The Sandman

by steve higgs

  ‘That’s my current guess.’ I shrugged. ‘We haven’t been able to come up with anything else. The print of his right index finger was on Jane’s phone. I think that is a good enough indication. It’s time to call the police, but I want to speak with Tempest before I do.’

  As if remembering something he had omitted to tell me, Big Ben’s food shovelling hand paused halfway to his mouth.

  ‘I think Jan has been taken.’

  The piece of fish I was eating almost fell out of my mouth and everyone else apart from Basic froze instantly.

  ‘You don’t think you should have led with that?’ I questioned in shocked disbelief.

  Big Ben rolled his eyes. ‘I led with supper. Which, you know, you’re welcome. You were showing me pictures and stuff. I only thought about it when you mentioned the police.’

  I had my hands pressed against the sides of my face, grease from the fish and chips no doubt getting into my hair.

  ‘Oh, my word. This is another level. I have to call the station. I have to get them involved now.’ Though the idea made my stomach turn, I was going to have to get them to put me through to Chief Inspector Quinn. He and I hated each other, but this situation demanded I put my feelings aside and go high enough up the food chain to where I knew I would get a reaction.

  ‘I think Tempest already called him,’ said Big Ben around a mouthful of potato.

  I yanked out my phone. ‘Then I’m calling Tempest.’

  Two seconds later, his voice was booming over the speaker so everyone in the room could hear it.

  ‘Amanda, I hope you are doing better than me. I got nowhere with Karen. In fact, I probably made the situation worse though she has agreed to look at any pictures we want to send her. Oh, I think I went too far with Quinn as well. He’s not going to help us no matter what we say.’

  ‘Did you tell him about Jan Van Doorn?’ I blurted quickly before Tempest could say anything else.

  I could hear the irritation in Tempest’s voice when he said, ‘I did. He did his usual thing of acting like I must be making it up, but I could tell he believed me. He’s probably got officers at his apartment right now. Is Ben back?’

  ‘I am,’ answered Big Ben. ‘I bought fish ‘n’ chips. If you hurry, there might be some left.’

  ‘Ooh, fish and chips,’ repeated Hilary excitedly. ‘I’m starving.’

  I cut over the men and their stomachs. ‘Tempest I think I found him. The Sandman I mean. There was a fingerprint on Jane’s phone, and it matches a person who lived next door to one of the victims a while ago.’ I held my phone over the picture of Toby Carter and pressed the button to take a photograph. ‘I’m sending you a shot now. The quality might not come through great.’

  Tempest fell silent, waiting for his phone to ping with the incoming message. We all knew when it did because the phone exploded with expletives.

  Cautiously, I asked, ‘Tempest?’

  He swore again, then said, ‘I’m fine. You’re right. That’s the Sandman. There’s no need to ask Karen.’

  Big Ben frowned. ‘How can you be so sure?’

  Tempest’s words came back with a tone of dreadful finality to them. ‘Because I was talking to him earlier. That’s Karen Gilbert’s next-door neighbour. His name is Harry Hengist.’

  Tempest. Time for Action. Friday, December 23rd 2031hrs

  The face on the picture Amanda sent me bore a wry smile. To me, it seemed like I was being mocked. I’d had him pressed into the carpet and completely in my control, yet he played me like a fiddle.

  Hilary said, ‘He knew who you were the whole time.’

  I could feel my back teeth clenching together. The memory of Harry Hengist’s wide eyes when he opened the door made sense now. He was at home and he knew who I was. He must have thought I had worked it all out and was there to bust him.

  I wasn’t though, I was just an idiot knocking on doors and asking questions. Once he saw my guileless expression, he visibly relaxed. Why wouldn’t he? I told him everything he wanted to know about how my investigation was going.

  I cursed loudly and tried to crush the steering wheel with my grip. I felt like driving straight to his house and dragging him out by his tongue. I wouldn’t bother to knock this time either. I was in the mood to drive my car right through the front door.

