by steve higgs
He said nothing. However, his head snapped up as we both heard movement a few feet away. The path was bordered on one side by the canal and on the other by a steep slope. The slope was mostly dirt and trees, not much foliage on the slope where local kids scrambled around on it. At the base though there were bushes, nettles, weeds and the obligatory litter. I heard one of the dogs sniff something, an odd but instantly recognisable noise of air being drawn into a canine nose for analysis. The next noise we heard sounded larger than a small dog, like a human limb moving.
‘Is there someone there?' I asked. ‘Miss? I have subdued the attacker, but I need to know if you are okay.' I got no response from her, assuming there was a her over there, but Mr. Enormous had decided he was getting up regardless of what I thought and was performing a one arm press-up with me on his back.
‘Don't do it, man,' I warned as I increased the pressure on his left arm. What I was doing seemed to make no difference though - he was getting up anyway. I leaned my weight back and pushed against him, putting one leg back onto the ground for additional leverage. His arm was locked, and his resistance should have been ripping tendons in his elbow and shoulder. If it was, he showed no sign of pain. My foot slipped on the dusty path and I realised I was about to get a beating when he stood up. In one motion, he was on his feet. He turned around and grabbed me with his left hand.
Oh, my god. It was Ambrogio! His face swung into view for the first time as it moved through a light patch coming between the trees and here we were, finally face to face and grappling for a dominant grip.
My brain casually observed that his hand was massive as it closed around my left bicep and then the pain hit. There is a sweet spot where the two muscles that make up the bicep join. Push your thumb between them and the pain is instant. Whether he was doing this from knowledge or chance my left hand went slack, and I was unable to keep my grip on him.
Focus. Move. Block and strike. I released his left arm. After all, my grip on it was having no effect. I pulled back from his grasp to create motion and switched to move towards him just as his balance shifted to follow me. He still had my right arm, but I drove forward ignoring his grip to crack my elbow into the side of his skull. The blow hit, jarring my arm and I landed another just the same followed by a knee to the groin and a kick to the inside of his left knee. His weight dropped again as his knee buckled, but he recovered immediately. The knee kick alone should have convinced him to let go, but as I considered what I might do next, he hit me. The blow caught under my rib cage as his left arm drove upwards to take me off my feet. Looking back with time to consider it, I still doubt I have ever been hit harder. It was like a sledgehammer smashing into my gut. My breath went from me before my feet came back to the earth. This is a terrible thing in a fight when you are already breathless. A next blow had to be coming, so with that singular thought, I settled my feet to provide a balanced base and spun my arms up and out. The move should have broken his grasp and allowed me to then kick away from him, but where his right arm held me my swinging arm just bounced off it and he yanked me into a headbutt.
The headbutt missed. Not completely of course, but rather it missed my nose and most of the impact was on my forehead. Headbutts are a close-range weapon, which when used effectively will end a fight instantly. The nose is the best target because it will smash completely, bringing tears to blind eyesight, instantaneous pain to stun and it will drastically affect the ability to breathe when the blood starts to flow. He missed my nose, but the strike had some serious force behind it. I was stunned anyway which gave him the chance to sweep my feet out from under me and follow me to the floor.
He landed on top of me and would have knocked the breath from me if I had been able to recover from the first pile-driver punch to my midriff. I reset myself mentally. I'm on the ground and on my back and that is a strong position if you know what you are doing. He was trying to force my head to one side and into the dirt of the path but using both hands to do this and basically sitting on my hips he had ignored all my limbs. I couldn't really see him still, couldn't make out the features of his face it was so dark. He had forced my right cheek flat against the path and I was pinned unless I could find some leverage. I threaded my right arm down between us and hooked it underneath his right armpit. He was leaning down like he planned to kiss me or something. I pivoted off the path with my hips, shoved hard with both arms and pushed him off me.
