Scimitar (A Kate Redman Mystery

by Celina Grace

  Chloe Wapping stood there, wan-faced, thinner than Kate remembered, shivering. Kate gasped and fumbled with the chain, yanking the door open. Chloe burst into tears and stumbled forward into Kate’s open arms.

  Somehow, Kate got her to the sofa, kicking the front door shut behind her. Anderton called an enquiry from the kitchen, but Kate was too taken up with supporting her friend, who clung to her, her whole body shaking with sobs. Kate felt sympathetic tears well in her own eyes, but she blinked them away and lowered Chloe onto the sofa, sitting beside her and pulling her friend into a tight embrace.

  “I said, who is—” Anderton appeared in the doorway and gasped. “Oh, Chloe. Oh, love—”

  Kate shook her head at him, over Chloe’s shuddering shoulder. He nodded, understanding what she meant, and disappeared back to the kitchen again.

  Eventually, Chloe’s sobs died down to watery sniffs and gulps and she raised her face from Kate’s wet shoulder. “Oh, sorry,” Chloe said shakily. “Your top—”

  “It’s okay, it’s an old one anyway.” Kate attempted a weak smile, but it felt inappropriate. She smoothed Chloe’s hair away from her friend’s wet cheeks. Chloe’s hair was normally so neat, twisted up at the back of her head in a neat chignon. Kate’s stomach felt wrenched with pity. “I’m so, so, sorry. I feel sick with—with sorry-ness.”

  “I know.” Chloe’s voice wobbled.

  “I didn’t even realise you were back in Abbeyford.”

  “I had to come back, I couldn’t stand it up at Mum’s. Nothing to do but sit around and t—think about it…” She started crying again, but more softly. “I’m sorry, I can’t—”

  Kate hugged her close again and this time, her own tears couldn’t be blinked away. “You cry all you want, my bird.”

  “I can’t help feeling—I don’t know if I’m over-reacting.” Chloe’s voice was so ragged that Kate had a hard time making out her words. “We hadn’t known each other that long, am I right to be this upset?”

  Kate gently pushed Chloe away, to hold her at shoulder’s length. “Chloe, you’ve just been through the most incredibly traumatic event, you’ve lost someone that you loved. It doesn’t matter how long you knew him.”

  “I know, I know. I don’t know where I am at the moment, I’m—I’m…” Chloe sank her face onto Kate’s shoulder again. “I keep thinking it, over and over, if only we’d just been a few minutes later. Or earlier. If only I hadn’t stopped to kiss him. It’s my fault.”

  Kate pushed her away again, to look her in the eye. “No, it’s not, Chloe. It’s the fault of those evil, evil, brainwashed—” She rejected the word she wanted to use and substituted one which started with the previous letter in the alphabet. “Those bastards who did it. That’s whose fault it is. You’ve got survivor guilt, my darling. You know it.”

  Chloe started to cry again, weakly. “Can I stay here tonight?”

  “Of course you can.” Kate gathered her in her arms again. “Of course you can.”

  “I don’t want to get in the way of you and Anderton—”

  “Don’t you worry for one moment about that. He wants you here too.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t you dare thank me. You’d do the same for me in a heartbeat, I know it.”

  They didn’t talk much more after that. Kate pressed her friend to have some dinner with them, but Chloe shook her head.

  “I can’t eat. I just can’t. I’ll be sick.”

  Kate nodded, sympathetically. Classic physical response to a trauma, the body going into fight-or-flight mode. “Could you manage some tea? Sweet tea, just the thing for shock. You’re probably running on adrenaline at the moment, but that won’t last for ever.”

  Chloe shivered. “I’ll try. I’m so cold.”

  “I’ll run you a bath.” She wrapped her friend in a woolly throw and left her on the sofa, Chloe’s dishevelled blonde head resting on a cushion, tears tracking down her cheeks.

  Anderton was pacing up and down the kitchen. “Is she okay?”

  Kate filled him in on all she knew, in hurried whispers. “She’s going to stay the night, if that’s okay with you?”

