The Disciple

by Steven Dunne

  ‘Good question,’ muttered Brook.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  Brook ran his eyes over the empty space next to the corpse. He had to peer round the still warm oil drum to get a view, but grunted when he saw what he was looking for. Or rather, what he was expecting to be absent. He motioned to Noble.

  ‘Is that where Jason Wallis was sitting?’ Noble asked.

  ‘It was.’

  ‘Which means Wallis can’t be our killer,’ said Noble. ‘You were right.’

  Brook nodded his approval. ‘Good spot, John.’ He switched his attention to the other sofa. Again both male victims were young, probably seventeen-year-olds if they were contemporaries of Wallis. Like the other boy, their heads were pulled back so their severed windpipes winked up at the heavens. All the young men wore similar clothing – baggy jeans exposing designer underwear, padded jackets or hoodies and grubby Nike training shoes. A peaked cap, espousing support for the New York Yankees, still clung to one boy’s head, in spite of the muscle spasms he must have endured as his life had convulsed to a close.

  Brook moved away towards the car that stood on bricks at the rear of the house. It was an old Toyota, battered and rusty and had flames daubed amateurishly on the side. The portable CD player sitting on the roof had been turned off. Brook was tempted to start the music again but resisted. It didn’t stop the soundtrack from other Reaper crime scenes rolling around his head – Mozart’s Requiem in Brixton and Mahler’s Ninth from the Wallis murders two years before. His eye followed the extension cord through the back door to the now brightly lit kitchen.

  ‘John.’ Noble looked up at Brook, who nodded towards the internal wall through the kitchen window. ‘SAVED’ was written in large, bloody letters. All the letters oozed red tiny tears, as if of condolence, which had pooled on the grease-caked linoleum floor. Noble nodded back to Brook in recognition. The Reaper’s unique sign-off.

  For years Brook had puzzled over who was SAVED until his final apocalyptic night with Sorenson. The worst petty criminals on the estate would have died tonight, The Reaper having seen fit to save honest neighbours from their malevolence. Summary and absolute justice as before – but it didn’t make it any easier to look at.

  One of the SOCOs working near Jason’s sofa stood up and turned to Brook, holding two clear plastic evidence bags in front of him. One contained the bloody scalpel, the other a mobile phone, also stained with blood.

  The officer pulled down his mask. ‘Mobile’s not been dusted but it looks like there’s a print in the blood.’

  ‘Sounds promising,’ said Noble. ‘Bit careless for The Reaper though.’

  ‘It could be Jason’s,’ noted Brook.

  ‘Or the ambulance man’s.’

  ‘No, I moved it off Jason’s lap so they could take him to hospital. Can we get a list of the last calls and any texts?’

  ‘Shouldn’t be a problem,’ said the officer. ‘And if any pictures were taken.’

  Brook and Noble nodded their thanks and moved further down the garden towards a shiny new barbecue, still sporting a couple of scorched burgers.

  ‘This is a Weber, sir. Top of the range barby.’ Brook recognised the distinctive brand from his evening with Mike Drexler. ‘Looks new. Wonder where they nicked it,’ smiled Noble, looking over at Brook, who seemed distracted suddenly. ‘Something wrong?’ Brook looked into his sergeant’s eyes. To Noble he seemed to be wrestling with a different mystery a million miles removed from this blood-soaked scene. ‘Are you okay, sir?’

  ‘Maybe they didn’t nick it. Maybe they won it in a competition, John.’

  Noble’s expression sobered as soon as the observation hit home. ‘You think? The same MO. Cheeky sod.’

  ‘Why change a winning formula? We’ll need those burgers and sausages bagged for analysis, John. They could have been … doctored.’

  ‘Twilight Sleep again?’

  ‘It worked last time.’

  ‘What happened here?’ asked Noble as they walked over to where the fence panel had been removed.

  ‘Best guess? Emergency exit. The killer has finished his work and is about to leave. Maybe he hears my car or maybe even sees me coming up the path…’

  ‘Pardon?’

  Brook sighed, feeling suddenly very tired after his night’s labours. He looked up at the washed-out dusty sky, dawn still some way off. ‘It’s been a long night, John.’

