by Steven Dunne
‘What have you got for us, Doc?’ asked Noble.
‘Well. It could almost be the Wallis family again it’s so similar. It is the same gentleman, is it not?’ he asked with a brief sweep round all their faces, in case of correction.
‘We’re jumping to no conclusions,’ said Grant. ‘What you tell us will help determine that.’
‘Yes, yes. I see. Well. Let’s start with the three boys. Very straightforward really. All killed the same way. In each case the trachea was severed by a very sharp instrument — a scalpel, I gather. Makes sense. As with the Wallis case you’re looking for a right-handed individual as the cuts sweep from near the left ear and finish at the right ear. You won’t be surprised to hear the wounds were inflicted from behind — that’s standard with this kind of slaying. What else? Yes, all three victims were seated and lividity confirms that they died where they were found. I imagine the blood dispersal will show the same.’ Habib reached to consult a manila folder. ‘Ah yes. Can’t be as sure about the killer’s height, but no reason to suggest it’s any different from the Wallis murders. Below average certainly.’
‘Remind us, Doctor,’ said Hudson.
‘Between 1.70 and 1.74 metres. Five seven or eight for the dinosaurs among us,’ he added, with a cold glance at Brook.
‘Were they drugged at all?’ asked Brook.
‘Not by the killer, I think. Plenty of other drugs though. Marijuana, amphetamines. And an enormous quantity of alcohol in the blood — to give you some idea, they were at least five times over the legal driving limit. But the boys, I assume, had self-administered, so perhaps he needed no drugs to control them.’
‘So their food hadn’t been doctored in any way?’
‘Not the undigested meats they had in their stomachs.’
‘What about the couple and the boy?’
‘That’s different. Or rather the same.’
‘Same as what?’ asked Noble.
‘The Wallis family, John,’ nodded Brook.
‘That is so, Inspector. The Wallis family were poisoned with scopolamine and traces of morphine — our old friend Twilight Sleep. Although I can find nothing in the males, it was injected into the woman and the child.’ Habib turned to Grant and Hudson with an apologetic gesture. ‘I’m sorry. You don’t know about Twilight Sleep. Let me…’
‘Actually we do know about it, Doctor,’ smiled Grant. ‘It was used in a murder in Brighton only recently.’ She resisted a sideways peep at Brook.
‘Indeed? How interesting. Then you’ll know the history of the constituent drugs…’
‘And that we’re looking for a 150-year-old medical man, yeah, Doc,’ smiled Hudson, throwing his joke into the mix again, but with less success than before.
‘Did the woman’s partner not get a dose?’ asked Brook.
‘No. Only the woman and the little boy — the man had taken a similar cocktail of drugs to the boys outside. The other two had only drunk a little alcohol…’
‘Even the kid?’
‘Oh yes. He would have been quite intoxicated, but he hadn’t taken any of the other drugs, just the alcohol. Very strict some of these parents, you know.’ He chuckled guiltily. ‘There are differences though. The woman and the child received a much bigger dose than the Wallis family. Both would have died regardless of any other injuries; indeed the boy was near death before being hung. There’s not enough trauma and bruising around the neck, which you’d expect from a hanging, what with all that struggling. Also there was no sign that his wrists or hands were bound. If the boy had been hanged anywhere near consciousness, the hands would have needed to be immobilised.’
‘So the fingers were removed post-mortem,’ added Grant.
‘Indeed.’
‘After he’d been hung?’
‘From the angle of the cuts, probably. But you’ll be able to determine that from the scene. Any spots of blood where he was hung would point to that.’
‘Would a scalpel get through bone that easily?’ asked Hudson. ‘I mean, wouldn’t the killer need some sort of saw?’
‘In an adult, maybe. But the boy was only small. The bones in his fingers were young and thin. They wouldn’t take much cutting with a precision instrument.’
‘Right.’
‘As for the adult male and the female in the bed, they were still alive when their windpipes were cut. They had very powerful blood dispersal. But the other difference is the male was killed with a backhand slash.’
‘Why was that?’
