by Steven Dunne
‘What about a ladder?’ asked Jane Gadd.
‘There isn’t one and he’s unlikely to risk bringing and removing such a large piece of kit.’
‘So we need to start from scratch on the hotels,’ nodded Charlton, peering at DC Bull to be sure he made a note of it. ‘I suppose it’s too late for the vans.’
Brook nodded. ‘Traffic were only looking for single occupancy but, regardless, the road blocks round the estate didn’t stop any vehicles leaving at all, sir. Either the killers had already gone or left by other means.’
‘Okay. What’s next?’
‘I played the tape to a linguistics expert at Derby University and although her conclusions come with all sorts of ifs and buts about how short the tape is, we are now starting to think seriously about this killer being a Derby man.’ DC Cooper paused at this point to play the 999 call again. Everyone dutifully listened. ‘She also says that the owner of this voice is a minimum of fifty years of age – apparently something to do with how speech patterns change from generation to generation.’
‘Rob.’ Brook nodded at DS Morton.
‘The mobile phone belonging to Jason Wallis had some blood droplets from the victims in the yard. Obviously it also carries Jason’s prints. However, there was one other print on and around the number 9 button. It was only a partial thumb but, as the phone was used to make the 999 call, we can safely assume it’s the killer’s. We have enough of a print to obtain a match but we’ve had no hits from the database, which is significant.’
‘Why is that significant?’ asked Charlton.
‘Most serial killers are in the system for something, sir,’ said Grant. ‘Killing is generally the tip of the iceberg, the final step in their offending. What’s odd is that we’re up against someone who’s been incredibly careful in the past, but who the other night took off a glove to call the emergency services on a mobile.’
Charlton nodded. ‘Point taken. What about prints on the weapon?’
‘Only a palm from Jason Wallis but we believe the scalpel had been placed under his hand by the killer, sir. The weapon is a Swann Morton PM60 scalpel,’ said DS Jane Gadd, reading from notes. ‘It has a heavy-duty stainless steel handle with a standard blade fitment, which includes bull-nose blades for added safety and protection against accidental sharps injuries.’ This got an unintended laugh and Gadd couldn’t help smiling as well. ‘Used by morticians in post-mortems – very common in the NHS and virtually untraceable.’
‘Think our suspect is some kind of health worker?’ asked Charlton, again unafraid to show his ignorance to get answers to questions that occurred to him.
Brook shrugged. ‘It hardly narrows the field but it’s possible,’ he said trying to keep the doubt from his voice. ‘But then why leave the weapon behind to flag that up?’
‘Good point.’
Brook looked at the floor briefly, then faced his audience. ‘Okay. Sergeant Noble and I have been with DCI Hudson and Sergeant Grant for the last twenty-four hours. We’ve also spoken to Jason Wallis and, before we came here this morning, Dr Habib. We think we’ve pieced together a sequence of events. John.’
Noble walked over to the display boards behind him to point at an enlarged photograph. ‘This is a Weber One Touch Gold barbecue. It was brand new and according to Jason Wallis it was stolen by the Inghams last week – from where we don’t know and neither does he. We’ve got a call out to various local retailers, B&Q, Homebase and the like to find out. It’s possibly stolen from other residents but no one in the canvass mentioned it, and the fact that it’s new would seem to be against it.’
‘Why does it matter where this barbecue came from?’ asked Charlton.
‘Maybe it doesn’t,’ answered Brook. ‘But the Inghams acquired this barbecue the week before winning a large selection of meat supplied – we think – by The Reaper. With his MO it’s unlikely to be a convenient coincidence. Go on, John.’
‘The Ingham family used the barbecue to cook their last meal on the night of the murders. On the eve of the murders someone, we presume The Reaper or his accomplice, rang the Ingham house from an untraceable prepaid mobile phone. According to the Ingham’s phone records that call took place at 6.32pm. We don’t know the exact contents of the call, but we think it was to tell the Ingham family that they’d won a competition. It’s the only call received on the Ingham landline in the two days preceding the killings. We know from text messages that Stephen Ingham texted Jason Wallis to tell him the same thing, and to ask him to come round for a barbecue the following night to celebrate his release.
