by Lauren Algeo
All the local MP candidates were asked to attend a fundraising concert for Cancer Research. It was being held in a concert hall in their borough and there would be live music from several big name bands. A select number of high profile figures would be attending, as well as members of the public, and Daniel suggested that it would be a good idea for he and his mother to go too.
He knew Jawara wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to show off his model girlfriend to the press. The man would be there for hours, working the crowd and chatting to his ‘fans’. He wanted to reclaim his popularity in the polls.
Daniel would be with his parents for the duration of the event and wouldn’t have much time to work on Jawara. So far he’d made people end their own lives but this time he wanted to try something else. Jawara was strong-willed so Daniel might not be able to break him in such a short space of time however there were plenty of weaker people who he could get to.
The concert was held on a Friday night in April and his parents dressed up for the occasion. Daniel thought they looked far more presentable than Jawara and his trashy girlfriend – she wore a dress that was a size too small and very low cut. His mother was elegant in comparison with her flowing peach dress and subtle make-up.
The concert hall was already full of people when they arrived and they had a VIP table near to the stage. Daniel sipped orange juice and pretended to listen to the introduction speech from the host while he scoured the room for a vessel. Jawara was always repeating his ‘struggles’ to rise up against white racists so it seemed ironic if he were to be released by another black man.
Daniel found a suitable candidate about halfway down the room. There was a drug dealer hidden among the public standing section. He had come to the event at the request of some socialites who needed a cocaine fix to get through the evening. A quick rustle in his mind told Daniel that the man had already snorted a couple of lines himself in the toilets and he was busy trying to suss out any other buyers in the crowd.
Daniel took control and used the screen on the man’s phone to check what he looked like. Dylan the drug dealer was a skinny, black man with a shaved head and twitching fingers. The cocaine use had made him easy to manipulate. Daniel wove his lean body through the standing crowd with ease. He was perfect. Being killed by a drug dealer would forever taint Jawara’s public image. People would think he had been involved with drugs too and his death was the result of a deal gone wrong. His father would look like a saint after that scandal and sail through the election.
The dealer had no weapons on him but Daniel didn’t need one. Jawara may have had a lot more muscle than Dylan but the wiry man had drug-fuelled, brute strength. Daniel whispered to him to come further forward until he was right at the front of the standing section. Jawara was sitting at a table two over from their family and Daniel could see him slouched there with one arm draped around his girlfriend’s shoulders and a glass of Champagne in his other hand. Daniel would soon wipe that arrogant smirk from his face.
He spoke rapidly to Dylan’s hazy mind, being careful not to go too deep for fear of the drugs affecting him as well. The man’s brain was firing thoughts all over the place and it was a challenge to get him to focus on the task at hand. Dylan didn’t question where the persuading voice in his head had suddenly come from or what it was saying. He simply listened to Daniel’s words, believing they made perfect sense.
Yes, that man at the VIP table at the front had given him a dirty look. He was dealing his own stash and had taken customers away from Dylan. He deserved to be taught a lesson. No one disrespected him and got away with it.
Daniel kept the pressure on Dylan’s mind until Jawara got up from the table mid-way through a band’s performance. Daniel checked his top-line thoughts and saw that he was intending to go to the toilet then the bar. The music was boring him and he wanted more alcohol to take his mind off it.
Daniel had barely noticed what was happening on the stage. He’d clapped at the appropriate moments on autopilot and smiled whenever his parents looked at him. The bands were all middle-of-the-road, easy listening acts to appeal to all age ranges and each one sounded the same to him, despite the differences in age between some.
He zoned the current middle-aged, revival band out and concentrated on Dylan. ‘He’s heading for the toilets,’ he whispered. ‘Follow him in. It will be nice and quiet in there.’
