They went silent for a couple of moments as Dani’s brain whirred. Her thoughts began to take shape but for some reason she wasn’t sure she wanted to share them with Jason.
She saw him check his watch for the umpteenth time.
‘If you’ve somewhere to be, it’s ok,’ she said.
He gave her an uncertain look.
‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ she said. ‘I appreciate you spending the time with me. We’ll catch up again later.’
She had somewhere else she wanted to be anyway. She knew exactly who she wanted to speak to next.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Dani took a train over to University station and walked the short distance to the University of Birmingham campus, though it turned out to be a wasted trip. Steven Grant wasn’t there; he had already finished his last lecture of the day and headed home. Which was where Dani went next.
Even after their chat earlier, she could sense that Jason wasn’t quite aligned with her thinking, that he was helping her more because he wanted to support her than anything else. But Dani felt sure she was close to uncovering something big. She just needed a lead to follow. Those notes meant something. To consider the writer of the notes as a real and imminent danger was the right thing to do, and to delve into a deep and dark world of murder in order to identify that person was absolutely necessary to Dani. Not because it would help to smooth over her relationship with the senior team at the police if she solved the murder cases, but because the case was personal for her. The notes had been left for her. Perhaps she was even a target.
* * *
Dani stepped from the taxi outside the Grants’ house, opened the gate and headed up the gravel drive. The last time she’d visited, she and Easton had come away with an address for Ethan Grant. The series of events which had followed on that day had seen Dean Harland killed out on a dual carriageway in Handsworth, and Dani suspended from the police. She felt slightly apprehensive about what might be the result of this visit.
The rain had stopped and it was still light outside as Dani crunched across the gravel to the front door, though the thick cloud in the sky meant that daytime was struggling to keep hold, and likely wouldn’t for much longer. Any remnants of summer now appeared well and truly over and autumn was without doubt in full swing.
Dani rang the bell then knocked on the door and only had to wait a few moments before it was opened and a skinny little teenage girl poked her head out.
‘Can I help you?’ she asked.
‘Is your dad home?’
‘Yes.’
The girl just stood there.
‘Do you think I could speak to him?’
‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Dani Stephens.’
Dani surprised herself by using her actual name rather than her police title. That was new. Was that the way of the future now?
The child still looked less than convinced, but a moment later Dani heard an adult voice and Mary Grant came into view from the kitchen.
‘Ah, Detective Stephens,’ Mary said, ‘Steven mentioned you were coming.’
Dani had called Grant’s mobile before she’d left the university. Grant hadn’t sounded thrilled that she wanted to speak to him again, but he hadn’t put up much of a fight either, and suggested she go to the house. The young girl rolled her eyes and turned and disappeared off somewhere.
‘Steven!’ Mary bellowed, before turning back to Dani. ‘He is here. Just pottering upstairs. Come and sit down.’
Mary showed Dani through into the lounge and she sat on a sofa.
‘So how is the investigation going?’ Mary asked. She remained standing by the doorway, and Dani sensed by her casual tone that this was simply small talk until Grant arrived, rather than her really taking a keen interest.
‘Into the killings? We have a number of leads.’
‘I’m sure. Must be quite something having to unpick all of the evidence. An analytical mind, I think that’s what you call it, isn’t it?’
‘Mrs Grant, have you heard from Ethan at all yet? It’s still very important that we speak to him.’
‘No,’ Mary said. She hung her head and Dani couldn’t quite read what the reaction meant. Was it embarrassment, or was she trying to conceal a lie?
Dani didn’t get the chance to press any further, because a second later Grant came into the room, and Mary promptly shot off back to do whatever she’d been doing when Dani first knocked on the door.
Grant offered Dani a drink but she politely declined and he showed her across the hall into his study where he shut the door. He took a seat at the brown leather chair behind the grand mahogany desk and Dani sat at the simpler wooden chair the other side. She looked around the room. Glass cabinets took up two of the walls, filled with textbooks and ornaments and photo frames. Academic certificates covered another wall.
‘I’ve been thinking about the last conversation we had,’ Dani said.
‘About Ethan?’ Grant asked, looking at her with suspicion.
‘No. Not exactly. We talked last time about what that note could mean.’
‘We talked at length, yes.’
He made it sound as though he’d felt hassled by that, which wasn’t how Dani remembered it.
Dani briefly told him about the second note, including the words and the context. He sat listening attentively, not making a sound.
‘Before, we really only talked about the motivation for someone to send a note like that,’ Dani said. ‘About how it’s either an out and out taunt by a killer who thinks they’re untouchable, or a clue left by someone who’s ready to be caught.’
‘Those are two of the more obvious possibilities.’
‘I’m not sure though that really helps me to get any closer to understanding who this killer is. The thing is, if there really is a serial killer on the loose here…’ Dani felt herself cringe slightly at her own words, it still sounded so outlandish, ‘…then why is the only thing we have those damn notes, and the stabbings of a young man and a young woman, both of which, it could be said, were quite simple attacks?’
‘I’m not sure what you’re getting at?’
