Death Track

by Sally Rigby

  ‘You can have whatever you want. Say goodbye to Mum and we’ll go. We’ll stop off at the drive-through and then I’ll take you home, as I’ve got to get back to work.’

  ‘Are you catching criminals?’ Rob asked.

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘Do you have someone bad you’re going after at the moment?’

  ‘Yes. And we’re going to catch him very soon.’

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Monday, 17 June

  Whitney took Rob home, and made sure he was settled. Just as she was leaving, her phone beeped, indicating a message. It was from Matt.

  You’re needed back here. Jamieson on warpath.

  She tensed. Was he expecting a briefing on the latest murder already? Typical. She’d only been gone a short time. She drove to the station and hurried to the incident room. It was only one-twenty, so she wasn’t too late for the one o’clock briefing she’d arranged, not that Jamieson knew about it … unless someone had told him.

  She pushed open the door, expecting to hear the usual noise of her team chatting, but it was remarkably quiet. What the hell was going on? They were all sitting at their desks, with their heads down, working. It was totally weird. She walked further into the room and did a double take.

  Standing by the board with Terry, Vic, and George was her old nemesis. Dickhead Douglas. Aka DCI Grant Douglas. She hadn’t seen him for a few years, but despite the hair loss and even-further-expanded waistline, there was no mistaking him.

  He’d made her life a misery and put paid to her promotion when she wanted to go from sergeant to inspector. And all because she turned him down when he came on to her when she was new in the job and he was a sergeant.

  The last she’d heard was he’d transferred to the Met.

  Well, she wasn’t going to let him get the better of her. She was older and wiser since their paths last crossed, and she certainly wasn’t prepared to take any nonsense from him.

  She walked over to them, and when he turned and saw her, he gave an obnoxious, supercilious smile.

  ‘Walker,’ he said.

  ‘What brings you here?’ she asked.

  ‘Checking up on my officers.’

  She looked at Terry. ‘You didn’t tell me DCI Douglas was your boss.’

  ‘It’s Detective Superintendent now,’ Douglas said, a smirk on his face.

  Crap.

  ‘Is there anything we can help you with, sir?’ She kept her hands firmly by her sides, despite the urge to slap the stupid smile off his face.

  ‘First of all, where have you been? I was told the briefing was to start at one, and it’s already twenty minutes late. No one knew where you were.’

  ‘I had something to deal with which took longer than expected.’

  ‘Personal or work-related?’ he demanded.

  If she told him it was work, he’d be within his rights to find out what it was. So, she might as well tell him the truth.

  ‘A family issue.’

  ‘Some things never change.’ He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling.

  She glanced at the other three, who stood staring at them, bemused expressions on their faces.

  ‘Shall we take this discussion to my office?’ she said.

  ‘Good idea. You’re late anyway. A few more minutes won’t make any difference. I’m sure your slipshod team won’t mind.’

  She marched to her office, with him following. Once in there she slammed the door shut.

  ‘I don’t appreciate you undermining my authority by talking to me like that in front of my team,’ she said, not giving him chance to speak.

  ‘And I don’t appreciate being kept waiting when I’m here for a briefing that I’d been told was starting twenty minutes ago.’

  ‘Why are you here? It doesn’t concern you.’

  ‘My officers are involved, therefore it does. We’ve been on this investigation for two years, and I want to know if we’re any closer to solving it.’

  ‘So your force can take the credit, I suppose. Even though any progress we make is undoubtedly down to my officers.’

  ‘You’re treading on dangerous ground here, Walker. You might have crawled your way up to DCI, which certainly wouldn’t have happened on my watch, but remember, I’m your superior officer and what I say goes. If I want to come to your briefing, I will, and you have nothing to say about it, other than yes sir. Do you understand?’

  Before she had time to answer, the door opened and Jamieson walked in, closing it behind him. That was all she needed, the pair of them ganging up on her.

