Mightier than the Sword - Part 2

Chapter 7

Six people were in a hotel room in Los Angeles, before that night none of them had met.

‘I guess that leaves me,’ one of the four males of the group said. ‘My name is Don Burton. Listening to you guys introduce yourself and tell your story has been emotional. I wish I could say I had a similarly heart wrenching reason for being here. To be honest though I just love violence, and of course killing people is the ultimate violence, therefore my favourite kind. That really is all you guys need to know about me, so I reckon it’s time for our party,’ Don added then looked at Scott who had arranged the get together.

‘Thank you all for your introductions,’ Scott said. ‘I’m certainly looking forward to working with all of you and I think we have the making of a great team. As Don said it’s time for us to relax and get to know each other a little less formerly.’

‘If that means opening the drinks, I’m all for that,’ one of the ladies said, whilst she was laid out on the big double bed, staring up at the ceiling.

‘Help yourself Anna,’ Scott said with a smile.

‘I definitely need a drink,’ Anna said and sat up on the bed.

‘You and me both honey,’ Don said. ‘What can I get you?’ He asked as he stood by a table that had many drinks on.

‘I’m a million miles away from ever being your honey,’ Anna said sternly as she stood up, her high heels in addition to her tall, lean frame meant that she was a few inches taller than Don as she stood close to him, looking dismissively at him. ‘And I can get my own drink,’ she added then mixed her own Vodka and Coke.

‘How about you sugar?’ Don asked the other lady, who was even younger than Anna. She was sat at the pillow end of the bed, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms around her knees.

‘A coke please,’ she said quietly.

‘Come on, have a real drink,’ Don said. ‘Or are you not old enough?’

‘She’s just about old enough to drink,’ Anna said. ‘But maybe not stupid enough,’ she added then grabbed a can of coke. ‘Here you go Natasha,’ Anna handed her the can and sat down next to her.

‘Thanks,’ Natasha said as she took the can from Anna, whilst Don, Scot and one of the other men started talking among themselves whilst standing near the drinks.

‘For what it’s worth I think it’s really brave of you to be here,’ Anna said to Natasha.

‘I’m not sure I should be here,’ Natasha said quietly as she rubbed her eyes.

‘I’m guessing if you’ve come this far sweetie, then you probably need to be here,’ Anna said.

‘I think maybe you’re right,’ Natasha conceded.

‘So have you guys given any thought to what your method of killing is going to be?’ Don asked enthusiastically to Scott and the other male around the drinks.

‘I’m thinking knife, slashing the throat,’ Scott said whilst nodding.

‘Stylish, like it,’ Don replied. ‘I’m thinking I’m just going to pummel them until they die.’

‘It’ll be good for the plan if we have a few different killing styles, that will confuse the hell out of the cops. Although it doesn’t take much to confuse those morons,’ Scott said.

‘How about you Ronny?’ Don asked.

‘I’m thinking gun,’ Ronny said as he fidgeted with his hands, rubbing them together, then rubbing his nose.

‘That’ll get the job done,’ Don replied. ‘As long as you can shoot. Do you do much shooting Ronny?’

‘Yeah I’m a mem...mem...member at a sho....sho....shoo....shooting range.’

‘Hope you shoot smoother than you talk Ronny,’ Don laughed and slapped Ronny on the back.

Ronny looked down at the floor and continued to fidget with his hands.

‘Look Ronny,’ Scott said as he put a hand on one of Ronny’s shoulders. ‘You will not be mocked for your stutter in this group, you are as much a part of this team as anyone,’ he was speaking to Don as much as he was to Ronny.

‘Oh absolutely,’ Don conceded. ‘I was only trying a bit of banter, I’ve got a feeling you and me are going to get along great Ronny.’

Anna left Natasha on her own with her can of coke, and headed over to the male who was sat in a chair in the corner of the room all by himself.

‘Justin isn’t it?’ Anna said as she got up close to him.

He merely looked up at her and offered the smallest of nods.

‘Guessing you’re not much of a socialiser,’ Anna continued. ‘That can work for some guys, you need to be good looking to play the mysterious loner, quiet guy and you can just about pull it off I reckon. Some girls really like enigmatic guys. The trick is to look mysterious, then people think you’re on your own by choice.’

‘So I’ve heard,’ Justin said with a melancholy monotone, without looking at Anna.

Scott came over towards Justin and Anna.

‘Hey Scott,’ Anna said. ‘Don’t get talking to him, you’ll never get away,’ she added then her attention was drawn towards Don as he went over to Natasha.

‘Come on sugar, this is supposed to be a party, how about we start the dancing,’ Don said to Natasha and grabbed one of her arms.

Anna marched quickly across the room, grabbed Don by the throat, causing him to let go of Natasha’s arm, then pushed him back into a wall, still holding his throat. ‘If you touch her again, we’re going to find out how much you like being on the wrong side of violence,’ Anna said to him as she put her face extremely close to Don’s.

Don put both hands up, Anna eased her hold on his throat. ‘Whoah, okay honey, I’m hearing you. Love it when a girl gets feisty,’ Don said.

Anna quickly and dismissively let go completely of Don’s throat, then turned round to face the rest of the group who were all giving Anna their undivided attention.

‘Oh what a gang,’ Anna said as she paced slowly up and down the length of the bed. ‘The mysterious loner guy, the stutterer looking for somewhere to fit in, the sleazy older guy, the young frail girl wondering whether she should be here, the guy whose crazy idea it was to get us all together and of course the lady with a curious mix of being impossibly sexy and a lethal fighting machine. I really can’t see this ending well, it’s totally crazy,’ she paused for a moment or two, licking her lips. ‘I guess that’s why I’m loving it so much.’

Chapter 8

Scott

Ten year old Scott was getting nervous, he knew it was his turn to speak next. One of his friends was nearly finished telling the class and their teacher about how he wants to be a Baseball player when he grows up. There was a polite round of applause led by the teacher once this boy had finished his presentation.

‘Okay Scott, you’re up,’ the female teacher said in a reassuringly friendly manner.

Scott got up from his chair and walked to the front of the class.

‘When I grow up,’ Scott began, trying his hardest to speak clearly. ‘I want to be a cop for the LAPD. So that I can catch the criminals and be one of the good guys.’

‘Oh that’s an excellent thing to want to be Scott,’ the teacher enthused. ‘How long have you wanted to be a Policeman?’

‘Forever.’

‘Oh wow, and what made you want to be a policeman?’

‘I want to outsmart and catch the bad guys.’

