‘Still here?’ she said.
‘Hmmm,’ he said by way of reply. ‘Thought I’d better stay on. This one is almost as bad as the chap in the field the other week.’
‘Why?’
Both detectives hurried forward, Carys’s interest piqued.
‘Hang on, I’ll get a second stepladder,’ said Charlie, another of Harriet’s team.
She waited while he unfolded a spare ladder that had been propped up against the dark-coloured brick wall of one of the shops to the right of the alleyway and placed it against the skip for her, holding out his hand and steadying her arm as she climbed up to the platform.
‘Thanks,’ she said, then turned her attention back to the pathologist.
Beside her, Kay climbed the other ladder, placed her gloved hands on the side of the skip and let out a groan.
‘Is it her?’
The DI nodded, sadness crossing her features before her jaw clenched. ‘It’s Shelley. We were too late.’
Lucas gave them a few seconds to absorb the revelation, and then cleared his throat. ‘Whoever did this to her likely strangled her first. I’ll be better able to provide an opinion about that after the post mortem, obviously.’
‘Dammit.’
Carys heard Kay swear under her breath, and knew she would be vowing justice for the dead woman and would find her killer, no matter what it took.
‘There is one more thing,’ said Lucas. He pointed to the woman’s legs. ‘Her feet have been hacked off.’
‘What?’ Kay failed to keep the horror from her voice.
‘Probably post mortem, given the lack of blood in here.’
‘Why would someone do that? Cut off her feet?’ said Carys.
Kay narrowed her eyes against the dirt scuffed up in the wind that howled across the yard.
‘It’s like with Ethan, isn’t it? They’re sending a message to the others to show them what will happen if they try to run away.’
Chapter Thirty-Nine
‘Kay? Kay. A moment, please.’
Sharp’s voice carried across the incident room as she and Carys entered, and she looked across to the DCI’s office to see him peering out of the door, beckoning to her.
He waited until she was closer, and then turned and led the way inside. ‘Shut the door.’
She did as she was told, moving towards his desk as he adjusted the back of his suit jacket and sat, gesturing to her to take one of the visitor chairs.
Kay ignored him, and stood before the desk, clenching her teeth.
‘Are you all right? I heard the news.’
‘We were too late to save her, guv. He mutilated her. Cut off her feet at the ankles.’
‘We’ll find him.’
‘Bloody right I will, guv. I’ll make sure he goes away for a long time for this. I’ll––’
‘Kay? Breathe. Take a minute. I know you’re angry and upset. I would be too, but you did everything you could to try to find her.’
She flung her bag onto one of the visitor chairs, then moved across to the window and wrapped her arms around her waist as she watched the movement of other officers in and out of the building. ‘I let her down.’
‘The only person to blame for all this is the person who killed her.’ Sharp pushed back his chair and joined her. ‘Is Carys all right?’
‘Yes, I think so. I should get out there and do the briefing, otherwise we’re losing ground standing here chatting.’ She forced a smile as she turned to face him. ‘Thanks, guv.’
‘It gets to me, too,’ he said. ‘It’s because we’re human.’
‘Tell that to some of the reporters we have to deal with,’ she said, swinging her bag over her arm and heading for the door.
Carys was cradling her phone between her ear and shoulder as she approached the group of detectives’ desks, her voice a low murmur as she read her notes from the crime scene.
Barnes handed Kay a mug of tea as she sat. ‘There’s extra sugar in that. Carys looked like she could do with one when she walked in, and so do you.’
‘Thanks, Ian.’ She took a sip, blinked as the sugar hit her back teeth, and then ran her gaze over the crowded incident room. ‘Everyone here?’
‘Gavin and Laura are on their way back from Headquarters – they were working with Andy Grey late yesterday to try to find out who was talking to Jeremy about Shelley, and he phoned earlier to say he had some footage from a private security camera on the High Street that might help us.’
‘Okay, good. We’ll give them another ten minutes and then have the briefing.’
‘Carys told me what happened. Are you okay?’
She nodded, exhaustion threatening. ‘I will be, when we catch the bastard who did this.’
Five minutes later, the two detective constables had arrived and she’d moved to the front of the room, updating the whiteboard with the basic details of Shelley’s murder, and photographs from the scene that Carys had downloaded from her phone for context.
As Kay turned to face her assembled colleagues, she straightened her shoulders.
‘Despite our best efforts to locate Shelley before any harm came to her, I can confirm that the body found in a skip this morning is hers. Lucas was on scene, and has stated that she was strangled prior to her feet being cut off.’ She ran her eyes over a message displayed on the front of her phone. ‘At present, her feet haven’t been found. They weren’t in the skip.’
A shocked murmur rippled through the room.
‘We’ll keep the details of her death from the media at this time,’ Kay continued, ‘and I would ask that if you’re approached by any members of the press, you direct them to DCI Sharp or myself in the first instance. We’ll issue a formal statement later today. In the meantime, do we have any progress on the man Jeremy said approached him offering money in return for news of Shelley? Gavin?’
