Unexpected Reality: Book 1: Gamer Girl (4 page)

Chapter 7

“Ms Costas.” He started. “This has turned into a very serious case and we feel you need a police officer with you at all times. This is Officer Jon Bradley and I am assigning him at the moment. He will stay with you until he is relieved or we catch this man. There are links that suggest he may be someone we are looking for in connection with other crimes.”

“Murder, you mean?” Claire asked and the detective nodded and said it looked a possibility. Kassie broke in at that point and said she was sorry to interrupt. “Claire had started some software off this morning checking if her Twitter feed and the comments on her blog might throw up the same person and we think maybe it does. Well three of them actually but one is a woman so probably not her. Here are the other two.” She handed over the paper that had printed out the details.

“You mean.” Jones asked . ”That we might be able to trace them from details on the web?” Claire nodded and showed him the links. His partner flipped out a smartphone and sent the details straight to the IT department at the station. “Both of these men live in this vicinity and have the same style of blogging.”Kassie continued. Claire took the paper copy and flicked her tablet on. She looked at both of the people that Kassie had spotted and nodded her head. “Both of them hate women as well. I remember both of these two.” She looked at one of them and showed Jones. “This one in particular is very like the one that made the threats. If we go back over his tweets and blogs we will get a clue as to his interests and where he lives.” She passed that to Jones as well and he sent it straight on to his tech department. “I’ll keep on searching.” Claire said .

“Keep in touch.” Jones said. And do not go anywhere without Bradley here. I’m serious. If this is who we think it is, you cannot be too careful.” He and his partner left and Bradley asked if he could watch her do the search. “I would like to know how to do this.” She agreed and offered him the use of the office coffee machine. The place settled back into work mode and Claire got lost in the concentration of the search. Bradley asked the odd question and watched intently. He took the odd note and after awhile she rubbed her eyes and said. “Look at this.” She flicked three screens up at the same time. “These are all tweets and comments supposedly made by different people but are almost word for word identical.”

“Can you trace any of them?” Bradley asked and she told him that one of them had no personal stuff at all but the other two both hinted at different times about the area where they lived. She put in a command to find the tweets to do with location and several appeared. She asked for pictures related and up came about six. They looked at the views that appeared. Bradley said. “I know that place. It’s near the recreation woodland.” He rang his boss and passed this on. Jones replied that the tech people seemed to be on the same track and had triangulated it to a certain area.

The door opened and Adam Oscorascos stepped inside. “Oh wonderful.” Claire said and jumped up to give him a hug. “Have a seat.” Kassie urged. “I’ll get you a sandwich and a drink.”

“How do you feel?” Karl asked and Adam told everyone that the hospital had told him was fine and just to take things easily for a few days. He took the offered sandwich and sat down. “This.” Claire said looking at the police officer. “Is Officer Bradley who is instructed to watch over me like a hawk.” Adam held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you.” He said and asked what the situation was.

Bradley said “Call me Jon.” And related what they had found so far. Once Adam was brought up to date and took in the implication of a possible murderer on the loose, he looked at the pictures they had found, he asked if they had a name for these people who tweeted and Jon Bradley brought them up on the tablet. “If we look in the local directories, he might be using his real name.”

“Why the hell did I not think of that?” Bradley said and Kassie was already speeding her fingers across the keyboard. “Yes.” She shouted. “In that area. Same name and the address at a wood yard.” Bradley rang his boss and relayed the information. The police department found that a man and wife and son were registered at that address.

The police department came back with the information that the man lived at home with his parents. They were going to check it out.

Adam said “I suppose there is no chance of the three of us going to watch.” Claire grinned at him and asked if he would recognise his attacker if he saw him. He said “I would know his build and size, even if I didn’t see his face.” They looked hopefully at Bradley who said “Okay but you two do not get out of the car.” They nodded and picked up jackets.

Kassie said. “Keep me in the loop.” And gave Claire a quick hug as she left. ”Could you do me a favour and ring my cousin, Val. Just bring her up to date please?” Jon Bradley did ring in and tell the department what he was doing and where he was going.

The area pinpointed by the police and the telephone directory was out of town and very rural. The wood yard was set apart from other properties and Adam remarked that if you used heavy machinery, it would be as well to not have neighbours. They pulled up behind two police cars already at the property and Jones came out to see them. “As far as we can see this place is deserted. Doesn’t look very lived in. I’ve sent someone to question the nearest neighbours.”

“Can we look?” Claire asked. Jones thought about it and nodded.

