by Nathan Sayer
Slowly, and just as measured as the pallet truck, Tyler's head peeked from around the corner. Reed slowed to a walk, fighting to get his breath in the humid air. Although Reed couldn't hear Tyler over the thumping sound of his own heartbeat going off in his ears, he was pretty sure he saw her mouth the word, “Whoops.”
As Reed got closer, he definitely heard her say, “Going somewhere, Mr. Gulliver?”
Chapter 10
Lee Gulliver was taken straight to Wymondham headquarters. Police can hold suspects for 24 hours without arrest so Reed had decided to do the interview first thing in the morning. He wasn't sure what he was going to ask anyway. Working at a chemical factory wasn't a crime and everything else they had on him was circumstantial.
Gulliver had been at Splitz nightclub with Carmella Chapman on the night she was murdered, he had given her a lift home and the bleach that was poured over her body was made at the factory where he worked. He had also lied about the route he and Carmella had taken home; if he had taken her home at all. It wasn't looking good for him but it didn't make him a killer either. Reed was hoping a good night’s sleep might produce some inspirational questions for him to ask at the interview.
Simultaneously, a night in the cells might prompt Gulliver to actually start telling the truth. Reed sometimes wished they could use the same system as America where they put inmates in a communal holding cell. He imagined that coming face to face with some scary-looking criminals could do wonders for someone's talking reflex.
Kate had sent a text saying she would be home late because she had to give a late riding lesson at the stables. Evie was being picked up from school by her Nan. Reed had just received a grilling from DCI Whitehead about all the things he hadn't done, the main thing was finding the murder scene and the murder weapon. Forensics confirmed that Carmella had been moved after her death and despite a thorough search of Thetford Common, the murder site was yet to be located.
Whilst Whitehead had given his lecture, he had looked at Reed like it was his fault these things hadn't been found; perhaps he had missed the sign saying ‘Murder site here.’ Every possible place was being looked at; it was just a process of elimination. They had decided to narrow the search down to places that were accessible by car as Carmella's body had been transported to where she was discovered. If it had happened at a private residence, they stood next to no chance of finding it unless something pointed them in the right direction in the first place.
As Reed was going to be finishing work relatively early he had offered to buy Tyler dinner and she had accepted. They decided to go to the White Horse in Great Ellingham. It was a lovely traditional country pub that served a good range of food at good prices. The ceilings were low and the walls were covered in various old farming tools. There were always plenty of customers around no matter what time of day it was. Despite this, Reed had always managed to find a table with relative ease. He liked that the pub was void of a jukebox, allowing people to actually have a conversation over their meal.
They had travelled in silence most of the way there. Reed was grateful that Tyler was comfortable enough to do so, he hated it when people made pointless conversation. He had been forced to do it enough times himself at family meals and during certain work situations and understood that sometimes it was necessary, but it didn't mean he liked it.
The last few days had been filled with too much information; the murder of Carmella Chapman, the bleach found on her body, Lee Gulliver being the last person to have seen her, and the fact that he worked at the company where the bleach had been manufactured.
There were also links to the unsolved murder of Tina Westwood. Both girls had been killed with a single blow to the head; their bodies had been discovered no more than a short journey apart. The same brand of bleach was present on both girls, albeit Tina had traces on her chest and hands while Carmella's body had been saturated.
Reed had two main theories at this present time. The first being that the two murders were similar by chance. Lee Gulliver had killed Carmella and poured bleach over her body to help distort any evidence and was now hoping he could lie his way out of it. The second was that the killer of Tina had resurfaced and was now announcing that he was back. Another thing to consider was the earrings. Tina had one earring missing when her body was found. Carmella had none and it wasn't clear yet if she had been wearing any when she left the house. If she had, why would Gulliver remove them? If it was the same killer again, and he wanted recognition for what he had done, it made sense that he would do the same things but on a grander scale. Maybe Carmella had removed them herself and mislaid them somewhere.
Then there was the murder site of Carmella. Where was it? Search teams had combed the area between the Chapman's home and where Lee had supposedly dropped her off. They had found nothing. If Gulliver was the killer it was unlikely that they ever got that far. If he was telling the truth, it would suggest she was taken. Was it by choice or was she forced? The neighbours hadn't heard anything, not Gulliver's car or the screams of Carmella. Reed didn't need Whitehead to point out the importance of the murder scene, all he needed right now was a nice cold pint and a bite to eat.
“This is your treat right?” Tyler asked.
“Yes.”
“Good, I'm bloody starving.” She gave Reed a cheeky smile to let him know this wasn't going to be cheap.
They made their way inside. Reed ordered a pint of Carling Extra Cold and Tyler settled for a small glass of white wine. Reed told her she could have a large one as he was driving and that he could pick her up in the morning. She had declined as she wanted a clear head in the morning. They took two menus from the bar and made their way to an outside table.
There were only four tables outside, two on a patio and two on the grass. A man and a woman were having a drink at one of the patio tables so Reed headed for a table on the grass. Although the sun's heat had eased, it was still very mild and the air was ghostly still. Reed loosened his collar to let some air through.
