He is Watching You

by Charlie Gallagher

  ‘This isn’t a fox this time, is it, Harry?’

  He didn’t answer. She hadn’t expected him to.

  ‘You must be Maddie?’ The white suit she had seen kneeling from a distance stood up to meet her. Her voice was muffled through the mask.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I’m CSI Mace. Charley. Harry tells me you’re investigating a missing person. Do you have a picture of her?’

  ‘Not on me. I got a call to come here. I wasn’t at work.’

  As Charley turned away, Maddie caught a glimpse over her shoulder of a blue sheet weighted down at two of the corners. The end nearest to her flapped open a little in the breeze.

  ‘Is that her?’ Maddie said. ‘Is that Lorraine?’

  ‘Harry can’t be sure. How long has Lorraine been missing?’

  ‘Around a week all in.’

  Charley shook her head at Harry. ‘The weather’s been hot. That would speed up some of the processes but our girl’s been dead longer than a week.’ She moved to the sheet and rolled back the blue plastic. Maddie could see an arm. It was a washed-out shade of white and it lay with the elbow joint facing up. It looked like it had a few nasty sores on it and the outer layer of skin was starting to slip away. She could see dark hair, too, spread out along the corpse’s back. It fell either side of an ear that protruded out; its edges were black and depleted. Whoever she was, she was face down and Maddie wasn’t going to be able to get confirmation from where she stood.

  The CSI must have been thinking the same. ‘You can get a little closer over there.’ She pointed at a patch of grass a few metres away. Maddie moved to it. She was now at the head end and far closer. The hair was long, dark and matted beneath a layer of dried mud and dust. Maddie could see a little more of the face now; the head was up enough to be facing almost towards her. She could make out high cheekbones and shaped eyebrows. It wasn’t a good angle. She couldn’t see the face that well and it wasn’t a natural expression. This woman had a lot of the same traits as Lorraine Humphries. The hair was right, the build too from what she could see and she was white.

  ‘I don’t think it’s her but I still can’t be sure.’

  Charley tutted. ‘No, I’m sorry, it’s not great. Hang on.’ She stood up and moved to a black bag. She lifted up a camera with a large lens and fiddled with it. She walked the camera over to Maddie. The screen on the back was on. It showed an image of the girl rolled onto her side. They must have taken it as part of the initial checks. It was a much better shot of the face. The woman’s eyes were missing from their sockets. Her lips were gone, too, revealing the teeth behind and making her mouth look like it was twisted into a permanent grimace. She could see more sores on both cheeks.

  ‘I don’t think it looks like her.’

  Charley left the screen in front of her for another couple of seconds. ‘Okay. Can you be sure?’ Charley said.

  ‘Pretty sure, yeah. It’s not easy to tell, there’s bits of her missing . . . you know . . . bits that would really help.’

  ‘The eyes are always the first to go. The bugs go for the soft bits.’ Charley seemed so matter-of-fact.

  ‘Jesus.’ Maddie looked back down at the clump of hair in front of her. ‘She’s not been buried.’ Maddie was talking more out loud than asking a question but Charley answered her anyway.

  ‘No. Just dumped on the ground with a light covering of tree branches and leaves over her.’

  ‘There are marks in the ground, though,’ Harry said. ‘Someone tried to start digging and probably realised that the soil has been baked solid. You’d need some heavy digging equipment to even stand a chance on this ground.’

  ‘So they just dumped a load of branches over her?’

  ‘Yeah, probably hoping it would go away,’ Charley said. ‘She hasn’t been here long either. She’s been put here recently. Those red marks on her are where the wildlife has made a start. I’d say twenty-four hours tops.’

  ‘So she wasn’t killed here?’

  ‘Not in this spot, no. She wouldn’t have lasted this long out in the open.’

  ‘How was she found?’

  ‘Like she is, pretty much,’ Charley answered.

  ‘I mean, how was she found to be here?’ Maddie managed to lift her eyes. She took in the derelict building. She had almost forgotten it was there but now it seemed to loom over them. The breeze was intermittent but it came in now, rattling a sheet of corrugated plastic that was fastened crudely over a window. The building and its surroundings had the look of somewhere that had long since been abandoned. Certainly there wouldn’t be any reason for anyone to be coming out here. ‘This is a McCall’s site, isn’t it?’

