Axe to Grind

by A L Fraine

  “Probably,” Jon admitted. Most killers were male. He stood and took a wider view of the scene. “Okay, he brought her to a derelict building, cut two of her fingers off, and then let her bleed to death. This was deliberate and calculated.”

  “He’s trying to tell us something,” Kate agreed.

  “Exactly. So first off, why here? Why a derelict building?”

  “It’s quiet and well away from the public,” Kate replied.

  “It is,” Jon agreed. “So maybe this was just a practical choice.”

  Kate nodded.

  “But there’s security here,” Jon said, challenging her. “So, maybe it isn’t quite so straight forward. Maybe the choice of this location has a deeper meaning.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ve no idea. We need to do some research, look at the history of the building maybe, where it is on a map, that kind of thing.”

  Kate shrugged. “Ok, so what about the fingers?”

  “I don’t know,” Jon replied. “But that’s clearly some kind of statement. There’s meaning to that action. I think there’s meaning to the cuffs too, and I think that might give us our first clue.”

  “Cuffs could suggest the police,” Kate replied.

  Jon nodded. “But in what capacity? Does he blame the police for something? Or maybe he wants us to see something?”

  “He could just be drawing our attention to her hand.”

  “Yeah, maybe. Or is it to do with his past? Is he telling us who he is? I think we need to look into these cuffs and see if we can track them down, where he bought them, and see if we can track him that way.”

  “We should also look through the database of former police officers, see if something jumps out at us.”

  “Good,” Jon replied, as Kate’s phone rang in her pocket. She looked surprised and stepped out of the room to answer it.

  Jon watched her go as he heard her greet Nathan. Returning his attention to the room, his eyes came to rest on the purse and phone. “So, who is she?” He looked up at Sheridan.

  “According to the purse and the ID that’s inside it, she’s Harper Richards. We’ll take her prints and DNA and get that confirmed.”

  “Thanks.”

  “We’ve got photos of the ID, and the other secondary identifiers, I’ll get that sent over to you, too.”

  “Great.”

  “How’s she been?” Sheridan asked.

  “Who, Kate? She’s alright. A bit distracted maybe.”

  “Figures.”

  “Why?” Jon asked.

  “It’ll be the case that Nathan’s at today. She arrested him.”

  “So, it’s personal.”

  “Something like that,” Sheridan replied. She seemed cagy about it too, and it didn’t look like she wanted to talk about it, so he didn’t press the matter.

  “Fair enough.”

  Moments later, Kate returned to the room. “Sorry about that.”

  “Everything alright? Do you need to do anything or…”

  “No,” Kate cut in. “I want to work.”

  “Alright,” he replied and decided he’d keep a close eye on her. She seemed troubled by something, and he didn’t want her making any bad decisions due to whatever was on her mind. “Let’s go and talk to the security guard and find out his story.”

  5

  Walking back into his office, Jon dumped his coat and walked back out to where Kate, Rachel, Dion, and Faith were working. Kate hadn’t even sat down and was already clicking away on her PC.

  “Alright, so what’s come in so far?” Jon asked.

  Talking to the security guard and the teenagers who’d found the body had taken a while, but they hadn’t known much. The kids were just exploring what they had thought was a cool building. Alan, the guard, had been a little more useful. He knew that whoever had come in and dumped the body hadn’t triggered any of the PIR sensors in the building.

  But the sensor’s coverage wasn’t complete, he’d admitted, and they were fairly obvious to anyone who knew what to look for, making them easy to avoid. The killer either actively avoided them, or he’d just gotten lucky in choosing his entry and exit points.

  All of which was interesting information, but it didn’t really help them. Clearly, it had been too much to expect there to be video surveillance on the site. But then, he guessed that the value of the site was the land and not really the building. So all they had to do was to stop idiot kids from going in there, falling through a rotting floor, and killing themselves.

  “We’ve got copies of the victim’s ID,” Kate said.

  “Run it,” Jon suggested. “Let’s see if she’s got a record.”

  “I’ll see what I can dig up about her,” Dion offered.

  “Great, thanks,” Jon replied as Kate entered her name into the system. Within moments, a bunch of details appeared, and it was clear that Miss Harper Richards had a record.”

  “Oh, yeah, she’s known to us,” Kate announced. “She’s got a record for drug possession, several counts. I have an address here too. Looks like her mother’s.”

  “Anyone linked to her case?” Jon asked, curious to see what connections she had.

  “Um, hold on…” Kate replied, drawing her words out as she read the screen. There’s a couple of names, her friend Victoria Spencer, and the guy she was getting the drugs from, Seth Bailey.”

  “A local dealer?”

  “Yeah, he’s got a much longer record, but he’s not been picked up for anything for a few months. Also, the date of her offence was a while ago. Last year.”

  “Okay.”

  “Hmm, well, it also looks like her mother called the police, um, this morning and reported her missing.”

  “Aaah, well that lines up with what we know so far,” Jon remarked. “Anything else?”

  “Only that the photo we have on record for her is a good match for the one on her ID, it’s certainly the same girl.”

