behind. As they reached the door to the church there was a terrible smell which made Annie gag. ‘He’s here, oh God I don’t know what to do?’
‘Who’s here Annie, the killer or the shadow man? Please don’t say both.’
‘Can’t you smell him?’
The colour drained from Jake’s normally tanned face, which made her feel even worse. ‘No I can’t but I guess we go in and face the music or whatever it is.’ He grabbed hold of the black iron ring and turned it to open the wooden door and they stepped inside.
Chapter 33
Will heard someone hammering on his door and looked at Grace. ‘Stay in here, shut the door and if you hear me shout, run like fuck out of the back door and don’t stop until you find someone to help you. If it’s a policeman then keep on running.’
He opened the kitchen drawer and pulled out a claw hammer that Annie kept in there for emergencies, holding it behind his back he cautiously approached the front door and looked through the tiny pane of glass to see his boss Dave Martin standing on the other side. He opened the door. ‘Dave what are you doing here?’
‘I’ve come to try and work out what the hell we are going to do Will; I can’t get my head around it that the bastard is one of our own. It’s just not right; I mean how the hell did he get into the job in the first place?’
‘Well to be fair boss I don’t think they ask if you have ever killed or wanted to kill someone on the application form.’
‘Well maybe it’s about time they did. It’s me and you until Task Force arrive from Kendal, I’ve asked for them because they won’t have any connections with him – I hope. I’ve told them to rendezvous here, I hope that’s all right?’
‘Fine, I suppose it will have to be. We can’t risk going into the station in case word gets around.’
‘I’ve asked for two of them in plain clothes and we’ll let them use your car to keep observations on the guy until we can make a move. It’s a bit crap but it’s the best I can come up with, I don’t watch enough television to know how to deal with this.’
Will couldn’t help laughing, he was right it was turning into an episode of some brash American cop show. ‘I guess we’ll sit tight until they arrive then.’ He led the way into the kitchen where a relieved Grace was standing holding a heavy cast iron frying pan.
‘Phew, I don’t think I could have lifted this high enough to smack anyone with, it’s so damn heavy.’
They waited impatiently for the arrival of Task Force, Will couldn’t stop pacing up and down and Dave was tapping his feet so hard the floor was vibrating. When the loud knock on the door came thirty minutes later, Will did exactly the same and was relieved to see the armed officers lined up outside his door. They all piled into Will’s not big enough kitchen. It was a pretty scary sight to have so many armed men all dressed in black crammed around his kitchen table, but it made Will feel a whole lot better that they were here. When he finished telling them what the situation was there had been some loud gasps of surprise and shock that it was one of their own they were going after. There was some debating about the best way to approach the situation between the Task Force sergeant and the DI and when they finally agreed on what they were going to do they all left in separate cars. Will, Dave and Grace left in Dave’s car, the two plain clothes officers left in Will’s BMW and the rest of them piled into the back of the armed response vehicle to make their way to the agreed rendezvous point, which was a car park at the back of a school which had been empty and boarded up for the last twelve months and was due to be demolished sometime soon. They had to find Sean Black first. His personnel records showed he had moved here from Manchester four years ago, he was an orphan and pretty much matched everything that the priest had told them. They were relying on him being at home, if he wasn’t then it could prove very tricky. They knew he had a black truck and the registration had been passed to every officer in their little group so they could keep watch for it. Sean lived in a cul de sac so they couldn’t park in there, it would be far too obvious, so the officers in Will’s car parked in a residents’ only parking
bay on the street which lead to Sean’s. Will parked at the opposite end of the street way out of view. The response vehicle stayed on the school car park. One of the plain clothes officers got out of the car and strolled into Sean’s street, where he took a quick look around and then walked back out again. His truck wasn’t there, so now it was a matter of waiting to see how long it was before he turned up.
***
Sean’s feeling of being on top of the world soon passed when he noticed a black BMW that he recognised parked in the street near to his house. He had seen Will getting in and out of it enough times to know whose car it was. Instead of turning into the street, he drove straight past, across the junction and away from his house. His insides felt as if they had been filled with pure nitrogen oxide they were so cold. They know, the bastards know. How had they figured it out, surely they were too thick to work it out. Maybe it was a coincidence and they were doing another job and he was panicking and then again maybe they were that good. Luckily for him he had his bag with his murder kit on the floor of the passenger seat. What should he do? He had three hours before he had to pick Sophie up, should he cut his losses and run or should he finish what he had started? If they knew about him then they would probably have worked out the connection between him and the priest. So many problems and he couldn’t think straight for the sick feeling inside of him. He needed to go somewhere quiet and think things through. If they were waiting for him to go home they would be waiting around for a very long time because he wasn’t going back.
He drove into the town centre and hoped they hadn’t given his registration out to every copper in Barrow. This thought made his hands become slick with sweat and he found it difficult to grip the steering wheel. He drove onto one of the roads which led out of Barrow and onto the coastal road where he would find one of the small villages to park up in and sit and think everything through. The sea was on its way in and there were lots of people on the sands, enjoying a normal life and having fun. Since the day Sophie died he’d never led a normal life; it had shaped his entire future and now look where he was. He wondered how different his life would be if they hadn’t died and left him all alone. Would he be married now with children of his own or would he still be the same, a cold-hearted killer? He knew a few people that he worked with that lived along the coast road so he carried on driving past Roosebeck until he reached the road for Gleaston and turned off. There was an old water mill which had been turned into a cafe and he doubted that anyone he worked with would be in there right at this very moment, and if they were then they were on their days off like him so they wouldn’t know what was going on. The car park for the cafe only had one other car in it which was an old silver VW Golf. He parked in the opposite corner to it underneath a huge oak tree and got out of his truck. He crossed the road and went into the cafe which was deserted; the only person inside was the woman behind the counter. She smiled at him and he grinned back, ‘Afternoon.’
