by Hylton Smith
Adams shouted, “Blood?” She nodded and he lip read DNA. She maintained that the smears of blood appeared to highlight the numbers as one would do with a font in Microsoft Word.
“They were applied very carefully, and there’s no smudging.”
“What?” She leaned close to him and repeated her claim by shouting directly into his ear.
“Oh I see,” said Adams. She didn’t step back immediately and he said, “Is there something else?” She blushed, as she had never been so close to Ben Adams before. She snapped back into focus as she realised he still hadn’t guessed how much she liked him. When he returned to the car, Renton and Greg Watson were ready to go. He told them that Donoghue was still at the marking up stage apart from Angela’s find.
Renton remarked, “Steph said there was a number on some computer image on the video, but didn’t say how many digits it had. Let’s go and we, sorry, you can check it out.” They left and drove into the watery sun, not expecting a snowfall before they pulled into the station car park.
Chapter 2
The London party had wasted no time in getting to Newcastle. The head of Law Enforcement in the UK, Nigel Bradstock was still based in the Midwest (Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool), even though the age-old rift between the regional arms of the Colony had been substantially healed. The Colony, which was basically Britain’s clone of the Mafia, had been decidedly quiet since the miraculous new entente cordiale. Despite this cosy interlude, Bradstock had chosen to remain in Birmingham. He had finally ascended to Sir Nigel, and wanted to achieve more stability between the Police, H.M. Intelligence and the tentacles of the Colony, before the inevitable relocation to the Capital. The current events with the Intranet did nothing to smooth the path he had planned so carefully.
He did not travel to Newcastle on this occasion, but both Renton and Cousins knew this was just temporary relief for the Three Rivers force. Instead, Bradstock elected to go to London to oversee the problems facing the I.T. people in restoring impenetrability of the police Intranet. The party of three breezed into Durham H.Q. without their usual swagger. Bruce Middleton was known to the hosts as an uncompromising stickler for procedure. Kyle Jennings had been involved in the commissioning of the entire regional software link-up. The third male was not recognised when he was introduced as Charles Welling. Middleton outlined the agenda which had to be followed; it was accompanied by Bradstock’s signed covering letter. In summary it stated that the system must be checked and verified by Jennings as having no identifiable anomalies before proceeding to step two. However, they declined to say what that step would entail. This provoked Renton to outline what had been found at the Priory, and his need to get on with the investigation.
“You’ll have the full cooperation of the Newcastle force with your project and I’ll convey to my staff just how important this is. If this helps you to proceed quickly to step two I’ll ensure that I’m available for you at that time.” This was interpreted by Middleton as a slur on the I.T. mission.
“Not at all,” said Renton, “I’m sure C.C. Cousins will endorse our concern that your housekeeping must come first. You people have basically the same objective as I do, we must both identify the cause of our predicament. You’re searching for a breach, either by an external hacker, or an internal error. I’m trying to find a madman in a population of millions, even if we exclude grandmothers and invalids. I’d rather not bore you with platitudes such as ‘the first twenty-four hours in a case like this is crucial.’ You really must excuse me, and in any case C.C. Cousins has much more knowledge of our systems than I do, that’s why I’m often labelled as a dinosaur. I’ll keep in touch with respect to step two. It’s reassuring to meet you all.” Cousins muttered an obscenity under his breath, as he smiled in apparent agreement with Renton.
Meanwhile, Frank had not been idle. The offer of hosting the latest updates, from other website owners, had been accepted. Some had already been closed down by the servers, and others had succumbed to pressure from the UK government. However, in many other parts of the world, the uncensored second video was playing freely, despite overtures from the British Prime Minister. The police Intranet had received the upload after the momentum had been re-established on the open internet. The corpses which had contributed to the human jigsaw were lined up on the floor of what looked like the same room as the first video. Attention was drawn to the order, from left to right, so this was obviously significant.
