Michael Fowler - Heart of the Demon

“Well,” continued Isobel, “It seems PC Goodright recovered a cardigan from the back of that car and booked it in as evidence. He’s taken the trouble to search through old property at Headquarters and found the cardigan. It’s still sealed in its original bag and labelled and it’s been identified by Susan Siddons as the same cardigan she loaned her daughter Carol on the night she went missing. That’s on its way to Forensics as we speak.”

“That is good news” said the Superintendent elatedly. “This could be the breakthrough we’ve been looking for.”

Hunter lowered his head and smiled. Paul and Barry Newstead had come good.

“Now to Rebecca Morris,” continued Isobel. “As we know she was last seen walking towards a bus stop five hundred yards from her home, in school uniform. That sighting was at five to eight on the morning of the sixth of July — three weeks ago. Her body was discovered the next day in the barn of a derelict farm near to Harlington, four miles from her home. There are no sightings during this time and we are as happy as we can be that the man who discovered Rebecca’s mutilated body was not involved in her murder. The man who found her states he thought he heard someone running from the back of the farm and then a van or car driving away. We have no description of a person or vehicle.”

Isobel followed the line of her finger down the summary, glancing up from time to time as she spoke to see if the others were following. “When Rebecca’s body was discovered she had on jeans and a T-shirt. We have not found her school uniform, or the school bag she was seen with, or her mobile phone. A close friend of Rebecca’s, Kirsty Evans, states that Rebecca hinted that someone older had been chatting her up, phoning her, and asking if he could photograph her. Kirsty says the impression she got from Rebecca was that this guy was older, more than likely a young man as opposed to a teenager.”

She paused again and looked over her glasses at everyone studying her paperwork “And finally our only suspect at this time, Steve Paynton. Steve was the partner of Carol’s Mother, Susan, and we know from what she has said that Steve was physically abusing the pair of them and when he was arrested he had in his possession indecent images of Carol when she was very young. He also had almost a hundred other indecent photographs of children, none of which were of Rebecca. So although we can link him to Carol, we cannot link him to Rebecca at this time. As we know both Carol and Rebecca were killed by the same weapon and the moulding taken from the wounds, which has come back from the Forensic team is pointing us to a Bowie type knife. Extensive searches have now been carried out at all the locations where we know Steve Paynton has lived over the past thirteen years and we have not found anything similar, or anything relating to Rebecca.” Isobel paused again removed her spectacles and sat back. “That brings us up to the present,” she said picking up her paperwork and tapping it neatly together on the tabletop.

The Detective Superintendent looked up from his copies of the documents and leaned forward. “Okay, thanks for that Isobel,” he began. “Next steps.” He raised his eyes to the ceiling for a second and then returned his gaze. “The matter playing on my mind is the time gap between the killings. So whilst we have teams going over the background stuff of the two girls, we now need to concentrate on some of our old cold casework. Are there any other unsolved murders out there, which could be connected to ours? We also need to focus on the killer or killers. What have they been doing or where have they been during the past fourteen years. We need to make enquiries with prisons and the probation service, to see if we can come up with any likely candidates. We have a lot of tasks to be getting on with and with limited resources so Headquarters have approved me taking on more staff to help.”

Hunter’s ears pricked up and immediately seized on the opportunity. “Can I make a suggestion Boss?”

The Superintendent nodded.

“You’re probably aware that Barry Newstead, ex-CID, was instrumental in pointing us in the direction of Carol Siddons, when her body was discovered.”

Michael Robshaw nodded again.

“Well what you might not be aware of is that when she was originally reported missing, Barry was the only person who believed what Carol’s mum was saying, and worked against the wishes of the then DI to try and trace her. Knowing Barry like I do I’m sure he will still have all his notes, and seeing as we’re allowed to take on ex-detectives to help us on these enquiries he would be a great asset.”

The Superintendent pulled a face.

Hunter spotted the look of angst. “Look I know what you’re thinking. Yes he was a bit of a maverick in his day, but I’ve been using his knowledge to good advantage just lately, and I’ll vouch for him. I’ll supervise his work and if it looks as though he’s going out on a limb I’ll draw him back, or get shut. Is that OK?”

Before Michael Robshaw had time to respond they were all taken back by the hurried opening of the conference room door, as it swung back and thudded against the flimsy stud wall. A red faced, perspiring DC Mike Sampson, filled the doorframe.

“Sorry to disturb you gaffer,” he gasped, “but another body’s been found.”

* * * * *

On their hands and knees, in their blue boiler suits, the Task Force search team were working shoulder-to-shoulder carrying out fingertip searches around the site where Carol Siddons’ mummified remains had been unearthed two weeks previously.

Search grids had been taped off on the old colliery site and white suited forensic officers, some with metal detectors were combing the murky topsoil for exhibits. They had also brought in a specially trained sniffer dog.

Police dog handler Peter Broughton and his Springer spaniel Lady were currently outside the roped off area, scrambling around in scrubland at the edge of the old pit site. Here the undergrowth was thick and dense in places and it was proving difficult for them to keep on a straight course. This was a first for Peter and Lady. Generally they only got called out when there had been a disaster, where the likelihood was that someone had been buried alive. But this is what they had both trained for. Lady had a nose for finding bodies even if they had been dead for some time.

On a long rope the Springer darted in and out of sparse bushes and amongst clods of long grasses. They had been doing this for just under two hours and were due a break when Lady stopped longer than normal, sniffing and pawing at a mound of overgrown gorse. Peter increased his pace, taking in the slack of the rope until he was beside his dog.

“What we found here then girl?” he said patting the Spaniel’s back. He pushed Lady to one side and on bended knees delved into the gorse, parting fronds carefully and slowly. Some of the ferns and grasses split easily from the soil; far easier than he had anticipated and he found himself tugging at a huge clump, taking away a good two inches of top soil. He wondered if Lady had found a badger set and for the next couple of minutes he scraped around an area where the clay was softer and strangely discoloured. He had never seen soil stained in this way before. He was considering calling for a member of the forensic team to join him when he exposed a piece of hemp sacking. Scraping more loose soil away he spotted the NCB black lettering stamped across the old decaying sack. The dog handler muttered to himself and tugged at one corner. It resisted more than he had conjectured and he pulled harder. Quite unexpectedly, it freed itself from the earth and sent him rolling backwards. Cursing and disgusted with himself he pushed himself up onto his knees, brushing dust from the backs of his thighs. He looked into the crevice, which the sacking had covered. What faced him rocked him back on his heels for a few seconds. It was then that he knew he definitely should shout for the forensic team.