It was barely six in the morning and the thick, heavy clouds overhead prevented sunlight from penetrating through. There was still a chill in the air and the gunmetal-coloured clouds overhead threatened more rain.
Claire wrapped her coat tighter around her body as she stepped out of her car. Elias was already at the scene.
He lowered his face mask under his chin.
She nodded to him as he stepped closer to her. ‘What can you tell me, Crest?’
‘Same cuts to the mouth and cheeks as Knox,’ he said, staring back towards the incident tent. ‘Penetrated through into the mouth, both sides of the face. No obvious signs of sexual assault, but that’s yet to be confirmed.’
Claire noticed that, despite the matter-of-fact way he was reporting back to her, his eyes held a look of something else in them.
‘What aren’t you telling me?’ she said. His eyes met hers, and she raised her eyebrows.
He shrugged a little, the white Tyvek paper suit rustling with each movement. ‘You need to come and see her face. It’s not just the Glasgow Smile we should be concerned about.’
‘Meaning?’ she said, as he handed her a packet containing another white suit. Elias beckoned her over as he headed back towards the incident tent.
Once Claire was suited, she followed after him, the plastic overshoe covers squelching in the damp, muddy verge at the side of the road. She ventured inside the tent, careful where she trod, keeping to the designated route laid out to avoid further contamination of the scene.
Tilly lay on her back, glass-like eyes open, fixed in a permanent stare. Her shirt was partially covering her body, a few buttons ripped off, exposing a flat, white stomach. Her body lay twisted at the waist, legs slumped over to the right.
Her arms lay spread out at either side, each wrist showing signs she had been restrained, dark bruising standing out vividly against her otherwise pale skin.
Claire’s eyes rose to Tilly’s face again.
Deep lacerations cut through her flesh giving the illusion she was giving them all a big, wide grin, but that’s not what worried Claire.
Diagonally through Tilly’s face were slash marks.
Two slash marks.
Remembering Knox’s victims, Claire’s mouth parted as she pulled her mask under her chin. She looked at Elias, who nodded, as if reading her mind.
‘Two cuts through the face,’ he said. ‘Knox didn’t have any slash marks to his face like this.’
Claire felt a tight knot pull in her stomach. ‘If this murder is symbolic and ties into Knox’s old crimes, then this is victim number two.’
Her eyes rose to meet his again. In her mind she pictured another face, unknown to her but female.
There was one slash mark cut through the face.
‘There’s another body out there,’ she said. ‘Female victim number one.’
CHAPTER 24
‘A motorist found the body of eighteen-year-old Tilly – or Matilda, to use her real name – Hartley by the side of the road at approximately five-thirty this morning. Brian Price was on his way to start his shift at work when he saw what he thought was a dead animal by the side of the road,’ Claire said as she briefed her team.
They were back in the incident room, after seeing the body in situ. Tilly’s body was on its way to the morgue, and Danika had promised Claire she’d make Tilly’s PM a priority.
‘Has her mother been informed yet?’ Stefan said.
Claire shook her head. ‘Not yet, but an FLO is heading over to her house as we speak.’
‘The knock at the door every mother fears,’ DC Cleaver said.
‘Are we linking this to Knox’s murder?’
Claire nodded at DC Harper. ‘It’s obviously something we need to seriously consider but I don’t want to be blinkered by that. It might be inspired by Knox’s crimes but not committed by the same person.’
‘Knox didn’t have any slash marks across his face,’ said Stefan.
Claire nodded. ‘Exactly.’
‘So there’s maybe some other poor girl out there?’ Harper said.
The incident room fell silent.
‘If two slashes to the face could signal victim number two,’ Elias said. ‘We should start issuing alerts to the press.’
Claire shook her head. ‘We can’t do that, not yet.’
‘There’s another body out there, Guv.’ His eyes met her hard stare. ‘You know that.’
‘Crest, we don’t know anything yet, not for sure.’
