Sharon Bolton - Like This, for Ever

Without replying, Lacey took the set of keys from the conservatory door and unlocked the gate that led to the alleyway outside. She crouched to release the lower bolt, as Joesbury pulled back the upper one. In the months since she’d last opened this gate, a winter jasmine had wrapped itself around the hinges. They had to pull together to open it. Tiny yellow flowers fell to the ground.

‘See you around, Flint,’ he said as he left the garden.

Deep inside Lacey, something shrivelled up tight, like paper in a flame, then lay still.

9

‘THE BODIES OF Jason and Joshua Barlow were formally identified by their father an hour ago,’ announced Dana to the team in the incident room, including her immediate boss, Detective Superintendent David Weaver. ‘OK, for the benefit of those new to the investigation, these are the facts.’

Behind her, the photographed faces of five young boys stared down at those who were expected to come up with some answers.

‘In the last eight weeks, five boys aged either ten or eleven years old vanished from in and around their homes,’ she said. ‘No one saw them leave, no one saw anyone take them. There were no obvious signs of forced abduction. The first of those boys to vanish, Tyler King, was last seen on the twentieth of December. He is still missing and may be nothing to do with this investigation. Four bodies have now been recovered.’

Weaver was slightly built for a police officer, with thick dark hair, thin lips and a hooked nose. His resemblance to a bird of prey, Dana always thought, was due in no small part to his habit of sitting perfectly still, allowing only his eyes to move around the room.

‘Ryan Jackson vanished on the third of January, was held somewhere for seven days and then found on a muddy bank at Deptford Creek,’ she went on. ‘Noah Moore was taken on the thirty-first of January, found at Bermondsey five days later. In both cases, death had occurred within a few hours of the body being dumped. On first sight, this appears to be the case with the Barlow twins.’

Eyes flickered to the photographs of the two identical dead boys, lying on an oil-slicked, stone-strewn river beach. Weaver’s gaze remained fixed on Dana.

‘Neither Ryan nor Noah were sexually abused or tortured in any obvious way,’ said Dana. ‘Early indications are that the Barlow boys weren’t either. Cause of death in each case was extensive blood loss following the severing of the carotid artery.’

‘Do we think the killer is someone they know?’ asked Weaver.

‘Seems likely, Guv,’ answered Anderson, after a nod from Dana. ‘Kids of ten and older, especially in London, are usually quite savvy. They wouldn’t go off with a stranger without putting up a bit of a fight.’

Not a strange bloke, maybe , thought Dana. An unknown woman, on the other hand …

‘When Noah disappeared, we started looking for connections between him and Ryan,’ Anderson told the team. ‘Obviously, two days ago, we brought the Barlow twins into the circle. Trouble is, there’s nothing obvious.’

‘Although the four boys – five including Tyler – lived within roughly the same area,’ Dana said, ‘and are of the same age and ethnicity, unfortunately the similarities seem to end there. They went to four different schools and we can find no evidence that either they or their families knew each other.’

‘Families all had different backgrounds,’ explained Anderson. ‘Ryan Jackson lived with his mum, who’s a single parent, and two younger siblings. Noah Moore was an only child of affluent, professional parents. Jason and Joshua’s father has been out of work for six months, their mother works part-time in a supermarket.’

‘Two of them were Cub Scouts but with different packs,’ said Dana. ‘All four – five including Tyler – played football, but you name me a ten-year-old boy who doesn’t.’

‘There’ll be a link somewhere,’ said Weaver.

‘I agree, Guv, but we’ve talked to everyone who knew those boys, including all their mates. Every detail has gone into the system and nothing’s come up other than the football connection, which we spotted ourselves.’

As she spoke, Dana looked over at the HOLMES operator for confirmation. The Home Office Large and Major Enquiry System was a sophisticated intelligence system into which details of all major crimes across the UK were routinely fed. It could spot similarities, connections, links to other crimes in minutes. The operator, a drab middle-aged woman, shook her head. HOLMES, so far, hadn’t helped.

‘What about the coaches?’ asked Weaver. ‘Have you checked them out?’

Anderson nodded. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘And boys’ football coaches are usually dads themselves. I can’t see this being a family man somehow.’

The detective superintendent stood and walked closer to the board. The five boys grinned down at him. Ryan had a missing front tooth from a playground injury.

‘What’s he doing with them?’ he asked. ‘We know what he’s not doing, and we can all be grateful for that, but what does he want them for?’

No one replied. They’d asked themselves the same question too many times. They’d got rather tired of endless answers that didn’t fit.

‘It’s not about rage, is it?’ he went on, looking from one boy to the next. ‘It’s all too cold, too careful. OK, tell me about the scenes. They’re not being killed where they’re found, are they?’

‘Pete,’ invited Dana.

Stenning cleared his throat. ‘No, Sir,’ he said. ‘They’re not. There’s been no trace of blood at any of the sites where we found the bodies. They’re bleeding out somewhere else and that’s significant in itself, because each victim suffered extensive blood loss. It would be messy.’

‘Not to put too fine a point on it,’ said Weaver, fingering his shirt collar. He wore expensive shirts, Thomas Pink and Brioni, always perfectly laundered. ‘We’ve got prints, is that right?’ he went on.

‘Yes, Sir. Size-ten wellington boots, the sort that sells several hundred pairs a week. But there are distinctive marks in the prints, other than just the tread of the boot, so we know it’s the same pair at each of the three sites and if we find the boots themselves, we can match them.’

Weaver nodded. It was something.

‘Pete, can you talk to the people who are analysing the prints?’ said Dana. ‘See if they appear normal?’

Several pairs of puzzled eyes looked at her.

‘Normal how?’ asked Stenning.

‘I’m not sure. Can you ask, for example, whether they can get any idea of the weight of the person leaving the prints? A big, heavy bloke would make deeper prints than a fairly light one, don’t you think? So are these prints consistent with the size of man you’d expect to have size-ten feet?’

Stenning still looked puzzled but he nodded. ‘I’ll ask,’ he said.

‘Neil’s been in charge of processing the immediate areas,’ Dana told Weaver. ‘What can you tell us, Neil?’

‘At first he seemed to be choosing his sites carefully,’ said Anderson. ‘Deptford Creek where we found Ryan, and Bermondsey where Noah was left, are both some distance from residential properties. They’re also generally quiet as far as traffic is concerned. He seemed to be keeping to a minimum the chances of someone spotting him, although the site at Bermondsey is directly across the river from Wapping police station. Tower Bridge, though, is a whole different ball game. It’s as though he’s growing in confidence all the time.’

‘Cameras?’ asked Weaver.

‘Not at the sites themselves, Sir. Although quite a number of the roads accessing the sites do have cameras. We’ve got footage from seventeen different roads taken in the time window when our killer must have driven along several of them to offload Jason and Joshua. Fourteen for the Noah Moore investigation. Similar number for Ryan Jackson.’