Mightier than the Sword - Part 1

Chapter 1

In an English prison, a small dark room was being used as an interrogation room. Two English policemen were interviewing a young American woman, all three of them were sat on chairs, the policemen on one side of a table, facing the woman on the other side. The American had her head on the table, she lifted her head and sat up in her chair, taking a big inhalation as she did so. During the long exhalation that followed, she ran her fingers through her long black hair.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘For what might actually be the one thousandth time, I do not know where this Hitman character is now. I don’t even know who he is, I never met the guy. I have no loyalty to him whatsoever, if I did know where he was I would be happy to tell anyone who wanted to know. If we must persist with our latest question and answer session can I have a few on films and music? I’m better on them.’

‘Given the magnitude of this case you should understand if we asked you one thousand times a day where the this guy is, we’re not supposed to torture people but in this case if it was up to me I’d make an exception for you,’ one of the policemen replied, whilst standing up and staring into her eyes, then he started to pace around the room.

‘It’s lucky for me that you are just one of many insignificant cops, and whether you’re allowed to torture a suspect or not, is definitely not up to you. Besides I’m sure the real reason you guys want to torture me is that the idea of seeing me tied up appeals to you.’

‘Hate to damage your ego, but neither of us are that type of guy,’ the other policemen said.

‘Let me guess, you both believe in no sex before marriage, even after marriage it’s only an act of procreation and it’s strictly a case of lights out.’

‘Not at all, it’s just that we both prefer our girls to be sane.’

‘Oh I see, you think I’m insane? That makes all these interrogations far more understandable then, I can see why you want information from a crazy person.’

‘We would prefer a more reliable source,’ the seated policeman said. ‘But believe it or not, you’re our best option right now. And you can produce as many of those seductive smiles and bat your eyes as much as you like, we’re not going to give you any preferential treatment.’

‘I’m sorry you guys are immune to my feminine charms but can we bring this thing to an end? Because believe it or not somebody has been charmed enough by me to want to come and visit me, he should be here soon. I think he sees me as a fascinating human being, a terribly flawed one, but a fascinating one all the same.’

‘You don’t get to decide when this interview ends,’ the pacing policeman snapped back.

At this point the only door to the room was swung open, in the doorway was a young, plain clothed, police woman. She was on crutches with some strapping around her right knee.

‘Interview’s over guys,’ the police woman said.

‘Looks like you don’t get to decide when it ends either,’ the American said with a mischievous smile.

‘You sure Ma’am?’ The seated officer checked.

‘Forget about her,’ the police woman said. ‘She knows even less about this whole thing than we do. She was just one of the puppets in the show.’

‘Guess that makes two of us sweetie,’ the American said then flashed another smile, this time at the police woman.

‘There was a lot more than two of us.’

‘At least I had some control in the part I played.’

‘Shut up and wait for someone to take you back to your cell,’ the pacing officer told her.

‘To the visiting room please, don’t forget I have a date.’

Chapter 2

Sabine Larksson walked out onto the balcony of her Los Angeles home, that gave her a great view of the Pacific Ocean. She positioned her sun lounger in the spot that was getting the most sun, then lay out on it, face up.

‘So you’ve finally got a Saturday off work Lieutenant?’ The question came from Sabine’s neighbour who was out on his balcony, on the other side of a dividing wall.

‘Yes I finally managed it, and Bert how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Lieutenant?’ Sabine replied in a friendly tone.

‘Oh I know, it’s just that I love living next door to a real life police detective.’

‘Life in the LAPD really isn’t that exciting, we’re not all Colombos.’

‘You’re probably right but it doesn’t take much to excite me at my age. So what are you going to do with your day off?’

‘Had a game of golf this morning.’

‘Already?’

‘Yeah was on the tee at six, back home by nine, quick shower then out onto here to sunbathe. I intend to spend the rest of the day doing as little as possible.’

‘Are you wearing a bikini?’ Bert asked light heartily.

‘I’ll tell you what I’m wearing, if you tell me what you’re wearing Bert,’ Sabine laughed.

‘Is my husband being a pest again?’ Another voice came from Bert’s side of the wall.

‘Hey Edna, no it’s fine, nothing I can’t handle,’ the retired couple were always good at bringing a smile to Sabine’s face.

‘I’m off out now to meet the girls for a coffee and a chat,’ Edna said. ‘So I’ll leave you to treat him how you see fit,’ she told Sabine. ‘Oh Bert, don’t forget that films on at ten, the old one you wanted to watch.’

‘Thank you dear, have fun with the girls, don’t talk about me too much.’

‘Don’t worry about that, we won’t be talking about you at all. Bye Sabine.’

‘Bye Edna, have a good day,’ Sabine replied.

‘Still no boyfriend to spend your day off with?’ Bert asked Sabine as Edna was leaving.

‘I’m really going to have to stop wearing my “sad and lonely” sandwich board, you are just like my mother. I’m barely into my thirties, personally I really don’t think it’s time for ads in the paper and internet dating just yet.’

‘I just can’t understand why someone as pretty as you can be single, especially when you throw in your intelligence.’

‘I could argue that being single is one sign of that intelligence.’

‘Ha, I bet you get pestered by a lot of lousy guys.’

‘One or two. Anyway, how’s your sports crossword coming along today?’

‘Down to the last two clues.’

‘Go on then, you know you want to ask me.’

‘All righty then. The golf course where Nicklaus won his first Open Championship, nine letters.’

