Brutal Pursuit

by Diane M Dickson

  “Where is it she works again?”

  He took out his notebook and peered at it. “Woodbarn something or other.”

  “I thought it was a farm?”

  “I think it was, a long time ago, but now it’s just poultry. Chickens mostly. Turkeys at Christmas, that sort of thing.” He was looking up the details on his phone. “It’s apparently medium sized in the industry. Still a family concern though.”

  “Hmm. Did you ask what her reaction was when they went to collect her?” Tanya said.

  “I did, but the WPC wasn’t very helpful, hadn’t registered much. Just said Mrs Baker called her brother – he works at the same place, so he was nearby. Then she thanked them, and they left. What are you looking for?”

  Tanya shook her head. “Not sure yet, just something that’s niggling me. Leave it with me for now.”

  “Boss. Right, if that’s it, I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Chapter 41

  The text from Simon Hewitt pinged as Tanya climbed back into her bed. It was a brief apology. He’d been called out to a body and didn’t think that he could make it for breakfast. Tanya double checked her calls and texts but there was nothing for her, so she responded with a suggestion that they meet for lunch if he was free, turned out the light and was asleep within minutes.

  Kate Lewis was in the office first the next morning. She had already started another board with images of the scattered bones and the torn sacking. She had drawn an arrow towards the images of the first dreadful discovery in the hut at the golf course, but it ended with a large question mark. Tanya nodded her approval. “Chase them will you, Kate. The woman I spoke to last night said it wouldn’t take them long. We need to know as quickly as possible if this is our first victim, well, little teeny bits of him at any rate.”

  “Yes, boss, there’s a search going on for the rest of the bones and the skull; they called a halt last night when it started to rain again. They should be back there now.”

  “Excellent. Anything else?”

  “You had a call on the internal phone, from the DCI’s office. He’d like a word, soon as you can.”

  “Okay. Is DI Finch in the office yet?”

  “Not yet, ma’am.”

  Tanya glanced around; the rest of them had arrived. They booted up their devices, stuffed coats and bags into drawers, and sipped at take away coffees. They were ready for another day of slogging through routines, waiting for the bright flash of a breakthrough.

  It didn’t set the right example. DI or not, he should be here if the team were, unless he was in the field, but she didn’t see how that could be. She’d deliberately been cutting him out. She really must stop it. What was it about him that made her wary of treating him as an equal, or at least as one of the team? She didn’t know. Maybe it was just that she wanted him to be Charlie. Well, he wasn’t, and they had to get through it. She’d have to speak to him for her own sake as well as his. Her stomach twisted at the thought of it.

  In the office, the drinks machine was turned on and there was a small white cup on the table, dregs in the bottom. She picked up the cup and tilted it. The tiny puddle of coffee ran back and forth. Not yesterday’s then, that would have been a dried smudge by now. She went behind the new desk. His laptop bag was on the floor beside the chair and his computer was turned on. Her fingers itched to slide the mouse across the desk, just one little nudge would do it – at least she would be able to see if he’d been looking at something. Chances were, of course, there would just be the force logo swimming across a blue background. That was the way it should be. She stretched out a finger. Footsteps echoed in the corridor outside and she flew like a guilty child back to her own desk, threw herself into the chair and began to boot up her own machine.

  Kate stepped into the office. “Ma’am, I’ve been on to the morgue. That Moira was on duty.” She pulled a face. It was never easy dealing with the dragon woman who ran the reception for the medical examiners as if it was her own fiefdom. “There’s a report coming through. All she was authorised to tell me was that, from their preliminary examination, they would say that the bones found in the wood are a match for the body in the hut. The cuts on the end of the radius match. They have taken DNA of course, but it’ll be a bit before we have results.”

  “Was there any chance of fingerprints, from the skin and flesh that was left?”

  “No, boss. I did ask.”

  “Hmm, that’s what I thought. They were pretty damaged but there was apparently some flesh, it was just an outside chance. Right, I’m off to see DCI Scunthorpe. We’ll have a briefing when I get back. I wish we could find the skull. Maybe there would be enough to put together an image. Nothing back from the posters of the young woman?”

