Unseen Evil

by Liz Mistry

  There’s one more angel in heaven, love Jess xxx

  Miss you Betsy Boo xxx

  How can I go on without my best friend? Love Sadie

  It’s gross. Half of them don’t know her or even like her. Fucking Sadie, only last week she was mouthing off in the canteen about Betsy being a two-faced bitch and now she’s her best friend. Serves them right. Serves them all right. Maybe now they’ll sit up and take notice.

  I reach the end of the path near the play area before I see him. Knew it! Just knew he’d come tanking down through the park as soon as they got into the phone and tracked where I’d dropped it. He almost looks like a superhero or something, with his dreads all splayed out behind him.

  Oh, this is good. So bloody good. Jo Jo came up trumps this time. Amazing what you can do with a bit of technology.

  I step behind a tree, but McGuire’s focus is only on his destination. He doesn’t even glance to the side… doesn’t notice me. This is brilliant. Fucking brilliant!

  CHAPTER 54

  T he image of the phone tracker bleeping from the interactive screen pushed Gus to move. In that split second, he made the decision to run, reckoning that by the time he’d accessed a pool car, got it out the barrier, and drove down Oak Lane in rush hour, he’d be too late. Putting on the fastest spurt he could, he ran full out and by the time he was exiting Lister Park opposite the now empty Turf pub, the sirens were only just making their way along Bradford Road. His throat was parched, and his heart boomed against his chest, his gasps racking up his dry throat. Ignoring the way his shirt stuck to his chest he pushed himself to run faster. And all the while he was cursing in his head. Fucking bastards taunting me like that, fucking bastards. If anything’s happened to him, I’ll kill them!

  Dodging the traffic, ignoring the beeping horns and the squeal of brakes behind him, he skidded into Marriners Drive and, despite the pain in his thighs and calves, he pushed himself even more for the last twenty metres. When he reached his home, he ran up the drive, skirted the front of the house and, pausing only to unlock the six-foot side gate leading to his garden, he thrust it open. Leaving it juddering on its hinges, he entered his garden.

  Bingo, who’d only come home the previous evening after Gus’ new security system had been installed, clearly heard him, and was already dancing at his feet, yapping excitedly, to see his master. Gus collapsed to his knees, and breath hitching in his chest, allowed the dog to lick the sweat from his face. ‘Thank God, Bingo, Thank God.’ He hugged the squirming dog close to his chest and glanced round his garden for signs of an intruder. He saw none… except for a small square item in the middle of the garden.

  Minutes later, two police cars, sirens blazing pulled up in the street outside. Taffy and Alice spilled from the first one and ran up to where Gus was sitting sprawled on the path, just inside the garden gate.

  ‘We’ll need Sid’s crew here, Alice. Look.’ And he pointed to the small patch of grass, he called Bingo’s ‘pooey grass’.

  Alice, pulling her phone out of her pocket, started to dial while Taffy silently offered Gus an open bottle of water.

  With a brief grin, Gus grabbed the bottle and glugged. Although his heartbeat was returning to normal, his legs still shook, and he doubted he’d be able to get to his feet without falling over. Best just to sit and cuddle Bingo for a bit longer. He leaned his head back against the wooden fence and, face lifted to the sun, thanked God that his pet was okay.

  Scratching Bingo’s head, he realised that security system or not, Bingo would have to go back to his parents for now. Gus didn’t believe in coincidences and while having one stalker delivering letters to his house was conceivable, having a separate person, a possible killer, dump a victim’s phone in his garden was stretching the boundaries. Somehow, the deaths of these two teenagers, must be linked to his anonymous letter writer… and that made it personal.

  Despite his wobbly legs, Gus handed Bingo to Alice and using the gate and wall for support, got to his feet. ‘Let’s see if our visitor managed to get inside, then.’

  Flanked by Alice, still carting a wriggling Bingo, and Taffy with two uniformed officers taking up the rear, Gus unlocked the front door to be greeted by the warning beep of his new security system. Reassured, Gus thought it was unlikely the intruder had made it indoors. Still, best check. Switching off his new alarm system, he made his way into the hallway. ‘I’ll check downstairs with you two.’ He gestured to the two officers. ‘Alice, Taffy, you go upstairs.’

