6.0 - The Face Behind The Mask

by Helen Phifer

  ‘Can I take a look at his room? I know this seems ridiculous and I’m not insinuating that you wouldn’t have already done this, but I have to ask. Have the staff checked the entire building: toilets, bathrooms, other residents’ rooms, kitchens, gardens, to make sure he isn’t in one of them?’

  ‘Yes, the entire building has been searched. There are two staff out checking the gardens as we speak. I’ve also checked our CCTV and he’s not come back through the front doors. We only have him leaving.’

  She led him down to Colin’s room. Jake was hoping the bloke would be curled up in his bed fast asleep. He followed the nurse in and almost sighed. Colin definitely wasn’t in his neatly made bed. He looked at the vintage circus prints on the wall and noticed a box on the bedside table. He picked it up and took the lid off to see a stack of black and white photographs, which he picked up and began to look through.

  They were actually very good considering their age and he smiled to see pictures of a circus tent with a row of clowns outside. The next one had only two clowns on it and was much clearer. There was something about it that jarred his mind. He stared at it. Why did it look so familiar? And then he realised exactly what looked familiar. He typed Will’s number into his radio keypad and waited for it to ring.

  ‘Go ahead.’

  ‘It’s Jake. I’m at Meadow Field nursing home in Grange. There’s something here I think you should take a look at.’

  ‘What are you talking about? Jake, I’ve got three bodies stacked up at the morgue. I haven’t got time to come to Grange.’

  ‘Well, I think you better make time because I’ve just found some old photos in one of the resident’s bedrooms and they’re of a clown wearing what looks like the exact same suit as your latest body.’

  ‘On my way.’

  The nurse looked at him, her mouth open, all the colour drained from her face.

  ‘Shit, not Colin’s body – sorry, that sounded wrong. A body has turned up wearing a similar costume to the one in this photograph. It’s a young lad.’

  ‘Oh, thank God for that. Oh no, I don’t mean that. It’s terrible someone is dead, but I’m relieved it’s not Colin.’

  Jake knew what she was trying to say. He just wished he knew what all of this meant. He crossed to the window that looked out onto the car park and knocked on it to catch Cathy’s attention. She held her hands up and pointed to the paper bags still on the dashboard, which made him smile: guilty conscience. He beckoned her in and she shook her head, so he typed in her number on his radio.

  ‘What, Jacob?’

  ‘Boss, I need you in here, please.’

  ‘You’re a pain in the arse, Jake. I haven’t touched your cake.’

  ‘Good or I’d be putting in a grievance. Please, I need some advice.’

  She rolled her eyes at him, but opened the van door and jumped out. He walked out of the room to greet her in the corridor. He told her what he’d found and she looked at him.

  ‘What are you thinking?’

  Cathy looked at the nurse who was still hovering.

  ‘Could you give us a minute, please?’

  ‘Certainly.’

  She walked off back towards the huge lounge where it looked as if they’d rounded up every resident and had them contained.

  ‘I don’t know. Will sent me a photo of the sudden death he’d been to before. The guy was wearing some freaky black and white stripy clown suit. I’ve just been looking through Colin Lister’s photos and there’s a stack of them from back in the day – taken at a circus – and there’s a clown on them wearing what looks like the same suit.’

  He bent down and fiddled around with his tablet to see if he could get the email open to show her. He finally managed to get it open and passed it to her.

  ‘Yes, I agree that’s a freaky outfit to wear to kill yourself in; maybe he has some kind of clown fetish.’

  Jake went back inside Colin’s room and picked up the photo he’d put on the small bedside table. He handed it to her. She studied it and looked at the photo on the tablet.

  ‘Well, I can definitely say it’s not the same person.’

  Jake looked at her. ‘Of course it’s not the same fucking person. I’m not saying that.’

  ‘Then what are you saying? Yes, the costumes look similar; however, I’m not an expert on clown suits. Maybe this is like a common one among them. The dead guy probably bought it off eBay.’

