by Martina Cole
Kate sat down with the others and waited patiently for Annie Carr to give them what she knew about the latest murder. Kate looked around her and saw with dismay the youth of so many of the officers concerned. It had been so different in her day, when longevity had been respected and had been rewarded, even if it wasn’t warranted. Now they all looked like children. But that was her issue, as she knew, and she hated herself for it. As she scanned the room, she couldn’t help wondering how these people could find their own front doors let alone a fucking murderer. It was like a youth club and Kate knew that a lot of these officers were here because they had scored well at university. It was a different world all right. None of these people looked like they had any real experience of life, let alone anything else.
She knew that she was seen as interesting, and that she was also seen as old and a has-been by the people around her. But her creds were something that none of these youngsters could deny. She had broken some of the biggest cases in history without the benefit of computers, mobile phones or any of the things that were so important in this day and age. She was from a different time.
The truth was, though, that she did feel completely out of her depth in this new era, and she knew that she would be reliant on the Margaret Doles of this world – something she wasn’t relishing. She just hoped that she could cast a different eye over the evidence and hopefully give them all some kind of take on it that they had not seen or even thought about. She didn’t feel comfortable yet and that really bothered her. She had actually never felt so nervous in her life. She was only there because the investigation was going nowhere, and the newspapers would be tripping over themselves to put her name on the page and bring up her association with Patrick Kelly all over again. From his daughter’s murder to Patrick being shot because of his nefarious businesses. She had known that risk from the off, but she had still agreed, so that told her that she wanted this no matter what.
Annie stood in front of the team with a coffee from Starbucks and a vape cigarette that she pulled on deeply before blowing the so-called smoke out noisily. Kate looked at her friend and felt a deep urge to laugh, because she was from the days when everyone smoked, ate bacon sandwiches at their desks and drank like fishes.
‘OK, everyone, I want to bring you up to speed on last night. As you know, another child has gone missing, from the same school that Janet, Kylie and Destiny attended. This young man, Todd Richards, went out yesterday afternoon and hasn’t returned. He is in the year above the three murdered girls, and he is, to all intents and purposes, a nice kid. He has never been a worry to his parents, and he has never gone on the missing list before. You each have a file with all the information about him and what we need to do now is expand on what we already know. I do not think this is a coincidence. I think that his disappearance could be related to the girls. I hope to Christ that I am wrong. We need to be looking at what ties these kids together, other than the school they attend. There is nothing that we can find on CCTV, there is nothing that we can find that puts any of them together on the nights they were murdered.’
She held up her arm as if stopping traffic. ‘Not that we know, of course, that Todd Richards is dead. Please God, he wanders home and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. But until he does, we can only assume the worst. This is Grantley, not fucking Soho. We have been looking for this boy since last night, and there is no trace of him. He is not a child who has ever come on to our radar. He has never been in trouble at school, and he has never been late home either. That tells me he is in some kind of trouble now.’
She took a deep drink of her coffee once more, and then she looked at Kate and she smiled gently. ‘We have been very lucky in that the Chief Super has finally asked Kate Burrows to come on board as a “consultant”, for want of a better word. But, as you all know, Kate is one of the best when it comes to serial murders. She’s willing to give us the benefit of her experience. And that, I know personally, is something that you will all find invaluable. I admit that I have asked the brass for her input from basically day one, and now that they have finally acquiesced I am over the fucking moon. We have the opportunity to use her experience, which is absolutely fucking immense. I have worked with Kate before, as you are all aware, and I know that she will bring a new dimension to this case. She is here for you all to go to her and offer up anything that you think might be relevant.’
Annie walked to Kate and, taking her hand, she pulled her from her seat. Kate just stood there as everyone in the room clapped and smiled, as if she was the answer to their prayers.
When they were finally alone together, Kate said, ‘Really, Annie? I am so out of the loop that when I walked in here today I wondered what the hell I was doing.’
Annie Carr ran her hands through her hair in annoyance. Looking at Kate, she said briskly, ‘Oh, please stop it, will you? You are the best thing that ever happened to this station, to this fucking whole place. You have got to stop this talk of feeling old and out of it. Most of those fuckers out there couldn’t find a fucking full stop at the end of a sentence. They look up to you, Kate. I look up to you, I want to fucking be you. They see you as the person that caught not just Markham but the others. You single-handedly did more than anyone here will ever do if they live a hundred lifetimes. You are a fucking legend! Look, Kate, everyone here can say that they actually worked with you – that alone will help with morale. Do you know how much you are admired and venerated? I know that you are what we need here.
‘It’s all gone a bit Pete Tong. This boy who is missing is a part of this fucking lunacy, but I don’t know how he fits into all this. He is at the same school, it’s all too incestuous. There is nothing that we can find that links all of these kids together outside their lives at school. You know, as well as I do, that if Margaret Dole can’t find anything then there is nothing to find online. You are still a valuable asset, and you need to remember that. Because you coming on board has given my team a new lease of life.’
