Lights Out

by Stopforth, W. J.

  To his horror he could see a slate grey police boat heading in their direction. He could feel the adrenaline start to pump through his body as his eyes followed the boats route. It was no mistake; it was definitely working its way toward them.

  Ryan sensed that something was wrong and turned to follow Jimmy’s gaze. His eyes rested on the same Police boat and he saw something vaguely familiar. He squinted, and this time he could make out the long hair, blowing in the breeze and the resolute stance of Lam. Ryan felt surprise and relief all at the same time. He looked across at Jimmy, and saw his face twisted in an angry disbelief. Ryan allowed himself a faint smile, and for a second was able to push away the thought that he may not make it.

  The thought quickly dissolved when Jimmy grabbed Ryan’s waist by his belt and pulled him closer against the gun. He leaned in toward Ryan’s ear and whispered.

  “If you make a sound, a noise, I will kill you on the spot. Now move forwards toward the middle of the crowd.” By now Ryan could feel that the ferry had slowed down. They were maybe just a couple of minutes from the pier, but this ferry would not be doing its normal docking procedure. Ryan moved forwards slowly trying to decide what to do. He knew that any moment the police boat would be up against the side of the ferry and that Jimmy would need to make a decision about what to do. For sure they wouldn’t make it to the pier.

  Lam could feel the breeze on her face as her hair whipped around her head like Medusa as the boat sped along the water. She stood at the front of the police boat holding on with one hand. With the other she was holding and talking into a walkie-talkie. The Star Ferry manager had been fast and efficient. Within a couple of minutes they had contacted and updated the Celestial Star driver, notified the Kowloon Police and arranged for a police boat to pick her up. She was impressed, and felt encouraged that they would be able to intercept Jimmy and retrieve Ryan before anything untoward happened.

  The boat drew closer and she felt like a wolf circling a sheep, pushing it into a corner until it had nowhere else to hide. She just hoped that Jimmy didn’t do anything stupid in a panic to save himself.

  The engine was still on and the noise, coupled with the sound of the speedboat, was getting louder and louder. Ryan could sense the unease in Jimmy and he shuffled from one foot to the other trying to decide what his next step would be.

  Jimmy was furious with himself. He felt trapped and hadn’t given Lam enough credit to intercept him. He was running out of options. If he killed Ryan now it would be in plain sight, and he would never get off the boat alive. The only option was to take Harper as hostage to keep himself alive. Once on dry ground he would think of something else.

  A loud haler crackled and jumped to life, making everyone on board the ferry turn their heads towards the police boat.

  “Luk, you need to give it up and let Harper go. We have police waiting at both Piers. Drop your weapon and slide it across the floor.” Lam spoke into the loud haler.

  Two Police officers had their weapons trained on the ferry, pointing in the direction of the lower deck.

  The whole ferry erupted in whispers as people started to look around at the person next to them, fearing that they were standing next to an armed man. People started to move towards the opposite side of the boat causing the ferry to tilt slightly to one side increasing the fear amidst the passengers.

  Jimmy gripped Ryan tighter placing his arm around his neck and across his chest, and pushed the gun at Ryan’s temple with his other free hand. Ryan sucked in a breath as he felt the cold steel against his head. His breathing was becoming laboured with Jimmy’s arm restricting the airflow.

  Jimmy’s blood was pumping wildly now and he could feel his heartbeat in his ears. In his head he was already picturing his twenty-year career collapsing around him. He knew that he had stepped over the line this time. It was over for him.

  The pressure across Ryan’s throat was increasing making it hard for him to breath properly. In desperation Ryan grabbed Jimmy’s forearms and tried to release enough of the grip to allow him to get a full breath in, but Jimmy’s grasp was surprisingly strong. He could feel the pressure of the gun on his temple and closed his eyes momentarily to try and compose himself. The panic he felt was shutting down his mind section by section. He was worried that if his heart beat any faster that he may pass out with the stress.