  ‘Detective Superintendent Tom Jamieson,’ he said, holding out his hand to Douglas.

  ‘Detective Superintendent Grant Douglas,’ he replied as he shook the outstretched hand.

  ‘I couldn’t help hearing the conversation as I approached Walker’s office. Your voice carries somewhat, Grant.’

  ‘I’m not happy with Walker’s attitude, and I let my feelings be known.’

  ‘Yes, you certainly did. I understand you used to work here. Was that behind your decision to interfere with the investigation?’

  ‘I have every right to be here,’ Douglas said.

  ‘You should have come to see me first,’ Jamieson said, an icy tone to his voice. ‘These are my officers, and this is my investigation. I invited your men to assist, but that doesn’t give you carte blanche to waltz in here whenever you feel like it and take over. You’ve clearly got personal feelings about Walker which go above and beyond her work on this case. It’s not appropriate, or advisable, for you to cast aspersions on her ability to do the job. She is one of our most able DCIs.’

  Whitney clamped her jaw shut. Had she stepped into an alternate universe? Jamieson was sticking up for her. It was beyond ridiculous.

  ‘I may have stepped over the line in this instance,’ Douglas said. ‘But that doesn’t change the fact that a briefing was arranged for one o’clock and Walker was out dealing with family issues, not returning until twenty minutes after it was due to start. Since I’ve known her, she’s always had to deal with issues relating to her family. I don’t believe she should’ve been promoted. She’s not prepared to make the commitment required.’

  ‘That’s absolute bollocks,’ Whitney blurted out, no longer able to contain herself. ‘Would you like me to tell the Super the real reason why you’ve always had it in for me?’ She glared in his direction, willing him to let her explain.

  ‘It’s all in your imagination,’ he said.

  ‘That will do,’ Jamieson said. ‘Grant, I’d like a private word with Walker. I think we’re finished here. You’re not required at the briefing, and if you’d like to know more about the investigation, we can talk in my office. I’ll be back there shortly. Ask one of the officers in the incident room for directions.’

  Douglas stormed out of the office.

  ‘Thank you, sir,’ Whitney said.

  ‘Don’t thank me. He was right, you shouldn’t have been late. We’ve already had a discussion about being able to lead an investigation at the same time as having personal commitments to deal with.’

  ‘I don’t believe this. I’m in here seven days a week. I work as hard, if not harder, than any member of my team. I literally popped out for an hour. Everyone has family issues that crop up, you included, sir. It has not affected my work. Douglas just wanted to put the boot in.’

  ‘What did happen between the two of you to cause such friction?’

  It surprised her that he wanted to know. ‘When I was a young DC, he made a pass at me, and I told him where to get off. He swore after that he’d make my life difficult. And he did.’

  ‘But despite that, you’ve done well.’

  ‘You know me. If I want something, nothing will stop me. I’m prepared to stick up for myself. Thank you for not letting Douglas get away with it.’

  ‘You’re part of my team, and I don’t like people interfering. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy about you not being here when you should have been.’

>   ‘I’d better get back, then, sir. I understand you wanted to speak to me about something.’

  ‘Yes. We have to sort out the press conference. I want you with me this time. Announcing murder number three isn’t good, especially as we had officers on the train. We need to have something we can tell the public.’

  ‘I’ll put something together.’

  ‘We’ll arrange it for four o’clock. Be at my office by three-thirty, and we’ll go through what you’ve got. In the meantime, I’ll have a conversation with Detective Superintendent Douglas and make sure he doesn’t poke his nose in our investigation again.’

  He turned and left her office. She wasn’t sure what had just happened. He’d stuck up for her and said how good she was at her job, and then balled her out for not being there. The man was a total mystery.

  She returned to the incident room, which was back to being as noisy as usual. George was still standing by the board with Terry and Vic.

  ‘So, you have some history with our illustrious leader,’ Terry said, a smirk on his face.

