'What would make someone want to even do that in the first place?' Bannister pondered.
'I have no idea,' Lasser admitted as they reached the roundabout at the bottom of the hill and turned left.
'He could be one of those weirdos who read ''real crime'' books, you know the kind that…'
'I know what a ''real crime'' book is,' Lasser interrupted as he went smoothly through the gears.
'You don't read books, I once caught you reading the Beano but that's about all.'
'It was the Dandy not the Beano.'
'Oh, very highbrow,' Bannister paused, 'but you know the sort I mean, a couple of years ago I went looking for something to read in Waterstones and they had shelves of books about how shit people's lives were.'
'Real life stories?'
Taking another drag on the cigarette, Bannister blew the smoke out through the gap in the window. 'Yeah, bloody drab stuff.'
'Perhaps it makes the reader feel better about their own life or circumstances, it can be therapeutic to realise that there is always someone worse off than yourself.'
Bannister threw him a sidelong glance. 'I'd sooner read Anglers Monthly.'
'But you don't fish,' Lasser said with a frown of confusion.
'What's that got to do with anything? You can get magazines and books about space travel, but I'll never get to go to the moon, besides, I've been thinking of getting a rod and giving it a go.'
'Oh right,' Lasser said as he flicked his ash into the squally day.
'You fancy giving it a go?' Bannister asked.
'No thanks.'
The DCI frowned. 'Why the hell not?'
At the junction, Lasser slowed and then turned right. 'Because I live on the water and it's always pissing it down, so at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is sit under an umbrella and watch the rain hitting the canal with the wind blowing, and nothing to eat or drink but a couple of Spam butties and a cold coffee out of a flask.'
'Wuss,' Bannister grunted.
'I tell you what, you can fish off the back of the boat and I can watch you go into meltdown when you catch sod all apart from a cold, and then we'll see who's the wuss.'
Flicking the stump through the window, Bannister folded his arms. 'I wonder if this moving onto the boat thing will work?'
'You can only try and see how it feels.'
The closer they got to the town centre the heavier the traffic became as people battled to work.
Bannister looked through the side window, watching the occasional individual on the street, most appeared as miserable as sin, the wind and rain blowing into their pinched faces.
'This weather just about sums this place up,' he said, his breath steaming the glass.
Lasser said nothing, his mind going over the cases they had discovered the night before, five unsolved murders that had taken place over a thirty-year period, the last had been in nineteen ninety-nine, a young woman named Sharon Bliss had been found dead on a country track, she had been strangled, her body left in a trough of muddy water. They had found some images of the area and it had looked like any normal track that you would find on any number of local country lanes.
She had been nineteen when she had been killed, and Lasser had read the local news stating that Sharon had been making her way to a local stable to see to the horse she owned. It had been a regular trip, something she had done at least five times a week and the killer had struck when she had been less than a quarter of a mile from the safety of the stables.
She had been found shortly afterwards by a dog walker who had immediately called the police.
Although there had been a couple of follow-up reports in the papers, her killer had never been found.
It had taken them a couple of hours to scout through the various reports on the other women who had died, and the one thing they had in common was the fact that in all six murders not one of the women had been sexually assaulted.
Grabbing another gear, Lasser's frown deepened. At the time, they had been so busy gathering information on the cases that they hadn't really taken the time to study them properly.
Tapping his fingers on the wheel, he started to talk and by the time he had finished, Bannister had turned to face him.
'Well, let's be honest, we've only read information from the papers, and they were sketchy to say the least,' Bannister said.
'I get that, but you know what the tabloids are like, if there's any hint of anything sexual then they'll use it to spice up the headlines.'
Bannister rubbed his cheek, feeling the bristles. 'The thing is we are looking at a thirty-year time span and, yes, the papers of today always look for the sexual angle, but perhaps it wasn't the same back then, maybe there was a sexual motive, but it wasn't reported to the media.'
Lasser thought about what Bannister was saying, although he remained unconvinced and kept his mouth shut.
'Besides, we'll know more once we've accessed the original case files,' the DCI said and then sighed heavily.
'What's the matter?' Lasser asked.
'I was just thinking that even if you're right, then how the hell does it help us?'
Lasser braked at the crossing to let a straggle of schoolkids across. 'Well, we have five murder sites so…'
'But we don't have the manpower to keep those sights under surveillance. Carole is the best boss we've ever had, but those who hold the purse strings will never agree to the stakeout of five separate locations just on the off-chance that the copycat killer could use one of them to stage another murder.'
'Steve Black would love that, sitting on his fat arse on a stakeout for eight hours a day,' Lasser growled.
'Yeah, but we both know the lazy bastard would be asleep within the hour.'
They fell silent, both contemplating what Black was going to do about his run-in with Odette and Doc Shannon.
'You know, we could be way off the mark and the two cases are not linked at all,' Bannister pondered with a sigh.
'You always accuse me of being Doctor Doom, and yet you're just as bad.'
