Part 13 (1/2)

Spiro Akinedes muttered as he painted. 'OCD has a neurological basis, can respond to medication. OCD can run in tandem with other conditions. Tourette's syndrome. And trichotillomania - this is the urge to pull out hair, eyelashes and body hair.' He glanced up. Ben noticed the man had no eyebrows. 'Pluck, pluck. Please, don't come any closer. It's your shoes. Shoes bother me. They always have. They go tramping through all that dirt; it's a feeding ground for rats; dogs use the streets as a lavatory; not all excrement you see on a pavement is canine; people, too. All shoes are magnets for microbes. Disease of the solea get it?' The joke might have been part defence mechanism, but the man wasn't amused by his own witticism, he merely returned to carefully drawing the smiling faces that flanked the words 'They're coming to get you'.

Ben crouched down to watch the man work, but kept his distancea or rather made sure his shoes were far enough away from Spiro's arm as it made long sweeps to aerosol the red circles that would become the *.

Ben said, 'If you have OCD you repeat the same compulsive actions.'

'Yes. I shouldn't be ashamed, but I am.' The man blushed.

'Since childhood?'

The man nodded as he worked.

Ben rubbed his jaw. 'But this Vampire Sharkz graffiti is new.'

The artist paused for a second before adding the grinning mouth and eyes inside the circle.

Ben continued. 'People with OCD often believe that their rituals protect themselves from danger.'

'Or the people they love.'

Trajan said urgently, 'Hurry up. This is getting you nowhere.'

'On the contrary.' Then he addressed Spiro Akinedes, who compulsively repeated this graffiti across London. 'Who are you protecting with this message?'

'It's not a message. It's a warning. The faces are the protective element. That's what it means to me.'

'So who are you protecting? Yourself?'

Spiro shook his head. 'People look at me and they think I'm a piece of walking c.r.a.p. They say that what I paint here is meaningless. But the truth is I love people. I love this city. Look at that.' He held up his hand. The fingers and palm were covered in blood red blisters. 'I get blisters because I paint this night and day. It's crucifying me but I've got to do it.'

'But you've not always painted the Vampire Sharkz message.'

'You're right. I used to be preoccupied with shoes. Every morning I'd put on rubber gloves then rub the soles clean with toilet paper. It took ten minutes to do each shoe. I had eight pairs in all. When I finished I locked them in a cupboard lined with clean newspaper. I'd go into another room but I'd be filled with this overwhelming anxiety that I'd missed a speck of dirt. I was terrified that my wife or kids would somehow swallow it and they'd be infected with disease.' He began gulping again as if the idea of dirty soles nearly made him vomit.

'So what happened, Mr Akinedes? Why aren't shoes your main concern now?'

'You're an insightful man.' He stopped painting and held out his hand. 'Lift your foot.'

Ben obeyed and the man touched his shoe. 'No, shoes don't bother me like they did. I couldn't have done that six months ago.'

'Instead of shoes it's now Vampire Sharkz graffiti. Why?'

'Becausea' The man finished the motto. 'Six months ago I stood in my bedroom that overlooks a ca.n.a.l in Teddington. I saw shapes moving through the water like sharks. And just as I can see you they came out of the ca.n.a.l. They just burst out on to the bank in a ma.s.s of spray. There were some fishermen standing there. Only those things weren't sharks, they were people. They killed the fishermen by biting their throats and faces. Then I watched them drink the men's blood. After that they returned to the water. They swam like sharks.'

'Vampire Sharkz.'

'That's how I think of them, and if you know anything about OCD you know once a phrase gets stuck in the sufferer's head it stays there.'

Trajan became interested. 'You say there were people in the river that bit the fishermen?'

'Yes, go on, mister. Feel free to mock me. Call me mad.'

Trajan rubbed his face as if he'd woken from a trance. 'Then I must be mad, because I watched a man biting April.' He touched his side. 'Just here, above the hip.' His eyes were troubled and his entire body trembled.

The painter stared at Trajan. 'You've seen them, too?'

Trajan stepped on to the jetty to pore over the graffiti with a sudden fascination. He saw in that slogan the key to April's disappearance.

VAMPIRE SHARKZ.

* They're coming to get you *

Trajan took a deep breath. 'So now you paint this warning all over the city?'

'n.o.body else believes me but you.'

'Does anyone else understand the meaning of it?'

'You have to know this fact, mister. Not only do I think it's the right thing to do, my OCD means I can't stop painting it. This is my new compulsion. Before, I could almost control my condition because I knew the incessant shoe cleaning was irrational. But this is essential. I have to warn everyone.' His voice cracked with emotion. 'It blisters my hands. I'm exhausted, and do you know how much I spend on this stuff?' He brandished the aerosol can. 'I'm selling everything I own to buy more. My family can't take it. Sophie's taken the kids back to her mother.' He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. 'But it's not a disease anymore. This is vital! I don't want anyone else to die, only I can't have painted it enough because your friend was bitten by these monsters; that means I've failed you and I've failed her; if-'

'It's okay,' Ben said gently. 'Now we know what's happening it's not a battle you have to fight by yourself.'

This seemed to relieve the man of his burden. His voice became calmer. 'Vampire Sharkz. It seems crazy but that's what they are. I know they appear to be human but they swim in the rivers and ca.n.a.ls. I see them all the time. If you looked in here right now you might see one just under the surface. Fast, like pale sharks zipping through the water.'

Ben eyed the brown swirl of the Thames in the street light. It was closer to the decking as the tide continued to rise. Close enough, in fact, for a hand to dart from the waters and grab him by the ankle.

The man still talked. 'As well as the warning I knew I had to add a symbol of protection. The smiling face is just that. It's a happy human face. That has to count for something, doesn't it? It might help counter the evil that's in that water.' He nodded at the chocolate-brown liquid that swept its bobbing flotsam upstream. 'OCD doesn't fine-tune your obsessions.'

Trajan frowned. 'Are you saying that something that you call a vampire shark attacked my fiancee?'

Spiro said, 'I get obsessive about facts. I know that more people suffer from OCD than schizophrenia. I know it's caused by abnormal neurochemical activity. I can name every street in London. But I don't know the biology of those creatures in the water. But I paint my warning everywhere I can. That's the best I can do.'

Ben nodded. 'Thanks for talking to us, Mr Akinedes.' He held out his hand.

The artist shook it, then shook Trajan's with the words, 'I hope you find who you're looking for.'

As the pair left the pier, Trajan said quietly to Ben, 'Does he mean there's some kind of animal in the water?'

Ben eyed the river with distaste. 'That's exactly what he meant, but what the animal is he couldn't explain.'

'But who can?'

'A man said something very similar to Mr Akinedes yesterday. We should head downriver and talk to him.' Ben paused and looked back at the graffiti artist. 'Mr Akinedes. Do you know there's someone else who's been warning about a danger in the river?'

'Then I'm not alone.' The man was relieved. 'There's a chance we can save more people.'

'Do you want to come with us and speak to him?'