‘Fantastic, I’m sure you’ll be great at that. What else would you like to be?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Let’s say for some reason you’re not allowed to be a Policeman, what would you want to do then?’

‘Nothing, I want to be a cop.’

‘Oh okay, then I really hope that you get to be one Scott.’

Justin

Justin woke up in the early hours of the morning, he wanted a drink, so he got out of bed and headed for the stairs. The door to his parent’s room was open, so he walked in to see if either of them was awake. He was at first surprised and then frightened by there being nobody in there at all. Mum and Dad were always home by midnight when they went out and left him with a babysitter.

As Justin got to the top of the stairs the doorbell rang, his aunty, who was his babysitter for the night, answered the door. Justin could tell it was a police man and a police woman at the door, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying to his aunty. As soon as the police woman started to speak, aunty put her hands to her mouth, a few seconds later she was in floods of tears, literally crying on the shoulder of the policewoman. All Justin could hear was his aunty saying, ‘This can’t be happening,’ over and over again. After a minute or two his aunty spoke amongst the tears asking, ‘What about poor Justin? He’s only seven years old, poor Justin.’

Natasha

Natasha was back home from college during her spring break, spending some time at her older sister’s house. Both of them were sat on her sister’s bed.

‘You think you’re going to be ready for your final exams?’ Her sister asked her.

‘I reckon so, although I’m sure I won’t ace them as well as you did.’

‘Will you stop already, you are totally capable of doing just as well as I did.’

‘No way, you got the brains, I got the looks,’ Natasha smiled.

‘I knew there was an insult on its way somewhere,’ her sister said then playfully tapped Natasha on her shoulder.

‘You’re still free for my road trip as soon as I finish my exams right?’ Natasha checked, looking like an answer in the negative would be the end of the world.

‘Of course, I booked it off work weeks ago. I wouldn’t miss our road trip for the world.’

‘It will be awesome, just the two of us,’ Natasha said.

‘Just the two of us, for two weeks? Really? Not sure I can handle two weeks of just you,’ her sister said with a big smile of her own.

‘Shut up!’ Natasha returned the smile. ‘So how’s your love life?’

‘Oh nothing to report there, don’t you think that if I’d met a great guy I’d have mentioned it way before we got on to talking about your exams and that pathetic road trip.’

‘Don’t disrespect the road trip, but yeah a great guy would maybe be a little more important.’

‘I’m not sure about that. What about you? Any hunky college guys catching your eye yet?’

‘No, nothing that sets my heart fluttering.’

‘Loads of time for that, for both of us.’

‘Not sure about you, you’re getting on now, clock is ticking.’

‘You want to go on that road trip on your own? I’m twenty-five!’

‘I’m totally kidding, I just can’t believe no guy has swept you up yet.’

Anna

Anna was in a noisy bar, out on a girl’s night out, sat around a table with five of her friends. They had caught up with each other’s exploits from the previous week and had moved on to gossiping about each other’s love lives. Three of them were single and Anna and the other two had boyfriends. The single girls took turns talking about their most recent dates and any males in their life at the moment that they would describe as ‘prospects’. After that the other two didn’t need any encouragement to talk about their boyfriends, mostly to complain out their character flaws and general behaviour.

‘What about you Anna? How’s it going with Steve?’ One of them asked.

‘Oh you know, okay,’ Anna replied.

‘That sounds exactly like what Shakespeare was writing about all those years ago,’ one of them said and laughed and Anna afforded herself a smile.

‘I still don’t feel like he’s the one,’ Anna offered a token response.

‘So would you say yes if he asked you to marry him?’

‘No,’ Anna replied quickly.

‘Wow, that was decisive. But hey, we’re still so young it really doesn’t matter, no pressure at all, just see what happens and if it’s not working out, end it.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking,’ Anna said.

‘You sure you’re okay honey?’ One of them asked and looked to make eye contact with Anna.

‘Yeah, yeah I’m fine.’

‘Walk with me,’ the concerned friend said and the two of them made their way to the rest room.

Whilst the two of them were checking their hair and makeup in the mirror above the sinks Anna’s friend continued with the questioning.

‘You going to tell me how you got that bruise on your arm?’

‘What bruise?’

‘That bruise that the uncharacteristically long sleeves you are wearing just about covers up, until you make certain movements, that allowed me to catch a glimpse of it.’

‘Oh it’s nothing, just banged it on the car door as I was climbing in the other day.’

‘Okay, what about the marks on the base of your neck?’

‘Don’t really know where they’ve come from,’ Anna said quietly whilst looking everywhere apart from at her friend’s face.

‘They look like the sort of mark you get when someone grabs you like this,’ her friend said, then gently grabbed Anna, with a hand on either side of the base of her neck as they stood face to face. ‘Anna, honey, it’s me, you can tell me anything.’

‘Thanks Caroline,’ Anna said, making eye contact for the first time in the rest room. ‘I’m fine, I can handle it I promise, if I do need to talk, I’m coming to you.’

Don

The circle of youngsters formed around the scrapping two. In the fight one was definitely bigger than the other, but both were swinging their fists aggressively. The bigger one had a smile on his face the whole time, this smile got considerably wider when he got the upper hand in the fight and started to rain down one unanswered blow after another. Before he could land too many punches a teacher came along and dragged him away.

Ten minutes later both boys were in the principal’s office standing on the opposite side of a desk to the female principal.

‘Listen boys,’ she said whilst peering at them through her glasses. ‘I know nine year old boys do fight, but from what I’ve been told this fight was particularly brutal. Max, why on earth did you get involved in a fight like this? It’s not like you at all.’

‘Sorry Miss, but he kept teasing me, saying how fat my Mom and Dad are.’

‘You know to ignore people when they are being silly like that,’ the principal said.

‘I tried to ignore him, but he kept going on and on.’

‘Okay Max, I’ll speak to you later,’ she said and Max left the room.

‘Now then Donny,’ she said and looked at him with a far more annoyed look than she had looked at Max. ‘This is your fourth fight this year, why do you get involved in so many fights?’

Little Donny looked straight at the principal, shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said, ‘Because it’s fun.’

Ronny.

A couple of female teacher’s at a grade school in Los Angeles were watching the children play at dinner time.

‘How’s Ronny doing with you this year?’ One of them asked the other.

‘Still as quiet as ever in class, I actually think his speech is improving when I talk to him one on one, but he still never speaks in front of the class.’

