Lynda La Plante - Above Suspicion

Mary Murphy was the first case that Langton had headed up. She had a profile different from the others, being middle-class and well-educated. After her divorce five years before, Mary’s twin daughters had gone to live with their father.

Mary probably started to sell herself when her cocaine habit took hold. She worked for an escort agency, though her last known client had been questioned and was no longer a suspect. She had left his suite at the Dorchester Hotel at one o’clock in the morning and had died between one and three hours later. The last sighting of Mary was by the doorman at the Dorchester, who recognized her as she was leaving the hotel. It was presumed Mary went looking for another client. After that last sighting, she had been picked up by the killer.

The file contained the same wretched photographs. The shirt was drawn up to the victim’s neck, her tights wrapped around in the same way. Her hands were tied behind her back with her red lace bra. Though she had been raped and buggered, no DNA was found; as with the other victims, the killer had used protection.

After she had finished reading the file, Anna opened her front door to pick up her newspaper. The case had made the front page: ‘Suspected Serial Killer on the Loose’.

Though DCI Langton had not wanted mass panic, that’s what he’d got. The case was headlined in every newspaper. There were constant references to both Jack the Ripper and ‘his Yorkshire namesake’. One tabloid had two-inch letters screaming ‘Jack is Back’.

On arrival, Anna made her way down the station corridor towards the incident room. As she approached, all she could hear was the non-stop ringing of telephones and the babble of voices growing louder and louder. The incident room now had an extra four phones installed in one long section. The phones on all the desks were ringing and every detective was hard at it. All calls were logged: names, addresses and relevant details were then transferred from the officer to the office manager. When Anna reached her desk, the phone was already ringing. Jean gave her a rueful look.

‘Welcome to Bell City. It’s a quarter to nine and we’ve had a hundred and fifty calls in. So get started.’

Anna took out her notebook and reached for the phone. ‘Queen’s Park incident room. This is DS Travis speaking.’

It was a long and ear-splitting day. Amidst it all, staring at the mayhem with their dark helpless eyes, were the seven victims: Teresa Booth, Sandra Donaldson, Kathleen Keegan, Barbara Whittle, Beryl Villiers, Mary Murphy, and now, Melissa Stephens.

Thousands of phone calls had poured in, yet little information had resulted. However, forensics had come up with what could prove to be a significant piece of evidence. The tests performed on the DNA swabs, while yielding neither blood nor semen, had identified the type of condom worn by the killer as ‘Lux-Oriente’ which was made in America and easy to pinpoint because of the unique lubricant used by that company. While the indication that their killer had made his purchase in the United States was heartening, the discovery that Lux-Oriente sold millions of condoms every year made the purchaser virtually impossible to trace.

Another breakthrough occurred in the investigation when Rawlins, the murdered girl’s boyfriend, broke down and confessed that their final argument had turned physical. He had followed Melissa and continued to row with her as they walked away from The Bistro. Rawlins remembered that Melissa had carried a small envelope bag, which he had thrown at her. While he couldn’t recall the colour, he remembered it was made of soft dark leather. Between the empty stalls of Covent Garden Market, there was a scuffle which ended when he punched her.

While the imprint on Melissa’s belly could no longer be considered evidence which might lead them to the murderer, some compensation was forthcoming. Rawlins had recalled that Melissa was carrying a black woollen cardigan on the last night he saw her alive. He remembered that they had tugged it between them during the argument, which had occurred when he caught up with her near Floral Street.

After the punch Melissa had angrily declared that she never wanted to see Rawlins again and, furious, he had walked away. When he changed his mind and tried to catch up with her, she had disappeared — for ever.

Rawlins had become deeply distressed at this point in the interview. He blamed himself for her death. If he had only apologized for his action and taken her home, Melissa would be alive today. Shame had made him keep the quarrel a secret. That was the reason he had not told the full story to the television reconstruction team.

Langton ordered that Rawlins be released. Not only had they lost valuable time, but also the chance that someone might find and recognize either the black cardigan or the bag. However he saw no reason to charge the boy with perverting the course of justice; Mark Rawlins had received his sentence. He would have to live for ever with the knowledge of his culpability in Melissa’s death.

A press release was issued, calling for anyone with information about the girl’s missing purse to come forward. Though discretion had been assured, along with the reassurance that the police were only interested in the location where the purse was found, or snatched, not one caller could help them. The police had to presume that somewhere on Melissa’s journey her bag had been stolen, since on the CCTV footage she carried neither cardigan nor bag.

There was some cold comfort in the fact that Langton had been correct regarding Melissa’s scared run: that somewhere between leaving her boyfriend and her appearance on another security camera, something had happened to frighten her.

The Cuban was brought back three times, but he became more confused on every occasion. Even an interpreter was unable to extract any further information. The section of the car was determined to be a Mercedes, possibly circa 1970, though they were unable to ascertain if it was white or merely pale since the film was in black and white.

The mood of the murder team changed when the profiler arrived. Professor Michael Parks was in his mid-forties, balding and wore horn-rimmed glasses. He stood in front of the team over the course of two hours, displaying a calmness that seemed at variance with what he was saying to them. He advised them to look for a male, mid-thirties, affluent, possibly attractive. Despite these attributes he would be unmarried and in a profession that enabled him to travel.

Parks regarded the irregular time gap between each murder as worrying. The first kill was in 1992, next came one in 1994, then 1995. Then, after a lengthy gap, another in 1998, then 1999 and following a gap of almost three years, Mary Murphy, killed in 2002 and then the last victim, Melissa, in February of this year.

The team listened carefully as Parks explained that a serial killer can become dormant, ‘killed out’, as he described it, his desires satiated. In some cases, he might never kill again. However, Parks believed that their killer would not stop. He was almost certain that between those lengthy gaps, other murders must have been committed.

Parks indicated the victims’ photographs; the faces now as familiar to the team as their own families’. He continued: ‘One obvious common denominator is that the women are known prostitutes. Another thing I have noticed and this is very common with serial killers, is the physical similarity of the victims. All the women, including the last victim, had brown eyes. They all had bleached, dyed or natural blonde hair. I believe this man started out by killing a woman who hurt him, maybe left him, possibly a mother figure, a prostitute herself. He would therefore, to begin with, be killing his mother. However, towards the end of the line-up of victims, he is killing younger women, seemingly indiscriminately. This means he has not satisfied his urge. The way he leaves their bodies exposed and humiliated is a sign of his hatred. This man detests whores and seeks to defile them in any way possible.’