by Mel Sherratt
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Despite a restless night’s sleep, Eden was in work for 8.30 a.m. Casey had been up when she’d left but she’d been quiet. Despite Eden asking, Casey hadn’t said much about what she and Danny had discussed on the phone the night before. Eden didn’t even know if she was upset because of that conversation or because Eden hadn’t told her she was meeting with him.
When she’d gone to bed she’d heard Casey sniffing and knew she was crying. But when she’d knocked on her bedroom door, Casey had said she was fine and didn’t want to talk. Maybe she’d come round this evening. If not, she’d try to get Laura to have a word with her. It had been a shock for them all and it was going to take time to adjust.
Jordan had gone to Manchester to speak to some of his colleagues in connection with Aiden Daniels. After he’d been spending a lot of time on the phone, it seemed the easiest option to send him there for a few hours. Amy was across from her, already hard at work. Phil had just arrived and was adjusting the height of his chair.
Eden checked her messages from the previous night as she enjoyed her first coffee of the day, gasping when she read up on Ramona Wilson’s attack the night before.
‘Problems?’ said Amy, popping half a Jaffa cake into her mouth.
‘Another woman has been attacked. Someone I know.’
Amy’s eyes widened.
‘Ramona Wilson is the manager of The Candy Club. Her attack makes it five in less than a month across the city.’
‘How badly hurt is she?’
‘She was raped.’
Amy grimaced. ‘Where did it happen?’
‘On the garage plot off Bernard Place. She’s pretty roughed up.’ Eden scrolled down the screen, reading more details. ‘She has the usual, plus bruises to the face and defence marks on her arms.’
‘Does she live near there?’
‘No, Christopher Avenue, on the same estate, I think.’ Eden clicked on a few more links. ‘Yes, I thought as much. Her brother is Steve Wilson. He lives in Bernard Place with their parents. I wonder if she was staying there overnight or if she’s moved back to her parents’ house with the kids. Her fella is a loser too. Rob something-or-other, can’t recall his surname.’ She clicked a few more links before continuing. ‘I can’t imagine for a minute that would be an ideal situation for any of them. Although, I must admit, I’m surprised Steve has been out of prison this long.’
Amy cocked her head to one side. ‘I thought he was just a drunken idiot, Sarge?’
‘He is, mostly. But he also thinks he can do and say what he wants when he’s sober and that gets him into more trouble, believe me.’
Eden was referring to an incident that had happened the year before. Steve Wilson had flatly denied breaking into the working men’s club on the Hopwood Estate. CCTV hadn’t been in operation that night, and he had actually gone in wearing gloves. But the silly idiot had left his wallet behind. Uniform had nabbed him, and he was awaiting a court date for the theft of a couple of grand’s worth of liquor.
‘He’s definitely not a full bag of shopping,’ she added. ‘Shame for Ramona, though. I like her. She’s only young but she’s a spunky chick. Word is, she has a temper if anyone says anything she doesn’t like or if anyone touches one of the girls. I hope she can get over this attack. It would be a shame for her to lose that.’ She reached for her mobile from the desk. ‘Come on, Amy. Let’s go see if we can link it to the ongoing case, or see if it’s a one-off and she knows who attacked her.’
‘Shall I see if there’s a pool car available?’
Eden shook her head. ‘We’ll take The Mooch.’
Thirty minutes later, Eden parked her Mini outside a block of offices in the south of the city. The second floor housed the rape suite. She’d rung to see if Ramona was still there before heading out.
‘I really hope we can nail this creep soon,’ she said to Amy as they walked up the stairs. ‘I wish we could find evidence that would link them all. Despite thinking that Daniels is involved, we have nothing to back it up, and I’m concerned that he’ll soon make a mistake and go too far.’
Amy shuddered. ‘I hope we can stop him long before that happens.’
At the end of a corridor, Eden knocked on a door. It was opened by PC Sharon Felix, a dedicated sexual assault officer. Eden had worked with her on many cases in the Domestic Violence Team.
