by Val McDermid
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then, in dull tones, Westmacott gave him the number before hanging up. What had been the point of that, Alvin wondered. All it had done was to raise his blood pressure and reinforce Westmacott’s idea of him as a big-city tosser. Why did people have to be so territorial? He sighed and dialled the number Westmacott had given him. The voice that answered was brisk, posh and almost feminine in its pitch. Alvin explained who he was and what he was after.
‘Ah yes, the drowning. My notes are in my office at the university, I’m afraid.’
Alvin’s heart sank. Westmacott had apparently been right. ‘When will you be able to access them?’
‘Let me see … I have to pick my car up from being serviced … Can you be there in half an hour?’
Fuck you, Paul Westmacott. ‘No problem at all,’ he said. Chilton gave him succinct directions and that was that. As he drove back up to Exeter, he called Paula and told her what he’d found. ‘I swear to God, I sometimes wonder whether Tony sacrifices goats on the high moor tops,’ she said. ‘How could he have known that?’
‘His brain’s wired differently to the rest of us. I’m going to talk to the pathologist. Not that I’m expecting anything, but I want to cover the bases. What are you guys up to?’
‘I’m waiting for Carol to finish up with the builders on the third floor, then we’re going to talk to Daisy Morton’s husband. Like you, we’re covering the bases. Listen, I know you’ve got to drive all the way back, but do you fancy meeting me in Solihull later? It turns out Jasmine Burton was on my team, and Stacey’s tracked down her girlfriend.’
‘She’s another one sacrificing goats on hillsides,’ Alvin said darkly. ‘I think I’ll be done here in an hour or so, the M5 on a Friday will be hell but I could probably meet you about seven, if that’d suit?’
‘OK. We’ll sort out the details later. Have fun with your pathologist.’
Those were two words you didn’t often find in the same sentence. ‘Fun’ and ‘pathologist’. But Professor Chilton turned out to be surprisingly jolly. He was short and slender with a thick mop of wavy blond hair shot through with strands of silver that played completely into the mad professor image. He had the tanned leathery skin of a sailor, wrinkles creating white lines spidering out from his eyes. ‘Come in, sit down, how delightful to meet you, you’re not from round here, are you?’ It all spilled out in one continuous flow, accompanied by a welcoming smile and an expansive gesture towards one of the visitor chairs that faced his desk. The office was Spartan, the desk bare. The only sign that this wasn’t some temporary squat were the framed photographs of racing yachts that lined the walls. Wherever Professor Chilton kept his library, it wasn’t here.
‘I’m based in Bradfield,’ Alvin said, stumbling over the unfamiliar location. ‘We’re looking into a group of suicides of women who have been bullied online and we want to rule out any suspicious circumstances.’
The professor rubbed his hands together, as if he were washing them. ‘Of course you do, why would you not? But you sound more like Birmingham than Bradfield, and your poor dead woman was from there, so I wondered, you know? Now, let me find my notes …’ He opened a drawer in his desk and produced a green folder. ‘Here we are.’ He opened it and frowned in concentration. He looked up. ‘I can give you a copy if you want to take one away with you?’
Alvin nodded. ‘But if you could run through the key points?’
Another cheery grin. ‘Naturally. Healthy, well-nourished young woman. The cause of death was drowning. It was estuary water in her lungs, so we know she wasn’t shoved under in the bath or swimming pool then dumped. We know she ate dinner with her friends – Thai chicken curry, green salad, apple crumble and custard – and we know they finished eating around nine o’clock. She had no alcohol in her system. I’d estimate the time of death, based on the stomach contents, at somewhere between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.’
‘What about drugs?’
‘I won’t have the toxicology report for at least a week yet.’
‘Were there any injuries consistent with her being violently handled?’