  “Nothing yet, boss. I think the people in the press department are going to try and get it on the next Crimewatch programme – that’s next week.”

  “Brilliant. I didn’t know about that though, it’s not in my messages.”

  “No, ma’am.” Kate reddened. “I think it was DI Finch who was liaising. I think he was going to do the interview.”

  “Where did you hear that?”

  “A mate in the press office. Actually, he rang to ask if you’d been taken off the case because he thought it was a bit odd.”

  Tanya was embarrassed. It wasn’t that she wanted to go on the television, she hated the idea and had managed to avoid it up until now. But as SIO, she should be the one, if anyone from the investigation was to do it. Maybe her interview with Bob Scunthorpe would shed some light on what exactly was going on. A worm of fear curled in the back of her brain. She hadn’t made much progress. Nothing at all in truth, and there were more bodies. Had she screwed up so much that she was going to be replaced by Brian Finch?

  Chapter 42

  Bob had a new secretary. When had that happened? And where was the pleasant young woman who always seemed to be on Tanya’s side?

  “Go right in, Detective Inspector.”

  Tanya knocked once on the door, stepped in and there was Brian Finch, deep in conversation with the DCI.

  “Tanya, good morning. Coffee?” Bob stood and walked around his desk, shook her hand, indicated a chair opposite where Finch sat, looking very relaxed.

  “No, no coffee, thanks, sir.” Though she refused the drink, Tanya had no choice but to sit. She usually tried to keep these meetings short, standing just a step inside the door. It was necessary to keep the DCI informed and up to date, but she much preferred to do it by phone or email. He was a good boss, fair and supportive, but she would much rather work on a case than talk about it. Brian Finch raised his eyebrows as she moved the chair an infinitesimal distance away from him, turning it slightly so that she was facing more towards Bob Scunthorpe than him. She knew it was petty, but he made her feel awkward and she had the feeling, growing daily, that he wasn’t to be trusted.

  “Tanya.” Scunthorpe leaned towards her, his forearms resting on the table, his fingers twined together. “We need to have a talk about your new assistant. We are going to have to have a change of direction.” He glanced at Brian Finch who beamed back at him.

  Tanya’s heart jumped. Had he complained? Had the side-lining been too obvious? She had been warned that he had connections.

  She clasped her fingers together, laid her hands on her lap and summoned up a smile.

  “Right, sir.” She nodded.

  The DCI shuffled some of the papers in the file on his desk. “I don’t imagine you’ve had a chance to go through the overnight reports yet?”

  Tanya shook her head.

  “Well, we had another suspicious death yesterday. A young woman, beaten and abandoned in Wolvercote Cemetery.”

  Tanya pulled out her phone. “I had nothing, sir.”

  “No, you wouldn’t. It doesn’t on the face of it look as though it’s connected with your own enquiry. This victim was certainly killed unlawfully, but the body was in one piece, head, hands, the lot. So, it’s a new enquiry. We’re going to be str
etched pretty thinly. Accordingly, I have asked DI Finch here to concentrate on this newest discovery. We’ll have to split your team, for the time being at least. As you’re already set up in your shared office, that should work. Well, there’ll be a separate incident room, of course, and we’ve already generated a name for this enquiry.”

  “Yes sir, ‘Blackbird’,” Finch said.

  Scunthorpe nodded and made a note on his pad. “I’ll leave the fine details regarding manpower deployment to be sorted between yourselves. For the time being at least, you are going to lose your wing man I’m afraid.” He smiled at Tanya, sympathetically.

  Yes!

  Tanya kept her face neutral and made a couple of affirmative grunts. She glanced across at Finch to see the hint of a smirk on his face. Could it be that he was pleased to be given his own major case so soon? Could it be that he could see right into her head, could detect the overwhelming sense of relief?

  DCI Scunthorpe pushed back his chair, the meeting at an end.