‘Jason Wallis confirmed to us last night that, according to Stephen, the family had won a hamper full of burgers, sausages and kebabs as well as a substantial quantity of beer and cider that was delivered after the call. How and when the delivery was made we’ve no idea, but obviously that’s a question for door to door. Chances are, delivery was made after dark.
‘As most of you know, two years ago the Wallis family were persuaded to believe they’d won a free meal of pizzas from a local takeaway. The pizzas had been doctored and so the Wallis family were left defenceless when The Reaper returned to slaughter them. Interestingly, none of the food or drink had been doctored this time but because all the victims had been drinking heavily, even the young lad, it wasn’t really necessary. It looks like the food and drink was a tool to concentrate the Ingham family and friends in one location ready for the killing.
‘A neighbour, Mrs Patel, claims to have seen a strange man loitering near her garden, which is across the street from the Ingham and Wallis houses. That was about ten o’clock so it may be nothing. Our best guess for The Reaper’s arrival is around one o’clock in the morning. He—’
‘How does he know the Inghams are going to have the barbecue the same night as he delivers the food?’ interrupted Jane Gadd. ‘I mean, it’s not warm at the moment.’
There was a hush while people cast around for an answer.
‘Maybe he didn’t know,’ said Grant. ‘Maybe he was watching and waiting.’
‘Where from?’ asked Noble.
‘There’s the Wallis house,’ she added.
There was an outbreak of impressed nodding from the CID officers. ‘That is a very good thought, Sergeant,’ said Charlton.
‘Forensics hasn’t come up with anything yet to suggest The Reaper spent any significant time in there, sir,’ noted Noble.
‘It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,’ said Brook. ‘The Reaper of old would have left no trace.’
‘Then given us his voice and a thumbprint?’ noted Hudson.
Brook nodded. ‘It’s odd; I still can’t explain it.’
‘And if he was watching, it would explain why he didn’t medicate four of the victims,’ said Grant. ‘He knew what condition they’d be in.’
Noble continued. ‘So The Reaper arrives at the house to find his targets in the state he wants them. It’s around one in the morning. There’s a thick fog developing. Streetlighting is virtually nonexistent and he knows he’s unlikely to meet anyone. Nobody sees him. Maybe he’s got a car nearby, but nobody sees or hears that either. Possibly he’s travelled the rest of the journey on foot – maybe even on a bicycle. At the moment we have no idea and door to door has produced nothing.
‘He’s got various pieces of equipment with him that tells us this is no random killer. Most importantly he has a scalpel, not the everyday weapon of choice. You won’t be surprised to learn that not a single doctor or surgeon lives on the estate.’ There was a ripple of laughter at this. ‘Just a nurse and a few hospital workers.
‘Okay. The four lads in the yard are unconscious when he enters the yard. We think he gets his Debussy CD from his bag or rucksack ready to play. The classical music is a Reaper signature. He has a length of rope which he puts to one side. He takes off the rap music and puts on his own CD, then takes out his scalpel and cuts the throats of Stephen Ingham and the Gretton and Anderson boys. In what order we’re not sure yet, but we know they di
ed before the couple and the lad because of the bloody smears in the house and transference onto the victims upstairs from gloves – latex probably. Also the boys would be the most able to defend themselves if they came round, so he has to get them out of the way.’
‘But he leaves Wallis alive?’ queried Charlton.
Noble shrugged. ‘We can’t explain it.’ He paused, waiting for further interventions before continuing. ‘After he kills the three teenagers he heads up to the main bedroom with the rope. Even though both the kid and the mother have been drinking, they would be unlikely to have drunk as much as the men so, probably as a precaution, the killer drugged them. But unlike two years ago he injected the victims directly into the neck, so obviously he has a syringe, maybe two.
‘He covers Chelsea Ingham’s mouth with his hand and injects her with a mixture of scopolamine and morphine, the same combination of drugs used to disable the Wallis family two years ago. It’s a powerful and toxic narcotic that would have subdued her almost immediately.
‘The dose is enough to kill her within half an hour if he wants to just leave her to die. Then he moves around the bed and cuts Ryan Harper’s throat, this time with a backhand slash across the windpipe – he can’t get behind him because the bed’s up against the wall. While Harper’s dying the killer goes into the boy’s bedroom. He injects a lethal dose of the same cocktail of drugs into D’Wayne Ingham’s neck and leaves him while he goes back to the main bedroom to set up the rope.
