He is Watching You

by Charlie Gallagher

  ‘This is Maddie Ives, who brought it to my attention. Maddie hasn’t been party to any conversations prior to today. She doesn’t know about the Hastings case. Dee, could I ask you to give her a brief summary?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  Maddie backed away from the camera but remained standing. On the screen, one of the women among the five seated people shuffled in her seat. She sat a little straighter and began.

  ‘Sorry, Maddie, I don’t know what you’ve been told already so I’ll cover the basics and you can ask any questions. Five weeks ago we found a body. A young woman we now know to be Priscilla Earnest. She was found in a locked store room that was part of a derelict factory. It looked as if she’d been there around three weeks. Forensics are certain she wasn’t killed there. We don’t have a kill site. She had a stab wound to her abdomen and her throat was cut. Either wound could have been fatal and they were sustained at the same time. There is another job, too. Ellie Perkins was found in scrublands at an industrial estate on the other side of the county. She was out in the open and there are a few months between the two jobs but we are linking them for now because the murder method looks to have been the same. There are other similarities too — smaller details that you probably don’t need. Any questions at this point?’

  Maddie had loads, the most pertinent being why the hell was this woman telling her this? She shook her head, though; she was aware that Harry was looking over at her. He would be the best person to answer those questions.

  ‘No questions. That all seems to make sense.’

  ‘Indeed. Another link we have, which up to this point seemed rather tenuous, is around their lifestyle. Both were addicts of a sort. One alcohol, one painkillers — well, drugs, but painkillers largely. They both attended AA meetings, albeit in different locations. We appreciated that their addictions made them vulnerable, but what we didn’t consider — until DS Blaker called us this morning with a hypothesis — is that these women could have been selected as potential victims at their support group meetings. The killer may even have befriended them there. DS Blaker has made us aware of a missing person in your county who was last seen at an AA meeting. Firstly, is that correct?’

  Maddie’s throat was suddenly dry. ‘Well . . . yes . . . as far as I can tell, but there’s still work going on to confirm her last known movements. We are all waiting for her to turn up somewhere after an extended drinking session.’

  ‘I’m sure you are, and that may still be the case.’

  DCI Lowe interrupted. ‘Where are you with that investigation, Maddie? Have there been any advances?’

  Maddie took a moment to get her thoughts in order. ‘Sir, I revisited the neighbours last night and also the ex-husband. They didn’t really tell me much else. I’ve just come back from the church hall where her AA meetings are held. I have contact details for the man who organises them. I was hoping he might be able to talk to me about her and about anyone else who was there, but he doesn’t seem to want to play ball.’

  The woman on the screen interjected. ‘We’ve had the same issues. The AA community take their anonymity very seriously. As they should, of course, but it does cause problems.’

  The DCI spoke again. ‘Harry, can you take that up alongside Maddie, please? Let’s find this man and find out what he knows. Now that Maddie has a little more of the picture I’m sure you understand that we may need to be a little more persuasive.’

  ‘Sir,’ Harry said in confirmation.

  Maddie continued, ‘I haven’t exactly taken no for an answer, sir. I was far from giving up.’

  ‘That’s what I like to hear. This will now be a Major Crime investigation until we have bottomed out the cause of her disappearance. Harry has asked for you to be assigned to the case with him. I will try and oblige as best I can, alongside your own role of course.’

  ‘Understood.’ Maddie looked at Harry. He was sitting on the edge of the table. He was looking away.

  ‘Major Crime will be treating this as a priority case. We do not have any definite links, but I think we should work as if we believe there to be foul play behind her disappearance. I’m at headquarters for today, but I’ll be looking to catch up tomorrow. I’ll leave you to compare notes with our Sussex colleagues.’ The DCI disappeared from the screen.

  One of the men from the Sussex team spoke next. ‘I’ve spoken to the team and we are going to send copies of everything we have. We’ve no active leads as we speak. We’re almost waiting for another victim and hoping he slips up. It’s not a great place to be, as you can imagine. Not that I’m saying that we hope your girl is it. Hopefully she turns up with a sizeable hangover.’

