Gone to Ground

by Rachel Amphlett

  Kay leaned forward, so that Lucas would hear her better. ‘Were you able to work out an age from the bones?’

  ‘No,’ said the pathologist. ‘What we can tell you is that it’s an adult male, judging by the size of the molars. It doesn’t match Clive Wallis’s DNA. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to speak with Harriet yet, but I caught up with her this morning and her team can confirm that there were no further victims’ remains within the landfill.’

  ‘What about a weapon? Was the same weapon used on both victims?’ said Kay.

  ‘I haven’t got anything to show how each of the victims was killed,’ said Lucas, ‘but the same blade was used to chop up the bodies. The sawing action is the same, in that the ridges on the ends of the bones are identical for both the first victim and the second. Unfortunately, some of the bones splintered in transit – they’re too brittle from being burned, so I’m unable to tell you more, I’m sorry.’

  Sharp finished writing and threw his pen down. ‘If you can send your report through, we’ll have the team put the results through the system to see if we can get a DNA match against the records in the missing persons database.’

  ‘You’ll have it within the next five minutes.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Sharp ended the call and sat back in his chair with a sigh.

  ‘Without wanting to sound callous, let’s hope this one has a family so we can find out exactly what he was up to before he went missing.’

  Kay pursed her lips before speaking. ‘I’m not looking forward to telling them how he died, guv.’

  Thirty-Four

  Kay paced the incident room in front of the whiteboard and attempted to batten down her frustration.

  Two murders, and nothing linking any of the county’s cold cases to either of them.

  She tapped the end of the pen against her chin and cast her eyes over the photographs that had been collated. Maybe she should be grateful that their killer had paused his slaughter, but it also worried her.

  Someone who was so calculating, so careful to cover his tracks, would surely kill again.

  But when? And why?

  She threw the pen on the table next to the whiteboard and stalked back to her desk, resigned that she wasn’t going to get anywhere staring at the photographs. Instead she decided to clear half her emails to give her mind a break.

  Sometimes it worked.

  Half an hour later, she filed the last of her responses, and turned her thoughts to wandering up Gabriels Hill to buy a proper coffee from the team’s favourite café.

  Before she could decide, she saw Gavin hurrying towards her.

  ‘Guv? I think I’ve got something.’

  ‘Is it contagious?’ said Barnes.

  Gavin rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Kay. ‘No – I mean something about the case.’

  ‘Go on,’ she said, and glared at Barnes.

  ‘I was thinking about motive for anyone at the craft centre. I mean, the place is a couple of miles from the hotel and only connected by woodland, so what could Wallis and our second victim have done to attract our killer’s attention, right?’

  ‘Right.’

  Gavin gestured to her computer. ‘Can I?’

  ‘Be my guest.’ Kay jabbed her heels in the thin carpet and shoved her chair backwards, while Gavin moved around the desk and grabbed her computer mouse.

  He opened her web browser and typed in the website address for a local paper. Scrolling through archived stories, he mumbled a grunt of satisfaction and turned to her.

  ‘Take a look at this.’

  His interest piqued, Barnes shoved his chair back and moved round to join them.

  Kay leaned across and read the article.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Barnes. ‘There’s your motive.’

  ‘It says here that “local environmental groups have staged protests in recent weeks against the further expansion of the hotel complex, arguing that it will destroy local woodland that has held significant interest for ecologists for many decades”— Hang on,’ said Kay, ‘Wallis never had anything to do with ecology groups. Besides, didn’t you speak to somebody at the hotel about the construction works?’

  ‘We were told they were on hold.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘One of the groundsmen we spoke to at the hotel said they’d run out of money and the owners had deferred the plans until next year.’

  ‘Who told you about it in the first place?’

  ‘Kyle Craig, the archery teacher, mentioned that the hotel had been expanded already – some old sheds and outbuildings were demolished at the end of last month.’

  ‘Did you notice anything suspicious when you checked out the construction activities?’

  ‘No – there was a pile of rubble there, which the groundsman told us had been from a dividing wall between the golf course and the outbuildings, but that was all. The thing is, I was thinking what if someone didn’t want the hotel expansion to go ahead? There have already been some protests from environmental groups about the encroachment of the planned building works on the woodland beyond the boundary. If the hotel’s reputation was damaged, the bookings would go down, and they wouldn’t be able to afford the expansion works.’

  Kay straightened, her eyes falling upon the photographs pinned to the whiteboard. ‘Before we jump to conclusions, I want you all to delve further into the backgrounds of our persons of interest. Specifically, find out if any of them have links to the local environmental groups that have been protesting about the work. Get Carys and Debbie to help you let me have an update tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Okay.’

  Barnes waited until Gavin had wandered back to his desk, then leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘Killing two innocent men to prove a point about an environmental issue seems extreme, guv.’

  ‘I know, but in the absence of any other motives or ideas, we at least need to eliminate it. Do me a favour – look into the history of the site, planning approvals, building consent, that sort of thing. See if there were any issues that arose when the hotel was first approved to be built, and whether anyone we’ve spoken to in the past week was involved.’