Dylan obediently manoeuvred through the crowd, towards the exit doors. Jawara had been going to the toilets just outside the doors at the front of the hall. Daniel craned his neck and caught a glimpse of Dylan as he passed through them. The man was fairly tall and he was wearing a black shirt and jeans. The shirt was a couple of sizes too big for his skinny frame and Daniel knew it was to conceal the pouch of cocaine bags that was strapped to his stomach.
His mother sang along to a love song beside him and Daniel nodded his head in time to the music he barely registered. Keeping up his act had become second nature to him. His parents had no idea what he was really up to while he was sat at that table.
Daniel stayed with Dylan’s mind while he entered the men’s toilets and caught sight of Jawara. He was standing at the urinals beside another man who was just doing up his trousers. A quick flick of Dylan’s head towards the two cubicles showed that they were empty.
‘Hold it,’ he told Dylan in a low voice. ‘Wait for the other man to leave.’
Daniel came further forward into Dylan’s head and felt the man’s hands balling into fists. There was anger pulsing inside him and he longed to unleash his rage on Jawara. How dare this flashy bastard disrespect him and try to steal his business.
The second man, an older guy in a grey suit, gave him a brief nod as he passed him at the door. The toilets were temporarily empty and Dylan lunged forward with barely a nudge of encouragement from Daniel. The cocaine had clouded his judgement and made him irrationally angry. He couldn’t have been a more perfect vessel. Daniel held back and watched with amusement through Dylan’s eyes as he grabbed Jawara and flung him backwards towards one of the cubicles.
‘Hey!’ Jawara had been mid-flow and urine trickled down his leg as he stumbled backwards.
‘You got no business here,’ Dylan snarled.
He punched the stunned Jawara hard in the face and shoved him into the cubicle.
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Jawara tried to fight past but Dylan swiftly locked the door behind them and swung his fist again.
Jawara ducked the blow but he fell back against the toilet in the confined space. There was blood gushing from his nose after the first punch and his eyes were wide with shock.
‘Help!’ he spluttered, trying to regain his balance.
He was larger than Dylan but he’d been caught unaware. He tried to hit back at his mystery attacker only Dylan was too quick.
‘There’s no help for you here,’ he growled.
Daniel smiled gleefully to himself. He could see in Dylan’s mind that he only intended to wound the snivelling man in front of him. Daniel had other ideas. He plucked up the reins temporarily and closed Dylan’s hands around Jawara’s throat.
‘No, I don’t want…’ Dylan started to protest in his mind.
Daniel cut him off swiftly. ‘You need to show everyone who’s in charge around here,’ he hissed. ‘Make an example of this piece of shit.’
Dylan still didn’t want to kill Jawara, even in his heightened state, so Daniel locked him away in a dark corner of his mind. He would deal with Jawara himself. He came fully forward into Dylan’s body and felt his heart rate quicken in time to the man’s rapid beat. He squeezed Dylan’s hands tighter around Jawara’s neck, sending all of his powerful rage there.
Jawara bucked against him and swung his fists to try and beat his attacker away. Daniel barely felt the stinging blows that landed on Dylan’s body. He held on and clenched his fingers as hard as he could. There was a gurgling, choking sound coming from Jawara and his eyes bulged in his head.
He thrashed and twisted in
the tight cubicle but his efforts were becoming weaker. Daniel squeezed harder still and blood vessels burst on the surface of Jawara’s wide eyes. The man knew that he was going to die and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Despite his political popularity and self-belief, he was still powerless under the iron grip of the enraged stranger before him.
Dylan fought to gain back control of his mind and body however Daniel was too strong. He was going to watch this arrogant man leave the world and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.
Jawara’s legs buckled as he lost consciousness and Daniel used Dylan’s quivering arms to manoeuvre him onto the toilet seat. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and the lids closed so Daniel wouldn’t be able to see the life fade from them. It was a shame but the releasing itself made him feel invincible.