‘I found it hard with him last year, because I didn’t know how to deal with him, if he stays that quiet he might never develop his social skills but if I made him answer a question in class I risked him stuttering, have some of the other kids laugh at him, and that would send him further into his shell.’

‘Exactly where I’m at right now, we’re not trained specifically to deal with something like this, so it’s hard for us to know what to do for the best.’

‘He loves his sports,’ one of them said as they watched him joining in a game of football.

‘I’ve noticed that too, he always joins any game we play and every dinner time he’s always in the thick of the action. I probably shouldn’t say this, but it does surprise me a little because he really isn’t the most athletically gifted.’

‘Wonderfully politically correct. He loves sport because he doesn’t have to talk.’

‘Of course. What’s going on now, looks like Billy is teasing him.’

‘Yeah looks that way.’

‘Billy!’ She shouted at the top of her voice. ‘Come here now!’

Scott

A few weeks before leaving high school Scott had a meeting with his career guidance counsellor.

‘Still looking at being a police officer Scott?’ he checked.

‘Yes sir.’

‘That’s excellent, a great career choice and I always like it when someone so young knows what they want to do and sticks with it.’

‘I’ve only ever wanted to be a cop.’

‘I see here you’re going to do criminal justice degree at college.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘That certainly is a great course choice for a future police man. Plus it will be a good all round degree that will open a few other doors for you if you do change your mind and decide to do something different.’

‘I’m not going to change my mind.’

‘Like I said I love your commitment to being a police man, but college is a long time in a person’s life and a lot can change.’

‘I’m going to be a cop.’

‘I wish every kid I see had your determination. Trust me though I’ve seen a lot of kids over the years sounding just as determined as you do right now and they’ve gone on to do something different with their lives, something that if I’d suggested it to them when they were sat in that chair, they would never have agreed with me.’

‘I’m going to be a cop.’

Justin.

Justin had been told to wait behind after class by his third grade teacher at the end of the school day.

‘Justin today was the third time in the last two weeks that you’ve been caught fighting,’ she said with a mixture of anger and concern. ‘What have you got to say for yourself?’

Justin merely shrugged his shoulders.

‘You can’t keep just shrugging your shoulders every time a teacher tells you off.’

‘Sorry Miss,’ Justin’s tone didn’t match his words.

‘Don’t say that because you think that’s what I want you to say. It’s not just the fighting Justin, it’s the way you are in class, you haven’t answered a question in class for the last couple of weeks either. You used to be one of the brightest and liveliest children in class.’

Justin went back to shrugging his shoulders.

‘Come on, I think I need to have a word with your mother,’ she said and gestured for Justin to follow him out to the school gates.

‘My Mom doesn’t pick me up from school.’

‘Who does then?’

‘My Aunty.’

‘Let’s have a word with her then,’ the teacher said and Justin followed her out of school. Once out of school Justin scurried up to his Aunty, catching the teacher by surprise, so she had to run a little to catch up with him.

‘Excuse me, is Justin your nephew?’

‘Yeah, that’s right, why?’

‘I’m sorry, but over the last couple of weeks Justin has been having a few behavioural issues, nothing major, just three little fights and being very quiet and disinterested in class. The only reason I’m mentioning it so soon is that Justin used to be one of my star pupils,’ just as the teacher finished speaking Justin’s Aunty burst into tears. ‘Oh it’s really nothing to be that upset about,’ the teacher said as she put a hand on the aunt’s shoulder. ‘Are you okay?’ She checked as she began to think that the tears can’t have been caused purely by what she said.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Justin’s Aunt managed to say amongst the tears. ‘I should’ve told you as soon as possible.’

Natasha

On the last night of their road trip Natasha and her sister were sharing a motel room just outside San Fransisco.

‘What an awesome two weeks,’ Natasha enthused as she flung herself onto the bed that her sister was already on.

‘Definitely special times,’ he sister agreed.

‘Thanks so much for coming along Jade.’

‘Not even close to needing to thank me, I’m just surprised you didn’t want some of your girlfriends from college to come with you instead.’

‘No chance, you are still definitely my number one girl. This is so corny and if you ever repeat this in front of anyone I might kill you, but any time someone asks me to think who my role models are, I always think of you.’

‘Oh, that’s so sweet, and yeah little bit corny too,’ the pair of them had a little laugh.

‘Seriously though I love having an older sister I can totally look up to and respect.’

‘Oh I’m not as perfect as you think,’ Jade said with a frown.

‘Really? Sounds like you have some gossip for me.’

‘I suppose I should tell you. A few weeks ago I had a one night stand, I was seriously drunk and it’s the only one I’ve ever had, but still it’s not good.’

‘That’s not that big a deal,’ Natasha said.

‘I know most people wouldn’t think so, but I do hate myself a little bit for having done it. I felt awful about it as soon as I woke up the next morning and any time I think of it since it still makes me feel sick.’

‘Was it not even fun on some basic level?’

‘You know what, it really wasn’t. It was definitely less fun than when I’m on my own. Actually I think I probably started regretting it about half way through, but couldn’t make myself stop. Anyway I’ve done it now and no matter how much I wish it I can’t take it back. I really can’t see me ever doing it again.’

‘Don’t worry, you’re still my role model. And thanks for telling me, makes me realise you’ll tell me anything.’

‘That’s what sisters are for.’

Anna

Anna’s hand was shaking as she put her key in the lock for the front door to the house she shared with her boyfriend. Eventually she managed to unlock the door and walk slowly and quietly in. She attempted to put her keys on the hook on the wall, but her shaking hands sent the keys to the floor instead.

‘Upstairs now!’ Her boyfriend angrily barked out his order from the top of the stairs.

Anna didn’t speak in response, instead she dutifully headed up the stairs and followed her boyfriend into their bedroom.

‘How many times have I told you to be home by six?!’ He screamed at her, with their faces less than a foot apart.

‘Sorry,’ Anna cowered slightly and started to back away. ‘It’s only ten past six.’

‘That’s not the point!’ He shouted so loud that it caused Anna to yelp. ‘It’s the sheer disrespect and disobedience that is unforgivable.’

‘Sorry, I promise I won’t do it again,’ Anna replied with a trembling voice.

‘You’re damn right you won’t,’ he lowered his voice but it was no less fear provoking. Then he reached around and grabbed her hair and dragged her by it until they were both in front of the mirror on their bedroom wardrobe. ‘You want to know why you won’t do it again?’ He spoke directly into one ear.

‘No please no,’ Anna replied as the tears began to flow.

