The manager conducting the interview could not keep his eyes off of her, and she played the seduction routine perfectly to where he probably thought he would be able to get somewhere with her.
She was at the job two years and was gaining a lot of sales experience and her production was among the top.
On her eighteenth birthday, her manager, who had become a very good friend, and a couple of colleagues from work took her to London for a night on the town. Her life took another turn when they decided to duck into Harrod’s for a look and she was awed by the place. They all longed to have a job there and talked about it all evening.
The next morning, Margaret decided to take a chance and made her way back to London and Harrod’s. She had chosen a dress that was tasteful enough to impress a female interviewer and revealing enough to get a man’s attention.
When the process of applying and then going through the interview took most of the day and was conducted by a male, as luck would have it, she landed the most sought-after sales job in town.
On her twentieth birthday she was not able to take the day off and was very depressed. She was feeling lonely and really missed her family. Midway through the day, a gentleman in his mid-forties walked into the store. Everyone dropped what they were doing and went out of their way to assist him, when suddenly he walked over to Margaret, inquiring why she looked so sad. When she tried to apologize, explaining that it was her birthday and she had to work, she was shocked to hear him offer to take her out to dinner to celebrate. She had never accepted an invitation like that before. There was something about the demeanor of this man that made her feel comfortable and with the attention everyone was paying him, she decided to accept.
At 7:00 that evening when her shift was over, she walked out of the store hoping he wouldn’t be there, especially when she found out that he was a minister in the government, but there he was waiting on her in a limousine.
When the evening was over, she was swept off her feet by this gentle, caring man, and even though she never thought she would fall in love so fast, she was even more surprised to be with a man so much older than she was. He was twenty-five years her senior and it was not long before she realized that he loved her unconditionally and provided her with a life that she could only dream of. They were married within two months of their first meeting.
After ten years of wonderful marriage, he became very sick. Even though he recovered completely, the disease left him impotent and not long after that he completely lost interest in sex. That was four years ago. He continued to love her and treat her like a queen. He was not a fool, he knew that she had needs and it was not long before he started making allowances, especially when she turned down all offers from anyone who had any association or even contact with her husband. She stayed faithful to him until one evening at the theatre when she met a young man who captivated her. She finally decided to take a chance.
She wanted to keep her affairs purely sexual, with no emotional baggage, and she never had sex with a man more than once. It had worked well for her until now and that thought brought her back to the situation at hand when she felt the conductor strike her one more time and felt everything leaving her. She felt everything was going and she was not sure whether she was passing out or taking her last breath.
The conductor put his clothes back on and looked at the woman lying there on the sofa motionless. He suspected she was dead. This had never happened before; none of the others had died before. There had been many others and none of them had pressed charges against him. He never really wondered why, he was certain they were all well-to-do women from prominent families and couldn’t risk the notoriety of such an accusation.
They were either married to prominent wealthy men or they themselves were heads of some corporation. He knew he was safe. There was one incident, however, when he thought the woman might do something about him. He saw the anger in her face - it was not fear like all the others, but anger and determination. But that was six months ago and she hadn’t bothered him. She was American, he remembered. He shrugged the thought off and decided that she would probably just go home and be too embarrassed to speak of the incident and that was what he always counted on. And now? What would happen now? He would have to think and try to work something out. After all, he did have connections. He was sure he could cover this one up.
As the conductor stepped outside the theatre door, he glanced down the street in the direction of his hotel. He always stayed close to where he was performing for he liked the short walks to the hotel.
The road was empty except for the derelict swaying in the cold, damp night. Where were the coppers? They should have scraped this scum off the street long ago. He was not used to seeing such scum in this part of the city and he realized that he had seen this man here the last two or three nights. He made a mental note to call the police in a day or two if he kept seeing drunks there. He flipped the collar of his coat, held it tight to his neck and started his short walk toward his hotel.
As he got close to the drunk, he saw him stumble. He was trying to stand up and was having a hell of a time of it. By the time he passed, the drunk stumbled again and tried to balance himself by grabbing the conductor’s coat sleeve. The conductor tried to avoid him but suddenly he felt something sting his arm and swung around. When his eyes met the drunk’s, he realized the man was not drunk at all.
“Who the fuck are you?” asked the conductor? He got no response, just a stare from ice-cold unblinking eyes that sent a shiver down his spine.
The conductor suddenly felt dizzy. Was it from fear or was there something to that sting he felt? As he started to lose his balance, he realized that his affairs had finally caught up with him. Did he feel fear or relief? He felt paralysis come over him as he dropped to the street. He couldn’t move but he had a hazy consciousness of things around him. He started seeing things pass him, the graffiti on the walls, the paint peeling off another building, the pieces of paper blowing by him in the wind. It was strange how he never noticed all this before and while all these images were passing him by, he kept hearing a scraping noise.
What is that, he kept thinking? What is making that noise? Even though the scraping noise was very faint and seemed like it was coming from a different but not far place, it was irritating him.
His brain kept trying to focus on the scraping noise when he suddenly realized it was the sound of his body being dragged. Funny how he didn’t even feel that he was being dragged yet knew he was.
When the drunk finally dropped him in the dirt and dampness of the alleyway, he knew he was dying.
If the drug was working and he was dying, why was he alert enough to see every movement the not-so-drunk man was making?
From inside his coat, Austin removed the cricket bat, raised it and struck the conductor on his arm, shattering the bone. The next blow went to his legs, the next to the body.
The conductor felt the excruciating pain of every blow but was unable to move. He tried to scream but no sound would come out and when the next blow struck his face, shattering his teeth and breaking his nose, he started praying that the drugs would take him soon and save him the pain that was being inflicted on him.
He never once thought of the women he inflicted the same pain on. He thought only of his own pain, his own life. He was the great conductor.
He felt every blow this crazed maniac inflicted on him until finally everything went black. He would never be able to torture another woman again.
On the drive back to his hotel, Austin knew that bastard was dead and he deserved what he got. He did not like what he had done. He did not like being a cold-blooded killer. Is that what he was? Was he a cold-blooded killer or was he just an avenger? What
