Rafferty managed to bite back the sharp retort. But given that he'd taken a fancy – more than a fancy – to the two victims, he was feeling especially sensitive. He had feared he would feel like a voyeur when he stared at their naked flesh. Thankfully, as he edged forward till he was peering into the face that the toe-tag assured him was Jenny Warburton, the fates relented and saved him from feeling this additional guilt. All he felt was the deep sadness of grief.
After hearing Simpson and Llewellyn's descriptions, studying the scene of crime photographs and reading Sam Dally's PM report, he had steeled himself for the same sights in the flesh. At least he had thought he had. But he still rocked back on his heels when he saw what remained of Jenny's once-lovely face.
According to Sam's report, she had been bludgeoned with some considerable force. She had also been slashed around the face, neck and chest with a sharp knife. Neither weapon had so far been found. There was little left of the loveliness that Rafferty had so admired. Even Jenny's long, silky blonde hair had been hacked off in a final act of savagery that sickened him.
With a heavy sigh he drew the sheet back over her and, with dragging steps, made his way to the second drawer. But as he gazed down at Estelle Meredith he saw that Sam's report had been right. For although Estelle had suffered a similar attack and had her hair hacked off also, her face was still recognisable, unlike Jenny's. It was curious.
He was experienced enough to know that serial killers, if that was what they had on their hands, almost invariably became more violent with each attack, not less. Although her body hadn't been discovered till four days after her death, the post-mortem – as well as other evidence – had revealed that Jenny had been the first victim, not the second, so why had she been so much more brutalised than Estelle? If Llewellyn was right and their killer was a misogynist, then he loathed women so much he couldn't even bring himself to touch their flesh with his own. Certainly, whatever else he might have done, he had raped neither girl
Rafferty gestured to the assistant that he had seen enough. He was trudging forlornly back to the car park when he heard Sam Dally ‘hello’ him from the other end of the long corridor. He sighed, not sure he had the stomach, in this particular case, for Sam's usual colourful humour, which, like the early Fords, was all black. He watched, teeth gritted, as the rubicund Dally bounced along the corridor towards him.
He peered into Rafferty's face. ‘Wouldn't have recognized you if it hadn't been for your tired brown suit. Llewellyn told me about your new image. I have to say it's not an improvement.’ Sam patted his own bald spot and added, ‘You'll lose your hair naturally soon enough without anticipating it.’ Thankfully, he made no further comment on Rafferty's looks and became more business-like. ‘You've been to see the two Lonely Heart lassies, I take it?’
Rafferty nodded.
‘Wondered when you'd get around to fitting it into your busy schedule.’ After unleashing his first volley which revealed with less-than-subtle irony, that he had heard all about Rafferty's work-avoidance schemes, Sam quickly followed through with a second. ‘So the lonely heart gets the Lonely Hearts case. Made for each other, laddie. I bet you thanked your lucky stars you missed the PMs. Lovely muscle tone on that Meredith girl. She obviously kept very fit. She was one of the healthiest corpses I've ever seen. And as for the other lassie, Jenny Warburton, she had as fine a pair of lungs on her as I've ever seen. Obviously–
‘Do you have to be quite so coarse, Sam?’
Sam stared owlishly back at him from behind his glasses and immediately rebuked Rafferty for his assumption. ‘I was about to add, if you'd given me the chance, that she had obviously never smoked in her life. But even if that hadn't been what I'd intended to say, you've no business calling me names, Rafferty. Am I not surrounded by corpses all day, every day? Do you expect me to go about perpetually hung in gloom like some professional Victorian mourner?’
It would make a pleasant change, thought Rafferty. But even in his present unhappy mood, he recognized he was being unreasonable. Sam was back to his old self – more than his old self – after the death of his wife some months earlier. Then, Sam had certainly resembled a gloom-shrouded professional mourner.
So, Rafferty concluded, the rumours that Sam Dally was courting were true. It was a bitter pill that even the round and balding Dally could find love, not once, but twice. Sometimes, it seemed to Rafferty, that the whole world was courting or happily paired –except him.
