Hell to Pay

by Rachel Amphlett

  ‘Okay, Piper – bring us all up to speed, and then we’ll sort out priorities,’ said Sharp.

  ‘Right, guv.’ Gavin cleared his throat and then turned to his colleagues. ‘A uniform patrol was assigned a call this morning from an elderly woman over at Thurnham. Said that there was a bad smell coming from a neighbouring property.’

  ‘What made her call us, not environmental control over at the council?’ said Barnes.

  ‘She said she’s tried phoning them before about issues with the tenant at the property leaving rubbish out and the like,’ said Gavin. ‘And she reported that in the past, she’d heard noises from the house – scuffles, muted voices, things like that. She thinks it’s rented by a council tenant but apparently, there was something wrong with the plumbing and the council haven’t got around to fixing it yet. She hasn’t seen the tenant for a while, and was worried it was squatters.’

  ‘Go on,’ said Sharp.

  ‘When uniform got there, they spoke to the woman first and ascertained she last heard the noises some three weeks ago. PC Norris says that he went around to the house, peered through the letterbox and immediately picked up the smell.’

  He didn’t need to elaborate.

  All the team had been subjected to the stench of death at some point in their careers.

  ‘When he broke down the door, he found the bodies of three women. He’s requested an SIO attend, obviously and has the scene taped off while he’s waiting for Harriet and her team to get there.’

  ‘All right, thanks Gavin,’ said Sharp. ‘Kay – you’re with me. Go get a pool car ready to leave in five minutes. Barnes, Carys – work with uniform and have them start on the house-to-house enquiries while you speak to Mrs—’

  ‘Evans,’ said Gavin.

  ‘Thanks. Debbie – get on to the council and request a list of tenants and anyone else who has access to a key to that house. Including council employees, work contractors, the lot. Let’s go.’

  He clapped his hands together, and the team sprang into action, Kay grabbing her jacket and leading the way down to the car park.

  Sharp pulled his mobile phone from his jacket pocket as she pointed the car in the direction of Thurnham, and she caught a glimpse of Harrison’s number on the display before turning her attention to the traffic around her.

  ‘Harrison? Where are you at the moment?’

  A muffled response was all Kay heard, before Sharp spoke once more, passing on the details of the property they were heading towards.

  ‘Understood.’ He finished the call and tucked the phone into his jacket pocket. ‘Harrison’s going to be at headquarters for a while yet. He’s happy for us to attend, with a view to getting an update at the afternoon briefing.’

  They remained silent the rest of the way, Kay concentrating on her driving while trying to manoeuvre the car through the traffic as quickly as possible.

  Reaching the outskirts of the urban sprawl, she pressed the accelerator and expertly steered the vehicle around narrow countryside lanes.

  As she turned into the road leading to the address provided by uniform, she realised why the location would have been perfect for Demiri’s purposes.

  A single winding lane revealed only two properties. Two patrol cars were parked outside the first on the right-hand side of the road, the vehicle’s occupants already busy talking to an older woman who stood between the vehicles, her arms crossed over her chest.

  Kay slowed as she drew near, then wound down her window.

  One of the uniformed officers hurried towards her and bent down until he was level with her. He nodded to Sharp in the passenger seat, and then pointed up the road.

  ‘The crime scene is up there, just over the crest of the hill. There are two more cars there, and we’ve got the area taped off.’

  Kay’s eyes drifted to the woman. ‘Is she the one that called in?’

  ‘Yes. She was walking her dog earlier this morning. The wind direction must have changed as she passed her neighbours’ house, because she said she hadn’t noticed it before even though she walks the dog the same way every morning. Apparently, she went up to the front door and knocked but didn’t expect anybody to answer, because she said the last time she knew someone was actually living there was over a year ago. She tried to look through the windows, but couldn’t see anything. She says she doesn’t know why, but she just felt that something wasn’t right and that’s why she called us.’

  ‘Okay, thanks.’

