My Heart Belongs To You: A Psycho Thriller (8 page)

Stephanie sto
pped as they reached the
car;
Richard
Turner
climbed out of the driver’s side
,
but
he
did not approach her
.  John had warned him that Stephanie was an autistic savant and asked him not to crowd in on her
or
try and
shake her hand
.
He
explained that she would seem strange to him.  He had warned him that when she was agitated or anxious
,
he would see her rock gently back and forth
,
but
he
asked him to try and ignore it
.
He
also
told him
that when she spoke
,
she woul
d probably avoid eye contact,
and
that
she
would
speak in a flat monotone voice.

‘Who is that man
,
John?’ asked his sister
,
snatching quick sideways glances at the detective.  Stephanie never liked to look at people directly
.
She
tended to keep her head down
, snatching
quick glances
.
However,
after just one glance
, she
could tell you
everything
about
that person
,
every detail in their face in the most incredible detail,
and
every single detail of the clothes
,
their shoes
.
In
fact
,
anything that her eyes
passed
over was stored in her memory forever.

‘He’s a friend
,
Steph.’

That was all
that
his sister needed to hear
.
If
John said he was a friend
,
nothing else needed
saying
.  John sat in the back with Stephanie on the way to the
office of Hanson Securities, chatting
quietly with her.  He e
xplained about Tom and Karen,
how a man had ta
ken them,
and
that he needed her help to find them; that he wanted her to read all of the
police
files and look for any clues that mig
ht help them. 

‘What am I looking for
,
John?’

John sighed, ‘
This
man has taken other people
,
Steph
,
but we can’t find any common link between them so… perhaps something that joins them al
l
together,
and
something that joins all of the dots.’

‘I can do that
.
I like Tom, he’s nice and
so is
Karen.’

A shadow passed over John’s face as they pulled into the front parking bay of Hanson Securities, ‘
Yes
he is
,
Sis, he is.’

‘What will this man do to Tom
,
John?’ asked Stephanie
,
keeping her chin close to her chest as they exited the car.

John hesitated, coming to a halt outside the main doors to the reception area.  How could he tell her about the man
whom
they believed had taken them,
and
what he was capable of?

Stephanie turned towards him.  Even with
John,
she never looked directly at him other than with quick
upward
glances from her lowered head.  The difference was that with John
,
the glances were slightly longer
,
sometimes up to two or three seconds of eye contact
,
but to him they were priceless, magical moments where his heart would swell with the love he felt for her.  ‘Will he kill them
,
John?’

John waved
Turner
past with his cardboard box, pointing through the doors.  He hesitated before answering his sister, not sure how much to tell her
,
but… he was about to expose her to all of the police files on the
case, newspaper articles,
and
every scrap of information they could lay their hands on about this maniac. 
How
much could she take,
and
how much was it fair to expos
e her to
while
trying to save Tom?

Then Steph
anie
did what she often did with her brother and caught him completely off guard.  ‘It’s Cupid
,
John
.
Cupid’s
got Tom and Karen.’  She treated
him
to a quick glance
and
smiled at his stunned expression.  ‘I read and I have a TV. L
et’s find Tom and Karen
,
John.’ 
With
that,
she turned and went in through the main doors.

John shook his head in disbelief
,
as he followed her in knowing that he had made the right choice.  Ever since they had made the trip to South
Africa,
she w
as becoming more independent,
so much stronger.  Now
,
she was doing something she had never done before
.
She
was taking the lead
,
but John was in complete agreement with her. 
Let
’
s find Tom and Karen.

Chapter Eight

13 February
-
11
:
03

(
L
ife remaining 31 hrs 57 mins)

‘My name is Cupid.’

The drive from his office had taken Cupid
less than forty minutes
.
The
rented warehouse s
at
in perfect isolation in the middle of a deserted airfield where a
three-metre
chain link fence and matching gate
s
secured his absolute privacy.  Cupi
d had rented them six months prior
,
linking
through a series of companies he owned, companies formed in countries of the world that would make tracing the source of the rental impossible.  Bank accounts had been opened and eventually bank accounts would be closed to protect his identity
,
so that he could continue his work
,
his mission in life.

Thanks to the heroine of
anticipation,
Cupid’s head was buzzing with excitement
.
As
he closed the sturdy gate behind him
,
his perception of his own body so acute, so in tune with its functioning that he could literally feel the blood coursing through his veins,
and
sense each breath sliding into his lungs to fill the tiny air sacks within.  He was on a high so sublime it could never be matched by any drug or any other experience
that
life could conjure up.

He had not seen the couple since he first select
ed them
and
sending
Adam to track and eventually collect them. 
Adam, his
loyal follower
,
had called him as he left the warehouse earlier to advise him that all was ready for his arrival, ready for the commitment as Cupid had named it.  He liked Adam to be in sync with him
,
so
he
had made sure he understood t
he process.  It was
important;
it was how he wanted it.  First
,
came
the selection
.
Solely, Cupid did this
,
because
only
he knew the parameters that were vital.  Next came the gathering, this was done by Adam
,
but only after he had studied the couple, record
ed their likes, their habits,
and
stepped into
their lives.
This was important to Cupid
.
He
needed
that
information
so that he felt part of them at
the commitment ceremony. 
That
would happen today
.
It
was such a vital ceremony
,
for it was at the commitment that he would explain to the couple his mission, expl
ain why he had selected them,
reveal
ing
to them the enormity of the journey they were about to undertake into immortality.  It was vital that they glimpsed and embraced his vision,
understood
the gift
that
he was about to bestow upon them.

Inserting the key that
Adam
had delivered to his office, he turned it in the lock and then pushed open the heavy steel door that creaked loudly, the echo chasing away into the dark hidden places within the vast shadowy space.  Reaching to his
left,
he found the switch
,
just as Adam had advised him. 
The darkness was chased away
,
as a milky cloud of light
,
blossomed ten metres in front of him
,
exposing two naked people strapped to a large steel table
sitting
in the centre of the cavernous hanger.

As Cupid paced towards them, the pleading
,
screams and the shouts
started,
because
at the moment
,
his couple
was
not aware of the journey
that
they were about to embark upon, completely ignorant of the joyous gift he was about to lay before them.  Once he had taken them thr
ough the commitment ceremony
and
explained the final coupling,
then
they would understand the magnitude of his mission.  The simplicity would astound them.  The prospect of spending eternity wrapped within
love’s
warm folds
and
joined
as one
,
one
would cast away the shadows of fear
and
chase away doubt. T
he prospect of leaving the mortal world with all its lies
, deceit
,
and
suffering would empower and seduce them as they embraced the immortality of love.

‘
Please
…
please
,
whoever you are
,
just let us go, we won
’
t say anything
.
I promise, just let us go
.’ 
Tom was trying every
tactic
he could think of as the unseen person paced up behind them.  He could tell it wasn’t the first man
, because
the
steps were lighter, balanced,
and
unhurried.

Despite his best efforts to maintain her spirit,
Karen hadn
’
t spoke
n
to Tom for
over twenty minutes.  She just sobbed quietly in the dark
,
seeming to have go
ne completely into herself.  He
had seen it first ha
nd in combat conditions many times before, he knew the signs,
knew his fiancée was slipping away into a world of mental paralysis
,
where the mind
shuts down into protection mode when
the real world becomes too horrific to deal with,
and
too much to
bare. 

‘
We have money
,
’
Tom tried again, ‘
W
e
have rich friends, powerful friends
,
’
he was
freewheeling
now
,
trying any tack, any angle.