He Knows Your Secrets

by Charlie Gallagher

  ‘You want a coffee?’

  ‘Don’t just make me one. You should go . . . you said you had something to do yourself tonight?’

  ‘I can stay for a quickie!’

  Maddie met his twinkling eyes. They both laughed.

  ‘I was going to do a door-knock is all,’ Vince said. ‘London Road. On the way home.’

  ‘The same address we went to earlier?’ Maddie was intrigued.

  ‘I wanted to see if there was any update. The girl we talked to didn’t leave a number.’

  ‘And you don’t think she would have called if there was something more to know?’

  ‘She did say she would. Marlie would herself — especially if she knew someone had spoken to me and they didn’t need to — she’d be on the phone pretty quick. If she’s trying to deal with something down there, I might be the last bloke she wants knocking on the door. I’m just worried she’s got herself involved with someone she can’t deal with. I don’t just want to drive home and do nothing.’

  ‘We could have dropped in on the way back here,’ Maddie chanced. She already knew that he was keeping her away on purpose. He obviously felt he might have more joy on his own.

  ‘I didn’t even think of it to be honest. It’s on my way home so I was just gonna knock the door.’

  ‘No problem.’ Maddie didn’t see the need to challenge him. He might even be right. ‘I can’t help but think that it’s all tied up somehow. And I’m pretty sure the answers are here somewhere. Amongst all this shit. Maybe I should have just dragged Kelly Dale down here tonight. Sat her down, shone a light in her eyes, locked her up even. She’d be safe then at least.’

  ‘Dragging her here might not be the best way to keep her safe, Mads. Sometimes the best thing we can do is stay away. As much as that hurts.’

  ‘I know that. That’s why I tried not to pressure her too much. I just wanted her to know that she can come to us.’

  ‘She knows that by now.’

  Maddie tugged a plastic box out from under her desk. Holly’s yellow rucksack was on top, sealed in a clear bag. She lifted it out to get to the rest of the items underneath. She laid them out like she had before, mixing up the order, seeing if that made any difference to how she interpreted them. Vince picked up the rucksack.

  ‘Grim,’ he said.

  ‘Grim?’

  Vince was still looking at the bag. ‘The bloodstaining. I assume that’s what it is?’

  ‘Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot you knew her. I should have given you a warning.’

  ‘Don’t matter to me, Mads. I never knew her well. I know Marlie better.’ He was still eyeing the bag, his jaw clamped shut, tight enough for it to make ripple marks on his cheeks.

  ‘It’s not nice seeing it on a kid’s bag either. This is a kid’s bag, ain’t it?’

  ‘Looks like it to me. No telling why a thirty-four-year-old sex worker was holding onto it when she died.

  ‘And it’s definitely hers?’

  ‘She was holding it tight when she died and from the stuff inside it’s definitely hers.’

  ‘And she doesn’t have any kids?’

  ‘She doesn’t. And from a historic intel report, we know that she couldn’t have them. I think she had a rough start in life, to say the least.’

  ‘Seems to be a pattern. I get the impression Marlie was the same.’

  ‘She’s going to be okay, you know,’ Maddie said. ‘I don’t see someone walking her out of a house full of her mates as witnesses if they wanted to harm her. That wouldn’t make any sense.’

  ‘I would agree with you in the normal world, Mads. But this ain’t normal. It certainly ain’t the world me and you occupy on a daily basis. It’s all about power plays and control. We’ve had some pretty shocking violence on us before and no one says nothing. You suddenly find a girl hospitalised or we’ve even had a girl dead before and you know it happened in a house full of people but no one saw nothing. Prostitutes and gangs are the same. They see it all but they don’t witness nothing.’

  ‘You think Freddie is trying to scare those girls?’

  ‘They’re already scared of him. Something’s got them terrified. I can’t tell you how big a thing it is that they called me up.’

