Valentine

by Celina Grace

  “Nice one,” said Theo, grabbing two.

  “That means you have to make the coffee,” Kate said, grinning as he groaned.

  There was a call from Rav’s desk. “DNA report’s in.”

  Kate whooped and jumped up. “So, what’s the dice?”

  “Match. Definite match with the samples taken from Kiki Dee.”

  Kate whooped again in triumph. “Give it here, then. I’ll take it down to Mark.”

  She grabbed it from Rav’s hand and pounded for the door. “Wait, there’s more,” she heard Rav call after her, but there wasn’t time for hesitation. This could be just the thing Olbeck was waiting for, the piece of evidence that would force a confession.

  As luck would have it, she found him outside the interview room. Joel Hunter was in the room with his solicitor, enjoying – or not – a meagre supper of cheese and pickle sandwiches and the dishwater tea from the canteen dispenser.

  Olbeck smiled when Kate handed him the report. “Great stuff. Let’s see him argue his way out of this one.”

  Kate’s immediate elation was cooling rapidly. She had a nasty feeling that Joel Hunter would follow the most obvious path and give the excuse of nearly every sexual predator she’d ever encountered.

  “What’s up?” asked Olbeck, watching her frown.

  “Oh, nothing. It’s just – I just know what he’s going to say.”

  Olbeck looked grim. “Yeah, so do I. It was consensual, right?”

  “Right,” said Kate, with a sigh.

  Olbeck was silent for a moment and then patted her on the shoulder. “Well, we can but try. Leave him to me.”

  Kate nodded. She had been going to ask if she could sit in again on the interview but she realised then that she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to hear Joel Hunter tell them that Kiki Dee had willingly had sex with him. The arrogant bastard… Kate wondered how he’d explain the scratches on Kiki’s face and thighs. But then, they also had witnesses who could confirm that Kiki had willingly sat and chatted to the man for several hours and drunk champagne with him. Not that that should matter but, sadly, Kate knew very well that an able defence lawyer would leap upon that evidence like a cat upon a feather and bang would go Kiki’s credibility in one fell swoop.

  She climbed up the stairs to the office, feeling depressed. In some ways, the rape cases were harder than the murder cases. Two people’s words against each other, that’s what it mostly came down to. And the conviction rate was pathetic. She’d moaned about that to Olbeck once, and he’d pointed out, in his usual calm and reasonable way, that it was because the British justice system was mostly extremely robust and effective. “But—“ Kate had started and then stopped.

  Olbeck had sighed and said, “Yeah, but. I know how you feel.”

  Setting her jaw, Kate sat down at her desk. Now that she was here at work, she might as well get on with things. She picked up another copy of the DNA report the laboratory had sent back and sat down to read it but try as she might, her attention wandered. There was a little knot of anxiety in her stomach that she’d felt before on a case. Were they missing something – something important? And if so, what? And how on Earth could you find it, if you didn’t know what was missing? She found herself staring across the office, tapping her fingers on the edge of her desk in frustration.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kate was walking along the corridor at the station the next morning, lost in thought, when a roar from Anderton’s office just up ahead made her jump. A second later, he appeared in the doorway, brandishing a newspaper and looking furious. Kate was immediately in his line of sight – there was no escape.

  “What the bloody hell is this?”

  “Sir?” asked Kate, startled and confused.

  “Get in here, now.”

  Kate, by now seriously concerned, hurried forward. As she got to the office doorway, Anderton was already speaking angrily into the phone to someone who turned out to be Olbeck, who hurried into the office a minute later, looking worried.

  Anderton said nothing but spread the paper out on his desk before them both. Kate read the headline and gasped.

  “’Police missed chance to catch my rapist stalker’,” Olbeck read aloud in a horrified tone. “Dear God.”

  Kate was frantically scanning the text. Illustrating it all was a large colour photograph of Kiki Dee and a woman who was obviously her mother, both doing the obligatory tabloid ‘sad face’. Kiki was dressed in white, the bruising and scratches on her face in no way detracting from her beauty. Kate read on in disbelief, fragments of text jumping before her eyes. Bungled investigation. My cat was killed and left on my doorstep. There was a picture of Kiki’s house, the one she shared with all the other girls, which incorporated the street name sign. Wow, her fellow housemates were going to love that… Kate imagined a load of tabloid reporters camped on the doorstep, waiting to pounce on anyone brave enough to leave the house.

