First to Die

by Alex Caan

  ‘Everything OK?’ said Kate. She was sitting at her own desk, thinking over the links in her head. Esther Lake had lost her infant son. The Kemps in Rochester had lost their thirteen-year-old son after AREL had refused him treatment. Both could be the pieces that brought the investigative loop to a close.

  ‘Yes, I just keep thinking something is obvious and I’m missing it,’ said Michelle.

  Kate would recommend fresh air to anyone else, but not Michelle. When she was focused her brain needed to stay in situ to try to resolve whatever it was she needed to.

  ‘What are you working on?’

  ‘Nathan Lake. Northumbria Police can’t make contact with him at his last-known address and his mobile is switched off. In fact it hasn’t been used for nearly two months.’

  ‘He’s missing?’ Kate walked over to Michelle’s desk, started to look at her multi-screen set-up.

  ‘It looks that way. I’ve tried tracing his financial history, but there’s nothing, no transactions. Even if he lost his phone or is using a burner, I can’t imagine how he would survive without cash or using his credit cards.’

  Kate felt her insides tighten, as her mind began to make connections she didn’t like. She checked her phone. Nothing from Stevie, although Rob had let her know he had arrived.

  ‘Put out an alert for Nathan Lake. I want the usual channels checked. Hospital emergency admissions, and I want a comprehensive CCTV search done.’

  ‘I’ve already started. I’m checking all the critical points of interest, running his image through our systems as we speak.’

  Kate couldn’t hold back the smile on her face. She should know her team by now, and that they were always a step ahead of where she would want them to be.

  ‘Let me know as soon as you find anything.’

  Michelle nodded.

  ‘What are you thinking?’

  Kate wasn’t sure, instead checked her phone again, feeling apprehensive for Stevie. She hoped she hadn’t put her detective sergeant into any danger.

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Michelle was feeling the tiredness in her every cell. Her eyes were dry, aching, and the images in front of her were blurring. Still she kept on, watching the clips that had been sent to her. Any that had a match to Nathan Lake, no matter how minimal the likeness. So much CCTV was such bad quality that running something like this always ended up with more false hits than actual matches.

  Wearily she clicked her mouse, opened up the next video. She sat back, as the screen filled with a man she was sure was Nathan. He looked different to his photo ID, was wearing a baseball cap, but it didn’t cover his face. Michelle froze the image, and stared. There was something odd about his features. She dismissed what she was thinking, started to play the video again, and watched as Nathan Lake entered the Seven Dials club. The place where Mark Lynch and his mystery girlfriend met-up after his war-games society meetings.

  Michelle watched the retreating form of Nathan Lake, backpack over his shoulder, as he walked up the entrance stairs to the first floor. What exactly was he doing there? Was he going to meet Mark Lynch?

  Michelle moved the video forward, until she saw Mark leaving with his girlfriend. Nathan was still inside. She paused the video and pulled up the file containing Esther and Nathan Lake’s pictures. She looked from one to the other, trying to make Esther’s face fit. But it didn’t. Michelle felt disappointed. Until she changed the angle of the picture, and used a different set of markers. And then she gasped.

  ‘Oh Esther,’ she whispered, as her fingers moved over her keyboard and clicked her mouse rapidly.

  *

  ‘What happened after . . .?’ said Stevie. She felt her phone buzz. It was three times, a secure alert system Michelle had programmed into it. It screened out all messages and calls but allowed urgent ones DCI Riley authorised to be flagged up.

  Esther was staring into space, still caught up in her remembered grief, so Stevie took her phone out and checked the message. She watched carefully as Esther picked up her cold tea, put it down again, and watched as the nails of her right hand started to dig into her left hand.