‘Muirfield,’ Sabine replied confidently.

‘How are you spelling that?’

‘M – u – i – r – f –i –e –l –d.’

‘That fits. Last one, Canadian winner of the 1996 Olympic men’s 100metre gold medal.’

‘Oh, I can picture him,’ Sabine said, then paused for a moment. ‘Bailey, Donovan Bailey.’

‘You’ve finished off my hard work once again.’

‘Happy to help as always.’

‘I heard a riddle the other day,’ Bert told Sabine.

‘Hang on Bert do you know the answer to this riddle?’

‘No I was kinda hoping that you might help me out.’

‘Can you get hold of the answer whenever you want?’

‘No you see I heard some guy ask it on the radio and I forgot to tune in for the answer.’

‘In that case I’m not sure I want to hear it. It sounds like it could cause me some mental anguish, the kind of which I get plenty of at work.’

‘But I’m sure it’ll be easy for you.’

‘Go on then flattery will get you everywhere with me.’

‘Okay then here’s the riddle, what do the following words have in common; calmness, canopy, deft, first, sighing, stun.’

‘Oh I’m already regretting hearing this, you’ll have to give me a bit of time to think on that one.’

‘Something to occupy your mind whilst sunbathing.’

‘I was hoping for a day with nothing to occupy my mind, but then again that always proves to be impossible for me.’

‘I’ll leave you to it, that movie will be coming on soon.’

‘Fair enough Bert, enjoy the movie, chat soon.’

‘Looking forward to our next chat already.’

A couple of days later Sabine found herself in one of those situations that Bert would think of as exciting. Along with her partner John and a couple of male, uniformed officers, she had got to the house of a man that was strongly suspected of a recent rape. When they found him in his kitchen, he had hold of a woman in front of him and he was holding a bread knife to her throat. Both of them were facing the four members of the LAPD, she was trembling and had some tears rolling down her cheek. Sabine entered the room, ahead of the three policemen, holding her gun out.

‘All right then, let’s look at this situation rationally,’ Sabine said calmly as she pointed her gun at the man with the knife. ‘There are three different ways this situation can come to an end, I’m not going to lie to you, none of them will put you in a good situation. You could slit this ladies throat, then I’d shoot in the head because you’d have nothing left to bargain with and it would be classed as a good shooting because clearly you are a crazy guy with a knife and therefore a threat to myself and my colleagues. Another possibility is that I shoot you in the shoulder, causing you to drop the knife and feel immense amounts of pain. The third option I can see is that you can drop the knife and we can arrest you, charging you with the rape, but not the resisting arrest we’d add to it in option two. I strongly recommend the last option, although to be honest I hope you don’t take it, because I really feel like shooting someone today and you would be perfect,’ Sabine’s tone of voice hardly changed throughout her speech, as if she was reading someone else’s words with no emotion attached to them.

He looked Sabine in the eye, his knife holding hand had begun to shake throughout her speech. After a moment or two of Sabine’s blank stare he dropped his knife and pushed the weeping woman towards Sabine.

‘I’m a little disappointed,’ Sabine said. ‘But that was a sound call, besides it’s only ten thirty, plenty of time left for me to shoot someone today.’

One of the uniformed officers handcuffed the suspect, whilst the other comforted the woman. The one comforting the woman looked at John, gestured towards Sabine and said; ‘She always this cold?’

‘She’s not known as an icy bitch for nothing. I think I sensed a hint of an emotion once, she was close to anger when a barman served her a diet coke instead of regular. Other than that I’ve seen nothing for two years.’

‘As soon as you get emotional in this job, you’re sinking to their level, much easier to beat them from the higher ground,’ Sabine said.

‘Almost certainly true,’ John conceded. ‘Just that most people find it far easier said than done.’

Chapter 3

Sabine was getting up from her desk chair as her commanding officer walked past.

‘Hey Sabine, John not turned in yet?’

‘No, I’m just going to swing by his house now, fortunately it’s on the way to where we’re headed this morning anyway.’

‘Never known him be late before.’

‘Me neither, sure it’s nothing to worry about though, he probably just had an exciting night and in the midst of whatever, or more likely whoever, he was doing he forgot to set an alarm.’

‘Ah yeah, I just about remember the bachelor lifestyle,’ he sighed and looked up to his left to reminisce.

‘Miss those days chief?’

‘To be honest no, I was a lousy bachelor, not at all successful, I’m definitely more suited to being a one woman man.’

‘Good for you chief. I’ll catch you later, I’ll let you know when I catch up with John,’ Sabine said and set off out of the office.

‘Be careful out their Sabine, it’s going to get to ninety degrees today, even you might melt,’ the chief said and allowed himself a little chuckle.

‘You keep trying chief,’ Sabine talked as she walked, without turning back to face the Chief. ‘One day one of those lines will actually be funny,’ she added.

Sabine rang the doorbell on John’s front door, she waited for a response for a few moments, then started looking through the windows but found no sign of life. When she came back to the door she tried the handle and found that it was unlocked. She only took one step into the house before being rooted to the spot because of a horrific sight. Whilst stood on that spot she got out her phone and called the Chief.

‘Hey Sabine, you dragged him out of bed yet?’

‘Get a CSI team down here, John’s been murdered,’ Sabine said quietly.

‘What? Are you sure?’

‘John never struck me as the type to slash his own throat, plus there’s no knife around, so yeah I’m pretty sure,’ Sabine said, keeping the same volume, then hung up the phone.

