Angel of Death

by Anna-Marie Morgan

  "Nobody."

  "Really? You're sure of that?"

  "Yes. We never divulged the source, though we may have to at the councillor's trial. Wait, do you think he's involved? Do you think these attacks could be some sort of revenge?"

  "He was in custody when Krysta was murdered." Yvonne refrained from saying anything further, aware that Dai was looking into the ex-councillor and his connections and she planned on interviewing Evan Jones later that day.

  "Hmm." Ed rubbed his chin.

  "I've got to go now, Ed, but I will keep you informed. We are doing everything in our power to find Eva."

  Ed got up. "If we don't find her soon..." His voiced tailed off.

  Yvonne nodded. "I know."

  Evan Jones had a washed-out pallor, save for the red nose and cheeks which suggested he might be a spirit drinker. He looked older than his fifty years and his nose bore two deep indents from his glasses. He regarded her with disdain.

  "Thank you for coming in to see us, Mr Jones. I know you have had a busy time with police and courts in recent months and I realise that this is likely adding to your stress."

  He inhaled deeply before replying. "Well, they say that once you come onto police radar, you are always under scrutiny, don't they?"

  "I've no idea. It's not true, in any case." Yvonne sighed. "I've asked you here to enquire about your whereabouts last Friday night, and in the early hours of Saturday morning." She was referring to the night Eva Wilde went missing, though she did not want to specify that.

  "I was at the local, sinking several pints."

  "Where's your local, Mr Jones?"

  "The Red Lion. I live in Berriew village." He frowned, as though she should know that the Red Lion was his local.

  "Can anyone verify your presence at the pub?"

  "Ooh, let me see... Only about ten people including the landlord." He grinned at her, but there was no warmth in it.

  "I see."

  "Can I go now?"

  "What can you tell me about the hack of your emails?"

  "Nothing. I'm facing trial for corruption. You know that. Anything I say could prejudice my case."

  "Do you know who perpetrated the hack?"

  He shook his head. "Only that it was a bunch of environmental protestors. Why? Do you know who did it?"

  "I'm asking you the questions, Mr Jones." Yvonne sat back in her chair. "When does your trial begin?"

  "August."

  "Do you know anything about the murders of Krysta Whyte, Terry Lloyd, Robert Griffiths and Sarah Jones?"

  "There you go." He hissed air through his teeth. "A bunch of protestors hack my emails and get me accused of corruption, and I murder a pile of them just to get my own back because that's what I would do, wouldn't anyone?" He sneered at her.

  "There's no need to take that tone, Mr Jones."

  "Stop calling me Mr Jones. My name is Evan."

  "Evan."

  He sighed, taking her by surprise. His voice became softer. "Look, whatever else I may or may not have done, I'm not a killer. I don't have a violent bone in my body. Whatever anger I felt against the people who hacked my email account, it would never have spilled into anything physical. Ask anyone who knows me. I drink more than I should and take anti-depressants like they're smarties. I never go out, except to the pub. I shop online. I don't hurt people or want anyone else to hurt people. I want my life back. So, I'll answer the questions I have to, and I'll do whatever penance is meted out to me. Then I'll try to get a semblance of normal life back. That's it. Take it or leave it."

  Her instincts told her he was sincere. It was enough to convince her she should look elsewhere.

  Dai came running down the stairs to greet her as she finished in interview room one.

  "Ma'am, Serena Wells is on the phone for you."

  "Right. Thanks, Dai."

  Yvonne took the stairs two at a time, before getting her breath back and picking up the call. "DI Giles."

  "Hello. It's Serena Wells, CEO of Futurecon. I understand you wanted to speak with me. Sorry I cannot come to the station. I'm on my way to Paris for an energy conference. What did you want to speak to me about?"

  "I wanted to ask you about the public spat you had with Jake Bannerman and the attempts to bribe councillors for land permissions."

  Seconds passed.