  “Why would she do this?” Kate asked, horrified and baffled. She read on. “’Kiki bravely waived her right to anonymity, as she believes this is a matter of public interest.’ What the hell?”

  Anderton was looking very grim. “The Chief Constable is going to have his boot up my arse over this one, mark my words. I’m expecting him to call any minute now.”

  Olbeck was shaking his head. “I don’t know – surely she’s making herself vulnerable to a libel case with this? We haven’t even charged Hunter yet, and quite frankly, I think we’re going to have to let him go, for now.”

  Anderton put his head in his hands. “Mark, Mark, tell me that’s not true. Can’t you charge him?”

  Olbeck slumped down in one of the office chairs. “He says that it was purely consensual sex between them and sticks to that. Just as you thought, Kate.” He looked over at Kate, who rolled her eyes. “I could apply for an extension to the questioning time.”

  “Do it. We can’t go releasing someone who might be a danger to society – or a danger to a vulnerable young girl – especially after this total shit-storm.” Anderton indicated the paper. “God knows what the IPCC would do if something else happens on our watch.” He tapped the article. “She won’t get sued for libel – she doesn’t name any names. They wouldn’t have printed it, if she had.”

  They all stared at the picture of Kiki. There didn’t seem to be much else to say.

  Once they were dismissed, Olbeck headed straight for his office to make the telephone call for the extension of custody. Kate trailed back to her desk. She was still shocked by the newspaper article, but the twist of anxiety that sat in her stomach was getting worse. The case was getting out of control, or so it felt. Or was it something else? She stared ahead, unable to put her finger on what it was that was making her so uneasy.

  She worked in a desultory way for an hour or so, feeling as though she was making no progress. At lunchtime, she gave up and decided to go outside for a short breath of air and to grab a pasty for lunch from the bakery.

  She was walking back into the station after her lunch break, crossing the reception area, when her attention was caught by a woman standing by the front desk, remonstrating with PC Boulton. Kate walked closer. The woman was thin, with straggling brown hair twisted up into a messy pony tail from which multiple wisps were escaping. She had the harassed look of a person with too much on their plate and not enough time to do it.

  “I said I’m sorry, but I know it’s not an arrestable offence,” she was saying irritably, to the superbly poker-faced Paul Boulton.

  Kate stepped up smartly. “May I help?”

  The woman turned. She looked both angry, embarrassed and defensive. “I was just saying that I know I should have left a note, but really, there wasn’t time, and I’m sorry, but it was just a cat—“

  Kate held up a placatory hand. “I’m sorry, Mrs—“

  “It’s Ms. Ms Greythorpe. Look, I don’t want to get into trouble, it’s just that I saw it in the paper this morning—“

  Kate managed to steer her toward
s a chair over towards the far wall, where it was a little more private. “Now, Ms Greythorpe, what seems to be the problem?”

  Ms Greythorpe took a deep breath. “Look. I saw that article in the paper this morning, about the girl who was raped.” She took another breath. “Poor thing,” she added, perfunctorily. “Anyway, I don’t know about all the rest of it, but the cat wasn’t killed by whoever was stalked her.”

  Kate blinked. “How would you know that, Ms Greythorpe?”

  The woman sighed irritably. “Because I ran it over. I’m really sorry, but it was a total accident. The stupid thing just ran out in front of me, there was nothing I could do.”

  “I see,” said Kate, trying to keep the disapproval from her voice.

  “Look, I know I should have run the doorbell and not just left it on the step, but I was in a real hurry and to be honest, I’d had such a day I couldn’t face having to deal with a tearful owner.” Ms Greythorpe folded her arms across her narrow chest defensively. “It was only a cat, after all.”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Kate unable now to keep the frost out of her voice. “Well, thank you for letting us know, that was public-spirited of you. How did you know where to leave the cat? Did it have a collar on?” She saw the woman nod, pursing up her mouth. “Well, thank you. We’ll need to take a short statement from you – I’ll just get one of my colleagues to help you. Please just wait here.”

