The Clifftop Murders (Dorset Crime Book 2)

by Rachel McLean

Chapter Fifty-One

  An email notification appeared at the top of Mike’s screen. He opened it, hopeful.

  “Brilliant,” he hissed. It was CCTV footage from the top of the cliffs at Boscombe Chine.

  “Thanks, Johnny,” he muttered.

  Tina looked at him across the desks. “You got something?”

  He nodded. “CCTV.”

  “Can I watch with you?”

  “Sure.”

  She scooted her chair around the desks and brought it next to his. He clicked on the link.

  The first file was from early evening, 7pm to 8pm. He put it on fast forward, only pausing when he spotted movement in the frame. A number of cars came and went, people got out of them, walked away, came back.

  So far, so normal. He clicked on the next video, 8pm onwards. He went through the same routine. Again, people pulling up in their cars, a couple looking like they were having sex in the back of theirs, a few dog walkers.

  He yawned.

  “I’m beginning to wish I’d stayed at my desk,” Tina said. “This is dull.”

  Mike nodded. “Let’s check the next one.”

  The next one began at 9pm. Dusk was beginning to fall, the low sun catching the backs of the cars. Mike watched as people came and went. The amount of activity had slowed, fewer people heading out for walks. He tried to remember what the temperature had been on Tuesday night. Chilly, if he recalled correctly. There’d been rain later on.

  He watched as people parked their cars, left them, returned to them, drove away. Still nothing.

  “Right,” he said, “Next one.”

  The next one started at ten. Now it was getting darker. Only five cars were in the car park. At 10:15, a dark van pulled up.

  Mike sat up in his chair and Tina shifted in closer.

  The van parked in a spot on the edge of the car park, its side door hidden from the camera and the other cars. Mike waited, gripping a pen he’d picked up from his desk.

  After a few moments, a figure got out of the driver’s door and walked to the back of the van, disappearing out of view. Another figure emerged from the passenger side and walked to the back of the van, again disappearing. The two figures reappeared from round the back of the van. Mike couldn’t be sure if they were the same two people, or if two more had got out of the back of the van or maybe the side.

  He waited. A car parked further along in the car park drove away, leaving a bigger gap between the van and the remaining vehicles.

  At 10:20, the two figures disappeared behind the back of the van. At 10:23 they reappeared, this time accompanied. There were three people walking and another being dragged between them.

  Mike felt his skin prickle. He glanced at Tina, whose cheeks were flushed.

  She licked her lips. “This is it,” she whispered.

  He nodded, his eyes on the screen.

  The three figures moved towards the cliff top, dragging the fourth between them. At this angle, it was difficult to make out individuals. All they could see was the silhouettes of the four people moving towards the cliff top. The one being dragged looked large, consistent with the size of Harry Nevin’s body. Of the other three, there were two taller figures and one shorter.

  “A woman?” Tina suggested.

  Mike shrugged. “Or a short man.”

  They both leaned in as the group reached the fence. One of the taller figures looked back towards the cars on the other side of the car park. There was no movement there. Mike had already seen people leaving those cars and walking towards the path that led to the beach, meaning the cars were empty. But there were flats behind there, potential witnesses. He would talk to Johnny about that, knock on some more doors. They had a time window now.

  He checked the time stamp on the CCTV: 10:31pm.

  The three people hauled the fourth up and over the fence that separated the car park from the cliff. The body caught on the spikes on top of the railings.

  Mike held his breath. “Fabric. Might have been left behind.”

  Tina shrugged. “We’ll have to check with Gail.”

  He nodded, his breathing shallow.

  Finally, they freed the body from the railings and heaved him over. Before letting go, one of the two taller figures gave him a shove, sending him arcing out into space before he hit the cliff below. The cliff here was a steep slope, not sheer like the cliffs at Old Harry Rocks.

  The body disappeared out of the frame. Mike watched the three remaining people, his heart in his mouth.