  However, the situation called for an emotionless, controlled response. One that involved back up and redundancy to ensure he could not escape. What troubled me most was the distinct possibility Jane was in his house the whole time I was there. Did it have a basement? I never did find out.

  I didn’t know the answer to that question and my gut reaction was that style of house did not include a floor below ground. How hard would it be for a person to dig one though? Maybe it was in the garden. A few decades ago, citizens of Kent were digging Anderson shelters to hide in when the Germans dropped bombs on the county like it was confetti. Harry’s house could still have one for all I knew.

  Jane might even have been locked in a soundproof room in the house. She might have been unconscious or tied up. I just didn’t know, but I was going hell for leather to find out now.

  I had to slow my speed as I came into Rochester. I broke a hundred on the motorway and came screaming down the hill toward the city until I started hitting traffic. There was something going on at the castle, the streets filled with pedestrians dressed in Victorian garb. It would be another Dickens thing, possibly an outdoor play.

  I didn’t care what it was, but I did care that I had to slow down to a crawl to get through it. I honked my horn angrily until I saw children among the revellers. It was Christmas Eve in a few hours and here I was playing the part of Scrooge or the Grinch.

  Suffering silently, I got through the press of people and to my office just along from the cathedral. The car door didn’t shut as I ran at the office rear door and I didn’t care. I was going back out soon enough.

  I burst through the final door that led me into the main office space to find Big Ben already suiting up. Basic was too, and Amanda. Only Jagjit, and Alice were still wearing their normal clothes but then they both knew I wouldn’t want them to get involved in a task such as this one.

  Some days it feels like I have been a paranormal investigator for half my life, yet I opened the firm in the spring of this year. We haven’t yet reached our one-year anniversary but looking around at my friends, I had to take stock of all that had occurred in those few months.

  That three of my friends, including my girlfriend were donning black combat gear and getting ready to storm the house of a maniac ought to give me pause to consider my life choices. Did I ever really have a choice though?

  I didn’t choose to be a paranormal investigator and I most certainly didn’t choose to take on a serial killer who likes to kidnap women and murder them while he sings them to sleep. The choices were not mine, but the decision to deal with the consequences of my situation were.

  I could go home, open a beer, and cuddle up with Amanda and the dogs on the couch. Except, I couldn’t. Not really. Duty and responsibility demanded I take direct action and try to save Jane.

  Was she still alive? I had no idea, but when Big Ben handed me my own set of body armour, I knew I would find out soon enough.

  ‘Back to New Ash Green?’ asked Amanda as I took off my jacket and started fastening the Kevlar vest over my normal clothes.

  I nodded, tugging on the Velcro to secure my armour in place. ‘We should take two cars even though we could all fit in Big Ben’s. The last thing we want is to break down or have something else happen to delay us.’ I told them about my encounter with Harry Hengist earlier.

  Jagjit jogged over to the desk in my office, settling into my chair. ‘Can you spell that?’

  I had no idea why he wanted the name but just as I was starting to draw out the plan of the house – what little I had seen of it – Jagjit called out that he had no hits for Harry Hengist other than the house he currently occupied.

  ‘He might als
o have a house in Sandwich,’ Amanda told me. ‘Could he have gone there? We found that one under a different name, but I think it is safe to assume he lived near many if not all of his victims.’

  I pursed my lips and shook my head. ‘My gut says he is staying in New Ash Green. The place looked lived in. The lawn had been mowed, the garden was tidy. There were shoes stacked underneath the coat rack. If he took Jane and Jan, unless he took them in the same trip, he must be operating closer than Sandwich. There and back twice is too far to go for him to then be in New Ash Green for me to find him at home. He had no idea I was going to turn up at his house so why would he be there if Jane and Jan are somewhere else?’

  ‘Those are valid points,’ Amanda conceded. ‘You know raiding his house is highly illegal, right?’

  I gritted my teeth. ‘I don’t care. I will gladly do a spell in jail just to get this guy.’

