community. To all women who are blonde,

  take extreme caution. Don’t ever be alone and

  do not trust anyone.” Lead detective on this

  case, inspector Samuel Cann speaking at…’

  56

  Sam Cann

  Killing For Your Love

  Chapter 2

  I push myself off my cold, musky bedroom floor

  and sprint upstairs to my kids’ bedrooms.

  As I get to the door to Sophie’s bedroom, I look

  at the ‘Dora the Explorer’ sticker on her door

  above the ‘A princess lives here’ sticker. It

  releases my worry a little and makes it ooze out

  of my body. I knock on the door lightly and

  whisper: “Sophie? Morning, darling it’s

  Daddy.”

  I push the door open to be left in dismay. I take a

  step onto the pink, bouncy carpet on which is

  scattered Sophie’s clothes and possessions. Her

  wardrobe and drawers have been opened and her

  clothes are all over the floor. As I study the room,

  I see that a photo frame with a picture of me and

  Sophie has smashed. I walk over to the frame and

  pick it up. I study our elated faces. I throw the

  frame into the wall and watch it smash into

  segments.

  I leave her room and run to Danny’s room, his

  is in the same condition as Sophie’s; his stuff has

  been emptied and searched through.

  I walk downstairs and pick up the phone.

  There’s only one thing I can do. Report them all

  missing. Once I’ve done that, I’m going to find

  them, and make whoever is responsible pay…

  57

  Chapter 3

  … Here I am, sitting on my bed after answering

  the questions from the police, it felt like an

  interrogation.

  I stare around the room and something stands

  out to me. Our room hasn’t been trashed or

  searched like the kids’ rooms. It’s very tidy and

  normal, as if Lizzie left with her consent.

  I stand up and look in her empty underwear

  drawer. At a glance, it looks empty, but there is

  one thing left, a photo of me and Lizzie together

  on our wedding day. Not just any photo, it’s the

  one of our kiss on the big day.

  My heart sinks. The feeling of dread fills my

  entire body. I overload with emotion - mostly

  distress and depression; I fill up so much that it

  seeps out from my eyes, creating tears which

  slide down my face. For a moment I feel as if my

  life has ended, until my fists clench. I feel myself

  change, my mind has adapted in some way. I feel

  angry and ready to get my family back at any

  cost, any cost…

  I stand at the window for a few minutes

  wondering how I am going to meet this guy. I

  can’t just wander on in.

  I might as well give up and just be patient.

  Oh, wait a moment.

  The Cann’s’ front door opens and he steps

  out.

  58

  I open the door and quickly pick up the

  rubbish bag. I don’t even look over, Sandra

  will call me over.

  I walk down the path towards the black bin

  at the end of the path. I lift the bin’s lid up

  and drop the rubbish into the bin and close

  the bin and make my way back up the path.

  “Oh, Ryan! Mr Milligan,” Sandra shouts.

  I smirk just before I turn around.

  “Hi Sandy. How are you?”

  “I’m great, thank you. Come here, I’ve got

  someone for you to meet.”

  I walk towards their home and come face to

  face with a young lad. I can smell his

  aftershave halfway across the road from

  Sandy’s house. His tailored suit fits around his

  well-toned body. I look at his face; he looks

  like a male version of Sandra. He has her face,

  but his dad’s dark hair and eyes. I look at him

  as I stand in front of him and put my hand

  out towards him.

  “Ryan, this is my son, Sam. Sam, this is our

  new neighbour, Ryan Milligan.”

  “Nice to meet you Sam, I’ve heard a lot about

  you.”

  “Good to meet you, buddy. Likewise,” he

  nods.

  “So Ryan, this is Sam, he’s a detective and at

  the moment he’s…”

  “Mum stop, I can tell Ryan about myself if he

  wants to know,” Sam says, interrupting

  Sandra.

  59

  “So you’re a detective, are you?” I ask, even

  though I already know who he is and what

  he’s up to at the moment.

  “Yeah, a senior constable; and I’m sure

  you’ve heard there have been murders around

  here lately, attacks on blonde women and I’m

  the detective working on the case. I also

  worked on the Myers case.”

  “Don’t call it the ‘Myers case’. Andrew was a

  loyal friend and cared about us.” Sandra says

  stubbornly.

  “Yes, he was, sorry mum.”

  “So what’s the update on Andrew Myers and

  the latest investigation?” I ask.

  “Well, with Andy, we had nothing to go on.

  We can’t find him or contact him. We thought

  that it must be because he doesn’t want to be

  found for whatever reason. Usually they come

  back in their own time, so it’s just a matter of

  waiting. The latest one however is an odd one.

