Before I Wake

by Clare Revell

  Why hadn’t Zander replied? That was most unlike him. Maybe he was busy with his grandfather. Finally, being a doting grandson.

  After dinner she tried calling Zander but there was no answer. She left him a voicemail, then caught the bus to the evening service. Zander wasn’t there, but DI Holmes offered her a lift home.

  He looked at the hotel as he pulled up outside. “Why here?”

  “Zander had to pick his grandfather up from the hospital this afternoon. I’m simply giving them some space and time alone. I’ll be back there tomorrow. Thanks for the lift. See you in the morning.” She hurried inside and ran up to her room. She made it just in time for a drama series set in Cornwall that she was more than a little addicted to watching. Once that was finished, she curled up in the oversized bed and watched the sun getting lower in the sky.

  Maybe tomorrow they’d get the breakthrough they so desperately needed. She turned her thoughts about the case into a prayer. God alone knew who the Slayer was. Maybe if she phrased her prayers right, He’d clue her in. Because the Slayer was up to nine and Isabel knew he wouldn’t stop. Not until he’d proved his point and gone past ten to wherever he was leading them.

  ~*~

  The phone rang. Loud. Urgent. Persistent. Isabel reached out and answered it. “DC York.”

  “Hi, this is PC Nolan. I understand you’re the MIU DC on call this morning.”

  Suddenly wide awake, Isabel jerked upright. “Yes.”

  “We found a body. My partner said we should call you.”

  “OK. Where are you?”

  “19 Silver Fox Road. The body is in the back garden. A neighbour called, said there was a fire. She called the fire brigade, they called us.”

  Isabel almost dropped the phone. She swallowed hard. That was Zander’s house. “Ring the doorbell.”

  “We did, but there’s no answer.”

  “Force an entry. That’s DS Ellery’s house. I’ll try calling him, but I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She hung up. Zander’s mobile went straight to voicemail. The landline rang out.

  Really stressed and worried now, Isabel started to dial DI Holmes’ number. An unknown number flashed on the screen. She answered the call. “DC York. Who is this?”

  “It’s me,” Zander said.

  “Where are you? I’ve been trying to get hold of you—”

  “My car was stolen!” he yelled. “My phone was in the car. I’ve been busy. I had to call Grace. Then I had to call a cab to get Gramps over to her place. Then, the same cab took me to work so I could report my stolen car. And it’s still early. What’s so imp—”

  Isabel cut him off. “You need to get in the service car and come and get me. Now. They found a body by a coal bunker. In your garden.”

  Silence greeted her.

  “Zander! Are you there?”

  “Wait outside. I’m on my way.” The line went dead.

  Isabel gathered her things and went to wait outside on the street.

  Zander must have driven like a madman as he reached her in five minutes. She was barely in the service vehicle before he pulled away again. Then he continued to drive fast to his home. “Who rang you and what did they say?”

  “Just what I told you. A neighbour reported a small fire in your garden. They called the fire brigade. They called uniform, and they called me. I got them to force entry as you weren’t answering the door or your phone. Just in case you were hurt, but you’re obviously not.”

  He scowled. “So, I need a new door. And its definitely my house?”

  “Probably. And yes, it’s nineteen Silver Fox Road. I told you on Friday. The Slayer is getting personal now.”

  Tyres squealed as Zander took the corner way too fast. He parked as close to his house as he could. The front of the building was covered with crime scene tape. “They’ve got to be having a laugh,” he muttered. He leapt out of the car. “Let me in.”

  “You can’t go in there, sir.”

  Zander pulled out his ID. “DS Ellery. This is my house. You are not keeping me out.”

  Isabel put a hand on his arm. “Yelling won’t help,” she said quietly. She produced her ID. “DC York. PC Nolan rang me. I’m the MIU detective on duty.”

  “Yes, ma’am. That’s me.” PC Nolan raised the tape to let her through. He looked at Zander.

  “He’s my partner as well as the house owner. But I want to call my DI before we go inside. He’ll want to be here.” She ducked under the tape.