  ‘You think you disturbed The Reaper?’

  Brook hesitated, trying to find the right words. Ahead of him the path forked into two. One way required honesty and promised awkward questions, suspicion, maybe even removal from the investigation. The other was the path of deceit and would require a balancing act of exhausting proportions. He’d already taken a pace along it with his lie to PCs Duffy and Parker about his presence on the scene. ‘I don’t know for sure.’

  ‘How long have you been here?’

  He looked back at Noble. ‘A lifetime, John.’

  The house adjoining the Ingham backyard was still in complete darkness. Brook ran his torch around the neat little back garden. ‘What are we looking for, sir?’

  ‘Assuming our killer vaulted over the fence and landed in here covered in blood…’

  ‘Panicking after you turned up.’

  ‘…there might be bloody footprints on the path, maybe some fibres, maybe he left DNA on the front gate.’ Brook was trying his best to ignore Noble’s piercing glance.

  ‘You realise what the Chief Super’s going to say when he finds out? Never mind Brian Burton and the rest of the media. What were you doing here in the middle of the night?’

  ‘It’s complicated, John, and I’m tired.’

  ‘That’s not going to cut any ice with…’

  ‘Odd.’

  Noble stopped to look at Brook. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Look at the row of houses facing the crime scene.’

  Noble scanned from side to side. Of the dozen houses backing onto the crime scene only the one opposite was in darkness. Every other household alerted to the calamity in their midst had numerous lights beaming, some of which outlined a human frame peering out to catch a glimpse of the horror. Only the house, past which the killer may have made his escape, was dark.

  ‘Empty house maybe? Or whoever lives there could be away. Lucky.’

  Brook arched an eyebrow at Noble. ‘The Reaper? Luck? I don’t think so. Get Duffy and Parker to knock on doors and find out who lives there and where they are. We need to get in there. And station someone out front for the foreseeable.’

  Fifteen minutes later the two detectives climbed the now bare stairs to the Inghams’ first-floor master bedroom and prepared to enter. They approached the door as a bright flash illuminated the dingy room to reveal a child’s bare feet suspended in the air. Once Brook would have reeled from such a sight. Now he was detached enough to just wrap it into his calculations.

  Twenty years had passed since Brook had gazed at the corpse of a boy hung from a ceiling in the flat of Sammy Elphick, a petty criminal who lived with his wife and son in a slum in North London. A family had died that day too. How many more would it take before The Reaper was satisfied?

  Brook stepped just inside the door to survey the scene but Noble, following right behind, let out an involuntary ‘Jesus!’ The various SOCOs looked up from their different activities then grinned at each other. They always relished the shock and awe of the unprepared.

  ‘You’re not going to blow chunks are you, detectives?’ said one. Noble speared a contemptuous look his way.

  ‘I reckon the Chief Super will be losing his bran flakes when he gets here,’ said another and the low chuckle was taken up by the rest, but just as quickly died away.

  ‘Just like the first one. Harlesden, wasn’t it?’ asked Noble quietly.

  Brook nodded. Another camera flash made him realise how tired his eyes were. He tried to focus despite the fatigue. He looked up at the young boy swaying minutely at t
he end of a rope which reached up through a trapdoor-cum-skylight in the ceiling into the roof space. The same MO as Harlesden all those years ago when Sorenson had removed the Elphick boy’s fingers, settlement for a V-sign the boy had flashed at him in the streets of Shepherd’s Bush. Had that been this youngster’s offence this time around? It seemed an extraordinary coincidence.

  He couldn’t look at the boy’s face so busied himself with other details. The Derby County FC pyjama top had a small breast pocket with a slight blood-stained bulge; Brook knew the two removed fingers would be in there.

  He checked the stumps on the boy’s disfigured hand. The cuts were clean, surgical. Noble bent to examine the boy’s feet. The soles were dirty and scuffed, except where several trickles of urine, expelled at point of death, had cleared small channels through the grime. A teat of liquid still clung to the right big toe.

  Brook looked at the boy’s ankles, visible under his pyjama bottoms. They were a bluish pink with the accumulating blood of post-mortem lividity.

  Noble followed Brook’s gaze. ‘I thought lividity created a deeper purple than that,’ he remarked.

