‘Thanks Mac, that’s exactly what I was thinking. So to answer your question Andy I’m going to leave Jo and Gerry looking for Jonny Aldis. I still think there’s a good chance that he might know something.’
‘Now that’s really going to cheer Jo up!’ Adil exclaimed.
‘She’s getting plenty of fresh air so I don’t know what she’s moaning about,’ Dan said with mock innocence. ‘As for the rest of us we need to find out as much as we can, as quickly as we can, about these disappearances. So what I’m thinking is this, Mac can you and Tommy spend tomorrow reviewing all the cases again? I know we’ve looked at them already but I want to make sure we spot all the patterns there are to spot, plus there’ll be the Rhiannon Rees murder file to look at.’
‘No problem,’ Mac replied.
It would certainly be easier on his back which Mac guessed was why Dan had suggested it.
‘Thanks,’ Dan said as he looked at the board. ‘So we’ve now got six members of the team left. I’d like to get them talking to the people who originally investigated the cases, if possible face to face. There’s always a lot found that never makes it into the file for one reason or another. I’d like to do Peterborough, Bristol, Birmingham and Barnet face to face, as we can get there and back in a day, but the rest are a bit further away and will have to be done over the phone. Does that make sense?’
They all nodded again.
‘Okay let’s all go home and get some sleep.’
Dan turned around.
‘That means you too Martin. Now.’
‘Okay closing down.’
‘See you all at six then,’ Dan said.
Tommy was waiting in the car for him when he got out.
‘You should have gone home. I could have caught a taxi back,’ Mac said.
‘That’s okay, I was just sitting here thinking about things. Meeting of the high council was it?’
Mac smiled.
‘Yes, something like that. By the way I nearly forgot, how did the flat viewing go?’
‘Really well actually. Bridget definitely liked it. The building’s a few years old but that’s good as you get more space than you do with a lot of the new builds. Some of the rooms in those are so small you hardly have the space to turn around in. There are a few other people viewing today so we should know in a couple of days if we can have it or not.’
‘I’d have thought you’d be on the inside track, a doctor and a policeman. Steady professions at least.’
‘We’ll see. How are you feeling? It’s been a long day hasn’t it?’ Tommy asked.
‘Yes, a long one but a good one. I’m not too bad right at this moment but I’ll find out tomorrow if I’ve done too much.’
Mac set his alarm for just before five and lay down in his bed. There was a spike of pain as he relaxed but thankfully it subsided quickly. He’d made sure he’d taken all the possible medication he could. He could only hope that it wouldn’t be too bad when he woke up.
Thankfully sleep soon overtook him.
Chapter Seventeen
Six days missing
He was aware of the beeping of the alarm but he still woke up in stages. He eventually turned it off and looked at the time. It was four fifty. Tommy said he’d be around at quarter to six so he had just under an hour.
He performed his morning ritual of sitting up as gently as he could and then, when he’d gathered his courage, standing up and steeling himself for the expected surge of pain.
It didn’t come. A lot of the time he could see a pattern, overdo it one day and then suffer for it the next three, but sometimes it didn’t work like that. He could have a severe pain episode after having hardly done anything the day before. Anyway he was really glad that it looked like today was going to be a moderate pain day.
After showering and shaving he threw some clothes and his shaving gear into a bag not forgetting to take enough patches and tablets to last him five days. He sipped at his coffee as he looked out of the window. Tommy turned up bang on time.
Mac looked at the rail works as they sped down the hill. He saw them in a totally different light now. Today a man might turn to work on that site as he had done every day for months. He would smile and say hello to his colleagues but this was no normal man, this was a man who, in all likelihood, delighted in the torture and killing of young girls. He’d look just the same as anyone else and would probably chat about football and the weather and moan about the job. Then he would go home and do whatever he was doing to Natasha.
He stopped himself thinking like this. They could only do what they could do to find her. He needed to concentrate on that.
Almost everyone else was there when they arrived. Mac helped himself to a coffee and a danish pastry. Dan waited for Martina to arrive before he started.
‘Listen up, here’s today’s plan of action,’ Dan said. ‘We’ve got ninety two suspects and we have to narrow them down before we can do anything else. I’ve asked Mac and Tommy to review all the case files we have plus the one on Rhiannon Rees which has just arrived. We need to see if there are any more patterns that might be spotted by having a single team look across all the cases. We also need to find out as much as we can about the circumstances at the time of the disappearances. Andy can you go to Peterborough and interview the coppers who did the original investigation? Dig around and find out as much as you can. Try and find if there were any suspects that didn’t make it into the files or anyone that they came across that they had second thoughts about. Chris I’d like you to go to Barnet, Martina to Birmingham and Adil to Bristol and do the same. Martin will give you all the contact numbers so get on the train now and arrange your interviews as you’re on the way there. The rest are probably a bit too far to get there and back in a day so Leigh, Amanda and myself will cover those by phone. I’ll need you all back here by eight o’clock latest to see what we’ve learnt.’
‘And what do I do?’ Jo asked.
‘I want you and Gerry to carry on looking for Jonny Aldis. I still think it’s possible that he might know something that could help us.’