  ‘It’s here,’ she said. ‘The answer. Or at least where to look for it. Mixed up in an address book . . . in a couple of website addresses . . . piss-poor photography . . . a metal door number . . . maybe even the crumpled leaflet for Airbnb that was in the bottom of the bag . . . something in here holds the answer. And just when we might have been starting to get close to Freddie, he’s shut everything down.’

  Vince frowned. ‘Airbnb?’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘Airbnb you said?’

  ‘There was a leaflet in the bag. It looks old, the sort of thing you find at the bottom of a bag from years ago. Looked the sort to be dropped through people’s doors.’

  ‘A few years back we had a problem with a woman — one of these dominatrix types. She booked up a couple of holiday homes for a few days at a time — a week even. Then she advertised for blokes to pop along to get their nuts stood on. She had to keep moving because of the neighbour complaints. It was probably the noise. I would give it a right good holler if someone stood on my bits! Short-term lets suited her. By the time that someone came out, she was gone.’

  Maddie scrabbled around in the box until she found the leaflet. It was as crumpled as she remembered. It wasn’t even bagged; she hadn’t seen the point. She had been told there was no point bagging any of it up but it all felt significant to her, like it was part of something bigger. But she hadn’t even considered the leaflet. She considered it now. It was just a brief appeal to those looking to make extra money from an extra room or a holiday home. She threw it back down on the desk. ‘You think Freddie Rickman might be using Airbnb lets?’

  Vince shrugged. ‘I reckon he’s a man to keep his options open.’

  Maddie was already waking up her computer monitor. She typed out her search term: Airbnb lets, Langthorne. It directed her to an official-looking site where she had to type out her area again. She swore and rubbed at her eyes.

  ‘I’ll put the coffee on,’ Vince said.

  ‘I don’t think this is going to help anyway. It gives pictures and descriptions but no addresses. There’s loads of them . . .’ Maddie swore again.

  ‘So we just need to get a list of all the Airbnb properties available in the town and their addresses, then details of who has booked them. Simple!’

  ‘Not quick, though, Vince. There’ll be a few hoops to jump through. And do we just do the town or go further afield?’ Maddie rubbed at her eyes again. ‘There’s nothing I can do tonight and I’m too tired for this damned case file. I’ll just send Mitch an email to see what he can rustle up around your Airbnb theory. He’s the best I know at this sort of thing.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan.’

  ‘And scrap the coffee. I’m going to get home and try and get some sleep. I think I need a fresh look at all this tomorrow.’

  ‘So not even time for a quickie?’ Vince grinned of course.

  ‘’Fraid not. And if the boss asks, I was working all night on my case file.’

  ‘Got it. And you definitely did not have a quickie.’

  Chapter 29

  Wednesday

  ‘You got my message, then.’ Harry’s growl was deeper and harsher than usual. It resonated even out here, in the wide woods that loomed over and around. It was a cacophony of movement and noise, of swirling, shushing trees, green and browns blending then separating, caught in a constant cycle. The storm had continued for most of the night and Maddie had watched a lot of it pressed up against her window at home. Storms just seemed more dramatic on the coast, where the wind was unabated, the lightning seemed to have more sky to play with and the thunder seemed to roll in with the waves, building in pace and power to roar at the land. She loved it.

  At 7 a.m., there was only some of the wind left. The ground was sodden, the
rain had been incredible, still unrelenting when she had finally turned in and she had lain awake listening to it.

  Now they were gathered under thick trees and the worst of the wind was held out by the canopy, leaving just a pleasant breeze and the occasional drop of water shaken from the leaves above.

  ‘I did. I appreciate it.’ Maddie had taken Harry’s call at around six thirty. She was still confused when she answered and it took her a few moments to work out what was going on. By the time she had deciphered I’ve been called out. You’re needed at work, he had already hung up. Maddie had then received a text message almost immediately with a postcode and another short instruction: bring wellies. She had managed to find a CAD on the system that had been tagged for Major Crime overnight and read it on the way as best she could. It seemed that a hardy dog-walker had been up in the Forestry Commission land known as Farthing Common between Langthorne and Canterbury at first light. Here they had seen a van parked up deep in the woods rather than in the open parking area. It was described at the time as ‘smoking’. The call had been categorised initially as a stolen vehicle and uniform police had attended in the first instance. The only detail on the CAD from that point was welfare related, with a note added for the attending officer to be sent to a service that provided counselling following attendance at particularly traumatic scenes.

