Vanished Beneath: DS Lasser six (The Lasser series Book 6)

by Robin Roughley

  'Problem?' he asked.

  'Well yeah your backsides hanging out.'

  Lasser spun around. 'Shit!' he said his face turning puce with embarrassment.

  Medea raised an eyebrow before slapping his bare buttock. 'Get covered up Lasser we don't want the nurses swooning as you walk down the corridor.'

  Lasser covered his face with his hands and shook his head.

  As soon as Emma saw him walk into the room, she started to cry. Medea sat on the edge of the bed and took hold of her hand.

  Lasser smiled awkwardly. 'How are you feeling Emma?'

  Suddenly she kicked back the sheet and swung her legs from the bed before standing up. Lasser glanced at Medea in confusion, she smiled back at him.

  'Thank you,' Emma whispered before throwing her arms around his neck.

  Lasser patted her back awkwardly, Medea shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself before scowling at Lasser he raised an eyebrow before encircling Emma in his arms.

  Medea nodded her smile growing wider.

  'Thank you,' Emma repeated.

  Lasser could feel the shudders running through her body and then he eased her back to the bed. Emma sat down and looked up at him like a child with wonderment in her eyes.

  'I was sure I was going to die, I could feel the water on my legs I knew it was rising and then I saw you,' she shook her head as if she still couldn't believe what had happened. 'I mean, it didn't seem possible.'

  'I told you he was a good guy, Em,' Medea smiled before taking her hand again.

  Emma looked at her friend and managed a weak smile before turning her gaze back to Lasser.

  'You could have died,' she said in a small voice.

  Lasser frowned. 'Why does everyone keep telling me that, I mean, I'm a good swimmer...?’

  'But you didn't need to do it,' Emma said in a trembling voice.

  'Oh, believe me I did, Medea would have killed me if I hadn't done the right thing.'

  Medea nodded. 'See, he knows me so well.'

  Emma lowered her head and started to cry again.

  'I'll get us all a coffee,' Lasser said, heading to the door. As he reached for the handle it swung open and James Drake stood in the doorway. When he saw Emma, his paper-thin face crumpled in a mixture of terrible anguish and relief.

  Lasser turned. ‘Em, you have a visitor.'

  Medea turned, her eyes widening when she saw the old man standing on the threshold.

  Emma looked up and then she blinked at her father in shock, the last time she'd seen him, he had been at least two stones heavier, his hair had been grey yet still full of vitality. Now he looked like an escapee from a concentration camp, his face like an alabaster death mask, the skin hanging loose from his chin as if some invisible weight were pulling down on his face.

  'Dad?' she whispered unsure if it was really him.

  Drake opened his arms and tottered into the room on stick thin legs.

  Then Emma rocketed up from the bed her fair hair trailing behind as she ran across the room. When she threw herself forward, Lasser had to steady the old man to save him from falling to the floor.

  Tears slid down James' face, tears of regret tears of relief.

  Lasser went in search of the drinks machine.

  86

  It had gone midday before they released him, he found Bannister waiting on the hospital car park leaning against the battered Audi pulling hard on a cigarette. Suzanne had picked Medea up and was taking her back up to Rivington to collect her car. Medea said she would head home to grab a few toiletries for Emma, who was still under observation, and meet him back at home later.

  'I take it you've stopped milking the glory then?' Bannister asked as he dropped the cigarette onto the floor.

  Lasser sniffed. 'What do you mean by that?'

  Bannister shrugged. 'Come on Sergeant you might be able to fool the women in your life but you were loving it in there.'

  'Bollocks!'

  'Well I hope you can put your fan club to one side because we've got a busy few hours ahead of us.'

  'Fan club?' Lasser mumbled in disbelief as he yanked open the car door.

  'What do you think you're doing Sergeant?'

  Lasser hesitated. 'I thought you said we had somewhere we need to be?'

  Bannister tilted his head. 'We're going back in there,' he nodded at the hospital. 'Doc Shannon's been working on Sharon Cliff and I want an update.'

  'Oh right.'