I spun away and got my legs back under me. We came to face each other as we both scrambled to our feet. My breathing was ragged, my pulse high but everything worked, and nothing was broken so I was still in the fight. Even though he was bigger, stronger and worryingly impervious to pain, I could still win.
A groan came from the scrub to my left. I had all but forgotten the girl I came running to help. She was moving now, coming around perhaps. My brain spinning fast now and I no time to weigh up my options. I had to get Ambrogio under control or convince him to run and neither seemed entirely likely. Before I could move though she sat up, her face shining in the light coming through the trees. It was Poison! She was bleeding. That was my first thought, my second was that she was holding one of the dogs, both hands gripping its body while it tried to lick her face. Then her eyes focused on Ambrogio and she screamed.
The scream was incredible. She was staring at Ambrogio, eyes huge and mouth open, screaming from the very base of her soul. The scream ended when either shock took over or she ran out of breath, but neither I nor Ambrogio had moved in the seconds that passed. Then a whole load of things happened very quickly.
Bull barked. He was stood between Poison and Ambrogio. The little guy was defending her. Dozer wriggled out of her grip and joined his brother so that the two of them stood side by side. I started to move towards Ambrogio as he started to move towards Poison. In the dark, I didn't see his left arm swing up to swat me back and it stalled my progress. The blow threw me off balance and I stumbled and fell while he continued towards Poison. The boys barked once more, and I saw Bull launch himself forward snapping at Ambrogio's ankles. Ineffective, but ridiculously brave. Then Dozer joined in and I watched horrified as Ambrogio stopped, bent down and picked up the two dogs, one in each hand. Momentarily stunned into motionlessness, I saw him throw the two dogs away like they were toys. A yelp from one as it hit the bank behind Poison somewhere and a splash from the other as he threw it off the path and into the canal.
My brain exploded, all my emotions coming at once. The dogs! Dead? Injured? If I needed a boost to overcome this guy, then now I had it. Any coherent thought of what attack to lead with, how best to pin him or disable him were all gone. He was moving forward towards Poison again. I was insignificant it seemed, forgotten. Good.
I took two fast steps, leapt off the ground and slammed my right fist into the side of his head as I came down on top of him. He stalled, stumbling as I landed on him, but he didn't stop. I was so filled with rage. I wanted to find the dogs. One of them was in the water and Dachshunds don't swim well, their ridiculous bodies so poorly designed for it. I rained blows down on him, punches to the face, kicks to the legs. He went down to one knee and I grabbed his head and kneed him in the face with everything I had.
Poison had finally got enough sense back to get up and run. I noticed her scramble to her feet and head in the direction of the mausoleum. She was limping, but I had no time to focus on her. The knee to the head should have been the end of it, anyone else would have gone down with their nose spread across their face and either unconscious or concussed. As he fell back from the impact though, his face caught in a shard of light which revealed that he was bleeding, if the blow had hurt him, he showed little sign of it. His eyes locked on mine, his left hand went behind him to arrest his motion and he changed direction, coming up off the ground with an upper-cutting right fist.
The fist caught me under my chin, and I knew I was done. Strangely, as I felt my feet leave the earth, I lost all my fight. I had never experienced this before, I was conscious stil
l, but all my bells were ringing. Like an out of body experience, I could feel my senses shutting down. I could think, but not really feel anything. I crashed to the concrete path, wondering where the dogs were and if they would be okay. What about Poison? Was I losing consciousness now? Odd feelings, odd thoughts, odd sounds. I felt Ambrogio kneel next to me and felt him grab my head. He twisted it to the side again like he had earlier. I realised he was exposing my neck as he leaned down to bring his mouth to my skin.
I was dimly aware that I was going to die then. That I would be the sixth victim of the Vampire. Well done, Tempest. You solved the case, I silently chuckled inside my head.
His head snapped up, focusing on something else. I heard noise, then voices. They were getting louder and suddenly he was gone.
Footsteps now, footsteps coming toward me.
