Savage (A Blood Feud Novel)

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was a chilly and windy September morning. Overcast skies hovered as the rigid air punctuated the stillness.

The man inside the trunk of the car was still alive. His hands were tied behind his back, and his feet were cuffed in chains. A piece of white cloth was wrapped around his neck. The man was petrified.

Fraser exited the driver's seat of the car. He had a butcher knife in his right hand. Fraser opened the trunk. He smiled as he stared at the man inside.

"Ah, good to see you, fine mate," Fraser said.

He placed both hands on the handle. He raised the knife. He smiled when the man's eyes widened.

Fraser thrust the knife. The blade penetrated into the man's skull. After a few more sickening thrusts Fraser tossed the butcher knife aside and closed the trunk.

On the passenger seat was a large can of gasoline. He grabbed the can and sprayed doses of liquid on the top and sides of the car. He took out a cigarette and took a few steps back.

He turned and tossed the cigarette at the car behind his back. The vehicle erupted in flames.

Fraser quickly moved forward. He was on a dirt road somewhere, and no one had seen him, the car, or the man in the trunk of the car that Cleaver stabbed in the skull. Of course, only Fraser knew his victim.

Fraser had met him at the front steps of the local church the previous night. Dressed in his usual police attire and uniform, Philip Coleman couldn't contain his surprise at the face of the man who had ambushed him.

Fraser had followed Coleman to the local church and made sure as to not allow the officer to suspect he was being followed. Coleman and Father Michael were the only persons who were inside the church building.

When Coleman emerged from the front entrance, it was Fraser who had sneaked up behind the officer with his gun pointed at the back of Coleman's head.

Fraser knocked the officer unconscious by whip-lashing him with the butt of his gun. After, he had carried the stricken officer and placed him in the back seat of the car. Fraser had managed to rid himself of any link to the crime.

Before placing the officer in the trunk, Fraser told him, "I was the killer, Coleman. You remember Ellen, your first case...or how about Melisa Duncan?"

Coleman gave no reply. Instead, he spat at Fraser. A sense of betrayal and heartbreak overtook him.

Fraser wiped his face with the back of his right hand and smiled at the officer. Coleman had not seen it coming. He didn't see himself facing the serial killer that had terrified small towns all across Vermont more than a decade ago. He was in the dark the whole time. Now it was the retiring officer who was Fraser's latest victim.

Of course, the murders of Jessica and Tanya Savage and the journalist from the local paper Carolyn O'Grady and her son were all copycats in Fraser's opinion.

There was still that loser Chief Clancy. That would be a piece of cake. Fraser would lure the poor Chief from out of his slumber and stab the bastard right through the heart.

Fraser felt it was a perfect plan of action. It needed a perfect ending.