Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense (88 page)

He saw her tilt her head, straining to hear as he entered the stall. “Please, don’t hurt me again.”

He knelt beside her, placed his lips close to hers, and gently blew out a breath. She turned away and began to sob. His hand tickled across her thigh. The girl froze and held her breath. He felt powerful; he loved the feeling of control he had over these girls. Not for the first time, he mentally kicked himself for killing the others when it would have been much more fun to add them to his growing harem.
No one will ever find the girls here.
His erection grew once more, and he took her as he had every night around that time.
Sex on tap. Who could ask for anything more?
He let out a demented laugh as he climaxed for the second time that evening.

CHAPTER TEN

Ellen drove to work on Monday morning with a smile the width of the Grand Canyon on her face. Even the December weather was reflecting her bright mood. It was good to see the sun out for a change after all the rain they had been subjected to lately. On Sunday, the weather had also been really good to them. Who would’ve thought they would get away with having a picnic in December. The boys, James and Paul, had loved it. Playing football up on the top of the hills had been a challenge, but they managed to overcome it in the interest of keeping the boys happy.

The minute she stepped through the front door of her office, her mood dwindled fast.

“What’s wrong?” she asked Brian, who was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Lost in thought.”

“Has something happened at home?”

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

“Then what?” She removed her coat and hung it up on the coatrack by the door.

“I set up an alert on the system. Don’t ask me how. I’ll only confuse you with my brilliance.”

Ellen frowned as she sat behind her desk. “What kind of alert?”

“An alert to tell me if any more girls went missing. If the news hit any forms of media, then I’d get an e-mail straight away. The infuriating thing is that I didn’t bother checking my e-mails over the weekend, what with my parents visiting.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself, Brian. We’re entitled to a life. What are we dealing with?”

“It looks like two girls have disappeared in the last few days. One on Thursday evening—Tina who we already knew about. And the other on Friday—a Diane Ely. The thing is, Diane was due to get married on Saturday.”

“That’s terrible. Do we know where they went missing and at what times?” Ellen instinctively knew her partner’s answer before he said it.

With a shrug, he replied, “Worcester City Centre, and between one and two in the morning.”

“Okay, my first logical question is why the heck the bride—Diane, is it?”

Brian nodded.

“Why was Diane out at that time of the morning the night before her wedding day? Does that make sense to you?”

Brian shook his head. “Beats me. A good question to ask her relatives when you question them. Are you going to get on to that today?”

“Do you think I should? It’s not exactly public knowledge yet, is it?”

“How about getting in touch with Jenny at the hotline? See if she’s been notified of the missing girls, and then go from there.”

“Good idea. I’ll do that while you drum up some coffee.”

“How come I always get to be the one who makes the coffee around here?”

“Because yours tastes so much nicer than mine.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him and smiled.

He pushed back his chair and mumbled incoherently on his way to the break room. Ellen chuckled and then picked up the phone. “Hi, Jenny. It’s Ellen.”

“Morning, Ellen. What can I do for you?”

“I’m ringing to give an update, really,” she said, hoping to ease into asking her question about the missing girls.

“Let me get a pen and paper. Go on.”

Ellen went through each of the five cases, then hesitated before she asked, “Any news at your end?”

Jenny was quiet for a moment or two and then lowered her voice to a whisper. “Between you and me, we might be dealing with another two cases. I came in this morning, and two new files had appeared on my desk. Just a minute.”

Ellen heard the rustling of paper and a gasp. “Jenny? Jenny, are you all right?”

“My God.”

“What? Come on. The suspense is killing me.”

“I have two girls’ files in front of me, and you’re never going to believe what I’m about to tell you.”

“That the girls are similar to the other five, by any chance?”

“Yes. How did you know that?”

“Lucky guess. Care to share the names with me? I’ll be happy to get in touch with the families this morning. The quicker we move on this, the better. If we’re looking at something sinister happening here, time is of the essence. I can see if the other connections ring a bell with the families.”

“I should ask my boss before I hand over any details, Ellen. You know how it works.”

“Okay, it was worth a try. Can you go and see her now? I’ll hold.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Brian appeared and put a mug of coffee in front of her. She placed her hand over the mouthpiece and whispered, “Looks like we’re onto something. She’s got two girls’ files on her desk. She’s just gone off to ask her boss if she can share the info with us.”

“Excellent. Do you want me to look up contact information?”

“Make a start. I’m sure Jenny’s boss will sanction her sharing the info, but just in case she doesn’t.”

Jenny came back on the line a few seconds later. “Ellen? The boss says in the circumstances, the fact we’ve had a spate of teenagers go walkabouts overnight and that you’re already looking into similar cases for us anyway, she’s willing to share the details on the two girls with you.”

“That’s brilliant. Thanks, Jenny. I take it the police are aware of the latest girls?”

“Yes, but again, they’re not being treated as an emergency. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?”

“It certainly is. I’m going to have a word with Jim, my brother, and see if he can alter that situation.”

