by Ellis, Tim
‘Condom lubricant, but no semen?’
‘Correct.’
‘Thanks, Doc, we’ll bugger off, as you so charmingly put it, and let you get on.’
‘Good, have a wonderful day.’
Outside in the corridor as they walked to the lift Tony said, ‘Back to the station now, Gov?’
‘Yes, I’ll meet you there.’
‘Are you going somewhere first?’
‘When you need to know where I’m going, Tony, I’ll tell you. I won’t be long, and if it’s desperate I’m on my mobile.’
Tony shrugged. ‘Okay, Gov.’
It was two forty-five when Molly climbed into her car and started the engine. She drove to the nearest row of shops on Scrubs Lane, near the BBC Worldwide Centre, and found a chemist. While she was waiting, she popped to the cashpoint outside a rival bank, put credit on her mobile and took out £100 cash. After she’d paid a fortune for her two prescriptions, she thought she’d better take one of each tablet before her head exploded.
Back in her car, she phoned Randall again.
‘Hello, Molly, can’t get enough of me, huh?’
‘Doc Firestone found another of Pike’s pubic hairs on the female from last night’s murders.’
‘Mmmm.’
‘Is that all you have to say?’
‘For now.’
‘But…’
The phone went dead. She’d forgotten how irritating Randall could be. ‘You fucking bastard,’ she screamed into the phone, and felt better for it.
Chapter Thirty
Back in his flat, Randall phoned RHINO.
‘Not you again, Mr Randall?’
‘No, it’s the tooth fairy.’
‘I should be so lucky.’
‘I want another favour.’
‘And here’s me thinking you were going to tell me I’d won the lottery.’
‘I need phone and credit card records for a Malachi Pike, 7 Stratford Court, Kensington.’
‘You really think he killed your family?’ RHINO asked then didn’t bother waiting for an answer. ‘I saw him on the TV, you know. He doesn’t look like a serial killer.’
‘You know what serial killers looks like, RHINO? Maybe you should be the detective, and I should be the idle good-for-nothing entrepreneur?’
‘Well…’
‘I rang you for phone and credit card records, not your advice on catching serial killers. Can you do what I’ve asked or not?’
‘I can do it, Mr Randall, but I should tell you that your telephone manner sucks, and considering the number of people this guy’s killed already, maybe you could do with my advice.’
He ignored RHINO’s comments. ‘You’ll email me?’
‘As soon as I have something. Couple of hours maybe.’
‘Thanks, RHINO.’
‘You’re welcome, Mr Randall.’
He was just about to phone Izzard when Molly phoned again. ‘Hello, Molly, can’t get enough of me, huh?’
‘Doc Firestone found another of Pike’s pubic hairs on the female from last night’s murders.’
‘Mmmm.’
‘Is that all you have to say?’
‘For now.’
‘But…’
He cut her off and phoned Izzard. ‘I need another favour.’
‘Is this related to the murder of your wife and kids again?’
‘Until I catch the bastard, everything I’m doing is for them.’
‘Tell me what you need?’
‘The other night your man Blow and me were watching a guy’s flat to see if he came out.’
‘Yeah, Blow told me. No one came out.’
‘I had a look inside the flat, and there’s a secret exit.’
‘And you need this secret exit watched?’
‘Yes.’
‘Listen, what about we set up CCTV surveillance on all the exits, then it’ll be covered?’
‘If it’s not too much trouble, but if the guy comes out of the hidden exit – and it’ll probably be at night if he does – I’d like him followed and someone to call me.’
‘Consider it sorted. I’ll send a surveillance expert to the address. You’ll meet her there in say, thirty minutes, show her where the exits are?’
‘I’ll be there. Her?’
‘You’ll see. We’re done then, unless…?’
‘No, nothing else. Thanks.’
‘As we both know, I owe you, and I always pay my debts. No thanks necessary.’ Randall had saved Izzard, his wife and four kids when a ruthless property dealer, in an effort to obtain the land, had resorted to burning the pool hall down while they were all asleep upstairs. Randall had arrived just in time, killed two of the heavies and arrested another one, who gave up his boss for a reduced sentence.