Kate looked at her friend and remembered when she had first met her, and she sighed as she said, ‘Annie, darling, I feel like I’m past all this.’
Annie Carr laughed again now in irritation and she said, ‘Oh Kate, fuck off, will you, and do us all a favour? Get with the programme!’
Even Kate had to laugh at that.
‘You wanted out of Patrick’s fucking drama, and you also wanted to be back in the fray. So do us all a favour, will you? Relax and do what you are good at.’
Kate knew that Annie was right; she had to do what was asked of her. ‘OK, then, let’s go through everything from day one. I need to see it all for myself.’
Annie smirked. ‘Well, I could have told you that!’
Deep down, Kate knew Annie wasn’t as pleased with her coming on board as she pretended, because it signified that Annie and her team had basically got nowhere. Three girls were dead – tortured and murdered – and now a young man, who was a part of their world, was also missing. It was a fuck-up of fuck-ups, and they were all more than aware of that fact.
Chapter One Hundred and Two
Margaret Dole was pleased to see Kate back in the station again; they had never been bosom buddies, but they had respected each other and Kate had valued her input on the Miriam Salter case they worked together. Still, Margaret wasn’t someone who you warmed to easily and, if truth be told, she wasn’t someone who tried to make friends.
Margaret knew that if the person they were after was clever enough to keep away from anything that would put them online, they were far more savvy than anyone was giving them credit for. It was almost an impossibility to move around the local area without a record of it turning up somewhere. The only way she might find the killer was through CCTV, so she was once more trawling through everything that she could access, public and private.
Margaret Dole could not believe that anyone could sneak under her radar. She prided herself on her ability to access anything that she wanted to. She was distraught that she couldn’t find anything
that was relevant to the deaths of the girls or the disappearance of Todd Richards.
When she saw Kate and Annie coming towards her work station, she said loudly, ‘Oh, Kate! So good to see you back.’ She really did sound pleased to see her former colleague.
Kate smiled, and she said in a friendly manner, ‘Anything new that you can tell us, Margaret?’ Then she turned to Annie and said, ‘Margaret is the best at what she does. If there is something to be found, Margaret will find it!’ She knew the value of talking up Margaret to keep her onside.
But Margaret Dole was at her wits’ end, because this was the first time in her life – let alone in her job – that she could not find anything that mattered, anything at all that might help them to find whoever was responsible. She knew that it was nigh on impossible to swerve the cameras that documented everybody’s daily lives. People were on camera, and they didn’t even realise that fact, and that was something that Margaret relied on – it was what she did. It was so unusual to have nothing that was of worth, because everywhere a person went there was a seeing eye, watching their every move. That was just a fact of life. And yet whoever they were searching for was not on film anywhere. It was not pleasant for her to have to admit this to Kate.
‘I cannot find anyone anywhere that could even be seen as a suspect. It is like whoever we are looking for is really invisible. There is nothing anywhere that I can use to our advantage. It’s just not possible these days. Everything is fucking documented somewhere. There are a staggering five point six million CCTV cameras in this country and most people in towns and cities are caught on camera at least seventy times a day. That is a fact of life. But whoever we are looking for has to be aware of that. Or at least they know to keep as far away from cameras as possible. I have even hacked into private equipment, and still nothing.
‘The woods that surround Grantley have to be where he hunts. But how does he get the girls there without anyone seeing them? It just doesn’t make sense. It’s not luck either – believe me, no one is that lucky. If you walk through any town centre you will be on camera every eighteen seconds. But this fucker knows how to avoid being seen on camera. More to the point, he knows how to get these girls to a place where there are no cameras and nothing that can be brought back to him. I am telling you that he is hunting in those woods, but this guy has a real knowledge of cameras and he knows exactly how to avoid them.’
‘So what’s your take on it, Margaret? I would be very interested to know, mate. I’d like your take on everything.’
Margaret Dole was over the moon that Kate had asked for her opinion. She felt that she had a lot to offer, yet no one truly listened to her. She knew that she wasn’t on anyone’s best-friend list, but she also knew that she was the best at what she did, and no one could ever take that away from her.
She looked straight into Kate’s eyes as she said with passion, ‘We all know that he uses the woods to hunt. So the girls that he met up with, or who he deliberately targeted, were all in his orbit – they were all where he wanted them to be. The woods are really huge. There are acres and acres of woodland, and there are so many paths that are used by everyone around and about because they know them so well. They use those paths like they do the pavements where they live. This man hunts there, and he doesn’t go out of his comfort zone. The woods are where he feels comfortable, where he can look for his victims.’
Kate nodded in agreement and Margaret sighed deeply, because she had been saying this since the second girl’s murder. But no one had been listening to what she was saying to them, they just saw her as the computer whizz-kid. But she had hoped that Kate would listen to her and take what she said on board, and that was important to her.
