Unsolved

by Michael Fowler

  Hunter lifted his eyes from the screen. Those words and the woman’s name triggered something in the back of his mind. He returned his gaze to the computer, zeroing in on the date of the newspaper article. Friday 19th May 1991. Two months before he’d become a cop. He was about to read more of the feature when the name came to him. Her missing report had been one of the first case files Maddie had handed to him. ‘Crikey me,’ he blurted out, looking at his colleague.

  ‘What’s up?’ she responded, lifting her eyes from her computer.

  ‘Maddie, one of the first files you showed me was a missing woman called Alison Chambers. Does that ring any bells?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I put it into the out tray to go back to the archives for filing. Why?’

  ‘Before I got clobbered last night, I noticed some old newspaper articles and photographs in the container I was searching at the vehicle dismantlers and Grace has sent me images of them. Several of them relate to Dylan’s victims — cases that I was involved with when I first joined the police — and the crimes he went down for. But one of the images I’ve just opened relates to a missing person from nineteen-ninety-one, Alison Chambers, whose file you showed me on my first day here, and I think Dylan could have been involved in her disappearance.’

  Maddie’s mouth dropped open and she pushed herself up from her desk. ‘I’ll get it out of the tray.’

  As Maddie stepped across to retrieve the folder from the top of one of the filing cabinets, Hunter returned to the computer, opening up the last attachment from Grace. This was another piece from a newspaper, but next to it were two separate photographs. Closing in on the photos, he saw that they appeared to be shots of an elderly woman lying in a shallow, muddy grave, although he couldn’t make out her face. The hairs on the back of his neck instantly prickled. Hunter widened the image, settling his eyes upon the newspaper headline — WHERE IS CATHERINE? — after which he immediately dropped his sight to the opening paragraph:

  Police are becoming increasingly concerned about 75-year-old Catherine Dewhurst who was last seen on Sunday, when she left her home on Park Close to walk to nearby St Margaret’s church.

  Hunter left his reading there, zoning in on the date of the article. It was published on the 28th April 1990. Catherine Dewhurst’s missing file had also been one he had read on his first day working in Cold Case. He lifted his eyes from his screen, looking across the room, where Maddie was just picking out the folder for Alison Chambers. He said, ‘While you’re there, Maddie, can you get Catherine Dewhurst’s file as well? I think we’ve found ourselves another of Dylan Wolfe’s victims.’

  Hunter opened the case files Maddie handed to him, selecting the typed copies of Alison Chambers’ and Catherine Dewhurst’s missing reports, the first documents that headed up each file. Each of the reports had their photographs paperclipped to them, and after giving them a brief read-over to reacquaint himself with each of the disappeared women’s stories, he rang Grace. She picked up on the second ring. ‘Are you still at Bones’ yard?’ he asked.

  She told him she was and said, ‘The boss and the DCI are here as well. Forensics are just starting on the portacabin I found you in.’

  A flash of what had happened the previous evening entered Hunter’s inner vision, making him shiver, but he quickly pushed it away as he latched on to what Grace had just said, suddenly finding it amusing how she referred to Dawn Leggate as the boss and not St. John-Stevens. With a smirk, he said, ‘I think you need to get a full search team down there, Grace.’ He told her that he had just finished viewing the attachments she had sent him and summarised what he had uncovered with regards to the disappearances of Alison Chambers and Catherine Dewhurst. ‘The photographs make it look like Dylan was following them around, learning their movements before he made his move. I wish we had found these when we caught him back in ninety-one. We did search the portacabin but not the containers because we were told that there were only engine parts in them. And to be honest, Grace, I hadn’t enough experience to know what I was looking for.’

  ‘Have you any idea whether Alison or Catherine could be the woman who was photographed in the grave?’