Sharon held the door open for them. In the room, Ramona sat in an armchair. A small television was on but she didn’t seem to be watching it. She was staring out of the window. A bunch of artificial flowers stood in a small vase on a bookcase.
Ramona had a mane of red hair, a large frame and ample bosom, but she looked like a tiny young woman as she sat in shock after the assault.
‘Ramona,’ Eden said, perching on the settee as close to the armchair as she could without the possibility of invading the woman’s personal space.
Ramona looked up at them. Eden tried not to gasp at the state of her. Her face was a riot of bruising around the nose and side of her cheek. The swelling had risen to its fullest, she imagined. A little bit was clearly visible on her top lip and nose. Eden realised she wouldn’t be able to keep her talking long without causing her too much discomfort, but it was imperative they got as much information as possible to try to catch the man before he struck again.
‘Are you okay to talk about last night?’ She reached for Ramona’s hand as Amy took out her notepad.
‘He won’t break me.’ Ramona’s voice was soft but determined. ‘I’ll need a bit of time to recover. The staff here have been brilliant, but now I’m left feeling battered and bruised, and really angry.’ She rubbed her hands together before they clenched into fists again. ‘I just want to hit out at someone.’
‘Were you staying over at Bernard Place?’ asked Eden.
‘Yes. Me and Rob have split up. I’ve been there with the kids for two weeks.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ Eden was nothing of the sort and hoped she sounded convincing.
‘It’s for the best,’ said Ramona. ‘Although it’s a little cramped.’
Eden recalled Ramona’s home in Christopher Avenue. She’d been there a few times, trying to find Steve Wilson. The children – two boys and a girl – had a lot of space to play in. Whereas, in Bernard Place, she imagined all four of them were in the same room. It just didn’t seem possible that so many people could live in a house that size. But people put up with things deemed out of their control whenever necessary.
‘I can’t begin to imagine how you feel,’ Eden said truthfully. ‘Are you able to walk me through what happened?’
‘I finished work at twelve and locked up.’
‘You’re still managing The Candy Club?’
Ramona nodded. ‘Yes. I had a lift home off one of the girls. She dropped me off in Davy Road.’
‘Name?’ asked Eden.
‘Angel Baker,’ said Ramona.
‘Do you always get a lift home from Angel?’
‘No, sometimes one of the other girls will offer, and sometimes I get a taxi.’
‘Any particular firm?’
She shook her head before continuing. ‘I was walking down the street minding my own business, and as I passed the garage plot, he grabbed me from behind. I couldn’t scream because he covered my mouth with his hand. The other was across my chest, and before I knew it, he’d pulled me backwards and into the entrance. He pushed me to the ground, and it was then that I began to gather my senses and I screamed. That was the first punch.’
Eden hadn’t wanted her to go through it in so much detail but it was all said in one breath, as if Ramona wanted to get it off her chest so that she wouldn’t have to say it again.
‘He just got on top of me,’ Ramona continued. ‘He held on to my arms and then, well, I’m not going to go through all that. I’m sure you can imagine.’ Tears dripped down her face as she looked up at Eden. ‘I think I just went inside myself, you know? I did try to scream once more but he hit
me again, and after that I kept quiet. I was so scared he’d— he’d kill me.’
‘You mentioned something about a bite?’ Eden queried.
Ramona pulled back the neck of her jumper to reveal an angry red-purple bruise, as large as the face on a wristwatch. There were marks where the attacker had dug in his teeth.
‘At least that will fade in time,’ she said, before bursting into tears. ‘But the memories won’t. The images of him trying to get inside my clothes, I’ll see that every time I leave my parents’ house. I’ll see it every time I come back to the house. I’ll see him.’
Eden closed her eyes momentarily. What the hell did he get out of marking her in that way?
‘Can you remember anything about him?’ Amy asked. ‘Did he speak in a local accent?’