Someone was touching my arm and I could see shadows running past me. ‘Tempest?' I knew the voice, but couldn't put a name to it. ‘Tempest, are you okay? It's Amanda.'
There were voices further down the path now. I guess I was coming around because I could make out Big Ben’s voice from the others. He was swearing, which was not unusual, but his voice was carrying. Concern, was that what I could hear? Relief perhaps also?
‘Tempest?' Amanda again and I realised that I had failed to answer her when she had spoken before. I turned my head to focus on her face. Lovely Amanda was kneeling on the path in the dirt looking utterly beautiful as always. Part of my brain was telling me that this was an opportunity to say something really cool, but I was not sure I could formulate the words. While I contemplated that, a thought occurred to me.
‘Poison?’ I asked.
‘She’s fine, Tempest. You did great. I have backup coming, but she is safe and not hurt.’ Amanda was holding my hand and it felt great. I had to move though. Ambrogio had beaten me and had gotten away. It was clear to me now that he was the Maidstone Vampire.
‘He is the killer, Amanda. I let him get away.’
I levered myself off the ground. ‘Hold on, Tempest. You’re in pretty bad shape.’
‘I’m fine. It probably looks worse than it is. I don’t think I have any broken bones, just a bruised face where I tried to break his fist with it.’ I scraped my legs around through the dirt to get them back under me and let Amanda help me up. Her arm went around me, and I got a good whiff of her - expensive perfume mixed with woman. A flash of excitement zipped through my groin and I knew instantly that whatever damage I had suffered it was not life-threatening.
Then I remembered the dogs.
‘Oh, God, my dogs! He picked them up and threw them. I have to find them.’ I made a move forward and almost went back to the ground as my legs refused to cooperate. Amanda was keeping me upright thankfully though my sagging weight was a bit much to ask her to support for long.
‘I have to find them.’ I repeated and forced my legs to take my weight by pushing on my quads with my hands until they were back under me.
‘What can I do?' she asked looking around for any sign of them and still holding my arm in case I fell.
‘Just help me look please.’ I said quietly. I had seen the force with which they were thrown, and my heart was so heavy I almost didn’t want to find them, I was so convinced that it would be their tiny broken bodies I would discover.
‘One was thrown somewhere up that bank I think.' I motioned in the general direction I thought was correct. It was a steep bank and littered with leaves, weeds and loose stones, so would be hard for a human to climb without slipping back down constantly. ‘The other went into the water. I heard a yelp and a splash, but the current will have taken him downstream and they don't swim well.'
‘You stay here, Tempest. I will look downstream.' Then she was gone, looking for my little dog and suddenly I was alone despite all the people around me on the path. I could hear sirens in the distance.
On my hands and knees, I started climbing the bank behind where Poison had been. I called for the dogs not knowing which one of them might have been thrown in this direction. There were nettles that stung my hands and then my face and neck in the dark, but I didn't care. I had too many other more convincing aches and pains to be concerned about a few minor stings.
The sound of someone coming back up the path towards me turned out to be Big Ben. He was jogging but moving slowly, probably because of the utter darkness cloaking the path. My eyes had adjusted to the gloom now; I had been away from the lights back at the mausoleum and elsewhere for long enough.
I cupped my chin and gave it a rub where the last punch had landed. It was going to bruise, and eating would be an unwelcome reminder for a few days to come.
‘We need a light source down there. I think he is dead. I can’t find a pulse anyway. I left Frank with him to guard the body. It looks like he ran into a piece of broken fence.’
My memory skipped to the piece of fence I had found just a couple of days earlier. I had tried to lever it back into place because I thought it was dangerous. He must not have seen it in the dark.
‘Ben, I can't find the dogs, mate.' I said feeling the need to cry pulling at the back of my throat and causing my words to choke in my mouth. ‘He got them and threw them. One went up here and one went into the river, Amanda is looking for that one now.' I was sitting on my butt, just miserable in the weeds and litter and probably dog crap a few metres up the bank.