Chilton gave him an inquisitorial look, bright eyes like a blackbird who’d caught a glimpse of a worm. ‘Interesting question, but one that’s very difficult to answer. The sea tends to give bodies a bit of a battering. Waves, rocks, soft tissue – it’s no contest. If they’ve not been in the water very long, they can look as if they’ve taken a beating even though nobody’s laid a finger on them. There were no marks on Jasmine Burton that were inconsistent with that conclusion. But equally, some of those contusions could have happened close to death. Even saying that, they could have been entirely innocent. It’s a rocky shore there. If she took a tumble on her way to the water’s edge, she’d probably have bruised herself. So my answer to you, Sergeant, is that there is no way of knowing.’
It was a long-winded way of saying ‘no idea’. ‘Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up. Did she have shoes on when she was washed up?’
‘One trainer. New Balance. The laces had worked their way into a tight knot, which is why it was still on her foot.’
Alvin made a mental note to check what Jasmine had been wearing earlier in the evening. It might be useful to know whether she’d gone back to her cottage in between leaving her friends and walking into the Exe. Or it might be completely irrelevant. ‘What else was she wearing?’
Chilton flicked back to the beginning. ‘What you’d expect. Relatively unscathed because she was only in the water for twenty-four hours or so before she washed ashore. Jeans, pants, sweater, long-sleeved top, bra. And over them all, a padded coat, mid-thigh length. The pockets were filled with stones then zipped up. It wasn’t a huge additional weight … Here we are, 7.93 kilos. But it would be enough to affect her natural buoyancy. And of course she would have tired more quickly if she’d had second thoughts.’ He closed the folder and sighed. ‘People have this romantic notion that drowning is a peaceful way to go. Trust me, it bloody well isn’t.’ He tossed the folder across the desk to Alvin. ‘There you go. I’ll have my secretary make me another copy.’ He stood up. ‘It’s been a pleasure, Sergeant, but other voices beckon me, as I imagine they do you.’
Alvin walked back to his car, brow furrowed in thought. From one perspective, nothing he had learned shed any light on the last hours of Jasmine Burton. But if you looked at it from the angle suggested by Tony Hill, quite a different picture began to emerge. Once was interesting; twice was a coincidence; three times was a pattern. And the rule of thumb was, three plus one is a serial killer.
34
There was something strangely comforting about the familiarity of it. Paula driving, Carol in the passenger seat, eyes on the road but her mind busy elsewhere. She was jacked up on a mixture of emotions – happiness at being back doing what she used to do best; anxiety that she’d lost her touch; and the low thrum of excitement that came from being on the trail of a killer. For even though a dispassionate observer might dismiss what they were doing as a crazy fantasy built on imaginary foundations, Carol knew there was something real and dangerous underpinning this investigation. She’d heard colleagues dismissing that kind of certainty as a hunch, or feminine intuition. But Tony had once explained to her that these convictions were based on a web of subtle and often subconscious indicators knotted together by the threads of experience. ‘You might not be able to provide a logical explanation. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one,’ he’d said. ‘Trust yourself. We tend to jump to conclusions for good reasons.’
‘Tell me what we know about Daisy Morton’s background,’ she said now as Paula threaded her way north through the city traffic.
‘Bradfield born and raised. Respectable working class. Dad was a plumber, mum worked in the local newsagent. Daisy married young – she had two kids by the time she was twenty-two. They’re grown up now, both at university. One in Edinburgh, the other in Bristol.’
‘That’s hard on them, losing their mother while they’re in t
he thick of doing their degrees. That’ll fuck you up,’ Carol said, remembering how vulnerable they’d all been in those days under their carapace of cool.
‘I see it with Torin every day, that damage. I’m amazed by how well he’s coped. I’d have gone right off the rails in his shoes. I hope Daisy’s kids find the same resilience.’
‘Hopefully they’ll have people in their lives like you and Elinor. So, Daisy had her kids early? Then what?’
‘When the children started school, she trained as a teacher. She’d been working part-time ever since she graduated. She taught four mornings a week at Harriestown Primary, the same school she went to when she was a kid. Her husband John is a full-time trade union official, and she became involved in local politics when she started teaching. She’d been a Labour councillor for just over six years. She was well-liked, although she wasn’t scared of controversy.’
‘A bit of a headline-grabber?’ Carol thought she knew the type. Heart in the right place, but not averse to the limelight.
