‘It’s the way it feels to me and I thought you’d want to know what you’re dealing with sooner rather than later.’
Dominic checked his watch. ‘What time are you doing the PM tomorrow?’
‘I’m going to table her in first,’ Nadira said, her voice had a faraway sound to it as though she was considering something else while she was talking to Dominic. ‘So, I’ll expect you about nine a.m.?’ she asked.
‘Can you get her prepared for identification tonight?’ The smell of the chips was getting up his nose and annoying him.
‘She’s filthy, Dom. She’s not in the best state to be viewed. It’ll be better once she’s been dealt with and we can wash her down. Better for the family, that is.’
Dominic agreed with her and said he would see her in the morning before hanging up the phone.
‘Sarge?’ Hayley turned to him.
‘What is it?’ They hadn’t been on this job long and he already hated it. Hated the viciousness of it. Hated how it was making him feel deep down inside — hated the tone he had used with Hayley. He inclined his head in acquiescence of his sharpness and indicated she should continue.
Her eyes were narrowed at him but she relaxed them. ‘We have a photograph on the missing person report for Julie Carver.’
He bolted upright. ‘Let me see it.’
She spun her computer monitor around so he could see. Pressed a key on her keyboard and listened as the printer whirred into life. ‘And it’s not her husband who reported her missing, it was her brother. She was married but she’s divorced.’
Dominic didn’t know why he leapt to the conclusion she had been married — maybe it was something about her age. He stared at the screen. The face looking back was the same as the one he had seen not a couple of hours earlier. The hair was longer, the skin was pinker, her eyes sparkled, she was looking away from the camera, behind it and to the side slightly, a gentle laugh lighting her up. Something was amusing her beyond the person who was taking this image. Her blue eyes expressed her joy with the world. Her brother had given the police a photograph of Julie that showed her living, not merely as a statistic, which was what missing people were in the end. They were either found and returned home to those who had grieved for them before they needed to, or they never reappeared and became one of the huge number of missing people in the UK. People who disappeared and were never seen again with no rhyme, reason or explanation.
‘This her?’ Hayley asked.
‘That’s her.’ Someone’s life was about to be destroyed. As much as Julie’s had been wiped out, her brother and any others who loved her were about to be decimated. ‘We need to make contact with her brother. Contact details on the file?’
‘Yes, I’m printing off the important things we need.’ She stalked to the printer at the edge of the room and pulled off the hot documents — a photograph and a couple of text sheets with Julie’s details and those of her brother, Jonathan.
Dominic sighed and looked at Hayley. ‘Come with me.’
She grabbed her coat from the back of her chair.
‘I suppose we’d better go and tell him we’ve found her.’
Chapter 14
Dominic
Dominic knocked on the door. It looked to be a nice two-up two-down in Mosborough. After a minute the door was opened by a young woman with her hair pulled back quite brutally into a ponytail on the back of her head. Her face was scrubbed clean of any make-up but she wore bright red nail varnish on her fingers which was chipped halfway down her nails. Light spilled out from the doorway onto the front step where Dominic and Hayley were standing.
Dominic waved his warrant card in front of her. ‘Is Jonathan Butler at home, please?’
A hand flew to the woman’s mouth and she stepped backwards, giving Dominic and Hayley room to enter. Dominic stepped through first. He laid a hand on the woman’s arm as he passed. He had no idea who she was, but she was about to be affected by the events of the next few minutes and he felt for her. She looked to already have an inkling of what was to come.
She closed the door behind them and ushered them through to a living room where an adult male and a teenage lad were sitting in front of the television. The adult male turned as they walked in. His brows furrowed to see strangers enter, then comprehension dawned on him. He switched the television off with a remote control and stood to face them.
Dominic lifted his warrant card again. ‘I’m DS Dominic Harrison and this is DC Hayley Loftus. Do you have a few minutes to talk to us?’
