“Okay, I’m coming up.”
Before Howard could stop him, the author was marching into the abbey. Two minutes later, he appeared on top of the square tower, fifty feet in the air and trapped with a serial killer. Howard suddenly understood what having guts looked like.
8
Here was the man who had ruined Blake’s life and destroyed his family. Only now, years later, had his wife even begun to put back together the pieces of her self-esteem. This man—this monster—had broken into their home and filled it with nightmares.
Heinz smiled warmly at him. It looked strange in contrast with his bloody chest and red, swollen eyes. “Blake, we’re finally together.”
Blake nodded. “Yes. I’ve been imagining this moment a lot.”
“Me too. It’s so good that you’re here.”
Blake didn’t want to waste any time on top of the rain-soaked tower. The wind was so strong it was capable of whipping them both off. “You need to come down, Richie. They’ll shoot you if you don’t.”
Heinz shrugged his bony shoulders. “Let them. I’m not afraid of dying. If my work is done, what do I have to live for?”
Blake cleared his throat and tried to keep himself from gagging on his own words. “You have our friendship to live for.”
“I haven’t seen you in years. How do I know you won’t disappear again?”
“I promise. Now that we’re together, they won’t ever keep us apart, but only if you come down now. If you stay up here, they’re going to split us up again.”
Heinz looked torn. He glanced over the edge of the tower.
Blake took a step towards the man who raped his wife.
Heinz straightened and looked at Blake. “Why won’t they leave me alone, Blake?”
“You really don’t know? You hurt all those women.”
Heinz flapped his arms and shook his head indignantly. Blake stepped back. “They deserved it, Blake. They were all whores, like the ones you write about in your books. You kill the whores in your books, but people love you for it. Why do they hate me?”
Blake couldn’t believe he was having to explain why murder was wrong to a grown man. “The women in my books are victims, not whores. I write about bad men who need to be locked up.”
Heinz’s expression darkened. “Like me?”
“No…not like you. You’re sick, Richie. You can’t help what you do. Let them help you. You could get out one day and have a real life. Don’t you want that?”
Heinz looked down at the police assembled below. “I had a life once, before they locked me up. They punished me for what I did to your wife. I tried to explain it was what you wanted. You were never home and you ignored her calls all the time. I used to follow you, I saw. She was holding you back, irritating you.”
“Yes, you’re right, I used to ignore her a lot. I was a bad man back then…a bad husband. I’m trying to be better now.”
Heinz looked at Blake with pity. “She’s got inside your head. You don’t get it, do you? Did you ever get it, or have you been lying to me this whole time?”
Blake felt the situation slipping out of control. It was only a matter of time before Heinz figured out that Blake was just telling him the things he wanted to hear. “Where’s the girl, Richie? You said you knew about a missing girl.”
Heinz scowled. “Chloe Tanner? She’s rotting in the ground where she belongs.”
“She has a family, Richie. Give them some peace. Let them have her body.”
Heinz was trembling. He looked ready to fly off the waterlogged tower like a firework. “They raised a whore. They don’t deserve peace. One day, I’m going to come back and get their other daughter.”
Blake did his best to stay calm. He had to keep Heinz talking. “Richie, listen to me. In my books, I always tie up the loose ends, don’t I? I can’t finish a book without letting the readers know what happens. How would you have felt if I left all my books with no endings?”
Heinz shifted his feet. “I…wouldn’t like it.”
“Exactly. I always give away the secrets by the end. The killer always takes pride in all his crimes. Do you really want to leave your own book without an ending? What if you died of a heart attack this very minute? What would become of your work? It would be incomplete.”
Heinz swallowed, his thick Adam’s apple bobbed and glistened in the rain. Then he grinned sheepishly. “I don’t know where I buried her.”
Blake frowned. “What?”
“It was some wood in some town, but I have no idea where. I was just driving around, looking for a girl. It was late, dark. When I picked her up and killed her, I had no idea where I was. Somewhere on the M5, maybe, or the M6.” He began laughing. “I have no fucking idea where I buried the little whore. All I remember is that I buried her nice and deep where nobody will ever find her.”
