Gerard stood outside house number 7 which lay on Castle Hall Road, glancing quickly around him as he rushed up the empty drive to the door and silently placed the key in the lock. Turning the key gently with his leather gloved hand he stepped inside out of the cold and was hit instantaneously with a blast of hot air from the radiators that stood about like guards in the hallway. He closed the door quickly and locked it from the inside, resting his head against the door as he tried to slow down his breathing.

He glanced into the dull light and after standing in silence for a few minutes and making sure that no one could possibly be home, he moved cautiously along the corridor. The light now switched on he peered at the photos which where laced with golden frames that stood proudly on the cupboard; a mirror keeping watch above them. He gently picked up a photo in which two figures sat happily next to each other, smiles plastered to their faces with blue tac, their hands interlocked. Shame, that one of the figures was now dead in the woods. Gerard peered at the other figure who's green eyes contrasted with his light brown skin. A beige top reaching up around his neck so that it might just strangle him.

"Just as I suspected…." Gerard whispered to himself, "Seb must be working away for a few days…..well, that’s handy and suspicious to police if they find Kaitlin's body." He paused for a second a corrected himself, "when they find her body…"

Now he took the ash from a cigarette that lay burnt out in an ash tray on the mantel piece. Gerard knowing that Seb smoked unlike his (now-dead) girlfriend. From his inside of his pocket he brought out a small clear plastic bag and sprinkled the ashes inside, before replacing it back into his pocket.

Gerard was cunning; not leaving a finger print on any surface, his old flaking leather gloves doing the job for him. He rattled through the draws of the cabinet and in the kitchen until he came across what he was looking for. Aha, bingo! He'd found it: cello tape, it would do for now. Knowing that Kaitlin's partner Sebastian smoked he headed straight for the open cigarette packet that lay on the pristine kitchen table. He switched on the light above his head and crouched down, swaying from side to side as he looked at the cigarette packet from every possible angle.

"Got you…." Gerard whispered, a smile cutting into his face. He tore a strip of cello tape off and placed it across the cigarette packet. He had caught it. A finger print. Sebastian's fingerprint. He peeled the tape off gently and a faint fingerprint stuck to its surface. Now he repeated this until he had an entire collection, arranging them in such a way that they could be transported with little damage.

He looked to his left where a brown envelope lay; the label reading Atlas Comics and Publishing, Manhattan, New York, United states of America; printed neatly in his hand-writing. There they were: his comics. All of them? He checked. Yes, all of them. He placed them into his bag trying not to get distracted from the job that he needed to carry out.

Finally, Gerard took two, four, six bottles of beer from the fridge, opened them and poured all the contents down the sink; washing them down with cool running water. He then placed these around the room, kicked them onto the floor. His mind ticked as he marvelled at his cunning plan; the fact that Sebastian was known to have problems in controlling his anger and that alcohol would only make that worse. He was setting Sebastian up to look like a right suspect.

His hints to the awaiting police now complete he headed back towards the hallway, looking at the smiles that where stuck to Kaitlin's and Sebastian's faces in that cheesy photo. He laughed to himself as he reached his hand towards the door but stopped as he saw a stand full of umbrellas, a football, a baseball bat, a walking stick of some sort. Wait…what? A baseball bat. Gerard's smile widened as he picked up the baseball bat gently, swinging it back and forth.

"Perfect…" he whispered to himself, and with baseball bat in hand he walked out of the house and locked the door.

---

Gerard knelt cautiously at the side of Kaitlin's corpse: placing the keys back into her pocket. He laced the baseball bat with fingerprints from Sebastian's cigarette packet. Placing the cello tape on the wood and removing the tape slowly. He did the same to Kaitlin's jacket; smudging some of the cigarette ash onto her jacket and into her hair. Now he took one last look at her and placed the baseball bat of a weapon about 500 metres away from her body: partly covering it with leaves. The bat matching perfectly to the swelling on Kaitlin's head. His job was done.

He walked home happy and content: unaware of the coldness of the night, of the drunken man who watched him walk into the woods with Kaitlin and leave without her, of the blood and suffering that he had caused that night. Just happy. Happy that he had his comics back.

Notes

Hello peoples of the internet, hope you are all doing good.
Sorry if this chapter was a little boring but its kinda important for the rest of the story and needed to be written.
Hope you enjoyed. How's this going?
Thank you for all the views and stuffs! You guys are fabulous! :) x
-Lou