  It’s been happening for a while now. In the

  last few weeks, women have been killed, for

  whatever reason. We have our suspects, we’ve

  just got to be patient and try to stop whoever

  is doing this.” Sam pauses as he stares at me.

  “You need to keep an eye on mum, especially

  as Dad is going away. They seem to trust

  you.”

  “Oh Sam, I’ll be fine.” Sandra nervously

  laughs.

  “Mum, this killer won’t let you off because

  you’re nice; he’s killing blonde women who

  have done nothing wrong. They’re all like you,

  they’re mums and wives.” He looks away

  60

  from Sandra and looks at me. “Mum and Dad

  trust you and really like you, so can I trust you

  to look after Mum?” Sam pauses as he stares

  at me.

  “Of course I’ll look after Sandra. I’m always

  looking around from the house so I can keep

  an eye on her.”

  “Okay great, thanks Ryan. I’ve got to go.”

  Sam kisses his mum on the cheek and gives

  her a hug, then holds his hand out to me.

  “Thanks Ryan, I can relax a bit now I know

  that you’ll keep an eye out for her.”

  I hold my hand out and Sam grips it tightly. I

  tighten mine and he then tightens his more, so

  I tighten to the hardest hand shake I’ve ever

  done.

  “No problem Sam. It was good to meet you.”

  “Good to meet you too, sir.” He nods to me

  and I return the nod. “Speak soon. Bye

  Mum.”

  “Bye darling, I love you.” Sandra shouts.

  Sam jogs to his Mercedes, opens the door

  and looks at his phone before getting into it.

  He shuts the door and switches on the

  growling engine. He does a U-turn and drives

  away at some speed.

  I look at Sandra and smile.

  “So where’s Simon going?”

  “He has a business trip to America. He’s

  going to speak to insurance companies and to

  watch presentations and other stuff that I

  don’t really know about. It’s a trip for his

  boring job pretty much.” Sandra laughs as she

  finishes her sentence.

  61

  “Okay Sandy. Well, I’ll leave you to it. Have a

  good day.” I stroke her soft arm and turn

  around. As I begin to walk across the road

  Sandra shouts.

  “Ryan? Can I talk to you about something?”

  I turn around and walk back to Sandra.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I didn’t want to tell Simon or Sam but I’m

  scared about these murders.” She looks at me

  and edges closer, she whispers: “Blonde

  women are being targeted and I was

  wondering whether you wanted to come

  round tonight? I can cook you whatever you

  like, you don’t even have to talk to me but I

  would just appreciate a man in the house.”

  I smile. “Of course I can come round and I

  will talk to you. Do you really think that I

  wouldn’t talk to you?”

  Sandra giggles and blushes. “Well no, but,

  you know, I don’t know.” She laughs and her

  neck flushes to match her cheeks.

  “I’ll come round later. When do you want

  me?”

  “Come round this evening let’s say, six

  o’clock?”

  “Yeah, sure. Do you need anything? I’m

  going to the shops in a minute to get myself

  some stuff.”

  “No, it’s fine, but thank you for asking.”

  “Right you go inside, take care. I’ll see you

  later on.” I smile as I lightly squeeze her

  shoulder.

  “Thanks Ryan. See you later.”

  62

  I walk across the road and turn to watch her

  go inside.

  I walk into my house and look at the time. I

  have three hours.

  I walk up to my room and lie down on the

  bed.

  “Why am I feeling so drained?”

  I get my phone out and set an alarm for

  16:30. At least I’ll have an hour and a half to

  go to the shops and get some stuff and buy

  Sandra something.

  I put the phone by my bedside and shut my

  eyes.

  As I shut them, the thought of blonde

  women being targeted haunts me. What if that

  is something to do with Tanya? Yes it’s only

  been the last few weeks of murders in Surrey,

  but what if it has been planned a lot longer

  and Tanya was the first victim?

  Maybe the kids got in the way and that’s why

  they were taken too?

  I do hope that Sandra isn’t harmed. I need to

  look after her like I should have looked after

  Tanya.

  63

  17:00

  Killing For Your Love

  Chapter 5

  The police lack the capacity to find my family.

  They don’t know my wife; she would never run

  away from me or cheat on me with another man.

  The forensics team couldn’t find anything so it’s

  easier to just blame my wife.

  I’ve been interrogated on more than one

  occasion. I’ve been asked if anyone has a vendetta

  against me or my wife. The answer’s no, why

  would anyone hate a normal man and wife with

  a normal life and normal children and, more

  importantly, a happy family?

  This is a job for the police, another opportunity

  for them to fuck it up.

  This is my job. I’ll find them, I’ll get them back

  and whoever has taken them will pay…

  Chapter 6

  … I stand in the room of a dead woman. Her

  body is sprawled out on the bed. She’s been

  beaten to death and most likely raped.