  He stepped back from the car and Kay checked her mirror before pulling back into the lane.

  Within seconds, they could see the second property and two more patrol cars parked outside.

  The wind buffeted Kay as she stepped from the vehicle, and she cast her gaze over the low hedge opposite the property that separated the lane from a fallow field.

  Grey clouds billowed across the sky, giving the landscape an oppressive atmosphere.

  She shivered as she turned back to the house, a bright holly bush sprawling across the front of the building a stark contrast to the horror she knew she’d find within.

  ‘Ready?’

  Sharp’s words jolted her from her thoughts.

  ‘Yes. Let’s take a look.’

  She opened the back door of the car and pulled out two sets of coveralls, handing one to Sharp and then slipping her set over her blouse and trousers before tying plastic booties over her shoes.

  As she straightened, PC Norris approached, his eyes troubled.

  ‘Inspector Sharp?’

  ‘Yes, and this is DS Hunter, who I think you already know. You were first on the scene?’

  ‘I had to break the door down – the neighbour down the road didn’t have a key, and there was no answer when we knocked,’ said Norris. ‘In the circumstances, I took the decision we need to get in there as quickly as possible. The crime scene has been preserved, and I’ve made a note of any surfaces I may have touched. A pathologist has been requested and should be here soon to declare life extinct.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Sharp. ‘We understand there are three victims?’

  ‘That’s right. We searched the rest of the house, as well as an old shed out the back, but there are no more bodies. The property doesn’t have a cellar, either.’

  ‘Okay. Lead the way.’

  Kay followed the two men, and wondered what horrors had been left for them this time.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Kay was immediately struck by the stench of death. She began to take shallow breaths through her mouth, trying to avoid breathing through her nose and inhaling the smell that filled the property.

  ‘They’re through here.’ Norris approached a door and stood to one side.

  Kay watched as Sharp stood on the threshold of the room and peered in.

  After a moment, he turned to her. ‘They’ve been here a while.’

  Kay swallowed and stepped forward. ‘How did we miss this, guv?’

  ‘He’s clever, Hunter. And he has a whole network of people working for him, and protecting him.’

  Kay folded her arms over her chest, then followed Sharp as he began to circle the room.

  Bare, except for three wooden chairs arranged to face each other in the centre of the room, the space reflected no light from outside, the single window covered by net curtains and grime.

  On each of the three chairs, a dead woman sat.

  Each woman had had a plastic bag placed over her head, arms tied behind her and her hands fastened to the back of the chair.

  Flies swarmed in the air, and Kay waved her hand in front of her face as one of the insects came too close.

  Her brow furrowed as her gaze ran over the space in the middle of the three chairs.

  Each woman had been placed so she could see the previous victim, only increasing the terror she must have endured in her final moments.

  Kay averted her eyes as a maggot dropped to the floor from one of the victim’s bodies, and fought down the urge to flee.

  ‘How long ha
ve they been here, do you think?’

  ‘Several weeks, I’d guess,’ said Sharp. ‘Except for this one.’

  He dropped to a crouch as he approached the woman with her back to the door, her head at an impossible angle to her shoulder. His brow creased.

  ‘What is it?’ Kay drew nearer.

  ‘We’ll have to get Lucas to confirm during the post mortem, but I don’t think she died from asphyxiation – look.’

  Kay held her breath and bent closer to where Sharp squatted, and looked to where he pointed.

  A large hole could be seen in the plastic near the woman’s mouth.

  ‘She bit it?’

  ‘That’s what I think. And I think someone broke her neck instead.’

  He straightened and swept imaginary dust from his trousers.

  Kay’s eyes swept the other two bodies.

  The plastic bags had protected the women’s faces from being ravaged by nature, their terrifying final moments locked forever in milky eyes.

  ‘Do you think it’s Demiri?’