“You look worn out.” Tyler stated.
“I am. Bloody Whitehead. He doesn't say as much but I swear he thinks I'm some backward country boy.”
“You mean you’re not?”
“Very funny.” Reed couldn't hold his smile.
“What has he said now?”
“Well, nothing directly, he just states the bloody obvious.” Reed made a mouth shape with his hand, and moved it as he imitated Whitehead, “We need to find the murder site.”
“Mentioned it a couple of times has he?”
Reed ignored Tyler's question, “It's like it's my fault we haven't found it.”
“Perhaps you shouldn't take it so personally; we all know what he's like.”
The waitress came over to take their order. Tyler ordered a cheeseburger and chips. Reed, in all his wisdom hadn't even looked at the menu, so he went for sirloin steak.
“Sorry sir, we don't have any sirloin, we have rump?”
“That will do fine.” Just his luck. He couldn't even get that right. A choice of two and he buggered it up.
They sat for a little while in silence just sipping their drinks. Both winding down, relaxing a little. Perhaps the alcohol was starting to work. Reed's legs were aching from chasing down Gulliver.
“Why run?” Reed asked.
“You will have to tell me the start of this conversation; the bit that was just in your head.” Tyler said, holding out her hands, palms facing upwards, to indicate that she didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
“Gulliver, why did he run? Let's be honest, any evidence is purely circumstantial, so why did he run?”
“Something to hide?”
Reed thought for a moment, “Could be. He could be worried about wrongful arrest I suppose. At least it gives us something to push him on tomorrow.”
Their meals arrived; they dropped the work conversation in an instant, not wanting to lower the tone of the food. Reed ordered another drink, a coke this time; he ordered Tyler another w
ine without asking her but she didn't complain.
Reed enjoyed every last morsel of his meal, using a slice of bread to soak up the last few drops on his plate. He noticed that Tyler was only half way through her meal and felt somewhat of a greedy pig. Not wanting her to think the same, he decided to let her catch up by taking himself off to the toilet. He announced this and immediately wondered if he should have. He scuttled off as quick as he could, feeling a little embarrassed. On the way to the toilet he contemplated his table manners. Was it more polite to just get up and leave with no explanation or do you tell someone that you were about to do one of nature’s necessities? In hindsight, he decided that nobody wanted to know what he was leaving for and would simply tell them he would be back in a minute.
Reed made his way through the maze that was the White Hart. It was a seemingly small establishment but if you didn't know where all the little corridors led, you could find yourself walking in circles. There were little rooms everywhere, one had a pool table in; the room was too small and you were lucky if you could get your cue down to take a shot. There were fruit machines in another and the others were filled with tables to eat at.
There was a female laugh coming from the last dining room on the left before he reached the toilets; the laugh stopped him in his tracks. He slowly peeked around the corner to see who it was. There was a man in mid-flow of conversation, telling a tale of some sorts and building up to the big ending. Reed didn't know what it was about and he didn't care. The man was seated but everything about him looked tall. His face was long and thin, his arm was lying across the table; reaching the other side with ease, his fingers resembled the prongs on a garden fork. His hair looked immaculate; it was mousy brown and styled to within an inch of its life.
The man kept glancing up, not surprising as Reed was staring straight at him. Just as the man’s female companion, who was facing away from Reed, started to turn to see what the man was looking at, Reed walked away.
For someone who was supposed to be somewhere else they had gone to a lot of effort to be here. They had put on their best clothes including the red silk top Reed had bought her for her birthday, done their hair so that it displayed the fancy looking hair clip that Evie had picked out for a Christmas present, and lied about where they were going to be. So what the hell was his wife playing at?
Reed paid the bill on his way back through. He had taken much longer than necessary at the toilets. Staring at himself in the mirror as he washed his hands, thoughts spinning around his head, none making any sense. When he had spoken to Kate earlier, she had stressed that she was going to be late because she was giving a lesson at the horse yard.
So why was she lying? He felt angry, upset and confused. It could be perfectly innocent of course; he could be a client at the yard, a friend or even a business associate. Reed himself was having dinner with someone who was of the opposite sex. Tyler was a friend and a work colleague. Nothing wrong there but he hadn't lied about it. Perhaps it was just the shock of seeing her that was twisting his thoughts. But there was something about the way she had laughed that had caught Reed’s attention in the first place. She used to laugh like that with him. The way the man was telling his story, he seemed so at ease, like they had spoken a hundred times before, and his hand, reaching across the table into her space, what was he trying to get? Her?
Reed decided he would go home and wait for Kate to come in and explain all, then he would realise what a fool he had been.
Tyler hadn't noticed Reed's sudden strange mood, or at least she didn't say anything. Reed didn't rush to leave because he had noticed that Kate and the mystery man had cutlery set out on their table, obviously about to have a meal. He drove Tyler home and arranged to pick her up in the morning. He then headed for home himself. Kate was picking Evie up because she could trust herself to be on time, whilst Reed could be at work until any hour, and even if he did get home, he could easily be called out again.
