by M A Comley
He was a risk taker, he knew his brother would be pissed at what he was about to do, but fuck it, he had a need growing inside him that was crying out to be satisfied. He pushed the door open, and she screamed. He clung on tight to the rail and heaved Layla out of the plane. The plane dipped, first one way and then the other. Harvey grappled to find the door handle again, and after an intense struggle against the strong winds, managed to secure it in place once more. His gaze was drawn to the side window as he watched Layla’s body tumble into the darkness below.
He ventured into the cockpit, prepared for his brother to rip into him.
“What the fuck did you do?” Daniel demanded, his hair damp, the sweat pouring from his forehead due to his exertion to keep the plane level.
“Let’s just say I changed my mind. Didn’t think she suited our purpose. On top of that, she was pissing me off, so I got rid of her.” Harvey laughed and peered through the windscreen.
Daniel stared at him open-mouthed for a few seconds. “Jesus! You’re fucking unpredictable! You’ve gone too far this time. That’s it, I’ve had enough. You realise your demented behaviour could have killed us both, don’t you?”
“The thought never even crossed my mind. These bitches need to know who the boss is. You know me, I refuse to take shit from any woman. Anyway, stop questioning my actions. Just fly the goddamn plane.”
“Where do you want me to fly it, now you’ve dumped the fucking cargo we were carrying? Or hadn’t you thought about that?”
“Turn around. I’ll ring Mick to pick us up from the airfield. That’s it, all sorted without me getting a hair out of place, as usual. Well, maybe that was a slight exaggeration.” He laughed again and returned to the cabin to take his seat. The plane veered off to the right and descended a few minutes later. Harvey relived the moment he ditched Layla, literally, and grinned.
Nothing feels more satisfying than seeing fear in a woman’s eyes just before she dies. I’m such an evil bastard!
9
Sara had to drag herself into the station on Saturday morning; six straight days on the trot were taking their toll on her body. Mark, bless him, insisted on getting up early to prepare her a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. He was an absolute gem, and not for the first time, she felt fortunate to have him in her life. It was getting increasingly difficult to imagine a life without him. Her marriage to Philip was now a very long and distant memory, and it had been replaced by the joy of having Mark in her life. She hoped against hope that this time, her happiness was going to last forever.
The niggling that cropped up now and again hadn’t gone unnoticed, leading her to wonder if she deserved to be this happy and content.
She parked her car and entered the station, surprised to see the regular desk sergeant on duty. “No rest for the wicked, eh, Jeff?”
“So it seems. One of the guys called in sick this morning, they rang me to replace him. I don’t mind, I didn’t have much on this weekend anyway. How come you’re here, Ma’am?”
“This investigation has got under my skin. Can’t stand the thought of two women being out there, scared shitless, fretting about what is likely going to happen to them.”
“I can understand that. Any leads so far?”
“We’ve got a limo we need to track down, that’s about it.”
“There can’t be that many in the area, can there? I wouldn’t class Hereford as being affluent.”
“Around fifty.”
“Wow, really? I suppose that’s more than enough for you and your team to try and trace.”
The outer door opened and Carla walked in. Sara smiled and asked, “Hi, how are you on this dreary January Saturday?”
“Let’s just say my mood is matching the weather today.”
“Come on, I’ll buy you a coffee. See you later, Jeff.”
“Have a productive day, ladies.”
“Fingers crossed for us,” Sara called over her shoulder and hooked her arm through Carla’s.
A few minutes later, Carla brought a coffee into her office. Sara glanced at her paperwork. “Should I have given my weekend up for this crap?”
“Why don’t you leave it until Monday? No one will notice.”
“I think I will. Is Craig here yet?”
“Yes, he’s just shown up.”
“I’ll come and have my coffee with you two then, it can get lonely in here sometimes.”
Carla nodded and retreated out of the room.
“Bloody hell!” Craig shouted.
Sara raced out of her office to join him. “What’s up?”
“I put out an alert on the ANPR system before I left yesterday. I’ve just checked my emails and they contacted me early this morning. I should have checked first thing and forgot.” He thumped his fist against his thigh.
“I won’t have self-recriminations in this office, Craig, you know that.”
“I know. Anyway, apparently, the limo was spotted last night in the centre of Hereford.”
“What? Why wasn’t uniform alerted and instructed to swoop on the driver?”
Craig winced. “I set up the wrong type of alert, boss. I only asked for an email to be sent to me. Damn, why didn’t I check it earlier?”
“It still wouldn’t have helped, Craig. Can you bring up the footage?”
“I can try. Give me a few minutes, I’ll get back to you.”
Sara paced the floor, her anxiety rising with every step, until Craig gestured for her to join him.
“Here it is. The driver is in the car, waiting for someone by the look of things.”
“Interesting. Scroll forward.”
Craig whizzed through the footage to around eight-thirty. They watched the driver get out of the limo and open the back door. Two people came into shot, a man in a suit and a young woman wearing an evening dress and shawl.
“Interesting. Can we get a close-up of the man, Craig?”
He zoomed in, but the picture was pixelated and very grainy. “Bugger, that’s no help, is it?”
