Dying to Meet You

by Patricia Scott

  ‘Would you would need a key to get in?’

  ‘A password. And Jude didn’t answer my call.’

  ‘You think she could have let the killer in?’

  ‘Yes I do.’ He shook his head, wiped his eyes quickly with the back of his hand. ‘Possibly it was someone she knew.’

  ‘It is estimated that she was killed about one a.m. So the casino was still open when she went upstairs to the apartment. It could be someone in your employ whom she let in.’

  He nodded. ‘Possible. You will need to question everyone. The knife could have been taken from the kitchens downstairs in the club or from the flat kitchen. I suppose you have checked on that already.’

  ‘Yes, sir, we have. There are no knives missing from either. The killer it seems came well prepared.’

  Kaufman’s face distorted in an ugly grimace. ‘Don’t you think I bloody know that? I should have been there. I shall never forget that I let Jude down just like I did Geraldine. And she died like her... bleeding to death in the water.’

  Peterson frowned. ‘And who was Geraldine, sir?

  ‘She was an ex girlfriend. She lives - lived near here. She was unstable. Committed suicide; cut her wrists in her bath water three months ago.’

  ‘You know about this, Farmer?’

  Farmer nodded. ‘Yes, ma-am.’

  Peterson thought perhaps someone should have filled her in about this before now.

  Twenty-Two

  Ellie Cooper was wearing her brand new blue dress especially for her date; she had spent a week’s wages on it from the new fashion boutique in the town centre. She twirled around in it looking at herself in the long wardrobe mirror in her mother’s bedroom.

  She was glowing inside and out and it showed on her bright smiling face. Will he think I’m too young for him? I wish I could ask Mum but she might try to stop me.

  She’d used some of her mother’s special bath oils and her rose pink nail. Her mum Stella was away looking after her sick grandmother in Kent so Ellie felt she could get away with it. Besides this was a very special date. And she must look her best or she might not see him again.

  He had sounded so nice on the phone; it had given her quite a thrill speaking to him and made her feel so excited all day. She had felt like she was dancing and walking on clouds while at work and everyone seemed especially nice to her too.

  That funny old woman, Miss Goring, who was staying at the hotel while her apartment was renovated, had been kind enough to do a Tarot reading for her in the hotel lounge. It had been fun hearing about her future. Miss Goring had told her about the man she was going to meet but advised her to get to know him well before she was sure of him. Well she was quite old, wasn’t she, and like her Mum only wanted her to be careful. Those other old ladies, the Webster sisters who had insisted on being there too, had been funny about reading the Tarot cards at first. Said it was like using witchcraft and so on but even they didn’t spoil it for her. Nothing could. Today was going to be special for her.

  Her blind date wanted to meet a girl born under the Cancer sun sign. That’s why she answered the advert for a date in the local paper.

  ‘VIRGO MAN LOOKING FOR A DATE WITH A YOUNG CANCER WOMAN’

  Ellie never missed reading the daily Astrology forecast in the Observer. Ellie had read her horoscope that morning and it foretold that her fate was in her own hands, and not to take people at face value. Just like Miss Goring told her the Tarot cards had said. That was right she thought. Her Mum was always warning her not to be so trusting.

  She sighed, studying her face intently in the mirror. She hoped that the pimple on her chin would fade by that evening and her freckles wouldn’t look so bad with a touch of powder. She couldn’t help her fair skin catching the sun so easily.

  He could have had ever so many girls writing in to him but he’d chosen her. She smiled. It made her feel really special. He didn’t know yet what she looked like although she’d told him she was fair-haired and had blue eyes when they spoke on the phone. He seemed pleased, she thought, he must like blondes.

  She’d braided her hair with the pretty azure blue ribbon she’d bought specially, to match her new dress. And she planned to pin a blue silk flower in it too. Ellie hoped he would like it. She felt quite grown up and ever so much older than her seventeen years and two months. She’d told him that she was eighteen. He might want to buy her a glass of wine when they ate their meal like some of the guests did in the hotel.