  “I’m not waiting.” Zander stooped for a moment and moved up the path.

  “Just check your front door,” she called. “Don’t go anywhere without me.”

  “Think you forgot who the DS is,” came the sharp response.

  Isabel hissed as she called DI Holmes. “Sorry to wake you, Guv, but we have a situation at Zander’s house—nineteen Silver Fox Road. A body, by the coal bunker.”

  “Is he there?”

  “He is now. His car and phone were stolen last night, so he was at work reporting it.”

  “I’m on way.”

  “SOCO just arrived. I’ll see what we’ve got. But I imagine it’s the Slayer.”

  “OK. See you in a few.”

  Isabel hung up and nodded to Arend as he walked up the path. “Morning, Arend.”

  “Hi, Isabel,” he replied. “What have we got?”

  “No idea. Just got here.” She headed around the side of the house to the back garden. There was a strong smell of burning. A figure in white knelt by the coal bunker. Isabel shivered. “Is she burned?”

  Arend pulled on gloves and tossed her a pair. “Let’s take a look.”

  Isabel tugged on her gloves. Where was Zander? She neared the body, fear gripping her.

  “The victim is female. Long black hair tied back and burned. Her face, feet, and hands have significant burns. However, the gown and surrounding ground are almost untouched.”

  “Was she put here postmortem?”

  “Possibly. It would account for the ground being unmarked.”

  “Is it still poison hemlock?”

  “I’ll need the tox screen to tell us that.”

  Zander appeared looking furious. “Was she dead before she was burned?”

  “I won’t know until I get her back to the morgue.”

  Isabel turned, looking for the ID and the painting. The latter was tucked next to the coal bunker. It depicted the same gruesome scene as the post card, of a woman burning alive in a courtroom, presumably for committing perjury and being a false witness.

  Zander made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a squeal.

  She turned to him. “Are you all right?”

  He shook his head. “It’s Rosa.”

  She frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “I know my own ex-girlfriend,” he snapped. “I’m telling you. It’s Rosa.”

  22

  Zander stood, shaking as he looked at the burned body. He just hoped Isabel wouldn’t say anything as he didn’t know how to respond. He needed time to think, to prepare, to…

  DI Holmes arrived and took charge. “Zander, go home.”

  “I am home,” he snapped. “My house is a crime scene. My ex-girlfriend is dead in my back garden. I’m not going anywhere.” He picked up the purse he’d found, not caring he wasn’t wearing gloves. “See, this proves it’s her.”

  “Where’s your grandfather?” Isabel asked.

  “Already told you, he’s over at Grace’s.”

  “You need to bring your sister up to speed. Neither of you can be here the next couple of nights or so.” DI Holmes wandered over to the incinerator and touched it. “It’s warm. What did you burn?”

  “Pile of junk last week and a few bits again last night.”

  Isabel frowned. “After you got back then?”

  He nodded. What was this inquisition in aid of? If he wanted to burn stuff rather than recycle it then he would. “I was here most of the night. I woke around midnight to find the car gone. I rang Grace. She came to get Gramp
s and drove me to the nick.”

  Isabel’s frown deepened.

  “What?” he barked.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Carry on.”

  “Grace dropped me off and took Gramps back to her place. I filled in all the paperwork, reported the car and my phone stolen. I stopped the SIM card and ordered a new one. The call will be logged on the system at work as I used my desk phone.”

  DI Holmes turned to Isabel. “What about you?”

  “PC Nolan called me at half-past five. He said they’d found a body and couldn’t raise the occupants of the house. Once he gave me the address, I informed him it was Zander’s house and instructed him to do a forced entry. I thought maybe Zander was hurt.”

  “So, the damage to the front door was us,” DI Holmes said.

  “Yes. Did I do the wrong thing?”

  He shook his head. “No. I’ll ring everyone and get them over here. We’re not leaving anything to chance.” He looked at Zander. “You either wait inside the house, or in your service car.”

  Zander almost swore but thought better of it. He turned and stomped into the house. He slammed the back door and swept everything off the work top on to the floor.

  ~*~

  As the door slammed, Isabel jumped.

