The Crucifix Killer - Chris Carter [0]
The Crucifix Killer
Chris Carter
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2009
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Chris Carter, 2009
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
The right of Chris Carter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-84737-538-4
Hardback ISBN 978-1-84737-622-0
eBook ISBN 9781847376220
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays, Chatham ME5 8TD
To Samantha Johnson, for simply being everything.
Acknowledgements
Writing is always regarded as a solitary occupation, but I owe a great debt to several people who have generously given me their time and input, in so many areas.
My love and thanks to Samantha Johnson, the most giving and understanding person I know, and who tirelessly read and re-read the initial manuscript so many times, even I lost count.
Thank you also to Coral Chambers for the encouragement and for pointing me in the right direction and to Andrea McPhillips for the corrections and the chats.
My sincere thanks also goes to all the incredible people at Simon & Schuster UK who have done an outstanding job and to my phenomenal editors, Kate Lyall Grant in the UK and Pia Götz and Sybille Uplegger in Germany, whose great input and valuable suggestions made the story and the characters in this thriller come alive.
Words can’t express how thankful I am to the most passionate, dedicated, thoughtful, determined and extraordinary agents any author could ever hope for – Darley Anderson and Camilla Bolton. I’m the lucky one.
To the fantastic team of extremely hard-working people at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency, my eternal gratitude.
One
Friday, August 3rd, 10:25 a.m.
‘Hello . . . Detective Hunter speaking.’
‘Hello, Robert, I have a surprise for you.’
Hunter froze, almost dropping his coffee cup. He knew that metallic voice very well. He knew when that voice called it meant only one thing – a new, mutilated dead body.
‘Have you heard from your partner lately?’
Hunter’s eyes quickly searched the room in vain for Carlos Garcia.
‘Has anyone heard from Garcia this morning?’ he shouted across the office after pressing the mute button on his cell phone.
The other detectives exchanged silent, puzzled looks and Hunter knew the answer even before it came.
‘Not since yesterday,’ Detective Maurice said shaking his head.
Hunter pressed the mute button once again.
‘What have you done to him?’
‘Do I have your attention now?’
‘What have you done to him?’ Hunter demanded in a firm voice.
‘As I’ve said, it’s a surprise, Robert,’ the metallic voice said laughing. ‘But I’ll give you another chance to make a difference. Maybe this time you’ll put more effort into it. Be at the laundry room down in the basement of the old number 122 Pacific Alley in South Pasadena within the hour. If you bring back-up, he dies. If you don’t make it within the hour, he dies. And trust me, Robert, it’ll be a very slow and painful death.’ The line went dead.
Two
Hunter raced down the stairs of the old building in east LA in giant leaps. The deeper he went, the darker and hotter it got. His shirt was covered in sweat, his tight shoes crushing his feet.
‘Where the hell is this laundry room?’ he whispered as he reached the basement.
A glimmer of light was coming from underneath a closed door at the end of a dark corridor. He ran towards