Their nightly walk was a little earlier than normal. The sun was in the process of setting and they normally walked once it was dark.
Barney wasn’t keen on other people and certainly not on other dogs.
Kim often wondered what had happened in his early years to make him such a complex little character. She supposed he wondered the same thing about her.
She’d recently discovered a small wooded area at the southern base of this hill. Most people walking their dogs were heading for the summit to catch a glimpse as the sun set and plunged the Black Country into a hot, sticky night.
She headed towards an overgrown path that had once been a ramblers’ route but had been cut off by new fencing to prevent access to a hazardous area. It was perfect for just the two of them.
‘Well… fancy seeing you here,’ said a deep and slightly amused voice behind her.
Kim groaned inwardly as she turned to see Daniel Bate smiling at her.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘Building a sandcastle,’ he offered sarcastically as he looked down towards Lola.
Barney had tensed his front shoulders and was staring Lola down. The brief power play ended as Lola looked away.
Instinctively Kim’s hand reached out towards the submissive dog. Lola’s nose nuzzled into her palm and her tail wagged.
Daniel reached towards Barney.
‘Don’t,’ she advised. ‘He doesn’t like it.’
Barney hated being approached by strangers and expressed his disgust in a growl. Normally.
Although he didn’t nuzzle like Lola, he tolerated the hand on his head and Kim could swear in better light his tail might have moved slightly.
‘Hmmm… sounds like a case of owner projection there, Kim.’
She resented that she could not maintain that barrier of ‘Detective Inspector’ between them, but she had no jurisdiction over him outside of a crime scene. And even then it was tenuous at best.
‘So you got yourself a dog since we last met?’ he asked.
She should have known the goldfish ruse wouldn’t last for ever.
‘Yeah, apparently they help you socialise,’ she said, raising one eyebrow.
He laughed out loud and his green eyes sparkled. ‘I can see that’s working out well for you,’ he said.
Yeah, she remembered that he was one of the rare people who had actually been able to tell when she was joking.
Silence fell between them. It was charged, and Kim had no choice but to break it.
‘What are you doing here, Daniel?’ she asked.
‘Walking my dog,’ he said, meeting her gaze. Unlike his dog, he did not look away.
‘Why here?’ she asked.
He looked around. ‘Local beauty spot. Thought the dog might enjoy it.’
‘Owner projection?’ she asked.
He shrugged and began to walk. She wasn’t prepared to let him off the hook quite so easily.
‘In this exact spot, at this time?’
‘Just a coincidence,’ he said and smirked.
Yeah and its name was Bryant. She had allowed him to tag along on one of her night-time walks but she wouldn’t bloody do it again.
‘It’s a really nice view from the top,’ she said, nodding towards a well-trodden path.
He watched as a male with two Dobermans headed in that direction. ‘Seems it might be a bit crowded that way. I think I’ll head over here.’
So her choice was to bundle Barney back in the car and take him home or to the local park.
Hang on, why the hell was she even considering it? This was her walk, not Daniel’s. He lived in Dundee and was no threat to her well-being.
She tugged gently on Barney’s lead and strode past the dawdling pair.
‘So how’s the case going?’ he asked, keeping step with her.
‘Slowly,’ she responded.
‘Any suspects?’ he asked.
‘Perhaps.’
‘Oh come on, Kim. I’m sure we can talk about our work without clashing. Ask me something about mine.’
‘When do you have to get back to it?’ she joked.
He chuckled. ‘Predictable, even for you. But to answer you, I’m due back at the weekend. I have two lectures booked for early next week.’
‘So what brought you down here?’ she asked. It looked like she was stuck with him and talk about work was safe enough.
‘The professor wrote to us asking for some advice on the timings of bone decay in sandy soil.’
‘And you couldn’t have sent an email?’
He shrugged. ‘It was worth a visit. I find myself drawn to the Black Country. There’s something dark and moody that brings me back.’
‘Yeah, it’s called smog and grime,’ she retorted.
‘You do realise just how deeply you’re overcompensating, right?’ he asked, ducking below a veil of gnats.
‘For what?’ she asked, tugging Barney away from a stinger.
‘For finding me attractive.’
‘Ha, you wish,’ she said and then offered him a bemused expression. ‘Do you think everyone who doesn’t like you really wants to sleep with you?’
He lifted one eyebrow.
She continued. ‘Because I gotta tell you, Dawson’s not that keen on you either.’
He snapped his fingers. ‘Damn, and I had high hopes for him as well.’
Kim smiled at the humour that was so much like her own.
‘You’re like the playground bully,’ he said.
‘Hey now, just a—’
‘Calm down. I’m giving you an example. It’s like you go out of your way to show people you despise me but it’s really an effort to prove it to yourself.’
‘Oh please,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘I’m sorry if you feel I’ve pulled on your pigtails or stolen your conkers but you couldn’t be more wrong.’
‘Really?’
‘Is it really inconceivable to you that I don’t find you attractive? In fact I think you’re annoying and aloof.’
Daniel surprised her by throwing back his head and laughing.
‘Aloof? You dare to call me aloof?’
