The Principle of Evil: A Fast-Paced Serial Killer Thriller (DCI Claire Winters, Book 2)

by T. M. E. Walsh

  ‘I got his address.’ Elias read it out as Stefan wrote it down, handing the piece of paper to Harper. Stefan disconnected his call with Elias and got everyone in the incident room listening.

  He stole another look at his watch for the hundredth time so far that day.

  Hold on, Claire. Please hold on.

  CHAPTER 82

  Lucas had brought Claire a bucket but he didn’t turn his back. When she’d finished, he took the bucket and put it in the far corner. He looked at the split, bleeding lip he’d just given her, five minutes before he gave her the bucket. He shook his head as he shackled her wrists.

  ‘I really didn’t want to do that. I felt bad when I found out William had almost dislocated your shoulder,’ he said, running his fingers over the purple-black bruise up her arm and shoulder. He caressed it, then squeezed her shoulder hard, twisting his fingers. She masked a cry of pain.

  He grinned to himself.

  She stared at him in defiance, pursed her lips, and spat a glob of blood in his face. From her corner, Fallon laughed. Lucas’s face shot towards her. ‘Shut up!’ His eyes went back to Claire’s. He wiped the blood from his face. ‘Don’t lower yourself to her level.’ He pointed at Fallon, but his gaze never left Claire’s face.

  ‘Just look at her body. That mess. She’s disgusting.’

  ‘And you think you can change her?’

  Lucas’s eyes seemed to flash just then with a hint of something other than anger. He crouched to her eye level.

  ‘Do you know what it’s like to watch someone’s final moment, when they draw that last breath? I was there when William did it. I watched the moment the knife cut through sinful flesh. I was there… every time.’

  Claire frowned. ‘Sinful flesh? Felicity Davenport was barely sixteen. What did she do to deserve that?’

  ‘She wasn’t grateful for her life. She wanted to end it all, and for what? Her parents put too much on her shoulders? At least her parents cared.’

  ‘Felicity was a teenager. She needed help and only her brother took her seriously. If you needed to punish anyone, it should’ve been her parents and the system that was failing her.’

  ‘It wasn’t my intention to punish. I am the teacher. It was William’s job to punish if they failed to change, failed to learn.’

  ‘And what now? William can’t help you.’

  He laughed. ‘Just because I didn’t intend to kill doesn’t mean I won’t.’

  ‘Why Nola and Sara? They didn’t deserve what happened either.’

  His brow furrowed. ‘Why Nola? Do you really need to ask? She was what is wrong with a lot of girls today. Her sin was her body and her misuse of it… With Nola, when I first saw her at Focus Being, I thought I saw something underneath her entire charade… I was wrong.’

  Inside Claire’s head was a fusion of curiosity and a sense of dread. She had to find out what made his mind tick and use it against him.

  ‘She didn’t even know you existed, did she?’

  His face was stern. ‘My role was mainly in the backroom admin. She looked my way once but she wouldn’t have known me, and I had to change that.’ He paused. A small trace of a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.

  ‘Sara was the same. She was a soul full of hurt. Her husband took her for granted and I would’ve left her to heal through the psychotherapy if I hadn’t found out she was being unfaithful, whilst in therapy. That changed my view of her. She was deliberately rebelling against the whole reason why she was there in the first place! I spoke to her on the phone soon after I read her file. I gave her a little advice. She was someone worth saving until she tried to use her body to fool me. She pretended to be grateful.’

  Claire’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why the clients at Focus Being? They’re there for help, something you want to give people.’

  He laughed. ‘You really don’t get it. These people, they think the world in their head is all that matters.’ He jammed a thumb against his temple with passion. ‘I got sick and tired of watching these people breeze in and out thinking they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.

  ‘Look at the world around us. The world is fed on suffering. Real human suffering and it pains me. War, famine, rape, disease. That’s the bigger picture. That’s what these people can’t see. They can’t see just how lucky they are… Hell exists and it’s right here on earth.’