  They turned back towards the van. All of them were formless shapes, wearing nondescript clothing. They either had short hair or wore hats. As they approached the van, the shorter figure stopped. It leaned against the bonnet. One of the taller figures turned to the shorter figure, talking, he thought.

  “What d’you think they’re doing?” Tina asked, her voice low.

  “Don’t know,” replied Mike. “Just watch.”

  After a moment, the shorter figure’s hand went to its head. Mike had been right, they were wearing a hat. The person pulled the hat off and ran their fingers through their hair.

  He looked at Tina. “Long hair,” he said.

  She nodded.

  “It’s not clear enough. We’ll have to get it enhanced.”

  “That’s a woman,” she said. “And she’s left-handed, most probably.”

  He looked at the figure again. Now he was looking for a woman, it was clear. The shape of her body, the way she moved. And her left hand was in her hair. “You’re right.”

  “Jesus,” Tina said. “What kind of woman would do a thing like that?”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Lesley rubbed the skin between her eyes. She’d slept badly, lying awake and mulling over what Gail had told her about DCI Mackie. She was worried someone might find out about Zoe’s investigation and trace it back to her.

  But no, she thought, she could trust Zoe. If anybody could be relied upon to keep this subtle, it was DI Finch.

  She was yawning as Dennis opened the door to her office. She looked up, surprised he hadn’t knocked.

  “Boss,” he said.

  She looked past him. Mike and Tina were huddled at Mike’s desk, looking at Mike’s computer. Johnny sat at his desk alone, his body language tight. He was pulled in on himself, his hands plunged between his knees. Lesley wondered what was going on out there.

  Dennis closed the door and put two photographs on the board. They’d divided the board in two now, the left was Ameena, the right Nevin. The photographs that Dennis added were of Nevin’s injuries, the front of his head and the back. Lesley rounded her desk and approached the board for a better look.

  “You’ve been to the post-mortem?” she said.

  He nodded.

  “I thought that was yesterday afternoon?”

  He turned to her. “Whittaker put it off, delayed it to this morning.”

  “So why didn’t you come back into the office?”

  He swallowed. “I was already there, it was too late to come back. I figured it was best to get up early this morning and go straight there.”

  She checked the clock over her desk: 10:30am. “This isn’t all that early.”

  “You know what Whittaker’s like.”

  Lesley grunted and turned back to the pictures. She wasn’t in the mood for another argument with Dennis. “So what does this show us?” she asked him. “What does Whittaker think?”

  “The gash on the back of his head,” Dennis said, pointing to it. “That was a single strike, no practice wounds. Whoever did it had killed before. It’s clean, but it’s a serrated blade. Not a kitchen knife or anything like that.”

  “And his face?” Lesley said.

  “That’s from him being shoved on the ground, road rash apparently. Whittaker reckons he was lying face down, knocked out before he was stabbed from behind in the back of the head. Either that or they had very tight hold of him.”

  Lesley turned her head to one side. “Why would you stab somebody in the b
ack of the head? Why not slit their throat?”

  Dennis shrugged. “No idea. But that’s what Whittaker thinks happened.”

  “So he thinks the killer held Nevin down or knocked him out and then stabbed him?”

  Dennis shook his head. “He thinks there were two assailants.”

  Lesley raised an eyebrow. “Two?”

  Dennis nodded. “One to get him to the ground, one to stab him. You’d have to use quite some force to pierce his skull with the blade of a knife. It was a sharp knife, a strong one, reinforced steel the pathologist thinks, and whoever did it was confident.”

  Lesley swallowed.

  There was a knock on her door. She turned to see Mike and Tina standing outside, looking expectant. She gestured for them to come in.

  Mike opened the door and walked to her desk, Tina following. Johnny was still at his desk outside. Dennis beckoned to him and he followed the other two constables in, not meeting Dennis’s eye.

  Lesley looked between the two men, wondering what had happened between them. Dennis and Johnny were old friends. She hoped this wouldn’t affect their ability to do the job.

