The Fear Within

by J. S. Law

  “Call you back. I get it,” said Dan, unable not to smile.

  “And book to come up for a visit soon, too. Or I’ll tell him how you’d love it if he just came down to meet your new man and help get the garden straightened up for the summer.”

  “What’s with the threats and coercion?” asked Dan, laughing again. “Do you know he calls me weekly now? After no news being good news for years and years, he calls me every week without fail. He’s got nothing to really say, so he just babbles. He’s getting worse with age.”

  “Not if you like the stories and fables from his time in the marines. If you like those then you’re quids in, but honestly, if I have to sit through—”

  Dan heard a noise in the background at Charlie’s end and her sister stopped talking for a second, then there were muffled sounds as she covered the handset and spoke to someone else.

  “I have to go,” Charlie said when she was back on the line. “The man of the house”—Charlie paused and giggled, and Dan could hear that she was fending off her husband—“is deploying for a few months. So I’ll be home alone and he wants something from me before he goes. I’m not sure what, but he’s dragging me in the direction of the bedroom.”

  There was more giggling and Dan waited, not sure what to do, or say.

  “Okay,” she said after a break. “I’ll leave you to your…” Dan paused. “Bedroom,” she finished.

  “Love you,” shouted Charlie. “And you’re pretty, witty, and wonderful, don’t ever think otherwise.”

  “’Bye, Danny,” shouted Charlie’s husband in the background and the line went dead.

  Dan looked at her phone. There was a missed call from Felicity a little while ago and five missed calls from Roger. She touched the screen and called Roger back.

  “Ryan. Bloody. Taylor,” he said, as soon as he answered the phone.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the NCA?” asked Dan.

  “Why did I not tell you? You made us both look like fools. If I’d even thought for one second you’d continued the Tenacity investigation, I could have had some response ready, but no, I knew nothing, because you told me nothing. The fact that he knows and I didn’t is double worrying and makes me look stupid and incompetent. I just had my ass handed to me in there.”

  He trailed off now, his temper starting to cool and the line falling quiet.

  “You know, Danny, I don’t have much time left. I leave the service in less than a year. With resettlement and termination leave, I’ll be gone in less than nine months. I applied for my own job in a full-time reserve role, but they won’t do it, so I really am going.”

  “I know,” said Dan.

  She looked over her shoulder, scanned the road and treeline around her, turning back and shaking her head when there was no one there.

  “You there, Danny?” said Roger.

  “Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she said. “I just can’t let what happened on Tenacity go.”

  She let the words hang, then continued.

  “There’s more, Roger. That quantity of drugs, how were they going to sell that? How were they going to move it and manage the money they got? And they were well off, but not that rich, not almost-a-ton-of-cocaine rich. Where’s the real cash? There’s more there, I know it, and it eats away at me that they’re getting away with it.”

  Roger sighed.

  “You’re going to stop now though, right? Because I just gave my word that you would and that I’d make sure of it.”

  “I’ll stop getting caught,” said Dan.

  He laughed.

  “Well, we’ll need to discuss this later, then,” he said. “Because that’s not going to work for me.”

  “So how come you kept a secret?” asked Dan.

  Roger was silent for a few moments.

  “I couldn’t tell you, and Sparrow-Fart shouldn’t have either, you know that. These requests come in and they’re treated with total confidence. I’d planned to talk it through with him today and see if we could support the recommendation.”

  “He used it as a stick to beat me with,” Dan said. “That’s not right.”

  “He’s a petty man, Danny, and he has no love for you, but I won’t dress it up, you gave him all the ammunition he needed. You can’t do the things you do and then feel wronged when someone else uses that as permission to step out of line as well.”

  Dan looked around at the front of her little terraced house set back from the road with her new security door, cameras, and lights.

  “So there’s no way?” she asked.

