by David Blake
Barrington turned to Tanner. ‘How about you?’
‘Personally, sir, I think the case rests on the sperm sample. It was clearly placed there intentionally, and if not by either Simon Richardson or Stephen Perry, then it must have been another person.’
‘No kidding!’
‘I suggest we look into the possibility that Richardson has been having an affair with someone else. Perry said during his interview that the only reason why he was only able to go away for the weekend once a month was because Richardson was busy. But if his wife worked half the weekend, it’s difficult to see what he’d have been busy doing, unless it was spending time with another man, or maybe even a woman. So I suggest we begin a background check on Richardson, to see if there’s any sign of him seeing someone else, and go from there. Meanwhile, it may be worth speaking to his neighbours, to see if they’ve either seen or heard him entertaining any other visitors. As he works predominantly from home, with both Stephen Perry and his wife at the pub, it would be a relatively straightforward process for him to invite other people around.’
‘OK, do it! But before you let Richardson go, I want forensics back at his house. See if they can find any prints of anyone other than him and his wife. And get them to check his car as well!’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘And you’d better delay releasing Stephen Perry. The longer we can hold off on the press finding out that we’ve just been forced to release our two prime suspects, the better!’
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
IT WASN’T UNTIL gone nine o’clock in the evening that forensics finished dusting for prints in Simon Richardson’s house. Barrington had left work long before, leaving Tanner, Burgess and Jenny to frantically search through Richardson’s electronic communications, desperately looking for some evidence that he’d been recently seeing someone on the side, someone other than the bar manager from the Bittern.
Whilst they did that, Cooper and Gilbert drove down to ask the couple’s neighbours if they’d seen anyone, male or female, making regular visits.
When the electronic records yielded nothing, and with none of the neighbours having seen any cars pull up or people arrive frequently, other than the house’s owners, Barrington was eventually forced to give the order to release both Richardson and Perry, with full knowledge that they didn’t have a single other suspect in mind to replace them.
However, the Chief Inspector’s plan for them to leave unnoticed by the press backfired in a quite dramatic fashion. Although Richardson was more than happy to leave by the back door, and to be driven discreetly to the end of his road in the back of a police van, Steven Perry refused point-blank. Instead, he marched out the front door, straight up to the awaiting press, and spent a good ten minutes ranting and raving about how he and Simon Richardson had been wrongly accused of murder, and the only reason they’d been arrested in the first place was because they were in a homosexual relationship together.
For the journalists who’d been waiting outside since that morning, with nothing more to show for it other than a series of no comments and some pictures and video of two unknown men being led inside, this news was an absolute godsend. Furthermore, it happened just in time to make the live feed to the 10 o’clock evening news.
For just about everyone else involved, it was the very worst thing that could happen.
For Simon Richardson, it meant that everyone now knew he was gay, something he’d been desperate to hide since he was a teenager. That was why he’d asked Jane to marry him, so that he could blend in with society without anyone ever finding out. It was also the reason why it had been so difficult for them to have children. He’d never been able to find her sexually attractive, and it had been a real struggle for him to become aroused enough in her presence for them to have sexual intercourse.
For Jane’s parents, the news came as a humiliating slap in the face. To find out on the national news that their son-in-law was not only gay, but had been cheating on their murdered daughter with another man, sent Ruth Lambert into a demonic rage, which ended up in her breaking down in torrents of tears and locking herself in the bathroom.
John had never seen her in such a state, and became so concerned that she might attempt to take her own life that he called for the family doctor, who came straight away. When he managed to persuade her to unlock the bathroom door, he gave her a heavy sedative, and John was able to help her to bed.
It was only after she fell asleep, and the doctor left, that John felt able to vent his own fury, which he did by putting a call through to his solicitor. The Norfolk Constabulary, and especially DCI Barrington, were going to pay, literally, for having brought so much public humiliation to him and his family.
But Barrington didn’t have a chance to think about how John Lambert was going to react to the news. As soon as the bulletin aired, he received a call from his immediate superior, Superintendent Phillip Whitaker, demanding to know just what the hell he thought he was playing at, arresting not one but two people for the murder of John Lambert’s daughter, only to then release them without charge, and in such a public manner. The situation seemed so desperate that Barrington felt forced to lie to him, saying that another arrest was imminent.
Barrington then phoned Burgess, demanding to know exactly why he’d allowed Stephen Perry to go anywhere near the press, let alone hold his own impromptu press conference right outside Wroxham Police Station, when he’d given him strict instructions not to.
Burgess, in his defence, said that once they’d released Stephen Perry, short of somehow convincing the local magistrate to slap a gagging order on him, they had very little control over what he did, or who he decided to talk to about the case and his relationship with Richardson.
Barrington became even more upset when he learnt that neither Burgess, Tanner, nor anyone else at the station had managed to find a single other person, male or female, who’d been having an intimate relationship with Simon Richardson, intimate enough at least to actively encourage him to provide them with a sample of his semen.