He waited until he was sure that Jawara was gone before releasing Dylan’s chokehold. Jawara’s head lolled forward onto his chest although his body remained sitting upright on the toilet. His trousers had fallen down around his ankles in the struggle and there was urine drying on his thigh. Daniel gave a nod of satisfaction; he had done it. This releasing had been against people far stronger than Izzy or Peter and he’d been triumphant. He could take on anyone.
Daniel walked Dylan out of the cubicle and he closed the door behind him. The toilets were still empty and he quickly fiddled with the lock so it turned to ‘occupied’ on the outside. It would be a while before anyone discovered Jawara’s body inside.
The music from the band on stage filtered through as he retreated a little from Dylan’s mind. As soon as he gave him some control back, Dylan bolted from the toilets and sprinted for the main exit. In spite of his status as a drug dealer, he had never killed anyone before and he was horrified by what had just happened. The cocaine buzz was wearing off and he was more than aware that he’d murdered a stranger in cold blood. He ran as fast as he could and Daniel let him go.
He was euphoric. A god. The song reached its crescendo and the band thanked the crowd for having them. Daniel hopped to his feet beside his mother and applauded the band wildly. He had crushed his father’s biggest opponent and no one would ever know it was him. This was his night. All of these people were cheering for him. He shouted along with them and let the pleasure surge through his body until he thought he would burst. No one could stop him now.
‘We can drive up on Friday afternoon after Daniel’s lesson.’ Marie was suddenly staring right at him across the dinner table.
‘Uh huh.’ Daniel blinked hard and tried to focus on the room again.
He’d been so caught up in the memories of Jawara’s releasing that he hadn’t followed any of the conversation. His parents’ plates were nearly empty and he’d barely eaten half of his dinner. He cut off a piece of steak and put it in his mouth, even though he had no desire to eat it. His heart was racing with the euphoria of his memory and the need to release again was strong.
‘We should take Ellen with us if she’s free,’ Connors suggested. ‘That way Daniel can get up to speed with everything he’s missed over the last week or so.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ Marie smiled.
Daniel held back his scowl of annoyance. Having his new tutor tagging along would limit the amount of time he could spend planning. Between her and his overbearing mother, he wouldn’t get a minute of peace.
‘Sounds great,’ he said through gritted teeth.
He swallowed another mouthful of food and ignored the churning urge in his stomach. He had to contain himself until he was able to release someone at the relative privacy of Chequers. Surely there would be someone there who he could get away with releasing?
He thought again of his new tutor and the curious way in which she’d expelled him from her mind. He’d be able to dig further into her past if she was with them for the weekend. Perhaps there was something there he could use to amuse himself and quell the burning desire within him. Maybe having her come along wouldn’t be so bad after all.
His lips relaxed into a cold smile as he finished the rest of his dinner. Chequers couldn’t come around fast enough.
Chapter 30
Brewer glanced up as Richards sauntered into the dining room. It was Monday morning and the team were gathered early to escort Connors to the House of Commons. Seok and Adders were drinking tea and talking about their weekends but Brewer didn’t have much to share with them.
Ellen had officially been offered the job as Daniel’s tutor so they’d spent most of it devising lesson plans and getting her subject knowledge up to scratch. She was due to start later on that morning and Brewer was nervous about her facing Daniel again. He had done nothing but reassure her about the incident last Friday yet deep down there was a sliver of worry over her pushing the boy from her mind.
She hadn’t given anything away as such, but he might wonder about her mental strength and a curious child hiker was no good for either of them. He hoped his fear was unfounded and that Daniel was too focussed on the summit to bother with the mind of his new tutor.
‘Boss will be ready in five,’ Richards told them as he picked up the pot to pour his own cup of tea. ‘He wants to know if any of us can work overtime this weekend?’
‘How come?’ Adders wrinkled his nose.
‘He’s taking the family to Chequers for a couple of days,’ Richards said.
Brewer was suddenly alert. ‘Is that the country house?’
‘Yeah, it’s in Hertfordshire,’ Seok told him. ‘It’s a big place but they’re pretty stingy on heating.’
