Dead Secret

by Noelle Holten

  Ronnie didn’t even flinch. It was like she didn’t feel any pain. She placed the kettle back, used a tea towel to dry her arm, and covered it up with the sleeve of the cardigan. Vicki turned and looked at Lucy. They waited until they saw Ronnie leave the kitchen, and Lucy stood and headed to the kitchen.

  Maybe I was wrong.

  At the counter she touched the kettle.

  Ouch!

  She sucked her index finger and turned on the cold tap, holding the sore digit beneath the running water. Lucy looked up at the camera and raised a brow. She knew Vicki would be watching.

  Lucy returned to the office. ‘I had my suspicions about self-harming, but I wasn’t sure. I’m going to leave some bandages and cream in her room. In case she needs them—’

  Vicki stopped her.

  ‘I don’t think you should. She’ll feel like we’re spying on her. Maybe just tell her where things are, like an induction to the haven. Then she’ll still feel like she is in a safe place. If it were me, that’s what I’d want.’ Vicki shrugged.

  ‘You’re right. I’ll do that. By the way, can you leave one of the resident mobiles by the door with a spare set of keys? I told her she was free to come and go – I think if she feels confident enough to go out and about, she might be ready to open up soon. I’ve got to contact the DAHU and do some work for Probation. I’ll be in my room if you need me, okay?’

  Vicki nodded. Lucy needed to know more about Ronnie’s background, and if the woman wouldn’t tell her, there might be something in the system that could.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Maggie observed the faces of her colleagues in the incident room as DI Rutherford waited for everyone to find their seats. They’d been told earlier that though forensics had been working around the clock to ID their victim, their findings had been confirmed when the parents of a missing teen called in after seeing the reports on the news. According to Rutherford, the initial description of the young man had matched, and the parents advised he hadn’t been seen since early Friday morning, which fit their timeline. Maggie hated to admit it, but Julie’s report may have helped them identify the victim sooner than they would have otherwise.

  When Dr Fiona Blake had arrived at the office earlier, Maggie had tried to get some hints about what she would be discussing, but unusually the forensic pathologist kept quiet. Not even offering a small morsel of information for Maggie to mull over. Maggie wished she would just get over whatever grudge she was holding about the police questioning Charlie when Kate’s stalker had been still unknown. It irked her that Fiona couldn’t see that the evidence they had at the time fit Charlie – they were just doing their job and she would have done the same if the shoe were on the other foot.

  When the room quieted, DI Rutherford cleared her throat. ‘Thank you all for coming in when I know some of you were scheduled to be off. Dr Blake wanted to be here today to go through her initial findings and give feedback to you all directly. I’d ask that you listen to what she has to say first and at the end, she’ll gladly answer any of your questions. As you can imagine, she’s very busy so we don’t want to hold her up any longer than necessary.’ DI Rutherford then nodded at the pathologist before leaving the room.

  Dr Blake took the floor.

  ‘Good morning, all. I always find that going through my findings first-hand saves a lot of time and although this is not always possible, on this occasion, in the hopes of a swift resolution, I thought we’d all benefit. So, I’ll go through everything my team and I have done. As you can imagine, I’m shattered so the quicker I can get through this, the better.’ She looked around the room before continuing.

  ‘As some of you are not familiar with the processes my team and I go through, I’ll talk you through it from beginning to end, starting with the arrival of the body at my lab in Staffordshire Police HQ. As per normal practice, we took photographs of everything in situ – and then Charlie searched through the body bag for any trace evidence. For anyone who doesn’t know Charlie,’ she shot Maggie a look, ‘he assists me in the lab, and you may have come across him at crime scenes.’

  Dr Blake opened the laptop in front of her and a presentation appeared on the screen. There seemed to be a mix of the actual crime scene pictures as well as photos of what she had just been discussing.

