by G D Sanders
‘And men have finished working late at the office,’ said Mike in an attempt at humour.
Rosie smiled with a touch of sadness. ‘That too.’
‘Was Ray here last Thursday?’
‘No, but I’m expecting him tonight.’
‘I don’t suppose you’ll remember if he was here on the night of 15 June?’
‘I can’t say as I remember but I’m a businesswoman, love, I can look in my book.’
Rosie took an A4 diary from a drawer in the sideboard and began turning the pages.
From where he was sitting Mike couldn’t read the writing but he could see entries, which looked like times and names. Rosie stopped at the second week in June.
‘Friday, 15 June, Ray arrived at 10.05 and left at 11.30.’
‘You’re a treasure, Rosie.’
‘Aye, the mayor should give me the keys to the city.’ She sighed. ‘Ah well, at least your lot leave me alone.’
Mike took a long drink from his cup and stood to place it on a low table.
‘It’s been a long day, Rosie. I’d better be on my way.’
‘You’ll have time to go by the front.’
Before he turned to leave the room, Mike bent to kiss her cheek.
‘Now you’ve got the alibi,’ said Rosie, ‘I don’t suppose I’ll be seeing you for a while?’
‘We’ll see …’
Walking across the road to the car park Mike heard Rosie say, ‘Look after yourself, love.’ He felt the same way, but kept walking.
Driving home, Mike wondered if he was in Rosie’s book.
62
The next morning, each of Ed’s team was at their desk attempting to catch up with paperwork. It was six days since Tyler had been taken. There was a palpable tension in the room as they waited for the DNA data. Just before nine, Mike walked across to Ed’s desk.
‘I got a result at Rosie’s last night.’
‘Did you?’ said Ed, raising her eyebrows and smiling.
‘On Friday, 15 June, Leaman arrived at Maison Rose about the time Lucy was taken and he left 90 minutes later.’
‘Are you sure Rosie was telling the truth?’
‘She checked a diary. I couldn’t read the entries but they looked like times and names. I’m confident she keeps a record of her gentlemen callers.’
To lighten the atmosphere, Ed raised her voice. ‘Sorry to interrupt your avid concentration. Mike had a result at Maison Rose last night.’
Nat and Jenny exchanged brief smirks.
‘Rosie’s given Leaman an alibi for Lucy’s abduction. Ray Leaman’s in the clear. We’re now down to two suspects: Grieves the biology master and Podzansky the caretaker.’
‘And we’ve got their DNA,’ added Mike.
It was seven minutes past nine before Ed’s phone rang. She identified herself and listened briefly.
‘What!’ Ed looked furiously at the handset before returning it to her ear. ‘I’ve got a young girl snatched from the street. She’s in certain danger of being raped, possible danger of losing her life and you tell me your equipment failed.’
Ed’s eyes were wide with disbelief. She listened impatiently before speaking. ‘Is that the best you can do? The DNA evidence is crucial for our investigation.’ There was a brief pause before she added, ‘I’ll be expecting it. Don’t let me down.’
Ed slammed down the handset as Mike risked reigniting her anger with a redundant question.
‘Problem?’
‘The buggers have lost the fast-track DNA analysis.’
‘All gone?’
‘No, no, the samples are fine. The equipment went down. They’re fixing the problem today. Tomorrow they’ll rerun the analysis. We’ll get the result Friday morning.’
Expectation had been high. Her team looked deflated.
‘Come on, look on the bright side,’ said Ed. ‘It’s a challenge. We’ve got another 48 hours to identify the perpetrator without the aid of modern technology.’
‘How are we going to do that?’ asked Jenny, looking worried.
‘We could check out the minibus,’ suggested Nat.
Mike disagreed. ‘If Grieves or Podzansky see us at the school they’ll know we’re onto them.’
‘That’s no more than they know already, Mike,’ said Ed. ‘They must have heard we interviewed the caretaker and four teachers, but they’ll not know we’ve eliminated three of the teachers: Anders, Carlton and Leaman. Nor will they know about Drakes-Moulton and that he’s no longer a suspect. We’ll not go mob-handed, just us four and two cars.’
