SUNDAY
One week earlier.
He could never quite explain the combination of emotions that ran through him
at the sight of his wife nursing their infant child. But then he supposed that
some things were better off not explained but simply felt. He watched from the
doorway as Lindsay ran her hand down Rob's cheek, watched his brow crinkle in
concentration and his little hand fist at her breast. As if sensing his
presence she looked up through tired eyes and smiled at him.
"What are you doing up?"
He shrugged and abandoned his position near the door in favour of resting
against the changing table "I couldn't sleep and when I noticed you were no
longer beside me, I thought I'd come and find you and…." He gestured with his
head "Offer my assistance"
She smiled, as he'd meant her to as she looked down at the baby guzzling his
breakfast "I don't think this is anything you can assist me with"
"I haven't got the right equipment, hey?"
She lifted Rob up, swapped sides and watched as he settled back down "I don't
believe so"
"Well then how about if I just offer company?"
"That'd be nice"
He moved to settle into a more comfortable position and thought life, quite
possibly didn't get any better than this.
* * *
In another part of the city, another man was thinking exactly the same thing.
He wandered slowly around the basement of the small house he'd recently
purchased. Paid for in cash, because nobody could ever say that Edmund Harrison
didn't learn from his mistakes. There'd be no paper trail to follow him this
time. No clues to his whereabouts except the ones he'd reveal. This time
the game would be played with his rules. He'd lost last time, partly due to
over confidence and partly, he liked to think, because of bad luck but that
wouldn't happen now, nine years in prison had given him ample time to refect
upon his mistakes and ample time to figure out how to correct them. This time
he was playing to win and he'd be damned if he didn't. He was almost
certain he'd covered all of his bases, but he wasn't overly worried about it,
if he hadn't, he thought, he'd just cover them as he went along. He was
ten times smarter than anyone else anyway.
That thought cheered him immensely and put him back in the good spirits he'd
been in when he'd woken, keen to start the day. He hummed to himself as he
picked up a sheet of the specially designed foam he'd ordered under an assumed
name and again paid cash for. He raised the staple gun to the wall and
firmly attached the sheet, then stood back to survey his handy work. Yes
it would do, he decided, it would do just fine, when he was finished the room
would be barricaded against sound. Insulated against people who would pry into
his business. He chose another sheet and attached it to the wall and then
another, until the entire room was covered in the foam. There were small
windows about three quarters of the way up the wall, where the front lawn of
the house met the wall of the basement, but he covered those as well. He didn't
need air from that source, he'd thought of another method, indeed he was sure
he'd thought of everything.
When he was finished he took out the small radio he'd brought with him, turned
the volume onto full and covered his ears as the sound blasted out. He detested
loud noise, but the experiment was necessary. Hurriedly he reached for the
latch on the door, now nearly obscured by the covering he'd just added and he
wrenched it open. For a brief second the noise followed him out until he
secured it firmly behind him. He felt the silence wash over him.
His experiment was a success.
He allowed himself only a brief moment of self congratulations, before opening
the door again, turning off the infernal noise and exiting the room. He
couldn't get too over confident at this stage, hadn't that been his downfall
before? Little errors that had lead to his capture before the game could be
concluded. But that wouldn't happen this time, this time he'd do things right.
Still, he couldn't shake his happy mood as he wandered into the kitchen to
prepare breakfast, things were going so nicely. Although he knew he still had a
lot to do before he was ready to play.
He still needed to choose his prey.
* * *