  ‘No. I’m not familiar with either of them. I’ve got copies of their missing reports with their pictures attached, but the images you’ve sent are not of good enough quality to enable me to see which of the two, if either, it is. I’ll send you images of the photos I have on their files and you can compare them with the ones from the container.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll do that. Forensics have taken them down and put them in exhibit bags, but I should be able to get a look at them. With regards to the search, I’ll speak with Dawn and St. John-Stevens and tell them your thoughts.’

  ‘I’m sure St. John-Stevens will have an issue with that, but if the boss agrees, he can’t do anything about it. And especially as Rasa’s body was found there, and the Bannisters’ car is there. It wouldn’t surprise me if their bodies are buried somewhere in that yard.’

  ‘Dawn has already come up with that, Hunter.’

  ‘Great minds think alike,’ Hunter chuckled back.

  ‘Show-off. Anyway, I can’t be talking to you all day, some of us are busy.’ Grace let out a short laugh and added, ‘Send me the images of Alison Chambers and Catherine Dewhurst and I’ll liaise with the bosses. I’ll get back to you if I get something.’ With that, she ended the call.

  For a few seconds, Hunter stared at the handset before hanging up and looking across at Maddie. ‘I’m going to go through these files and make some notes for when MIT have their briefing. Even if we can’t be involved, we can prepare the information for them.’

  Hunter sent Maddie home at her appointed time, staying on for a few hours reading through the files and making notes. He was also eagerly awaiting an update from Grace. When she hadn’t rung by six o’clock, he tried her phone only for it to go through to voicemail. Leaving a message to say that he would be at home if she wanted to talk, he turned off the office lights and made his way down to the car park. As he was about to get into his car, he spotted DC Caroline Blake, one of the MIT Family Liaison Officers, having a cigarette break in the smoking area, and he sauntered across to her.

  ‘Hi, Hunter,’ she greeted him, dropping the cigarette down by her side.

  ‘Have you heard anything from Grace? I’ve just tried to get hold of her, but her phone’s gone to voicemail.’

  Caroline stubbed out the cigarette and binned it. ‘Last I heard, an hour ago, was they had just ordered additional lights so that they could carry out a more thorough search of an area they’ve identified as a possible grave site. I’m guessing they’re going to be working well into the night on this.’

  A jolt of excitement lurched through Hunter’s body, while at the same time a sense of disappointment overcame him because he wanted to be there. Quickly dismissing the thought, he asked, ‘Has Dylan Wolfe said anything?’

  ‘Not a word. Mike Chapman and Tony Bullars had an initial interview with him this afternoon, but they said he just sat there laughing all the way through. Wouldn’t say anything about Rasa’s body in the car or about attacking you. Even when they went through the attack on you, he just laughed. He’s behaving like a psycho.’

  ‘He is a psycho,’ Hunter returned. ‘Okay, Caroline, good luck. And tell Mike and Tony I asked after them.’

  Caroline nodded. ‘Are you in tomorrow?’

  ‘Yes, eight o’clock.’

  ‘I’ll tell them to come and have a cuppa with you and update you. You never know, you might be back on the team now the boss’s back.’

  Hunter smirked. Another colleague who’s acknowledging Dawn Leggate as the boss. ‘I’ll not raise my hopes. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Goodnight.’ With that, Hunter made his way back to the car.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Hunter was fully awake by 6.15 a.m. the next morning, having had a restless evening and night. He had finally given up waiting for Grace to ring him at 10 p.m. and gone to bed feeling fractious,
annoyed she hadn’t contacted him to give him an update. Then he had tossed and turned, occasionally drifting off, but only for an hour or so on each occasion, waking up in a sweat with his heart hammering, as the vision of Dylan Wolfe putting the plastic bag over his head invaded his sleep. The last time he had dropped off had been just after 4 a.m. and then he had woken with a start again when he imagined he couldn’t breathe. With his head back on his pillow, he drew in slow, deep breaths. Five minutes after quarter-past-six he turned over, turned off his alarm and got out of bed.

