The Rain Killer

Harper

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

Copyright © Luke Delaney 2015

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

Cover photographs © Shutterstock

Luke Delaney asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This is entirely a work of fiction. Any references to real people, living or dead, real events, businesses, organizations and localities are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.

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Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780007585809

Version: 2014-12-23

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Chapter One: December 2006

Two Weeks Later

Read an extract from The Jackdaw

About the Author

Also by Luke Delaney

About the Publisher

He drove through the pouring, relentless rain, scouring the back streets of Paddington and Marylebone, searching for the woman who would match the image burnt into his mind. Nothing else would satisfy him. But he’d been searching the area for almost an hour now and knew if he stayed much longer he risked drawing the attention of the police or a sharp-eyed civilian monitoring a council-controlled CCTV centre. He was running out of time and frustration was threatening to overtake him – the thought of not feeding the beast that lived inside him made his muscles tense and his head ache. It had been weeks since he last fed the great serpent and he couldn’t comprehend the idea of another day passing without devouring a soul. The beast grew weaker and weaker as he failed to feed it.

The weather meant there were fewer women than usual plying their trade on the night streets. So far he had only seen two, scuttling between shop doorways, trying to be seen while trying to stay dry. The first had been tall and blonde and the other had been black. Neither were worthy of the majestic creature that he had become.

As he moved the car slowly through the rain he saw a figure huddled in the shadows under the railway bridge that carried unknowing, unseeing passengers into nearby Paddington Station. He wiped the condensation from the inside of the windscreen and cruised under the arch of the bridge, straining to see into the darkness. She was standing smoking a cigarette, looking fearless and bored despite her slight build and vulnerability, her straight black hair helping the darkness conceal her face. Could she be the one – the perfect one he’d been searching for? He turned the car around and drove slowly back to the bridge, pulling up to the kerb and letting the passenger window down to signal he wanted to talk business. She emerged from her shadowy refuges continually looking left to right, no doubt checking for the police she was keen to avoid, although they were the only ones who could save her now.

As she peered in through the open window, speaking whilst chewing gum, her cigarette clamped between index and middle finger, he knew she wasn’t the perfect one, but she was close enough to satisfy the beast – at least as close as the others, if not more so. He felt excitement and anticipation rising in his entire body – his core temperature increasing as his groin tightened and his testicles writhed like the Great Snake itself. The heavy rain was already beginning to make the strands of her hair stick to her porcelain cheeks. Her deep brown eyes sparkled with life and hope, her youth not yet destroyed by a life on the street. She thrilled him.

‘Looking for some business, there?’ she asked with a smile, almost leaning in through the window now, moving slightly from side to side as she swayed her hips.

‘Get in,’ he told her. ‘Too wet out there. We can discuss business in the car – in the warm – in the dry.’ She chewed her gum, her eyes never leaving his as she assessed his threat risk. After a few seconds she flicked her cigarette away and climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door. As soon as it was shut he quickly pulled away from the kerb and drove into the night.

‘Taking a lot for granted, aren’t we?’ she said, smiling again. ‘We ain’t settled on a price, or anything else for that matter.’