The Essence of Evil

by The Essence of Evil (retail) (epub)

  ‘What is this?’ he asked eventually.

  ‘That’s what I’m hoping you can help me with.’

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Given recent events at her home, Dani was already tense as she headed through the door to the apartment block and across the foyer to the lift. She’d never been agoraphobic or claustrophobic or anything like that, but after the scare she’d had on Tuesday evening, and the debilitating lack of sleep that had followed the last two nights, she was weary and on edge. As she stood and waited for the lift to arrive, she felt apprehensive.

  Finally there was a clunk as the lift landed on the ground floor and the doors slid open. Dani took a step forwards then reeled back when two figures loomed out from the inside.

  Her heart jumped before she realised it was just two young men. She didn’t recognise them, but they were chatting and laughing and she quickly determined they were no threat. They paid her little attention as they moved out of the lift and off towards the exit. Dani looked back to the small, enclosed and empty space in front of her.

  She decided to take the stairs.

  By the time she reached the sixth floor her heart was thudding in her chest and she was out of breath. Once inside her apartment, Dani quickly checked all the rooms from top to bottom. She’d rarely felt so spooked, but simply couldn’t shake the feeling of sinister eyes watching her wherever she went.

  Finding nothing untoward inside, but still on edge, she went to the kitchen to make a mug of coffee. She put two heaped teaspoons into the cup and the liquid ended up thick and treacly. She hoped it contained enough caffeine to boost her low energy reserves for the next few hours.

  As she sat down on the sofa in the lounge she took out her phone and checked through her missed calls and messages which had been steadily building through the afternoon. There was still nothing from Easton, and Dani was becoming increasingly agitated by that. Jason had texted to see how she was doing, and to say he would come around any time she wanted. Same old, then. She’d had two more texts and calls from him since then too, becoming more concise each time. The last text message said simply:

  We need to talk

  She called him back, hoping his need to speak to her urgently was because he wanted to talk to her about the case. Had there been a breakthrough? She knew she also needed to tell him about the note. She should have done so before now really, but had been too thrown by it.

  The call went unanswered. She didn’t bother to leave a message.

  Dani sat back and tried to get her jumbled thoughts into some sort of order. She couldn’t manage it. Mostly she tried to avoid thinking about how once again her life felt like it was at rock bottom. After two years on the sidelines, two years in which her life had been torn apart and she’d longed for the day when things would go back to normal, here she was, less than two weeks back at work, and now it looked like even her career might be taken away from her.

  If that happened, would she have anything positive in her life at all?

  A noise from the hallway made her jump and shook the melancholy thoughts away.

  It sounded like the front door closing softly. She shot up from the sofa and raced into the hallway – an instinctive reaction, though she had no plan for what she was going to do if some stranger was standing there in the apartment.

  But the hallway was empty. Yet unless she was actually insane she’d definitely heard the noise. Had someone been in the apartment and left? She rushed to the front door and flung it open, the feeling of déjà vu washing over her. There was no one out there in the corridor. Dani slammed the door shut and locked it. Heading into the kitchen, she grabbed a rolling pin, then searched through every room, every cupboard, and every corner of the apartment.

  There was no one there. No signs that anyone had been there either. She headed into the en suite.

  ‘What on earth is wrong with you?’ she asked herself, staring into the mirror.

  She shook her head then moved back into the lounge and slumped back on the sofa, coffee cup in hand. After a few long sips the caffeine started to kick in and Dani grabbed her laptop to start yet another dig. She had plenty of reasons to mope, but as far as she was concerned, she still had something to offer to the police, and to the case she’d been assigned to.

  Did anyone at work know she’d been accessing the system while suspended?

  That thought didn’t stop her, and she was soon scouring the HOLMES 2 system once more.

  There were no new murder cases that jumped out, and reading the files for Reeve and Natalya, it seemed to Dani that little progress had been made on these since her suspension.

  There was a new missing persons case that intrigued her though.

  Her heart rate steadily increased as she read the details. Jessica Bradford. A nineteen-year-old who’d first been reported missing by her parents on Monday morning after they failed to get hold of her over the weekend. Jessica was a university student, last seen by her friends on Friday night out in Selly Oak, near to where she lived in the university halls of residence. By the look of the reports in the HOLMES 2 system, other than interviewing her friends and family and requesting CCTV, little had so far been achieved on the case.

  Dani sat back and sighed, recalling the conversation she’d had with the Missing Persons team the previous week. They’d seemed almost blasé about the open cases they had, emphasising that there was nothing they could see that was untoward in the volume or patterns of disappearances. Yet here was another young woman who’d disappeared from the area without a trace. That couldn’t be right.

  Was Dani reading too much into it all?

  She frowned as she stared at Jessica Bradford’s details. Why hadn’t she spotted that straight away?

  Jessica was a first year undergraduate studying psychology. Dani hadn’t thought much of that when she’d first read it. After all, there were close to thirty thousand students at the university studying all manner of subjects.

  But psychology?

  Dani opened the internet browser and started searching. After a few minutes she’d found the syllabus for Jessica’s course, including the various mandatory and optional modules. Several were related to criminology. Steven Grant’s area of expertise.