  Anderton snorted. “Kate, this is your house. And of course, it’s all right with me. I’m bloody worried about her. Best she’s here, so we can keep an eye on her.

  “Great.” Kate gave him a swift kiss. “Could you make her some tea? Lots of sugar.”

  “Of course.”

  Kate kissed him again. Out of nowhere, she thought of how she would feel if what had happened to Chloe had happened to her and Anderton. She almost retched.

  “Are you okay?” Anderton’s tone and expression were similarly concerned.

  Kate said nothing for a moment but put her arms around him. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Kate squeezed him for a second longer and then released him. “I’ll get Chloe into the bath after you take her some tea.”

  “Okay.”

  Chapter Seven

  The drama of the previous evening had driven thoughts of work out of Kate’s head but as she drove to the station the next morning, she remembered she had to ask Theo something. Luckily, he was in before her, tapping away at his keyboard. As Kate shrugged off her jacket, one of the administrative staff members came into the office with a couriered letter.

  “Thanks.” Theo took it and ripped it open. Scanning it, he made a disappointed noise. “Shit.”

  “What is it?”

  “DNA results negative. He’s not on the database.”

  “Damn it.” Kate took the letter from him and read it herself. “Oh well. We’ve other options.”

  “I know, but it would have been nice, right?”

  Kate patted him on the shoulder. “Never mind, mate. Do you think it’s worth looking for a familial link?”

  In a previous case, the Abbeyford team had been able to ID a victim through the DNA of a close relative whose details had been added to the national database. Theo, who obviously recalled the case, nodded. “We might have to. Let’s see what else we can come up with.”

  Kate remembered she had something to ask him. “Theo, when we first saw the body, you said something about him, about his appearance, but I can’t remember what it was. Can you?”

  Theo grinned. “Obviously, it was something incredibly brilliant.”

  Kate sighed. “Of course, naturally. But what was it?”

  Theo raised his dark eyebrows. “Um…um…. God, I don’t know.”

  Kate fought the urge to raise her eyes skyward. “Come on—”

  “Let me think for a sec—” Theo reached for his coffee mug and seeing the curve of his bicep strain against the white cotton of his shirt, Kate remembered.

  “That’s it, you said he was a gym goer.”

  “Oh yeah, I did.”

  Kate clapped her hands together. “Well, there you are. We hit all the gyms in the local area with a photo of our victim and see if anyone recognises him.”

  “Genius, mate.” Theo reached for his notebook. “Who’ll do that?”

  “I’ll have to check with Mark. When he finally gets here,” Kate said with a grin. “But it’ll be uniform, surely? We haven’t got the man-power, especially with Chloe—” Last night’s events intruded, and she felt the smile drop from her face. She should call home, see what was happening. “Anyway, I’ll talk to Mark,” she concluded.

  “It’s a good idea,” said Olbeck, when he and Kate sat down in his office for a debrief. “I thought of dental records, but until we know who he is, we can’t track down his dentist, can we?”

  “Do you want me to organise that?”

  “Yes please, Kate.” Olbeck leant forward over his desk. “How’s Chloe?”

  Kate grimaced. “Not great, to be honest.”

  “Well, I can understand that.
To go through that kind of…attack would be one thing, but to lose your partner at the same time…” Olbeck trailed off. Kate wondered if he was thinking what she had thought earlier—how it would be to lose their other half, their loved ones. From the contraction of pain on his face, she thought he probably was.

  “How are the kids?” she asked, just because she wanted to switch her train of thought onto a different line.

  “Oh, fine, fine. Hard work, obviously. You should come over for lunch sometime, maybe at the weekend? They’d love to see you.”

  Privately, Kate doubted that, but she agreed and assented. “Shall I get on with organising the gym visits?”

  Olbeck nodded. “We’ll need more people. With Chloe off, we just don’t have enough bums on seats. I’ll have to see if I can get a transfer, or maybe uniforms… Martin’s doing the house to house, at least, that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about.” He broke off, looking at his watch. “God, I’ve got to go. Kate, keep me posted.”

