Wild Thing: 'a chilling cold-blooded killer' (Ted Darling crime series Book 7)

by L M Krier

  Jim was looking shrewdly at Ted's damaged hand, but thought it best not to mention it. He could be surprisingly tactful, at times.

  'When did you last take a day off? And why do you think you're so indispensable that me, Jo, two DS's and the rest of the team can't hold the fort for a couple of hours without you?'

  'Point taken. When you hear what I have to say, you might send me home anyway, never to return.'

  He paused for a gulp of the coffee, wincing at the strength of it.

  'I want to make Morgane Edwards a prime suspect for her mother's murder.'

  Jim continued to slurp his coffee, seemingly unconcerned. Then he said, 'All right, very funny, ha-ha, but it's not April Fool's Day. What's your real idea?'

  'I'm serious, Jim. The more I see of her, and the more digging I do, the more I'm convinced she's the killer. And I also think she may be involved in at least one of our other cases.'

  'Tell me what evidence you have.'

  'Ah.'

  Ted's stock stalling tactic expression. The one he always used when he knew that what he was going to say next was not going to go down well with the person he was talking to.

  'At the moment, next to nothing. Which is why I want a warrant to search the father's flat. Every last inch of it. And I want to contact South Yorkshire for a trained blood sniffer dog. I want to find the rock I think she hit herself with after she left the house to make the wound look worse.'

  'Is this sleep deprivation talking?'

  'I'm serious, Jim. We've found no trace at all of anyone else at the crime scene, only the semen stains. And according to Doug, at the lab, they look like a clumsy attempt on someone's part to plant evidence. If no one else was there, how did the bridge from Luke Martin's violin get there? And the lab have confirmed it is the same one. We've also found no trace at all of this mysterious youth in the dark car, no sightings by the public, nothing on CCTV. Let me outline for you what I think happened, then you can tell me whether you think the idea has legs.'

  Jim listened impassively, drinking his coffee, saying nothing, as Ted laid out his theory.

  'I thought at first that it could have been the argument she admitted having with her mother, which simply got out of hand. Except for the semen stains. They make me think that this was, in fact, a cold-blooded, pre-meditated crime, planned a couple of weeks in advance at least.

  'Morgane goes to see Max, on the pretext of sketching the python. They both admit having sex, the only difference is on the subject of consent. Both say a condom was used. I think Morgane took the condom, or condoms, depending on the version, with her and stashed them somewhere. In the freezer, perhaps. I'll have to ask Doug. She'd decided, for whatever reason, to do away with her mother, and now she had the means to put Max in the frame by leaving his DNA at the scene.

  'After she's killed her mother, she hits her own head against the work surface. Enough to split the skin but not enough to incapacitate her. With a hood up, it wouldn't show much, if anyone saw her. She jumps on a bus up towards Marple. Gets off somewhere before Seventeen Windows. She's got the cable ties in her pocket. She puts one on, pulls it tight with her teeth. She goes into Marple Old Road from the top end, which is why no one saw anything at the lights where she said she got out of the vehicle. There simply never was a youth in a car.

  'Now she needs to have a bit more blood, to make it look dramatic, so she picks up a stone somewhere, smacks herself on the same place, chucks the rock under the bushes. And appears on the doorstep as a poor little victim of a terrible crime, bleeding impressively from a head wound.'

  Jim finished his coffee and put the mug back down on the desk.

  'So you want a specialist sniffer dog to find a specific rock when you have no idea where it might be or even if it exists? Have you any idea what that's going to cost us? And what if it can't find it? Or the blood traces have been washed away by now? Dammit, Ted, you do remember who her mother was and which firm she worked for? The girl's father is bound to instruct that firm and if you've got this wrong, they'll hang us all out to dry.'

  'We've got a connection to South Manchester, too,' Ted ploughed on, ignoring his objections. 'Her grandmother lives in Wythenshawe. Morgane visits her often. I want search warrants for anywhere and everywhere Morgane might stash things. I want to see all of her artwork. I've seen some of it, Jim, and it's disturbing. That's why I also want a psych evaluation of her. I want someone with experience of dealing with disturbed young people to tell me if what I think I see in her is right. I'll even work with a profiler on this one if I have to.'