  I look at her rope-burnt wrists and ankles, her

  scratched thighs and arms and her swollen face.

  Her lips have split; the skin from her lips has

  lodged onto her bloody teeth that are attached to

  her swollen gums.

  I put on my leather gloves to move her red

  stained hair, which reveals her lumpy face.

  64

  To my relief, it’s not Lizzie and there’s no sign

  of the kids.

  It’s good that I’m looking in people’s properties;

  I wouldn’t have found this woman otherwise.

  The police can’t find out I was here, they’ll try to

  pin this murder on me.

  I need to move on and keep looking. I will find

  them…

  I set the alarm for 16:30 and it goes off at

  17:00? Ridiculous.

  While my eyes try to adjust to the light, I look

  on the ‘alarm lists’ on my phone. As I go

  through the different times, I spot something

  that is confusing.

  02:30 Alarm ON

  03:15 Alarm ON

  05:30 Alarm OFF

  05:45 Alarm OFF

  06:00 Alarm OFF

  07:15 Alarm OFF

  07:30 Alarm OFF

  17:00 Alarm ON

  Why do I have two alarms on for that time in

  the morning? I scroll to the top two alarms

  and switch them off. I then look down the

  list.

  “What the fuck?”

  My 16:30 alarm is nonexistent - where has

  that gone? Could I have done it in my sleep?

  65

  Oh well, I need to get a move on to get to

  Sandra’s on time.

  I scramble out of the warm duvet and run

  downstairs. I go into the kitchen to grab an

  apple. I take a crunch out of it as I’m just

  going down the hall. As I chew, I hear

  something in the kitchen over the crunching. I

  look back behind me into the empty kitchen.

  I finish my mouthful and poke my head

  through the doorway. I feel a gentle breeze

  brush my face and hair. I enter the kitchen

  and the back door is open.

  I walk out into the garden and see the back

  gate wide open. I walk across the grass and

  right up to the gate. I look into the

  woodlands. The leaves are undisturbed and

  the trees move in the wind.

  I hold the gate and pull it closed. I lock it in

  place, pull and push to see if it’s locked. I look

  down to the side of the gate to see some

  ginger fur on the ground and some blood. My

  whole body stiffens. I look back into the

  woodland. Still, there is nothing in sight.

  I turn around and look at the lawn. I notice

  flecks of blood spattered on the grass.

  I follow the flecks of blood that go off to one

  side, leading me to the shed. The shed door

  has splats of blood on it too. The grass

  surrounding the shed door is bathed in blood.

  I walk up to the bloody grass and stretch to

  grasp the handle on the door without treading

  in the blood. My body stiffens again. I clutch

  the handle as hard as I held Sam’s hand. My

  66

  arms straighten and my wrist turns. The door

  opens and a stench hits me in the face.

  “Hi there, neighbour.” A deep cheerful voice

  bellows from behind.

  My heart skips two beats; I slam the door as I

  turn to look behind. A man is poking his bald

  head over his fence, looking into my garden.

  “Hi, I’m Paul Brooke. I live here with

  Leanne, my wife, and my two children.”

  “Oh right, hello, I’m Ryan Milligan, it’s good

  to meet you,” I say half-heartedly.

  “You know if you ever need any help, you

  can always ask me, I can help with anything.

  Especially DIY, I’m a plumber, ex-mechanic

  and the handy man of the family.”

  I give him a fake smile. “Thank you for the

  offer.”

  We both stand in silence for about four

  seconds.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to it; you look busy.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry Paul; but we’ll hopefully

  speak properly soon.”

  “Oh yeah definitely, speak soon… Ryan.”

  His head drops behind the fence and I hear

  him whispering; most likely to his wife, and

  shuffling along the grass. I continue to wait

  until I hear the back door shut.

  I look back to the shed. I know there’s

  something dead in there, or someone.

  I grip the handle and begin to breathe in

  through my nose and out of my mouth.

  I turn the handle. The door loosens and even

  before the door is open, I can smell it; it’s so

  strong I already feel nauseous.

  67

  I open the door and I look into my shed. It is

  drenched in blood; it looks as if the blood has

  been sprayed on everything inside.

  Hanging down from the roof of the shed is a

  decapitated fox. Its fur is clumpy and clotted

  from all the blood. The paws are untouched

  but the legs are twisted and broken at the

  joints.

  I look down to see the pulsating, maggot-

  infested head. All its teeth are shattered and

  scattered across the floor along with one

  eyeball; the other is most likely trodden and

  mushed in along with its intestines and blood.

  This was not an animal attack, this has been