Rat In A Hole

Rat In A Hole

By Paul McCann

 Around the streets of London there are millions of rats all with their own hole . Some of the rats I’m speaking of are the human kind . Every rat has learned how hide away and come out unseen to do what is needed to be done to survive . Once they have got what they wanted they return to their hole . There is way too many holes and once the rats disappear it’s almost impossible to find them .

The rat in this story is a man called Digby who worked as a mercenary and a paid assassin . He worked for anybody on any side . Digby had no conscience or code he was up for hire to anyone who  wanted his services . He was ruthless and relentless and always left no trace of his movements . Digby was always ready to kill and destroy anyone , anytime , anywhere . He was contactable through a group of secret  operatives who were part of the foreign legion .

Digby had worked previously with terrorists and criminal organisations . People like Digby were few and far between . Once he was assigned a mission  he came out of the hole where he lived in London and went out to kill and destroy . He was a survivor . When other rats were caught in a trap of baited with poison Digby always managed to survive . He followed the instructions given and never asked questions . When he was assigned to destroy an army barracks in the middle east, he never asked who occupied the building or how many where there . He did as he was told .

So, after he collected his weapons from a secret location near the British embassy Digby found himself a hole care of the people who no longer needed to live there .

He made the transition for gutter rat to a desert rat and from the hole he emerged to plan the attack on the barracks . There were several ideal spots where he left some grenades and automatic machine guns in case, he needed extra hardware to London.

Digby was given a cache of weapons to accomplish the mission and afterwards it was up to him to make his own way back to London .

In the darkness of night with a shoulder rocket launcher, he made his way to the  perimeter of the army barracks and with the element of surprise he fired several rockets one after the other that completely demolished the barracks . In his effort to escape the chaos he created diversions firing volleys of bullets from the weapon dump spots  . He had already dug his escape tunnel and before the army could cordon the area off Digby was well clear of the zone the army had shut sown .

Emerging from a hole outside the army surveillance Digby disappeared into the night and lay low for months before returning to London where he became another homeless person in a shelter . He lay there in a bed at the shelter with the voices he had heard screaming out in fear as the army barracks fell into piles of rubble .

He tried hard to forget some of the faces and names of those who he had killed over the years . There was an ache in his heart like the sound of a stone falling to an empty well . The feeling was traumatic for him and it was one he wished he could leave behind , but it was there too long now and he dragged that stone around day after day everywhere he went . He lay there on bed like a chicken with no head as dead as dead could be but still able to breathe . He had to get rid of the feeling that tormented him in that homeless shelter so one night he burnt it to the ground .

He watched all the homeless run from the building and stand there with blankets around them as the fire brigade arrived to make some assessment of what had to be done . Digby walked away from the ruins of the shelter back to his hole and waited for another job to come . It was a long wait however he was contacted by one of his sources about a new mission .

In his hole there was only him . No connection with people or no crimes ever committed there . It was his living space where he could detach from the ghosts of the past . The walls never closed in on him there . He was able to look at himself in the mirror without judgment and remind himself it was ok to be who he was .

Two months had passed since the last job and nothing had surfaced .

The bombing of the army barracks was not mentioned on the news media which seemed strange and indicated there was a cloak of secrecy about the job .

Digby stayed indoors a lot after each job and only went out for shopping or to spend time with a prostitute . After each mission , having sex with prostitutes eased his feelings and usually after having sex he killed the prostitutes ,.

The number of sex workers who were found dead was alarming and a clever detective was on now getting closer to finding the serial killer . Digby was unaware about the forensic evidence that he had left behind . The detective in charge was tagged The Rat catcher by the police force due to his ability to follow the tracks left by criminals with forensics and habitual rituals that many serial killers would perform Digby had been careless at times leaving behind a machete or a syringe and needle with fingerprints all over them .

Dave the detective who was leading the investigations on the murders of London’s sex workers had a stockpile of evidence all he needed now was the killer who would match the evidence that was collected . The night Digby burnt down the homeless  shelter Davy was one of the residents inside . Davy realised that the killer would sometimes use shelters and other parts of the city where the homeless slept rough as evidence had been found there after people had reported a crazy homeless man attacking passersby .

The rat catcher detective was getting close but just when he thought he might capture him he would disappear into a hole somewhere in Central London ,

Reports with an appearance of a man often seen around soho emerged that triggered the police to do a sketch drawing from eye witnesses of the person of interest . Davy was watching TV the night that his sketch was on the news /

It portrayed him with spiked hair and a silver ring pierced through his nose . It also showed the three tattoos on his right arm down to the ring finger . It also showed the leather jacket he wore  with silver chains hanging from the pockets  .The sketch also had the big black boots he always wore on his feet , Digby freaked out and wondered how they had found him . That night he shaved off all his hair and got rid of the clothes that were in the description on the news . The next morning, he changed his appearance to that of a week dressed , clean cut business man .

