Touching the Dead

by Wendy Cartmell

  The images exploded in her brain. Whatever it was that he’d placed on her chest had been used on his other victims.

  It was like being in the middle of a nightmare that had no end. Jo heard high pitched screams that hurt her ears and she saw snatched pictures of girls with black, short bobbed hair. She saw the three victims, Alison, Charlie and Imogen, but there were others. Lots of them, their faces flickering and fading in and out like a gory slideshow. Blood, dark hair, white faces. Faster and faster the images went, chilling her already cold body, overwhelming her with their pleas for help that Jo couldn’t provide.

  And then it was over.

  It was all so hopeless and Jo felt helpless, trapped in Anubis’ lair, destined to become one of his victims herself. Tears streamed down the sides of her head and pooled on the metal table.

  52

  Byrd couldn’t remember when he’d last felt this tired. He’d just had a shower and was trying to relax when Mick Wolfe had phoned him, looking for Jo. The case was getting to all of them, but he was worried about Jo. She was in danger of burning out. He was sure of it. And where in the hell was she now? The bloody woman didn’t half get on his nerves.

  But she was DI Wolfe. Eddie had to remember that. She was not just his friend. She was his superior officer. His partner. They were used to spending all day every day in each other’s company. He didn’t want to lose that rapport. Would it be worth it for sex?

  But deep down he knew what had happened between them was far more than just sex and he was sure Jo had felt it as well. Even though they’d both said they hadn’t. Agreed with each other. Neither brave enough to reveal how they actually felt.

  He was just drifting off to sleep in his chair as he waited for news, when his mobile rang. Then his landline. Then his Facebook messenger app trilled. Bloody hell someone wanted him urgently. Maybe they’d located Jo? He answered his mobile.

  ‘DS Byrd.’

  ‘Oh, thank god I’ve found you, sir,’ the voice said. ‘Constable Riley here. I’m on the coast road near Bosham.’

  ‘Yes?’ Byrd was rapidly coming awake.

  ‘A young girl was found wandering on the road. She’s been taken to the general hospital, but she said she had a message for a policeman named Byrd from a wolf. So I figured that could be you.’

  Prickles of fear began running up and down Byrd’s spine.

  ‘What’s the matter with DI Wolfe? Did she say?’

  ‘Just that she’d got to tell you where she is. I took it to mean DI Wolfe. What do you think?’

  ‘I think that could be right and that I need to try and find Jo. Are you still on the road?’

  ‘Yes, sir, there are two cars here and a total of four officers.’

  ‘Very well, one car should stay on the road and secure the scene where the girl was found. The other two should have a poke around in the immediate area. I’ll send forensics to help.’

  ‘Are you coming?’ the officer wanted to know.

  ‘Yes, but I’m going to the hospital first. I need to try and find out where the girl has come from and talking to her would be the quickest way to find out. I hope.’

  ‘If she’s able to talk.’

  ‘Exactly. I’m leaving home in a minute. Keep me up to date on my mobile.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Byrd grabbed his keys and badge off the kitchen worktop. He ran to the car and once the Bluetooth was activated, he said, ‘Call Jo.’

  When there was still no reply from Jo’s mobile, he changed tack and said, ‘Call Wolfe.’ He needed to speak to Jo’s father. He wasn’t sure it would make Mick feel any better, but he had a duty to know. He was an ex-police officer and because of that, he deserved Byrd’s respect.

  53

  At the hospital Byrd rushed through to A&E. Ignoring the reception desk, he pushed through the doors marked ‘Do Not Enter’. He’d been there often enough to know the layout in detail. Lindsay would be in a cubicle by now, he just had to find the right one.

  A nurse stepped into his path. ‘Can I help you? You’re not allowed back here.’

  ‘Yes I am,’ said Byrd, flashing his warrant card as he didn’t recognise the nurse who had stopped him. ‘A young girl was found on a country road up by Bosham. Where is she?’

  ‘Being worked on by the doctor. You’ll have to wait outside.’

  ‘No, sorry, not going to happen. Which cubicle is she in?’

  ‘Please leave...’

