Tony Black - Murder Mile

Brennan stored the timing away, he was searching for a particle of optimism, but found none. He returned to the corpse, pointed to the doctor. ‘Give me that.’

Dr Pettigrew removed a pencil from his top pocket and handed it to Brennan. He leaned forward and slipped the tip of the pencil under the hem of the girl’s dress that was covering her face. The doctor was watching him as he withdrew the dress; it was stiff with dried blood.

‘Jesus,’ said Brennan.

‘Quite a sight, isn’t it.’

The DI scanned what was left of the victim’s features. Her face was no more than a mass of black ruptures and contusions. She had been beaten soundly, pummelled. The girl lay at an unnatural angle, ligatures at her neck seemed to have turned it too far from her shoulders. Her mouth, parallel to the ground, was slightly open — a clump of what looked like red cloth was stuck between her teeth. At first Brennan thought the skin of her face had been flayed, there was so much blood, but then he became aware of why: her eyes had been gouged out. The swelling had hidden the sockets, but he was sure the eyeballs had been removed.

‘Her eyes… are they?’ he said.

‘Removed,’ said Dr Pettigrew, ‘plucked out.’

Brennan shook his head, he didn’t want to stare at what was left of the girl’s face any longer. He returned the covering and stood up.

‘Can you hazard a cause of death?’

‘Take your pick, the broken neck or the abdominal punctures.’

Brennan returned to stare at the victim, her thin white arm protruded, seemed to reflect too much light. Only a few hours ago the girl was somewhere else, living her life. What had happened? How did a young girl, a teenager, turn up brutally murdered, hacked to death, in a field on the outskirts of Edinburgh? No matter how many times he had to encounter the bestial side of life and death, Brennan remained confused by it all. Each death, each life cut short, snuffed out, was another scar on his soul.

He turned back to Dr Pettigrew, pointed a finger. ‘I want that girl thoroughly looked at. What is that in her mouth?’

The doctor leaned back, crossed his arms over his chest and creased his narrow forehead as he bawled out. ‘We can’t get the red cloth, her jaw’s clamped on it. But, I’ll tell you this for nothing, Inspector… you have a seriously deranged psychopath on the loose.’

Outside the tent Brennan removed his blue shoe coverings and handed them to a passing uniform, stomped towards McGuire. The DS was leaning on the bonnet of the Passat, staring into the night sky. The wind caught Brennan’s coat as he pulled the rubber gloves from his hands, secreted them in his pocket. He stopped still for a moment, felt his shoulders tightening inexplicably, then he shook himself, buttoned his coat and approached McGuire.

‘What do you think?’ he said.

McGuire steadied himself on the bonnet of the car. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ He fastened his eyes tight, thin radial lines appeared at their edges. ‘It’s just deranged… utterly callous.’

Brennan moved round beside him, hitched his thigh on the edge of the car’s wing. ‘It looks… practised.’

‘What do you mean, sir?’

‘The ligatures, the hacked genitals and the eyes… it’s all specific.’

McGuire turned to face him, ‘You think this is pathological, like some kind of ritual?’

Brennan looked out to the field, there were more SOCOs arriving, directing photographers. ‘No, not ritual, more like a release. What I’m saying is, it’s systematic — and controlled — our killer knew what he wanted out of this.’

‘I hate to admit it, sir, but Pettigrew’s right then — we’ve got a psycho on the loose.’

Brennan eased himself off the bonnet of the car, the springs wheezed beneath him. ‘It’s more than that, Stevie, we’ve got a psycho who’s acted on his urges.’ He crossed the ground towards the car’s door. ‘And it’s down to us to stop him acting on them again.’

Neil Henderson watched the prison officer pack up his belongings, tipping the little plastic containers into the brown paper bag. He was sneering, the bastard was sneering at him, he thought.

‘Got something to say to me, pal?’ said Henderson.

The officer shook his head, dropped his chin onto his chest and jangled some coins into the bag. He looked to be enjoying himself too much, continued to sneer.

A spasm twitched on Henderson’s lip as he spoke, ‘No, come on, out with it.’

The officer closed a drawer, turned a key in the lock and then returned to Henderson’s possessions. The bag was full now, he rolled over the top, made it into a neat bundle then passed it through the chute. He was still sneering as he made a little wave through the glass. ‘See you soon, sunshine!’

Henderson double blinked. The muscles in his neck tightened, became firm rods. He wanted to punch the window, smack the screw bastard. They were all the same, screws and filth; just out to rumble you, give you a hard time. They got off on it. He spat out, ‘You’ll be fucking lucky!’

A laugh now, he was laughing at him. His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he spoke through the laughter, ‘Want to take a wee bet?’

Another screw came into the picture, a fat bastard with pools of sweat under his armpits, they were both laughing in sync. The one who called him sunshine rubbed his hands together, then pointed at his palm. ‘Could make a few quid at this, Drew.’

‘Yeah, yeah… Only this prick hasn’t got a penny. What’s he gonna bet with?’

The prison officer tugged at his earlobe, tilted his head and pretended to look thoughtful. ‘Have to go out and rob someone… Now there’s an idea, Hendy!’

Henderson inflated his chest, yelled, ‘Fuck off.’

‘That’s what you do, isn’t it?’

‘I said, fuck off.’

The other screw joined in, he leaned over the counter and widened his eyes, raised his voice. ‘Robbing and beating the shite out of innocent old punters. You followed him home from the bookies, didn’t you. Wonder if that old boy’s family will be waiting for you out there?’

The other one jumped in, ‘His son’s a rugby player, I heard.’

They were winding him up, just sticking the needle in. Henderson grabbed his belongings from the chute; the bag was bulky and the brown paper wrapping rustled loudly as he tugged it free. When he had the package under his arm he raised a single digit on his right hand and said, ‘Get fucked.’

The tone suddenly changed, the screws weren’t having a laugh any more. The big one pointed at him through the glass. ‘I hope you do, mate. I hope you get well and truly fucked, because you know what, you deserve it. You’re a fucking animal.’

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. You know fuck all about me.’

The screw nodded, his meaty neck quivered under his chin. ‘I know your type, fucking sure I do. And I know a leopard doesn’t change its spots.’ He leaned closer, got right up against the glass, ‘You’ll be back in here in under a month. How do I know that? Because you’re all the same. You’re scum, Henderson. Fucking trash.’

Henderson’s pulse raced, he dived for the screen, got close enough to face the screw but was yanked back by his shoulder, another prison officer turned him away. ‘Move it!’

The pair beyond the glass were still staring. What had started out as a bit of innocent patter had turned ugly. It always turned out like that, thought Henderson. ‘Get fucked the pair of you!’ he yelled.

‘I said move it!’ The screw poked him in the back.

Henderson thundered along the corridor, his heart was still beating hard. He wanted to attack the screws; he wanted to show them who he was, that he didn’t take that kind of shit from anyone. Least of all a couple of lard-arsed screws. He was Hendy the Leith boy; he was known. Folk knew that name, knew who he was. He wasn’t to be messed with.