Hunted on the Fens

by Joy Ellis

  ‘I think I’ll organise something myself, Sergeant. Thanks all the same, but I’ve seen the pool cars.’

  Joseph smiled. ‘A load of junk.’ He looked at Nikki. ‘Don’t worry. If you don’t want to hire a vehicle, you can car-share with me until you get yours back.’

  ‘Actually I can use my Dad’s old car. I’d planned to sell it after he went into the nursing home, but like most things, I haven’t got around to it.’

  Dave walked over to them. ‘Is it alright if I still go to the hospital, ma’am? There’s not much I can do to help here, is there?’ He was staring at the bloody words as he spoke. ‘And what the hell does that mean?’

  Nikki had no intention of keeping Dave in the dark about the arson attack at her home, but decided to leave explanations until the next day. ‘We’ve an idea, Dave, but I’ll fill you in in the morning. You get over to the hospital and see that girl of ours. Give her our love and tell her we’ll take it in turns to visit, okay?’

  Dave nodded, smiled a tired smile that faded quickly. Then he said, ‘Ma’am? You’ve seen Cat, haven’t you? Is she, well, is the poor kid going to be badly disfigured?’

  ‘I don’t know, Dave. She was covered in dressings when we saw her. The doctor warned us that she would be scarred, but how badly? I don’t know.’

  ‘I wish it had been me,’ he said softly. ‘I’m an ugly old sod anyway, it really wouldn’t have mattered that much, but Cat, well, Cat is a lovely girl.’

  Nikki reached out and touched his arm. ‘Go see her. Let her know just how much we care, okay? And more than anything try to keep her spirits up. You never know how someone will react to a traumatic experience like that when it all sinks in.’

  As Dave walked away, Nikki called, ‘And ring me later. Let me know how she is.’

  ‘Will do, ma’am.’

  * * *

  Back in her office she looked at Joseph anxiously. ‘Little doubt now about the connection between what happened to Danny and Cat and my fire, is there?’

  Joseph ran a hand through his thick, light brown hair. ‘I’d like to disagree, but I can’t. No way could the wording on that bloody message be coincidence.’

  ‘What I want to know is, is this personal? Or a general attack on police officers?’

  ‘I’d also like to know if those words are written in animal or human blood.’

  ‘I’ve asked the sergeant to ring me when the SOCO gets here. I’ll make quite sure that we get an answer to that one ASAP.’ She sank down in her chair. ‘What a piss-poor day! I just cannot believe that Danny Wilshire is dead.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Joseph. I’m not for one moment understating the severity of what has happened, but what do we actually know about PC Danny Wilshire? Because what if he was the intended target?’

  Joseph screwed up his face. ‘Okay, I’ll play devil’s advocate. You state the known facts and I’ll put a different slant on them.’

  ‘Right. So he was very well liked.’

  ‘By us, but not necessarily by the criminal fraternity.’

  ‘Highly thought of by senior officers.’

  ‘A brown-nose?’

  ‘Excellent arrest rate for one so young.’

  ‘That will certainly not make him flavour of the month with the villains.’

  ‘Comes from a family of police officers. Bob was old-school, but he helped put a hell of a lot of people away. So did his father before him.’

  ‘Ah, well, that means he could have inherited an old feud, some bad blood festering away from years ago.’

  Nikki leaned back in her chair. ‘Perhaps we should check out his service record?’

  ‘And perhaps we should let the dust settle first?’

  Nikki’s face hardened. ‘We don’t have the time for niceties. I’ve been labelled a hard-hearted bitch many times before. I can cope with that. Something nasty is going on here and I don’t want to wait until another officer gets killed or maimed. I want to know everything there is to know about Danny Wilshire, and as soon as possible.’

  ‘And Cat? What if the killer was intending to kill her, but hit Danny instead?’

  ‘Cat’s different. Her past is an open book. Her enemies are our enemies.’ She raised her shoulders in a small shrug. ‘And we can talk to Cat. Danny can’t explain anything anymore, can he? If for no other reason than to give his wife some answers, we need to discover if his death was a tragic random killing, or something deliberate.’

  Joseph nodded. ‘Agreed. Shall I get onto that?’