‘With his head against the wall, presumably the killer couldn’t get behind him.’ The doctor shrugged to signal the end of his contribution. ‘Bad business.’
‘Would the murderer have been able to revive them before killing them?’ asked Noble.
‘Not this time. I very much doubt it, Sergeant. Was there any indication that he tried?’
‘None!’ said Brook, with a glance at Noble.
‘Is that significant, Damen?’ asked Hudson.
‘We think so.’
‘Tell me on the way out. Better yet, tell us all at briefing.’ Hudson looked at his watch. ‘We’d better look lively. One last thing, Doctor — we’re going to need a DNA profile from the three dead teenagers. They’re suspects in another crime.’ Noble raised an eyebrow at this, but Brook pacified him with a glance.
‘Of course,’ replied Habib.
They turned to leave but Brook hesitated at the door. He looked back at Habib who had already removed his glasses and was wiping them on a clean apron.
‘Did you check whether the woman was pregnant, Doctor?’
Habib pursed his lips and replaced his glasses before blinking up at Brook. ‘Yes. And no, she wasn’t. That’s why I didn’t mention it,’ he added tersely.
Chapter Fourteen
Due to the early hour the noise in the Incident Room was subdued and the yawning quotient high, the strong aroma of coffee testament to the preferred antidote.
The pale sun was just beginning to peep through the high windows, catching the belt of dust orbiting the room. Apart from the Chief Superintendent, only CID officers were present. This time Charlton stood at the back of the room as Brook, Hudson, Grant and Noble collated the information. More photographs were arranged around boards to one side, some of them the grainy snaps downloaded from the mobile phones of the victims.
When they were ready, Brook and Hudson faced the investigation team and silence fell. First Brook invited contributions from subordinates on various tangential aspects of the inquiry that had borne no fruit and Gadd, Morton and Cooper then skipped through the absence of leads from Traffic, Midland Mainline and the bus station. Trains and bus services were more or less nonexistent at the relevant time of night and they’d drawn the expected blank.
As for vehicles, vans were scarce in the early hours of the morning in question. Not one had been stopped or even spotted in the Derby area during the relevant time slot, and those few seen on the M1 had not joined at any of the local junctions, according to the traffic cameras. The same applied to other major access roads, the A52, the A38 and the A50. Van hire checks were ongoing, but without witnesses or a number plate, inquiries were problematic and potentially endless.
The corpses of the Ingham family had now been formally identified by a relative from Alvaston, as had the bodies of two of the boys killed in the yard, who had been named as Benjamin Anderson and David Gretton. Inquiries about family feuds were ongoing but not promising, and the fathers of both Ingham boys had alibis according to DC Jean Keys, who was acting as the Family Liaison Officer. Miss Ingham had had no assets of any importance and there were no financial incentives to murder either her or her boys. Her partner Ryan Harper had even less resources, having been living rent free with Miss Ingham and working casually as a labourer for cash-in-hand jobs on nearby building sites. He didn’t even have a bank account.
DC Cooper worked through the inquiries made about single male guests in hotels and B amp;Bs but, again, there were few leads and thos
e men who did match the descriptions they had for The Reaper either had alibis or had been in Derby on legitimate business.
Brook made his first contribution of the day. ‘We may have to rethink on the lone gunman theory.’
Charlton raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh? You’re saying he had help?’
‘He may have, sir. DS Grant spotted it. Laura.’
Grant stood, not noticing DCI Hudson’s brief glance at Brook for using his sergeant’s first name.
‘We don’t have the relevant pictures as the SOCOs are still going over the scene…’
‘I thought they’d photographed everything already.’
‘Not the Ingham house, sir, we’re talking about the Wallis house a few doors away. The Reaper was there, presumably a few days before the Ingham killings.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Well, apart from the bottle of wine we found, which was identical to the one from the Wallis killings two years ago, we’re now sure he was also in the bedroom. All the houses on the block are of identical design, something we realised last night could be significant. With identical houses, The Reaper could test the hanging in the corresponding bedroom of the Wallis house.’ ‘I don’t follow.’