‘The reason you won’t do it again is because you are mine,’ he said as he looked into the mirror and made Anna do the same. ‘There is no way a pathetic bitch like you can ever disobey me again, do you understand?’

‘Yes, yes, I promise I won’t do it again,’ she said between the sobs.

‘Look at you, you’re worthless, you should be happy that you’ve been given the chance to be mine, otherwise your entire existence would be pointless,’ he pushed her down to the floor, so she was on her knees, then grabbed the back of her neck. ‘Look how insignificant you are,’ he said as he squeezed on Anna’s neck, causing her to try and pull his hand away with both her hands.

‘I could destroy you any time I wanted to,’ he said then picked her up by her neck, until she was stood upright again. ‘Fortunately for you, you do have one use. I should have known the first time I saw you that you’ve only been put on this earth for one thing,’ he threw her onto the bed, so she was face down, then pulled her skirt up. ‘You think you can still manage to do this one thing right?’

‘Yes baby, of course, anything you want,’ Anna replied softly, as the tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

Don

Don walked into the boxing gym and headed for the collection of gloves.

‘Hey Don, before you put those gloves on I need to see you in my office,’ his coach said then headed to his office and gestured for Don to follow him.

‘What is it coach?’ Don checked after following him into the office.

‘Take a seat Don, unfortunately this is not going to be pleasant,’ coach said as he lowered himself into a chair.

‘Am I in trouble?’ Don wondered.

‘Big trouble, I’m afraid I’m kicking you out of my gym,’ the coach said with a sigh.

‘Just for tonight right?’

‘For good.’

‘What for coach? I’m always on time for training, I work as hard as any of the other guys, I’ve only lost a couple of fights.’

‘It’s nothing to do with your boxing abilities or your dedication to the sport. I received a phone call from your high school yesterday, telling me you were involved in a fight. In itself that would be bad enough, but this fight was by all accounts one sided and you took great pride in bragging about your boxing skills afterwards.’

‘I thought you’d be happy about me showing my skills.’

‘Sadly, in your case Don I don’t think boxing has ever been about the skills. You are exactly the type of kid that gives boxing a bad name. I believe in being a boxing coach, because I believe that it can help a lot of kids sort their life out, helping them to control their anger and aggression or just by giving them a new skill and something different they can focus on. You on the other hand want to learn how to box so you can be more efficient at hurting people.’

‘But coach, this is just one time, you have to give me another chance,’ Don pleaded.

‘It’s the third time I’ve had that sort of phone call from your school. I didn’t tell you about the other two because I hoped they were going to be the only incidents I heard about. I was hoping that you’d learn yourself that boxing wasn’t about that.’

‘Coach, please don’t do this to me, I need Boxing.’

‘You did this to yourself Don, no one else to blame and Boxing certainly doesn’t need you.’

Ronny

Ronny was helping his High School science teacher tidy up the lab after a class.

‘Great news about the scholarship,’ the teacher enthused as she washed some beakers.

‘Yeah,’ Ronny nodded and offered a little smile.

‘Big time congratulations, you’ve definitely earned it.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Seriously Ronny, I’ve never had a student who worked any harder than you,’ the teacher did her best to engage Ronny in eye contact and increase his enthusiasm.

‘I like the w...work.’

‘That’s more than half the battle, if you like something, you’ve got a great chance of being good at it. So you thought about what field you want to go into when you graduate from college?’

‘Re....re...research.’

‘Oh ok, research is good, will always need doing. But there are so many other things you could do. So are you looking forward to college?

‘Yeah, looking forward to the le....le....learning.’

‘Don’t forget the social aspect of College, that doesn’t have to mean getting blind drunk every night and never going to bed before sun rise.’

‘I know.’

‘You may never be the life and soul of the party Ronny, but never give up on people. You’ll meet some fascinating ones at college.’

‘I guess.’

Chapter 9

Scott

In is college dorm room Scot had several books open on his desk and was taking notes from one of them. His roommate came in and took a canned drink from the fridge.

‘Come on man,’ he said to Scott. ‘The parties already started, even you don’t want to miss this one.’

‘I’m sure it’ll be just like all the others,’ Scott replied without looking up from his work.

‘No way man, this is the biggest party of the year so far, everyone cool is invited.’

‘And me.’

‘You have cool factor man, chicks dig the quiet guy who studies a lot thing that you’ve got going on.’

‘Oh excellent, because I only study hard to get chicks.’

‘There you go, some cool sarcasm.’

‘Seriously I’m right in middle of something that I really want to stick with and get to the end of, so count me out.’

‘Come on man, Cindy Jones is going to be there and Nicole Berry,’ he spoke as if those ladies were Hollywood A-listers.

‘And from what I’ve heard so will half the football and basketball team, so I really don’t think that those two will be casting too many looks in my direction.’

‘Who said anything about them looking at you?’ He said after taking a couple of big gulps of his drink.

‘Let’s see, a few drunken hours in the presence of some, admittedly seriously good, eye candy or my career? Tough call.’

‘You really have got that sarcasm thing down to a fine art, some chicks dig that too. Come on man, it’s not like you want to be a world renowned Quantum Physicist, you only want to be a cop.’

‘A cop is just about the most important job there is in the world,’ Scot snapped back. ‘Besides, I don’t just want to be a cop, I want to be the best damn cop.’

---------------------------------

Scott got into the front of the van that Justin was driving, the other four gang members were in the back.

‘So you’ve picked out a cop to kill already?’ Anna asked Scott as Justin started up the engine.

‘Sure have, we didn’t all spend yesterday shopping,’ Scott replied as he put an address into his sat-nav.

‘To be fair that Trafford Centre is a pretty awesome mall, Natasha and I could’ve spent days in there.

‘Some of us have come over here to stick to the plan of killing people,’ Don announced. ‘Isn’t that right Scott?’ He checked.

‘We know all you live for is killing people,’ Anna said to Don with a withering look.

‘There is another form of physical contact I live for, and seen as we’re sharing a house now.’

‘Have you got a serious short term memory problem or are you just fucking stupid? Anna snapped. ‘If I have to tell you one more time to leave me alone, I’m not going to use my voice I’m going to use my feet and fists.’

‘Calm down Anna,’ Scott said, as Justin set off driving, following the directions from the sat-nav. ‘We’re a team remember.’

‘I know we’re a team, but can we trade him?’

Scott couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Sorry Anna, don’t think there are any other teams like us to trade with.’

It was only a ten minute trip to the house Scott wanted to get to. As soon as Justin parked the van, Scott put his black sunglasses on.