  ‘Please. Then get yourself over to the hospital and relieve Dave.’

  ‘Our Cat could be looking at major life changes.’ Joseph bit on his bottom lip. ‘I hope she copes with what has happened to her, and what she witnessed. It’s a wicked double whammy of trauma for her.’

  Nikki rested her chin in her cupped hands and leaned forward to face Joseph across her desk. ‘I think Cat will cope very well. She has a philosophy that says, Shit happens, so let’s deal with it.’

  ‘True. And with the team behind her, she has a better chance than most of getting through this undamaged.’ Then he added, ‘Mentally, that is.’

  As Joseph stood up to go, Nikki said, ‘Did you have any luck with that list of arsonists?’

  He exhaled and shook his head. ‘Not yet, but I’d barely started. I’ll get back on it as soon as I’ve looked at Danny’s service record.’

  ‘Right, and talk to his friends too. We need to know if he had any worries or secrets.’ She looked at him earnestly. ‘As soon as Dave knows the score it will be easier. He can help chase down anyone capable of starting a clever fire.’

  As Joseph closed the door behind him, Nikki had the feeling that no matter what they did or how hard they worked, they wouldn’t be fast enough to find whoever was behind all this before he struck again.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Cat woke up to find Dave fitfully dozing in the chair next to her. She would have smiled if she could.

  Even after all that had happened, his presence there made her feel safe. She couldn’t remember her own father, so she couldn’t make comparisons, but there was something about Dave Harris that always gave her a feeling of being looked after, watched out for, in a protective, fatherly kind of way. Not that she would have told him as much.

  ‘What does a girl have to do around here to get a drink of water?’ she croaked.

  Dave jumped up from his chair and instantly reached for the water jug from her locker. ‘Maybe I should check that it’s alright for you to have a drink?’ He held the glass hesitantly.

  ‘Give me the bloody water, Harris! It wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t allowed.’

  Dave leaned over and put the bendy straw to her lips. ‘Good point. How are you feeling?’

  ‘Like I’m in someone else’s body.’ She sipped the water and sighed. ‘Half of me is numb, and the other half feels like it’s run the Sea-bank Marathon.’

  Dave sat back down, leaving his hand draped reassuringly across her arm. ‘I’m just so glad to see you safe.’

  ‘Safe and remarkably in one piece.’ It was hard to talk when half of your face was dead and unresponsive, but she was alive. Unlike Danny.

  Cat’s whole frame gave an involuntary shudder. She saw again the look of shocked horror on the young officer’s face as he was hurtled forward and through the glass window. For a moment she wondered if that image would ever leave her.

  ‘The surgeon is very pleased with you,’ said Dave quietly. ‘And he told me that you had a piece of incredible luck. Apparently a shard of glass in your leg missed the femoral artery by a cat’s whisker. If it had pierced it, you would have bled out before the ambulance arrived.’ He squeezed her arm very gently. ‘So, my friend, when you consider that your eyes are also unharmed, I think we can safely say that you have a charmed life. And your Uncle Dave can breathe again.’

  ‘Great. Now let’s get down to the really important stuff, like did the doctor say when I can get back to work?’

/>   Dave gave an inappropriately loud laugh. ‘No, he did not! You have a lot of healing to do before you will be allowed back.’

  ‘I can heal just as easily behind my desk as I can at home.’

  ‘Much as we will miss your gobby little self, Cat, I’m afraid it’s one step at a time.’

  Patience was never her big thing. Still, as soon as she no longer looked like Frankenstein, she knew that DI Galena would have her back on desk duties. There was a murder enquiry running. The team needed her.

  She looked across to Dave. ‘I know I talked to the guv’nor before I went to theatre, but everything’s a bit fuzzy now. I seem to have forgotten a lot about what happened.’ Other than Danny’s death-mask face, she thought silently. She halted, not knowing how to ask the question that was eating away at her. ‘Dave? Was it an accident? Or were we deliberately run down?’

  Dave heaved a long sigh. His face was haggard as he said, ‘It was no accident, Cat.’

  She closed her eyes. ‘I’m cold, Dave.’ She began to shiver.