The remains which had faces were heavily disguised with theatrical makeup. On the extreme left were the legless male body, and a second male with no arms, which was indeed over six feet tall. The three remaining victims were ‘arranged’ to possibly suggest they were of less importance. The headless female was on the left of the three, and had by far the darkest skin of all five. The female with the missing torso had the legs crossed and they were placed directly beneath the head. The male corpse which had no genitalia had evidence of other mutilation, but the striking aspect was how the extracted penis and testicles had been brutally hacked out. There was very little bone and tissue remaining to keep the legs and torso connected, and it was laid out in a haphazard way. Only the first two seemed to command respect from the perpetrator. Renton and Stephanie eventually paused and zoomed on to the skylight and the number was still there. It was however different from the ones on the underside of the coffin lid, and the one which Stephanie had copied from the first video. They looked at one another and came to the same conclusion simultaneously. Having watched the first video again they kept pausing and zooming in on the skylight. After an interval of a running minute, then pausing and zooming, the number changed. Repeating this many times, they had all five numbers, which included the two from the coffin. They immediately began to analyse them in the order they had retrieved them.
Nothing stood out immediately. Stephanie was doodling while Renton took a call from Eva Roberts. All of a sudden she smiled. “That’s it,” she declared, “we were right, those bodies on the left seem to be different.” She listed them in the left to right order from the second video, and then placed the numbers in the order they appeared in the skylight. She confirmed that when the first video was played from the start, the order was always the same, but it wasn’t the time which triggered the change, it was the pause action. Once more she concentrated on the numbers.
Legless Male Body 2007200218
Armless Male Body 1506199822
Headless Female 1703197743
Female No Torso 0706200020
Male No Genitals 1809198733
Although the first two were the same as those inscribed on the coffin lid she could not find anything to corroborate the inference of which came first. Renton was still talking on the phone when Stephanie shouted to nobody in particular.
“Yes! - Oh, I’m sorry Sir.” Renton asked Eva Roberts to hold. “What have you got Steph?” She handed him the sheet and spoke in a low voice.
“They are dates of birth and age. The ones from the coffin seem to be referring to the corpses on the left in the second video, but I can’t be absolutely sure of that.” He patted her on the back and asked her to bring Ben Adams into his office. He apologised to Eva Roberts.
“Sorry about that, Stephanie got a little carried away. Anyway, as I was saying, I’m not surprised that you called. I think that the only people who don’t know about this case must be undiscovered tribes in the Amazon rain forest. I’m hoping you’re calling because you would like to help out.”
“This isn’t my specialist field Jack. Serial killers generally work to a pattern of separate acts with a time interval in the discovery of each victim. This sounds like long term preparation and then revelation of multiple killings.”
“Well, it’s not like anything I’ve had to deal with either, but I don’t have a choice about whether or not to investigate.”
“When you put it like that I suppose I could keep in touch by vi
deo conference. It seems that’s how you are going to have to deal with whoever is behind this. I don’t think it would be sensible for me to come over right away. Let’s see what develops.”
“Ok Eva, I’ll get together what we have so far and transmit it to you soon.” When Ben Adams walked into the office he was with Greg Watson. Stephanie joined them. Renton mentioned the conversation with Eva Roberts and then told Adams that the evidence Stephanie had discovered was now in his ball court, to progress with Sam Gibson.
“I suggest you begin looking at missing persons and see if anything jumps out.” He was about to outline how he and Stephanie would pursue the communication with Frank when Watson interrupted.
“As I suspected, these victims have been dead some time and I can only give you approximate data. The two which Stephanie believes are somehow different were terminated at least nine months ago, whereas the others suffered more recently – around four to six weeks back, eight at most. However, I do have to revise my earlier declaration that the butcher was amateurish in terms of surgical techniques. Now that I’ve seen the bodies from which the parts were taken, there is a different picture. The legless and armless males in the second video were meticulously precise and neatly conducted. The others were the exact opposite – heavily mutilated. Either we have two operatives involved or Stephanie is right, the two corpses on the left of the second video have been treated very differently. The assembly process of the parts for the first video does not show this two-tiered approach, almost as if the composite result was unimportant in this respect. I’m not sure what to make of this, yet it disturbs me. It is over to you I’m afraid.”