Arriving at the school, Nat and Jenny stayed with the cars while Ed and Mike went in search of the Head.
‘What’s this about, Inspector? I’m in the middle of an important meeting.’
‘We wouldn’t have disturbed you, Ms Greenock, had our business not been urgent. It’s also confidential. Where may we find Roger Grieves and Tomasz Podzansky?’
‘You’re in the wrong place, Inspector. Mr Grieves called in sick two days ago. Food poisoning as I recall.’ For confirmation, the Head looked at her secretary who smiled and nodded in agreement. ‘And Thomas has contracted the norovirus. Nora will give you their addresses.’
‘That won’t be necessary. One more thing, where’s the school’s minibus kept?’
For a moment Ms Grennock looked nonplussed but she recovered quickly. ‘I don’t deal with such matters. You must take that up with my secretary.’
Without waiting for a response, Ms Greenock returned to the staff room.
Ed turned to the secretary. ‘We’ll be impounding the school minibus and I’ll need all the paperwork associated with it: the registration document, insurance certificate and MOT.’
Nora looked even more flustered than she had earlier. ‘The minibus hasn’t been used for years. I believe it’s still in the … erm … shed, under the trees on far side of sports field.’
‘Is there access from the road?’
‘There’s a gate on the back lane.’
‘And the documents, surely they must be in one of your files?’
‘I don’t remember ever seeing such documents. When the minibus was in use, and that’s over ten years ago, Mr Grieves was responsible for it. Now it’s not used I really don’t know. Perhaps you should ask Mr Grieves? Oh no, you can’t, he’s off sick. If you need the keys, Thomas, the caretaker, should have a set.’
‘He’s also off sick.’
‘Oh yes, of course he is.’ Nora blushed. ‘Sorry. I’ll get them for you. They’ll be in a key-safe in Thomas’s room.’
The documents were not in the minibus, which looked far too clean for a vehicle left unused for more than ten years.
Back at their cars, Ed asked Mike to get forensics onto the minibus. ‘I want a preliminary report on my desk immediately they’re back at the Station. By my count, we’ve got until the weekend to save Tyler Hewitt.’
‘Unless …’ began Jenny, hesitating before she continued, ‘he’s a Jekyll and Hyde who’s already murdered—’
‘Let’s not go there,’ said Ed. ‘It’s not helpful.’
Ed knew she’d cut Jenny off sharply but the Jekyll and Hyde comment had made her fume inwardly. Fuck the Super and her insistence on a softly-softly approach. The DNA testing had spooked them. Were Grieves and Podzansky really off sick or had the abductor done a runner?
Ed took a deep breath and tried to think logically. She was sure the abductor wouldn’t abandon Tyler. He’d chosen her to be the mother of his next child. He’d cared for Teresa, Kimberley and Lucy. Surely he wouldn’t leave Tyler to die, still less kill her? The sound of Lucy’s voice describing the blood-soaked package and an image of a pound of flesh returned. Ed struggled to block them from her head. Please God, let me be right about the parcel. It can’t be relevant. It mustn’t be relevant as far as the abducted girls are concerned.
‘Let’s get back to the Station. We’ll meet at 11.30 and plan where we go from here.’
Ed joined her colleagues in t
he Incident Room. ‘Forensics are still working on the minibus.’
‘Did they find any documents?’ asked Mike.
‘No more than we did, a valid tax disc. No insurance, no MOT and no registration.’ Ed shrugged to mask her frustration. ‘Jenny, contact the DVLA, check the registered keeper, the vehicle registration certificate number, and get a complete registration history for the minibus from new.’
‘Surely we need to find the girl? That’s got to be our priority.’
‘Of course we need to find the girl. The information I’ve asked for may give us a lead. Talk to the DVLA now and make sure they send a confirmatory email.’
Jenny left to make the call and Ed turned back to Mike and Nat.
‘So, how can we locate the perpetrator’s hideout?’
‘Forensics should find stuff on the tyres of the minibus,’ said Nat quickly. ‘That could pinpoint where he’s got her hidden.’
‘Mike, could soil, leaf and seed debris give us a precise location?’
