TWISTED CRIMES a gripping detective mystery full of suspense

by MICHAEL HAMBLING

  ‘Thanks, Sophie. I’ll suggest it, but I can’t say any more than that. Cup of tea?’

  They walked across the main CID room to his office, where McGreedie switched on a kettle.

  ‘How’s Jimmy getting on?’ Sophie asked.

  ‘Fine. He’s out on a burglary case at the moment but should be back soon. He’s a solid, reliable grafter, and is making good progress on this sequence of break-ins that we’re dealing with.’

  ‘Barry taught him well. I’ll have a word with him if I’m still here when he comes back. What I’ve really come across for, Kevin, is to pick your brains about this Woodruff outfit.’

  ‘I saw your request for information, but only a day or two ago, so there’s not been much time to get anything in detail.’ Reaching for a sheet of paper, he didn’t notice Sophie frown. ‘Jimmy put it together. It’s still a bit thin, but we’ll get more to you as soon as we can.’

  Sophie scanned the paper. It showed little that they didn’t already know. ‘But Jimmy’s new to Bournemouth. I would have thought it would have gone to one of your longer-serving people.’

  He shrugged. ‘Maybe they were really busy. I can’t comment because I wasn’t here. Even now, we’re run off our feet. You know what May can be like in a town like this. It’s the start of the silly season.’

  Just then the door to the main office opened. Melsom walked in and made his way to a desk. ‘Hello, Jimmy!’ Sophie called, and waved as he looked across.

  He smiled and then looked awkward, as if he didn’t know whether to wave back or salute. Sophie walked across to his desk. ‘How are things?’

  ‘Great, ma’am. I’m enjoying my work here. Is Barry still with you?’

  ‘Of course. I’m hoping he’ll do his inspector’s exams soon. Rae’s fitted in really well, so we’re going great guns. Jimmy, I wanted to ask you about this information on the Woodruff outfit. It’s a bit sparse.’

  He looked worried. ‘I was only asked to supply some background, ma’am. Nothing detailed unless a second request came in. I could get you more if you want me to, but I’d have to pick a few brains.’

  ‘That would be really good, Jimmy. We’re a bit stymied at the moment, so any useful information would help. Don’t publicise it though, will you? DI McGreedie knows, but let’s keep it as low profile as possible.’

  Melsom looked puzzled. ‘Okay. I’ll do everything I can.’

  On her way out of the office Sophie scanned the duty rosters for the current and previous weeks, still pinned to the notice board on the wall. Interesting.

  Her phone rang. What she heard made her turn pale.

  CHAPTER 21: The Body in the Woods

  Friday Morning, Week 2

  Alice Llewellyn was the senior ranger for Wareham Forest, and her responsibilities included the Morden Bog Nature Reserve, situated in the north of the designated forest area. She loved her work, which involved being outdoors in all weathers and seasons. She enjoyed working with anybody who shared her enthusiasm for the natural environment and its animal and plant life. Most of her time was spent in the southern part of the forest, which had an activity centre, nature trails and observation walks. The Morden Bog SSI was off-limits to visitors. Not only was the bog itself dangerous for the unwary, but its rich diversity of animal life would have been put at risk if too many visitors and ramblers tramped through it. Just occasionally, on wet days like today, Alice liked to visit the reserve, to check that all was well. She had heard about the discovery of the two old people the previous week, when she’d been away on holiday, and was thankful. After those dreadful discoveries of two years before, she never wanted to see another dead body again.

  She parked her van in a clearing, donned her waterproofs and set off on foot into the marshy land, picking her way along a narrow footpath. Today was the first wet day after several weeks of dry weather. The plants and animals were all in need of some moisture, and she was glad to see rivulets of water draining off stony outcrops and feeding into the network of small, black pools. Enough rain had fallen overnight to offset any concerns about the tinder-dry undergrowth, although the rain was easing rapidly. Maybe the clouds would clear by the afternoon, leaving the air much fresher and cleaner.