  ‘Next step.’ She pressed the clicker and a new slide appeared. There were a few gasps in the room – the image before the team was not something they were used to seeing on a Sunday morning. ‘Sorry. Perhaps I should have warned you first.’ Maggie was sure she saw a sly smile creep across the pathologist’s face. ‘After I removed the clothes of the male vic, more photos were taken.’ She flicked through a few more slides. ‘And the evidence collected was bagged and documented. Biological samples were taken from his hair; we scraped the fingernails and swabbed the head wounds. After this, we took his fingerprints.’

  ‘Sorry for interrupting.’ Kat waved to get the pathologist’s attention. ‘I may be jumping the gun, but you haven’t said anything about the marks on his face – kinda looked like a triangle.’

  Dr Blake reached into the case she had brought with her and pulled out a handful of small booklets. ‘I was going to pass these around at the end, but since DC Everett has raised the query despite what was asked at the start …’ she glared at Kat, ‘I may as well pass them around now. It’s just a summary of what I’ll be talking through today. The final report will be sent to your DI.’ Dr Blake waited until the booklets were distributed before continuing. ‘The facial markings were made from a black permanent marker – like a Sharpie. I have no idea what they mean – one of my colleagues wondered if it had to do with gangs? But that will be up to you to determine.’ The pathologist fiddled with her earring before continuing.

  Gangs! That’s what had been bothering Maggie at the crime scene. She was sure she had seen those markings before but there was definitely something different about the one on the victim. She made a mental note to follow this up and returned her attention to the pathologist.

  ‘All scars, birthmarks, and any unusual physical features were documented. It was because of this and after returning a call to the parents who rang in about their missing son that we now believe that our victim’s name is Timothy Griffiths. We’re still waiting for the fingerprint confirmation but we’re fairly certain based on what the parents told us.’ She shook her head. It was never easy to speak to parents of missing children when a body turns up. ‘When we asked if Timothy had any markings on his face, possibly something he had done to himself, they confirmed that when he left the house Friday morning for college, there was nothing there other than a smile.’ Dr Blake poured herself some water and took a few sips before she carried on.

  Dr Blake walked over to the enlarged photo and pointed at the screen. ‘I inspected the neck, looking for broken cartilage which might indicate strangulation, but there were no signs of this.’ Maggie thought the pathologist looked pleased with herself and wondered if this was a bit of payback for the Charlie incident.

  ‘My initial findings are that this was a young, healthy male who didn’t appear to have an ongoing health issue that contributed to this death.’

  ‘Sorry to interrupt, but did the parents tell you the age of Timothy?’ Maggie waited for the sarcastic answer to come. But Dr Blake surprised her.

  ‘Yes, he was eighteen. A few months shy of his nineteenth birthday, actually … and he preferred being called Tim.’ She turned back to the screen, brought up another morbid picture, and continued. ‘Based on the preliminary findings, I think it is safe to say that the head trauma, caused by a blunt object – possibly the hammer, which was found in situ – was the cause of death. It was a slow death, unfortunately. The injuries caused a slow internal bleed. The first blow to the back of the head, had he been found earlier, may have left him with some serious but nonfatal injuries. However, the second blow to the front caved in his skull and, after dragging himself out of the woods, he bled to death. Now, time of death is never some
thing I like to guess on, but in my opinion, he could have been struck anytime between 2pm and 8pm on Friday. He probably drifted in and out of consciousness before he was eventually found by that security guard. By then, it was already too late.’ She looked past them all at the back wall. For someone who spent most of her time around dead people, it was clear that Dr Blake was still affected by the deaths that came across her table. For Maggie, young victims were always harder to deal with, so much life ahead of them. Death was never easy to accept but when a person had lived a good, full life, you felt a little less emotional – at least that’s how Maggie felt.

  Back in work mode, the pathologist continued. ‘And there you have it. Any thoughts, ideas, or theories on who may be responsible? Although I usually leave the detective work to you, the experts, I think it would be valuable if we pool our ideas about what looks suspicious or needs to be followed up and fed back into the inquiry. I can answer the pathology side of anything you come up with now or we can chat later when you’ve had time to digest everything.’