  Tanya raised a hand. “There is just one thing, sir? Detective Lewis mentioned that we are hoping for a spot on Crimewatch, with the picture of our female victim?” She glanced at Brian Finch. “I believe it was the plan that, Detective Inspector Finch would do the interview?”

  “I haven’t read my memos from the press office this morning.” As he spoke the DCI moved the mouse on his desk and began to scroll.

  “I just wondered if this new situation would change that plan, sir?” Tanya waited as he leaned forward, obviously reading his screen.

  “Yes, I see this now. Hmm. That was the plan yes. Apparently, the television people prefer a male officer.” He glanced across the desk. “Sorry, Tanya. That’s not acceptable, I’ll have a word.”

  She could tell that he was uncomfortable and was sorry now that she had spoken. She liked her boss, and this wasn’t his doing.

  “I don’t mind, sir, I didn’t really want to do it, I just thought that, as Detective Inspector Finch is going to be working on his own case…”

  “Yes, quite,” Bob Scunthorpe muttered.

  Brian Finch said, “It’s just that they find the public respond better to a male officer in uniform. I know someone down in the press office, he explained it to me. It’s all a bit non-PC but… well, whatever gets the job done, I suppose.”

  Bob Scunthorpe turned away from his screen. “Leave this with me, would you? I need to have a word with a couple of people. But as it’s already been arranged, are you happy for DI Finch to do the interview?”

  “Yes, sir. No problem.”

  There was no other answer that she could give, but Tanya caught the flash of smugness on Brian Finch’s face, that was definitely one score to him. “Unless we have a major breakthrough, of course,” she said.

  At least she had the last word.

  Chapter 43

  They left the DCI’s office and walked side by side along the corridor. “I’ll take Kate and Paul, if that’s okay,” Brian Finch said.

  Tanya bit back her explosive response. Okay, this was a declaration of war. He knew, he just had to know, they were the people she needed the most, and he knew why.

  She drew in a breath and shook her head. “Well, that won’t work for me, I’m afraid. As you know Kate is my most computer savvy officer. You’ve done courses from what I’ve heard and there are the civilians, most of them are very skilled.” She glanced at his profile, saw the jump of a nerve in his jaw. “And Paul, Detective Sergeant Harris, has been working very closely with me on my case. I’ve been impressed by his improved attitude and I reckon to move him now might give the wrong impression. No, I think it would be better if you took Detectives Price and Rollinson. I can cover their work with civilians.”

  She knew it would be hard for him to argue. Though she didn’t have seniority of rank, she did have more time served in her present position and the arguments were fair and valid.

  He didn’t speak again, but he lengthened his stride and stomped ahead of her. As they reached the incident room he leaned around the door. “Detective Price, Detective Rollinson, could I have a word?”

  It was wrong, completely out of order, but she could hardly have a verbal battle with him in front of the team. She turned into their shared office and, yes, it was the devil on her shoulder that made her do it, but she walked over to the machine and began to make herself a cappuccino.

  It was a stressful, awkward morning; there was much muttering. The only one completely happy with the new arrangement was Sue Rollinson, who threw herself into helping set up the new incident room. They reassigned some of the civilians who simply went where they were told, the politics much less important to them, though she imagined they had their own conflicts. Wherever there were people, you had battles for supremacy. It was one of the reasons she admired Kate Lewis. The woman truly just wanted to get the job done and the rest of it didn’t bother her.

  * * *

  By lunch time Tanya had the start of a headache and her shoulders were aching with tension. She met Simon Hewitt at a coffee shop near to the morgue.

  “You alright, Tanya?” he asked.

  “Yes, thanks. It’s been a bit of a morning to be honest and I can do without it right now. I need to move things along with this golf club case. I’m trying to find the bar manager. I’ve asked for a warrant to search his place and had to jump through some hoops for it because we are so short on information. He might be completely uninvolved, but it’s odd that he’s disappeared right now. On top of that, there’s something niggling at me about the suicide, but I don’t want to speak too soon or cause trouble unnecessarily and send us all off on a wild goose chase. I need more on that. Then to top it all, I’ve lost half my team to another case.”

