The Darkness Within (12 page)

As if the remote control button had been stopped, she suddenly stopped.

‘It’s over.’ He turned her so she was facing him. ‘It’s over.’ He wiped away the blood that had splattered onto her face. ‘He’ll never touch you again.’

She looked up at him and instead of tears he saw the joy on her face. Ferguson knew what that felt like. She’d finally crossed over into his world.  She’d never be the same again.

‘You feel it don’t you?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘I feel as though I’ve had a shot of cocaine. I feel alive.’

‘And you will continue to feel that way until you need your next fix.’

‘My next fix?’

‘Yes. You will want to do it again.’

‘Is that how you feel?’

‘Yes.’

‘And what do you do?’

‘I go through the paper and see who’s been up to no good. I find those not deserving of life and get rid of them.’

‘How is it you don’t get caught?’

‘I have a great team of people who clean up after me. It’s amazing what money can do.’

She took it all in and then for a moment looked over at Lewis’s lifeless body.

‘Come, let’s get you home.’

There was a sound of a car pulling up.

‘Who’s that?’ she asked worried.

‘My clean up team. I told them to give us an hour. They’re right on time.’

The men walked in with suitcases. They asked no questions and made no remarks. Everything was being dealt with and all Ferguson had to do was walk away.

‘Let’s go.’ He encouraged.

They walked out to the waiting car. Kevin held the door opened and they slid in. Once they were back at Freya’s place and Kevin had driven off she asked. ‘What about Kevin? Won’t he expose you?’

‘I trust him with my life. He will never betray me.’

‘You’re sure about that?’

‘Yep. Now let’s get you clean.’ He pulled her into the house and they headed straight for the downstairs bathroom. He turned on the power shower, then began to undress her.

‘I’ll get rid of these clothes.’ He put them to one side. He too undressed then led her to the shower. He pulled her under the jet of water and began to wash away the blood that had dried on her face. She shut her eyes and felt his hands on her face. Freya was still on a high. His body next to hers made her want to do even more. He wet her hair and began to wash it gently. Freya enjoyed the gentle massage he gave her scalp. He turned her so that her back was facing him and tilted her head back and washed out the soap. Periodically he leaned in to kiss her neck.

‘There all nice and clean.’ He turned her back to face him. He smiled gentle, lifted her face and their lips touched. His hand began to venture down her delicious body and he caressed every part of her. Freya gave into the touches and it wasn’t long before he lifted her from the shower and carried her wet body upstairs to the bedroom.  He lay her on the bed, and smiled.

‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Hello.’ She smiled back.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Great. You?’

‘Better being with you.’ He lowered and kissed her.

Each kiss heated their bodies until they surrendered to the beauty of their desire. Freya was taken in, and in her mind her therapy had just begun. She was in love, but she was in love with a monster.

Chapter Eleven

Detective Murphy pressed on the doorbell and waited. A woman with swollen eyes opened. There were shouts ‘daddy,’ from two little children.

‘It’s not daddy darlings.’ She knew that because daddy never rang the doorbell. What if he never came back? Her stomach clenched with fear. She had a bad feeling about it all, it wasn’t like Lewis not to come home or not call to let her know that he was alright.

‘Mrs Carr?’ said the detective.

She nodded.

‘I’m detective Murphy and this is my partner Roy who is working with me.’

‘Is there something the matter? Is my husband dead?’ She’d called the police to report her husband missing and a detective showed up.

‘We don’t know yet. Can we come in?’

She nodded as she widened the door. Mrs Carr led them to the living-room with two little children in tow.

‘Please have a seat.’

They sat. ‘Sorry to have to do it this way, but we think that your husband’s disappearance is connected to a few other disappearances.’

‘What do you mean?’ She didn’t like the sound of that. That meant that her husband was part of something deeper than what she thought.

‘I’ve been investigating the disappearances in the area. The thing I don’t understand is that your husband doesn’t seem to fit the profile, and yet we think or we’re thinking it might be the same person.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well most of these men who have disappeared have a criminal record of some sort. They’ve done something in their past or are still doing something bad. The person, involved seems to think he’s doing some sort of service getting rid of bad people.’

‘So my husband is… will you excuse me. I’ll just go and put something on the television upstairs for the kids.’ She didn’t want them listening to this no matter how young they were, and how unaware they seemed.

‘Yes sure.’

She disappeared for a while, and returned to listen to what they had to say.

‘Do you…’ She sucked in a deep breath. ‘Think my husband is dead.’

He didn’t want to say it, but if it was the same man they were hunting, it was quite possible.

‘I don’t know yet. He might be. Let’s not jump to conclusions.’

‘Oh god.’  Her eyes clouded with tears.

‘I’m sorry,’ said the detective. ‘We need to catch this man before anyone else gets hurt.’

She nodded.

‘Could you tell us what happened. When was the last time you saw him and where was he going?’

‘He had a deal. A deal with a prominent business man.’

‘Do have a name?’

‘No I don’t tend to ask. He works with so many of them.’

‘We’ll get that from his place of work.’

She nodded. She just wanted her husband to come home.

‘I notice two cars outside. Do you have another car? Did he take another car?’

‘Yes he has two cars.’

‘I see.’ The detective made notes on his iPad. ‘Do you have a name or make of the car’

‘Yes.’ She gave details of the other car, Lewis had used.

‘Did he call at all during the time he was away?’

‘No. He tends to call if he’s running late, but I didn’t get anything.’