With the case at a complete dead end, an exasperated Barrington told them all to go home, but to be at work first thing the next day, at which time he expected Burgess to brief his team on a new plan going forward.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Wednesday, 17th April
MUCH LIKE EVERYONE else, Tanner left Wroxham Police Station feeling drained and frustrated. Their work over the past two days had resulted in nothing more than the announcement that the husband of a murder victim was gay, and that he’d been having an affair with another man. As far as the investigation was concerned, they were right back where they’d started: with the body of an attractive young woman, about halfway through her pregnancy, who’d been beaten over the head, strangled, raped, and then dumped into the river. And the only clue as to who’d been responsible led to two people who had a rock solid alibi.
At the start of the day, Tanner had been hoping to ask Jenny out for a meal again, maybe somewhere different; but not now. It was clear leaving work that neither of them had an appetite for doing so. All they wanted to do was to go home and get some rest; and after dining alone at the Maltsters pub, that was exactly what Tanner did, making sure he’d set his phone to go off twenty minutes earlier than usual before falling into another deep, dreamless sleep.
It wasn’t his alarm that woke him up. It was a phone call about five minutes before it was due to go off, from the very person he’d woken up thinking about.
‘Tanner, it’s Jenny. Are you awake?’
He blinked the web of sleep from his eyes. ‘Just about.’
‘Burgess just called me,’ she said. ‘Another body’s been found!’
Disturbing images of his daughter crowded Tanner’s mind.
‘Are you still there?’
‘Sorry. Yes,’ he replied, fighting to shake off the memories.
As his brain cleared, and feeling more awake, he asked, ‘Whereabouts?’
‘A carpark in Irstead. I
t’s at the northern end of the Broads.’
‘Does it look like it’s connected?’
‘All Burgess told me was that it’s another woman, to call you, and to head up there. I know where it is. Do you want me to pick you up?’
‘That would be useful, thanks.’
With the early roads devoid of traffic, it wasn’t long before the Golf’s headlights were illuminating the florescent yellow jacket of a uniformed police constable, stomping his feet in a bid to keep warm, with his collar zipped all the way up to his nose.
Recognising first her car, and then Jenny behind the steering wheel, he stood to one side to direct her into a small public carpark.
Through tendrils of mist illuminated by the car’s headlights, they could see that the entire far section of the carpark had been cordoned off with a line of blue and white police tape. Before that, an ambulance waited with two police cars and three other vehicles, one of which Tanner recognised as belonging to DI Burgess.
After Jenny had parked, they made their way over towards another yellow-jacketed PC.
He held up the police tape for them, and as they ducked underneath, he nodded over towards the river, saying, ‘The body is on the slipway.’
Tanner saw there was a narrow concrete sloping ramp that led down into the river, presumably used to launch and retrieve small sailing craft, like single-engine powerboats and dinghies.
Standing on the edge of the slipway, facing down the slope with his hands buried deep in his pockets, the figure of DI Burgess was silhouetted against the surrounding mist.
Hearing someone approach, he glanced around.
When he saw Tanner and Jenny, he looked surprisingly pleased.
‘What’ve we got?’ asked Tanner, as he approached, although by that time he could already see.
At the base of the slipway, half-submerged in the river, lay the crumpled body of a blood-soaked young woman, her pale white face staring up at them, as if pleading for help.
Kneeling down beside her was someone who was now familiar to him.
‘We’re not sure,’ replied Burgess, looking down at the body. ‘Dr Johnstone’s just finishing.’
Having heard the conversation going on behind him, the doctor got to his feet and made his way up the slipway.
As he pulled off a pair of bloodied latex gloves, he said, ‘She’s in a bit of a state, I’m afraid.’
‘How long’s she been dead for?’ asked Burgess.
‘Not long. I’d say around eight hours.’
‘Cause of death?’
‘Well, she didn’t drown, I know that much. And there’s no sign she was strangled. I’m fairly certain it was from a single blow to the front of her head.’
‘Like the last one?’
‘I’d say so, yes. But there’s something else, which isn’t very pleasant, I’m afraid.’
Burgess, Tanner and Jenny all frowned over at him.
‘She’s been cut open.’
Staring back towards the body, Burgess said, ‘Sorry, but how d’you mean?’
‘Her abdomen. It looks as if someone’s tried to disembowel her.’
Hearing that, Jenny instinctively lifted her hand to her mouth to ask, ‘But…why would anyone do such a thing?’
‘I’ve got no idea,’ replied the doctor, and turned to glance back down at her, just as black syrup-like water began lapping against her exposed thighs. ‘But at least forensics should have more luck with this one. She’s only been partially submerged, as you can see.’
‘I assume she wasn’t killed here?’ asked Tanner.
‘I doubt it. There’s not nearly enough blood. My guess would be that whoever did this was intending to use the slipway to dump the body into the river. And as there’s no sign of any blood anywhere except down at the bottom, she must have been wrapped up in something. That, or she was originally in the back of a car which was reversed down the slope. Either way, I think it’s likely that the intention had been for her to have been pushed all the way out into the river; not left like this. So maybe whoever did this was disturbed before he had a chance to finish the job.’