‘He did a practice run using a beam in the Wallis loft and the same length of rope as at the crime scene. The same trapdoor was in the same position, giving the same drop. Even the knot was the same. We found a tailor’s dummy just above the trapdoor in the roof space. That’s how he knew he could bring rope and how much of it.’
‘Plus, he might have stored the rope and other stuff in the Wallis loft indefinitely,’ added Hudson. ‘Helps his organisation. SOCO are going over it now.’
‘Interesting,’ nodded Charlton. ‘But how does that lead you to conclude The Reaper had help?’
‘It’s not a definite conclusion, sir,’ continued Grant. ‘But if the assailant is five seven or five eight in height there’s no way he could’ve climbed into the roof space without a leg-up from someone. DI Brook’s six feet and even standing on a chair he couldn’t pull himself up there.’
‘What about a ladder?’ asked Jane Gadd.
‘There isn’t one and he’s unlikely to risk bringing and removing such a large piece of kit.’
‘So we need to start from scratch on the hotels,’ nodded Charlton, peering at DC Bull to be sure he made a note of it. ‘I suppose it’s too late for the vans.’
Brook nodded. ‘Traffic were only looking for single occupancy but, regardless, the road blocks round the estate didn’t stop any vehicles leaving at all, sir. Either the killers had already gone or left by other means.’
‘Okay. What’s next?’
‘I played the tape to a linguistics expert at Derby University and although her conclusions come with all sorts of ifs and buts about how short the tape is, we are now starting to think seriously about this killer being a Derby man.’ DC Cooper paused at this point to play the 999 call again. Everyone dutifully listened. ‘She also says that the owner of this voice is a minimum of fifty years of age — apparently something to do with how speech patterns change from generation to generation.’
‘Rob.’ Brook nodded at DS Morton.
‘The mobile phone belonging to Jason Wallis had some blood droplets from the victims in the yard. Obviously it also carries Jason’s prints. However, there was one other print on and around the number 9 button. It was only a partial thumb but, as the phone was used to make the 999 call, we can safely assume it’s the killer’s. We have enough of a print to obtain a match but we’ve had no hits from the database, which is significant.’
‘Why is that significant?’ asked Charlton.
‘Most serial killers are in the system for something, sir,’ said Grant. ‘Killing is generally the tip of the iceberg, the final step in their offending. What’s odd is that we’re up against someone who’s been incredibly careful in the past, but who the other night took off a glove to call the emergency services on a mobile.’
Charlton nodded. ‘Point taken. What about prints on the weapon?’
‘Only a palm from Jason Wallis but we believe the scalpel had been placed under his hand by the killer, sir. The weapon is a Swann Morton PM60 scalpel,’ said DS Jane Gadd, reading from notes. ‘It has a heavy-duty stainless steel handle with a standard blade fitment, which includes bull-nose blades for added safety and protection against accidental sharps injuries.’ This got an unintended laugh and Gadd couldn’t help smiling as well. ‘Used by morticians in post-mortems — very common in the NHS and virtually untraceable.’
‘Think our suspect is some kind of health worker?’ asked Charlton, again unafraid to show his ignorance to get answers to questions that occurred to him.
Brook shrugged. ‘It hardly narrows the field but it’s possible,’ he said trying to keep the doubt from his voice. ‘But then why leave the weapon behind to flag that up?’
‘Good point.’
Brook looked at the floor briefly, then faced his audience. ‘Okay. Sergeant Noble and I have been with DCI Hudson and Sergeant Grant for the last twenty-four hours. We’ve also spoken to Jason Wallis and, before we came here this morning, Dr Habib. We think we’ve pieced together a sequence of events. John.’
Noble walked over to the display boards behind him to point at an enlarged photograph. ‘This is a Weber One Touch Gold barbecue. It was brand new and according to Jason Wallis it was stolen by the Inghams last week — from where we don’t know and neither does he. We’ve got a call out to various local retailers, B amp;Q, Homebase and the like to find out. It’s possibly stolen from other residents but no one in the canvass mentioned it, and the fact that it’s new would seem to be against it.’
‘Why does it matter where this barbecue came from?’ asked Charlton.
