Hell on Earth

by Philip Palmer

  ‘Evil here,’ she said.

  ‘That’s the excrement.’

  ‘No, in addition to that. It’s the smell of evil. Supernatural evil. These were not killed by human hands.’

  ‘See this, Fillide,’ Tom said.

  ‘What is it?’

  Tom was studying the case itself. He knelt, and slipped on latex gloves and brushed off mould from the inside of the lid. He could see faint marks, scratches of some kind. He took a photograph and enlarged the image on his e-berry. Then he used the camera’s software to enhance the image further, until words became visible.

  ‘A message?’

  Tom studied the e-berry screen. He turned on the Paint function and sketched a few additions, finishing off lines that were smudged.

  ‘Someone carved a word on to the inside of the lid of the suitcase,’ he said. ‘With a knife probably, or a screwdriver, something sharp.’

  ‘What’s the word?’ said DI White, intrigued.

  ‘Actually not a word. A phrase. Blo. Blu. Blood. The blood of. Jesus. Jesus. No, Juwes. No.’ He added a dot. ‘Blood of the Juives. J, U, I V, E, S. Jews.’

  ‘That’s not how you spell Jews,’ said White.

  ‘It is in French. It’s even got the ‘i’ correct. It’s a sign. A taunt. He’s back.’

  ‘Who’s back?’ said DI Tony White. ‘Are you talking about Naberius? That’s the implication isn’t it? Either two different perps. Or Griggs was a Butcher of Clerkenwell case, which means Naberius was the perp, which means he’s still active. Somehow or other, Naberius is still alive.’

  ‘No, the monster is dead. I saw the corpse,’ said Fillide. ‘This is someone else. Something else. Maybe –’

  ‘Shh,’ said Tom calmly, and Fillide shushed.

  ‘So, what are we saying?’ said DI White.

  Tom was ignoring him. He was typing on his e-berry.

  He typed: Action Report. Explore possible linking of Jane and John Doe deaths at Silvertown with John Griggs, victim of Butcher of Clerkenwell aka Naberius. Surmise: Butcher is still alive. Further surmise: death of Naberius was a feint. Either Naberius is still alive. Or Naberius was innocent and was framed by the real killer, who is still at large.

  Tom knew very well that Naberius was not the killer; he’d just been the fall guy. It was the warlock Gogarty who really did those killings. But he couldn’t put that on the Met Net.

  A second later, Fillide got a beep on her e-berry and read the note he’d just sent to the Five Squad MIR, which he’d cc’d her in on. Her brow furrowed, as she read his message.

  ‘Guys, please, we’re talking here,’ said White.

  Fillide sent a direct message to Tom: WTF? Do you really mean this?

  He typed back on his e-berry: Wait.

  She typed: I’m waiting lover boy.

  He typed: Cut it out.

  She typed: Naberius wasn’t killer it was Gogarty.

  He typed: I know that but Gogarty dead too. Lets not discuss online.

  She typed: Whatever. Tom I love you.

  He typed: What?????

  She typed: I love you.

  He typed: FU.

  She typed: I mean it. Cant say it in words. Cant speak it out loudly. You know what my life it be like. You know how trapped am I. But Mi ti amo caro.

  Tom got the return message from Catriona: Will consider your Action Report. Wait at scene.

  Then he got the second message from Fillide, ending with ‘Mi ti amo caro.’

  He gulped.

  ‘Is this the same killer? Yes or no?’ said White.

  Tom sent a new message: I love you too.

  Catriona replied: Whoah boy, don’t go there. I have a wife, honey.

  Fillide sent a direct message to Tom: Ha!

  Tom to Fillide: Egg on face.

  DI Tony White was a study in fury by now.

  The next message was from Catriona: The guvnor says fuck off. The killer of John Griggs is dealt with. The way to kill a snake is to cut off its head.

  Tom typed: What if it was the wrong head?

  Catriona typed: Guvnor is erupting.

  Tom typed: What if it was the wrong head?

  Catriona typed: This is not a secure connection, bagsie the case, then return to MIR ASAP.

