Neil White - Beyond Evil

For Sheldon, though, it had never gone away.

He saw Alice’s dead body when he least expected it, during his quieter moments and when he thought he was a long way from his job. Reading the newspaper, sitting in the park. And it wasn’t just Alice. He remembered all of them. Young women murdered by random strangers. Men punched and stamped to death outside nightclubs, just because they looked at someone the wrong way. Victims of domestic abuse who endured years of beatings until finally he went too far, and all those lost chances to get away came to nothing. Or old men battered in their homes for the contents of their dead wives’ jewellery boxes. Lives ended by violence, all leaving extra victims. The grieving mothers, and husbands and wives, or children who grow up never knowing their mother or father. The injustices stayed with Sheldon, and his memories seemed like a film on fast forward, speeding glimpses of limp flesh or blood-soaked clothing, except that with every year, with every new case, the film just got faster, so that he couldn’t make out the faces anymore. It was just a stream of images, like a flicker book. Pink. Brown. Fat. Thin. But at the end of all of it was Alice Kenyon.

He looked up and realised that he had stopped walking. He was standing in the corridor, his fists clenched so hard that his fingernails dug into his palms, making small crescent cuts in the skin.

He scrambled in his pocket for his pills, his blue saviours. He popped one into his mouth and swallowed. It seemed to catch in his throat, but he kept on gulping to force it down. Tugging at his cuffs, he told himself that he was ready to do this, and then walked into the Incident Room.

People watched him as he went in. The corpse had been confirmed as Billy Privett by fingerprints, and the mood seemed different to earlier in the day, as if everyone had felt the spotlight turn on them, making them more earnest.

Duncan Lowther was at the other end of the room.

‘CCTV?’ Sheldon shouted.

Lowther looked up and then pointed towards his computer monitor. ‘I’m going through the footage now. I’ve got it on here, if you want to see it.’

Sheldon nodded that he did and went to stand behind Lowther’s shoulder, other detectives crowding round.

‘The hotel only records the lobby,’ Lowther said. ‘It gets used a lot for conferences, and not many people will want to stay in a hotel that might film them room hopping.’ He moved the footage back quickly, so that the woman behind the reception desk seemed to vibrate. ‘This is Billy checking in,’ and he let it play at normal speed.

Sheldon watched as Billy moved into shot. He looked like he was trying to hide his appearance. He was wearing a baseball cap low onto his brow and sunglasses, so that he just drew attention to himself in the opulent surroundings of the lobby.

‘Why were you there, Billy?’ Sheldon said to the screen.

‘It’s more about why he was keeping it such a secret,’ Lowther said.

‘What about later on, nearer the time when he was murdered? Is there anyone unusual coming into the hotel?’

‘I haven’t gone through all of it. I’ve got a list of every guest and their checking-in time, and so I’m looking at that to get a description. Every time someone appears on the screen, I work out who it is, and note down what they are doing. By the time I’ve finished, I should have accounted for every guest and worked out if there is anyone in the hotel who isn’t a paying guest.’

‘And once you’ve done that?’

‘I check out each one, and look for someone giving false details.’ Lowther smiled. ‘That’s the fun part, because I can bet that we’ll drag at least a couple of people in who gave false addresses to keep their stay secret. You can’t beat the twitch of a cheating spouse to brighten your afternoon.’ When Sheldon scowled a rebuke, Lowther added, ‘We’ve been getting plenty of calls from the press.’

‘Speak to the Press Officer and make it official then,’ Sheldon said. ‘Have we had any fresh information about Billy since the news broke?’

‘Just a few calls about his lifestyle, but nothing we didn’t know. We’ve had a few putting Ted Kenyon’s name forward.’

‘That’s where I’m going next,’ Sheldon said.

‘You’ve got to go somewhere else first,’ Lowther said. When Sheldon raised his eyebrows, he added, ‘The Chief has been looking for you.’

‘What, Dixon? How long ago?’

‘A few minutes. She said to go down when you were free.’

Sheldon let out a breath and stepped out of the Incident Room. He looked along the corridor, towards the Chief Inspector’s office. It was darker down there, furthest from the entrance. He took a deep breath and set off walking. He guessed what this was about, but that just made the walk seem longer. As he got to the door, a nameplate facing him, he knocked lightly. He waited until he heard ‘yes’, and then he walked in.

The atmosphere changed immediately, from the hubbub of the station to the refined calm of a gentlemen’s club, except that the room’s occupant was a woman. He had last seen her in the corridor before, when he had brought Christina in. Her head was down, looking at some papers, her hair cut short and streaked by grey. There were paintings of hills on the walls and a wine-coloured leather chair dominated one corner, high-backed, as if it was just short of a cigar and whisky glass. Framed family pictures were on a cabinet, although Sheldon kept his focus on her as he stood in front of the desk, his hands clasped in front of him, and waited for Dixon to notice he was there.

When she did look up, Sheldon said, ‘You wanted to see me, ma’am.’

Chief Inspector Dixon pointed to the chair in front of the desk. ‘Sit down, Sheldon, please.’ Her voice sounded tired, and as he got a better look at her, he saw dark rings under her eyes and broken veins just starting to flush across her cheeks.

Sheldon did as he was asked, his legs tightly together, his hands on his knees.

Dixon leaned forward, her arms folded on the desk, and stared at Sheldon. ‘We know now that the body found last night is Billy Privett.’

Sheldon didn’t respond, except for a small stretch of his neck, his collar too tight.

‘How do you feel about that?’ Dixon said.

Sheldon gave a small cough before he spoke. ‘I don’t know, ma’am, if I’m honest. I feel for Alice’s family, because the secret of her murder may go to the grave with Billy Privett, but at the same time I feel like there is something fateful about it – that if it had to be anyone, I’m glad it was him.’

The Chief nodded and then twirled a pen slowly in her hand. ‘I want you to handle the investigation, Sheldon. I know that FMIT want it, but I’m fighting for you to keep it. The answers will come from local people, and you were very close to Alice’s case. You know all about Billy Privett.’

Sheldon licked his lips. He tasted sweat. ‘That’s why I should have it. I know about Billy, and the victim is where murder cases should start.’

‘But you need to be careful, Sheldon.’

A pause, and then, ‘What do you mean?’ His fingers gripped his knees tighter.

Dixon stared at Sheldon. ‘I’m taking a risk for you, and giving you the opportunity to redeem yourself, and to prove that this station is worth keeping open. You’re a good officer, I know that, but I don’t want a repeat of what happened when Billy Privett was a suspect.’

‘I don’t understand.’

Dixon put her pen down and put her hands together. ‘You do understand, and don’t make me force you from the team. Alice’s case made you ill, you know that. It was taken from you because you didn’t get anywhere. And I know what has been going on, with you and Billy Privett.’