Secret of the Dead (21 page)

For a second his head was in turmoil. There was no reason in this world why this should be the same person. There was no link between Jeffery Howson and Jodie. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, committing the description to memory and then let out a heavy sigh. If it was the same man, then that was the second time he had let him slip. There wouldn’t be a third, he told himself as he thumped the handrail in frustration.

Taking another deep breath, he felt his strength returning and delved into his jacket pocket for his mobile. He needed to call this in. Back-up would be too late to capture the fugitive, but he needed to preserve the scene and get forensic support here quickly. He was confident now that Jodie’s death was no accident, that he may have just missed her killer, and that this was as fresh as a crime scene as he could possibly have.

As he speed-dialled the communications room, he realised he was bleeding at the mouth - he could taste and smell the coppery tang of blood upon his lips. He was running his tongue around them as an operator came on the line.

* * * * *

The marked Response Car got to Hunter inside five minutes. He quickly briefed the driver and his partner as to what had happened and gave them the offender’s description, such as it was, and left them to get on with coordinating a search, while he began to fathom out how best to secure the premises. He knew this wasn’t going to go down too well, given the nature of some of the residents. Already, one of the male tenants had stuck his head around his door and demanded to know what the fuck was going on.

Still angry about losing his attacker, Hunter was in no mood to appease him, and had thrust his warrant card in his face and told him to “Get back in his room and shut the fuck up.” The young man had obliged without argument. Next to arrive was Grace and Mike Sampson. They had been about to set off to Bakewell, to interview Lucy’s parents, when they’d picked up his distress call and had immediately diverted.

“Which way did he run?” said Grace.

Hunter shrugged. “Don’t know. Best guess is he made a left into the side streets. There’re quite a few alleyways he could’ve shot down and from there he could have made the town centre or out towards the hospital. I don’t even know if he had a car or not. I didn’t hear one. But to be honest it took me a good couple of minutes to get my breath back and get down the stairs.” He could feel the blood again on his lips. “He caught me off guard and packed a hell of a punch.” He dabbed at his mouth with the side of a hand. A small circle of red covered the area around his thumb and forefinger. “I’ll punch his fucking lights out when I get hold of him.”

Grace shook her head.

He said “What?”

She pointed to his mouth and said, “Don’t worry, it’s not made any difference to your looks. You’re still as ugly.” Then she smiled. “Come on then Sergeant Kerr, start dishing out the orders, tell us what you want us to do.”

“Uniform are covering a lot of the ground, and CCTV are looking in and around the town centre, so there’s not a lot to do about him at the moment. I could do with finding out who lives in these flats and who’s in at the moment. I’ve spoken to one of the tenants already.” He pointed back down the hall. “I’m going to secure the area between the first floor and second floor, I’ve got SOCO on their way.”

Within ten minutes Hunter had donned a white forensic over-suit from the boot of his car and sealed off the staircase between the first and second floors. He had listened to the sounds of Grace and Mike knocking on doors below and knew that the pair were currently in the flat belonging to the resident he had encountered immediately after his assault. He wondered if the guy would make a complaint about him swearing. Then he dismissed the thought from his head he could trust his team mates to talk him out of it.

He heard the front entrance door click open below, then slowly close, followed by the clipped sound of heels on the tiled hall floor. Hunter peered over the banister and caught sight of Detective Superintendent Dawn Leggate coming up the staircase towards him. He recognised her distinct auburn tinged bob of ginger hair.

In her Scottish brogue she called out, “Hello. DS Kerr?”

“Up here ma’am.”

She craned her neck, swapping glances, as she continued climbing the stairs. “Please don’t call me ma’am Hunter, I bloody hate that word. Makes me sound like the Queen. Just call me boss or guv.” She paused on the last step before the landing and faced Hunter. She was wearing a brown checked duffel coat. With a leather gloved hand she began un-pegging it.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to put up with me, DS Kerr. Mr Robshaw’s going to run the Howson enquiry and I’m running this one. I hope you’re okay with that?”

Hunter licked his bottom lip and nodded. He felt a sharp tinge from the cut at the side of his mouth and winced.