Bannister scowled as he slid the zip up slightly on the borrowed waterproof jacket. 'Truth is we're going off gut feelings here, not hard evidence. There's nothing to link the murder of Julie Rawlins with the abduction of Clara Bell to the shooting of Scott Clark, let alone any of these unsolved murders we've found.'
Lasser thought about arguing the point but the truth was they were almost at the station and the last thing he wanted was Bannister getting into ranting mode.
'Yeah, I know,' he replied as they drove past the McDonald's, glancing right he could see the queue for the drive-thru, morning commuters grabbing their breakfast bap to set them up for the day.
'Whichever way you look at it, the whole thing is a nightmare, we have Julie Rawlins slaughtered just to satisfy some bastard's sick fantasy, and now we have a schoolgirl taken and her boyfriend blown away at the side of the road with the dumped empty burger boxes, cans and bottles.'
Lasser could hear the latent anger in the DCI's voice, that sense of helplessness underlying the fury. Lasser knew the sensation well, he could feel it inside twisting and turning, the living thing that drove them all to do the job, that hatred of injustice and the suffering of others was something they all shared, and yet in the past it had cost each and every one of the team dearly.
When the phone rang, Bannister fished it from his pocket and checked the screen, when he saw Carole's name flash up at him, he pressed the green icon.
'Where are you?' she asked.
'Five minutes away, and we've been having a think and we might have come up with something.'
'OK, I'm just heading into the station so come straight to my office and I'll hear what you have to say then.'
'No problem,' Bannister said as he ended the call.
'Right, Lasser, you heard the woman, let's get there and get this sorted.'
Lasser nodded as he flicked on the siren and flashing lights before pulling out to the centre of the road, get
ting his foot down.
Easing back in the seat, Bannister sighed and closed his eyes.
42
Sally Wright watched as the headmaster of Mornington Road High School shook his head, his face pale with shock.
'I can't believe this; I mean, are you sure it was Scott who died?' he asked.
'I'm afraid so,' she replied.
Shaun Rourke stood over by the door, his hands behind his back, his face impassive.
'And you think that Clara Bell has been taken?'
'Listen, Mr Jones, we really need to know as much as we can about Scott and Clara, as soon as possible.'
Jones nodded. 'Of course, of course, I'll help in any way I can.'
Sally eased forward slightly. 'Can you tell us who Scott and Clara spent time with whilst at school?'
Jones looked pained for a moment. 'Not personally, but I know they both shared the same head of year, Mrs Waller, so she might know more about this.'
'Could you get her for us, please?' she asked.
'Straight away,' he replied, already reaching for his phone, seconds later, he had contacted the teacher in question and shortly after, there was a light tap on the door and a woman in her early forties entered, her hair cut short and practical.
She smiled at the head before looking at Sally and Shaun.
'Ah thanks for coming, Ruth, I…'
'I can't believe what's happened,' Ruth Waller interrupted. 'Scott was a model student, this is such a tragedy.'
'What about, Clara Bell?' Sally asked.
The teacher looked confused for a moment. 'Clara?' she asked.
By the time Sally finished explaining about the disappearance of Clara Bell, what bit of colour was in Ruth Waller's face had bled away.
'Oh my God, that's just dreadful,' she said as her hands hovered close to her mouth.
'As you can appreciate, we need to know as much as we can about Clara, do you have any idea how long she had been going out with Scott?'
The woman looked confused for a moment and then she cleared her throat. 'Oh, as far as I'm aware Scott and Clara were not boyfriend and girlfriend.'
'But they went to the party together,' Sally asked in confusion.
'Scott has been going out with another girl from school, but it definitely wasn't Clara, he'd been seeing Morgan Pence for at least a couple of months. I saw them every day, walking across the yard, hand in hand.'
'Do you know where Morgan Pence is now?'
'Ah well, you see, she hasn't come into school today, and that's not like her, I mean, normally her attendance record is excellent.'
'And you're sure she was going out with Scott Clark?'
'Positive, like I said, they seemed very close,' she paused for a couple of seconds, 'Morgan did have a best friend, a girl named Elle and…'
'''Did have''?' Sally broke in.
Waller nodded. 'They were very close but as is often the case when one of them gets a boyfriend then it can put a strain on the relationship with the friend, and I had noticed that the girls had stopped spending time together.
'Is Elle in school today?'
'She is.'
Sally shifted in her chair. 'Can you get her for us?'
Waller glanced at Jones who gave her a nod.
'Give me five minutes,' the teacher said as she hurried from the room.
Sally glanced at her watch, seeing the second finger ticking away, counting down the minutes as the tension continued to rise.
43
Carole listened intently as Bannister told her all about Lasser's gut feeling, in the past she may well have disregarded the notion, but experience had taught her never to ignore an officer's instincts. She sat quietly as Bannister continued to talk, when he eventually fell silent, she eased forward and placed her elbows on the desk, her face creased with concern.
'I agree it's well worth checking this,' she paused, 'yesterday I put the call in for extra help but, unfortunately, I'm still waiting for an answer.'