  He rolled his eyes at her, wishing he’d left her in Bowness.

  ‘Don’t you think it’s kind of weird, though? A body turns up wearing a clown suit and this old guy, Colin, who was probably in the circus, has pictures of clowns wearing a similar suit and has gone missing?’

  ‘You watch too much television, Jake. This is real life not The X-Files. Do you think we have a seventy-year-old serial killer on our hands who likes to dress his victims up as clowns before suffocating them? Come on, that’s pushing it even for you.’

  ‘He’s in his eighties actually.’

  Cathy started to laugh – her too-loud, raucous, belly-shaking laugh – and Jake joined in. It was infectious, until the nurse came back in to see what was happening, stopping them both in their tracks.

  ‘Is everything okay?’

  ‘Yes, sorry. Have you got a recent photograph of Colin we can distribute to officers in Ulverston and a description of what he was wearing?’

  The nurse nodded and disappeared again.

  ‘You’re a bad influence, boss.’

  She nodded. ‘And you’re a cock, but I love you even though you are.’

  ‘You say the nicest things. Will’s on his way. We can see what he has to say. If he thinks it’s a load of rubbish we can get on, can’t we?’

  ‘Aw, you called in reinforcements; maybe you’re not such a cock after all. With a bit of luck he’ll want this and you can take me back to get some indigestion tablets. Bloody pies kill me off every time I eat them.’

  They wandered back up to the reception area to sit and wait for Will. The nurse passed Jake a photo of Colin, which he photographed and added as an attachment, sending it to the control room to distribute to officers who would be attached to the incident log and sent out looking for him. One of the auxiliaries brought them two mugs of coffee and a plate of biscuits, which put a smile back on Cathy’s face.

  She leant over and whispered, ‘I’ll let you off, Jake. At least they have decent biscuits.’

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Adele gave Will directions off her phone. His satnav had frozen in time and space. He hoped to God that there was some kind of link between this missing man and the latest body. It would give them something to go off, which was better than the nothing they had at the moment.

  ‘Do you think there will be some connection?’ Adele had read his mind.

  ‘I hope so.’

  She nodded. ‘Me too, we could do with a break. Take the next left, then it’s the first on the right.’

  She stopped the annoying voice of the woman who was giving her directions, looking as though she was tempted to chuck her phone out of the window. Will pulled up outside the retirement home and Adele whistled.

  ‘If my kids ever farm me out to a home, then I want to end up somewhere like this. It’s beautiful.’

  ‘It’s not bad, is it?’

  They got out of the car and walked in to see Jake and Cathy sitting there, nursing mugs of coffee.

  ‘Thanks for this, Jake.’

  Cathy sat up. ‘Not sure there’s much to thank him for yet.’

  Adele held her hand out to Cathy who took it and shook it.

  ‘Well, if you don’t need me I’ll go sit in the van. It’s all a bit much like police work to me.’

  She winked at Will and went outside. Jake took him and Adele down to Colin’s room.

  ‘I haven’t touched anything except the tin box the photos were in. I’ve left those on the bedside table next to it. It’s probably a huge coincidence, to be honest, but it just felt wrong if you kno
w what I mean?’

  Will knew exactly what he meant. Pulling on a pair of latex gloves he went inside to look at the photographs. He held the close-up of the two men up to his face. It definitely looked like the same suit as the one Walter Lacey had been wearing – or, if not, one very similar. He passed the photo to Adele, who studied it. Will flicked through the others.

  He looked at the pictures on the wall and noticed a piece of paper that had fallen behind the armchair. He picked it up, unfolding it. It was a photocopy of a newspaper article with a close-up of one of the clowns in the photo and the headline ‘Tufty the Killer Clown’. He read the article, which told him that the clown had been hanged for killing a woman, his own parents and a child. He passed it to Adele, who scanned it.

  ‘Shit, this is all too weird. It has to be connected somehow.’