“Be careful and stay together. It looks deserted but you never know.” They approached the drive with caution. Everywhere was quiet and still. There certainly did not appear to be any signs of life. The trappings of a wood yard were everywhere around the property with big piles of heavy looking logs. They were felled trees in huge numbers stacked everywhere and the machinery that was used to move them was standing still, rusty and silent. The remains of a big wagon stood lopsided and falling apart. It was eerie and disused.

Claire held Adam’s hand and Bradley walked on the other side of her as they slowly stepped around the outside of the property. The detectives had already been this way and were now checking the outbuildings and heavy machinery. They had knocked and shouted with no response at the house and had no real reason to make a forced entry. The officer who had been to the nearest neighbour came back to say that the man and wife who lived here and ran the business had moved away a year ago and not been back since. “The son stayed here?” Jones queried and the officer agreed and said that the business did not operate any more.

“Looks like the son doesn’t live here either.” Jones observed and then Claire screamed. She held her hand to her mouth and pointed with the other one. “Look. Look.” They followed the direction of her finger and Adam gasped. Bradley saw it at the same time and picked his radio up. “Boss you’d better get back here.” He said and Jones came at a run. Jon Bradley pointed and Jones saw the human hand that could be seen squeezed between the logs in one of the huge heaps. The hand had been there for some time by the look of it and Claire was trying hard not to be sick. ”Take her back to the car.” Jones directed and rang for forensics and someone who could operate timber moving machinery. Then he said “We can force and entry now.” The team entered the property by force once they had shouted a warning and went in back and front at the same time with guns drawn. From the car where Adam sat with his arm around Claire and Jon Bradley stood guard, they saw the team exit the house empty handed. “Nothing.” Jones said “But it must be connected because of the hand.” He bent his head into the car. “We’ve got a lot to see to here and you can’t be any help. You’ll be more useful going over the internet stuff again. Go back and keep yourselves safe. ”I’ll send someone to relieve Bradley later on.”  There was little else to do so Claire rang Kassie, told them to lock up and go home. She and Adam were going to the hotel.

“That seems the safest place for you. I can sit outside the door.” Bradley told them and when Ray comes to relieve me, I’ll introduce you so you know he’s the real deal.”

Adam sent for food for all three of them and Claire went back to looking through old tweets and comments to try and find any more clues. They met Ray and said thanks and good night to Jon and then slipped into bed. Claire clung to Adam and shivered as reaction set in from the shock of discovering a dead body in the wood stack. He wrapped himself around her and held her close. He stroked her hair and kissed her gently until she settled in his arms. She turned towards him and asked. “Make love to me, Adam. I need it.” Adam ran his hands over her arms and kissed her lips. There was nothing fast and furious here. They came together and moved slowly until they reached the top of the hill and gently gave each other what they needed. She pressed her face to his shoulder and as she felt that final fall knew that she loved him. “I’ve waited for this man.” She thought. Adam knew he had fallen for this beautiful woman. She was strong, clever and sassy but even strong women are upset by finding dead bodies and he had needed the comfort himself. They lay in each other’s arms and stayed joined together as they finally drifted into sleep.

The police officer at the door dozed in his seat but the hotel was quiet.  In the morning they took him to the breakfast bar with them and said they were going to the office to try again with the old tweets and comments.

At the office everyone wanted to hear the tale of finding a hand amongst the logs. “Ughh.” Kassie shuddered. “I hope they catch this guy soon. It’s not nice to know he’s out there somewhere and free as a bird.”  Karl had the television on in the corner and suddenly called out to them. “Listen guys.” He ran the footage back and there was Detective Jones giving a morning press conference. They heard him say that three bodies had been discovered at a wood yard and the murder investigation was ongoing and part of other cases that may be connected but evidence was still being collected. One reporter asked about the victims and he said. “The older two victims, a man and a woman, appeared to be the owners of the wood yard but it was still to be confirmed and the other body is a young woman who has still to be identified.” There were a few more general questions and the press conference ended.

“Oh My God.” Claire breathed. “The owners were murdered and they were already investigating the murders of two young women. That makes four victims altogether.” Adam draped an arm around her shoulders. “You go nowhere alone- even to the bathroom.” She nodded her agreement.

Chapter 8

Claire flicked through her emails and tweets searching for any extra clues and then swivelled her chair to face Ray, the police officer. “What if.” She said. “I offered to take him on at an online game. Could the IT department track where he was?” Ray rang his boss and outlined the offer and Jones said he would check it with the tech people. He rang back fairly quickly and told them it might work and he would send his IT expert around to talk to Claire about setting it up.

Adam asked. “Are you sure you want to do this?” To Ray he asked if it would be safe. Ray said he would wait for the IT man and Karl said “She’ll be here with us and he’ll be on a computer somewhere else so it should be okay.”