  A group of crows drew her attention, flying in and out of a dense thicket, their noisy clatter disturbing the quiet solitude. Alice moved nearer, taking care that she didn’t slide into the dank pools that lay around the copse. She moved some branches aside . . . and fell back in shock. There on the ground, still partly hidden by the bushes, was the body of a middle-aged man. Or at least she guessed it was a man. The crows had been at work on the face, so it was difficult to be sure. Her hand went to her mouth and she stumbled back, retching violently.

  * * *

  Sophie drove to the scene directly from Bournemouth, arriving some fifteen minutes after Marsh and Rae. The trio made their way along the network of paths, directed by a uniformed squad who were fixing marker posts in place to indicate the safest pathway to the crime scene. Already the area was a hive of activity, reminiscent of the previous week when the Armitage couple had been found. The rain was now a light drizzle and even that was fizzling out as they trudged across the damp ground.

  ‘The call came in from Alice Llewellyn, ma’am. Do you remember her from a couple of years ago?’ Marsh said.

  ‘Yes. Tall, fair-haired. Sensible and reliable, if I remember right. Don’t tell me it was her that found the body?’

  ‘Afraid so. It was pure luck that it wasn’t her who found the car last week. Anyway, she called in right away, so there’s been no time lost. Forensics are on their way, and the pathologist.’

  ‘Have you had a chance to see the body yet?’

  ‘No. Apparently it’s a good ten-minute walk from where we left the cars. I knew you wouldn’t be long so we waited. There’s a uniformed squad from Wareham at the scene, but they know not to touch anything.’

  They continued walking, following the meandering track deeper into the reserve.

  ‘This is a good bit further south than where the car was found,’ Sophie remarked. ‘Martin and I were on firmer ground than this when we explored on Saturday. I think it must all drain down into this area. It’s a bit dismal, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’d imagine it looks much better when the sun comes out, ma’am,’ Rae answered. ‘It’s always the same with heathland like this. Drab in the rain, but really pretty when it’s bright.’

  They spotted the cluster of people ahead. Sophie made her way over to the ranger and spoke to her. ‘Alice. What can I say? I’ve got a flask of coffee with me. Have a cup, it’ll help you feel better. We’ll take a look, then Barry can have a brief chat. I think it would be better if you went back to your office after that.’

  Alice merely shook her head. She was holding a tissue to her face. ‘It’s too awful. I thought I was okay last time, it didn’t seem to bother me too much. But this . . .’ Her voice trailed away and she began to sob into the tissue.

  ‘Two years ago you didn’t see the bodies. That’s what makes the difference. It’s the direct visual evidence that gives us the shock.’

  Sophie poured out a small cup of coffee from her flask and handed it to the ranger. Alice sipped it while Sophie and Marsh went to the thicket. They pushed some branches aside and looked down at the body. Black trousers and a black leather jacket, skull caked in blood from a massive wound to the side of the head. Dried blood covered the face and neck.

  Sophie pulled on latex gloves and felt around in the pockets of the jacket and trousers. Nothing. She looked again at the badly stained face, scanning every inch of it. ‘Could that be a scar on his face? Under the streaks of blood?’

  Marsh peered over her shoulder. ‘It might well be, but it’s difficult to be sure without cleaning the muck off. What could it mean?’

  ‘It opens everything up, doesn’t it, Barry? Let’s wait for the team to arrive. You go and talk to Alice while Rae and I have a short wander around.’

  * * * />
  Sophie was sitting on a log when the forensic unit arrived, soon followed by Benny Goodall, the county’s senior forensic pathologist. She watched the team take the initial photos and set up a tent over the corpse. Benny entered the tent and Sophie stood up and followed him inside. She watched as he started his examination of the corpse.

  ‘Do you think it was the head wound that killed him?’ she asked.

  Benny was probing the victim’s head. ‘Probably. It’s certainly bad enough. That whole side of the skull is caved in, with bone fragments pushed into the brain. Something very hard hit him with a lot of force. We’ll know more when we get the body back to the lab and pick out the bits. It’s just a mess at the moment. And there could be other wounds elsewhere.’