  Harry puckered his lips. ‘I’m waiting for confirmation on that, but I’d stake my mortgage on it.’

  ‘So how was she found?’

  ‘The classic dog walker,’ Harry said. ‘At least that’s the story we got first off. There’s a bit more to it, but nothing sinister I don’t think.’

  ‘Nothing sinister about finding a dead body? What about in there?’ Maddie gestured towards the building. ‘We don’t think there’s anything of interest in there, do we?’ Maddie shuddered involuntarily.

  ‘No. Our friend over there is a cadaver dog.’ Maddie turned to the spaniel. His tongue lolled out and his nose twitched with enthusiasm. ‘He’s done a sweep and found nothing. Dogs like Vamp don’t miss bodies.’

  ‘Vamp?’ Maddie raised her voice a little for the benefit of the handler.

  ‘Not his official title, ma’am,’ the officer replied, instantly cheerful. ‘Just that he has a talent for blood, see?’

  ‘I think I do,’ Maddie said. ‘Great name.’

  ‘I’ll still have a search team go through the building,’ Harry said. ‘Vamp here’s got the grounds to do, too, before his shift is done. We’re just giving him a rest.’

  ‘That’s a good point actually, boss,’ the dog handler said. ‘I should move him away. You know . . . he’ll get saturated here.’

  ‘Understood. No rush. Go get him freshened up and let me know how you get on. I’ve got a POLSA on the way. If they ask why you left early you send them to me.’

  ‘Will do. You know it will happen!’

  Maddie had never worked with a POLSA before, her previous role had kept her away from most uniform procedures, but she knew a bit about what they did, that they basically ran searches, made sure no areas were missed and that everything was done in the right order by the right person. They were always police sergeants and usually from the tactical side of the business.

  Maddie took in the area that would need to be searched. It was vast, including woodland, tracks, the abandoned factory — it was going to be quite a job. She lifted her eyes, suddenly aware of the previous MO around cameras. Harry must have picked up on that.

  ‘I couldn’t see anything obvious. Cameras, right? I’ll brief the search team. They have kit that can search for electrical pulses. If there is one they’ll find it.’

  ‘This was done in a hurry. I don’t think they’ll find one. I know the other girl was dumped outside but he didn’t try to hide her. This is different enough to be the handiwork of someone who was panicked, or in a rush at least.’

  ‘I agree completely,’ Harry said.

  ‘Something’s prompted it. Something we’ve done. Someone we’ve spoken to.’

  Harry didn’t reply.

  Maddie was still looking around and was struck by the thought that this wasn’t the most picturesque place for a dog walk either. ‘So tell me about our man who pitched up here for a dog walk? You said there was more to it.’ Harry must have seen Maddie’s scowl.

  ‘I know. All the beautiful woods and trails in the area and he comes here for a stroll. I think we’ve got to the bottom of it. He’s a young lad from Thanet — not exactly local. I didn’t buy his dog walking story so I told him he needed to do better. I was on the verge of having him in for murder and he suddenly tells me the truth.’

  ‘The truth?’
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br />   ‘He was out scoping the place out as a venue.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘He arranges illegal raves. Of course, when he explained it, he just said raves ­— I had to remind him of the illegal bit. We get a few of them out in the sticks. They put something out on their Snapchat, or whatever it is, and before you know it you’ve got a derelict chicken factory full of ravers. He obviously got wind of the site and he was using his dog as a cover story. He said he’d decided not to use it anyway — too dangerous in there, he reckons. He was leaving and his dog suddenly ran off. Must have caught the scent. When he found the dog he was tugging at something on the ground. That turned out to be the girl’s left arm. The dog must have pulled her torso out with it.’

  ‘And that’s the truth? You believe him?’ Maddie said.