  Byrd interrupted her. ‘You’re not listening to me. This is a matter of life and death. This girl knows the whereabouts of DI Wolfe who is missing, so you are going to let me see her NOW!’

  Eddie knew he shouldn’t lose his temper but couldn’t help it. He wasn’t going to be stopped now, and especially not by a nurse who had ideas above her station. He saw a doctor’s head poke out of a cubicle along to the left. ‘Byrd is that you?’

  Eddie had never been so glad to see a friendly face. It was a stroke of luck that one of his best friends was on duty. He stalked past the now embarrassed nurse as Gill emerged from the curtain. ‘Is it this girl you’re interested in?’

  ‘The one found on the road near Bosham?’

  ‘That’s her. Come in.’

  As Byrd followed him in, Gill said, ‘Do you recognise her?’

  ‘Bloody right I do. She our missing girl. We were afraid she was the latest victim in the serial killer case we’re working on.’

  ‘I think she was, but she managed to get away. She keeps saying she has to tell Byrd where Wolfe is. I was going to ring you, but you beat me to it.’

  Byrd leaned over the bed and stroked Lindsay’s face. ‘Hello, Lindsay, can you hear me?’

  The girl’s eyelids fluttered.

  ‘She’s going to be very sleepy. We’ve given her a sedative. She’s got some nasty burns on her which we’ve treated. But we don’t think she’s got any broken bones. She’ll be going for a scan soon which will give us a better picture.’

  ‘Lindsay,’ said Byrd. ‘Where have you been? Can you remember?’

  ‘Empty house near the water,’ she mumbled. ‘Wolf. Bird. Got to let him know. Big bad wolf! No! No! Leave me alone!’ Lindsay tried to push herself up off the pillow.

  ‘It’s okay, Lindsay, I’m Byrd. You’ve let me know. Get some rest now. Come on, lie back. Let the doctors help you.’

  A faint nod and then Lindsay relaxed back against the bed.

  ‘Is that useful?’ Gill asked.

  ‘Very. Thanks, mate,’ and Byrd left the cubicle.

  ‘Hey,’ Gill called after him. ‘Don’t be a stranger!’

  Byrd raised his arm in reply but didn’t stop. He needed to raise the rest of the team and to work out where the hell Jo might be.

  The next phone call made that task slightly easier.

  ‘DS Byrd? We’ve located DI Wolfe’s car.’

  54

  Waiting for key members of the team to arrive at the station felt like hours to Byrd, but in reality was only about 15 minutes. But those 15 minutes could be crucial Byrd knew. Where was Jo? Was she still alive? Would they be too late? These thoughts were eating Byrd up and he had to stop it otherwise he’d never be able to look at the operation with an objective eye. By the time Judith, Bill and Jill had arrived, he’d a large-scale map of the area around Bosham laid out.

  ‘So where do you think she could be, Boss?’ asked Jill.

  ‘At the moment I’ve no idea. And that’s the trouble. We could waste valuable time checking out the whole area and being in totally the wrong place.’

  ‘There’s a way to narrow it down,’ said Judith, her analytical mind coming to the fore.

  ‘Go for it,’ said Byrd as Judith grabbed a marker pen.

  ‘Right, where was her car found?’

  Eddie pointed to it. ‘Here, if that is where she left it and it hasn’t been moved to a completely different location by Anubis.’

  Judith ignored his scepticism and marked it on the map. ‘So we search around this area, say half
a mile circumference. What do you think?’

  Byrd peered at the map. In the target area was an abandoned house they’d seen before. It was near to where the girls had been washed up on the edge of Bosham. Could they have missed something? He made a snap decision and started issuing orders to Judith.

  ‘Brief the Commander. Get him to send a tactical team to meet us where Jo’s car is. We’ll also need uniform boots on the ground to conduct a close search of the entire area. You stay here and act as the central hub for information and operations.’

  Judith nodded and moved away to her desk as Eddie, Bill and Jill gathered up their stuff and ran for their cars.

  With blue’s and two’s going, the two cars raced out of the station car park and into the night.