  A few minutes later, a chubby-faced nurse with kind brown eyes was placing an extra cover over her and checking her stats. She had a smile that reminded Cat of the cartoon mama on the Dolmio advert. ‘It’s shock, sweetheart. Just try to relax. I’ll go get you something to help you sleep for a while.’

  Cat wanted to answer but her teeth were chattering. She didn’t want to sleep. She didn’t want to be in hospital. She wanted to be back in the office, in the safest place she knew, with her friends and workmates.

  ‘It’s reaction,’ she heard someone say. ‘Surgery and anaesthesia has that effect on a lot of people, and that’s apart from the trauma she’s suffered in the accident.’

  Cat felt something cold go into the cannula in the back of her hand, and a heaviness descended over her. As she slipped into sleep, she wondered for the first time what she would see when she next looked into a mirror.

  * * *

  Dave rang Nikki just before her shift ended.

  ‘Cat’s asleep, ma’am, but someone really should be here when she wakes up.’

  ‘Joseph is already en route. He’ll be with you in ten.’

  ‘Good. I think it’s really starting to hit home now.’

  Nikki thought that would be the case. ‘I hate to go against her wishes, but I really do wonder if her mother should be contacted.’

  ‘Give her until tomorrow and let her make the decision, ma’am. I get the feeling her mother is pretty fragile. I think Cat knows how to deal with her better than anyone. You wouldn’t want to send the poor woman off the rails.’

  ‘True. Okay, I’ll talk to her in the morning. I’m assuming the operation went well?’

  ‘She’s pretty well patched up, but the doctor said that she will need another operation on her face . . . maybe more than one.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘But, as you can imagine, she wants to get back to work.’

  ‘I’d expect no less.’

  Dave rang off and Nikki went back to looking over the crime scene photographs from Operation Windmill. She still hadn’t seen the apartment. She glanced at her watch. It was only a ten minute walk to the Waterside Quay. She could check it out, then walk back and get a patrol car to run her home. Now was as good a time as any to acquaint herself with the place where Magda Hellekamp had died.

  She tidied her desk and pulled her jacket from the back of her chair. She felt tired. Actually she felt totally wrung out, but she knew that if she stopped, she’d start seeing floral tributes, orders of service and crematoriums in her head. ‘Oh Hannah,’ she whispered. ‘The world isn’t the same without you in it.’

  * * *

  Ten minutes later, she arrived at the gated entrance to the apartments. A few words into the intercom system had the gates opening, and she saw a tall, well-built man beckoning to her.

  ‘My name is Courtney, Don Courtney. I’ll take you up and let you in, DI Galena.’

  ‘I’ll wait for you.’

  She had to practically scamper to keep up with his long stride. ‘Were you on duty the night Ms Hellekamp died, Mr Courtney?’

  ‘No. I generally do day shifts. Grant Lawson was working that night.’ He looked at her with a slightly puzzled expression. ‘But you have all this on file. He was interviewed at the time.’

  ‘I’ve just come back after leave, sir,’ said Nikki. ‘This is my first trip to the murder scene. I need to get a feel for the place.’ She smiled at him. ‘And put some faces to the names in the records.’ She looked around at the manicured gardens and elegant design of the three-storey apartment blocks. ‘This place is something else, isn’t it? Straight from the pages of a glossy magazine.’

  ‘The standards here are very high, DI Galena. But then the owners pay for it.’

  ‘So I hear. Rather out of my price bracket, I fear.’

  ‘And mine.’ He waved a card at an entry lock and the door swung silently back. ‘Top floor. There is a lift, but it’s worth walking up as there are some lovely views across the gardens to the river.’

  ‘Then let’s walk.’

  The view from the third floor landing area was stunning. The gentle curve of the wide tidal river and the older red-brick buildings of Greenborough glistened and glowed in the evening sunshine. From this angle you could not see the docks, the Carborough Estate, or the main roads, and for once, Greenborough looked entirely pretty, peaceful and serene.

  ‘This is it.’ Courtney pointed to a door with a shiny highly-polished brass number 37 on it. ‘Any idea when it will be freed up? Surely there’s nothing left to gather from it? The letting agency is anxious to get it cleaned up and back in use.’