“It’s a good idea.” Kassie said. “How would you set it up and Claire said she would resume her blog and tweets and insult him. He won’t be able to resist the chance to beat me.” Adam was still a bit doubtful and really wanted to leave everything to the police. “You cannot let yourself be a target.” He said. “This guy has murdered four people that we know of.”

Kassie left a sheaf of notes on the table and said to Ray. “When you see Detective Inspector Jones will you give him these? I found another address for the parents’. Apparently they had a holiday cottage. There are a few other bits and pieces I found as well. He probably doesn’t need them but you never know what comes in handy.” Ray nodded and took the sheaf of papers. Then for want of something else to do, he typed them onto his tablet and sent them off. The names of the parents were Maggie and Jim McGinty and the son was called Malcolm. “Bit of a difference from his online name of Razor.” He thought.

The tech man arrived and Ray did the introductions. The man looked about as far from a police officer as you could get because he wore red trousers and a lime green shirt, finished off with purple running shoes and a pigtail. He held out a hand to the people there. ”My name is Jez. Let’s hear this idea.” Claire outlined her plan and had already started to resurrect the blog and tweets. With hash tag fembloggirl and hash tag tropehater along with a few other things she knew would catch his eye, she boasted that she had changed her mind, no mindless moron would stop her blogging and she was the best gamer around. Jez laughed.

“You’ve got that right. He won’t be able to resist showing what a big man he is. Let’s do it. I’ve brought the software with me if you can give me a computer station.” Karl did the honours and told him to ask for anything he needed and Jez rang Jones and said they were setting it up. “I’ll keep streaming the results to the tech department and you can take it from there. Might take a few hours but Karl here can spell me if I need it. Claire has set up the tweets and blog already so we will wait and see if he bites.” The boss gave the go ahead and Adam said he would go and buy food. Kassie offered to go as well and he took her safe in the knowledge that the place was locked and Claire had protection.

Karl, Claire and Jez fell into talking about technology as all of these enthusiasts do and as Adam and  Kassie came back with supplies, Claire shouted. “He’s taken the bait.” They all crowded around as she thought what to say in reply to the sneering insult. ”Oh I would like to punch his face.” Karl uttered and Jez ran to his own machine to try and pinpoint the location and stream the results to the tech department. Claire said he was a moron and she could kick his ass on the screen or in real life. He came back with an unprintable insult and she answered “Any game. Your choice. Let’s get it on.” There was a pause and he came back with a war game that as she knew he would. Lots of explosions, looting, rape and pillage. She took the challenge and set herself ready to play. The game was well known and widely used and could be played alone or as a multiplayer. The characters were in place and Claire chose to fight as a man.

Despite the fact that she knew she was playing against a murderer and that it was only to be kept going to pinpoint the location, Claire could not help but get into the spirit of the game. In truth, even though it  was not a game she liked, any game could hook her in and make her competitive. After an hour they were even stevens and she decided to ease off and let him have the advantage. Jez had streamed a general location to the tech boys back at the precinct and signalled he was very close to knowing exactly where the man was. Claire kept on playing but let him have the advantage and he went on a killing spree in video form. Jez, Karl and Claire were intent on what was going on and Kassie had a phone call. “What’s wrong?” Adam asked her and she said her Mom had been taken to hospital. “I’ll have to go.” She said. “Tell Claire later. Don’t distract her now.” Adam looked at the three IT experts engrossed in their tasks and said he would run Kassie to the hospital. “That would be wonderful.” She said and grabbed her jacket and purse. Adam kissed the back of Claire’s neck and told her he would be back soon. She nodded but went on with the game. He shook his head. He liked a bit of gaming himself but this lot were nuts about it. Jez jumped up and said “Keep playing, Claire. I’m going to the precinct to join the hunt. Karl will keep streaming.” She nodded again but did not stop the game. Karl took over the other station and Ray sat back in a seat and closed his eyes. This guard duty was starting to be a bit of a drag.

“We’ve pinpointed it.” Karl said. “The police can go and close in on him now. Play another ten minutes to give them time and then concede. I’m just going to the bathroom.” He left the machine running and went into the next room. Claire concentrated and let others do whatever they had to do and when she heard the door open assumed it was Adam back from the hospital. “Hi.” She said without turning round. “I’m going to concede this game now.”

“You can concede in person.” A male voice said from inside the room and she turned to see a tall man in combats and a leather jacket standing with a nasty looking gun in his hand. Claire gasped and was frozen on the spot as the intruder shot Ray, her police officer, point blank in the chest and he slipped to the floor before ever really gaining his feet. There had been just a thud because the gun had a silencer Claire stared in disbelief at the security man bleeding out on the floor and apparently already dead. He was motionless. The man in the combats grinned without the smile reaching any other part of his face. He was extraordinarily calm and  had a mop of dark, unkempt hair and surprisingly blue eyes. “Right Claire Costas. It’s just you and me now so move towards the door and we’ll not have any heroics. I can shoot you and walk away if I have to so don’t think I won’t.”

