And now he was as he needed him, in the car’s boot. Ready to be installed in the exhibit.
CHAPTER 49
The call came in earlier than the clock had dictated. It was just after five. They’d had no chance, really. She was furious with the hotel staff for not noticing Zach walk out and furious with herself for not alerting them to their precious cargo and not putting someone on his door. Yes, they’d had a marked car outside and had an officer check on him every hour or so, but it hadn’t been enough. Someone should have been outside his door. She’d thought her resources were best used elsewhere, that the killer would turn up at his home, not knowing he had been moved. Damn policing cuts and lack of staff. Of course, she’d had to let the majority of her staff leave at the end of the day yesterday, leaving her with critical resources only. They’d been on duty far too long as it was. They couldn’t work through two days with no sleep. Lisa and Krish, who stayed to watch the house, would go home to sleep now. But the rest were now back in for another full day. They weren’t robots who could do every job, though.
It had been confirmed the exit Zach had left by on the CCTV had taken him to the rear of the building, where there were no cameras and where the marked police vehicle had no line of sight on him. A small CSI team had checked around the exit but not picked up anything of value. He’d slipped out like a ghost, for all the fear he’d been holding onto.
Her mood was leaden as they headed out to Wincobank.
‘Apparently,’ said Russ beside her as he drove, ‘they have a patch of green with multiple fanciful-looking chairs built on it. One chair has wings. It’s this chair that Zach’s been placed on.’
Her head dropped into her hands. ‘So,’ she mumbled through her fingers, ‘if I hadn’t been so determined that the image be cropped to only show Zach’s face when putting it out with the press, if I’d allowed the whole image to be seen, someone might have recognised the chair at Wincobank and we could have been there waiting?’
Russ kept his attention on the road. Claudia was grateful for this. She didn’t want to see the blame fire up in his eyes.
‘You made an investigative decision to only show the part of the image that was needed at that point in time. To not show Zach as a dead body, which would frighten the public. There was no way you were to know it would all end like this. We had our hands on him. Your plan worked.’
She shook her head, regret for the loss of the young man’s life welling up within her. She had no idea how she would contain it when they arrived on scene. This would be the first time she’d attended a murder where she had previously met the victim. Where she had tried to save the victim and had ultimately failed.
Russ hadn’t sounded like he was blaming her, though. There was that to be grateful for. Though he might not blame her, she had plenty of blame to go around for the both of them.
It was a short journey to Wincobank. With no traffic on the roads at that time in the morning, they made it in fifteen minutes.
A cordon was already in place and Russ parked safely outside. An ambulance and a marked police vehicle were also at the scene. Claudia wondered if someone had been injured or if the person who found Zach’s body had needed medical support.
They climbed out the car and immediately pulled on the white Tyvek suits which would allow them to enter the crime scene.
They were parked at the side of a village-type green space. On it, as Russ described, were various whimsical chairs, all made out of different materials. Claudia had seen nothing like it and was surprised she wasn’t aware of their existence before. One chair was steel, and the back of the piece was formed into a stumpy wrinkled face. The chairs were scattered over the green rather than being uniform in their placing.
A tent had been erected over Zach and, Claudia imagined, the winged chair he was sitting in. As it was such a public place and Zach needed to remain in situ while the CSIs and the pathologist worked, it was better to cover him from prying eyes.
Gaining access through the cordon, Claudia and Russ made their way to the tent. Claudia’s stomach twisted as they drew closer.
‘Knock knock,’ Russ said, pulling one of the door flaps to the side to gain entry.
Pathologist Nadira Azim turned from what she was doing. ‘Ah, good morning. An early one for us today.’ She noted Claudia’s face. ‘I’m sorry you weren’t able to stop him.’
Claudia stared at the body in the large, wooden winged chair, as he’d been depicted in the drawing. The boy she had previously known as Zach was now a lifeless corpse. Just another victim, just another crime scene. The boy she had talked to was no longer here. Whatever he had been was snuffed out. Here was a shell that the real person, Zach Williams, had walked about in. Zach no longer had use for this body. There would be no more curling up on his sofa reading a good sci-fi book. Now the body was left for them to determine what and who had done this to him.
Claudia stepped forward, determination spurring her on. ‘Me too. But now we do what we can to identify his killer and make him pay in court.’
Nadira inclined her head and returned her attention back to the body. ‘You can see he’s held in position by rope.’ She pointed to his torso. ‘There’s a piece wrapped tightly under his arms, keeping him upright, otherwise he’d have slumped forward.’
Around her a CSI clicked away on his camera, photographing the scene, the body and the pathologist doing her work. All of it had to be evidenced. Every step logged meticulously.
‘That’s different to the drawing,’ Claudia observed. ‘I wonder how our killer feels about having to deviate from his plan. He obviously didn’t realise he wouldn’t be able to prop the body up.’
‘He was able to adapt quickly though,’ said Russ.
Claudia peered at the rope, strapped right through the middle of Zach’s tattoo. ‘What did that do to his mindset? Having to adjust like that. He obviously plans his murders meticulously because he can draw them out in such intricate detail. For someone who makes plans and shares them with the police in such an artful way, this must have really messed him up.’