  ‘I never said that. His car was parked around the corner. He’s got flyers in there for a recent event — that one looked legal at least. He had some sort of music equipment in the boot and when I ran the car through it came up with an intel report linking it to illegal raves. He’s guilty of something, I’m sure, but nothing we’d be bothered about. I got two DCs to drive him home — a CSI is heading out there to take all his samples and swabs. We’ve seized his car too. They’ll get his statement in full at his home address so we know for sure where he lives. They also have instructions to seize all the shoes they can find — belt and braces — and to teach him a lesson.’

  ‘So what now?’ Maddie said.

  Charley answered. ‘Well, I for one have a lot of work to do. The trees over our victim were cut down from the row over there. They were cut cleanly. I need to take photos in situ then I’ll seize the trunks. I’ll be able to show a mechanical fit if we can get hold of the tool.’

  ‘I assume there were no cutting tools in our dog walker’s car?’ Maddie said.

  ‘Not that I could see in plain sight. CSI will swab it and I’ll have a team pull it apart to make sure we haven’t missed anything stuffed in a void.’ Charley was suddenly animated. ‘We’ll be able to rule the car out easy enough. If she was in there she’ll have left a part of her behind. She’d be leaking fluids and DNA onto whatever she touched. She’s got open wounds and bugs everywhere. I can’t even go near the car though — any defence would cry cross-contamination if I so much as look through a window. I’ve put a call out for as many CSIs as we can get.’

  ‘The scene will probably take a few days anyway, won’t it?’ Harry said.

  ‘Easily. These are the worst sort. I’ll be able to get DNA so we can identify her. But there will be a lot of waiting around. I can’t do much until the entomologist has been out to collect up some of the bugs.’

  ‘Collecting up bugs?’ Maddie couldn’t hide her disgust.

  ‘Oh yes. With something like this they could tell us a lot. We’ll take a good sample of the maggots and flies, some get boiled so they don’t develop any further, some are left to continue their life cycle. If they’ve been feeding on her from the start, we can start tying up times. The soil samples will give us how long she’s been here too, depending on how far the bodily fluids have spread. It’s a fascinating science.’

  ‘It’s something alright.’ Maddie could see that Charley was a lot more passionate about bodily fluids and bugs with their bellies full of dead flesh than she could ever be. ‘Suddenly I can see why this all takes a while.’

  ‘We’ll get Vamp going soon,’ Harry said. ‘I want to be sure we don’t have any more bodies hidden under conifer branches. This is a big site. This might have been the one we were supposed to find.’

  ‘You think Lorraine might still be here somewhere?’

  ‘I don’t know. Depends who we’re dealing with.’

  Charley took back over. ‘You’re not dealing with someone nice, that’s for sure. We rolled her very briefly, I can tell she’s got a nasty stab wound in the stomach and her throat’s been cut. Take your pick as to which one of those killed her. The throat is usually much quicker. We’ll know more when I can start getting hands on.’

  ‘Sounds familiar!’ Maddie said.

  ‘The DIs mentioned a similar case over in Sussex. I’m waiting for a phone call from the senior CSI on that case. I want to make sure we’re consistent and doing all we can to prove any links. I’ll get back to it.’

  Maddie watched as Charley knelt next to the blue tarp that was still peeled back halfway. The woman’s torso was exposed. Her hair moved in a breeze tainted by the stench of death. Maddie took the opportunity to move away and walked back across the front of the building. She kept going until the air was fresh, until that smell was gone. From here she could just see paths cracking with flowering weeds, swaying trees that lined the track down which she had driven and bluebells carpeting the forest floor either side of it.

  ‘You okay, kid?’ Harry’s voice came from close behind.

  ‘You forget already?’ she said.

  Harry looked a little blank. ‘Oh, the kid thing. Yeah, I forgot.’

  ‘Try not to!’ She snapped.

  ‘Noted.’

  She took a breath. ‘And, yeah. I’m fine. She’s not my first dead body. I saw a lot when I was in uniform. A lot worse than this, too.’

  ‘I’m sure you did. But we thought it was someone we were looking for.’

  ‘It’s not her.’

  Harry held up his hands. ‘I didn’t think so either.’

