Never Let Go by Gareth Crocker

Author:Gareth Crocker [Crocker, Gareth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143530954
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2013-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

31

William Kemmler sat alone on a rusted iron bench in the prison yard. His eyes trawled across the stained and cracked concrete beneath his shoes, but he saw little of the ground. His mind, once again, was elsewhere. He was soon to be tried for two counts of kidnapping and murder and while his crimes had outraged the public, the truth was he was accountable for far more. For years he had travelled across the country committing a wide range of atrocities, spanning fraud and armed robbery to arson and murder. But of all his offences, he had a particular fondness for strangling prostitutes and then raping them – the order of which was paramount. He also liked to burn his victims when he had the opportunity. Something about the marriage of a naked flame and a woman’s soft skin was irresistible to him. Happily, it also helped to destroy evidence. Yet, despite the bodies that had been left in his wake, he had never once been a suspect in any of his crimes. He had not so much as been questioned. Never even been a ‘person of interest’. While the country may have been horrified by what he stood accused of, and while the media continued to speculate as to why a seemingly ‘normal’ man – a respectable and well-liked salesman, by all accounts – would suddenly kidnap and murder, nobody had any idea of who he really was. But now that he had finally been caught, it was likely that investigators would link him to some of his other handiwork. It would surely only be a matter of time until at least some of the dots were joined. Then the public would have a far better understanding of who they were dealing with. Much like an iceberg adrift in the night, the world had glimpsed only a small part of him. The swollen mass – the bit that sent ships to the bottom of the ocean – remained hidden beneath the surface. Killing for William Kemmler fulfilled a base and private need but, at the same time, did not feel like something he should feel any guilt over. Sometimes he felt a deep sense of anger and resentment for having to cover his tracks. If other life forms could murder with impunity, take what they desired based only on natural laws, why couldn’t he? How could the world cast judgement upon him?

‘Heya, bony white boy, wha’s your story?’ a large Rastafarian suddenly asked, his head a reggae palm tree of dreadlocks. ‘Why you up in here, boy?’

William Kemmler remained seated, his head bowed.

The man stepped forward and kicked Kemmler’s feet out from underneath him. ‘You deaf?’

‘No. I just don’t want to talk to you. Walk away, brother.’

The man turned to face some of the other prisoners, his yellow teeth cracking open a jagged hole in his beard. ‘Brother? You believe this fuck’n honky?’

A few of the men laughed but, knowing that a fight was now imminent, most took a backward step.

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