Barry Maitiland: Spider Trap

In a way,she owed the fact that she worked for Brock to Martin Connell, with whom she was having an affair when Brock had first taken an interest in her. It was the reason he had. Connell represented the wealthiest, the most celebrated, the most notorious of criminal clients.With Martin Connell on your side you knew that no defence weapon, however dubious or unscrupulous, would be overlooked.You also knew that when you were found not guilty, few would believe it was true, although they would wonder who your friends were.

He had put on a few pounds, she thought, due no doubt to many excellent meals with his beautiful wife Lynne, and her father, retired Judge Willoughby, and their four talented children, now at university she supposed. The sheer foolishness of the affair pressed in on Kathy as she studied him, but also the emotional force of it, even after all this time-because for her, at least, it had been very serious indeed. She wondered if he still made use of his friend’s flat, the one with the sleazy bedroom with the mirror on the ceiling.

He was engaging in some initial skirmishing with Savage, points of clarification and procedure. Vexx sat beside him, massive arms crossed, eyes hooded, gold cargo glinting beneath the lights. Finally Savage began the questions.

‘Do you know this girl?’ he asked, showing Vexx a picture of Dee-Ann. Vexx barely dipped his eyes to look at it. He gave a grunt.

‘Please answer the question, Mr Vexx.’

‘Chief Inspector, a point of accuracy, if you please,’ Connell intervened.‘My client’s correct name is Mr Teddy Vexx, as a single appellation. To call him Mr Vexx is a bit like me referring to you as Inspector Savage, rather than Chief Inspector Savage.’

Savage stared at him for a moment with a look of loathing that registered vividly even on the small screen. ‘Thank you, Mr Connell.’ He turned back to Vexx.‘Do you know this girl?’

Vexx shrugged.‘I don’ know. I don’ remember.’

‘I’m talking about within the last seventy-two hours, Mr Teddy Vexx. Have you seen this girl within the past seventy-two hours?’

‘No, I don’ think so.’

‘Please think very carefully. She was found dead early on Friday morning. Did you see her during Thursday night or Friday morning?’

Vexx shrugged and shook his head.

‘Is that a no?’

‘Yes, it’s a no.’

‘Then I wonder if you can explain how your semen was found in her mouth.’

Martin Connell, who had been pretending an interest in his paperwork, looked up at that, a quizzical arch to one eyebrow. Vexx remained impassive.

‘How can you explain that, Mr Teddy Vexx?’ Savage repeated.

There was silence, then Connell began to say something, but Vexx held up a massive hand and he fell silent. They waited a moment,then Vexx said,‘Maybe I did see her-’

Connell broke in, ‘Don’t answer, Teddy. I’d like a break to consult with my client.’

But Vexx went on,‘I picked up a woman, maybe one or two o’clock on Friday morning. But I don’ remember her face.’

‘Teddy,’ Connell tried to insist, but Vexx ignored him.

‘Where was this?’

‘Camberwell, I don’ know exactly.’

‘What happened?’

‘She waved down my car. She wanted money for sex. I gave her a few quid an’ she gave me a blow job. I didn’t look at her face. She got out an’ I drove away.’ He turned to Martin Connell and shrugged, as if to say,What else can one do?

Savage stared at him for a moment.Then he said,‘Were there any witnesses?’

‘Yes, my business associate, Mr Jay Crocker.’

‘Mr Jay Crocker witnessed this?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Where was he?’

‘Why, in the car. He’ll tell you.’

‘We’ll want to examine your car.’

‘What’s to examine? She was in the car, man, for maybe two minutes.’

They saw Savage take a deep breath.‘I want a complete account of your recent movements. Let’s start with the night of Thursday last, the third of February . . .’ But they heard the fading confidence in his voice.

Ten minutes later Brock shook his head with disgust and got to his feet. Kathy followed him out the door. As they walked silently back to the incident room, Brock’s phone rang. He listened for a while then turned to Kathy. ‘It’s Bren. They’ve found the remains of a second body on the railway land. Let’s take a look.’

Bren Gurney, dressed in a thick coat and green boots and a beanie pulled down over his ears, was waiting on Mafeking Road to show them the way. The scene of crime people had taken over one of the empty warehouses behind the railway waste ground and had dismantled the rear fence to provide access onto the site. There were half a dozen vehicles parked in front of the building and as they tramped down its side they had to step back against the wall to let a truck, laden with snow, drive out.

‘One and a half acres,’ Bren said as they emerged onto the waste ground.‘Biggest crime scene I’ve ever been involved with. They’re trying to get more people.’

The area that Kathy and McCulloch had reached from the other direction was now unrecognisable, scraped clear of snow and bracken and gridded with tapes. Two tents had been erected, and across the rest of the site figures were bent shovelling snow and working with survey instruments.

Bren, a big, soft-spoken Cornishman who had been a part of Brock’s team from the beginning, led them towards one of the tents.‘They found it around lunchtime, about five yards from the first. Similar situation, shallow grave formed in a natural hollow. We’re calling them Alpha and Bravo for the time being.’

He lifted the flap and they stepped inside. Two people were working beneath lights in a pit in the ground, a third watching from the edge. This man came over and Bren introduced him as the Crime Scene Manager from Forensic Services.

‘This one’s in very much the same condition as the first,’ he said. ‘The remains have been disturbed, possibly by animals, and we weren’t sure initially if this was part of the same corpse, until we found the skull.’

Brock raised an eyebrow and the man nodded,pointing a finger at his own forehead.‘Yes,exactly the same,like an execution.Back of the skull fractured by the exit. No bullets found as yet. Most of the clothing has rotted away, but we’re finding bits-a belt buckle, buttons,remains of a shoe.’He squinted out through the door of the tent.‘It’ll be dark soon, and more snow is forecast, but we’ll keep going as long as we can. The press have been sniffing around, of course.’

‘No more indication of age, gender, race?’

The man shook his head. ‘You’ll have to talk to the pathologist.We certainly haven’t found any kind of identification.’

Brock thanked him and they returned to the warehouse, where material brought in from the site was being processed through wire-mesh sieve trays set up on trestle legs, then recorded and stored in labelled plastic boxes. A large map of the site was pinned to the wall, with a numbered grid drawn over it.

‘Sundeep’s going to have his work cut out,’Bren said.‘He was here earlier, with two of his assistants.’

‘What do we know about the schoolboy?’

‘Adam Nightingale? Only child, lives with his mother, no father. A bit of a nerd, we’re told. Chess and computer geek, hopeless at sports, just one friend we could find.’

Brock said, ‘Weren’t you supposed to be taking your girls somewhere today, Bren?’

‘Tobogganing.We did a bit this morning, then I got the call about the second body. It’s okay.’

‘Well, go back to them now. I’d better see if I can arrange a press conference here for noon tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can put your feet up.You too, Kathy.’