‘What I’m getting at is that those notes were possibly sent by a killer. The killer.’
‘Yes, that’s possible.’
‘And, please don’t think I’m mad, but I’ve felt almost like I’ve been stalked these last few days. Like someone’s always watching me.’
‘Which could be the alternative explanation for the notes. That you simply have a stalker intent on winding you up and causing you grief.’
Dani felt riled by him saying that; she’d thought he was one person who’d indulge her. She’d come here to have the conversation out in full though, so she wouldn’t stop now.
‘Yes, that’s possible,’ Dani said, ‘but I don’t think it’s true. I think the murder of the young woman, Natalya, was a mistake.’
‘A mistake?’
‘An accident, perhaps. Maybe the killer panicked. But he hadn’t meant to kill Natalya. At least not then, not like that. She’d been tied up somewhere. There were cuts and sores on her wrists and ankles. She’d been bound, but escaped.’
The look of concern on Grant’s face was growing as she delved into the detail. She realised she was breaking multiple rules in divulging such information to him, but she felt justified. Plus, she believed not only that she could trust him, but that he could help too.
But then thoughts of Jessica Bradford still sat uncomfortably at the back of her mind. Could she really trust him?
‘And what about the man?’ Grant said. ‘Paul Reeve.’
‘That’s what I don’t get still. It’s possible he was the one who killed Natalya, but then why would someone kill him afterwards?’
‘The answer might be simple. Maybe you have more than one suspect here. It’s not unheard of for killers to act as teams. Fred and Rose West, for example.’
Dani hadn’t really considered that possibility, but she had to admit it made a cert
ain amount of sense. That wasn’t necessarily where she’d been going, but for a few moments she sat there thinking about it, before she got herself back on track.
‘Or maybe he was killed to frame someone else,’ Dani said.
‘But you don’t have someone else,’ Grant said. ‘Do you?’
‘Really, the point I was getting to, is that this feels to me like more than just out of control drugs related violence.’ She thought again about the notes. About the intruder at Mrs Staunton’s house. About the shadow following her around.
‘What if there are other victims?’ Dani asked. ‘Take Reeve out of the question, but think about Natalya. Her life in a dark world. She was an illegal immigrant, we believe. An escort. Very few people knew about her, and those that did know her knew very little. She was such an easy target for someone who can make people… disappear.’
Dani left that thought out there, not sure if Grant was picking up on where she was headed or not.
‘So you’re saying you think there are other victims, similar to Natalya?’
‘It’s a theory. An assumption. But so far we have no bodies. But we do have a list of missing women.’
‘Which is quite a leap to take.’
Dani ground her teeth. Why was Grant now having a sudden change of heart since their last conversation?
‘Maybe it is,’ she said. ‘Except one of the missing women is linked to Paul Reeve too. Potentially that’s two dead women who were both close to him, but then why is he dead too? Whatever the answer to that one, I can’t get past the possibility that there are more victims out there. Does the name Jessica Bradford mean anything to you?’
Something flashed across Grant’s face – fear? – but was gone as quickly as it’d come.
‘I don’t think so,’ he said, pursing his lips.
‘She was a student at the university. She went missing last week. A psychology student. I believe some of the modules she took were yours.’
Grant shrugged. ‘Some of my modules have well over a hundred participants. I rarely get to know each and every student. Are you saying she’s linked to the other people you’re investigating?’
‘I don’t know yet. But I will find out.’
Dani stared resolutely at Grant for a few seconds until he looked away, down at the desk.
‘Coming back to my point,’ Dani said, ‘about the person who sent those notes to me. If it is the killer, then it’s someone who really cares about what they’re doing. Someone who takes time and effort finding victims and making sure they leave as little evidence as they can. My guess is that stabbing someone to death in the street isn’t really their regular thing. It’s just too… easy, and ordinary.’
Grant huffed, as though he was feeling both frustrated and lost.
‘My point is,’ Dani said, ‘why hasn’t this killer been on the radar before now?’
‘It could be that this is just the start. Natalya was his first victim.’
‘His,’ Dani said.
‘Excuse me?’
‘You said his. People always say his when talking about unidentified murderers. Even I do it. It’s just interesting that you, the expert, do it as well.’
‘It’s simple probability. It depends exactly which statistics you look at, but rarely have I seen a study where the proportion of male versus female serial killers is given as less than ninety percent.’
‘Fair enough. What I was getting at though is that perhaps what we’re dealing with here is a killer who’s been very careful in the past. A killer who leaves as little evidence as they can. This isn’t someone like my brother, where rage or revenge or something like that was a driving force behind his actions and he simply lost control.’
‘You think that’s what made your brother a killer?’
‘I think that’s what ultimately caused his actions, yes. None of his targets was random. In his mind, they had all wronged him one way or another. Maybe, though, the killer had always been inside him, waiting to come out.’
‘Indeed. Some people would say there’s a killer inside us all, somewhere.’
‘That’s basically what he said,’ Dani said. For a few moments she felt slightly derailed as the thoughts about whether she was affected by the same personality defects as her brother whirred in her mind once more.