  “I will.” Kate fought the urge to hug him goodbye. Although they socialised fairly frequently outside of work, Olbeck’s workload and Kate’s schedule meant they barely spent any time together now in the office.

  “See you later.” Olbeck hurried from his office.

  Kate trailed back to her desk, sighing as she brought up the long list of things she had to do on her computer. Organise the crime information boards… she began to type an email, looking up as Rav came into the office.

  “Any news?” she called.

  Rav shrugged off his jacket. Since the birth of his son in the spring that year, he seemed to have grown into adulthood, although he was still as slim as a teenage boy. Out of nowhere, Kate thought about babies—having babies. It was something that Anderton and she hadn’t yet talked about. This is not the time to be thinking about that.

  “Nothing amazing came up,” Rav said, sitting down and switching on his computer. “Cause of death, stabbing wounds, as we knew anyway. Probably no alcohol or drugs in his system, but they’re waiting on the tests to be sure.”

  “He’s not on the DNA database.” Kate pushed her chair back from her desk, stretching out her legs. “But I’ve had an idea on how we might try to ID him.” She explained her gym theory idea to Rav, who visibly brightened.

  “That’s a great idea, Kate. Who’s going to be making up the teams?”

  “I will.” Kate heard the buzz of her mobile and reached for her phone. It was a text message from Anderton. Chloe’s gone home. I said you’d call her later? X

  Sighing inwardly, Kate slung her mobile back in her bag after texting back an affirmative. “Come on,” she said to Rav. “Let’s get cracking.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Kate, I’ve got PC Dalton on the phone for you.”

  Kate looked up to see Theo waggling the receiver at her. “Who?”

  “He’s heading up the team going to all the gyms.”

  “Oh, great.” Kate grabbed for the phone. “DI Redman here. What’s the news?”

  PC Dalton’s voice was rich with the local West Country burr. “We’ve had a positive ID of the photo, DI Redman.”

  Kate repressed a whoop with difficulty. “That’s excellent. Where are you?”

  “We’re at the gym on Sun Street, Faith Fitness. You know it?”

  “I can find it. Who identified the photo?”

  “Several of the desk staff recognised him. They have him on the system as Ibrahim Bashir.”

  “Can you ask all of those who recognised him to wait, please? I’ll be right over.” As she spoke, cradling the phone beneath her neck and her shoulder, Kate Googled the address of Faith Fitness. “Get all the info you can while you’re there, but I’ll need to speak to them myself.”

  “Sure.”

  Kate said her goodbyes and put the receiver back. Theo watched her alertly. “We’ve got our guy?”

  “I hope so. Ibrahim Bashir, according to uniform. I’m going over to the gym now, to interview the front of house staff.”

  Theo was already typing. “I’ll start pulling everything I can on that name.”

  “Great.” Kate was already gathering her coat and handbag. “Tell Mark, if you see him. Otherwise, I’ll call him later.” She patted Theo on the shoulder as she headed for the door.

  The fine autumnal weather had returned. Kate drove to Sun Street with her window open and warm, scented air rushing in. If this is global warming, I’m all for it, she thought and then guiltily rejected the notion. Sun Street was one of the narrower streets in Abbeyford with no parking on either side of the street. Kate found a council car park nearby, paid for an hour’s parking, and headed off on foot for the gym.

  The tang of chlorine was evident in the air as she walked through the entrance and into the modern building. The swimming pool must have been in the basement, as from where she stood, she had a clear view of the weights room, where a variety of heavily muscled men were heaving weights of various types, their faces contorting in effort.

  A slim, pretty, blonde woman was supervising the phones on the front desk. She looked up as Kate approached and her thick, shapely eyebrows jerked upwards when Kate explained the reason for her visit.

  “Oh yes, the police officers… Please come this way.” Kate followed her through a labyrinth of corridors before she opened the door to a small office suite at the back of the building. An internal window overlooked the weights room. Crammed inside were the four-person police team and two nervous-looking people dressed in the staff uniform of Faith Fitness.