  "It's business, Inspector. It happens. Jake Bannerman got annoyed because he assumed he would get the rights. He saw himself as the only one ruthless enough to get the upper hand. I beat him to the rights. Did he tell you that?"

  "I haven't spoken to him about it, yet. I wanted to ask you if you identified the individual who hacked your emails to Evan Jones and what you did when you found out that your private communications had become public."

  "I was angry. What more can I say? I wasn't given the name of the hacker, if I had, I'd have given them a piece of my mind."

  "Did you learn anything at all about the hack?"

  "Well, only that it comprised a team of environmentalists. To be honest, this sort of thing is par for the course in business. There is always someone trying to get inside information. If it's not protestors, it's rival companies. At first, I suspected Jake Bannerman as being behind the hack."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, until I found out that his emails had also fallen victim, and contained material far more incriminating than mine."

  "Did they?"

  "I'm no saint, Inspector Giles. I do what I need to, to survive. There are things I've done which do not make me proud, but I try to be as ethical as I can and I don't set out to hurt or mislead anyone. The money I offered to councillors was supposed to speed up the land deals, not make them happen. The faster these things move, the less expensive they end up. That saving can be passed to consumers."

  "And increase dividends to shareholders."

  "That, too."

  "Ms Wells, as you will be aware, four protestors were murdered, and another is missing. Have you or anyone in your security team seen the missing woman?"

  "Eva Wilde?"

  "Yes."

  "Only on the Welsh news on the BBC."

  "We are concerned about her welfare."

  "If it helps, I am, too, though I am not impressed with the scores of people wandering all over our sites looking for her."

  "The public are trying to help and, on our own, we can't spare the manpower to search large swathes of Mid-Wales."

  "I just hope they do no damage, Inspector, as I suspect you wouldn't be up for paying for it if they did."

  Yvonne sighed. "Eva could be in real danger. If you hear anything, please get in touch."

  "I will."

  "Thank you." Yvonne clicked the phone down, her head banging. Why was everything always so difficult?

  32

  Time running out

  Eva's head lolled forward as sleep threatened to overtake her. She'd been fighting it, feeling that to give in to sleep would be to give up on life. She had tried calling out to someone. Anyone. But her gag and the wind made the whole effort futile, even if there had been a person able to respond. She didn't know where she was and wished her would-be killer had at least taken the blindfold off.

  She wondered how long it had been since he had nailed her to the tree, but pain and sporadic consciousness made time a nebulous entity. The light seeping through her blindfold suggested it was still daylight, the only thing she could be sure of.

  Although not hungry, she had a raging thirst. When fever took over, she thought he had returned and was pouring water into her mouth, even felt it going down. As the fever abated, she realised in distress, there was no water and her thirst was worse than ever.

  For the first time she considered the real possibility she would die. Not that she hadn't thought she might before, but this time she considered dying without a coexisting hope that someone would find her. She knew she was somewhere remote. She hadn't heard a single vehicle since he left. No sounds at all, in fact, save the wind in the trees.

&
nbsp; Eva thought of Yvonne Giles, the tenacious Inspector she had spoken to in the days before her would-be killer abducted her. She pinned her hope to the image of that police officer. As she fell asleep, it was Inspector Giles Eva was seeing.

  "Yvonne, they've found the mallet!" Dewi came running in and grabbed hold of her arm. "The search team on Tunicliffe's land found a mallet, hidden under a fallen tree in a stream close to where Eva was last seen."

  The DI's eyes flicked from side-to-side as she contemplated this new development. "Right, let's get it checked for prints. If this is our killer's weapon, we get his prints, we get him."

  “SOCO are on it, ma'am. They're expediting the results and we should hear as soon as they get an answer."

  "Great. Have uniform go to Ryde Hall and keep an eye on Emmanuel Tunnicliffe. If SOCO don’t get anything from the mallet, we should still interrogate him and his gamekeeper, Tindall."

  "Right."

  An hour later, and SOCO were on the phone. They identified the only prints found on the mallet as Eva Wilde's. The killer, if the mallet were his, had worn gloves.

