Mummy's Favourite (35 page)

‘You don't have to do that, Colin.'

‘Oh, but I do, and you need to shut up now and stop trying to tell me what I should or shouldn't do. My mother was a bitch. All these women were bitches who chose one child over another. They deserve to be punished for what they have done. Do you have any idea what that makes the abandoned child feel like? Do you? So shut the fuck up now.'

His voice was getting louder as he spoke but he didn't care. There was no one there to hear him or her for that matter. They were still on their own. He wanted to shut her up; to shut them all up; all the women who had let him down.

Angrily he grabbed her, pulling her with him as he started to walk. It was pitch-black under the canopy of trees but he knew exactly where he was going. Charlie stumbled in the darkness but he dragged her with him. He'd show her his handiwork before killing Dean in front of them both.

Then it would be his turn to die. It wouldn't be long before the back-up arrived; trained firearms officers, their fingers on the trigger, itching to be the one to take out the infamous serial killer; the bad apple hidden right under their noses, one of their own. He smiled at the thought, wondering what name the media would give him. He'd go down in history, another mad-man who psychologists would write about, scrutinize; whose brain and motives would be dissected and analysed until they had worked out just what sort of mental illness he had. But he wasn't ill. He was far, far too clever to be mad. He'd enjoyed every minute of it.

They were at Naz's copse now. Quickly, he bound Charlie to the nearest tree so she could see everything. He left her without a gag, let the bitch plead for the boy's life. Let them both see what happens when you have a favourite. Hadn't they all listened while Naz complained about poor Nathaniel's misdemeanours, how she was at the end of her tether with him. The poor kid was only trying to win his mother's attention.

He pulled out his torch and aimed the beam at the wooden trapdoor, lifting it wide open so Charlie would be able to see the figures of Naz and Dean lying in their grave. He shone it directly at Naz's face so that she squinted away from the brightness, closing her eyes against the brilliance.

‘Look who's come to rescue you, Naz?' he scoffed, pointing the torch-light in Charlie's face. ‘Unfortunately she didn't see me coming.'

He bent down and removed Naz's gag, laughing again as she licked her dry lips before spitting towards him.

‘Ah, what's the matter, Naz? Can't believe that you two women could be so stupid?'

‘Get me out of here, Colin.'

‘Now why would I do that? Especially since you're trying to tell me what to do.' He pulled the two knives out and scraped them together. The metallic sound reverberated through the still air. ‘Nobody is going to tell me what to do. Especially not you two.'

‘Naz,' Charlie called across to her, ‘are you OK?'

‘As OK as I can be, tied up and kept hostage in a fucking pit by this prick.'

‘Shut up, both of you. You speak only when you're spoken to. Understand?'

‘Is that what your mother used to say to you, eh, Colin?' Naz's expression was sarcastic.

‘Shut the fuck up, Naz.' He stamped down on her chest hard. ‘I've had enough of you being disrespectful. You do what I say, or I put the gag back on you and then you won't be able to even try to talk me out of killing little Dean here. Do you understand me?'

Naz closed her mouth, her eyes flashing with fear now. He loved that look.

Roughly, he grabbed Dean by the arm, pulling him up on to the grassy area in the centre of the trees. He removed the boy's gag. Dean started to whimper and cry.

‘Dean, don't worry. You'll be all right.' Charlie's sentiments made him laugh.

‘No Dean, you won't be all right. In a few minutes time I'm going to slit your lovely long neck from one side to the other, unless, that is, your mother here has chosen for you to die an easier way.'

He turned towards Naz.

‘Well, how shall I kill him?'

‘You don't have to kill him. Kill me instead.'

‘But that's not part of the game,, Naz. It doesn't work that way. I kill mummy's favourite and then mummy has to live as long as she can without them. It's a good game. So what's it to be, Naz?'

Naz said nothing. He walked over to the pit and pulled her up out of it, throwing her forcefully on to the grass next to Dean.

‘So what's it to be? If you don't give me an answer I'll choose.'