Blake closed his eyes for a second and took a few long breaths. “So you really don’t remember? Do you think with time, you could?”
“No. Why don’t we talk about something I do remember, like how your wife screamed when I shoved the bottle in?”
Blake flinched. “Why are you doing this, Richie? We’re supposed to be friends.”
Heinz tilted his head, suddenly taking on the mannerisms of a hungry snake. “I thought we were friends, but you don’t get it. I think that you did get my letters.”
Blake didn’t break eye-contact with Heinz. If he couldn’t say where he’d buried Chloe Tanner, then this whole situation was pointless. There was no point keeping up with the ruse. “You’re right,” he said. “I did get your letters. I got every single one of them and I used them to wipe my arse; but first I read them to all my wife so we could both laugh about what a pathetic loser you are.”
Heinz exploded. He flew at Blake with his hands outstretched, reaching for his neck. Blake was ready and shoved Heinz hard in the chest. The psychopath went tumbling towards the edge of the tower, but managed to right himself against the stone crenulations. He spun on Blake and attacked again. This time he landed a heavy fist under his chin. Blake felt his knees give out and slumped against the edge of the tower. Heinz continued his onslaught, driving a kick into Blake’s ribs, knocking the wind out of him.
“I’m your biggest fan, Blake,” hollered Heinz, “and you betray me like this. Do you think you’re better than me? Do you treat all of your fans like they don’t matter? Are we beneath you?”
“No,” said Blake. “Just the bed-wetting sociopathic ones.” He pushed himself up and barrelled into Heinz, shoving him back against the crenulations. They wrestled and punched at one another at the edge.
“I should have killed your bitch of a wife. Maybe then you would understand.”
Blake managed to land a fist on Heinz’s chin. “You’re a fucking lunatic. There’s nothing to understand. You’re just another mundane psychopath taking their anger out on women. You know how many men I’ve researched that are just like you? You’re not special. You’re nothing.”
“I’ll kill you!” Heinz managed to clamp down on Blake’s shoulder with his teeth, tearing into flesh. Blake cried out and shoved Heinz away from him.
The two men then stared at each other from opposite ends of the tower.
“I’ll kill you,” repeated Heinz.
“You only pick on girls, remember?”
Heinz snarled and ran at Blake who ran to meet him, and the two clashed in the centre. Blake swung his fist but was knocked dizzy by the top of Heinz’s head smashing into his nose. He felt his nose burst open in a gout of blood.
Heinz tackled Blake to the stone floor and mounted him, raining down fury with his fists. Blake tried to cover up, but several blows managed to get through. Each one sent his consciousness a little deeper into the background. Eventually his arms dropped to his sides and he could no longer defend himself. It was then that Heinz dragged him up by his hair, got him on his feet, and shoved him towards the edge of the tower. He felt a rib crack as his front collided with the stone wall.
&
nbsp; Heinz spun Blake around and got in his face. “I love you, Blake. Your books speak to me. They were written for me. We are connected.”
Blake spat blood and laughed. “I didn’t write them for you. I wrote them for the money.”
Heinz raised his fist and struck Blake between the eyes. He moaned and flopped lifelessly, but Heinz kept him standing. Then he grabbed Blake under the arms and lifted him onto the wall. “Time for your big finale, Blake. It’s like we’re coming full circle. If only you’d been at home that day, instead of your wife, things could have been so different for us.”
Blake tried to speak but his words came out as an incoherent slur. He was only half-conscious, but he understood that Heinz was about to shove him to his death.
“Heinz, step away from the author before I autograph your face with my gun.”
Heinz spun around. A few feet back, Blake could make out the hazy image of a woman; the same one who’d had sent him up here in the first place.
“What do you want, whore? Have I not beaten you enough for one night?”
“I’m still standing, ain’t I?”