  “Danny,” said Roger, his voice softer now. “The Hamilton investigation requested military assistance five times, or maybe even more. That was before you came along and broke it. This one, I can’t say much—to be honest, I don’t know much—but it feels early to me. It feels like they’re seeing patterns up at the NCA, but they’re not even certain what they’re looking for yet; I think this will have a time to run. And, for what it’s worth, I thought you did the right thing going in there to get that young woman. I like to think I’d have done the same. I believe she’s alive because of you and your willingness not to give a rat’s ass about your own welfare, or indeed that of anyone who’s around you.”

  “I do give a rat’s ass,” she said. “I knew John would be in there the second Simmons disappeared from view. It was a calculated risk, and he’s tough.”

  “Calculated risk,” Blackett repeated. “Calculated on what? Do you know, Danny, I’ve been in the navy over thirty-five years, and I don’t think I’ve managed to really piss off more than a handful of people in that time. I wonder if you should ‘calculate’”—he emphasized the word—“how you might go for a few weeks without pissing off ninety-five percent of the people you interact with. What do you think?”

  “I think I need to go, Felicity’s on her way over. We’re going out for dinner.”

  “Send my regards. We’ll speak tomorrow,” said Roger, and the line went dead.

  As if on cue, Dan heard a loud voice rising into earshot, the words coming in a steady cadence. She knew she was hearing one of Felicity’s audiobooks.

  The narrator was speeding up now, the words coming quicker, as though an action scene were reaching its climax, and as Dan watched Felicity park next to her car, she wondered if she’d get out straightaway or sit in her car and listen until this part was done.

  The narrator’s voice stopped, cut off, as Felicity’s lights went out.

  “Hey,” Dan said, as Felicity opened her door.

  “Hi,” said Felicity, hauling her bag and briefcase out of the car and edging down the small gap between hers and Dan’s.

  She looked flustered when the belt of her coat caught on Dan’s sideview mirror, but a broad smile spread across her face a moment later. “That damn book is too good, Danny,” she said. “I got to the venue this morning and was nearly late for my workshop because I couldn’t go in until I’d listened to the end of the chapter. Honestly, you should try one. It might help you to relax a bit.”

  Felicity approached and leaned forward, kissing Dan once on each cheek.

  “I’ll bear it in mind,” said Dan, giving Felicity a pointed look. “Anyway, I’m running a bit late, in fact I was almost really late. Crappy day. How did your meeting go?”

  Felicity sighed.

  “Dull, dull, dull,” she replied. “Everyone’s seen too much television, Danny. You try to brief these police on profiling and offender psychology and they’ve all read the books, seen the films, watched the box set. It’s like dealing with teenagers; they really think they already know everything there is to know.”

  Felicity was smiling as she spoke.

  “Your name came up, as usual,” said Felicity. “Impossible for me to talk profiling without Hamilton getting a mention—nice mention for you in the papers over that Simmons character, too. I know it’s unprofessional to say, but I hope the lads in D-wing are looking forward to his arrival; they don’t like wife beaters and child abus
ers inside.”

  Dan nodded.

  “What were you doing when I pulled in?” Felicity continued, looking stern. “You looked shifty; all guilty-like.”

  “Not guilty, m’lord,” said Dan. “Charlie called, then Roger, then I saw you coming and decided to wait for you. Well, I heard you coming, really, the Felicity Green equivalent of a teenage girl-racer with the loud thump, thump, thump of crap music, except it’s some old guy reading a book at the top of his voice.”

  “Don’t you knock Ludlum, Danny,” said Felicity, an eyebrow raised. “His thrillers are literally the only thrill I get these days.”

  Dan laughed and turned to unlock her front door. She walked inside and dropped her bag onto the floor at the foot of the stairs.

  “Do you want to stick the kettle on? I need to grab a quick shower and then we can head out,” said Dan, reaching down to pick up the mail that was scattered on the floor beneath her letter slot.

  “I swear my postman hates me,” said Dan, setting aside a small parcel. “I ordered that a while back, it should’ve been here days ago.”

  She sorted through the rest of the mail, separating junk from bills.

