“‘Ello, it’s Stephen Huxley speaking.”
“Put it on speakerphone,” I said.
But Stephen seemed distracted by whatever was being said, and it took him a minute to do as I’d asked.
“Here, look, putting you on speakerphone, Taylor.”
“Darren?”
Whilst I’d perked up at the sound of her name, her worried voice made my chest go tight.
“What is it? What’s wrong? Was there another one?” I said, rushed.
“No, no,” she said, and then dropped her voice to a low hiss, “there’s someone following me, Darren.”
“What?” I snapped, alarmed. The traffic lights flashed up red ahead of me and I only just stopped the car in time. “Where are you? Are you with friends?” I knew she wasn’t though; she wouldn’t have called otherwise.
“I’m in town,” she said quietly. “There’s no-one around. I’m a while from my friend’s home.” Her voice was shaking. “I was j-just coming back from my yoga class.”
“Dammit,” I muttered. “Taylor, we’re still ten minutes out.” I turned to Stephen. “Call the station, send someone over to meet her.”
Stephen nodded solemnly and got on his radio.
“Where are you now?” I asked. “Keep talking to me.”
“Just walking down by the railway station,” she said, before her breath hitched audibly.
“Taylor?” There was a clatter, then silence. “Taylor!”
I stabbed the siren on and took off, snarling at the cars that wouldn’t get out the way. Night had closed in, and images of finding Taylor like those students made me feel sick.
“Stephen,” I said tightly. “Have they dispatched someone?”
“Yes, but we’re probably about as close as them, now,” he said, his large hand wrapped around the handle above the door as I swung us around a corner. We weren’t too far from the railway station, but the traffic was slowing us down as cars tried to manoeuvre out of our way.
“Come on, come on,” I hissed.
“Darren, pull over here,” Stephen said sharply. “We need to be in the streets, anyway. This is as close as you’ll get.”
I did as he said, pulling up with a painful bump on the curve by the war memorial, before launching myself out of the car. It was too early for clubbers to be out yet, and scant few people were out in the side streets, though I could hear noise and commotion from nearer to the city centre.
“Aw hell, it’s Halloween, isn’t it?” I cursed.
“Yeah,” Stephen said.
There would be crowds, the ghost tour, and lots of possible victims or witnesses, depending on which way things fell. But Taylor had said there were few people around where she’d been walking, and we needed to find her.
“Taylor!” I yelled, making Stephen jump.
“Christ, mate, I’m not sure you’re meant to announce our position like that!”
I set off at a jog, twisting my head to look down the streets. “She dropped her phone, or it was taken off her. How else are we going to find her exactly?” I snapped.
My legs ached from my run earlier as we ran around the twisting streets, with me calling for her every few minutes, but there was no sign of her. Were we going to stumble on her body, twisted into some unnatural position, like all those poor animals? I couldn’t bear it.
“Taylor!” I yelled. I heard something and skidded to a stop, Stephen cursing as he couldn’t get his bulk to come to such a sudden halt and skidded on the wet slabs of stones.
“Taylor?” I called again before listening intently.
A figure skidded around the corner up ahead at a run, and I was instantly on guard, braced to call for back-up and to defend myself. Then a light flickered through, catching the lines of Taylor’s terrified face, and my knees went soft.
“Taylor,” I said, so relieved it was like an ache.
“Darren!” She threw herself into my arms, and I pulled her close, so damn glad she was okay.
After a second, I gently pushed her back. “Are you hurt? Do you know where they went?” I flicked on the torch on my phone and looked her over, but she seemed to be all in one piece.
She put her hand on my phone to angle the light away. “I’m okay. I’m okay, thank God.” She was panting and shaking, her face blanched white despite the cold night and the running. “I think it was a man,” she gasped out. “He had a hood, he-”
I looked behind her, scanning the streets, and swore I saw movement at the corner that Taylor had skidded around.