  Dani didn’t like that connection one bit. She thought about Grant for a few moments. She really couldn’t fathom how he could be in any way responsible, given his own history at the hands of a killer. But what about Ethan, who was already linked to at least one dead person? Then there was that snoopy neighbour who lived opposite the Grants’ house too…

  A rattling noise from out in the hall shook Dani from her increasingly disturbed thoughts. The vivid and horrifying images of what might have happened to Jessica and others were still playing in her mind as she looked around the now darkened room, another wave of panic taking hold.

  When she’d first started working on her computer it had still been light outside. Dani glanced at the time on her laptop: seven p.m.

  Another noise came from the hall. Quieter. A scraping sound. A throbbing pain began to take hold at the front of her skull.

  Dani got up from the sofa. Groggily, she moved out into the hall, heart already racing. She spotted the note on the floor. Not poking out from under the door like the last one, but in the middle of the welcome mat. Her heart lurched. Her legs felt weak.

  She rushed over and picked up the note, trying her to best unfold it, with her trembling hands.

  Another one bites the dust. Are you enjoying this as much as I am yet? I came over to chat but you looked too busy. Maybe next time.

  The note still in her hand, Dani’s whole body was quivering as she reached for the door. She whipped it open and stuck her head out. The corridor was empty, yet again, but she heard the clunk as the lift doors closed.

  Without thinking, Dani raced along. Just like the other night the red light above the lift blinked with each floor as it descended.

  Dani raced down the stairs, pushing away all rational thoughts about wh
y this was probably a really bad idea. She crashed through the doors at the ground floor and darted out into the foyer. Off to her right, the lift doors were just closing. With her eyes still on the lift, Dani started rushing towards the outer door and ran slap bang into a hefty figure…

  Without even thinking, Dani grabbed the figure’s wrist and swivelled herself around. She pulled the wrist up against the shoulder and strained the elbow and shoulder joint to the point of bursting. At the same time she heaved forwards and pushed the person up against the wall.

  ‘Dani, what the hell are you doing?’

  ‘Jason?’ she said, as her brain finally caught up with her body’s instinctive defensive reaction. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘What do you think! I came to see you. I’ve been calling for days. You called back earlier but my battery went.’

  ‘How did you get inside?’

  ‘Someone else was coming out. The door was open. Jesus, Dani, let go of my arm!’

  Dani did so, and Jason turned to her and rubbed his stricken limb. Thoughts cascaded through Dani’s mind. Jason being there at that moment was convenient, to say the least. But the coincidence was more plausible than the note having been from him.

  Wasn’t it?

  Dani looked up and noticed Jason staring down at her hand. She slipped the note she was still clutching behind her back, out of sight. He didn’t say anything about it.

  ‘Who opened the door?’ Dani asked.

  ‘What door?’

  ‘The door to the bloody building, Jason! Who let you in? Describe them to me.’

  ‘I… I don’t know,’ Jason looked over his shoulder, to the door and through the glass to the outside. There was certainly no one in sight anymore. ‘I wasn’t really paying attention. It was just some guy. He didn’t look suspicious or anything. What’s going on, Dani?’

  She turned away. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Yeah, of course not. You’ve just taken to heavy-handedly policing your apartment block for a spot of fun.’

  Dani turned and glared at Jason and the thin smile that had accompanied his light-hearted comment quickly faded.

  ‘I came to see if you’re ok,’ he said.

  Dani snorted. The answer to that one was plain for anyone to see.

  ‘Why don’t we go upstairs?’ he suggested.

  ‘Nah,’ Dani said. ‘I think I’ll lurk down here for a few hours more. In case there are any more invaders.’

  She pulled her fists up to her body, like a boxer on the defensive.

  The quizzical look on Jason’s face suggested he wasn’t quite sure whether she was being serious or not.

  Dani shook her head in disbelief.

  ‘Come on then,’ she said, turning away and moving towards the lift.

  But there was no way Dani could relax, even once they were both safely inside her apartment. She stood in the hallway, her mind in turmoil.

  ‘Dani, seriously, what’s going on?’ Jason said.

  Dani said nothing, just focused on keeping her hands steady as she held the note out for Jason to see.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The forensics team left two hours later. They’d done what they could to take fingerprints from door frames and other surfaces, and shoe prints from the floors. Jason had helped Dani search through the apartment. Again. Nothing seemed to be missing. Nothing had been moved, even. There was no sign of forced entry. Had the person who’d written the note really been inside?

  Dani was still feeling terrified as she and Jason sat down at the small dining table and began to eat a takeaway which Jason had ordered.

  ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about the first note,’ he said, shaking his head.

  Dani didn’t respond.

  ‘You don’t always have to tackle your problems alone.’

  Dani rolled her eyes. Typical of Jason to try and steer the conversation back there.

  ‘The note suggests he was watching you,’ Jason said.

  ‘I mean, the curtains were open. But…’

  ‘But he could have been in your apartment.’

  ‘I just don’t know.’

