***
Nathan contemplated calling Jack to see if he could hurry an update along. He grabbed the phone from the bed and searched for the number. The phone began to ring as he located Jack’s details.
‘Hello’ he answered
‘Nathan, its Jack’
‘Ironic, I was just about to call you’
‘Great, look, there’s a package on its way to you now,’ the sound of cars passing were heard in the background. ‘My driver will deliver them to you once he has dropped me off. There’s a file in there that you requested from one of the girls in the office, anything you would care to update me with?’
‘File……I’ll let you know when I see it’ confused by what could be on its way.
‘Nathan, when Malcolm, my driver, gets there, don’t hang around. Get in the car and he’ll bring you to me’
‘Where is it you’re going Jack?’
‘Sal called about five minutes ago. She’s halfway through completing her report, she wanted to know if we wanted to come down and get a sneak peek before it’s published……I said yes, of course!’
‘Great, I’ll see you there’
‘Will do, bye’ the call was ended.
Nathan felt the familiar excitement enter his body. Fears of being room-bound slowly began evaporating as he darted towards the wardrobes and got dressed. He pondered over the details that were being sent to him, attempting to remember if anything had been requested. He couldn’t think at the time. Just have to wait and see I suppose.
***
The door was opened from the other side, the figure entering through the wooden frame. The girl watched as he moved to her side, blocked by the long cabinet. They were in darkness together, her and the guest. Silence filled her ears, she forced herself to listen harder, attempting to pick up any noise from the room. The ringing sensation began to deafen her and she shook her head to break free of the irritating pitch. The muffled growl came from behind, she tried to turn to face it, her binds restricting her. The growling neared her, the scraping of boots coming closer. She moaned as the rope around her wrists cut into the skin. Its breath warmed her ear as it sat behind her, faint cries of no came from the gag in her mouth. He placed his nose to her cheek and sniffed her scent, the wolf mask remained on the hanging rack. He pushed his tongue from between his lips to taste her fear, the tip connecting with her skin.
Her temple connected with his nose and sent a sharp pain through his skull, his eyes began to leak tears. She had swung as hard as possible, striking a sensitive part and causing him to stagger rearwards.
‘You BITCH……you FUCKING BITCH!’ he screamed as he headed for the door. He slammed it behind him and stormed up the stairs to the kitchen. The four carcasses lay upon the table as he entered, the blood pooling beneath them. He moved to the bathroom, his feet thudding on each stride. The light came to life and he witnessed the damage caused by the new girl. The slow trickle of blood escaped his left nostril, he touched the area where her head had connected. His nose felt tender, the tingle sensation appeared when he placed his fingers upon it.
‘Stupid……stupid, stupid, stuuuuuuuuupid!’ he bellowed at the reflection.
The eyes glared back at him, reddening with rage.
‘You fucking idiot!’
You made a silly mistake
It’s your fault, your fucking stupid fault!’
You aren’t quite there yet…..are you
‘I’m close enough….closer than you’
Noooooooooooooo you’re not
‘I’ll show you…..I’ll fucking show you’
Go on then….do it, make your mark…..use those teeth and leave your mark
‘I will………remember, I’m the Wolf now…..me!’ his fist connected with the glass and it created a spider web of cracks as he stormed out of the room.
‘I’ll fucking show you!’ he growled.
The room came to life as the light was switched on, the girls eyes blurred from the sudden blinding. She stared straight ahead, trying to focus on the guest. His boots offered little noise as he paced towards her. The palm of his hand connected with her cheek, her head was thrown to the side as the slapping sound stung her ear. Her skin tingled as the tears ran down her face. The bloody handprint was sprawled across the side he struck, the remaining life that had pooled under his feast.
Do it…..leave your mark
Her hair was gripped and he forced her head backwards, the sudden thrust startled her. She moaned and cried for him to stop, it was too late. He sunk his teeth into her cheek and tasted the fresh blood as he ripped the soft skin. He clenched his teeth tighter and felt the flesh rip as his teeth sawed away. The warm liquid gathered under his tongue and he swilled it within his mouth, swallowing the puddle of her life. She begged, louder this time, as the attack numbed her face. Her tears stung the opening in her cheek, the salt finding the torn muscle. He turned and exited, leaving the light on for her to see the red splattered on her arm and the floor.
‘There’s my mark……….I warned you, I am becoming!’
***
Nathan was greeted by Jack as he climbed from the Mercedes. They shook hands and walked toward the entrance of the Morgue. Nathan had left the package in his room, not opening it and deciding to go straight to Jack’s location. There was a slight breeze as the door closed behind him.
‘Sal?’ no answer
‘She’s probably down the hall again’ Jack stated as they moved. Nathan, once again, took in the surroundings of the aged building. The echoes from their shoes filled the corridor. Jack tapped his knuckles upon the door and was asked to enter, they obeyed the request.
‘Jack, how nice to see you’ greeted Sally, her body covered with a white suit, her face hidden with a mask and goggles.