  ‘Everything ended,’ she said, whispering at first, and then her voice hardening again. ‘I wanted to sue the world, but I didn’t have a case. I became obsessed. I wanted to blame everyone, and I wanted Robert back. And I couldn’t. Nathan and I . . . we didn’t make it. He had his reasons. And he abandoned me in a way. I moved down south, and tried to rebuild my life. You know they say London is the perfect city to lose yourself in. So many people, so big. But how do you lose yourself, how do you run away, when what you are hiding from is here?’ Esther jabbed at her head, then at her chest. ‘It’s here. Robert is here, always. And he always will be.’

  Stevie felt cold, but she had to now turn the conversation to try and find out if Esther could be behind the deaths of four people.

  ‘Did you know the people at AREL that rejected Robert’s application?’

  The change of topic threw Esther. She looked confused, then seemed to collect herself, before she answered.

  ‘I never met them. Cowards. They didn’t have the decency to tell me to my face why my child wasn’t good enough. They sat there playing God, and they sent me a letter. A cold, formal letter. With their names signed at the bottom.’

  ‘Do you still have the letter?’

  ‘I tore it to pieces and burnt it after Robert died. I didn’t want anything from them in my home, not after they had killed my child.’

  ‘Do you remember any of the names?’

  ‘Oh yes. I remember every single name that signed my child’s death warrant. I held Robert while he died you know? As his body shut down. Every day, I held him and felt him suffer. I would have done anything to swap places with him. Anything. But I couldn’t.’

  ‘And what would you do to the people who had killed him?’

  Esther didn’t reply.

  ‘And what about your husband?’

  Esther’s eyes started scanning the room, the skittishness back again.

  ‘He’s not my husband anymore. In a way, he’s also dead to me.’

  *

  Outside Stevie dialled Kate.

  ‘They killed her baby,’ said Stevie. ‘I think that sort of pain could do anything to a person.’

  ‘Did you get my message about the husband?’

  ‘Yes. She claims she hasn’t seen her husband in months. She said he was dead to her. What exactly is happening?’

  ‘We’re not sure yet. How did she seem?’

  ‘Honestly? She’s a mess. Or she’s doing her best at playing a mess.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘She went from being a nervous wreck, to being chilling. Her answers made sense, even when they weren’t meant to. I’ve either seen a raw woman at her lowest, or a rehearsed performance. I can’t decide. Any news about the other family?’

  ‘Rob is interviewing them now.’

  ‘Esther described what the disease did to her son. I feel for her, what she went through. But I just . . . something in my gut is telling me she’s not what she seems.’

  ‘Michelle’s tracked her mobile: it doesn’t give us the answers we need. But she’s working on something, I don’t want to say what, not until I’m absolutely sure.’

  ‘In the meantime? Like I said, I don’t know about her. Also, she has a degree in biochemistry. That’s just too coincidental.’

  ‘Let’s watch her movements, and put a trace on her phone. For now, that should be enough.’

  Stevie hated feeling like this. If Esther was responsible for these murders, she had to be stopped. That wasn’t in question, that was her job, it was what the team did. It was just having to arrest someone that vulnerable, whose life had been so devastated. It felt wrong.

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  Leanne Birch’s eyes fluttered open, the vibrations of the Underground waking her. She didn’t know how long she had been there, only that her body was frozen.

 
She tried to move. There was no pain, only the awareness that she couldn’t make anything work. Her eyes blinked, that was all. The rest of her body was locked. She screamed for help, but the words only echoed in her head.

  The box was small, barely able to contain her. She could see holes cut into the sides, allowing air to come in, so she wouldn’t suffocate. There was no logic to any of this. If she was going to kill her, then why hadn’t she done it already?

  Or was her game something else? To let her die slowly, and in pain? She tried to move again, with every ounce of strength she had. Still there was nothing.

  Why had she come? Why had she agreed to meet her? To talk about her dead child? How could she be so stupid? And yet, she felt she owed her. She felt guilt from those days. She was young, mired by student loans and debts, just launching her career. The money had been good. And she had to make clinical decisions, honest decisions. It wasn’t about who was worth more; it was about who would provide the best test cases for the drugs.