‘Guv.’ He walked over to join her as Laura handed out a two-page document to each member of the team. ‘We had no luck with any of the council-operated CCTV cameras in the town centre, but when Andy’s digital forensics team phoned around, they obtained footage from a licensed betting shop near the post office that was able to help. The images you see here are the four clearest ones we have.’
Kay peered at the photographs that had been captured and laid out two per page for the purposes of the briefing. ‘Are these in HOLMES2?’
‘Yes, guv. Andy updated it for us while we were on our way back. The first two photographs confirm the man on the left is Jeremy. On the second page, we have our suspect.’ He paused as a rustle of paper filled the room. ‘Obviously, we can’t enhance the image given the restrictions of this being a fixed camera angle, but Andy was able to pick out some of the man’s features.’
‘Do any of you recognise him?’ said Kay, holding the page closer.
A murmur of negative responses filled the room.
‘All right, no messing about with this one. Get this photograph circulated across the Division. If we have no responses by the end of today, go nationwide with the request.’
‘Will do, guv.’
Gavin retook his seat while Kay ran through the list of tasks that would come with the event of Shelley’s murder, and then turned her attention to Barnes.
‘Ian, are uniform ready to start doing the searches of the farms Laura identified?’
‘Yes, guv. We’ve narrowed it down to five producers and two smallholdings.’
‘Let me have the paperwork to sign off and we’ll get those started this morning.’ Kay updated the whiteboard with the new tasks, then turned back and surveyed her team.
‘I don’t need to tell you that we won’t rest until this killer is found,’ she said, ‘and I know I can count on you to find him, and give Ethan and Shelley the justice they deserve. Dismissed.’
Chapter Forty
‘Ready, guv?’
Kay turned at the sound of PC Morrison’s voice, and tugged a pair of protective gloves from her coat pocket. ‘I’ll let you brief your tea
m, Dave. Just tell me where you want me.’
‘Thanks.’ He beckoned the six officers milling about at the entrance to Wiseacre Mushroom Suppliers, and waited until they’d formed a rough semicircle beside them. ‘The warrant for this morning’s search has been served on the owners, and DC Laura Hanway is currently interviewing them in the house with PC Phillip Parker in attendance. Our remit is to conduct a thorough search of the outbuildings and yard. The four individuals you can see over my shoulder near the house are the full-time workers they employ. Three are local, one is Romanian – and before you ask, his visa checks out. He’s been working here since October and although he says the pay is lousy, my daughter’s earning less than him on a hairdressing apprenticeship in Tunbridge Wells, so I reckon he should stop complaining.’
A ripple of good-natured laughter passed through the group, and Kay smiled.
It was typical of Dave Morrison to try to lighten a stressful situation. A lot depended upon the outcome of the searches being carried out today and they were all feeling the pressure, especially after the nature of Shelley’s death spread through the police station.
Her murder had touched a nerve.
The previous night, Adam had taken one look at her face when she’d got home and marched her to the pub up the lane from their house before settling her into a quiet corner and placing a large tumbler of brandy on the table beside her. He’d listened to her quiet undertones as she’d told him what had happened, and held her hand while she’d wiped away angry tears with the other.
She’d left the house that morning with a renewed determination, a single thought going around in her head.
She would deliver justice for Ethan and Shelley, whatever it took.
As Dave ran through the search procedure for a pair of special constables new to the force and ensured they were paired with more experienced officers, she cast her gaze across the yard to where the mushroom pickers waited.
A steady stream of cigarette smoke curled into the air above their heads, and a wave of resentment pervaded from the group as they kicked at stones and cast sideways glances at the police officers who had forced them to stop work.
‘Why are they so nervous?’ said Kay. ‘Anyone spoken to them yet?’
Dave looked up from his notes as his team dispersed. ‘According to the owner, they’re supposed to check the temperature and humidity three times a day. He’s got twenty growing houses here, so they’re worried the crops will perish if we hold them up too long. It’s why I’ve started the search at the far end. Once we check each building, they can come back to work behind us.’
Kay ran her eyes over the arched buildings that had been built each side of a dirt track leading away from the farmhouse. ‘What are the chances of us finding an aircraft in one of those, do you think?’
‘They’d be a perfect hiding place. Do you want to join me and we’ll take a look around?’
‘Come on, then.’
She scuffed along beside the police constable, her boots sinking into soft mud that exuded a distinct aroma of composted waste, manure and chemical plant treatments. To each side, the large growing houses reared above them, creating a wind tunnel effect down the track that had her burying her face into her scarf to keep out the chill.
When Dave followed one of the teams into a building at the far end, she was relieved to escape the elements – and surprised at the warmth within.
Her jaw dropped at the sight of the rows of aluminium shelving that disappeared into the far reaches of the building some thirty metres away, the end of which was illuminated by the dull glow from low wattage bulbs hanging from steel girders in the ceiling.
‘As winter jobs go, this has to be one of the better ones,’ she said.
‘It’s why they were worried about how long we were going to take,’ said Dave. ‘This temperature has to remain at a constant.’