  Tom was sure of his ground now. He was convinced that the deaths of Naberius and Gogarty were part of some elaborate scam. The demon was not the killer, as they’d all inferred from the evidence at the time. But the warlock Gogarty was not the killer either. Or if he was, he wasn’t dead. The whole death and beheading thing was a trick or an illusion.

  It had all been, in retrospect, too easy.

  And now the real killer was back, repeating his patterns in a deliberately taunting manner. Out on another serial killing spree.

  Fillide was looking at him. ‘You’re thinking what I’m thinking?’ he said.

  ‘I am.’

  ‘It’s not over.’

  ‘What’s not over?’ said White angrily.

  ‘We think we may have a handle on this,’ said Tom. ‘We’re taking it over as a Five Squad murder investigation.’

  ‘You know who the killer is?’ asked White.

  ‘I have an idea.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘For now,’ said Tom, ‘let’s just call him Jack.’

  Chapter 6

  Action: Re-open case VTEL X5 434, aka ‘Gogarty’ case, aka Operation Zenith. All Operation Penumbra files to be re-indexed as Operation Zenith.

  Action: Review post mortem findings re Brian Gogarty.

  Action: Exhume the body of Brian Gogarty.

  Action: Open files on Silvertown Victims (Martha Hall and Andrew Michaelson).

  Action: Review Date of Death of Hall & Michaelson; explore hypothesis that bodies were magically preserved from decay whilst in the water and commenced decay only when suitcase was opened.

  Action: Interview known drinking pals of Martha Hall and Andrew Michaelson. List attached, officers assigned by initials.

  Action: Collate data on every unsolved murder that has taken place in London since the death of Gogarty.

  Action: Apply for case transfer re murder of Kayleigh Shaw, case TMOT X4.

  Action: Apply for case transfer re murder Rhiannon Barker, case TMOX X3.

  Action: Apply for case transfer re murder of Meera Shah, case TMPA X11.

  Action: Apply for exhumation of Wole Tutola, case OBFC X7.

  Action: Apply for case transfer re 14 London murders (list attached).

  Action: Apply for case transfer re 27 supposed death-by-muggings (list attached).

  Action: Apply for case transfer of 42 London murders (list attached).

  Action: Apply for case transfer of 162 London murders (list attached).

  Action: Set up second incident room for Operation Zenith murders in Limehouse station, Room 34 (aka Conference Room 3).

  Action: All officers to be aware that serial killer code name is Bravo; nickname ‘Jack’ is to be allowed informally but not in public.

  Action: Commission psychological profile of serial killer Bravo based on MO of 499 cases under consideration.

  Action: Assign osteograph expert to analysis of skeletons of 512 suspected victims of Bravo.

  Action: Run cross-check of all PM x-rays of suspected Bravo victims in Outer London and UK with reference to skull crush pattern found in 24 recent victims including Martha Hall and Andrew Michaelson.

  Action: Appoint DI Cadwallader as North West London IO of Operation Zenith.

  Action: Appoint DI Sloane as South West London IO of Operation Zenith.

  Action: Appoint DI Jackson as South East London and Hell’s Corridor IO of Operation Zenith (re victims carried by the tide past the Thames Barrage).

  Action: Renew press blackout on all murders related to Operation Zenith, aka Operation Bravo.

  Action: Appoint Gina Henderson as Acting SIO of Operation Zenith during 2 week holiday absence of Det. Supt. Randall between 1 and 14 June. NOTE: SIO Randall will not b
e available for text or email messages from any officer other than Acting SIO Randall in this period.

  Dougie came back after two weeks in Cornwall with the kids feeling wrecked. He’d barely slept; he’d read every single one of the Squad’s emails every day, forwarded to him by Gina. The case had become a nightmare. It was the largest murder squad investigation of all time by a factor of many. And he was running out of ideas.

  Either Gogarty was miraculously still alive or there was another killer out there who was even more dangerous than Gogarty had been.

  Or, prime hypothesis, Gogarty had been a spell-bound patsy just like Liam Prior, the staring man who had lured Sarah Penhall out of the satyr club.