‘Okay guys, this shouldn’t take long,’ Scott said as he held up his knife.

Scott walked slowly down the drive, then rung the doorbell. As soon as the man opened the door Scott reached up with his knife and slashed the throat with a backhanded motion. It was déjà vu for Scott as his victim instinctively grabbed for his throat, in a completely vain attempt to stop the bleeding, then he made eye contact with Scott with that look of shock and despair that Scott remembered so clearly.

Just as Scott was putting the tape next to the body, a young lady walked into the hall. She took one look at Scott and the body on the floor, let out a gasp, put both hands to her mouth and slowly backed away from Scott.

‘You’re really not supposed to be here,’ Scott said as he stood back up after crouching down to put the tape on the floor. ‘But don’t worry, it really is this simple, if you scream I’ll kill you, if you don’t scream I won’t kill you,’ he added as he walked slowly towards her.

‘Now let’s take off those tights of yours,’ he said when he got up close to her, she was trembling and shaking her head and both eyes had filled up with tears. ‘Smile honey, you’re about to survive a meeting with the soon to be legendary Hitman.’

‘What the hell took you so long?’ Justin asked quietly, but angrily.

‘Yeah, were you killing him or trying to sell him something?’ Anna asked.

‘Don’t worry about it guys, just had a little unexpected witness trouble that’s all. But I took care of it.’

‘That’s so unfair that you get to kill two people,’ Don said.

‘Chill out Don,’ Scott said. ‘You don’t have long to wait now for you next opportunity to extinguish someone’s life. For now though we need to go find Justin a victim for tomorrow, and I’m pretty sure I know just the place, I’ve been reading about somewhere called Moss Side.’

Scott

Scott was wiping down the tables at the end of another evening working at an Italian Restaurant.

‘Another day another dollar Scott,’ the restaurant owner said with his genuine Italian accent, in his usual boisterous manner, as he slapped Scott on the shoulder in a friendly way.

‘Yes Sir,’ Scott replied as he was wiping the last table.

‘Have to admit of all the ways you could’ve worked your way through college, you could’ve done a lot worse,’ the owner said.

‘Not going to argue with that,’ Scott said as he threw his wiping cloth in the bin.

At this point Isabella, one of the waitresses came out of the kitchen, ready to leave.

‘Hey Scott, me and a couple of the guys are heading out for a few drinks, you want to come with us?’ She asked.

‘No thanks Isabella.’

‘Oh come on Scot, you’ve never been out with us and you’ll be leaving us soon.’

‘Sorry, just not in the night out mood,’ Scott replied. ‘I’m just going to head home.’

‘Is there a double bill of CSI on?’ Isabella checked with a smile.

‘Triple bill, actually,’ Scott returned the smile.

‘You certainly know what you want out of life,’ Isabella said. ‘I have to admire that. Have fun with the CSI gang.’

‘Thanks, I’m sure I will, they never let me down.’

‘Of course they don’t, only real people do that.’

Chapter 10

Sabine had got a taxi to the police station where Julia and Tony worked. She was directed up to the office by the lady on the front desk.

‘Hey, is everybody present and correct?’ Sabine said as she got up to Julia and Tony’s desk.

‘Yeah, everybody who is supposed to be in has reported for duty,’ Julia replied. ‘You sleep okay?’

‘Okay is a bit strong, but I did sleep, so that’s something. What about other Manchester stations?’

‘You really think he could have killed this soon?’ Tony asked.

‘I don’t think he’s come over here for the sightseeing,’ Sabine replied.

‘We’ll start ringing around,’ Julia said, and then she and Tony phoned all the local stations between them.

‘Sickeningly it looks like you might be right,’ Julia said after her third phone call. ‘A detective is considerably late for his shift and apparently that’s rare to the point of unique for him. I’ve got his address.’

‘Unless you guys have got anything else to do, I say we get round there,’ Sabine suggested.

‘I’ll drive this time,’ Tony said.

‘Car still on the drive, lights still on in the living room,’ Julia said upon looking at the detective’s house as she got out of Tony’s car. ‘This doesn’t look good.’

The three of them went up to the door, Tony rang the doorbell even though he strongly suspected there wasn’t going to be any answer. After a few moments he tried to peer through the crystal glass in the door, looking into the hall way.

‘Doesn’t look good at all,’ he said then broke the door down. ‘Oh God,’ was all he could muster after he swung the door open.

‘Fuck,’ Julia said as she looked at the body.

Sabine couldn’t manage any sort of verbal response, she stood, frozen to the spot. Only when she heard banging from upstairs did she snap out of it. She brushed past Julia and Tony, avoided the body and headed for the stairs.

‘Careful,’ Julia said as she and Tony ran after Sabine.

‘The Hitman is long gone, trust me,’ Sabine replied as she ran up the stairs.

In the corner of the bedroom a woman was sat on the floor, banging her feet on the floor. Her hands had been tied behind her back and to a leg of the bed with her own tights. A belt had been wrapped around her face to gag her. As soon as she saw Sabine come into the room, quickly followed by Julia and Tony, she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

‘You’re okay now, we’re cops,’ Sabine said as she went over to her and untied the belt from around her face, then the tights. Tony called in the crime and went to check the rest of the house.

‘Thank you so much,’ she said.

‘Are you okay?’ Sabine checked.

‘Physically I’m fine, he just tied me up,’ she said, whilst trembling a little.

‘What’s your name?’ Julia asked in a friendly tone.

‘Andrea.’

‘Andrea we can get you any sort of support you need,’ Julia said. ‘Counselling or whatever you want.’

‘Right now I just want to go home and sleep,’ Andrea said as she got up and stretched.

‘I don’t suppose you got a good look at the killer?’ Sabine checked with an apologetic smile. ‘Sorry I know you’ve been through a lot, but this guy is extremely dangerous,’ she added.

‘I did see him, but there wasn’t a lot to see.’

‘Let me guess,’ Sabine said. ‘Dressed in all black and wearing sunglasses?’

‘Yeah that’s it, and the sunglasses were those big wrap around ones so they covered quite a bit of his face. I could probably recognise him if I saw him wearing exactly the same things again. So do you guys know of this guy? Has he killed before?’

‘Not over here,’ Sabine said. ‘But he has killed six people in Los Angeles. Luckily for you he’s the sort of killer who only kills people he thinks deserve to die.’

‘Looks like he didn’t have a reason for you to die,’ Julia added.

