The Rain Killer by Luke Delaney Read Free Book Online Page A

beautifully ornate, wooden chest decorated with dozens of carvings of Chinese snakes. It was one of the few things he’d brought with him from Hong Kong, but as soon as he saw it in the Cat Street Market he knew he had to have it, no matter what the price – knew that even though it was over two hundred years old, it must have been made solely for him – must have been waiting for him to find it all these years.
    Slowly and with the deference his treasure trove deserved, he lifted the heavy lid that slid backwards smoothly on its original hinges – the displaced air causing the smoke in the room to swirl and dance. He reached inside and lifted out a small stack of photographs, examining them briefly before dropping them back into the chest: a few of him with his mother, faded now, some official school photographs, his expression one of deep unhappiness, and finally several pictures of him as a young man looking stronger and more powerful as he rose the ranks of the Triads. It was they who first gave him the name of the Great Snake, his criminal name that would strike fear and respect into the heart of his associates and enemies alike. But the old photographs weren’t what interested him now – it was the large, ever-swelling scrap book he needed to see.
    He lifted the heavy book from its resting place and laid it on the floor, its plain green cover belying what lay within – a sketch plan of the tattoo that now wrapped itself around his body. Deeper he went into the pages of the book, arriving at a selection of newspaper cuttings from Shanghai and Hong Kong detailing the murders of three young Chinese women interwoven with drawings of the Great Snake
coiled around its victims before it devoured them. Delving further into the journal, he came across cuttings from British newspapers about more murders, only these had been committed in London – the bodies found mutilated and dumped at outside locations. There were more colourful drawings of the snake swallowing its victims, as well as photographs cut from magazines and downloaded from the Internet: pictures of real giant snakes that had been captured and slit open to reveal human corpses consumed whole. He wondered whether if he were slit open they’d find the bodies of his victims inside or just their souls. One thing he knew was that the Great Serpent
would never be satisfied, no matter how much it was fed. It would always need another
.
    ***
    Sean knocked quietly on the door of the fifth-floor bedroom in London’s Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane and listened for sounds of movement inside. After a few seconds he sensed someone looking through the spy hole before the door was opened by an unsmiling DS Arif Chopra, who stood aside and silently ushered him in. He walked along the short corridor into the main bedroom area where a pretty young Chinese woman nervously stood eyeing him.
    ‘This is PC Daiyu Jiang,’ Chopra told him. ‘PC Daiyu, meet DS Sean Corrigan.’
    She held out a small hand for him to shake. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ she told him in a gentle, quiet voice as they shook hands.
    ‘Likewise,’ Sean answered as he took all of her in – her size, ethnicity, hair, age and attractiveness. She was perfect, but she looked so vulnerable that for the first time he was beginning to have doubts about using anyone as human bait for the monster he hunted.
    ‘Sorry about dragging you into the West End,’ Chopra apologized as they all sat down, ‘but Daiyu can’t risk being seen anywhere near the Yard or any other police buildings.’
    ‘Problem?’ Sean asked.
    ‘No problem,’ Chopra assured him. ‘It’s just Daiyu’s been permanent undercover for the last two years – working in a restaurant owned and used by a Triad boss. She hasn’t been near a police station in that time as it’s safe to assume that periodically she’ll be followed by her employers – just in case. Daiyu’s the only undercover Chinese officer we have in the entire