Chapter 6

Max Blackman had been dead for over a week when I decided on my next move. I was sure that the police were calling it a suicide or misadventure and they had gone quiet on his death. The DVDs had yielded enough evidence to implicate him in the murders and irrefutable evidence to connect him to the rituals held at the farm. No one had a clue that I was involved in his death, so for now I was in the clear. As long as I didn’t do anything to connect his death to the remaining niners then I couldn’t see any reason why the police would re-open the inquest into his death. Going straight for Glynn Gaskin was my first instinct but I was worried that if I did that, the others would scurry under a rock and Jennifer Booth may disappear again. I wanted to make sure that the men in Dewi Critchley’s nexion were either exposed to the public and the police as accomplices, or exterminated without alerting Jenifer that I was close. One way or the other it suited me. Once I have identified a niner, I never leave them behind.

The press reporters were becoming tired of smearing Blackman’s character and the majority of the big named reporters were returning to the cities. The television crews had moved onto the next big story, wherever that was, reporting on someone else’s misery. Llangollen was morphing back to a picturesque market town and the tourist trade was bracing itself to go into hibernation for the oncoming lean winter months. Some reporters were digging up local stories from the last few years and trying to find tenuous links to the temple beneath the farmhouse. They focused on one incident in particular, which had happened a few years ago and it was replayed on all the television stations worldwide.

Teenager guilty of pensioner’s ‘vampire ritual’ killing

(Taken from the BBC News online)

A teenager from Anglesey was today found guilty of murdering his elderly neighbour and drinking her blood in a vampire ritual. An art student aged 17, was jailed for a minimum of 12 years after being found guilty of butchering the woman at her home in Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, last November. The 90-year-old widow’s heart was cut out and her blood appeared to have been drunk from a saucepan. The teenager was obsessed by vampires and killed the old lady in a bid to become one of the creatures.

He denied any involvement in the murder and claimed his alleged fascination with vampires was no more than a “subtle interest”.

After the verdict was reached, Mr Justice Richards lifted an order banning his identification. Hardman was convicted by a unanimous verdict. The 17-year-old wept when the male foreman read out the verdict and his mother shrieked and sobbed in the public gallery.

Judge Mr Justice Richards said all the evidence pointed to the fact that Hardman believed he could achieve immortality by killing the woman and drinking her blood.

Mr Justice Richards said: “You have been convicted by the jury on the strength of the most compelling evidence. “The horrific nature of this murder was plain to all. It was a vicious and sustained attack on a vulnerable old lady in her own home, aggravated by the mutilation of her body after she had been killed.

“It was planned and carefully calculated. Why you should have acted in this way is difficult to comprehend but I am drawn to the conclusion that vampirism had indeed become a near obsession with you, that you really did believe that this myth may be true, that you did think that you would achieve immortality by the drinking of another person’s blood and you found this an irresistible attraction. I can make an allowance for a degree of confused thinking and immaturity, for some childish fantasising, but the fact remains this was an act of great wickedness and one that you have not faced up to and one for which you have not shown any remorse. You hoped for immortality but all you have achieved is the brutal ending of another person’s life and the bringing of a life sentence upon yourself.”

Hardman - who had lived just a few yards away and had been the woman’s paper boy - mutilated her body before placing pokers at her feet in the shape of a cross. Her heart had been removed, wrapped in newspaper and placed in a saucepan on a silver platter next to her body. The prosecution said her killer drank her blood in a ‘macabre ritual’. They also said that the teenager - who denied the charge - was obsessed with vampires and the occult and had told others he wanted to kill someone, in order to become immortal. You can Google the murder to find the entire details.

The prosecution also outlined how Hardman had scoured the internet for vampire websites and had read a magazine which featured an article on how to conduct a black mass. Although the case had all the markings of a satanic ritual murderer acting alone, I had the feeling that Gaskin’s influence may have spread across North Wales. It would be an uncanny coincidence if it wasn’t connected. The teenager could have been an ‘initiate’ trying to progress himself into the sinister by the act of murder. It’s difficult to understand what goes through someone’s mind when they select a victim to slay. The poor old lady was right on his doorstep, so how he expected to get away with it would be beyond anyone with average intelligence. I was convinced that the four men on my list would have been breathing a sigh of relief as the focus moved away from their immediate area and zoned in on Anglesey. That was perfect for me, as when I started hunting angels, I wanted them to be off guard.