Eva Roberts had been of great help to Renton in profiling the serial killer two years ago, and in predicting how the pattern of communication would evolve. He would send her the updates as soon as Stephanie could package all relevant information together.
*
Meanwhile Bradstock was weaving his web in London. He stood over the I.T. team constantly, and contacted Interpol with regard to finding the source of genuine posts made by Frank, on those overseas websites which their servers refused to block from the net. The only thing Interpol came back with was something he already knew, that the posts were coming from IP addresses which were in commercial internet booths from around the UK. However, the effort was not entirely fruitless, insofar as it provoked a call to Jack Renton which could have been Frank.
“Please listen, don’t speak. I am willing to re-engage with you via your Intranet on one condition. Think about this. I will call you back.”
“Hello, hello, I can’t hear you.” The line went dead. The voice, as expected was heavily distorted, but was almost certainly male. Renton’s frustration was coming to the boil when his phone rang again.
“Get your people to leave the Intranet alone for now, and you will get the information before the internet does. What is posted on the web will depend on how much mutual trust develops between us.” The line went dead again. Even if they had been ready to trace the calls, less than fifteen seconds was far too short. Renton told himself that the calls would have been made from public lines, but he knew there was trouble ahead.
“That’s all we need,” he said to Stephanie, “Bradstock will shit himself when I pass Frank’s ultimatum on to him.”
“Sir?”
“It would have been a pleasure to see him squirm under any other circumstances. Sorry Steph, Frank wants to keep us up to speed by continuing to invade the Intranet.”
“How do we know it was Frank?”
“We don’t really, but we have to take the calls seriously. If it is Frank and we ignore the offer, the situation could get worse. We really could do with Eva Roberts’ input, but old Sir Nigel needs to be put on the spot first.”
Clive Donoghue had begun to blitz the formidable array of samples from the Priory. The DNA checks had priority. It was crucial to know if there were more than five distinct variants involved with the coffin. Second on his list were footprint casts taken from the soft ground around the coffin. However, he had something for Renton. Apart from Angela’s discovery of the numbers, there was a stamped reference on the underside of the main part of the casket. It was curious in a way, because neither burial nor cremation had been in the plan. As it was a professionally made casket, Donoghue wondered how it was procured and why the stamp had not been removed by Frank.
“Presumably he didn’t know it was there. It must also be highly unusual to ask a funeral service to provide a coffin without knowing or verifying the deceased. Maybe I’m wrong Jack, but it could be worth following up.” Renton agreed, reminding him that evidence for this case should go to Adams first.
“Oh yes, I forgot about that. Is there something I haven’t been told?” Renton assured him it was merely intended to optimise resource. He still looked confused.
Sam Gibson began the tedious trawl of reported missing persons reported in the periods of 8-12 months and 1-2 months ago, and which individuals were still missing. He would produce a full list in case Stephanie’s link to the birth date and age was a red herring. Meanwhile Ben Adams began checking with a couple of funeral parlours with respect to providing coffins without seeing the body, and the meaning of the stamp discovered by Donoghue. He got a different story from each of them. The first one, a smaller business, indicated that they had never supplied a coffin without having to collect and prepare the body. They said unconvincingly that they knew nothing of the practice of stamping the coffins either, and they used a local supplier. The second operation was bigger and more lavish. Although it was unusual, they had sometimes supplied coffins to be shipped overseas when a relative had died outside the UK. They were also familiar with the stamping procedure. Apparently, the bigger suppliers of a wide range of caskets wanted to have records for sales analysis, and it had become a government requirement a number of years ago, in case exhumation was required. It could help tie up the body with dates, and avoid mistakes if the person’s remains had to be examined again. The director of the business demonstrated a few different examples. When Adams produced Donoghue’s photo of the coffin, the man had no hesitation in saying it was from a big supplier in Leeds, by the name of Ashton.