  Which meant the warlock – whoever he might be - had used Gogarty as his proxy to commit the Embalmer and Butcher of Clerkenwell murders, and all the other killings. Then had compelled Gogarty to allow himself to be caught and killed.

  All this, apparently, done in order to taunt and humiliate Dougie Randall.

  One hundred and forty-three of the Bravo victims had suffered skull injuries consistent with a hand compressing the skull fatally. It was posited that either Bravo or a killer being manipulated by Bravo had supernatural powers and was capable of existing in a gigantic form.

  Dougie sat on all six case review panels, and resisted every effort to appoint a new SIO to the enquiry. Roy Hall, for reasons known only to himself, supported Dougie fully in this. Meanwhile, Roy had been appointed as official liaison to the Demon City Police Task Force which was conducting its parallel investigation into the Bravo murders.

  Necromancy and divination became part of Five Squad’s methodology; the spirits of ninety-two victims had been raised and interrogated. Their testimonies were worthless from an evidentiary point of view, though in Dougie’s opinion they were of publishable quality as prose poems of desolation and despair.

  Then, for no discernible reason, the murders stopped.

  Between the 1st of August 2024 and the thirtieth of August 2024, no Bravo-MO killings were logged. Operation Zenith continued its relentless work, but there were no new kills taking place.

  Dougie wondered what Jack aka Bravo would do next.

  Chapter 7

  ‘And Basil says, “You started it,” and the German diner says, “No we didn’t,” and Basil says, “Oh yes you did, you invaded Poland!” ’

  Veda giggled.

  ‘What’s Poland?’ she asked an instant later, having clearly not understood the joke at all.

  ‘Ah. Right,’ said Jacob. ‘Well. Poland is – a country the Germans invaded.’

  ‘And who are the Germans?’

  Jacob was almost flummoxed, but not quite. ‘The Germans are – a people who live in a country bigger than Poland. And they invaded Poland because they wanted an even bigger country, and that’s how the Second World War started. You remember what I said about the Second World War? Big battles, many dead. That’s why Basil says not to mention the war, because –’

  ‘I’m not stupid,’ Veda told him. ‘I know what the Second World War is. So what did the German say?’

  ‘He said – I can’t remember.’ Jacob had seen this episode at least a dozen times but even his memory lapsed occasionally. ‘But I do remember what happened next. The German girl is crying –’

  ‘Why is she crying?’

  ‘I think, because her father died in the war.’

  ‘But he was a German, he was a bad man, why would she cry because he’s dead?’

  ‘Not all Germans were bad.’

  ‘I thought that was the point, that all Germans were bad?’

  ‘Only the Nazis.’

  ‘What’s a –’

  ‘A Nazi is a bad person. A very evil person. Who may or may not be German but usually, er, is. Or was.’

  Veda frowned, her many faces rapt in concentration. ‘Was the woman’s dad really a Nazi?’

  ‘I don’t – are you going to let me tell this or not?’

  ‘Oh yes please, then I’d like the episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon and the geeks steal the film of Raiders of the Lost Ark.’

  That was one of Jacob’s favourites; he was looking forward to acting out the chase scene at the end, with Sheldon’s legs pounding and arms flapping.

  First things first though. He had to do Basil, suffering from concussion because a moose’s head has fallen on his head, delivering racist insults to the German diners.

  Jacob stood up and stretched as tall as he could, which was very tall, and put his finger upon his upper lip, and began an Adolf Hitler impersonation. ‘ “Ve haf vays of making you tork, ve are only obeying hors d’oeuvres!” ’

  Then as Polly: ‘ “Do your Jimmy Cagney, Basil!” ’

  Then as Basil, incredulous: ‘ “Jimmy Cagney?” ’

  Then as Polly doing Jimmy Cagney, waving one arm: ‘ “You dirty rat!” ’

  Then Jacob did Basil doing his Adolf Hitler walk. Jacob had long and elastic legs so he did this rather well, swinging each leg up in high goosesteps then turning briskly and back again.

  Veda was laughing like a drain throughout all this. Jacob had never been happier.

  ‘Manuel, what about Manuel?’ she insisted.

