by Sally Rigby
‘Forty-two European.’
The assistant disappeared, then came back with a pair of open-toed silver patent sandals with a two-inch heel and a gold multi strap.
‘Gorgeous,’ Whitney said.
George slipped them on. They fitted perfectly. She was beginning to warm to this new look. ‘Okay, I’ll have them.’
Back in the changing room, she got dressed in her day clothes, black trousers with a pale blue shirt and black jacket over the top. She felt comfortable in her ‘uniform’.
After paying, they headed back to the railway station.
‘Twenty minutes to go,’ Whitney said once they’d arrived. ‘Let’s wait on the platform for the train.’
When they arrived, Terry was already pacing up and down.
‘Where have you been?’ he asked.
‘Important police work,’ Whitney said. She exchanged a glance with George and grinned.
The train from Milton Keynes was a few minutes early. They were greeted by Vic and a uniformed officer.
‘Nothing’s happened on here,’ Vic said. ‘We’ve walked up and down the train several times. There were only two stops, Northampton and Rugby.’
‘Let’s walk through, and then the passengers can get off,’ Whitney said.
They went through the first carriage, where several people stood by the door, and a further three were seated. It was similar in the next two carriages. When they got to the fourth, there was one person waiting by the central door, and as they walked through to the end of the carriage, they saw an elderly man leaning forward in his seat.
Whitney went over to him. ‘Sir, are you okay?’ There was no answer. ‘Sir,’ she repeated. She shook him gently by the shoulder, and he fell to the side.
He was dead.
Chapter Nineteen
Monday, 17 June
Whitney turned to face Vic, whose face was devoid of colour. ‘Well?’
‘Fuck,’ he said, unable to make eye contact with her.
‘Is that all you can say?’ She didn’t even try to hide the anger she was feeling. ‘When was the last time as you saw this man alive?’
‘I think he got on at Milton Keynes,’ the officer said.
‘You think?’ Whitney snapped. ‘What do you mean by you think?’
‘We were at the front of the train.’
‘But the stop after Milton Keynes is Northampton, and it’s nearly twenty minutes away. How can you not get through the entire train in twenty minutes?’
‘We were talking.’
‘Talking? To whom?’ She couldn’t believe he’d been so slack.
‘DC Carver and I were chatting with the conductor, so we were only halfway through the train by the time it reached the first stop. After that we walked right through and back again several times.’
‘Did you see who got off at Northampton?’
‘Not exactly.’ He shook his head.
‘Or who got on?’
‘I think there were about ten people who got on in various carriages, but I’m not sure. I took a look out of the window as we drew into the station.’
‘Did you see this man?’ Whitney said nodding at the deceased.
‘He was asleep when we walked through the first time.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I heard him snoring.’
‘So, we know he was still alive at Northampton, but that’s all. I want everyone taken off the train and escorted to the waiting room. No one is allowed to leave until my officers have spoken to them. Can you manage that?’
‘Steady on,’ Terry said. ‘It wasn’t intentional.’
‘I’m not saying it was. But if he’d done his job properly, maybe this man would still be alive.’
‘The last time I saw him, he was alive,’ Vic said, uncertainty showing in his voice.
‘He must have been dead one of the times you walked past. I’m assuming you just thought he was still asleep and didn’t double check. Am I right?’
Vic nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Start at the front of the train and escort them one carriage at a time. Take the passenger waiting at the door of this carriage with you. Terry, you go with Vic and give him a hand. I’m going to arrange for the pathologist and scenes of crime officers. We need a cordon up. Terry, can you ask uniform to do that?’
She left the train with George and made the calls. Claire arrived within five minutes of being notified.
‘Thanks for getting here so quickly,’ she said to the pathologist as she approached.
‘You were lucky. I’ve just been to see the coroner, and it’s only a few minutes away.’
Whitney led her onto the train to where the body was. George followed.
‘As you can see, we’ve got another one. I nudged him gently on the shoulder. Nothing else has been touched.’
Whitney stared at the elderly man and shook her head. Another victim. Another distraught family. It had to have happened between Northampton and Rugby, where she’d bet the murderer had got off. No way would he still be on the train. He was too clever for that.
‘Okay, move out of the way and let me get on with my job.’ The pathologist pulled on her coveralls and gloves, then unpacked her camera.
George and Whitney took a step back while Claire examined the body and took photographs.
‘I take it we have the same stab wound as before,’ Whitney asked.
‘I’ll know more when I get back to the lab, but I’m not discounting it,’ Claire replied.
It was probably the most they’d get out of her.
‘Let’s take a quick look around the carriage, in case there’s anything of note,’ she said to George.
‘Shouldn’t we wait for SOCO?’ George asked.
‘We’re only looking, not touching,’ Whitney said.
When they couldn’t find anything, they returned to the murder site.
‘We need some identification. Is there anything?’ she asked Claire.
‘There’s a wallet in his jacket pocket. Let me photograph it, and then you can take a look.’
Whitney pulled on some disposable gloves. When Claire had finished, she handed over the wallet, which contained a photograph of two young children, a driving license, a senior railcard, a credit card, and a small amount of cash.