‘Okay. We’re going to have to follow the trail of the car. Don’t worry, we’ll find out what happened to your husband.’ The detective couldn’t really promise that because none of the bodies of the missing people had ever been found. They always came to a dead end. Perhaps this would be the first time they find a lead.

‘Was your husband active on Facebook?’

‘Yes. For work mainly, but he kept in touch with friends.’

‘Great. We’ll looking into that too.’

There were only a few more questions and then they left her to get on with her life.

‘We will be in touch as soon as we can be. Sorry we can’t tell you right now where he is.’

‘Yes I understand.’ That didn’t make anything easier. For now, she’d just have to cope without him.

****

‘So I’ll see you a bit later beautiful woman.’ He gave her a kiss at the door. ‘You have a good day at work. Not the time to be leaving though.’ They’d had a lie in.

‘That’s all your fault for keeping me in bed.’ She laughed.

‘I’d say it’s more your fault with that delicious body of yours.’ He gave her another kiss. ‘I’ll keep you posted on the others. I’m sure my assistant will find them very soon.’

‘I trust he will.’

Again he kissed her and headed for the waiting car. Freya headed for the car that was waiting for her too. It was going to be a long, but interesting day.

****

The detective and his partner arrived at the car dealership. Lucy, Lewis’s assistant was ready and waiting. There were other sales people and the boss had also come into the dealership because it wasn’t like Lewis not to check in with him the day of a sale. He too was worried.

‘Please have a seat,’ she offered.

‘Thank you.’

‘Do you know what’s happened to him? We’re all very worried about him. He’s always in touch so when I heard nothing from him I knew something was wrong.’

‘We don’t know yet. I just have a few questions and perhaps you could give me a brief on the man he was selling the car to.’

She nodded. ‘He’d had a meeting with a Mr Banks.’

‘Do you have a first name?’

She checked her notes. ‘Ferguson Banks. He works in oil. Has an oil company and is very successful.’ She turned her laptop around to show him who she was talking about.

‘I see.’ He took notes. ‘So he went to see this man last night?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why wasn’t the business conducted on the premises?’

‘It’s usual for clients to want to talk to us off the premises. It’s just the way. Sometimes we go to their homes, or wherever they want us. They’re spending big money so they get to call the shots.’

‘Nice for them.’ He didn’t seem too impressed. ‘Do you keep footage of visits? I see you have cameras positioned around the office.’

‘Yes we do.’

‘Great, we’d like to scan through the footage. Anything that could lead us somewhere. It would be good if we pick up something. Anything.’

‘Yes of course. I’ll have security forward that on to you.’

‘That will be helpful.’

They asked a few more questions hoping it would lead to some more leads, but it didn’t. He wanted to speak to this Mr Banks, but not before finding out more about Lewis. If he could find a flaw in Lewis, perhaps it would be the same man he was after, but if not they would be back to square one.

‘Thanks you for your help,’ he shook her hand. ‘We’ll be in touch.’ With that they left.

****

‘So how’s it going?’ Bailey asked her boss with a slight smile.

‘How’s what going?’ Freya knew exactly what Bailey was talking about, but didn’t feel like playing that game.

‘You know. With Mr tall dark and handsome or sexy. You’re glowing. He seems good for you. You seem a lot more focused.’

‘Perhaps he is. And to answer your question, I think it’s going well. I do like him and it takes a lot for me to like someone.’

‘Yes I agree; he must be really special.’

‘Yes he is. Now what’s going on today? I see I have a meeting at twelve, and an interview at two. I’ve got to go over the magazine proofs before we release next month’s issue. It’s all none stop.’

‘It is, but everything is under control so you don’t need to worry.’

‘Yes. Thanks to you. I guess we better get working.’

‘Good idea.’ Bailey left her to get on with work.

****

Ferguson was happy. Two more names had been delivered and their whereabouts. All he needed was a plan to get them to where he needed them to be. Trevor hadn’t done well for himself. He’d struggled with drugs and alcohol and had only manged to get himself a minimal job as a shop assistant. It was a waste of his degree. He didn’t have a wife or children, so no one would really miss him. Perhaps his parents, but Ferguson didn’t really care about that. All he wanted was to capture him and end him. Blake on the other had was a successful stock broker. Ferguson knew just how to get to a man like him. He had an idea that he thought might excite Freya. It was nice to enjoy his secret with her. At least she didn’t think he was a freak, just like he knew she wasn’t. Both of them just coped with things differently.

****

The detective studied the Lewis’s Facebook page. He had so many friends he wondered if he’d be able to get anything substantial from it.

‘Got anything?’ he asked Roy.

‘Nope.’

‘Let’s narrow down the search. How about we use his school or university information. Match every one of his friends that attended the same university. I think that will make it easier, that way we can ask some of them if they’ve seen him.’

‘Sounds like a plan, but why university? Isn’t that going back a little too much? asked Roy.

‘Maybe, but I’m going with my gut here. Something tells me we might find something.’

‘I hope you’re right. I’m getting tired of chasing a ghost. I’m not even sure that Lewis fits into the profile of the other murdered people.’

‘We don’t know that yet, so keep looking.’

‘Sure.’

For the next hour they went through each and every one of his friends that had attended the same university.

‘I think I’ve found something,’ said Roy excited.

‘See. I knew this wouldn’t be a waste of time.  What did you find?’

‘Look at this.’ He placed his laptop on the desk beside the detective and pointed at the picture of Ronald.