  'Blimey, if you're going to let me bring in a profiler, then I'll have to start taking you seriously. That's a bloody first.'

  'It's her, Jim, I know it is. I just need to find a way to prove it. Starting with checking CCTV on all the buses she could have caught.'

  'Ah, yes, that old inconvenience of having to prove what we think we know,' Jim said dryly. 'And this is definitely what you think? It's not just clutching at straws because you're over tired and there's no one else in the frame?'

  Ted shook his head emphatically. He was tired, he'd be the first to admit it, and arguing with Trev had unsettled him. But he knew he was right on this. He just needed Jim to trust him enough to let him have the resources necessary to prove he was.

  'What about the lad with the snake? Has he got an alibi for when Morgane's mother was killed?'

  'His mother says he was at home at ten o'clock when she got back from work. I know she's not going to be the most convincing witness, being his mum. But he does use his phone to chat in various online groups about reptiles, he told me. We can check his phone, and pinpoint where it was at the time of the murder.'

  'All right, I've trusted you before and you've never yet let me down, although it's been close at times. Let's run with this for now. I'll sort out search warrants, you talk to South Yorkshire, see if they have a spare woofer this side of Christmas. I just hope to God you're right, Ted.'

  All of the team were in early, all anxious to push on with the enquiry. Ted had asked Leona and her team to join them even before he'd known he would have important news for them. Océane was always in earlier than the hours she was paid for. She seemed to love her work. So far the relationship between her and Steve was causing no problems in the workplace and had certainly done wonders for his self-esteem. She indicated to Ted that she had things to say, so he asked her to say her piece, as soon as he'd finished outlining everything he'd already said to Jim Baker.

  What he had to say caused a few raised eyebrows amongst the team, but they knew him well enough by now to trust his instincts.

  'This mobile phone, boss,' Océane began. 'Are we sure this belongs to a teenage girl? And are we sure it's her only one? There is so little on it that it's positively boring. Hardly any friends, very few messages, no photos to speak of.'

  'She couldn't just have deleted everything?'

  Océane's tone was patient enough as she explained that she had already checked for anything which might have been dumped, but that the phone was squeaky clean.

  'Right, so, when we get search warrants, which the Big Boss is going to arrange, we're looking for a possible second phone. Rob, I'm going to put you in charge of getting the father's flat searched and I want a thorough job. Nothing missed, please. I particularly want that 3D dragon art piece, from her father's room, and anything else like it you find. I want whoever does the psych evaluation to see it. This may well be tomorrow, by the time we've got warrants and sorted out bodies to do it all.

  'Kate, I don't want Edwards getting wind of it in advance, of course, not until Rob puts the warrant in his hands. When they arrive, I want you to take the father and Morgane out somewhere. We'll sort out where. Maybe get a hotel room and take them there. He isn't going to like it one bit, so prepare for protests. He needs to leave when you tell him to. He can get his lawyer to join you later.

  'Jo, we now have a Wythenshawe link. I want you and Leona to check out the grandmother. Find
out about when Morgane goes there, if she has any friends over that way. If she keeps any stuff at her gran's house. Sketch books, art work, anything. And find out if she visited her grandmother on the day Mrs Murray was killed.

  'Jezza, can you get round to the school, check on attendance records for both Morgane and Max for the day of the bus death. I don't think Max is involved, but let's make a proper job of this. Also ask around a bit more for any information you can find out about Morgane. Does she have friends? Who are they? What's her attendance and conduct like? You know the sort of thing. And before you go, I need you in my office for five minutes, please.

  'Megan, can you talk to Max's Goth friend? Ask her more about him. See if she knows anything about Morgane. If she and Max are close there's just a remote possibility he's talked to her.