‘You know I’m right,’ he snapped, causing everyone in the room to go silent. A phone rang on someone’s desk, but no one made any attempt to answer it. Claire’s eyes remained locked with Elias’s until the phone finally stopped ringing.
‘You want to create public panic?’ she said, voice low.
Elias held her stare, a hint of defiance in his eyes. Parts of the old Elias coming into play. A part of himself he was trying hard to rein in.
‘We use the press as a tool. We have people who liaise with them for us. We use the press as and when we need them. What we don’t do,’ Claire said, gaining momentum now as she addressed the whole of her team, ‘is start scaremongering.’
Elias shook his head. ‘It’s about making the public aware of-’
‘What we don’t do,’ she cut in, ‘is encourage the public to form search parties, playing amateur detective.’ She paused, eyed everyone in the room.
‘We need to start looking at Mispers, narrow the search down to women of a similar age, location… see if anything flags up. Matthews,’ Claire said. He looked up at her. ‘Make a start with Jane on that, please.’
‘Yes, Guv.’
Claire pointed to the whiteboard at the front of the room. ‘Tilly was dumped on the side of the road that leads near to the regeneration reserve and lagoon. Do we think that’s significant?’
‘Used for fishing, and by ramblers for walks. The site covers over ninety acres,’ Stefan said. ‘One road in and out of the site. It’s closed after six in the evening. After that the road is isolated.’
‘Maybe why Tilly was left there.’ Claire frowned. ‘Let’s think about how she was found, though. She was in a state of undress. She wasn’t particularly well hidden.’
‘Perhaps that was the killer’s intention.’
‘Maybe they were disturbed?’ Elias said.
Claire wrote a few points on the board. ‘We have a witness who says they saw Tilly go into the park near where she lives around 10 pm. Her mother also found Tilly’s mobile smashed by the parking bays used for the park itself… Where did the killer take her? The regen reserve is another seven miles from there, the other side of Haverbridge.’
‘Local boy?’ Elias said. ‘Must be working in the local area?’
Jane twirled her biro in her fingers, thinking. ‘Anyone newly released from prison in that area?’
‘Only Knox.’
A gentle hum arose, everyone sharing their own views. Claire broke it up.
‘Let’s really focus on Tilly,’ she said. ‘She was an average teen. She was coming back from a friend’s house, cutting through the park – something she regularly did. Her mother wasn’t expecting her home for some time. She wasn’t known to the police.’
‘She had a few boyfriends, though,’ Elias said.
‘Boyfriends on and off, no one serious right now. Something we need to look at. I need a list of names. I also need access to her emails, phone records, social media accounts, any CCTV we can get – track Tilly’s last moments before she disappeared.’
Claire paused as if having an afterthought. ‘What linked Knox’s victims?’ she said. ‘What did Raja, Ffion and Sophie all have in common?’
Elias edged closer to the middle of the room, skirting between the desks. ‘Age – all three were older teens.’ He paused, then snapped his fingers. ‘Pretty.’
Claire’s eyes locked with his. ‘Good.’ She looked to everyone else. ‘
All three were pretty girls, some might argue exceptionally so.’
Stefan nodded. ‘Tilly Hartley. Beautiful.’
‘In her before photo anyway,’ Matthews said.
Jane shot him a look. ‘Don’t be a twat all your life.’
Matthews blew her a kiss.
‘That’s enough,’ Claire said. ‘Seriously, there could be something in that.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Stefan said out loud to himself more than anyone else. He was conscious of a few faces turned in his direction. He looked up, gestured to his mobile. ‘Tilly is trending on Twitter.’
‘What?’ Claire said.
‘Nothing’s been confirmed or denied to the press yet,’ Elias said, his eye catching Claire’s, seeing if he got a reaction from her.
‘#TillysSmile…’ Stefan looked up from his mobile.
‘Subtle,’ Matthews said, logging on to his own mobile internet and scrolling through Twitter feeds.
‘Christ, her poor family,’ Jane said.