While Heinz was distracted, Blake slowly slid himself off the crenulations and slumped to his knees. There, he took deep breaths and repeatedly blinked to try to get his focus back. He managed to see that the woman had a gun drawn on Heinz. Heinz, so far, was keeping his distance.
“You won’t shoot me,” he said. “You want to know where I buried the girl.”
“He…he doesn’t know,” shouted Blake from the floor. “Shoot him.”
Heinz didn’t turn around, but kept his eyes on the woman. “Or do I know? No way to tell, is there?”
The woman glanced past Heinz at Blake. “We’re going to get you out of here, Mr Price, but we need to know where Chloe Tanner is.”
Blake managed to drag himself to his feet. “J-just shoot him. Shoot him. He doesn’t know.”
Heinz spun around. “You can’t help it, can you? You have to take the side of these whores.”
Blake snarled. “The only whore here, is you.”
Heinz exploded again, like a predictable bomb. He rushed Blake, tossing him towards the crenulations. Blake grabbed the half-naked psychopath around the waist and held on tightly. The combined momentum took them both onto the stone wall. Heinz tried to throw Blake over, but Blake held strong, and as Heinz shoved him they both tumbled down.
They both went over the edge.
The woman atop the tower shouted out in panic. “Mr Price!”
9
Jessica raced forward as Blake and Heinz disappeared over the walls of the tower. The author had wanted her to shoot Heinz, had said the killer held no knowledge of the missing girl, but she had to finish things by the book. She had to do things clean, but that had all gone out the window when Heinz and Price went off the top of the tower.
“Mr Price!” She made it up to the edge and was stunned to find the two men hanging on. Price had both hands wrapped around one of the jutting stone teeth of the tower wall, while Heinz clung to his waist. It was a reversal of how the two men had gone over.
Price looked up at her pleadingly. The waterlogged ground beneath him looked a hundred miles away. “Hold on, Mr Price.” She grabbed the back of his coat, tried to heave him up, but he was too heavy and her left wrist was sprained and useless. Heinz reached up and tried to rise, but the rain lashed down at him and he went back to gripping Price’s waist.
Jessica holstered her gun and tried to pull the author up with her one good hand, but he was a dead weight. She could hear the frantic footfall of Young’s officers climbing the tower, but they would arrive too late. She knew there was only one way Price would make it back up again; it also meant any chance of finding Chloe Tanner would be extinguished. “Price, you need to free yourself. I can’t get you back up here with Heinz hanging off you.”
Price’s face bulged as he strained to hold on. He glanced down at Heinz and then back up at Jessica. “How am I…?”
Jessica nodded. She understood Price could do nothing. Both the man’s arms and legs were incapacitated. She needed to do something to help him, before his strength gave out and both men fell.
“Hey, Heinz,” she shouted down. “When I get hold of you, I’m going to lock you up in a woman’s prison. They can make you their bitch. Would you like that, being made a slave to some big butch gal?”
Heinz looked up at her and snarled.
“Maybe you’ll meet someone to remind you of your mother? I bet she was an ugly lady, huh? I mean, if your looks are anything to go by.”
Heinz ground his teeth like a salivating animal and tried to climb Price’s body. Price moaned under the exertion. Jessica just hoped he could hold on long enough.
“Heinz, I don’t even care where Chloe Tanner is. You probably never even knew her. You’re just lying to impress your best buddy, Blake Price. I bet Chloe Tanner is alive and well, hooked up with some boyfriend. She’s probably with a real man.”
Heinz growled. “I killed her. I…I fucked her and buried her while she was still breathing.” He grabbed a handful of Price’s coat, yanking himself up a few inches.
Jessica leant over, glaring right back at Heinz. “I. Don’t. Believe. You.”
“Fuck you. I buried…that bitch at some…abandoned petrol station in…Reading.”
Jessica grinned. “Thank you.”
Heinz snarled, realising he’d been goaded. “I’m going to slice your fucking tits off.”
Jessica laughed pitifully. “Come get ‘em.”