  Houses had a way of telling you if they were deserted or not and Gus had the sense that, apart from the police officers currently checking his home, it had not been violated. His pumping adrenalin had heightened his senses and he was aware of the faint scent from Patti’s perfume lingering in the air, reminding him that his relationship very nearly lay in tatters. Forcing himself to focus, he swallowed the surge of anger that exploded in his chest and concentrated on the task in hand as he edged his way from room to room downstairs.

  Five minutes later, they congregated in Gus’ kitchen, having found the house empty and Gus said a mental thank you to Patti for hounding him about getting an alarm and better locks. Who knew what these killers would have done if they’d been able to gain easy access?

  The uniformed officers wedged themselves around his kitchen table, as they waited for the crime scene team to arrive. Taffy busied himself making them all coffee while Alice, still holding Bingo, stood by the sink, looking out into Gus’ back garden. ‘How do you think they got in?’

  Gus moved to the small dog flap and locked it so Alice could release Bingo, and filling a glass with water said, ‘Let’s find out, shall we? No point in having my snazzy security and not using it.’

  He led them through to the small home office that he hardly used and started up his PC. ‘My new security system’s all linked up, so I’ll be able to access the different cameras. The guys showed me how yesterday.’

  After a couple of wrong passwords, a lot of impatience, and some cursing, Gus accessed his security system, but stared blankly at the menu, unsure of where to go next. Alice nudged him out of the way. ‘For God’s sake, let me. We don’t have all day.’

  Within seconds they were looking at footage of the back garden where Betsy Reavley’s phone still lay, next to a pile of dog turd on Bingo’s pooey grass.

  ‘Rewind it. The phone wasn’t there when I let Bingo out at half six, so rewind it until then.’

  Alice glared at him as if to say, ‘you think?’ Gus grinned as her nimble fingers moved over the keyboard. Soon they were watching fast forwarded footage of Bingo tearing round the garden like a blue arsed fly, chasing butterflies, flinging himself under a bush for a doze, slurping at his water bowl and having a dump. It was strange to see what his dog got up to in his absence and Gus was pleased to see that he seemed happy. Bingo had access to the house whenever he wanted but seemed content to be outside. ‘Wait, what the hell’s that?’ Alice rewound the tape and they watched as Bingo jumped to his feet and began barking furiously at something in the air that looked at first glance like a crow.

  ‘Zoom in, Al.’

  ‘Fucking hell, Gus,’ said Taffy as they watched Bingo, ears back, tail down flee into the safety of the house. The black shape seemed to hover, and Alice zoomed in more. It was like a miniature spacecraft. And then they saw it… It dropped something that landed just next to Bingo’s still steaming turd.

  ‘A drone… a bloody drone.’ Taffy was all but pissing his pants as he pointed.

  Alice hit replay and they watched the footage again,

  ‘Compo’s been telling me all about them… since you know… the photos and all. You can make them yourself.’

  But Gus was thinking he’d heard someone else mention drones before… something separate from this case. He just couldn’t quite remember when. Then, there was the fact that Compo suspected the images of him and Patti had been captured by a drone. Now this. All in all, the coincidences were racking up just a little too smoo
thly for his liking. And then there was Carlton’s most recent suggestion that they’d thrown down the gauntlet.

  Well, now they knew who was expected to pick the damn thing up.

  CHAPTER 55

  G us showered and changed before taking his car and dropping Bingo off at his parents’ house. He hated the cloud that passed over his mum’s face when he told her to be extra vigilant. It wasn’t so long ago that she’d been targeted by a killer right outside her home and although he wished he didn’t have to remind her of that, he wanted her safe. He was tempted to confront her about his sister’s little bombshell but decided that then wasn’t the time. The fact that his mum had known what Katie was going to ask him sat heavy with him. She’d always been scrupulously fair in her interactions with her children. The fact that she’d kept this secret from him smacked of favouritism and Gus found it unsettling. He wasn’t sure he wanted to push it with his mum… wasn’t sure what the outcome would be… or, more to the point, if it would wound him. The real stumbling block for him was the fact that his mum had welcomed Patti into the family so easily. Didn’t she realise that this whole mad paternity crap would put a strain on his fledgling relationship with Patti? How could she side with Katie on this one… how could she?