The call disconnected.
After a quick visit to the toilet, he left the flat and made his way back to 7 Stratford Court on the tube, which gave him time to think about Pike’s pubic hair. Was Pike the killer? If he was, how was the bastard doing it? How could he kill a whole family and still be in his bed or half way across the world? He couldn’t. Maybe he had a partner. Maybe Pike wasn’t the killer. Maybe it was someone they hadn’t even thought of yet, and Pike really was being set up. Although he didn’t like to admit it, he could now see how Jack Miller might have got it so wrong. Planting evidence muddied the waters and sent everyone off chasing shadows. It was difficult to know what was real and what was make believe.
Outside Pike’s flat he found a young woman with short black spiky hair, heavy blue eyeliner, cherry red lipstick, and a pink quilted coat waiting for him.
‘Mr Randall?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m Athena Izzard.’
‘The goddess of wisdom is Izzard’s daughter?’
‘Yes.’
‘How old are you, Athena?’
‘Seventeen.’
‘And already a surveillance expert?’
‘Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, Mr Randall. I thought it was more interesting than taking a degree in pure mathematics and statistics at Cambridge University.’ She waved at a dark blue van with SECURITY SOLUTIONS in large white lettering on the side. Four shifty looking men in dark blue coveralls climbed out. ‘Walk us round the exits and we’ll get started.’
He led the way to the alley with the rusty white van and pointed out the narrow pathway along the overgrown river.
‘You’re kidding me about the degree, aren’t you?’ he said as they walked towards the rear of the property.
‘Cambridge begged me. I have an IQ of 152. I don’t need a degree to prove I’m intelligent. I decided that starting my own company was a better option. Now I’m worth fifteen million.’
‘You’re joking? Security Solutions is your company?’
‘Since I was fifteen, but my dad had to cover for me until I was legally entitled to own a company. I was sorry to hear about your family, Mr Randall.’
‘Thanks. So, you’re a multi-millionaire?’
‘Yep. My dad says you’re not a policeman anymore?’
‘No. So, if Pike comes out of that tunnel you’ll follow him and call me.’
‘Those are your instructions.’ She gave him a business card. ‘When you’ve finished doing whatever it is you’re doing, come and see me. I can always use a good security consultant.’
‘I don’t know anything about putting up CCTV cameras.’
Athena laughed. ‘Neither do I, I employ engineers to do that. If you don’t mind working for the beautiful goddess of wisdom, I can offer you £100,000 a year plus expenses and you can choose when you work.’
Christ, that was three times his salary as a DI, but with the sale of the house, the interest, and the compensation he had all the money he needed, and anyway, it wouldn’t be of any use where he was going. ‘Modest as well. Thanks for the offer, Athena, but I’m not planning on staying around.’
‘Well, if you change your mind, the job’s yours for the taking. I need someone I can trust, and I s
hould be able to trust the man who saved my life.’
After they’d exchanged mobile numbers, he left Athena and her workers to put up the CCTV surveillance of Pike’s flat, and walked back to the tube station. It was four fifteen when he caught the District Line train from Kensington High Street to Notting Hill Gate and then followed the tourists to Portobello Road. He’d forgotten that Saturday was antique market day, and he felt like an antique himself as he fought his way through the crowds like an old soldier just back from the wars. He trudged under the Westway Bridge and deep into the wilds of the fruit & vegetable market before he found number 200 in the middle of the antique stalls near Chepstow Villas. Darkness had arrived like an unwelcome guest and he backtracked slightly to buy a large torch with batteries at a stall in the new goods market on Talbot Road.
The building was a boarded-up derelict three-story brick and concrete office block with broken windows on the upper floors, and stood behind a 12-foot wooden fence. According to a Pike Property Development sign high up on the fence, construction work would commence in January and was scheduled for completion in September. In the meantime, the building was considered unsafe and KEEP OUT signs had been prominently displayed all along the fence.
He found the entrance to the site flush in the wooden fence, picked the lock, and slipped inside.