'Someone's passed the buck?' Lasser asked as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
Glancing at him, Carole sighed. 'I'm not holding my breath, that's for sure, and, the truth is, by the time I do get an answer then it could very well be too late for Clara Bell.'
Bannister scrubbed a hand across his chin, his eyes narrowed. 'I know it's just a hunch, Carole, but we know the killer used Julie Rawlins to set up an exact copycat killing of Ethel Brab and now Clara Bell has been snatched, and if it is the same man then he could be planning to kill her as we speak.'
'I do know that, Alan,' she replied in clipped tones. 'But we also have to try and follow whatever clues we have and so far, we have very little to go on.'
When the tap came at the door, they all waited, it opened, and Odette came in with Roger close behind.
Lasser smiled at Roger who blushed as he closed the door.
'What did you two find?' Bannister asked, forgoing the morning pleasantries.
Carole looked perplexed for a moment as Odette took the last chair in the room and Roger stood behind her as she sat down.
'We found six unsolved murders of females since Ethel Brab was found.'
'We found five,' Bannister grumbled.
'OK, I can understand why you're doing this,' Carole said. 'But why are you looking from when Ethel Brab died, I mean, the killer could go back rather than forward from the time she was murdered.'
'To be honest this is all a guessing game,' Odette said. 'But we had to start somewhere, the truth is that unless we catch the killer before he strikes again then we'll know soon enough what pattern he's following.'
Carole looked pained at the words. 'We can't allow that to happen, we have to catch this killer at all costs.'
The room fell silent as they tried to see a way forward, but the truth was they still had no idea if they were looking for one killer or two.
'We need to find out all we can about Clara Bell, we know if we catch the man who took her then we also get our hands on Scott Clark's killer and, if you are right, Sergeant, and there is a link then we also snatch the animal who murdered Julie Rawlins, so let's get to work on this, do your checks and see what you can find.' Carole said and watched as they rose to their feet, their faces stamped with determination as they left the office.
Once in the corridor, Bannister turned to face the three of them. 'Right, Odette, you and Roger look into the unsolved murders of all six women,' pulling a folded sheet of A4 paper from his pocket, he held it out. 'These are the ones we could find, I dare say most will match up to yours, but they need checking properly, see what details you can find, specifically regarding the crime scenes and then let us know how you're faring.'
'What are you two going to do?' she asked taking the sheet of paper from his hand.
Bannister sighed. 'We have Shaun and Sally visiting the school this morning, so hopefully we will have more information on Clara Bell, while we wait, we're going to head out and look at some of those crime scenes.'
Odette looked surprised, and Bannister held up a hand.
'I know it sounds like a waste of time but, like I said, as soon as they find out more about Clara then hopefully, we will have some leads to follow, but until then it's no use us just sitting here twiddling our thumbs, we need to be doing something, and you and Roger are better than us at the computer stuff.'
Odette nodded as Roger shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his face pinched with concern.
'Do you have Sharon Bliss on your list?' Lasser suddenly asked.
'Yes, died in nineteen ninety-nine, strangled on a track in Standish.'
Lasser nodded. 'That's the closest crime scene timewise, so we'll head out there and take a look. Oh, and one other thing, when we were going through the cases last night, the thing that stood out was the fact that as far as we could tell none of the crimes were sexually motivated.'
Odette looked surprised for a moment and then she nodded in acknowledgement. 'Leave it to us,' she said.
Two minute
s later they were back in the car, Bannister clicking the seat belt into place while Lasser turned the key in the ignition.
When his phone rang, he lifted it from his pocket as Lasser drove across the car park, the wipers swishing back and forth to shift the rain.
'All right, Sally, what have you got for us?' the DCI asked.
'We've just been to the school, and it appears that Clara Bell wasn't Scott Clark's girlfriend after all, well, not his permanent one anyway. According to the head of year, he was going out with a girl called Morgan Pence, we're just on our way over to see her now, but she might not be in.'
'What makes you say that?' Lasser asked as he pulled out onto the main road, frowning when he clunked into third gear.
'We spoke to her best friend, her name's Elle Rose, and she said that Morgan Pence's father is in hospital, he collapsed yesterday morning with what could be a suspected brain tumour.'
Bannister pursed his lips as Lasser increased the speed of the wipers against the incessant rain.
'OK, well if she isn't at home then you need to get to the hospital and have a word with the girl, I take it she knows about Scott Clark?' the DCI asked.
'Morgan Pence was on the way back from the hospital when Elle called her to tell her what had happened, she said Morgan was shocked, but to be honest I think she's more concerned about her father right now.'
'Understandable but track the girl down and see what she has to say.'
'Understood,' Sally replied.
'OK, ring us with any information, and don't forget we need to know about Clara Bell more than Scott Clark,' Bannister said before flicking up the heater to warm the interior of the car.
'Got you.'
Bannister grunted before ending the call. 'So, Scott Clark had a girlfriend and yet he took Clara Bell to the party, what does that say to you, Sergeant?' he asked, before turning to look at Lasser.
Third Eye - DS Lasser Series 25 (2021) Page 15
