Helen Fields - Perfect Silence

‘Every report on her makes it clear that she was doing well. The baby is reaching all her milestones. We were helping Lorna apply for independent housing with a view to her moving out in a couple of months. All her supervisors say she’s a doting mother. If it had been one of the other women here, then perhaps, but if Lorna was going to disappear she’d have taken her baby with her,’ Jenkins replied. ‘We’re really very concerned. Lorna wouldn’t have left her daughter out on a street. If she really had to run away, if there was something going on that we didn’t know about, it would have made more sense to go to the shops alone and leave the baby safe here,’ the director explained.

‘Any violent former partners you’re aware of?’ Callanach asked.

‘None specifically that Lorna ever talked about, although she had a hard life and kept less than desirable company. She had previously abused drugs, although she’s clean now, and during her pregnancy she failed to keep medical appointments, which is why she ended up here,’ Jenkins said.

‘What about the baby’s father?’ Ava asked.

‘Lorna slept with a number of different partners while she was using drugs. She’s not sure of the father’s identity and doesn’t know the surnames of many of the men, so they can’t be traced. Whoever the father is, he has no idea that he has a new daughter,’ Jenkins said. ‘Given the fact that Lorna was previously in contact with drug dealers, one possibility is that she bumped into someone she owed money to, or who felt there was an old score to settle, which is why we called you so promptly.’

‘All right,’ Ava said. ‘We’ll expand the resources and see if we can identify her last movements. I’ll get the Police Scotland media liaison team on it. We’ll put out a statement later today to see if any members of the public noticed anything. Do you have a recent photo of Lorna we could use, and details of the clothes she was wearing when she left here?’

‘I’ll go and sort that out for you now,’ Jenkins said. ‘Give me a few minutes.’

Ava waited until he’d closed the door. ‘So that’s not just one but two crimes linked to the drug users in the city. Who’s to say whether or not Zoey had come into contact with some of the same people. The news will have spread around the city’s drug community by now that Mikey Parsons’ face was slashed. The small-time dealers who sometimes help when we need it won’t be talking to the police. If Lorna’s disappearance really is related to her previous drug use, there are hundreds of undesirables she might have crossed paths with.’

‘Selina said Mikey’s injury was atrocious,’ Callanach said. ‘Sharp blade, steady hand, clear intent. You think there’s an anti-drug vigilante on the prowl?’

‘I think we need a greater police presence on the streets until we get to the bottom of it. Lively described the Z on Mikey’s face as something akin to a branding. I’m not quite sure what the shape cut out of Zoey’s stomach is supposed to represent, but it may well have been born of the same sick imagination. It’s all close-up blade work. Then there’s the fact that Zoey’s body was found the same day that Mikey’s face was cut. I’m not sure which is worse – thinking there’s one person out there capable of causing this much chaos alone, or the idea that perhaps there’s more than one psychopath out to maim and kill,’ Ava said. ‘I’ll need to speak with Overbeck when we get back to the station. She won’t want to agree the budget, but I can’t see a choice. This needs to be a cross-division effort. The Major Investigation Team can follow the leads, but we can’t be out there stopping all these incidents at once. Let’s get Lorna’s details then organise a briefing. We need to find that girl in the next twenty-four hours or baby Tansy might never be reunited with her mother.’ Ava stood up and ran her hand down the soft, pale blanket in the pram. Its silky edge had been tucked in at the bottom to keep tiny toes warm. ‘It’s true about that baby smell. I always thought it was a ridiculous myth, but something makes me think of freshly baked bread and Christmas morning when I hold a small baby.’ She untucked the blanket and held it up to her face, breathing in deeply and smiling into the fleecy material.

‘I remember when the first of my close friends became a father,’ Luc said. ‘We all thought he was ruining his life, but the look on his face when he brought the baby to visit …’

‘What the fuck?’ Ava took half a step back from the pram, then leaned over it to look inside again. ‘What is that?’

Luc peered over Ava’s shoulder at a scrunched-up sheet that had been left in the bottom of the pram. The head of a doll peeked out, with strands of brown hair stuck roughly on, eyes drawn with pen onto the pale grey face, and a series of darting black stitches in an arc, as if her mouth had been sewn shut. Reaching into his jacket pocket, Luc took out a pack containing gloves and reached in to gently extract the doll from the pram.

‘You don’t think …’ he said.

‘Yes,’ Ava replied, stepping away from the pram and pulling out her phone. ‘I do think. Have you ever seen anything made from human skin before?’

‘We can’t be sure of that,’ Luc said, holding the doll well away from his own body.

‘Its hair is the same colour as Zoey’s,’ Ava said. ‘And the doll is fractionally smaller than the cuts to Zoey’s body, even to the naked eye, which would account for the margin needed to stitch it.’

Luc turned it over. The doll had been created by stitching two matching cut-out shapes together. A rag doll with crude arms and legs, no detail, no clothes fitted over it. The seams had been sewn with rough thread, the stitches pulling at the red-tinged seams.

Ava called for backup and a forensics team. Arnold Jenkins opened the door and stared at them. ‘Stay there, Mr Jenkins,’ Ava said. ‘No one who has handled this pram since it was brought in leaves the unit. In fact, no one leaves at all until every person residing and working here has been spoken to by a police officer.’

Jenkins blanched. ‘Has Lorna been found?’ he stuttered. ‘Is she dead?’

‘Do you recognise this?’ Callanach held up the doll. Jenkins wrinkled his face in disgust and shook his head. ‘Lorna hasn’t been found yet, but we do need to bring in a Scenes of Crime team to ensure that any evidence contained within the pram is preserved.’

Jenkins shut the door once more, his footsteps rapid as he disappeared up the corridor. Ava sat down, still clutching the baby blanket.

‘This means that whoever took Zoey has Lorna,’ Ava said. ‘It was one week from Zoey’s disappearance to her death. Lorna’s abductor is a few hours ahead of us now. If we don’t find her …’

‘I know,’ Luc said. ‘What do you think the relevance of the doll is?’

‘Something to love? Something to play with? It might be sexual, or even a sort of reverse trophy that the killer is presenting to us, rather than keeping for himself,’ Ava suggested.

‘You said him. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but we don’t know that yet,’ Luc said.

‘It’s the most likely scenario. The victims are both young women. Men are statistically more likely to use cutting as a form of torture. I don’t know, maybe he can’t find a partner who’ll give him a baby so he’s creating his own quasi-offspring from their skin. God, that even sounds insane to me.’

‘We’ve dealt with insane situations before,’ Luc said.

‘I’ve never seen a doll made from skin cut from the body of a young woman who was still alive when it happened,’ Ava said, her voice less than steady. ‘And I’ve never been more certain that the same is going to happen to another young woman who is already beyond our help.’