  Maggie smiled. She liked this addition to their briefing and hoped it was something that would become a regular occurrence. It seemed that her suggestion of having more multiagency involvement in their investigations was being listened to by DI Rutherford.

  The room was silent.

  ‘Why don’t I leave you all to process what I’ve said and once all the reports are back from the other experts, I’ll add it to my own findings for the coroner; DI Rutherford has left an open invitation for me to attend these briefings, so we can discuss it all then.’

  Nathan stood and thanked Dr Blake for attending. As she packed up, he spoke to the team. ‘Right, so there’s some food for thought. I’d like you all to go away, make sure you cross-reference what was discussed today with everything already on the system, and come back tomorrow with some focused lines of enquiry. We can bring some peace to Tim Griffiths’s family as quickly as possible. The Family Liaison Officer is going over there today, and I believe …’ He glanced at Dr Blake and she nodded. ‘We should have more information by the time you all return tomorrow.’

  The robbery theory leapt out at Maggie, still a strong possibility, but what else could have been at play here? Maggie had been to so many similar crime scenes of this kind – something else niggled at her brain. The black dots on Tim Griffiths’s face – four dots – what did they mean?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Maggie had collapsed when she got home on Sunday evening and when she woke up, her body felt like she had been through an assault course. Although she didn’t feel stressed, the aches were an indication of the pressure she was already feeling. She used the train ride into work to get into the right headspace.

  She hated Mondays, especially ones which meant she had to be in the office before the sun rose. Lately, she didn’t feel she had had any time to recharge herself and vowed that once this case was over, she would take a leaf out of her brother’s book and organize a holiday. She still hadn’t got back to her parents when they asked if she would be visiting anytime soon. A trip to Glasgow might be just what she needed. As Maggie took out her phone to set a reminder to call her parents, DI Rutherford stormed into the open-plan office and called out. ‘Nathan! Maggie! In my office.’

  ‘Be right there, guv. I’m just—’ Maggie turned to face her boss.

  ‘Did I not make myself clear? My office – now!’ The DI turned on her heels and stalked out of the room.

  Maggie gathered her notebook; the look on their guv’s face hinted that she wanted them for more than just a casual discussion about the weather.

  ‘Do you have any clue what this is about?’ Maggie followed Nathan down the corridor.

  ‘Wish I did. She seem pissed off or am I just being paranoid?’ He stopped and turned to Maggie. ‘Have you done something I need to be aware of?’

  ‘No!’ The bloody cheek. Maggie wasn’t sure if Nathan was being serious or joking, but there was no time to ask as the pair arrived at their DI’s office.

  Nathan tapped on the door.

  ‘Come in,’ DI Rutherford growled.

  Maggie stepped in behind Nathan and the pair stood in front of Rutherford’s desk waiting to see what she next barked their way.

  ‘Have a seat.’ DI Rutherford’s tone had softened as she pointed at the chairs. ‘You’re going to need one after you hear what I’ve got to tell you.’

  Maggie sat and looked between Nathan and DI Rutherford. The silence was deafening.

  ‘Bear with me. I’m not exactly sure where to begin – it’s a highly sensitive situation.’ DI Rutherford took a sip of water. ‘Argh. I’ll just come out with it and, Maggie, the reason I’m including you in this conversation before I speak to the team, is because we’ve all worked with DCI Hastings the longest, so I wanted you to be prepared, okay?’

  Maggie looked at Nathan before returning her attention back to Rutherford – it must be something big.

  ‘We believe that DCI Hastings, his wife, and his daughter have been abducted. Two officers attended his home early this morning after he failed to show up for work or answer any calls for the last few days. The officers knocked on the door and when there was no answer, despite the DCI’s car being in the drive, they walked around the property. At the back of the house, they noticed a broken window and the back door was found to be insecure. They called it in and were advised to proceed into the house. Upon entering the property, they noticed some drops of blood on the floor and shouted out to the family. When they got no answer, they grew concerned about the safety of the DCI and his family. They proceeded through the rooms and happened across a large pool of blood in Hastings’s home office … they then called for backup.’ DI Rutherford paused, no doubt to let everything sink in.