‘Maybe it doesn’t,’ answered Brook. ‘But the Inghams acquired this barbecue the week before winning a large selection of meat supplied — we think — by The Reaper. With his MO it’s unlikely to be a convenient coincidence. Go on, John.’
‘The Ingham family used the barbecue to cook their last meal on the night of the murders. On the eve of the murders someone, we presume The Reaper or his accomplice, rang the Ingham house from an untraceable prepaid mobile phone. According to the Ingham’s phone records that call took place at 6.32pm. We don’t know the exact contents of the call, but we think it was to tell the Ingham family that they’d won a competition. It’s the only call received on the Ingham landline in the two days preceding the killings. We know from text messages that Stephen Ingham texted Jason Wallis to tell him the same thing, and to ask him to come round for a barbecue the following night to celebrate his release.
‘Jason Wallis confirmed to us last night that, according to Stephen, the family had won a hamper full of burgers, sausages and kebabs as well as a substantial quantity of beer and cider that was delivered after the call. How and when the delivery was made we’ve no idea, but obviously that’s a question for door to door. Chances are, delivery was made after dark.
‘As most of you know, two years ago the Wallis family were persuaded to believe they’d won a free meal of pizzas from a local takeaway. The pizzas had been doctored and so the Wallis family were left defenceless when The Reaper returned to slaughter them. Interestingly, none of the food or drink had been doctored this time but because all the victims had been drinking heavily, even the young lad, it wasn’t really necessary. It looks like the food and drink was a tool to concentrate the Ingham family and friends in one location ready for the killing.
‘A neighbour, Mrs Patel, claims to have seen a strange man loitering near her garden, which is across the street from the Ingham and Wallis houses. That was about ten o’clock so it may be nothing. Our best guess for The Reaper’s arrival is around one o’clock in the morning. He-’
‘How does he know the Inghams are going to have the barbecue the same night as he delivers the food?’ interrupted Jane Gadd. ‘I mean, it’s not warm at the moment.’
There was a hush wh
ile people cast around for an answer.
‘Maybe he didn’t know,’ said Grant. ‘Maybe he was watching and waiting.’
‘Where from?’ asked Noble.
‘There’s the Wallis house,’ she added.
There was an outbreak of impressed nodding from the CID officers. ‘That is a very good thought, Sergeant,’ said Charlton.
‘Forensics hasn’t come up with anything yet to suggest The Reaper spent any significant time in there, sir,’ noted Noble.
‘It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,’ said Brook. ‘The Reaper of old would have left no trace.’
‘Then given us his voice and a thumbprint?’ noted Hudson.
Brook nodded. ‘It’s odd; I still can’t explain it.’
‘And if he was watching, it would explain why he didn’t medicate four of the victims,’ said Grant. ‘He knew what condition they’d be in.’
Noble continued. ‘So The Reaper arrives at the house to find his targets in the state he wants them. It’s around one in the morning. There’s a thick fog developing. Streetlighting is virtually nonexistent and he knows he’s unlikely to meet anyone. Nobody sees him. Maybe he’s got a car nearby, but nobody sees or hears that either. Possibly he’s travelled the rest of the journey on foot — maybe even on a bicycle. At the moment we have no idea and door to door has produced nothing.
‘He’s got various pieces of equipment with him that tells us this is no random killer. Most importantly he has a scalpel, not the everyday weapon of choice. You won’t be surprised to learn that not a single doctor or surgeon lives on the estate.’ There was a ripple of laughter at this. ‘Just a nurse and a few hospital workers.
‘Okay. The four lads in the yard are unconscious when he enters the yard. We think he gets his Debussy CD from his bag or rucksack ready to play. The classical music is a Reaper signature. He has a length of rope which he puts to one side. He takes off the rap music and puts on his own CD, then takes out his scalpel and cuts the throats of Stephen Ingham and the Gretton and Anderson boys. In what order we’re not sure yet, but we know they died before the couple and the lad because of the bloody smears in the house and transference onto the victims upstairs from gloves — latex probably. Also the boys would be the most able to defend themselves if they came round, so he has to get them out of the way.’