Kim stopped walking and he did too. It was time to put him straight once and for all.
‘Daniel, I respect you as a colleague. I know that you’re dedicated and passionate—’
‘Thanks but I already have a CV. What I want is for you to finally take notice and admit there’s a spark between us.’
She faced him squarely. ‘Not even an ember, Doctor Bate.’
He took a step towards her. His eyes danced with the challenge.
‘Want to test the theory and see?’
No, she bloody well did not.
‘You take one more step, Daniel—’
Her words were cut off as both their phones began to ring.
Forty
Kim was back at Westerley within ten minutes of receiving the call.
She parked the Golf at the top of the site and made sure the car was ventilated for the dog.
She’d lost Daniel about three miles behind.
The four floodlights at the bottom of the site guided her way, although Cher still lay somewhere between her and them. The strategically placed wet-floor signs did not glow in the dark.
Dawson met her about halfway. ‘They’ve uncovered flesh now,’ he said without any greeting.
His phone call had informed her that less than three feet down they had discovered some remnants of clothing.
‘What does Doctor A say?’ she asked.
‘Dunno, half of what she says is a mystery to me. I think she swears in many languages.’
Kim approached what she now knew to be a grave. The forensic archaeologist was kneeling about two feet down with a soft brush in her hand. One of her assistants was using a small trowel to remove samples of the soil. To the right two others were sifting soil already removed.
Keats was watching intently with two of his aides. Harry appeared to have left the scene for no
w, but Kim knew he’d be back. The rest of the site would need to be checked.
‘Doctor,’ Kim said by way of a greeting. ‘What do we have?’
‘Inspector, you are just in the nook of time,’ she said without looking up.
Kim felt the heat of the four floodlights beating down on her.
As she bent forwards she heard the sound of footsteps and the voice of Daniel as he spoke to Dawson.
‘Male or female?’ he asked.
Dawson tutted. ‘Dunno yet, ask Rosetta Stone over there.’
Looking down into the pit Kim could see that a square of sky-blue material had been exposed. She guessed it might be a T-shirt of some kind.
‘That is the left leg.’ Doctor A pointed with the other end of the brush.
Kim frowned and peered closer. She had thought she was looking only at soil.
‘There’s still skin?’ Kim asked.
Doctor A nodded. ‘Peter is working on the head and I am working on exposing the sex,’ she said. ‘In females the uterus is last to decompose.’
Kim had heard that somewhere before.
She knew that when buried six feet down in ordinary soil an unembalmed body could take eight to twelve years to decompose to a skeleton, whereas an exposed body could be skeletonised within days.
‘Any idea how long?’ Kim asked.
Doctor A turned to look at her. Kim saw a couple of dirt marks on her face.
‘I would guessing at five foot five,’ she answered.
Kim realised she would have to be more specific with the doctor.
‘I’m sorry, I meant…’
‘I know, Inspector,’ she said, offering a lopsided smile. Everyone had their own methods of getting through the horrors of a crime scene, whether it be recent or historic.
She continued. ‘As you know, many factors slow down decomposition: lower temperature, exclusion of air, absence of animal life, damp, humidity. I could go on.’ She turned to face Kim. ‘Did you know that in India an uncoffined body is skeletonised within a year?’
Kim shook her head as Doctor A turned back to the body.
Her gaze met that of Keats and she knew they were both thinking the exact same thing. They had been here before during the Crestwood investigation. They had faced each other across too many shallow graves, but it was the career they had chosen. She held his gaze. She got it. He nodded and looked away.
‘Aha,’ Doctor A and Peter said together, prompting Kim to wonder how long they had worked side by side.
The double exclamation brought all parties to the edge of the pit.
‘It is indeed a female,’ said Doctor A.
Kim could see that a flowery cotton fabric around the lower half of the body had been exposed but she guessed that wasn’t what had prompted the doctor’s confirmation.
Kim’s gaze travelled up the pit to the highest point where Peter continued to dust.
There was one thing Kim didn’t need to wait to be told, because it was already abundantly clear.
The woman’s face had been completely smashed in.
Forty-One
Do you remember when I refused my medication, Mummy? I didn’t understand why I had to take the pills but you insisted every day. Even though I didn’t feel poorly.
I said to you one day that I didn’t want to take them any more and that they made me feel strange. I refused to drink the water so you took the water away.
You popped a pill into my dry mouth, but I couldn’t swallow it down. You tipped back my head and stroked at my throat until the pill made its slow, arid journey down, like a football passing through a straw.
You dried my tears and wiped my snot and then gave me back the water.
I never complained again.
And I took my tablets every day.
Forty-Two
‘Okay, I’ll go first,’ Kim said once everyone was seated. ‘As you all know, a second body was found on the Westerley grounds in the early hours. Identified as female and finally removed at two this morning.’
The vision was still with her and would be for a long time to come. She’d sent Bryant and Dawson home around one a.m. and had stood by the grave until their victim had been gently and painstakingly removed. Never before had she seen a body containing so many stages of decomposition. Clean, white bone had protruded in places while others still held a full covering of flesh. It had reminded Kim of an animal carcass part devoured by its predators.