‘If you just use the hashtag #Knox it comes up with a whole load of sick stuff, once you get past anything relating to that American woman with the same surname…’
Claire frowned. Social media, more of a hindrance right now. ‘What’s the #VigilanteUK throwing up? Anything new?’ she said.
Other members of the team started to log on to the internet from their own computers.
‘Vigilante UK…’ Stefan said. ‘Died down a few weeks ago, but it’s gaining ground again since the news about Tilly’s started to spread.’
Claire stared at a screen near to her. She saw an outpouring of vitriolic bile; trolls mainly, already creating a bulk of poor-taste memes and GIFs designed to rile and cause mass offence to anyone who cared to bite and feed the hate.
‘People are starting to attack us, too, Guv,’ said Jane. ‘They’re like a virtual angry mob.’
‘Got a clear divide between the masses,’ Elias said, staring at his own screen. ‘We’re either not doing enough, or we’re after a bloody saint who’s doing the country a service.’
Claire grew angry. ‘What the hell can an eighteen-year-old have done to deserve that?’
‘Maybe our guy sees it as justice?’
‘Justice for what?’ Claire stared at Elias.
‘Their view of justice?’ he offered. ‘If it’s the same man who did Knox, we’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in the community who’ll be rushing to help us with our enquiries, and frankly you can’t blame them. Even if the killer has targeted a young woman, it’s all about perspective. That’s what some members of the public are saying.’
Claire stared at him open-mouthed. ‘If it is the same killer, he carved up a young woman, and you think we can’t blame the public for rallying around him?’
Elias shrugged. ‘I’m not saying we shouldn’t put our everything into finding the killer, but what kind of life will they have inside prison?’
‘Something the killer should’ve thought about before they went after Knox.’
‘They’ve rid the world of a sadistic rapist, who we know had a high probability of reoffending,’ Elias said. ‘You know how the public love to bang on about how criminals are locked up at the taxpayer’s expense.’
Claire scoffed. ‘Why not bring back hanging then?’
Elias shrugged at her.
‘We have to think about this rationally,’ Claire said, focusing on the rest of the team. ‘Should this person be caught? Yes, absolutely. We’re trying to keep the public safe – If Tilly was murdered by the same person as Knox – which looks likely – with two slash marks across her face, then we have to consider the strong possibility that there’s not only another body waiting to be found out there, but there could be more to follow… Or, maybe someone else is learning by example, taking the law into their own hands? Whichever it is, it has to be shut down and I want to be very clear on this; I need everyone in this team on the same page, and after the same thing.’
Her attention returned to Elias.
He tipped his head towards her in acknowledgement but Claire felt the hostility coming off him in waves.
*
Claire spent the rest of the morning in her office, liaising with Donahue and going through the information as it came in about Tilly and her family.
There had been no activity from her Facebook and Twitter accounts since the evening she’d gone missing, and so far, her laptop hadn’t thrown up anything of note. The team had been making contact with Tilly’s friends and managed to get hold of a couple of old boyfriends, but the hope of finding anything of worth was fading by the minute.
Knox’s victims had been contacted, but none of them had any knowledge of Tilly.
They were struggling, Claire had to admit. When Stefan came into her office, she hoped it was to bring her some good news.
‘Harper’s been to see Tilly’s mother,’ he said, taking a seat opposite her. ‘She said there hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary in the last few weeks to have given her any cause for concern. We’ve been speaking to her colleagues at her work; again nothing unusual, although the picture we’re getting of Tilly is that she acted a little young for her age. But how mature are eighteen-year-olds anyway? I mean, her Twitter handle is @SillyBoTilly…’
Claire winced, then had another thought. ‘Phone records?’
‘I’ve requested her phone records, but Tilly’s mum gave the log-in details for her O2 account so we could see an itemised bill at a glance. It’s Tilly’s mobile but the contract is in her mum’s name.’
Claire felt for Shirley – Tilly’s mother – but she was anxious about the possibility of another victim. ‘Anything flagged up with Mispers yet?’