  The final entry was of a record of the call going into the on-call Major Crime Inspector and Harry hadn’t updated anything since.

  Maddie could see the van from their position well within the cordon. The back doors were towards her and open but the sun was still struggling to penetrate the canopy and she could only see darkness inside. Then Charley Mace emerged from between the doors. She was in a full white forensics suit, complete with hood up and a blue mask covering most of her face. The white of her suit stood out against the streak of black staining up her arms and across some of her chest. Her knees and shins were similarly stained. She made eye contact with Maddie and moved towards her. She was well away before she lifted her mask over her head and pulled her gloves off. She took a deep breath of the fresh air. ‘Just arrived?’ she said to Maddie.

  ‘This second. I think you need a new suit.’

  ‘I think I need a new job.’ Charley pulled her hood down and a run of sweat came down her cheek. She had a packet of wipes and she ran one over her face. She looked rattled. Maddie had seen her at any number of scenes and couldn’t recall seeing her quite so pensive.

  ‘You okay?’ Maddie said.

  ‘Has the boss here got you up to speed?’

  ‘I think it’s best we just take a look,’ came Harry’s voice from behind her. She turned to see his legs already in a forensic suit like Charley’s. He held out a sealed suit towards her and she took it. ‘Then she’ll know just about all that we do.’

  They got dressed in silence. Maddie had always enjoyed turning up to a scene where Charley was the CSI on duty, as she could always be sure of a little bit of banter. Often Charley would pick on Harry and they might even gang up on the old man. Charley was just about the only person she could do that with. But today there was just the sound of rustling paper suits and tugging at zips. Charley even looked to have stepped back a few paces away from Maddie, a conscious effort to stop her asking questions perhaps.

  Maddie slipped on her mask and tucked her hair into her hood. Training told her to always put on the gloves last — two pairs, as per new guidelines. Charley ran her eyes over them both, head to toe. She seemed satisfied. She was back in her full suit and held some big squares of cardboard in her hand. She turned towards the van and Harry gestured for Maddie to follow. It was already starting to warm up and she was walking directly towards the sun. Maddie fixated on the back of the van. It still looked dark inside. Maddie had assumed it was due to the position of the sun but now she was closer she could see the scorched white paint of the doors and surround. She could also see a black shadow pushing out of the van and upwards, coating the top of the doorframe in a pattern that looked to her like spindly fingers of ash reaching out from within. It added to the tugging feeling in her gut. There was evil here.

  The inside of the van was white too, or at least, it was supposed to be. The floor was still largely white but the sides were a dark grey and the roof was coated entirely black. Stood in the middle was a clump of black. A standing lamp was set up in the far corner, Maddie didn’t notice it until Charley stepped up into the back and turned it on, where it shone back at her. Charley had put the cardboard down before stepping up, giving her something to stand on that didn’t mess up anything that was already on the floor. She now looked back out expectedly. Maddie took the hint and stepped up into the van.

  The smell was overwhelming and sufficiently distinctive to be the first thing she could make sense of: burning. A fire had been set in the back of the van and its source was the container that was dead centre. It stood up just above hip height and was charred black. She leaned forward and Charley tilted the light so that Maddie could see what was inside.

  ‘Shit!’ She stumbled back and her foot stepped onto Harry’s. She moved off it and took a moment before she stepped forward again. This time she was a little better prepared.

  ‘You guys could have warned me.’ She tried a grim chuckle but it all came out distorted from beneath her mask. She could hear her own breathing, too, and it added to the claustrophobic feel. The dark roof and sides felt like they were closing in all the time. She forced herself closer still.

