Shadow of Death (9781476057248)

by Ellis, Tim

  ‘But you’re getting married to a wonderful man who loves you very much, and who’s taking you on honeymoon to a desert island.’

  They were sitting at the kitchen table after a healthy evening meal of ratatouille. Richards and Catherine were upstairs in Richard’s bedroom searching the Internet for health spas.

  As soon as she heard that they were both going to go to a health spa, Angie wanted to go as well. She interwove the fingers of her right hand in-between the fingers of his left hand. ‘We can afford it. We’ve still got all that money Walter left us.’

  ‘Left the baby.’

  ‘Well, it didn’t actually say that in the will. He left it to us as long as we called the baby Walter.’

  ‘What if it’s a girl?’

  ‘It?’

  ‘You know what I mean – the baby.’

  ‘I know the baby is a boy, but if we have a girl we can still call her Walter. The name is sometimes used as a girl’s name.’

  ‘Walter didn’t do us any favours. He could have been called something simple like Peter.’

  ‘You have no imagination. He didn’t say we had to use the English version of the name, anyway. What about Russian versions of Walter – Dimka, Volya, Vova, or Vovka?’

  ‘Hey, they’re not bad.’

  ‘Or the Lithuanian – Vanda?’

  ‘You’re a genius.’ He kissed her. ‘With two geniuses for parents it... the baby... must have a head start.’

  ‘We’ve moved away from the main topic of conversation – the health spa.’

  ‘Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that.’

  ‘How convenient. I think I need a weekend in a health spa to make me look beautiful for the wedding, and it would certainly be beneficial to the baby’s development.’

  ‘You’re already beautiful, and I was wondering how long it would take you to make it about the baby.’

  ‘You don’t think I’d use our unborn child to manipulate you into taking your fiancée to a health spa, do you?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I think. What about Digby?’

  Digby sat up and barked.

  ‘Ray and Jerry will look after him for the weekend. Their kids would love having him.’

  ‘Poor Digby! So, you’ve got it all worked out?’

  ‘Nearly. We still have to tell Mary we’re going with her and Catherine.’

  ‘I’ll leave that delicate task to you.’ He stood and took Digby’s lead off the hook. ‘Come on boy, it seems as though you and I are merely puppets in this unfolding drama.’

  ***

  ‘That’s for you,’ Parish said, passing the Harold Wood Hospital security DVD to Toadstone. ‘I want to know whether it’s been altered or not.’

  ‘Okay.’

  It was ten past eight. They were sitting in the back room of 38, Puck Road. Everyone had coffee, tea, orange juice or water to keep them hydrated.

  ‘It’s a priority, Toadstone. The killer could be on that DVD, and if he is we might have found where he’s keeping his victims.’

  ‘I’ll get Steve Potts on it first thing in the morning.’

  ‘And you’ll ring me?’

  ‘Of course.’

  He told the three that didn’t know what had taken place at the hospital during the morning visit, and then in the evening.

  They stared at Catherine.

  ‘Don’t look at me like that. I’m telling the truth.’

  ‘We believe her, don’t we, Sir?’ Richards said.

  ‘Yes, we do.’

  ‘Let’s hope the DVD backs up your story,’ Ed said.

  Parish ended the speculation. ‘We’ll find out tomorrow when the computer tech has analysed it. So, let’s move on. In between the two hospital visits we went back to Terri Royston’s house and I met Arnold the giant. He’s not our killer, but I did manage to acquire the old police reports, and Richards found something very interesting in them.’

  He passed the reports to Toadstone and sat down. ‘You’ll need these to compare the PM reports. Also, make copies and ask someone to take the originals back to Arnold Royston in the morning before his mother comes back.’

  Richards stood up and wrote on the whiteboard. ‘We were told that the name WEST was written in the margin of the last page of the last report, but it’s actually W.E. St. J.’

  ‘So, something like William Edward St. John?’ Ed said.

  Richards nodded. ‘Yes, something like that.’

  Kowalski scratched his head. ‘Let me get this right; you’re saying that not only was the killer called St. John because he said his name was John and he spouted garbage from the bible, but his name could also have been St. John?’

