The Law Killers by Alexander McGregor Read Free Book Online Page A

fear, the young woman shuddered at what she knew was about to happen. Then through her half closed eyes, she made an astonishing discovery. The agitated man lying beside her was a neighbour of the same age who lived only two doors away in the row of neat terraced houses.
    Almost as soon as she realised who he was, her terror intensified. Her recognition meant she would be able to identify him to police – and he would be just as aware of that. He could not simply vanish anonymously into the night. It meant that what was about to occur was likely to have only one ending.
    Her torment seemed endless. In the anguish that followed, she was raped repeatedly. Attempted protest was met with the knife again being held menacingly into her face. Resistance brought the repeated threat that she, too, would die as horrifyingly as her mother.
    Her ordeal lasted two hours. As daylight filtered into the room, the devastated victim knew the scenario would soon be about to change. She began to plead for her life, begging her captor to spare her. At first her words were desperate, then, as it seemed he was hesitating in his intentions, she somehow found the resolve to be gently persuasive. Everything would be all right if only he would leave quietly and without any further trouble, she assured him. He could depart before the neighbourhood was fully awake and no one would be any the wiser.
    The performance of the 21-year-old that April morning in 1983 was remarkable for its courage and, almost unbelievably, it was also successful. The man who had terrified and violated her, nodded slowly, gradually convincing himself of the seeming logic of her plea.
    With a final threat that the trembling woman before him should keep his identity secret, he backed slowly out of the room, departing as silently as he had come.
    She lay in the bedroom for long minutes after that. She needed to be sure he had gone and she needed to stop shaking from the horror that was enveloping her. But she knew, too, that she had to go the bedroom next door to find out about her mother, even though she was certain of what awaited her.
    The sight that greeted her was something no daughter should have of her mother. Only then did she flee the house and leave the scene of unspeakable horror behind to make her way to the home of a friend to haltingly describe what had taken place.
    Things happened rapidly after that. At the arrival of the police she told them her attacker was John Smith and supplied his address. But when they went for him he was not there. Detectives quickly traced him to the home of his sister and found him on a sofa fast asleep after his monstrous night’s work.
    He did not lie about what he had done. In the car on the way to police headquarters the 21-year-old whose full name was John Cant Smith calmly described how he had broken into the house and had ‘stabbed someone.’ But he did not explain that he had swung his kitchen knife so often that his helpless 61-year-old victim had had no chance to defend herself. Casually, he admitted that he had gone to his sister’s house to wash the blood from his clothes, and, if they wanted it, they’d find the knife in a rubbish bin near her home. Under caution at headquarters, he explained further that on the evening leading up to the atrocities he had had a lot to drink and on the way home had decided to break into his neighbour’s house to steal. There had been no intention to kill, no plan to rape, he volunteered.
    Although his story was not disputed, there is every reason to believe that he might have been fully aware that there were no men in the house when he forced his way in. The murdered woman, who was described as a ‘credit to the community’ and faithful church worker who had been in much demand as a singer at local functions, spent most nights alone because her husband was a bakery worker on overnight shifts. Her daughter’s boyfriend visited frequently, as he had done that night, but had departed