Lisa Stone: Stalker

‘OK, mate.’

Undoing the button on his black three-quarter-length coat as he went, Kevin turned the corner into the alleyway and out of sight of the camera. He could just make out Tracey waiting for him in their usual place. She and Chelsea were interchangeable and took it in turns to give him his Friday night treat, his bonus to make up for low wages and their ticket into the club. Although they were out of sight of the cameras, he was supposed to be on duty so they needed to be quick. But part of the excitement for him was in the immediacy. The fuck without foreplay.

Flattening her against the wall, he quickly undid his trousers, yanked up her short skirt and pulled aside her thong. She groaned as he thrust into her, from pain or pleasure he didn’t know – or care. Hard thrusts, deep inside; he kicked her legs further apart so he could penetrate her fully, animal-like in his taking of her. It could have been anyone he was fucking. But that was probably true for her too as long as it got her into the club. Thrusting faster now, he would come quickly, with no need to hang on in there and wait to satisfy her. She was his for the taking.

Then a sudden movement from behind. Kevin’s eyes shot open and Tracey screamed. A flash of silver, the glint of metal. A faceless head with only slits in the balaclava for eyes, the pupils dilated and the whites glowing menacingly in the dark. It was all over in an instant; no time to avoid the knife.

Kevin’s face registered shock and surprise before pain. Tracey screamed over and over again as the attacker vanished as quickly as he’d appeared, disappearing out of the alley and into the night.

Blood pumped from the wound in Kevin’s neck and spurted down Tracey’s front. He staggered back, groaning and clutching his neck. Shaking violently, with her legs barely able to support her, Tracey ran out of the alley and to the front of the club.

‘He’s been stabbed! Kev’s been stabbed!’ she shouted hysterically.

He staggered out behind her, both hands clamped to his neck impotently trying to stem the flow of blood, before collapsing onto the pavement in full view of those waiting in the queue, and the camera.

Derek gasped and stared in horror.

The queue quickly dispersed like ants; some fearing that they might be next ran away while others went to Kevin. Chelsea ran to her friend and screamed at the sight of all the blood. Some people were just staring at Kevin on the ground, not knowing what to do. One guy was phoning for an ambulance, another two were actually taking photographs on their phones. Finally, a girl who said she was a trainee nurse knelt beside Kevin and put pressure on the wound to stem the blood while they waited for the ambulance.

‘Jesus,’ Derek said, unable to take his eyes from the screen. ‘He needed to be taught a lesson, but not like that.’

There was then what seemed like an interminable wait before the ambulance and police arrived, but was only seven minutes according to the clock on Derek’s computer. The paramedics went to Kevin, one opening a medical bag while the other thanked the trainee nurse and took over the compression on the wound. As they worked to save Kevin’s life, the police moved the onlookers away from him, and then began asking them what they’d seen and heard of the incident. They all said similar: that they hadn’t seen it happen but the guy was a bouncer at the club and had been stabbed in the alleyway over there.

‘He went to have a piss,’ the guy who’d been at the head of the queue said. Then Tracey, her clothes stained with Kevin’s blood, came forward and told them what had really happened. When the young officer had finished taking their statements, Chelsea asked if the club would still open and if they could get in for nothing.

‘Jesus, have you no humility?’ Derek exclaimed aloud, appalled.

He watched carefully as the police cordoned off the alleyway, now a crime scene, and the paramedics continued to work on Kevin. Then, with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth, a drip attached to his arm, and a large dressing covering his neck wound, Kevin was lifted onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, apparently unconscious.

Derek watched the ambulance leave, its blue light bouncing off the buildings and then disappearing out of view. Another police car arrived and a plain-clothed man and a woman got out of the rear. Forensics, he guessed. They exchanged a few words with the officers and then donned their white protective paper Tyvek suits. A spotlight was set up so they could see and they disappeared down the alley while other police officers went inside to speak to the owner. But Derek had seen enough. Powering down the monitors, he feared the worst.

‘A bit of a naughty boy then, by all accounts,’ DC Beth Mayes said, reporting to her senior. ‘Literally caught with his trousers down.’

DCI Aileen Peters smiled. ‘And no one saw anything, even though it was a Friday night?’

‘No. Nothing, ma’am. Once Kevin and Tracey were in the alleyway they were out of sight of the queue. And there’s no camera covering the side alley – just one at the front of the nightclub.’

She nodded and glanced at the report in front of her. ‘So we’re working on the assumption that the attacker was already there.’

‘Yes, ma’am. It looks that way. It’s a long dark alley, most of which isn’t visible from the street. There are plenty of places to hide – behind bins and outbuildings. You wouldn’t see someone hiding, especially with what Kevin and Tracey had on their minds. All she’s been able to tell us is that the attacker was dressed in black and had a balaclava hood covering his head and face. The CCTV footage from the camera at the front of the club shows a hooded figure going into the alley approximately half an hour before the attack. The same figure can be seen running out after the attack.’

‘He left the area on foot?’

‘Yes, as far as can be seen on the camera, which is about twenty feet.’

‘And no one in the queue saw him fleeing?’

‘No. He’d gone before the commotion began and anyone realized something was wrong. The first anyone saw or heard was when Tracey came out of the alley covered in blood and screaming that Kevin had been stabbed. He staggered out after her. That’s when their attention was drawn to the alleyway, but the attacker had fled by then.’

‘And Kevin didn’t see his attacker at all because he came at him from behind?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘It was definitely a he?’

‘From his build, yes.’

‘And we’ve ruled out Tracey or her friend, Chelsea, setting up Kevin? He’d had sex with Chelsea the week before and she wasn’t jealous and bent on revenge?’

‘According to both girls they were happy with the arrangement. They took it in turns to have sex with him and he let them both into the club for free.’

‘It must be a good club,’ Aileen Peters remarked dryly. ‘And the girls don’t see him at any other time? He’s not dating one of them?’

‘No, ma’am.’

‘Are there any other girlfriends on the scene who might not like the arrangement he had with Chelsea and Tracey?’

‘Not according to Kevin,’ Beth answered. ‘We saw him again yesterday in hospital.’

‘Did the management know about his arrangement with the girls?’

‘No. And they’re not happy that they’ve been drawn into this. It’s bad for the club’s reputation, especially when their licence is coming up for renewal.’

‘Tough. So Kevin can’t think of anyone who might have had a grudge against him? Maybe someone he collected money from or an opponent from one of his boxing matches? Someone he’d badly beaten?’

‘He says he doesn’t keep a record of his debt-collecting duties. It’s cash in hand. We’re checking out some of the fights he won, but so far nothing. Some of his opponents have form, but for pub brawls etc. None of them has a history of knife crime, GBH or anything premeditated like this. Although Kevin admits he knows some pretty dodgy characters.’