Doctor A shrugged. ‘Without more bones we may never be able to sex…’
Her words trailed away as Kim nodded her understanding. On what they had, the third victim may never be identified.
‘But, I can confirm that victim number two was disabled.’
Kim felt the ground begin to move beneath her feet.
‘Wh… What?’ she asked.
Doctor A nodded. ‘I’m afraid so. Our second soul suffered from osteomalacia which caused me confusion as he was not an elderly—’
‘Back up, Doc,’ Kim said. ‘What’s osteomalacia?’
She thought for a moment. ‘In children you would know it as rickets. Osteomalacia presents in adults due to inadequate mineralisation of the bone. Maybe insufficient calcium absorption or lack of Vitamin D. More commonly in elderly adults who are housebound or in nursing homes. No exposure to the sun,’ she explained.
‘So, restricted mobility?’ Kim asked.
Doctor A nodded. ‘This man would have had joint and bone pain, especially in his spine, pelvis and legs and most definitely difficulty walking.’
‘So running away would have been a real fucking problem?’ Kim asked.
Doctor A nodded, displaying a tension to her jaw that Kim had never seen before. She realised she hadn’t heard the worst of it. That was not the news Doctor A had been waiting to share.
‘I found some other marks on victim two last night but I didn’t want to share until I knew what they were,’ she said, moving away from the victims.
Kim followed her to the computer in the corner of the room.
Doctor A clicked on the screen.
It exploded to reveal a full-screen picture of a metal contraption that resembled an open, gaping mouth, full of metal teeth. At its centre, like a tongue, was a pressure plate.
Kim felt the saliva drying in her mouth.
‘Animal traps?’ she whispered, hoarsely.
Doctor A nodded slowly.
Kim knew that the sickness was coming. Travis cursed under his breath.
She understood what they were being told.
Their victims had been hunted.
SEVENTY-FOUR
Kim just about made it outside before she threw up.
The retching continued long after her stomach had emptied.
‘Here,’ Travis said, handing her a tissue.
She wiped roughly at her mouth before kicking the wall, hard.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck…’
‘Shhh…’ Travis said, looking about. ‘There are sick people around—’
‘You’re fucking telling me,’ she raged. The facts she’d just learned refused to let go of her nerve endings.
‘How the hell? I mean, how could anyone treat a fellow human being this way? How could they even think of doing such a vile, sick?…’
Words failed her as she kicked the wall again.
She paced, trying to work the rage from her system.
‘I wanna hit something so bad,’ she cried.
Travis stood right in front of her, blocking her path.
‘Hit me,’ he said, seriously.
‘Piss off, Tom,’ she said, trying to get around him to take another swipe at the wall.
‘I mean it. Hit me. I owe you one and now seems good for it,’ he said.
‘Aren’t you bloody angry?’ she asked, frustrated by his calm control.
‘Of course I am but your need to express it is greater than mine right now.’
‘It’s not a shared emotion. We can both have it at the same time,’ she snapped.
‘Yes, and then we’d kick the absolute shit out of the hospital, which wouldn’t help anyone.’
‘But it’s fucking despicable…’
‘It is.’
‘That someone could be targeted because of their colour or race and, on top of that, someone who can’t bloody fight back.’
‘Absolutely.’
‘And to hunt these people like damn animals…’
‘Is the sickest thing I’ve heard in many years. So, we can either stay here and kick shit out of the wall, shouting about how reprehensible it is, or we can go and try to find these bastards.’
Kim looked at him, then back at the wall.
She wanted the people responsible, and she wanted them badly.
She thrust her hands into her pockets, forced her response through her gritted teeth.
‘Okay, Travis. Lead the way.’
SEVENTY-FIVE
Stacey knew she should be concentrating on the task given to her by the guys, but the friend request from Floda had reignited the churning in her stomach.
Once she’d accepted the request, she’d received a message with a link to a website. Was this what Justin had received from Floda? And did it have any bearing on his decision to end his own life?
There was a delay with the link before exploding into a header page bearing the St George’s Cross flag and a swastika.
Stacey felt her fingers begin to tremble as she pressed to enter.
The title of the page was called ‘Keep England Pure’. Stacey swallowed the horror down as she tried to focus. The menu across the top read ‘Publications, Mission Statement, Chat, Scoreboard and Events’.
Stacey found herself biting the inside of her lip. She clicked on to publications and was assaulted by a range of extremist-titled books. Hundreds of books about Hitler were mixed with offensive joke books and links to further reading websites.
She instantly clicked out and moved the cursor across. She didn’t need to read the ‘Mission Statement’. There would be more words but the general theme of ‘spread as much hatred as possible’ was close enough.
She hit on the chat button. The top three threads were live. The second one down had received the most posts. She clicked onto the subject line ‘The Event’.
She scanned down and saw the majority of posts were simply displaying their regret at not being able to attend something that was going on. She suspected some kind of rally.
She exited the chat boards and entered the scoreboard section. Her blood began to chill as it ran through her veins.
A grid opened up to reveal a key to the left. In order it read ‘Black, Asian, Muslim, Jew, Queer, Foreigner, Cripple and Other’. Across the top was an emboldened heading of the month. Beneath that were more headings: ‘Vandalism, Assault, Attempted Murder and Murder’.
People typed in their username at the boxes that intersected the two criteria.
‘JJLucy’ had put their name against almost every box.
Beneath was a hall of fame, and ‘JJLucy’ topped the charts most days by the looks of it.
She took out her phone and began taking photos. Sites like this could be gone within hours. She backtracked through all of the pages, capturing as many names as she could.
Satisfied she’d got all she could see, she returned to the scoreboard. Three people had posted in the murder column. They all got a screenshot each so she could include the headings too.
She opened up the last tab, marked ‘Events’, as her phone dinged a message.