Gerry seemed quite pleased with Dan’s decision but Jo could be heard muttering some choice words under her breath.
‘Then later you can help me with the reconstruction. I’ve arranged the press conference for just before nine thirty outside the pub.’ Dan continued as he glanced over at Amanda. ‘Have you got the dress and wig?’
‘Yes sir,’ she said pointing to some fashionable looking carrier bags. ‘Shoes and tights too if that’s alright.’
‘That’s fine. Okay let’s go,’ Dan said. He went over to Mac. ‘We touched on this yesterday but he‘s got to be keeping her somewhere. What’s your guess?’
Mac had indeed been giving this some thought.
‘I’d guess that it needs to be a space he totally controls the access to and close enough so he can go and do what he does when he wants to. What’s the point of keeping them otherwise?’
‘So perhaps he’s bought a house to fit the purpose, a house with an outhouse or a cellar perhaps?’ Dan asked.
‘I guess a cellar would be the ideal solution, sound proof it and no-one would ever know. I mean Fritzl kept his daughter prisoner for over twenty years that way, didn’t he?’
‘Okay it’s a bit of a long shot but I’ll get Martin to start checking with the local estate agents to see if they’ve sold a house to any of the ninety two, especially any with outhouses or cellars,’ Dan said.
Mac got the case file for Rhiannon Rees from Martin who also gave him the file for Stella Gordon which had eventually arrived. He was hoping that these might hold the key to finding their murderer.
Mac and Tommy started with Rhiannon. They read each page with Tommy taking notes as he’d done before.
Rhiannon had been found in a nature reserve some twenty five miles to the north of York. It was just pure luck that she’d been found at all. A couple of mycologists…
‘What’s a mycologist?’ Tommy asked.
&nb
sp; ‘Mushroom hunters but scientific ones,’ Mac replied.
He read on. These mycologists were researchers from the university looking at the distribution of a type of a white fungus called a Stump Puffball. They thought they saw one at the bottom of a small valley in a remote part of the reserve. When they clambered down they discovered that it wasn’t a Stump Puffball or any other type of fungus but a woman’s hand. The week before there had been heavy rain for days on end and it was thought that this had washed enough soil away to make the hand visible.
They were able to positively identify her as Rhiannon Rees from her dental records. Death was caused by an incision into the jugular artery and exsanguination. The incision was clean and precise and the forensic examiner stated that it had been done by a very sharp instrument, probably a scalpel. There was evidence of some violence before death in the form of subcutaneous bruising, caused by a blunt instrument, and many small cuts, especially around the breasts. Again the examiner thought that these were most likely done using the same sharp instrument that killed her.
She hadn’t lost too much weight so it looked like she’d been fed and given enough water during her presumed spell of captivity.
As for any forensic evidence that might identify her killer there was none. The body appeared to have been carefully washed and there was no evidence of any foreign DNA. This may have been because of the time that the body had been in the ground, or because the murderer had been very careful, or both.
Perhaps most chillingly abrasions were found around her neck, abrasions that were consistent with those of a metal collar having been worn for some time. The forensic investigator suggested that this might have been used to restrain her during a period of captivity.
Rhiannon seemed to be enjoying the social whirl of student life and had disappeared while on the way to a party being given by one of her fellow students. The party was at a student house right next to the hospital, a house that Rhiannon had only visited once or twice before. Mac looked it up on Street View and was surprised to find a street full of substantial Victorian villas in obvious good repair. Rhiannon lived in a row of terraced houses the other side of the railway lines from the hospital. The only route she could have taken would be by using a pedestrian bridge over the lines and then she would have most likely taken a short cut through the hospital grounds. The investigators noted that there were lots of places on that walk that were not well used at night.
Mac glanced at the following pages which were mostly technical and conveyed nothing new until a word leaped out at him from the screen. He leant forward and read that section very carefully.
‘What is it Mac?’ Tommy asked, noticing Mac’s heightened interest.
‘Look there, at the tox screen report,’ Mac said as he pointed at a particular paragraph.
‘It says that there were fairly high levels of Fentanyl in her system. Fentanyl? That’s in those patches you take, isn’t it?’ Tommy asked.
‘Yes, it’s the only thing that keeps me sane. I’d guess that it would be relatively hard to get illegally. I’ve heard of it being used for recreational purposes in the USA but it’s quite rare in this country. I think there’s a good chance that our man might be a pain sufferer himself.’
‘Why would he use Fentanyl on Rhiannon though?’
Mac paused for a moment.
‘After Nora, my wife died, I became…well I suppose depressed is the word. I used to forget things including changing my pain patches and sometimes I’d put on too many. A couple of patches on and everything is well, hazy and not quite real. I dropped everything I tried to hold in my hands, cups, saucers, remote controls, they all got broken during that period. I didn’t care though, in fact I didn’t care about anything much. It was as though I wasn’t really there but just looking on in some weird sort of way.’
‘So you think that he might have used Fentanyl to sedate and control Rhiannon?’ Tommy asked.
‘Yes I do and if he was using it on her I think that he might well be using it on Natasha right at this moment.’