  ‘We go back a long way,’ Whitney said. ‘Twenty years to be exact. I’d no idea he was on your force. The last I heard he was at the Met.’

  ‘He joined after a promotion a few years ago.’

  ‘Lucky you,’ Whitney said.

  ‘What did Jamieson say? We saw him going in,’ George said.

  ‘Well, believe it or not, he actually stuck up for me.’

  ‘So he should,’ George said.

  ‘True. But once Douglas left, I got balled out for being late. He’s right, I shouldn’t have missed the start of the briefing. Did you talk to the team, George?’

  ‘I didn’t have time. Douglas arrived at ten to one. He said he was here for the meeting, so I felt it inappropriate to start without you.’

  ‘How did he even know about it?’

  ‘That was down to me,’ Terry said. ‘He turned up, wanting to know how we were getting on. Once I told him you were in charge, he decided to attend. I think he was just passing through Lenchester and decided to call in to see us. Our DCI is on sick leave, so Douglas has been taking more of an interest in what we’re doing.’

  ‘So, he only came because he knew it was me. How fucking typical.’

  ‘What did happen between you?’ Terry asked.

  ‘It was when I was a DC, and he was a sergeant. Let’s just say he didn’t get what he wanted.’

  ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’ Terry laughed.

  Whitney laughed with him. She was beginning to warm to the officer. Maybe she’d misjudged him.

  ‘I paid for it, though. He stopped my promotion from sergeant to inspector. It wasn’t until he left for the Met that I got it.’

  ‘And here was me thinking women were the ones who bore grudges,’ George said.

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘According to research, men are better able to put things to the side, whereas women are more likely to bear a grudge against someone who has wronged them.’

  ‘Well, Dickhead Douglas is clearly the exception. Anyway, we need to get on and see where we go from here. If that arsewipe thinks he’s going to get under my skin, he’s got another think coming.’

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Monday, 17 June

  George watched as Whitney jumped on the desk in front of the board. It was one of her tactics when she wanted to garner everyone’s attention and was unable to do it by speech alone.

  ‘Listen up, everyone,’ Whitney called out over the din. ‘With three murders down and one to go, we’ve got to do something to prevent the fourth one from happening. Dr Cavendish believes the motive behind the killings is one of revenge and not personal gratification. I’m going to hand over to her so she can update you on her profile. Then we’ll need to decide exactly how we’re going to tackle the next stage of the investigation. This is crucial if we’re to prevent the last murder, because once the perp moves on, it’s going to be difficult for us to solve, as our colleagues from the RF have discovered.’

  Whitney jumped down and nodded at George to continue. She stepped forward.

  ‘The murderer is clever, knowledgeable, and well organised. He knows about trains, timetables, and the number of passengers likely to be on them at any one time. Which tells us what?’ she asked, employing her usual tactic of getting everyone involved.

  ‘He’s a train spotter,’ Frank said, grinning at everyone.

  ‘Not the time for one of your jokes, Frank,’ Whitney said. ‘We’ve got a ticking clock here, and we need to pull out all the stops to find him.’

  ‘Sorry, guv.’

  George thought Whitney was being unnecessarily harsh, as Frank meant no harm. He was an interesting specimen, and she’d love to sit down with him and a battery of psychometric tests. Despite continually playing the fool, his loyalty to Whitney was second to none.

  ‘He has some connection with the railway and may well have worked there,’ Doug said.

  ‘That’s a possibility. But has he worked at all the rail operators targeted so far?’

  ‘Did you do a cross check of employees between rail operators from the previous murders to see if anyone had worked at more than one?’ Whitney asked Terry.

  ‘Yes. And we didn’t come across anyone. But we did limit our search to those working in the targeted areas, as there were tens of thousands of employees, and we didn’t have the time to investigate all of them.’