  “I want to speak with the mother. Is there a father on the scene?”

  “I have his name here, but it says he and her mother are separated,” Kate replied.

  “Broken family, got it. Okay, Kate, you and I should head to the mother’s place. We need to get her to ID the photo, and then we’ll talk to her, see if she knows anything. In the meantime, Rachel, I want you to get some officers to help you, and go door to door around her mother's house. Let’s see if anyone spotted anything unusual.

  “Will do,” Rachel replied, and got to work.

  “I’ll come with you to the mother’s,” Faith suggested.

  “I was about to say the same thing,” Jon replied.

  “I’ll take my own car. I’ll probably be there longer than you will.”

  “Agreed. Kate, let’s go,” Jon said, grabbing his coat. She nodded and followed him out.

  As Jon drove through the Surrey countryside, Kate sat quietly in the passenger seat, looking out through the side window, watching the world go by. Something was clearly bothering her and seemed to have her daydreaming the day away.

  He wondered if this would become a problem and jeopardise the case. If the situation that was apparently playing out at the Guildford courthouse was on her mind, maybe she should be there and not Nathan.

  But if she didn’t want to do that, then the integrity of this current investigation needed to be taken into consideration.

  He liked Kate, from the short time he’d spent with her, and wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but this was the police, not a high street shop. Integrity, diligence, and professionalism were paramount. They had to be beyond reproach in all things. He’d give her a chance, and would need to have a chat with her if he thought it was jeopardising the case, but so far, he didn’t think it was.

  Looking over at her again, he decided to probe a little deeper.

  “You got a call from Nathan earlier,” he began, and Kate turned to look at him. “Is everything alright?”

  “Yeah, I think so. The case seems to be going well.
I think we got our man.”

  “That’s good then, right?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, it is.”

  “You still look worried, though.”

  “Sorry. Don’t worry about me, I won’t let it affect my work,” she replied. “It was a big case and I want to see justice served.”

  Jon nodded but felt there was more to it than that. She seemed to have a personal stake in it for whatever reason.

  “Okay, good. I just wanted to be sure,” he replied, hesitant to push it further.

  “I know. Sorry.”

  “Stop saying sorry,” he replied with a smile.

  “Sorry. I’ll stop saying sorry. Apologies,” she replied, a grin spreading over her face.

  “Oh, it’s like that, is it?”

  “Sorry?”

  “Piss off.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Ugh.”

  Kate laughed—a most welcome sound.

  6

  Pulling up at a house in the suburbs of Epsom, Jon looked over at Kate who was checking something on her phone. In the rearview mirror, he watched Faith pull up a short distance behind them and get out.

  “Anything new?” Jon asked.

  “Yeah,” Kate replied. “Sheridan posted an update, looks like the body’s fingerprints match the ones for Harper that we have on the database.”

  “So, there’s no doubt now that we have the right girl, then.”

  “Looks that way,” Kate replied with a sigh and stuffed her phone in her jacket pocket. She looked past him towards the house they were parked outside of. She looked sad, and Jon knew exactly what she was feeling. This was a part of the job that he hated the most. Delivering the news of someone’s death was always a heart-wrenching moment. Some took it better than others, but when it was someone’s child like this was, you could almost see them shatter right before your eyes.

  “I hate this bit,” Kate said.

  “I know,” Jon agreed. “Let’s get it done, though.”

  Kate nodded. Jon climbed out of the car as Faith walked over to join them.

  “Ready?” he asked her. She nodded.

  “Her name’s Iris Richards,” Kate said as they started up the driveway of the semi-detached council house. The road was quite nice, as far as Jon was concerned, even if this was council housing. Cars lined the street and were parked up in the driveways of the boxy dwellings. It was easy to spot those who were making the most of things and keeping their properties in good shape, while others had been left to fall to wrack and ruin.

  Iris’s house lay somewhere towards the middle of that range. The grass could do with a cut, the brushes needed a trim, and there were a few too many weeds poking through the paving slabs, but the house wasn’t in bad condition. Two cars were parked up on the driveway, both of them were small, economical hatchbacks designed for city living. Jon raised an eyebrow at them and wondered if one of them belonged to Harper.

  Knocking on the door, they didn’t need to wait long before the door opened, and a middle-aged woman appeared. Jon spotted an immediate likeness between the photos of Harper he’d seen, and the woman before him, which only cemented the certainty that they were speaking to the right person.

  “Hello?” Iris said.

  “Good morning. I’m DCI Jon Pilgrim with the Surrey Police.” He held up his warrant card. “Are you Iris Richards?” Jon asked.

  “I am,” she replied, and Jon could see the slowly growing look of horror on her face. “Is this about Harper?”

  “May we come in?” Jon asked. “We’d like to talk to you.”

  “Is this about Harper?” she asked again, her tone insistent.

  “I’d really rather talk inside,” Jon pressed, not keen on doing this on the doorstep.

  “Is it? Tell me, please. I just need to know.”

  “Yes,” Jon replied, simply.

