“You have a theory don’t you, Guv?” They’ve worked together long enough that he knows when Dani is putting a scenario together in her head.
“I don’t think Caroline was ever here at all. I think someone dumped the car here to make it look like she went off the road that night and wandered away from her vehicle into the storm.”
He nods. “That was the prevailing theory at the time, Guv. That she slid off the road and got lost in the snowstorm.”
“It doesn’t make sense. The car is in the wrong place and Caroline wasn’t dressed appropriately. Her neighbour said she was going to the Christmas party dressed as Snow White. Can you honestly see someone wandering over the moors in a snowstorm dressed as a Disney princess?”
“No, Guv.”
“No. If she’d had an accident and ended up in the ditch, she’d have stayed with the car and phoned for help.”
Matt considers this and nods. “Okay but if Caroline wasn’t driving the car, then who was?”
“The person who killed her.”
“Killed her? It’s a missing persons case, Guv.”
“Yeah, but maybe it should be more than that. I want to show you something.” She leads him back to the Land Rover and gets into the driver’s seat while he clambers in the passenger side.
Picking up the Caroline Shields case file from the back seat, Dani opens it to the page that contains an inventory of items found in Caroline’s flat on the night she disappeared.
“Look at the inventory,” she tells Matt. “There was no hair dye found in the bathroom and no packets that might have contained hair dye in the bins in the flat or the wheelie bins outside.”
He frowns. “Hair dye?”
Bringing up a picture of Snow White on her phone, she shows it to him. “Snow White has black hair. Caroline didn’t bother dying her hair black, which means she was dressed up as Snow White but with her usual blonde hair.”
Matt shrugs. “A blonde Snow White. I’m not following, Guv.”
She taps her finger against the picture on the phone. “What does Snow White have in her hair?”
Realisation dawns on him and his eyes widen. “A red ribbon. You think our man did this?”
“It fits the trigger theory Maya Cho told me about,” Dani says. “The killer saw Caroline Shields wearing a red ribbon and that started him off on his killing series.”
Matt looks out of the window at the snow. “So he’s killed five women just because he saw someone dressed up as Snow White?”
Dani nods. “Apparently. The question is: where is Caroline’s body? He didn’t leave her on the moors like the others.”
“Maybe he buried her.”
She’s already considered that possibility. “How could he? The ground was frozen.”
Matt thinks about that for a moment and then shrugs.
“I think he killed her somewhere else and then drove her car up here so the police would look in the wrong place,” Dani tells him. “Henson’s team spent all their time combing the moors but they should have been searching elsewhere.”
“But where?”
“Probably the last place Caroline was seen alive. Northmoor House.”
“You think she was killed at home?”
“Wouldn’t it make sense? The last person to see her alive was her neighbour Ivy Rose. Caroline went down to Ivy’s flat to show off her costume. That was the last anyone saw of her. In Ivy’s statement, she says she heard Caroline drive away half an hour later but she didn’t actually look out of the window and see her. What she heard could have been the killer driving away in Caroline’s car.”
“I suppose that makes sense. But surely Henson’s team analysed Caroline’s flat.”
“Henson was quite thorough, actually,” Dani tells him. “He processed Caroline’s flat meticulously. There were no signs of a struggle and no blood. But, of course, there wouldn’t be either of those things if it was our man, would there? He drugs them first and then drowns them.”
Matt nods slowly. He seems to be running the possibilities over in his head.
“And it explains the car’s location,” Dani continues. “The killer knew Caroline was going out to a fancy dress party but he didn’t know it was in Scarborough. So instead of dumping the car on the A171 and making it look like Caroline disappeared on the way to the party, he put the car in the wrong place.”
“It makes sense, Guv.”
“There’s a map in the glove box. Let’s have a look at it.”
Matt fishes the map out and opens it. It’s an Ordnance Survey Explorer map of the North Yorkshire Moors. At a scale of 1:25,000, it shows the area in great detail, including buildings and walking trails.
“Right, this is where we are now,” Dani says, pointing her gloved finger at the road on which they’re currently parked. She traces her finger east along the map until she finds the building marked Northmoor House. “And this is where he probably killed Caroline. So he drives out onto this road, leaves the car here and then walks back to Northmoor House. I’d say that looks like maybe three miles. It wouldn’t be too much of a problem for someone who is fit and determined to walk three miles in a snowstorm.”
Matt is frowning at the map.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why go back to Northmoor House at all? Why wouldn’t he flee the area?” Sudden understanding crosses his face. “Of course! He had to go back to Northmoor House to collect the body, put it into his own vehicle, and drive away with it.”
“That isn’t the assumption I’m working on,” she says.
He looks crestfallen. “So what do you think, Guv?”
“First of all, we’re saying Caroline was the trigger, that he saw her wearing the ribbon and that kicked off his paraphilia, right?”
“If paraphilia means his compulsion to kill, then yeah.”
“So he couldn’t have just been some passerby who happened to see Caroline through her window, could he? She lived on the top floor of the house.”
“So to see her in the Snow White costume, he had to have been inside the house that evening,” Matt suggests.