‘Well, she was no stranger to the front page of the Sentinel Times,’ Paula admitted. ‘But nobody’s had a bad word to say about her since she died.’
Carol harrumphed. ‘They never do. Look at the way they treated Jimmy Savile. He was practically lying in state in Leeds Cathedral before the truth started to come out. Not that I’m suggesting Daisy Morton was anything like that. Just, you know, death puts people on a pedestal they never inhabited in life. You have to let the dust settle before you get near the truth. But tell me more about Daisy.’
‘Stayed married to John. They lived in the house that blew up for fifteen years. Bought on a mortgage via John’s employers that has five years to run. Nothing to indicate any problems in the marriage.’
‘Except that he didn’t know she was suicidal.’
‘Exactly,’ Paula said.
‘Which means either they were a lot less close than he’d like us to think, or else she wasn’t suicidal at all. So where is he staying now that his house is in ruins?’
‘He’s with Daisy’s brother Phil and his family. Phil Adamson. He owns a local chain of butcher shops, he’s done well for himself. Nice house up by the golf course, plenty of room for him and his wife and their two teenagers with a bit to spare for the grieving widower. Actually, from what Franny said, they’re all grieving. They were a close family. Phil has a place in Spain, they all used to go over there together.’
Carol felt a momentary stab of pain. She understood loss; she’d had a brother, been close, shared space as adults. She knew that for John Morton and his family, the journey of grief was only beginning. If this had been suicide, he’d know the same burden of guilt she carried too, though for different reasons. ‘Did Franny have anything to say about the threats against Daisy? Had she contacted the police?’
‘No.’ Paula turned into a broad tree-lined avenue. Through the gaps between the substantial semi-detached houses, Carol caught glimpses of the unnaturally vivid green of the golf course. Living somewhere like this, you could almost forget you were part of a seething, diverse city, crime always a lurking presence. Up here, there was an illusion of calm prosperity. But behind those well-tended front gardens and smartly painted front doors, the truth was often just as nasty as you’d find in any inner-city alley. Paula slowed, checking the house numbers, then stopped outside a gabled mock-Tudor house fronted by a monoblock driveway. ‘I said we’d be happy to come and talk to him at work, but Morton said he’d rather see us here.’
The glossy black front door was opened by a well-groomed woman in her forties. Her understated make-up blanded out any signs of mourning but her expression was serious. Carol gauged her wardrobe as Marks & Spencer rather than anything more extravagant; her black trousers and dark plum jumper suited her unremarkable figure and spoke of practical good sense. ‘I’m Trish Adamson,’ she said in response to their introduction. ‘John’s sister-in-law. Come on in, he’s through in the conservatory. Would you like some coffee? Or tea?’
‘That would be kind. Coffee, please,’ Carol said.
‘We’re all still in a state of shock,’ Trish said, leading the way towards the rear of the house. ‘Every morning when I wake up I have to remind myself that Daisy’s gone. She was so full of life, it’s impossible …’ Her voice tailed off as she opened the door into a compact conservatory with a panoramic view of the golf course. A big man was hunched up in a wicker armchair, folded in on himself like a bird at rest. ‘John, it’s the police.’
Carol introduced them again as Trish withdrew. John Morton said nothing, simply acknowledging their presence with a tight little nod. Carol sat opposite him, taking in his long gaunt face, the dark hollows under his eyes. And the two-day stubble on his cheeks. His dark hair was shot with white, lank with the need of a wash. ‘Thanks for agreeing to talk to us,’ Carol said.
He moistened his top lip with the tip of his tongue. ‘All I want is an answer.’ His voice was dry and broken, as if his throat were damaged.
As they’d agreed, Paula took over. ‘I appreciate that. And we’re here to review the investigation, to see whether anything was missed at the time. I wonder whether Daisy said anything to you about something completely unexpected happening that day?’
He sighed. ‘Not a thing. Look, you must hear this all the time from people after someone kills themselves. But Daisy wasn’t the kind of person to commit suicide. She loved life. She loved her kids, she loved her job, she loved me.’