She managed to avert her gaze from her deceased partner and slowly walk around the house, holding her gun, making sure there was no one else in the house. By the time she’d looked around the house and the immediate surrounding area, the CSI team had arrived.

‘Hey Sabine, how are you doing?’ A female CSI officer asked she walked over to Sabine and put a hand on her shoulder.

‘House and garden is clear, I’ve walked in every room in the house, but not touched anything. Throat has been slashed severely, he’d have bled out in no time.’

‘I didn’t ask how the crime scene was.’

‘I’ve had better mornings Judy, I guess I’ve got my next case sorted. Hope it goes without saying that you guys will be at your absolute best for this one.’

‘We’ll be as good as always and leave absolutely no stone unturned.’

‘Keep me up to date with what you find, you have my cell number right?’

‘Yeah I do,’ Judy said then headed into the house.

Sabine went back to her car, sat in the driver’s seat and stared blankly ahead. After a minute or so a tear rolled down her right cheek.

Chapter 4

Sabine and the Chief were in his office, with the door shut and the blinds closed, five weeks after John’s murder.

‘I cannot believe you are considering following this guy all the way to England,’ the Chief said from his desk chair.

‘I’ll follow him wherever he goes until I’ve caught him,’ Sabine replied quickly, stood on the opposite side of the desk to the chief.

‘I never should have let you take this case in the first place Sabine, I’m taking you off it now. You’ve made the big mistake of making this case personal.’

‘This guy has killed my partner, he leaves taped messages at every murder scene in which I get a mention in every one, how the fuck am I supposed to not take it personally?!’ Sabine shouted slammed both hands down on the Chief’s desk and leaned over as she stared at him.

‘Look at yourself Sabine, I hate what this case has done to you.’

‘Don’t give me that bull shit about this being for my own good,’ Sabine said as she quickly stood up right again and turned her back on the chief as she walked around the room.

‘It is for your own good.’

‘You’ve no idea what’s best for me and you certainly have no idea what this case has done to me,’ Sabine’s voice remained raised.

‘I know that you’ve been here for nearly eight years now under my command and this is the first time you’ve ever been in this office having a heated exchange with me. Hell, until this case I’d never heard you raise your voice before,’ the chief spoke calmly from his seat.

‘Oh so you’re worried about my voice? You think this case is going to give me a case of laryngitis?’ Sabine lowered her voice and switched to a more familiar tone to the chief.

‘I know about the vomiting in the toilets, you’re not quite as discreet as you think. I know about the sleep deprivation, the mood swings, the snapping at your colleagues and those little crying sessions you have when you think no one can see you.’

‘I’m trying to catch a fucking serial killer who has killed six people, you really think it wouldn’t affect me in anyway? You think I should be walking down the corridors singing happy songs from my favourite musicals, then sitting down and chatting about last night’s games?!’ Sabine threw her hands up as she talked, then ran them through her long, straight hair, pulling tightly at the end before letting go.

‘Of course not.’

‘Maybe it’s because you’re not a real cop anymore. You’re just a bull shit, lazy arse administrator, who couldn’t hack doing actual police work anymore so you were ecstatic to take a promotion that meant you could sit behind your comfy desks for the rest of your working life and not have to worry about dealing with crimes up close anymore. Maybe if you were still a real cop you’d know how a serious case like this can affect you,’ Sabine walked up to the desk and stared at the chief once again as she ranted at him.

The Chief quickly stood up out of his chair and stared back at Sabine. ‘If that was anybody else in this department screaming at me like that, I’d fire them straight away.’

‘Then why don’t you fire me?’ Sabine replied, not backing down from the staring. ‘Because I’m little Sabine, the Chief’s favourite, all because he has a big crush on me.’

The staring contest continued as the chief paused for a few moments before replying. ‘I’m not firing you because you’re the best investigator in this department and I know you are far from being yourself right now, and that you’d never speak to anyone like that normally, let alone me.’

Sabine took a step back away from the chief, then sat down in the chair opposite him. She put both hands to her face for a few moments, then ran her fingers through her hair again, this time stopping with both hands on the back of the neck, then started to speak more calmly. ‘Look Chief, I know this case is killing me. The vomiting freaks me out, I’ve cried more in this last five weeks than I have done the rest of my life put together, by a mile. If this sleep deprivation goes on much longer I’ll be looking like my mother in no time. Combined with my ridiculously excessive gym workouts, that are supposed to be relieving my stress, the lack of sleep will probably make me seriously ill soon enough. The nightmares I’m having don’t need any psychiatrist to interpret. I hate how moody I am and how much I’ve shouted at you and the rest of the guys.’

‘Surely you must see that it makes sense for you to come off the case,’ the chief said as he slowly lowered himself back into his chair.

‘Completely the opposite,’ Sabine said as she dropped her hands down from the back of her neck into her lap. ‘The only way I’m ever going to get over this case is to solve it and to be there when we catch this lunatic.’

‘You really believe that?’

‘I know it, I’m fully aware I’ve got an unhealthy obsession with this case, there’s no way I can just forget about it now.’

‘I guess I can understand that,’ the chief conceded.

‘I am going to Manchester, the only question is whether I still get paid while I’m over there, or I have to quit my job to go there.’

The chief sighed. ‘You’re tracking down someone who has killed six Los Angeles citizens, I’m sure that comes under your job description somewhere. You don’t have to quit.’

‘Thanks Chief.’