“Exactly. That’s why I don’t think the killer returned to the house just to collect Caroline’s body. I think he returned to Northmoor House because he lives there.”
Chapter 23
I have to wait two days before I finally hear Rob go out in his Land Rover. I know he’s reclusive and the thick snow on the ground is enough to deter anyone from going out but I’ve spent the last couple of days driven to distraction by my impatience. I’ve also been fretting in case Ivy discovers the keys are gone from her kitchen drawer.
But now the green Land Rover has finally rumbled out of the parking area and headed off towards town. This is my chance.
I grab the keys from where I’ve been hiding them, in the bottom drawer of my bedside table, and go downstairs quickly. If Ivy’s door is open, I’m not going to be able to enter Rob’s flat because she’ll see me. And even though she most likely wouldn’t tell Rob and would be all for me sneaking in there, I don’t want to make her complicit in my actions. What I’m about to do is illegal and Ivy is better off knowing nothing about it.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I get to the ground floor; Ivy’s door is closed.
Wasting no time, I stop in front of Rob’s door and select a key from the key ring. There are nine keys on the ring and I have no idea which one fits Rob’s door. It isn’t the first one I try, or the second, but when I insert my third choice, the lock clicks open.
Trying to be as quiet as I can, I go through the door and close it gently behind me. Rob has left his lights on so I don’t have any trouble descending the short flight of steps to the second door, which is already open, revealing the little basement flat beyond.
The place really smells unpleasant but I ignore that and cross the room to the bedroom door. It’s in here that Rob has his computer and desk and that’s where I’ve decided I’m going to start first.
The women on the walls
watch me as I go to the desk and try the top drawer. It opens. Inside, there’s a haphazard collection of wires and computer parts and a few balled up tissues. I don’t touch any of it and quickly move down the next drawer.
In here, there are more wires, fighting for drawer space with CDs of games and a couple of pairs of headphones. Closing the drawer, I feel frustration building inside me. I have to remain calm and methodical. It isn’t like I was going to find a signed confession in here or anything like that but Rob’s general untidiness made me think he’d be careless enough to leave something incriminating just lying around on display.
Now that I’m down here looking around, it’s obvious that he’s more careful than I’d thought.
Crouching down, I pull the bottom drawer open, expecting to see more bloody wires, and am surprised to find a black nylon zippered pouch. It feels so light when I take it out of the drawer that for a moment I think it’s empty. But when I unzip it, it opens to reveal a number of plastic inserts, each holding a memory card. The cards aren’t labelled in any way so there is no way of knowing what they contain. They might even be empty.
I can’t take the pouch if I want to keep my break-in a secret but maybe I can take one or two memory cards and they won’t be missed. I leaf through the plastic inserts and remove two cards from the rearmost page. Rob won’t notice they’ve gone unless he leafs through the inserts himself. I zip the pouch back up and close the drawer.
Standing up, I put the two cards into my pocket and wonder if I should look in the bedside table or the wardrobe next. Deciding to try the bedside table, I open the bottom drawer first this time.
Sitting in the drawer is a Disney pencil case. I pick it up and examine it. It’s pink and has pictures of the Disney princesses on its sides. It feels like there are a couple of pens and pencils inside. I open it and look at them. This is Caroline Shields’ pencil case and these are her things. Caroline was right in thinking Rob had stolen them from the flat.
So that confirms Rob is a thief but not that he’s a murderer. I close the drawer and check the top drawer which contains men’s magazines and various medications ranging from over the counter painkillers and cold remedies to another box of Valium that matches the one sitting on top of the bedside table.
There’s no collection of red ribbons, no trophies from the murdered women—unless you count Caroline’s pencil case—and nothing to link Rob to the murders on the moors. This is disheartening. I didn’t expect to find concrete evidence that proves Rob is the Red Ribbon Killer but I expected to find something, even if it’s just a tiny lead.
Unless the memory cards in my pocket reveal something useful, my illegal entry of Rob’s flat has been pointless.
The wardrobe is my only hope now but as I move towards it, I hear Rob’s Land Rover outside. Damn, I thought he’d be away for longer than this. Everything in the bedroom seems to be put back correctly so I leave the room and cross the living room to the door. I hear Rob slam his car door outside.
Rushing up the stairs, I pull the bunch of keys from my pocket. I can’t remember which one I used to get in here. I should have made a mark on it.
I get out into the hallway and close the door. Rob’s silhouette is visible though the frosted glass of the main entrance door, getting larger as he approaches the house. Leaving his door unlocked, I run for the stairs.
As I turn the corner and vault up the first two steps, I barrel into Mike. He falls backwards and drops the black bin bag he was carrying. “Whoa! Steady there!”
I stumble as I try to keep my balance but end up landing on my backside next to him. “Sorry. I didn’t see you.”
Rob is in the hallway now, going towards his front door.
Maybe he’ll think he forgot to lock up when he left.
Mike gets to his feet and picks up the black bag. He smiles at me. “I didn’t realise taking my rubbish to the wheelie bin could be so dangerous.”
