Chapter Thirty-One
Kate was silent during the drive to the Greenfield estate. This was the biggest case of her career.
It wasn’t her first murder case, but the others had been clearer cut. Domestic violence that had spun out of control, a Saturday night brawl with unintended tragic consequences, or a revenge killing. All of them relatively easy to solve. But this was something entirely different, and she felt out of her depth. However, it would be a mistake to allow the team to see this, when they were starting to gel.
‘We’re here, ma’am,’ Bill said, parking at the kerb in front of the stairs up to Paul Carnegie’s flat.
‘I thought the SOCOs would have arrived by now.’
‘They won’t be long. D’you want to wait for them?’
Kate pushed the car door open. ‘No, we’ll go up and check out the scene.’
She wasn’t sure whether that was the right thing to do, but she was anxious to get a handle on this murder before the scene of the crime officers came and restricted their access.
Sensing Bill’s hesitation, she said, ‘Come on. What are you waiting for?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Kate led the way up the stairs, the sound of her feet clacking on the stone steps echoing back with an eeriness that made her shiver. On the upper flight she stepped round a patch of dried vomit and almost grabbed the hand rail, pulling her hand back at the last minute. No knowing what might be smeared on it. The top landing was bare but the door at the end hung open and she could hear the faint sound of music.
Kate stood at the door for a moment questioning the wisdom of entering the flat before the SOCOs arrived, but her need to know overcame any doubts she might have. Sticking her hands in her pockets so she wouldn’t be tempted to touch anything, she entered the flat.
A light shone from the room directly ahead. The door hung ajar. She pushed it with her elbow, hearing Bill’s sharp intake of breath at the same time as she saw the woman sitting on the sofa.
‘Mrs Fraser, I told you to leave the flat.’ Bill’s voice was harsh.
The woman didn’t move, her eyes remained fixed on the computer screen. ‘I saw my Megan on here. I was waiting to see her again.’
Kate turned her attention to the flickering monitor, where image succeeded image in a never ending slide show of young girls.
The body of Paul Carnegie lay on the floor between May Fraser and the computer desk.
‘I told you a perv had taken my Megan, but you didn’t believe me.’
She rose from the sofa and glared at Bill, her hands clenched into fists. Her body gave the appearance of increasing in size as she tensed her muscles in a display of anger. The shuddering of her body, the quivering of her fists, and the sight of her dyed red hair waving madly about on top of her head, like the flames of some hellish fire, revealed the level of her distress. ‘If you’d looked harder you’d have found him before somebody topped him.’ She kicked the body.
‘Mrs Fraser, I must ask you to leave and wait in your own flat. We’ll come to speak to you shortly.’ Kate’s voice was calmer than she felt, but she didn’t want to arouse the woman into an even greater emotional outburst. After all, the woman’s daughter was still missing.
The woman raised her foot to aim another kick, but Bill grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the body.
‘I’ll have you for assault.’ Her eyes were wild.
‘And I’ll arrest you for obstruction and contamination of a crime scene if you don’t leave now.’
For a moment they both glared at each other, then her body seemed to deflate and she shrugged. ‘I need you to find my Megan.’
Kate rested a hand on her shoulder. ‘We’ll find your Megan,’ she said. ‘We’ll take the computer in to examine. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out from the information we obtain from it.’
The woman shambled out of the door into the hallway. ‘You promise,’ she said, before leaving the flat.
‘I promise,’ Kate said, but May Fraser was gone.
* * * *
May Fraser stumbled along the landing. The wind whipped through her flimsy tee shirt, and the cold penetrated the fleece of her slippers, but her mind was far away, thinking of the images she’d seen on the perv’s computer screen.
Bloody filth. If they’d done their job her Megan would be home by now. But it was always the same, just because she lived on the estate and survived on benefits, other folks thought she wasn’t worth anything. Thought she was scum. But May knew she wasn’t scum. OK, maybe she didn’t live like they did, maybe her house wasn’t as clean as it should be. But what incentive did she have to clean when she lived in a clapped out flat on a sink estate. If she had a nice house like they had, she’d clean it, well, maybe not every day, but she’d keep it nice.
Her eyes filled with tears. OK, maybe she wasn’t as good as them with their fancy houses and fancy cars, but what right did they have to judge her and her family. What right did they have to make the assumption Megan had gone walkabout. May conveniently forgot Megan had done this in the past, so the assumption was a logical one to make.
‘Bloody filth,’ she muttered, opening the door to her flat.
‘Where you been?’
‘What’s it to you?’ May glared at her husband. What the heck had she ever seen in him. A scruffy wee nyaff with dirty grey hair straggling down his neck.