‘He said something like that himself, I wasn’t really listening, I was too busy shaking with fear and making sure I didn’t scream.’

‘Come on, let’s get you home,’ Julia said then put and arm around Andrea and walked with her to the top of the stairs, then Andrea followed her down.

‘I’ve opened the back door, you can get out that way,’ Tony said from the bottom of the stairs.

‘Good call,’ Julia said. ‘You find anything else?’

‘Only the tape.’

By the time Julia got round to outside the front of the house with Andrea, a police car was there, quickly followed by a couple more and the crime scene investigators. Julia put Andrea in one of the cars and got the two officers in that car to take her home and make sure she had anything she needed. Meanwhile Tony got the four other officers on the scene together and told them to knock on every door on the street and then and all the other houses within quarter of a mile or so, checking for witnesses. Tony, Julia and Sabine headed back to the station.

‘No prints anywhere on the tape,’ Tony announced as he joined Julia and Sabine in an investigation room at the station. ‘No surprise their.’

‘Let’s see what he’s got to say for himself this time,’ Sabine said.

Tony put the tape in the machine and pressed play.

‘Hello English cops. No doubt the ever professional Lieutenant Larksson has given you all the details on my actions in L.A. Obviously you’ll have noticed the similarities between this killing and my first back home. That’s because to keep this little game fair I’ve got to produce the same challenge for both sets of cops. So you can expect all the killings to be somewhat familiar. As I didn’t give the LAPD much to go on with my first killing ,in the interest of fair play, I’ll not give anything away on this one. Oh I will mention one more thing though. Although I like England a lot, I don’t feel quite so comfortable here as I do in L.A. so I’m not planning to spend too much time here. Therefore murders will be occurring daily rather than weekly, so you’ll be hearing from me tomorrow.’

‘Still able to talk without saying anything,’ Sabine said despondently. ‘Although if we can take his word for it I guess he confirmed he is from LA.’

‘He did refer to it as back home,’ Julia agreed. ‘The murders coming every day sounds scary.’

‘On the plus side it could mean he’s more likely to make a mistake,’ Tony said.

‘Yeah, you’d have to think his planning can’t be as good as it was in LA,’ Sabine hoped.

‘We do have one advantage this time round,’ Julia said.

‘Go on,’ Sabine prompted her.

‘We know what sort of person he is going to kill, we might be able to do something with that information.’

‘For once I can feel like I’m one step ahead of him,’ Sabine agreed.

‘If he’s looking for an ex-con and he’s done any sort of research then,’ Tony said and looked at Julia.

‘There’s a great chance he’ll be heading to Moss Side,’ Julia finished Tony’s thoughts.

‘He’ll have wanted to find the victim by now,’ Sabine said. ‘Maybe we can go around this place and ask around in pubs and clubs.’

‘I think that’s our best option,’ Julia agreed. ‘There’s plenty of pubs in Moss Side, but we might get lucky.’

As they headed out of the investigation room Tony got a phone call.

‘Found a witness,’ Tony said as soon as he hung up. ‘Not a great witness, but an old guy was walking his dog around ten last night and saw a youngish male walking out of the victim’s house. There was a black van parked on the road outside, this witness said he saw the guy in black get in on the passenger side and then the van drove off. The witness remembers looking at the licence plate but that it was covered in what looked to be mud.’

‘So we can be pretty sure there are two of them,’ Sabine said.

‘At least two,’ Julia added. ‘And we can get the message out for police to be looking for black vans.’

To get round to more pubs quickly Tony went off on his own whilst Sabine went with Julia.

‘I can’t believe how many pubs are in this area,’ Julia said after three hours had gone by with nothing to go on.

‘All we can do is check as many as we possibly can, it only takes one for us to get a big break. My first big break on this case,’ Sabine said.

‘Absolutely,’ Julia agreed as she parked outside the latest pub for them to try.

When Julia and Sabine entered this establishment there was only one man behind the bar, polishing a few glasses.

‘Excuse me are you the landlord?’ Julia asked him.

‘I certainly am.’

‘I’m Detective Inspector Gough from the police.’ Julia showed him her badge.

‘What brings you here today?’ He asked. ‘There weren’t actually any fights last night, and anyway we don’t normally get blessed with a detective.’

‘I know, let alone one as good looking as me,’ Julia responded, catching the landlord a little off guard. ‘Actually we’re here about a matter more serious than a pub brawl.’

‘You can ask all the questions you want, I’m not exactly rushed off my feet.’

‘It won’t take long anyway,’ Julia assured him. ‘Have you noticed any American men in this place over the last two or three nights?’

‘Funny you should mention that, because there were two in here last night. One of them was definitely American, I know that because he actually spoke to me. I just presumed the other guy with him was American as well, but I couldn’t say for definite.’

‘Were either of these guys tall, lean and had dark hair?’ Julia asked with a hint of excitement, her and Sabine where now hanging on the landlord’s every word.

‘Actually they would both fit that description.’

‘What did he actually say to you?’ Julia asked.

‘I’m sorry I’ve got no idea. The thing with my job is I guess it’s a lot like being a hairdresser, you talk a lot and get talked to a lot. Most of the time you can’t even remember what you say yourself, let alone what people say to you.’

‘When you say he was American, I’m guessing you got that from his accent so what sort of accent was it?’ Sabine asked. ‘I’m mean was it like mine, or was it more New York type?’ She continued then did a good impression of a New York accent. Then she proceeded to give equally good examples of accents from more Southern States then one from the Mid-West region.

‘I’d say it was definitely more like your accent, but just a little bit stronger.’

‘Okay good. I don’t like to be judgmental about an area but, how can I put this, are there a few undesirable characters amongst your regular clientele?’ Sabine checked.

‘That’s it,’ the Landlord said as if he’d remembered a quiz answer just in time. ‘That’s pretty much what he asked me last night. And yeah plenty of my regulars have spent some time at her majesty’s pleasure.’

‘Can you remember what you said in response?’ Julia asked.

‘I probably spun him some yarn with one or two half truths for dramatic effect.’

‘But you can’t remember what you actually said?’ Julia probed.

‘No sorry.’

‘Might you have spoken about any regulars in particular?’ Julia asked.

‘I think I probably did, but couldn’t tell you for sure, certainly couldn’t tell you which regulars.’

‘Okay not to worry, you’ve been a great help anyway. If you do remember what you said to him can you please give me a ring straight away on this number,’ Julia gave him a card with her contact number on. ‘Also if you see either of these guys again, then ring the police or my number, or preferable both immediately.’