His feelings were distracting him and one night in a fit of anger he put together a homemade bomb and blew up the building were the television station was , That defused Digby and made him feel like he had revenge on those who put his face and overall appearance on TV sets to the millions of homes all over the country    .

Digby was triggered now into a killer state of mind,  somewhere between insanity and genius , chaos and creativity  . His thoughts were pinging through his head like sparks from a wild fire . He was out of his usual comfort zone and walked into pub’s and cafes until a call came through from the usual source to ring a certain number in relation to a job . As usual Digby rand the number three times and hung up before ringing the fourth time  . The voice on the other replied .

“Ok there’s something we need some help with “

Digby replied ,

“Ok I’m here  “  Then he coughed three times and said.

‘Send me the details to the post office box and expect my reply before the end of the week “

The phone call ended and Digby walked back to his hole .

The next day Digby went to check the post box to collect the information of the job on offer but on the way, he went to the church . Digby had a habit of going to confession as he knew that priest was not permitted to share what was said in the confessional box to anyone . On the way past Westminster Cathedral, he started to feel more like his usual self again .He made a confession to the priest before going to the post box . He took a taxi to Elephant and Castle where he collected a large envelope from the post office then he returned to his hole again to read the information . After he digested all the information about the mission, he stood there feeling empowered and ready to return to do what he did best which was to kill and destroy .

As he stood there suddenly, he noticed , the window ledge had dozens of dead flies lined up in a row and then looking around the flat he saw all the cigarettes butts over spilling from the ashtrays around the tables . This brought home the fact that Digby had been scattered and out of control with his housekeeping , He had a shave and combed his hair before going to inform the agent that he was willing to accept the  contract on offer , He made his way to the underground and got caught up in the frantic pace of life that swept everybody along in the same direction like a stampede of mindless zombies towards the Angel Islington . He managed to escape from the rush and emerged back on to the street where he jumped on a bus and remained there until the contact person got on board at Liverpool Street Station .

She was young and beautiful , wearing a green gaberdine skirt with a red sweater and in her hand, she held a bright yellow handbag with white spots . As she sat down next to Digby he whispered to her ,

“Tell them yes . I accept the mission ‘

With that they went their separate ways . Digby walked for w while through the streets deep in thought of where he was going to and what he would do when he got there . As the dark night fell upon the streets Digby returned to his hole where he lay down and fell asleep on the single bed . He heard nothing until the chirping of birds  outside on the window ledge awoke him . It was early and the dawn chorus of life had begun .Digby opened up the curtains and to have a look at the morning traffic on the street coming and going  . Then the cement mixer inside Digby’s head started  grinding again turning around and around thoughts that were agitating like a worn-out record of an over sung song . The same old melody he heard  over and over again  .He knew the song and the sound of anger mixed with an organised edge . He needed to put on another song now and replaced the cement mixer with a jukebox that hadn’t been played for years.  He imagined walking into a bar where in the a  juke box  stood silently waiting . He put a coin in a pressed the numbers for Frank Sinatra to sing “ Fly me to the moon:

The he walked away out the door to the new day with a new plan . Digby had the feeling of a being in control and now he would slip into the character of John Decker  the alcoholic on the fringe of society making his way to a shop that sold liquor bottles for an elderly man like himself who would go and sit out most of the day in a park bench with a bottle in one hand and a loaded handgun in the other waiting for his target to arrive . Digby played the role of a homeless man very well and got on well with most people who passes by . It was a perfect cover for Digby , the killer who very soon would be taking out one of the mobs big bosses who had a walk everyday through the park with two minders on each side . He already was inside the character that he adopted to do this job. When the moment arrived  and the mobs boss came along the path . Digby got to his feet , staggering as the three  approached and as one of the minders came to push Digby away, he produced his Waltner PPK shot the three in quick concession who fell to the ground before making his way from the park to the underground and then disappeared into his hole .

He went to ground for a while before emerging to have sex with a prostitute . The girl who he spoke with seemed different to most of the other prostitutes he had known She looked lost and kind of innocent . After they had sex Digby had tried drug her into an unconscious state a knock came to the door . It was the owner of the hotel who was demanding monies to be paid by the prostitute who had been using the room for weeks , The owner was getting furious and opened the door . Digby put away his machete and ran to the staircase pushing the hotel owner aside . Digby was not in control of that situation and had reacted in panic , He started to think about the hotel owner who must have seen him and could give a good description of his appearance and the prostitute as well who would be able to identify him .

He made the decision to return to the hotel to kill them both but what Digby never realised was that the police had been informed about a man with a machete who had been with a prostitute in one of the rooms .

So, Davy was now waiting at the hotel in the hope that the killer would return and that’s exactly what happened . Digby was apprehended by the police who outnumbered him . They placed cuffs on his wrist and took him back for some tests that verified that they had caught the sex workers serial killer  .An unexpected twist of fate led Digby to a prison cell where he would spend  the rest of his life remembering all of the terrible things head had done .

The End