‘Morning Nathan’
‘Morning’ he replied sheepishly
‘Here, I advise you place these on….it’s a bit pongy!’ she pointed towards a box of face masks. Nathan pulled the elastic straps and placed the white guard over his nose and mouth, the straps tore several strands of grey hair from his head as they were released. He flared his nostrils, retaliating to the pain.
‘Follow on boys’ she ushered with a wave of her gloved hand.
They moved towards the corner of the room. The oil drum found at Mr Breen’s residence, sat upon a table. Under the table was a deep trough made of plastic.
‘I’ll give you the run-down of the procedures we took’
‘Fire away’ mumbled Jack
‘Firstly, we dusted the drum. The obvious results came back…..nothing of interest. So we decided to drain the contents. Problem was, the stuff inside could have been so badly corroded that tipping it out would have damaged it….so’ she moved to the side of the barrel.
‘We placed this trough under the drum, to catch the liquid. We then punctured a hole in the lid and one at the bottom, just here’ her finger aimed at the slow trickle of brown water.
‘The liquid inside started to drain, the hole in the top allowed to empty without bubbling or curdling any more…..good isn’t it!’
‘Fabulous, what else?’ quizzed Jack
‘Easy tiger, I’m getting to it’ she hissed.
‘We allowed the contents to drain for several hours, as you can see it is still flowing as we speak. The liquid had curdled more than we had hoped’
‘What was the liquid?’ asked Nathan, intrigued by the process
‘Water, old water….and decayed flesh, mixed with an array of stomach acid and broken down muscle, slash, organs!’ her hand moved diagonally across her body upon issuing the word slash.
‘Jesus, he put the whole body in there!’
‘Two whole bodies’.
‘Two?’ Jack stood wide eyed.
‘That’s why I wanted you to come down as soon as possible Jack. When the contents had half emptied we began removing what we could see and grab a hold of, come on, I’ll show you’.
They followed her into a side room, upo
n the table lay a variety of objects. They stood around the large square table and gazed at the items.
‘This is what we pulled first’ the skull starred back from the white surface.
‘That’s what I saw when we opened it!’ confirmed Jack
‘It is. You can see where a blow had been taken, just here, at the back of the cranium’ the small hold held several cracks as the bone had splintered.
‘Any ideas on what type of weapon was used?’ asked Nathan
‘Hard to say really, judging by the size of the impact it would appear to be a rounded object, possibly a ball hammer or piece of piping’
‘Right, so the impact area is at the back of the skull, that would indicate that they were hit from behind, taken by surprise?’ Nathan threw a couple of ideas into the mix, it helped him to create a picture of the attack in his mind’s eye.
‘Yes…..very likely actually’ agreed Sally. She placed the grey object back onto the table and moved to the next.
‘This one was at the bottom of the barrel, we only just discovered it this morning’ the second skull had been shattered in a larger area, the jaw was dislocated on one side.
‘Jesus, where’s the initial impact on this one?’ Jack was intrigued by the find’s, he saw the puzzle coming slowly together.
‘Well, if you look around the back, just here above the base of the skull, you can make out the similar strike mark from the other skull’
‘But, judging by the deformity and mass damage, I would say this one put up more of a fight. The blow was delivered and hit lower than planned, which could mean that the victim was the same or similar height to the attacker. The initial hit, which should have been the killing strike, failed and the victim defended them self…..resulting in the face being bashed in with the weapon, reference the caving in of the temple and separation of the jaw’ Nathan stopped for a breath.
‘My god Nathan’, started Sally, ‘Who says C.S.I doesn’t teach you anything!’ laughing. Nathan accepted the humour as a well done remark.
‘Well what you just said is exactly what I believe had happened. In between the two skulls were the rest of the bodies. Broken rib cages, snapped Femur’s and the other bones located in a human body’.
‘Right, so we can say, that judging by the remains we have here, the first victim was male, roughly six-two. That would be a good match for Mr Breen. But what about the second?’ stated Jack.
‘Good question, that’s what I’m hoping to find out by tomorrow. We are sending the teeth away for screening, after the tests are complete we should have two matches to the victims’.
‘Sal that’s great, I can’t thank you enough for showing us this, really…thanks’
Sally blushed at Jacks heart felt appreciation.
‘You guy’s……go on, out you go. You’re cramping my style’ winking as they took the hint.
‘So we have two bodies, both with similar attacks, one worse off than the other. Both hidden away in the barrel in Mr Breen’s garden shed. Decayed badly, must be a week or more’ Jack rolled the words out as they walked, both men picturing a similar image in their heads.
‘Well we can only guess that the second body belongs to the teacher that went missing from Abby’s school’
‘Miss……’ Jack browsed through his notebook, ‘Carrigot, Miss Carrigot’.
‘Okay, so we have two missing people possibly located. One of which is the alias that the Wolf has being using to acquire a job at the schools’
‘He won’t be using it anymore, if he watches the news he would have seen the raid plastered all over it’ suggested Jack.
‘Good point, but it’s not what I’m thinking. The school that gave the others a reference, St Paul’s, they all said that the picture we have of the Wolf is not Mr Breen’
‘So what are you saying Nathan?’