  The container held a body. A woman’s body. Maddie could tell that from the shape of her legs and some of her chest was showing. She was sitting on her bottom, her legs bent up so she could fit in the cylinder with her knees almost against her chest. Her head was tilted back as if she had been peering upwards when the final blow had come. Maddie already knew what the final blow was; the killer had left it for them to see.

  A metal handle stuck out from the woman’s collapsed face. Maddie was still holding her breath as she leaned in a little more. The weapon used was a solid steel hammer and the blow looked to have collapsed her skull to such a point that it had absorbed the claw end entirely. Anything recognisable as being part of a face seemed to have fallen in around it and any identifiable features were missing almost entirely. Maddie focused on what she could see, on picking out features as a way of keeping calm. She wanted to snatch away from it, to push everything away and step back out into that beautiful woodland scene with the shushing noises of the leaves above and the fresh breeze filling her nostrils.

  Instead she continued looking down. The victim was reaching up with one of her arms and the other was across her lap. Both her arms ended in a charred stump where her hands should have been. It was the final detail for her. Maddie did now turn for the light, already scrabbling to get her mask away from her mouth. She stepped out the back of the van and kept moving until the air she was gulping wasn’t tainted with the acrid smell of burning. And death.

  Harry wasn’t far behind her.

  ‘Well, okay then,’ Maddie managed. ‘So that’s our day set.’

  Harry pulled away his own mask. ‘Looks that way.’ Charley was next to appear. She clutched two bottles of water and both officers took one.

  ‘Thanks,’ Maddie said.

  ‘I knew you would want to see the scene but I’ll capture the rest in photos and whatnot. I’ve got a colleague on the way from the north of the county. We’ll be here for a while I would imagine. There’s no need for you to spend any more time in there. It’s not exactly pleasant.’

  ‘I just needed some air,’ Maddie said. ‘Is there anything specific you wanted to show us?’

  ‘Nothing I can’t talk you through,’ said Charley. ‘I would rather you stayed out of that van anyway. I had to step away, too. Some scenes give you that initial shock. You take a moment and go back and it’s just like work again.’

  ‘You okay?’ Harry said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Maddie nodded.

  ‘Glad you are, kid. I’m not su
re I could go back in there.’ Maddie flashed him a smile. She didn’t believe him for a moment but she appreciated the sentiment.

  ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’

  Charley shrugged. ‘I could have warned you. I could have said, beware of the woman with the hammer sunk into her skull but I figured I had to pull open those doors. No one warned me.’ She chuckled, and it seemed to break through the tension.

  ‘It could have been worse.’ Charley continued. ‘Someone tried to set a fire.’

  ‘It didn’t take.’ Harry said.

  ‘Definitely not like they would have wanted to. She’s badly burned on her lower half. She’s sat in the accelerant I would say. The blistering suggests she was getting up to temperature too but that temperature dissipated — and quickly.’

  ‘Someone put her out?’

  ‘Maybe. Or something.’

  ‘Something?’

  ‘The storm. It had to be. The witness who found the van said that one of the back doors was wide open. I think that was what drew his attention to the van in the first place. Luckily for him he didn’t check inside. The wind was stronger overnight. I reckon someone didn’t close the door properly and it blew wide open. The floor in the back is soaked, the rain was sideways last night and the van is actually in a small clearing.’

  ‘I could feel the water,’ Maddie said. ‘That cardboard was soaked straightaway. I guessed someone had put her out.’

  ‘Nope. The fire brigade are tucked up. They haven’t even been out. We’re not supposed to go in there until they’ve made it safe but I always try and beat them. The fire brigade are a CSI’s worst nightmare. They’re all big boots and squirty water!’ Her grin was back and Maddie couldn’t help but mirror it. She was certainly feeling better. ‘I’ve cancelled them now. They might still come out. Technically they should. I’ve just asked that they keep their forensic guys running.’