‘What do you want, Sam?’ he asked wearily. ‘I've read the reports.’
‘Yes, but have you understood ‘em? I know you, Rafferty. How many times is it that I've had to break down the simplest bit of forensic science into words of one syllable for your benefit? Times without number.’
‘What is there to understand? I've just seen the bodies. Both victims were killed where they were discovered. Or,’ he added with a savagery that so surprised Dally that he took a step back, pursed his lips and studied him, ‘have you saved some particularly unedifying titbit just for me?’
‘Och, you're out of sorts, I can see.’ Sam peered at Rafferty over his wire frames. ‘You should take Sergeant Llewellyn up on his offer to fix you up with a lassie. It's plain to me you're no getting enough of something.’
How on earth had Sam Dally learned of Dafyd's offer to fix him up with this Abra girl? Surely the discreet Llewellyn hadn't taken up gossiping about his love life behind his back?
‘I've been waiting for you to question me as to why Estelle Meredith, the second victim, should have been attacked with much less ferocity than the first victim. But questions came there none. Does it no strike you as curious, man?’
‘Of course it does,’ Rafferty replied. ‘But I've not had much time to think about it.’ Truth to tell, after seeing the bodies of the two girls whom he had liked so much, Rafferty was reluctant to think too deeply about anything. He was scared his nightmares would become even more terrifying if he did so. Even before they'd started, he'd been forced by circumstances to put so many of his energies into covering his tracks that he'd had little left over for the investigation.
‘I'd make time, if I were you, Rafferty. It could be important.’
Rafferty nodded dumbly and made to walk away.
Behind him, Sam pshawed. ‘Och, you're no fun any more, Rafferty. You used to give me a good fight even when you were feeling liverish.’ After telling him he should get a doctor to look at him, Sam stalked away. But he turned back to shout after Rafferty, ‘But don't ask this doctor to give you the once-over. You're giving such a good impression of a walking corpse I might just be tempted to open you up to see if you've finally managed to pickle your liver.’
Rafferty felt no inclination to rise to Sam's bait. Instead, with a mournful sigh that was as much for himself, the walking corpse as Sam called him, as it was for the real corpses of the two once-pretty girls lying in frozen storage in the mortuary. Rafferty left.
CHAPTER TEN
As he drove away from Elmhurst General after seeing the bodies of the two victims, Rafferty told himself the week could surely hold no more anguish. He hadn't reckoned on The Third Estate's contribution, but then he had rather counted on the recent outbreak of murderous gang-warfare between rival asylum seekers in Habberstone, four miles to the west, to hold the front page.
So it was a shock, when he rounded the corner into Bacon Lane and saw the latest placards outside the newsagents; the Lonely Hearts murders were at last hitting the headlines. And as he slowed to read some of the names the papers’ editors had decided on for the killer: The Beast; Sicko; Psycho; Butcher - he found himself thanking his Guardian Angel that Nigel was no longer a suspect. He prayed his cousin never came back into the frame. Because if he did, Rafferty knew Nigel, who wasn't into such principles as honour amongst thieves or not grassing on kith and kin, would hold back no longer.
It was a huge relief for Rafferty, when he popped out later to check on the headlines, to see that another, late-breaking tragedy had forced n
ews about the Lonely Hearts murders off the front pages of the nationals. With any luck, Nigel's alibi-providing lady friends would have had little opportunity to see the quickly-supplanted ‘Beast’ headlines and be tempted to retract their statements.
For once, luck was on his side. It must have been because neither Kylie Smith nor Kayleigh Jenkins contacted him. He had begun to relax a bit when, later than afternoon, Timothy Smales stuck his head round the open door of his office and asked, ‘Can I see you, sir?’
After the last fraught hours, Rafferty wasn't in the mood for Smales, especially if he had come to have another whinge about the York interviews. In case this had been Smales's intention, Rafferty was curt with him. ‘I don't know Smales. Can you? Or is your eyesight fading, like mine? Never mind,’ he added as Smales blinked uncomprehendingly at him. ‘What do you want, anyway?’
