Equinox

Chapter 16

The Acolyte had waited patiently in the car for almost six hours, rarely taking his gaze from the terraced house at 268 Princes Street. He had watched as those who lived there and their friends came and went. At 6.04 p.m. the two students who shared the house with Samantha's boyfriend, Simon Welding, arrived. They were followed twenty-seven minutes later by two girls, third-year Oxford Brookes University students Kim Rivedon and Claudia Meacher. They all stayed in the house for a further twenty-one minutes and all four left together at 6.52. The Acolyte knew from his surveillance and from his contacts that the two students who lived with Simon Welding at number 268, Dan Smith and Evelyn Rose, and the two girls were not expected home until at least eleven. Simon Welding pulled up outside the house in his battered ten-year-old Mazda at 7.32 p.m. He would not leave the house alive.

At two minutes before nine, the Acolyte stepped — out of the car. He was wearing plastic covers over his shoes and in his left hand he carried a featureless metal box. It had sturdy latches at the front and it was twelve inches long, ten wide and ten deep, a temperature-controlled organ-carrier, one of five that he had commissioned, each made to his personal specifications by a specialist in Austria. In his right hand he carried a small black plastic bag, its zip fastened and locked. He looked each way along the street. At the far end of the street stood a noisy pub, and running perpendicular to Princes Street was the busy Cowley Road, a main artery into the city from the east and London. These features were hidden from view by a bend in the road, making this end quieter and darker. He entered the garden through the wooden gate and moved quickly to the side entrance that led to a passage running along the side of the house and on to the rear garden.

It was very dark in the narrow passage; clouds were obscuring the moon and the steely glow from the nearest street lights made little impact here. Two-thirds of the way along, the Acolyte stopped. He was hidden from the street. He put the box and the bag on the ground, unlocked and opened the zipper of the bag and carefully removed a clear plastic over-suit, gloves, a perspex visor and a hood from inside. With great care he pulled on the suit and pressed together Velcro fasteners around his neck, wrists, ankles and waist so that every inch of his body was covered. He checked his watch through the plastic. It was 9.04.

At the back of the house the garden was unkempt and overgrown. The Acolyte stepped carefully, silently towards the door of the kitchen that led directly from the garden. He stopped there to listen for any sounds from inside the house. He could hear nothing except distant strains of music that seemed to be coming from upstairs.

He moved through the kitchen and into the hall and took the stairs with slow, deliberate steps. All his senses were heightened — he was ready for anything. After reaching the landing he checked each of the rooms to make sure he was alone with his prey and then he moved towards the front bedroom. He could make out the music now — the Allegro of Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, one of his favourites. At the door he stood listening for any human sounds over the music. He could just detect heavy breathing, the occasional moan. Easing the door open, he could see into the room.

Samantha was on top, her back arched, face to the ceiling. Simon, his hands at her small firm breasts, was gazing at her expression of ecstasy. The Acolyte shivered almost imperceptibly, feeling a wash of emotions — jealousy, disgust, fascination. Together they produced a rush of sexual energy that shivered down his spine. He felt himself stiffen. Then, knowing he could not wait a moment longer, he lowered the metal case to the floor, removed a scalpel from his pocket, unsheathed it and took three rapid steps forward, reaching the end of the bed before either Simon or Samantha were aware of his existence.

In one deft movement, he pulled Samantha's head back and slit her throat with a single slash of his scalpel. He cut through her jugular, sending blood spouting across the room, before pushing the blade down further, slicing her larynx muscles. The emerging scream was silenced immediately and the girl fell to the floor clutching her throat, blood gushing between her fingers. She looked up at the Acolyte, her eyes huge, trying unsuccessfully to understand.

Simon was paralysed by shock and the Acolyte took advantage of the second or two this gave him. He slashed at the young man's throat with such force that he almost decapitated him, cutting through his neck from ear to ear. Blood hit the Acolyte's visor and he wiped it away. Simon Welding's body convulsed and dark blood spewed from his mouth, covering his face in a red liquid mask.

Leaving him to writhe on the soaked sheets, the Acolyte leaped from the bed and crouched down beside Samantha. She was still alive. The Acolyte could not spare a second. He placed a hand on her forehead and another under her neck, and with a single twist he snapped her spine between her top two vertebrae, C-l and C-2. She went limp instantly.

He retrieved the metal carrier and placed it at his side. Then he rolled Samantha onto her front. In two simple movements he opened her body, making nine-inch incisions either side of her spine. Pulling apart the flesh, he could see her ribcage. Removing a battery-powered surgical saw from a zippered pouch in his plastic suit, he cut through the bones in seconds. Prising apart the ribs, he then used his scalpel to carefully sever the vessels and tubes leading to the left and right kidneys.

Opening the organ transporter, the Acolyte felt the cold on his hands. He could see the freezing air spill over the sides of the box. He heard a loud gurgling sound from the bed and then silence as Simon Welding shuddered and died.

The Acolyte placed his gloved hands inside Samantha Thurow's warm body. Slowly removing each kidney, he placed them in individual clear plastic bags, sealed them and placed them delicately inside the transporter. From a pocket at the side of the box he removed a metal coin. Carefully, he placed the coin in the right-hand opening in Samantha's back. He then closed the lid of the organ box and set the combination on the lock. Removing a detergent-infused wipe from a pocket in the oversuit, he cleaned his gloved hands and removed the blood from the handle and the top of the metal box before returning the wipe to his pocket. Placing a protective shield over the blade of his scalpel, he put this in the same pocket.

At precisely 9.13, nine minutes after entering the house, he was once more in the dark narrow passageway alongside the house. He removed his visor, gloves, one-piece oversuit and shoe covers, taking great care not to allow a trace of blood or a particle of tissue to reach his skin or his clothes. Putting on a second pair of clean plastic gloves and replacing the shoe covers with fresh ones, he removed a small bag from his trouser pocket and placed inside it the oversuit, visor, gloves, the first pair of shoe covers, the scalpel and the wipes. He then removed the second pair of gloves, slipped them into the top of the bag and sealed it. Picking up the organ transporter, he moved quickly to the front of the house. Crouching low, he checked the street. A young couple were walking towards him just two houses closer to Cowley Road. He ducked down. They passed by, the girl giggling.

As the couple reached the end of the street and turned out of sight, the Acolyte checked to left and right again. It was clear. He moved quickly but calmly over the low wall of the garden. Opening the boot of the Toyota with a key rather than the remote, he placed the organ transporter inside and used two leather straps to secure it in place. Then he laid the plastic bag next to it, closed the lid of the boot and walked around to the driver's door. Once inside, he removed his shoe covers and placed those in a plastic bag which he put on the seat. He cleaned his hands with a wipe and added this to the bag. Thirty seconds later he was driving towards the centre of Oxford humming along to a Beethoven piano sonata, feeling very pleased with his night's work.