  Kay wheeled around at the sound of her name.

  Carys shoved her chair back from her desk and hurried over, her mobile phone in her hand.

  ‘I think I’ve found him – the second victim.’

  ‘Who is he?’ said Sharp, joining them from his office.

  ‘A man by the name of Rupert Blacklock. He didn’t appear on our radar because he’s from Cardiff. He’s been missing for six months. His wife and kids back in Wales have been absolutely frantic – apparently, his disappearance was completely out of character. I’ve just had a phone call from Cardiff police off the back of an email I sent out last night asking for other police forces to check their records for us.’

  ‘What was he doing in Kent?’ said Kay.

  ‘He’s a salesman,’ said Carys. ‘He worked for a company that specialises in commercial kitchen equipment. For hotels.’

  Kay felt a spark of excitement at Carys’s words. ‘Get onto his employers and get a note of his calendar and his last known movements.’

  ‘Will do, guv.’

  Kay waited until Carys had moved back to her desk, then turned to Sharp. ‘Two victims. Same hotel. Too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?’

  ‘I should say so. Best you and Barnes get over there and have another word with the manager.’

  Thirty-Five

  The next morning, Kay released her seatbelt the moment Barnes turned the vehicle into a spare parking space, then led the way towards the reception doors.

  She recognised the woman behind the desk from the interviews they had conducted on the Saturday but couldn’t remember her name. Automatically, she held up her warrant card.

  ‘We need to see Kevin Tavistock, now.’

  The woman paled, but she reached out for the phone in front of her, punched in a sequence of four numbers, and he
ld the receiver to her ear, her eyes never leaving Kay and Barnes. She murmured into the phone, then replaced it.

  ‘He’ll be with you in a couple of minutes. Would you like to take a seat?’

  ‘No, thanks. We’ll wait here.’

  Kay turned her back to the woman as Barnes extracted his notebook from his jacket and flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for.

  ‘Okay,’ he murmured. ‘According to his wife, Rupert Blacklock was due to stay here overnight when he disappeared. She says he phoned her after returning from dinner that night and said he was planning on having an early night because of the drive home early the next day. The alarm was raised when he didn’t show up for a meeting he was due to have at Swindon at eleven o’clock on his way home. When he hadn’t appeared in Cardiff by nine o’clock that night, his wife got in touch with the local police.’

  ‘Did local uniform contact the hotel?’

  ‘Yes, but we don’t have a note of what was said. The only record entered in HOLMES is to state that the phone call was made as a routine enquiry before the missing persons information was formally released. They followed procedure and took a DNA sample from the toothbrush Blacklock left at home.’

  Kay’s attention was drawn to a door opening behind Barnes, and Kevin Tavistock appeared, straightening his tie as he approached.

  ‘Detectives. I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon.’

  ‘Thanks for seeing us at short notice. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?’

  ‘You’re in luck. We haven’t got any conferences today, so we can use one of the meeting rooms.’

  ‘Lead the way.’

  Kay and Barnes followed the duty manager. He paused next to a closed door, knocked once, then stuck his head around the doorframe before turning back to them.

  ‘All clear. We can use this one.’

  While he switched on lights, Kay and Barnes took seats on one side of the table and waited for him to join them. As he sat down, Kay launched into her questioning.

  ‘Tell me about the construction work that has been taking place at the back of the property.’

  ‘It’s all on hold at the moment,’ said Tavistock. ‘I don’t know whether the staff told you while you were interviewing them over the weekend, but the hotel owners are waiting until the next shareholder meeting in September to make a final decision.’

  ‘What is being built?’

  ‘A new wedding venue. The hotel is already proving to be successful with all the activities we provide to guests. It’s a new concept for this area, and it’s working well – there’s nothing like it around here. We’re popular with the locals too, because we provide so many employment opportunities.’

  Kay raised her hand. ‘I’ll stop you right there, Mr Tavistock.’ She removed a plastic wallet from her bag and withdrew copies of the newspaper clippings Gavin had found about the protests. ‘Care to explain why these protests happened if the locals were so happy about the expansion plans?’

  ‘Oh, God. Those idiots? Honestly, I have no idea what they thought they were going to achieve.’ He shook his head. ‘If they had looked at the plans properly, they’d have seen that the new wedding venue is only going to use the footprint set out by the original outbuildings that were pulled down. The woodland was never going to be touched – it provides the perfect backdrop for events. Anyway, after two or three protests, it all petered out. I’m presuming someone in the group finally cottoned on to what we were doing, and decided it wasn’t worth the bother.’

  ‘Did any of the protesters harass your staff at the time?’

  ‘Only if you count waving placards at vehicles as they arrived at the staff car park in the mornings as harassment. They were more an annoyance than anything else. The local newspapers tried to make it appear worse than it actually was, but even they lost interest once they realised how disorganised the group was. Like I said, after a few weeks it all died down.’

  Kay rested her arms on the table and leaned forward, her voice conspiratorial. ‘I’m going to be completely honest with you, Mr Tavistock. I have two murder victims, both linked to this hotel. At the present time, that is the only common thread running through this investigation.’

