The Stalker's Song

by Georgia Brown

  ‘I wondered... where they were. He came to the door, so we went in. I didn’t suspect anything... I trusted Tim...’

  Gayle nodded, ‘I understand.’

  ‘He... he looked different. Even his eyes... I think he’s bleached his eyebrows and lashes.’

  ‘That’s interesting. We knew about the hair and clean-shaven bit, but not the eyebrows and lashes. We’ll get that circulated right away.’ She looked at Georgia, who was already on her phone, giving an update to the team.

  ‘Pauline wanted to come with me... I wish she hadn’t...’ her eyes filled again, and Gayle waited for her to compose herself. She went on, haltingly, describing the full horror of what she’d gone through.

  ‘We’ve found the cottage. The forensic team are there now,’ Gayle told her.

  ‘Was he there? Have they got him?’ There was a note of hope in Carol’s voice.

  ‘No, we haven’t found him yet. We’ve got teams out right now, searching the moor. They’ve got a helicopter in the air and teams of men with dogs. They’re looking for the car and for him – if he’s still out there on foot. Do you feel up to telling me what happened when you got to the cottage?’

  Carol looked at Julia, uncertainly.

  ‘I need to hear, Mum. Please.’ Julia came to sit on the floor beside the settee and took Carol’s hand. ‘Please. I need to know what you’ve been through, so I can help you.’

  In a monotone, talking almost as though it had happened to someone else, Carol described her ordeal in the cottage. Julia became more and more visibly upset. She recoiled and started to sob when Carol described what took place in the bedroom, all colour drained from her face.

  ‘He put me in the boot again... with Pauline’s body...’ Carol’s voice was flat. ‘I knew he was going to kill me too.’

  Julia gave a little scream and Carol squeezed her hand, before going on, haltingly, to tell them how he’d prepared a grave for her, and the threats he’d made about Julia being his next victim. They were all stunned and were silent for a few moments, taking it all in.

  ‘What an evil, evil bastard,’ Julia sobbed. ‘I want to kill him myself.’

  ‘You and me, both,’ muttered Fiona.

  ‘We need to find him - did he mention any particular place to you, Carol? Anywhere he might have been thinking of going to... afterwards?’ Gayle asked.

  ‘No... no.’

  ‘How did you manage to get away from him ?’ Gayle asked gently.

  Gayle couldn’t help but feel admiration for her as she described her escape.

  ‘You did well, Carol. And you don’t know if he was badly injured?’

  ‘No. He screamed out, something about his eyes... put his hands to his face. That’s how I got away.’ She lay back on the cushions, clearly exhausted.

  ‘Good for you, Mum. I’m proud of you,’ Julia smiled through her tears.

  ‘Thank you Carol, you’ve done very well. I know that was harrowing for you. Now, we need to get you to hospital for a full check-up... we’ll need to take swabs.’

  ‘Yes... the doctor explained everything.’

  ‘There’s an ambulance on its way. It’ll be here soon to take you to Helmsley. Georgia and another officer will go with you. Fiona and Julia too. Fiona’s brought your mobile phone with her, so you can contact me any time, if you need to. We’ll have two officers with you and Julia at all times, so don’t worry about your safety. We need to look after you until Justin Green is found.’

  ‘Find him soon,’ said Carol, as paramedics transferred her to a chair, ready to take her to the ambulance.

  ‘We will. One other thing, the photo from the phone is being digitally altered to reflect what you’ve told us about his appearance now. I’ll bring it to the hospital later.’

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

  After an intimate, humiliating and at times painful examination, during which every inch of me was inspected, and swabs, samples and scrapings taken for analysis, and needles stuck into me, I was finally allowed to have a shower. I was so grateful. I’d never in my life felt more dirty or soiled or violated. I scrubbed and scrubbed at myself, until my skin was raw and bleeding in parts, trying to erase all traces of that monster.

  I didn’t want to leave the shower, and stayed under so long my skin became wrinkled, and still I was frantically rubbing at myself. In the end, two of the nurses came into the cubicle and persuaded me to turn the shower off, before helping me out. They gently dried me and re-applied antiseptic to my wounds before dressing them.

