Crimesight

by Joy Ellis

  She made a strong coffee, took it back to the bathroom, closed the door and turned on the shower. Hot water in a torrent poured over her naked body, and she felt her courage returning. She must be careful not to get overtired. It played havoc with the senses, and it didn’t make for a sharp detective. Formidable enquiry or not, she must take time to recharge the batteries, and make sure the others in her team did too. Scott had still been working when she left, and that wasn’t fair. Okay, so he was a lot younger, but even bright kids like Scotty could burn-out.

  Kate stepped out of the shower, pulled on her dressing gown and went back to the bedroom. Opening the wardrobe, she decided that today she needed bright colours to lift her. She pulled out one or two garments, then stuffed them back again.

  ‘Try the cream linen trousers and the autumn shade multi-colour silk shirt.’ David eased himself up onto the pillows and rubbed his eyes. ‘Yesterday you looked like a wine waiter.’

  Kate gave a little laugh. At least David’s bad mood seemed to have evaporated. ‘You could be right.’ She pulled them out, added a rich, deep conker-coloured jacket and smiled back. ‘Spot on, Gok Wan. You should dress me more often.’

  ‘Actually I should un-dress you more often. Only you are rarely around when I go to bed.’ He ran his fingers through his sleep-tousled hair. ‘What the dickens was the time when you got home last night?’

  ‘After two. Just in time for a hug with our Eddie.’

  ‘He got up to see you?’

  ‘Bless him, yes. But he was constantly re-aligning the kitchen storage containers. Has he been counting more than normal?’

  ‘Yeah, and checking and re-checking everything he does. I think it’s the assessment weighing on his mind.’

  ‘Its tomorrow, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’ He threw her a worried look. ‘I know this is a big case, but you’re not going to miss it, are you?’

  ‘Have I ever?’ Kate pushed away the irritation that was building up. ‘I’ll be there, David. The dead can wait. Our boy is very much alive and he needs us. Jon will cover me for a couple of hours.’

  He looked at her and nodded. He didn’t say anything, but she knew he suspected that one day, she’d let them down. Kate grimaced. But that would never happen. No matter how difficult it became, Eddie came first.

  She dried her hair, and David went downstairs to make her some toast.

  They ate breakfast together, and then seeing that it was almost seven, Kate gathered up her bag, her phone and her car keys. ‘I really will try to be earlier tonight.’

  ‘We’d all like that, but….’ He gave her a rueful smile. ‘Sorry I grumbled at you last night. If you can’t make dinner, just keep in touch and I’ll leave something out for you.’ He kissed her, then held her tighter and whispered, ‘Just take care, okay?’ He held her away from him and looked her full in the eyes. ‘I may not tell you too often and I know that sometimes I behave like a selfish prat, but I do love you, and I do care, even though you probably don’t think so.’

  Kate hugged him back. ‘I’m the selfish prat, David. But I love and care too. Things will change after this is over. You know that, don’t you?’

  ‘Let’s hope so. Now go dodge the bullets and do your best to get home in time for supper with us boys.’ He pushed her gently through the front door and waved until she drew out of the driveway and onto the road.

  One hundred yards further down, and out of sight of the house, Kate pulled over and sat in the silence of the car and cried.

  One mile from the station, her phone rang. She switched to hands free. ‘Jon? You at work already?’

  ‘I am, and I’m sorry to start your day like this, but we’ve got a problem.’

  ‘Lord forbid that things should get easier!’ she muttered. ‘What’s wrong now?’

  ‘Micah Lee has done a runner from the hospital.’

  ‘What! How the fuck did that happen?’ Anger coursed through her. Which idiot had allowed that to occur? Whoever it was they’d better be prepared for the bollocking of the century.

  ‘It was no-one’s fault really, Guv, apart perhaps from underestimating his illness and his strength.’

  Kate gripped the wheel tighter. It was always someone’s fault when a prisoner got away. It didn’t happen often, but ten to one, if it were going to happen at all, then it was when they’d got themselves into a hospital.

  ‘Okay, tell me. Just don’t say someone left their post to go to the sodding toilet or blood may flow.’

