Body Switch (A Sam Rader Thriller Book 2)

by Simon King

  “Good night,” she said.

  “Good night,” Tim whispered from the shadows and she heard him also make himself comfortable, the springs of his mattress squeaking slightly.

  But sleep did not come quickly for either of them, Sam shuffling a few times for that perfect position, while Tim simply turned on his back to stare up at the ceiling. Thoughts weighed heavy on him and Sam could feel it from where she lay.

  As the minutes passed, the darkness hung heavy in the room, the silence broken by the occasional car passing out on the road. But country towns weren’t known for their nighttime traffic and so the passing cars were few and far between. Sam tossed and turned for what felt like hours, but nothing helped her drift off. The silence coming from the other bed worried her, knowing Tim was struggling with something too painful to share. They had shared plenty of rooms during the past few months and Sam knew what Tim sounded like when asleep and silence wasn’t part of his repertoire. She was about to ask if he was OK again, when he broke the silence himself.

  “Evelyn Janson was her name,” he began, his tone matter-of-factly. And finally, Tim revealed the story behind the woman.

  3

  Evelyn Jansen had been a loner her entire life. Friends weren’t something she ever kept close and her family was as distant as one could get. Her mother had been a voracious drug user from an early age and after giving birth to her daughter, had overdosed shortly after. Evelyn was sent to live with her father, but being a young soldier, meant looking after a baby was next to impossible.

  The young Evie, as she eventually preferred to be called, ended up in the care of her grandparents, raising her in a strict Methodist household that tolerated very little and allowed even less. As Evie grew older, her life consisted of little more than school and chores.

  Her father was eventually killed in an auto wreck, his blood alcohol reading off the charts at the time. The young orphan attended the funeral as an 8-year old girl and returned home almost a woman, her childhood effectively ending that day. Despite her grandparents trying their best to maintain a positive home environment for their child, Evie broke loose, preferring to act out.

  She eventually ran away from home and, after being returned once by the police, ran far enough to avoid getting caught a second time. After meeting a twenties-something woman in a small town outside Chicago, a young and naive girl ended up posing for a number of smalltime ‘adult photographers’. Whilst the money seemed good to her, it was when one of them put the hard word on her to try prostitution, that Evie once again found herself running.

  Every girl may run from something in their lives at one point, but for Evelyn Jansen, it felt as if she would run the rest of her life. Her life lacked a fundamental part that gave most people stability; love. There was none. Whilst what remained of her family didn’t miss her, the friendships she occasionally made felt flat and forced, the kind no-one remembered a week later.

  For Evie, life became nothing more than that of a tumbleweed, rolling wherever the winds of time and circumstances pushed her. Her homes consisted of cheap motels when she could afford them, truck stop restrooms when she couldn’t, or sometimes a dry patch underneath some overpass along a highway. Her income came mainly from odd jobs in bars and diners, waitressing as much as she could before moving on.

  Life may have continued along the same path for her entire life, were it not for an unfortunate crossing with a notorious serial killer called Charles Clementine, who’d been murdering women between New Orleans and Houston for the better part of 3 years. Or maybe it was a fortunate crossing with the psycho, depending on how one viewed the outcome.

  It had been nearing evening and Evie was still several miles from her destination, walking along route 14, when a vehicle slowed to offer her a ride. The previous person had taken her all the way from Houston to Kaplan, dropping her near a crossroad before turning south. The day had been a warm one and with a clear sky overhead, the t-shirt she wore served its purpose as she headed towards her next destination. It was another 7 miles to the next town and Evie walked swiftly to make it before nightfall.

  The stranger that pulled up a short time later had kind eyes and a gentle voice and Evie, taught to recognize the harsh interior of a person’s soul from first impressions, accepted the offer of a ride. After jumping into the front seat, the killer quickly subdued his victim with a syringe which he stabbed into his latest victim, rendering her unconscious almost instantly.

  But unbeknownst to the vehicle’s occupants, someone else was watching, had in fact been watching for far longer than anyone would believe. Once the killer turned down a small track and headed away from the main road, he believed he was safely hidden from prying eyes, free to add the latest victim to his ever-growing tally. But this victim would not only slip through his clutches, but she would also be the reason for his downfall.

  The time between Charles Clementine slowing down to offer the lonely figure a ride and her hopping in was only a mere 49 seconds, but it was those 49 seconds that saved the woman’s life. Tim and his partner Fenton Hughes had been trailing the serial killer ever since he left his apartment in Baytown, Houston.

  While it had been easy tailing him amongst the heavy peak hour traffic, it wasn’t so simple once he reached the open road. To make matters worse, Tim’s heart began to sink once he felt the familiar rattle of a flat tire.

  They swung their car onto the shoulder as the taillights of the BMW disappeared over the next crest. Positive that that would be the last they saw of the killer that day, the pair quickly set about to change the blowout. They worked as if possessed by the fastest pit crew in history, swinging back onto the road in a cloud of gravel and smoke less than 5 minutes later.