  Maggie rested her hand. She had been taking notes as Rutherford spoke and her hand felt like it was on fire.

  ‘Furniture in the living room was in disarray. More blood was seen on the carpet. The officers searched the whole property and the DCI and his family were not there. Mrs Hastings’s purse was found, along with the DCI’s mobile phone, but their daughter’s mobile phone was missing. We’re trying to locate that now.’ Rutherford rubbed her forehead. ‘It’s not looking good … okay, any questions?’

  Maggie never handled news of this kind well. Her heart was racing but her head immediately jumped into work mode. Before Nathan could open his mouth, Maggie jumped straight in. ‘Has there been any contact from the kidnappers, any ransom demands made?’

  ‘Nothing. Nathan? Your thoughts?’ The DI turned to him and waited.

  ‘I’m a little lost for words, guv. I mean.’ He took a breath and held it. ‘I’m actually still trying to process all of this. I take it we’re waiting for the forensics on the blood?’

  ‘Yes, they are still processing the scene, and although Dr Blake has been made aware that we need the information urgently, she won’t have anything for a little while at least – even with everything being expedited. We’re hoping that the drops of blood on the back entrance window is from the perpetrator, rather than residual splatter from the Hastings family.’ Rutherford rested her hands on the desk.

  The enormity of the situation sank in.

  ‘I know you have a murder investigation ongoing, but this will need equal priority and we’ll have to figure out how best to manage that.’ She looked at Nathan.

  ‘We’ll manage, ma’am.’ Nathan twisted the wedding band on his finger. Maggie looked at him and cocked her head. She wondered if he had some sort of secret plan she wasn’t aware of, as they struggled enough as it was without the addition of another serious case on their workload – especially one that really should be with the Misper Unit.

  ‘Forgive me, guv, but wouldn’t it be better to have a separate team investigating the possible abduction? We are thin enough on the ground as is and as you’ve said, this isn’t an actual murder investigation …’ She looked at Nathan for some sort of backup which didn’t seem forthcoming. After overheari
ng rumblings about her own and the team’s involvement in the Living Doll Killer case, in which the killer had targeted Dr Moloney, Maggie worried that they may be too close to DCI Hastings to remain completely objective. She normally wouldn’t be bothered by this, but she had worked with DCI Hastings since starting in the MOCD over ten years ago and her fear about what could have happened had her wanting to be as far away from the case as possible.

  ‘Ah yes. Let me just wave my magic wand and conjure up another team, shall I?’ DI Rutherford rolled her eyes. ‘Where is this other team you speak of going to come from?’

  Maggie felt her face flush. ‘Perhaps the field team … or the Misper Unit would be more appropriate.’

  ‘I think you’ve said enough on the subject. We don’t have another team, and this is our DCI who has gone missing. We’ll have to divide the time between the two cases. At the moment, we don’t really know what has happened with the Hastings family, so until we do, we’re stuck with the resources that are available. If …’ The DI coughed. ‘When more information becomes available, I’ll speak to whoever they get around to putting in charge and see what we can get – given it’s a police officer, I suspect they will be able to support us.’

  Rutherford was right. With a high-ranking officer missing, it was likely that all stops would be pulled and the resources they required to ensure a swift result would be forthcoming.

  Maggie excused herself and left DI Rutherford and DS Wright to iron out the details. She needed to be out of that room, as her head was pounding.

  What had happened to DCI Hastings and his family?

  Chapter Fifteen

  An hour had passed since Maggie had left the guv and Nathan. In that time, Kat had spoken to the two security guards and found out that one had been ill – food poisoning – and she’d be in to leave the details of her visit to A&E. The other guard, it turned out, had found a job somewhere else. He emailed over the details, which Bethany checked and confirmed to be true. So that cleared up those questions.