At the water’s edge, her pockets were carefully weighted with broken chunks of dusty red bricks from demolished factory outbuildings, before she was tipped in.  More crumbling rubble was thrown on top of her to hide her and prevent her from floating.  He hurled the iron bar as far out into the water as his tired arms could let fly, and discarded the old overcoat he had been wearing.  A red, swirling stain appeared in the water.  He presumed the coat would get covered in blood, but not quite this much.  ‘What a mess!’  He rinsed his hands and splashed river water over his face.  The river ran high at that point and had swollen with April showers.  She might not be found for years…..with a bit of luck!

The adrenalin rush created a weird high.  Sweat flowed freely, both from nervousness and from the exertion of completing the task.  It was amazing how fast his legs, which had briefly turned to jelly, could carry him. ‘Got to get away!’  The waste ground flashed before the killer’s eyes unseen.  All he could think of was getting as far away from there as possible.   He’d done it!  ‘Success!’  He felt triumphant.  ‘Yes!’ 

He ran through narrow side streets with bricked up terraced houses.  He had no real plan of where to go, or what to do next, no map in his head to follow.  He just ran.  This way!  That way!  Anywhere!  Sliding in disintegrating dog shit in a cobbled alley, passing the stench of black bin bags which puked their plundered contents over the ground, slipping on a crushed beer can which skidded underfoot, he ran blindly.  He passed gate after gate down alleys, until he reached a street he recognised, cobbles giving way to tarmac, then a shortcut across waste ground where dumped, burnt out cars rusted into the red bricked rubble which once was a street.  It all became a blur before the killer’s frightened eyes.     

Sitting silently now, eyes half blinded by salty sweat, the first time killer heard only the rasping, panting of anxious lungs and the thud-thud-thudding of accelerated heartbeats against exhausted eardrums.  The whole thing was relived now, in flashbacks and by searching his memory for minute details.  ‘What if something went wrong?’