‘Unlikely … soil and vegetation are much of a muchness around Canterbury.’ Mike paused for thought, then asked, ‘What about thermal imaging?’
‘In July?’ Piqued that his suggestion had been shot down, Nat’s tone was sarcastic and then patronizing. ‘There’ll be no heat in the building. Anyway, if it’s under a thick canopy of leaves, the heat wouldn’t be detectable.’
Ed didn’t like the edge to Nat’s voice. She was about to step in quickly when Jenny returned and started speaking excitedly before she reached the table.
‘You’ve got to hear this. The DVLA have just confirmed the registered keeper of the school minibus is Roger Grieves but—’
‘Great!’ said Ed.
‘Yes … Grieves is the keeper but the owner is Nigel Drakes-Moulton.’
‘What?’ Ed felt as if her stomach had dropped through the floor.
‘He must have donated it to the school,’ said Mike.
‘Shit!’ Ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach, Ed rearranged her thoughts to accommodate the new evidence. ‘That puts him firmly back in the frame.’
‘Should we bring them both in?’ Nat was all attention, keen as ever for some action.
‘Both?’ queried Jenny, flashing raised eyebrows. ‘We’re back to three suspects: Drakes-Moulton, plus Grieves and Podzansky.’
‘And we daren’t bring them in,’ said Ed.
‘Not the Super and her bloody kid gloves again?’ said Nat derisively.
Ed chose to ignore his tone. It was important they pressed on. It was also important that he think more deeply about the case.
‘No. I’m beyond pandering to Addler. Our priority is to find Tyler fast but we daren’t risk the life of the victim.’
‘How …’
‘Think, Nat. We reckon it’s the same abductor. We believe he’s got Tyler chained in the same isolated building. What happens if we bring the guy in?’
‘We question the bastard,’ said Nat.
‘We’ll find out where he’s holding the girl,’ said Mike.
‘We’ll rescue Tyler,’ said Jenny.
‘Think!’ Ed gave full rein to the exasperation in her voice before adding, ‘There are other scenarios.’
None of the three detectives responded.
‘Tyler’s dependent on her abductor for food and drink. What if we bring him in and he clams up? When her water runs out, Tyler will have three to four increasingly agonizing days before she dies.’
At least Jenny looked shamefaced. Ed pushed her point home.
‘It’s imperative we rescue Tyler before we detain her abductor. This man has mutilated and murdered at least one woman. If he learns we’re after him, he’ll scarper and Tyler will be left to die. If we’re successful and detain him, what makes you so sure he’ll tell us where she is?’
‘You’re right,’ said Mike, ‘with a murder charge hanging over him, he’s liable to no comment his way through days of questioning.’
‘Exactly,’ said Ed, ‘and, if he stays silent, Tyler will die.’
63
A full week had passed since Tyler went missing. Ed arrived at her desk at 07.00. She needed time to think before meeting the team.
Moving the rapidly cooling Station coffee to one side, Ed opened a notepad to summarize their current position. On the plus side, they knew the same man had abducted Teresa, Kimberley and Lucy. They also knew he’d held them captive in the same isolated building located in woodland. The probability was high that the same man was holding Tyler in the same location. The team had reduced the number of suspects to three and they had DNA from Teresa’s daughter for a match with samples from potential suspects. Finally, they’d identified the school minibus as the vehicle used for the abductions and they were sure the hideout wasn’t to the west or northwest side of town.
On the minus side, DNA matching had been delayed by a technical fault and other standard lines of inquiry weren’t available. They didn’t have the resources for 24-hour surveillance and the current victim was dependent on the abductor for food and drink so they couldn’t arrest and question their three principal suspects without putting her life at risk.
Ed leant back in her chair and tried to hold all the pieces in her head at the same time. Where was the key? One vehicle; three suspects; one hideout. The suspects offered no immediate way forward. The hideout could be any one of the many isolated buildings in the woods around Canterbury. The vehicle had to be the key. The minibus was easily identifiable from its school insignia. With the abductions of Lucy and Tyler, the perpetrator must have made scores of trips to and from the hideout this year. Find and follow the school minibus. It would be a daunting task to screen all of the potentially relevant CCTV. Ed contemplated asking for uniform officers to help when she was struck by a new thought.