‘I was needing my bloody dinner, you lazy cow.’
‘Don’t you bloody lazy cow me.’ May put her hands on her hips and stared him out. ‘Get off your lazy arse and get it yourself.’
‘It’s a good belting you’re needing,’ Fred Fraser muttered.
‘Yeah! You and whose army?’ May stumped into the living room and threw herself into an armchair to wait for the police to arrive.
* * * *
Diane stood in the cleaners’ room and listened to Ryan’s footsteps echoing up the corridor. The door into the main part of the club clicked shut behind him, but still she stood there. Ryan was a good son. He worried about her, but he didn’t understand her. Nor could he understand how her thoughts about Jade were tearing her apart.
She slumped onto a chair and bent down to change her shoes for the old pair she kept here for working in, but her hand hesitated. How could she concentrate on work when Jade was out there? She’d promised Jade she wouldn’t look for her, promised to wait until Jade was ready to come home. But deep within she knew Jade was in trouble and needed her help. She had to go and look for her, find her and help her. There was no other way.
Work forgotten, Diane stood, buttoned her coat and headed for the back door. Outside, she turned her back on the car and hurried to the street. She would leave the car for Ryan and get a bus.
A spattering of hail stung Diane’s cheeks as she stood at the bus stop, but she was beyond feeling anything physical. She boarded the first bus that stopped and huddled in a back seat. She didn’t know where it was heading, nor did she care. When she got off she started to walk, following a noisy group of teenagers, stopping when they stopped and walking when they did.
At last one of the youths turned and glared at her. ‘You want something, missus?’
Diane stopped. She couldn’t think straight, her mind was a jumble of questions about Jade. She wasn’t even sure why she had been following them. But they might know Jade.
‘Oh,’ she spluttered, ‘I thought you might know where Jade was. Do you?’
Several kids in the group sniggered and one of them made a circular motion with his finger to his forehead.
The youth shrugged his shoulders. ‘Don’t know no Jade, Missus.’ He followed the others who were already walking away.
Diane stood and watched them go, aware she’d made a fool of herself. What on earth was she doing here? She didn’t even know where here was. But her mind was fogged and she couldn’t think of any answers to the questions buzzing round her brain, nor could she marshal her thoughts sufficiently to find out where she was.
The street was quiet now the teenagers were gone, but Diane continued to walk until she emerged at the river front. To her left she could see a castle-like building jutting out into the water. She walked towards it, passing rows of houses on her left while the river flowed on her right.
She passed an old-fashioned red telephone box and a pole with a lifebelt attached. Rows of cars were parked angle on, facing the river; and in the distance, at the other side of the water, a small town. Tayport or Newport, she wasn’t sure which. Beyond the cars was a bench facing the river. She sat for a while looking out at the turbulent waves, before she rose and walked to the building that looked like a castle.
When she got to the castle she walked onto the pier beside it, and stared into the river. It seemed to beckon and she wondered how it would feel to submerge herself in it. Would it be pleasant or painful? Would she see her life passing before her eyes? Was her family right when they said Jade was dead, and was this the only way she would ever be able to join her?
Chapter Thirty-Two
Bill hunkered down to get a better look at the body. He hadn’t been able to shake off the feeling Paul Carnegie’s death was related to the murder of the John Doe in the Overgate car park, and he wanted to check something out. Now, looking at the green jade beads pressed into Paul’s eye sockets, he was sure.
‘Same signature.’ He stood up and looked over to Kate. ‘He’s got green beads stuck in his eyes.’
‘You didn’t touch anything, I hope.’
‘No, ma’am. I just looked.’ Bill suppressed his irritation. What the heck did she think he was? An amateur?
‘What about this computer? Mrs Fraser seemed to think she saw images of her daughter on the monitor.’ Kate frowned. ‘We’ll need to take it in for a better look.’
Bill took a paper handkerchief out of his pocket and nudged the mouse. Immediately the slide show started.
‘You contaminating my crime scene?’
Bill looked up. Colin, one of the SOCOs was standing in the doorway.
‘Damn, you might whistle when you come in. Those blasted bootees you wear don’t give any warning.’
‘Speaking of bootees, you should be wearing them as well. I hate to think how much contamination you’ve introduced to the scene, and I bet that mouse has your fingerprints all over it.’
‘Not guilty, I nudged it with this.’ Bill flapped the paper hankie in front of Colin. ‘Besides, you’ll find May Fraser’s prints all over it, she was watching the screen display when we arrived.’
Colin raised his eyebrows. ‘May Fraser?’
‘Yes, the woman who discovered the body.’