  ‘I’m not saying that,’ Richards said defensively. ‘The original detectives scribbled this name in the margin of their report, that’s all I’m saying.’

  ‘What about Southern?’ Ed said. ‘Wasn’t he the killer then?’

  Richards became animated. ‘Remember that Terri Royston spoke to one of the original detectives, and apart from the name written in the margin of the last report, it’s not mentioned anywhere else, but they thought there were two killers.’

  ‘Do we think we’ve got two killers now?’ Toadstone asked.

  Parish stood up and made himself another coffee. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ve eliminated Southern’s two children as suspects. In fact, we have no suspects at all, so any speculation about there being two killers only doubles our problem. However, if there were two killers in the original murders, and these are copycats...’ He left the point hanging.

  Richards sat down. ‘Who would know there were two killers?’

  ‘She’s got a point, Jed,’ Kowalski said. ‘We only know because we spoke to Terri Royston who gleaned it from one of the original detectives, and apart from an obscure name on the last page of the last police report, their theory never saw the light of day. So who the hell would know?’

  ‘Well, Terri Royston knew,’ Parish said. ‘We’ll have to find out who else she’s told. Toadstone, you’ll have to do the honours, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Me? Anything but that, Sir.’

  ‘Sorry, but Richards and I are tied up at King George Hospital in the afternoon and everyone else is busy.’

  ‘If there’s no one else, then I suppose I’ll have to.’

  ‘So, what’s our next move, Jed?’ Kowalski said.

  ‘You’re going to tell us about your efforts looking at the footage from that traffic camera, and we’ll consider our next move at the end.’

  ‘I’m not going to stand up because this won’t take long. The traffic camera caught our killer going into the Statics Club, then coming out again an hour and a half later with Valerie Nichols. But remember, the camera is designed for monitoring traffic on the roundabout, so there’s quite a distance between him and the camera. Also the light is poor, and he didn’t look at the camera once, which made me think he knew it was there...’

  ‘Didn’t...’ Richards began to say.

  Kowalski held up his hand. ‘I contemplated asking someone in forensics to enhance the picture, but we already have a picture of the killer, so there seemed little point in wasting time and money on what is essentially a very poor image.’

  ‘But we might be able to compare that picture with the artist’s impression to see if it’s accurate,’ Richards finished.

  ‘What do you think, Toadstone?’ Kowalski said.

  ‘You’ve got a copy with you?’

  Kowalski took a DVD out of his briefcase and passed it to Toadstone.

  ‘It can’t do any harm, and you’ll be amazed at what Steve Potts can do.’

  ‘Okay, that’s solved. Toadstone, your turn.’

  ‘I’m not going to stand up either. Steve examined Valerie Nichols’ laptop and there’s nothing relating to her murder on there. She used it for work only; there was no evidence of her accessing Facebook, Twitter, or any of the other social networking sites, and her Google searches were work-related.’

&nbs
p; ‘Thanks. Ed?’

  Ed stood up. ‘The names on Tollhurst & Chandler’s staff list and Valerie Nichols’ list of cases are in the clear – all upstanding citizens. I also did some research into the bull’s head silhouette found on the bank notes used to pay for the trunk at Hillside car boot sale.’ He passed everyone a sheet of paper. ‘These are the possibilities. It could be a pub or hotel- there are lots of them called The Bull’s Head. It can also be used to signify a business relating to meat, such as a butcher’s shop, an abattoir, or a meat distribution plant. Lastly, it’s often used as a tattoo, or as a sign for a tattoo establishment.’

  ‘Don’t forget,’ Toadstone said, ‘the bodies are dismembered using an axe of some sort.’

  ‘Yeah, but they chop meat up in a pub or hotel kitchen,’ Ed said.

  ‘So, the bull’s head silhouette doesn’t really help us at the moment?’ Kowalski said.

  ‘No, not really.’