  ‘It does,’ agreed Brook. ‘After eight hours. It’s nearly seven now. He’s only been dead about six hours at the most.’ He leaned in towards the boy to examine more closely. As he did, the body swayed gently round and Brook was forced to see his face. ‘Full circle.’

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘We’ve come full circle, John. This is a copy of the first Reaper murder in Harlesden.’

  ‘A copy?’

  ‘The hanging, the removal of the boy’s fingers. See the spots of blood under the body.’

  ‘I assume the fingers are in the pyjama pocket. And he would have been dead or dying before he was strung up, right? That’s the same as Harlesden.’

  ‘You’ve done your homework.’

  Noble looked a little guilty. ‘Brian Burton, I’m afraid.’

  They moved past the boy to the centre of the room and were assaulted by other odours beside urine, smells Brook knew well. Emptied bowels and the sickly sweetness of ageing blood had temporary dominion over the stench of stale beer and tobacco, which hung in the air and leached from the peeling, yellowed wallpaper. But now the room also had a chemical edge as the forensic officers applied their sprays and gels.

  Like the other Reaper crime scenes, the room was sparsely furnished. It was important that only death and its key details would take the eye. A large double bed and wardrobe had been pushed close to the far wall, and beyond that was an ancient oak wardrobe, the doors of which were no longer flush. The doors had no handles, only holes for fingers to prise them open. There was no other furniture except for the chair that The Reaper probably used to hoist the boy into the noose.

  Brook berated himself with a small shake of the head. Sorenson was dead. The Reaper was dead. This bore the hallmarks of The Reaper’s method but it wasn’t the same. Something wasn’t right. Something was different. Brook moved gingerly towards the bed for a better look, careful to avoid the officer kneeling nearby who was combing through the bare carpet. Two adult bodies were in the bed: on the far side the male, young and naked from the waist up; on the near side, the female in a silk slip, older and heavier. Both were still under the deepening red duvet, but neither was sitting up to face the boy. Brook narrowed his eyes to ponder this and made a mental note.

  As ever, after the first Reaper killings in Harlesden, Brook searched for something tasteful, something wonderful, if only in reproduction, to give the dying a glimpse behind the curtain of humankind’s lofty ambition. In Harlesden it had been a painting, ‘Fleur de Lis’, for the Wallis murders a poster of Van Gogh and the grandeur of Mahler, beautiful sights and sounds to usher the dying towards the pit with smiles on their faces.

  Brook looked around at the bold and colourful posters that had been displayed to enliven grubby walls, but knew The Reaper hadn’t brought any of these. Famous football players grinning for the camera adorned several walls, while other sporting posters suggested a passion for both Formula One and topless female motorbike racing.

  ‘Well, Burton can write down the details but never having been at a Reaper crime scene, he wouldn’t be able to tell you that this isn’t original Reaper.’

  ‘Why not?’ asked Noble.

  ‘It’s not a carbon copy. It’s not how…’ Brook was about to put himself into the frame but managed to stop himself. ‘It’s not exactly how The Reaper would’ve done it.’

  ‘You once said The Reaper liked to vary his MO from crime to crime. You know, to fool the profilers.’

  Brook looked at Noble and smiled. ‘That’s it. Prove me wrong with my own words again. Derby CID will be in good hands when I finally head for the elephants’ graveyard, John.’

  Once Noble would have beamed with childlike joy, but now he merely looked away before muttering, ‘Had a good teacher.’ A few seconds later he nodded at the walls. ‘There’s no poster, no art for them to enjoy while they die. That what you mean?’

  ‘True. But assume the music’s on loud enough to be heard in here. Maybe that was enough splendour to usher them across the Styx.’

  As usual, Noble was able to breeze past Brook’s baffling rhetoric. ‘Okay. So what else is different?’

  Brook smiled at Noble. ‘You have been at a Reaper crime scene before. Why don’t you tell me?’

  Noble looked around the room with new eyes. He gave a half-smile to Brook, then called across to one of the SOCOs who was kneeling to dust a beer can next to the bed. ‘Are the bodies in the bed exactly as they were found?’

