Tania Carver - The Surrogate

She laughed. ‘Ooh, almost opened your eyes there.’

She jammed the bottle all the way in. Let it suck. It was good for it.

The sadness was still within her. She forced it away, along with the earlier rage. This was a time for mother and baby. A time for contentment. She had read that somewhere. She sat down in a chair. Sighed. It wasn’t like she had expected it to be. But then she had also read that it never was.

This was her new life, she told herself. She was a complete woman now. Wife. Mother.

‘This is me,’ she said out loud to the baby. ‘This is me. And look… I’m complete.’

The baby didn’t reply. Just lay there, slowly taking in milk but too weak to swallow, letting it run down its sickly yellow face.

Hester didn’t notice. Just smiled.

‘ It’s all wrong,’ said Marina. ‘Nothing fits.’

Phil joined the others in looking at her. He knew what they would be thinking: the profiler should stick to her day job, leave the police work to the professionals. He suppressed a smile at her nerve.

She continued, ‘I know I’m running to catch up at the moment. I haven’t visited the crime scene yet or spoken to anyone concerned. All I’ve done is read the case notes this afternoon. And I still haven’t delivered a profile.’ She waited. No one interrupted. ‘But based on what I’ve read about the previous deaths and what I’ve picked up about Ryan Brotherton, he’s not the killer.’

‘Why not?’ said Fenwick, his irritation palpable.

‘Because he’s a spousal abuser, not a killer. They’re two different things.’

‘He could be both,’ said Fenwick.

‘I’ll explain,’ said Marina. ‘For a spousal abuser, it’s all about isolating their partner, keeping them locked away from the rest of the world in order to control them. He’d want to injure her, yes, but not kill her. What good would she be to him dead? He wants her alive to keep tormenting her.’

The silence in the room became very uncomfortable.

‘Now, the baby…’ Marina paused. ‘And we’re assuming here that Claire Fielding, or rather Claire Fielding’s baby, was the subject of the attack… Well, most spousal abusers wouldn’t be happy that their partner was pregnant in the first place. They’re childish and needy and want attention. A baby will take that attention away from them.’

‘Wouldn’t that make them angry?’ said Anni.

‘Not that angry. Because the baby is still part of them. They’ll be jealous that the woman is carrying it, but they won’t try to harm it. And there are another couple of things. No links with the two previous murders-’

‘That we know of,’ said Fenwick. ‘Yet.’

‘That you know of,’ Marina said. ‘But there’s the fact that he drugged her first.’

Phil understood what she meant. ‘He would have wanted her to scream,’ he said. ‘Wanted her to suffer. The drug would have taken that away from her.’

Marina looked at him, smiled. Phil couldn’t help but return it. Then straight back to business.

‘Or he didn’t want her to wake up the whole block,’ said Anni.

‘There is that,’ said Marina. ‘Now, putting aside the baby for a moment, let’s look at what actually happened.’ She pointed to the photo of Claire Fielding’s body without actually looking at it. ‘Here is Claire Fielding. Tied to the bed, spreadeagled. Why?’

‘Ritual?’ suggested Phil.

‘That was my first conclusion,’ she said, almost looking at him once more. ‘But it seems to be more about control. She’s been injected with a drug to induce paralysis. As the post-mortem report said, whoever did this is not a professional. Therefore they didn’t know exactly how much of the drug was needed. If they got the dose wrong, the victim might scream or struggle. Kick. Hence the ropes.’

‘So…’ said Phil, ‘it wasn’t ritual, it was… what? Expedience?’

Marina nodded. ‘It could well be. And her legs had to be open because…’ She took a heavy breath.

‘He enjoyed it?’ said Phil.

‘Perhaps,’ said Marina. ‘It could be as simple as that. But it’s still an aspect of control, of subjugation.’ She checked her notes again. ‘Now what were the restraints made of?’

Phil consulted his own notes. ‘Rope. Thick, heavy-duty. We’re waiting on DNA.’

‘So he came prepared,’ said Marina. ‘He brought the knife and the rope.’

‘And the drugs,’ said Phil.

‘And the drugs.’

‘Well, what about the sex aspect?’ Fenwick’s voice was rising in pitch, getting clearly agitated. He looked to Phil like someone who had been told their birthday party had been cancelled.

‘Post-mortem states there’s no evidence of sexual activity.’

‘This still doesn’t rule Brotherton out, though,’ said Fenwick. ‘If he wanted to, I don’t know, show her who’s boss, couldn’t he do it by ripping the baby out of her? Wouldn’t that show her who’s in charge?’

The attention of the room turned back to Marina. ‘Put like that, I suppose it sounds plausible, yes,’ she said.

Fenwick held his arms up as if in triumph. ‘Well then.’

‘But it doesn’t sound likely. And then there’s the fact that it might not be a man at all.’

‘What?’ said Fenwick. ‘A woman?’

‘Why not?’

That was too much for Fenwick. ‘Because a woman isn’t physically capable of doing what this person did. And someone answering Brotherton’s description was seen in the area.’

‘Look at it logically,’ said Marina. ‘Who wants babies? Not men, women.’ She paused, continued. ‘I’m generalising. But you get what I mean.’

‘So it could be a big, angry woman,’ said Anni. Behind her, Fenwick shook his head.

‘It’s possible,’ said Marina. ‘There are a few documented cases of this kind of thing happening, but mainly in the States and always with some kind of personal connection. Partner leaves, takes up with a new woman, gets her pregnant. The spurned girlfriend takes revenge by cutting out the new baby.’

The room flinched en masse.

‘Could be a man,’ said Phil, almost thinking aloud, ‘doing this for a woman. Getting a baby for her.’

‘Brotherton,’ said Fenwick. ‘Doing it for his girlfriend.’

Marina sighed. Fenwick picked up on it. ‘Something to say?’

Marina said nothing, just kept her head down.

Fenwick nodded. ‘Good.’

Marina looked up. Phil saw the redness in her cheeks, the fire in her eyes. Knew she was about to unleash her Italian temperament. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I do have something to say. You asked me here to give my professional opinion and you’ve done nothing but talk over me and attempt to belittle me.’

Fenwick shrugged. ‘Yes, but a woman. I mean, please.’

‘I was brought here to provide a profile-’

‘Which you haven’t done yet.’

‘I’ve had less than a day here.’

Fenwick strode over to Marina. ‘We have a suspect.’

‘I was not brought in to rubber-stamp whatever you say.’

‘Don’t you want us to catch him?’

Marina looked him straight in the eye, didn’t back down. ‘I want you to catch the right person.’

Fenwick opened his mouth to say something else, but Phil was on his feet. ‘Sir.’

Fenwick turned.

Phil looked round to the others in the room. He didn’t want to do this but Fenwick’s actions had left him with no choice. ‘With all due respect, sir, I’m running this investigation and your comments aren’t helpful.’

Fenwick stared at Phil as if he wanted to punch him, but managed to control himself. He put his hand on Phil’s shoulder, steered him towards the door. ‘Come with me.’