  Despite his need to hurry back to The Fort, Gus forced himself to wait patiently while his mum packaged up the remains of an inedible coffee cake for him ‘To share with your team’. Glancing out the kitchen window, he was sure the sparrow sitting on the bird feeder was laughing at him. The bird was probably relieved to avoid yet more burnt offerings heading in its direction. Accepting the cling-filmed package, he’d hugged his mum close to his chest. ‘Mum. When you let the dogs out the back, you need to keep an eye out. Whoever dropped that phone in my garden using the drone could’ve just as easily dropped poisoned meat… or a bomb. You see anything like that, and you lock yourself in and phone me.’

  Her lips had tightened, and her chin lifted. ‘I’ve no truck with bullies, Angus. I won’t change my routines.’ Her expression softened and laying a hand on his arm she relented. ‘But I will keep an eye out. I’m not a fool you know?’

  ‘That’s just it, Mum. You’ve got to change your routines. Just juggle them around a bit. Don’t do everything exactly like you always do. The person who sent that phone to me, he or she knows where I live… so, by extension they may well know where you live. I want you to be safe.’

  She flapped her hands at him. ‘Och, Angus, let’s stop all this depressing talk. I’m more interested in hearing about Alice. Your dad says she’s back. I’m so pleased. He says she’s a bit skinny. But then Alice, bless her, was never on the heavy side, was she? You’ll have to bring her for lunch on Sunday.’ She rubbed her hands together. ‘We’ll get her fattened up, no bother. Oh, and tell Patti, I’ve got a new recipe I’m going to try.’

  Gus grunted a non-committal reply and got into his car. The last thing he’d be doing would be coming to Sunday lunch for a while. At least not until he’d processed the bombshell Katie and Gabriella had dropped. Nor, did it seem at all likely that he’d be bringing Patti round for lunch either. Not if her complete silence in response to his calls and texts was anything to go by. At the back of his mind he could hear Alice’s mocking tone telling him to make a point of going to see his girlfriend… to ‘get it sorted, Gus.’ He suspected the word ‘wuss’ would pass her lips, along with a few other choice phrases. How the hell had he got himself into this mess?

  By the time Gus got back to The Fort, the phone had been confirmed as belonging to Betsy and, as expected, the only discernible fingerprints belonged to her too. Compo by-passing the fingerprint access, had hooked it up to his system and was downloading as much information from it as he could. At the same time, on the interactive screen, he was zooming in and out, replaying the CCTV footage of the drone from two different camera angles.

  Preparing to be baffled by most of Compo’s answer, Gus asked anyway, ‘What can you tell us about the drone?’

  Compo shoved a half-eaten Mars Bar next to his keyboard, seemingly oblivious of the toffee, dribbling down onto the surface and grunted, ‘Not a lot yet. It looks like a bog-standard do-it-yourself drone you can buy off Amazon or eBay or a Robot shop. However, it’s been adapted.’ He zoomed in until the drone seemed to hang in mid-air in Gus’ garden. Up close it looked like an alien spaceship taken directly from Star Wars, with its multiple legs, acute angles and glossy metallic body.

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘Well…’ Compo looked ready to go into techie mode, so Gus interrupted.

  ‘Simple, yeah… keep it simple.’

  The enthusiasm on Compo’s round face faded a little. With an exaggerated sigh, that said clearer than any words, ‘bloody simpletons’, he homed in even closer to the image of the drone just before it dropped Betsy’s phone in Gus’ garden. A claw that looked remarkably like the ones at the ‘grab a toy’ machines at the seaside amusement arcades, held the rectangular item. ‘It’s like the ones Amazon uses to drop off parcels, but it’s been adapted so that it can hold a smaller package safely… like the phone, without any packaging or owt. Also.’ He pointed to the screen. ‘If you look closely, you can see the camera here. Whoever is controlling the drone is able to view exactly what’s in your garden in real time. The camera will transmit the recording to a phone or tablet. That way they can choose exactly where they’ll drop their package.’

