Lucifer's Apostles

Lucifer's Apostles Episode 4

Two of the three prisoners had been fed, the exception was Sally. Snake had watched them while they bathed and cleaned their teeth. The weather outside was still hot and sticky, it was the middle of summer so that was to be expected. All the hostages were always left naked, no bedding on their mattress, only one pillow each for their heads.

They were cuffed to a chain that had been bolted to the floor. Each of the prisoners had a bottle of water that was replaced several times a day, they were each supplied with a bedpan and a roll of toilet paper. There was a plastic bucket with no handle, which had a small amount of soapy water in to wash their hands.

The women all bathed, under supervision twice daily, once after breakfast and then again after dinner. Water, and vinegar with lemon were placed in each dish they washed themselves from, this was to try and minimise any DNA on their body. Of an evening the same mixture was used with a small amount of eucalyptus oil to add scent. Their hair was washed nightly in extra virgin olive oil mixed with mayonnaise.

Sally pulling through her wrist cuff was a huge mistake, all the women had tried to do it when they were first abducted, Sally had been the only one to succeed. It would not happen again. All the cuffs had been double checked around the women’s wrists.

The man needed fuel for the van, he was tempted to send Jacko and then decided against it. He had warned the big man that if he played games on his phone instead of keeping an eye on the monitors, he would confiscate it and flush it down the toilet. Jacko sulked like a five-year-old and promised that he would do better.

After picking up the keys, The Man drove to the closest fuel station. He was unscrewing the fuel cap when he saw her. She looked uncannily similar in looks to Sally except for her hair. It was as black as a raven, the shine already electrifying. Her body was the same athletic shape as Sally’s, she had an ultra-short pair of shorts on and a tank top that left little to the imagination. She was sexy and she knew it, she shook her hips and flicked her hair gracefully as she glided by him, walking her Rottweiler.

He had just found a potential new target, although the dog might be a problem. He replaced the petrol cap without putting any fuel in the van. Instead, he raced around to the driver’s side and climbed in. He caught up to her when she was about halfway up the next block. He pulled into a parking space and followed her on foot until she turned into a walkway between two shops, one being the takeaway that he had first laid eyes on Sally.

Not being able to follow her into the alley, The Man waited at the corner of the takeaway and watched her ‘shake her booty’ until she got to the foot of a set of stairs. She stopped, fiddled in her handbag before she pulled out some keys. Climbing the stairs letting the dog lead the way, she unlocked the front door and then entered. The dog was obviously a house pet, there was no way he was going to break into her apartment.

Turning around, he walked back to his van. He knew that he had a target for today, she was his only concern at this moment. He returned to the petrol station and filled the van with fuel before returning to the house, he could feel his heart racing a little faster, he was excited.

***

Maria finished her day at work. One more day and then the weekend. She tried to be excited about the two days off, it was hard knowing there may be many more in the future. She caught the train back to her local station and drove to the gym before returning home. How could her life have gotten this bad so quickly?

A couple of vodkas would help her mood. As she turned into her driveway, she noticed a white van parked across the road. She remembered seeing it this morning whilst she had been stretching. She thought she was becoming quite the detective, she had never noticed anything like that before, her power of observation was usually zero.

Grabbing her handbag before stepping out of her car, Maria turned to see the van pull into the driveway driving fast towards her, she then felt a hand cover her mouth and a sharp sting in her neck. The day went from light to dark before she ever knew what was happening.

The plan had been executed to perfection. The driveway was well concealed from the road. The Man did not have to try and tackle her while she was running, there were too many variants on what could have gone wrong.

Opening the door to the van, The Man bundled her in and climbed into the passenger seat, as Jacko was reversing out. There was a couple walking on the footpath, pushing a pram, looking straight at them. He hoped that they were too far away to make an identification, he was sure they were.

“We need another van” he told Jacko. The first van Jacko had stolen had been perfect until he put it in a ditch swerving to miss a dog that ran into his path. They left the van at the scene of the accident.

When they arrived back at the house, Jacko replied, “I’ll get a new van tonight”. The two men lifted Maria out of the van before Jacko heaved her over his shoulder and took her into her new home. The rooms were full again, although The Man was unsure of the cost of the operation. Jacko stripped Maria naked, then he laid her on the single bed and cuffed her wrist to the chain.

When Maria woke, she would scream at the top of her lungs and try to pull her wrist through the cuff. All the women did the same, no exception. They would not eat, refuse to wash themselves, swear and curse, kick and scream. Jacko would give them a backhander or a poke with his stun gun and eventually they came around.

The Man had stalked all the names on the High Priestess’s list over the last three months. Little changed from the previous times he had seen the intended abductees, to the next time. He would contact the High Priestess, let her know that the new arrival had been delivered successfully. He knew she had a timeline for when the next sacrifice would be made, he would inform her who his next target would be. The Man needed to know if Sally was still a part of her plans with all of her new injuries.

***

Looking at footage of a white van leaving from the front of a restaurant and making its way through the city streets, Tank told Lisa Blythe that she had done an incredible job. She had followed the van through a maze of twists and turns until she got a plate, plus the make and model. It was a later model Toyota HiAce, a distinctive vehicle because it had a sliding door on both sides. Lisa had given the plate number to Louise. Unfortunately, the plates belonged to a Mercedes Sprinter, meaning they had been cloned. Someone had manufactured a set that was already in the system.

After following the van’s movements as far south as she could, it turned off onto one street and another before she lost it completely. “We need to check footage around the church and the beach this morning”, Tank told Lisa.

“Has anyone seen Owen? I need him here ASAP”. Just as he said the words, Owen O’Donnell walked through the door. “Ahh, there you are. I need everything you have on Janelle Sommerville when she was last seen, any places she had frequented, everything. Give it all to Lisa, then please look through every missing person report in the city region. Anything in the southern suburbs would be of particular importance. Give everything of relevance you find to Louise and Ned.

He rang Louise and instead got Ned, “Yoh” was the simple reply.

“I want you to find a white Toyota HiAce stolen sometime in the last six months. I want a list of companies that use white delivery vans in and around Southern Palms. Then we can start ruling some vehicles out”.

“I’ll get back to you”, was Ned’s simple reply.

Pete Hogan and Mary Kidd walked through the door. Pete was never a gentleman and walked through first. “That was a complete waste of time”, he said, stopping next to Lisa’s desk. “Everybody had short-term memory loss”.

Mary chimed in, “Nobody remembered a strange white delivery van. ‘Every van’s white, isn’t it’? Was the consensus from everybody we asked? A woman recalled seeing a gentleman standing in front of the gym she hadn’t seen before or since”.

“I asked if she could give us a description, and that short-term memory loss had kicked in”, Pete said, “She might recognise him if she saw him again. I asked her to come in and have a look at some pictures. Where do we start getting her to look? It’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack”.

“We start with s*x offenders, anyone with a background of r**e, physical abuse, or stalking. It might look like a needle. It’s the only needle we have”, Tank replied, “One step at a time”.