  ‘Benny, can you clean up the cheek a bit? It looks as if there might be a scar there and if there is, it’s very significant.’

  Goodall cleared away the blood and dirt from the side of the victim’s face, depositing the cloth into an evidence bag. ‘Yes. An old scar running vertically. Why? What does it mean?’

  ‘It links this death with that of the Armitage couple. Beyond that, I really don’t have a clue. I was thinking about it just now, when you arrived. We’re more than a week into the investigation into their deaths and we’ve got nowhere. Now this.’

  Marsh stepped into the tent. Sophie looked up at him and nodded.

  ‘Who is he, ma’am? Why’s he here like this? I can’t get my head round it.’

  Sophie was frowning. ‘We were beginning to think it was something bigger than it first appeared. Now we know it is. We have a leak, Barry. I’m saying nothing else at the moment. The only people who know are you, me, Rae, Benny here and Dave Nash. I want to keep it that way. No one else must know what we suspect. Is that clear?’

  ‘Do you know who it is?’ asked Benny Goodall.

  ‘I don’t know, but I have a strong suspicion, and that’s all I’m willing to say at the moment. Barry, don’t take offence but I’m not sharing my thoughts on this with you. Trust me, will you?’

  ‘I could do the initial examination tomorrow morning, if you think it’s urgent enough. Just for you, mind,’ Goodall said, quietly.

  ‘Benny, you’re a sweetheart. But you knew that already.’

  Sophie went outside and found Rae. They stood talking for several minutes and then Rae left. Marsh watched from the doorway of the tent, looking troubled.

  * * *

  ‘He wasn’t killed here. We know that from the way the body’s lying, and the absence of bloodstains on the foliage. There are drag marks through the bushes at the back of the copse, and some tyre tracks close by. There appear to be bloodstains close to those tracks, so it looks as though he was driven here, got out of the vehicle and was struck by a hard blow to the head. Then he was dragged through the bushes and hidden. All of this is still to be confirmed by forensic checks, but I think we can work on this assumption for now.’

  Sophie was talking in low tones to the police team. They’d been joined in the clearing by a large group of police sent from headquarters, who were experienced in searching for clues. Many had been involved in combing the area a mile further north the previous week, after the discovery of the bodies in the abandoned car.

  ‘We need to examine the whole area meticulously. Look for anything that seems out of place, however insignificant it might appear to be.’

  The group fanned out and started the search. Sophie stayed near the tent, with Barry Marsh.

  ‘Where’s Rae?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve sent her back to the office. I want her to do some digging. If we have a mole, I want to find out who it is, and she’s the ideal person to do it. It’s in our remit. Her inquiries will link closely with all this.’

  ‘Shouldn’t it be me? I have the rank.’

  ‘I asked you to trust me. Rae’s still relatively unknown on the force, so she can work unobtrusively. Don’t worry, Barry. I know it’s not you.’

  ‘Are you sure there’s been a leak?’

  ‘Yes I am,’ she snapped. ‘And more than one. It’s been systematic. Now give it a rest and let’s get on with the job at hand.’

  * * *

  The search of the surrounding area was thorough, with every stray item logged, photographed and then taken away for forensic examination. A trail of blood spots led from a small clearing to the copse where the body had been hidden, a distance of about twenty yards. Faint tyre tracks could be seen both in the clearing and across some scrubby undergrowth at the edge of the nearby forest track. The body had been dumped before the previous night’s rain had started.

  Marsh phoned several local weather stations to find out when the overnight storm had begun.

  ‘Eleven yesterday evening,’ he said to Sophie. ‘So sometime before then. It doesn’t get dark until nine or thereabouts. So what do you think, ma’am? Between nine and eleven?’

  ‘Could be a bit earlier. Whoever did it wouldn’t want to use lights to see their way out. Too easily spotted from a distance. So possibly about eight. Would there have been anyone around who might have spotted them? Birdwatchers? Ramblers?’

