The Rattler (Rattler Trilogy Book 1) (27 page)

1

“So,
you lovely ladies; how long have I got your company for?” said Teddy as he removed
his oxygen mask. “Are you actually hitting on us?” replied Jackie. “You’re like
58!” Teddy almost choked at the thought.
“Pardon!
I’m
49! But, seriously, relax. I’m old enough to be your dad.” The ladies and Teddy
shared a few jokes and the odd bit of banter. Teddy was just glad, really, to
be out of that car and in the
safe company
of two attractive ladies.
However, his rude jokes had started to become annoying and when Jackie placed
the oxygen mask back over his mouth, telling him, “You need to remain calm,”
June felt relieved. However the silence was short-lived. “What’s this woman
doing?” yelled Earl. The ladies exchanged a look and frowned. Teddy felt sick.
He had a sinking feeling; his stomach turned. He knew exactly who she was, and
what she was doing. “What’s up Earl?” shouted Jackie.

“A woman!
Standing
directly in the middle of the road.
She’s pointing at me ...”

“What?”
frowned
Jackie.
“She must need our help. Is she
signalling you to slow down?”

“No.
She’s just standing there. She looks like a ghost! Shit! I’ve heard bad stories
about this road, and I don’t like this feeling I’m getting – she’s creeping me
out!”

“Earl,
just relax! She’s not a ghost! She just needs help.”

“I
don’t know, Jackie!” he said wearily. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”

Teddy’s
head was now spinning. He removed the oxygen mask. He tried to speak but his
throat was dry and hoarse. “Teddy, this isn’t the time for any more jokes!”
insisted June as she stood up and peered out of the front screen. Teddy could
feel his blood pressure rising. He swallowed hard. “Earl, what does she look
like?” he croaked.

Hagatha’s
image popped into Earl’s head. “Like a hag; an old, tatty-looking woman.”

“Shit!
She’s found us! Earl, listen to me. Don’t stop. Run her down!” he yelled.

“Teddy!
What are you saying! Earl, don’t listen to him. Pull over, she’s obviously
injured. We have to stop!” commanded Jackie.

“Are
you kidding? She’s the one who wrecked my car and tried to kill me!” Teddy
winced. “For God’s sake, Earl, if you want us all to live, run the bitch down!”
he screamed.

The
ambulance was getting closer and closer.
40, 30, 20 metres.
Hagatha stood her ground. Her black eyes bored into Earl. He could feel his
blood boiling with every second that passed. He beeped the horn and flashed the
headlights furiously but still she stood, eyes fixated on him. Earl tried to
turn to avoid her but, as he did, Hagatha slowly waved her hands in a fish-like
motion. To Earl’s horror a ripple effect appeared, heading in their direction.
There was a loud bang.
“Brace!
Brace!” panicked Earl.
“We’re crashing!” Metal bent and crumpled. The windscreen smashed. The
ambulance spun 360 degrees, rolled over and over until it came to rest at a
tree on the side of the road.

Hagatha
smiled. “You’re all mine,” she croaked. She started to walk towards the crash
site. Hagatha showed no remorse. Her face looked cold, yet joyful. She broke
out into a little skip. “You shouldn’t have listened to him, Earl! If you had
just stopped, you wouldn’t be in the
land of the dead
. Yes, I would have
had to knock you out cold, but surely a cut face is better than being dead!”

Inside
the ambulance, Earl was indeed dead; his face locked in the death stare. A
shard of metal had pieced his heart. In the rear, Jackie, June and Teddy were
lying motionless on the floor, in a heap. Their clothes were soaked in blood.
Suddenly, the rear doors were peeled back like a tin can. With a slight
movement of her hands, Hagatha levitated Teddy from the wreckage and flung him
against a tree. She heard his femur snap. “A fallen star,” she laughed. “I feel
privileged to be in your company.” Teddy slumped to the ground; his head lolled
precariously onto his left shoulder. “You can run like a rabbit and then hide
in a burrow – but I would always find you!” she croaked. She walked menacingly
towards him, stopped, looked to the sky ... and vanished.

2

The
helicopter’s spotlight lit up the area. A police car containing Fairway and his
Officers raced towards the scene of the accident. He could not believe the
mayhem that followed what he thought was just a routine search and arrest. He
had seen four of his men murdered, and now his eyes were locked on what
remained of the ambulance.
Could this really be the Savoy Murderer?
pondered
Fairway. The footprints had got him thinking.
What
have I stumbled into?
However, what had him even more puzzled was the rear
of the ambulance. He had never seen that sort of impact damage on any vehicle
before. “What could have caused the folding of the rear doors, Detective?”
asked the policeman who was driving. “I don’t know. Unless a canister exploded
inside whilst the ambulance was rolling,” Fairway replied. However he knew now
that he was hot on the trail of
the
Savoy Murderer
.

No
sooner had the car stopped than Fairway set to work. He ran to Teddy’s aid. The
TV star was slumped, motionless, against a tree, with his eyes closed. Fairway
checked Teddy’s pulse; it was faint, but miraculously he was still alive. “For
fuck’s sake, get the ambulance here,” he growled, as he attended to the victim.
“Mr Carr; can you hear me? Answer me!” He tapped Teddy’s blood covered face
lightly. No response.

The
remaining Officers attended to Jackie, Earl and June. Jackie was still alive,
but unresponsive; Earl and June were pronounced dead at the scene. “Right, I
want the area sealed off and a sweep of the entire area. I want the chopper to
start scanning, and you tell him, the slightest heat source – I want to know
about it!” he railed furiously at his Officers. “She knows we’re tracking her.
She might think she’s clever and even
mud-up
in the hope of lying
undetected, but I want to catch this bastard!” The man was angry, his face was
red, and sweat had now started to collect on his brow. “Grain picks the right
weekend to enjoy a city break to Paris! It’s as if all Hell has been let loose
here. And I’m left picking up the pieces,” he muttered under his breath.

Teddy
and Jackie were rushed to the hospital with a full police escort. Motorists could
quite easily think they were seeing VIPs in transit – the entire procession
mimicked a Presidential convoy. Fairway had insisted that he remain in the
ambulance with Teddy and Jackie. He knew that, even if the patients had only a
slim chance of recovery, he wanted to be there with them the moment they awoke.
The Detective wanted answers.
Why did she do this? And what does she look
like?
Lucy, although she didn’t know it yet, was now a prime witness.
Fairway and his Officers would soon be knocking on her door. He examined his
mobile’s pictures stored in an album marked
Crime Scenes
. He quickly
swiped through them until he came to a shot of a small bloodied footprint on a
tiled bathroom floor taken at Ms Wilson’s crime scene. His treasured Parker pen
lay next to the footprint. He had been given a couple of Mont Blancs during his
career, but his Parker remained firmly in his jacket’s inside pocket. It didn’t
contain an explosive charge, or fire a bullet for that matter, but it did carry
a lot of sentimental value. It had been in his pocket when he leapt into the
River Thames to save a child from drowning. It had been used in a tracheotomy
surgical procedure to save the life of a choking woman on the Tube. It was also
in his hand during his first crime scene. The pen was special.

A
smile appeared on his face. He selected the image and compared it to the
photograph he had taken earlier. His eyes widened. He knew he’d got the bug in
his sights and he was ready to squash it. “I knew it!” He nodded, “I bloody knew
it!” The two prints matched. “She’s back,” he said as he popped a stick of
chewing gum into his mouth. “The whore is back. This confirms it.”

Special Thanks

To mum and dad for all
their love and support, and finally, Pat – my editor.

I couldn’t have done it without you.