  It turned into a desperate catch-up attempt, Tim flooring the rental Honda to within an inch of its mechanical possibilities. And as they hit the top of a low-lying hill, Fenton spotted the unique brake-light pattern of the BMW ahead, just as it turned down the secluded lane.

  Tim killed the lights as he turned onto the dirt track, both windows down as they listened for any identifying sounds. After a brief moment of panic when they reached a t-junction, Fenton again spotted the brake lights to the left and across a small field, pulling in next to a drainage ditch.

  The two men pulled their own vehicle over, killed the engine and began to cover the rest of the distance on foot. It was almost a full moon and the field was lit up enough for the chasers to see a shadow walking around the German saloon as he prepared for whatever horror he had in mind.

  But the only horror Charles Clementine would see that night were the teeth that rained down on him before he had a chance to hurt Evie. She was lying unconscious beside the car, Charles standing over her and rubbing his hands together when Tim and Fenton surprised him. His brief attempt at an excuse had barely enough time to take flight before the disinterested men set on him, dragging the screaming coward to the rear of the car and pushing him to the ground.

  Fenton watched on as Tim made short work of the man, his throat torn out with a single bite as the familiar gurgling rose into the night air. He stepped aside as the blood sprayed across the dirt, the man’s struggles kicking up small tufts of dust. It didn’t take long for Clementine to feel the final moments of his life flow out from the wound, desperately still trying to gasp for mercy. But the only mercy offered to him was the same as what he’d offered his own victims.

  A clean-up crew attended the scene moments later and took the unconscious victim to a private medical station where they monitored her condition. Tim remained with her and tried his best to explain away what had happened, telling the woman that he’d found her lying on the side of the road.

  But what neither Tim, Fenton or the Pogrom hierarchy expected was that Evie had been awake the entire time, able to hear everything that happened. She recalled in detail the events from the previous night and no matter how hard Tim tried to deflect her attention, the story was blown wide open.

  Knowing the gravity of
the situation, Tim made a call to John Milton and filled him in on what he’d learned. After a lengthy debate, it was decided to investigate the girl herself and see what they could find.

  It was Tim and Fenton that spent considerable time with Evie, learning about the young girl’s adventures. For the two men, it didn’t take long for them to realize that the girl sitting before them was no different to their own experiences. Whilst Tim was one of Pogrom’s seven cannibal descendants, the rest of the agents, like Fenton, were just outcasts, the type society normally discarded for not indulging in the mainstream hive.

  Finally, after several days of debating, investigating and arguing, Evie was taken before John Milton and Xavier Ward to discuss the possibility of joining the organization. With the bubbly personality everyone would come to know her by, both Jon and Xavier were instantly impressed as Evie was welcomed in with open arms. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

  After spending several weeks training and shadowing various agents, she was finally paired with one of her rescuers. Tim became Evie’s mentor and partner, the pair quickly proving to be a formidable force when it came to hunting serial killers.

  Within a few short months, the duo had effectively ended more serial killers than the rest had during the previous year. Both John and Xavier were so impressed with the pair, they gave them free reign in choosing which cases they wanted to pursue.

  The hunting continued for many more months and the memorial room ceremonies became an almost weekly event for the pair. Everything seemed to be working perfectly, with Pogrom making a serious dent in the murder rate of the country.

  But then things began to change, things that at the time, felt to be unavoidable. A certain attraction began to bloom between the agents and it wasn’t something either of them could hide. The whisperings quickly found their back to Milton and Ward and once they were aware of the situation, made the impossible choice to break up the partnership.

  With Tim and Evie effectively split up, both were re-assigned to new partners. Tim was matched with Trudy Lin, a 6-year veteran of Pogrom, while Evie was assigned to Fenton, the second of her rescuers. But if history had a way of repeating itself, it did with explosive consequences.

  This time it was Fenton and Evie that hit the ground running, ending the lives of numerous killers. Evie had an unmistakable thirst for ending the lives of the monsters that stalked the country. She may not have had the thirst for blood the way some of the cannibals did, but her thirst was for seeing the killers die, and watch them she did.

  The other thing that made Evie and Fenton a one-of-a-kind team was that neither were cannibals. It went against the rules of the organization, both Milton and Ward both maintaining that every team needed at least one, their bloodthirsty instinct seen as the foundation of their abilities. But with neither Evie nor Fenton possessing the traits, their team was made up of what John Milton liked to call ‘mere mortals’, destroying the belief held by the Pogrom heads for so long.

  While Evie and Tim had been effectively separated, the pair were anything but. Their affection towards each other continued to grow, with the pair spending every non-working moment together. The relationship blossomed into a genuine love affair and Evie eventually moved into Tim’s home, the couple effectively taking the next step.

  During the final month of normality, Tim proposed to Evie in true style, popping the question down in the memorial room. Just like Sam, the room had been one of the first stops for Evie during her initial tour and had always held a special place in her heart. She saw it as the one thing she’d achieved in her life that really mattered, a place for not only remembering the victims, but also the murderers she helped end. It gave real meaning to her new life, a life that had once been nothing more than a simple existence.