  In response, Sharp pointed to the three marks in the dust on the floor in the middle of the chairs. ‘Those look like the sort of marks a camera tripod would leave. So, yes, I think he – or at least someone working for him – filmed these women’s last moments. We’ll know for sure once Harriet and her team have been through here and Lucas has done the post mortem, but it’d be one hell of a coincidence if it wasn’t, don’t you think?’

  Kay muttered a noncommittal response, keen not to inhale any more of the fetid air than was absolutely necessary.

  Sharp completed his circuit of the room, ran his eyes over the three victims once more, and then jerked his head towards the door.

  ‘Come on. We don’t want to contaminate this scene any more than necessary.’

  He stopped abruptly in the hallway as Lucas Anderson, Home Office pathologist, entered the house.

  ‘Sorry I’m late,’ he said, his face harried. ‘Traffic on the M26.’

  Sharp shrugged. ‘It won’t take you long to declare death.’

  He pushed past the pathologist and out into the front garden of the house.

  Lucas raised an eyebrow at Kay, and she shrugged.

  ‘It’s a bad one,’ she said. ‘He’s taking this personally.’

  The pathologist checked over his shoulder, before turning back to her. ‘Keep an eye on him, Hunter. I’ve heard he’s been under a lot of pressure lately.’

  Kay frowned, but nodded as Lucas patted her arm and moved past her, then hurried after her DI.

  She found him on the opposite side of the lane by the time she’d discarded her protective overalls in the bin the forensic team had set up upon their arrival.

  He stood with his hands shoved in his pockets, gazing up at the house.

  ‘Seems to me that Demiri is getting sloppy in his panic to leave the area,’ he said as she drew near.

  ‘I don’t think it’s as simple as that, guv.’ She shivered as she followed his gaze, and watched as the forensic team stopped on the threshold to talk with Lucas. ‘To me, it’s almost as if he’s leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.’

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  A subdued atmosphere hung over the afternoon briefing, news of the full horror of the discovery at the abandoned smallholding reaching the investigation team before Kay and Sharp had returned.

  Harrison stuck his head out from Sharp’s office, his manner one of efficiency as soon as he saw them.

  ‘Right, let’s rally the troops.’ He disappeared back into the room, the sound of a filing cabinet door being slammed shut filling the void.

  Sharp winced.

  ‘Okay, guv?’

  ‘He wasn’t even in the bloody army,’ he muttered, and stormed towards his open office door.

  Kay shrugged and crossed the room to the water cooler, swallowing her drink in three large gulps before making her way to her desk and dropping her bag to the floor.

  ‘You’ve got a face like thunder,’ said Barnes from the desk opposite hers.

  She glanced over her shoulder to check their senior officers were out of earshot, then back to Barnes.

  ‘Something’s going on with Sharp,’ she said. ‘I’ve never known him like this. Even Lucas said he’d noticed he seemed under pressure at the moment.’

  ‘Hits us all sometime.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Perhaps he’s feeling a bit threatened by Harrison sharing the investigation, do you think?’

  ‘Yeah. Could be.’ She jerked her chin towards the office. ‘What’s he been doing while we were out?’

  Barnes grinned. ‘He only turned up an hour ago – some sort of meeting over at HQ. Plenty of pep talk about teamwork when he got back. All hot air, of course. I think he’s been checking the files to see if there are any easy ones he can solve to make Sharp look bad.’

  ‘Bastard. I knew he couldn’t be trusted.’

  They broke off their conversation at the sound of a low whistle from the direction of the whiteboard.

  Sharp stood next to Harrison, his eyes blazing.

  ‘Shall we start this briefing, ladies and gentlemen? We have a lot to work through.’

  The team scurried to the far end of the incident room, grabbing chairs or perching on the ends of desks before extracting notebooks. Eventually, the noise died down.

  ‘Debbie – how did you get on with finding out who owns the property?’

  ‘The last tenants the council has on record left eighteen months ago, guv. Since then, they’ve had workers go around and check the building – water leaks, security, that sort of thing. Apparently, that hasn’t happened for about six months though – lack of resources, they told me.’

