by EJ Lamprey
‘Well,’ Kirsty paused, then shrugged again. ‘Okay, but as usual – discretion, please? The only things taken by us were some work files and her laptop. There was a half cup of coffee on the kitchen table, but the kitchen was otherwise tidied up for the night. Other than the coffee, this was the only room that had anything odd or out of place. Her bed was made, so she hadn’t gone up yet. What else? She hadn’t locked up. The back door has a spring lock and a bolt, the front door has a spring lock, a mortice, and two bolts. They were both on their spring locks so the killer could have left through either door. The sofa was pushed back a bit, out of its usual marks on the carpet, and a side table was knocked over. There was a plastic vase, knocked over, and half a dozen red roses on the floor next to that side table.’
She looked around, frowning in thought.
‘I think I’ve forgotten something. I’ve removed Mortimer’s stuff – litter box, harnesses hanging behind the door, that sort of thing. Otherwise I think everything was as you see it. She was lying on the floor, her head on the fender, and the autopsy shows the fall fractured her skull. She must have been knocked unconscious immediately, and she died soon after. We’ve ruled out an accident, not only because of the signs of a struggle but because some small stuff was stolen. She had a personal iPad, which has gone, and a good camera went, but she was still wearing a half-carat diamond ring, and there was some reasonable jewellery, including diamond earrings, in her bedroom closet. She had a laptop that was top of the range, but the burglar doesn’t seem to have gone into the study at all. There’s the possibility whoever killed her was interrupted before he could do a proper search.’
’So whoever came in, she was drinking coffee at the time but didn’t offer them any,’ William said thoughtfully. ‘And she didn’t bother to take off her slippers – her muddy slippers, as Vivian said – so she knew them very well, but wasn’t being particularly welcoming.’
‘I can’t believe she would let someone in.’ Kirsty said stubbornly.
‘You’re right,’ Vivian agreed. ‘I wouldn’t let anyone in at that time of night unless it was an absolute emergency, and the first thing I would do is make them a hot drink. Whoever it was, tricked her – it’s a very old trick, too, but it works every time.’
‘Oh!’ Edge suddenly realized the relevance of the bucket, and Vivian looked a little smug.
‘What do you do,’ she asked Kirsty, ‘if you hear the garden tap running as you’re getting ready to go to bed?’
‘I – well, I’d go out and turn it off.’
‘Leaving the kitchen door open, of course. While she was turning off the tap – which had been running a little while, by the way, as the ground is still slightly muddy weeks later, but then that bit would be in the shade – where was I? Oh, right, while she was turning that off, the killer nipped in through the kitchen door.’
‘Nice one.’ William was deeply impressed and Vivian shrugged.
‘It’s a common trick in Africa. Edge had forgotten it but Gordon and I got caught that way once. Luckily the dogs were in the kitchen and instantly sprang raging to their feet. Our would-be burglar charged straight out again, knocking poor Gordon flying, and was last seen clearing the six-foot wall in a single bound, pursued by the ridgebacks. Anyway. No dog here.’
‘So, hmm.’ William lifted one finger and waved it from side to side, frowning. ‘They didn’t clash in the kitchen, or the coffee would have gone flying. She had already switched off the lounge lights, so she was on her way to bed. Heard the water skooshing into the bucket, put down her coffee, went outside, and in the dark got mud on her slippers. He slipped past and made for the darkened lounge. He’s a burglar, not a killer, or he’d have tackled her outside. He should have gone into that big hall closet, but perhaps he didn’t have time to risk it. She closed the kitchen door, heard a noise in the lounge, left her coffee on the table, walked in, switched on the lights, and bam.’
Kirsty had the slightly stunned look of someone experiencing their first William re-creation, but recovered quickly. ‘She was a cop. Undercover, yes, but still a cop. Her Airwave was already locked in her safe in the study for the night but if she heard a suspicious noise in the house she’d have used her panic button, and that was hanging right there in the hallway.’
‘The empty hook,’ Vivian said triumphantly, looking proudly at Edge. ‘That was something else you lot removed, then.’