Chapter 5

In a Manchester police station Tony Hodgson walked to his desk to start his morning’s work.

‘Hey gorgeous,’ he said to his detective partner Julia Gough, who was already sat at her desk, opposite from Tony’s.

‘Does your girlfriend know you call me gorgeous?’ Julia said without taking her eyes off her computer screen.

‘She wouldn’t mind, she knows I think she’s more gorgeous than anyone. Besides with you she’d know I was being ironic.’

‘Meow,’ Julia said as she managed to avert her gaze from her screen and look at Tony. ‘Must be that biting wit that attracts her to you, can’t think of what else it might be. You guys have been living together for a year or so now haven’t you? Any proposal in the pipeline?’

‘It’s definitely getting to that time, I must be nearly ready for it, because I’m starting to think of ways of proposing.’

‘Very exciting I’m sure, if I was a normal girl right now I’d be asking you how you are going to do it, but to be honest I don’t really give a shit.’

‘Fair enough, isn’t that septic tank coming over today?’

‘If you mean is the lady from the LAPD arriving today, then yes you are correct.’

‘You being politically correct? Really?’

‘I just find the jovial stereotypes far more fun when the person is actually there. Besides if she turns out to be anything close to good looking then I’m sure in no time you’ll be saying how much you love America and the President.’

‘I’m going to have to concede with a “harsh but fair”. So we’ve got a real life serial killer heading our way?’

‘Certainly seems that way. They’ve emailed us all the details so far and from today we have been assigned to this case and this case only, so today we have eight hours before Sabine arrives, for us to spend reading up on the case.’

‘Sabine? Cool name.’

‘See, you’ll be singing “Star Spangled Banner” soon enough.’

‘Whatever. So how do they know this killer is coming over here?’

‘Because he told them, he leaves a taped message with each victim, and his last message included telling them he’s heading to Manchester.’

‘And they believe him?’

‘Certainly looks like it, apparently he tends to keep his promises he makes in these messages.’

‘Sounds like you have done some reading already.’

‘Indeed I have, I was in for half an hour before you this morning, as usual one step ahead.’

‘It’s not like I’m late.’

‘You’re never quite late, always just on time, some of us like doing the extra yard. I know it’s harder for you because you wake up next to a girlfriend who wants a quickie before work and that takes time. I’m early because vibrators are a lot quicker at quickies.’

‘You’d never guess from looking at you just how deep into the gutter your mind is,’ Tony said, shaking his head as he logged on to his emails.

After over seven hours of reading, including eating their dinner at their desks, Julia and Tony had read through all the details on the case they had been sent.

‘Wow,’ Tony said when he finished.

‘That about covers it,’ Julia agreed.

‘Certainly is a wacky case, and definitely doesn’t sound like it’s going to be easy to catch this maniac.’

‘It’s so bizarre, that’s why I’ve asked Luke to help out.’

‘Oh no, no way,’ Tony insisted. ‘Not on this one.’

‘It’s perfect for his outside the box, non cop like thinking.’

‘The LAPD will think we’re a laughing stock if we use a novelist’s help to solve a serial killer case.’

‘I think they wouldn’t mind if we used a Chimp who used a Parrot as an interpreter to solve this case.’

‘You’re not going to back down on this are you?’ Tony guessed whilst shaking his head.

‘Glad you’ve finally got used to sensing that moment, saves so much pointless arguing. Besides it can’t do any harm.’

‘The Dr Pepper defence, always a convincer,’ Tony said, still shaking his head.

‘We best get going to the airport, Sabine will be landing soon.’

‘Don’t worry, if you’re driving, we’ll get there in plenty of time.’

‘Yes I am, and I’m sure you’re right.’

Tony and Julia waited at the arrivals part of Manchester airport, amongst the mixed crowd of loving family members, business associates, good friends and taxi drivers waiting to greet the arriving hordes.

‘So what does Sabine look like?’ Tony asked.

‘I’ve no idea.’

‘Does she know what we look like?’

‘No, but she’ll find out soon enough,’ Julia replied looking slightly bemused at Tony. ‘Oh I see what you’re getting at, tiny bit of poor organisation here. Don’t worry about it, we’ll just wait for a woman on her own looking a little lost and looking for someone. Or better still,’ Julia walked off.

‘Oh what are you going to do now?’ Tony asked as he walked off after Julia.

Julia ignored Tony and walked up to a taxi driver. ‘Excuse me,’ she said to him.

‘Yes darling,’ he said with a big smile at Julia.

‘I was wondering if we could possibly write the name of the person we’re here to meet on your whiteboard, underneath your names. We don’t know what she looks like you see.’

‘Oh ok, erm, I’ve never done that before, not sure if.’

‘Oh excellent,’ Julia interrupted and grabbed his board. ‘I love giving guys a new experience,’ she added with a smile as she wrote out Sabine’s name on the board.

‘Don’t worry about her mate,’ Tony said to the taxi driver. ‘The insanity hasn’t made her dangerous in anyway.’

The middle aged couple that the taxi driver was there to pick up arrived before Sabine.

‘That’s us,’ the woman said, pointing at the board.

‘Mrs Anderton?’ Julia asked.

‘Yes,’ the woman looked surprised and unnerved by Julia.

‘I’m detective Julia Gough,’ Julia said as she got her police badge out and showed it to the couple. ‘This is my partner Tony Hodgson. We believe you’ve just spent some time in Los Angeles, is that correct?’ Julia spoke in an officious manner.