  55

  Byrd only had to wait 10 minutes by Jo’s car before the tactical team arrived. The occupants streamed out of their van, each dressed in black clothing, brandishing a semi-automatic rifle. Their leader approached Eddie, with his hand held out.

  ‘DS Byrd? I’m Inspector Tony Small.’

  Once the two men had shaken hands, Tony said, ‘So can you brief us please. We understand your DI is being held somewhere in these marshlands.’

  ‘Yes, we believe she is somewhere in a half mile radius of here.’

  ‘Very well, I’ll split up the men into teams of two and send them out covering north, south, east and west.’

  ‘Do you have a set of night vision goggles I could use?’

  ‘Yeah, sure,’ and Tony disappeared into the van. Within moments he’d returned, the goggles in his hand. ‘And you want these because?’

  ‘So I can see what’s happening as you and your team search the area.’

  ‘Are you sure? You’re not planning to search for your DI yourself?’

  ‘Heavens, no. More than my job’s worth.’

  ‘Okay, glad to hear it. Stay here and I’ll report in on a regular basis.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Eddie said and moved away before Tony Small saw the subterfuge written on his face. He was glad the darkness helped cover it, as Eddie had no intention of staying where he was.

  Byrd, Bill and Jill moved as quietly as they could through the undergrowth in the direction of the abandoned house they’d checked weeks before.

  They stopped once the house came into view. ‘We don’t know if this is the correct house, Byrd,’ Bill whispered. ‘Can you see anything through the goggles?’

  ‘No, not a damn thing. I guess I needed something that would record the heat source. Let’s go around the back of the house.’

  Byrd led his little band around the house, but there was no sign of life. They couldn’t see anyone. Or hear anyone.

  ‘There don’t seem to be any cameras,’ Bill noticed. ‘What do you reckon we should do?’ he asked Byrd.

  ‘We have to be really careful and really sure. This is the Guv we’re talking about. We mustn’t go in based on emotions but on solid evidence. Alright?’

  ‘Right, Boss,’ said Jill. ‘So what are we doing?

  ‘Going in of course,’ said Byrd.

  56

  They drew a blank. There was no one in the house. No Anubis and no Jo. Byrd tried to be upbeat, but in reality, was inconsolable. He was convinced that when they found her, she would be dead.

  He said, ‘He isn’t here. I was so sure we’d find him here. Where can he have gone? It’s like he’s gone down a rabbit hole.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Jill. ‘Or a tunnel, you know like they had in the days of smugglers. They had tunnels from their house to a cave on the beach where the boats would land, that sort of thing.’

  ‘You a history buff or what?’ asked Bill.

  ‘Yeah guess so, I like reading about things like that.’

  ‘Okay so where would the entrance to a hidden tunnel be in a house,’ asked Byrd.

  ‘Well from the basement. But there isn’t one.’

  ‘You sure about that? Tunnels and smugglers?’

  ‘Not 100 per cent, but it’s got to be worth a go, Boss, hasn’t it?’

  Byrd thought for a moment. ‘Okay let’s check in all the ground floor rooms again.’

  Despite an extensive search, there was nothing. Nothing on the walls, nor on the floor.

  ‘Maybe there’s a door,’ said Jill, ever the optimist.

  ‘Where the fuck would there be a door? This is a bloody wild goose chase and all the time the Guv is missing. How is this helping exactly?’

  ‘Byrd, there’s a pantry here, in the kitchen,’ called Bill.

  ‘So?’ Byrd was becoming depressed and had trouble feigning interest.

  ‘So why aren’t there any shelves on the back wall?’ said Bill.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Well if you have a pantry that goes nowhere, you cover every wall with shelves, for maximum storage, yes?’

  ‘Suppose so, sorry I’m not a kitchen designer.’

  But Jill was examining the wall.

  ‘What are you doing?’ snapped Byrd.

  ‘Trying to find a catch if it’s a door. Could be one of those push ones, you know? Push the door in the right place and it opens up.’

  ‘Out of the way,’ said Byrd.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Out of the bloody way!’

  Byrd grabbed an old rusted piece of metal off the floor and stabbed at the wall.

  The metal bar went straight through.

  It was a false wall.