  ‘Dani, what is going on here?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think you’ve got someone sending you threatening notes. Regardless of whether it’s someone with an axe to grind or someone who’s actually dangerous, we still need to find out who it is so, if nothing else, we can stop them hassling you.’

  ‘You messaged earlier to say we needed to talk,’ Dani said.

  Jason shifted in his seat and looked at her. ‘You know I’m not supposed to talk to you about the case.’ His tone wasn’t particularly strong.

  ‘Then why was it so important for you to speak to me?’

  ‘Because of… you know. Because of you being suspended. And because of what happened to Harland. I wanted to make sure you were ok.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I’m not ok. You’ve seen that for yourself. So was that it?’

  ‘No, actually,’ Jason said, more tersely. ‘I wanted to see you. Because I give a shit. Is that ok with you?’

  Dani said nothing.

  ‘But,’ Jason continued, ‘what I said was that I’m not supposed to talk to you about the case. The way I see it, though, you have a right to know. It clearly affects you after all.’

  Dani felt herself relax a little more, and the small grin on Jason’s face suggested he knew he’d won her over for now.

  ‘Well go on then,’ Dani said.

  ‘It seems, Detective Inspector, that perhaps you did the world a great big favour with Dean Harland.’

  ‘I did the world a big favour?’ Dani said, her face contorting. ‘What the fuck does that mean? I didn’t do anything to him!’

  Jason flushed, obviously realising his choice of words had been poor.

  ‘Sorry, Dani, that’s not what I meant. Of course it wasn’t your fault, what happened to him. What I meant was that it looks like it may well have been him.’

  ‘Who killed Reeve and Natalya?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  Dani should have been pleased to hear that. But she wasn’t. What about Jessica Bradford? The other missing women?

  ‘What’s led to that then?’ she asked.

  ‘We may have found the murder weapon.’

  ‘You’re kidding?’

  ‘Nope. In Harland’s apartment. One of the knives in the kitchen.’

  ‘Harland’s apartment?’

  ‘The one in Handsworth. Seems from what we’ve found that Harland was the main tenant, even though the agreement was in the name of Colton. Our conclusion is that Colton is nothing but an alias that both Harland and Reeve were using to hide their drug-related activities.’

  Dani didn’t know what to say.

  ‘We scoured that apartment from top to bottom. Bagged all the knives for testing. One of them had blood traces on it. There was also a stash of old clothes in a suitcase, all looked clean enough – it’s not like they were blood-soaked or anything – but the forensics team used luminol on them and found blood traces there too. They haven’t had the full results back yet but if the blood matches the victims, it looks like Harland was our man.’

  ‘Why do you think it was Harland and not Ethan Grant?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’re assuming the knife and the clothes are Harland’s? But Grant lived there too, didn’t he? Have you even found him yet?’

  ‘There’s no evidence he lived there.’

  ‘Other than his mother gave us that address.’

  Jason shrugged. ‘It’s not just me toeing this line. Fletcher is too.’

  ‘But you don’t know for sure that Harland is the killer.’

  ‘Not for sure, no.’

  ‘And you don’t know yet that the knife really is the murder weapon either. Just that it’s a knife with blood on it. Could be from a damn steak.’

  ‘Jesus, Dani, are you a defence lawyer all of a sudden?’

  ‘No. I’m just not sure why y
ou were making it sound so cut and dried. It sounds anything but.’

  ‘Look, Reeve was a bad apple. Harland was too. A known low-level drug dealer, and a thug with a string of petty offences. If we can prove those clothes and that knife were linked to the murders, then we’ve got him. Grant is just a spoiled rich kid pulled into a bad world, if you ask me.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean it wasn’t him.’

  ‘No. I guess not,’ Jason said. ‘But maybe Grant is already dead. Harland could have knocked him off too.’

  ‘Except no body has been found.’

  ‘Not yet, no.’

  ‘So maybe Ethan did a runner because he knows we’re onto him.’

  ‘It’s possible, Dani,’ Jason said, by now sounding fed up that Dani was challenging him so hard.

  ‘And what about Jimmy Colton?’

  ‘Like I said, we’ve found nothing to suggest he’s a real person. Most likely he’s an alias that Reeve and Harland used for whatever reasons.’

  ‘Well we need to find those reasons then, surely? Otherwise his name, his existence, is just another loose end. A loose end that could mean much more.’

  ‘I know that. I’m just giving you the low down on where we’re at. I’d thought you’d want to know.’

  ‘Yeah, but why are you doing that, Jason? You said we needed to talk, as though there’d been a massive breakthrough or something. Or because you needed my help. But it looks like all you’ve got at the minute is a couple of bits of circumstantial crap, and clearly you’ve already made your own minds up about what that means. Really, I’m not sure why you bothered.’

  ‘I wanted to tell you where we’d got to because I thought it might help you,’ Jason said, his tone now hard, clearly agitated by Dani’s questioning. ‘If Harland is the killer then—’

  ‘Help me? Harland still got killed out on that road. Even if he turns out to be a murderer, I’ve still got to live with what happened, with what I saw, and with the knowledge that it was my actions that led to his death. And it’s not going to stop McNair and Baxter if they want rid of me.’