‘He uses a chair, and/or possibly an accomplice, to help him climb into the loft space and tie the rope around a beam. The noose is already tied and the rope is just the right length because the killer has already tested his method in the derelict Wallis house.
‘He goes back to the boy’s bedroom and carries him through to the main bedroom and hoists him into the noose. According to Dr Habib, the boy was dead or on the point of death when he was strung up so The Reaper can do what he likes. He cuts off the boy’s index and forefinger and puts them in a breast pocket, in a copy of the MO used in Harlesden, the first Reaper killing in 1990.’
‘Why copy the MO in that killing?’ asked Gadd. ‘With the rope it makes it much harder. Why not copy the later murders?
They were more polished.’
Brook looked up wearily. ‘Harlesden was the first. I think that’s why.’
Charlton’s brow furrowed. ‘I don’t understand.’
Brook caught his eye. ‘Whoever’s doing this wants to tell us something.’
‘What?’ replied Charlton with a hint of exasperation in his voice. ‘That The Reaper is starting again,’ nodded Grant. ‘That this could be the first of many.’
‘Christ.’ Charlton looked aghast.
Brook nodded at Noble.
‘With the boy now in the noose, The Reaper replaces the chair against the wall then cuts Chelsea Ingham’s throat, to pre-empt the drugs that would have killed her…’
‘Why bother?’ asked Morton.
‘For effect,’ answered Brook for Noble. ‘It’s what he does. The adults are more responsible. They deserve the humiliation and their corpses have to be defiled.’
‘You seem very sure of that, Inspector,’ Charlton said. ‘But I suppose you’ve been carrying his profile around for twenty years, so we’ll bow to your psychological insight.’ Brook declined to thank him for the endorsement. ‘What then?’
‘Then he’s back down to the kitchen. He uses Stephen Ingham’s blood to write “SAVED” on the wall,’ continued Noble. ‘There are smudged marks around his neck to suggest someone dipping fingers into the wound. He places the scalpel under Jason’s hand…’
‘To frame him?’ asked Jane Gadd.
‘We can’t think of any other reason, but it does seem a pretty lame attempt,’ answered Brook. ‘It took us about two minutes to clear Wallis.’
‘But speaking to Wallis last night, we do now have a possible motive for the murders and an idea as to why Wallis was spared,’ said Hudson. Brook pursed his lips and stared at the floor. ‘Jason told us last night that the three teenage victims were responsible for the murder of an Annie Sewell two years ago, the night Jason’s family were murdered. We’re arranging for a DNA profile from the three lads and will look into it.’
‘It doesn’t explain why The Reaper didn’t kill Jason as well,’ said Noble. ‘He’s still a potential witness.’
‘He’s being kept alive,’ said Laura Grant. Brook looked up at her. He gave her a half-smile of approval, which she noted with a glance.
‘Why?’ asked Charlton.
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Grant. ‘But that’s twice he’s been saved despite being at The Reaper’s mercy.’
‘Is that what the blood message refers to?’ said Charlton.
Brook considered the value of sharing information exclusive to him and decided it could do no harm. ‘I don’t think so, sir. “SAVED” refers to us, the community. The Reaper sees himself as a soldier of sorts. He’s killing families like the Inghams to save us from them. And he seems to have found his audience. There isn’t a resident on the estate who hasn’t expressed pleasure, or at least relief, that the Inghams are dead.’
‘Scum in fear, The Reaper’s near,’ chipped in Hudson. Charlton turned to stare at him. ‘Not my words, Chief Superintendent, a group of residents who were at the scene. They were chanting it at us last night.’
‘When they weren’t booing us,’ added Noble.
‘I see,’ said Charlton, tight-lipped. ‘Well, if those residents want to share their feelings with the world that’s their business but I don’t want to hear of any member of this division repeating that little ditty or they’ll answer to me. Understood?’ The whole room nodded as one. ‘Move on.’
‘Finally,’ resumed Brook, ‘the killer finds Jason’s mobile phone and breaks with all previous Reaper method by using it to call 999 – and he does it within earshot of Jason.’
‘He does?’ asked Noble.