A thick silence had fallen over the area as Doctor A and two of her colleagues had tenderly placed the body onto the waiting body bag.
‘Spijam dobro dragi moi,’ Doctor A had whispered before stepping away and nodding to Keats.
Kim wasn’t sure what the archaeologist had said, but it had sounded like some kind of endearment or farewell to carry on her way.
‘We have her now,’ Keats had said, after a couple of deep swallows. And the handover was complete.
Everyone waited until the bag was zipped and on the stretcher before dispersing from the scene. It wasn’t a funeral; it wasn’t a memorial. But together beneath the floodlights, surrounded by the dense blackness of night, they had offered a moment of respect. It was the least they could do.
Kim took a deep breath and continued. ‘We have no further information except that the face of our victim had most definitely been beaten.’
This left no doubt in the minds of anyone that they were looking for the same killer.
‘So how does that help our timeline? This lady appears to have been the first…’
‘Let’s hope so,’ Bryant said, and she had to agree.
Harry and his team would be back at Westerley this morning and would sweep the whole area again. Kim prayed there were no more.
‘We don’t know exactly how long she’s been down there but we’re clearly talking years. So why has he waited so long to do it again but then speeded up this week?’
Everyone was silent for a minute.
‘Come on people, think,’ Kim said.
‘Something has sparked him off…’ Dawson offered.
Kim thought for a minute. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘He’s too organised for it to have been some kind of knee-jerk reaction. On both occasions this week he’s had the presence of mind to take away whatever it is he’s used to beat them, probably a rock,’ she said.
‘He’s been incapacitated somehow,’ Bryant said.
Kim considered. ‘Possible, but I don’t think that’s it.’
The room fell silent as three sets of eyes stared at the whiteboard for clues.
‘Come on, guys, he’s organised, methodical, ritualistic,’ Kim prompted. She felt like a parent coaxing a homework answer from a child. ‘What must he have?’
‘Order,’ Stacey said, looking around her own immaculately organised desk.
Kim nodded. ‘Go on,’ she urged.
‘He couldn’t get Isobel before Jemima. There’s a particular order to the process?’ Stacey asked.
‘Bingo,’ Kim said. ‘Stacey gets the prize. Our first victim was murdered years ago but our second victim, Jemima, only returned to the country a few weeks ago. She’s been working with horses in Dubai. And then Isobel so soon afterwards. It’s as though he was waiting for Jemima to return to carry on.’
She could see she had their full attention. ‘So that tells us there is a reason why he’s targeting these particular women. There is a link somewhere. It’s going to be difficult to tie Isobel to anyone so we need to focus on the other two.’
And using her own logic of past, present or future she knew exactly where they should start.
‘We know that Jemima and our latest victim hadn’t met recently, so we can rule out present. Jemima was planning nothing untoward that we’re aware of, so that leaves only one direction.’
‘I’ll start digging into Jemima’s distant past and work forwards,’ Stacey said. ‘I’ve still got nothing on Isobel’s place of work or address, but I’ll keep at it.’
Kim nodded her a
greement. Isobel’s husband was certainly someone she wanted to talk to.
Kim turned towards Dawson, who pre-empted her instruction.
‘That’ll be me on mispers again then?’ he said knowingly.
‘Yes, but only for an hour or two, and then I want you back on site at Westerley. Forensics will be back by then looking for any clues, and I want you right there if they find anything.’ She paused. ‘Oh, and Kev, dig away as much as you like. I want to be sure we know everything there is to know about the folks over there.’
‘Got it, boss,’ he said brightening.
‘Bryant and I will be heading over to Keats shortly, so if there’s anything likely to help, we’ll let you know.’
Dawson nodded and pulled his shirt collar away from his neck.
She had opened the token window at six thirty when she’d arrived, but no breeze had found its way in yet. To make matters worse, the single radiator beneath the window was still kicking out heat. On a day that promised temperatures in the high twenties it was an unwelcome addition. The knob was broken, and the heating did not get turned off globally as the offices on the north side of the building were like the chilled section of the supermarket, whatever the season.
A floor fan stood in the corner, offering nothing more than an occasional lifting of papers from Dawson’s desk.
‘Stace, anything on Isobel’s phone?’
Stacey shook her head. ‘It’s a pay and go jobby bought from Asda in Brierley Hill. It wasn’t registered so the number from her boyfriend wasn’t a lot of use to us. It was bought with cash. I’ve already fired off an email to the networks, but you’ll all remember last time.’
Oh yes, Kim remembered it well. Two little girls had been kidnapped and their only lead had been a batch of mobile-phone numbers. The networks had laughed in their faces.
‘Are we ruling out female killer, boss?’ Dawson asked.
‘He’s right, guv,’ Bryant agreed before she had chance to answer. He continued. ‘No sexual assault, drugs used for pliability. It could be a strong woman.’
Kim opened her mouth to argue and decided against it. Her gut didn’t think so but on the evidence she couldn’t rule it out.
Play Dead: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller Book 4 Page 15