Betrayal of Innocence (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 1)

“Like now,” he muttered. “I have blessed silence right now.”

He smiled and heaved a relieved sigh. As they usually did, the disturbing feelings eased with the satisfaction of having done his job well. Without even bothering to glance over his shoulder, he slowly wandered around the woods. Carefully picking a spot deep within the thick copse of trees, he dropped to his knees and began to dig. He hadn’t thought to bring a shovel. It would have looked too odd for him to carry it through the village, and he hated it when people looked at him, so he had to make do. His hands needed something to do anyway, if only to stop them shaking, so he began to scoop out great mounds of earth with his fingers.

Time was irrelevant to him. He had no idea how long it took, but he didn’t stop. Thankfully, the girl wasn’t all that big. He didn’t have to move too much soil.

When he was satisfied he had moved enough earth, he went to fetch the body.

Half an hour later, he stood at the foot of the make-shift grave and took a moment to respectfully say the Lord’s Prayer. He finished his impromptu service by crossing himself. Now that his job was complete, he brushed his hands off and began to make his way home.

Of course, not all his victims ended up the same way. The others were different, but he didn’t want to think about them right now because that awful feeling would come back again, and he didn’t want that. No, he didn’t want that. Not yet. But soon.

CHAPTER TWO

Two days later, the magistrate unwittingly stood in the same spot the killer, also staring down at the body in the make-shift grave. Weeks shook his head sadly. The weight of the world was bearing down on his shoulders and there was nothing he could do about it.

“When are the Star Elite getting here?” he asked Dixon, his assistant.

Dixon, who was still on his knees studying the ligature marks around the young girls’ neck, looked up at his boss.

“Should be here any day now. I have yet to have the mail today,” Dixon replied solemnly. “They had better hurry up, though.”

“There are times when I really hate this job,” Weeks sighed.

“Aye, it’s a rum job, and that’s a fact,” Herriman, Dixon’s second in command murmured sadly. “The family are going to be distraught.”

“Why has he taken to killing them?” Dixon whispered.

Weeks snorted. “He might not have taken to killing them,” he replied dourly. “We have just not found the bodies of the other victims yet.”

“We have to consider they have all been murdered,” Herriman added. “This is a murder investigation now.”

“We can’t change anything yet. They are still assumed kidnapped. Understand? We can’t just assume they are dead. People will stop looking for them. There is still a chance they might be alive somewhere.” Even Weeks didn’t believe that, not now, and his doubt was evident in his tone.

“We won’t stop looking,” Dixon declared harshly. “But what do we tell the search parties who are out looking for her?”

“The truth,” Weeks growled. “But we have to be careful what we say.”

“The villagers will be uneasy now, and will automatically assume the rest are dead,” Dixon replied.

“Well we will just have to assure them otherwise, won’t we?” Weeks snapped.

“Yes sir,” Dixon and Herriman dutifully replied.

“I will go and inform her family,” Weeks murmured, his entire demeanour reluctant.

He made no attempt to move. He studied the ground beneath their feet but knew it would be impossible to get any evidence from it. The branches littering the floor were all broken, mostly because of their presence, but that couldn’t be helped. The nettles, thistles, and fallen and decaying twigs hid any trace of anybody else’s boot prints. There was no point searching.

“You found her like this?” he asked of the farmer who stood, pale and shaken, on the edge of the woods about ten feet away.

The farmer gulped and quickly averted his eyes when his gaze fell instinctively to the young girl they were talking about.

“I thought it was one of the sheep. My eyes ain’t that good now. When I got closer I then thought it was a rabbit but when I moved the branch-” He shook his head, too sickened by what he had discovered to say anything more.

His stomach roiled alarmingly but that was more down to the alarming smell coming from the decomposing corpse. It was disturbing how little the lawmen seemed to be affected by it. Quickly trying to think of something to say to change the subject and get his mind off the possibility of losing the contents of his stomach, he glanced around.

“Who are the Star Elite?” he asked.

“Professionals from London who are going to investigate the disappearances,” Weeks replied officiously, seeing no reason to lie to the man.