Chapter 20
Back in the operations room, Laura and I slid into plastic seats on either side of the sergeant in charge of scanning the nationwide databases.
Her name was Alison Pearson, and she was the officer who’d asked the question about the killer’s motive during our initial briefing three days ago.
She was only young – not yet in her thirties – but had seemed focused and on-task from the beginning.
Her role was multi-faceted: analysing missing person reports, both on and off the system, and searching for any past murders with similar specs to our current series, as it seemed more than possible that, despite the assertions in the letter, this was not our man’s first experience of killing.
We had a mounting pile of mis-pers on our desk, and had looked over a steady stream of possibly connected earlier crimes.
Each one had been followed up as extensively as manpower allowed and come to nothing.
Frustrating work, but necessary, and if there was anyone in the room who was not going to miss an important detail it was Pearson.
‘I found this report on the system an hour ago,’ she said. ‘It was only added in this afternoon, so I pounced.’
The report was up on the screen, and I scanned the details quickly. On the far side of Pearson, I could see Laura squinting at the monitor too. Pearson talked over us as we read.
‘Victim is Kate Barrett, thirty-one years of age. She was killed this morning during what appears to be an aggravated robbery in which her scooter was taken. Bludgeoned to death.’
‘Christ,’ I said, more to myself than anyone else. The report indicated that her husband and son had observed the attack, but had been unable to reach her assailant in time.
Laura nodded. ‘Witness – her husband – says the killer hit her more than was necessary to in order to steal the bike. Like he murdered her out of spite.’
‘No post-mortem yet,’ I said. ‘So we don’t know the weapon. Who’s in charge of this?’
‘Nobody here.’ Pearson tapped the screen. ‘It’s in Buxton.’
‘Buxton?’
Pearson nodded. ‘It’s about thirty miles south –’
‘I know where it is.’
Of course I knew. It was where I’d grown up – and I didn’t have particularly fond memories of the place. The name was just another random little dig in the mental ribs, as if the case wasn’t bothering me enough as it was. But Pearson looked put-out, and I realised I’d been too sharp with her.
‘Sorry, Alison. I’m just stressed out at the moment. It’s hard enough handling all this here without having to factor another bloody town in.’
Factoring it into the alleged pattern, of course, but I was thinking mainly of the inter-departmental work it would entail if the cases did turn out to be connected.
We were the bigger city, at least, so we’d have primary, and we might blag a few officers by pooling efforts, but it would still be a massive headache to be co-ordinating investigations at this point.
We were drowning in paperwork as it was. Drowning full stop.
‘It still might be nothing,’ Laura said. ‘As far as we know, robbery’s never been a factor before.’
‘No.’
‘And we don’t know the weapon.’
‘PM’s set for tomorrow morning.’ Pearson sounded a little brighter now.
‘Good.’ I stood up. ‘Can you get us a printout of this, Alison? Thanks again. Sorry for being snappy.’
‘Of course, boss. No problem.’
Back at our own desk, Laura sat down opposite and peered across at me.
‘What’s up, Hicks?’
‘Buxton. If this turns out to be true, it’s going to be a fucking nightmare.
’ I held up a basic A4 printout of the city with the five known victims marked on it, along with various pencil swirls where I’d doodled prospective patterns, to no avail whatsoever.
‘Call stationery. We’re going to need a bigger bit of paper. ’
Laura pulled a face.
I put the sheet down. ‘Also, I suppose I was hoping that this was over. But it’s never over, is it?’
‘Look. It might not be connected.’
‘No. But that man, the husband, he still saw his wife being murdered. So if it’s not our guy, it means someone killed a woman for a fucking scooter. I’m not sure which is better.’
‘This case is getting to you.’
‘Obviously.’
‘And it’s not like you at all.’
‘Yeah, we discussed this earlier.’ I sighed. ‘It’s not just that anyway. Like I said, it’s Rachel too. We’re supposed to go to counselling tonight.’
‘Counselling?’
‘Marriage counselling.’
‘Shit, Andy.’ Laura leaned back. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise things had got that bad.’
‘We’ve been going for a few weeks. It’s rubbish, but I’m trying to – you know – show willing.’
‘Things are really that serious?’
‘Things are really that serious. And before you say it, I would have talked to you about it, but there’s nothing much to tell.’
‘What’s the problem?’
‘We’ve just grown apart, I suppose.’ There was more to it than that, of course, but not that I wanted to talk about. ‘Honestly, either we’ll work it out or we won’t. Right now, I don’t know if we can.’
She looked a bit awkward. ‘Well … you sort of have to, don’t you?’
‘Because of the baby?’ I gave a hollow laugh. ‘Try telling Rachel that. You know how much of an asshole I can be, and you don’t have to live with me.’
Laura grimaced at the thought. ‘Yuck.’
‘Thanks.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Pearson arrived with the printout of the report from Buxton. Laura held out a hand for it.
‘I’ll take that. Thanks, Alison.’
‘No problem.’
As Pearson retreated, I reached out for the sheet, but Laura slapped my hand.
‘Get out of here.’
‘No.’
‘Yes.’ I was about to protest again, but she didn’t give me chance.
‘I’ll handle this for now. Like we both said, it’s probably nothing at all – not connected, at least. So I’m just going to make contact, get more info.
Maybe arrange to attend the PM tomorrow.
The sight of a corpse will help cleanse my mind of the thought of living with you. ’
I said nothing. Eventually, she looked up.
‘Seriously, Hicks. Get the fuck out of here.’
She stared at me, not blinking, until I stood up.
‘Thanks, Laura.’
‘I was best man at your wedding. You do remember that, don’t you?’
I nodded. It hadn’t been because I had no male friends who could have performed the role, but simply because I’d asked Laura. Aside from Rachel, she was the person I was closest to in the world. I’d stood at the front of the hall with the two people I exasperated more than anyone else.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘So I won’t forgive you if you fuck this up. Go. Go save your marriage.’
I nodded and left.
Go save your marriage.
I wished it could be anything like as easy as that.