  Doctor Quayle came to see me in my room. ‘You’ll be feeling better for having a shower, I expect?’ Without waiting for my response, she continued. ‘You’ve been through such an ordeal, both physically and mentally, that you’ll need to be closely monitored. I’ll pass my notes to your own GP and she’ll keep an eye on you, once you’ve been discharged from here. You’re going to need a lot of support and help, not only from your GP, but from counsellors and psychiatrists, to come to terms with what’s happened to you. But for now, you need to sleep.’

  She instructed the nurse to give me a pain-killing injection and I felt myself relax. I quickly fell asleep, not opening my eyes until bright sunshine was streaming through orange and lemon curtains. I came to, slowly, and for a few moments, couldn’t understand where I was. I looked around at the lemon-coloured walls, and again at the geometric pattern of the curtains, before the penny suddenly dropped and I groaned aloud. The impact of remembering what had happened to me was vicious. I doubled up in agony, bringing my knees up to my chest. I could hear myself wailing.

  A nurse hurried into the room, followed closely by Doctor Quayle.

  ‘Carol, it’s alright. You’re safe now. Everything’s going to be alright now.’

  ‘I can’t bear it,’ I sobbed. ‘I just want to go to sleep and never wake up.’

  Apparently, Dr. Quayle had been waiting for me to wake up, anticipating the trauma I’d be going through. She sat with me until the wracking sobs subsided.

  ‘That’s better. I’d like you to eat some breakfast now. You need something on your stomach. No,’ she said as I began to protest, ‘I know you won’t feel like it, but will you eat a little just for me?’

  The nurse brought poached eggs on toast. I reluctantly nibbled on a piece of toast, but could barely swallow a bite.

  ‘Your daughters are waiting to see you. The police officer needs to speak to you, too. I’ll send her in first, if that’s ok with you?’

  Gayle came through the door, looking rather hesitant, not like her usual boisterous self.

  ‘Hello Carol, how are you this morning? You look so much better than yesterday,’ she said, studying my face. ‘Before we talk, I hate to ask, but would you mind taking a look at this updated picture of Justin Green?’ she held out a photograph, which I reluctantly took from her. There he was, looking at me, and I felt a jolt of pure revulsion. ‘Is that a good likeness?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said, handing back the picture. ‘That’s exactly what he looks like now.’

  ‘Thanks for that. I know how hard it must be to look at him. We’ll get it circulated. We’ve had search teams out again since first light, scouring the moor, but so far we’ve drawn a blank. We think now that he must have returned to his car and driven off the moor. Obviously, we’re trying to trace the car. We’re doing all we can to find him.

  In the meanwhile, how are you feeling?’ she asked gently, her voice softening.

  I felt my eyes fill with tears again. ‘If you want the truth, Gayle, I just want to die. I can’t bear to think about it. It all keeps washing over me like a big, black wave, crushing me. I really don’t know how I’m ever going to come to terms with it. How long do you think it’ll be before you find him?’

  ‘Every force in the UK is looking for him. We’re watching all the airports and ports. The updated photo will be widely circulated – it’ll be on TV, and in all the social media. Appeals are going out to the public to
keep a lookout for him. His options will be limited. I’m confident we’ll find him soon.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘The thing is, Carol, we need to keep you and Julia safe, until he’s found. We work with an Agency that’s found a safe house for you. Somewhere he can’t find you.’

  I let that sink in. ‘Oh, what a nightmare. When is all this going to end?’ I started to cry. ‘Where will this place be? What about Julia’s studies? What about Fiona?’

  ‘The most important thing right now is your safety. And Julia’s. The Agency has come up with a nice cottage, just by the sea in Cleveland. You’ll have to live under assumed names and you won’t be able to have contact with friends or family for a while. We know how clever Green is with computer and phone hacking. We can’t risk him tracing your whereabouts.’ She studied my face, which must have shown utter despair. ‘Fiona can go with you, if that’s what you both want, but the same rules will apply to her. She certainly can’t stay in your house in Jesmond. And we can’t risk Linda keeping in contact. But we’ll assign a local Victim Support contact, rape counsellor and psychiatrist, as well as a local FLO. I won’t be able to keep in touch directly, but I’ll get feedback on how you’re doing.’