“Not at all,” Carla agreed. “Shit! Does this mean another girl has gone missing?”
“Maybe, or she could be his permanent girlfriend. They seem pretty close, or is that my imagination? I’m just thinking how awkward I used to feel on a date if I didn’t know the girl that well,” Craig suggested.
“Possibly. The truth is, we can only speculate. Craig, maybe in time you can try to clear up the image a little? Perhaps we can check the restaurants in the area, see if we can find any better images of them. Might be worth a shot. For now, though, can you find out where they headed?”
“I can have a tinker with it.” He fast forwarded the tape and the three of them observed in silence as the car left the city and picked up the A49.
Sara’s heart sank. “Do your best to track it down, Craig, this could be the lead we’ve been waiting for.”
“I’ll try, leave it with me.”
Sara and Carla backed away. “What do you want me to do?” Carla asked.
“We’ll both look back over what we’ve got so far, not that there’s much to hand at present, that’s the ultimate frustration for me.”
They settled down at Carla’s desk and went through the list of clues they had uncovered so far. Half an hour into their deliberation, the phone in Sara’s office rang. She bolted out of her chair to answer it. “DI Sara Ramsey, how—”
“Cut the speech, I haven’t got time for that.”
“Lorraine, is that you? Of course it is, what can I do for you?”
“Nothing. I’m contacting you to tell you I’m looking at a dead body.”
“Right. What do you expect me to say to that?”
Lorraine sighed. “It’s the body of a female, she’s lying in a field out in Leominster. Do you want to attend, it’s a weird one?”
“Weird? In what respect? I’m dealing with two missing person cases, I don’t have time to fit a suspicious death into the mix, if that’s what you’re telling me.”
“
I’m not saying a word, other than I think you should attend this one. Are you up for taking my word?”
“Always. Okay, give me the location, Carla and I will be with you shortly.”
Lorraine gave her the postcode she needed for the satnav and hung up.
“We’ll be back shortly, Craig, keep up the good work.”
“Good luck, boss.”
Sara and Carla left the car. Carla stared down at her suede ankle boots. “Shit, these are going to get mucky as hell, if the field is boggy. I don’t suppose you have a spare pair of wellies in there, do you?”
“I haven’t. Even if I had, they probably wouldn’t fit you. I’m only a size four and a half. You must be a size six at least.”
“Spot on.” Carla reached into the boot and extracted a pair of paper shoe covers. “I suppose these will offer your footwear some protection.”
“They’ll be better than nothing.”
Sara smiled and reached back into the boot. “Let’s chuck on a suit, just in case.”
They slipped into a paper suit each and walked through the open gate to the field where a group of SOCOs and Lorraine were setting up their equipment.
“Hey, what have you got for us?” Sara called out when she was several feet away from the victim.
“Come and see for yourself. You took your time getting here,” Lorraine chastised.
“Traffic was horrendous,” Sara replied, hoping her tongue wouldn’t swell up because of the white lie she had told. It hadn’t taken them that long to travel the sixteen- or seventeen-mile journey to get there, not really.
Carla nudged her when the victim came into sight. “What the fuck?” Carla muttered.
“Shit! My eyes aren’t deceiving me, are they?” Sara asked, shocked.
Carla shook her head and replied, “If they are, then mine are doing exactly the same.”
“Do you mind telling me what you two are wittering on about?” Lorraine demanded, her arms crossed, tapping her foot in annoyance.
“We believe this girl was with a chap we’re interested in tracking down. They were caught on camera in the city last night, then they left the area in a limo. The same limo connected to the missing person case we’re working on,” Sara said, her gaze still drawn to the victim.
“Ah, so my calling you out was justified after all, then. I just thought this case would be right up your street.”
“You did right ringing me. What do you reckon happened? She got in the car with this bloke. I have to say, they seemed pretty comfortable in each other’s company from what we could tell. He drove her out here and did away with her in this field? Or did he kill her in the car and dump the body here?”
Lorraine shook her head slowly and looked up at the sky.
“What?” Sara asked, confused.
“I’m taking a huge gamble on this one, but I think she fell from the sky.”
“That’s insane. How could that…?”
“I don’t know. Let my guys finish taking the pics and then I’ll show you what I mean. I had a sneaky peek at her earlier and was shocked at what I discovered, another reason for putting the call out to you.”
They waited patiently for two photographers to fire off dozens of shots, after which they stepped back from the corpse. Lorraine got down on her knees and turned the body over. She pointed at the grass and mud beneath the woman’s body. “I couldn’t figure it out when we arrived. I saw the large indent in the soil beneath her. I’ve been wracking my brains, trying to consider different scenarios, and the only genuine suggestion I can come up with is that she fell from the sky. Another ten feet that way and she would have ended up in the centre of that big tree and probably remained undiscovered for weeks.”
“You’re kidding. All right, wrong thing to say, judging by your stern expression. But, this is unthinkable, Lorraine. How does a body fall from the sky?”
“I’ve seen it in books I’ve read for research purposes, it’s not inconceivable.”
“It’s not? But how?”
“I believe the woman fell from either a plane or possibly a hot-air balloon, as unbelievable as that sounds.”
