Dying to Meet You (10 page)

‘Yeah?’

‘Look! Here - read what it says. VIRGO MAN LOOKING FOR A CARING YOUNG CANCER WOMAN FOR LOTS OF FUN AND LOVING.’

He did as she suggested and
, stunned momentarily, he stared back at her. ‘You know, you could well be right.’ He grabbed hold of her hand and squeezed it hard. ‘Thanks!’

‘Could be! You’re darn right I am, Farmer. That poor kid! She must have thought she was meeting her dream man. I hope you find out who she is
soon.’

‘So do I. She appeared well cared for. She must have come from a good home. Somebody’s bound to be missing her by now
.’

She snorted, ‘It sounds like you’re talking about a lost
pet! I suppose you get hardened to it in your job. You come up against death in all possible situations. I’ll finish this coffee then you can call me a taxi?’ She frowned.

‘Let me drive you home.’

‘Okay.’ She studied his face seriously. ‘Colin was in the Royal engineers, you know. He probably thought a lot like you about death. He used to say he never got used to it. Said you always thought someone else would get it not you.’

‘Your husband?’
he asked, putting the sugar bowl on the tray.

‘Yes - he was killed in Northern Ireland when Jack was just turned three.’

‘And how old is he, your son? If you don’t mind me asking?’

‘Jack’s five and a half now. Just starting school in September. And don’t tempt me to bring out his photos.’ She smiled sweetly. Boy was she pretty when she smiled; it lighted up her face like a sunbeam. ‘Have you any children? You were married, weren’t you, Nick?’

‘Once a journalist always a journalist, I guess. I suppose you mugged up on me before this meeting. Linda told you that I was divorced?’ He looked up to smile directly at her. ‘I’ve no children that I can put a name to.’

‘She did. I thought that you must have had
a bad relationship to make you so sour towards women. I think Linda might also have mentioned me in conversation to you. You knew about Colin already, didn’t you?’

‘You caught my interest, Goring. I’ve wanted to know more about you for a good while now. Wondered what drives you too, I guess.’

‘The same as you, I think.’ She smiled and sipped her coffee. ‘Determination to succeed. We’re almost bound to clash, I’m afraid. My aim is to be a good investigative journalist. Before you brought up this idea about the Astrology figuring in this I’d noticed the Cancer pendant that Jude Van Hoet was wearing when I met her in the Casino. An expensive gold one decorated with diamonds.’ His eyes showed instant interest. ‘So I also took a look at the dating columns today and that’s why this one interested me,’ she said as they looked it over again. ‘I wanted to see if it had been put in earlier to attract the young girl. I meant to contact you anyway.’ She chuckled as his face showed surprise. ’But you beat me to it. You know what they say - great minds and all that. And this is a far better place than your office for like minds to meet, don’t you think?’

‘So you knew about it already.’ He studied her smiling face carefully. ‘And you let me talk on about it
...’

She smiled. ‘I did. I just wanted to be sure that’s all.’

She was obviously determined to be let in on the case.

‘Thanks. We can do with some leads on this,’ he admitted.
‘You’re a local girl, aren’t you?’

‘Ye
s - so?’

‘Perhaps you can tell me how he could have got the girl’s body into the park? The main gates are supposed to be closed by ten o’clock.’

‘They are’. She grinned. ‘But that’s easy - there are several smaller gates and it’s possible that they aren’t all locked up at night. Don’t forget it’s a big park. And there are two other separate parts of it for the keepers to see to at night. I can show you the side one in Upper Park Road for instance. That’s often left open. I’ve used it as a short cut across the park myself.

‘But the killer could have coerced her into the park as a romantic place. I think she was probably rather simple and young for her age.’

‘Right. So can you give me an outlook on this Virgo man? A character study if you like. What would make him tick? You are supposed to know about Astrology.’ He grinned. ‘I must warn you though I think it’s utter crap. And I personally don’t believe in any of it.’

She pursed her lips then said, ‘He could be caring, to the point of obsession. Very fussy, if he is what he professes to be - a Virgo star sign; perhaps to start with he feels that he’s been badly let down by a Cancer woman.’

‘Interesting but hardly warrants an excuse to butcher someone like he did. There would have to be more reasons than that surely.’

‘Then it’s up to you to discover the real motive, isn’t it?’

Twenty-Six

‘Anything going down?’
Peterson asked as she walked into the incident room early the following morning.

‘We’ve had a phone call from a worried teenager
, Gordon Cooper, whose sister’s gone missing, ma’am,’ Geoff Trask replied. ‘We think the victim could be her. She fits the description so far.’

‘Right. So what did he have to say?’

‘Ellie Cooper didn’t come home the night before last. This apparently is not like her. He thought at first she was staying overnight with a friend. Mentioned a girl called Janice, their next door neighbour. He can’t give us anything else. The girl hasn’t any close friends and her place of work, the White Rock hotel, phoned him this morning to ask where she was.

‘Apparently her mother Stella has been away in Maidstone for the past week nursing their sick grandmother, that’s how Ellie wasn’t missed at first. The brother sounds worried but a bit gormless. He’s fifteen and doing part time work in a local garage.’

‘Ellie Cooper - does her age and appearance check? Can we ask the brother to identify his sister? No, perhaps not. When’s the mother coming back? Does he know when he expects her home? I take it that there’s no father on the scene?’

Trask checked with notes on his desk. Shook his head. ‘Seems not, their mother is coming back this afternoon post haste by train.’

‘Not a good homecoming for her then.’ Peterson shook her head, sighed and walked across the floor to look up at the photos of the three victims displayed on the wall of the incident room.

‘We’ve also had a phone call from a launderette on the sea front. They have found a few items of laundered women’s clothing; a dress and underclothes left uncollected. Seems more than likely that they are those taken from Ell
ie Cooper. Hence no DNA. He leaves nothing to chance, ma-am.’