Jonathan turned to the teenage boy who was staring at the now blank television. ‘Ed, go to your room for a few minutes, would you? We’ll talk to you soon.’ The boy stood, looked at Dominic and Hayley and then skulked off towards the stairs and his room. Jonathan gestured at the sofas and the young woman strode over to his side. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she enclosed his waist in one of hers.
Dominic and Hayley walked to the sofas and sat down. Without uttering a word Jonathan and the woman settled down opposite them, their hands clenched together.
‘Your son?’ asked Dominic, not knowing the Butler’s family set-up.
Jonathan Butler shook his head. ‘No, Ed is Julie’s son. He’s been staying with us since she went missing.’
A cold shudder ran through Dominic. He felt Hayley stiffen at the side of him. The boy was now motherless. It was something this couple would have to take in then convey to their nephew.
Dominic looked at the woman. ‘Mrs Butler, is it?’
‘Oh, yes, sorry, Helen.’ Her hand tightened around Jonathan’s.
The couple’s eyes were wide, the question clear for all to see. They were desperate for answers.
‘I’m sorry—’ said Dominic. It was as far as he could get before Jonathan jumped to his feet, refusal to hear the rest of the sentence blazing from every cell.
‘Get out! Get out of my house!’ he screamed at them. Any colour he had in his face now drained from him and his eyes bulged as the stress exploded from him.
Dominic stayed seated where he was, there was no point in escalating the situation any further. If he could calm Jonathan down and get him to talk that would be the better outcome. Having a knock-down fight with the grieving sibling of a murder victim was not going to happen on his watch. He kept his voice low and soft, could see Hayley looking at him out of the corner of his eye. ‘Jonathan, I need to talk to you.’ He lifted his hands in a placatory manner. ‘I know this is difficult and I’m sorry.’
Helen was standing now and had both her hands wrapped around one of Jonathan’s arms. She was trying to pull him down, her voice quiet in his ear. Dominic could just make out a couple of words through the noise Jonathan was still screaming at them. Listen. Please. Ed. Help. Julie. And it was at the sound of his sister’s name that he stopped shouting and the room dropped into silence.
There was a moment’s standoff as Jonathan glared at Dominic and Hayley and Helen silently pleaded up at him, still clinging on to his arm, gently pulling him back down to the sofa he had not long evacuated.
Hayley gave a soft smile to Helen in appreciation. There was no response. She wasn’t doing this for the police. She was doing this for her husband. She hated to see him in so much pain, Dominic understood this. Whatever the reasoning he was grateful of the help.
When breaking news of a death you never knew what reaction you were going to get. Some relatives took it in their stride and barely batted an eye. You would have thought you had just informed them that their favourite football team had lost the latest match. It was surreal, but the emotions were forming. They were tiny, a small bud. They needed a little time to grow and push their way to the surface, but in the meantime the family member could function and get on with the tasks that needed to be performed.
Other relatives broke down. Crumbled like sandcastles in a hurricane. Falling in on themselves. Needing the support of their nearest and dearest, or those that were left behind that could help. Dominic did his best to
support as he interacted with them, but he had a job to do. His job was to find out the information they held and progress the investigation.
Then there were relatives like Jonathan Butler. These were among some of the most difficult. Those in denial. How he was supposed to wheedle information out of them when they couldn’t even process what they were being told was always something he hated trying to figure out. He shot a quick glance at Hayley. She had fashioned her face into a neutral mask. There was no point involving yourself in the grief of others.
Tears were streaming down Helen’s face. She knew the truth, at that point still unsaid, and could only watch on as her husband fought against it. She held up a hand to Dominic and Hayley and turned to Jonathan, put a hand on his chest, stared into his eyes. He shook his head.
‘No, Helen. Just no. No. No. No.’
He turned to Dominic again. ‘You have to leave. You have to go right now.’
Helen spoke. ‘Listen to them, John. Hear what they have to say. Whatever it is, we need to hear them and deal with it.’ Her voice was gentle.