“But how?”
“Stop asking the same damn question, Sara. I’m not the bloody oracle, all I can report are the facts as I find them. It’s up to you to figure out the whys and wherefores. Sorry to be so arsy with you.”
“It’s okay, I’m used to it.” Sara issued a toothy grin.
“Yeah, right.”
“What do you suggest we do?”
“Oh great, as well as doing my fucking job, you want me to come up with something to make your life easier. You’re looking at the wrong person if you expect that, love.”
“All right. Get your hand from up your arse, I was only asking. Who found her?”
Lorraine pointed at a gentleman, standing by the gate on the other side of the field. “The owner of the land, the farmer. He’s pretty shaken up, as you can imagine.”
“Poor bloke. I’ll have a word.”
“You do that,” Lorraine grumbled and returned her attention to the corpse.
“Before I go, any ID on her?”
“Nope.”
“Was she interfered with? You know, raped?”
“My initial assessment says no. I’ll give you a definitive answer later, after the PM.”
Sara nodded and took a few paces, then looked down at how muddy the field was. “You stay here, Carla. I’ll do this one.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Sara contemplated the question. “Ring Craig, get him to check the flight paths in this area.”
“You seriously think she came from a plane?” Carla asked, incredulity prominent on her face as well as in her tone.
“Hard to believe, but if that’s what Lorraine is indicating, then we have to follow that line of thinking, otherwise we’ve got nothing.”
“Okay. Maybe there’s an airfield around here. I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but then, the need to know that information has never surfaced before.”
“Get on it. I’m newish to the area, so I haven’t got a clue either. I’ll be back soon. Why don’t you go back to the car? It’ll be warmer and more comfortable for you.”
Carla grinned. “That’s what I love the most about working with you, boss, your thoughtfulness.”
“Shoo… Stop mocking me.”
The farmer stared at her as she approached him. “Hello, sir. I’m DI Sara Ramsey and you are?”
“Dick Pullman. I own this land, for my sins. Terrible to come across something like this in the morning. Not what one expects to stumble across in his field. Do you know who she is?”
“I’m sorry you were the one who discovered the body. We’re at a loss to know who the victim is, as there was no ID found on her. This may be a silly question, but I don’t suppose you recognise her as being a local, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” he replied, indignantly. “Was she raped and dumped here? I couldn’t bear the thought of that. I have a granddaughter around her age.” He shook his head in disgust.
“We don’t believe so. Try not to upset yourself, I know that’s easier said than done.” Sara paused a beat before she asked the next question, “I don’t suppose you heard a plane flying overhead last night?”
He frowned and stroked the grey whiskers covering his chin. “A plane… no, you don’t think she fell out of a plane, do you? Well, I’ve heard some crazy suggestions in my seventy years on this earth, but that has to take the bloody biscuit, that does.”
“We’re not sure. We have to cover all possibilities at this stage. Did you hear anything, either last night or this morning?”
He stared off behind her as he thought. “Nope, I don’t think I did. Although, saying that, once I’m at home, the TV tends to be up loud because my wife is deaf. I’ve told her umpteen times to get her damn ears tested.” He poked a finger in his right ear and waggled it. “Makes my head ring, it does. No doubt I’ll be as deaf as her one of
these days.”
“Sorry to hear that, sir. What about this morning?”
“Nothing untoward happened, not that I can put a finger on anyway, sorry. Hard to believe she fell from the sky though, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“It’s a genuine possibility at this stage. Where is your farmhouse located?”
He pointed to the west of them. “A couple of fields over that way.”
“Okay, so you wouldn’t likely hear a vehicle if it stopped in the lane where my car is parked?”
“No. I’d have to have a bionic implant for me to hear something as far away as that.”
Sara was at a loss what to ask next. Instead, she dug out a business card from her jacket pocket and handed it to him. “If you should think of anything else I should know about, feel free to contact me on that number.”
He stared at the card and shrugged. “Is that it?”
“It’s all we have at the moment. If you neither heard a plane nor a vehicle in the vicinity, then I need to get on with my investigation and find someone who did, sir.”
“Ah, I see. Off to check with the neighbours, see if they heard anything, is that it?”
“That was my intention, yes. Are there many in the area?”
“This is a farming community. Four farms including this one, some small and some as big as this. I dare say someone might have heard something that I missed. Sorry to have let you down.”
Sara smiled to reassure him. “You haven’t, not in the slightest. I’ll be off, then. Take care, Mr Pullman.”
“I will. I hope you solve the mystery. I suppose I’ll read about it in the papers, will I?”
“Maybe, if we ever solve the crime.” Sara returned to the car, but stopped off to speak to Lorraine on the way. “Anything else for me? If not, we’re going to knock on a few doors in the area, they’re few and far between, apparently.”
“Nothing more from me, not until I’ve cut her open.”
“Too much information. I’ll speak to you soon.”
“You will that. Let me know if you find out whether my theory is correct.”
“I will, don’t worry.”
Sara dodged the huge cow pats on the way back to the car and slipped off the shoe covers before she got in the vehicle. Carla was still on the phone, and she listened in on the conversation.