  “What have you got?” she asked Mike.

  “CCTV, boss,” he said. “I’ve emailed it to you.”

  She bent to her computer and turned the screen around so that they could all see.

  “Go forward to 10:25pm, boss, third file,” he pointed to her screen. Tina stood behind him, shifting from foot to foot.

  She opened the file and fast forwarded to 10:25pm. A van was to the right of the shot, two cars over to the left.

  “Is it the van we’re watching?” she said.

  Mike nodded. “The cars are empty, I saw their occupants leave earlier. On that van, something’s about to happen.”

  She turned to the screen, along with the rest of the team. They all held their breath.

  Onscreen, three people emerged around the side of the van, dragging a fourth.

  She pointed. “That’s Nevin?”

  Mike nodded. “It has to be.”

  Lesley watched as they pulled his slumped body towards the fence separating the carpark from the cliff. It took them a while to lift him and get him over the fence. His body caught for a few moments, clothes snagging on the spikes on top of the fence.

  She turned to Dennis. “Have we got any forensics from that fence?”

  “I spoke to the CSIs,” said Tina. “They’ve taken scraps of fabric from the spikes.”

  “Excellent,” said Lesley.

  She turned back to the screen. Nevin was being launched over the fence. His body flew briefly into the air before it landed with what she imagined was a thud, then disappeared out of shot.

  The three people walked back towards the van. Two of them were tall, the other shorter. The shorter one leaned against the bonnet of the van. They put their hand to their head and pulled off what looked like a hat, revealing long hair.

  Lesley’s breath caught in her throat. The person onscreen ran their hands through their hair.

  “That’s a woman, boss,” said Tina. “At least we reckon it is.”

  “Could be a short man with long hair,” said Dennis.

  “Look at the way she moves,” said Tina. Tina bent towards the computer. She rewound for a few moments and then played the tape again. They watched as the woman walked back towards the van. Her gait was different from that of the others: softer, more fluid.

  “You’re right,” said Lesley. “It looks like we’ve got two men and one woman.”

  “So who?” said Dennis.

  Tina stepped forward. “I got the information about the Kelvin family that you asked for, boss.”

  “Go on.”

  Tina had a rolled-up piece of paper in her hand. She smoothed it out and pinned it up on the board. It was a printout of a spreadsheet, a list of names and cases.

  “These are all the cases I was able to find that are linked to the Kelvin family. People who worked in the Kelvins’ businesses. Some of them, Kelvin acted as a referee, others he didn’t. But they were all sacked not long after their offences, and they’re all drugs related.”

  Lesley approached the board. Tina pointed at the final column in the spreadsheet. The name of the solicitor working on each case. Lesley’s gaze flicked to it and she felt her cheek twitch.

  “There’s sixty-five of them,” said Tina. “Sixty-two of them have solicitors from Nevin, Cross and Short. Fifty-eight of those have got the same woman. Elsa Short.”

  Lesley stared at Elsa’s name, repeated down the column.

  She backed away from the board and leaned on the desk.

  “Good work, Tina,” she said. She took a breath. “I need to think about this. You all carry on with what you’re doing and I’ll let you know what we do next.”

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Ten minutes later the team were all back at their desks. Everybody seemed to be busy, but Lesley could tell by looking out of her office door that they were distracted.

  Johnny’s eyes kept flicking towards Dennis, who was avoiding his gaze. Tina and Mike fidgeted in their chairs.

  Lesley grabbed her bag and pulled her hands through her hair. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

  “I’ve had a call from Gail,” she said. “I need to go to the crime scene, be back soon.”

  She hurried through the office, making it to the door before anybody had a chance to question her. She could only hope that Gail wouldn’t call while she was out.

  Half an hour later, she was in the underground car park in Bournemouth. The same place she parked when she’d come to interview Harry Nevin.