‘You think he’s going to be spiralling because of this?’ asked Russ.
‘It’s a possibility. You don’t agree?’
He thought about what she’d said. ‘He’s a details man. You could be onto something. But what does him spiralling look like?’
She shrugged. ‘I have no idea, and I don’t really want to find out. Whatever it looks like, it’s not going to be good news for us.’
Nadira coughed for their attention.
‘Sorry.’ Claudia stepped closer.
‘It’s fine. Interesting point about the rope. If you lean in, you’ll be able to smell alcohol on our victim.’
Claudia wanted to scream at Nadira that he had a name. That the boy in the chair in front of them was Zach, but she clamped her teeth down and kept her mouth shut, leaning forward as she’d been instructed. ‘Yes, I can smell it.’
‘He would have had to drink quite an amount for us to smell it on him. Was he drinking when you saw him last?’
‘No, and there was no alcohol in his room. He didn’t order any with room service, we’ve seen his room service order. So, that means . . .’
‘I’d suggest, bearing in mind there are no visible signs of injury that I can see so far, and I haven’t seen his back yet, that it could be a mode of transmission for something.’
‘He was poisoned?’ Claudia stared at the pathologist.
‘I never said that.’ Her tone was rigid. Her face severe. ‘You know I can’t give you a cause of death in the field. What I’m doing is suggesting areas we can look at when I get him back to the lab.’
Claudia nodded. This killer was unlike most killers she’d ever come across. Whereas most serial killers tended to have the same or similar MO, this guy was all over the place. For the first murder he’d used a dagger and dug it deep into the victim’s back. The second victim had been hanged by his hands and suffocated by the force of his own weight, and
Zach looked like a possible poisoning.
‘What are you thinking?’ asked Russ.
‘That this guy is unusual in that he doesn’t have an MO.’
‘You want to get a psychologist in?’
She watched Nadira work on Zach, or the remains of Zach. She couldn’t see this person in front of her as Zach any longer and pondered the question. Did they need outside help? Was it admitting defeat or simply requesting another pair of hands? She had so much on her mind she wasn’t sure she could think straight. Maybe she should run it by Sharpe and see what her opinion was. Or was that in itself a display of weakness? Not making the decision herself. Damn Tyler and his cellmate for screwing with her head. Damn this killer for taking Zach when they’d had him secured away. Or what they thought of as secured.
She’d failed him. She’d failed his family. She’d failed Ruth and her father.
Russ was looking at her. She had to get a grip. ‘Let’s wait and see if we get another drawing, shall we?’
He nodded his agreement. It sounded reasonable. There was no reason he would know she had struggled to think in a straight line.
‘Can you get him on your table today?’ she asked of Nadira.
‘It won’t be until late this afternoon, but yes, I’ll get him on. I had a baby death come in last night, so I have that to do when I get back.’
Claudia shuddered. She hated those cases and was glad in a way they were busy dealing with this, so that her team hadn’t picked that case up. So many times they were dreadful accidents. Parents falling asleep in precarious positions out of utter exhaustion. Sofas being the worst one. And little babies, unable to push themselves free when they slipped down the back of the sofa, their mother or father unaware of their predicament. The parents were beyond distraught. Of course, all such cases needed a full investigation, and there were times when an arrest was necessary and harm had been all the baby had experienced in life. These cases hurt her. Claudia hated to think how she would feel when she finally had children of her own.
‘Thanks, Nadira. I appreciate it.’
Nadira balanced back on her heels. ‘Look, I’m sure there was nothing else you could have done to prevent this, Claudia. Not if I know you.’
Claudia shrugged. The senselessness of the loss of this young man’s life was nearly too much for her to bear. ‘He was supposed to be in a safe place. We’d removed him from his home to protect him, and yet he still finds himself here and being transferred to your table. What does that say about my ability really, Nadira?’
The vehemence in Claudia’s voice silenced the whole tent. The CSI even stopped what he was doing for a moment before realising this was none of his business and continuing his task.
‘His body will talk to us. He’ll tell us more about what happened. Hopefully it’ll help you.’
‘Shall we go and talk to the witness?’ Russ asked with an obvious plan to get Claudia away from Zach’s body.
She allowed herself to be steered away. ‘Who found him?’
‘A guy on his way to work. He was driving past and saw him sitting in the chair. Thought it looked a bit odd from the road, so stopped to see if the kid needed any help. It was only when he walked over he realised something was wrong and called the ambulance. Didn’t know if he was dead or . . . I don’t know, not quite dead. Unconscious.’
Claudia pulled the hood of her Tyvek suit down as they strode across the green towards the marked police vehicle that held their witness. Something had to break in this case because she wasn’t about to let this killer keep playing his games this way.
CHAPTER 50
The exhibit had been opened to the public before the time he had planned for it to be. The time on the clock he’d drawn on the invitation had said 6 a.m. and yet someone had blundered in just after five.
The Artist rubbed his arms and thought about all the things he’d done wrong for this exhibit to go so disastrously.