  ‘No, nothing like that. They thought he was unconscious when they took him down to radiology for a scan. There were two constables and two nurses with him, but as he came out of the scanner and they went to replace the restraints, he went ballistic. He’s badly hurt one of the Boston men, concussed the other, and laid out both nurses.’

  ‘Jesus!’ Kate’s anger was immediately replaced by concern. ‘How badly hurt?’

  ‘Suspected fractured skull, ma’am. Apparently he smashed their heads together. PC Bladon came off worse. PC Smythe is mildly concussed.’

  ‘And the hospital staff?’

  ‘Shaken up and bruised, but no serious injury.’

  ‘So, where did he go? Was CCTV operational?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am. He was seen at the rear of the hospital where he accosted a porter, took his clothes and his wallet, then went over the hospital wall and made off through residential gardens and fields towards the West Fen Catchwater Drain.’

  ‘So we lost him?’

  Kate heard an intake of breath, then a sigh. ‘We lost him.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll be there in ten. Get me a very strong black coffee and we’ll re-group.’

  Kate hung up and tried to remember just how good it had felt to have David’s arms around her. Then she laughed bitterly. For one moment there, she’d actually thought it may be a better day!

  When Kate reached the murder room, her anger had dispersed, and she was left with a stomach-churning feeling that everything was slipping away from her.

  The only person in the big room was Jon, and he looked about as cheerful as she felt. One look at his chalk-white face told her that his night had been no better than hers. ‘Bad night with the un-dead?’ Her voice was almost a whisper, even though they were alone.

  ‘It was Fleur again.’ He sat down heavily and stared up at Kate. ‘She kept me awake for an hour, but she’s not finding it easy to communicate. She can only show me vague pictures and sometimes just the hint of a word. I caught the word dead, but little else.’

  ‘And the pictures?’

  ‘Nothing I could really get an angle on. It looked like a partly demolished mill, one with no sails. But it meant nothing to me.’

  Kate sat down next to him. ‘If she said the word, dead, and showed you a picture of a mill, could she have died there? Or maybe that’s where she was originally buried?’

  Jon raised his shoulders and let them drop. ‘She was so upset, she made little sense. I’ve been trying to understand, but I could make out nothing to help us.’ He threw her an apologetic look. ‘This gift of mine can be a God send, and it can be frustrating beyond belief.’

  ‘Oh, come on! Yesterday she told you her name!’ Kate tried to give him an uplifting smile, and failed miserably. ‘Well, at least we have something to work on.’

  ‘I suppose.’ He also tried to smile, and made an even worse job of it than she had.

  ‘Oh, before I forget, there is one thing. Scotty left a note to say that two more victims have been unofficially identified via the PNC. We need the lab results to be certain, but their first names and DOBs match. One is a youngster from Bristol called Corrie Anderson, and the other girl, Charlotte King is from Hull.’

  ‘And neither rings a bell. Our killer always took low-profile missing persons from a miscellany of different locations, didn’t he? No-one who was ever plastered across the tabloids or made the media in a big way.’

  ‘Ma’am?’ Jon’s head was tilted slightly to one side, and he stared at K
ate with a perplexed expression. ‘I’m thinking about those dates of birth. What is it about being born on a Wednesday that makes them a candidate for death?’

  Kate’s head shook slowly from side to side. ‘I suggest we’ll only know that when the case is over. And right now, I think we’d better concentrate on trying to capture Mad Micah, don’t you?’ She heaved in a deep breath. ‘And while we wait for the others to get in, will you ring the psychiatric hospital for me and see if Elizabeth is fit enough to interview?’

  Jon stood up and went to get the number, and as he flicked through his file, he said, ‘So where do you think Micah will have gone?’

  The sixty five thousand dollar question. ‘If Benedict Broome were free, then I would have laid good money on Micah homing directly on him, but…’

  ‘Will he go home, do you think? If he’s mentally unstable maybe he needs a familiar place?’

  ‘But surely he knows we’ll be watching there. There are already uniformed officers at the farm. And Windrush is crawling with police and forensics.’

  Jon began to speak on the phone and Kate decided that wherever he was, Micah needed finding. She could still see the anger in his craggy, ugly face when they arrived to search Windrush. Maybe his anguish had been because he had known even then, that it was the beginning of the end for the Children’s Ward.