‘Yes!’ Ed thumped her notepad. The vehicle would lead them to the hideout but not via CCTV. She grabbed her mobile and set out to get a decent coffee from Deakin’s, texting the team as she walked:
Incident Room in 20 minutes.
64
‘Yesterday we were sifting information trying to find a solution. This morning I want you to get inside the head of the perpetrator.’
Ed left the table in the centre of the Incident Room and walked to the board to illustrate her points.
‘March 2002 he abducts Teresa. January 2008 he abducts Kimberley. June 2012 he abducts Lucy. July 2012 he abducts Tyler and she’s still missing. The chances are he’ll start to inseminate Tyler sometime this coming weekend, possibly Monday. Worst-case scenario, he errs on the safe side and starts in two days’ time.’
‘That just gives us today and Friday,’ said Jenny. ‘We’ve got to find her.’
‘Don’t forget the human blood,’ said Nat.
‘I’m not. The presence of human blood has ominous implications but it hasn’t given us any new leads because we haven’t found a DNA match with Missing Persons or the National Database. What we have is Tyler, a missing young woman held against her will. Her single mum is devastated. If we don’t rescue her in time the chances are Tyler will be pregnant and mentally scarred for life.’
Mike coughed. ‘It’s possible his dark side has picked her to murder and mutilate.’
Jenny gasped.
‘Maybe he’s a right sadist and mutilation comes first,’ said Nat, apparently oblivious to the picture he was painting as he tried to top Mike.
Ed knew this was a possibility but she’d stopped beating herself up about her initial underestimation of the significance of the bloody wrapping paper. She was hoping on hope that Tyler, like the other three girls, had been snatched for insemination and nothing worse.
‘Let’s not go there! The prospect that Tyler might be raped should be motivation enough.’
Ed looked at her team. Mike and Nat looked suitably chastened. Jenny repeated what was becoming her mantra. ‘We must find her.’
As the lead officer, Ed was only too aware she must direct her team. ‘He uses the same h
ideout and we’ll assume he’s using the same transport: the school minibus. Put yourself in his head. Can you see any problems, any difficulties he might face?’
‘He doesn’t want to be caught,’ said Nat.
‘He’d be cautious,’ said Mike. ‘He’d need it to be legal in case he got stopped.’
‘Valid tax disc, MOT, insurance,’ said Nat, ‘he’d need all three.’
‘He wouldn’t want to pay in his own name. Everything must be cash,’ said Jenny.
‘Post Office for the tax disc; out-of-the-way garage for repairs and MOT …’ Nat ran out of steam and finished lamely, ‘As for the insurance …’
‘High street brokers, you can buy insurance over the counter.’
‘Right, Mike, find out if he used a broker in Canterbury. If not, try nearby towns.’
Mike scribbled a note while Ed continued.
‘Nat, find the garage that has been doing the MOTs. Go there and get all the information you can. The person who drove the minibus to the garage is almost certainly the perpetrator but with three potential suspects we need to identify who that was. We also need the data from the MOT certificates.’
Nat, who was also making notes, asked, ‘Why do you need the MOT data?’
‘The MOTs for the school minibus will lead us to Tyler.’
Her colleagues looked baffled. Jenny was the first to speak. ‘How will MOTs help us to find Tyler?’
‘They’ll give us the annual mileage.’
‘And that will lead us to Tyler?’ There was no edge to Nat’s voice but he was squinting with puzzled scepticism. Mike slouched in his chair while Jenny leant forwards, confidently waiting for Ed’s revelation.
‘The perpetrator wouldn’t want to be caught. He’d be cautious. Using the minibus would be risky. The minibus would be readily recognized. The school logo’s discreet but well known around town. They stopped using the minibus for school trips some ten years ago, which is just before the first abduction in 2002.’
Nat interrupted. ‘Are you saying—’
Ed cut him off. ‘I don’t think the two events are directly related. The availability of the minibus didn’t precipitate the abductions.’