Twenty minutes later, she blinked as they exited the growing house into weak sunlight, and saw two of the farm labourers entering the building opposite as the uniformed officers completed their search there and moved on to the next.
‘Let’s wander along the rest of these,’ she said. ‘We can check for the aircraft or people, and your team can conduct a more thorough search in our wake. At least we’ll keep this moving.’
‘Sounds good, guv.’ Dave grinned. ‘It’s too bloody cold to stand around out here, anyway.’
‘My thinking exactly.’
She bit her lip as she followed in his wake, and pulled out her mobile phone.
It had taken DCI Sharp a series of phone calls to his superiors at Headquarters and coercion of two other detective chief inspectors within West Division to allocate enough officers to conduct the day’s searches, and she knew he would be expecting an update soon – and results.
Dave pushed open the door to another building and stepped inside. ‘I’ll take the left, you take the right if you want, guv?’
‘Meet you at the other end.’
She loosened the scarf at her neck and unbuttoned her jacket as the warmth from the growing house began to seep through the layers of clothing, then set off between the rows of fungi.
Moments later, she met Dave at the far end and shook her head.
‘Nothing. No-one’s hiding in here. You?’
‘No. On to the next one, then.’
Frustration began to set in, as each building was investigated, that she would never locate the killer or the other victims of slavery. They had no idea how many others there might be, or how long they had been subjected to the horrors of enforced labour, and as their search efforts reached the end of the track close to the farmhouse she resigned herself to the realisation that there was no aircraft hidden on the property either.
Laura emerged from the front door of the house as they reached the yard, gestured to Parker to head over to one of the patrol cars, and then stomped towards Kay.
‘Mr Clapperton and his workforce all check out, guv,’ she said as she drew near. ‘How did you get on?’
‘No sign of anyone, or a light aircraft. They’ll probably be here another couple of hours concluding the search, but I think we’re done.’
‘We can definitely cross this place off our list,’ said Dave, disappointment colouring his words.
Kay checked her watch. ‘I guess we just have to hope we get a breakthrough at one of the other properties, then. Thanks, Dave – I’ll see you back at the incident room.’
Walking back to her car with Laura at her side, she dug her fingernails into her palms and tried to ignore the dread that was clawing at the back of her mind as her thoughts tumbled over each other.
What if they were too late?
What if the killer had destroyed the evidence?
What had happened to the others held in captivity with Ethan and Shelley?
Chapter Forty-One
Laura jumped in her seat as a ferocious gust of wind rattled the glass next to her, rain lashing against the panes.
Recovering, she took a sip from a mug of tepid coffee and scowled at her computer screen as she typed in her notes from the day’s searches.
The incident room door swung open as another group of uniformed officers traipsed in, pulling off sodden stab vests and hats or running hands through wet hair having been caught in the deluge between the car park and the police station.
Exhaustion and dejection peppered mumbled conversations, snippets of which carried across the room to where she sat, slouching, avoiding eye contact with any of them.
She tried to ignore the embarrassment that had been nipping at the edges of her confidence like an irate terrier since she and Kay had returned from the mushroom farm.
One by one, the team leaders responsible for each property search had radioed in their progress, and Laura’s confidence dissipated with each update.
The door to DCI Sharp’s office opened, and Kay and Barnes appeared, their faces grim.
Apart from a handful of minor vehicle offences, the extra manpower assigned
to the searches had turned up nothing, and she had no doubt that her superiors were now receiving the Chief Superintendent’s thoughts on the matter.
She cleared her throat as they walked over to where she sat next to Carys and Gavin – both of whom had phones to their ears.
‘Can I get either of you something to drink?’ she said, then blushed. She sounded desperate.
Barnes shook his head. ‘No, thanks. We’ll get the briefing underway and then let everyone go – it’s been a long day.’
He seemed to force a smile, and then wandered over to speak with a pair of police constables who had arrived, their faces drawn and tired.
To her surprise, Kay pulled out a spare chair beside her and dropped into it before resting her elbows on her knees and lowering her voice.
‘I know what’s going through your head, and I’m telling you to stop it right now.’
‘Pardon, guv?’
‘The fact we found nothing at any of the properties we searched today isn’t your fault.’
Laura blinked, angry that her eyes began to sting. ‘But it was me who identified them, guv. It was me who gave the list to Ian and you based the searches on that.’
‘Yes, and if anyone else had been tasked with that job, they’d have probably come up with the same list. I’ve told you – we don’t get a result with everything we do.’ The detective inspector straightened, and gestured to the reports Laura had been entering into the system. ‘All of this, all of these hours we spend searching through pieces of information, helps to build up the bigger picture. Any of it could provide the breakthrough we need, but if we don’t do the work and tick off the things that aren’t relevant, we’ll never get to the truth.’
Laura jerked her chin towards Sharp’s door. ‘What about the DCI? Does he feel the same way?’
Kay winked, then rose to her feet. ‘Who do you think trained me?’
As she watched Kay move through the incident room, calling to the team to join her for the briefing, Laura exhaled.
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