The Mangled Ankles
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Mangled ankles have been turning up all over Kent and the inhabitants are scared. Ten murders in ten weeks, all committed with an arrow, and still, nobody has a clue who the callous killer is. And Detective Inspector Jane Hawk isn’t getting any closer to finding him either.
No one knows why someone would go around shooting their victims’ legs off – but there’s something about them that suggests they didn’t take long to happen! The only thing that links these crimes together is that each time an officer from Her Majesty’s Constabulary arrives at the crime scene he finds it filled with spiders.
But when one of his own officers falls victim to what might be an unrelated attack, things start happening that suggest this may not just be a case of arachnophobia… or even that it’s something much more serious than that.
Jane Hawks’ head is hurting like she was hit by a truck driven by her grandmother. She gets up and opens the door to find her friend DS David Howe standing outside. He hands her a cup of tea as she struggles out into the hallway and he looks down on the floor as if he’s expecting her feet to be covered in cobwebs.
It actually doesn’t matter because she can barely string two words together without tripping over.
“Howe?” She tries to say his name before bursting into tears.
He hugs her while the kettle boils, then pours her a mug full of hot water and passes her a box of tissues. “You alright? You look terrible!”
Her head is throbbing like an organ being played by an army band inside her skull. Every moment that passes feels like an hour. A headache so bad, that she wishes she could knock herself unconscious for a day and wake up with no feeling left in her body except pain. Just get rid of it all! That should do the trick.
She takes the tea gratefully, not even realizing he’s holding the mug out until it’s too late to move away. She sips at the brew, blowing her nose into a hankie and feeling her eyes sting. He waits patiently, pouring her another cup of tea. He places the box of tissues on the sideboard and starts to clean up some of the mess she’d made on the kitchen table.
“I’m not quite ready,” she says quietly between sniffles.
David turns to face her, puzzled. “Ready for what?”
“My legs aren’t working properly yet.” She grunts as if to add emphasis.
He shakes his head. “They’ve got me out here wondering whether or not you’re going to throw yourself off a cliff or something…”
She ignores him and chugs back another mouthful of tea. “Can we talk in my office now please?” she asks.
He nods and leads the way, stopping briefly to collect the empty mugs and box of tissues and place them on the coffee table in front of the sofa before sitting opposite Jane.
She removes her sunglasses, reaches up to wipe the sweat from under her hairline, and leans forward to rest her elbows on her thighs. Then she wipes a tear from her cheek and looks at David through red-tinted glasses.
“Tell me what you know already please,” she says.
David hesitates. “We found your mate Mikey dead in your apartment last night.”
The room goes very cold all of a sudden; so much for the warmth of hot tea. Jane sighs and glances around as if expecting spiders to crawl from beneath the furniture.
“It was obviously murder,” he continues, “but apart from his right hand being missing and that arrow sticking out of his leg it looked as if he hadn’t taken anything else.”
“Was the police tape on the door?”
“Yep. We thought maybe you were home already.”
She closes her eyes and holds a hand to her temple again. She can feel the familiar sensation of light-headedness sweeping over her but nothing ever comes. At least not yet.
“Please tell me where you left the tape yesterday,” she whispers.
“Why?”
“Because I think this is connected to last night. You saw the tapes with me last night didn’t you? There was one of those spider things on them wasn’t there?”
“Yes, why?”
“I had some more of them come inside during the night. They were eating their bodies. The ones I put outside went after Mikey.”
“But you said they’d already killed eight people…”
“Not the same spider.”
“And Mikey was supposed to have been released by now.”
She rubs her forehead and wonders how many spiders she’ll be able to kill today. Perhaps enough to give herself a chance of remembering how many steps she’s taken so far or what she’d eaten for breakfast this morning.
“Have you talked to Charlie?” she asks suddenly.
“No. How are you going to deal with her?”
“What makes you think I need help?”
“Well, she called me last night. Told me she knows about her sister, the woman who died here…and she wanted me to look into that for her. Since I’m the new guy, you see. I can take the credit if it means getting myself an early retirement. And she’s the one with a big stick up her ass… Well, what do you reckon? Can she handle it?”
Jane smiles and blows her nose again. It won’t make any difference but sometimes it helps to pretend everything is normal.