  Her employer, Mrs Wyatt, advised her that she should meet him in a public place first of all. She was very kind, and gave Ellie some of her woodland flower perfume to wear. It smelt lovely. The youngest Webster sister, Miss Lily, bought her a pretty pink rose especially from the florist when Ellie said she had to wear a pink rose on her dress for her date to recognize her. That was especially nice of the old girl, funny how people can be a lot kinder than you think, she thought as she took it from her, blushing like crazy.

  She wished she could have confided in her Mum too but she knew that she would have been pretty strict about it. Her cheeks felt on fire, she was so excited she could hardly breathe.

  Before she left the hotel at midday, Miss Goring told her again to be extra careful when meeting this stranger, repeating what she had said to her when reading the Tarot. But that was only natural, all old people were cautious about making friends and new acquaintances. And she promised she would be very careful.

  Ellie remembered what Miss Goring had said about the man who was there in her cards; a tall dark stranger, and giggled. Didn’t all fortune tellers say the same things to impress their clients? Ellie promised Mrs Wyatt that she would tell her brother where she was going. But she told him she was going on the pier with the girls. If she told him she was meeting someone, a young man, he might try to follow her. Naturally everyone else thought she’d told her mother, and she let them think that. Ellie knew she should have taken more notice of their advice but she was bubbling over inside too much. Would he think she was too young and naive?

  She hadn’t been out with anyone on a date like this before. Would he expect to kiss her when they first met? Would he expect more than that? She wasn’t sure how she would handle it if he tried to kiss her.

  They had arranged to meet up in the fun fair on the end of the pier at seven o’clock and have a meal afterwards. She walked nervously up the long length of the pier, past people sunning themselves in the deck chairs; it was a warm and sunny July evening.

  Ellie felt like she was on a catwalk in a Paris fashion show and all eyes were on her in the new dress. She felt like giving them a twirl but that would be showing off wouldn’t it, and she didn’t want to attract too much attention.

  Her legs felt wobbly and her mouth was dry. She was really quite nervous now. She passed the bingo stalls and the shooting range and entered the large amusement hall. Catching sight of herself in one of the long mirrors she was pleased with what she saw. Her cheeks were as pink as the rose she was wearing pinned on her dress and she hadn’t chewed away the new glossy fuchsia pink lipstick she was wearing despite her jiggling nerves.

  Her finger nails were chewed away more than usual though. She hoped he wouldn’t notice that at the restaurant table. Her Mum was always on at her about her bad nails. If she’d really thought about it and could have afforded them she could have had extensions. She would definitely think about trying it next time.

  She jumped nervously. Someone touched her bare arm and pinched her hard. Ellie squealed out in alarm; it was Janice arm in arm with another girl. Tracy Cole. They were standing by a booth, watching someone having their portrait drawn by a computerized pen inside.

  Janice’s grin was wide and her voice malicious. ‘What are you doing here, Ellie? Is that a new dress? They do them in your size now, do they?’

  The skinny pimpled girl with her sniggered, ‘I thought you weren’t going out anywhere till your Mum comes back, Ellie Cooper.’

  ‘Oh - er - I’m meeting someone, Tracy. One of th
e boys staying at the hotel, he asked me out. He’s very nice…’

  She could tell them that much. It wasn’t such a big fib after all, was it? But she felt her tummy reacting uneasily to this. She saw them, exchanging knowing looks. Janice would be taunting her for weeks afterwards. And Ellie knew that she would drop her in it with her Mum at the first possible opportunity. But that would be later. It was too late to spoil things for her now.

  She pulled back her shoulders lifted up her chin and smiled bravely back at her tormenters. ‘And I’m going to have such a nice time,’ she said as she walked away.

  ‘Really! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Remember if you can’t be good, be careful - I’ll be watching out for him!’ Janice giggled. ‘Did you tell your Mum about it?’ She shouted out after Ellie.