‘Leave her alone, Colin.' Charlie was angry now. ‘She's not going to choose.'

He rounded on her, lashing out with the back of his hand across her face. Blood sprung immediately from her nose, dripping unabated into her mouth and down her chin. It looked good. He smiled, flashing the torch from one to the other.

‘I know then,' he said animatedly, untying the twine that held Charlie to the tree. ‘You decide. You decide how your friend's favourite son is going to die, right now in front of us all. Maybe you can even help me do it.'

He pushed Charlie down on the grass and dragged Naz up, tying her instead to the tree so that she faced into the centre.

‘There now, mummy can watch. Perfect view for you. Prime position.'

Pulling his knife out again, he untied Charlie's hands and placed the cord around her knees instead.

‘There we go. Now you can help me without being tempted to run, and if you do try anything, they both die, understand?'

Charlie nodded, wiping her nose so the blood smeared across her arms and hands too.

‘Nice! I love the sight of blood.'

In the distance a low rumble vibrated through the air, getting louder every second. His time was nearly up. He needed to get started. He dragged Dean to his feet, waving the knife with one hand before pointing it towards his neck. ‘So what's it to be then, Charlie?'

A spot-light suddenly lit up the copse as the air filled with noise and turbulence. The trees started to bend and the branches were thrown around wildly as a helicopter circulated directly above them. He stared up into the light, his eyes wild with excitement.

‘The final act. Lit up and filmed for all to see.' He was laughing manically now.

‘So choose, now Charlie, or I'll slit his throat anyway.'

Dean was sobbing. He grabbed hold of the boy's hair, pulling his head back and clasping him across the chest so that his neck was exposed. He pushed the knife against the boy's soft skin.

All around them he could see movement as Charlie's backup arrived; glints of metal from the barrels of MP5s. He shuddered with pleasure. It was all playing out as he'd hoped. Suicide by cop, going down in a blaze of glory and gunfire, destined to provoke discussion for many years to come.

He was in control now. Everyone would do what he wanted because it was him who had the power to make the decisions; he was the one with the life of a child in his hands.

‘So what's it to be then?' he screamed over the sound of the chopper. ‘Sliced or strangled?'

Charlie held her hands to her ears. He beckoned her closer and shouted the question again. She moved towards them, shuffling slowly with her knees tightly bound. He stepped across the grass towards Naz, pulling Dean with him, the knife fixed squarely to the boy's neck. The four of them were close together now.

‘Last chance to decide or I cut his neck from ear to ear. I don't care what happens to me now. I want them to kill me.'

‘You can't kill him,' Charlie screamed.

‘You watch me.' Colin's eyes blazed.

‘You can't kill Dean because he's not Naz's favourite. Nathaniel is, isn't he, Naz?'

Naz stared hard at Charlie.

‘He's the one you love the best, isn't he Naz? It's Nathaniel?' She nodded slightly. Naz stared back, their eyes locking momentarily.

‘It's always been Nathaniel. You know that, Charlie.' Naz nodded in return. ‘He might be naughty. He might be cheeky and do my head in, but he's my special boy.'

‘And Dean? He's just second best, isn't he?'

Naz nodded.

‘So you see, Colin. Kill him and you'll be doing Naz a favour. She won't have to put up with Dean anymore. She can just have Nathaniel; just the two of them. Bet your mum wished she could have got rid of you and just had Tommy. Bet she would have loved it if it had been you falling down that cliff face. Watching you scream.'

‘Shut up, shut up. She loved me really.'

‘No she didn't, Colin, she just put up with you because she had to. It was Tommy she loved, just like it's Nathaniel that Naz loves, not Dean. Your mother hated you. She even chose death rather than you, what does that say, Colin?'

He couldn't listen to her anymore. He had to stop her screaming at him. Clasping his hands over his ears, he tried to block the voices out. He had to stop the noise. He was in the cupboard again and she was screaming at him, telling him he wasn't good enough, that she loved Tommy more; that she'd always loved Tommy more. And she was downing vodka now and pills and her face was nasty and sneering at him and she didn't love him, she'd never loved him.