‘A few, sadly. There’s a lot of young girls like Tilly that have gone missing in recent months. None we can see that have had any kind link to Knox, though. I’ve been keeping an eye on Crowley’s social media accounts, by the way.’
Claire looked up at him from her computer screen to see that he was scrolling through his mobile.
‘So far, Crowley’s just been tweeting what everyone else has been speculating about.’ He paused. ‘Oh, wait a sec…’
Claire looked serous then.
‘What?’
‘He’s just posted a link to an article.’ Stefan read a few lines, then looked at her.
‘What is it?’
The phone on her desk rang then. She answered it but immediately wished she hadn’t.
‘So is it true?’
Claire froze, recognising the voice instantly.
‘Speak of the devil…’ she said, pinning the receiver between her cheek and gesturing to Stefan. ‘You know I won’t talk to you, Crowley.’
Stefan grimaced.
‘Oh, don’t be like that,’ Crowley said.
‘I’m hanging up now.’
‘I wouldn’t do that just yet,’ he said, and she could hear the amusement in his voice.
Claire gripped the receiver then, her patience waning. ‘Goodbye, Crowley.’
‘She’s dead, you know.’
Claire stopped, held the phone a little closer to her ear. ‘I’m not confirming the identity of the body we found; no point trying to get anything from me.’
‘What?’ he said.
Claire became more animated in her seat. Only Tilly’s immediate family had been informed that they had found her. She hadn’t been formally identified, and they hadn’t made any official statements to the media.
‘I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Crowley, but you’ve got to stop inserting yourself into this investigation.’
‘The body close to the regen reserve?’ he scoffed. ‘Come on, Chief Inspector, I know it’s Tilly. Doesn’t take a genius to work it out, but that’s not who I’m talking about.’
When the line was silent, he feigned surprise. ‘Oh, you can’t have heard yet. Well, don’t say I don’t at least keep you guys in the loop.’
Cla
ire clenched her fist, made herself count to five. She’d be dammed if she’d give him the satisfaction of letting him know he’d got to her.
Reluctantly she had to admit she needed to know what he was referring to. ‘You didn’t call me for a bloody chit-chat. Whatever you’ve got to say, just say it.’
‘I must say, I’m beginning to enjoy our verbal jousting.’
‘Goodbye, Crowley.’
‘All right, all right,’ he said. ‘Go to my website.’
Claire saw Stefan’s face. He was staring at his phone, reading something. He looked anxious.
‘You reading it yet?’ Crowley said. ‘Just do it. It’s better if you see it for yourself.’
She stared at her own computer screen. Accessing the internet, she carefully typed in the web address for the Heart of Haverbridge with her free hand.
She hesitated before hitting Enter, not sure what she was going to be faced with.
The page loaded and Claire saw the headline on the landing page.
Two down. One to go.
Claire saw an accompanying photograph of Rupert Knox, placed between a police photograph of Raymond and a separate photograph of his mother, Ivy.
Ivy Knox. Now deceased.
‘Let me know your thoughts when you get a minute,’ he said, and the line went dead before Claire could say anything.
Stefan saw her face as she replaced the receiver. ‘I’ve just read it. “Two down, one to go”,’ he said, quoting the headline.
Claire looked at her computer screen, stared at the accompanying photographs. ‘No one can ever accuse the press of mincing their words.’
‘Rightly or wrongly, the press are echoing the feelings of the public. With Raymond and Ivy gone, Rupert’s going to face the brunt of the trolls. Meanwhile, Crowley’s garnering himself quite the following.’
‘Crowley,’ she sneered. ‘He’s fast becoming a pain in my arse.’
‘Is an FLO still with Rupert?’
Claire sighed. ‘He’s the last thing on my mind at the moment, Fletch.’
Stefan eyed her for a moment, taking in the frown on her face. ‘You don’t think you’re being a bit harsh?’
Claire’s face turned serious then. ‘Ivy and Rupert Knox – let’s not forget that they made a monster.’
Trial by Execution Page 15