  Harry rubbed at his face. Maddie thought he was wearing even more of a scowl than usual. ‘Yeah, send down what you have.’

  ‘Some of it may need to be hand-delivered. My job for today is to review it all. You should expect it all in the next forty-eight hours.’

  With that, the meeting was over and Maddie was still reeling. Harry Blaker was still sat on the table. He fixed her with a stare.

  ‘You okay, kid?’

  ‘I’m not sure what just happened. This morning I was doing a made-up job no one cared about, looking for a hopeless drunk. Now what? We’re hunting for a serial killer and she’s his latest victim?’

  ‘I don’t know. But I figured you might want to be involved at least, rather than us just taking it out of your hands. Or you can go back to your made-up job if you like?’

  ‘And you want me to work it? With you?’

  ‘For me.’

  ‘Oh I see. Because I’m the kid.’

  ‘Because I’m the inspector. You’d want this on your own, would you? I saw your face when you were listening to what Sussex had to say. You wouldn’t know where to start.’

  ‘I was on the spot. You made sure of that. You could have warned me, given me a little bit of a heads-up on the phone before I came in.’

  ‘I’m not a big fan of saying things twice. You got what you needed.’

  ‘I got some.’

  ‘You need more? Sussex have two dead girls. Both were murdered with a big knife. Stabbed and their throats slit. They were both found naked, wrapped in thick plastic sheets and then dumped. They weren’t too well hidden. The killer would have known that we would find them eventually and he didn’t care. He’s forensically aware. We’ve got nothing from CSI. And do you want the kicker?’

  ‘The kicker?’

  ‘The bit that kicks you in the face. He was watching them rot.’

  Maddie tried to form a facial expression. She took a step to her left, she found the table with her left hand and it steadied her.

  ‘He was what?’

  ‘The girls were both lying under a camera. One of these internet things — I’m not up on the modern technology. He’d set up a hotspot using an untraceable SIM card. He could stream live pictures anywhere. They reckon he could watch it on a computer, a tablet or even his phone.’

  ‘He wanted to watch them decompose?’

  ‘Well, Sussex have a theory that he was watching for when the bodies were found and maybe that’s what the camera was for. The one on the industrial estate was pointed at the door, but it covered the victim too. But I reckon I know different. That’s how I know the killer is a he. It was so he could tune in whenever he wanted. He gets off on it, he must do. The murders were sexually motivated. He’s probably sat at home with his trousers down and his—’

  ‘I get it, Harry. Christ! I get it.’

  His face lit up for a brief second. ‘Welcome to Major Crime.’

  ‘The girls. They were raped too then? You said sexually motivated.’

  ‘No. That’s a bit of a fallacy. Sexually motivated killers get their rocks off somehow, but most just like to toss off over what they’ve done. Hence they take their little trophies or they set up cameras so they can have another bash.’

  ‘He took trophies?’

  ‘Well, the women are whole. Nothing’s been cut off, but .
. . are you okay, kid?’

  ‘I just need some air.’ Maddie moved to the door and out across the floor. Her stomach had suddenly twisted tightly, she felt like she might be sick. It had gone by the time she bundled into the loo. She splashed her face with water. She stared at herself. Wide eyes stared back. She cursed herself for leaving like that, for looking weak in front of Harry Blaker. She’d seen far worse than what he was describing. Maybe it was the nervous tension of being thrust into a meeting with people she didn’t know, discussing something she knew nothing about. Harry was probably testing her. She cursed again.

  When she got back to him his fixed expression had dropped away a little. ‘You okay?’ There was maybe even a flash of concern.

  ‘Yeah. Been a long few days.’

  ‘It’s gonna get longer.’

  ‘I can handle it.’

  ‘I know you can.’

  She fought to restrain the smile that wanted to form on her lips. ‘So, what now?’