  “The sins of the father will be visited upon the children,” Dan said, holding up a printed piece of paper with the words on it. “Getting loads of this stuff lately, but if you’re trying to encourage people into religion, you’d go for something more cheerful than that, eh?” She tossed it to the side.

  One letter at the bottom stood out from all the others.

  This envelope was cream-colored and expensive-looking, embossed with a marking that Dan recognized. The address was handwritten onto the envelope in a beautiful flowing script of deep, black ink.

  Dan rolled her eyes and tossed the envelope into the pile for shredding.

  “What’s that one?” asked Felicity.

  “Nothing.” Dan sighed, watching Felicity’s face and then relenting. “I told you before, Hamilton’s solicitor writes to me, on behalf of his sick and deranged client, every eight to ten weeks or so.”

  Felicity picked the envelope up and turned it over in her hands.

  “I told you about these letters, remember?” said Dan. “I shred them in case anyone finds them and they end up in the papers.”

  Dan was in the kitchen now, flicking the kettle on and grabbing a mug out of the cupboard.

  “Green or builder’s?” she asked.

  “Decaf?” asked Felicity. “No milk.”

  Dan looked back in the cupboard, found some Redbush tea, and dropped a teabag into the mug.

  “Interesting,” said Felicity, tapping the envelope against the heel of her hand.

  Dan looked at her friend and knew what was coming.

  “I know you’re dying to open it, so you can, but I don’t want to know what it says, okay?”

  Felicity smiled, but it was awkward, an apology of sorts. “Okay. Only it would be interesting to just see what he says, don’t you think? To see how much of it’s just legal nonsense and how much is actually coming from Hamilton. I know there must be part of you that’s still interested in him; the kind of link you had doesn’t just go away.”

  “I really don’t want to go there, Felicity.”

  Felicity nodded, putting the envelope down and walking into the kitchen. “I’ll finish making this. You go and get ready,” she said.

  Dan was watching her, the way she moved with hesitation, the way her eyes darted away when Dan had spoken and the way she’d only half smiled.

  “You okay?” asked Dan, feeling as though there was something unsaid.

  “Sure. I’m fine,” said Felicity.

  “Did you know?” asked Dan.

  Felicity was silent for a moment.

  “I do know stuff, Danny, but specifically what?”

  “That the NCA was requesting an assist from the military.”

  “I did know that,” said Felicity, her voice hard to read, as though she wasn’t sure whether Dan was going to be happy or annoyed about it. “In fact, I made a recommendation to the case lead about who I thought might suit the role.”

  Now Dan was silent.

  “Your recommendation was taken up and passed along, but was ignored,” she said.

  “Really?” said Felicity. “That’s quite unusual. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the military police not following one of our recommendations. Do you know why?”

  “Well, it’s happened now,” said Dan, not willing to answer the “why.”

  “Look, Danny,” said Felicity, reaching out to touch Dan’s arm. “These investigations are marathons, ultramarathons really, not sprints; the unfortunate truth is that we most likely have time, far too much of it. I know you’ll want to know and I can’t tell you much. What I will tell you is utterly confidential and really quite speculative.”

  “Discretion goes without saying.”

  “Well, firstly, I know you must be devastated not to be seconded to us,” said Felicity. “I’m stunned that your boss, or boss’s boss, or whoever, decided not to meet our request for you to be loaned to us.”

  Felicity paused.

  “Can you tell me what’s going on? Anything at all?”

  Felicity nodded but said nothing.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t feel comfortable,” said Dan, trying not to flush red in annoyance at Felicity’s reluctance.

  “Oh, I feel absolutely comfortable talking to you. It’s just, it’s very early and very upsetting. I actually spoke to the lead investigator and to Trish Campbell, my boss, about telling you, so they know I’m going to seek your thoughts, and I assured them both that we can trust you to secrecy, but, well, when the press do eventually get this, and goodness knows they will…”

  “Okay,” said Dan, frustrated at the buildup.