  “NO” Jimmy yelled out to Lam, “It’s never too late. If you don’t stand down I will kill him right here, right now. Don’t push me Lam”. Jimmy shouted, his voice cracked with the strain.

  Ryan could feel the heat off his body. He’s stressed. Ryan thought. Not a good sign.

  Lam hadn’t expected that he may take Ryan hostage, she thought that being found out and the trained officers with their guns on him would be enough. He knew well enough how these things worked. He knew that if he didn’t stand down, that she would have no option but to shoot him. It was protocol. He would be ticking it off one by one. Lam was torn. Maybe he wanted her to shoot him, but she didn’t want him dead, or to shoot Harper in the process. She decided to negotiate one last time.

  “There is no way out Luk, you need to put the gun down and let Harper go. It is too late. There’s nowhere for you to go. It’s over.” She said firmly.

  Jimmy started to shuffle Ryan towards the front of the ferry, all of the passengers had now stepped away from them terrified that they may get caught in a cross fire, they had their heads down and most were curled up on the floor to protect themselves. Parents huddled over the backs of their children, couples wrapped around each other. Ryan could hear a few young children sobbing quietly, as their parents whispered to try and sooth them.

  Lam continued. “I know everything. I know it all. Your involvement with the triad gang. Your agreement with the Society. Your dealings with Ghost Face. All of it. You need to talk to me Luk. I’m your only chance now.”

  Lam’s voice crackled through the loud haler echoing over the ferry. Jimmy’s mind was racing. He couldn’t believe that it was over. If they charged him, he would never survive prison. The triads would get to him there. He was a dead man either way. Lam’s bullet would be quick and accurate. There would be no beatings, no torture that would leave him begging to be killed quickly. This was the better option. Finish it all now.

  Ryan’s survival instinct had started to kick in. He forced himself to calm down and to think rationally. What could he do? If he pushed back toward Luk he might inadvertently cause Jimmy to shoot him in the head, so that wouldn’t work, but if he pushed himself down, it may give Lam enough of an opportunity to shoot Jimmy, or be able to disentangle himself enough to wrestle the gun away from him. It was risky, he reasoned, but maybe that was his only option. He could sense that Jimmy was planning something, the way that he was being forced toward the front of the ferry.

  Ryan slowed down his breathing and looked ahead towards the police boat. Lam had put the loud haler down and now had her gun trained on Jimmy.

  Now it was a stand off, Ryan thought.

  Suddenly there was a loud click next to Ryan’s ear as Jimmy engaged the trigger. It was now or never Ryan thought. He took in a deep breath and with all his strength he pushed his hands upwards forcing his body down toward the wooden deck. Jimmy’s forearms loosened enough to release Ryan’s neck. Momentarily Jimmy was left standing exposed from the waist up.

  Two shots cracked overhead at the same time, Ryan covered his ears with his hands and stayed low waiting to feel a bullet rip through his body at any moment, but it never did. Around him there were screams and shouts and scuffles as people moved as far away from them as possible. Ryan heard a muffled cry of pain behind him. Uncertain what may greet him, he turned to see Jimmy lying on the floor holding his right arm with his left hand. Blood pumped through the gaps in his fingers as he lay there gasping and whining like a small child. Ryan stood unsteadily and scanned the floor for the gun. He located it a few feet away and moved quickly to pick it up. With a shaky hand he pointed the gun at Jimmy.


  The police boat was now up against the side of the ferry and Ryan glanced sideways as he watched Lam jump easily onto the lower deck and stride quickly over to his side, all the while her handgun trained on Jimmy.

  One of the other officer’s came up next to Ryan and relieved him of the gun. Ryan was thankful and let the officer take it. He patted Ryan gently on the back and motioned for him to go toward the police boat. On his way past, Lam turned to Ryan.

  ‘It’s OK now’, she said, slightly breathless, ‘you did well’.

  Ryan gave an awkward smile and followed the Police Officer to the boat.

  Lam looked down at Luk writhing on the floor in pain, the blood pooling under his arm as the colour started to drain from his face.