  ‘Did they give you a note of the last person to attend site?’

  ‘Yes, and a mobile number for him. Paul Robinson. He’s agreed to be interviewed at three o’clock, when he finishes his shift.’

  Sharp checked his watch. ‘In half an hour. Great work, Debbie. Anything else?’

  ‘There have been no reports to the council about stolen keys or any issues since the last tenants left. The property was simply abandoned. I’m waiting to hear back from the council with details of the last tenants, and I’ll follow that up.’

  ‘Okay. Piper, Miles – I’d like you to do the interview with Robinson. If he hasn’t been there for six months, I don’t expect much, but find out if he noticed anything untoward.’

  ‘Guv,’ said Carys. Her pen hovered over her notebook. ‘Do you think he might have gone back in the interim – you know, out of curiosity?’

  ‘Great idea,’ said O’Reilly. ‘Brilliant – it’s definitely worth asking, Miles. He could be a suspect.’

  ‘We’ll make a SOCU detective out of you yet, Carys,’ said Harrison.

  Sharp cleared his throat, before consulting the notes in his hand. ‘Right, since Hunter and I returned, Harriet has phoned with her preliminary findings. As we suspected, two of the victims had been there for at least a month, given the state of decomposition. The third victim may have been there for only a couple of weeks – Lucas will confirm that in due course. Of note was the fact that the third victim managed to bite through the plastic, and so didn’t die from asphyxiation. Instead, her neck had been broken. Hunter – CSI have also confirmed that the markings we saw on the floor do resemble those from a camera tripod, so we can assume each victim’s death was filmed.’

  ‘If the third victim had her neck broken, then her killer must’ve been on camera,’ said Kay.

  A shocked silence filled the room.

  ‘If we can locate the film, then we might be able to identify her killer,’ said Harrison. ‘Although I’d be surprised if he didn’t have his face covered.’

  ‘It’s worth pursuing though – good point, Hunter,’ said Sharp.

  He glared as the phone in his office began to ring, and pointed at Debbie. ‘West, get that and if it’s not urgent grab a number and call them back.’

  ‘Guv.’


  He turned his attention to the three photographs now pinned to the whiteboard, their grim portrayals of the three victims all too clear. ‘As soon as Harriet and her team have fingerprints and any other information about these three women available, I want them identified.’

  ‘What if they’re illegal entrants?’ said Barnes, voicing Kay’s own concerns.

  Sharp sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. ‘We’ll do our best for them, is that understood?’

  ‘Guv,’ the team murmured as one.

  ‘Inspector?’

  All eyes fell to Debbie as she emerged from Sharp’s office, her eyes wide.

  ‘What is it, West?’

  ‘That was Governor Bagley over at the prison,’ said Debbie. ‘Bob Rogers has been attacked.’

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Kay shrugged her jacket over her shoulders and hurried after Sharp, ignoring the glare from Harrison as he watched them leave.

  She had no idea why he and Sharp seemed to be at loggerheads recently, but it seemed to stem from the meeting he said he’d been having at headquarters.

  If she were honest, she didn’t care. All she cared about was ensuring they arrested Demiri as soon as possible. She had no time for the politics surrounding the case.

  Sharp stomped down the stairs ahead of her, not waiting to see if she was keeping up. She caught the eye of a uniformed sergeant as Sharp stormed past, and he raised an eyebrow.

  She shook her head.

  Now wasn’t the time for humour, or an explanation.

  Instead, she hurried to catch up with the detective inspector, holding her hand out to stop the back door to the police station closing in her face. By the time she’d left the building, he was already starting the car, his black mood etched across his face.

  She climbed into the passenger seat and fastened her belt as he accelerated out the car park.

  The prison was only a mile or so away from the police station as the crow flies, but thanks to 1960s civil engineering, they had to travel a convoluted route around the ring road to reach it.