The Rain Killer by Luke Delaney Read Free Book Online

skilled in martial arts. It’s not a conclusive point, but it’s another indicator.’
    ‘Fine, but we need to tread carefully,’ Middleton warned. ‘I can’t go around blabbing to the media that we’re looking for a Chinese killer on your fairly tenuous conclusion. If you’re wrong we’ll be murdered – accused of being anti-Chinese and it’ll be Stephen Lawrence all over again, just with a different ethnic group. So what d’you want to do – make some discreet enquiries with the South Asian community, see if anyone’s heard anything?’
    ‘No,’ Sean answered quickly. ‘Not yet. Better to keep it to ourselves for now, use it to our advantage. Set a trap.’
    ‘A trap?’ Middleton asked nervously. ‘I already don’t like the sound of this.’
    ‘We run an undercover decoy operation,’ Sean explained, ‘draw him out into the open.’
    ‘A decoy operation to catch a serial killer?’ Middleton checked. ‘One who we know carries a knife. SO10 are gonna love that idea.’
    ‘Don’t worry about SO10,’ Sean assured him. ‘I’ll swing it with them. They owe me a favour or two.’
    ‘Well even if you do, given that our killer’s just struck again it’ll be a few weeks before he’s around to walk into a trap. We can’t just sit around waiting for that.’
    ‘We won’t have to,’ Sean explained. ‘This one’s not on a time cycle. Some of his attacks have been months apart – others only weeks. It’s not the time that dictates when he attacks, it’s simply the opportunity and circumstance. He needs rain and he needs a victim type.’
    ‘So,’ Middleton asked, ‘as long as it’s raining he’s cruising the streets looking for the ideal victim?’
    ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying,’ Sean confirmed. ‘So let’s give him the ideal victim.’
    ‘Christ,’ Middleton moaned. ‘So that’s our
master plan
, hang a decoy out for him to see and pray for rain.’
    ‘That’s about it,’ Sean answered.
    Middleton leaned back into his chair. ‘Christ,’ he repeated. ‘Well in the absence of anything else I’ll agree to it, if SO10 will. But for God’s sake, Sean, be damn careful. You’re playing with fire here.’
    ‘I understand,’ Sean assured him. ‘All the t’s will be crossed and the i’s dotted.’
    ‘They’d better be,’ Middleton warned him, ‘or at the very least you can forget about any future promotion.’
    ***
    The sweat ran off his back and trickled over his ribs, down his chest and abdomen as he pushed his body to the limits of tolerance. The smoke from dozens of incense sticks and candles swirled around the room, daylight kept at bay by thick, black curtains that hung from the windows. Eventually he couldn’t push his body from the floor anymore and pulled his knees forward into a kneeling position. He hadn’t washed since the night before and the victim’s dried blood still stained his hands. Mixed with his own sweat it liquefied once more. He placed a hand on either side of his chest and slowly slid them down the length of his naked body until they rested on his thighs, leaving behind glistening stripes of dark red that gave the snake
tattoo an even more life-like appearance. He controlled his breathing as he recalled the events of the previous night. How beautiful she had been – so close to perfection. So close to what he had been searching for since he arrived in this cursed city. There was a time when he might have let her live –taken her sex and released her – but he was merely a man then. Now he was the Great Serpent
and the beast needed to be satisfied. He closed his eyes and saw her face: desiring him, wanting him, giving herself freely, in joyful sacrifice. But his beautiful daydreaming was shattered as the image changed to one of the knife slicing into her lifeless body. His eyes flashed open as he composed himself and regained control of his breathing.
    After a few seconds he stood and walked across the room to kneel in front of a