  Kate introduced herself. “We’re hoping to establish the identity of this man. We believe him to be Ibrahim Bashir. Do you recognise him?”

  The man dressed in the uniform of Faith Fitness leant forward. “Yeah, I’ve seen him. He used to come in a lot. Almost every day.”

  Kate nodded. “And you knew him as?”

  “Well, I didn’t know him to talk to him. But he had a mate who used to come with him, and he used to call him Ibrahim.” The man, a muscular blonde in his twenties, looked at Kate with disbelief. “Has he actually died?”

  Kate forbore to answer. “So, clearly this man was a member here?”

  The Faith Fitness female worker hadn’t yet spoken up. She did so now. “Yes. Yes, he was. We can get his details for you if you want?”

  Kate suppressed a sigh. Sometimes she thought that dealing with the general public was the most challenging part of her job. “That would be good, thank you.”

  There was a wait of about twenty minutes, while the women went to get the details of the victim. Kate amused herself by discretely checking out the body builders in the gym through the window. She’d never really been one for muscles before, but, damn… She batted away the thought that most of the men in the gym were at least fifteen years too young for her. Or at least thirty years too young for her, given the age of her current partner. Current, Kate? It’s not like you’re aiming for there to be more after Anderton, are you? I mean, you’re buying a bloody house with the man…

  “Here you are.” Kate pushed her internal monologue to the back of her mind as the sheet of paper was passed under her nose. She took it. There was a mobile phone number and an address. She looked up at the young woman. “I don’t suppose you’d know the name of his gym partner, by any chance?”

  The two employees looked at each other, blankly enough for Kate’s momentary spurt of hope that they’d found a lead to die away into dust. “No,” said the blonde man, after a moment. “He just called him Mo.”

  “Ibrahim called him Mo?” Kate asked, checking.

  “Yeah. I didn’t see him in here much—his mate, I mean. It was always on Fridays.” He saw Kate’s interested expression and added, “We do ‘Bring a Mate Fridays’, so they don’t have to be members, right?”

  “Would you recognise this Mo if you saw him again?”

  The
blonde man looked a little uncomfortable. “I dunno. Maybe. They were only in here a few times together, but I remember because they had a bit of an argument at the front desk one time.”

  Kate’s copper’s senses tingled. “Oh yes?”

  “Yeah. About, I dunno, about—” Blondie’s face puckered in extreme concentration. “Maybe… a month ago?”

  “Thank you.” She shot a look at the uniformed team and they, as one, began to shift and stand up. Kate smiled at the other female employee. “Thanks—” She squinted at the name tag pinned on the woman’s right breast. “Thanks, Skye. I just need to talk to your colleague for a second, privately.”

  Skye looked confused but followed the officers out of the door, shutting it behind her. Kate leant forward, reading the blonde man’s name tag before hitting him with one of her best smiles. “Josh, what you’ve said has really helped. We’re trying to track down known associates of Ibrahim, his friends, his family, you know the kind of thing.”

  Given her full attention, Josh suddenly seemed to be less nervous. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “So, you think this Mo was a guest, not a member?”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I only ever seen him in here these two or three times with Ibrahim, never without him.”

  “Okay.” Kate nodded and pretended to write on her notepad. “What can you tell me about this argument that you said they had a month ago?”

  Josh twisted in his seat again. “They did have it.”

  Kate raised her hands in acknowledgement. “Of course, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean – I meant, what were they arguing about?

  Josh’s light-brown brows drew down in puzzlement. Kate waited as he thought, as patiently as possible. After thirty seconds, she managed to repress a sigh of frustration. God knew, she didn’t want to judge, but with this one, it was clearly a case of a pretty face and nothing much going on upstairs…

  “Right,” said Josh, eventually and uncertainly. “I didn’t hear everything, like, ‘cos the music was loud, right, but Mo was saying something like ‘come on, mate, we need you there tonight, we’ve only got so much time left before it’s time’ and Ibrahim was saying something, like, ‘I just can’t tonight mate, it’s only one night, I’ve got something I need to do.”