‘So what was the point again?’ Grant said. ‘Have you said it already?’
‘No. What is it that links all of the known serial killers who’ve been caught? What finally brought them to everyone’s attention?’
‘Evidence?’
‘Exactly. Evidence that links the killer to the deaths of the victims. Deaths. People. Bodies.’
‘Some killers are convicted without bodies being found.’
‘But I’m guessing those cases are few and far between, right?’
Grant nodded. ‘On balance, yes.’
‘So if you’re a killer who doesn’t want to get caught, if you want to fly so far under the radar that no one even connects the dots in the first place to suggest there might be a killer out there, what’s the best way to do it?’
‘I’m sensing you’re about to tell me the answer to that yourself.’
‘I am. The answer is, you don’t leave any evidence. No victim. No body. No killer. In fact, no trace that a murder took place at all.’
Chapter Fifty
‘You’ve been thinking about this a lot,’ Grant said.
‘It’s my job to think about it,’ Dani answered, slightly disappointed by Grant’s tepid reaction to her thinking. ‘There must be some killers out there who fit that mould?’
‘But by your very definition, we wouldn’t know about such killers. It’s a major flaw in my field of science. We only ever get to analyse the killers who get caught. Or, at the very least, the ones whose crimes we know about.’
‘I understand that, but there must be something in what I said that rings true to you? Killers who tried to make their victims disappear completely. No body, no evidence, no crime. Burning. Quick Lime. Acid. Those methods have all been used before, haven’t they?’
Grant raised an eyebrow. ‘You really have been doing your homework, haven’t you?’
‘No, not homework. Just thinking. This, speaking to you, is the homework. Assume Natalya was a mistake. Without her body, we would likely never have known she was missing at all. She had no real friends or family. The people who knew her would have assumed she’d just run off somewhere else. It’s only because she escaped, and then because the killer was spooked when he caught up with her, that we have a body. But there are other missing women too. What if they’re victims of this same killer?’
Grant sighed, but Dani sensed he was coming around to the idea more.
‘I need you to tell me what you can about a killer like the one I described. How could we catch a killer like that, who leaves no trace of the victims?’
Grant shrugged. ‘It’s pure simple luck, most often.’
Dani waited for Grant to expand and felt herself becoming more agitated when he didn’t. The last time they’d spoken he’d been ready and willing to talk about anything and everything to do with murderers. Was he simply uncomfortable broaching the subject in that level of detail because he was at home with his wife and daughter, and didn’t want his morbid interests to be overheard by them? Dani figured that wasn’t such an outlandish reaction.
She wasn’t giving up though.
‘Please, just indulge me here,’ Dani said.
‘Ok,’ Grant said, and his eyes focused beyond her. Checking the door was closed and the coast clear?
‘Have you heard of John Childs?’ Grant asked.
‘No.’
‘He was a contract killer. An assassin. Not necessarily a master in the art of killing, but more a brute who bludgeoned and stabbed his victims to death in horrific attacks. His method of disposal, however, was very effective. He dismembered the bodies and burned the remains in the fireplace of his London home. This was in the 1970s, and no traces of
the victims were ever recovered.’
‘No traces? So no bones or anything? Just from burning in a household fireplace?’
‘You’d have to work methodically to burn only small pieces of the body at a time, which creates its own issue. If you’re dismembering bodies you’ve got a lot of blood and other mess to clean up. But if constructed and lit effectively then a fire is easily good enough to break down every element of a body, and all you’re left with is a pile of ash. Same as in a cremation. The police actually demonstrated Childs’s technique by burning the body of an eleven stone pig in that same fireplace.’
‘Then how was he caught? Trace evidence from the murder scenes themselves?’
‘No. Like I said, this was the 1970s, so blood and DNA analysis was nothing like it is today. He was caught because he was a hired gun, not a carefully calculated killer. So although there were no bodies, there was evidence. The people who hired him, for starters, who had links to the people who disappeared. The police did their jobs and got to the truth through old-fashioned methods. Motives, circumstances, interviews and confessions. Like I said, you don’t always need a body to prove, in a legal sense, that someone has been killed.’
Dani digested those words for a moment. She felt slightly flummoxed by the story of Childs, because she’d been moving well away from the idea of her killer being a paid assassin working for gangs. Yet Childs had been just that. And Reeve had been involved in drugs.
Everything came down to the notes. Those notes. A gangland assassin wouldn’t send those. The notes had to be the clue to the killer’s motives… and identity.
‘What about other methods I mentioned then?’ Dani said. ‘Quick lime? Acid?’
Grant sighed as though a little bored by the conversation, like he’d had to cover these bases multiple times already. ‘Obviously I’m no chemist or biologist, but my understanding is that both could be used, to limited ends. Quick lime really wouldn’t be effective at all though. There are different types of lime for different precise purposes but in all cases if you bury a body in quick lime, or slaked lime or chlorinated lime, you may get some immediate or short term dissolving of tissue, but long term, given certain conditions, the lime can actually prevent putrefaction, which the killer really wouldn’t want. You’d effectively be mummifying the corpse.’
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