Read Online Darkest Heart by Nancy A. Collins - Free Book Online
Authors: Nancy A. Collins
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so-called "Head-Man."
In the spring of 1996, Toronto was terrorized by a faceless killer known only as the "Skid Row Butcher,"
who took the heads of four victims in the span of six weeks. During 1998 and most of 1999, several headless bodies were found at rest areas along major Eastern Seaboard turnpikes, although the various investigative agencies involved didn't connect the murders.
Of far greater interest to me are the FBI files Webhead hacked into. While local law enforcement never saw a pattern amongst the various slayings, the same did not hold true for the Feds. Although J. Edgar's boys never announced to state and metropolitan law enforcement agencies that a serial killer with over twenty notches on his belt was on the loose, that has not kept them from compiling a dossier. The Bureau's codename for the killer is "Harker."
I skim over the Bureau profiler's by-the-numbers assessment of Harker's make-up: white, middle-aged, male, above-average intelligence. So what else is new? The autopsy reports on the victims are far more interesting. There's a marked similarity in the forensic evidence in every case. Some of this uniformity is due to the manner in which the bodies were mutilated, but that's not the only reason.
Despite the fact the victims vary greatly in sex, age and race, all of the bodies proved so badly decomposed upon discovery it was impossible to tell what mutilations were done before or after death. The only thing the forensic reports say for sure is that each victim was shot then decapitated. The link between the various killings lay within the ballistic report: silver-jacketed .38 slugs were retrieved from each and every body, and it was the Bureau's opinion that Harker himself had manufactured the ammunition.
The fact that the killer could afford to have bullets made using precious metals placed him far outside the Bureau's normal experience. At this point two Special Agents, a man and a woman, were called in to help expand the investigation. Reports written by these Special Agents show a mixture of bafflement and grudging respect for Harker, not to mention an undercurrent of genuine disquiet. However, the agents'
apprehension didn't appear to be generated by the acts of the killer they were investigating insomuch as by the background information they uncovered about the victims.
Shortly after the Special Agents filed their reports, a memo from high within the Bureau ordered them to withdraw from the case and to keep the existence of Harker secret from the public and, indeed, all other branches of law enforcement.
This last bit does not surprise me in the least. I've long suspected that select officials within the FBI and CIA, along with their opposite numbers throughout the globe, know the truth about the monsters of ancient legend who walk unnoticed, if not exactly unseen, amongst humankind. It's much easier, and far safer, for those who know the truth to look the other way whenever possible, blaming the growing incidences of missing children and unsolved murders on anonymous serial killers rather than werewolves and vampires. Whether these high-ranking politicos are acting in the best interests of the human race, or under orders from inhuman masters, is another question altogether.
I take the printouts and carefully feed them into the only other technological luxury I have allowed myself: a crosscut paper shredder. As I watch the hard copy of the FBI files turn into confetti, I have no doubt in
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) my mind that the stranger with the white hair and the Bowie knife who shot me is their so-called
"Harker." But who he is, and why he's dedicated himself to hunting vampires is another matter... one I intend to get to the bottom of.
* * * *
He stumbled across the first hint of the Blue Woman's existence on, of all things, a computer BBS
frequented by minions - those debased humans who had willingly
In the spring of 1996, Toronto was terrorized by a faceless killer known only as the "Skid Row Butcher,"
who took the heads of four victims in the span of six weeks. During 1998 and most of 1999, several headless bodies were found at rest areas along major Eastern Seaboard turnpikes, although the various investigative agencies involved didn't connect the murders.
Of far greater interest to me are the FBI files Webhead hacked into. While local law enforcement never saw a pattern amongst the various slayings, the same did not hold true for the Feds. Although J. Edgar's boys never announced to state and metropolitan law enforcement agencies that a serial killer with over twenty notches on his belt was on the loose, that has not kept them from compiling a dossier. The Bureau's codename for the killer is "Harker."
I skim over the Bureau profiler's by-the-numbers assessment of Harker's make-up: white, middle-aged, male, above-average intelligence. So what else is new? The autopsy reports on the victims are far more interesting. There's a marked similarity in the forensic evidence in every case. Some of this uniformity is due to the manner in which the bodies were mutilated, but that's not the only reason.
Despite the fact the victims vary greatly in sex, age and race, all of the bodies proved so badly decomposed upon discovery it was impossible to tell what mutilations were done before or after death. The only thing the forensic reports say for sure is that each victim was shot then decapitated. The link between the various killings lay within the ballistic report: silver-jacketed .38 slugs were retrieved from each and every body, and it was the Bureau's opinion that Harker himself had manufactured the ammunition.
The fact that the killer could afford to have bullets made using precious metals placed him far outside the Bureau's normal experience. At this point two Special Agents, a man and a woman, were called in to help expand the investigation. Reports written by these Special Agents show a mixture of bafflement and grudging respect for Harker, not to mention an undercurrent of genuine disquiet. However, the agents'
apprehension didn't appear to be generated by the acts of the killer they were investigating insomuch as by the background information they uncovered about the victims.
Shortly after the Special Agents filed their reports, a memo from high within the Bureau ordered them to withdraw from the case and to keep the existence of Harker secret from the public and, indeed, all other branches of law enforcement.
This last bit does not surprise me in the least. I've long suspected that select officials within the FBI and CIA, along with their opposite numbers throughout the globe, know the truth about the monsters of ancient legend who walk unnoticed, if not exactly unseen, amongst humankind. It's much easier, and far safer, for those who know the truth to look the other way whenever possible, blaming the growing incidences of missing children and unsolved murders on anonymous serial killers rather than werewolves and vampires. Whether these high-ranking politicos are acting in the best interests of the human race, or under orders from inhuman masters, is another question altogether.
I take the printouts and carefully feed them into the only other technological luxury I have allowed myself: a crosscut paper shredder. As I watch the hard copy of the FBI files turn into confetti, I have no doubt in
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) my mind that the stranger with the white hair and the Bowie knife who shot me is their so-called
"Harker." But who he is, and why he's dedicated himself to hunting vampires is another matter... one I intend to get to the bottom of.
* * * *
He stumbled across the first hint of the Blue Woman's existence on, of all things, a computer BBS
frequented by minions - those debased humans who had willingly
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