  ‘We could ask Alice. She’d know how likely that would be. We have to take her statement anyway.’

  The two detectives drove to the activity centre, where they found Alice Llewellyn in the rangers’ office, talking to one of the junior staff. She was pale and her eyes were red.

  ‘We need to pick your brains, Alice,’ Sophie said. ‘We’re fairly sure the body has only been there since yesterday evening, probably at dusk or thereabouts. Could anyone else have been around who might have spotted something?’

  Alice shook her head. ‘None of the staff. And we don’t have any observation projects ongoing at the moment, so none of our known volunteers would have been out. There’s a chance there could have been other visitors, maybe dog walkers and the like, but they tend to stay down at this end of the forest. We try to keep people away from the bog because it’s a designated nature reserve.’

  ‘So it’s unlikely?’

  ‘From my experience, yes.’ She looked at her colleague, who nodded. ‘We’ve sometimes had organised evening groups up there, but I don’t think we’ve ever run into strangers at that time of day. It’s too dangerous. Slipping into one of those pools could be fatal.’

  ‘Okay. We won’t do an urgent public request specific to the reserve. Instead we’ll include it in a general request for possible witnesses. We need to take your statement, Alice. So if your colleague can leave us, we can get started.’

  Alice looked grim. ‘I’ve been through it before, so let’s get it over with.’ She looked at Sophie. ‘It was all rather exciting then. It seems a lot worse this time.’

  ‘It’s what I said earlier. You didn’t see any bodies then, Alice. That’s what makes the difference.’

  CHAPTER 22: Mole Hunt

  Friday Afternoon, Week 2

  Rae got down to work immediately. She started by summarising the information that Sophie had given her, following her visit to Bournemouth that morning. Rae used mind-mapping software rather than a physical incident board, and built up a web diagram on her laptop, securely protected with a new password. The boss had been right. There were just too many suspicious events. It wasn’t only the possible leak of information from the incident board early in the week. There was now a trail of suspicious activity. Requests for information had been delayed or played down, legitimate queries sent down blind avenues or cleverly diverted.

  At least she now had a name to work with, but she would have to be careful. The diversions had all been done so cleverly that he might notice any investigation. The mole’s link to the Woodruff family business seemed pretty logical, but were there other connections?

  The starting point must be that funeral. She thought so, and so did the boss. Something had happened there that had led to the deaths of Sylvia and Ted Armitage, who’d been present only by accident. She needed to know who had been present, apart from the Woodr
uff family themselves. But she couldn’t afford to set off any alarm bells. Not even a glimmer of what she was up to must get back to the mole.

  Why had the Armitage couple been there? Because they’d been early for the next funeral, the one they were planning to attend. Rae sat thinking. Wait! Maybe the two groups of mourners had intermingled, just slightly. Maybe a person at the later funeral recognised someone attending the Woodruff service as they left the crematorium. She re-examined the notes Marsh had made after his visit there, then phoned Sharon Giroux for confirmation. Rae then identified the funeral directors, and then the family member who had arranged the later funeral, that of Sylvia’s friend, Georgie Palmer. Rae was up and running.

  * * *

  Rae drove south to Poole and spent an hour with Georgie Palmer’s son, Colin, an assistant bank manager and keen local historian — as she soon discovered. Eventually Rae came away with a long list of names, addresses and telephone numbers, with those Colin considered most reliable marked with an asterisk. Colin himself had been too preoccupied with his mother’s death to notice whether there were still people lingering from the previous service, but he was sure that at least a few of the guests would have been more observant.

  Rae returned to the office and started the long task of contacting the guests. The first eighteen calls generated nothing, the people weren’t even aware of the committal just a few minutes prior to Georgie’s funeral. It was nearly six in the evening and Rae was beginning to feel despondent when someone volunteered the first key item of information.

  This was Shirley Willis, a former work colleague of Georgie’s. ‘I saw Councillor Blythe coming out. I know him because he’s on the development committee and I’ve been to a few planning meetings.’