by Mel Comley
Alex shook her head, eyes glued to the screen. “Don’t you see? I have to, Bob. I need to know what my inability to track this bastard down is doing to my sister.”
The camera homed in on Scarlet’s face for just a moment. Her eyes were wide in terror as her lips parted for one final scream. “Alex, please help me!”
“Look around, Bob. Do you recognise anything? There must be something here that we can obtain a clue from!” she cried out of frustration.
Bob shook his head. “It’s pointless, Alex. He won’t want you to find her until he’s good and ready.”
“I can’t just sit around here, waiting for him to send her back to me piece by piece. I need to be either out there or back at the station, investigating the cases from there.”
Bob sighed. “There’s no point going to the station, love. Jordan was adamant that you should stay away. Look, here’s what I think we should do: I’ll take what we have to Jordan and get everyone started on the picture. That’s our best chance of finding him and finding Scarlet. You stay here and go over the cases again.”
“What? I can’t keep going over and over them, Bob. We’re just going round in circles. We should be out there searching every inch of the area until we find them.”
“Well, you know that’s not going to happen. Hear me out. Have you got a map of the area?”
“I think I have one in my sideboard somewhere. Why?” Alex searched for the map then laid it out on the coffee table.
“Right, let’s see what we have here. All right if I write on it?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, starting with the first victim, read out the location where the body was found.”
Alex did just that, then she carried on down the list, pausing as Bob circled and numbered each area on the map. Once all the crimes were positioned, it became apparent that all of them were located within fifteen miles of each other. “Why haven’t we done this before?”
Bob shrugged. “Because Jordan prefers to do things differently. I don’t know, between you and me, he seems a little out of his depth most of the time.”
Alex gave him a half-smile. It was all she could manage under the circumstances, with the video still replaying in her mind. “So, what else can we glean from this, Bob? I mean, is there a different pattern emerging? Look at the numbers—it seems he killed one of them here, around the Brockworth area, and then the second woman’s body was found here, near Bishop’s Cleeve.” She pointed at the rest of the numbers, and again, the pattern was very similar—right up to the tenth victim, Gail Dawson, who was found on the edge of the forest at Winchcombe.
“So what does this tell us?”
Alex could tell that Bob was testing her to see if her mind was still on the job and not with her sister. “That maybe he lives somewhere in Cheltenham itself. Maybe that’s where he abducts all his victims from. That’s another area we haven’t really covered—where the victims were abducted. We only know about a few of them, such as Scarlet. She was at the theatre in Cheltenham itself. What do you think?”
“I’m suggesting we take all of this to Jordan and throw it in his lap. Look, Alex, I want you to know I’m behind you a hundred percent on this. Our main priority should be to make Jordan see where he’s going wrong. Let’s face it, it’s his fault we haven’t arrested the bastard already, not ours. He’s the SIO on the case. I know the super is getting antsy about how long this case is taking to solve. Maybe we should heap some extra pressure on Jordan.”
“If we go down that route, then you will definitely be putting your pension in jeopardy. I’d hate to see that happen, Bob.”
“As I said, fuck the pension. That really doesn’t matter to me now, Alex, if it means we rescue your sister before... Jordan doesn’t have a wife and kids. I do. It could be my wife next. Shall we go?”
“What? Now?” she asked, amazed at Bob’s change of heart and the reasons behind it. She’d not considered his family might also be in danger.
“There’s no time like the present. Why not?”
“Let me gather my thoughts for a second or two. Shall we take this with us?” She picked up the package containing the severed fingers.
“Definitely. We’ll make sure it goes off to forensics to get tested.”
“Oh, shit. You mean test it for fingerprints. Damn, I should’ve worn gloves to open it.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Alex climbed the stairs at the station, her mind flipping back and forth between her desire to run back out and start looking for Scarlet and her worry of just how angry Jordan was going to be with Bob. Alex had only her pension to lose, but Bob had a wife and three kids to support.
“I’ll go first. You can leave the talking to me if you’d prefer, Alex?”
“We’ll see how it pans out. He does seem to appreciate a male’s perspective about things rather than the female officers’. Maybe it would be wise for you to broach the subject, if you don’t mind.”
“Consider it done. Now, take a deep breath before we enter. No matter what he says, stay calm.”
Alex saluted him but made no promises. Maybe the killer was right, and this was her fault, but it was also Jordan’s fault. If he hadn’t kept her doing shit jobs instead of working the case, Scarlet would be home safe and sound.
Bob pushed open the double swing doors. Jordan was standing at a desk, looking over a colleague’s notes. He looked in their direction, and his eyes narrowed instantly. “What the hell are you doing here? I gave strict instructions for you to stay away until—”
“It’s my fault we’re here, sir. There’s been a development in the case that I felt you should know about immediately.” Bob said, nervously.
Jordan’s chest inflated. “Very well. In my office, the pair of you. Let’s hear what nonsense you have for me privately.” He turned on his heel and marched into his office.
