Wendy stood, surprised but unsure what to make of the situation.
‘Michael? What are you doing here? Where's Robert? He called me a few minutes ago. He sounded panicked. I don't know what's going on, Michael.’
‘Oh, there's a lot you don't know, Wend. I'm afraid Robert can't be here right now, so you'll have to make do with me.’
‘What's going on, Michael?’
‘Oh, come on, Wend! Surely you must have worked it out by now! You and the great Magnifico down at the precious station! But, just in case you haven’t…’
The force of Michael's fist jarred Wendy's head back, smashing the glass pane of the photograph which hung on the wall behind her.
As far as she was concerned she had only blinked, yet suddenly she found herself sat in Robert Ludford's kitchen, her hands and legs tied to a wooden chair.
‘Nice of you to rejoin us, Wend. As I was saying... Just in case you haven't worked it out yet, I've brought along a few clues. Buzz in when you think you know the answer! I give you, DS Knight, exhibit one!’ With a flourish, Michael pulled a pair of gloves from the inside of his jacket pocket. ‘A little bit bloodstained, I grant you, but an excellent clue nonetheless. Still no closer to the answer? Let's try exhibit two!’ With the grace of a game-show host and the subtlety of a brick, Michael pulled a length of rope from the other jacket pocket. ‘Now, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that this is the same rope that you are tied to that chair with. Not only that, but it's tied with a couple of very handy bowline knots. The same rope, too, that was involved with one or two murders which I believe you have been investigating. Is any of this starting to ring a bell, Wend?’
Wendy nodded, cautiously, trying to judge Michael's next move. She felt strangely calm.
‘Now, I would have had an exhibit three but unfortunately someone seems to have a certain bloodstained knife in their custody down at the police station. Never mind. I'll move straight on to this week's star prize!’
Wendy dared not avert her gaze from straight-ahead as Michael walked behind her chair and fumbled around on the floor before making his way back to his original vantage point in front of the door.
‘Recognise this, Wend?’
Wendy screamed at the top of her lungs, the masking tape cutting into the sides of her mouth as her body rocked and convulsed at the gruesome sight of Robert Ludford's head swinging before her, dangling from the locks of hair that Michael had in his grasp, the cold, glassy eyes staring through her. The look of terror on Robert’s face burnt itself into Wendy's vision.
‘Say hello to your sweetheart!’ Michael, his menacing grin turning into a vicious scowl, jumped forward and pushed his face and Ludford's death mask in front of Wendy. ‘Do you want to fuck him now? Do you? I bet you do, you little slut! I bet you'd still fuck him even now! You're nothing but a cheap whore! The ultimate cheap whore!’ Michael released his grip on the red, sticky hair and the bludgeoned head dropped to the floor with a sickening thud. A strange thought went through Wendy's mind: Ouch, that'll bruise.
‘That's all you are, isn't it? Just another little slut. Just the same as you always have been. Oh yes, you're worse than the rest. You're ten times filthier than Barbara North and a thousand times filthier than Ella Barrington. Top-class prostitute, they called her! Fucking clueless piece of shit, more like. Now, that Barbara, she was a bit of a goer for an old bird. Filthy as you like. Had her on a recommendation, as it happens. I've a feeling, though, that my favourite is going to be you, Wendy. Oh yes. You're the next and final one. It's you and then it's me. The world will be rid of all its filth and all its sluts and I will die a hero, a martyr to the cause. Do you remember the boyfriends you used to bring home from school, Wend? Hell, I do. I remember every single one. I remember their names, I remember the dates. I remember the bang-bang-banging against the wall, the screams and moans coming from your filthy, slutty little gob and I prayed from that moment that every horrible little slag on this planet should pay the price. If they want other men to use them as objects of play and gratification, why not me? Why can I not do as I please? Well, I think you'll find I have. And now I'm going to die a happy man, Wend. I’ve done my bit. Almost, anyway.’
Laughing, Michael slung open the kitchen door, and waltzed up the stairs. A thousand thoughts flew round Wendy's mind but she was unable to see any of them for the one which pervaded all: she was going to die.
As he re-entered the room a few minutes later, Wendy's hysterical fits of sobbing had ceased and Michael's face seemed much calmer; resigned to what he would have to do. It was almost as though the post-interval curtain had just lifted on a whole new act of the play. She spoke just two words.
‘Why, Michael?’
‘Why? Why? Ho ho! That's a good one, Wend!’ Deranged Michael was back. ‘Who knows? Who truly knows? I may have my reasons, but does that mean I truly know? Maybe it was the long, drawn-out hell of a childhood that I put squarely on your shoulders.’
‘I didn't bring you up, Michael.’
‘No, you didn't, but you're the reason no-one else did. Mum and dad doted on you. Why was it always you who was destined to go far? Why was it you that dad had earmarked for the police force and me for your first nick? Speaking of which, maybe it was the fact that my own sister had me banged up!’
‘I didn't have you banged up, Michael. I tried to help you kick your... your problem. All I did was try to help.’
‘That's all you ever do, isn't it, Wend? Try. You don't know what trying is! My whole life I've spent trying to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I worked, I would always be nothing. Do you have any idea what that's like? Being tied back with an enormous elastic band? When no matter how hard you pull away, it recoils and pulls you back twice as hard? Why do you think I turned to smack in the first place, Wend? Just a bit bored, was I? No, Wendy, I was fucked in the head,’ he said, jabbing his index finger into his right temple as he screamed into Wendy’s face. ‘Fucked in the head because of you.’
‘That's no justification for killing those girls, Michael.’ Wendy's voice sounded strangely calm, if a little grave.
‘I don't need justification, Wendy. I have a thousand and one things going through my head right now, whizzing around inside. Do you have any idea? Do you?’ Michael's frantic, throbbing temples were inches from Wendy's face now. ‘No. You have no idea. I grew to resent every small piece of happiness you felt. You made me do that, Wend. You pushed me to it. I never had parents. All right, so I lived in the same house as two people who fucked and gave birth to me, but I never had parents. I had to bring myself up, a child, knowing my slut whore sister was getting everything she wanted.’
‘It wasn't like that, Michael! I don't know what is giving you these ideas but it's all totally wrong. You have some problems, Michael. We can talk about them. This can be sorted.’
‘I have plenty of fucking problems, Wend! Six of them, to be precise! And I'm about to make it seven.’
‘Michael, I...” Wendy's voice trailed off as she watched Michael slowly remove a length of rope from his pocket. It was tied in a bowline knot.
‘Y’know, I gave the others all a chance to say goodbye. Only if they were good, like. That Nicole Bryant tried screaming instead and she got what she asked for. The others all played it very nicely and pleaded for their lives. Do you have any idea how powerful that makes me feel? I've never felt powerful before, Wend. It’s addictive.’
Wendy sobbed. ‘Michael…’
‘Do you have any last words? Better make them good…’
Wendy paused and shook her head as a tear rolled from her eye. Through the salty kaleidoscope she could just make out Michael's face. It was smiling. As her body and mind fell short of any thought or feeling for the first time in her life, she realised it would also be the only time. No thoughts crossed her mind; no feeling flowed through her veins. Only the gentle rasp of the rope that passed around her neck and tightened. Tightened.