Every second seemed to be an eternity, but it couldn’t have taken more than two minutes for us to finally get in front of the station, where I saw Violet looking out for me.
“Thank you,” I practically shouted at the cab driver as I tossed a twenty and a five onto the seat next to him and jumped out.
“Do you have anything else?” I asked Violet. “He’s driving a silver BMW five series.”
“Unfortunately, so are half the drivers in this city,” Violet replied. “We could get the CCTV footage from around here and hope to track his car, but that will take far too much time. No, we need to get to Brianne fast. She does not have much time before he will kill her.
Chapter 19
“So what do we do? We can’t track her with her phone. He has to be around here, doesn’t he? Everything he has done has been in this neighborhood. This is where he’s most comfortable.”
“Yes, I agree,” Violet said. “We need a computer, and we need it now. I have called DCI Williams, and he will be here in just a couple of minutes.”
Luckily for both of us, Paddington Green police station was not far from where we were at the moment, and three excruciating minutes later DCI Williams pulled up in front of us, lights and sirens blaring.
“Get out,” Violet ordered as soon as he pulled up to the curb, and the rather startled -looking police detectives did as she ordered, with Violet slipping into the driver’s seat and opening up the police computer straight away.
“What’s going on?” DCI Williams asked me while Violet typed away.
“One of my best friends has been kidnapped by the man who killed the people at King’s Cross and at the Sherlock Holmes Museum.”
DCI Williams’ mouth dropped open. “You’re joking.”
“I wish I was,” I said glumly. “I was supposed to be the bait, but he took her instead.”
“I don’t even want to know what that bait sentence means,” DCI Williams said. “What is Violet looking for? Can I help?”
“I have no idea,” I said, and a second later noticed Violet motioning for me to come over.
“Get in,” she told me and I slipped into the passenger seat. I hadn’t even managed to completely close the door before Violet was speeding off through traffic, lights and sirens blaring.
Yeah, she had definitely just stolen a police car. As I looked in the side mirror and saw DCI Williams running after us, shouting something that we had no chance of being able to hear, I wondered just how much trouble Violet was going to get into for this particular stunt.
I seriously hoped it was going to be worth it.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Doctor King’s apartment is not too far from here. However, I do not think that he has gone there to kill Brianne. Do you remember what he said to us when we spoke to him the first time about Joseph Fenman?”
“Sure, I remember most of that conversation.”
“At one point, he mentioned that the view overlooking the park was very beautiful.”
“So?”
“So, Regent’s Park is not the London Eye, and it is not the Champs de Mars in Paris, either. It is rather residential for being in central London, and there are not many opportunities to overlook the park.”
“You’re thinking that he has an apartment near there,” I said, my mind working at warp speed.
“I do think that, yes,” Violet said. “In fact, thanks to the database available in the police car, I am certain of it.”
“Where is it?”
“On Prince Albert Road, in Consort Lodge,” Violet explained. “Did you notice his tattoo at the hospital? It featured a galah, a grey and pink parrot native to Australia.”
“I did, I thought it looked weird at the time,” I nodded.
“They are not a common bird. I did a broad search of property records for the streets around Regent Park, and one of the apartments is owned by a company called Eolophus Inc. Seeing as the Latin name for the Galah is eolophus roseicapilla, that is far too much of a coincidence for my liking. I am willing to bet that the company is owned entirely by Doctor King, and that it is where he takes his victims to kill them. It fits the location, what he mentioned about overlooking the park, and I do know the building. It has an underground car park, making it easy for a killer to transport a body elsewhere.”
I felt sick at the thought that this was where Brianne was being held before Doctor King killed her, but at the same time, I was hopeful that we were going to find her there, safe and sound.
Violet cut the lights and siren as we got closer to the building. “I will park around the corner; I do not want him noticing either the police car, or our arrival. The element of surprise is the best thing we have in this situation, and we must not waste it.”
Suddenly, Violet’s phone began to ring, and as it was sitting next to her on the Centre console, I glanced at the screen.
“DCI Williams wants to know what you’re doing with his police car,” I said to her.
“He will simply have to wait. This is an emergency. I am sure he will understand as soon as I explain everything.”
“You had better hope so, since I don’t think stealing a police car is going to go down very well, even if it is to catch a serial killer before he kills again.”
Violet waved away my worries as she parked the car in a commercial zone on Albert Terrace and the two of us got out. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as we continued along, a park on either side of us.
“Is this all part of The Regent’s Park?” I asked, motioning around, but Violet shook her head.
“No. The park to our left is Primrose Hill. As soon as we pass it, we will be at the building we are looking for.”
We power-walked, with me barely noticing the pain in my knee that always appeared when I exerted myself a little bit too much. What was a little bit of pain compared to Brianne’s life?
As soon as we reached the corner that marked the end of Primrose Hill Park, Violet held out a hand to stop me from going further.
“We cannot simply storm in and expect to have anything good happen,” Violet said. “We must develop a plan, or we risk Doctor King panicking and killing Brianne.”