  Yet again, their ham-fisted attempt at research surprised her. A more productive way of slicing the data would be to eliminate based on age and gender and then examine who was left. This could all have been done very quickly using a basic data analysis program. Unless they were like Whitney and weren’t IT literate.

  ‘He could have worked at Transwide,’ Doug said.

  ‘In my opinion it’s not likely. The murderer has the sort of knowledge administrative staff in a head office are unlikely to have. I believe it’s far more possible he worked at ground level in some capacity,’ George said.

  ‘That aside, he must have spent time in each area he chose, researching the individual train lines, deciding which were the best stations to get on and off at,’ Whitney said.

  ‘Yes,’ George agreed. ‘His actions are methodical and not done on the spur of the moment. He clearly researches his targets thoroughly. It would also explain why he focused on specific areas on each train line. To research into every town or city on a train line would be a huge undertaking.

  ‘If he spent time in each targeted area, we should check accommodation providers close to the stations, as he could’ve stayed overnight during his reconnaissance.’

  ‘Agreed. Let’s start with Lenchester and contact all accommodation providers close to the railway station. We want to know all visitors staying in the two months leading up to the murders,’ George said.

  ‘Then we’ll move onto the other areas, if there’s time,’ Whitney added. ‘Though obviously Lenchester takes priority.’

  ‘Another thing we need to consider is the actual murder. The perp is very proficient with a knife and knows exactly the right way to kill someone with minimum force. The knife is held on its side and passed through the ribcage until it connects with the heart or lungs. What does that tell us about him?’ She glanced around at the officers looking in her direction. Sometimes she forgot she wasn’t in class lecturing.

  ‘Did he kill in exactly the same way from day one?’ Matt asked.

  ‘Yes. All the murders have been identical,’ Terry said.

  ‘Which means he’s not learning on-the-job, so to speak,’ Matt replied. ‘He must’ve had prior experience using a knife.’

  ‘More than just using a knife. Most likely in actual killing.’ George nodded in agreement.

  ‘He might have been in the forces,’ Frank said.

  ‘But he also might have been a surgeon, a vet, a butcher, or a hunter,’ Whitney said.

  ‘Could he have learned from killing animals?’ Sue asked.
r />   ‘That’s a possibility, although it would be different when faced with a human,’ George said.

  ‘He could’ve learned how to do it on the Internet,’ Vic said.

  ‘Learned the theory, yes. But I suspect if he hadn’t put it into practice until the very first murder, there would have been some hesitation marks. Were there, Terry?’

  ‘As far as I remember, the first murders were just as clean as the later ones. I’ll check the pathologist’s report to confirm.’

  ‘In that case, we should narrow it down to either forces or surgeon,’ George said.

  ‘Okay, let’s put up “possible ex-forces or surgeon” on the board,’ Whitney said. ‘Anything else to add, George? What about age and personality type?’

  ‘Bearing in mind the dexterity shown and that we believe the perp to be trained in either combat or surgery, I’d put him at over thirty. Also, he’s either a loner, able to come and go as he pleases without any questions asked, or his job takes him around the country and absence from his family isn’t seen as out of the ordinary.’

  ‘So, he could be a family man but might not be. And he could be a loner but might not be. That’s not giving us much,’ Terry said.

  ‘Profiling isn’t an exact science. It gives us information to use alongside other avenues of investigation. You’ve worked with forensic psychologists before, you should know this.’ She gave him one of her patronising looks, the sort she usually kept for those who challenged her research findings without good grounds.

  Terry’s mouth opened as if he was about to speak, then he closed it, clearly thinking better of it.

  ‘Thank you, George. Anything else?’ Whitney said.

  ‘No, other than stressing we need to focus the investigation on accommodation close to Lenchester railway station and look into ex-forces or medical staff who have a connection with one of the rail operators or Transwide,’ George said.

  ‘We also need to identify the possible trains for the fourth murder. We’ve got four more days if it’s going to take place on Sunday. Is that still likely, George?’