  'You've had your quota of excitement for one week Lasser now it's back to standing around with your thumb up your arse. Now come on, I want to get this out of the way, I'm having the Mellor’s brought in later, and I don't want to give them the chance to fabricate a load of bullshit.'

  'Hang on even the Mellor’s wouldn't be thick enough to dump a body outside their own premises.'

  Bannister set off walking back towards the entrance Lasser fell in by his side.

  'I agree, but I don't believe in coincidence either, she was placed there for a reason.'

  'What reason?'

  'That's what we have to find out, now stop asking stupid questions and shake the water from your ears, because this is serious work.'

  Bannister barrelled his way through the front doors and strode across the foyer with Lasser hurrying to keep up.

  A couple of minutes later, they opened the door to Shannon's office to find the big man behind his desk tapping his sausage like fingers at the keys of a desktop computer.

  'Ah, the hero is back on his feet. How are you feeling Sergeant?'

  Bannister folded his arms. 'Never mind him what can you tell us about Sharon Cliff?'

  The pathologist stood up before grabbing a file from the desk. 'Follow me gents,' he said as he slid a security card trough a slot on the wall before walking into the morgue.

  Of the three metal gurneys, only one was occupied. Sharon Cliff lay on the middle one a thin plastic sheet pulled up to her chin. Shannon fiddled with his beard for a moment before flicking the file open.

  'Sharon cliff aged twenty six, she...'

  'We already know who she is Doctor,' Bannister said. 'I want to know how she died and why she was dumped outside the gates of Mellor's scrap yard?'

  'Well I can answer the first question, but the latter is your problem.'

  Bannister frowned. 'Just get on with it man!'

  Shannon eased down the sheet, Cliff was naked her skin waxy and tinged blue.

  Lasser could see a crude swallow tattoo high on her left breast; her startling blond hair spread out on the cold metal like a silver halo.

  Shannon pointed down to the crook of her left arm. 'You can see where the cuff was tied; the needle went in just below.

  Lasser and Bannister leaned forward; they could see a thin band of red skin where the tourniquet had been tightened around her arm, an inch below it a tiny hole could be seen, the skin slightly puckered from the needle.

  'Do we know what she took?'

  Shannon turned and dropped the file onto the empty gurney. 'I've been taking a look at the toxicology reports on the three bodies we pulled from the water.'

  Bannister folded his arms. 'Go on.'

  'There's something strange going on here, Joseph crank, Mary Sheldon and the young girl all had traces of the same drugs in their bodies.'

  'This is old ground Doctor.'

  When he saw the warning in Bannister's eyes, Shannon held up a hand. 'Bear with me. Among other things, Crank had heroin in his system, standard stuff, the kind that's mixed down until it's virtually harmless...'

  'I think Tilly Crank would disagree with your prognosis Doctor,' Bannister said in a rumbling voice.

  'OK maybe that came out wrong but you get the idea, however, an antidepressant called Tricyclic was also found in all five bodies...'

  'Five bodies!'

  'Yes Sergeant,' Shannon popped up a finger. 'Crank,' then another digit shot up,' Mary Sheldon,' another joined in the fun. 'The same with the unidentified girl and Sarah Clark, and Mis
s Cliff here is the same,' by the time he'd finished he was holding up four fingers and a thumb.

  'So they all got their stuff off the same dealer?' Bannister asked.

  'Definitely, but that's not what I'm getting at. You see the traces of Tricyclic were present in each body but to wildly varying degrees.'

  Lasser slipped his hands into his pockets. 'I don't get you?'

  Shannon pointed down at the body. 'You see the damage to the side of her head and also her shin?'

  Both men followed his finger.

  'I think that was done because she went into a spasm.'

  'So she jittered, I mean, it's not unusual with addicts when they get their fix,' Lasser said.

  'Agreed, but when you compare her sample with that of the others, then Sharon Cliff has five times the amount of Tricyclic in her blood than Crank, four times more that Sheldon.'

  Bannister scratched his chin. 'So whoever's mixing this stuff is increasing the dose?'

  'Radically, but you have to ask yourself why?'

  Bannister exchanged a look of confusion with Lasser.

