“Manchester would be the first place he would be looked for. However, he has made no attempt to hide his destination has he?” said Bill Green.
“So he made for Leeds for a reason?” said Padwick.
“Dobson has only one reason to live and that’s to kill,” said Green.
“You think he’s after Newton, don’t you Bill?” said Padwick.
“Yes, I do. I think that in his sick mind he blames Newton for Lemmings death,” said Bill Green.
“Right, so do I. Make sure Newton is armed and that he is collected in the mornings and driven home at night. Will that do,” said Padwick.
“Yes sir, that will do nicely and thank you,” said Bill Green.
Chapter 31
Dobson had disappeared into thin air. Nothing more was heard or seen of him for the next fourteen months. Padwick gradually began to wind down the operation to catch him. Other operations began to take precedence and were less expensive to run. Andy’s mind and energies were drawn into other investigations. He began to leave his gun at home. He began to drive himself home without a police driver.
On the night of the 17th December, Andy had driven home as usual and had taken the lift to the penthouse of his building. He arrived home in the dark and the automatic light on his floor did not come on. He tried the light switch. Nothing. The bulb must need changing, he thought. He took the door keys out of his pocket and moved towards his door. Reached it and inserted his key in the lock. As he did, he felt a blow to his back and then a numbing pain and then was surprised to lose some of the feeling in his legs. He felt another blow. Suddenly the pain became intense. He cried out in agony. He turned and leaned against the wall because his legs did not seem to work. He slid down the wall and to his side, leaving a crimson rainbow down the wall. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Dobson’s face smirking at him and the long blade of a knife in his hand.
Suddenly, the hallway was filled by a flood of light as the penthouse door was opened and Cathy stood framed by the light at the door to the penthouse. Dobson made a lunge towards her, but she quickly slammed the door in his face. He smiled. The key was in the lock where Andy had left it. Slowly, he turned the key in the lock and opened the door. He let himself in and entered the corridor to the penthouse. The corridor was short, just a few metres, leading into a large open space. One wall of this room was lined with four huge glass sliding doors that opened onto a veranda overlooking the canal. At the end of the room he could see an archway into a large state-of-the-art modern kitchen. He stood scrutinising the areas carefully. He noticed a phone on a side table nearby. He moved towards it and ripped it out of its socket. He took the table and placed it against the door. He stepped into the room and picked up a large armchair. He put this on top of the table. To his left were three doors. He opened the first, revealing a home office with filing cabinets and a computer. The second door opened into a home cinema, and the third was library. Next to this room was a corridor leading to a staircase and a second floor. He ascended the stairs. At the top he found four doors. They were all closed. He opened the first door. It was a bedroom, lined with fitted wardrobes. He opened each carefully. They were all empty.
The next door he tried was a bathroom. She was nowhere to be seen. Got to be inside here somewhere! She can’t hide from me. I’m not leaving a witness, he thought. He went to a door. She has to be here; in one of these rooms, he thought, there’s nowhere else left to hide. He braced himself and opened another of the doors. It was another bedroom. Nothing! Only one room left. Now she had to be in this room. He moved to the door. He felt his blood rising as he turned the door handle. He pushed the door sharply open. She was stood by the side of a double bed. He noticed an open bed table draw. She had a mobile phone to her ear. He gave an animal-like grunt of satisfaction and moved quickly towards her. She dropped the mobile. It fell to the floor and her other arm rose. In her hand was a gun. She wrapped her now-free hand around it, as Andy had shown her. Dobson stopped and smiled.
*
“You’re not a killer,” he said. “It takes guts to kill and girls haven’t the guts!”
He moved forward again, quickly. Cathy fired. The retort of the gun and the recoil shocked her. It was much louder than she had anticipated. He was much closer now and in panic Cathy fired repeatedly. Still he came. If she had shot him, it seemed to have no effect. She turned her head away, so as not to see the knife enter her and fired two rapid shots and then the gun clicked as the hammer hit an empty chamber. She stood waiting for the knife to enter and the pain and then, to her surprise, she heard a thud as his body hit the floor. She turned her head back and saw his body face down on the floor. She dropped the gun and started sobbing. She gave out long uncontrollable sobs that shook her whole body. And then she thought of Andy.
Dobson had not felt the pain immediately. The first shots had missed him. One had just clipped the flesh of his upper arm. It was only when she had fired the last two shots that he felt a shaft of pain pass through his body and the blood in his throat. He had collapsed to the floor with a bullet in his abdomen. The second bullet had entered his chest and passed through, severing his spine.
Cathy rushed past Dobson’s body. Tearing the barricade that Dodson had made apart, she opened the door and fell to her knees beside the collapsed body of Andy. She cradled him in her arms. Believing him to be dead, she sobbed. Deep, deep sobs that made her body shake and tore her heart apart. Andy gave a groan of pain. She placed his head on her lap and kissed him and that’s how the police found her, next to Andy sitting in a pool of his blood. He was barely alive… but he was alive and that was all that mattered to her.
The Child Predators Page 15