‘When we spoke to Jason he said he heard what was said. “They’re all dead”,’ said Brook softly.
‘Christ. It must have put the shits up him,’ observed Morton. ‘Sorry, sir,’ he added in response to Charlton’s glare.
Brook decided not to correct Morton. Jason’s almost casual reaction and subsequent behaviour was something he hadn’t yet been able to work out. A thought popped into Brook’s head and his brow creased in sudden confusion. It was such an obvious anomaly, yet it hadn’t occurred to him until now.
‘Anything else, Sergeant?’ asked Charlton.
‘Only the exit route. Our killer doesn’t leave the Ingham property by the front but climbs over the shiplap fence panel separating the Ingham house from the adjoining property. The house belonging to a Mrs North is unoccupied and there were no signs of forced entry so we assume the killer ran through to the adjoining street, Drayfin Park Avenue, to make his escape. He leaves blood transference from some of the victims on top of the fence and fibre from his clothing. We’re hoping for his genetic material but nothing so far.’
‘Why did he go out over the fence and leave us all this evidence?’ asked Gadd. ‘That’s a young man’s getaway.’
‘Having called emergency services and left the line open he has to think the cavalry are on their way,’ answered Noble, deciding not to mention Brook’s arrival. He looked over at Grant, who seemed aware of the omission, and they both looked over at Brook. He seemed lost in thought.
‘What other leads do we have?’ asked Charlton, glancing at his watch.
‘There are some indistinct bloody footmarks on the carpets and the kitchen lino, sir,’ continued Noble.
‘Footmarks not footprints,’ said Charlton.
‘Yes, sir. We’re assuming the killer wore plastic overshoes. We might still get a shoe type and size but it will be more difficult. The boffins are working on it. Provisionally they believe the suspect wore some kind of sports shoes, size between 7 and 9.’
‘If there are two of them, maybe it’s both sizes
,’ observed Jane Gadd to another round of silent nodding. ‘That it?’ asked Charlton.
‘No, sir. From the Wallis house, we have a bottle of wine, freshly opened but not drunk. As DS Grant mentioned it’s the exact same vintage and source as the wine used two years ago. Nuits St Georges from Burgundy. In France,’ Noble added for the benefit of the detective constables. ‘No prints on the bottle or the glasses; also none on the empty picture frame, the mannequin, candle or anything in the Wallis house. They’re still working though.’
‘Anything on the food and drink from the Ingham house?’ asked Charlton.
‘We tracked down several of the alcohol batch numbers to a cash and carry in Leicester which supplies various off-licences and corner shops in Derby. The booze was bought in small quantities from at least five of these outlets over a period of time, making it impossible to trace purchases. Another pointer to a local killer. No luck at the butcher’s, nobody remembers the purchase and no receipts match exactly so it’s the same story as the alcohol.’
‘Anything else, Sergeant?’
‘Only that according to our sequence of events, Miss Ingham couldn’t have watched her son die. Inspector Brook and I believe that to be significant.’
‘Oh? Inspector Brook?’ All heads turned to Brook.
Brook seemed lost in thought still. From somewhere the question materialised in his mind and he roused himself to answer. He spoke slowly, deliberately. ‘Two years ago the Wallis parents had been drugged, but were revived to see their daughter murdered. They cried, knowing they were next. The same applied to Sammy Elphick and his wife in Harlesden, even though they’d been tied up. We found the salt track marks on their cheeks. It’s a Reaper signature.
‘In Brixton, Floyd Wrigley and his…. girlfriend were pumped full of heroin so they couldn’t know what was happening to them or their daughter. They couldn’t cry so the girl was killed without ceremony.’ After a pause Brook added, ‘The parents too. But usually The Reaper wants the parents to suffer for the misery they’ve caused, the dysfunctional example they’ve set their offspring. He wants them to know that they and their family will be wiped off the face of the earth. But as they die he gives them a gift, a sight or sound of something which represents the very best of what mankind has to offer – a great piece of art or a beautiful piece of music. Like Clair de Lune or Beethoven’s Ninth or a Van Gogh print – something to tell them what they should have aspired to. But Miss Ingham and her partner were killed without being made to face either the son’s death or the consequences of their actions in life. They didn’t know they were about to die so there were no tears. That’s why I believe it’s a copycat.’