  Whirling his chair over to another keyboard, Compo pressed some more keys. ‘I’ve chopped the footage up a bit and slowed it down. You can see here that the drone hovers over the decking for a couple of seconds, then veers over to the grass, then… look…’

  Compo elbowed Gus’ arm and pointed, as if Gus could miss it, considering the size of the damn screen.

  ‘It swoops closer as if considering exactly where to drop it. It’s hovering again, now, look. Right above Bingo’s poo poo…’

  Poo poo? For fuck’s sake.

  ‘…and then, as if the controller reconsiders, it edges to the right just a touch. This joker chose precisely where he wanted to drop that phone and we should be thankful it chose there, next to it, not actually right on top of the p…’

  ‘Yeah, the poo poo. I get it.’ Despite the overpowering heat in the room, a shiver rattled up Gus’ spine. This was creepy as hell… creepier even than the damn letters. The drone itself, like a miniature spacecraft was chilling enough, but the realisation of just how easily they could be used to infringe on a person’s privacy made it ten times worse.

  ‘But…’ Compo wasn’t finished. ‘Look at this…’

  As Gus watched, the drone, after making its drop, circled round, swooping and diving like an aerial dance routine, before hovering right in front of one of the two security cameras covering the back garden, before swiftly redirecting over to the other camera. It flew right up to it, as close as it could get. Gus could almost believe the drone winked at him. Whoever was controlling it was taunting him.

  Gus exhaled, then turned to look at his team. Alice, Taffy, and Sebastian Carlton had all watched the slowed-down action and now each sported a slightly stunned expression.

  ‘There’s no way in hell you can convince me that the murders and…’ Gus waved his hands at the now still image on the screen, ‘that aren’t connected to my anonymous letters.’ As he uttered the words, Gus wanted nothing more than for one of the team to form a coherent argument against his hypothesis.

  No one uttered a word.

  Carlton nodded twice, his lips in a tight line, telling Gus that the psychologist shared Gus’ own belief that the Snapchat Murders, as the press had dubbed them, and Gus’ stalker were linked. Taffy, Alice, and Compo all exhaled at the same time like a synchronised swimming team, their eyes still fixed on the drone.

  Biting the inside of his lip, Gus tried to control the surge of anger that made his head pound. If he’d acted more quickly on those letters, made identifying the sender a priority, then perhaps two kids would still be alive, sitt
ing their GCSEs, smoking weed, and exploring relationships… just being kids.

  This had just got very personal.

  CHAPTER 56

  Pisces

  D idn’t really want her dead… not really. Just hated her, but that doesn’t mean she had to die, does it? She was a bitch though… a real bitch. Got all the other kids chanting, ‘Smelly! Smelly! Smelly!’ on the bus to school. Even the younger kids were doing it. All I wanted was to be left alone. Not our fault we have no money, is it? Not our fault the house is damp, and the landlord won’t sort it. And our old washing machine is broken more often than not. Fucking damp makes my clothes smell. If she’d just let me be, none of this would’ve happened.

  They kept telling me to do it: Leo did it, now it’s your turn. And just like that, I’m caught. No escape.

  Wonder what Zodiac’s done with her phone? Can’t get caught with that. But Zodiac’s too smart to get caught. I almost want to get caught. That’s why I’m down here at the park again. Half waiting for somebody to shout Stop! You did it!

  I’d hold my hands up. Let them cuff me, take me away, lock me up… maybe then I’d be able to sleep. Be able to rest. I don’t want to do it again. Can’t bear it. Can’t bear seeing all the posts on Facebook.

  CHAPTER 57

  I didn’t know Betsy Reavley very well… not really… but I didn’t like her. She could be a bully, so I don’t know why I’m making Jo Jo come down here to Lister Park with me. It just seemed the right thing to do. Two people out of our year group are dead and we’ve got plans to make. Know he thinks we should stop while we’re ahead, but I’m not done yet… not by a long shot. Where the hell is he? He must have dropped Jessie off by now. Wish he’d hurry up.