  ‘Your mate who sets up the AA meetings . . . you said you spoke to him on the phone already?’

  ‘I did, yeah. He won’t pick up to me now. He said that the members respect their anonymity and he won’t do anything against that.’

  ‘That’s next then. We need to go back to him.’

  ‘I agree. I was going to try and look him up on your local systems. A lot of addicts come to the attention of the police. He said he runs the meeting, which means he’ll have been an addict himself at some point. I figured if I could find a home address for him he might find it a little more difficult to ignore me.’

  ‘Okay, that makes sense.’

  ‘But he won’t be happy,’ Maddie said.

  ‘If he gives us the same answer again, he definitely won’t be.’

  Chapter 21

  It didn’t take long to find Jeremy on the local police system. It was amazing what could be achieved when you had someone who knew what they were doing. Harry brought up the address from where the AA meetings were run. There were a number of people linked to it on the intelligence system — mostly because they had been sighted by local patrols going to or coming from it — but a male with the full name Jeremy Lennox appeared for two reasons. One report linked the location to drug dealing while it was noted that Jeremy was running a session at the time. The second link was stronger: Jeremy had offered it as a bail address following his arrest for drunk driving. All in, it didn’t paint a very favourable picture of him and maybe offered a reason as to why he hadn’t been keen to help the police.

  Jeremy Lennox had been refused the church hall as a bail address. He had been forced to provide a domestic address, which appeared to be his mother’s. That was where they were heading to now.

  ‘How far away is this place?’ Maddie asked from the passenger seat.

  ‘Twenty minutes in this traffic,’ Harry grunted. They were still waiting to enter the flow of cars passing the police station. Someone flashed them out. Harry edged forward a few feet.

  ‘Twenty minutes, eh?’ Maddie didn’t relish the thought of twenty silent minutes. Harry’s car was unusual. It was a new-looking Land Rover Discovery but it looked like it had been jacked up on the suspension to make the seating position even higher and there were little modifications dotted over the bodywork. Her view was obstructed by a thick plastic tube that trailed up the windscreen on her side. All the crime cars she had seen in the last ten years had been well used, small and unloved. This one certainly stuck out.

  ‘What’s the deal with the car?’ she said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s not really a detective’s car, is it? I mean, where are your crime scenes generally? Up a mountain!’

  ‘It belongs to the Marine Unit.’

  ‘I’ve never sat so high. And what’s with the drainpipe?’

  ‘It’s a snorkel. Something about wading into seas and rivers. The guy who handed it over will happily bore you all day with the details.’ Harry fell silent again. Like that had offered her any explanation at all.

  ‘Major Crime get cars with snorkels then, do they?’

  ‘No. I injured my arm. I needed an automatic and this was the only one that was available. It’s a short-term thing. Couple of weeks.’

  Maddie tried to be subtle as she looked down at his arm. It was resting on the gear-shifter, like a man who was using to driving a manual. He had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up. Among the body hair she could see a small, white track running up the centre. There were three white dots either side of it too. He must have seen her looking. He flipped his arm over.

  ‘The scarring is mostly on the other side. They put in some metal and bolted it down. It just aches now. I told them not to worry, but the boss sorted me this.’

  The scarring was indeed more obvious. The line that ran up the underside started as a jagged line butted up against his hand. It ran half the length of his forearm. The six white dots were more prominent; she guessed they were the points where the pins had been put in.

  ‘You must be fun at airports.’

  ‘I’m fun everywhere, Maddie,’ he said. The silence returned and they were still in sight of the nick.

  ‘You married then, Harry?’ Maddie tried again.

  He momentarily flicked his eyes to meet hers. They edged forward to the approach of a roundabout. His fingers drummed on the top of the steering wheel.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Kids?’

  ‘Grown up.’

  ‘Well. I feel like I know you better already.’ She didn’t care if her frustration was obvious.

  ‘I need to go and speak with someone about the hit and run job straight after. Do you want me to drop you back?’ Harry said.