  She slammed the car door shut, trying to keep a lid on her emotions. She hurried to the street where the law firm was based. She took up position in a shop doorway opposite, obscured by the shadows. She took out her phone.

  It rang out three times before Elsa picked up.

  “Hey, you,” Elsa said. “Everything OK?”

  “I need to talk to you,” Lesley replied. “Come downstairs.”

  “Downstairs?”

  “I’m outside your office. Come outside, I need to talk to you.”

  “What’s this about, Lesley? I’m busy.”

  “It’s urgent, Elsa. Nobody knows I’m here, I wanted to speak to you before anything got official.”

  “What are you on about?”

  “Please,” Lesley said. “Just come down. Don’t tell your colleagues where you’re going, just say you’re nipping out for a coffee.”

  “I never nip out for a coffee. I’ve got a PA to do that for me.”

  “I don’t care what you say, just tell them you need a break. Fresh air, whatever, you’re going to deliver some files.” Lesley gritted her teeth. “Just come downstairs.”

  There was a sigh at the other end of the line. “Fair enough.”

  Lesley waited, her eyes on the building. At last the door opened and Elsa emerged.

  Lesley waved, beckoning her over. Elsa looked up and down the street and then crossed, giving Lesley a funny look as she did so.

  “What’s with the cloak and dagger?” she said. “What’s going on?”

  “Come for a coffee with me,” Lesley replied. “I don’t want to do this here.”

  Elsa sighed. “I’m not going for a coffee with you, we’ll walk along the beach.”

  “OK.”

  Lesley followed as Elsa led her towards the beach. It was quieter today, the sun hidden behind clouds. Lesley felt incongruous walking along the promenade in her suit. People passed them, ignoring them. Busy with their holidays or time out of the office.

  Even so, Lesley kept her voice low. “We’ve been investigating the Kelvin family,” she said.

  “OK,” Elsa replied. “Why?”

  “There was a file,” Lesley said. “A case. Harry Nevin hid it from us, but Ameena was working on it. I figured that if he was hiding it, then that was for a good reason.”

  “He might just have been forgetful,” Elsa suggest
ed.

  Lesley stopped walking and turned to Elsa. “Was Harry Nevin in the habit of being forgetful?”

  Elsa shrugged. “Sometimes, recently, he could be distracted. He was acting strange, kept coming into the office late, leaving early.”

  “He had a mistress, didn’t he?” Lesley said.

  “He’d always had mistresses. This was new.”

  Lesley continued walking. “We looked at the Kelvin files, identified all their employees who’d been arrested in recent years.”

  She sensed Elsa’s breath picking up. “And why do you need to talk to me about this?”

  Lesley put a hand on Elsa’s arm. “We found sixty-five cases where minor employees of the Kelvin businesses had been arrested for drugs related offences. In fifty-eight of them you were the solicitor.”

  Elsa shrugged. “So? I defend a lot of drug cases.”

  Lesley turned to her. “Where were you on Tuesday night, Elsa?”

  Elsa narrowed her eyes. She took a step back, almost hitting a man who was passing. “What are you saying?”

  “Where were you on Sunday morning?”

  “I think you should go,” Elsa said.

  “I wanted to talk to you before anybody else did,” Lesley replied. “I need to tell them about our relationship. I’ve already told them we’re friends, but if we’re investigating you…”

  “There’s no reason to investigate me.” Elsa’s face was hard.

  “I hope you’re right. But you’ll understand that we can’t—”

  Elsa raised her hand as if about to slap Lesley. Lesley’s eyes widened.

  Elsa stopped, her hand still up.

  “I don’t know what to think,” she said. “I thought you cared about me.”

  “I do,” Lesley told her.

  “You care more about your job. You’re coming over here to cover your back, to make sure your colleagues don’t find out that you’re sleeping with me. All you’re interested in is your own career.”

  “That’s not true. I came here to warn you. I came here to find out what I could before I have to return with my colleagues and interview you formally.”

  “You’re going to arrest me?”