‘Yes, how did you know that?’ The woman said.

‘I’d like to say it’s just because I’ve glanced at your Disneyland bag and your luggage labels. But in fact we’ve been monitoring you since just before you flew out to LA.’

‘What on earth for? The man asked.

‘I’m sure you know the answer to that,’ Julia continued.

‘We’ve really no idea what you’re talking about,’ the woman said. ‘We’ve just been on holiday.’

‘And of course it’s a total coincidence that the two weeks of your holiday were the same two weeks when two extremely valuable pieces of art work were stolen and that you two are both keen art lovers.’

‘We are art lovers,’ the woman said, with a tremble in her voice. ‘But we are certainly no thieves.’

At this point Julia heard a little cough from Tony and she turned around to see him shaking hands with Sabine.

‘I want to believe you,’ Julia said as she turned back to face the couple. ‘In fact a do believe you, so you may go. But this doesn’t mean this is over, if you did steal those paintings we will find out.’

‘But we didn’t,’ the woman insisted.

‘Then you have absolutely nothing to worry about, good bye,’ Julia said and the couple walked off with the taxi driver, all a little shell shocked.

‘Hi, I’m guessing you’re Sabine,’ Julia said with a smile and great enthusiasm as she turned round to face Sabine and Tony.

‘I certainly am,’ Sabine said and offered a hand shake.

‘That’s one stuffy English stereotype I want to shatter straight away,’ Julia said and gave Sabine a friendly hug instead of the handshake.

‘Aww, great welcome and one stereotype definitely shattered,’ Sabine said as they broke up the hug.

‘Excellent, how was your flight, you feeling okay?’ Julia asked.

‘Yeah it was great, had a little sleep, feel pretty good thanks. I’m sure it will catch up to me at some point, but I’ve been getting used to surviving without much sleep.’

‘I can imagine,’ Julia replied. ‘We’ll take you to your hotel now, later on we were thinking of having a discussion about the case, but we totally understand if you’re too tired to join us.’

‘No, that sounds great, I’d love to hear some new voices on this case.’

‘Fantastic, we’re going round to a friend of mines, he’s not actually a cop but we’ve used him on a couple of cases before. He’s actually a crime novelist.’

‘I have to apologise for my partner’s lack of professionalism,’ Tony said. ‘But she tends to sulk if she doesn’t get her own way.’

‘Luke has a brilliant mind and thinks in different ways to you and I,’ Julia defended herself.

‘Hey look,’ Sabine announced. ‘I’m happy to hear any ideas on this case, I really don’t care whether the person has a badge or not. Plus I definitely think that we’ll have to get our thinking outside the box at some stage to solve this thing.’

‘Exactly,’ Julia said with a smile whilst looking at Tony. ‘I hope you’ll like the hotel we’ve booked for you, I’m sure you will, it isn’t the biggest or the grandest in the city, but it is beautiful and has a quirky English charm.’

‘You work for the tourist board too?’ Sabine wondered with a smile.

‘I could do,’ Julia laughed.

‘It sounds great, I’m sure it’ll be fine for me.’

Julia drove Sabine and Tony round to the hotel, where they let Sabine have a couple of hours to herself.

Julia was still on driving duties a couple of hours later when she came back to the hotel with Tony to pick Sabine up.

‘Hey, everything okay with the room?’ Julia asked Sabine as soon as Sabine came out of the front door of the hotel, to where Julia and Tony were waiting for her.

‘It’s got a bath,’ Sabine said. ‘So I’m happy. Seriously it’s great thanks.’

‘Excellent, you get something to eat okay?’

‘Yeah the food here is pretty darn good too.’

‘Sounds like we’re all ready to go round to Luke’s house,’ Julia said.

‘I know I am,’ Sabine said and the three of them headed to Julia’s car.

Chapter 6

‘Oh wow, this really is in the middle of nowhere,’ Sabine said from the back seat, as Julia drove down Luke’s long drive.

‘Yeah it’s perfect for Luke, he likes to be away from it all and it being seriously quiet is perfect for his writing,’ Julia said.

‘Is it an old farmhouse?’ Sabine asked.

‘Yeah when the old farmer retired he didn’t have anybody to pass the farm onto, so he sold the land to a nearby farmer and sold the house separately. It was just after Luke had signed his first book deal, he loved the place so he bought it.’

‘Does Luke know anything about the case yet?’ Sabine asked as Julia pulled up by the front door.

‘Yeah, I sent him everything you sent us,’ Julia replied.

‘Oh you did, did you?’ Tony said. ‘Good to know that you didn’t make any decisions without me.’

‘Leave the sarcasm to those who know how to use it Tony,’ Julia replied as she turned the engine off.

By the time the three of them got out of the car, Luke had already opened his front door and was stood in the doorway.

‘Hey Jules!’ Luke greeted her warmly then the two of them hugged. ‘How you doing?’

‘I’m good thanks, looking forward to working with you again,’ Julia replied as they broke away from the hug. ‘This is Sabine Larksson from the LAPD.’

‘Hi Luke,’ Sabine said and offered her hand.

‘Great to meat you Sabine,’ Luke said and shook her hand. ‘Will be good to have someone to compare Julia to, I’ve only got her word for it that’s she’s an amazing detective.’

‘You know I’m awesome,’ Julia said with a smile. ‘And of course you already know Tony.’

‘Of course I do, I’ve got that signed copy of my latest novel that you asked for Tony.’