  'Charlie and Graham, we'd better do a thorough in-depth background check on Jake Dolan. I don't think he's in the frame for any of this but we need to be certain. Check his alibis for the Hillcrest Road murder, and also the Luke Martin case and Tyler Bradbury. All of you be aware that the defence in this is quite likely to be Stephanie Mason's old firm and they don't take prisoners. We need to anticipate every spanner they're going to throw in the works on this case and have an answer for it.

  'Another thing, Kate. You've probably already thought of it, but just to flag it up. If the press get the slightest whiff that we're investigating Morgane, you're going to be under siege at the flat. I'm going to talk to Inspector Turner about some extra bodies to keep it under observation round the clock. In particular, I don't want Morgane going out anywhere, hiding or destroying anything.'

  'I can arrange to stay over, if it helps, boss?'

  'Thank you, but I'd prefer to avoid that. There is one thing I have to mention at this stage. Up to now, Morgane has been considered as the second victim in this case. I may, of course, be completely wrong. But if I'm not, it means that we're dealing with an incredibly cold-blooded killer, even if she is young and looks innocent. And that means, Kate, that you could be in danger.

  'I don't want to pull you out, at this stage, nor do I want to put someone else in with you, either of which would raise suspicions. But your safety is my responsibility, and it's an issue we need to address. Make sure you have your spray with you, to hand, at all times. And just watch out for the father turning possessive. I'm still not sure about their relationship.

  'Right, let's get on with it. And Kate, take care, and stay in contact. Jezza, five minutes, please, and Boss, I need a witness.'

  'This sound intriguing,' Jezza said as she followed Ted and the Big Boss into their shared office.

  Ted pulled some cable ties out of his pocket as he said, 'I need to see how easy or not it is for someone to put these on their own wrists. I need someone with smallish hands and slim wrists, similar to Morgane. Also someone who wouldn't think I was making them some sort of strange proposition, asking them to tie themselves up.'

  It took Jezza a matter of moments to do it, deftly using her teeth to pull the end of the tie to secure it tightly round her wrists.

  'I think we've just shown clearly how easy it was for Morgane to tie herself up, probably just before she arrived at the house for help. And Jezza's obligingly shown us why the teeth-marks were on the end of the strap only,' Ted said, as he took out a pocket knife and carefully cut Jezza free. 'My bet is she also hit herself with the stone at the last minute. That's where I'm going to ask the dog handler to start.'

  Trev was surprised to find Ted's car already in the garage when he got home from work. As he went in through the front door, Ted was waiting for him in the hallway, grinning excitedly, dressed in his walking gear.

  'I promised I'd find time for us to do something together. Well, we're going camping. Right now.'

  'Have you been suspended? How can you get away in the middle of a big case?'

  'We're not going far, and it's only for one night,' Ted said, grabbing his arm and pulling him through the kitchen and out of the door leading to the back garden.

  He'd put their tent up on the lawn. There was a light drizzle, so he'd added an awning, with their camp kitchen underneath it. Food was laid out ready next to the portable gas stove.

  'Is it all right?' he asked anxiously. 'I bought venison sausages. Not too crazy an idea?'

  'It's totally mad,' Trev laughed in delight. 'But I love it! What larks, Pip. I'm not hungry yet, but drag me to your tent and I may just work up an appetite.'

  'Inspector?'

  An anxiously quavering voice called out from the other side of the high garden fence later on.

  'Is everything all right? Only I heard a strange noise, coming from your garden. It was very loud. I could hear it from my kitchen.'

  Ted sat up guiltily, putting a gentle hand over Trev's mouth to keep him quiet as he convulsed into giggles.

  'Sorry to have disturbed you, Mrs Adams. Everything's fine. We were just, er, trying to catch one of the cats to worm him.'

  Trev was nearly hysterical at this point. Ted kept his hand firmly in place.

  'Would you like me to come round and help you? I'm quite good with cats.'

  'No! No, thank you, Mrs Adams, that's really kind but I've got him cornered now. Sorry again to have disturbed you.'

