Dead In The Water: Rider Bradbury, #2

By James Brown

Rider Bradbury is back. This time he is on the hunt for a serial killer known as the Water Demon. Bradbury will need all his skills as a cop and martial artist, to carry him through this ordeal. The Water Demon believes water is power and he will use this as the resting place for his victims. Bradbury bends the law in order to try and capture this devious and dangerous killer. Follow Rider Bradbury through the twists and turns of this 23k novella as he hunts down a serial killer for the very first time in his career. Full of martial arts action and quite the thrill ride.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Brown
• Release date: Jan 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507023808

Book preview

Chapter 1

Cold, not a deep bone penetrating cold, more like a slap in the face, a wake you up kind of cold. He only felt it around his eyes. The white balaclava and snow suit held his body heat. When hunting, it was best to be prepared He often repeated that mantra to himself. The right clothes, the right shoes and of course the right knife for the job at hand. He wanted to caress the throwing knife that lay in wait, slipped just into a breast pocket, only the handle showing. Easy to grab when he made the rush. Yes the rush. It would come soon. Earlier in the morning when the moon was still the only light, he laid in wait. Hidden from view, waiting and knowing she would come soon. There was time to daydream of a leopard chasing down a gazelle.

Did the leopard feel more than him? Was it only driven by hunger or did it feel a sexual urge, a pulling, tugging sensation at the base of its sex?

The knife was cold steel and it called out to him. He needed to resist the call. It wouldn’t do to have the knife out, touching the sharp edge, turning it over and over in his large hands to admire its strength. The cold steel might have reflected some of the moonlight or the sun as it rose over the tree line. It was due any minute now, to show itself and bring light to a new day.

He resisted all temptation and in preparation, began to slow his breathing and heartbeat. In and out, just like the waves on his favorite beach in Thailand. His heart rate rarely rose above its normal pattern and sometimes he wondered if it was just his imagination. Maybe his heart wasn’t thudding and there was no reason to work on controlling his breath. More than once he thought of being tested by the doctors, only to find out he truly was as cold as his old school mates used to tell him.

His ears picked up a sound. Listening intently, he could hear a shush-shush of cross country ski’s. It was she. The one he had watched for nearly a month now. Waiting and watching, timing the arrival and storing up lovely images of knife slicing through the air to bury itself deep in flesh.

He raised his head slightly, keeping flat to the ground, eyes horizontal across the snowline. He had missed the rising of the sun and wondered just how much he had daydreamed of his beautiful knife. The girl stood still as if undecided on which direction to go; close to the river or to the meadow with its various rises and falls. He had to focus. Between the sideways view and the sun behind her, it was difficult to bring the girl into proper focus. Finally squinting, he could see her. Perfection, like a photo in a magazine, a Nordic beauty freeze framed as the camera did its magic.

He watched the girl stick a pink tongue out, trying to catch a cottony snowflake. At the last moment, the wind pushed the flake away from her mouth and she laughed. Puzzled he blinked, the cold almost causing his eyelids to stick. Wondering why she would want a cold piece of snow in her mouth and could it be normal to giggle about it. There were things he never understood, as child he watched and learned, rarely speaking...until he knew what they wanted him to say and do.

A shadow from above caught his eye. The girl must have seen it as well. She looked to the sky and swept her gaze back and forth until she spotted the hawk again, coming out of low clouds. The red tail hawk floated above the river in search of prey. Circling, rising and falling, silent but deadly. Another apex predator looking to make a kill.

A loud crack from the ice startled the girl and she jumped backwards almost falling as her ski’s entwined. The expanding ice on the riverbank, sometimes sent rippling cracks throughout the air. Another resounding crack issued through the air. He heard her nervous laugh. Nervous yet still brave enough to ski alone, with the sun just now providing light and beauty.

He could almost taste her fear on the tip of his tongue. It was fear that touched him. That emotion from others gave him an electrical charge that ran down his spine and felt like little blue sparks from the off cast of a welding torch. It was only then that he knew that this life was real and not the dreams of a thousand monsters all running together.

The suit was more than comfortable. In his warmth, he drifted again, thinking of how this would all play out from start to finish, just like a horror movie. With milder winter weather than Sweden, the full body army snowsuit kept Robert Tucker toasty and warm. Robert had parked on the other side of the river and after slipping into the white suit, crossed a small bridge an hour before sunrise. Taking his time, Robert eased along the river bank and when he spotted the line of pine trees, he cut straight across and slipped out of sight. Slowly he made his way along, ducking under branches and stepping over fallen trees. In five minutes, he was at his marked spot. Now it was just a matter of weaving himself amongst the trees, flat to the ground. He didn’t worry about the tracks because the area never received early morning visitors and he had entered the tree line before the narrow pathway the girl always skied down. She was always the first and she came from a large parking lot up on Erin Mills Drive. Hers would be the only car in the lot at this time of day.

When she craned her head to look up the hawk as it passed directly over her, Robert felt a pull in his groin. Her neck was exposed and although he could not see the veins, he imagined the blood pulsing through. None of his previous kills were winter prey. He had always chosen warmth as water was his god. Water accepted the sacrifices that he offered and swallowed them greedily. He started to rise.

With visions of pure white snow streaked with pink, he started his charge.

The throwing knife was perfectly balanced. It would fly deadly, just like the hawk.

There were no prying eyes to watch and wonder. Only the girl had eyes on him now and she was transfixed. Frozen in time and space, unable to process what was happening before her. Robert focused in on the throat area and let the knife fly. It made a beautiful humming sound as it laser traced its way to the girls exposed throat.

She never had time to react, only saw