  ‘Do you want to drop me back?’

  ‘I’d need to come back through this traffic to drop you. So, no.’

  ‘I’ll come with you then, sure. What’s it about?’

  ‘You don’t need to get involved.’

  ‘Okay, but what’s it about. Maybe you could trust me enough to share something with me every now and then.’

  He broke from staring at the traffic to face her. ‘It’s not a trust thing. I need to find out a few simple things today. It should be a simple job. The more people you talk to about it, the more opinions you get in the pot and the more these sorts of jobs can get complicated. No offence intended — this is not a respect or a trust thing. I just know what I need to do.’

  The traffic shifted. They moved round to the left and picked up speed. She could see signposts for a university campus. They passed a train station on her side. The rest of the journey was silent but Maddie didn’t feel awkward about it anymore. She had tried at least. It was twenty minutes, almost to the second, when they stopped outside of a row of terraced houses jutting off another road jammed with traffic. They got lucky with a parking space. Harry pushed the gate that was almost directly next to her car door. She followed him up the path. An elderly-looking female answered.

  ‘Yes?’

  Harry had his badge out. Maddie dug around in her bag for her own. She needn’t have bothered; the woman had already invited them in. She confirmed that Jeremy was at home and immediately bawled up the stairs to let him know he had visitors.

  ‘Who is it?’ The voice that came back down the stairs sounded agitated.

  ‘It’s the police, Jeremy. They say they need to speak to you.’

  ‘Fuck’s sake, Mum! What did you let them in for?’

  ‘Sorry, Jeremy . . . I . . .’ She flustered. The strength and volume in her voice dropped away. She turned to the detectives. ‘I’m really sorry, he’s a good boy, but he is prone to bad language on occasion.’

  Maddie’s eyes lifted to a sound on the landing. A head appeared over the top. The police system had him at forty-four years old. He looked older. His long, greying hair dripped down his face as he leaned forward. From what she could see, Maddie reckoned he was topless.

  ‘What do you want?’ he said.

  ‘The same thing I
wanted on the phone, Jeremy. I just need to talk to you.’

  ‘You’re the one I talked to on the phone? I told you all I’m going to tell you. You’re wasting your time, love.’ The head was gone. Harry was looking over at her. His jaw was tensed, revealing dimples in his cheeks. Jeremy’s mother spoke again.

  ‘I’ll go up and see him. He shouldn’t be so rude.’

  Harry raised his hand to stop her. ‘Don’t worry, madam. Would you mind if I popped up to speak to him?’ He smiled. The smile carried a warmth that Maddie had not yet seen or thought possible from him.

  ‘Well, no, officer. If you want to. But he can be a bit cranky. You might need to be patient with him.’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry, madam. I’m blessed with a lot of patience for people like your son.’

  Harry moved up the steps. Maddie gave the woman a reassuring grin of her own and followed him up. They turned back on themselves on the landing. The door at the top of the stairs was open. A toilet hissed as the cistern filled. The next door was also pushed open. It was a big room and light bundled in through the window, shining on an immaculately made bed with floral bedding on the duvet and pillows. The next door was firmly shut. It had a cracked indent around halfway up, as if someone had hit it with something solid. Maddie guessed that the “something” had been a fist. She stopped, expecting Harry to do the same and knock. He didn’t. He twisted the handle and pushed it in forcefully.

  The curtains were drawn. The room was small and very cluttered. The door only half opened, bouncing back off something.

  ‘What the FUCK?’ Jeremy was laid out on the bed with a computer games controller in his hand. A large flat screen was fixed to the wall and it played a shoot ’em up game of some sort. Harry was close enough to reach out and snatch the controller from him. He threw it immediately and it clattered into the wall under the window.

  ‘WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? YOU CAN’T DO THAT!’

  ‘Sit down!’ Harry’s last word was delivered with such venom its impact was as if he had physically pushed Jeremy and he slumped backwards. He was indeed bare-chested. He had jeans on his lower half and no socks.