‘One of them is down by the body, mate, I think it is Bull. He seems fine. Come on, buddy, let's get you down there.' He took two confident steps up the bank and grabbed my arm. Getting to my feet and stumbling down the bank, I wanted to run to see which of them was there.
Big Ben said, ‘I patted him, and he was dry, so whichever one it is, it did not go in the river.' My clever dog had probably seen the guy running off as Ben and the others closed in and decided to give chase. Absolutely something a dog would do.
Ben and I jogged very slowly along the path in the dark. My battered body was telling me to walk but I needed to find my dog and see if he was ok, so I forced myself to keep a steady pace. The path twisted around more than you might expect. We went into and out of light and dark patches as the tree canopy allowed light to pass in some places. We came around a bend and were met by a shaft of light coming through the trees. Momentarily blinded I stumbled into a bush and felt Ben grabbing my arm to stop me falling. The light was coming from a spotlight on a riverboat moored on the other side of the river.
‘Sorry mate should have warned you about that. It got all of us first time.'
A step or so further and the light was obscured again by another branch and there in front of me was the man I had been fighting. It was quite a sight.
‘Bull?' I called hopefully. A shadow moved through a patch of light on the ground near to the body.
‘Come here, boy.' I bent down happily to scoop him up as he whizzed towards me seemingly propelled by his tail.
It was Bull and he seemed unaffected by his short flight and sudden stop. Perhaps he had landed on a bush or some leaf litter rather than the hard earth. I squeezed him into me and kissed the top of his head with relief. He was warm, and his heart was beating fast from all the excitement. I popped him back on the path and felt down his sides and limbs, squeezing hard enough that he would react if I touched a sore spot. There were none that I could find. Somewhat relieved but still very anxious about his brother, I stood up again to look at the body.
The fellow was neatly impaled through the chest by an old wooden fence post. The exact same one I had tried to put back into position earlier this week. He hung limply with the post sticking out through his back. It had not broken through the material of his shirt though, so was forming a tent with the cloth. The shirt he had on was soaked down the back with blood which shone darkly in the moonlight. The stake protruded perhaps twelve inches from his back, my guess was that it killed him instantly as he ran onto it in the dark.
A gap in the bushes allowed light from a lamp across the river to illuminate his back
but all around was therefore even harder to see. He would have been blinded by the light as he rounded the bend, much like I had, and would not have been able to see the post sticking out in the dark.
Loathe to get too close and thus mess with the crime scene, I nevertheless went over to get a better look at the fence.
As we stood there not doing much I started to wonder again where Dozer was and if Amanda had had any luck in finding him. I wanted to look myself and was about to announce my intention to do so when the body started to move.
‘Whaaaargh!' exclaimed Big Ben as he jumped back, taking me with him. My poor heart stopped briefly then hammered in my chest as a second later we saw that it was just the weight of Ambrogio's dead body pulling itself free of the post. His body slid backward off the post with a slight slurping, sucking noise and then toppled onto the ground to him lying flat on his back in the moonlight. The front of his shirt was equally doused with dark, sticky liquid. It was untucked and pulled roughly to one side, possibly by me during the short fight.
Distracted now by the body in front of me, I knelt to examine him. Bull wriggled to be let down, so I popped him on the floor, looping a finger through his collar so he couldn't get to the body which he was now desperately sniffing. The post had entered the chest a little to the left of his breastbone and perhaps an inch under the line of his nipples. To me, it looked like it must have gone straight through his heart. I could not manage to feel sympathy for him though, he had threatened me, had threatened my family and friends, had kidnapped Poison and possibly killed one of my dogs.
‘You will note, Tempest,’ said Frank, who had moved to bend down next to my ear ‘That it was a stake through the heart that killed him.’
‘You have got to be kidding me, Frank.’
‘Tempest, how else does one slay a vampire? Had the wound been anywhere else he would have removed the post and escaped us. He would probably have turned himself into mist or a bat or something.'