“Stephen, look after her,” I barked, before jamming my phone in my pocket and ducking around Taylor to take off at a sprint.
The stone was slippery, and I almost fell over as I turned the corner at speed, but I was rewarded by the sight of a bobbing figure running away, towards the city centre.
Finally! Something solid that I could chase after, without dozens of frustrating dead-ends and wrong turns.
I shoved off the wall and pelted after them, my breath sawing in my chest as I drove my legs hard. I wasn’t as fit as I’d been once, but I was still a long-distance fell runner. I refused to let this killer, if that’s what he was, slip away.
We twisted through the streets, with him always just ahead, even as I gained on him. He was fast, fast and agile, and his shoes seemed to grip better than my trainers, the treads too worn down.
I rounded a corner too fast, and my foot went out from under me, leaving me to land painfully on my hip with my leg twisting as I landed. I swore, scrambling up with a wince and shoved myself off, running with a lopsided limp until I’d worked through the discomfort and my leg didn’t seem at risk of folding under me.
“Stop! Police!” I yelled. My fall had slowed me down, but I’d made up for that quickly. I was still catching up with the guy.
We were getting closer to the city where the Halloween crowds had built up, and I swore, loudly enough to startle a couple walking by me. I chased after the hooded figure, but he was shoving his way through the clusters of people, dodging in and out, and I could just feel him slipping through my fingers as it got harder to keep track of his head amongst the people.
“Move!” I shouted, breathless with running. “Police! Move!”
But people were too slow to realise what was happening, and by the time they’d cottoned on, my quarry had slid out of sight. I tried to go after him, but I couldn’t see a match for the hooded guy I’d been following, and I had nothing else to go on. No idea of hair or face shape or age, just general height and build.
I hissed a curse and folded over my knees as I caught my breath. I glanced around to find a street name and radioed in my position, but I knew it’d be too late. The guy would ditch his hoodie, and then we’d have no useful description at all to track him down by.
Furious, tired, and defeated, I called Stephen to find out where he was, and then went to meet back up with him and Taylor. I was relieved to see that her cheeks looked a more normal colour, and she didn’t look as wild with terror as she had when she’d slammed into me.
“Did you-?” she started hopefully when she saw me approach, before her face fell and she broke off, clearly seeing the frustrated expression on my face.
“He got away in the crowds,” I muttered. Stephen was scanning the ground with his torch, and I walked over to him. My skin was buzzing with the exercise, hot and almost stinging with the sudden blood flow and adrenaline. “What’re you looking for?” I asked him.
“Taylor’s phone.”
“Ah.” With a sigh, I got out my own phone and started looking, but it was Taylor who found it in the end, the screen cracked but still working.
I straightened up with a groan from where I’d been bent over, looking, and Taylor shot me a sympathetic look.
“Thanks for trying, Darren,” she said gently.
“Failed to catch the guy, failed to find the damn phone,” I grumbled, already dipping into a foul mood. All the high I’d gotten from the moors had worn off.
Ste
phen sent me a harsh look, nodding his head pointedly towards Taylor. It took me a minute, but I got his meaning. Taylor was okay, and it was she who’d feared for her life this evening. I needed to get myself together for her, at least.
“Come on,” I said with a sigh, going over to her. “Let’s get you home.” I wasn’t sure whether she’d want to be touched or not, but she answered that for me by reaching out hesitantly to take my hand. I squeezed it lightly and mustered a weak smile that she probably couldn’t even see in the dark.
“You’re okay, and that’s what matters,” I said, which was true, but hell if I wasn’t furious at myself for letting that bloke run off. He could’ve been our killer, and I’d failed to grab him when I’d had the chance. “I need better trainers.”
Taylor blinked at me in surprise as we walked back to Stephen and I’s car. “You need… better trainers?” she repeated.
“Aye,” I sighed. “They don’t grip properly. I was sliding all over the place.”