  He pulled into the office car park just after 7 a.m., surprised to see quite a number of cars already there and the lights blaring on the first floor where MIT were based. Something’s happening, he thought, grabbing his briefcase and closing the car door. He trotted up the stairs to the first floor and headed to MIT instead of his own office. He didn’t care if St. John-Stevens was there or not. He wanted to know what was happening. The entrance doors to the MIT corridor were open, so he didn’t need to wait for someone to allow him access. As he approached MIT, he clocked Detective Superintendent Leggate coming out of her old office. She looked his way and signalled him to come, propping open the door.

  ‘Just the person,’ she said as Hunter slipped past her. ‘Take a seat,’ she added, following him in.

  ‘Where’s the DCI?’ Hunter asked, sitting down.

  Dawn went behind the desk. ‘Probably on his way back to the yard. We didn’t finish until midnight, and I told him to start there this morning while I took care of briefing.’

  ‘Have you found something?’

  ‘You’ll be pleased to know, we have.’

  ‘A body?’

  Dawn nodded.

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Buried behind the container where Rasa Katiliene’s body was found. There’s a gap between that and the fence, and pieces of old timber were piled there, but the moment we moved them we could see the ground showed signs of disturbance. We had to remove a section of the fence to make room to dig, and a couple of feet down we found a clothed skeleton. From the clothing we are able to match it to several of the photographs that we recovered from the container, so it looks like one of the bodies is either Alison Chambers or Catherine Dewhurst. We won’t know until we get it down to the mortuary, and even then, we won’t know unless we can get DNA from family members. You don’t know if either victim has living relatives, do you?’

  Hunter shook his head. ‘We never conducted a review of them. Maddie and I focussed on the Bannisters’ disappearance. I have gone through them again, and one of them had a son who reported her missing, but he was in his forties in ninety-one, so I don’t know if he’s still alive or not.’

  ‘Not to worry. There’s still a lot of work to do today, so that’s something we can look at in briefing.’

  ‘Is it just the one body you’ve found?’

  Dawn gave a sharp nod. ‘Because of the late hour when we found it, we decided it was too late to start excavating the area any further, for fear of losing any evidence, so we put a tent over the dig and secured everything ready to start this morning. The forensic team will be starting about eight.’ Pausing, she continued, ‘Once we get the body removed, we will be extending the search. Given the photographs and newspaper cuttings in the container, I have every reason to believe that there will be further bodies.’ She raised a finger. ‘And on that note, I have other news.’

  Hunter gave her a questioning look.

  ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she smirked. ‘It was you who made the request.’

  ‘Request?’

  ‘For DNA tests to be done on the samples taken from the Bannisters’ house in nineteen-ninety-one. In particular those taken from the floor of the kitchen.’

  ‘Oh, those.’

  ‘Oh, those indeed. Well, you’ll be pleased to know it’s reaped a reward. Yes, the samples have been corrupted by bleach, but not enough to prevent the team getting DNA from them. And, by cross-referencing with other samples taken from the house, they have found that the traces of DNA from the floor samples belong to none other than David Bannister.’

  Hunter’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. ‘Wow!’ For a few seconds, Hunter was silent as he processed the information. Then, he replied, ‘This changes many aspects of the original investigation and it may even change the conclusion. Even if David had killed his wife and daughter, given the amount of blood that was cleaned up from the floor, the SOCO indication was that whoever was attacked there would have been either killed or seriously injured. Certainly in no fit state to do that cleaning job, or carry and transport the bodies away from the house. Someone else had to be involved in their disappearance.’

  ‘I agree with that, Hunter. I’ve got the Bannister file from the DCI and read through the forensic submission from back in ninety-one. The original analysis was as you’ve just pointed out. The area of blood that had been cleaned up was significant enough to show that whoever it belonged to would have either needed immediate medical attention or was dead. And as you are aware from reading the report, it was intimated that the blood was that of Tina Bannister.’

  Giving a swift nod, Hunter agreed with Dawn’s summarisation of facts.