  Jon hung up. ‘You have a green light, ma’am. They are a bit iffy, but it’s okay as long as her doctor sits in, and you keep the interview short.’

  ‘At bloody last, something’s going right!’

  Rosie and Kate hurried from the car park and up to the heavy glass doors of Saltern Hall Psychiatric Hospital. Kate pushed the intercom button and announced their names. The door hummed and the catch released.

  ‘Dr Mason is expecting you. I’ll escort you down to his wing.’ The receptionist was a smartly uniformed man of around thirty. He was short-haired, tall and muscular, and not the sort you’d willingly mess with.

  In this ultra-modern building of glass and toughened steel, there were no rattling key chains, metal locks and clanging iron doors anymore, just pass cards and security number pads.

  Elizabeth was in a private room, with two constables stationed outside. Dr Leonard Mason and a male nurse were waiting with her, and let them into the room. It was spotlessly clean, and although rather Spartan, seemed comfortable enough.

  Kate had been warned that Elizabeth would be under mild sedation, and although perfectly lucid, she was fragile, and her psychiatrist and another medic would remain with them throughout the interview.

  Kate had already decided to keep the questions to essentials only, just in case the plug was pulled on them.

  They both introduced themselves in the gentlest voices that they could muster, considering the fact that they could be addressing an accomplice to multiple murder.

  Elizabeth looked at them blankly. There was very little expression on her face, until her eyes fell on Rosie. ‘What a pretty girl.’ she said, a strange smile twisting her lips. ‘You remind me of…,’ Her head tilted this way and that, making Kate think of a nodding dog that Marcus had once acquired for the back of the family car. ‘No, then again, she was much blonder.’ The smile remained; although the eyes were probably the saddest Kate had ever seen.

  Kate wondered who she was thinking of, but as that was not essential, they began to talk about the things that were.

  ‘Elizabeth, your employer Benedict Broome sends his best wishes. He said to tell you that he is fine and that you are not to worry about anything. He said that you can talk to us quite candidly. We are only here to find the truth. Do you understand?’

  Again that strange tilting of the head. ‘Ah yes, Mr Broome. Benedict.’ She tugged at her long sleeves, pulling them down over her thin fingers.

  Rosie added. ‘Is he a good employer? Does he treat you well?’

  ‘Oh yes! I couldn’t wish for better. He’s very kind. I don’t know what I’d do without him.’ Her fingers, just protruding from her sleeves, interlaced in a constant twisting motion. ‘But what do you want with me? Why am I here?’

  ‘We have something here that we’d like you to see. We were wondering if you recognise it.’ Kate placed a clear plastic evidence bag in front of her. Inside it was one of the name labels from the underground chamber. Even through the film, Kate could clearly see the name, Lucy, written on it. ‘Is this your writing?’

  ‘I think so.’ Her eyes squinted slightly as she tried to make out the neat print through the plastic. ‘I’m sure I wrote that.’

  Kate heard Rosie take a deep breath. ‘What is it, Elizabeth? What was it for?’

  There was no reply, and Kate hurriedly quashed the overwhelming desire to lean forward and shake her. ‘Is it yours, or did someone ask you to do it for them?’

  The fingers danced irritatingly. ‘It’s not mine.’ She frowned. ‘But who…?’

  ‘Mr Broome, maybe?’ Rosie maintained a calm, unruffled voice.

  ‘It must have been, mustn’t it?’ She pushed it back towards them.

  ‘A friend, maybe?’ Kate asked, disguising the fact that she was far from calm.

  ‘I.., I’m not sure.’

  Kate bit her lip, and felt sharp eyes boring into her.

  ‘Careful,’ mouthed Mason. ‘Don’t push her.’

  She looked at the mousy woman thoughtfully. She wasn’t nearly as old as she looked. She was very thin, fine boned, with almost porcelain-like skin tones, but there was something around those sad eyes that told Kate that she was not quite as weak as she portrayed. Suddenly Kate decided on a different tack. ‘Micah Lee is missing, Miss Sewell. He’s disappeared.’

  The fluttering hands flew to her mouth, she gave a little gasp, and Dr Mason found his voice. ‘DCI Reynard, can I have a word, please? Outside.’