Chapter Thirty-One
Molly arrived back at the station at three forty with a clear head and feeling unusually chirpy. Tony, Abby, and Paul were in the incident room. Frank and Lucy were still out.
‘The Magistrate wouldn’t entertain a search warrant for Pike’s phone and credit card records with a restraining order in place,’ Abby said as Molly took off her coat. ‘But she did give me the court order to access Jacob Hansen’s medical records.’
‘Okay, well done, Abby.’
‘And… I phoned Broadmoor. You have an appointment with a Dr Harry Maslow at two o’clock tomorrow afternoon.’
‘We’ll go together, Abby.’
Abby grinned. ‘Me?’
‘You did the work, you should reap the benefits.’
‘Great. Thanks, Gov.’
‘I’m surplus to requirements all of a sudden?’ Tony complained. ‘I’ve never been to Broadmoor.’
‘Neither have I,’ Abby said.
‘Now now, children,’ Molly said. ‘I’ve made my decision, Tony, live with it. I see you’ve done the Monroe incident board?’
‘Perkins told me to tell you that apart from the message, the Tarot card, and the symbol on the girl’s forehead, he didn’t find anything useful.’
‘When does he ever? What about the 999 calls?’
‘Are you ready for this?’
‘Do I need a coffee before you tell me?’
‘Probably, Gov. Abby can make it seeing as she’s going to Broadmoor and I’m not.’
‘You’re a baby, Tony,’ Abby said getting up and heading towards the kitchen.’
‘Go on, Tony, surprise me?’
‘The same caller.’
‘Pike?’ Molly said hopefully.
‘No. Rochelle compared the voice with Pike’s interviews and it wasn’t a match.’
‘Shit,’ she said as Abby came back and passed her a mug of coffee. Molly stared at Tony and her eyes narrowed. ‘Rochelle?’
‘That’s the woman who did the analysis, she showed me the computer software she uses, it’s bloody marvellous. It looks at pitch height, modulation, range, and…’
‘Have you had sex with her yet?’
Tony’s eyes and mouth opened wide. ‘Gov, I don’t know…’
‘You know very well, Tony Read. If you haven’t shagged her yet, she’ll be on the menu for tonight.’
Tony smirked, but didn’t say anything.
Paul cleared his throat of phlegm. ‘The more we find out, the more obvious it becomes that Pike’s not the killer.’
‘Let’s not jump to conclusions,’ Molly said. ‘Just because he didn’t make the phone calls doesn’t mean he’s not the killer.’
‘Not that again, Gov,’ Tony said. ‘There’s no evidence to suggest that there’s more than one killer.’
‘Another person?’ Abby said. ‘Where did that come from?’
‘From the fevered imagination of DI Stone,’ Tony told her.
‘It’s one possible hypothesis,’ Molly said. ‘We’re detectives, we should examine all possibilities, and the possibility that there is more than one killer might explain how Pike can be in two places at the same time.’ She wanted to tell them about the secret exit in Pike’s flat, but she knew that if she did it would open a can of worms.
‘It’s a possibility only if we think Pike is our killer, Gov,’ Paul said, ‘and some of us don’t. Some of us want to forget about Pike and look for other suspects. Some of us think we’ve wasted too much time on Pike already.’
‘Is "some of us" all of you?’
No one would look at her except Paul. ‘Sorry, Gov.’
‘Does that include Frank and Lucy?’
‘Yes, Gov.’
She smiled. ‘It’s a good job we have another suspect then, isn’t it?’
Frank and Lucy came through the door. ‘Hi, Gov,’ Frank said. ‘Everything Pike told us checks out. He was with the Blueberry girls he said he was with, on the nights he said he was with them. He’s a regular customer. I think we should forget about Pike.’
‘What about INTERPOL?’
‘I phoned them this morning. They said there was nothing resembling our murders anywhere that Pike had visited.’
Molly sighed. ‘We still don’t know how Pike’s pubic hairs ended up on two of our victims.’
‘The killer must have acquired them somehow,’ Frank said. ‘Maybe he’s got a grudge against Pike, maybe he just doesn’t like rich people. I’m sure that it wouldn’t be hard to get hold of someone’s pubic hairs if you really wanted to.’