‘The victim’s name is Neil Thomas.’ She pulled out her phone and called Ellie.’We’ve got another body. His name is Neil Thomas. I’ll text you his driving license number. I need family details. He got on the train at either Milton Keynes or Northampton, but we don’t know if it was his inbound or outbound journey.’
‘Yes, we do,’ Claire called out.
‘Hang on, Ellie. What have you found?’ she asked the pathologist.
‘His ticket was in his pocket. It’s a Milton Keynes to Lenchester return.’
‘Thanks. Ellie, he got on at Milton Keynes and has a return ticket, so my guess is he lives around there.’
‘Thanks, guv. I’ll get onto finding his details straight away.’
Whitney ended the call and put the phone back into her pocket, furious the murderer had got the better of them so easily.
‘I wonder what he took from the body?’ George said.
‘He’s only wearing one glove. It could be that,’ Claire said.
Whitney and George exchanged a glance. Claire’s sudden helpfulness was extremely disconcerting.
‘A watch was taken from the first victim and a bracelet from the second. So he’s sticking to his pattern. I need to call back the officers who were on the other trains. We’ll have a briefing after lunch.’
‘Do you need me until then?’ George asked.
‘Why, do you want to look for a bag now you’ve got the shopping bug?’ Whitney arched an eyebrow.
‘No. I wanted to sneak a cigarette.’
‘Can it wait a while longer?’
‘Of course.’
Whitney turned to the pathologist. ‘When can we expect to hear from you, Claire?’
She s
topped what she was doing and lowered her camera. ‘You really need to ask, after all this time?’
‘So, this afternoon, then,’ Whitney said. ‘We’ll leave you to it. George, we’ll go to the waiting room to see how they’re getting on with interviews.’
‘How did you get on with your funding application, Claire?’ George asked.
‘Still haven’t heard, which isn’t a good thing.’
‘These things can take a while,’ George said.
‘Come on, let’s leave her to get on,’ Whitney said impatiently.
They stepped off the train and onto the platform.
‘Well, that was weird,’ Whitney said.
‘What was?’ George said.
‘That Claire was okay with you asking a question unrelated to the case.’
‘Yes, you’re right. I hadn’t thought about it. Also, she volunteered information about the victim, which isn’t how she usually acts,’ George said.
‘It’s a total mystery,’ Whitney said.
‘Agreed.’
They walked into the waiting room, where there were around twenty people, some sitting and others pacing impatiently. Five officers were taking statements. They headed over to Vic.
‘How’s it going?’ Whitney asked, forcing herself to act normally towards the officer.
‘We’ve two reports of a man walking through the train, heading towards the toilet. He was wearing dark trousers, a casual jacket, and a baseball cap. They both said he had mid-brown curly hair, but they did give conflicting ages. One said in his thirties and other said fifties. He got off at Rugby.’
‘That’s given us something to work with. We’ll need the CCTV footage from Rugby.’
‘Although, if he’s disguised, it might not help us much,’ George said.
‘We’ll be able to see if he left the station or hopped on another train from there,’ Whitney said.
‘Agreed. Plus, we can compare the statements with those from our other murders, and also with those from previous murders. We might find a link with disguises, if he used one,’ George said.
‘Yes.’ She turned to Vic. ‘I want you to stay until SOCO arrives. We’ll have a briefing in the office at one this afternoon. Make sure everyone knows.’
‘Yes, guv.’
They left and made their way to the exit. ‘You’re still annoyed with him, aren’t you?’ George said.
‘I can’t help it. If he’d been doing his job properly, this murder might have been avoided. But I can’t let it interfere with the investigation. I get that he’s trying his hardest to put things right, but even so.’
‘Sometimes we have to learn by our mistakes. He won’t do it again.’
‘It still frustrates me that because they’re part of the RF they think they’re better than us, even though we’ve proved, on several occasions, they’re not.’
‘Let it go.’
‘I’m trying, but it’s not easy.’
‘Are you going to tell Jamieson what happened?’ George asked.
‘Not yet. It would serve no purpose. Our primary concern is to capture the murderer before he strikes again. Once he moves onto a different area, solving the case will be much harder. Especially as he takes a few months off before starting again.’
‘Which is an interesting feature of this series of murders. With many serial killers, the time between murders decreases. They become addicted to the high they get from committing the actual murder and want to replicate it.’
‘But we suspect this isn’t the case with our perp, because of the chloroform,’ Whitney said.
‘Agreed. As we’ve discussed, it’s more about revenge than any deep-seated desire to harm others and promote personal self-gratification.’
‘We need to focus our investigation on anyone who might have the need or desire for revenge,’ Whitney said.
‘And the question is, who are they seeking revenge against?’ George said.
‘My money’s on Transwide. Frank’s chased them twice for the list of redundancies, and both times they’ve fobbed him off. We also need to find out about the other threats they’ve received. It looks like I’m going to have to weigh in and get it sorted. We’ll discuss it at the briefing this afternoon.’ Her phone rang, and glancing at the screen she saw it was from the home where Rob was living. ‘I’d better get this. Whitney Walker.’