  “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  Jon went to say yes but found the word caught in his throat. Instead, he nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  Jon watched the cracks appear. Her breath caught, the strength in her legs seemed to fade, and she collapsed to the floor as a body racking sob came from deep inside her. Faith stepped past as Jon reached to help. Faith was down beside her in a moment, and between the three of them, they helped her inside, closing the door behind them.

  In the end, Jon left Faith to it. They’d all been trained in dealing with this kind of thing, but Faith had way more training and experience. So they left her to it. He ended up sitting in the kitchen, reviewing the case on his phone, while Kate moved back and forth between the sitting room and other parts of the house, running errands, getting tissues, and making drinks.

  Jon watched Kate work, helping out where he could, and saw a woman dedicated to her job, who’d put aside her worries and concerns to do what needed to be done.

  He found his confidence in her grow as the minutes ticked by. While she might be worried about the court case, she wasn’t letting it interfere with her work here.

  She was a strong, capable woman. She kind of reminded him of Charlotte in that way. She’d also been a powerful force in his life and had put up with the rigours of his job with aplomb. It was a trait that he found endlessly attractive, and he saw it in Kate as well.

  “…and I’ve got Dion hunting through CCTV from the roads around the factory. Just on the off-chance we find something,” Jon commented.

  “Such as a man carrying a body through the streets?” Kate quipped.

  “Don’t joke, I’ve heard of more brazen acts than that.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” Kate replied as she finished adding milk to another round of drinks.

  “She’s ready to answer some questions,” Faith said, poking her head out of the front room.

  “Great,” Jon replied and walked with Kate, who carried a tray with another round of teas on it, into the room.

  Iris sat on the sofa holding a tissue and sniffing, her eyes were red and bloodshot from the emotional trauma she was going through, and she looked up at him with almost pleading eyes.

  He’d seen the same look in the relatives of other victims and nodded to her. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m… I’ll survive, I guess.”

  “That’s good enough,” Jon replied.

  “Tell me what happened to her,” Iris asked. “Faith says she was murdered? Is that right?”

  “That’s right. I’m sorry for your loss, Mrs Richards. I truly am, but we need to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”

  “Of course. Anything I can do to help. But please, what happened to her?”

  “We’re still trying to work that out. We found her in an abandoned factory.”

  “A factory? Oh, God,” she gasped. “Oh, my poor baby,” Iris muttered as she sobbed again.

  Jon waited, and let Iris ride out the emotions until she’d calmed down.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Anything you can tell us, basically. So, it looks like, from our records, that Harper lived here, with you?”

  “No, she lived with her boyfriend, Seth. Seth Bailey.”

  Jon raised an eyebrow, remembering the name from Harper’s criminal record. Was she dating the young man who’d been dealing her drugs? “For how long now?”

  “A few months. She moved out. She still visited, though.”

  “So, she wasn’t here the night of her death?”

  “No, she was. She came home yesterday after arguing with Seth. Sounded like it was a bad one, so she came here to get away.”

  Jon wasn’t one to jump to conclusions, but he made note that they’d need to look into Seth Bailey. “Alright, Mrs Richards, can you go through what happened yesterday, and anything else you can think of?”

  She sighed, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “I never liked Seth. She started dating him nearly a year ago, I think. I don’t know how they first met, she was always a bit vague on that. She said he was just a part of the group of friends she hung out with. But he
always had a way about him. He was brash and just way too self-confident, you know?”

  “I understand,” Jon replied. “Please, go on.”

  “Anyway, Harper wasn’t the same after her dad left. It strained our relationship, and we couldn’t seem to get along like we used to.”

  “Her father, that’s Peter Richards, right?” Jon asked, checking his notes.

  “That’s right. Neither of us has seen him in years. I’ve got no idea where he is now.”

  “And Harper never saw him?”

  “Not that I know of. It hit her pretty hard, and that’s when she started getting into trouble. She was never quite the same after that.”

  “We’re going to have to track him down,” Jon replied.

  Iris nodded. “I understand.”

  “So, yesterday?”

  “She just turned up on my doorstep last night. I knew she’d been crying, but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it at first. I kept asking, and she eventually told me she’d fought with Seth, but she wouldn’t tell me why or what it was about. I think I annoyed her because she stormed out and went for a walk.” Iris paused as fresh tears welled up in her eyes. “She never came back.”

  “She didn’t take her car?”

  “No. That’s not unusual though. She’s always liked walks. She often went on them to clear her head when she lived here.”

  “Do you know where she went?”

  Iris shook her head. “I tried calling her and texting her, but she never answered.”

  “Is that unusual?”

  “No,” she replied with another sigh. “Not especially. She was always such a wilful girl. Wouldn’t listen to anyone, always knew her own mind. She’d often go days without contacting me, even if I’d been texting. But I knew something wasn’t right. I just knew it…” Her voice cracked again and she stifled a sob.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs Richards. We’ll do our best to help you. Did she say anything else? About Seth?”

  “She said they had a fight, an argument. He got really angry at her over something. I don’t know what, but she was… She looked scared.”

  “I see,” Jon replied, mentally assigning another strike to Seth.