Nine Lives

by Anita Waller

  ‘Clare’s dead as well?’ Katie’s face registered her shock, and she turned to Becky. They clutched each other’s hands, and looked towards Beth.

  ‘What’ve we done to cause all this?’ Becky sobbed.

  ‘Nothing, you’ve done nothing wrong,’ Beth said. ‘We want to move the two of you to a safe house, so please pack everything you’re going to need. We’ll be staying here with you until DI Cheetham makes the arrangements, and then Will and I can get you transported there. We’ll make sure your parents are notified. Nobody can know where you are until this is over.’

  ‘So Clare didn’t go to the gym?’

  ‘We don’t know anything yet. We have to sort out the different stages of an investigation, and I imagine the main part of tracking how Clare came to end up at Ringinglow will begin tomorrow. I can start with you two while we’re waiting for confirmation of where you’ll be going, and I’ll be contacting the university to let them know the situation. What time did Clare go out last night?’

  ‘She set off to grab a taxi around half past six because she wanted some thinking time, said she was only going for a couple of hours and she would have a taxi back. Then we got a text to say she was staying over at Zoe’s. We didn’t worry because we knew she was safe. The text came from her phone.’

  ‘Can I see it?’

  Becky handed her phone to Beth, and the DS took a screen shot before sending it to her own phone.

  ‘So you didn’t actually speak to her after she left here?’

  ‘No, we didn’t.’

  ‘You rang Zoe this morning?’ Beth flipped over to a new page in her notebook.

  ‘I did,’ Becky said. ‘I knew Clare had an appointment at the uni for ten, and her stuff she needed was here. Zoe knew nothing about it, she said she hadn’t been to the gym for several days. That’s when I knew we had to tell DI Cheetham.’

  The rain pounded on the windows, and Beth heaved a huge sigh. She thought of her colleagues out on the riverside, searching for clues of any sort, and knew this was the worst possible weather for finding anything.

  Katie lifted her head. Her cheeks were wet with tears. ‘This can’t be happening. Is it the same person who’s killed Clare?’

  ‘We don’t know.’ Beth’s voice was gentle. ‘However, the circumstances are much the same, so it looks as though it is. DI Cheetham will be going to Doncaster this afternoon to speak to Clare’s mum, but we won’t encourage them to see you two, not at this moment anyway. You will be in your safe house shortly, so can I ask you to go and pack what you need, please?’

  Becky and Katie stood and headed off to their rooms, leaving Will and Beth downstairs.

  ‘They’re scared,’ he said. ‘We’re not even letting them have the comfort of their families.’

  ‘We can’t. We daren’t let this address be compromised. I don’t know if you’ve had time to read the case files from five years ago, but this is a clever killer. We found nothing then, and we’ve found nothing now he’s resurfaced.’

  ‘You’re saying “he” again.’

  ‘It’s not a woman’s way of killing. It feels like a male crime. And I felt it was a he, five years ago. I think there was no sexual activity because that would have left a trace of him. He couldn’t risk that, and he got his kicks from the death, not from the sex. His planning was meticulous. He picked four pretty girls with nice figures, all with names beginning with L. We never discovered the significance of the letter, in fact we discovered bugger all. Then it stopped, and despite numerous meetings where we threw around ideas, the case slipped into the cold case category.’

  ‘It’s certainly climbed back out now,’ Will said. ‘I was reading through it when I was called to come here. Why do you think he stopped for five years?’

  ‘Something happened. Maybe a marriage, or simply falling in love. His mindset changed, he had achieved what he planned, and he settled down. But something is changing in his life again, and the need to kill is there. I suspect this rain has assisted him, given him a way of operating, helped by the fact that people are staying indoors. The only thing I want to stress is don’t underestimate him. We missed him once, and he’ll not let us get to him easily.’