  When Brook and Noble returned to the ground floor, DS Morton was waiting for them. He held up a rubbish bin containing a selection of discarded blue and white plastic wrappers.

  ‘Looks like our victims had a lot of meat in them, sir.’ Morton nodded at the contents. ‘Sausages, burgers, kebabs. Think we can rule out cholesterol?’ he added with a grin, which froze under Brook’s baleful stare.

  ‘What does it say on the packet?’

  ‘Moorcrofts,’ chipped in Noble. ‘It’s a local butcher in Normanton.’

  Brook nodded. ‘Makes sense if the meat was a gift from the killer. Asda has CCTV.’

  ‘Also local butchers might struggle to pinpoint when the meat was bought.’

  ‘There’s a good chance they’ll remember someone buying barbecue food in winter. Get those packets bagged and get someone round there,’ instructed Brook.

  At that moment DC Cooper popped his head round the door. ‘Chief Super’s here, sir.’

  ‘Thank God,’ said Noble. ‘I feel safer already.’

  Brook and Noble left the kitchen. As they rounded the corner of the house, Noble muttered, ‘What the hell are they doing here?’ Brook followed his stare. DCI Hudson and DS Grant were donning protective clothing alongside Chief Superintendent Charlton. ‘Sir, they’ve got no place…’

  ‘Calm yourself, John. More pairs of eyes can’t hurt. Morning, sir,’ he shouted over the drone of the helicopter passing overhead.

  ‘Inspector. Sergeant. What’s good about it?’ returned the Chief Super.

  ‘Nothing if you’re a member of the Ingham clan, sir.’

  ‘Quite.’ Charlton hesitated, realising Brook, and especially Noble, expected further words from him. ‘I sent a car for DCI Hudson and DS Grant so they can have a gander and share their impressions with us – as they’re in the vicinity. More hands make light work, eh?’ he finished with a half laugh, unable to meet Brook’s eyes.

  ‘Morning, Joshua, Sergeant Grant,’ smiled Brook. ‘I thought you’d be back on the south coast by now.’

  ‘Lucky we weren’t,’ muttered Grant, a little louder than she intended, and Brook narrowed his eyes to divine her meaning. It didn’t take long.

  ‘You don’t look so good, Joshua,’ observed Brook.

  ‘No. I had a rough night. I didn’t have time to have all the vaccinations before we came up north.’ Noble took tight-lipped offence but Brook, not being
a Derby native, just smiled. ‘Is it true?’ ventured Hudson. ‘Is it another Reaper killing?’

  Brook paused for a second. ‘It has all the hallmarks.’

  ‘Hope you don’t mind us taking a look, Inspector?’ added Grant, clearly hoping that he did.

  ‘Not at all. The more the merrier.’

  ‘They’re here at my request,’ put in Charlton as though Brook had somehow voiced an objection.

  ‘It’s a good idea, sir. A fresh perspective would be useful,’ said Brook, glancing at Noble’s pained expression.

  With that, the party set off for the garden and Brook set about removing his latex gloves and coveralls. As he scrunched up his protective suit, he noticed Grant turn at the corner of the house and run her eye over Brook’s clothing.

  Brook caught her eye and nodded. She smiled mechanically and continued after the others. Hudson and Grant had come to Derby to nail Brook for the murder of Tony Harvey-Ellis. Now a new Reaper killing put him even more squarely in the spotlight as far as they were concerned. He shrugged. He had nothing to hide … at least nothing that wasn’t already well hidden.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sheriff Andy Dupree poured himself a black coffee and plucked a sugar-coated doughnut from the box next to his wide-brimmed hat. His Marine-crop haircut was severe and both Drexler and McQuarry realised this was the first time they had seen him without the hat.

  Dupree took a small bite of the pastry and washed it down with a sip of coffee so strong it left a black slick along his upper lip. ‘What did he say when you told him about Ashwell?’

  Drexler looked at McQuarry then at the table. ‘He said, “Dear me.’”

  Dupree let out a laugh. ‘Dear me? Mr Sorenson, you just survived a visit with the Ghost Road Killers. And all he said was “Dear me”? These fucking Limeys, I gotta tell you.’ He shook his head and chuckled again. ‘He say why he didn’t come forward?’