  Claire avoided his eyes. ‘And where do you fit into all this? You’re one big contradiction. You say you want to help, yet you’ve caused the death of three women.’

  He shook his head. ‘I wish you could see what I’m trying to do here. I hoped you’d at least see the bigger picture. One day people will thank me.’

  ‘You’re fucking crazy,’ Fallon said.

  He stared at her. The look made Claire’s blood run cold. She glanced at Fallon. ‘What about her?’ Fallon’s face showed her anger, but inside she was feeling sick. She didn’t want to hear the truth.

  Lucas watched her as he spoke. ‘She’s beyond saving… Daddy’s spoilt little princess. Promiscuous, manipulative, foul-mouthed. She’s no better than a blood-sucking parasite.’

  ‘I didn’t ask for your help,’ Fallon said.

  ‘You’ve never been grateful for anything in your whole miserable little life. You have a father who loves you, yet you go out of your way to destroy him.’ He pointed at her. ‘The more I think about the reasons why I tried to help you, the more I hate everything you’ve become. I’m glad William can’t be with us.’ He grinned then. ‘I’ll have the pleasure of killing you myself. I’ll make you grateful for what you had, right before I choke the last bit of life out of you.’

  For the first time, the full gravity of the situation started to hit Fallon full force.

  ‘You’re scaring her,’ said Claire.

  ‘And she should be scared.’

  ‘When backed into a corner, people are dangerous, Lucas.’

  He swung back to look at her. ‘You included?’ He sneered and shook his head. ‘You were scared last night. I could almost hear the blood racing through your veins, and you were very easy to catch.’

  ‘Sorry to disappoint you.’

  ‘On the contrary,’ he said, the darkness leaving his voice. ‘I find your weakness quite beautiful.’ He paused. ‘Tell me your fears, Claire, it’s all part of this process.’

  ‘You need to stop this.’

  ‘Are you still having those night terrors?’

  Her whole body stiffened.

  ‘You weren’t responsible for what happened to him. You do know that, don’t you?’

  ‘You have no right to talk to me about him.’

  ‘I read up on the dead priest investigation,’ he said, ignoring her. ‘What happened all those years ago, that whole sorry mess, everything. There’s no way you could ever come back from that unscathed, without any scars.’

  She looked away.

  ‘You can’t hope to heal without help, Claire, you do know that, don’t you?’

  Claire changed tack. He knew her weakness and she was damned sure that she knew his.

  ‘Is it because of your mother? Is that why you’re doing this?’

  He flinched.

  ‘She hurt me. She made my father leave. Everyone should be grateful for what they have; not many would’ve survived what I went through. I seek to make people thankful, and where they have strayed from the path, steer them back. Only then can they be happy.’

  ‘Why target me?’

  He smiled. ‘You’re flawed. You think people have to meet your standards. You think you can climb high without a care in the world. It’s Claire’s way or no way. That needs to change.’

  He closed in on her, but she reeled back, raised her leg and brought it crashing down into the wound on his thigh. He buckled, and a guttural roar escaped his lips. He pushed himself to his feet. Saliva was hanging from his lip as he controlled the pain. ‘That was stupid.’

  He disappeared up the basement stairs, but not without pain in hi
s step. When he came back he carried a pipe, uncoiling it from the kitchen as he came towards her. One end of the pipe was attached to the kitchen tap, back up the stairs. Lucas now pointed the other end at Claire.

  ‘Don’t get comfortable over there, Fallon.’ Out the corner of his eye, he saw her flinch. ‘We’re moving to our final destination, Claire’s test. It’s going to be cold. He aimed the hose at her torso. ‘Let’s raise the stakes a little.’

  Water began to dribble out onto the floor. ‘If you’re not careful, you could catch your death. I’ll be your only hope of survival.’

  He pressed the trigger and a jet of water shot towards her, drenching and soaking into her clothes. She cried out. Ice water, like tiny needles, lashed her skin. She pulled herself to her feet, but she couldn’t avoid being completely soaked.