‘She’d been at the eye of a storm for the last couple of weeks of her life,’ Paula said.
He smiled with his mouth, but his eyes misted with tears. ‘That didn’t bring her down, believe me. She relished a fight. Daisy always said that was how you knew you were on the right track. When the opposition came out fighting.’ He looked up as Trish came in with a tray. ‘Isn’t that right, Trish? Daisy loved to take on her critics.’
Trish put the tray down and handed out mugs of instant coffee. ‘That’s right. She stood up for what she believed in and she didn’t care who stood against her. She’d always been like that, even when she was a lass. She never took any nonsense from anybody.’
‘But she’d had some particularly vile abuse on social media. I’ve seen some of what was directed at her and it was horrible. Didn’t that upset her?’
John held his mug to his chest as if he needed the warmth. ‘It shocked her a bit at first. But then it made her angry. That was how she was. She used the hostility to fuel her own spirit.’
‘But something cut through that spirit,’ Paula said. ‘Do you have any idea what that might have been?’
‘We’ve asked ourselves that every day since it happened,’ Trish said. ‘And we come back to the same answer. She never killed herself. It was some freak accident. The coroner agreed with us, he gave the open verdict, he knew it wasn’t suicide.’
John stared into his mug. ‘She would never have done something so selfish. All I can think is that she was maybe cleaning the oven and she was overcome with fumes. And the gas filled the house, and when somebody called her mobile, the spark set off the explosion. Nothing else makes sense.’
Stacey had accessed the forensic report into the explosion, so Carol knew there had been no trace of oven cleaner at the scene. She also knew that Daisy had died from asphyxiation as a result of inhaling natural gas, and that wasn’t something that happened by accident. ‘Do you think she was perhaps not paying as much attention as she normally would because she was distracted by the abuse she was getting? Because it had gone beyond the online stuff, hadn’t it? I imagine some of what was happening must have been quite frightening.’
‘The brick through the window was,’ John said. ‘It made me scared for her, but Daisy was adamant that it was a coward’s way. She said people who throw bricks are too weak to do anything face to face. And what happened proved it.’
‘There is one other thing that puzzles me,’ Paula said. ‘When I was reading the reports, I saw there were book pages scattered al
l over the front garden.’ Carol couldn’t help admiring her sergeant’s style. She somehow managed to combine acquiescence and compassion and still move the interview forward.
‘She read a lot,’ Trish said. ‘Fighting for the library service, that was one of her big causes.’
‘She’d have had a fight on her hands recently with that one,’ Paula sympathised.
‘She understood that books pave the way for working people to improve their condition in life,’ John said. It sounded like a line he’d delivered more than once.
‘So she was a fan of Sylvia Plath?’
Trish frowned. ‘She never said. I assumed it was a private thing, poetry. John?’
He looked dazed. ‘I don’t know. I don’t remember her reading poetry. But she read all sorts that she didn’t share with me. I’m a history man, me.’
‘Why are you interested in a book of poems?’ Trish asked.
Paula gave a self-deprecating smile. ‘I’m a big Sylvia Plath fan myself, I was just curious, that’s all.’ And then the question to move the conversation away from the anomaly, so that wouldn’t be the last thing they remembered talking about. ‘This latest campaign of Daisy’s – asking dads to step up to the plate? Was this the first time she’d addressed this issue in such a public way?’
Trish and John looked at each other, as if that would provide an answer. John shook his head. ‘She’d mentioned it to me, in passing. But she’d never gone properly public with it before. Mostly she talked about local stuff. But the party were pushing her to consider standing for parliament and she wanted to show she could manage a bigger stage.’
‘But she told me they liked that she’d stirred things up. That she was someone who could draw attention to issues,’ Trish added. ‘She was on her way up. That’s what makes losing her so much worse. Especially in a such a tragic accident.’
John straightened up in his chair. ‘Like Trish says, it has to be some kind of freak accident. Daisy would never have killed herself. And if somebody was going to do away with her, they’d have made it obvious, wouldn’t they? Otherwise there would be no point.’