Heinz reached up again, trying to climb higher. The rain lashed down at him, making him blink and splutter. Price held on for dear life, straining and trembling as a serial killer attempted to climb up his back.
Heinz was almost to the top when his hand slipped from Price’s wet shoulder. At first, Heinz simply slipped half-a-foot downwards, but then his eyes went wide and he was suddenly falling. There was anger in his eyes as he plummeted from the top of the tower, but also a hint of fear. The man was human enough to fear death, and Jessica enjoyed seeing that.
“Mr Price, hold on.” She grabbed hold of Price’s shoulders. Her sprained wrist cried out in pain, but they worked together to gradually get Price back up.
When she managed to pull him onto the wall, Price let out a deep moan of desperate relief. “Oh, god…Jesus Christ. I thought that was me done.”
Jessica held his hand. “You’re safe now, Mr Price. Everything is okay.”
He smiled at her. “You got the girl’s location.”
She nodded. “Enough to go on, yes. Thank you for all your help.”
“I want to get back down on the ground.”
Jessica laughed. “Me too.”
10
Howard sighed with relief when Jessica emerged from the abbey with Blake Price and a police escort. He’d been standing with Sergeant Young in horror as the Blake Price and Heinz had battled atop the tower and gone over the edge. Jessica had gone up there as soon as it became clear that things were going badly, but she had been unable to defuse the situation.
Now Jessica and Blake were safe.
Heinz had slid down Price’s outstretched body before finally plummeting to the wet ground. He lay motionless now in a puddle deep enough to submerge him. Young’s officer had gone to him immediately, but there was slim chance he could’ve survived the fall.
Howard limped over to his partner and broke protocol by hugging her. “I was worried there for a minute.”
She huffed. “I’ve been worried since four hours ago. I think it’s going to take me a day or two to stop being worried.”
“You did good.”
She gave him a look.
“Okay, you did…alright, after all the screw-ups stopped.”
“Saved my life,” said Blake. “If she hadn’t got under Heinz’s skin, he would’ve dragged me down with him. I’m just glad it’s all over. I prefer writing books about men like Heinz, not coming face-to-face with them.”
“I’d appreciate an autograph,” said Howard, “if you want to go back to being a writer again. Not that police work doesn’t suit you. You were brave up there.”
“No,” he said. “I was terrified, but I was there for my wife. I needed to face that monster. I needed to put the past behind me so I can move forward with my family.”
“We have Chloe Tanner’s location,” said Jessica.
Howard smiled. “Maybe Palu won’t completely rip you a new one, now.”
“Yeah, maybe. I—”
“You fucking whore!”
They all spun round to find Heinz on his feet. He thrashed at the two police officers holding him, but they were able to restrain him easily enough. He was bloody, wet, and physically beaten; but emotionally he was as defiant and animalistic as ever. He cursed at them all, fought them, bit them, scratched them, but they had him under control.
“How is he still breathing?” asked Howard in dismay.
“The ground’s wet,” said Blake. “The puddles broke his fall. Or maybe he’s immortal. Most serial killers are, in a twisted way. We never forget them.” With that, Blake lowered his head and walked away into the rainy night.
As the police officers ushered Heinz down the hill, they passed Jessica and Howard. Heinz’s entire body was battered and bruised, but he still managed to give Jessica a look of absolute hatred. “When I get out of here,” he spat, “I’m going to find you and rape you. I’m going to rape you over and over.”
Jessica strolled up to Heinz with a scowl on her face. “How are you going to do that without a dick?” She swung her leg and punted the psychopath right between the legs.
Heinz bellowed.
“What the hell!” Howard stared at Jessica in disbelief. Heinz was cupping his mashed genitals and screaming on the ground. “You can’t assault an unarmed man.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, fella,” said Sergeant Young. “I never saw anything.”
Howard shook his head, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I said I didn’t see anything.” Young took that moment to turn a circle, nodding at each of his men. “Did anyone see anything?”
Slasher: the Escape of Richard Heinz Page 5