  Jacob as Manuel: ‘ “Hhalloo, hi hham speaking Henglish, Hi lehearnred it from a boook.” ’

  Veda clapped her hands in delight.

  Jacob collapsed in a chair, exhausted.

  ‘Again, again.’

  The doorbell rang.

  ‘That’ll be Ocado,’ Jacob said. ‘Let’s take a break. Then I have to cook dinner.’

  ‘Can I have burgers?’

  ‘Yes, you can have burgers.’

  ‘And can I have Pepsi?’

  ‘Just one. We don’t want you getting fat.’

  ‘I don’t think I can get fat,’ Veda informed him.

  ‘Let me get the groceries.’

  Jacob went out into the hall and peered through the spyhole till he was sure the Ocado van had driven off. Then he opened the door and carried the shopping in. Six bags, a week’s shopping. Enough for the three of them to eat well every night, though Sheila was often away.

  ‘I’ll do the toilet paper,’ said Veda. So Jacob gave her the big 12-roll pack toilet paper with a picture of a dog on it to carry upstairs. She liked taking the empty roll off and putting a new roll on. Sometimes she would take a full roll off and put a new full roll back on. Which was pointless, but it made her happy and Jacob didn’t like to tell her off.

  They’d been living for nearly six months now in this big rambling house near the Imperial War Museum, after Sheila had got fed up with the Bayswater flat. The rent was cheap because it was blighted land. But luckily they were on the outskirts of the cursed streets and Ocado were willing to deliver. And Jacob was even allowed to download books for his Kindle, though his internet access was confined to food shopping, book shopping and porn. And he wasn’t allowed Google or Wikipedia or any of the occult sites.

  Jacob guessed that Sheila was afraid he might find a magic spell that could vanquish her. Fat chance of that; the creature’s power was awesome.

  Their house was part of a terrace that had mostly fallen down when the end of the row was hit by a rocket during the Battle of London. Sheila had bought the house outright in cash, with a wink to the estate agent that spoke volumes. Jacob had stood by her side, in a black suit she had bought for him; a hulking hell creature who looked like a drug dealer’s minder.

  It was that easy.

  And because the neighbours and the postman and the delivery people all thought Sheila was a drug baroness, no one ever bothered them. The groceries were left outside the door. Letters and Amazon packages were placed inside the postal box Sheila had installed in the porch. Jehovah’s Witnesses gave them a wide berth; there were hundreds of them on the streets these days, they were more or less the only surviving and flourishing Christian sect, but even they knew better than to tangle with a gang boss.

  Jacob wasn’t allowed out in the d
ay, even though his documents were all in order, and Sheila’s cloaking spells meant that people didn’t see him properly. Even if the police were on his trail – which so far as he knew they weren’t – he’d be fine. But Sheila-Gogarty was the cautious type: belt and braces she’d called it, one of her many weirdly old-fashioned phrases.

  So Jacob kept house, and the shopping was delivered once a week, and the recycling and garbage were collected once a fortnight. They had no TV so he and Veda played games most of the time. Monopoly and Scrabble and chess were the main ones. Veda had always loved Monopoly. Although the first time he opened the box, Jacob had thrown away the Scottie dog; that had always been the real Sheila’s piece.

  They also played a lot of nonsense games that Jacob had made up. Like the game in which he acted out scenes from their favourite TV shows and movies. Veda loved this game; and Jacob loved making her laugh.

  After the third month in the house, Jacob decided to coach Veda through her GCSEs. Although in mental age she was the equivalent of a human eight-year-old, she was a quick learner. So he enrolled her on a distance learning course, using Sheila’s credit card - with her permission of course.

  When he wasn’t playing with Veda, Jacob read his books. He was studying the history of ancient Rome, and had read I, Claudius and the Falco novels of Lindsey Davies to fill in some of the background texture. He was also reading the Bible in Hebrew – the Old Testament, though Sheila had cut out all the chapters about Solomon’s temple. By and large he was happy, and so was Veda.

  Occasionally, though, Jacob wondered if Veda was as much of a child as she appeared to be. Perhaps she was only so amazingly sweet and happy and cheerful all the time in order to lift his spirits?