  DI Holmes turned to her. “Level with me. Why the huge frown when he was telling me where he was?”

  “Because that story differed from the one, he told me in the car on the way here.”

  “How?” He pulled out his phone to send the group text.

  “He told you Grace took him to the station and then took Gramps to hers. He told me he took a cab to Grace’s place and then to the station.”

  “We need to check his phone and landline.”

  “His mobile was stolen along with the car. He must have left it in the glovebox again, he keeps doing that. I can check the landline.”

  “OK. Go and call his sister, discreetly, and find out which version of what he told us is the truth.”

  “Sure.” Isabel headed inside. Zander sat slumped at the worktop, head in his hands. “I need my phone charger. I forgot to pack it,” she called on her way past. “Just going to pop upstairs and get it.”

  “Fine.”

  She grabbed the phone from the base at the bottom of the stairs and ran quickly up to her room. She shut the door and sat on the bed. She checked the call history on the landline phone and took a photo of it on her mobile. Then she rang the cab company. “Hi, this is DC York, Thames Valley Police. I’m just checking a fare you picked up last night.” She explained quickly and made notes. “So, you didn’t pick anyone up. No, no problem. Thank you.”

  Next she rang Grace. “Hi, this is Isabel York, Zander’s work partner. I just wanted to check if Mr. Mac was all right after the midnight flit last night.”

  “He’s fine, although it wasn’t midnight. Zander dropped him off at half past one. He said he had to go and work a crime scene or something.”

  “One thirty?” Isabel repeated. “And was this in his car?”

  “It was. Has something happened? He left me a very garbled voicemail that didn’t make any sense.”

  Isabel explained quickly. “So, if you could keep Mr. Mac just a couple of days until they’ve finished with the house that would be one less thing for Zander to worry about.”

  “Of course. Did you want to speak with Gramps? He’s talked endlessly about you. I think he’s taken quite a shine to you.”

  “Sure.” Isabel spent five minutes chatting to Mr. Mac and hung up. His version of events matched Grace’s. Isabel grabbed her phone charger and headed back downstairs. The rest of the squad were in the kitchen with DI Holmes filling them all in. She looked at Zander. “I called Grace. She’s keeping Mr. Mac a few days until you get the house back. I was thinking. Do you have find-my-phone activated?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Then we can track the phone. Find that and we find your car.”

  “Sounds good.” He picked up his tablet and started flicking through the apps. “OK. Here it is. According to this, my phone and my car are in Hurricane Way.” He frowned. “That’s where Rosa lives.”

  “When did you last see her?” DI Holmes asked.

  “I drove her to the airport yesterday morning. She was booked on the 10AM flight to Jersey. She was going onto Sark by ferry.”

  DI Holmes turned to Austin. “Go back to the office and call the airline. See if Miss Shipman checked in at all.”

  “Call her boyfriend as well,” Isabel said. “His name is Phil, and he teaches at the same school as her. Newgate Primary.”

  “So, you took her to the airport,” DI Holmes prompted.

  Zander tapped his fingers on the work top. “Yes. She had to be there for 7 AM. I waited until her flight was called. I left her queuing at the security check-in. She didn’t have any luggage apart from her carry-on, so she hadn’t needed to do anything or see anyone before that. She broke up with Phil but didn’t say when.”

  DI Holmes straightened. “OK, Isabel and Zander with me. Let’s find your phone. The rest of you work this crime scene. We’ll take my car. Austin, drive Zander’s service car back to the nick.”

  Zander handed over the keys and trudged from the house.

  “You all right?” Isabel asked.

  “Just great. No car, no phone, and no home. The woman I loved…” His voice trailed off. “How much worse can the day get?”

  DI Holmes caught them up and they climbed into his service car. He headed off to Hurricane Way, blue and twos on. They arrived to find a burned-out car at the location of Zander’s phone. Zander jumped out of the car and strode over to his vehicle. He leaned inside the burned-out vehicle and fiddled with something.

  “What are you doing?” DI Holmes asked.

  “Phone!” Zander held it up.