  ‘Me too,’ Big Ben threw his hat in the ring. ‘We don’t get up to nearly enough illegal stuff anyway.’

  I wasn’t sure what he meant – we were always doing things we knew might get us in hot water. Now was not the time for a discussion though. Now was the time to open the box of weapons we kept in the corner of the storage room.

  Before we went there, I slowly spun on the spot, making eye contact with everyone one at a time.

  ‘No one has to come along on this venture. Big Ben and I are the ones trained for this.’

  ‘Oh, shut up, Tempest,’ snapped Amanda. ‘I’m the former police officer. You were trained to shoot people and blow stuff up. Raiding houses is my territory, not yours.’

  ‘Okay,’ I conceded and turned to look at Basic. ‘Basic this could get you into a lot of trouble. If they lock you up there will be no one to look after your mum. You really don’t have to come.’

  I was often reluctant to involve Basic for the simple reason that I wasn’t sure he even knew what was going on half the time. If he ended up in jail, there would be consequences beyond the impact on him as an individual. However, his response made it clear he had thought about that already.

  In a surprising burst of eloquence, he shrugged and said, ‘It’s not always easy having friends. If it were, you wouldn’t really know if dem people were friends or not. Besides, I hired a nurse for mum already.’

  That he had strung a sentence together stunned all of us into silence until Jagjit spoke. ‘We can come too. If you need the numbers.’

  I shook my head firmly and gripped his shoulder in a comradely fashion to show my thanks.

  ‘Amanda is right that we are about to break a bunch of laws. You should go home, open a bottle of something cold, and pretend you were never involved.’

  ‘Unless we get away with it,’ added Big Ben. ‘Then you’ll want to get your faces in the paper like the rest of us.’ He held up one hand and ran it through the air as if outlining a headline when he said, ‘Local Adonis saves Christmas from maniac. Small, less attractive people helped.’

  Amanda smacked him in the groin. As he groaned and folded slightly at the waist, I started toward the storeroom in the back where we kept the weapons and the radios. It was time to get kitted up.

  Tempest. No Need for Stealth. Friday, December 23rd 2109hrs

  No one said much on the drive to New Ash Green. Partly that was nerves stopping us from chattering – I greeted my anxiety like an old friend, it would help to keep me sharp. The other reason we remained quiet was because there just wasn’t anything to say.

  We had been over the plan, what there was of it, and accepted we were going to have to make it up as we went along.

  Harry Hengist, or whatever his real name is, would be home or he wouldn’t. Jane and Jan would be there, or they wouldn’t, and they were either still alive or they were not. It was a grim business and no mistake.

  Would the Sandman have weapons? Would there be booby traps in his house? What horrors would we face?

  I suspected we were all … well, maybe not Basic, but the rest of us were for sure running the different unknowns through our heads and that was keeping us quiet too.

  I was in the Lotus with Amanda. Big Ben was following behind in his giant utility truck thing. A lot of the journey was through the Kent countryside, passing through small villages and constantly slowing down, yet we reached our destination in under thirty minutes.

  It was getting cold out, our breath forming clouds of vapour above our heads once we left the warmth of the cars. Not that Big Ben’s was all that warm with a missing window.

  Choosing to park down the street so our arrival would not be so obvious, Basic and Amanda were going around the back, jumping fences and fighting through overgrown alleyways. Big Ben and I were going in through the front.

  We would knock first; it was the sensible thing to do. Assuming the Sandman couldn’t see who was outside, he might just open the door. It was easier than kicking it in which, for some reason, Big Ben seemed reluctant to try.

  Harry Hengist didn’t answer the door which came as no surprise, so we moved to full assault mode. Using my radio, I checked on Amanda and Basic.

  ‘We’re going in – forced entry. Any sign of movement at the back of the house?’

  Amanda’s voice crackled over the airwaves. ‘No. The house looks dead. No sign of life at all.’

  ‘Is there a shed or something in the garden where he might have them stashed?’

  ‘Nothing that I can see. There is no sound either. It’s so quiet here I can tell what the people next door are watching on their TV.’