*
Sir Nigel could not disguise the sarcasm in his voice.
“Yes, that sounds like a great idea Jack, let’s give this psychopath the run of our databases and cherry-pick what he tells the world about our progress. Have you gone completely mad?”
“I realise it’s a difficult call to make Sir, and I just wanted to get your reaction, as I’m not up to speed with the intricacies of our Intranet security. As a complete layman I thought if it has already been breached, Frank must be pretty clever. Has your I.T. team made any progress in finding out how it happened?”
“Unfortunately not, but if we allow this character to dictate to us, where would it all end? It would also encourage others to have a go.” Renton steeled himself for an avalanche of wrath.
“So Frank can just continue to operate within the system anyway, and we miss out on direct contact, with the attendant risk of pushing him into a more unstable state.”
Bradstock began to recognise the habit of Renton covering his own arse by delegating upwards.
“Of course the Intranet is vulnerable until we can shut out all hackers again, but agreeing to such an arrangement with this criminal cannot be defended; it is tantamount to endorsing his act of sabotage. Even if we can't prevent this Frank’s access, we can’t be seen to negotiate, in the same way that we don’t with terrorists.”
“So, if I read you right Sir, when the call comes again I must say we can’t comply. So far I haven’t been able to get a word in edgeways. I suppose that puts the onus on Frank to decide whether or not to inform us ahead of the rest of the world. Maybe it’s the attention thing again, you know – demonstration of control. I’ve been told that it’s premature to conclude Frank is male, but as far as I know I’m the only one to hear the voice, and I’d put my mort
gage on it. I’m not saying we are excluding others being involved, but the person who called me had a deep voice, even allowing for the distortion. Very well, I’ll just wait and see what happens next. I hope your guys can patch up the fortress as soon as possible.”
*
The footprints at the Priory were numerous, but around the location of the coffin there were two predominating candidates. One was a size 9-10 Asics trainer; the other was larger and needed more examination. Donoghue was pretty sure it was a hiking boot of some kind, even though the soles were well worn down, thus devoid of a manufacturer’s mould. This at least strengthened the argument that more than one person was involved in moving the coffin from any transport to the Priory.
Stephanie had sent the latest information to Eva Roberts and it did the trick. She was hooked and called Renton to say she was coming on the next flight from Amsterdam.
Chapter 3
“Well Steph, it looks like your gut feeling that two of the bodies are different from the others in some way, is looking pretty solid. We haven’t seen any contradictory evidence so far. That’s why I want to talk about motive. Any thoughts? Take your time. I’ll get us some coffee.”
‘Jesus,’ she thought, ‘this is a first, I should have asked him to bring me a Panini as well.’ Renton passed the time of day with the canteen ladies and had to smile when sixty-six year old Maud caught him unawares by giving her interpretation of Frank’s website posts. He then realised she was talking from second hand information, courtesy of her grandson. “Well don’t hesitate to tip me off if you think we’ve missed something Maud, like the new price of these bloody coffees.” He disappeared into the corridor as she began wagging her finger. Stephanie started cautiously.
“We don’t have enough leads at present to form robust ideas of motive Sir. Otherwise you would be bouncing them off me, instead of asking me outright. What I’m pretty sure of is that you think that I think the motive is strongly connected to the different treatment of the males who had their limbs removed. So I won’t disappoint you; that is exactly what I think. Why that is the case, is the puzzle. Perhaps there’s a clue in what Greg said, you know, that the surgery involved with the removal of the limbs was highly professional. A butcher, vet, or even an actual surgeon perhaps, would have such skills albeit at different levels of expertise. I don’t think that it’s good use of our time to speculate just yet, we need more dialogue with Frank, or better still, DNA results from the Priory. Maybe Adams will come up with something. Do you disagree with me Sir?”
