Martin Edwards - The Frozen Shroud

Terri, oh God. This time yesterday, with Marc’s prospects of recovering from his car crash weighing on her mind, she’d never dreamt she’d seen her friend for the last time. Rewind forty-eight hours, and she couldn’t have imagined getting caught pretty much in flagrante with Greg Wharf. Terri loved her horoscopes, but who in their right mind wanted to look into the future? Better not to know.

‘Why don’t you stay here for a while?’ Louise suggested.

Hannah’s first instinct was to say no. Last night, before she fell asleep, she’d wondered if Louise wanted to create the opportunity for her to get together with Daniel. Even if she did, so what? Hannah was a big girl, able to make her own choices.

Not that you’ve made many good ones lately , a small voice in her head complained. She fixed on a smile. At least the sun had ventured out, pale fingers of brightness creeping into the kitchen like apprehensive children, expecting to be chastised for staying away too long.

‘Thanks, that’s kind. One more night would be wonderful, but then I’d better get back to Undercrag. There’s loads to do, getting the place in a fit state for showing people round. Although there’s no way I can be involved in the investigation personally, I want to keep in close touch with Fern. Find out if Stefan’s changed his tune.’

‘Why would he bother to lie?’

‘He’ll be in denial. You’d be surprised how common it is. Criminals hate facing up to reality.’

‘Perhaps that’s why they are criminals?’

‘Yeah, Stefan’s a violent man, but as far as I know, he never killed anybody before. Once the red mist lifted, he’s panicked and done a runner. On his way down to London, he probably decided it was safer to opt for Plan B.’

‘Which is?’

‘Fern may not find it easy to build a watertight case, especially if his brief advises him to keep his mouth shut. With any luck, Forensics will produce a few aces, but if he admits he was present at the crime scene, and just denies that he harmed a hair on Terri’s head, we’ll need evidence to persuade a jury. Linking him to the murder weapon may be the key.’

‘We didn’t see anything lying near the … the body.’

Louise’s voice wavered as the memory of discovering Terri’s remains came back to her. Stumbling across a disfigured corpse was a long way out of an academic lawyer’s comfort zone. Not that Hannah would ever become comfortable about murder. Each death hurt as much as the last, each wasted life left her with a nagging ache of frustration and loss. Did this inability to detach herself from the horrors of the job explain why her career had stalled? She hadn’t been close to any of the other victims whose murders she’d tried to solve. God alone knew what would have happened if she’d been the one to discover Terri lying battered to death on the sodden ground. She began to clear the table.

‘The rain won’t have helped, washing away footprints, and making life harder for the forensic people. Fern isn’t sure what Stefan used to kill Terri, some sort of blunt instrument is all I know. The odds are, he brought the weapon to the scene. I suppose he might have found a stone lying around and used that, but it seems unlikely. And why would he take it away with him, if it wasn’t easy to connect it to him? Assuming he did take it from the scene, and not just chuck it away?’

‘It could be lying at the bottom of the beck, or hidden somewhere in the undergrowth. Ravenbank’s a small area, but it’s densely wooded and thick with ferns and bracken. I suppose your people will make a fingertip search?’

‘If the weapon’s there to be found, we’ll find it. Worst case scenario, it was something small enough for him to throw into Ullswater, and we have to think about bringing in divers. The pathologists should be able to give us a clue about what we are looking for. Mind you, he drove from Ravenbank to Glenridding after the murder, and there are countless potential dumping grounds on that route.’

‘So there’s a risk you’ll never lay your hands on it, unless he’s prepared to co-operate?’

‘It’s not the end of the world. For the sake of argument, suppose the wounds were inflicted by a baseball bat, and we can prove he bought one yesterday, he may struggle to give a credible explanation of why it’s vanished. Trouble is, building a case takes time, even when you reckon it’s open and shut.’

‘Gertrude Smith was battered with a stone, Daniel told me. What about the Australian woman?’

‘As far as I know, the weapon was never found. The assumption was that Craig Meek disposed of it. Perhaps he threw it into Ullswater, nobody knows. The forensic people reckoned a piece of wood was used, but what it was, nobody knew for sure. Since there was never going to be a trial, it wasn’t worth losing sleep over precisely how the victim died. Besides, there’s always pressure from on high to save the cost of in-depth forensic work.’ She mimicked outrage. ‘“Where’s my money going?” With a live suspect, this case is very different.’

Louise joined Hannah at the sink as the kitchen door opened. ‘Good afternoon. Welcome back to the land of the living. You’ll be pleased to know, Hannah’s staying with us again tonight.’

Daniel rubbed bleary eyes. ‘Great. Any coffee in the pot?’

‘Better make some yourself, we’ve been drinking tea.’

Hannah watched him spoon coffee into a filter. In white T-shirt and blue jeans, he could have passed at first glance for a teenager. A skinny man with tousled hair, whose manner suggested boundless curiosity. He liked finding things out; if he looked straight at you, it seemed he could read your mind. When they’d first met, he’d been haggard, as if he’d not had a decent night’s sleep since the suicide of his partner Aimee. Since then he’d put on a few pounds — but only a few — and started to laugh again. It lifted her heart to see the change in him, to recognise the proof that you could overcome terrible loss, that life truly does go on.

He interrupted her reverie. ‘So what are your plans for today, Hannah?’

‘Off to Carlisle in a few minutes. Fern is there today, conducting a press conference, and reporting to the top brass. What about you?’

‘I thought I’d dig into the murder of Gertrude Smith. See if there’s anything in Melody’s theory.’ He hesitated. ‘You’re still confident Stefan killed Terri?’

‘Why, do you doubt it?’

‘How did he know where to find Terri? Not even you knew about Robin Park, or that she was spending Hallowe’en in Ravenbank.’

‘Presumably he followed her there.’

‘On Hallowe’en? She turned up at Fell View during the afternoon, I heard. So Stefan hung around there, all that time, waiting for his chance to strike?’

‘He’s a deranged stalker, that’s how they operate.’

‘So he kept well hidden. All the time we were wandering about in the early hours, trying to spot the ghost of Gertrude Smith, he was nowhere to be seen.’

‘It was dark, and you’d all spent the night drinking.’

‘Sure, but what about his car? A Ford Fiesta, didn’t you say? Where would he have parked it?’

Hannah wasn’t familiar with the east side of Ullswater; she’d last called at Howtown on a steamer trip with an early boyfriend fifteen years ago. ‘There must be plenty of places you can leave a car unobtrusively. Somewhere between Martindale and Ravenbank?’

‘How could he be confident of finding Terri on her own?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine. He got lucky because Robin Park was taken ill. Otherwise, Terri would have been with Robin.’

‘What if,’ Louise said, ‘Terri and Stefan arranged to meet in the small hours, after the party was over?’