  He'd never been more grateful for the high wooden fencing, topped with wire mesh, which they'd put up to try to keep the cats from straying on to nearby busy roads. From outside her back door, the elderly neighbour couldn't see into their garden and Ted knew that she slept in the upstairs front room, keeping the back room as a guest room for family members who only visited once a blue moon.

  'Well, if you're sure ... Good evening to you then, Inspector.

  'Good evening, Mrs Adams, and thank you again for your concern.'

  Trev was crying laughing by this point. Ted looked at him fondly. It was good to see that his crazy idea seemed to have put things right between them.

  'Right, where were we? And if you have to make so much noise, at least try to sound like a cat being wormed.'

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The boss was back on form. The whole team had noticed the difference in him the previous day and been concerned by it. This morning was business as usual. They could see the familiar energy in him. His suspect was now within his sights and it boosted the morale of all of them. They could sense they were nearing a conclusion.

  They had a quick early catch-up, but Ted had scheduled the main briefing of the day for later on, when he hoped they might finally start to have some results. He had an appointment himself with a man and a dog and he chose Maurice to go with him to drive his official car.

  Ted had got lucky with the dog section from South Yorkshire. He'd had a long conversation with a helpful sergeant who told him that their top blood dog, who had a one hundred per cent success rate, was in high demand and was currently on secondment in another part of the country. He did, however, have a young, eager dog, fresh out of training and ready to face his first challenge.

  'It'll cost you less, too, sir. I can't guarantee you a result, especially not with everything you've told me. But we'll give it a good go for you.'

  Kevin Turner had sent some of his officers to close off Marple Old Road from either end while the dog worked. Ted was pretty certain that, always assuming he was right about Morgane, she would have injured herself as close as possible to the house she had selected to ask for help. She would need to have hit herself hard to have the right effect. He couldn't imagine her taking the risk of doing it too far away and not being in a fit state to make her dramatic entrance.

  The dog handler arrived promptly and got out of his van with a small and lively black and white springer spaniel. It had a grinning face and frenetically wagging tail, straining at its lead and clearly dying to get to work.

  'Morning, sir. Simon Archer. We spoke on the phone. And this is Tally.'

  Even Ted didn't feel too wary faced with such a friendly-looking dog, especially now he at last understood the reason
for his long-term fear of dogs.

  'Thanks for coming, Sergeant. I appreciate it's a long shot, especially for a young dog. But it really would help us enormously if Tally could find what we're looking for.'

  'Like I warned you, he's young and inexperienced. He's done well in training, but this is a big ask for him. We'll do our best, that's all I can promise you.'

  Ted and Maurice stood back out of the way while the handler let his dog off the lead and sent it on its way with words of encouragement.

  Handler and dog made one pass down the road, to well beyond the house where Morgane had called for help. The dog was clearly searching the whole time, its tail never still, nose glued to the ground. They then crossed the road and worked back up the opposite side to their starting point.

  Nothing.

  Ted felt his heart sink. He'd been so sure his theory was correct, but the dog had found nothing. His disappointment must have shown on his face as the dog handler gave him an encouraging smile.

  'Don't worry, sir. I told you, he's young and inexperienced. Don't expect miracles. He doesn't yet know enough to get into every bush and thicket we've gone past. We'll have another couple of passes and see how we get on. Just be patient.'

  It was on their third attempt that the dog squeezed itself right into the hedge next to the house then gave three excited yelps.

  'That's his tell, sir. He's found something with blood on it. I just hope it's what you were looking for.'

  He went up to his dog and threw a tennis ball to distract it. The springer bounded after it, all thought of work gone from its mind now it had a toy to play with. The handler had gloves on. He struggled into the hedge, the gap not so accommodating to his bulky figure as it had been to the dog, and scrabbled about with his covered fingers.

  'Is this what you were looking for, sir?'

  He held up a fist-sized stone, which glinted in the weak morning sunlight. It looked like a small piece of ornamental alabaster. Ted noticed there were other similar pieces along the hedge-line. He stepped closer and held out an evidence bag for the handler to drop the stone into.