  “It’s just a flesh wound, you’ll live.” Lam said, her voice deadpan and void of any sympathy. “And for the record, next time you take a shot at me, you’d better make sure that it hits.”

  Jimmy glanced up at Lam and through the mist of pain in his eyes he could just make out a bright red scratch mark across her cheek where his bullet had struck her.

  In the final moments Jimmy had shot at her on instinct and missed. His aim not as good as it used to be. As for Lam, Jimmy realized that she would never have killed him, her aim was perfect, her reputation of never missing a target, intact. Jimmy groaned and laid his head back on the wooden floorboards. He closed his eyes for a moment and wondered how long the Society would allow him to live. He gave himself two weeks.

  Chapter 31

  Across the hall from Sarah Lam’s office, Detective Wong sat hunched over his desk, his forehead creased with stress. He was under pressure from the Chief to solve the murders of the three dead prostitutes. He sat with all three files laid out before him, three pairs of dead eyes staring back, hoping that something would jump off the page and give him the lead that he so desperately needed.

  They had received so many calls from the general public after they released the details to the news channels and the newspapers. Typical media headlines like Serial Killer Stalks Hong Kong Hookers, New killer appears as fear spreads across Hong Kong and Killers slays sex workers, had done little to stem the widespread panic both amongst the locals and within the industry. But so far they had received nothing relating to possible suspects. People were calling in because they were scared and lived in the local area. Local women were worried about being accidently mistaken for a sex worker, or they themselves had their own one-woman brothels and wanted to know how they could protect themselves. The police had already spoken to their regular targeted brothels and advised the women to take extra security measures and precautions, maybe have a security camera fitted or an alarm that could be triggered easily. All of this was good practical advise, but unrealistic for the women in question.

  One-woman brothels were the only legal form of prostitution in Hong Kong provided that there was only one women per apartment, if more than one woman was found at an establishment, the police were then able to prosecute, it was a catch-22. The lone sex worker was becoming popular choice among 18 to 30 year olds, and kept dedicated police departments busy. Historically connected to the Triads, sex trafficking and organized brothels were becoming a thing of the past now that women could legally work out of one-room apartments offering a range of sex services in a homely environment. Advertising was easy and cheap, online ad companies like Sex 101 offered monthly packages, making set-up costs and overheads low.

  There were now brothel districts spanning from the Island, across Kowloon and far into the New Territories bordering China.

  The three locations of the recent murders were set apart from one another, but all well-known areas by the police. Yuen Long, Mong Kok and now Tsim Sha Tsui were highlighted in red marker pen on Detective Wong’s map of the City.

  For the client it was easy too. With little chance of being recognized, a man could have privacy and confidentiality and could avoid possible public embarrassment. Normally there would be a yellow light bulb, a well-known colour symbol, placed above a doorframe, or a marking above a doorbell, normally of a phoenix, to provide a hint to the client that they were at the right address.

  The Police knew most of the prostitutes and canvassed all of the brothel districts. The main concern for the police these days, apart from a serial killer on the loose, was the influx of illegal immigrants, normally from the North that would filter into the City on short-term tourist visa’s and set up one-woman brothels. This was happening more and more and one of the dead prostitutes was found to be a young immigrant from Qingdao.

  With little or no money most of the one-woman brothels had limited resource to make their homes safer. It meant that the women continued to accept appointments with both regular and new clients, and they simply prayed that they would survive the night.

  The police had been asking the prostitute community to highlight any regular clients that showed aggressive or violent behavior, or anyone that seemed to be acting strange or out of character. The police had a slim hope that perhaps the killer was actually known to one of the women. After days of door-to-door enquiries, not a single person was willing to identify a client or freely offer information. In the same way that patients enjoy Patient-Doctor confidentiality, the same theory seemed to apply to prostitutes and their clients. Detective Wong wasn’t that surprised with the outcome, after all it was their bread and butter, and if it leaked out that a sex-worker had spoken to Police about one of her clients, her career would be over in an instant. The police had many doors closed in their faces and would continue to do so.