  ‘It’s an isolated piece of the jigsaw. It needs an adjoining piece to make it mean something.’ He took a drink of his coffee. ‘Thanks for that, Ed. Okay, let’s see what we’ve got and where we go from here. It’s now Thursday, and we’ve been on the case for four days. We’ve found two victims in trunks – Valerie Nichols and Francis Wenham. Another woman – Louise Trenchard – is missing, and if the killer continues to follow St John’s murders to the letter, then we have until... I was going to say Wednesday 1st June, but we haven’t, have we?’

  ‘He’s going to kill her the day she starts her period, isn’t he?’ Richards said.

  ‘Yes, and we don’t know when that will be. I think if we’re going to save Louise Trenchard, we have to work to Sunday night – the 29th – as a deadline.’

  ‘I was hoping we’d have more time, so that we could utilise the press and so forth after Monday when everything returns to normal,’ Ed said.

  ‘If everything returns to normal,’ Kowalski mumbled. ‘Everybody seems to think that the Chief Constable will come back and make everything right. What if doesn’t?’

  ‘I think Kowalski’s right; we shouldn’t rely on what might happen – we have to work with what we’ve got now, not what might or might not happen on Monday. So, midnight on Sunday’s our deadline, and I think you should all prepare yourselves for a working weekend.’

  ‘I’ll look forward to some real detective work,’ Kowalski said.

  ‘Yeah, we can be partners again, Ray,’ Ed said, and smiled.

  ‘Right, let’s go over what we know about the killer.’ He flipped the whiteboard over and wrote KILLER inside a bubble in the left-hand corner.

  ‘You might want to put an ‘S’ in brackets,’ Richards said. ‘If the original detectives thought that maybe there were two killers, maybe we should as well.’

  He put an (S) after KILLER(S). ‘Okay, let’s speculate for a moment. We’ve eliminated the two Southern children because they had alibis. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that a large part of the problem with the original investigation – Southern had alibis for some of the murders?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Toadstone said. ‘Terri Reynolds said she couldn’t name him as a suspect in her book because of the libel law.’

  ‘What I’m saying is that Luther Southern – or even his sister for that matter, but less likely – could still be the killer, possibly one half of a killing pair.’

  ‘So we need to re-check their alibis for both murders,’ Kowalski said. ‘Is that what you’re saying?’

  ‘Yes, their alibis need to be watertight. Ed, that’s a job for you tomorrow.’

  Ed nodded.

  ‘Except...’ Catherine interrupted. ‘Luther Southern and his sister look nothing like our suspect.’

  ‘No,’ Parish agreed, ‘but let’s do it anyway. Next, we have this W.E. St. John, which is a very long shot. There was no database in the 1950s, so I have no idea how to find the St. John the original detectives were interested in.’

  ‘We could identify the St Johns in the area and track backwards?’ Richards suggested.

  ‘Nice try, but it would take far too long, and we only have until Sunday night, remember?’

  ‘Also,’ Ed said, ‘the person might not be calling themselves St John, in which case we’d never find them.’

  Catherine had a eureka moment: ‘Essex Genealogical Society.’

  They all turned to stare at her.

  She blushed. ‘Oh!

  ‘Explain?’ Parish said.

  ‘They were very helpful when I was writing an article about family history a year ago. If you want to know about someone called St John from the 1950s, these are probably the people to speak to.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well, they have a searchable database by location in the county with everybody’s name on it, going back as far as possible. The members do research continually, and add to the database all the time. Yes, if we’re looking for someone called W.E. St John who was living in Essex, or one of the surrounding areas in the 1950s, we should talk to Martin Collindale, the Chairman of the Society.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘I’ll call him afterwards. I think I still have his home phone number.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Supposing our killer isn’t even on the board?’ Ed said.

  ‘It’s crossed my mind,’ Parish said. ‘But if that’s the case, then we’re up a creek without a paddle, because we’ve eliminated all our other suspects.’ He turned and wrote ‘Profile’ on the board. ‘On that depressing note, shall we continue? We have a description and artist’s impression of the killer. Carole Dobbins described him as a thin, angular-faced man in his late-thirties/early-forties with rimless glasses, light brown curly hair and a slightly darker moustache; between five foot eleven and six foot one; approximately a hundred and fifty-five pounds, and wearing a black polo neck jumper with black Chinos...’