  ‘We need to find this Colin Lister. It seems as if he is the key to all of this because I can’t make head nor tail of it. There’s definitely some connection. I just don’t know how or what.’

  Will went to find Jake. ‘Have you got some evidence bags in the van?’

  ‘Yes, loads of them.’

  ‘I just need a few for now.’

  The nurse, who was looking flustered, came out of the lounge.

  ‘Can someone tell me what is happening? I can’t keep our residents cooped up in here all night. Some of them want to go to the toilet.’

  ‘If I’m honest, at the moment I can’t really tell you much except that there are some items of interest in Colin’s room that may be pertinent to a murder investigation that is currently ongoing. I’m afraid I’m going to have to get our CSI to come and photograph them in situ. I can’t let anyone in or out of his room. Have you heard from Colin?’

  Shocked, she didn’t know what to say so shook her head. Jake came back in clutching some bags and passed them to Will.

  ‘Colin had a long-lost family member visit him this morning out of the blue.’

  Will looked at the nurse. ‘Do you have a record of who it was? We will need to speak to them as well.’

  ‘We should do. We normally keep a list of who comes in and out.’

  She went behind the desk and began looking through the book. There was nothing written on the page for today. Then she noticed a scrap of paper next to it with Colin’s name written on it and, underneath, a name she wasn’t familiar with.

  ‘Yes, here it is. An Annie Graham.’

  Will actually felt his heart skip a beat and his legs trembled. Jake shook his head.

  ‘Are you sure it says Annie Graham?’

  She passed him the paper and he showed it to Will, who was feeling the familiar ball of dread forming in his stomach.

  ‘It doesn’t mean it was her, Will. There’s bound to be more than one Annie Graham in England, and besides, she’s not Graham any more, is she? She’s Ashworth.’

  Will felt the pressure of the blood as it rushed through his brain and shook his head. He took out his phone. He had two missed calls from Annie. He dialled and got voicemail. He shook his head and Jake pulled out his phone and rattled off a text, sending it to her with his fingers crossed.

  ‘Do you have any more details about her: address, phone number?’

  ‘There’s nothing here, I’m sorry. Just a name.’

  Jake looked at the camera above the entrance.

  ‘Can you check the CCTV, please. We need to know what she looked like.’

  She went behind the desk and began to fiddle with the camera’s hard drive. Adele – who had figured out that the Annie who had them in such a flap was more than likely Will’s wife – was on her radio asking for a patrol to go and check their home address. The camera started to play and after a few minutes that felt like hours to Will he watched his wife, his Annie, walk through the doors of the home into the reception area.

  Jake whistled under his breath. ‘What the hell is she doing here?’

  Will looked at him. ‘If I knew that I’d tell you. She never mentioned any of this.’ He remembered their argument and how she’d needed to talk to him and he’d rushed off to work. What was she doing visiting Colin Lister? She didn’t even know him and had never mentioned him to Will ever. His phone began to ring from an unknown number and he answered it to hear Annie’s trembling voice on the other end.

  ‘Oh, Will, it’s terrible. I’m at the hospital.’

  ‘Annie, are you okay? Who is with you?’

  ‘I’m fine. It’s John; he had a massive heart attack.’

  Will stuck his thumb up at Jake, who mouthed: ‘Thank fuck for that.’

  ‘Which hospital? I’ll be there soon. Annie, what the hell were you doing visiting Meadow Field to see Colin Lister?’

  ‘Ah, you found out about that. Did they phone the police and report me?’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For lying to get in to see him. I knew it was a bad idea. I was just trying to help you.’

  Will sat down on a chair. ‘I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. I’m here because he’s gone missing.’

  ‘Oh no, has he? He’s a lovely chap. Look, my money’s about to run out; my mobile is dead. I’m at FGH. I’m going to come home now. There isn’t much I can do at the moment.’

  ‘No. Don’t you dare leave that hospital until me or Jake come and get you.’ The phone went dead. Annie, for once in your life, do as you’re told.