Peterson sighed, shook her head. ‘We’ve got to stop it from happening again to another young woman.’ There was a ragged edge to her husky voice and she tried to clear it quickly. ‘Get in touch again immediately with Gordon Cooper. And the hotel where she worked.’

‘There could be some connection between the victims, boss. We’ve seen that all three young women were born under the same star sign of Cancer.’

Peterson’s face
lit up as Farmer chipped into the conversation.

Farmer took the paper advert out of his jacket pocket and showed it to Peterson. ‘There’s this I think. The girl could have answered it and there could be more young women who will do the same.’

‘Thanks. Good work, Farmer. Trask go to work on it. See if you can find out from the
Observer
newspaper office how many answers the Virgo man has received so far.’ She looked round the room at the team. ‘I’m sure I can leave it in your capable hands. We’ll get the guy who has committed these three crimes before he tries for another one.’

Farmer nodded and smiled. ‘We shall, ma-am.’

Twenty-Seven

Stella Cooper came in the same day to identify her young daughter. She looked down
and said quietly, ‘Yes - that’s my Ellie, poor kid.’ She bent over to kiss her gently on the forehead. ‘She’s only a baby. Who would want to harm her?’

When she returned to the
Chief Inspector’s office she flung questions quickly at them. ‘What happened to my Ellie, inspector? What was she doing in the park at night? How did he get away with it? That’s what I’d like to know - and how come the park was left open that late? She must have gone out with someone she knew. She was a good girl.’ She stared them out with stormy brown eyes ‘And that’s saying something these days. Ellie didn’t let men pick her up in the street like some young girls I know. I drummed that into her often enough. She was a sweet innocent, my Ellie.’

When shown the silver pendant in the plastic packet she didn’t
recognise it. ‘She must have bought it recently. I haven’t seen it before. The Crab, it’s the symbol for her star sign.’ She smiled then gulped back a sob in her throat. ‘She was potty about Astrology and star signs. She was always reading her horoscope.’ She studied the pendant closely. ‘It looks an expensive one too. Ellie could never save her money. Not that it matters now.’ She sniffed back her tears.

‘
Perhaps someone bought the pendent for her?’

She nodded. ‘Possible I suppose.’

‘Did she mention to you that she would be meeting a blind date from the local newspaper?’

‘No. Of course not! I wouldn’t have allowed it. She was just a sweet kid - not long had her seventeenth birthday.
’

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Cooper. We think Ellie might have known the person she was out with when she met him. And perhaps accepted the pendant from him.’

‘And you think he killed these other women too! We’ve got a bloody, depraved monster living amongst us here in Harling.’

‘Ellie worked full time at the White Rock hotel your son said.’

‘The White Rock - yes. You might have known Ellie.’ She smiled. ‘Ellie mentioned to me earlier on that you were staying there, Superintendent, with your husband.’

Farmer flashed a quick look at Peterson, who shuffled the files on her desk.

Peterson nodded. ‘Yes, that’s right.’ She chose to ignore Farmer’s immediate interest. ‘She was a nice young girl, so polite. I remember her now. Rather shy, young in her ways.’

‘She
was - but she wasn’t backward if that’s what you think. I only wish I’d been there for her. It would never have happened to her if I’d been at home.’

‘You don’t know that. Ellie could have managed to keep it from you even then. You can’t blame yourself, Mrs Cooper. ’

‘I can’t think how she could have gone out with a young man that she didn’t tell me about. We never had any secrets before.’ She shook her head, sighed heavily. ‘She-she usually confided in me. But of course I was away, wasn’t I?’ Tears flowed easily again. ‘I was looking after her Gran. How could I know that she’d got involved with someone so evil and wicked as that? A pervert and a killer?’

‘Easily
. I expect if he made a fuss of her. If like you said she was young for her age, she would have trusted him if he seemed kind and friendly to her. Perhaps because he gave her the pendent. You mustn’t blame yourself, Mrs Cooper. ’

‘But I do blame myself. I should have made her tell me what she was doing with herself when she phoned. She did say on the phone she’d bought a new dress to wear. I suppose she bought it ‘specially to meet him. I ought to have guessed something was up then.’

Peterson said quietly. ‘Girls won’t tell you everything when a boy is concerned especially if he was blind date. She wouldn’t want you to be suspicious, would she?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to think. I only know I’ve lost my little girl. My Ellie.’

Twenty-Eight

Farmer walked through the glass foyer door of the White Rock hotel with Trask. He was feeling easier now that he was put in charge of the investigations.

The owner, Mrs Wyatt was waiting for them in her office. A small fair haired woman in her early fifties, she was visibly disturbed by this terrible crime.

‘Good morning, DI
Farmer - Sergeant Trask. What do you want to know? Ellie’s death has been a terrible shock to us here for my guests and staff,’ she said. ‘We knew Ellie was going out on a blind date with a young man. She told everyone. She was full of it. And we were a bit worried about it. But none of us dreamed that it could lead to her death. Although Laura Goring, another of my guests here, did a Tarot reading for her and wasn’t so happy with what she saw in the reading. She told me that afterwards. She tried to warn Ellie to be extra careful.’

‘She never mentioned to anyone the name of the man she was seeing?’

‘No - I don’t think she knew herself. It was a blind date.’ She shook her head. ‘One of the Webster sisters, two elderly ladies who stay on here permanently, said Ellie told them she wouldn’t know him till they met. If you would like to speak to Miss Lily Webster she may be able to tell you the details better than myself.’

Twenty-Nine

‘Yes, I gave that little girl a Tarot reading, Mel. Ellie was the one I mentioned to you the other day. I was so worried about her. The Tarot cards never lie to me.’