‘I was going to the football and for a curry on Saturday,’ Adders moaned.
‘Well they only need two of us, so you still can,’ Richards shrugged.
‘I don’t mind going,’ Brewer offered. ‘I could do with the extra money this month – the wife went on a shopping spree over the weekend.’
Money was a better cover than his real motive. Going to Chequers with the Connors family was an opportunity to put the responsibility back on him and take the pressure off Ellen. He would have two days to get close to Daniel in a far more secluded environment. He might be able to inject the boy with the insulin and get rid of him for good without Ellen having to spend weeks tutoring him until a chance presented itself. He could kill Daniel way before the summit deadline.
‘Ok, I’ll tell Connors you’re in,’ Richards nodded. ‘You or me, Seok?’
‘I can do it,’ Seok nodded. ‘The in-laws are staying for a week so it’s a good excuse to get away for a couple of days.’
Brewer raised an eyebrow in surprise. Seok never shared anything personal and he hadn’t even known the man was married.
‘That would be great, mate,’ Richards said. ‘I’ll cover the next one.’
‘I don’t know why Connors even needs protection at that place,’ Adders said. ‘He won’t have anyone else important there and I doubt they’ll leave the house much. It will be an easy weekend for you two.’
‘I’m sure he’ll still need us,’ Brewer shrugged. ‘There’s bound to be the odd nutter who finds out that he’s staying there.’
‘Remember that crazy woman who stood at the gate throwing eggs at Davenport’s car last time we were there?’ Richards sniggered.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Adders laughed. ‘She tried to scale the fence but kept falling off. You’ve got to hand it to her, she kept right on climbing and slipping until the old bill carted her off.’
‘Maybe it won’t be so boring after all,’ Seok smiled.
Brewer studied the man out of the corner of his eye. If anyone was going to put a stop to him killing Daniel it was Seok. He was disappointed that Adders or Richards wouldn’t be going with him instead. Seok would be watching him far more closely than they might have.
He would have to try and get some time away from the man in order to orchestrate a plan. He couldn’t let Seok find out about the insulin or arouse his suspicions if he attempted to trail Daniel. He would have to be extra careful now.
Brewer checked his w
atch. ‘It’s time to go,’ he told the team.
They all got to their feet noisily, putting away newspapers, mugs and breakfast plates. Brewer waited by the door and checked his phone. Ellen was on her way there for her first official lesson as Daniel’s tutor and she’d been nervous that morning.
She’d tried to disguise it but he’d noticed how her eyes had darted around the room and how she’d fiddled constantly with a bracelet on her wrist while he’d made her a cup of tea. Brewer hoped the worry they both weren’t expressing to each other was unfounded. Daniel had bigger things to focus on.
Brewer repeated that to himself as the team walked to the main entrance of the building. Ellen was under strict instructions to call him as soon as her first morning was over so he could do nothing but wait until then. It would all be fine.
Brewer’s phone buzzed in his pocket as the team were waiting for Connors in the reception of the House of Commons. He dug it out and saw Ellen’s name on the screen. It was only 11:45am – had something happened?
‘Excuse me, I have to take this.’ He walked briskly away from the team and out of the silent lobby. He answered as soon as he got near the doors to the courtyard. ‘Hello? Are you ok?’
‘Hi.’ She sounded normal. ‘Yes, I’m fine. It’s going ok.’
Brewer let out the breath that he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. ‘Good. Is everything all right with Daniel?’
‘He’s… Daniel,’ she said slowly. ‘He’s playing his innocent self very well but he hasn’t tried to access my mind again yet, if that’s what you meant?’
That was a relief. If Daniel had been suspicious of Ellen after last time, surely he would have acted already.
‘That’s good news,’ Brewer nodded, pacing around as he spoke. ‘I was worried that it was something bad.’
‘No, it’s fine. I was actually calling to tell you that Marie has asked if I will accompany the family on a trip this weekend.’