  I let her know we were going in the next two seconds then jumped out of my skin as the bay window at the front of the house exploded.

  ‘What was that?’ blurted Amanda, her voice instantly filled with concern.

  I was looking at what it was but struggling to believe it.

  ‘Um, Ben just made an entry point,’ I told her, uncertain how else I could describe it.

  Big Ben was looking pleased with himself. ‘Much easier than kicking in a door,’ he commented as he pulled the large wooden picnic bench back out through the hole he made.

  ‘Where did you even find it?’ I had to know.

  He threw the picnic bench to one side and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. ‘It was in a garden across the street.’ Before I could say anything else, he cleared away the broken glass and hopped inside.

  So much for stealth.

  I clambered in after him, whispering into my radio, ‘Stand by, we are in the house.’

  We moved swiftly, both carrying blunt weapons to be used only if necessary and checking what lay beyond each doorway before we stepped through it. There was no way anyone in the house could be oblivious to our entry and that meant the Sandman would be on high alert if he was here.

  Thus the need for stealthy movement was largely eroded and swiftness became our ally.

  It took seconds to check the ground floor of the house: kitchen, dining room, downstairs cloakroom, and living room, the last of which was now full of cold air and bits of glass. There was nothing to find and no sign that a serial killer lived here. Bookshelves contained books and a pile of neatly stacked mail lay beneath a small paperweight on a desk. Pans used for dinner were balanced on the drying rack next to the sink. It all looked so innocent and normal.

  There was no door leading to a set of stairs down to a basement that we could find, and we were diligent enough to check the bookshelves to make sure they didn’t hide secret compartments.

  Big Ben ran up the stairs, throwing caution to the wind as he exposed himself to an attack he would not see coming until it were too late.

  No attack came and once we were upstairs, I knew our target wasn’t here, and neither were Jane and Jan. My heart was sinking, the terrible knowledge that I had him in my grasp a few short hours ago burning into my conscience like a red-hot brand.

  ‘There’s someone out here!’ Amanda’s sudden shout sent a jolt of electricity through me.

  I threw myself at the stairs, getting there just before Big Ben as
we both clutched at the vague hope we could still find our friends and avert disaster.

  Our haste proved counterproductive. In the darkness, I failed to see an object on the stairs. When my lead foot found it, I slipped and fell, pitching forward and grabbing wildly for the banister.

  I would have managed to save myself from falling all the way, but Big Ben was right on my heels and moving too fast to stop. Just as I arrested my fall, he piled into me and we both fell, spinning in the air as we sailed the last yards to land in a painful heap in the hallway below.

  There being no time to account for our injuries, we got in each other’s way yet again as we both scrambled to get up and get moving.

  With a shout of frustrated rage, we burst from the rear of the house, two black-clad warriors ready to hand out a beating to anyone available.

  ‘What are you two clowns doing?’ asked Amanda, appearing from the shadow under a tree. ‘It sounded like elephants learning to tango in there. I thought you were going to be stealthy.’

  Looking around for the source of danger, my senses on high alert, I asked, ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Who? Oh, yeah, that was a cat. Sorry.’ I could see Amanda’s embarrassed grin in the moonlight.

  ‘A cat?’ questioned Big Ben, out of breath and nursing his shoulder where he probably bruised it falling down the stairs.

  ‘I take it there’s no one inside,’ Amanda went around me to enter the house.

  I paused for a second, scanning the back garden but there was no shed in which Harry might have stashed Jane and Jan. Wherever they were, they were not here.

  Amanda touched my arm. ‘Come on. We need to look for clues inside and the chances are the police are already on their way.’

  Jane. Not Alone. Friday, December 23rd 2112hrs

  It had been light inside my cell but the hallway beyond was dark. Starkly so after the bright white walls my eyes were now used to. It felt good to be free of the cell, yet really all I had done was conquer one more obstacle. How many more were there before I could be free? If I knew that, I might have cause to rejoice.