‘I will do. Is this bloke dangerous?’

‘Extremely,’ Julia said as she and Sabine headed out.

‘This case might be making me delusional,’ Sabine said just after they had both got back in the car. ‘So I want to check with you, we did just have a breakthrough didn’t we?’

‘I think we’re quite within our rights to do call it a breakthrough,’ Julia said.

‘Good, it seems like so long since I’ve had one of those that I thought I might not be able to recognise them anymore. Certainly my first on this case.’

‘We know the murder’s happening tonight and we know there’s a good chance that the victim was in this pub last night. So I’m thinking some sort of stakeout tonight is in order,’ Julia thought out loud.

‘Definitely, we need to be here tonight,’ Sabine agreed. ‘We can remind the landlord to be on the lookout for those two American’s again, as well as warning all the regular’s to be wary of anyone matching the descriptions.’

‘Even if this doesn’t lead to us catching them, it might at least stop tonight’s murder,’ Julia replied.

Tony had no such breakthroughs from the Pubs he went to, so when he heard of the success the ladies had he was happy to call off the search and meet them back at the station. Sabine and Julia were already in the investigation room when Tony arrived there.

‘A genuine lead,’ Tony said as he came into the room.

‘Definitely,’ Julia replied. ‘I’m just sorting out a stakeout now,’ she added then started dialling on her phone.

‘While you’re doing that I’ll ring around all the airports and ask for details on arrivals from America, a day or two prior to the murder,’ Tony said.

‘Good idea,’ Sabine said to Tony as Julia began her phone conversation.

‘Now I can ask them to highlight males in their twenties, possibly two travelling together,’ Tony said.

‘That would be ideal,’ Sabine said.

At six o’clock in the evening, Sabine and Julia returned to that pub, this time with Tony. Julia parked close enough to be able to see the door, but far enough away so they weren’t obviously looking at the pub. Tony went in to the pub, dressed to blend in as a regular, whilst Sabine and Julia stayed in the car.

‘I’ve still got that sickening feeling about all of this,’ Sabine said a few minutes after Tony had gone in.

‘What feeling?’ Julia asked.

‘That one I’ve had for weeks now, the one where I feel like I’m completely helpless and that I’m being completely outplayed in this game,’ Sabine said followed by a little sigh.

‘He’s only been here a few days and we’re making progress already,’ Julia said. ‘Sorry that was supposed to sound like a reason for us to be optimistic, not make out that we’re doing far better than you did at the LAPD.’

‘I know what you meant,’ Sabine replied with a little smile. ‘It’s just that I have this nagging feeling that even if we have taken a step forward, then he will have too, meaning he’s still one step ahead.’

‘We’ll catch up with him sooner or later,’ Julia promised, picking up on Sabine’s extreme frustration.

‘I could really do with it being sooner,’ Sabine admitted. ‘Ah the joys of stakeouts, stuck somewhere for hours, waiting for something to happen, something you’ve got a strong suspicion isn’t ever going to happen.’

‘Definitely not my favourite part of the job,’ Julia agreed. ‘At least this time I’m on one with someone I like and get on with.’

‘Tony a bit of a nightmare on stakeouts?’ Sabine asked with surprise in her tone.

‘Oh no, he’s fine, but I’ve had a few shockers in my time.’

‘Yeah me too, some people have no concept of the possibility of something that’s interesting to them, being mind numbingly boring to someone else.’

‘Tell me about it. Before Tony settled down with his current girlfriend, he would sometimes go on about his latest conquest. Why on earth he thought I’d want to hear about that I really don’t know, but even then he was easy enough to shut up and get onto a different topic.’

‘You guys do seem to get on pretty well.’

‘Definitely could have worse for a partner,’ Julia conceded.

‘Ever been anything more?’ Sabine pried.

‘Oh God no,’ Julia sounded genuinely repulsed.

Sabine let out a little laugh. ‘That actually was a convincing response.’

Over the next five hours or so Julia and Sabine got to know each other a lot better, but the one thing they wanted from the night, an appearance from the Hitman, never happened.

‘That’s closing time,’ Julia said as she saw Tony come out of the pub.

‘Nothing at all?’ Sabine asked Tony, to the point of pleading, as he got into the back of the car.

‘No sign of any Americans, let alone tall, lean ones wearing all black,’ Tony said, almost matching Sabine’s despondency.

‘Knew it,’ Sabine said. ‘He’s still one step ahead, probably more like three steps,’ she added then banged her fist down on the dashboard.

‘We think tomorrow’s victim will be a serial womaniser,’ Julia said, trying to help Sabine calm down. ‘So I’m thinking they’ll want to be doing their research tonight, probably in late bars and clubs. You fancy a night out with me Tony?’

‘Sounds like a plan to me, I’ll text the missus.’

‘You’re more than welcome to come along,’ Julia said to Sabine. ‘Or we can easily get you a taxi back to your hotel from here.’

‘If there’s even the tiniest chance that your trip out can lead to catching these guys, I’m going to be there.’

‘Thought so,’ Julia said with a half smile.

All the three of them got from their trips around the bars and clubs were slight headaches and increased intolerance of being bumped into. Just before three o’clock in the morning Julia got a phone call.

‘Yeah I know where you mean, we’ll be there in fifteen minutes,’ was the last thing she said before hanging up. ‘Fuck.’

‘Two down, four to go,’ Sabine said.

‘Afraid so,’ Julia replied.

‘Let’s get to the scene,’ Sabine said, her despondency was more apparent than her determination.

When they got to the scene there were two uniform officers stood by the body and another two putting out the tape to mark out the crime scene. Julia led the way and walked over to the two officers by the body.

‘So what have we got?’

‘A dead body ma’am,’ one of them said.

‘I didn’t think we’d have been called here if he’d only twisted his ankle,’ Julia said dismissively. ‘I was hoping for more specifics.’

‘Sorry Ma’am, cause of death isn’t clear, no stab or gunshot wound. No obvious sign of head trauma. This gentleman found the body,’ he said and gestured towards a middle aged man. ‘He called the police and we were the first to arrive. We found the tape, so we called that in and they called you guys,’ the officer continued.

‘Thank you,’ Julia said. ‘So sir you found the body?’ She turned to face the middle aged man.

‘Yes that’s right,’ Julia couldn’t decide whether he was nervous or just distressed by the situation.

‘Were you walking home?’ Julia asked.

‘Yeah I work shifts, I’m on six till two at the moment. I always walk this way, the alley is a short cut through to my house.’