Bob closed the door, then both he and Alex sat down opposite DI Jordan. Alex opened the carrier bag she was holding in her lap as Bob brought Jordan up to date. He looked warily at the box and waved it away. “Don’t go showing me that. Get one of the team to send it over to forensics. Let them deal with it. What other news have you got for me?”
Alex extracted the map from the bag and gave it to Bob.
He laid it out in front of DI Jordan. “This, sir. Alex has been working on the case every night after work, and I’m amazed at what she’s come up with.”
Alex looked at Bob, her heavy heart lifting a little because of the man’s kindness.
Bob carried on speaking, “Well, this is what she’s figured out. These markings show where the victims’ bodies were found.”
“So? There’s nothing remarkable about that. What else does it tell us?” Jordan shrugged his right shoulder nonchalantly.
“It’s a start, sir. At least it gives us an area where we can start looking for the killer. Don’t you agree?”
Alex’s heart skipped a beat. She could see the stubbornness rising in Jordan before her very eyes. He appeared totally disinterested in their revelation. You cold-hearted bastard, my sister’s life is in danger here! Her anger mounted, and she took her mobile out of her pocket and flicked through the screens to her messages. She hit play and shoved it in his face as Scarlet’s screams echoed around the tiny office.
Jordan closed his eyes and shook his head. “Enough. Turn it off. All right, you’ve convinced me. What do you need?”
Bob continued as the spokesperson. “Let Alex back in, sir. Let the pair of us use the police computers to try and track this guy down. We have an image of him now. Let’s see if we can arrest him before he can hurt Scarlet any more.”
Jordan tilted his head. “An image of him? Where and when may I ask did you obtain that?”
Alex lowered her eyes to the hands now clasped in her lap, painfully aware of the ear-bashing they were about to endure.
“We went to the theatre where Scarlet was abducted, looked at their CCTV footage and bingo, the bastard looked directly at the c
amera,” Bob admitted.
“And what if you’re wrong? What if this killer sent a decoy in there to put you off the scent?”
Bob sighed. “We never thought of that, sir.”
Alex spoke up. “I don’t think so, sir. He had a certain smugness about him. You know how partial he is to playing with us. I’m thinking this is just one of his games, one that we should work with nonetheless.”
“Very well. Let’s get to work and try and locate your sister ASAP.”
Alex and Bob left Jordan’s office and filled the team in on what they’d uncovered. “What about going to forensics, Bob? That should be our first stop, shouldn’t it?” Alex asked.
“You’re right. Let’s get over there now and start the ball rolling, then we can come back and trawl through the database, see if we recognise anyone.”
Jeremy Faulkner was waiting for them in his office when Bob and Alex arrived. He pulled on his latex gloves and opened the box. “Oh dear, I’m very sorry, Sergeant. Hopefully, we can obtain something from the packaging. He peered into the box then opened his desk drawer and pulled out a magnifying glass. He proceeded to inspect the box closely. “Ah, looks like we have something here that the naked eye might have missed.”
He held out the magnifying glass to Alex. “Not sure what I’m looking at. Can you give me a clue?”
Jeremy pointed at a tiny speck in the corner of the box. “There. It’s not much, but it’s definitely something we can work with. It looks like sand to me. But let’s not be too hasty. We’ll wait for my guys to confirm that first.”
“I hate to ask, but when is that likely to be?”
“I’ll get them on it straight away; there’s no fear of that. We should have an answer for you in the next day or two.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Really? Not sooner?”
Jeremy tutted. “Leave it with me. Now go, you must have work of your own to do. I’ll contact you the minute I have something, I promise.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
When they returned to the station, Alex was surprised to learn that a press conference had been scheduled for just after lunch. She was delighted that Jordan was taking her sister’s predicament seriously at last. Rather than watch the time tick by on the office clock, she and Bob put their heads together and looked through the suspect database. They knew very little about the killer. He’d made sure of that over the past few months, but having a good image of him would make things simpler, providing, of course he’d broken the law before. If he wasn’t in the system, then they were still up the proverbial creek.
Two hours later, they gave up. All they had to go on was the grain of evidence Jeremy had found in the box and what came back from showing the image of the assailant to the good people of Cheltenham and Gloucester.
Jordan marched through the office, looking determined. He glanced her way and nodded. Maybe he isn’t an old stick-in-the-mud after all. He returned from the conference over an hour later, his face still flushed at being thrust in front of the cameras. The phone calls started to come in around thirty minutes later. The team pounced on the phones as soon as they rang, aware of the ticking clock.
Alex took a call at her desk, but it wasn’t from a member of the public. It was from another officer from a neighbouring force, the West Midlands Police Force. “Hello, Detective Parker. Yes, you’re through to the right team investigating the case. What can you tell us?”
“I was on my lunch break and stumbled across the press conference. I’m ringing up because I recognise the guy you’re after.”
Alex clicked her fingers to get Bob’s attention and called him over. “I see. Is it all right if I put you on speaker so that my partner can hear what you have to say?”
“Of course. About two years ago, I was working a case, a murder enquiry. We got close to arresting the bastard, but he managed to slip through the net. I’m pretty sure we’re talking about the same guy here.”
