But instinctively he knew that she needed gentle loving, the hard, penetrating loving would come later. Tonight she needed a long soft loving, and he was the man to give it to her.

He could not believe his luck. Who’d have thought she’d be so sexy? He got the champagne and two glasses and went back up the stairs. He smiled to himself as he realised he was practically running. It was a long time since he had been like this.

Too long.

Louise Butler was sobbing hard. In fact she was getting on George’s nerves.

‘Shut up!’ His voice cut into her, sending shivers through her body.

‘I . . . I want to go . . . go . . . home. Please.’ She drew the last word out on a whine.

George gritted his teeth. The mask was hot again. His white cotton gloves stood out like beacons on the steering wheel. He glanced at her. She had drawn her lips back over her teeth while she cried, rocking herself backwards and forwards in the seat. Long strands of snot were hanging from her nose.

George shuddered.

Trust a woman to make a mountain out of a molehill! Anyone would think he was going to murder her. He was completely oblivious of the Swiss army knife clutched hotly in his hand, which caught the moonlight as he steered the car and drew Louise’s eyes like a magnet.

He was the Grantley Ripper. He was the man everyone was talking about. He was going to kill her. She knew that as surely as she knew she would never get to the rave in Woodham Woods.

She cried harder, feeling a wave of sickness wash over her.

George drove to a large quarry near Woodham. He parked the car by the side of the deserted road and dragged Louise out of the passenger seat. The ground was hard beneath her feet and she stumbled, falling heavily on to the frosty ground. George dragged her upright by her hair.

‘You are annoying me, young lady.’

He pulled her through a hole in the fencing. In the distance Louise could hear the music from the rave and every now and then a shrill cry broke the night. She was crying desperately, all the fight had left her body. She could only wait and see what was going to happen.

George pulled her towards a large hole that was blacker than the night around it. Giving her a final shove, he pushed her inside. Louise cried out as she felt her body tumbling down into the blackness. She felt her legs being pushed up over her head and heard the crack as her ankle hit a lump of granite. Her tracksuit and flying jacket dragged on the ground as she slid and bumped down into the blackness. She lay at the bottom, winded and in pain. She heard the man in the mask sliding down slowly and knew she should try and make a run for it but her ankle was already swelling inside her Reebok. Her hands and face were skinned from the descent, the gravel sticking to the skin and stinging.