  Shannon dragged a hand down his beard. 'Think about it if you're trying to get a new drug onto the market then the last thing you want are people dropping like flies.'

  'Well maybe it's someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing?' Lasser said and Bannister nodded in agreement.

  Shannon shook his head. 'One death and the chemist reduces the dosage it's the sensible thing to do, but whoever's responsible for this decides to add more of the Tricyclic, why would they do something like that, I mean, it makes no sense,' he paused, 'unless?'

  'The chemist isn't interested in getting any new drug onto the market?' Lasser said as understanding dawned.

  Bannister frowned. 'What are you talking about Lasser; these people are in it to make money, it's all they care about?'

  Shannon raised an eyebrow and looked at Lasser.

  'But what if, in this case, money wasn't the motive?'

  'You're talking out of your arse, money is always the motive in the drug trade.'

  'But what if it has nothing to do with the drugs trade?'

  Bannister rubbed his hands together. 'Ah, a conspiracy theory I was wondering when you'd pull one out of the bag.'

  'Maybe we need to look more closely at the people involved; perhaps they all have a common link...'

  'They do have a link they all got their drugs from Elliot.'

  'Sharon Cliff didn't.'

  'Look Lasser, he could have given her the drugs days ago before Colly Roberts attacked him with the bloody bed pan.'

  'So who drove her to Mellor's place?'

  Bannister frowned and threw a quick look at Shannon. 'And you can take that smirk of your face Doctor before I wipe it off for you.'

  Shannon shrugged as if the threat was of no concern. 'I think Lasser's right.'

  'Oh, that's sorted then, Miss Marple here thinks these five all knew one another so it must be true,' his face twitched in aggravation.

  Lasser sighed and folded his arms. 'If it was a dealer then he'd be trying to get the balance right he wouldn't be adding lethal doses of this antidepressant. I mean, if Elliot was still alive then we'd be able to ask him if he was working to a list...'

  'A bloody list?'

  Lasser shrugged. 'I'm not saying it's a definite but surely we need to see if there's a link between them all.'

  'So come on smart arse what would Crank, a forty seven year old alcoholic with a chronic drug problem have in common with her,' he jabbed a finger down at Sharon Cliff.

  'I don't know, but...'

  'But nothing you're just muddying the waters and I won't have it!'

  'Look, you might not like it but someone gave Cliff the drug and we know it can't have been Elliot.'

  Bannister snorted in derision. 'All that proves is that Elliot wasn't the one mixing the stuff and we already knew that.'

  Lasser tried to forge the links but he suddenly felt worn out, he shivered as if her were back in the freezing water of the blackened reservoir. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was go home and climb into bed with Medea by his side.

  'Fine, the five of them had sod all in common, have it your way.'

  Bannister jabbed out a finger. 'But you don't really mean that do you Sergeant, you're now convinced that they knew one another?'

  Lasser felt his shoulders sag.

  'That's not what Lasser's saying,' Shannon said.

  Bannister spun towards him ready for a full-blown bawl out. 'What?'

  'Perhaps you're right and they'd never met one another.'

  'That's what I've been saying all along but...'

  'But what if the link is the person who got Elliot to give them the drugs?'

  Bannister blinked. 'What?'

  Suddenly Lasser felt wide-awake again. 'The Docs right, this isn't about five people who might have known one another, it's about the killer knowing all of them as individuals!'

  Bannister opened his mouth to fire back a barbed comment and then he frowned as Lasser's words seeped through his anger. 'That's ridiculous,' he mumbled with dwindling conviction.

  'It's the only thing that makes sense,' Shannon said. 'Like Lasser said if this was drugs related then whoever's mixing the cocktail would be toning it down not making it more potent.'

  Bannister looked from one man to the other and then folded his arms. 'So you think this is someone with a grudge against these people?'

  Lasser thought for a moment before nodding. 'And we can probably include the Mellor’s, like you said earlier she wasn't dumped there for the fun of it. I think someone's trying to point the finger.'

  Bannister pursed his lips. 'Possible I suppose.'

  'I think the killer knows next to nothing about drugs,' Lasser said as if thinking aloud.