‘Do you see many people down here?’ Julia asked.

‘No, I’ve been walking home this way for a month or so at this time and I reckon this poor guy is the first person I’ve seen. Not many people realise it’s a cut through, from that end it looks like a dead end you see.’

‘And you didn’t notice anyone else around when you discovered the body?’ Julia continued.

‘No, it was as quiet as ever.’

‘Okay, leave your details with these officers, and we might get in touch with you some time,’ Julia told him and gestured towards the uniformed officers.

Once Julia had finished her questioning session she went over to inspect the body with Tony and Sabine.

‘That windpipe looks crushed to me,’ Tony said.

‘They must have waited for him on his way home,’ Sabine said. ‘Either they were confident this guys would walk this way, or they didn’t mind who they killed. We need to find out if this guy was an ex-con.’

‘We can find that out soon enough in the morning,’ Julia said. ‘I don’t know about anyone else, but I really need to get to sleep.’

‘Sleep,’ Sabine said followed by a sigh. ‘Yeah I think I remember that.’

Justin

Justin was in his high school Principal’s office, sat in a chair, staring blankly over the shoulder of the male Principal.

‘I know there’s only a few weeks left of your final year,’ the Principal began to lecture Justin, something he had spent far too often doing for his liking over the last few years. ‘But I’m still in charge here, so I’m still in charge of you whilst you’re at this school.’

‘I know,’ Justin replied without changing the direction of his blank stare.

‘I gather that you’re not going to College,’ the Principal said and waited for a response that was not forthcoming. ‘All of your teachers say you are academically gifted enough to get a scholarship, let alone go to college.’

‘Good for me.’

‘No it isn’t, not if you’re not going to use your talents. Do you really think it’s fair that some kids have to work their butts off just to scrape into college, when you could breeze in but you can’t even summon the effort to fill in a few forms?’

‘Not really the right guy to ask about what’s fair.’

‘So you wouldn’t know if it was fair that you just broke that young man’s nose, just because you bumped into him in the corridor and he called you a weirdo?’

‘My definition of fair is hazy.’

‘So if you’re not going to College what are you going to do?’

‘Whatever I want.’

‘Whatever you want? Doing whatever you want, is that why you punch people in the face when they annoy you?’

‘No, that’s just using my talents.’

‘You’ve got an answer for everything haven’t you? Let me give you a warning, and I’m not speaking as your Principal anymore, just a piece of friendly advice to a young person. If you keep living the way you are now, life is going to be a lonely and miserable existence for you. Now people like me and your teachers can try all we can to change you, but really it has to be you that makes that change.’

‘You want to know why my definition of fair is so hazy?’ Justin asked and looked the Principal in the eye for the first time during that conversation.

‘Enlighten me.’

‘Because my parents were good people and they were killed by low life scum when I was just seven years old. So don’t come to me asking what’s fair or not.’

‘Sooner or later Justin, that excuse stops working.’

----------------------------

Justin waited at the end of the alley, with Scott, Anna and Natasha. It was a little after midnight when Scott’s phone rang.

‘Hey Don,’ Scott answered his phone.

‘He’s heading home now, tell Justin it’s show time!’ Don enthused.

Scott hung up straight away.

‘He’s on his way, should be here in a couple of minutes, Don will ring us if he takes a different route to last night. We’ll wait for you in the van,’ Scott told Justin.

‘If you need any help, give us a shout,’ Anna said to Justin.

‘Sorry Anna, you’ll have to wait for your next action.’

The other three went into the van that was parked nearby as Justin waited at the end of the alley, dressed in all black he blended into the darkness. The man he was waiting for turned down the alley without even noticing Justin. After walking another fifteen yards or so this man was kicked to the back of his right knee, the force of this kick sent the man up into the air and crashing back to the ground.

‘What the hell?’ He managed to say in his dazed state after his head bounced off the pavement.

Justin took a bandana out of his pocket and used it to gag his soon to be victim. Once the gag was applied Justin stamped on the right knee a couple of times, then quickly put the man into his favourite knee hold. This hold meant the right knee was contorted into a completely unnatural position, Justin had hold of both feet, which were crossed over, with his victim lying face down. Screams were muffled by the bandana, the man wriggled frantically, but there was no way he was getting out of the position Justin had put him into. Justin pulled harder on the feet, increasing the pressure on the knee, the muffled screams were music to his ears. After a minute or so the struggling stopped, the victim was motionless. Justin let go of the legs, flipped the man over onto his back and then one punch to the windpipe with his gloved hand caused a sickening crunch.

‘Top work Justin,’ Don said whilst clapping, he’d watch Justin’s attack from the end of the alley.

‘Keep quiet you fucking moron,’ Justin said. ‘Anyone could be listening.’

‘Oh of course, we must remain professional,’ Don conceded.

Scott came out of the van and left the tape by the victim.

--------------------------------------------

Justin

Justin was where he felt most comfortable, walking the streets of Los Angeles by himself, in the early hours of the morning. He walked past several people during his walks that lasted around two hours, but made no eye contact with any of them and never said a word. On this particular night though he heard a sound that made him search out some human interaction. It was a scream followed by a shriek for help. As soon as he heard it Justin sprinted in the direction of the noise, within thirty seconds or so he was with the woman who had made the noise. A man twice her size had hold of her by the throat and was pushing her back up against a wall. In his other hand he had her handbag. Once he saw the situation, Justin stopped sprinting, decelerating all the way down to a slow walk.

‘Let her go,’ Justin said calmly as he continued to walk slowly towards them.

‘Just my luck, a hero,’ the man said as he turned to look at Justin, without letting go of the lady’s throat.

‘Not just any hero, a hero who could easily kick your ass,’ Justin replied as he got within a few feet.

The man stared at Justin, then pushed the woman into him and set off running away from Justin, with her handbag.

Justin instinctively held his arms out so that he could catch her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly.

‘Thank you so much,’ she said whilst she hugged Justin as she started to cry.

‘No problem at all,’ Justin replied, without making any effort to hug her back.

‘Don’t make light of what you did,’ she said as she stopped hugging him, took half a step back and held both his arms as she looked right at him. ‘That jerk got one thing right, you are a hero.’

‘Sorry about your bag,’ Justin said with his usually monotone.

‘Oh don’t worry about that, I’m alive that’s more than enough right now.’

‘Yeah, I suppose that really should be enough,’ Justin said as he stared off into the distance in the direction that the mugger had run off in.