Smales came in and shut the door behind him with exaggerated care then stood in front of Rafferty's desk with an air of barely-suppressed excitement. His down-covered cheeks were rosy-pink, which Rafferty had come to know meant the young officer thought he had learned something vital. He certainly looked full to bursting with something, which served to increase Rafferty's heart rate and feeling of impending doom. And when he learned what it was, he could only stare at the constable, appalled.
At any other time, Rafferty would have commended the young man standing so triumphantly before him and expecting the praise he thought his due. He would have been pleased Smales was at last showing some maturity and had begun to grow into his chosen career. Only why did he have to choose now, of all times, to start to show some initiative?
When the praise failed to materialise, Smales at first looked puzzled. But his puzzlement was soon replaced by a return to the sulky schoolboy routine that had accompanied them back from York.
With a trace of belligerence, he said to Rafferty, ‘I thought you'd be pleased. You're always going on about the need to show initiative. Sir.’
This ‘sir’ was thrown in as a sop to authority, Rafferty could tell. But if he was to avoid Smales sharing the tale about his unethical conduct in York with the entire nick he would have to ignore the dumb insolence and instead of the stick of reprimand, offer the carrot compliment.
‘I am pleased,’ Rafferty told him, through gritted teeth. ‘You've done well, very well.’ Too bloody well, he silently added. Maybe if he'd troubled to soothe Smales's ego earlier, the young officer wouldn't have taken it upon himself to ring both Kylie Smith and Kayleigh Jenkins to recheck their alibis. Of course, during these conversations, Smales had revealed the very thing Rafferty had been at pains to keep from them; that Nigel Blythe had been their main suspect rather than the innocent victim of a targeted burglary as Rafferty had implied.
As he had feared and as Smales jauntily confirmed, informed of the true situation, the two women hadn't been able to retract their alibis quickly enough.
He hadn't anticipated the sudden and untimely show of initiative. But it was too late now and Rafferty applied his mind to damage limitation.
Mollified after Rafferty's effusive compliments, Smales remarked, ‘It's strange, isn't it, sir, that they should both have somehow got hold of the wrong end of the stick about Nigel Blythe?’
‘Mm.’ Rafferty agreed. ‘Wonder how they could have got such an idea?’ Even as he posed the question, he suspected the newly-inspired Smales would be able to enlighten him. And so it proved.
‘I asked them about it,’ Smales revealed, ‘and they both said that you'd told them.’
‘They did?’ Rafferty put on what he hoped was a convincing show of bewilderment. He shook his head more in sorrow than anger at the vagaries of human nature. ‘But then, when you've had as much experience as I have of the behaviour of witnesses, you'll realize what a contradictory lot they can be. Not only do they not listen properly, they change their stories at the drop of a hat. They're not to be relied upon, Smales. If you learn nothing more than that during your early police career, you'll be doing very well.’
Even as he tried to muddy the waters of Smales's evidence, Rafferty was struck by the horrified realization that it had only been the fact of his ‘solid’ alibis that had stopped Nigel from dropping him in it. And now, thanks to Smales's untimely show of initiative, Nigel had no alibis...
His judgement had slipped badly and he set out to retrieve what could turn out to be a real danger to both himself and Nigel. He managed to divert Smales's suspicions and sympathies on to a different track entirely, by saying to him, ‘We only have the word of two women who've shown they're unreliable. They're both married women, Smales, does it not cross your mind that after speaking to you they were more worried about their husbands’ learning about their adultery than they were about Nigel Blythe's future? How would you feel if your name was smeared in the paper before you had a chance to prove your innocence?’
Put like that, Smales admitted he would feel outraged
‘So would I. So, for the time being I want you to say nothing to anyone about these alibi retractions. Leave it to me to consider the best interests of all concerned, including Nigel Blythe. Okay?’
