“Then he must be somewhere in Coldsleet. Perhaps he’s gone to buy supplies before carrying on to…”

“Kevin… it’s almost mid-day. Surely Howard Trenton would have come back to his car by now?” Interrupted the detective. “Trust me, Howard’s abandoned his vehicle and gone to ground.” He said.

“Which doesn’t make any sense.” Argued Kevin.

“Why doesn’t it make any sense?” Asked Tom.

“Let me put it this way… if you decided to try and disappear, and you had access to a vehicle, then wouldn’t you attempt to get as far away as possible in it? I know that I would. Why just drive your car half a mile down the road, and then abandon it? Then there’s the problem of Howard not even knowing that we’re going to arrest him.” Said Kevin, pointing out the flaws in his colleague’s logic.

“Oh, I think Howard knew that it was only a matter of time before we came knocking on his front door. Let me tell you something, Kevin… do you know what I thought, the first time I spoke to him?” Asked Tom.

“Go on.” Urged Kevin.

“I thought that he was a sneaky little fucker.” Observed Tom Grogan. “A clever, sneaky, shit-head.”

The ageing detective yawned to himself as he looked out from the car-park towards Coldsleet promenade.

“Let me tell you what else I think.” Said Tom.

“What?” Replied his colleague.

“I think that you’re partly right, in that Howard dumped his car here, and then caught a bus out of town, though, obviously, not up to Ruthley. That’s good for us, because it limits the places that he could actually run to… there’s buses running to Elman and Knighton over the weekend, but nowhere else. I’ve already been in touch with the lads up at Elman, so they’ll be on the lookout for Howard up in those two locations. Maybe we’ll hear from them soon.” Said Tom, hopefully. At that moment, his phone rang. He answered the call. Detective Kevin Burrows lit a cigarette whilst his colleague chatted on the mobile. After a few minutes, Tom Grogan had finished the call. He was wearing an extremely grave expression as he quickly walked over to Kevin.

“Bloody hell, Tom, what is it?” He asked.

“We’ve gotta get back to the Trenton’s house. Now.” Tom replied.

“Why? What’s up?” Kevin said.

“Some of the boys who’ve been searching there… they’ve found something, and we need to go back and see it for ourselves, urgently.” Tom advised.

“What is it?” Kevin wanted to know.

“It’s a journal that Howard Trenton has been keeping… this is bigger than any of us thought, Kev.” Tom informed him.

“Why? What’s in the journal?”

“From what Don just told me… I think that we’ve got a serial killer on our hands.” Answered Tom.

***

Alex Crennell's explanation to his girlfriend, Mary Broderick, as to the origin of Shark's nickname, wasn't exactly the truth. This was not to say that Alex was deliberately lying to Mary; as far as he was aware, that was the reason why the large, athletic girl with the long blonde flat-top had been bestowed her title, and he had gleaned this from various pub conversations over the past couple of years. Shark was aware of the false story, and happily went along with it; she quite enjoyed being thought of as 'a biter', makes me sound pretty ferocious, not to mention a bit pervy… and it's never a bad thing to have a reputation precede you, well, as long as it's nothing too horrible, considered Shark. She was only one of two people who knew the true origin of the 'Shark' moniker, the other being her ex-boyfriend, Mike Gudden, and he was no longer living in Coldsleet, or anywhere else, come to that, so her secret was safe.

The true reason behind Shark's unusual title lay in the young woman's heritage; born to an English mother and a Hungarian father, Shark's real name was actually Ellen Mako, the latter of which was a common surname in Hungary. It wasn't until Ellen was thirteen years old, and during an English Literature lesson at school, that a fellow pupil and all-round smart-arse called Eric Haynes pointed out the existence of a type of marine animal called the 'Mako Shark', much to the delight of some of the other students in the classroom at that time. For a while afterwards, Ellen's nickname was 'Mako Shark', but this was whittled down to just 'Shark' after a few weeks. Even Ellen's parents and siblings, upon learning of the nickname, began to use it. By the time that Shark left her home, to go and live in Coldsleet with Mike Gudden, she was rarely addressed by her real name.

For a short while, Shark trudged along the Black Pathway just behind Gary Ackley, and in front of Mary Broderick and Alex Crennell, lost in her own thoughts. I can't believe that I'm finally doing the Black Pathway Trail… though I always thought that the first time I'd actually walk it would be with Mike. Shark remembered Mike Gudden for a few moments, and then tried to push his image from out of her head; she couldn't. His grinning face wouldn't go away.

"You always were a stubborn bastard, Mike," Shark whispered. Yeah, and a violent, cheating nutter, too… not that I knew that about you, when we first got together, or even after I arrived in Coldsleet to be with you. Once you'd got me on my own though, away from my home and family, gradually becoming dependent on you, it didn't take long to show your true colours, did it, Mikey? Shark remembered how the first year together with Mike had been; as far as she was concerned, he was the most kind and thoughtful man that she'd ever met, and by a mile too. They’d first begun chatting to each other online, and then Mike travelled down to Shark’s hometown where they met properly. For the next few months, Shark and Mike met up regularly, usually at weekends. Then things got serious; Mike wanted Shark to move to Coldsleet and live with him. Shark had had no doubts about committing to her new boyfriend properly, agreeing to leave the home that she still shared with her parents, and moving in with Mike. In those early days, Shark was certain that Mike Gudden was 'the one' for her. She was wrong.

Three months after they had first met, Shark moved into Mike Gudden’s place, which was a small apartment near to Coldsleet's town centre. Mike had originally tried to rent a flat in Elman, which was where he worked, but there was nothing suitable at all. This wasn’t a major problem; Mike owned a car, and the drive to and from Elman each day didn’t take up too much of his time. More problematic was Shark’s inability to find any gainful employment in the small seaside town that had clearly seen better days. Even when she looked further afield, to Elman, Knighton, Hoffen, Hingley or Salegate, there was nothing. Since leaving college, Shark had always worked, in some capacity or other; now, she was sitting around the apartment in Coldsleet, day after day, bored out of her head. And she was slowly seeing another side of Mike Gudden emerge, too.

Shark Mako knew that Mike liked a drink. It wasn’t a problem; Shark loved alcohol too. It was the norm for the couple to spend their friday and saturday evenings down at ‘The Stagecoach’, meeting up with their friends, getting smashed. That was the done thing. But then Mike started drinking during the week too, sometimes down at one of the local pubs, with his mates, but more often than not, at home. Although Shark didn’t know it at the time, Mike had grown bored with her. He was seeing another woman, an Elman girl called Lizzy Denning, who he had met at work. Shark found out about this affair from a friend, but by that time, Mike had already dumped Lizzy, and was now secretely meeting up with a thirty six year old lady from Hingley called Sue. Shark confronted Mike about his infidelity, which he admitted to. But, he advised Shark, he wasn’t going to change.

“Then I’m leaving. I’m going back home, to my parents.” Said Shark.