  ‘Why haven’t people come forward?’ Richards said.

  ‘Let’s not be cryptic.’

  ‘Well, the picture of the killer has been out for three weeks on television, in the national and local newspapers, in shop windows, and so on. Why hasn’t anybody recognised him?’

  ‘It’s a disguise,’ Kowalski said.

  ‘That’s what I was thinking,’ Richards agreed.

  ‘You’re a genius,’ Parish said.

  ‘It’s about time you recognised my true potential.’

  ‘Let’s not get carried away. Toadstone, what are we going to do with this new information?’

  ‘I know a woman...’

  ‘Don’t start telling fairy stories,’ Kowalski said, to everyone’s amusement.

  ‘Yes, very funny, I don’t think,’ Toadstone said. ‘As well as being a feng shui consultant, Rachel Linklater is also a forensic artist who can manipulate images in e-fit, which stands for Electronic Facial Identification Technique. She’ll produce a variety of three-dimensional faces based on the original drawing. In fact, they’ll be considerably better than the original, and I’m surprised Hertford MIT didn’t use e-fit.’

  ‘In colour?’ Catherine asked.

  ‘Of course. As soon as she’s finished – probably Saturday morning – I’ll get her to send the pictures to your mobiles.’

  ‘It’s a shame we can’t give them to the press,’ Ed said.

  ‘I could...’ Catherine began.

  ‘What?’ Parish said a bit too quickly. He felt as though he was grasping at tufts of grass and spidery roots as he slid over a cliff.

  ‘I was thinking that I could phone Gary, my editor, and ask him if he’d run a special front page on Saturday with the picture variations. We could provide a confidential telephone number and something like: Do you know this man?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kowalski said. ‘No one will know we’ve put it in.’

  ‘Hertford will probably recognise it’s their suspect,’ Toadstone said.

  ‘Too late to do anything about it until Monday,’ Parish said, hoping he was right.

  ‘The telephone num
ber might also give us away,’ Richards said.

  ‘We could use a 0800 number that will divert to another phone,’ Catherine suggested.

  ‘Brilliant,’ Ed said. ‘But who’s going to be on the other end of the phone, and which number are you going to use? Remember, it’ll be Saturday.’

  They looked at each other, but nobody said anything.

  Parish shrugged. ‘I suppose we could use this number, and I could ask Angie to man the phone.’

  ‘Or Catherine?’ Kowalski said, getting up to refresh his coffee.

  ‘I don’t mind staying here to answer the phone, if you lot are going to be out following up leads.’

  ‘Problem solved then,’ Parish said. ‘Thanks, Catherine.’

  ‘One thing,’ Catherine said, turning to Toadstone. ‘Is there any chance we can get the pictures on Friday evening instead of Saturday to give Gary more time to publish the paper?’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  Parish grunted. ‘Stop being a politician for once, Toadstone. Is that a yes or a no?’

  ‘Possibly, yes.’

  ‘Did it hurt when you said that?’

  The ghost of a smile frightened his face. ‘A little bit.’

  ‘Okay, let’s carry on,’ Parish said, turning to face the board. ‘What else do we know about the killer?’

  Richards opened up her notebook. ‘He abducts women from dance clubs; takes them somewhere nobody can hear the victim’s scream; rapes and beats them until they begin menstruating and then he strangles them with their own tights or stockings. He pushes a used tampon in their mouths; dismembers them with an axe so they’ll fit into an old trunk and then leaves the trunk where the original was left.’

  While Richards was talking, Parish wrote the list on the board under ‘Behaviour’. ‘I knew you’d have everything in your notebook.’

  ‘Just being efficient.’

  ‘For which I’m grateful. So, is there anything in his behaviour that could give us a lead?’

  ‘We could do with a map,’ Kowalski said. ‘I’ll get a couple tomorrow then we can plot all the locations on one for easy reference. Although there doesn’t seem to be any kind of pattern to the original murders. And I don’t think we can infer anything about this killer from the behaviour of the original murderer.’