‘Yeah right, I could put it on ebay I suppose, but then again I won’t be able to do much with the £1.34.’

‘Oh you’ve been hanging around with Julia too much,’ Luke said. ‘Come on in guys, let’s see if we can get this case solved.’

Luke showed them in to his dining room, which had a big wooden table and four leather covered chairs. He had put out a selection of savoury snacks on the table.

‘Drinks for everyone?’ Luke asked.

‘I’d love a coffee please,’ Sabine said.

‘Water is good for me,’ Julia said.

‘I’ll have a coffee too,’ Tony added.

The three of them got themselves comfy in a chair each whilst Luke sorted out the drinks.

‘So we want to catch a serial killer then.’ Luke announced as he brought the drinks into the room, then sat in the vacant chair.

‘The thing is this guy wants to be caught,’ Sabine said.

‘Yet you still haven’t been able to catch him, that must be pretty tough to take,’ Luke quipped.

‘This whole case has been more than tough to take,’ Sabine replied and glared a little at Luke.

‘Sorry, I really shouldn’t be being flippant,’ Luke admitted. ‘Seriously though, catching a serial killer is about as hard as you guys jobs get. I could do with something to occupy my mind as I'm not in the process of writing a book at the moment.’

‘This case will occupy your entire mind and then some,’ Sabine said. ‘The really scary thing about most serial killers is that whilst they're in between murders they carry out perfectly normal lives as if they're doing nothing wrong.’

‘They must have a ridiculously cunning and twisted track of thinking, either that or they’re crazy and suffering from some sort of multiple personality disorder,’ Julia commented.

‘What I find most amazing when I think about serial killers is the number of ones who where never caught. To think that somewhere out there is someone living a normal life, with plenty of friends, who actually killed a number of people at some time in their life,’ Luke said.

‘When you think about it for too long it is hard to see how serial killers do get caught,’ Julia said. ‘Unless you actually catch them in the act it must often be very difficult to track them down,’ Julia said.

‘When you look at past serial killer cases, a lot of them only get caught because they either get careless or over confident,’ Sabine replied.

‘Didn't the Hillside Stranglers taunt the police by leaving the bodies of their victims near to police stations?’ Julia checked.

‘Yeah that's right.’ Sabine confirmed. ‘You guys have been studying.’

‘When you said before that you felt that this guy actually wants to be caught, what makes you think that?’ Luke asked Sabine.

‘I don't think he wants to be caught just yet, but I'm sure he's not going to be one of these serial killers who just stop killing. I think he wants to get caught eventually because that's the only way he can take the credit for the murders. He’s treating the whole thing as some sort of game, it's almost as if he wants to do it just to prove that he can. So I think he'll be quite happy to be caught, but only if it's when he wants. Plus he'll probably make it happen so it's obvious that he let the police catch him, and he will be delirious that people will know that it was him who out smarted the police for so long.’

‘So you want to catch him before this crescendo of a grand finale to his little game,’ Luke commented.

‘That's the idea.’

‘Is it the taped messages at every murder scene that make you think that he's this attention seeking freak?’ Julia asked Sabine.

‘Yeah plus all the references to me in the messages, as if he’s making it some sort of challenge between the police and him, and it’s turned out that I’m representing the police. When I look at the case from an overall angle I've got a clear image of this guy in my head, but when I start to look at each individual murder, I really start to lose the clarity of that image.’

‘So I suppose we should go through each individual murder and see if between us we can come up with something,’ Luke suggested.

‘Sabine are you all right talking about the first murder?’ Julia asked. ’We'll all understand if you'd rather we skipped over that one.’

‘No it's okay, I don't mind talking about it now, as long as we don't go into too much detail.’

‘He made a point of making his first killing a policeman,’ Tony commented.

‘Yeah he did but as far as we’ve been able to tell the rest of the murders weren’t anything to do with cops, so I don’t think his motive is purely to get at cops. Unless the rest of the murders are purely to create the challenge between him and the police,’ Sabine responded.

‘So if this was a one off murder what would we make of it?’ Luke asked.

‘We'd be thinking it was somebody who had a grudge against cops,’ Julia remarked.

‘It was well planned, this wasn't an instinct killing at all,’ Tony pointed out.

‘So why would somebody have a grudge against cops?’ Luke asked.

‘Oh believe me I've been through that time and time again. What we came up with back home was; either he had been arrested himself and he felt aggrieved, or something happened to him or a friend or relative and he wasn't happy with the way the police dealt with it, or possibly somebody close to them had been shot by a cop in some shoot out or other, or killed in some other way.’

‘Nothing else really springs to mind,’ Luke conceded.

‘The method of killing showed a deal of dexterity and expertise with a knife, which suggests that he may have some sort of combat experience,’ Tony offered.

‘Maybe, but not necessarily. He even said himself on the tape that he was surprised how well he made the cut,’ Sabine countered.

‘That's true, maybe he's just some aggressive nut case,’ Tony conceded.

‘The second murder however does show some element of combat skills,’ Julia pointed out.

‘Yeah that's definitely true,’ Luke agreed.

‘He used nothing but his bare hands to kill the victim who was quite a strong young man. The victim’s windpipe was crushed but the coroner strongly suspected that the victim was unconscious before receiving the fatal blow,’ Sabine remarked.

‘You never found out how he was made unconscious?’ Tony checked.

‘Not for sure, but we did come up with the idea that he somehow put them in such pain that the victim passed out.’