“That’s brilliant. Can you give us a name?”
“No, the one we had on record turned out to be false. He rented a house in Coventry under a fake name. We’ve been trying to trace the guy for over two years now, but he seemed to have gone underground. We assumed he’d moved on.”
“Did you have any fingerprints on the guy? Any other evidence you can share with us?”
“No, he was pretty thorough, determined not to get caught. As if he knew what we’d be looking for.”
Alex gasped. “My God, it all adds up now.”
“What does, Alex?” Bob asked.
“The fact this guy has been targeting police officers’ wives and people in authority. He’s one of us—well, maybe not exactly a police officer, but maybe someone who is loosely connected with the police.”
“What makes you think that?” Detective Parker asked.
“He leaves no DNA at the scenes, he knows exactly what we’ll be looking for, plus some of the heinous brutality he has handed out to his victims, like skinning various parts of their bodies. I had it in mind that we may be looking for some kind of surgeon, but someone working in forensics could possibly have the same kind of skills. What do you think, Bob?”
He nodded and looked thoughtful. “I think you might be on to something, Alex. Any other information you can give us, Parker?”
“Nothing more than that, sorry.”
“You’ve been a great help. Thanks, Detective.” Alex ended the call. “Do you think we should delve into ex-forensics employees, maybe someone who has a grudge?”
“Crap, Alex, that could take us days. No, I think we should sit back and wait to see what the calls from the general public throw at us first.”
Alex reluctantly agreed. “It’s just so frustrating that we have to wait for the right call to come in.”
“I know, but patience will be our ally in this, not our enemy.”
Alex’s mobile rang. She grabbed it, but seeing no number on the display she froze and her hand hovered over the screen.
Bob flung an arm around her shoulder in support.
She swallowed hard and answered the call. “Hello?”
“Back in the folds of the station, I see. Did Jordan welcome you back with open arms?” He laughed softly. “No, I rather suspect he was his normal prick self.”
Alex bit her lip to keep from screaming at him. He might not know about the picture. Maybe she could stall him and save Scarlet’s life. “What if I did what you asked? Would you let Scarlet go? I’ll walk away.”
“Sorry, love. It’s too late for that.”
Her rage boiled over. “Why don’t you ever choose male victims? Are you lacking the balls for that? Why didn’t you take me?”
“Because I like you, Foxy. You have more balls than your male counterparts. And you’re innocent. I had to teach you a lesson. I hope I don’t have to do it again.”
Bob motioned for her to keep calm while he tried to trace the call. He was wasting his time—the killer always used a pay-as-you-go phone and probably dumped it each time he contacted them.
“Just tell us what you want. There must be something at the end of this little game of yours,” she said, trying to disassociate herself from the case.
“There was nothing I wanted—until I saw you. There’s a text for you love.”
He hung up. Alex pressed the message icon, and Scarlet appeared on the screen. Still looking very shocked and bloody, she was in a foetal position in the corner of the room. The camera moved closer to her, then another knife appeared between the camera and Scarlet. Alex wanted to look away, but for Scarlet’s sake, she needed to watch what her sister was about to go through.
“Give it to me, Alex. You shouldn’t put yourself through that pain again.”
“I have to, Bob. If she’s going to die, at least I’m with her.”
Scarlet’s screams drew everyone’s attention. “Please, just let me die!”
Alex watched the killer uncurl Scarlet from her tight position and place the blade against her cheek. Scarlet’s eyes extended as
she stared up at the camera. With one swift movement, the blade slashed her face then her right arm before it travelled over the right-hand side of her body, continuing its vile, torturous actions.
“Don’t watch it, Alex. Shut it down now.”
She was about to do just that, when the camera turned to the killer. Bandages covered his entire face, leaving only the eyes uncovered, which bored into her with shocking clarity. He knew about the picture.
“You bastard! You can change your looks, and I will still find you. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do. I’ll find you, and when I do, I’ll kill you.”
Bob placed an arm around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. “He won’t be allowed to get away with this. I promise you.”
The calls from the public continued to come in during the course of the day, but they lacked substance. The conference was due to be aired on the six o’clock news that evening. Hopefully, the results would be better at that time of day than the lunchtime airing had proved to be.
Just before Alex was about to call it a day, her mobile rang again.
Bob rushed to her side. “Keep calm,” he warned her, not for the first time that day.
“Hello?”
“Sergeant Fox, this is the forensics department calling. Dr. Faulkner asked me to contact you directly with the results of the test.”
“I’m ready to jot down the findings. Please continue.”
“There really wasn’t much to go on in the box, as you know, however I examined the outer packaging and found yet more evidence of sand.”
“Sand? Can you tell where the sand is from?”
“One of my colleagues has been dealing with an assault case in the Bristol area. There are a few sandy banks—we like to call them ‘silt banks’—around there, and the samples you supplied matched the samples in the other ongoing case.”
“Fantastic. Is there any chance you can be more specific? It’s still a fairly large area you’re indicating, isn’t it?”
“Yes, the best thing I can suggest is take a team down there and have a look around for yourself.”