“Ah,” she said in understanding.
I squeezed her hand gently as we reached the car. “Go on in,” I said, gesturing for her to take the front passenger seat, which she did, and then closing the door behind her.
I turned to Stephen. “We’ll drop her off at her friend’s and then head to the station.” I stretched my arms up above my head with a wince, before trying to ease the kinks out of my tired legs. “You mind driving?” I gave him a stern look. “Carefully.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m always careful.”
Stephen got in the driver’s seat while I got in the back, feeling a little out of place. I’d not been in the back of a police car for quite some time, and the change of perspective was strange.
Taylor didn’t speak much, and Stephen kept the radio at a low hum, just enough to soften the silence. I looked out the window at York passing by while keeping an ear on my radio. I’d relayed where I lost sight of the man, and what he’d been wearing, but it was hardly anything to go on. They hadn’t found him, and were heading back to the station, where Gaskell would be waiting and wanting a full rundown of the night’s events, no doubt. I was ready to fall straight into bed, after the busy day we’d had.
I knew I should ask Taylor more about Will, what she’d known of him and which members of the university staff had dealt with his expulsion. But now wasn’t the time. She was still shaken, and it was late.
We pulled up outside the address she’d directed us to, and her friend came hurrying out of the house immediately. He was a man who looked significantly younger than Taylor and I, with almost shoulder-length black hair and warm, brown skin. He wrapped Taylor in a hug the moment she got out of the car.
“Thank Christ you’re okay,” he said.
He turned to me and smiled brightly, though I could see the tightness around his forehead and the shadows under his eyes.
He thrust out a hand for me to shake. “I’m Ian, and you’re the Darren I’ve heard so much about?”
I chuckled, liking him immediately. “I hope it was all good.”
“Oh, glowing reports,” he said charmingly.
Taylor was shivering, and I squeezed her shoulder gently. “I’m sorry about…” I started, before wincing and gesturing vaguely. “All of it.”
She gave me a soft look. “It’s not your fault. And thank you for turning up when you did.”
“Anytime,” I said, and meant it. I looked over at Ian and gave him a nod. “Have a safe night.”
“And you, Officer,” he said, giving me a little salute.
I shook my head with a tired laugh and headed back to the car, pausing by the door to watch Ian guide Taylor into the house. I was glad she wouldn’t be alone tonight, and I thought she needed a friend right now, rather than a one-date lover she’d not known very long. Plus, I was inextricably linked with the problems she was having right now, as the DCI in charge of the case, and she probably didn’t want any more reminders.
“You alright?” Stephen asked, as I got back in. “Did her friend seem decent?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, clipping my belt in and leaning back in the seat, ready to fall asleep. “It’s good she’s got someone to stay with.”
“You don’t wish she was staying with you?” Stephen asked quietly.
I grimaced. “Not really. I think she needs space right now, not to be crowded by me.”
Stephen nodded. “I’m glad we agree.”
I couldn’t help but laugh quietly. “That was a test, was it? Is now where you tell me you’re her big brother and will run me through with a pike if I upset her?”
Stephen chuckled in that deep voice of his. “No,” he said. “I think she’ll be fine doing that herself if you step out of line.”
I huffed. “Thanks a bunch.” We were quiet for a minute, getting close to the station. The complete darkness of the autumn evening made it feel considerably later than it was. “She might just set her cat on me,” I mused.
“I think you need some sleep,” Stephen said.
“Probably.”
We parked up at the station and headed up the floors to our desks, taking the lift for once. I caught Stephen's grimace as we crossed the office floor and I frowned at him.
“You pull something?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It’s that rugby injury I told you about. I twisted my knee, and it still plays up sometimes.”
I winced in sympathy. “I’m sorry. You should’ve told me. I would’ve stopped ragging on you to come running with me.”
He sent me a tired smile. “I’ll remember to remind you of that the next time you’re annoyingly healthy.”