  Walking back down to her office, Kate smiled rather grimly. All that fuss and it turned out that the cat had died naturally after all – just as Olbeck, come to think of it, had suggested when they’d first gone to Kiki Dee’s house when she’d reported it. The poor girl must have been very wound up by the delivery of the pig’s heart and just assumed the worst. Shaking her head, Kate sat back down and almost immediately jumped back up again. What was she thinking? The cat might have died accidentally but then what about the death threat? She could remember it word for word. You’ll end up like your cat, bitch. But then if nobody had killed the cat, what the hell was that message all about?

  Kate sat back down again, feeling her stomach knot. More than ever, she could sense that there was a big piece missing from this case, something that literally nobody had yet seen. What was it? She sat there for a few tense moments, chewing her lip. Then she reached for the DNA report on Kiki Dee, determined to read it through properly this time.

  Olbeck walked past her desk and she reached out an arm to stop him.

  “What’s up?”

  Kate told him about her conversation with Ms Greythorpe. She saw her own confusion mirrored in Olbeck’s face.

  “So if nobody killed the cat, who sent that death threat?” he asked.

  “Exactly,” said Kate. “Something’s not adding up here.”

  Olbeck frowned. “Look, I’ve got the extension to continue questioning Joel Hunter. I’m going down there now.” He rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. “Do you get the feeling—“ he began and then stopped abruptly.

  “What?” asked Kate.

  “Nothing,” he said shortly. He patted her on the shoulder and walked off.

  Kate watched him go. Then, frowning herself, she turned back to the report and began to read.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Kate. Kate. Hello? Anyone home?”

  Kate looked up with a start, suddenly realising that she was being addressed. “Oh, sorry, Sam. I was miles away. What’s the problem?”

  Sam Hollington sat down on the edge of her desk. “There’s no problem. I just wanted to let you know that we’ve traced that other message, you know, the one you’ve been asking about.”

  By now, Kate was fully awake. She felt a little ashamed of how she’d last spoken to Sam on that very subject. “Look Sam, I’m really sorry I was a bit snappy with you about that—“

  “No worries,” Sam said cheerfully, interrupting her. “Anyway, we’ve caught up on a few things now. That message, the threat to Kiki Dee, we traced it to a computer at the Abbeyford College.”

  Kate stared at him, her heart beginning to thud. “Seriously?”

  “Yep. Got the IP address and everything. It was sent from one of the computers in the library there.” Sam paused. “Are you all right?”

  Kate snapped out of the trance that she’d momentarily slipped into. “Fine. I’m fine. Thanks, Sam, that’s really helpful.”

  Sam stood up. “I’ll send the full report up shortly.”

  “Great,” said Kate, on autopilot. She stared blankly ahead as Sam left the office. Was what she thinking correct? Could she possibly be right?

  After five minutes, she got up and walked carefully to the door. Her heart was still thumping. Was it possible? She remembered that sense of uneasiness that had grown stronger by the minute. She remembered Joel Hunter saying in the back of the police car this is all wrong. Was it? Was she?

  By now, Kate had reached the floor where the interview rooms were located. She hesitated outside the one in which Olbeck was continuing to interview Joel Hunter. Then she took a deep breath and knocked.

  “Detective Sergeant Kate Redman has entered the room,” said Olbeck, looking at her quizzically. For a brief moment, Kate thought better of what she was going to say. Then she set her jaw and sat down next to her fellow officer.

  “I’ve got a couple of questions for Mister Hunter,” she said and then decided that rushing headlong into Olbeck’s interview was just too rude. “Actually, DI Olbeck, I’d like to have a quick word with you, outside? If I may?”

  Out in the corridor, Olbeck was still looking curiously at her. “Something’s happened,” he said. “What is it, Kate?”

  Kate took a deep breath. “I think Kiki Dee might be lying. I think—“ She broke off for a moment, aghast at what she was saying but knowing that she had to say it. “In fact, I’m pretty sure she is lying.”