And he was falling down. She was pushing him and he was grasping at the air to stop him from falling and he had nothing in his hands, nothing to grab hold of as he fell off the cliff. And then he opened his eyes and there was a strange woman that he half recognized pushing him downwards into the grass and she was shouting and other people were running out of the bushes and he wanted to die, but he wasn't dead and he knew that this woman who was lying across him was in control and he could do nothing to stop everything happening around him.

Metal cuffs were being clamped around his wrists now as he was pushed face down into the mud. Hands were all over him, pressing against his arms, his legs, going through his pockets, round his waistband, pushing his face further down into the soil. His other knife was pulled from up his sleeve and taken away. He could smell the soil and he wanted to be down inside it, like all the favourites were, buried and decomposing next to their mummies. He wanted to be like Tommy, dead and lying next to his mother in the earth, but as he was lifted up on to his feet, he looked into the woman's eyes and he knew he'd been beaten again. He could hear the words now, ‘Colin Butler I'm arresting you for murder', but the words were fading again and he could see his mother's mouth chewing up tablets and swigging from a bottle, and bits of tablets were dripping from the sides of her mouth and vodka was dribbling out the corners and down her chin and she was laughing at him while she chewed and swallowed and chewed and spat and he couldn't watch anymore, and as he felt himself being dragged away from the copse he threw his head back and screamed as long and as loud as he could scream.

Dana wailed in agony as her gag was removed. She clung to her daughter's lifeless body, refusing to be lifted out of the pit, cradling Gemma's head against her breast while she sobbed unashamedly. Charlie watched appalled as the spotlights were turned on the grisly scene, knowing that a man she had until that day worked and socialized with was responsible. If only they had realized sooner, she could have saved Gemma. If only they'd had a bit more luck. If only Colin hadn't had been there when she'd brought Olga in.

If only…

Naz stood next to her, staring blankly down into the pit at the two women, her eyes filled with tears. It had been Naz that had led them so quickly to this copse and she was ready to point out the other pits. Colin had made her and Dean stop over various sites, but she too had only realized the significance when shown her own. ‘That could have been me and Dean if Colin had done what he was planning. Thank God you got to us when you did.'

Charlie put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her gently, watching as the tears fell unabated down her friend's cheeks.

‘I only wish we'd worked it out sooner. Gemma might still have been alive.'

‘He had us all fooled, Charlie.' It was Naz's turn to offer comfort now. ‘I can't believe I didn't suspect it was him when he was arranging to meet Dean and me. He was going to take us out for a special day, just the two of us he said, with free tickets he'd got. He even insisted I bring Dean this time, not Nathaniel. Said Nathaniel was too small for the rides and anyway Dean deserved it more because he never gave me any trouble. Why didn't I see it?'

‘Because nobody suspected him. Why would we? He was part of the team and we were all working together supposedly.'

Hunter wandered across to Charlie, patting her on the back.

‘I'm proud of you. Well done, Charlie. You're a star.'

Naz looked across at Hunter, curiously.

‘It was Charlie here who worked it out. We were still chasing around after the wrong man. She was the one with the hunch.'

She shook her head, embarrassed.

‘We all did it together. The guvnor backed me all the way. It was just a stroke of luck that it was me who spoke to Olga Kaplinski on
Crimewatch
. She told me about being involved in a similar case, years ago in Dover where a policeman had been involved.'

‘But other officers might not have made the connection. You did.'

‘Unfortunately he realized we were on to him, but again I was lucky in remembering a conversation I had with him when he had been angry about the hospital where he had been born being closed down.'

Naz still looked puzzled.

‘So how did you know he went for
favourite
children?'

‘Because he told me, after I'd stupidly let him capture me using my phone. He loved the fact that he'd caught me out. He told me everything about his childhood. How his mother had abused him, but favoured his brother, Tommy. How he had pushed Tommy off the top of a cliff and threatened his mother with a knife. How she had chosen to kill herself rather than tell him she loved him. He was killing who he deemed to be the favourites, to punish the mothers.'