  “Give it to Isabel for safe keeping. I’m going to call SOCO and vehicle recovery.”

  Isabel bagged the phone and slid it into her bag.

  Zander paced and scowled.

  She didn’t like the way her mind was leaping and jumping to conclusions. Yes, he was rightly upset, but this reaction went way beyond that.

  DI Holmes came back over. “OK. Tony and Jason are coming to deal with this. There is nothing more we can do. I need you both back at the nick.”

  Zander sat in the passenger seat, visibly sulking.

  Isabel sat in the back, mind whirling. There were three different versions of last night’s events. Zander was the last person to see Rosa. If he took her to the airport, how did she end up back here? If the body was hers… The ID and Zander both said it was, but with burns that bad it would take dental records to prove it.

  Back at the nick, Zander vanished into the glass panelled office with the Guv. Isabel sat at her desk, tapping her fingers. Her phone beeped with Arend’s number.

  Thought you'd like a photo of the painting as you didn't take one before you left the crime scene.

  Isabel studied the painting. The eyes and face were clearly visible. She emailed it to herself. Once the picture arrived, she enlarged the image.

  Shock resonated. The eyes and face were now clearly visible.

  Zander.

  Bile rose and she swallowed hard, wrapping a hand over her middle. She picked up the phone as it rang. “DC York.”

  “Hi, it’s Geordie from the lab. I have those fingerprints for you from the duct tape on victim eight. Also, DNA on the saliva that sealed all the envelopes.”

  “Do they match? Are they the same person?”

  “Yes. They match Zander Ellery, who’s a—”

  “I know who he is,” Isabel cut him off. “Can you email that report to me now, please?”

  “Sure.”

  She hung up and pulled a pair of gloves on. Carefully removing Zander’s phone from the evidence bag, she examined it. Blackened, melted and the screen all but destroyed, there wasn’t a memory card. She plugged the phone into her computer, sending up a silent prayer of thanks when it connec
ted. She quickly downloaded all the data to her PC. She disconnected the phone and returned it to the evidence bag.

  Slowly she scrolled through the call history and photographs. Her skin crawled. There were the crime scene photos that the Slayer sent, dated March. Including two that she didn’t recognise. She swallowed hard. Pulling out her phone, her trembling fingers took several attempts to text DI Holmes.

  Need you here now. Alone. Something you must see.

  He glanced up and nodded to her from behind his office window.

  Email chimed and she downloaded the reports on the fingerprints.

  “What’s up, Isabel?” Not even DI Holmes calm voice helped dispel the panic within her. She nodded to the screen. “I retrieved the data from Zander’s phone. These are the crime scene photos the Slayer sent us. Each one is dated March of this year. Zander’s fingerprints are on the duct tape from Orla’s body. His DNA is on the glue used to seal the envelopes they tested. And he dropped Mr. Mac at Grace’s house at 1.30AM. In his own car.

  Isabel pointed to the painting on the computer. “This is from the ninth victim. You can see the Slayer clearly now.”

  DI Holmes sharp intake of breath made her jump. Then he turned around. “Isabel, I’ll need your badge, I’m afraid. You’re his partner. You’ve been working with him. I have no choice.”

  “I understand.” She handed him her warrant card. “If you need me, I’ll be at the Elmhurst Lodge as long as they have a room for me.”

  Her boss put her card into his pocket. “It’s just until we clear you. Before you leave, I want you to call DS David Painter over at Fleet Street. I’ll need him to handle this from now on. Then you’d better go home. With pay, of course. And don’t leave town.”

  Zander came out of the office. “What’s going on? What did I miss?”

  Isabel dialled the phone. “Could I speak to DS Painter, please? It’s urgent. It’s DC York at Manor Road.”

  DI Holmes moved over to Zander. “Don’t move. I need your warrant card.”

  “Why?”

  “Hello?” A voice on the phone diverted her attention.

  “DS Painter, this is DC York. DI Holmes has asked if you could come and help on a case rather urgently. We need a sergeant—”

  “What the—?” Zander yelled. “Guv, what is going on?”