“What do you have in mind?” I asked. “Personally, I’m completely happy to go right in there and kick the guy’s butt. I don’t want Brianne in his hands for a second longer than she has to be.”
“Neither do I,” Violet said. “However, I also do not want her killed because Doctor King panicked. I have an idea. Follow me.”
The two of us made our way along Prince Albert Road until we reached Consort Lodge. It was an approximately eight story building, and if I had to guess, I would have said it was built in the 60s or 70s. It was made of a grey brick in the square, angulated architectural style of the time period. It certainly didn’t look like much, but given the location, I had a sneaking suspicion that there wasn’t a single apartment in here worth under two million pounds.
Violet and I made our way towards the front door, which was controlled by an electronic buzzer system.
“The flat owned by Doctor King is number eleven,” Violet said, as she rang the bell for all of the apartments from one through ten.
“Yes?” A grumpy sounding elderly voice answered a moment later.
“Sorry to bother you, I’ve got delivery from Pizza Hut for unit six, but they’re not answering,” Violet said in a perfect English accent. “Mind buzzing me in?”
A moment later, the front door buzzed and I rushed forward and opened it. We were in! Now we just had to rescue Brianne.
Chapter 20
“So what’s the plan now?” I asked. We were in the lobby, but as soon as we entered, Violet pulled me aside towards one of the far walls.
“I do not know if Doctor King has private cameras in this building,” she said to me quietly. “We must be careful. If this is the area he uses to kill his victims, he may be more prudent than we expect him to be. We must err on the side of caution.”
> I nodded and pointed to the stairs, shrugging my shoulders. Violet nodded. The two of us slinked against the wall and made our way to the staircase, which had obviously not been renovated in quite some time.
“Good,” Violet said, looking around. “In here, there do not appear to be any cameras. When we get to his floor, I want you to go to one end of the hallway and I will go to the other. On my phone, I have a program that allows me to falsify my number, and I will call Doctor King pretending to be the hospital, telling him there is an emergency and that he is needed straight away. If we are lucky, he will come out of the apartment, and head towards one of us. Whichever one he comes to needs to call out, and the other will help to subdue him. If he goes to the elevators, we both tackle him.”
“How on earth are we supposed to subdue a grown man?” I asked, looking at Violet’s bag suspiciously. “You wouldn’t happen to have your set of Tasers in there, would you?”
Violet gave me a coy smile as she reached into her purse and pulled one of her Tasers out, handing it to me. “I trust you still remember how to use this?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I thought DCI Williams told you to get rid of these.”
“He also thinks I should get rid of the police badge collection I keep. But they come in handy, and what DCI Williams does not know will not hurt him, as you say in English.”
The part of me that had always followed the rules wanted to argue with Violet out of principle, but the part of me that wanted to make it out of here alive, and with Brianne safely rescued, was very happy to have the Tasers available.
“Okay,” I said. “You take the far hallway, I’ll take this end.”
Violet nodded. “Let me make the phone call and then I go.”
My heart pounded in my chest as Violet pulled out her phone, opened up an app, and tapped away at it for a moment before putting the phone to her ear.
“Yes, this is Nurse Stevens from the hospital. There’s an emergency; a car accident with multiple casualties and we’re all hands on deck right now. We need you to come back in.”
I smiled; Nurse Stevens was the one who had told us about Doctor King outside the hospital that first day, and Violet did an excellent impression of her voice.
“I know you’ve just finished a long shift, but we really need you back in,” Violet added. Apparently, Doctor King was not happy about this turn of events. “Right. See you soon.”
Violet hung up the phone and raised her eyebrows at me. “Okay, now we see if he comes out.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to talk. However, as Violet made her way down the hall, I couldn’t help but think something was wrong. There was no sign of Doctor King coming out of his apartment, and after two minutes had passed, I started to get worried.
“We need to go in,” I hissed to Violet as I made my way towards his apartment door, and Violet nodded.
“Yes, I agree. Something is definitely wrong.”
I waited as Violet made her way to the front door and picked at the lock as quietly as possible. When, a moment later, I heard the familiar click of the latch coming undone, the two of us made our way into the apartment.
The apartment was classy, with neutral walls and a lot of medium shade wood trim. We entered into a small entry area, but from further down in the apartment, I could hear the muffled sounds of somebody calling for help.
There was absolutely no time to waste. I rushed forward, but Violet caught me by the arm and put a finger to her lips. This was obviously going to go a lot better if we managed to surprise Doctor King, so I moved more carefully, but quickly as I followed the sounds.
They were in the living room. The large space was sparsely decorated with midcentury furniture, and one wall was entirely covered in mirrors to make it look bigger than it actually was. On a yellow couch, Brianne was struggling, on her stomach, as Doctor King had one knee on her back and what appeared to be a tie wrapped around her neck.
Horrified, I jumped into action. Grabbing a large vase off a side table, I made my way towards Doctor King, intending to hit him over the head with it. I honestly wasn’t even thinking about what might happen; I just wanted him to get off of Brianne.
