Mr Hangman: Fingerprint Forensics, #2

By Scott McGregor

M A _ E _ A C T _ R

 

A serial killer is on the loose. Again.

 

Fifteen years after Mr Hangman last wreaked revenge on the perpetrators of Stampton, bodies have started to show up bearing the same modus operandi as before. Previously, Natasha Chapman was accused of filicide following the death of her twin babies; Mathew Deutsch, an alleged rapist; James Ollam, a potential paedophile. All were victims of the Mr Hangman of old.

 

When another body—Steven Roth, a man in his 60s with a squeaky-clean record—turns up neatly dismembered on his own dining table, Detective Kimberly Smulders and Lieutenant Deware know they have to solve the riddle before anyone else is killed.

 

A fast-paced thriller from Scott McGregor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Hare Press
• Release date: Jan 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9798223765820

Book preview

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BLACK HARE PRESS SHORT READS

WARDENCLYFFE by GREGG CUNNINGHAM

HADES 11 by PAUL WARMERDAM

BLOOD AND SILK by ZOEY XOLTON

AS ABOVE, SO BENEATH by JOSHUA D. TAYLOR

THE RISE OF THE GREAT OLD ONE by JASMINE JARVIS

CHRYSALIS by KIMBERLY REI

MOUNT TERROR by E.L. GILES

THE RECKONING by STEPHANIE SCISSOM

THE SPIRIT OF RODEO by BETH W. PATTERSON

CARPE DETRITUS by TIM MENDEES

THE BOOKWORM by L.T. EMERY & ANDREAS HORT

THE SALAMANDRION by MIKE ADAMSON

THIS HIDEOUS JOY by JONATHAN INBODY

THE CORONER by J. MOTOKI

FINGERPRINT FORENSICS SHORT READS

DEAD MAN WALKING by DAVID GREEN

MR HANGMAN by SCOTT MCGREGOR

THE MYSTERIOUS KILLER OF CATS by ZIAUL MOID KHAN

HELL HARE HOUSE SHORT READS

SEEING by PATRICK WINTERS

RAINMAKER by BILL HUGHES

TESATO’S CODE by KAREN BAYLY

MR HANGMAN is

Copyright © 2022 Scott McGregor

First published in Australia in February 2022

by Black Hare Press

The author retains the copyright of the works featured in this publication.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

Edited by D. Kershaw

Formatting by Ben Thomas

Cover design by Dawn Burdett

Connect: linktr.ee/blackharepress

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Scott McGregor

Black Hare Press

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CHAPTER ONE

M A _ E _ A C T _ R

Of the eight officers inside the third-floor apartment, Detective Kimberly Smulders was the only one infatuated by the whiteboard. She stared at the uncompleted word written at the top: MA_E_ACT_R . Just below, the crossed-out letters I, D, N, S , and P were written beside a sketch of a stickman hung by a noose. A fully drawn stick figure normally entailed that someone lost an innocent little game of hangman, but in Stampton, it meant something far worse. It meant the return of the person responsible for a chain of murders fifteen years ago.

Mr Hangman.

Kimberly spun around, shifting her attention to the bloodshed like everyone else. The apartment was a tidy place, decorated with various knickknacks and oil paintings.  An entire shelving unit was dedicated to 1940s records, ranging from the swing of Billie Holiday to the bebop jazz of Charlie Parker. The living room had that smell to it—that same smell Kimberly associated with her grandmother’s house during the summer. One of the windows was nudged a tad open, and the sound of downtown Stampton traffic echoed, music to Kimberly’s ears. The apartment could pass for normal, perhaps even lovely, if not for the anomaly at the centre of the