  "Well, it's disappointing." Yvonne sighed. "But, at least we know that Eva held the mallet. What if she had somehow grappled it from the killer and hid it so he couldn't use it on her?"

  "It's plausible." Dewi nodded. "In that case, what happened to her? And where is she? Is she hiding out?"

  "Is the search ongoing down there?"

  "It is."

  "Good. She may still be in that wood. I want Ryde Hall and it's outbuildings searched. I'll get the DCI to request an urgent warrant. The fact they found a mallet on Ryde Hall land with Eva's prints all over it, should be enough. Also, check with Ed, in case Eva took the mallet with her. If she did, I would still want a search of Ryde Hall conducted, we'll just know that mallet is not the killer's. We'll need to know if DNA is found on the mallet head, too."

  "On it, ma'am."

  "Tasha, what you said about the killer watching his victims die..." Yvonne ran her hands through her hair.

  "What are you thinking?"

  "That, if Eva has fallen prey to the Angel of Death, he'll want to watch her die. I'm thinking we could follow Tunicliffe and Tindall. See where they go. If one or both of them is responsible, and we arrest them on suspicion, Eva could pass away before we ever find out where she is."

  "What if she's dead already?" Tasha frowned.

  "A possibility, I agree, but with no corpse discovered yet, I am hoping she's still alive. Dewi and Callum can tail Tunicliffe, while we locate and follow his gamekeeper, Tindall. What do you say?"

  "Will we have backup?"

  The DI nodded. "I'll speak to the DCI about permission to have a team on standby. The helicopter, too, in case we have a casualty in need of urgent medical help. By now, uniformed search officers will be working their way through Ryde Hall outbuildings. Eva might be in one of them.”

  Tasha nodded. "We can't discount that she may have had an accident and is lying somewhere in the sheds."

  Dewi met her at the gates of Ryde. "Tunicliffe isn't here, and neither is his gamekeeper."

  "Really?"

  Dewi put his hands on his hips. "The search of the buildings is well underway, they're using bolt cutters to open some of the sheds."

  "Locked?"

  "Yes, probably to keep burglars out, but, who knows?"

  "Is Tunicliffe's Land Rover here?"

  "No, ma'am."

  "All right, we'll head down to Tindall's place, anyway. It's just possible Tunicliffe is there. Can you follow us down when you're ready?"

  "Will do."

  Yvonne headed back to Tasha, who was waiting for her next to the car. "Come on, we’re going to-"

  "Yvonne?" Dewi came running out of the gates towards her.

  "What is it?"

  "They've found a pot in one shed that looks like someone has used it for making home-made glue."

  "Rabbit glue?"

  "Possible."

  "Tasha, a change of plan. Let's go investigate. Dewi, are SOCO here?"

  "No, ma'am."

  "Can you request them ASAP and have them get a sample of the glue to the lab as soon as?"

  "Will do."

  "Clear all non-essential personnel from the shed, until SOCO arrive."

  "Okay, will do. Oh, one more thing, ma'am, the DCI is on his way."

  Yvonne pulled her mobile from her pocket. Two missed calls from Llewellyn. "Okay, Fine. Tell him we've gone to Tindall's cottage."

  Tindall wasn't home, and neither was his pickup. Yvonne pursed her lips, hands clasped together on the top of her head. "Damn."

  "What do we do now? Go looking for him?"

  "We must. If that pot held rabbit glue, then either Tunicliffe or Tindall is our man. Who knows, maybe they are both involved? Either way, Eva needs us. While there is hope, we can't stop."

  "How close are we to where Eva was last seen?" Tasha's eyes skimmed the surrounding trees.

  "They found the mallet with her finger prints about a quarter of a mile that way," Yvonne said, pointing in the direction leading from behind the house.

  Tasha rubbed her forehead. "If I'm right, and the killer likes to watch his victim's die, he'll have taken her to a place with little chance of being disturbed. There are police all over. He wouldn't risk being stopped with an incapacitated girl in his vehicle, so it will be close."