Even though Smales gave a conspiratorial nod at this, Rafferty hadn't much faith in Smales's silence lasting. But just as long as it lasted till he'd found the murderer, he would ask no more.
‘The two ladies said they'd phone you and retract officially, like.’
Rafferty nodded. He didn't doubt it. As if on cue, his phone began to ring.
After Rafferty had dismissed Smales, he had listened with a fatalistic air as, in turn, Mesdames Smith and Jenkins explained that of course they hadn't been thinking about the effect on their marriages when they had told the young officer they wanted to withdraw their alibis. No, they had realized it was their public duty to tell the truth now they understood that Nigel Blythe might be a dangerous criminal. It was the thought of Nigel stalking the streets looking for further victims that had prompted their attacks of conscience and their decision to tell the truth, not any concern for their own marital accord. Nigel hadn't been with them at all, both women insisted. They hadn't even seen him since shortly after lunch on either day.
Naturally, Rafferty – who had been clinging to the wreckage of his cousin's alibis – hadn't wanted to believe them. He had been blunt with both women. ‘So, now, in spite of your previous statement,’ he challenged Kylie Smith, ‘you're denying that you and Nigel spent the entire evening together on Friday, the 4th of April?’
‘I most certainly am.’
Rafferty could picture Kylie Smith at the other end of the phone, shaking her bleached blonde curls indignantly.
‘I'm a professional, inspector,’ Mrs Smith had insisted. ‘My firm paid for me to go to that delightful post-modern hotel for training purposes, not to pick up men. After spending no more than half-an-hour, if that, in Nigel's room, I went to my own and studied the training literature. That would have been around 2.30 in the afternoon. I didn't see Nigel again after that.’
And from this stance, she wasn't to be shifted. Neither was Kayleigh Jenkins who took a line so similar about Nigel's alibi for the Saturday night they might have practised it together. Perhaps they had. The only good aspect about the two telephone interviews was that they hadn't been overheard. It meant he would be able, for a while anyway, to conceal from his cousin – and the super and the rest of the team – that Nigel's alibis were worthless. Such a revelation would quickly propel his cousin into ‘telling all’; something he had to avoid at all costs.
Even though he had been unwilling to believe the women were now telling the truth, such had been the conviction in their voices that Rafferty was forced to the unwelcome conclusion that Nigel's alibis really were as worthless as they claimed.
So where had Nigel been? More to the point – what had he been doing and why had he lied about it?
It was only then that a possibility occurred to Rafferty that he had never before considered. If, as he believed, the two women were now telling the
truth, Nigel could have had ample time to drive back to Elmhurst from York. He even knew where the Made in Heaven parties were being held as Rafferty had mentioned it when he had telephoned him on his mobile to thank him again for his help.
Was it possible he'd been doing his best to shield Nigel and remove him entirely as chief suspect when all the time his cousin had been guilty of the brutal murders of the two women?
He found it hard to believe. Nigel might be a bit of a rogue where money, deals and women were concerned, but surely he wasn't into murderous violence as well? Still, the possibility stunned him so much that he was at a loss what to do next. If he challenged Nigel about his failed alibis, his cousin, who had been the soul of discretion thus far, albeit in return for Rafferty paying him some not inconsiderable sums, would, if innocent, feel so outraged he would sing like a caged canary.
Rafferty knew he had no choice but to suppress the knowledge of the alibis’ retraction. Apart from himself, Smales was the only one who knew the truth and he'd been silenced for the moment.
Alone in his office, Rafferty had too many moments to consider the inevitable repercussions should Smales fail to meet this discretion test. Rafferty knew he would be exposed, reviled and probably caged himself.
He put his head in his hands and breathed out on a long, shuddering sigh. After everything else, the thought of being hauled before the beak courtesy of little Timmy Smales, of all people, was too much to bear.
While his troubles multiplied, Rafferty was comforted by the thought that at least he was still managing to avoid meeting the main witnesses. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to achieve the trick, but fortunately, Llewellyn, who had at first kept harping on about it, had quickly resigned himself to doing the bulk of the interviews.
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