‘So what about the victim in this case?’ Luke asked.

‘He'd only just got out of prison,’ Sabine announced.

‘What had he been in for?’ Luke asked.

‘Mugging.’

‘So maybe it was the person he mugged getting their revenge,’ Tony offered a suggestion.

‘That seems like a reasonable idea until you think about it for a while. If the killer could over power this guy so easily how did he ever get mugged by him in the first place?’ Sabine countered. ‘Anyway we checked out who the victim had mugged and they were a couple in their fifties and there was no way they could have been responsible for the murder.’

‘It could have been their son,’ Tony said.

‘No they didn't have any children,’ Sabine told Tony.

‘Maybe a nephew,’ Tony weakly offered.

‘The murder could just be a general statement against muggers and all criminals,’ Luke suggested.

‘Yeah we could even tie that in with them killing a cop,’ Julia added.

‘This is exactly where my thinking was at after the second murder. I was looking for somebody who had been a victim of a crime and wasn't happy with the way the police had handled the case,’ Sabine told the others.

‘I can imagine,’ Luke replied. ‘But then the case started to get really weird.’

‘Exactly,’ Sabine responded. ‘The next murder victim was a Mark Burns. He was often seen in bars trying to pick up any woman he could. In fact the whole murder looked like a woman's doing apart from the fact that we had a witness that saw the victim outside the bar. The witness said the victim met this guy seemingly by accident, it looked like they were old friends and the victim got into this guy’s car. This victim was poisoned with potassium chloride, which is often used for executions by lethal injection. I’m guessing that particular poison was chosen partly to act as a message to us to confirm that the HItman believes Mark Burns deserved to die.’

‘Poison is the stereotypical female murder weapon,’ Tony added.

‘Wasn't there a distinct smell of perfume in the room where the murder took place?’ Julia checked.

‘Yes there was, but both of those two facts made me feel that the Hitman was trying to make it look like a woman had done the killing. Especially with the witnesses description matching the description that witnesses to the first two murders had given us,’ Sabine said.

‘But dealing with purely with facts it does look very much like a female murderer in this case,’ Luke announced.

‘You mean forgetting the witnesses account?’ Sabine checked with Luke.

‘Yeah, witnesses have been wrong before whether genuinely or because they are lying for some reason,’ Luke remarked.

‘Can’t argue with that,’ Sabine said. ‘The reason for picking the victim in this case was harder to understand.’

‘Yeah the crime link seems to disappear,’ Julia remarked.

‘The worst thing you could accuse this guy of was being a bit of a serial womaniser,’ Tony agreed.

‘Yet the Hitman makes is completely unambiguous about everybody he kills deserving to die,’ Luke added.

‘Exactly, which is one of the aspects of the case which make it so frustrating,’ Sabine replied. ‘I know there is reasoning behind his killings but I can’t get anywhere near a reasons for why one person would want all of the six victims dead,’ she added.

‘Why don’t we just look at each murder as if it was an individual case like Luke said earlier? Then maybe somehow we’ll get lucky and spot some running theme through the murders.’ Julia suggested.

‘I’ve done that more times than I care to remember, but maybe with a few different people thinking about it we could get somewhere,’ Sabine said. ‘The third victim was always in bars trying to pick some woman up. That’s really the only thing that you could say was a particular flaw in his character, and that’s hardly a reason to kill somebody.’

‘Don’t forget we’re dealing with somebody who’s insane here, so something that seems trivial to us might in their mind be a reason to kill somebody,’ Luke announced.

‘Also there’s always the possibility with each of the victims that there was something about them that we didn’t find out, which could have been the reason the Hitman felt they deserved to die,’ Sabine conceded.

‘So all we can come up with in this case is that the victim went to bars to pick women up most nights,’ Tony said. ‘I think we may as well go onto the next murder.’

‘Let’s first think why an insane person would be sufficiently annoyed by the victim’s nocturnal behaviour to think they deserve to die,’ Julia suggested.

‘I came up with two possibilities,’ Sabine announced. ‘Either it’s a guy who’s jealous of any success the victim ever had. Or it’s a woman who didn’t like his particular advances or his general way of life.’

‘So I guess it’s feasible that one insane guy could have been a victim of a crime that he felt wasn’t very well dealt with by the police and that he didn’t have much success with women so he was jealous of any guys who did,’ Julia commented.

‘That’s what I’ve been trying to convince myself of for weeks now and by itself it is feasible. However when you go through all the other murders and still going with the theory that each one is being committed for a specific reason, then you are starting to talk about a guy who has a heck of a lot of things that piss him off,’ Sabine replied.

‘Plus the vast majority of serial killers stick to one type of victim,’ Julia added.

‘The fourth victim was John Marshall who was a company director. He was happily married and lived a totally different private life to Mark Burns,’ Tony announced.

‘It’s even harder to work out why anybody would think that this guy deserved to die. Outside of work he did absolutely nothing to make himself stand out. He was a dedicated family man who played the odd game of golf and occasional went to basketball games, the only black mark against him was a few of his employees said he had a short temper,’ Sabine said.

‘It could be a disgruntled ex-employee,’ Tony suggested.

‘Or maybe he never got the job in the first place,’ Luke suggested. ‘Perhaps he got turned down after an interview. Something like that could easily be turned into an offence punishable by death in the mind of a lunatic.’

‘Yeah that’s another possibility,’ Sabine agreed. ‘This John Marshall guy did do interviews, we checked out everything his job entailed when we were trying to find a motive.’