  'And how do you work that out? I mean, it's obvious he has access to the gear and like the Doc said he must have some knowhow.'

  'I never said that,' Shannon said with more than a hint of annoyance.

  Bannister flapped a hand. 'OK don't get your knickers in a twist.'

  'In fact, the person responsible is more than likely clueless. They started out by giving Crank what they think is enough to kill him and it does the job, but only just, but then they up the stakes, they want to make sure the drug really hits hard.' He looked down at the body before him. 'By the time you get to Cliff, she's thrashing about no doubt in great pain.'

  'How do you know that?' Bannister asked.

  'Because she bit through the end of her tongue and smashed her head leaving a two inch gash on her temple, no doubt when she was in the middle of a fit.'

  Bannister cleared his throat, 'Right.'

  'I also think the reaction to the drug was extremely quick.'

  Bannister sighed. 'Go on I'm listening.'

  'When I was doing the examination I found traces of semen in her mouth and on her lips.'

  Lasser tugged at his ear lobe. 'So she was giving someone a blow job?'

  'Just finished and them bam she goes off like a rocket.'

  'Right we need to find out who she was seeing, maybe there's a boyfriend on the scene,' Bannister turned to Lasser. 'You said she was picked up in a boozer for affray?'

  'Yeah, it was the Vic in the town centre.'

  'Right tomorrow I want you to get over there, maybe it was her local, see if anyone can point us in the right direction.'

  'What about family, I mean, wouldn't it be better to try there first, surely they'd know if she was seeing anyone.'

  'I'll see to that Sergeant, but first we have to see what tall tales the Mellor brothers have come up with.' Bannister dragged the car keys from his pocket before looking Shannon in the eyes. 'Bloody good work Doctor.'

  The pathologist's eyes sprang wide in surprise and Lasser thought he saw the doctor blush behind all the facial hair.

  'Not a problem, I'm glad I could help you out.'

  Bannister flapped a hand. 'OK no need to get carried away,' he said as he headed
for the door.

  Lasser flicked a smile towards Shannon before heading off in pursuit.

  87

  When Medea started to cry, Suzanne slipped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze.

  'I'll put the kettle on,' she said before moving over to the sink.

  Medea dabbed at her eyes with a piece of tissue. 'This is ridiculous,' she said with a sniff.

  Suzanne filled the kettle and set it to boil before pulling a chair out from beneath the kitchen table and sitting down. 'Go easy on yourself Medea, everything worked out.'

  Pushing her hair from her eyes Medea slumped down opposite. 'But it was all down to blind luck Suzi, I mean, Emma could have drowned and Lasser could have gone down with her.'

  The tears came again and she shook her head in distress.

  Suzanne unbuttoned her coat with a sigh. 'But it didn't happen that way, your friend is fine and Lasser's back out there as if nothing's happened.'

  'But that's just it,' Medea looked up at her with pain filled eyes. 'I mean, how can he just carry on after what happened?'

  Suzanne dragged the scarf from around her neck and dropped it onto the table. 'Look, I'm not saying they see this kind of thing every day but they see more than most.'

  Medea twisted the engagement ring on her finger; the small diamond glinted in the light. 'I still can't believe how I behaved; I mean, I went ballistic when he didn't ring to tell me about Emma being seen in the bank.'

  'You were upset.'

  'While Lasser was watching someone throw themselves off a block of flats,' her voice broke with emotion.

  'But you weren't to know that.'

  Medea scrunched the tissue up in her hand. 'But I didn't even give him chance to explain and then when Emma rang I went running off without letting him know.'

  'So you did it to get back at him, is that what you're saying?'

  Medea looked across the table her eyes shimmering with tears. 'Part of me did and that's what I can't stand. I wanted him to suffer for being selfish, I wanted him to wonder where I was, I mean, what does that say about me.'

  'It say's you're human. Come on Medea as far as you were concerned you wanted to help Emma and you know if you'd told Lasser then he would have tried to stop you.'

  Medea knew Suzanne was right, there was no way Lasser would have wanted her anywhere near Andrew Forbes.