Jenny gave her the girls’ details and then hung up. Ellen paused for a moment to study the addresses, working out the best way to tackle her next chore. Then she looked over at Brian. “Don’t worry. I’ve got the details. Now what do I do with them?”

She knew she had to visit the relatives, but after spending most of Friday doing the same thing, she wanted to get on with the rest of the investigation and start joining the dots with the connections they’d found.

“What’s with the frown?”

“I know I should go and see the relatives, but I want to dive in and start asking around down at the gym. Do you fancy going to see the families?”

Brian shook his head vigorously. “Not part of my contract. I’m the office geeky bod, remember?”

She smiled sweetly at him. “I know, but I thought you might help me out, just this once. I’ll treat you to a cream cake later.”

However, when she recognised the panic in Brian’s eyes, she knew she was about to embark on one of the busiest days of the year. Even in the force, he’d had problems dealing with the general public. If there was muscle needed for a situation, he would have jumped at the chance of helping out, but empathising with strangers in such dire circumstances was a nonstarter for Brian.

“No can do. Sorry, hon.”

“Okay, fair enough. Let me plan my day out for the next ten minutes.” In other words, she was telling Brian to get on with something useful so that she could think. He took the hint and started messing around on his computer.

Ellen sat back, mug in hand, and contemplated her day. She’d been given two addresses on opposite sides of town, and the gym, where she was eager to call, was slap bang between the two. Should she go to the gym between the two families or leave that visit until after? Sipping her coffee helped her tackle the dilemma.

“Right,” she said, banging her hands on the desk.

Brian almost leapt out of his seat. “Damn, give a guy a heart attack, why don’t you?”

“Sorry. Right, I’ve decided to go and visit the families this morning, strike while the iron is hot, then go and snoop around down at the gym after lunch.”

“Sounds like a good idea. I’ve been trying to fine-tune another software package I’m working on. I think I’ll input all seven girls’ details and see if I can attribute any further links to any of them. We haven’t looked at schools or colleges
et cetera
. What do you think?”

“Great idea.” She grabbed her handbag, peeked inside to see if she had her trusty notepad and pen with her and then shrugged into her coat. “I’ll see you later, around lunchtime.”

“Yep, okay. Pick up a Subway if you’re passing.”

“Might do,” she shouted over her shoulder just before the door closed behind her. She jumped in the car and headed for the first house, the home of Tina Jones. She arrived at the small terraced house in Claines and took a few deep breaths before she left the car.

A woman in her late-fifties opened the door sharply, as though she had been expecting someone. “Hello, Mrs. Jones? I’m Ellen Brazil from the Worcester Missing Persons Hotline.”

“Thank God. Where is she?”

“I’m sorry. We haven’t found your daughter yet. I wondered if I could have a quick chat with you.”

The brightness Ellen had spotted in the woman’s eyes seconds before withered, along with her demeanour. She walked into the house. Ellen followed the woman through to a lounge that dated back to the floral seventies, which she recognised from watching UK Gold and reruns of old sitcoms. The woman sat down in the armchair situated in the bay window and reached beside her for a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. Ellen noted how full the ashtray already was, and her heart went out to the woman.

“But it’s been almost four days since she went missing. Why haven’t we heard anything yet? If she’s been kidnapped, wouldn’t the kidnappers have been in touch by now?”

Ellen shook her head. “That sort of thing only tends to happen in the movies, Mrs. Jones. I know it’s only been a few days since Tina disappeared. I wanted to ask some personal questions if that’s all right?”

Mrs. Jones took a long drag on her cigarette, then blew out the smoke almost immediately. “Of course, ask anything. I just want my daughter back.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have many details about the night Tina went missing. Could you fill in the blanks for me?”

“I’ll try. What do you need to know?”

Ellen took out her pad. “Tina went into town on Thursday evening. Was that with friends?”

“Yes, that’s right. With three other girls, I think.”

“Friends from work?”

“Yes, she works at a department store in town. Debenhams.”

“Have you spoken to the girls who were with your daughter that night?”

Mrs. Jones took another puff on her cigarette. “I believe the police did. They all said they didn’t see anything.”

“Haven’t the girls been in touch with you since?” Ellen considered that odd, but quickly discounted the idea because the other girls were just work colleagues and not lifelong friends.

“No. I don’t blame them. It’s not like I know any of them.”

“This might seem an odd question, but did Tina attend any clubs that you know of?”

“Clubs? I’m not sure what you mean by that, dear.”

“Did she belong to any gyms or attend an aerobics session every week? Something like that?”

“Let me think. She liked to go swimming at the pool now and again. Not sure if she was a member, though. Wait a minute… I seem to remember her talking about joining a gym in her lunch hour. I think she joined a couple of weeks back.”

There it is again. The link to the other girls. The gym has to be the main connection behind the girls’ disappearances.
Ellen tried not to hurry through her next questions, but it proved difficult because she was eager to get to the gym to demand answers.

Mrs. Jones couldn’t answer any more of her questions anyway, so Ellen left not long after.