SERIAL STORY-1979-The Invisible Killer
A Macabre Crime Story by Jackson Tel - Rated Mature
The Invisible Killer
By Jackson Tel
****
PART 1: Introduction
1979 London
“I charge double for that specific service,” Gerald Blackburn said, meaning ‘strangulation’, to the nervous and confused man sitting next to him on the most popular evening train car into Soho for the nightlife crowd. Gerald sensed that the poor fellow was a stand-in for his actual client, but it didn’t really matter. ‘All the better,’ he thought.
Gerald was dressed in full drag regalia, so he did not stand out in that particular train car filled with the excited hubbub of revelers on their way to enjoy the Soho nightlife. However, the disguise made him entirely unrecognizable to both his new client and anyone who might overhear their conversation.
At the same time, Gerald was thinking to himself, “I should be paying this sad piece of shit for the pleasure.” Strangulation is far more satisfying and hands-on than other methods,’ although it is much more challenging to execute without leaving clues.
“Double!” the man protested from behind the newspaper he was pretending to read. The entire unpleasant business was turning out to be a costly proposition for the rapidly-becoming-bankrupt horse track gambler who had been coerced into posing as the real murder-for-hire client. The poor man was learning a lesson he would never forget: to stop borrowing money to pay his gambling debts, if he didn’t want to end up spending the rest of his life in prison for being an accessory to murder.
“Yes,” Gerald responded in a girly voice, “Plus three quid for the souvenir photos you requested. IN ADVANCE.”
A tired-looking factory worker, standing in an aisle nearby, moved away, thinking the two men seated side-by-side were discussing a sexual service of some kind.
When the car door closed at the Soho stop and Gerald was gone, the stand-in murder-for-hire client wondered if he had just sealed his own fate and would soon not only be broke but dead.
In the meantime, Gerald’s real murder-for-hire client, the corporate executive, took his dear wife and kids on holiday in Calais, knowing full well, all along, that they would be called prematurely back to London for his naughty niece’s sad funeral.
....
Gerald Blackburn, the English younger half-brother of Travis Mann, the famous rock star from Chestnut Point in Maryland, had been getting away with his contract murders for years.
After the clever, stealthy killer began his hobbyist side job in the mid-1970s, the press started calling him ‘The Invisible Killer,’ and the moniker stuck. Investigators, both in Britain and America, were stymied by Gerald’s illogical yet consistent traceless methodology. They could only guess the where, when, or who of the next victim.
Coincidentally, in the summer of 1979, when Travis Mann and his band were making their debut appearance at Hyde Park, Gerald was in London meeting with not only a potential client for a specific classical painting worth ten million dollars but also with some stupid, sad fuck who wanted his college-age niece strangled. It had to be strangulation; that was the only specification.
....
Blackburn handed his legitimate art client a business card that read “International Broker of Exclusive Fine Arts,” which clarified what Gerald did for a living but said nothing about his hobby side job as a contract killer. Or that he took great pleasure in practicing the fine art of murder. Getting paid was just the icing on top. And Gerald was extremely skillful at it.
....
During that week, while he was back in London meeting with his art client and attending his older half-brother’s concert, just for the fun of it, Gerald took on one of his side-jobs,
However, the contract killing couldn’t take place during Travis’ sold-out concert, for which Gerald had surreptitiously purchased three premium front-row center seats. One for himself, directly up front in Travis’s line of sight, with an empty seat on each side, just so his older half-brother would know he was there. It was meant to be a surprise.
But then Gerald asked himself, “Why not? It would be a worthy challenge.”
Perhaps the unsuspecting young lass would be excited to unexpectedly ‘win’ two premium front row tickets to see The Travis Mann Band at Hyde Park that Saturday night?
However, several issues needed to be addressed first. What would she do with the extra ticket? Probably invite a guest, in which case he would have to kill them both. He liked the sound of that.
The scheme was rapidly evolving. Gerald felt he had to sweeten the deal for the college student to ensure she was attending the concert herself, not someone else to whom she had re-gifted the tickets. Therefore, the plan required some adjustments or might need to be replaced with an alternative setting altogether.
****
PART 2: Having a Ball
For a man who disdained ‘homos,’ Gerald sure was having a great time out for the evening in Soho dressed in drag. He totally got the whole ‘I am who I am, so fuck-youness of it all.’
Also, for a man who stalked his victims in the shadows outside one’s peripheral vision, being the hilarious center of attention was a delicious sensation.
Yes indeed, Gerald was being exactly who he was—The Invisible Killer who was always in plain sight.
....
Part 3: The Question is next.