‘That Mr Breen and the Wolf must have known each other in some way!’
‘You think?’
‘Oh yeah, I’m not putting it down to luck that he decided to kill Mr Breen, not knowing who he is, and used his name and occupation as an alias to abduct girls and torture, eventually kill them’.
‘I see what you mean. We need to check Mr Breen’s tutor schedule for the last, say, six months…..see if anything pop’s up!’
‘It may be longer than that Jack but it’s a start’.
They departed the building and climbed into the car that had been sat waiting for them. Jack ordered Malcolm to drive back to the hotel so they could drop Nathan off. The ride was silent as both men created a plan of actions in their heads.
***
The Wolf decided to take a nap. He had burned energy whilst attacking the girl and the lack of sleep from the recent abduction had tired his brain. He removed his clothes and sat upon the large arm chair, its leather surface cooled his sweating skin. His mind raced with what had just happened, the throbbing sensation still housed within his nose. He allowed the blood to dry to his face, he wanted to see his appearance when waking, to see the old life upon his lips. He drifted slowly, his body becoming relaxed.
The girl sat slumped over in the chair, her body jerked as she whimpered. Her mind raced with worry and fear, the same questions spinning around in her mind. Where am I?.....Why am I here?.....Who is doing this?......Why are they doing it?......, the answers never came. The light had been left on for her to look upon the carnage he had caused, the biting of her cheek had aided in loosening the rag in her mouth. She licked at it slowly, the pain shooting through her head. The gag moved inch by inch, she wriggled her jaw delicately to help slip it off. It dropped and hung around her neck, her chest grew as the oxygen filled her lungs. She gasped for several minutes, the air soothing her.
Chapter Nineteen
He ran as fast as his body could take him. The invisible beast ran by his side. From the corner of his eye he could see its breath, the hot plumes escaping its large mouth as it panted, he matched its pattern of air inhalation and exhaling; their hearts beating in unison. His skin felt no cold as he leapt through his snowy surroundings, every couple of strides he would lower his body to the ground and vault forward with his hands; the white powder flicked out behind him. He felt alive, he moved like the beast, they breathed together; they ran together. He was becoming.
The beast had stopped suddenly, catching him off guard and he fell to the ground, the snow covered his head. He knelt and turned to face his friend, its breath appeared distant and the cracking of foliage encouraged Russell to track it. The branches were bent from his view as he pushed through the woods, he followed the beast as it moved past the large trunks, its shadow partially cast as the moon glared down from above. Russell followed with curiosity, he didn’t understand why his friend had stopped. It intrigued him to find out.
He stopped short as he neared the edge of the wood, the crisp white fields lay ahead. He saw the dark mass and it saw him, their eyes connected and the wolf offered a loud howl to the light in the sky. He moved towards it, noticing the body on the floor. He gazed around and noticed that he was back in the location where he had first met the woman, the one he had killed. Russell approached the body nervously, still unaware of the wolf’s intent. He saw the naked legs and moved around the wolf’s large shadow to observe her bloodied body.
He stopped as his heart raced, the beating sounding in his ears. The woman was gone, the blood from her body had disappeared with her. Now, in her place, lay the fragile girl, the red cloak buttoned around her neck, her heart pumping the red liquid from the gaping hole. He fell to his knees and placed a hand on her stomach. She looked just like she did when he had left the house, her pale skin and wide eyes remained exact. The stab wound from the shard of glass prominent on her small chest, the blood pooling in her lungs.
‘Sarah…….I’m sorry, I’m so, so, sorry’ he wept
The beast beside him growled away his tears, the warning issued and heard. He dried his eyes and looked at his sisters body with a stone cold expression. He had to fight the
remorse and block it from his mind, he battled his emotions by introducing fear into others, by controlling the weak and manipulating those that he could. The wolf had beckoned him to the body, he had to see her; he needed to learn of how his work should be done…..how he will become. He leant back and fired the deep howl to his moon, it glared back down upon him, warming his skin and accepting his offer. Her heart was for his becoming, the trade was complete.
***
Nathan lay upon the bed, the folder placed to his side. He had finished placing the collage of information upon the wall. His room now beginning to appear like the office, just more spacious and comfortable. He preferred his new surroundings. He could work with peace of mind from unwanted guests. He picked up the folder and sat himself against the headboard and the mass of bulky pillows provided a great lumbar support. He ripped open the envelope and removed the brown A4 folder and its contents. He lifted the front open and read the first page.
Mr Cawley
This folder contains the details you had asked for. I apologise for the amount but as you can see, there was a lot to overlook. The pages show all cases of violence, murder, death and other investigations that may be relevant to the Wolf case. I hope everything is satisfactory and if you need any more assistance, just call.
Thank you
Lillian
Nathan didn’t know the name of the young constable that he had asked for help. The note seemed formal, as if she had taken pride in retrieving the information he had asked her for. He felt a wave of admiration for her. He then hoped that the folder did hold the details he needed. It would be a shame to let the young woman down. He flipped through the contents, finishing at the final page. It held the number eighty six at the bottom.
Little Red Page 17