‘So none of you believe that Pike could be our killer?’
All the team shook their heads.
‘Okay, I give up,’ Molly said. ‘Pike is officially off the suspect list. Take him down from the suspect board and let’s forget about him.’ She wouldn’t forget about him though, and she knew Randall wouldn’t either.
‘I’ve finished identifying the two-children families, Gov,’ Paul said.
‘And…?’
‘In the Hammersmith area alone there are four thousand and sixty-three that are on the electoral roll.’
‘Can’t we eliminate some of them – excuse the pun – or rank them in some way?’ Lucy said.
‘In what way?’ Paul said. ‘I’ve read the paper on geographical profiling. The killer might very well be hunting in familiar territory. We might also predict that he lives in this area bordered by Paddenswick Road to the east, Shepherd’s Bush Road to the west, the A402 to the north, and Glenthorne Road to the south, because the first three crime scenes are within that boundary. Then the killer begins moving outwards for the fourth and fifth murders. As for identifying his next target, I don’t think it’s possible.’
‘Well, maybe near to far?’ Lucy suggested.
Paul stood up and walked to the map on the wall. ‘Near to far from where? If you look at the locations of the five murders, there’s no pattern.’ He ran his finger from one address to another as he spoke. ‘The Bates family was murdered two years ago at 12 Carthew Road.’ He moved his finger directly south. ‘Then sixth months later the Anderson family was murdered at 65 Aspen Gardens.’ His finger traced a line north-east. ‘At 45 Poplar Close Randall’s wife and two children were murdered a year ago.’ His finger dropped south again. ‘The turner family was murdered at 16 Crisp Road on Thursday morning.’ He moved his finger north-west. ‘Last night the Monroe family was murdered at 24 Rylett Crescent.’ He turned to face everyone. ‘If someone can see a pattern there they should point it out because I don’t see a bloody thing.’
‘What about drawing concentric circles using the centre of that area you described,’ Abby offered.<
br />
‘I’ve not been sitting here with my thumb up my arse, you know, Abby. All day I’ve been playing with this data, and I can tell you that in the circle where the fourth and fifth murders fall there’s over a thousand families with two children. In the next band, there are between six and eight hundred. If we selected a few families to keep an eye on, the selection would be purely random. It would be a bit like doing the lottery on a Saturday night – the odds might be slightly better, but that’s about all.’
‘So let’s summarise what we’ve achieved today.’ Molly said sarcasm dripping from her words like treacle as she was sitting on the edge of Abby’s desk. ‘The Monroe family was murdered in the early hours of this morning, and apart from another Tarot card, another Hebrew symbol, and another pubic hair which is about as much use as a fucking concrete parachute, we’ve had no help from forensics.’ She took a deep breath. ‘We’ve also eliminated our prime suspect from consideration…’
‘The restraining order forced our hand in that, Gov,’ Tony said trying to erect a defence.
Molly ignored him. ‘…We didn’t get a search warrant for Pike’s credit card and phone records; we couldn’t destroy Pike’s alibis; we drew a blank at INTERPOL; the voice analysis of the 999 tapes was of no help whatsoever; and we can’t identify where the killer’s going to strike next. Would that be an accurate representation of what we’ve achieved today?’
‘We did get a court order for Jacob Hansen’s medical records, Gov,’ Abby said.
‘So we did, a sliver of light in an otherwise dismal day.’ She also thought about the phone call from the Chief, and her derogatory comments about the way she looked and her inability to handle the press effectively, but she kept those to herself. There had also been that crappy message from the killer, and Pike rubbishing her in front of the whole world. She didn’t know whether her trip to see Dr Lytton had given her some hope, but she hated that she had to wait until probably Friday before she got some answers. All in all she’d had a really bad day. ‘I shouldn’t need to tell you that we’re running out of time,’ she continued, ‘but I thought it was worth mentioning. All we have left now is Jacob Hansen as a possible suspect, and we don’t know who he is, where he is, or what he looks like.’