‘Sorry, yes. I forgot that. She was occasionally involved in quite high-risk investigations. There’s another built-in panic button upstairs.’
‘So she didn’t use the button, even though it was hanging right there. If she’d locked her radio away William’s right, she was finished for the day, and heading for bed. I’m guessing in that case the front door was bolted; you might want to try fingerprints there if you say it was unbolted when you found her. Something made her go to the lounge. To collect the cat?’ Donald looked at Kirsty again. ‘You say there was a skirmish. Had she held her own? Would she have fought back?’
Kirsty shuddered, but answered calmly enough. ‘There was skin and blood under her nails, and her knuckles were bruised. She punched him at least once, and scratched him. She knew some Judo. In fact we think she skidded as she was going for a crippling kick, there was a faint muddy smear from her slippers.’
‘Is that her in the group photo in the hallway? Very good looking?’ Donald asked with interest and Kirsty gave him a startled glance.
‘Yes – well, yes, I suppose she was. Why on earth do you ask?’
‘I hate to say it, but now it’s my turn to have a theory. I found her car file on her desk while I was hunting around. There was an invoice on the top dated the seventh of last month, so I’m guessing a day or two before her death? She’d had her cambelt changed, and a service done. The garage had only charged her forty pounds. It’s a handwritten invoice, so probably a small one-man shop, and trust me, I had my cambelt changed and a service done the other week, and it cost a lot more than that. It occurred to me that either he did it cheap because she was a cop, but you say she was undercover, or because he fancied her. It makes me wonder whether this was an admirer rather than a burglar. Gets in, goes to the lounge, he could have brought those roses for all we know. Mebbe switches on all the lights, very pleased with himself, ta dah!’
‘Then it all goes wrong,’ William said in an awed voice. ‘She doesn’t call for help because she knows she can handle the situation. He gets a bit caveman, she fights him off, slips and falls and knocks herself out – he panics, picks up the iPad and camera to make it look like a burglary gone wrong, then loses his nerve and makes a run for it. Donald, mate, that’s quite brilliant. You really are coming on very nicely indeed.’
‘That…that actually makes sense.’ Kirsty shook herself. ‘You guys are good. That’s certainly a line to chase up. Thank you!’
Edge’s phone suddenly set up its insistent chirrup and she dug it out hastily. ‘It’s the no-show from last night,’ she told them all. ‘Should I answer?’
‘Well, we got a good dinner there, so nothing wrong with his taste,’ William said fairly. ‘And at least it proves he didn’t peer through the window, take one horrified look at you and run back to his car. Worth hearing what his excuse was.’
Edge pulled a face at him, then answered in the slightly breathy voice she used as Suzi. Her jaw sagged as she listened, and she could feel heat burning in her cheeks, but before he’d finally stopped talking she had remembered why she was doing this and had her voice under control.
‘Okay,’ she said meekly, ‘I’ll see you there. At six.’ She swallowed and with an effort managed to add a husky ‘Thanks’ before she rang off. She looked up to meet four pairs of expectant eyes.
‘He’d b-better be good for a couple of stories,’ she managed. ‘Can you believe, he was paying me out for not meeting him earlier in the month? He swears we had a date set up and how did I like sitting all on my own in public like a fool? He was actually b-bullying me!’
/> ‘And you’re meeting him tonight at six.’ William was incredulous. ‘Wow. Treat ‘em mean and keep ‘em keen. Woman, are you nuts?’
She met Kirsty’s eyes for a heartbeat, and then started to laugh. ‘I think we’re all meeting him tonight at six. What do you think?’
The other three took themselves off soon afterwards, and Edge looked at Kirsty. ‘Was that wrong? I thought a bullying sort of man – some women do like that – would be worth knowing, see who he really is. There was that other case, the one Jayenthi mentioned; her friend who’d been so badly beaten, who died in hospital?’
‘Two like that, in the last year, and one woman who pulled through. You were absolutely right; we’ll set it up now. I’m glad you’ll have the whole gang there, though. There’s more than one bully in the world, and talking to you the way he did would be a good way of screening for doormat types, but it could be the same man. If we could get a name and address, and photos for that poor woman to ID, it would be a major win. We got a few descriptions, including one from Jayenthi Pillay, at the time, and they do seem to point to the same man. Bawbag. Are you going to go now, to get ready?’