  Tavistock paled. ‘You can’t possibly think one of my staff members is a murderer!’

  Kay said nothing and waited.

  ‘We conduct the most stringent security checks before employing anyone,’ he continued, urgency clouding his words. ‘You must appreciate – with the sort of clientele we have here, our staff have to be trustworthy.’

  ‘Well, at the moment, all of your staff are under suspicion. Unless you have another theory as to why two of your guests have been murdered?’

  He swallowed, then shook his head. ‘No. No, I have no idea.’

  ‘All right, in that case I need a copy of the staff roster for the past three months.’

  ‘That’s no problem. I’ll have it emailed to you within the next couple of hours.’

  ‘Please do. As you’ll appreciate, time is of the essence.’

  He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper as he glanced over Kay’s shoulder and back to her.

  ‘Do you think I’m in danger?’

  ‘Look, the last thing we want to do is start a panic,’ she said. ‘At the present time, it would appear the killer is only interested in hotel guests, not staff members. But, yes – do be careful, please. In the meantime, I need you to act as my eyes and ears here. If you overhear anything, or see anything suspicious, I want you to phone my direct number at once. Is that clear?’

  Tavistock nodded, his face eager. ‘Absolutely. I’ll do everything I can to help.’

  ‘Thank you. Then, I think we’re done here for now.’

  As they walked back to the car, Barnes chuckled.

  ‘I rather think he’s enjoying the thought of a killer being in his midst,’ he said. ‘Probably the most excitement he’s had for months.’

  Kay choked out a laugh. ‘Ian, you can be such a bitch sometimes.’

  Thirty-Six

  Early the next morning, Kay gave herself a mental shake and squared her shoulders as the team settled in chairs and on desks surrounding the whiteboard.

  Sharp pulled out a chair near the front before taking the agenda Debbie handed to him and running his eyes down the page.

  ‘Okay, let’s make a start,’ said Kay as the room grew quiet. ‘We’ve received up-to-date rostering information from Kevin Tavistock at the hotel, which includes a note of every staff member who was present two months ago when Rupert Blacklock’s employers say he was a guest. Again, there is no record of his staying overnight although we do have evidence of his presence at the hotel by way of the quotation he provided to the kitchen manager. Carys – can you coordinate the review of that list against the one we have from two weeks ago? I’m after a note of staff members who have remained at the hotel since Blacklock disappeared. For now, put to one side any staff members who left between the two murders, and staff who arrived during that time.’

  ‘Guv.’

  ‘We need a breakthrough, everyone, and soon.’ She rapped her knuckles on the photos of the two victims. ‘Although Gavin’s theory about the murders being connected to the protest against the hotel expansion was a good one, I don’t think that’s what we have here. Something triggers these killings. It’s like it’s a reaction to something. So, what’s driving him? Why is he killing?’

  Silence filled the room.

  Kay pressed on as she paced the carpet. ‘Why did our killer make such a fundamental mistake losing the foot off the back of the pickup truck? He’s been meticulous with how he’s disposed of the bodies, even going so far as to dismember them, so what went wrong?’

  ‘Maybe he was hiding them somewhere, and he got disturbed?’ said Barnes, placing his empty takeout coffee cup in a recycling bin near the front of the incident room. ‘So, he panicked. He was reacting, rather than dictating the situation he found himself in.’r />
  ‘And we’re still no closer to finding out where he’d come from,’ said Kay, moving towards the Ordnance Survey map tacked to the wall and tracing her fingers over it. ‘Our killer could have travelled from a number of directions to reach the lane where the foot was found. I mean, there are numerous routes leading off that lane, and once he reaches the main road… he could be anywhere.’

  She fought down the hopelessness that clutched at her stomach and turned back to the team.

  ‘Why did he have to steal a vehicle?’

  ‘Perhaps he doesn’t normally drive,’ ventured Parker. ‘That might go some way to explain why he wasn’t driving with care and lost the boot with the foot in it.’

  ‘Good point. What else? Anyone?’

  Kay could sense the fatigue in the room, the way her colleagues shifted in their seats, and the defeated expressions worn by some of the younger uniformed officers. She exhaled.

  ‘Look, I know this is hard. But let’s look at it another way. Why was he in a hurry? Why risk speeding along this stretch of road?’

  A hand was raised from the back of the room.

  ‘Yes, Morrison?’

  ‘What if he works shifts?’

  ‘Could be one of us, then,’ said a voice from the other side of the room.

  A flurry of laughter lifted some of the tension, and Kay let them relax for a moment before drawing them back to the briefing.

  ‘Very funny. Dave has a point, though. If our killer is a shift-worker, then he could have been trying to dispose of the bodies before going to work, which would explain the speed he would have needed to have been doing to dislodge the boot. Next question, then. Why is he killing? Who were our two victims to him?’

  Debbie shuffled the paperwork in her lap before speaking up. ‘I’ve run some analytics through the database, guv, but there’s nothing in the information we have to date to suggest our two victims knew each other.’