  He laughed when she turned her back to him, as if it would make a difference. He aimed higher, blasted her hair, so it hung in limp vine-like tendrils, water dripping from the ends.

  He released the trigger.

  She turned towards him. Her face was red from the cold. She instantly began to shiver. She pressed her lips tight together, tried to stop herself trembling.

  ‘You’re soaked in the only clothes you have. You remember that.’

  Claire didn’t know what he meant, and right now she didn’t care. Fallon, who had been stunned to silence, too scared to breathe, tried to stand when he came towards her.

  He grabbed her, pulled a cloth from his trouser pocket, and pressed it over her nose and mouth. When she stopped fighting him, he let her slide to the floor with a thud.

  Claire backed towards the wall when he turned on her.

  ‘Come now, Claire.’ He took a step closer. ‘This won’t hurt.’

  CHAPTER 83

  ‘Lucas Hall, age thirty-eight, five-ten, dark hair, dark eyes, wears glasses,’ Stefan said, addressing the team. He circulated copies of Lucas’s driving licence around the room.

  ‘He’s been done once for driving with no insurance, nothing else, but the PNC shows his car is a maroon Ford Mondeo, which is registered to a house in old Welwyn Garden City.’

  Stefan looked up. ‘There’re also details, although they’re limited, of another address, owned by Lucas, which the car used to be registered to – a house in the Lordship Estate, Letchworth, not far from Focus Being.’

  He looked at Elias. ‘Crest, I want you to take a team of officers over to the address in Welwyn, while I take a team to the Letchworth property. He’s got to have taken Claire to one of these addresses. Maybe Fallon Dockley is with her too. William Hatcher has only given me Lucas’s name as the brains behind the operation and that he’d targeted Claire. Other than that, we’re on our own.’

  He turned to DC Cleaver. ‘Jane, I want everything you can get on Lucas: his background, any family that might be close enough to offer him shelter. Get me everything.’

  ‘What about the media?’ said Elias.

  Stefan looked at him and shook his head. ‘Not yet. If Lucas is keeping an eye out on the media, which I think he will be, I don’t want him panicking. We need him to believe we don’t know he’s involved. That’s the one advantage we can use to keep Claire alive.’

  CHAPTER 84

  Despite the cold outside, Stefan was burning on the inside. It was the adrenaline, pumping through his veins, just at that moment before the Enforcer went hurtling into the hinges of the front door.

  It went crashing to one side in one swoop, busting the hinges. Officers charged through the house, securing each room in turn. There was so much noise, Stefan couldn’t be sure if they had found anything or not, until all fell silent.

  *

  Elias had been in the property in Welwyn less than two minutes and stared at each blank room.

  ‘He lived here?’ he said to Harper. They both stared at the peeling floral wallpaper in the living room. ‘Is every room like this one?’

  ‘Pretty much. I’d say no one’s lived here for a long time, not properly anyway.’

  Elias walked through to the kitchen, then went upstairs. There were a few photographs on a sideboard. He studied the pictures. He recognised those eyes that stared back into his.

  Lucas.

  *

  Stefan’s heart sank as an officer came up beside him, shaking his head.

  ‘There’s no one here.’

  Stefan swore and banged his fist against the nearest wall. ‘How can there be nothing?’ He spun around on his heels. ‘There’s no way he could know we were on to him. He thought he’d manipulated Hatcher enough to buy him time.’

  He stood staring into the living room, his mind working overtime. ‘OK,’ he said finally, ‘let’s get this place searched.’

  Stefan looked at his surroundings. He could smell something. He sniffed hard. He was certain it was paint – maybe paper paste or something similar. It was a smell that lingered. He shook the thought from his head when his mobile started ringing.

  ‘Fletcher.’

  ‘It’s Crest. There’s nothing here. If this is Lucas’s main address, he either hates DIY or he’s deliberately made sure this house was used as a decoy. There’re no clothes or anything that indicates he’s been living here on a permanent basis.’

  ‘He’s been residing in his second home, which makes sense, it’s so close to Focus Being,’ said Stefan.

