He got there as fast as he could. The news was all over the radio. The jumper had attended a language school in the city and it hadn’t taken long for him to find out which. Foreign language students were a tight bunch – they attended schools scattered throughout the CBD but they all seemed to know each other. It was a community; friendship forged by dislocation, alienation and an unfriendly city. It worked for him and his business. The students’ bonds meant they worked together to keep each other’s secrets.

And these students had many secrets. Behind the smiles, eager faces and shyness that a language barrier naturally brings, lay a range of complex, ambitious people with little to lose and everything to gain. Some of them would do almost anything if it meant getting ahead.

Including unprotected sex for money.

This reality had served him well in his brothels and clubs over the years and had made him a lot of cash. But cracks had begun to appear. If the girl on the pavement was who he thought she was, he’d have to authorise his first kill. And he didn’t like it.

He knew he’d arrived because of the crowds. A couple of police officers were doing their best to prevent a bottleneck but people still stood six deep. The general public’s thirst for horror both shocked and excited him. Perhaps his associates were right, perhaps there was a market for something harder than vanilla sex.

He swam his way through the bodies and fake Gucci shoulder bags, slipping easily to the front of the plastic barricade. He could smell cabbage and garlic on the breath of the students around him. He also detected a top note, cloying, like fresh meat.

He caught the attention of the nearest cop. The young man looked as though he wished he were somewhere else. But before he had a chance to flash his card and proffer his excuse for viewing the body, he saw the shoes. They poked out from beneath the white sheet, bright red like fresh blood. The shoes were unmistakable because he’d bought them himself. They’d been a gift from one of his associates for his favourite girl. And now she was dead. He gritted his teeth and backed away into the crowd.

The fact she was gone meant only one thing: soon there’d be a hunt on. The hunt would lead to him. He reached into his breast pocket for his phone.

It was unfortunate, but to protect the business and his freedom, a different woman would have to die.