There was a noise from the next room and Karl Jenkins walked into the room. “Whoa.” He said and put up his hands as he saw the gun. The intruder simply moved the gun towards him and shot him without a moment’s hesitation. Claire screamed and ran without thinking over to Karl who was clutching his chest and blood was squeezing through his fingers. He was deathly pale and sinking to the ground. She tried to catch him but was forcibly grabbed from behind and the gun dug into her back. “You can be next or we can walk to the car.” She let Karl slide to the ground. A loop of rope suddenly pinned her arms to her sides and was pulled tight Her arms were pulled behind her and a plastic tie slotted together and it was all done so fast and with a jolt she realised he had done this before. She let herself be propelled to the door. Maybe there would be a chance to make a run for it outside.

Outside there was a dark van and she was unceremoniously thrust inside and thudded onto the van floor. Her head banged against the floor and there was no way she could save herself. He pushed her feet inside and shut the door. The driver’s door slammed and the engine revved. The van moved away and she was tossed around in the back of the vehicle with no idea where they were going or what would happen next.

Adam came back to the office and let himself in. He wondered vaguely why the door was unlocked and then stepped inside to see the police officer obviously dead and Karl on the floor bleeding. He rushed across to Karl and found a pulse whilst he pulled his phone out and pushed the number for Detective Inspector Jones. As he was talking to Jones in a garbled way, he rushed from room to room looking for Claire and realised with a dreadful horror that she was not there. The murderer had taken her away.

“Jones said “We are on the way to the wood yard to pick up the gamer so will be there very quickly. I’ll send my partner over to you and let me send the ambulance because it will get there more quickly.” Adam rang off and rushed back to Karl to try and stem the blood flow. He found some towels and propped up the man to try and slow the blood loss down and had no option but to sit there until the ambulance and Rossi, Jones’ partner, arrived at the building. It felt like  hours but was actually about ten minutes and in that time the panic about Claire threatened to make him sick. He fought the feeling and tears actually ran down his face.

The ambulance was first and the medics swooped into action. Adam could only stand back and let them do their work. They looked at Ray and found no pulse so concentrated on Karl. Rossi arrived as they were working and sent for another ambulance for the police officer. He called in to Jones and brought him up to date and then secured the crime scene before coming to see to Adam. The man was a shaking wreck by this time and Rossi tried to calm him down by asking him for exactly what he had discovered and tried to get a timeline on the events. Adam related what he had done but in actual fact had seen nothing of what had happened. He had arrived to find Claire gone and Karl wounded. “I’m pretty sure Ray was dead when I got here.”

“We’ll get her back. We know she’s been grabbed and we knew very quickly.” Adam tried her phone and it rang in her purse in the next room so there was no way of tracking anything. He slumped into a chair with panic thudding in his chest and a sickening feeling of despair and horror welling up inside of him. The police team worked around him. His hand rested on a pile of papers on the desk and someone brought him a glass of water. He tried to drink but couldn’t swallow. Panic about Claire was the only thing in his head.

Inspector Jones and his team of armed officers drove to the wood yard where the signal from the gamer was still live. The people at his tech department were telling him that the game was still underway and the signal was definitely at that place. They parked a short way from the drive and approached in silence. Hand signals to the team and the men and women involved deployed around the building. A light was shining in one window and a quick glance inside showed the man still at the games console. There was no one else to be seen. On the signal from the boss, they shouted a warning and broke into the building. Guns in hand and fully dressed in battle gear the incoming officers were a fearsome sight and the man at the machine simply sat with mouth open and gibbered as the police appeared in the room. The rest of them searched the house with great efficiency. The gamer was restrained, arrested and read his rights. He gave his name in a shaky voice and told them he was playing the game for a friend. He paid me to sit and game. I love gaming so I thought it was easy money.”

“Who paid you?” Jones asked and the man said he thought the gamer was called Razor. “Real name.” Jones barked but it was obvious the man did not what that was. He sent the gamer back to the precinct under arrest and started a search of the house. “He must have brought the lad we found here.” Jones argued but there was no sign of anything other than the games console. It was a dead end and they had been duped. Jones furious as well as worried about Claire and desperately sad that he had lost an officer. Ray had been confirmed dead at the hospital but Karl was holding on and would probably pull through. The police forces always felt the loss of a fellow officer very deeply and everyone was on full alert.