Michael Fowler - Heart of the Demon

Michael Robshaw said. “Okay, I’m going to open things up. Firstly, have we got anywhere yet with the playing card found with Rebecca Morris, or these markings carved into the bodies stomachs?”

Hunter looked up from his papers and diverted his eyes towards the white melamine boards lined up at the front of the room. He particularly focussed on the blown-up photos of the killer’s signature on Rebecca’s and Carol Siddons’ abdomen. He couldn’t help but notice the contrast between the pale waxen flesh of Rebecca and the wrinkled parchment-like skin of Carol’s mummified body. It made the marks appear so different. He thought that Professor McCormack had done a magnificent job spotting them.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Isobel Stevens, an experienced detective with twenty-two years’ service behind her and who had joined the HOLMES team following the Home Office review arising from the mistakes of The Ripper Enquiry. She had been elevated to the role of Supervisor within a short space of time. She was generally the first to be called out whenever a new investigation required the HOLMES network to be set up.

She continued. “We know from all the enquiries that DC Sampson has made that they are not religious markings or anything to do with the occult. So could they be a code of some kind?”

Hunter tilted his head as he stared at the images, recalling what Isobel had just said. The puzzle the killer had left behind had been playing on his mind ever since the pathologist had highlighted it.

He swayed his head the other way to get a different view. Then it hit him. The flashback to earlier that morning when the ambulance appeared at his rear was the trigger. He recalled how that in his interior mirror he had been able to pick out the wording on the front of the vehicle because it was written in reverse.

“I’ve got it,” he couldn’t help but blurt out. Pushing himself out of his seat he made his way to the feature boards. He tapped the shots taken of Caroline Siddons torso. The marks were clearer on these.

“It’s a word, don’t you see?” He moved his finger right to left underlining the marks. The last digit is not a number three, it’s a letter E. It’s written facing backwards. And they’re not roman numerals they’re all letters. Look,” he continued tapping excitedly. “He’s carved the word EVIL backwards into these girls’ stomachs.”

Hunter saw that he had grabbed all their attentions.

“Bloody hell Hunter,” interjected Det Supt Robshaw, “I think you’re right.”

A silence ensued around the table.

It lasted a good ten seconds then Isobel piped up. “So is the killer saying he’s evil, or the girls are evil?”

Hunter tapped his chin; pondering. “I think he’s saying the girls are evil. That’s why he did to them what he did. Just think about it, Carol Siddons was taken into care and within a month or two had completely changed character. Her background statement describes her as a drunken, violent and promiscuous girl. She had become known as a girl with a bit of a reputation. And then Rebecca,” he aimed a quick glance at the school photo of her. “We know from her best friend Kirsty Evans that Rebecca wasn’t the sweet innocent girl we have pictured here. She’d become a bit of a rebel the few weeks prior to her death. In particular she’d started flirting with older lads to an extent she’d get them worked up to expect sex and then she’d push them away and embarrass them. If we surmise that the killer got to know that side of their characters then maybe in his twisted little mind he saw them both as evil and needed to be punished.”

Hunter returned to his seat.

“Okay,” said the Detective Superintendent rubbing his hands together. “Well done Hunter, you’ve convinced me with that explanation, unless anyone has another interpretation.”

The detectives around the tables all looked at one another. A few shrugged.

The SIO looked along the sea of faces. “So what’s the significance of the playing card? The seven of hearts found on Rebecca Morris’s body, yet none found with Carol Siddons.”

Blank stares faced him back.

“We don’t actually know there was no card with Carol’s body,” returned Hunter. “Quite a lot of earth had been removed around her before the digger uncovered her remains. It could still be amongst the waste we’re sorting through.”

The team nodded in acceptance of Hunter’s response.

There was further silence for a good thirty seconds then Detective Superintendent Robshaw said, “Right, the playing card issue is one we need to think about for future briefings.” He leaned forward, clasping his hands together into a ball “And I don’t need to remind you all that what we discuss here doesn’t get to the press. The playing card and the markings on the body we keep to ourselves, okay?”

There was a nod of acknowledgment from the team.

The SIO unclasped his hands. “Right let’s move on. Isobel give us a rundown of what we have so far.”

Isobel dropped her paperwork onto the desk and lifted a pair of reading glasses, hanging from a cord around her neck, onto the bridge of her nose.

As Hunter listened and watched Isobel he couldn’t help but notice that over the years, at every new investigation, she seemed to have put on extra pounds, and he couldn’t help but think that her pudgy features made her appearance look older than her forty years. He guessed it was down to all the constant deskwork and long hours, only able to grab fast food and in-between snacks, to fuel her working day.

She cleared her throat and began to read slowly through the pages of summary, occasionally pausing to cross reference with the two timelines to confirm sightings and evidence. She began with Carol Siddons affirming that her mother Susan had last seen the fourteen-year-old schoolgirl, on the twelfth of October 1993, after making an unofficial visit from school to her mother’s house, instead of going back to the residential care home where she had been placed by the courts.

“Carol spilled tomato sauce on her school clothes and so her Mum loaned her a pair of jeans and a cardigan and saw her to the bus stop at half past nine. She left her at the bus stop and that is our last sighting until her body is discovered on the old Manvers Coking plant site ten days ago. Now this is where we have had a real breakthrough. A PC Paul Goodright, who used to work here in Barnwell CID back in nineteen-ninety-three, has come forward following the Crimewatch appeal. It appears that on that night he had his CID car nicked whilst he was out on enquiries and that was found by a passing dog walker on fire on the dirt track behind the Coking Plant. The Fire brigade put out the fire and PC Goodright recovered a cardigan from the back seat of the CID car.”

“I remember that.” interjected Hunter feigning amazement, as though this was all fresh news to him. “I was working that night. I went out with Paul after the Fire Brigade called in with the news. Scenes of Crime were called but the car was badly smoke damaged and they didn’t manage to lift prints or anything unfortunately. The car had also got some front-end damage and there had been a fatal hit and run that same night. We’re certain it hit a car being driven by the boyfriend of Paul Goodright’s sister. The boyfriend was killed and she was badly injured in that crash. In fact it confined her to a wheelchair. He was trapped inside when it burst into flames. The gaffer at that time, DI Jameson, encouraged the Traffic Officers, who were investigating the accident, not to make the link with the CID car. I think he was going for promotion at the time and he thought it might affect his chances. Back then having the embarrassment of one of his department’s cars being nicked and linked with a fatal was not a sign of good leadership.”