  9

  Telling Diana Vincent that her daughter was dead ranked with one of the worst things Erica had ever had to do, and she held the fragile lady close and let her cry until she could cry no more. Taking Flick Ardern with her had been inspired; the young DC was calm, unobtrusive, and damn good at making a cup of tea without being instructed to do so.

  While Flick rang Diana’s sister Hazel to ask that she come over to stay with her, Erica talked to Clare’s mum, gently, questioning without making it obvious she was doing so.

  ‘When did you last speak to Clare?’

  ‘Yesterday afternoon.’ Diana’s sob was almost a hiccup. ‘She told me about Susie. I asked her to come home, to be safe here, but she seemed to think she was fine. She didn’t want to leave Becky and Katie.’

  Inwardly, Erica cursed the fact that she hadn’t explained the full circumstances to the girls – the obsessive nature of the person they believed had killed Susie, and that while they had nothing concrete to go on telling them he would attack the other three girls, they should have considered it a possibility and briefed everybody remaining in that student house. Because the killer had targeted girls with the same initial letter didn’t mean he would go around seeking out girls with the letter S for the start of their Christian name.

  Flick brought in the pot of tea with three mugs and looked at Diana. ‘Hazel will be here in ten minutes. She’s packing for a few days.’

  A smile flashed across Diana’s face; it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  ‘Good,’ Erica said. ‘You don’t want to be alone at this time.’

  ‘She came before my husband died and stayed with me. It was a hard time because he died from cancer, but this is so much harder. You’ve told her…?’

  Flick gave a brief nod. ‘I have. We’ll wait with you until she arrives. Drink your tea. It can’t take anything away, but it always helps.’

  Erica listened to Flick talk, all too aware that this was the first time the young DC had ever notified a death and yet she was handling the situation in such a mature way. Ms Felicity Ardern was destined for a worthwhile career in the Major Crimes Unit, Erica felt.

  On the drive to Crookesvale Gardens, Erica and Flick were quiet, lost in their thoughts. The arrival of Diana’s sister, a slightly overweight woman with a massive personality, had allowed them to leave, and when Erica had mentioned a formal identification of Clare, Hazel had reassured them that she would accompany her sister. Erica and Flick had left with a promise to ring with details of when the sisters would be needed, and as Erica softly closed the front door, they heard both women crying.

  Beth met Erica and Flick at the door, and held out a slip of paper. ‘We have a safe house. This is the address. The girls are packed, but scared. They’ve both said they’ll go home to parents, but I’ve carefully explained the situation with this killer and his planned obsessiveness, and now they don’t want to go to their parents, they want our protection. We should get them there as soon as we can, and Will and Flick can accompany them and stay with them until we get a team organised.’

  ‘Thanks, Beth.’ They all went through to the lounge where two large suitcases stood behind the sofa, ready for the two girls leaving. Becky and Katie looked up as Erica joined them.

  ‘I’m so sorry to disrupt your education like this, girls, but your safety is our priority,’ she explained. Neither of them looked convinced, but both gave a slight nod of acceptance of Erica’s words.

  ‘Can you find him quick?’ Becky asked. ‘We’ve lost two friends in two days, plus the lives we’d planned on living for this year.’

  ‘We’ll find him or her much more efficiently if we can devote our resources to tracking him or her down, without having to worry if the killer has got to you two.’ Erica hated making her voice so firm; these
girls were full of grief, something that until two days earlier they had probably never experienced, and their co-operation was of vital importance.

  Erica headed back to the upper reaches of the Porter. Clare’s body had been removed and then a text to Erica’s phone informed her that the post-mortem would start at seven the following morning. She wandered around the site, feeling relieved that the rain had ceased, albeit temporarily.

  She tried to speak to everyone, to encourage them. The entire team was a sorry sight. Hair hung limply, and clothes were extremely wet. There were three people in the river, several on the riverbank and hot drinks were being freely dished out at the refreshment van.

  There was an air of despondency, and Erica made arrangements for a search stop at half past four; it would be too dark by then to see much, so they could set someone on to watch the site overnight, preserving the scene, and begin again at eight the following day.