We got back to our desks. Gaskell was in his office, and I sighed as he waved us over.
“You look like how I feel,” he said, looking over the pair of us. “So we’ve got this man, who might be our stalker-killer, following this teacher-”
“Taylor.”
Gaskell raised an eyebrow at me. “This teacher,” he said, ignoring me, “and nobody managed to get their hands on him. Is that about the sum of it?”
“Yes, sir.” I didn’t have the energy for defending myself at present, and Gaskell seemed to realise it as he sighed.
“What now, then, gents? Hm?”
I shrugged, trying to get my brain in gear. “We look for cameras in the area that might’ve caught, sir. Appeal for witnesses; people in the crowd, or stallholders at the market.”
Gaskell grunted. “You can try that, certainly. And this student you went off after earlier today?” He glanced at his screen, which probably had my report from yesterday up on it. “Will Seton. Any news on that?”
“Well, sir,” I said, and then hesitated, not sure how much of what Taylor had told me I wanted to relay. I decided to keep it plain and simple. “The teacher, Taylor, who was in the middle of things today, she had a run-in with this Will. He was a student of hers, before he got expelled, sir.”
Gaskell looked a touch more awake as he focused, though he must have known this from the report I sent him. But he had a lot on right now, so I would hardly have been surprised if he’d forgotten some of it. “That’s a coincidence.”
“Maybe, maybe not, sir.”
He nodded. “Alright. You’ll be bringing her in for a statement and trying to track down this bloke. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you?”
That had indeed been my plan, but I just nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. Go catch some sleep. You look dead on your feet, the pair of you.”
I glanced at Stephen, and he did look pretty tired. We’d both been up early to get over to Will’s parents, and the driving and the stress really took it out of you.
“Thanks, sir,” Stephen said, with a nod, before leading the way out of the office. Shrugging on our coats and picking up our things, we headed downstairs.
“Don’t suppose you’ll be running home tonight?”
I gave Stephen an incredulous look. “Are you joking? Any more running and my legs will fall off.”
Stephen grinned. “‘Course I was joking.” He gave me a nod. “You did bring your car, though, didn’t you?”
I wasn’t entirely sure for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I did. I’d already been hoping to go on a run up the moor, so I took the car in this morning.”
Stephen looked faintly impressed. “You’d make a good chess player. Ten steps ahead, aren’t you?”
“When running?” I said cheekily. “Way more than ten steps ahead of you, mate.”
We’d reached the car park, and he rolled his eyes. “You are fast, though. Took off like a shot after the runner.”
I rubbed a hand through my hair, feeling uncomfortable at the praise, which I hardly felt I’d deserved. My hair felt faintly sticky, and I grimaced, already longing for a hot shower.
“Wasn’t fast enough, though,” I said.
“Nobody else could’ve tried harder,” Stephen said seriously, before he gave a little wave and headed off towards his car, cutting off the conversation.
I shook my head, watching him for a minute as he walked away, before I headed over to my own car. Today had been a long one, and I was looking forward to a fresh start tomorrow.
Sixteen
I had been right. My legs were sore as heck the next morning. I groaned as I got out of bed, feeling about a hundred years old, and limped my way around the flat as I tried to get ready for work.
Loaded up with caffeine, I was beginning to feel more human as I turned up at my desk and found Stephen already there.
“You’re early,” I said.
He glanced sideways at me. “Nope, you’re late.”
I checked my watch. “Well, damn.”
It was someone’s birthday at the station, and cake and doughnuts sat temptingly on the side in the break room. I ignored them, feeling like my stomach would reject all that sugar right now.
“Feeling a bit worse for wear, huh?”
“I’ve had worse,” I said, thinking of that time I careened down a scree slope whilst being shot at. Good times.
Stephen snorted. “I can believe that, somehow.”
I glanced down at my watch again. “You think it’s too early to call Taylor?”
Campus Killings Page 17