  People had died. They were dying anyway. And now she was going to die.

  Maybe this would give her salvation? After all, who would miss her? Her parents? Her siblings? She hardly saw any of them. If she survived this, she would change that.

  Leanne thought about them all. Wondered if they were looking for her, or cared enough to alert anyone. Then again, why would they? They probably thought she was off gallivanting. She promised herself that if she got through this she would spend more time with them.

  If she got through this. She knew she wouldn’t. That woman wasn’t coming back. She was going to let Leanne die. And have her revenge.

  Leanne closed her eyes, and tried to move once more. She thought about her parents. And she thought about her life. And she willed herself to move.

  Nothing. She swallowed.

  She swallowed! She opened her mouth. It was dry, and sore, but it was working. She could feel it, and then she could hear her own voice. And she willed herself to move again.

  *

  Michelle was excited as she briefed Kate. This was her domain, this was what she did.

  ‘I couldn’t find the link between Mark Lynch and Esther Lake. I tried to focus on his girlfriend, tried to see if I could get her to fit to Esther’s features. It’s difficult, his girlfriend has her hair in her face as they are leaving.’

  Kate looked at the images Michelle was showing her on the screen. They were sitting at Michelle’s computer, her three screens full of items being moved and dropped between them. It was true, Mark’s girlfriend had her face hidden to some extent, but there didn’t seem to be a likeness to Esther.

  ‘And this here? Nathan Lake entering the club?’ Kate pointed to the image of Nathan caught on CCTV on the left-hand screen. Michelle tapped away at her keyboard, and the third screen, which was her laptop, filled with another image.

  ‘Yes. And can you see here? It has a date stamp. Nathan was at the club on the same night as the war-games society, and here we can see Mark go in.’ Michelle adjusted the images so Kate could see what she was saying.

  ‘What was he doing there? Warning Mark? But about what?’

  It didn’t make sense. Kate couldn’t see the link.

  ‘You see, I was trying to fit Esther’s likeness onto the images of Mark’s girlfriend. A facial-recognition fit. But with the right make-up and hair, and with the second rate CCTV camera footage, it can easily fail.’

  ‘Is that what happened here?’

  ‘It certainly didn’t pick Esther up by facial recognition.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘This.’

  Michelle clicked her mouse, and the three screens started to move, the images flying across them. Kate watched, impressed at what she was seeing in terms of technology, and then horrified as she saw what Michelle’s algorithms had managed to pick up.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes. The facial recognition won’t work, but I used these other biometric markers instead. Height, weight, proportion of the limbs to the torso, the waist to the legs, even the calf muscles. Anything we can take a measurement of, we can use. And those mappings, they gave me enough of a match for me to be convinced.’

  ‘I need more, Michelle.’

  Michelle clicked her mouse again.

  ‘I followed this through, once I thought this might be the case. And so I looked for her in the bereavement group. And, of course, I didn’t think she would use her own name; that wouldn’t happen, might not even be possible. So I checked the names on the list, and I found this one. She used Natasha Mace. It’s a shell name. There was no link to her former life, because she wanted it that way. Her GP had referred her, because of what she had been through, with the fake name and no link to her real identity.’

  ‘Then how do you know it’s who we need?’

  ‘Because Natasha Mace made one fatal flaw. This.’

  Kate watched as a credit card appeared onscreen.

  ‘This was used to buy the mobile phone Natasha Mace used to register for the bereavement group. It’s a phone Natasha has been using for months. I’ve requested the location history from the provider so I’ll be able to tell you pretty quickly what we need to know.’

  Kate stared at the name on the credit card.

  ‘Whose watching Esther?’ she said.

  ‘Detective Sergeant Harris.’

  Kate heard the word ‘fuck’ run through her mind.

  ‘Well done Michelle. Now go home. I think we have this.’