First of all, he’d had to locate him and bring him out of hiding. Then, when placing him in the exhibit, it hadn’t been as easy as he’d wanted it to be. Not at all like the drawing. The use of the rope destroyed the image he wanted to create, but there was no way to hold the boy up so that his wings sprang up from his back, without tying him to the chair.
It nearly broke him seeing the rope cross the boy’s own image of the skull and wings. It was a beautiful mirror image, and having it split in two by the rope had been like having his own mind split in two.
And now the timings had been broken.
He wanted to scream. To shout into the void. How could he be expected to create perfection in art if people — stupid, stupid people — got in the way?
There was one person who was more to blame than any other. One person was messing up all his plans. She had hidden his artwork away from him. She had nearly cost him everything. She’d even got into his subject’s brain and nearly made him brave enough to stand up to him, but fear of what might happen to his family had finally made him drink the cocktail of alcohol and drugs he’d given him. And finally, she was here, trampling all over his exhibit before opening time.
As though it were her exhibit.
Well, if that was what she wanted, he could help her out with that.
CHAPTER 51
The man who climbed out the marked police vehicle was overweight, with unruly black hair and hanging jowls, wearing a high-vis jacket that had the word ‘Security’ on the back.
‘You were on your way to work?’ asked Claudia.
‘Yeah. I work at an industrial site in the city. It’s an early start. That’s why I was on the road, you see.’
‘Can you tell me what happened?’
The guy could easily answer the question with a yes, but Claudia hoped he would use it as an invitation to open up about the morning’s events. Most witnesses liked to tell their story, so much so that you got a lot of waffle and extraneous detail you didn’t need. But in a murder enquiry there was little that was extraneous. You never knew when the smallest piece of information could break a case.
‘I was on my way out to work when I saw him,’ the man said. ‘It was getting light, and because he’s half-naked he glowed in the early sun. He’s pretty pale.’ The man paused, recognition dawning on his face that it could have been because the lad was dead that his skin was so pasty.
‘Go on,’ encouraged Claudia.
‘I thought he was in trouble. I actually thought he might be a druggy and it might have been an overdose. After all, most sensible people aren’t around at this time of day, are they? Never mind half dressed.’
Claudia smiled in response. The aim was not to put words in his mouth, but to be grateful for what he had already said.
‘I got a right shock when I approached him. Yeah, I were expecting something, like I said, but he were tied to the chair. You don’t do that to yourself, do you?’
Claudia waited for him to continue. People tended to fill the silence.
‘I weren’t going to touch him and feel for a pulse. If he were dead, I didn’t fancy touching that. I’ve never even seen a dead body before. So I called an ambulance. They were the ones who called you out. Seems you really can’t tie yourself to a chair in the middle of the street.’
CHAPTER 52
Dominic was dealing with the house-to-house enquiries. As the sergeant, he was organising the teams, but he was also supporting them by attending a couple of addresses himself. He’d paired a detective from the task force with a uniform cop to visit each address.
It was highly unlikely they would get anything of use due to the hour of the day. Most people were in bed, but it had to be done.
What most rankled him was that Russ was coupled up with Claudia yet again. It was Claudia’s duty to split the work fairly, but as far as Dominic could see, she was still leaning on Russ and leaving him out in the cold.
He walked up the narrow pathway to the house he was attending. It directly faced the green that the chairs were built on. Most likely the house th
at was depicted in the drawing.
He was happy to work alone. He didn’t need a uniform presence to aid him with the knock. He was in no mood to make small talk.
Maybe Claudia was making him pay for the fact that Lawton had put Tyler in the spotlight for killing Ruth. Not that she could possibly know he had anything to do with it. Maybe it was just her way of avoiding family while she processed her feelings. Another reason they should never have both been placed on the same team.
He rapped on the closed door, hard enough to wake its sleeping residents. It was possible most were up with all the activity in front of their homes.
It wasn’t as though the powers that be knew there was a huge underlying issue when they put him and Claudia together. If they were any ‘normal’ father and daughter, it wouldn’t be a problem. But killing her step-mother and tampering with evidence when she asked difficult questions made the working relationship rather challenging.
As for Russ, in the main he liked the guy. But he wouldn’t allow him to put Dominic’s own career on hold while he took all the glory. He would have to think about how to deal with that.
It was one problem after another.
The door opened and a mother with a child on her hip peered quizzically at Dominic. ‘Hello, can I help you?’
He flashed her his ID. ‘DS Dominic Harrison, South Yorkshire Police.’ He indicated the green behind him with his head. ‘You’ve probably seen the activity behind me this morning.’ He was banking on it as the baby was small and had in all likelihood had her up early. ‘I’m wondering if I can ask you a couple of questions?’
The woman looked beyond Dominic to the white tent hiding Zach’s body. ‘What happened?’
‘We can’t go into details, but we’d love your help.’ Zach’s family hadn’t been informed yet. There was no way they could leak the murder until they were aware.
SECONDS TO DIE a totally gripping serial killer thriller with a twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 2) Page 19