  Dawn continued, ‘Have you managed to pull together a report of the case?’

  Hunter shook his head. ‘I made a start on it yesterday. I’ve updated everything but it just needs typing up.’

  ‘Okay, I want you to crack on with that as a priority. I want you to include the fresh information from the witnesses that are mentioned in the original report from ninety-one, and any new witness you have discovered from your recent enquiries. I want you to map out clearly the gaps you have uncovered and reviewed. Is that understood?’

  Hunter nodded again.

  ‘I want it ready for this evening’s briefing so we can start first thing tomorrow morning with a fresh investigation into the family’s disappearance. Hopefully, when we continue with our search this morning, we will find their bodies and resolve the matter. As you know, David Bannister’s car has been removed to the forensic drying room for examination, although I’m not too hopeful about that yielding anything, given its condition.’ She sighed. ‘I live in hope, though, as they say.’

  ‘I’ll work on it straight away, boss.’

  Hunter had started to leave, when Dawn continued, ‘I want you to deliver that report in person this evening, Hunter. And I want you and Maddie to join the investigation…’ Pausing, she added, ‘…unless you have something more pressing?’

  A sudden surge of adrenalin shot through him, and on a euphoric note, Hunter replied, ‘No, we’ve nothing, boss. All we’ve been working on is the Bannister case. We’d love to be involved.’ As he turned, he said, ‘What about the DCI?’

  ‘I’ll be speaking with St. John-Stevens after briefing, and I’ll apprise him of the situation and my decision.’

  Hunter couldn’t stop himself breaking into a smile as he bounced back along the corridor to the cold case office.

  Hunter spent the remainder of the morning typing a fresh summary for the Bannister casefile, adding in all the new material he and Maddie had gleaned over the last fortnight. It now included Roger Mills’ recollection of the crime scene, George Evers’ information about the man he had seen Tina with at the pub, and the one who’d visited her house weeks before they’d all disappeared, together with the new evidence from former neighbour Denise Harris.

  Following the revelation from the forensics lab that the cleaned-up blood from the kitchen of the Bannister home was David’s, Hunter was convinced that the latter person seen by the neighbour was now crucial to the investigation and that he was more than likely linked to the car Denise Harris had seen, and he emphasised this hunch in his conclusion. It took him two-and-a-half hours to pull the new report together, and by the time he’d finished it ran to ten pages, four more than the original summary. Printing off the pages and briefly casting his eyes over them to ensure he had captured all the new facts and that it flowed
with the original synopsis to make for a legible report, he handed it to Maddie for her to read and check if any adjustments were needed. Leaving her with it, he went down to the locker room, changed into his running gear and made his way out to Manvers Lake for a brisk three-mile run around its perimeter. He felt good as he jogged through the industrial estate, and by the time he had reached the lake, he was in a comfortable stride, his breathing hard but not laboured, his body and mind feeling the best it had been for a fortnight.

  In spite of the November chill, Hunter was lathered in sweat by the time he got back, and he took his time in the shower, soaping himself generously while contemplating the report he had put together. He and Maddie had worked so hard on reviewing the case, and he couldn’t wait to deliver it at evening briefing. He knew he shouldn’t be thinking this, but he hoped St. John-Stevens would be there. He couldn’t wait to see the look on his face.

  Before making his way back to the office, Hunter grabbed a sandwich and banana from the canteen.

  Maddie grabbed his attention the moment he stepped into the office. ‘They’ve found a second body at the dismantlers. This one looks like it’s Catherine Dewhurst. Grace rang while you were out. She said the body was right next to the other one. It’s definitely female, and the clothing matches the description of Catherine’s.’

  ‘They’ve not found any sign of the Bannisters yet, then?’

  Maddie hunched her shoulders. ‘Grace was only brief on the phone. It sounded as if she was in a hurry. She just said, “tell Hunter I’ll see him in an hour’s time.”’

  ‘Afternoon, you two,’ Grace said, breezing into the cold case office.