  Yvonne considered this. "You're right. Let me see, there's a place, up at the Kerry Ridgeway, near to here and above the place where we found Krysta's body. When we attended that scene, we left the police vans in a dirt area next to a gate. There was a big yellow sign telling the public to keep out. I saw the name of a utility company on the sign. I remember it was a water company. It's remote up there. The boundary of Tunicliffe's land is somewhere along that ridge."

  "Shall we go have a look?"

  "Let's do it," Yvonne called, running back to the car whilst checking her cuffs and mace were in her pocket.

  Eva woke to find that she had thrown up all over herself. She heaved and turned her head to vomit again. The sound of a vehicle in the distance ignited hope in her. She stretched her neck as far as she could, trying to get the driver's attention. As it grew closer, she recognised the throaty, diesel engine and that small spark of energy dissipated as fast as it was generated. My God, he was coming back.

  The engine died, and the door opened and shut. Heavy boots strode towards her, before he ripped off her blindfold. The light blinded her, her eyes blinking, trying to focus as they streamed from the dust in the wind.

  Towering above her, head tilted, he surveyed his handiwork. In his right hand, he twirled a feather between his fingers in front of her face.

  "You." She spat the word, shaking her head. Her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. She took a moment to free it. "I should have known it was you." She didn't want to look at him anymore. She knew why he was here. He was here to finish it.

  "This is my place. You and your kind come camping out here, throwing your weight around. You don't care that we are doing the same things as we've done for centuries. Well, I'm not one of your new men. I don't cry and I don't hug trees. I work this land, the way it's been worked since the beginning of time. If I need to kill or maim, I do it. It's nature's rules."

  "Psychopath," she muttered under her breath.

  "That's not very nice, is it?" He pulled her head back by the hair, the fingers of his stiff leather glove chafing her scalp.

  "You're sick. You need help." Her voice took on a softer tone as though to calm him.

  "You lot lack manners, do-"

  The sound of a car in the distance stopped him in his tracks. He let her go, stilling to listen. The car had stopped just short of their position.

  Eva strained to see, it sounded like the vehicle was just below where they were, about a thousand yards away. She held her breath, her head stinging where he had pulled her hair.

  "They're coming for you," she hissed at him.

  He str
uck the side of her head. "Quiet."

  His chest heaved as he pulled a knife out of his pocket, crouching to press it against her throat.

  "Not a sound." He rasped, as his free hand once more gripped her head by the hair. He turned, as though he expected someone to arrive at any moment.

  Whoever it was in the car, they had not yet broken the horizon.

  33

  Showdown

  As they closed the car doors, Tasha came around to join the DI. "Okay, what now?" she asked in a low voice.

  "We find a place where we can look without being seen. We're fine behind this hedge, but if the killer is there and sees us first, we're in trouble."

  "Fine. There's a gate just along there."

  "Great. Keep low."

  They made their way along the hedgeline to a metal gate and crouched. Tasha stayed behind Yvonne as the DI inched her face forward enough to get a view.

  "Anything?"

  "No. I can't see anyone. On the other side of the field there's another hedge, and trees beyond that. We should stay low and make our way to that second hedge."

  "No problem. I'll be right behind you."

  The field was dry, well-grazed and littered with black nuggets of sheep dung. Neither Yvonne nor Tasha cared.

  As they reached the hedge they heard voices. The DI turned to Tasha with a finger to her lips, whilst signalling with the other hand to keep low.

  They listened but there was no further sound. They crept along the hedgeline until the DI found a hole large enough to give her a view.

  She put a hand to her mouth.

  "Are they there?" Tasha whispered.

  "Yes. Jesus, it looks like Trevor Tindall. He's got Eva."

  "Is she alive?"

  "I'm not sure. Wait, I'll call for backup. She’ll need medical treatment, if she is and we’ll need help.”