‘It’s barely four, plenty of time. And I suspect with this one I don’t want to look too gilded, anyway. He’ll be more confident with someone who looks a bit insecure and downtrodden. We’ll finish up your bedroom, at least.’
Edge made up Kirsty’s bed while Kirsty hung away the contents of another suitcase, the pair of them working in companionable silence until Edge finished by plumping up the pillows and turned away to perch on the wing chair at the window.
‘We’ve been so busy thinking about the hidden murders,’ Kirsty looked across at her aunt, ‘I had forgotten there could be an overlap with the more overt nasties. And do you think Susan really had made a date with bully boy and not recorded it? We’ve been assuming her records were perfect.’
‘I think he’s trying it on. I really do. Putting me on the defensive, because anyone who would meet him after a start like that will be absolute putty. I could be wrong, but I think the only mistake Susan made with her killer was thinking she could take him in a fair fight.’
‘I still don’t get that.’ Kirsty sat on the edge of her freshly made bed. ‘I mean the tap thing, yes, that explains completely how he got inside. But she knew she was hunting a serial killer. If it was someone she’d met through the investigation, even if she thought she could take him, she would have pressed that button. We’ll have to go over every single person she met all over again. It does sort of let out her ex. It was a really bad split, and she would have pressed her panic button without a second thought if he’d pulled a stunt like that. Anyway, he had no visible scratches, and a good enough alibi that we couldn’t insist on a full body check. Whoever it was, he can’t have been a big bloke, or seemed too threatening. I’ve been afraid that it was a colleague, someone she’s worked with – it was so obviously someone she didn’t consider a threat. At least the bucket theory opens that up, an admirer does seem a real possibility and she wouldn’t have wanted that going public. She’d have been sure she could handle it – ken, she was pretty good at Judo, she could have handled most situations.’
She stood and stretched, groaning. ‘Anyway. Time to set up your cover for tonight. I’m going to see if I can talk myself back onto the listening team, it sounds like it’ll be a good one. I hope he pitches up this time. What other dates have you got lined up?’
‘A guy who met with four of the victims. Calls himself Hunter, if you can believe that. He’s on Monday. It was supposed to be Tuesday night but that was a rehearsal night, Vivian made me change it. I don’t think she trusts William to take it seriously enough on his own. If they only knew how well guarded I really am! And then Ben – the one I like the look of – asked me out for Thursday, but I put him off.’
‘Careful with Donald, he’s really quick on the uptake,’ Kirsty warned. ‘I could kick myself for leaving that photo up in the hall. I thought I’d moved them all. If he noticed the resemblance between you and Susan, he’ll start putting two and two together.’
They walked downstairs together and Kirsty lifted down the photo. ‘Oh, okay, Susan isn’t the most attractive one in the group. I think we’re okay. I’m still surprised he didn’t comment!’
‘Actually, she’s younger in this photo, and you can’t really see the colour of her hair. He could genuinely have thought it was you; you’d already said you were friends. I hope this guy tonight is a good lead. It would be awful if we’re mobilizing the special ops team for nothing! At least we’re picking up others in the net, even if they’re borderline conmen like Nick.’
‘Still want the main guy.’ Kirsty put the photo down on a bookshelf rather than hang it again. Her face was grim. ‘I really want Susan’s killer, too, if they’re not one and the same. It isn’t impossible. She was unconscious when he left, and the Chronic Ill ran the story as Susan Harrison, aged forty-three, died at her home following an accident. No photo, and it gave only the area, not the address. Even if it was our psycho, he left Suzi-cute, fifty-three, in a heap on the floor. He could even be thirsting to finish the job, that’s why ‘Suzi’ put on her profile that she’d had a fall and had a touch of amnesia. Still a chance.’
Edge shuddered. ‘Don’t even say that! He knows the house, he wants to finish the job, and you just moved in! If any of these whackos had a way of tracking Susan’s mobile phone signal you’re setting yourself up as a target.’ She turned a horrified face on her niece. ‘You’re not, are you? You haven’t been lying to me about buying the house?’