  Olbeck’s eyes bulged. “Lying about the rape?”

  Kate nodded, biting her lip. “Yes. About all of it. The cat, the death threat, the rape.”

  Olbeck put a hand up to his forehead, ruffling his hair. “Care to tell me why?”

  “Of course.” Kate tugged on his arm, leading him towards the stairs. “But I think we need to tell Anderton at the same time.”

  “What the hell is this?” Anderton demanded, five minutes later.

  Kate sat up straight. Now that she came to say it out loud, her evidence had started to feel rather thin. But surely she was right? “I’m saying it’s a set-up. The whole thing. Not the pig’s heart, that was genuine – Ian Neely sent it to her like he did to the two other women, because he’s a weirdo and Kiki probably stood him up just like the other two women did, and that was his bizarre way of getting back at her. But that’s all that really happened. All the rest of it; the cat being killed, the death threat, the rape—“ Her voice faltered for a moment and she cleared her throat. “It’s all just a big set-up. Designed to get Joel Hunter into a whole heap of trouble.”

  Both Olbeck and Anderton were staring at her. Anderton’s gaze fell to the newspaper article, which Kate had spread out on his desk before she started to speak. Then he looked back at Kate.

  “Go on,” was all he said.

  “I don’t exactly know why she did it,” Kate said. “But I can probably have a good guess. Laura Ellis mentioned that Kiki had been abandoned by her father when she was young. I’d imagine that she’s probably quite damaged by that. She acts brash and confident, but underneath it all she’s vulnerable and needy. Probably unable to deal with rejection very well. So I imagine that if, for example, she’d had a brief affair with Joel Hunter and he’d then told her he can’t keep seeing her, because he’s married or for whatever reason he gave her, then Kiki’s not going to take that very well. She’s not going to take that at all.”

  “But,” said Olbeck in confusion. “I thought Kiki was gay. Isn’t she?”

  Kate shrugged. “She might be. But from the sounds of it, she went after Laura and then just as soon lost interest. Is it too much to think th
at she might have been doing that as a smokescreen? Just to make sure that nobody realised she and Joel Hunter were ever an item?”

  Anderton was shaking his head. “So you’re saying that she did all of this just to get him into trouble? What about the rape?”

  “There was no rape. She probably asked Joel to meet her out the back of Decadence for a quickie and then faked her injuries.” She brandished the DNA report. “You can read it here. They swabbed her nails for DNA, as is usual in a rape investigation. They did find skin underneath them. Her skin. Not Joel Hunter’s. The only DNA of his was found in her genital area, as you would expect if he’d had sex with her.”

  That shook them both, she could tell. Anderton reached his hand out for the report and leafed through it. “That’s not enough evidence to suppose what – what it is you’re saying,” he said in a low tone.

  “No, I know.” Kate smoothed her hair back from her face. “And believe me, I would not be making these accusations lightly. But we’ve got a witness statement that tells us that nobody killed the cat. The witness hit it with a car, completely accidentally, and returned its body to the house where it lived. If nobody killed the cat, then why did Kiki – and only Kiki – receive a death threat? A death threat that was sent from a computer at her college?”

  Both men were still staring at her. Olbeck said, after a moment, “But she was so distressed…”

  He trailed off. Kate rolled her eyes. “She’s a drama student, Mark. Probably the best in her class. She performs in front of a crowd for a living. I’m pretty sure that pulling this off would have been child’s play.”

  Olbeck looked upset. “God, if what you’re saying is true – Kiki is really disturbed.”

  Anderton snorted. “Disturbed? Bloody psychopathic, if you ask me.” He shoved his chair back from the desk decisively. “Right, here’s how we play this. Kate, go and interview Kiki. Tell her what you know and see if she’ll confess. Mark, get down to this Joel Hunter guy and tell him you know he had an affair with Kiki. See if he confesses. I’ll get the others to start pulling in any more evidence that we might have.” He stopped and shook his head, staring at the photograph of Kiki Dee and her mother. “You know, this makes a lot more sense now.” He indicated the picture. “Throw it all out in the open to make maximum trouble for the man.”