What I hadn’t expected was that at the last minute Doctor King noticed that I was coming, probably through that stupid mirror, and just as I reached up above me to hit him with the vase, he turned, let go of the tie, and punched me right in the stomach.
The wind was instantly knocked out of me, and I gasped for air as I dropped the vase to the ground and it shattered into a million pieces.
“Cassie!” Brianne called out hoarsely, gasping for breath. I was doubled over, struggling to breathe, and didn’t even think of the Taser that was currently sitting in my back pocket.
Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly saw a flash of movement, and shouted as I realized what it was. From underneath the couch, Doctor King had just pulled out a gun, but instead of shooting Brianne or aiming it at myself, he pointed it towards the door.
“Look out,” I shouted at Violet just as the gun went off, and heard her falling to the ground.
This was definitely not good. Doctor King pointed the gun at me, and I froze for a split second, just like I had in the instant before the car hit me.
Only, this time, I wasn’t going to get out of it with only a torn ACL and a fractured thumb.
The gun went off, and I closed my eyes, expecting the pain to hit me at any second, but instead I felt a whoosh of air about an inch from my face as Doctor King cried out in pain.
Opening my eyes, he clutched at his private area, swearing his head off.
“I’m going to make you pay for that,” he said, pointing the gun at Brianne, but before he had a chance to I reacted. I wasn’t about to let him hurt another one of my friends. I really hoped Violet was okay.
Lunging towards him, I let out a super awkward guttural roar, my hands reaching for the gun as I shoved him backwards. The two of us fell over the back arm of the couch, and I struggled to get away, yelling at Brianne to run for it.
Kicking at Doctor King, I managed to hit him right in the face and blood began to spurt from his nose. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brianne had gotten up, and she was rushing towards Violet and the exit.
“Both of you, get out of here,” I cried. I needed both of my friends to be safe. I needed them to get out, no matter what happened to me. Looking around frantically for the gun, I finally saw it, but it was too late. Doctor King had seen it too, and it was closer to him.
I made a split second decision. I could run for it as well, trying to get out the way I came in, which was the most direct route, or I could go the other way. The other way meant an unknown floor plan, it meant a longer route to the front door, but it also meant giving my friends a couple of extra seconds to get out of here.
In the end, it wasn’t even a question what I was going to do.
I rushed as far away from where Violet and Brianne had been as possible, and heard a gunshot ring out once more. This time, one of the windows overlooking The Regent’s Park shattered, and I covered my face as shards of glass came falling over me.
Turning, I looked to see where I was going to run, but found myself facing Doctor King stepping towards me, his gun raised.
“I never thought you were going to be more trouble than Violet,” he snarled at me, all pretense of kindness gone from his face.
Suddenly, the snarl turned into a surprised look of shock as I heard the familiar tick of the Taser and he fell to the floor, completely unconscious.
“No one’s ever more trouble than me,” Violet replied. She held the Taser with both hands, and the front of her shirt was stained with blood.
As soon as she let go of the Taser, Violet fell to the floor, completely unconscious.
Chapter 21
“Brianne!” I called out, and a second later my friend poked her head around the corner.
“I’m here, what do you need?” she asked, her voice still quite hoarse.
Straight away my mind compartmentalized everything that needed to be done.
“Find a rope, or something, and tie up Doctor King. Make sure he’s incapacitated.”
“Can I just shoot him? That would save the taxpayers some money.”
“I can’t say I blame you if you did,” I replied. “Personally, I’d rather see him rot in jail for everything he’s ever done, plus if he’s alive he can possibly tell us who his other victims were.”
“You and your logic,” Brianne muttered as she made her way towards the blinds and ripped the ropes off the side. Meanwhile, I pulled out my phone and dialed 999, and put it on speaker while pulling up the bottom of Violet’s shirt to see what the damage was.
“I need an ambulance at 34 Prince Albert Road,” I practically shouted into the phone. “Flat eleven. Now! I have a gunshot wound victim, and she’s losing a lot of blood.”
Violet’s face was going white; she was obviously going into shock and I had to do whatever I could to save her life. Blood was pooling on the floor behind her, and given the location of the wound in her abdomen, I knew exactly what had been hit. It was her inferior vena cava, one of the major veins that took blood back to the right artery of the heart.
This was not good. There is absolutely no way Violet would be able to survive until she got to the hospital with this amount of blood loss.
“If he’s not tied up yet, just shoot him,” I said to Brianne, my voice surprisingly steady. “I need you to help me save Violet’s life.”
“Luckily for him, I just finished. What do you need?”
“A sewing kit, if possible. Sharp scissors. Nail ones, try the bathroom. If we’re lucky, he’ll actually have a medical kit somewhere.”
Brianne nodded curtly and rushed away to find what I was after. I flipped Violet over, and confirmed that the bullet had gone straight through her, out the back. In this case, it was actually a good thing, because it meant I could access the vein that was hemorrhaging blood more easily than if I had to go in through the front.
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