Assassin's Asylum ✔

1

It was a very public secret that there was one really busy assassin moving in London's shadows. The main thing about assassins is this; you don't know who they are, where they are, or even that they truly exist until they come and kill you.

Normally that was the case.

But London's assassin, Red Machete?

Well, that's a completely different story. Everyone knew about him. Not who he was or what he looked like but knew that he existed nevertheless. For some reason someone had hired Red Machete to kill over ten people in London. How the police knew it was him every time? Because the murders were done always in the same way; head off. Weapon? Machete. A sharp one.

Granted, if Red Machete would've killed only one person and then disappeared, no one would know about his existence. But that wasn't the case, no. He had stayed in England, in London. New victims came up almost every month, sometimes every week. That's how people knew about him. Magazines had came up with a nickname for him which just made people more scared.

What bothered Harry Styles was why Red Machete had stayed in London when he must have known everyone would find out he exists. He had a theory, of course; someone very powerful person was doing illegal things and wanted to keep it as a secret thus hiring an assassin. Why did Harry think that? All the victims were investigative journalists like he. Who were they investigating? Nick Grimshaw, politician. Sadly, Harry and his business', Century Creed's, co-owners Zayn Malik and Liam Payne seemed to be only ones who had connected the dots. The police had no clue because they were dumb as fuck. So Harry had a theory, now all he needed was proofs.

Harry ran his fingers through his quite long, curly hair. He was at home but not willingly. Malik and Payne had forced him to go home and have some sleep. According to them he worked too much which, to be honest, was bullshit. He didn't want to be home. He wanted to work, reveal Grimshaw's secrets but unfortunately that wasn't possible since his friends didn't give him a choice when they walked him to his car.

"I don't care how close we are revealing the truth-- you need to sleep", Payne had said. "Go. We'll see you tomorrow."

"But--", Harry had started but Malik had interrupted him.

"Shut up, Styles. You're not winning this. Go home."

Malik had said it firmly but Harry knew he was just being caring friend, as always. So he had gave up and let Malik walk him to his car.

He looked at the clock, frowning at it. It was already 11pm which meant he had been staring at the wall for three hours thinking about Red Machete. And Nick Grimshaw.

Harry groaned and rubbed his eyes.

He was sure that Grimshaw was behind all of this. Payne was too but Malik was a little bit skeptical, despite all the things that made sense in Harry's theory. Malik had said that it sounded so far-fetched he just couldn't believe it. One reason more for Harry to work twenty-four seven to get proofs. Grimshaw had hired Red Machete to do all those killings but that lead Harry back to the original question. Why did Red Machete accept it? Why did he hit in the same city over and over again, when he must know that his technique will rat him out and make his work even harder when every police in England is looking for him?

It didn't make sense.

Harry got up and walked into the bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face. He dried his face and groaned in frustration.

"Damn it", he muttered. There must be something that he's missing. Some simple answer he isn't seeing. Why would red Machete obey Grimshaw's so irrational and unpractical commands? Suddenly something snapped in his head.

"That's it!" he yelled and ran to his phone. "Come on, pick up..."

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Payne answered.

"He's blackmailing him!"

"Who?"

"Grimshaw!"

"What has he done?"

"Blackmailing! His blackmailing him!"

"Who?"

"RED MACHETE, YOU IDIOT!" Harry yelled. "Nick Grimshaw is blackmailing Red Machete!"

"Ooh!" Payne coughed. "Sorry, I've been up for thirty hours, I'm fucking tired."

"Whatever, did you understand what I said?" Harry asked, too excited to care about what Liam had said.

"Yeah but how'd you know?"

"Just think about it! It makes sense. No one in their right mind would act like Red Machete has if there was other options. Imagine that you're an assassin. You wouldn't commit several murders in the same city. Unless you were being blackmailed and had no other choice!"

Harry stopped to catch his breath.

"Remember to breathe", said Payne. "But I see where you're going with this, it actually does make sense. How didn't we though about it earlier?"

Harry sighed.

"Because we're idiots."

"That we are", said Payne. "Look, I'll talk with Malik. You got your answer to one of your questions so now you can go to sleep. We will continue planning how to get proofs against Grimshaw tomorrow, okay?"

Harry snorted. "You don't actually think I can sleep now?"

"You have to. See you tomorrow." And with that, Payne hang up. Usually Harry would've called back and tell him to go fuck himself but he was way too excited to care.

He started walking back and forth, muttering out loud.

"If we could get close to Grimshaw we could get proofs against him...whatever it is he's doing...how did the others figure it out? That doesn't matter, I can do it too, except the other were killed when they investigated Grimshaw...I just have to be careful. But if I get proofs against Grimshaw, that he's doing something illegal and covering up his tracks by using Red Machete...", Harry stopped walking and clapped his hands together. "If we get those proofs, we can give information about Red Machete to the police and they can catch that bastard! Two birds with one stone!"

The plan seemed so clear now. Harry looked around and tried to figure where to start. Quickly he made coffee and started working through his files. He turned on his laptop and stretched his arm. Now he just needed to figure out how to catch Grimshaw red handed.