  Blushing Ellie hurried away quickly, feeling foolish, she didn’t like telling lies. Especially to Janice. She’d never change, always a bully when she was at school. Ellie wasn’t going to tell her that she was out on a blind date. She would never hear the end of it and if it went wrong she would be teased mercilessly. And Janice would be sure to tell Gordon, and Gordon would tell Mum. And then there would be big trouble.

  She had an awful feeling now that they might try to follow her around. Especially when she was with her date. He wouldn’t like that and now she was really feeling nervous. Even guilty about it.

  What if he was much older than he made out to be? What if an old man turned up? Someone forty or fifty? She clenched her hands and shivered. Maybe even older than that. She’d heard stories about girls who’d dated boys from the internet and they had turned out to be nasty old men. Real pervs. She’d run a mile if he was one of them.

  She started to panic. Should she go back home and pretend it had never happened? He’d think she was scared and had stood him up. She didn’t like doing that to anyone. She looked around amongst the assorted clumps of chattering teenagers and holidaymakers spread out in noisy groups around the machines.

  Thank goodness he didn’t know where she lived. She’d used the phone at the hotel to speak to him. She didn’t want him phoning her at home. But he sounded really nice; his voice warm and friendly on the phone had reassured her. But what could she do if he wasn’t so nice after all? What if he was really ugly? What if he were ever so old? Bald and had bad teeth? Pretend not to see him?

  He might be feeling the same about her too.

  She wanted to see him first. She felt her heart sinking there were so many people around. How could she make out who he really was? Except he would be wearing a rose too.

  ‘Hello - it is Ellie, isn’t it? My Cancer date with the lovely blue eyes?’

  And then she wasn’t worried anymore. She smiled. ‘Hello.’

  ‘I thought we’d have a meal here on the pier. The restaurant is good I’ve heard. Is that all right with you, Ellie?’

  She nodded as he took her arm. ‘Yes - please. I’d like that.’

  She’d got that glowing feeling inside all over again. He was so attentive. Nicer than she thought he would be. He was lovely. True, she hadn’t gone out with anyone as old as him before, she hadn’t gone out with anyone before. He might guess that this was her first date but then it was much better to have a more mature man to care for her she thought happily. Boys were sometimes so silly and immature.

  Twenty-Three

  Monday morning dawned bright and sunny, and as the start of the all-important Carnival week it promised much to ease the fears of all those working hard on the entertainments to make it a great success. The entertainment committee were feeling reasonably confident until the phone call warned them that a girl had been found naked and dead in the Alexandra Park boating lake.

  The Park keeper’s young spaniel, Trixy, had discovered her while they were doing their early morning rounds at eight a.m. before the park gates were opened to the public at nine.

  At first the Park keeper, Bob Wherrett, a young man who took his job very seriously, thought that his terrier dog was attracted to the water by an injured bird, a swan perhaps. It was barking frantically. But when he came closer on the grassy bank and looked down into the sunlit green water, he saw the girl’s distorted puffy face looking up at him and he nearly keeled over to join her. Still shaking, coming in closer, to look down again into the water, he could see her large bloodshot blue eyes, and gaping mouth, the bedraggled blue silk flower like an anemone pinned in her blonde hair. There was a pendent necklace glinting silver on her swollen neck under the water, her hands tied together behind her back by a heavy rope which was attached to a paddle boat tethered to the grassy bank.

  He had fumbled clumsily with the mobile in his uniform jacket pocket and dialled the local police station.

  When they arrived he had straightened himself up to meet them.

  ‘Take your dog away, now, please, Mr Wherrett. You live in the cottage by the park gates? Right. Go back home now. Have a cup of tea and someone will come and question you presently.’ Peterson said to the pale and still visibly agitated Park Keeper.

  ‘Thank you, Superintendent. I’ll be there when you need me.’

  Peterson stared down into the water. The girl looked as if she had been strangled. Was she a local girl or a holidaymaker? It was going to be difficult to identify her without a stitch of clothing. They had to hope that her family came forward soon to report her missing.

