Steven Dunne - The Disciple

When they were ready, Brook and Hudson faced the investigation team and silence fell. First Brook invited contributions from subordinates on various tangential aspects of the inquiry that had borne no fruit and Gadd, Morton and Cooper then skipped through the absence of leads from Traffic, Midland Mainline and the bus station. Trains and bus services were more or less nonexistent at the relevant time of night and they’d drawn the expected blank.

As for vehicles, vans were scarce in the early hours of the morning in question. Not one had been stopped or even spotted in the Derby area during the relevant time slot, and those few seen on the M1 had not joined at any of the local junctions, according to the traffic cameras. The same applied to other major access roads, the A52, the A38 and the A50. Van hire checks were ongoing, but without witnesses or a number plate, inquiries were problematic and potentially endless.

The corpses of the Ingham family had now been formally identified by a relative from Alvaston, as had the bodies of two of the boys killed in the yard, who had been named as Benjamin Anderson and David Gretton. Inquiries about family feuds were ongoing but not promising, and the fathers of both Ingham boys had alibis according to DC Jean Keys, who was acting as the Family Liaison Officer. Miss Ingham had had no assets of any importance and there were no financial incentives to murder either her or her boys. Her partner Ryan Harper had even less resources, having been living rent free with Miss Ingham and working casually as a labourer for cash-in-hand jobs on nearby building sites. He didn’t even have a bank account.

DC Cooper worked through the inquiries made about single male guests in hotels and B amp;Bs but, again, there were few leads and those men who did match the descriptions they had for The Reaper either had alibis or had been in Derby on legitimate business.

Brook made his first contribution of the day. ‘We may have to rethink on the lone gunman theory.’

Charlton raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh? You’re saying he had help?’

‘He may have, sir. DS Grant spotted it. Laura.’

Grant stood, not noticing DCI Hudson’s brief glance at Brook for using his sergeant’s first name.

‘We don’t have the relevant pictures as the SOCOs are still going over the scene…’

‘I thought they’d photographed everything already.’

‘Not the Ingham house, sir, we’re talking about the Wallis house a few doors away. The Reaper was there, presumably a few days before the Ingham killings.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Well, apart from the bottle of wine we found, which was identical to the one from the Wallis killings two years ago, we’re now sure he was also in the bedroom. All the houses on the block are of identical design, something we realised last night could be significant. With identical houses, The Reaper could test the hanging in the corresponding bedroom of the Wallis house.’ ‘I don’t follow.’

‘He did a practice run using a beam in the Wallis loft and the same length of rope as at the crime scene. The same trapdoor was in the same position, giving the same drop. Even the knot was the same. We found a tailor’s dummy just above the trapdoor in the roof space. That’s how he knew he could bring rope and how much of it.’

‘Plus, he might have stored the rope and other stuff in the Wallis loft indefinitely,’ added Hudson. ‘Helps his organisation. SOCO are going over it now.’

‘Interesting,’ nodded Charlton. ‘But how does that lead you to conclude The Reaper had help?’

‘It’s not a definite conclusion, sir,’ continued Grant. ‘But if the assailant is five seven or five eight in height there’s no way he could’ve climbed into the roof space without a leg-up from someone. DI Brook’s six feet and even standing on a chair he couldn’t pull himself up there.’

‘What about a ladder?’ asked Jane Gadd.

‘There isn’t one and he’s unlikely to risk bringing and removing such a large piece of kit.’

‘So we need to start from scratch on the hotels,’ nodded Charlton, peering at DC Bull to be sure he made a note of it. ‘I suppose it’s too late for the vans.’

Brook nodded. ‘Traffic were only looking for single occupancy but, regardless, the road blocks round the estate didn’t stop any vehicles leaving at all, sir. Either the killers had already gone or left by other means.’

‘Okay. What’s next?’

‘I played the tape to a linguistics expert at Derby University and although her conclusions come with all sorts of ifs and buts about how short the tape is, we are now starting to think seriously about this killer being a Derby man.’ DC Cooper paused at this point to play the 999 call again. Everyone dutifully listened. ‘She also says that the owner of this voice is a minimum of fifty years of age — apparently something to do with how speech patterns change from generation to generation.’

‘Rob.’ Brook nodded at DS Morton.

‘The mobile phone belonging to Jason Wallis had some blood droplets from the victims in the yard. Obviously it also carries Jason’s prints. However, there was one other print on and around the number 9 button. It was only a partial thumb but, as the phone was used to make the 999 call, we can safely assume it’s the killer’s. We have enough of a print to obtain a match but we’ve had no hits from the database, which is significant.’

‘Why is that significant?’ asked Charlton.

‘Most serial killers are in the system for something, sir,’ said Grant. ‘Killing is generally the tip of the iceberg, the final step in their offending. What’s odd is that we’re up against someone who’s been incredibly careful in the past, but who the other night took off a glove to call the emergency services on a mobile.’

Charlton nodded. ‘Point taken. What about prints on the weapon?’

‘Only a palm from Jason Wallis but we believe the scalpel had been placed under his hand by the killer, sir. The weapon is a Swann Morton PM60 scalpel,’ said DS Jane Gadd, reading from notes. ‘It has a heavy-duty stainless steel handle with a standard blade fitment, which includes bull-nose blades for added safety and protection against accidental sharps injuries.’ This got an unintended laugh and Gadd couldn’t help smiling as well. ‘Used by morticians in post-mortems — very common in the NHS and virtually untraceable.’

‘Think our suspect is some kind of health worker?’ asked Charlton, again unafraid to show his ignorance to get answers to questions that occurred to him.

Brook shrugged. ‘It hardly narrows the field but it’s possible,’ he said trying to keep the doubt from his voice. ‘But then why leave the weapon behind to flag that up?’

‘Good point.’

Brook looked at the floor briefly, then faced his audience. ‘Okay. Sergeant Noble and I have been with DCI Hudson and Sergeant Grant for the last twenty-four hours. We’ve also spoken to Jason Wallis and, before we came here this morning, Dr Habib. We think we’ve pieced together a sequence of events. John.’

Noble walked over to the display boards behind him to point at an enlarged photograph. ‘This is a Weber One Touch Gold barbecue. It was brand new and according to Jason Wallis it was stolen by the Inghams last week — from where we don’t know and neither does he. We’ve got a call out to various local retailers, B amp;Q, Homebase and the like to find out. It’s possibly stolen from other residents but no one in the canvass mentioned it, and the fact that it’s new would seem to be against it.’

‘Why does it matter where this barbecue came from?’ asked Charlton.

‘Maybe it doesn’t,’ answered Brook. ‘But the Inghams acquired this barbecue the week before winning a large selection of meat supplied — we think — by The Reaper. With his MO it’s unlikely to be a convenient coincidence. Go on, John.’