‘Eejit.’ Kirsty gave her a quick hug. ‘I’m not saying she wasn’t half-hoping for that, that’s why her phone wasn’t the untrackable type you have, which was even more reason we knew she’d have been so alert at home. I do wish we could tell William and Donald and get them theorizing, they really have a knack for getting inside the criminal mind. As it is, we’re working on the theory our psycho meets the target on a second date, having secretly followed her home from the first and watched through the windows while she put away her jewellery and valuables. One of the victims told a barman she was feeling really sick and giddy, went outside for some fresh air and never returned. He thought she might have been slipped Rohypnol by a bloke who was trying to chat her up a few minutes earlier.’
She carefully clipped back the spring lock so she wouldn’t be locked out as they left the house. ‘No-one will be following you home here after a date, after all. Even if Susan’s killer pitches up to check, I have the panic button next to the bed, and Iain’s already put through a request for me to be allowed to bring my Airwave home. He’s just as nervous as you. There’s no need; this house is a little fortress. And now that I know, if I hear the tap running I’ll leave it running all night!’
She walked Edge out to her car, and peered into her face. ‘You’re not going to take any silly chances tonight, are you? I don’t trust you when you get that thoughtful look. We don’t need him revved up into throwing punches. Just like with the others, we get photos and a registration number to check out. And if he matches the descriptions we have for the bawbag who beats women to death we’ll probably arrest him at the pub, right enough, rather than risk losing him.’
Edge’s face cleared. ‘I didn’t know I had a thoughtful look! I was thinking I’d ask Jayenthi if she’d like to join us for a drink tonight. If this is the same guy, she saw him a couple of times, at least from a distance. I think she’d like the chance to avenge her friend.’
‘Oh aye, good idea. But remember! Be careful!’
‘Not only careful, I’ll be doubly careful.’ Edge clipped her seatbelt into place and grinned up at her niece. ‘The place he suggested, the Whittle and Plume? Traditional country pub, and they allow dogs in the pub garden. I’d take Maggie if she was fully fit, but I’m certainly borrowing Buster!’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Meet Conall at beergarden
William, who usually wore colour, had opted fo
r a black Jacobite shirt, which exposed some ferocious grizzled tufts of chest hair, while Donald, who arrived a few minutes later, had greased his dark grey hair and slicked it back. He prowled across the grass towards them, his face twisted into an exaggerated sneer. The effect, combined with his inevitable dark clothes and his summer tan, fell somewhere between Danny Zuko and one of the Kray brothers, and made Jayenthi, who was a great admirer of his looks, clap her hands delightedly. Vivian and Edge exchanged weak smiles – Vivian was, if anything, more jittery than Edge, who had chosen a subdued beige twin set and a drab skirt. She wore her hair caught into a clasp low on her neck, and pale pink lipstick. She left the others to settle down at a table which had a clear view of the car park and took her drink over to a table nearer the pub door, feeling exposed and very glad to have Vivian’s excited Labrador pulling eagerly on his lead.
She smoothed her skirt over her knees as she sat down and realized her fingers were trembling slightly. Buster seemed to sense her nervousness and gave up his effort to check every scent at the furthest stretch of his lead, returning to lean reassuringly against her legs. This was far more frightening than the Nick date, even with her friends and a sturdy and protective Labrador as backup. She’d already seen her big bodyguard pretending to smoke in the car park, and knew that if Jayenthi identified her date as the man who had beaten her friend to death, there was a police unit on standby. There was no reason to be afraid, yet his hectoring voice still seemed to echo in her ears. Perhaps for some this trembling anticipation would be exciting, but she merely felt slightly sick. Her mobile—her own—buzzed suddenly and started to creep across the table and she snatched it up.
‘Jayenthi says it’s him,’ Vivian hissed, sounding terrified. ‘Oh Edge, do be careful!’
Even as she switched the phone off and stuffed it to the bottom of her bag, the other started its cricket chirrups and she answered nervously.