Vanishing Point. Danielle Ramsay

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       Chapter Two

       Saturday: 3:15am

      Moaning, she lifted her aching head up off the cold tiled floor. It was dark, too dark to make anything out. The acrid stench of urine filled her nostrils. In the background, the razor-sharp noise of dripping water echoed again and again.

      She tried to remember what had happened but her head hurt too much. It felt heavy and foggy. It took her a couple of moments to realise that she was cold, very cold, and another few more before she became aware that she was naked. An overwhelming sense of panic started to build. She couldn’t figure out where she was or how she had gotten there.

      All she knew was that she was hurting. Really hurting.

      She tried to swallow and gagged, forcing saliva and blood to dribble out the corners of her mouth. She attempted to gulp back the thick, metallic taste in her mouth but found herself choking. She knew something was wrong as blood continued to pool at the back of her throat.

      Panicking, she staggered to her feet, causing a searing white burst of pain in her abdomen. She instinctively placed her hands over her stomach and felt a warm stickiness. She ran her fingers across the gnarled slash realising that it ran from hip to hip. Horrified, she slipped on the wet floor, falling backwards.

      The only noise emanating from her mouth was a gurgling splutter as she continued to choke.

      Suddenly the door was kicked open and harsh light from the hallway flooded the men’s urinals.

      ‘Fucking hell!’ muttered a male voice as he took in the carnage in front of him.

      ‘Get Madley! And I mean now!’ he shouted as he ran over to her thrashing body.

      He knelt down beside her and gently moved her into the recovery position, ignoring her moans of agony as he turned her. She suddenly began convulsing. With two fingers he started to pull out the blackened blood clots which were choking her.

      It was then he realised where the blood was coming from.

      Her tongue had been cut out.

      His eyes dropped to her mutilated left breast. Scorched deep into her skin was a four-inch ‘N’. On the other breast, the word ‘PIG’ was cut into it. He then noticed that the pool of blood he was kneeling in was coming from the deep slash running across her stomach.

      He had recognised her immediately as the copper who had been in earlier.

      She had come looking for trouble. And it seemed that it had found her.

      She was now passing in and out of consciousness. It was bad enough having a mutilated copper found in Madley’s club, let alone a dead one.

      She didn’t have much time. Blood was continuing to ebb from the knife wound across her abdomen.

      He turned towards the corridor.

      ‘Get Madley. Fucking get Madley!’ he yelled as he looked around for something, anything to stem the flow of blood. He quickly took his shirt off and pressed it hard against her slashed stomach.

      ‘Shit! Shit!’ he muttered as he waited for instructions.

      He couldn’t figure out what was taking Gibbs so long. All he had to do was ask Madley what he wanted done. He needed to know whether they had to dump her somewhere.

      Then he heard the screech of approaching sirens. It was too late. Some bastard had set Madley up. Whoever had done this to her had made sure Madley had no time to clean up and get rid of her before the cops turned up.

      ‘Fuck it!’ he cursed, agitated.

      He was worried. Madley was in trouble. And this was just the start.