  ‘I can’t take all this in,’ I said, weeping again. ‘ Do I have a choice?’

  ‘This man has shown unbelievable determination to get to you. He’s obviously prepared to risk anything. He could have just disappeared after the abortive attempt to kill you in Barbados. No-one knew who he was; he could have resumed living under his real name, quite easily, with no consequences. But, what does he do? Takes great risks to get to you, even when he knows police are involved in looking after you. The man is extremely dangerous, and we have no reason to believe he’s going to stop pursuing you now. And Julia too, from what he told you. We can’t force you to go, but if you don’t, we can’t spare the manpower that would be needed to protect you round the clock. You have to disappear... hopefully not for long.’

  ‘Will I be able to go home first? To collect some things?’

  ‘Yes, we’ll take you there after you’re discharged. I’m sorry about you having to be cut off from everyone, but it’s vital, to keep you safe. Justin Green is a technical expert and capable of hacking into almost anything. We know he’ll go on stalking you, and that means he will try every avenue to find you – including following people who know you.’ She stood up. ‘Fiona and Julia are waiting to come in and see you, so I’ll leave you for now.’

  They came into the room and I could tell immediately from their demeanour that Gayle had already briefed them on what was to happen. They both gave me hugs, then we looked at each other, almost lost for words. Julia looked bewildered and angry.

  ‘This is surreal. How can one evil bastard cause all this upset?’ she demanded. ‘They’d better bloody well catch him soon.’

  Fiona told me she wanted to come to the safe house with us. It would mean she couldn’t visit or contact her mother, but she said she hoped to be able to make her understand. She wanted to see this thing through with me, to the end. I felt incredibly grateful to her. I really didn’t know how I would have got through all this without her. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to be in my own home again, one last time.

  Dr Quayle turned up just then and told me I was to be kept in for one more night, and would be discharged the following day.

  ‘When you leave, you’ll need to get lots of rest,’ she said, glancing at Fiona and Julia. ‘And, of course, as I’ve already said, you’re going to need further counselling and strong support, you too, Julia.

  Had life ever looked more bleak

  CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

  The team scouring the moors had so far drawn a blank. Gayle had been told that if they were unsuccessful today, the search was to be called off and it would be assumed that Justin Green had been able to return to his car and drive off the moor.

  The cottage that had been let to Green was located about twenty miles from the barn where Carol had taken refuge, so the search team had been able to map out a more accurate search area. Gayle was pretty sure by now that they were wasting their time. Her gut feeling was that Justin Green was long gone and could be anywhere by now, which meant of course he couldn’t be too badly injured. The estate agent had provided a spare set of keys, and the forensic team were going over the place.

  Gayle had found Carol looking a lot better this morning when she’d seen her at the hospital, but to be fair, she thought, she really couldn’t have looked any worse than she had yesterday. Her eyes, however, still had that awful, haunted look she’d seen yesterday, and Gayle wondered if it would ever leave her.

  The knowledge that she and Julia would need to go to a safe house seemed to hit her really hard. Her nightmare seemed never-ending.

  Gayle wondered about why Green had chosen to use his real name when he leased the cottage. However, when she thought it through, she realised that he couldn’t have known that she would make the connection between Dan Smithson and Justin Green. It was pure co-incidence that she’d worked on the murder case in London five years earlier, and was therefore able to recognise him from the photograph on Peter’s phone. He must have thought that once he discarded ‘Dan Smithson’ there would be nothing to connect him with Justin Green and he’d be home and dry. It was chilling to think that it was such a tenuous link; a million to one chance that had led to her identifying him so quickly.