“Bloody good job, ’cos I wasn’t giving you an option.” The Detective Superintendent flashed him a mischievous smile, reached up and tapped his shoulder, “Anyway, it will give me the chance to work closely with someone on my new team.” She removed her gloved hand. “Getting my teeth into my own investigation is just what I needed. Right Hunter, tell me what you’ve got? I’ve heard over the radio that they’re still searching for the guy who slugged you, though it looks as though he’s gone to ground.”

Hunter felt his face flush. He was still smarting. Not just from letting someone thump him without any form of retaliation, but also knowing that he let his quarry get away. He gave his SIO a resume of the background to the case, explaining how he had initially thought that Jodie’s death was the result of a drugs overdose. “I have to confess I took my eye off the case because of the Howson enquiry. The information given to me by her Probation Officer this morning made me want to check out her flat.” He relayed the earlier conversation with Ray Austin. “Especially that bit about the secret she said she had about someone, which was going to make her lots of money.”

“And so, like me, you’re thinking that this guy who you’ve disturbed had something to do with that secret and her death.”

Hunter nodded. “It’s a fair bet, yes, although she didn’t tell her probation officer what the secret was, or who it was about.”

“And you got the impression that this guy was the same one you chased at Jeffery Howson’s funeral?”

He tightened his mouth again and rolled his head. “I couldn’t swear on it. Not exactly a hundred per cent and it doesn’t make sense why the same guy at Jeffery Howson’s funeral should turn up here. But it was just the way he was dressed. It looked as though he was still wearing the same gear. And I know I only got a fleeting glance of him at the churchyard, and my view of him today was from up here, but there were so many similarities to his shape and build that makes me think it’s the same man.”

“Just hold onto those thoughts for now. We’ve got a lot of enquiries ahead and you say that uniform are still out there searching for him, as well as the camera boys in the CCTV suite, so we might be able to rule him either in or out later on, okay?”

Hunter agreed with a nod.

“Okay, now show me what you’ve got so far.”

Earlier, he had removed Jodie’s file from the MIT car. It was now tucked beneath his arm. He slipped it out, flipped open the folder and half-turned it toward the Detective Superintendent for her to view. “This is what I’ve got in terms of evidence.” He balanced the folder across an open palm and picked out the Scenes of Crime photograph booklet within it. “These are shots of the pub and the cellar where Jodie’s body was found and also of her PM.”

Hunter showed Dawn Leggate Jodie’s post-mortem photos, selecting those which focused on her arms. “I’d looked at them a couple of times and there was something I wasn’t happy with, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Since learning everything this morning, especially her stance on drug abuse, I gave them the once-over again and I’ve realised that there are no track-marks on her arms, or anywhere else on her body. The self-harm scars completely threw me.”

Then he flicked back to the sequence of images SOCO had taken of the premises. “Also there was something else bugging me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Twenty minutes ago that came to me as well when I looked back over the scene photos again.” He pointed out the shot depicting the long stretch of corridor which led towards the cellar. He gave her enough time to study it and then flipped to the next photograph, a close-up shot of the door to the cellar with its broken panel. “The foreman told me that they had to kick this in to get access. This door was fitted with a mortise lock. And I remembered that they told me that it was locked.” He scrutinised his boss’s face. She was hanging on to his every word. “The only key we found on Jodie was for this flat, and that’s a Yale make. While I’ve been waiting, I’ve managed to get hold of Duncan Wroe, he’s our Scenes of Crime manager, who went to the scene. He’s on his way here as we speak. He’s told me that they didn’t find any other key during their search. Also, the cellar where she was found was too clean to be a shooting den. Just look at the photograph which shows her slumped along the floor.” He thumbed to the next shot in the album. “All that’s around her is a couple of syringes, a couple of spoons and a few silver wraps. That’s it. I’ve been to a few of these dens in the past and there’s usually discarded drugs paraphernalia all over the place. That’s not all, there was no cigarette lighter or matches, either on her possession, or in the cellar. This was staged for our benefit.” He closed the evidence album. “She was never alone in that cellar. Someone else was there to heat up the heroin on the spoon before it was injected. And with that in mind, I’ve got back onto the builders at the site and spoken to the foreman. I’ve told them to stop what they’re doing so we can do a thorough forensics job and extend the search area. Thankfully, he says they’ve not touched the cellar since Jodie’s body was found.”