Ramona turned to her. ‘He didn’t say a word.’
‘Can you recall what he was wearing?’
Ramona shook her head. ‘It all happened so fast.’ She closed her eyes, as if it was too painful to think about.
‘And what did he do when it was over?’ Eden knew it sounded callous to dismiss the attack as if it was nothing, but it was better to be matter-of-fact about things.
‘He just got up and walked away, as if nothing had happened. As if he was putting his car away in one of the garages and had just come home.’
‘Did you see where he went?’
‘No.’
‘And, obviously, there was no one else around?’
Ramona shook her head again. ‘Luckily, I didn’t have too far to go home. In my state, I wasn’t fit to walk far. I’m so sore.’
Eden pressed her hand to Ramona’s arm. She clearly wasn’t ready to say any more.
‘Thank you for talking to us,’ she said. ‘Going over it all again must be hell so I want you to know how much we appreciate it. We’ll do our best to catch the man who assaulted you.’
Eden and Amy left the building in silence, both saddened and angered by Ramona’s plight. Eden tried not to shudder. Being attacked like Ramona was one of her worst nightmares. Yet, even though it hadn’t happened to her, she’d had to live through other women’s attacks for years. Working in the Domestic Violence Team, some of the things Eden had heard had been sickening. One particular attack, where a husband had tried to drown his wife in the bath because he thought she was going to leave him, had made her vomit. There wasn’t much that shocked her nowadays, but it still hurt to watch victims suffering or shouting out in pain.
Eden made a mental note to run the team through all the attacks at their next team brief, to check again for similarities. This assault was far worse than the last one. They needed to catch this man, and soon, before he went further than he had done already. If things continued, it could be a matter of life or death.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
After leaving the rape suite, Eden drove to the Mitchell Estate to have a look at the area where the assault took place. She was interested in the access to it, how the attacker could have got in there.
‘Bernard Place is a cul-de-sac, isn’t it, Sarge?’ said Amy, sitting beside her. ‘No one in their right mind would follow someone home without any escape route if something went wrong.’
‘Alice Clough was attacked right outside her house,’ Eden reminded her. ‘He wasn’t bothered who saw him then.’
‘But he didn’t rape her.’
‘I wonder if he intended to. Maybe he got off on her being so close to home but then was wary of being heard when he attacked her.’
The garage plot was a block of twelve purpose-built garages, in two rows of six, that nearby residents could rent out from the local authority. Eden parked up on Davy Road and walked across to Bernard Place. Crime scene tape flickered in the wind, a uniformed officer with a clipboard standing at the entrance to the site. Eden could see crime scene officers combing the area behind him.
Both she and Amy covered up before they were allowed behind the tape.
‘Don’t mind us.’ Eden held up a latex-gloved hand as she reached the officers: one stooping down examining the grass and another taking photographs of the scene.
‘This is off radar for CCTV,’ said Amy as she glanced around and up. ‘I can’t see any cameras on this site either, so we have no footage.’
‘Ramona said the gates are usually locked.’ Eden pointed at the lock. ‘This has been vandalised. We need to find out if it’s recent or if our attacker forced it open.’
As people worked all around her, Eden walked to the back of the site to see if there was any way of getting in from there.
‘Where did you come from?’ she said quietly to no one in particular.
‘Do you think he was lying in wait for Ramona?’ asked Amy, coming up beside her.
‘Possibly, but if so, why? What’s the link to the other women?’
‘They might not be linked,’ said Amy. ‘But it doesn’t feel like a random attack, does it?’
‘I don’t think so.’ A disturbing thought crossed Eden’s mind. ‘So it might be someone who knows that Ramona works late most nights.’
There was no other entrance at the back of the garage plot but there was a hedge around the perimeter. Spotting a gap, Eden went to investigate. Being careful where she trod, she pressed herself through to the other side and came out on to a walkway. Looking both ways, she saw it was littered with crisp packets and chocolate wrappers, suggesting a cut-through to the local high school.