‘Hello, it’s Gwen. Do you have time to call in to see us today? We’re having some issues with Rob.’
‘What’s happened?’ The words caught in the back of her throat. Ever since her brother had moved in, she’d worried something might go wrong.
‘Three times now he’s left the house without our knowledge. Luckily, each time we managed to find him quickly and bring him back.’
Shit. She had to deal with this pronto.
‘Okay. I’ll be with you shortly.’
‘What’s wrong?’ George asked.
‘It’s Rob. He keeps doing a bunk from the place he’s living. I need to go and see them, to find out what’s happening. I should be back in the office for the briefing at one. If I’m not, can you start it off?’
‘Of course. You go. I’m sure you’ll get everything sorted out.’
Chapter Twenty
Monday, 17 June
Whitney rang the bell to the home where Rob now lived. It was a large modern detached house in pleasant surroundings. Her brother had seemed happy when she’d last visited a few weeks ago. Was it really that long? She was annoyed with herself for not going more often.
‘Hi, Gwen,’ she said when the carer answered.
‘Thanks for coming in, Whitney. Let’s go through to the office for a chat. Can I get you a coffee?’
Could she ever. She was gasping.
‘Yes, please.’
She followed Gwen into the kitchen and waited while she made them both a hot drink, then they went into the office.
‘Tell me what happened,’ Whitney asked.
‘Like I said on the phone, he’s been disappearing.’
‘What does he say when you ask him why?’
‘He won’t tell us. He’s being very stubborn.’
She groaned to herself. It was a family trait.
‘Yes, he can be like that. But there must be a reason. Do you think he’s unhappy here?’
‘Not at all, which is why his behaviour is so baffling. He fits in well and has made friends. He also enjoys going to the day centre. If anything, he settled in a lot quicker than others have in the past.’
‘So, why is he disappearing?’
‘Maybe he’ll tell you,’ Gwen said.
‘Is he here?’
‘Yes, we kept him back from the day centre today, as we were hoping you could come in to see him.’
‘Where is he at the moment?’
‘He’s in the lounge playing computer games.’
‘Okay, I’ll have a chat and see what I can find out, then come back and see you after. I don’t want him to know you’ve called me in. I’ll pretend it’s a normal visit.’
Whitney left the office and headed down the corridor to the lounge, a large square room with doors leading out into the garden.
‘Hello, Rob,’ she said as she walked in.
‘Whitney.’ A beaming smile lit up his face.
‘How are you?’
‘I’m already at level thirty-two of this game you bought me,’ he said proudly.
‘That’s brilliant. Well done. What else have you been doing?’
‘I’ve been going to the day centre to see my friends.’
‘That sounds lovely. Have you been anywhere else?’ She knew from experience, you had to take it slowly. He’d tell her what she wanted to know, but it was always one step at a time.
‘I went to see Mum, but before I could get there, they found me and made me come back.’
So that was the reason. Relief, mixed with guilt, flooded through her. He wasn’t unhappy, which had been her biggest worry. She should’ve realised how much he’d be
missing their mum. It had been quite a while since she’d taken him to see her. This whole problem was all her fault. She’d put it right straight away. It would have to be a quick visit, but they could at least spend half an hour together.
‘Well, you know you can’t go out on your own, in case you get lost. Go upstairs and get your jacket. I’m going to take you to see Mum now.’
‘Really?’ He jumped up from the chair.
‘Yes, really.’
While he went to get ready, she spoke to Gwen and explained where they were going. ‘I don’t think he’ll disappear again, now we’re seeing Mum. I’ll also make sure to schedule more regular visits for him.’
‘That sounds perfect,’ the carer replied.
Once Rob returned from his room, they went out to her car and drove straight to the care home where their mum lived. They signed in at reception and went to the day room to find her.
‘Mum,’ Rob called when he saw her sitting in the corner in front of the television. He ran over and flung his arms around her neck.
‘Hello, you two,’ her mum said after Rob released her from the hug. ‘What are you doing here? It’s nearly lunchtime.’
‘We’ve come to say hello. Rob’s missing you.’
‘I don’t think there’ll be enough lunch for you,’ her mum said.
‘That’s okay, we don’t want to stay. It’s just a fleeting visit. I have to get back to work.’
Rob sat next to their mum and Whitney sat opposite. She listened to the two of them chatting. It grieved her that they couldn’t live together, but it wasn’t possible. The main thing was they were both in lovely places, with caring staff. Their family home had to be sold to finance her mum’s care but, luckily, Rob’s was state funded. She promised herself she’d make sure they saw each other every week from now on, even if it was only for a short time.
‘I’m sorry, Mum, but we’ve got to leave now,’ Whitney said after half an hour.
‘I want to stay,’ Rob said.
‘Not today. How about I buy you a burger on the way back?’
‘Can I have a double decker?’
Whitney felt guilty for using his favourite treat to get him to come with her, but it saved a long argument and she didn’t want him upset.