D Devlin - The Present - The must-read Christmas Crime of the year!

‘We don’t know the identity of the man who killed Ben Steiner and abducted Sharon Steiner – but whoever he is, he’s not entirely unknown to us.’

‘It’s the so-called “Santa” killer, isn’t it,’ Anna put in. ‘The killer who always strikes in December, breaks into a home, kills the man, abducts the woman, holds her hostage until Christmas Day when at last he kills her.’

Townsend nodded: ‘All that stuff’s in the public domain, Ms Vaughan. But what you won’t know about are the Twelve Days of Christmas.’

‘What do you mean, the Twelve Days of Christmas ?’

‘We’ve kept this information strictly out of the media. Nobody knows about it except those of us in CID dealing directly with the Santa investigation. You see, Ms Vaughan, every time Santa strikes, every time he abducts a woman and holds her hostage, he contacts us. He makes it very clear – crystal clear – that all communication between him and us is strictly private. If we speak to the press about it, the hostage dies immediately. If we keep it private, there’s a slim chance we might just find her alive. So, we keep quiet – and that’s when Santa starts taunting us with clues as to where to find the missing girl. These clues – or taunts, or whatever the hell they are – come in one at a time, sometimes two or three in rapid succession in a single twenty-four hour period. And each one is based on “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.’

‘Like the note attached to that awful present left outside my door!’ Anna exclaimed. ‘ On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me … ’

‘Yes,’ nodded Townsend. ‘That’s Santa. Perhaps there’s a cryptic meaning in the contents of that present, a clue as to how to find Sharon Steiner before the time runs out. Or perhaps he’s just playing mind games with us. Or perhaps he’s just amusing himself. God alone knows. What I know, however, is that for the last twelve years he’s been doing the same thing, and every time CID fails to make sense of the clues until it’s too late. All we ever find is the body of the victim, and not so much as a trace of that bastard Santa … until he surfaces again with a fresh victim and starts the whole process rolling again.’

‘Why does he do it?’ Anna asked. ‘Have you attempted to psychologically profile him?’

‘There’s a file on his possible psychological motivations that’s two inches thick, Ms Vaughan, but it’s no damned used to me . I’m not a psychologist, I’m just a copper. My job’s to find him, not analyse him.’

‘But you haven’t found him.’

‘We will ,’ Townsend said firmly. ‘My team will. I will. This year. This year it’s going to be different. This year, I’m on the case. This year me and my people will get the girl back alive. This year we’ll collar that bastard Santa and we’ll bang him up for the rest of his life. This year.’

He got to his feet and paced about for a few moments, tense and agitated.

‘He likes playing games with the police,’ he said at last. ‘Right from the start it’s how he’s always operated. He snatches his victim then taunts the police with clues as to how to catch him. Every time it’s the same. And every time he outwits us. We’re always too slow. We never work out the clues until it’s just that bit too late. But this time around, Ms Vaughan, I’ve decided that I will change the rules.’

‘I think I see your tactics,’ Anna put in. ‘You’ve deliberately made yourself and your investigative team look incompetent. That’s why you posed as a whistleblower and got in touch with me. You made sure I put all this stuff in the paper, and now Santa thinks he’s dealing with a bunch of fools.’

‘Precisely. Painful as it is to paint myself as a cretin in public, it’s a price I’m willing to pay to get Santa to drop his guard. I want him to get overconfident. I want him think he’s already beaten us. I want him to start making mistakes … and I’m hoping that’s exactly what’s happened already.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘That “present” that turned up on your doorstep a few hours ago. It’s the first time he’s ever sent anything like that to an outsider, to somebody other than the CID investigators coming after him. For the first time ever, he’s changed his procedure. And that, surely, must mean something.’

‘But why the hell would Santa start sending things to me ?’

‘I can’t answer that, Ms Vaughan, but this is the first time he’s ever sent a clue to anyone other than the police. It’s not like him.’

‘Maybe he saw me speaking up at the press conference.’

‘Quite possibly. Whatever the reason, the fact that he’s suddenly shifted his tactics tells me he’s thinking differently about CID this year. My hope is that he’s getting cocky, that he wants to run rings around the supposedly incompetent DI Townsend who’s been sent to catch him. The fact that he’s directed his first clue not to me but to you , Ms Vaughan, is a hopeful sign – at least, that’s how I choose to see it. I hope to God I’m right; we might just have a chance to save that poor Steiner girl if I am. I’m sorry, Ms Vaughan, that you’ve found yourself unexpectedly dragged into all this. It was never my intention. But you have been dragged into it now. Santa’s dragged you in. He wants you involved. He wants you to come and play his deadly “Twelve Days of Christmas” game. And I’m sorry to say that it’s too late for you to back out now.’

‘He’ll kill Sharon Steiner if I don’t play along with this madness?’

‘Undoubtedly.’

‘But if we figure out his game, and beat him at it, we could save Sharon Steiner and put a stop to Santa once and for all.’

Townsend nodded slowly and said: ‘I could use your help in this investigation, Ms Vaughan. Santa’s taken an interest in you. A keen interest. If he’s hovering around, even at a distance and in the shadows, that gives us at least some chance of catching him. And the more he believes me and my team are incompetent idiots, the more chance there is of him becoming overconfident and giving himself away.’

‘You want to use me as bait?’

‘It’s not what I want, Ms Vaughan, it’s what Santa himself decides to do. Since he’s involved you in his plans this year, then me and my team have to work with that. And that means working with you. Is that acceptable to you?’

‘I don’t see I have much choice,’ said Anna. ‘And if it means saving Sharon Steiner then yes, of course it’s acceptable to me. I only hope I’m up to whatever it is you want me to do.’

‘I’m confident that you’re more than up to it,’ Townsend said with conviction. ‘After all, you’ve been road-tested already.’

‘What do you mean, “road-tested”?’

‘Why do you think I gave you such a rough ride just before? I don’t normally behave like that, let me assure you. I needed to see how you handled pressure, whether you were tough enough for this job, whether you’d stand up for yourself.’

‘I always stand up for myself.’

‘I had to see that with my own eyes. And I did. I was impressed. You passed the test. I have every faith you can help us on this case, Ms Vaughan. The stakes are very high. But I think, this year, we can turn the tables on that bastard Santa once and for all.’

‘I’m all for that,’ said Anna. ‘Okay, now I’m seconded to CID, what happens next?’

‘The contents of the box you received have been sent over to forensics. I don’t see what we can do until we get their report. Despite the lies I’ve been feeding you about our forensics team, they’re world-class. They’ll have a full DNA analysis in the next twenty-four hours. We might learn something that points us more decisively in the right direction.’