She walked to Davy Road, counting twenty-five steps before she was on the pavement. There was a lamp post at the head of the walkway and one at the other end. She looked back to where she had come from. How dark would that be after midnight?
‘Anyone in their right mind would either walk around the long way to avoid that walkway in the dark or do a Usain Bolt and run like the clappers,’ she told Amy as she rejoined her. ‘It leads to Davy Road so our attacker could have got into the garage plot through either the front or the back. I’ll check with uniform later once the house-to-house has been done, see if we can’t nail one or two witnesses for a chat. This must be our man.’
Amy nodded then hugged herself. ‘Just the thought of that happening to you. . . it’s frightening.’
Eden pointed behind her. ‘There are fresh footprints by that hedge, with a weird marking on the sole. A possible letter P as well, I think. I had to press down when I squeezed through to the other side. I’ll get SOCO to check them out, and then let’s see if we can cross-reference anything back at the station. We need to look at the evidence from the other victims too. Bacon butties on the way?’
Amy grinned. ‘Need you even ask?’
It sounded callous to switch off, but in their line of work, there would be too much trauma and stress to relive and take home with them if they didn’t.
‘One thing we’ll have to keep an eye out for is Steve Wilson,’ Eden said as they were removing their suits, gloves and shoe covers. ‘He’s handy with his fists when he’s had a drink, and no doubt he’ll blame anyone he knows for the attack on Ramona.’
Eden recalled her threats to Colin Stanton. If she was a bent officer, she would have a word in Wilson’s ear and somehow make out Stanton was involved. But that was bullying, tempting as it was to give him his comeuppance.
‘You mean he actually cares for someone other than himself?’ Amy ribbed.
‘Family is important to most people.’ Eden thought back to the trouble with her niece. ‘Last year, I would have ripped one of Jess’s kidnapper’s testicles off if I’d found out he’d touched Jess in any way.’
Her eye caught something and she looked up. A woman in an upstairs flat was waving at them. Eden switched off the engine and removed her seat belt.
‘Looks like someone might have spotted something after all.’
Amy looked in the direction Eden was pointing. ‘Want me to come with you, or do you want me to bang on some doors?’
Eden smiled, knowing how much of a pain that would be. Most of the residents of Bernard Place wouldn�
�t take kindly to being woken up by the police. ‘Doors would be great, thanks.’
Chapter Thirty-Nine
While Amy went in the opposite direction, Eden walked to the flat where she’d seen the woman at the window. An elderly man answered the door. He stared at her before opening it wider when she showed him her warrant card.
‘Morning, sir. I’m Detective Sergeant Berrisford and I’m investigating an incident that happened last night. I saw someone waving from a window in your flat.’
‘That will be my wife, Elsie,’ he said.
‘May I come in and speak to her?’
‘What about?’
Eden wondered if he was hard of hearing and hadn’t heard all she’d said. She repeated her earlier sentence a little louder.
‘I’m not deaf,’ he muttered. ‘What do you want to have a word with her about?’
Eden put on a smile. ‘Might I come in please?’
Reluctantly, he opened the door more to let her pass.
She stepped into a hallway brimming with photos and nick-nacks that she hadn’t been expecting. On first impressions, if she hadn’t seen the woman, she’d assume the neighbour was a loner, a bit of a Victor Meldrew. But she could see he had a big family. There was a portrait of him with a woman and five children: two girls and three boys. It had been taken many years ago, and she wondered if they were all as close now that the decades had passed.
‘Have you lived in Bernard Place long, Mr. . .?’ Eden questioned as she waited for him to close the door after her.
‘It’s Mr Booth,’ he replied, ‘and we’ve lived here too long if you ask me. We moved from a house when it got too much for us. But now the stairs are getting to us too.’ He shuffled past her and she followed him up. ‘Mrs Booth is in the back room. You can go into her if you like. No doubt she’ll enjoy your company.’