It may have been his wife’s voice or her hand on him — whatever it was, he suddenly collapsed onto the sofa and covered his face with his hands. ‘I just can’t.’
Helen sat down beside him. ‘I know, love.’ Her hand found his again.
Jonathan stared at Dominic and Hayley. The question was in his eyes. He had no way to ask them. All fight had gone out of him.
‘I’m sorry,’ Dominic said again.
Tears slipped down Jonathan’s cheeks.
‘We found a body in Ecclesall Woods today and—’
The heartbreaking sound came up from somewhere deep within Jonathan. It sounded like an animal in pain. He bent over and clutched himself.
‘We believe it to be Julie,’ Dominic finished, to make sure they knew the reality of what they were there to tell them and so that there was no confusion later.
‘It’s not Julie, she’s missing. We just need to find her. She’s missing, she’s not dead,’ Jonathan pleaded.
‘I visited the site earlier and having seen a photograph I strongly believe it to be Julie, but we do need you to do an official identification to make sure.’
Jonathan rubbed his face where the tears were tracking down his cheeks. ‘So, it might not be, you still need me to tell you if it is her or not? It still might not be her, this isn’t a definitive.’ He was clinging on to the last vestiges of hope.
‘We do need you to do the official identification, but it will be for official purposes only, Jonathan. I’m sorry.’
Helen sobbed and Jonathan cradled her close to him as they united in their grief.
‘When can I see her?’ Jonathan asked, his voice broken and weak.
Dominic took in a deep breath. ‘I can take you to see her tomorrow. She isn’t currently in any state to be visited.’
Jonathan sagged against Helen. It was as though the air had gone out of him. All the fight had taken flight.
‘My beautiful girl. What did he do to you?’
Chapter 15
Dominic
Dominic’s ears pricked up. ‘What do you mean, what did he do to you? Who is he?’ Dominic leaned forward, eager to know what it was Jonathan was talking about.
‘Julie was dating. It’s on the notes, I presume they made notes, the cops that took her missing report, I said she was dating some guy she’d met online.’
Hayley had read the report and relayed it to him, but there wasn’t a lot of detail. ‘What can you tell us about him?’ There never tended to be much information when an adult went missing. You expected them to come back. Return to their lives when they were good and ready. If there was no mental health issue, or any major health concern, which there wasn’t with Julie, then it was often considered that they had gone somewhere of their own volition and would return in the same manner they had left, abruptly and without a word to anyone.
Dominic remembered Julie’s report stated she was dating, that it had been an online relationship until recently and that she had last been seen . . . He looked to Hayley, she shrugged and pulled out the report from the folder she was holding and flicked through the pages until she found the one she was looking for and handed it to him.
‘We never met him.’ Helen wiped away the tears but more were falling as she admitted what must have keenly felt like a failure on their part. ‘It was all quite new and Julie said we’d meet him when she was happy they were a definite thing. She wanted to know it was real first.’
A deep sob bubbled up from Jonathan.
The page Hayley handed to him stared up at him. Ed had been left at home while his mother went out. When she didn’t come home he got in touch with his uncle who reported her missing. When Jonathan tried to get in touch with her and couldn’t he had worried so had gone around to her house and collected Ed. It was weird being there without her.
Hayley looked up from what she was reading. ‘Were there signs he had been in the house?’
Jonathan shook his head. ‘Not that I could tell.’
Dominic peered over Hayley’s shoulder at the pile of paper on her knee. ‘Would you mind going over there and walking through the house with us? We’re going to need to search it anyway, but I’d like your eye on the place. We don’t know what’s out of place and what isn’t.’
Hayley gave him a dead-eyed stare. They were not supposed to go in before the CSU team.
‘He’ll be suited up. We won’t contaminate anything, but he can offer us a unique insight.’