  Dan had been on the Hamilton investigation team, had ultimately caught him, and had seen what images there were of the few victims that were ever found. She’d also seen many times, and firsthand, the horrendous things one human could do to another. She couldn’t think what it could be that might make Felicity so unusually careful about what she was going to say.

  “Danny, it feels important to say that we had no clue at all about this current investigation. We weren’t looking for anyone; we weren’t monitoring suspicious activity in an area; we had nothing.”

  “Okay. But something must have happened for you to pull a team together. You must have something now.”

  Felicity poured the boiled water into her mug and stirred the tea bag, then began to crush it repeatedly against the side of the cup with her spoon.

  “We found some body parts,” she said, not looking at Dan.

  Dan made to ask a question but had so many she wasn’t sure which should be first.

  “We didn’t find them as such. They were posted.”

  “Sent to you? At the National Crime Agency?”

  Felicity nodded, not looking at Dan. “Not to me, specifically, but yes, you could say that.”

  “Jesus, Felicity, would you just come on and tell me?” said Dan.

  Felicity finally turned to Dan, warming her hands on the mug as she raised it to her lips and took a sip.

  “We received a ring finger taken from the left hand of a female victim. The victim was already dead when the finger was removed,” said Felicity.

  Dan watched her, saw the way Felicity swallowed and hesitated.

  “It was old, several years old, but in very good condition, preserved, likely in formaldehyde. We believe that most of the degradation that had occurred happened during the time it was in the post; it had, for want of a better word, seeped.”

  “Did you identify it?”

  Felicity nodded.

  “We did, but we received several more, starting on the twenty-first of October last year. We received them at intervals, and now we have seven in all.”

  “Seven?”

  Felicity nodded.

  “We haven’t identified them all yet, but they look as though the
y’ve been deceased for varying lengths of time, though all of them are well preserved.”

  Dan made to speak, but Felicity cut her off.

  “We don’t know how. Not yet, anyway. We have ideas; as I said, formaldehyde is most likely, or some kind of very cold storage, maybe periods of both, but we don’t know for sure yet. Anyway, we identified the first, and it belonged to a young girl who went missing on the twenty-first of October 2009.”

  Dan froze, feeling the color drain from her face.

  “Sarah Louise Sharples,” said Dan, realizing now why Felicity had been acting the way she had, why she might have been given permission to speak to Dan. “You received it on the anniversary of her disappearance.”

  Felicity nodded and Dan felt her stomach lurch.

  “But we were certain that Sarah was one of Hamilton’s,” said Dan, hating the phrase, the words implying that Hamilton in some way owned his victims, even in death. “We were positive of it. He had access and we put him in the area. She was a slam dunk for the victim profile he favored during that period.”

  Felicity drew in a deep breath and hesitated before speaking.

  “We’re fairly sure that the other six were also considered to be Hamilton’s victims. We’re not certain, but four of the others, the ones we successfully identified so far, were disappearances that were put to Hamilton with a high degree of certainty, though, as you know, we were never able to convict.”

  Dan leaned back and drew in a deep breath in turn, then let out a long exhale as she gathered herself.

  “So my hypothesis…” began Dan, thinking back to the paper she’d written in the aftermath of capturing Hamilton, the paper that had been leaked to the press and had almost destroyed her career overnight, the paper in which she’d asserted that Hamilton had not worked alone, that he had to have had help throughout his relentless extermination.

  “Yes,” said Felicity. “There are only two ways that this could work. First, if Hamilton wasn’t responsible for their deaths, in which case we have another, potentially prolific and almost undetectable, serial killer to find; or second, if Hamilton had an accomplice, someone who knew what he did with the bodies and still has access to them. We’ve found very few bodies to this day and, frankly, we haven’t the slightest clue where to start looking. Of course we’re looking into each woman’s disappearance again, reinterviewing, reviewing files, but we’ve nothing. Nothing from the body parts that were sent to us, nothing from the packaging they were in.”