Nodding in agreement, Burgess asked, ‘How long till we can have the post-mortem report?’
‘Somehow I knew you were going to ask that. I’ll push for end of play today.’
Catching his eye, Tanner asked, ‘Would it be possible to have an interim report before then? Maybe by late morning?’
‘I’ll do the best I can.’
The doctor was about to leave, when he turned to say, ‘Oh, I nearly forgot,’ and reached inside his forensics overalls to pull out a series of clear plastic evidence bags.
Handing them over to Burgess, he said, ‘I didn’t find a handbag or anything, but I found a mobile phone in her coat pocket. The others are her items of jewellery, all I could get off her at least. Anyway, assuming the phone belongs to her, identifying this one should at least be considerably more straightforward than the last.’
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
THERE WAS A buzz in the air at Wroxham Police Station, as the news spread that the body of another woman had been found in the early hours of the morning, with similar injuries to Jane Richardson. The good news was that the mobile phone gave them the means to make a formal identification.
As they waited for an interim report to come through from the medical examiner, Burgess and Tanner went over the details with Barrington in his office, whilst deciding how best to proceed.
Just before ten o’clock, Dr Johnstone emailed the report through.
Ten minutes after that, Barrington led Burgess and Tanner out into the main office to begin a station-wide briefing.
‘If I could have everyone’s attention!’ he called out, as the three of them reached the whiteboard at the far end of the office, now covered in a series of headshots, scrawled marker pen notes and references.
He waited for everyone to settle down.
‘As I’m sure you all know by now, on Monday we discovered the body of a young woman who we identified as being Jane Richardson, the manager of the Bittern pub, and who was brutally murdered on her way back from work at around half past ten on Saturday night.
‘On Tuesday we arrested two people in connection with the murder, the victim’s husband, Simon Richardson, and the man who we later discovered he’d been having an affair with, Mr Stephen Perry. However, despite substantial evidence against them, both suspects were eventually able to produce an alibi that was supported by both video and photographic material, giving us no choice but to release them.
‘As of seven o’clock this morning, we have another victim. The full post-mortem has yet to come through, but what we’ve learnt so far gives us reason to believe that this woman has also been murdered, and most likely by the same person.
‘Before I hand you over to DI Burgess, I just want to remind you of the serious nature of these crimes and what it means if they are linked, so I expect you all to give Burgess your continued commitment and support. And I hope it goes without saying that with the media interest in serial killers being as it is, we’ll be under the spotlight even more now.
‘Over to you, Burgess!’
Taking a step forward, Burgess stared around at everyone in the room.
‘As DCI Barrington has said,’ he began, ‘it looks like we have a double murder on our hands.’
Allowing the room to fall silent, he turned to face the whiteboard behind him.
From a plastic folder he removed a photograph which he posted adjacent to that of Jane Richardson. The new photograph was of a girl in her late twenties or early thirties with dark brown hair, smiling at the camera. In her hand was a glass of red wine, and surrounding her was a group of girls, all of whom looked to be having a great time. The incongruity of that image, given the circumstances, wasn’t lost on any of them.
‘We’ve yet to formally identify the body, but at this stage we believe the second victim is Mrs Emily Harris from Great Yarmouth. She was reported missing by her husband
this morning. According to him, she went to visit her mother after work yesterday evening, but never returned.’
He looked over at the picture again.
‘Emily was thirty-two years old, Co-Founder and Director of Powell Harris Estate Agents, located just down the road from where she lives. She was killed by a single blow to her frontal lobe. The wound is almost identical to that noted on Jane Richardson’s head. She was also raped, post-mortem. There’s something else as well.’
He hesitated. ‘It looks like someone attempted to disembowel her.’
A stunned silence fell over the office.
‘We don’t know if Jane Richardson suffered the same fate. As you know, she was pulled into the propeller of a reversing boat, so it was impossible to tell, but I don’t think we should rule it out.
‘Emily’s body was found at the base of a slipway in the small village of Irstead. It’s believed that she was murdered around eight or nine hours earlier. That gives us an approximate time of death of between ten and eleven o’clock last night. However, we don’t believe she was killed where she was found, so the body must have been left on the slipway sometime afterwards. We think the intention was to push her body out into the River Ant, but for some reason that didn’t happen, possibly because whoever did this was interrupted. If that is the case, then there’s a strong chance that we may have ourselves a witness.’
DS Cooper raised his hand.
‘Are there any CCTV cameras in the area?’
‘We couldn’t see any, no, but it would be worth checking, both in the carpark where the slipway is, and on any approaching roads. Have a look and let me know. And whilst you’re there, start going door to door to ask if anyone saw anything unusual last night. Take a couple of uniforms down to help.’
He turned his attention back to the wider group, now listening in grim-faced silence.
‘As you’ve been told, both victims were raped post-mortem. In the case of Jane Richardson, semen was found inside her which belonged to her husband, Simon Richardson. That was one of the main reasons why we arrested him. Semen has also been found inside the second victim. It too belongs to Simon Richardson.’