  The Scene of Crime officers started covering the grass banks and gravel paths inch by inch looking for clues and taking essential pictures. Granger arrived soon afterwards to swell their numbers. ‘Good morning, Superintendent. You nearly didn’t get me,’ he announced cheerfully. ‘I was called out for an emergency; a home birth early this morning. Baby was a whopper nearly ten and half pounds. Hello, what have we got here then? God! No - don’t tell me, is this another one?’

  ‘It seems like it.’

  ‘Another young woman submerged in water.’ He shook his head and groaned. ‘Can’t you find any attached to the land for me?’ he said waiting for them to carefully untie and detach the body from the paddle boat and bring it up out of the water.

  ‘She’s young - hardly more than a school kid,’ he commented as the body was brought out and put down carefully on the grassy bank. ‘She’s taken a battering about the head like the first victim but not gutted like the last one,’ he said looking down at the sad battered face of the young victim.

  ‘Death by strangulation, the throat bruised like before - there’s something twisted around a silver chain with a pendant attached.’ He queried this with his eyes on Peterson and Farmer. ‘Possibly been sexually assaulted.’

  ‘Thanks, Granger.’

  ‘Same as before then, practically,’ Farmer said grimly with a frown.

  Peterson shook her head and sighed. ‘When is it going to stop? How’s he picking them? Just look at her. This youngster... she’s barely out of the cradle. It’s going to worry all the local parents sick.’

  ‘I think this is the connection,’ the police surgeon said as he indicated again the silver chain that was wound tightly into the raw, bruised neck. ‘If I’m not mistaken this girl is wearing a pendant which is very similar to those belonging to the other two victims.’

  ‘Well so she is,’ said Trask taking a closer look and chewing briskly on his gum. ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘That’s what you’ll have to find out,’ said Peterson. ‘Jude Van Hoet wore one and Linda. Jude Van Hoet’s was an expensive gold number decorated with small diamonds and this one is set in silver. But it’s the same astrological sign of Cancer the crab,’ she said taking a closer look examining the tiny silver pendant with her gloved hand. ‘Well at least it’s a start. Something to work on. Tell the Park keeper to keep the gates closed till the forensics are done here. We don’t want crowds getting in the way.’

  ‘Let’s hope that somebody comes forward quick to identify the girl.’

  ‘There must be somebody who had reported that she’s gone missing,’ Trask said thinking
of his own young daughters back at home. He wondered how he could possibly face up to losing either of them in this way.

  Twenty-Four

  There was something important niggling in Farmer’s head. And Mel Goring had something to do with it. He knew she wrote a daily Astrology column for her newspaper. He needed somebody more clued up on Astrology than he was with all three victims born under the same star sign. It could mean that other women sharing the sign of Cancer could also be in danger.

  He called Mel Goring at the Observer office and got her answer phone. He left a message. ‘Can we meet? It’s important. DI Nick Farmer.’

  He gave her his private mobile number. She replied by text message:

  ‘MEET YOU ON PIER BY TICKET OFFICE AT SIX. MEL.’

  *

  When Farmer arrived he saw Mel leaning back against the pier rails wearing a pretty green print dress, reminding him of a girl on one of those old railway posters advertising seaside holidays. She grinned and waved when she saw him walking towards her.

  ‘Hi, Farmer. This is a surprise. What can you possibly want with me?’

  He grinned. ‘Have you eaten? I’m starving. Can I treat you to a meal? Then we’ll talk.’

  ‘Talk? Are you serious?’ She laughed running her hand through her hair out of eyes. ‘Okay, I’m all yours. I warn you though in advance, I’m hungry.’

  They visited one of the good Italian restaurants on the high street in the old town. Nick found that he was getting quite a buzz from her company. Over a glass of wine they studied one another cautiously across the table, like a pair of gunfighters preparing for high noon, although there was amusement brimming in those challenging brown eyes. She was attracting plenty of interested eyes from other male diners seated around them he noted.

  ‘Pax,’ she announced suddenly. ‘Come on, no messing. Just get on with it. What do you really want from me, Farmer?’