  She would be at the autopsy and she knew that despite the awful weather, the cold, and the gloominess of the scene, not one of them would want to change jobs with her. Nobody liked attending the post-mortems.

  Erica didn’t leave her desk until eight; organising the crews who were to take care of Becky and Katie had been difficult, and she had been forced to request additional personnel. She waited until Beth returned from seeing the first two who had pulled the overnight shift, and they caught up on the day’s events.

  Beth looked tired. Erica reached into her drawer and took out a bottle of gin, along with two clear plastic beakers.

  ‘You certainly live the high life,’ Beth commented with a smile, and held up the pretend gin glass.

  ‘Certainly do. I think we need this, it’s been a shitty day.’

  ‘I know, and it makes you feel so bloody helpless when you see their faces, those two girls. They don’t know how to handle what’s happening to them, or how to grieve for their friends. And they’re scared. Even with our officers there, they’re scared. They’ve both taken their laptops to continue their studies, but I don’t think it will happen. Their concentration will be shot to bits.’

  ‘What if he decides to play the long game?’

  ‘What? What’s that got to do with their studies?’

  ‘Sorry my mind is all over the place. I’d sort of thought to the future a bit, after we’re forced to let the girls go back to being students. If we haven’t caught him by then, he’s going to carry on from where he left off. That seems to be what he’s done after a five-year break, so us taking Becky and Katie out of the picture will mean nothing to him. He’ll simply wait. He’s picked his victims and that’s it. I remember the waiting game we played after we found Lilith Baker-Jones’ body, and there was nothing. He played with us, until we gave up and had to wait for him to give us his next victim. Five fucking years we’ve waited, Beth.’

  ‘Look, we’ve not had much chance to breathe, or take stock, but tomorrow morning I’ll make a start on tracking down anyone who was sent down soon after Lilith’s body was found. It would have to be a serious crime to get a long sentence like eight to ten years, because that’s what it would take to get out in four to five. It’s no good looking at people who specialise in burglary, GBH, stuff like that. This is the big boys league, so I’ll pull up some names for us to look at in the morning.’

  Erica grinned. ‘Oh, didn’t I tell you? You and me, we’ve an appointment at seven with Ivor, he’s doing the PM.’

  Beth groaned and dropped her head. ‘Thanks, boss. Is it too late for me to apply for a transfer to traffic?’

  Frannie took Erica into her arms and kissed her. ‘Does that make your day a little better?’

  ‘It does. I need a hot shower, whatever you want to feed me with, and an exceptionally large glass of wine. Any colour, any flavour, and a high alcoholic content.’

  ‘It’s been that good then.’

  ‘It has. And it’s been a search day. Tomorrow I’ve to begin with the PM on today’s victim, then I’m taking Flick with me and we’re going out questioning people. Beth made a start with Becky and Katie, our two remaining girls, and got some information from them, but we’ve got them away to a place of safety now, so I feel a lot happier about that.’

  ‘Good. Go and get your shower and I’ll make us something quick. You look dreadful, so I’m not spending all night cooking. We both need to relax. I’ve had a day with the Salter family, and their increasingly mucky kids. It’s getting close to our taking them away, I’ve never seen them look so bad as they looked today. I’ve called a case meeting for tomorrow, but it may be an evening meeting because two of the people I want there can’t make it till after work. We’re so bloody overworked, it’s getting ridiculous. That new one who started last week, moved here from Luton, she’s got three meetings tomorrow. She’ll be moving back to Luton soon, she’ll not be able to cope with this northern lifestyle.’

  ‘We’ll be like ships that pass in the night,’ Erica joked, as she climbed the stairs. ‘God knows what hour I’ll be home for the foreseeable. In the meantime, don’t forget me.’

  ‘As if,’ Frannie responded, and blew her a kiss.