There was a sliver of light that cut into Jonathan’s eyes. He looked a little more alive. He sat up straighter. ‘I’ll do it. I’ll take you to her house and look at it with you. If I can help you then I’ll do it.’ His voice was like a child at Christmas, all eager to please and full of wishes that very probably wouldn’t come true. Santa wasn’t real and he didn’t come down the chimney.
Dominic agreed to meet Jonathan and Helen at Julie’s address after they had talked to Ed and told him they were popping out for half an hour. They would inform him of his mother’s loss when they returned. When they could spend the time with him. Now they needed to do this for Julie.
In the car Dominic called the office and asked them to arrange for the CSI search team to meet them at the address, giving them fifteen minutes grace to walk around the house first.
‘Do we even have suits in the boot?’ Hayley asked.
‘Sure we do.’ Dominic indicated right.
‘And you want to do this?’
‘Uh huh.’ He took the turning.
‘What if it turns out that Jonathan killed her?’
‘Then he deserves an Oscar and we are covering ourselves by making sure he’s fully covered in a Tyvek suit. Look, he’s already admitted he’s been in there anyway and he’s a regular visitor. He’s her brother, whatever we find in there that belongs to him isn’t going to work in our favour, he’s going to say it got there long before we went in. He’s family. Stop worrying.’
Hayley blew air out through her nose.
‘He didn’t do this, Hayley.’ He turned right onto Daresbury Road.
‘I know,’ she mumbled. ‘I hate that you’re right all the time.’
‘If it makes you feel any better I lost on the horses at the weekend.’
She snorted. ‘How did I not know you gambled on the horses?’
He turned and laughed at her. ‘Because I don’t. I was trying to make you feel better. Did it work?’
She laughed and punched him in the arm. ‘That’s for being a dick.’
‘That’s Sergeant Dick, to you.’
The house was a tidy mid-terraced on Myrtle Road, Heeley. Jonathan and Helen were not here yet.
‘What are you expecting to find?’ Hayley asked.
‘I don’t know, but she was seeing someone. I’m wondering if that someone had access to the house, if he left any clues to his identity in there. If he did then Jonathan and Helen might be able to pick it out.’
And right on cue their Fiesta pulled up behind them. Jonathan was out like a shot. The house key in his hand, ready to charge up the path and enter his sister’s house.
‘Slow down.’ Dominic held up a hand to placate him. ‘We need to get into the lovely white suits first. Protocol,’ he said as Jonathan gave him a look.
It was with a jerky frustration that Jonathan clambered into the suit he was given and as he waited for everyone else to get into theirs his fingers tapped at the side of his legs.
‘Okay.’ Dominic gathered everyone together. ‘We stay close at all times. This isn’t an opportunity to go off and look around on your own. There is going to be an official search of the premises shortly, we are here for a visual search only, no touching anything. We shouldn’t even be here but I’m doing this to see if it can help us.’ He stared into Jonathan’s eyes. ‘Are we clear?’
Jonathan scratched at his nose. ‘We are.’
‘I know this is difficult, but you’re doing us a huge favour by being here today. If you see anything you don’t recognise, let myself or Hayley know. Or if you see something out of place, let either one of us know. Whatever you do, do not touch, pick up or move anything inside that house. Clear again?’
Jonathan looked to Helen before answering. She grabbed his hand and offered him a weak smile which he reciprocated in kind. ‘Yes.’ It was as though they were trying the smile on for size and it didn’t fit properly because it quickly slid off their faces. It would be a long time before either of them were comfortable with that feeling again. Their lives had been torn apart and here Dominic was pushing them into an emotional storm that was their sister’s house. The place she called home. Her safe place. A place she would never be coming back to again.
They trooped up the narrow pathway down the side of the house to the small garden at the back, Dominic in the lead, with the key in his hand, Hayley bringing up the rear. He placed the key in the lock of the back door, the one Julie used, and heard a sharp intake of breath.
‘Jonathan, are you sure you’re okay to do this?’
BLOOD STAINED an unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 1) Page 7