I clamber to my feet. “I’m so sorry, Mike. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. How about you?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
He holds the bag aloft. “Good job I wasn’t carrying anything breakable.”
I hear Rob’s door open. He’s realised now that it wasn’t locked. Will he think he forgot to lock it or will he suspect something? There’s no way he hasn’t heard me and Mike on the stairs. Will he suspect us?
Mike finishes his descent of the steps and I begin the climb up to my floor. I hear Rob say to Mike, “Hey, have you been in my flat?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mike replies.
I hear him go outside to the wheelie bins and then I continue up to my flat.
Once inside, I lean against the door and let out a long sigh of relief. Rob might suspect that someone has been in his flat but he can’t prove anything. And the next time he goes out, I’m going to put the memory cards back where I found them. He’ll never know I was there.
But for now, I want to look at what’s on them.
There’s a card reader in my desk drawer. Fishing it out of there, I plug it into the computer and push one of the cards into it. A new folder appears on the computer screen, containing the data held on the card.
I open it.
Chapter 24
“No, I won’t authorise an investigation into Northmoor House,” Superintendent Brian Holloway says, throwing Dani’s report down onto his desk. “All you have here is supposition and fantasy.”
Dani groans inwardly. Even while she was writing the report to request that she and her team be given permission to investigate the tenants of Northmoor House—and possibly even get a warrant to search the place—she knew it was a long shot. Holloway likes to act on certainties, not suppositions, and she’ll be the first to admit that her theory is no more than supposition and seemed tenuous at best when she put it down on paper two days ago to hand in to the Super.
But that’s why she needs to look into it more deeply; to confirm her suspicions.
After not hearing a word from Holloway for two days regarding her report, she’d hoped he was considering its merits. But now that hope is dashed against the boulders of bureaucracy and Holloway’s pig-headedness.
“It isn’t even your investigation,” he says, obviously determined to expand upon his reasons for rejecting her request. “Jack Henson did a damn fine job with the Caroline Shields case and you’re saying he made mistakes.”
So it came down to this, did it? The old boys’ club? Holloway always had Henson’s back because they were both products of the same private school in Cambridge and shared stories about teachers there. “No, sir, I’m not saying that. DI Henson didn’t have the knowledge we have now regarding the Snow Killer. He was working in the dark because Caroline went missing before the Snow Killer came to light. I’m just saying that with hindsight—”
“So what am I supposed to tell the press? Hmm? That we thought this serial killer was beating us 4-0 but now we’re revising it to 5-0 because one of our Detective Inspectors has a hunch?”
“It isn’t a hunch, sir. It’s a logical deduction.”
“Logical deduction? You’re not Sherlock Holmes, Summers.”
“And this isn’t a football game, sir. If he’s killed five women, then that’s what we should report. We’re talking about people’s lives. There isn’t a scorecard.”
“There is in the papers. This so-called Snow Killer is making us look like fools. Perhaps if you spent more time on that case—the case you’ve been assigned to—instead of meddling in an old missing persons case, we’d be closer to catching the bastard.”
“If you read my report, sir, you’ll see how I believe the Snow Killer case may be related to the events surrounding Caroline Shields’ disappearance.”
“Yes, yes, I’ve read the report. Cars in the wrong place, Snow White wandering over the moors, bodies that can’t be buried in the frozen ground. It’s all very entertaining but there isn’t a single shred of evidence to support any of it. Do you have something to b
ack up these theories? Something concrete?”
“No, sir, that’s why I need to investigate further.”
He leans across the desk towards her. “What you need to investigate, Detective Inspector Summers, is the multiple murder case to which you have been assigned. If that case isn’t holding your interest, perhaps you’d prefer to be taken off it and assigned to something else.”
Dani’s heart sinks. She’s been working the Snow Killer case for so long now and has put so much work and time into it that she has to be there when the bastard is finally caught. “No, sir, I’d like to remain on my current case.”
He slides her report across the desk towards her. “Good, then we’ll have no more of this nonsense. Is that understood?”
She swallows her pride and nods. “Yes, sir.”
He sits back in his chair and puts his hands together, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. “That will be all, Detective Summers.”
She gets up and leaves his office. It’s a short walk along the corridor to the room where her team are working hard on the Snow Killer case. As she enters, Matt Flowers looks up from his desk and raises his eyebrows questioningly.
Dani shakes her head and rolls her eyes, a gesture she’s used many times after coming out of Holloway’s office.
She drops into her chair and wonders what her next move is going to be regarding the case. Despite what Holloway thinks, the Northmoor House theory was worth a closer look. But now she’s basically been told to stay away or lose the Snow Killer case.
Matt comes over to her desk. “No joy, Guv?”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“That bad?”
“Let’s just say we won’t be pursuing any lines of inquiry regarding Northmoor House or the disappearance of Caroline Shields.”
He slams his fist into his palm. “Bloody red tape!”
“Holloway is in charge, Matt. We have to respect that.”
He looks repentant of his outburst, embarrassed even. “Of course, Guv.”
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