‘If that’s the case all we need to do is go through the medical records of all the ninety two and if any are pain sufferers then we’ve got him!’ Tommy exclaimed.
‘Perhaps but I wouldn’t be so sure it’s going to be that simple. Martin!’ Mac called out.
‘What do you need?’ Martin asked without turning around.
‘Is there any way we can access the ninety two’s medical records without them knowing?’
Martin gave this some thought.
‘I dare say that we could get the official occupational health records from the rail company easily enough. Want me to ask?’
‘Please,’ Mac replied.
Tommy looked quite excited.
‘We could be on to something.’
Mac wasn’t so sure.
‘Our man is careful so he knows that there’s a finite chance that one of his victims might be discovered. I’d bet that if he is using Fentanyl you won’t find it on any of his work records at least.’ Mac turned towards Martin. ‘Am I right in thinking that there’s still no national medical record system yet?’
‘Yes you’re right. They tried a few years ago but after spending ten billion the whole thing collapsed,’ Martin replied.
‘Ten billion?’ Mac said in some surprise. ‘So how could we find out what medication the ninety two might have been prescribed by their GP?’
‘Well there’s something called a Summary Care Record which only details basic health information about a patient. I’m pretty sure that also includes medication.’
‘Any chance you could check the summary records for the ninety two?’ Mac asked.
Martin gave it some thought.
‘I think there’ll be some hurdles to jump over but I’ll give it a go.’
‘Thanks,’ Mac said.
‘But how would he get enough patches to sedate someone if he has to use them himself?’ Tommy asked.
‘That’s a very good question. Thinking about that I suppose we have to consider the fact that he might have access to Fentanyl through being a doctor or a carer. But if he is a pain sufferer I’d guess that it might not be that hard as he probably won’t be taking Fentanyl on its own. I also regularly take an anti-inflammatory drug but there’s a bit of a mismatch as the drug lasts me for twenty eight days but the patches thirty. I just re-order everything at the same time so I end up having a patch over each month. So, if he did this, then over two years he’d have twenty four patches which I’d guess would be enough for his purposes.’
Tommy nodded.
‘So I take it that you don’t re-order the patches every now and again?’
‘That’s right,’ Mac said.
He didn’t tell Tommy about the two full packs of patches that he kept at the back of his sock drawer. Just take the plastic wings off, put them in a cup of warm water and a few minutes later Mac knew he’d have the cure for all his ills. Knowing he had the solution at hand if things got too black had somehow helped him make it through his darkest hours.
They carried on reading through the file but found little more of interest so they started on Stella Gordon.
Stella was just seventeen when she disappeared. She lived in a place called Bishopbriggs to the north of the city of Glasgow. In 1998 work on a new station had started and the tracks were also being renovated. She lived no more than five minutes walk from where the works were going on. They had a look at the house that she’d lived in using Street View. It was a typical two storeyed council house, grey pebble dashed with a little garden out front. It was the end of a small terrace of four houses.
Stella had started work at the local library as an assistant when she’d left school the year before. She was described as a bright girl who was hoping to make it her long term career. She’d already become a member of a librarians’ institute and had mapped out her career path towards becoming a professional librarian.
Mac located the library on the map.
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��Look,’ he said pointing to map. ‘She only lived a couple of hundred yards away from the station and she would have had to walk past the works twice a day to get to and from work.’
‘Do you think that’s how our man spotted her?’ Tommy asked.
‘Almost definitely, I also wonder if that was the reason why she was the first?’
Tommy looked puzzled.
‘Murder’s a very big step to take. I reckon that a lot of people might think about it, some even quite seriously, but few ever actually cross that line. I’m wondering if seeing her day in, day out, was more than he could bear and whether it eventually wore his resistance down. Once the line is crossed the next murder isn’t quite so hard.’
They read on.
Stella was described as a quiet girl who only went out once or twice a week with a group of friends she’d known since primary school. There were no known romantic attachments. There was also no indication that she might be unhappy at home or have any wish to leave, indeed it was exactly the opposite. She would have been eighteen ten days after she went missing and she’d been planning a big party. Her family had booked a restaurant in central Glasgow and she seemed to be really looking forward to the celebrations.
The night she disappeared she’d been on her way back home from a friend’s house. She visited this friend’s house regularly at least once a week, sometimes more. The house was just on the other side of the station. She left her friend at nine fifty and only faced a five or six minute walk home. The investigators thought that the tunnel under the railway bridge was the most likely place that any abduction would have taken place.
‘Let’s have a look,’ Mac said, looking at Street View on the computer.
He could see why they might have thought that. Under the bridge, obviously dating from Victorian times, was a long, narrow tunnel that had a pavement on the one side only. At the end of the tunnel that Stella would have walked towards there was a hedge behind which was a fair bit of space. Mac checked the report and it said that there was a hedge there at the time Stella disappeared. Someone could have waited there without being seen by people passing by. Just beyond the hedge to the right there was a service area at the back of the shops on the main road.
The Blackness (The Mac Maguire detective mysteries Book 4) Page 16