“Does she know you’ve seen the tapes?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You want her to show them to the whole department, don’t you?”
He nods slowly. “Yeah. What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t care. Have everyone watch the tape. If they’ve got anything to hide then let us all find out.”
He gazes at her over the top of his glasses. “Do you really think that will work?”
She shrugs. “When has it ever worked better than lying?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
She stands up abruptly, knocking the chair backward when her heels hit the floor. David rushes to catch her as she staggers towards the window. Her head swoops so low that only a few inches of the window are visible. David catches hold of her arms, pulling her back down onto the sofa and resting his hand gently atop hers.
“Listen, Jane… Let me get this straight – you’re saying that these things have already killed several people and somehow managed to keep it secret until now?”
“How long since last night?” she asks.
He shakes his head. “Hard to say actually.”
“About five hours ago. But that might just be the start.”
His heart sinks. “So what are you going to do now?”
She turns away, looking out across the fields and scrub. Beyond that lies the town, the hospital, the car park, and beyond that the sea.
“Go on strike, like last year,” she whispers. “Except instead of making us stay in bed we should lock ourselves in our offices.”
Her gaze sweeps back to David and her expression softens.
“Look,” she says, reaching out for his hands. “I know I asked you to help me with this but, as bad as things seem, we have to remember that God has a plan for each of us and He’ll use whatever events occur to help us reach Him. So even though these things might drive you crazy, don’t forget that you could be on earth for eternity because of them.”
David tries hard to believe her but something about Jane worries him. That doesn’t stop her from being the perfect supervisor.
“I’ll check the tapes again later,” he tells her. “Maybe one of them was the original one that came out of the box.”
“Thank you.” She pulls his fingers forward and kisses them before letting go. “And thanks for your help.”
A moment later the doorbell rings again. The two cops share a confused glance and then stand up. David picks up the phone while Jane takes the chance to freshen up. As soon as the buzzer sounds for the second time she slips out into the corridor, leaving David alone with his thoughts.
He places the receiver to his ear and listens intently to the answering machine. There’s no reply at first but then someone speaks quietly. It’s a woman’s voice, husky with fear, but clear enough for him to recognize one of the nurses that work at the hospital.
“…The spider…it crawled right into my mouth. In through the open wound…”
“Don’t panic!” another woman’s voice adds urgently.
There’s a pause and then both voices become very faint. All David can hear is muffled breathing. He hangs up the phone and reaches for his coat, running his fingers over his face as he closes the front door and hurries off down the street without bothering to put his shoes on.
In less than four minutes he’s driving along the road that leads out of town. By the time he gets there, the ambulance has gone and the police cars have disappeared. He parks next to the bushes where Jane had been standing earlier and gets out of the car.
Looking around, he finds the spot where the woman had stood, following her footprints in the mud as she hurried away. They lead to the edge of small wood and David follows them until he finally comes across her body. The sound of running water fills the air, even though there’s no stream or waterfall nearby.
As David kneels beside the corpse, Jane raises her head from the bushes. He shoves the sleeve of his jacket under her head and lays the other against her chest.
“What happened here?” he asks.
“We don’t know,” Jane replies.
Together they lift the dead woman to her feet. Blood pools from an ugly wound on her forehead, soaking her hair and pouring down onto David’s shirt and jeans.
“Did either of you see anyone?” David asks.
Both men shake their heads.
“Can you walk?” David asks.
They nod slowly, propping themselves on one arm each. David helps them to the car, waiting until they’ve got inside before opening the engine compartment and lifting the cover, revealing the trunk. He removes the stretcher from beneath the seat and sets it down. Then he shuts the boot and goes to help the paramedics.
Jane watches him carefully as he carries the stretcher back to the scene of the crime. She knows that if this man had just turned around and gone home after hearing Jane’s message, there wouldn’t have been any need for him to come all the way out to this remote corner of the county.
As David helps the paramedics load the unconscious woman into the back, she feels like smiling. For some reason, she’s convinced that David has done nothing wrong today. In fact, she’s starting to think that everything he did, from taking the call to coming out to the woods, was the right thing to do. And that makes her feel happy for the first time in days.
The End