  Jake was already out of the doors. ‘I’ll go get her and bring her home. Cathy can babysit her. As long as Annie feeds her she’ll be fine.’

  Will was grateful that, this time, Annie wasn’t being held captive by some serial killer who wanted to slit her throat.

  ‘Thanks, I’ll carry on here for now.’

  Adele looked at Will. ‘Jesus, my heart is racing. Thank God she’s fine.’

  He couldn’t suppress the laughter. ‘Welcome to my world, Adele. I love my wife more than anything, but she has a habit of getting mixed up in more disasters than you could imagine.’

  ‘You can say that again. How come you’re not grey or bald?’

  He shrugged.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Colin had wandered for miles; he was tired now and sat down on a bench. What a day he’d had. He looked at his watch and felt bad. He’d promised the nice receptionist he’d be home before the night shift started and he wasn’t. Still, he was a fully grown man. He could stay out if he wanted to. He didn’t have to answer to the staff at the home. He only did it for an easy life.

  He didn’t have one of those phones all the kids had; he didn’t like them, much preferring proper telephones. He’d been intending to call the home, but he’d walked for miles and not come across a single phone box. It was madness. When he was younger they were on every street corner and surely there must be more people than him who didn’t possess one of those tiny boxes of technology.

  He hadn’t realised just how tiring today had been until now, when he’d sat down. That man from the auction house had lied about Gordy’s old suit. He had known there was something shifty about him when he’d talked to him after the auction. The way he’d behaved wasn’t normal – when he’d been muttering to himself.

  Colin had panicked when he’d gone inside and seen the man wearing that old costume. He’d turned around and left the flat, not bothering to close the door behind him. He’d rushed out onto the very busy main road and begun walking as fast as he could to look for a phone box. He’d looked for such a long time. All he wanted was for someone from the home to come pick him up and take him back to his boring, but safe, life.

  __________________________

  Annie went back to the intensive care unit to say goodnight to John and to make sure the staff had her phone number. She made the nurse who was looking after him promise to phone her if he woke up or if he took a turn for the worse. There was no way she would let him be on his own if the time came. He promised her that he would and she bent down to kiss John’s cheek. ‘I have to go now, but I’ll be here when you need me.
They have my number. I love you.’ A tear fell from her eyes and ran down his cheek. She gently wiped it away.

  Then she forced herself to leave. She was going to ask Jake if she could stay at his until John was out of danger. She’d go home, pick up Alfie and get some things. About to get in her car, she remembered what Will had told her: she had to wait until he or Jake came to pick her up. Well, that was a pretty stupid idea. She had her car here. She couldn’t just leave it. A police van turned the corner and she saw Jake behind the wheel. He pulled up next to her.

  ‘Taxi for Ashworth.’

  ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got my car.’

  ‘Strict orders from your husband – you’re to come with me. Your car will be fine. The parking guys go home at four. We can come back for it after. Come on, I’m in a rush.’

  Annie rolled her eyes, but opened the van’s passenger door and got inside.

  ‘Care to spill the beans? What on earth were you doing at Meadow Field?’

  ‘Have you found Colin Lister? I feel really bad. I found an article in the paper about a killer clown back in the fifties.’

  ‘I saw it. You left your new best friend Colin a copy.’

  ‘Well, you know I’ve been having these terribly vivid dreams about being there when the victims were killed. And the killer wore a creepy clown suit just like the one in the article. I searched the internet for a Colin Lister and his name popped up. I didn’t think it would hurt to go and speak to him. I didn’t mean to upset him that much that he’d do a runner.’

  ‘Don’t blame yourself, kid. He’ll be fine. Will’s off on one because I found black and white photos of someone who I think is a younger Colin Lister wearing that same suit. Will went to a sudden death earlier and the victim was dressed in an identical suit.’

  He passed her his tablet to show her the photo of the dead man. Annie took it from him and gasped.

  ‘Oh my God, I’m ninety-nine per cent sure that’s the guy from my dreams. Did he kill himself?’