‘So if this Hitman character has just lost his mind completely it may well have been triggered by him being victimised then mistreated by the police, then he’s just decided to start killing people that have annoyed him in the past,’ Julia suggested.

‘I suppose it’s possible and I have considered that sort of idea myself several times. However that just wouldn’t fit in with my idea of this guy being composed and treating this whole episode as a game or a challenge,’ Sabine said.

‘Yeah I see want you mean,’ Julia replied with some nodding.

‘This murder also showed a deal of combat skills didn’t it?’ Luke checked.

‘Yeah it was quite similar to the second murder in that sense,’ Sabine confirmed. ‘Again there was a bit of mystery to the murder, as it seemed clear to the doctors that the victim had been strangled, yet there was no hand or finger marks on the neck.’

‘The fifth murder was brutal rather than showing any signs of combat skills,’ Luke said.

‘Yeah this was just a bestial killing. It looked as if the killer was in a mad rage and was set out on completely destroying this young lady,’ Sabine verified.

‘There was a witness to this murder but not the previous one, so maybe he’s not planting the witnesses,’ Tony remarked.

‘Yeah there was no witness at all to the fourth killing, even the security cameras were taken out of action. All of the Hitman’s work was showing a great deal of planning up until this fifth murder. If it wasn’t for the tape I would never have linked this murder to the previous killings,’ Sabine commented. ‘The witness in this case really didn’t look like any sort of fake. She can’t have been much older than the victim herself, I drove her home that night and she was absolutely distraught, she kept blaming herself.’

‘Perhaps this is the point where he really started to lose it,’ Tony suggested.

‘The sixth murder showed an even greater lack of planning,’ Julia added. ‘And cutting off the victims tongue was very weird.’

‘Yeah the last two murders are where I really start to get utterly confused, they are just so different from the others in so many key ways. Yet the taped messages remain in the same vein as ever,’ Sabine revealed looking completely exasperated with the whole situation.

‘May I tell you my theory?’ Luke asked Sabine.

‘Please do.’

‘Oh this should be interesting,’ Tony remarked whilst shaking his head a little.

‘Do you want a few seconds so you can get your pad and pen ready to take this down?’ Luke quipped to Tony. ‘No? Okay then I’ll proceed. I think that there are two of them. One who became so enraged by some incident involving a crime and the police that he lost his sanity, he hatched the whole plan and has remained focussed and calm throughout and he’s the one who makes all the taped messages. The first, second and fourth murder are his doing. Whereas the other guy who somehow became part of the plan is some sort of social outcast, at the very least he’s socially inept. He has little or no control over his temper. Both of them are strong but only the first one has some sort of actual combat skills.’

‘That it is it?’ Tony said. ‘The great one has spoken!’

Luke ignored Tony’s response and looked straight at Sabine.

‘I think it’s a very useful idea,’ Sabine replied. ‘I considered the possibility of there being two of them a few times but every time I couldn’t help thinking that I had been watching too many repeats of Colombo and Perry Mason.’

‘Usually the truth is stranger than fiction,’ Luke remarked.

‘Yeah I’ve seen enough strange cases to know that. Everything in your theory technically makes sense, but somehow it just doesn’t sit right with me,’ Sabine told Luke.

‘Yeah I know what you mean, I’m nowhere near convinced of it myself,’ Luke admitted.

‘Everything’s worth considering though,’ Sabine said. ‘Like the Hitman himself said in one of his messages, take nothing for granted.’

‘I can imagine some sort of killing duo where one of them is the dominant partner,’ Julia said.

‘The dominant one would be the one who records the messages,’ Tony added.

‘Yeah, the man with the plan,’ Julia agreed. ‘There is another possibility, one murderer, more than one personality.’

‘Again that’s something I’ve considered,’ Sabine replied. ‘I just don’t think somebody like that would be able to keep it together to such an extent to carry out this plan, but it’s definitely a possibility.’

‘Some split personalities can function in everyday life without giving the people around them any clue about their other personalities,’ Julia continued.

‘I’m beginning to feel like I’m at a Mensa meeting, not trying to catch a criminal,’ Tony said.

‘Sorry Tony, I know how uncomfortable you get when you’re not within touching distance of “the box”,’ Julia replied with a cheeky smile.

‘Good job I’m always alongside you to keep you grounded, otherwise you’d end up in Narnia way too often,’ Tony countered.

‘Back to the case before the bitching gets out of hand,’ Julia said. ‘What do you think the Hitman has got planned for Manchester?’ She asked Sabine.

‘One possibility is that he’ll want to do everything as similar as possible to what he did in LA, that’s if the whole point of this game is to see if the Manchester police are any better than the LAPD,’ Sabine replied.

‘Oh yeah,’ Julia said. ‘I meant to tell you that we have circulated the description your witnesses have given you to all the police forces in the area, just in case he is planning a complete re-run.’

‘Good thinking, not a good time to be a police man in Manchester I guess,’ Sabine said. ‘If the game is not to see if you guys are better than the LAPD then I really don’t have any sort of a clue what he might do next.’

‘Me neither,’ Julia admitted. ‘Anyway we should probably call it a night now, you must be getting pretty tired,’ she said to Sabine.

‘I must admit the effect of the coffee is starting to wear off,’ Sabine confessed.

‘No problem at all, we’ll take you back to the hotel and then we’ll see you in the morning,’ Julia said.

‘Sounds good to me,’ Sabine said.