  This left Detective Wong with nothing but the physical evidence at the scene, and the offender profile that had been written up by their in-house expert Dr Eric Ng.

  Detective Wong took a sip of his weak, warm coffee and started to review the paperwork.

  All three murders so far followed the exact same M.O. The killer was neat and meticulous and left nothing behind except his own DNA inside each victim. Whilst this was enough to nail the killer once they had him. They first had to physically catch him and he seemed very inept at staying in the shadows.

  The brutal murders had been carried out over a three-week period, with the time span between each murder becoming narrower. There was concern that the killer would not stop now until he was caught and he didn’t want a fourth victim on his hands.

  There had been no forced entry, telling him that the killer was a client and easily gained access to the apartment where the killing took place. It was always late at night, normally after midnight. There had been no caretaker or guards at the building entrances.

  All three murders were sexually motivated.

  Usually the killer showered thoroughly and cleaned up the room using the victims’ own towel, which was always missing. They had found cotton yarn threads at two of the locations indicating that this was the case.

  The body was always left on the bed in position. The victims had been found either naked from the waist down or completely naked. The way the clothes lay, it appeared that the victims had consensually removed their own clothing. All three victims had been strangled and raped.

  Detective Wong shuffled through the papers until he got to the Psychology report.

  He read through it trying to picture what kind of man could do something like this.

  Reading it again, he started to build a picture in his head.

  The killer is a sadist, who derives sexual gratification through the pain of his victims.

  He is most likely a Chinese male who has had a series of dysfunctional relationships with women.

  He is intelligent with a high IQ, however it’s likely that he is socially inept and prefers solitude.

  He has fantasized and rehearsed the crimes in his mind before hand.

  His victims are most likely strangers to him, however he is not a stranger to using prostitutes and most likely uses them on a regular basis quite possibly showing rage or aggression.

  He has absolute control over his victims and is physi
cally strong, rendering possible escape as futile.

  He is organized and methodical in his sequence of events.

  He knows the Kowloon district well and finds it easy to get around.

  The final act of strangulation offers the killer his sexual gratification.

  He is most likely 40 to 50 years old.

  He is likely to kill again.

  This last point always made the hairs on Detective Wongs arm stand on end. This was the point that he dreaded the most. Not knowing the when, the who or the where. All he had was the how.

  Detective Wong finished the report and absentmindedly ran his fingers through his hair. He imagined the fear in the three women upon realization that they had let a monster into their homes. Wong found the reports grim and disturbing and more than anything wanted to catch this killer before he struck again. He had requested more police patrols around the known brothel districts, but he had limited funding to do this long term and door-to-door enquiries were becoming fruitless to the point of futile.

  He had to hope that if the killer struck again, that he would somehow become over confident and leave a clue behind. For now all he could do was wait.

  Chapter 32

  Lam was back at her desk pressing a white towel filled with ice against her burning cheek. She had refused to go to the hospital to get it checked out, and instead accompanied Ryan to the station, whilst Jimmy Luk was carted off in a different direction to a nearby hospital. The bullet fired by him had brushed past Lam so fast that it wasn’t until moments later that she felt the stinging sensation across her face. She had heard the whoosh as it swept just below her left eye, grazing her in passing, before narrowly missing the top of her ear. Her cheekbone was bruised and swollen now and the skin raised and angry. She was lucky. One or two millimeters to the right would have left her with half a face, if alive at all. There was no question that his shot was intended to kill. He now lay in a hospital bed with a shattered elbow, not quite the flesh wound that she had promised him. It was the next best thing to shooting him outright, but she needed him alive. She knew that as a last resort she would have killed him if Ryan had not managed to take himself out of range. That was quick thinking on his part. Now she would have to wait for Jimmy to come out of theatre and wake from his anesthetic before she could question him in detail. But she at least had Ryan in one piece, and he was at the station under police protection.