Gods and Monsters

VI

The Bovie Steakhouse - Soho, London

The remnants of the succulent, juicy steak that Andy Rogers and his companion for the evening had been enjoying, now dripped down his stubbly chin, slowly falling onto his jacket like a bib. Andy slowed down as his lady friend walked ahead, admiring her rear as she wiggled down the alley. He struggled to remember what her name was, but he didn't really care now. His mind was instead set on getting her into bed, feeling pretty confident that his next conquest was going to be a successful one.

Andy's stomach began to gurgle in a rather unhealthy way, and he slowed more now, burping into his hands with a little bit of sick rising into his throat, forcing him to swallow hard to avoid covering his hands with his earlier dinner. Looking around for the lady, Andy could only see darkness and shadows, the alley only just illuminated by nearby street advertisements.

"Hey! Babe, where you gone? I thought we were heading back to my place for dessert?"

There was no answer from the other end of the confining alley; silence, except for the sound of footsteps in puddles approaching Andy. His stomach gurgled further, and Andy hunched over in an attempt to relieve the growing pain. Brown boots entered his vision, a figure towering over him before his bald head was pulled back so that he stared up at the starry sky, unable to see his attacker.

Stuttering, Andy attempted to speak. "Please, look I don't have much money on me, but just take it all. I won't say a word!"

A deep, almost artificial voice replied. "I'm not here for your money, Andy."

Andy's blood froze, and not just because of the cold hand on his scalp. It couldn't actually be him, could it? They had seen him die or, at least, fall into the water. The voice was different, but still eerily similar to his old friend. "J-Jacob? That you, pal? Look mate, I'm sorry for what happened. We never meant for that to happen to you. I'm glad you're alright, though."

There was a deafening silence as Andy waited for the reply, unsure whether he wanted his attacker to be a stranger or Jacob. In his current predicament, Andy wasn't sure which one would be safer.

"You killed me, Andy. You and Tommy did this to me... and now you need to pay!" Jacob thrust his head above Andy's, showing him his new metallic-looking blue face, with what looked like water flowing underneath his thin features. Jacob raised his hand above Andy's face, bringing it down over his mouth before Andy suddenly felt his body fill with water. Moving away, Jacob looked at his former friend flailing on the ground as the water filled his lungs, moving up his windpipe before eventually spilling out of his mouth and onto the concrete below.

Katherine moved from out of the shadows, positioning herself behind Jacob as she placed her hands on his shoulders. "Well done, baby. One down, one to go." She planted a kiss on his moist cheeks and walked down the alleyway.

Kill her Jacob, she's just as bad as the rest!

No, you need to stop all of this Jacob. Hand yourself into the police and stop this. It's not you.

The voices in Jacob's head battled one another as he realised he was well in need of his pills. He and Katherine had tried to get some into his system earlier, but his new form wasn't too keen and he kept finding himself involuntarily spitting them out. He didn't want to know how much time he had before the voices consumed him, he was just focused on getting the revenge he deserved. The only trouble was that Jacob wasn't sure whether he wanted the revenge, or the voices did.

The Bovie Steakhouse - Soho, London - 8 hours later

The alley was now illuminated in the early morning sun as Rachel stood over the drowned body of Andy Rogers. She leant in close as she took some pictures of the moist man and tried to analyse what had caused him to drown in the middle of London, with no water nearby. Mike and Atlin stood a bit further down the alley, speaking with a woman that claimed to have seen Andy's demise, her claret dress dirty after it seems like she had worn it throughout the whole night.

"Poor bugger," Mike said as he peered over Rachel's shoulder and looked at Andy's pale body. "What a way to die. Any clues yet?"

After taking a final picture, Rachel got up from her crouched position and turned to the team. "Well, usually when someone drowns, they consume oxygen and their body begins to accumulate carbon dioxide, stimulating the need to breathe. Eventually as they consume more water and it contacts the lower airways, the throat spasms, trying to seal off the path to the lungs. With nowhere else to go, water frequently finds its way into the stomach. The throat relaxes after the person becomes unconscious, allowing water to flow into the lungs."

After taking a final statement from the woman she had been speaking to, Atlin walked over to the rest of the group and joined the conversation. "I take it that that isn't the case with Andy over here?"

"No, with Andy it seems as if his body was drowned from the inside out. His lungs were filled with water until eventually the water worked its way up his airways and out of his mouth," Rachel said.

The woman in claret dried her eyes and began walking towards the main road so that she could catch a taxi to anywhere away from the grizzly scene. She hadn't given the team much to go on. It had been too dark for her to see who was involved, although she was pretty sure it wasn't a mugging as the assailants hadn't taken anything from Andy.

Mike leant against one of the alley's walls as he lit up a cigarette. He was down to his last packet and was going to have to convince Atlin to let him out at a nearby shop. There was a newsagent not too far

away, but he didn't think it would be too professional for him to run off for a pack of ciggies. "Alright, so from the sounds of it, this is a deliberate murder from a proper messed-up bugger. Now we just need to find out who'd do this." He looked across and saw Atlin on her phone, annoyed that he had the self-control to not run off for cigarettes, yet she thought it was alright to do some texting. "Oi, Atlin, havin' fun, are we?"

Rolling her eyes, Atlin showed Mike what she was actually doing on her phone. "I'm checking Andy's social media accounts, actually. They might give us some information as to who might have wanted to kill him."

Mike blew a large amount of smoke out from his cigarette, feeling slightly stupid. "Well, have ya found anything then?"

"Not yet. Andy's last message was 'I miss you Jacob, sorry for what happened.' and there's a link to a profile for... Jacob Kenny. But other than that, there's nothing."

Rachel finished zipping up Andy's body, before he was taken away to the ambulance, moving back towards the two detectives. "Wasn't Jacob Kenny something to do with what Peggy and Charlie were investigating? He'd supposedly gone missing so they were going to speak with his girlfriend and see what they could find out.

The trio paused, all aware that the chances of this just being a coincidence were slim to none. Rachel pulled out her phone and called Charlie, hoping to catch him before they arrived at Katherine's house.

Continued in Part 7