  And that was exactly what Kate wanted. Rosie remained quietly seated as Kate stood up and accompanied the doctor outside. She was to get a strict warning about the kind of questioning that could provoke distress in his patient, and Rosie would get the chance to see Elizabeth’s honest reaction to her statement.

  Kate listened to the doctor’s animated words, but watched with her peripheral vision through the window. And she saw Rosie’s lips moving, a smile dancing across them, and her eyes follow every nuance of the woman sitting opposite her. And Kate could also see that she was getting a response. With only the nurse and the ‘pretty girl’ in attendance, Elizabeth Sewell seemed to feel less threatened. That being the case, Kate decided to throw in some small remonstration about his objection to her questioning techniques and extend her expulsion from the room a little longer.

  She hung out their ‘chat’ for five minutes, then was allowed back in for just a short while longer. So she asked about the tunnels. But this time there was apparently no understanding at all. Elizabeth said that she had never heard Mr Broome speak of tunnels or underground rooms at Windrush. She’d been there several times with him, but never alone.

  Kate placed the evidence bag back on her lap, and raised her eyebrows. ‘Any more thoughts on this?’

  ‘Philip,’ she said suddenly. ‘They were for the cages for some of the animals at his veterinary surgery. The unlucky ones.’

  Kate’s head spun. Philip? Philip Graves? ‘How do you know Philip the vet?’

  ‘I work for him’ For the first time she really smiled. ‘Only as a volunteer. I love animals. I’ve helped out there in my spare time for years.’

  ‘And you wrote these for Philip Graves.’ Kate pointed to the cards.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she murmured, ‘I thought his labels had names like Fluffy, and Rocky on them? And little pictures of bones and paw prints? Oh dear, maybe I’m getting confused.’ The hands began their erratic dancing in her lap.

  ‘I think that’s enough now.’ Dr Mason drew a firm line under the interview.

  The two detectives thanked the woman, although Kate could have strangled her, and they left.

  As they waited for the escort
to get them out of the unit, Rosie said softly. ‘Guess who I remind her of?’

  Kate raised an eyebrow. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer?’

  ‘Very droll, Guv. No, I remind her of someone called Fleur.’

  ‘Hellfire! The oldest victim?’ Kate breathed. ‘Jon’s mystery teenage stalker. So what’s the connection between the first girl to die and Elizabeth Sewell?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but she was pretty pissed with herself for having told me. I just threw the comment in, and she answered without thinking. I asked her who Fleur is, and she clammed up, went on to talk abut Micah.’

  ‘And what did she say about him?’

  ‘She’s desperate we find him. And she said something rather odd.’ Rosie frowned. ‘She said that you and I should leave him to the men to sort out.’

  ‘Meaning what, I wonder?’

  ‘Well, I reckon she’s meaning that he is a danger to women.’

  ‘That’s not exactly news. I should think Micah is a danger to anyone, male, female, animal or vegetable.’

  Rosie lowered her voice as the escort arrived. ‘I don’t think that’s quite what she meant. There was a distinct warning in her voice.’

  They walked back down the sterile corridors and were finally let out into the fresh air.

  Kate unlocked the car and flung her handbag onto the back seat. ‘Right, back to the station, Rosie, and the first thing for you is to check Philip Graves’ vet’s practice. See if the ‘unlucky ones’ get nice little name cards with paw prints on them, courtesy of kindly voluntary worker, Elizabeth Sewell.’

  ‘Will do, Guv. And what then?’

  ‘I’m even more anxious to discover all that we can about Fleur. Her connection to Elizabeth puzzles me, and it could be a major lead if we can identify her. Pitch in with Scott and Jon on that one.’

  As they crawled slowly through the traffic that had built up in the town centre, Kate asked Rosie what she thought about Elizabeth.

  ‘I get the impression that she’s genuinely confused, and she’s bothered by it. Her confusion is probably caused by the cocktail of drugs that she’s on, but I cannot see her being involved in anything as hideous as the killings. Although saying that, I’m certain that she’d remain loyal to Benedict Broome with her dying breath if necessary. She may be a fruit loop, but I swear she’s not a deliberate liar.’