  Elias sighed. ‘No signs of the Guv?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  There was a long silence that hung heavy in the air. Elias walked through to the living room and saw a shelf on the wall behind the door filled with more framed photographs, covered with cobwebs.

  ‘Crest?’

  Elias was barely listening as his eyes scanned the photographs in front of him, his eyes coming back to one in particular.

  A picture of someone with familiar eyes looking back into his.

  A sinking feeling gripped his body. He grabbed the frame and made for the front door.

  ‘Don’t go anywhere. I’m coming right over!’

  *

  Stefan kept his mobile poised at his ear for a few moments after Elias had hung up. DC Cleaver came into the room.

  ‘What is it, Jane?’

  ‘I think we’ve found something.’

  Stefan followed her back through to the hallway. From his original angle, he hadn’t spotted it but from the new viewpoint, he saw it in an instant.

  ‘Well, that explains the smell in here,’ he said, reaching out his hand. His fingers touched the slightly damp wallpaper that covered one side of the hallway wall. It was light, fresher than the rest of the paper in the hall, despite the pattern being the same. His fingers touched a ridge, and he spread his palm out, ran it across the expanse and applied some pressure.

  ‘It’s a door.’

  He pulled his car keys from his pocket and scored a line around the raised surface, cutting the paper.

  ‘Shouldn’t we wait for forensics? They’ll want to take a video and photos.’

  ‘There’s no time. He took the time to conceal whatever is behind this door and we need to know why.’ He peeled away a strip of paper, exposing a wooden door.

  Jane swallowed hard. ‘You don’t think–’

  ‘Let’s not jump to conclusions.’

  Stefan knew what she was thinking. Hell, he was thinking it himself. As the rest of the paper was peeled back, he prayed that if Claire was behind it, she was still alive.

  The Enforcer did its job, breaking the lock as soon as metal hit metal. The basement door groaned and popped open.

  The smell hit them first: a mixture of vomit, urine and sweat.

  Inside, Stefan was reeling. He detected something else in the air and recognised it immediately.

  The smell of blood.

  He looked down. He saw the top of a wooden staircase that disappeared, winding down into an oily blackness that even the light from upstairs couldn’t penetrate.

  Jane passed him a torch.

  He flicked it on.

  H
e hesitated before shining it down the stairs.

  *

  It hadn’t taken Elias long to get to the house in Letchworth and when Stefan had shown him the basement door, he looked surprised.

  ‘Down there,’ Stefan said, pointing to the now brightly lit basement, ‘is where he kept the victims. It’s also where he kept Claire.’

  ‘She’s not–’

  ‘We found her dressing gown… It’s blood-stained.’

  Elias paused. ‘Do you think she’s alive?’

  Stefan nodded.

  Elias thought back to the photograph he’d taken from the house, which he now held in his hands. The person in the photograph was someone who had drawn him in, lied to him, at least partly. The thought of what it could mean raced through his head.

  ‘You need to see this,’ he said, passing the picture to Stefan.

  His mouth dropped open. ‘Where did you get this?’

  ‘Lucas’s other house. This is the girl who gave me the information that helped lead us to Hatcher.’

  Stefan’s head shot up, a mixture of confusion and anger on his face. ‘Crest, what’ve you done?’ He shook his head. ‘It can’t be her.’

  ‘What you on about?’

  Stefan pointed at the photograph. He remembered the day she’d cried when presented with Nola’s body on the slab. ‘I know her, Crest.’ His eyes turned serious. ‘You’d better tell me everything, and fast.’

  CHAPTER 85

  It hadn’t taken them long to find the girl.

  They’d driven around Haverbridge town and around Hedonism, after they got no answer from her flat or the mobile number they had on file. It was when they had seemed out of options that Elias suggested The Clover.

  After asking around inside, the man behind the counter knew where she was likely to be. He said he’d seen her in the town square most afternoons when he went out for his lunch.

  Stefan then drove them to a side street beside the square and waited. ‘How could you not realise?’ he said, turning towards Elias.