Kate was interested in what Margaret had to say; as awkward as she could be, Margaret was a mine of information. She stored minutiae like other people stored the words to records that they loved.
She was a loner, and that was not unusual in the police force. Kate had come across more than a few over the years. That was par for the course in many ways; the police force, like the armed forces, sometimes attracted people who had trouble fitting in with society. People who were attracted by the uniform and the knowledge that they would be told what to do, and who would be more than happy to let that happen. It suited them to be seen as authority figures by strangers, by the general public.
Margaret Dole might not be someone who you would choose to be with, but she was good at her job. And at the end of the day, that was what really mattered. The police force was not about a popularity contest, though that seemed to be the case these days. There was a lot that had gone since her day, and Kate wasn’t sure that she was comfortable with it – especially now, given that it was only her appearance on the case that had allowed Margaret to finally be able to voice her opinion. It was not good for Margaret, or the people that she had to work with, that they didn’t respect her.
She was annoyed because it was evident that Annie Carr didn’t see what Margaret had to say as relevant. Annie had no real respect for Margaret and that was obvious in her body language and in her demeanour. She saw Margaret Dole as no more than a computer person, and that was wrong. There was every reason to listen to anyone who was close to a case. There were times when people heard or were told things that seemed to have no bearing on what they were working on, and then that one little word could change the whole outlook for everyone. Kate knew the relevance of that, because she had seen it for herself.
She smiled at Margaret, and said encouragingly, ‘Margaret, are there any properties that are near the woods that you couldn’t see online? I know that you are looking through all the old house plans and through the council records to see who has cellars, or who might have applied for planning permission to build a cellar. But what I’m interested to know, Margaret, is if you have seen anything that you think might be of interest to us? You know, an old place that is abandoned. Or a place that you’ve found that might fit the criteria of what we are looking for. I know that you are the best at what you do. After all, me and Patrick have used you in the past – as a friend, of course.’ She smiled then at Annie and raised her eyebrows, as if questioning her.
Annie Carr knew when to keep her mouth shut but it didn’t mean she was happy about it. She didn’t like where this was going at all, and she didn’t think that Kate should have been all over Margaret Dole like a cheap suit when she could have been talking to the real police.
‘What I am interested in particularly are the places that are maybe off the grid a bit? That are not on the maps or the council plans and not there for everybody to find. I mean, whoever this is, he obviously has somewhere that no one knows about. He feels confident about that, so he must have somewhere that is local and that is accessible. He must be laughing up his sleeve at us, Margaret. But you and I know that eventually we will find the fucker.’
Margaret was listening avidly. She held Kate Burrows in high esteem – who wouldn’t? This was a woman who had not only been behind the capture of three different mass killers; she had also tamed one of the most dangerous criminals to boot. Kate Burrows was everything that any policewoman would want to be. She also had a knack of finding the person she was looking for, and that was something that appealed to Margaret Dole.
‘I’m on it, Kate.’
Kate smiled at her and squeezed her hand tightly as she said, ‘I knew that I could count on you, Margaret.’
And then she walked out of the room with Annie, who she knew was about as happy as a pimp on remand. She was really dismissive as she turned and spoke to Annie.
‘Listen, Margaret Dole will look through everything that she can, and also what she shouldn’t. She is really good at what she does, and you lot need to remember that. You also need to keep in mind that you are all focusing solely on the children who have died – I think your next step should be looking at the children who are left. If this boy is a part of what is happening then we need to start looking at him. If he has been murdered by the same person
then we need to find out why. What did he know? And more to the point, what might he have found out? There has been no body so far, and the others – the girls – were all left where they could be seen and admired. They were the murderer’s way of saying: “Look at me, look what I have done.” But this lad is a different kettle of fish altogether. If he’s part of this, I would lay money that he either knew about what was going on, or he found out. I don’t think his body is going to turn up any time soon.’
Annie knew that Kate had a point; she should not feel so annoyed with her and what she was doing. But she couldn’t help it. Kate had been in the building less than three hours and she was already taking everything over. But that was what Kate did; she was larger than life, and she had her creds. Annie herself had brought Kate into all this from day one, and she had given her everything that she needed to help her with this case. She had wanted Kate’s input and she had hoped that Kate would help her make some sense of everything. Now she was feeling the resentment that she knew was wrong, and she hated it, but Kate was a hard act to follow. A very hard act to follow. Yet she was also a good friend, and Annie knew that she had to concentrate on that.
Kate was a real, live legend, and that was something that Annie couldn’t do anything about. She loved Kate and she knew that she was lucky to have been given the opportunity to work with her and learn from her. She had to content herself with that. Nevertheless it burned, all the same, knowing that Kate had been asked by the powers-that-be to come in and take over what had been her case. But there was nothing she could do or say that would not offend Kate, the Chief Super and everyone else within the vicinity, so she did what she had to do. She smiled and swallowed down her natural antagonism.