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  Zain had agreed to do the night shift. He was parked outside Esther Lake’s building’s front entrance, with another patrol car at the back entrance, so both exits were covered. She hadn’t made a move to leave.

  The flat was in darkness, no lights on. He checked with the patrol car to see if anything was on at the back. They said there were no lights there either. Maybe she had had an early night? But that didn’t seem right. He had been in position since seven o’clock, just over an hour ago. She might have nodded off after Stevie left, but he assumed she would watch TV or make herself some food at least.

  Kate called him.

  ‘Stay in position, DS Harris. I am on my way shortly. There have been some developments, but I will inform you in person. Do not let Esther leave that flat.’

  ‘Do you want me to go and check on her?’

  ‘No. You stay in position and you wait for me.’

  Zain didn’t trust himself to speak.

  ‘DS Harris?’

  ‘It’s risky. I haven’t seen any movement for over an hour. I think I should go in now, see what’s happening. If you think she’s a flight risk.’

  ‘What will you say that won’t spook her?’

  ‘Just that we have some more follow-up questions.’

  ‘That can’t wait until the morning?’

  She was right.

  ‘You need to wait for us. We will be there as soon as I have tactical aid set-up. We don’t know what we are potentially dealing with.’

  He did know. And he didn’t like waiting. He felt resentful that she didn’t trust him to do this alone. He wasn’t an idiot. Of course she wouldn’t go in at this time. She was DCI Kate Riley. But DS Zain Harris? Well, he did what the fuck he liked most of the time.

  *

  Zain checked the front door but it was bolted solidly. He tried some of the neighbours. One buzzed him in after he showed his ID to the intercom screen. There was no caretaker on site, so he made his way to Esther’s apartment and stood outside her door listening. There were no sounds. She couldn’t have left the apartment though: the patrol had been in place from the moment Stevie had left.

  Zain knocked. He would go with the further questions line, but there was no answer. This is where it got tricky. She was definitely home, so he couldn’t break the door down. They either needed a warrant, or he needed to get in some other way.

  He was still thinking when Kate called him again.

  ‘Zain where are you?’r />
  ‘In my car.’

  ‘Zain . . .’

  ‘Outside the flat.’ Had Esther called and complained already? Was she watching him?

  ‘I’m on my way, we’re bringing a battering ram with us. I have a warrant. Do not enter. Do you understand?’

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘I’ll explain when I get there. For now, you need to stand down. That’s an order.’

  Zain smiled. Orders. Since when? There was a fire extinguisher by the front door he had seen on his way in. He ran down the stairs and grabbed it. Using it as leverage, he rammed Esther’s front door until it gave way and he was inside.

  The flat was in darkness. He sniffed for gas, when there was none he switched the lights on, and saw the lifeless body on the couch. He called Kate.

  ‘How far are you?’

  ‘About ten minutes. I specifically told you not to go in. An ambulance should be with you shortly.’

  ‘I don’t understand?’ he said. ‘What are we dealing with?’

  He listened as Kate explained, shocked as the call ended.

  Zain felt the body. It was cold, but definitely alive. There was a cup on the coffee table. He sniffed it, but it was only cold tea.

  Zain walked around the flat, trying to find signs of an intruder. He couldn’t see anything obvious, until he got into the bedroom. He was closing the wardrobe door when he spotted it. Hanging towards the back, it was the coat he had seen on Mark Lynch’s girlfriend. He did a search, and found a blonde wig, the same sort of style that Mark’s mysterious woman had had. It was confirmation of what Kate had told him. Zain listened carefully in case he heard anyone else, his senses tuned for the slightest movement. But there was nothing.

  He walked into the kitchen where he saw there were a number of dirty cups and plates. Definitely more than one person would need. He opened the fridge, it was well stocked. Again it seemed like too much food for one person.

  He heard a noise behind him, and turned around. But it was too late. He felt something stab into his neck, and then he fell, into darkness. The last he thought was that he hoped Kate would get there in time to save Esther Lake.