He kicked the cat out, literally; it was his only guilty pleasure when no one was home. He then put the TV on and tried to make himself look comfortable for when Kate entered, not that he would interrogate her as soon as she stepped in, Evie would be there for one, plus he wanted to play it cool, a bit of general chit chat, let her tell him of her own accord.
Reed had just started to get truly comfortable, instead of just trying to look comfortable for Kate's sake, when his mobile phone started ringing and vibrating, dancing to its own tune, moving around the kitchen table. Kate? Reed ran through to the kitchen and snatched up the phone.
It was Whitehead.
“Sir?”
“We've found your murder site for you.”
Chapter 11
Reed didn't phone Kate to let her know why he wasn't home. He wasn't sure if this was to annoy her or if he wanted to see if she noticed.
It was a good indication of how he was feeling at the moment that finding a murder site was something to be happy about. It was a good thing for the investigation; it might hold the evidence that led to the killer. Carmella was dead and nothing could change that, all that mattered now was catching the bastard who was responsible.
Reed's head was awash with thoughts as he made his way to the investigation room, a mixture of Kate, Carmella and Tina all vying for his attention. As he opened the door, all he could hear was the low hum of the computers; this was despite a group of five people huddled in the furthest corner of the room: Whitehead, Tyler and Plumridge were joined by Detective Constables Eddie Horn and Jerome Dade . Horn was a wily old fox whose quiet demeanor hid a steely determination for the job and a dry sense of humour. Dade was a little more aloof and Reed wondered if anyone on the force really knew what he was about despite him being quick to join in with any banter.
They stood in silence, obviously not very happy at being called into work when they had only finished a few hours ago. Reed wondered if he was the last one called by Whitehead just so they would all have to wait for him, shifting their annoyance from Whitehead. All they wanted to do was get the necessary work done and get home to sleep. Then it would all start again in the morning.
Whitehead stood up and stretched as though he had been waiting a week, “Right, now we can begin.”
Reed felt honoured that Whitehead had even waited.
After picking up some papers and glancing over them, Whitehead started, “At 7.16pm today, a phone call came in from a Mr Simpson. His dog took an interest in a certain area and couldn't be called away. Afraid that she might run onto the road, he went to retrieve her. When he bent down to grab her collar he noticed what he thought might be a patch of blood. I got a call shortly after and an officer was sent out with someone from forensics and it has been confirmed as blood. There's a good chance that the weapon has been found too. Of course, we could have saved many an hour if we had done our jobs properly in the first place, you know why?” Whitehead waited a few seconds, “Because it's an area we have already searched.”
Everyone looked at one another with a mixture of confusion and horror on their faces.
“Where?” Tyler asked.
“Thetford Common. It seems that our highly trained search teams focused their search on the car park before heading onto the common itself. Not one person there thought it might be a good idea to check the small area of growth between the car park and Bury Road. It's no more than a metre wide and twenty metres long. It would have taken ten fucking minutes.” Whitehead slammed his fist onto the table for added emphasis.
“What was the weapon?” Reed asked. His voice was unemotional.
“What?” Whitehead shouted.
“The weapon, what was it?”
Whitehead seemed to take a moment to compose himself before answering, “It seems to be a stone. It was found very near to the patch of blood, about eight inches away. The forensic guy had a look at it and although it's possible it was just part of the area that was covered in blood, there is a distinctive blood pattern that would suggest it was used for the impact to Carmella
's head.”
“Well this should be interesting for Mr. Gulliver in the morning.” Reed thought out loud.
“Why?” Whitehead asked sharply.
“Well sir, as you probably know, he lied about his journey home from Newmarket. He said he used the A11 but he was caught by a speed camera on another route.”
“Innocent people don't lie. He must have something to hide and I want you to find out what it is.” Whitehead said, pointing his finger as he spoke. Reed couldn't help but be amazed by his wisdom. The prick.
Reed turned to Tyler, “We won’t spill the beans first thing. I want to question him on this bleach connection first, if that doesn't work, we'll drop this on him.”
“OK. I want to watch in on this one.” Whitehead interrupted. “We'll start at 9am. You and Tyler should get off home, you can check out the murder site tomorrow if you need to. I'm making the blood tests a priority, so we should know by morning. You three can go to the scene now to make sure there are no more mistakes.” Whitehead said to Plumridge, Horn and Dade before standing up and leaving.
“You get all the best jobs, Plummy.” Reed said, fluttering his eyebrows and smiling.
“Yeah, and now he's dragging us two along for the fun. The day you joined the force was the best day of my life.” Dade said to Plumridge, lifting himself off the table. His partner, Horn, followed silently but with just as much enthusiasm.
“Oh yeah, I stuck my hand up straight away, pick me, pick me, I want to stand in the cold until the small hours, it'll be fun .. It's not my fault for Christ's sake.” Plumridge countered. Then he started to leave with the demeanor of someone who had an appointment for a rectal examination.
