Zodiac's toy by John Jones (best free ereader .TXT) 📖

that field and pick where you want to lay". He reached into the glove compartment and took out a Glock 19 pistol.

"I think Lee might have killed Blotto".

"What?" Gary said, frowning.

"Lee started slashing Blotto with a knife and chased him out, and when I left the house there was police and ambulances in the road". Gary shook his head.

"Really? Lee just decided to kill Blotto. Even now you're spinning me with fucking lies. You know what, I've changed my mind. Get out of the car and go and kneel down on the path".

"What? no it's the tru..."

"I said get out of the fucking car and kneel down on the path". Gary left the vehicle and went and opened the boot. Ray slowly got out and walked onto the path ahead of the car, kneeling down, head bowed.

Gary appeared with a can of petrol and began dousing him.

"Gary, no...please".

"Don't worry I'll still leave Caroline alone," he said as the fluid splashed over Ray, soaking him.

The path ahead vanished into woods, and although his vision was blurred because he was squinting, Ray could see something emerging.

When the petrol can was empty Gary threw it aside and took out a chrome zippo lighter as he occasionally indulged in cigarillos, and noticed also, something heading their way. Ray saw that it was a horse, and a person, but somehow they looked fused together.

"What the fuck is that?" said Gary, as the beast gradually emerged into more clarity. A muscular upper half of a man where a horse's head should be.

"Is that...is that...what the fuck?" The beast was around sixty metres away and neither of them could make it out too clearly, but it looked exactly like a half-man half-horse. A man with long black, thick wavy hair, who was carrying a bow and arrow.

A bow and arrow they raised in their direction as they came closer. Gary was just staring at it, even when the arrow was fired. Even when the arrow slammed into his forehead and out the back of his head propelling him to crash back onto the bonnet of the car where blood spilled out of the wound and onto the windscreen.

As it came closer, Ray saw it gradually morph into a horse and rider. A police-horse.

It was just a police-rider he thought. That really looked like they were one creature.

He was relieved, not simply because he saw it was a horse and rider, but because they had dealt with Gary.

Clearly they must have seen the situation. Gary about to burn Ray, and made an instant judgement. With a bow and arrow!

The police-woman on the horse was smiling at Ray as she trotted to a halt beside him. Ray just looked up at her and said nothing. The fumes of the petrol clogged his nostrils, but he managed to say:

"Than..thank-you".

"Come on, get on. I'll take you home," she said. Ten minutes later, the horse was trotting through the streets, people looking and pointing, with a petrol soaked Ray slumped on the back, leaning against the rider. He tried to hold back tears but he couldn't as his head leaned between her shoulder-blades in her high-vis jacket.

She looked around occasionally, smiling, and it wasn't too long before the horse trotted into the car-park. She twisted to grab Ray by the shoulder and pushed him off.

"Go on," she said with a sigh, and he crashed to the ground, the horse then galloping away, out of sight.

After five minutes, Ray, still with tears in his eyes, and trying to fathom how she knew where he lived, managed to climb up the stairs and go to his flat. When he pushed open the door he saw the body of Nugget and turned and went along to Shane’s, but saw that Lee’s door was open, and went inside.

To find Lee sitting there on the sofa staring into space. He looked up when he saw Ray, who slumped in the armchair.

After nearly five minutes, they were sat at the table, each with a mug of tea before them.

"I don't know what happened," Lee said, "I just flipped and killed Blotto. I've never been so...furious. I just slashed and slashed him, but I don't know why. I had no reason to kill him but I just went mental. I've never done anything like that before, and you'd think it would be a one-way ticket straight back to jail, but the police. They took me into custody...I mean..I just murdered a man in cold-blood in front of everybody, and the police, they just...let me go. They said they're letting me go so you can carry on annoying Ray. Tell him the scales of justice are balanced in his favour. Then that was it. I could go, but I don't get it. Why would the police just let me walk out? I've had plenty of dealings with them and to just let me go...Now I might get recognised as being that psycho that murdered someone in the street. There were plenty of witnesses and someone probably filmed it, so it might be on the internet, but, to just let me go...and to flip out on Blotto. I've never killed anyone before. I just got totally raged but I don't know why".

"Gary's dead," Ray put in. "He was gonna set me on fire. A police-woman on a horse shot him in the head with a bow and arrow". Lee looked even more confused.

"What, a bow and arrow, seriously?" Ray nodded. Lee stood up.

"What is going on? I just don't...I'm going for a walk. If I get recognised then fuck it, and you reek of petrol". He left the flat, leaving Ray to watch the steam curl into the air before him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 37

 

"That's great," said Caroline, as the locksmith twisted the key in the new lock on the door. He tested it again, and once more, handing her the keys. She gave him his money with an extra five-pound note tip and he thanked her in a flurry of hand waves as he backed his way out to the van.