  ‘I thought it was, though. When I pulled up here. When I put the mask on and walked towards that blue mound. You didn’t think to share your doubts over the phone? Or maybe even a little warning of what I was walking into?’

  ‘No. I was going to, but there was something in your voice. I knew you were serious about leaving. I knew you didn’t mean to come back.’

  ‘So you had nothing to lose then, did you?’

  ‘I did. If I had told you it was a body and not Lorraine, you might have kept on driving. And we would have lost you.’

  ‘And that matters, does it?’

  Harry smiled. ‘Don’t know yet.’ He walked away to where the dog had reappeared with his handler. Maddie shook her head. This job seemed to attract people that were difficult to fathom. But Harry Blaker was on a whole new level.

  Chapter 37

  Lisa Simpkiss waved to her stepfather. She could still hear the car ticking over when she walked through the door of the some time Scout hut. As usual, she gave her name to the woman with the patronising smile and walked up the ramp into the stuffy room that smelt of dust and polish. She made for the coffee. Another week clean. Another week of fighting for structure, to make her plans and stick to them. It was getting harder, almost as hard as she could remember, and she knew what that could mean. She was yearning for a drink more and more. The pressure of caring for her mother was getting unbearable. She was desperate to forget, to not be worrying about her constantly, for just a few hours away from it all. Alcohol had been her escape once. It had taken her a long time to realise it was nothing of the sort.

  That morning had been the worst possible start to her day. She’d considered not coming to the meeting but to have missed it would have been a break in her structure. She couldn’t afford that. Maybe not ever again. Saturdays were the days where she showed herself that she was winning. She couldn’t leave her mother alone, though. She had begged her best friend Naomi to come down and sit with her. She could trust Naomi.

  She sat down on a plastic chair, wriggling to try and get comfortable. Her coffee was hot as hell and she put it down on the floor and rubbed at her face. More people were coming in. She didn’t look up. The chair scraped next to her. She was still looking down at the floor but she recognised the Converse trainers of the man with the nice eyes who had shared her park bench the previous week. He was half-turned away with his arms crossed and biting down on his bottom lip. He wore an open shirt over a white vest. The shirt looked to be sticking to a moist patch on his back. He checked his phone with a jerk of his wrist before stuffing it into his shirt pocket.
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  ‘Watch my coffee this time, yeah?’ she said. He turned to her. It seemed for a second like he hadn’t heard her.

  ‘Your coffee . . . yeah. No problem.’ He smiled but it was hurried. He looked stressed. She looked away. She recognised someone who didn’t want to talk. Normally that was her. She immediately regretted talking to him in the first place. She didn’t know why she had done if she was honest. She wasn’t there to make friends.

  Ian, the man who led the sessions, appeared. He made his entrance as usual, dragging his chair from left to right in front of the loose circle until he was positioned directly opposite Lisa. He sat on the chair backwards, his arms resting on the back, like a teacher trying too hard. He gave the same story he did every week. Lisa looked round the room while he was doing it. There were a couple of new faces and at least one she hadn’t seen for a while. There was an older man with long, greasy hair that he kept sweeping back out from his face. He wore cowboy boots and a short-sleeved shirt with popper buttons. He looked a lot worse than she remembered. She guessed that his latest fall off the wagon had been a hard one.

  Ian finished his spiel and paused to look around the room. There were seven addicts in his audience, eight if you included him. He asked if anyone wanted to speak, to kick them off.

  ‘I can’t stop it.’ The man with the Converse trainers was quick to speak first. She turned to him. He still hung his head and it was shaking from side to side. The desperation in his voice was thicker now; it coated his words, hung heavy on his broad shoulders. He didn’t say any more. The room’s attention was fixed on him. Ian took his opportunity.

  ‘Bad week?’ he remarked and fell back silent. It was just a prompt. The man looked like he was studying every detail on his pumps, but he suddenly raised his head.

  ‘What if it was my best week ever?’ he said. Lisa sensed genuine fear in his eyes. ‘What if the only way I can be happy is . . .’ he faded out. His head slumped forwards again. He was rubbing his hands together. The fidgeting that had been in his legs was now in his hips. He rocked from side to side.