  ‘Nice wine,’ Erica murmured, and laid her head on Frannie’s shoulder. ‘You do know, by the way, that the only reason I fell for you was because my head fit so neatly into your shoulder.’

  ‘Of course I know that,’ Frannie said. ‘But did you love me a little as well? Or am I really only the pillow that’s the right fit? Or maybe it was my exotic job in social services…’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yes what?’

  ‘Yes to all of it. Now shut up and kiss me. And I could manage a refill if there’s any going.’

  10

  Beth looked around her lounge and knew Evan had been in. The key he had dropped through her letter box the previous week had meant nothing – he had clearly had a second one cut. She could sense him, sense his presence without him being in the room, and her anger grew.

  Their separation had been acrimonious; the list he had presented her with where he outlined everything they had bought together showed how nasty he could be, and he wanted his half share of everything.

  Turning around she covered each area, and realised the television had gone. A half smile formed on her lips. She had no problem with his removing that; he had insisted on a massive set because, in his words, ‘you couldn’t watch Sky Sports on a small screen’. She didn’t care about watching Sky Sports on any size screen, so she walked upstairs to the bedroom, unplugged the thirty-two-inch, and carried it downstairs. As she set it up, she smiled at the speed with which she had cancelled Sky. Evan had only been gone a day.

  Tomorrow would be a day to organise a locksmith to change the locks on front and back doors, and to attend the post-mortem of a twenty-year-old. Evan really was a mere blip in her existence so far, and it was time to admit to a feeling of relief that he had gone. Beth vowed to tell Erica about it, get it out in the open, and move on.

  ‘And I thought he was the love of your life!’ Erica looked closely at Beth. ‘Clearly he wasn’t.’

  Beth shrugged. ‘We wanted different things. He wanted other women, I didn’t want other men, that sort of thing. Five years is long enough to work out I don’t even like him, let alone love him. I thought I’d better tell you, before you wrote your Christmas cards.’

  ‘I don’t send Christmas cards.’

  ‘That’s okay then. We’re both sorted. Thank God I didn’t marry him, it’s been hard enough getting rid of him without having to divorce him as well.’

  ‘So he took your television?’

  ‘No, he took his bloody television. It’s big enough for him to nearly be able to play on the pitch, so I was glad to see the back of it. I’ve connected up the bedroom TV, and I’m quite happy with that. Don’t have time to watch much anyway, with this job. No point starting to watch any serials, I’d miss most of the episodes. And I’m saving nearly £100 a month by cancelling Sky. Result.’

  ‘Then I’m happy for you,
but you know, I have to say the obligatory stuff like “if you ever need to talk” and “don’t ever feel alone, I’m here”, but actually I do mean it. It might feel good at the moment, but then you’ll hit a memory and wonder if you really did the right thing.’

  Beth laughed. ‘You’re going all philosophical on me, and it’s only half past six. You want another coffee before we go to this PM?’

  Erica looked at Beth and knew she would be okay. ‘Why not? I’ll give Diana Vincent a ring later, and get her organised for Clare’s formal identification, but what I really want to do is go over the twenty-fourteen evidence, or lack of it, to see if there’s anything we could possibly have missed. Do you have any feelings on it?’

  Beth handed Erica the freshly poured coffee, and sat down facing her. ‘In twenty-fourteen I didn’t think for myself. I was a mere foot soldier for the likes of you. You were what I aimed to become, and there was a bit of hero worship in the mix, I think. I had started seeing Evan, and so I really was only there to take orders, not make waves and not contribute other than searching the crime scenes. Times have changed, and I spent last night listening to music and going through the old files. The press haven’t picked up on it yet, that he or she has returned, so that’s good. Some smart arse will before much longer. Have we got a strategy?’

  Erica sipped at her coffee. ‘I haven’t, but you know me and the press. The words “no comment” were made for me when confronted by them. There’s people higher in rank than me who can deal with that stuff, I’ve a killer to catch.’