"Than..you..tha..you...thank you". He put away his tools, waved again as he pulled into the road.

Caroline waved also, then tested the lock, went outside, closed it, locked it, unlocked it went inside, and Wayne appeared, and tested it as well.

"That'll keep Ray out," she said, "he's not getting a key, and if he thinks he can bash his way in again then I'm going to the police".

"Yes," Wayne said, "he must have been really desperate to get in". She looked at the bottom of the stairs where the sledgehammer had been propped. She could only nod.

"Does seem rather strange," she mused, "to go out of his way to get a sledgehammer, and come down here to bash his way in. Then not stay very long. That's not like Ray at all. I've never known him to do anything like it".

"Could he have been getting chased? Hiding from someone".

"Possible, but I don't think even he is stupid enough to come here to hide, if one of his gangster mates is after him. He wouldn't put us in danger like that. Would he?" she asked Wayne as if he would know. Wayne answered as if he did:

"Yes. He is stupid enough. He comes to you because he gets a free lunch. Knows he can rely on you. Free food and a sofa. If he thinks they won't come looking here, or don't know where you live. Yes, Ray is stupid enough. He'll think this will be a good hiding place...Caroline will put me up...Caroline never says no to me..."

"He didn't stick around though. So no-one must have been after him. He left soon without taking his sledgehammer, so he can't really have been in any danger. Nobody's knocked to ask where he is...so, I don't know".

"Is he still barred from the wedding?"

"Yes, absolutely he is. Has his mate threaten you, then bashes in the front door. He'll be paying for the new lock as well". Wayne just nodded, and they both looked at the shiny new lock. Wayne stepped forward to Caroline and brushed her hair behind her ear.

"I don't know him that well," he said, "but one thing I do know is that he loves his sister".

 

Ray wanted to walk to Caroline's and move in. He would even put up with Wayne, but with Lee's fuse burnt out, and those who had 'invaded' their flats, and Gary off the scene, it was still a roof, a place to stay, but the dragon-lady would burn him before he set foot on the pathway, so he had to let her calm down, then he would show his face, and he would do exactly as she wished. He would apologise. Sorry I bashed your door in, and I did that because..?

He hadn't thought of an excuse, but knew he would have to come up with something before he showed up again. Or maybe just go with the lost key. I just needed to get in, lost my key, and that's it.

May not be a bad idea to buy a new lock. I suppose I should pay for it.

 

The flats were quiet. Shane's and Gary's were closed. He cautiously made his way back to his own, the stench of decay already entering his nostrils. He wondered how badly it would stink the place out. Can it go through walls? Will it permeate up through the other flats where they would get complaints and then found out? He closed the cracked front door as best he could, as left alone anyway it always swung back halfway, and it did the same here, so he left it. He closed the inner door of the living room and that blocked out any nosy eyes who could peer in from outside.

One-quarter of the side of Nugget's head had disintegrated. A hole gaped where his left ear should be. Blood was deep, thick red around the wound and on the floor. He still held the gun.

No police, no forensics, thought Ray. I'll have to have a word with Lee to see what will happen with the body, which meant he could prise the gun from his cold hand. He didn't know what to do with it and went and put it in the bathroom sink.

He tried to ignore the body as best he could, and even stopped smelling the stench. He didn't have anything to cover him with so just left him there, reluctant to go near him.

He bathed and changed clothes, and scraped together a hearty meal, all the while with the notion: ‘There's a fucking dead body in the living room’ at the back of his mind.

 

When night fell, he tried to watch television, the body only a few feet away, and he couldn't concentrate properly, so had an early night, with that notion shouting louder in his mind, but being able to do nothing about it.

At one point he heard the main high-rise door open, footsteps, then a door closing. Lee was back. I'll ask him in the morning what we can do about Nugget, he thought.

However, it wasn't long before he was hearing another noise. A movement. A low shuffling.

Coming from inside his flat.

Feet being dragged. Getting closer to the bedroom door where they stopped.

Was that breathing? Can I hear breathing Ray's mind asked? Even though he was fully conscious, tucked up in bed in the pitch darkness, he tried to convince himself that he must be dreaming, or was it alcohol having a long-term side-effect? That was it, he thought. Bloody alcohol. Or dreams... nope, alcohol.

Then whispering came: "The scales of justice are balanced in your favour," then the shuffling began again, away from the door, back into the living room, where he heard a slump, and then silence.

He remained frozen for a while, then sleep took its hold over him.

 

In the morning, him and Lee were staring at the body which was lying on the sofa.

"Sorry Ray, I didn't put the body there".

"Then who? Did I