  He nodded quietly. “Is that the body from last night?”

  “Yes, DI Finch has been assigned, but we’re short of officers, well, you know that. Oh well, I’ll just have to get on with it. I can’t deal with the politics though, I never have been able to, and right now it feels as though personalities are gumming up the works.”

  She stopped herself, this wasn’t her, she didn’t share her failings. Growing up in the shadow of her older sister she had felt failure and weakness more deeply than someone from a more balanced family might have done. To hear herself admit now that there were things she found it hard to deal with took her by surprise. She looked up at Simon Hewitt. He was watching her with concern.

  “I’m going to do the post-mortem exam on the poor woman this afternoon. On the face of it, it seems that she’s been beaten to death. I suppose this means that DI Finch will be attending?”

  “I imagine so. He’s got Dan and Sue with him.”

  “Ah, I like Dan, he’s got what it takes, I reckon.” The fact that he didn’t mention Sue Rollinson spoke volumes and Tanya smiled across the table.

  “Was there any special reason why you wanted to meet, Simon? I mean it’s lovely and all, it really is, especially after the morning I’ve had.” She paused as their lunches were delivered and there was the fuss of utensils, and water, and tomato sauce for Simon’s chips.

  When it was all done, Simon took up the conversation. “From what you’ve said I think maybe the main reason I wanted to have a chat has already been negated. To lay my cards on the table, I’ve been a little concerned about Brian Finch’s behaviour.”

  Tanya tipped her head to one side, sipped at her glass of water and waited.

  “I don’t know if you were aware, but he’s been visiting the morgue quite regularly, asking questions. Of course, he doesn’t often get past Moira.” He laughed. “Still, she mentioned it to me. She felt at first that he was simply being over-enthusiastic, his first big case as a DI and so on and of course it could just be that. I was bothered by the feeling that he was working on his own more than I would have expected. Turning up after hours and speaking to the assistants, a couple of them had noticed it. He had asked to see the body again.”

  “But what was he asking about? I mean we’ve
all seen your reports – he has full access to all of that.”

  “Yes, indeed. But he has visited every day, wondering if we have had DNA results, wondering if we are any nearer to finding out the nationality of our victim. All perfectly reasonable but, well… I don’t think I’ve had so much intense follow up of a case before and I just thought you should know about it. I didn’t imagine you were behind it. I was leaning towards the idea that he wanted to be the first to know about everything. Wanted to be the one to shine. It’s not useful is it, having people pursuing their own agendas? Mind you, if he has been assigned a case of his own now, that should keep him busy.”

  “Yes, but you’re the medical examiner on that one. If this is the way that he’s going to work, it’s going to be a bit of a pain for you,” Tanya said.

  “Ha, not really. If I tell Moira to keep him back, well…” He shrugged. “To be honest though, I’ve rather wanted to see you outside of work for a while, Tanya.” His voice had dropped as he looked down at the table, fiddled with his fork. “I guess this is hardly outside of work, seeing as that’s all we’ve talked about. But I just wondered if maybe you’d like to have dinner with me some time?”

  Tanya glanced around the restaurant. Did she want to do this? Did she want to become involved personally with anyone, and especially someone with whom she worked? It had been a long time since she’d been in a relationship and that hadn’t ended well. Police work often made private life difficult and complicated. Unless someone was in the job it was hard for them to understand. Apart from that, she preferred her own space, her own company and the freedom to concentrate totally on the job; her career. But it had been such a difficult morning; she felt tired and despondent. He was only asking her to have dinner with him, and he was aware, as much as anyone could be, of the demands of the work. She put down her knife and fork and looked across at him.

  Chapter 44

  Back at work, Tanya brought DS Paul Harris into the office and they went over the interview, such as it had been, with Tricia Baker. She asked him again about the car sent to collect her from work. She didn’t tell him what was bothering her. If he had independently voiced concerns that matched her own, then it would have given her more confidence. As it was, she decided to sit on it for the time being.