  While Tim had acted on his feelings for the new girl in town with little delay, there was another that also found himself falling for the bubbly new personality. While everyone instantly fell in love with Evie, it was Fenton that had a real emotional connection to her, not unusual considering their very similar lives pre-Pogrom.

  But while Tim was able to act on his feelings, Fenton found himself unable to, firstly because of his incredible shyness when it came to women, the other because of the trust both John and Xavier had put in him once the relationship between Tim and Evie became public. It put extra pressure on his shoulders to hide his true feelings and give their pairing the professional attention it needed.

  Instead of allowing his emotions to take control, Fenton swallowed them, using his sadness instead to fuel the relationship in other ways, mainly by hunting killers. It was just the kind of fuel he needed, giving the SK hunter a real fire in his belly. Although he found it tough working in such close proximity to his secret attraction, he always maintained the highest level of professionalism he’d always been known for.

  Things took a turn for the worst during one particularly horrendous investigation that required multiple agents to work together. An active SK known simply as ‘Red’, had been active in and around Chicago, murdering his victims with a fearful speed that left authorities in a real tailspin. He’d been the brother of another serial killer called Richard Simpson, and had witnessed the killing of his only family member on a hidden cam he and his brother had installed in their torture chamber. The brothers were identical twins and this minor detail had gone unnoticed by Pogrom, an oversight of epic proportions. When Tim ended Richard Simpson in the very room they’d used to torture and kill their victims, the agent was unaware of the intrusive audience watching on.

  Whilst Red’s usual murder rate was one per day, he’d managed to murder three people in a single 24 hours, leaving a red rose in each of his victim’s mouths like a kind of signature trademark. He wanted revenge on the agents and his killing spree’s sole purpose was to get their attention.

  Pogrom agents were assigned and within 6 days of Red’s killing spree starting, four teams of agents were sent to Sheboygan to help track him down. Both John Milton and Xavier Ward held a meeting with the agents, ensuring each understood the urgency of the situation. Red had murdered both men and women, including a 14-year old girl. His rampage was fueled by revenge, promising to continue until Tim faced him.

  Most of the killings took place along the shores of Lake Michigan, the killer sometimes working his way from one town to the next. Police were left completely baffled by the speed of the suspect, calling for help from the FBI around the same time Pogrom zeroed in on the psycho.

  It was around this time that the relationship between Tim and Evie had taken a slight turn south. Their communication hadn’t been what it used to be and Evie struggled to understand what had happened. Tim had practically withdrawn himself more and more since Evie had made a revelation to him that shook him to his very core.

  She’d fallen pregnant, pleading for Tim to keep it a secret for the time being. It was after one of their intimate moments that she’d whispered the news into his ear, Tim seeing the real excitement in her eyes. She’d never believed she was capable of motherhood and now found herself facing an impossible dream with the man she loved.

  Evie made the decision to reveal their secret to John and Xavier at the monthly agent’s meeting, usually held on the first day of the month. Tim reluctantly agreed, knowing that changing her mind would be like trying to change the course of the Titanic by hand. If anything, Evelyn Jansen was one of the most headstrong women he’d ever known, a true independent soul if ever there was one.

  But it wasn’t just her decision to remain in the field for another two weeks that he had issue with, because Tim had been struggling with another problem, one that seemed to run perfectly parallel with it.

  Tim had always known what he truly was. Besides being a great agent and an effective SK hunter, there was a much darker side to him, one that he understood to be something truly evil. His father had been a prolific serial killer and cannibal, Jeffery Dahmer one of the country’s true monsters. It was through his father that Ti
m inherited all of the evil instincts that had made him such a powerful killer.

  Those very instincts had grown from confusing and overpowering urges, into a controlled source of bloodlust that seemed to help him identify, find and end killers. But what if he had a child? Would that child end up with the same instincts and thirst for violence that had been handed to him directly from such a vicious beast?

  That very question had haunted Tim for many years, long before his first ever relationship would come to work right beside him. It frightened him to think that he had the power to bring a new killer into the world, one destined to inflict horror and pain on it, just like good old daddy.

  After spending many years in a seemingly endless battle of confusion, Tim had made the decision to never father children. But the decision wouldn’t be complete unless he took real action and during one particularly bad month of struggling with whether he’d made the right choice, Tim booked himself in for a vasectomy.

  The procedure was completed in less than a day, his conscience eased immediately. Despite never having “been” with another girl, he now felt as if it was no longer something that would hold him back. In Tim’s mind, he was finally free of the responsibility, allowing himself to open up to whomever happened to come along.

  The news of Evie’s pregnancy hit Tim hard, unable to tell her about the procedure that had rendered him unable to father children. Knowing that he couldn’t have been responsible for the pregnancy, Tim chose to confront the only other person he knew to have real feelings for his fiancé; his old partner, Fenton.