  ‘At the prices they charge, I can believe it.’ She shrugged. ‘But it will only be released when I understand how the killer got in and out of a locked apartment.’

  Courtney pulled a face. ‘Then they can kiss goodbye to their rent for a long while, can’t they? I’ve been trying to work that out ever since I came back on duty the day after the murder.’

  ‘And your thoughts?’

  ‘It’s impossible.’

  ‘Sorry to tell you this, but someone found it all too possible.’

  ‘But how?’ The man’s voice was exasperated.

  ‘Talk me through all the ways you could legitimately gain entry here.’

  ‘Right. If you are staying here, you have a special pass key. Well, they aren’t keys as such, they are called intelligent key cards and they use contactless technology. The locks and door furniture might look elegant, but they are state of the art RFID, that means Radio Frequency Identification.’ He held up his card in front of the brass handle plate and Nikki heard a click. Courtney turned the handle and the door opened. ‘The sensor in the lock recognises your card, and only your card.’

  Nikki thought about it. ‘And if you are a visitor?’

  ‘Intercom allows you to give access to visitors, but there’s a computerised record, and no one visited Ms Hellekamp that night.’

  ‘So what if the killer arrived with her when she entered the flat?’

  Courtney shook his head vehemently. ‘Sure he could have gone in that way but, according to the log, he never left.’

  ‘And what log is that?’

  ‘Audit log. In and out. Every time a door is used, the action is recorded. There was only one recorded entry and that tallied with Ms Hellekamp’s arrival home. End of story.’

  Nikki pursed her lips and whistled. ‘Mysterious.’ She looked through into the apartment. ‘I’ll be about ten minutes. Is that okay?’

  The man nodded. ‘I’ll be outside taking in the view. Take your time, DI Galena.’

  Nikki walked into unadulterated, decadent luxury. ‘Here in Greenborough?’ she said to herself, taking in beautifully worked wood, Italian marble, the softest leather, and massive glass picture windows with panoramic views. ‘I had no idea.’

  Magda Hellekamp had been shot in the huge open-plan lounge area. Nikki had already studied the photographs of the scene, but the
blood stains and splatters still remained to show her that Magda had been seated on one of the leather couches. After the shot hit her, she had slumped forwards to the floor.

  Nikki narrowed her eyes and pictured it.

  Sitting calmly, Magda either knew her killer very well, or was totally unaware of his presence. Nikki decided on the latter. He took her by surprise. One shot, perfectly placed. She was dead even before she hit the pure wool carpet.

  No doubt, this was a professional hit, another thing that you didn’t expect to find in the fenland market town of Greenborough.

  Nikki walked slowly through the apartment and wondered what it would be like to live in comfort like this. She sat down on the huge king-sized bed and sighed. ‘I’d feel constantly on edge,’ she told herself. ‘I’d never relax with all this technology and wildly expensive furnishings.’ She thought about the warmth and comfort that her old farmhouse offered. Well-trodden carpets, old armchairs with huge cushions that swallowed you up, weathered stone and scrubbed pine. ‘Sorry, Waterside Quay, you just lost out in the popularity contest to Cloud Cottage Farm.’

  ‘Are you okay?’ Courtney stood in the doorway.

  ‘Sorry, talking to myself. Comes with the territory, I’m afraid.’ Nikki threw her bag over her shoulder. ‘I’m done, thank you.’

  ‘And no closer to solving the problem, I assume?’

  ‘Well, a few things are swimming around in my head.’ Her tone was non-committal.

  The man ushered her out and checked the locked door. ‘Well, if you find an answer to this mystery, I’d really love to know what it is.’

  You and me both, sunshine, thought Nikki, but she said, ‘Thank you for your help, Mr Courtney. Oh, and I’m certain we will be releasing the apartment very soon.’ As Nikki jogged confidently down the stairs, she knew without turning round that the man had a surprised expression on his face.

  Although it was very satisfying, it was actually quite sad that she was conning him. She had no clue whatsoever as to how the murderer had left the room.

  Oh, Miss Marple, where are you when you are really needed?

  CHAPTER SIX