  Which meant there was something behind it.

  57

  Jo had been waiting for something to happen to her. She was still strapped to the table, still with the scalpel on her chest, still not sure if Lindsay had managed to get away. Then Anubis turned and leered at her.

  ‘It’s time to get you ready,’ he said. Jo realised from the guttural tones that Anubis was still in charge. She wondered if the Professor was in there somewhere. She wondered if she could appeal to that person. The human being behind the mask. Behind the ogre.

  ‘There’s no need for this, you know…’ she began.

  That made Anubis laugh, a brittle sound with no humour behind it.

  ‘You can stop and give yourself up.’

  ‘Oh, Jo, have you forgotten that you’re the one strapped naked to a table? You arrest me! That’s priceless, it really is.’ He threw back his wolf’s head and howled with laughter. It made Jo think of wolves howling at the moon and a shiver ran over her.

  But she was determined not to be bowed by him. ‘Not me, my colleagues. They’ll be on their way by now. You haven’t got much longer.’

  ‘I’ve got plenty of time, thanks all the same. No one will ever find us here.’

  ‘Byrd will. He’ll come for me.’

  ‘Ha! So that’s your hope is it? Lover boy will come, will he? Trust me, you’re going to be sorely disappointed, my dear. No one is coming. The day of reckoning is upon you. It’s your destiny. And I shall enjoy sending you to ROT IN HELL FOR ALL TIME!’

  Jo could hear the excitement in his voice. He moved to the end of the table, by her feet. At his touch she wanted to scream, but she refused to give him the satisfaction and swallowed it back, ending up with a grimace on her face and a choking noise in her throat.

  ‘Ah, so you’re determined not to scream, are you? Well we’ll see how long that lasts.’

  Then something cold hit her right foot, a squelching noise followed it and Jo realised her foot was being wrapped in something wet and sticky. Then he turned to the left foot.

  ‘The bandages kept coming off the other girls,’ he said in a conversational tone. ‘So this time I’m sticking them on. I wanted to use the bandages they use in hospitals to put plaster casts on, but I needed warm water, which I just haven’t got. So I’ve had to make do with wallpaper paste. It should do the trick.’

  The gloopy mess was cold and made her shiver.

  ‘I really wanted to wrap your legs together, but I decided undoing the straps wouldn’t be a good idea.

  The bandages were up to her kne
es.

  Then travelling up her thighs.

  The nearer he got to the top of her legs the more she started to hyper ventilate. She knew what would come after the bandages and as he moved up her hips, she began to scream.

  She was given a blast with Anubis’ cattle prod. ‘Shut up,’ he hissed in her ear, his fetid breath making her want to vomit. But she did as she was told.

  Anubis cocked his head as if to hear better. ‘There’s someone upstairs,’ he said.

  ‘I told you…’ but Jo’s retort was silenced with another prod.

  ‘How dare they! What right have they to come into my lair!’ Anubis reared up and the roar that followed was the most horrible sound Jo had ever heard.

  ‘How many will there be?’ he shouted at Jo.

  ‘I, um, I.’

  ‘HOW MANY?’ he screamed.

  ‘Tactical,’ Jo said, hoping to God that’s who was outside. ‘Armed officers, AK47’s. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later.’ Which was a blatant lie but seemed to help her situation.

  ‘I don’t want to die!’ The voice didn’t belong to Anubis. It was thin and reedy.

  ‘Professor?’ said Jo. ‘Is that you? Are you in there?’

  But the only response Jo got was another roar from Anubis.

  Suddenly it was as if the air in the basement began to spin. Jo felt wind rushing around the confined space. She was buffeted this way and then that by it and she would have been lifted from the table if she hadn’t been tied down. Her hair was blown over her face, but through the strands she saw Anubis rise up into the air. Riding on the maelstrom. As if in the eye of a tornado. Scalpels and other instruments rose into the air and spun around him. Jo was sure she could hear the Professor screaming, but was powerless to help. She could only hope her bindings stayed intact, otherwise she would be torn from the table and whipped around the room as well. The noise of the wind increased to a fever pitch and Jo wondered if she’d be able to hear again.