“Well, you seem to have got most bases covered. What about witnesses here?”

Hunter told her what Grace and Mike Sampson were doing.

“As I said, you seem to have got everything covered.” She checked her watch. “It’s just gone one o’clock. My guess is it will take SOCO a good hour or so to get sorted and a good few hours for Grace and Mike to get round the residents here to see if any of them witnessed anything, so I’m going to leave everything in your capable hands while I sort us out an incident suite. I’ll need to get onto the Coroner as well and fix up a second PM. I also need to bring in more resources. We’ve got a couple of detectives joining us from the Cold Case Team to help out with the Howson enquiry, so I’ll leave Grace and Mike with you doing the door-to-door, and I’ll get back and speak with Mr Robshaw and see who else I can purloin.” She glanced down at Jodie’s file and said. “Can I take this back with me so I’m up-to-date with everything and can get the incident board set-up?”

Sliding it from his grasp, she slapped the folder shut and tapped his chest with it. Then fixing him with her hazel eyes, she smiled and said, “Good job, Hunter,” before setting off back down the stairs.

Hunter was leaning over the balcony with his eyes glued to the front door. He was cold. He had been here almost two hours and the single radiator below him, in the hallway, appeared not to be working. It certainly wasn’t throwing out enough heat to reach him up here on the second floor. He cursed to himself as he shivered uncontrollably.

Then the front door opened with a jerk and Hunter jumped. He was confronted by the sight of Duncan Wroe, Scene of Crime Manager, struggling to get through the gap in the door. Using the side of one hip, he was doing his best to force the opening wider, while trying to squeeze through. He dragged through an aluminium equipment case, clipboard and his forensic clothing in laden hands and arms.

Stumbling into the hallway, he called out, “Where is everyone?”

“Up here Duncan,” Hunter responded, checking his watch, noting the time for his log: it was 1:55pm.

By the time Duncan had reached Hunter he was out of breath. He dropped his aluminium case onto the landing and pushed his free hand through his unruly mop of straw coloured hair.

Hunter greeted him. “You ought to exercise more.”

“I would if I got time. Some of us have real work to do, Detective Sergeant Kerr.”

Hunter laughed. “The same old Duncan. Never beaten for words.”

Duncan straightened his back. “What have you got for me then?”

Hunter reminded the SOCO Manager about his attendance and examination of the scene where Jodie Marie Jenkinson’s body had been discovered. Then he repeated what he had already told Detective Superintendent Dawn Leggate. “This is JJ’s bed-sit, Duncan. The only person I’m aware of who’s visited the place since her death is that guy who socked me one. No one’s stepped a foot inside the place since that happened.”

“Good.” The SOCO manager climbed into his white suit and picked up his case. “I noticed you’ve kept a sterile area down to the first landing. That’s good as well. Did you notice if the guy was wearing gloves or not?”

Hunter shook his head. “It all happened so fast. He was wearing a woollen hat and padded jacket. That’s all I had time to clock.”

“No problem. We’ll soon see once we start sprinkling the magic dust around.”

Duncan Wroe made towards Jodie’s door. Hunter fell in behind.

The SOCO Manager halted the landing side of the bed-sit and scanned the splintered lock area. “That wouldn’t have offered much resistance.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Who’s the exhibits officer?”

“Everything’s down to you and me at the moment Duncan. We’re a bit thin on the ground, what with the retired detective murder case that’s running, and we’ve also re-opened a cold case murder from nineteen-eighty-three that’s linked.”

“Yeah, I heard that.” Thrusting his case before him and using its front edge as leverage Duncan pushed the door open wider.

On tip-toes, Hunter looked over the Scenes of Crime Manager’s shoulder. It was his first opportunity to get a proper view inside Jodie’s room. It didn’t take him long - the space where Jodie had lived prior to her death was no bigger than ten-feet square.