  Gayle and Patsy were billeted at a small guest house not too far from the crime scene; the rest of the team were scattered around the area, all in small bed and breakfast places or, like them, in guest houses. In the small, bright dining room, as they tucked into a dinner of home-cooked roast beef, they discussed the case. Yorkshire Pudding and gravy were served for the first course, which the owner told them was the traditional way to eat a roast dinner, in Yorkshire.

  ‘In the morning, as soon as she’s discharged, we’ll take Carol home,’ Gayle said, taking a mouthful of pink roast beef. ‘Before that, first thing, we’ll take a look at the cottage.’

  They had some difficulty finding the cottage; the Sat Nav didn’t seem to be able to pinpoint its exact location. After a couple of false turns, when it tried to direct them across fields, they eventually arrived outside a plain, two-storey cottage, having found their way more by good luck than good management. It was located at the edge of the vast moor, in an extremely isolated position, and Gayle could see why Green had chosen it. She noticed the square bay window to the front, and the roller shutter door to the garage on the left side of the building, just as Carol had described. The officer on duty outside the cottage looked freezing cold and fed up, but he managed a weak smile and a ‘Good Morning’ as they disembarked from the car.

  DCI Mayne had told Gayle that the team searching the moor had resumed their search at first light and were covering the last segment mapped out as being feasible for Justin Green to have got to on foot. There was still no sign of the car, and it was looking increasingly likely that he’d been able to get back to it, and simply driven off the moor. If so, it was unlikely that Carol had inflicted anything other than a superficial wound.

  The forensic lads handed out shoe covers and paper overalls. ‘You’ll need to put these on.’

  ‘Found anything of interest?’ Gayle asked.

  ‘We’ve bagged and tagged quite a bit of stuff, including the bed sheets. Lots of DNA on there. We’ve got fingerprints from the manacles and from a broken bottle of Dettol in the bathroom. Looks like he packed in a hurry. There are clothes hanging out of drawers and some dropped on the floor of the wardrobe.’

  ‘What about the broken bottle of antiseptic? What’s your take on that?’

  ‘We bagged some discarded bits of cotton wool, soaked in the antiseptic. Looked as though they’d been used to clean a wound. Must have dropped the bottle.’

  They made their way upstairs and found themselves on a small, square landing.

  The tech
nician followed them up. ‘This is where he brought her,’ he said, indicating the bedroom door opposite the stairs. ‘Judging from the stains and blood on the sheets, she had quite an ordeal, poor girl. Look, spots of blood on the wallpaper here, and on the manacles,’ he pointed out the stains.

  Georgia looked at the manacles, gleaming dully on the wall behind the king-size bed. ‘How terrifying. To be tied up and absolutely bloody helpless,’ she whispered to herself.

  They went back downstairs. Looking around the ground floor, there was evidence the cottage had been recently lived in; bacon, sausage, tomatoes and the remnants of a pork pie with egg in the middle, were in the fridge. And half a pint of fresh milk.

  ‘I wonder where the bastard’s gone?’ the technician said, walking into the kitchen. ‘I hope you get him before he does any further damage. Fuckin’ manacles. I’d like to put him in the fuckin’ manacles and cut his balls off. Then stuff them down his throat.’

  ‘Ditto.’ Gayle said. ‘But we’ve got to catch him first.’ She was beginning to feel despondent. It was clear that Justin Green had returned to the cottage, hastily packed and left. ‘We’ve got a nationwide search on our hands.’

  ‘Aye, well good luck with that. The sooner that bastard’s found, the better for all of us.’

  CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

  By eleven the next morning, once paperwork was sorted and drugs dispensed, I was allowed to leave. Before we left, Dr Quayle came to see me again, and wished me luck.

  ‘You’re a strong person, Carol. If anyone can come to terms with the horrific things you’ve had to endure, it’s you. I know you’ll receive help and I just want to wish you the best of luck in the future. And remember, no feelings of guilt or shame. What happened to you was not in any way your fault. Keep in touch and let me know how you get on.’ With that, she hugged me warmly before turning on her heel and walking away. After a few steps, she turned back and said quietly, ‘Don’t let him win, Carol.’