Colin groaned. ‘Is there anybody who hasn’t been in here before me?’ He stood back. ‘You’ll have to leave now and let me get on with my job.’
Bill shrugged and glanced at Kate who was out of Colin’s line of vision. She nodded, and with a bemused smile, emerged from behind the door.
‘Sorry, ma’am. I didn’t know you were here as well.’
‘I’ll need that computer sent to headquarters.’ Her voice was brisk, daring him to argue.
‘Sorry, ma’am. Anything we take from here goes for forensic examination.’
‘Oh, yes, and in the meantime a child dies while we wait for the lab boys to get their fingers out. I need that computer today. No arguments.’
Colin looked stunned. ‘But procedure . . . ’
‘Procedure be damned. Today. I want it today. And if it’s not at headquarters within the hour I’ll want to know the reason why.’ Kate turned her back on him and stalked out of the flat.
‘Phew! She’s a force to be reckoned with, I don’t envy you,’ he whispered to Bill.
Bill shrugged his shoulders and followed Kate outside. His respect for her had increased enormously following her treatment of Colin.
The wind gusted along the walkway, and he hurried to catch up with Kate who was leaning against the wall at the top of the stairwell. When he drew nearer she nodded to him, but continued to talk into her iPhone. ‘As soon as possible and take one of the constables with you,’ she said, ‘we need to get there before the press do.’ She lowered the phone and slipped it into her pocket.
‘I’ve instructed Sue to inform Mrs Carnegie of her son’s death, and now we’d better speak to Mrs Fraser,’ she said, as he joined her. ‘Find out exactly what she saw on that computer.’
Kate strode along the walkway, hands buried in her pockets.
Bill hurried to keep up with her. ‘What about his wife and family? I know they’re separated but they’ll need to know as well.’
‘It’s best you do that.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘But first, there’s Mrs Fraser.’ She stopped at a door and raised her hand to knock.
‘It’s the next one, ma’am.’
‘Oh!’ She drew her hand back before her knuckles made contact with the wood. Walking further along the walkway she halted outside the next door. ‘You sure this is the right one?’
‘Yes, ma’am. I’ve been here before.’
The door opened before Kate had time to knock.
‘I was watching for you,’ May Fraser said. ‘You better come in.’
The man watching the flat screen television ignored them, concentrating on an episode of Doctors and the can of beer in his hand. The dog on the sofa raised its head and growled. Bill could have sworn its fangs had grown and were even more yellow than the last time he’d been here. He noticed Kate giving it an anxious look.
‘D’you mind putting the dog in another room, Mrs Fraser.’
‘No need, he’s a big soft lump, he’ll no bother ye.’
Bill doubted that. He didn’t like the mean look in the dog’s eyes. ‘It’s not that,’ he said, hoping his mistrust of the dog wasn’t affecting his body language. Dogs were good at sensing fear. ‘It’s just that we need to concentrate on anything you have to tell us, and he’s a distraction.’
The man in the armchair snorted, but didn’t take his eyes off the television screen.
‘Aye, OK.’ May grabbed the dog’s collar and heaved him off the sofa.
The dog snarled.
‘Come on, Satan, into the kitchen with ye and get your dinner.’ She pulled him out of the room.
‘It would be helpful if you could turn the television off as well,’ Kate said.
The small man in the chair glared at her. ‘It’s my hoose and I’ll no have some jumped up wee wumman telling me what to do.’
Kate glared back. ‘If you want us to find your daughter you’ll do as I say.’
The man was the first to turn his eyes away. He mumbled, ‘Bloody pigs, it’s my hoose.’
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, turn the bloody box off.’ May strode into the room like a Valkyrie prepared for battle.
The man wilted at the force of her voice. ‘Aye, OK, love. Whatever you say.’
May turned back to Kate. ‘You said you’d find Megan.’
‘Yes, we’re working on that now, but first I need you to tell me how you found Paul Carnegie, and what you saw on his computer.’
‘I saw my Megan, that’s what I saw.’
‘Yes, but let’s start at the beginning. You found the body. Why did you go to his flat?’
‘I thought Megan might be there. He’d been giving her looks. I knew he liked her, and the silly wee besom lapped it up. I got it into my head she might be taking up with him, and I went along the landing to his flat to ask him. Well, when I got there his door was open. I thumped on it but nobody came, but I heard music so I went in. That’s when I found him lying on the floor. I knew he was dead. But I had a look around the flat in case my Megan was hiding, but she wasn’t.’
‘What did you do next?’
‘Well, I saw the red light on his computer flickering, and I knew if I moved that mouse thing it would come on. So I did that.’ May took a deep breath. ‘That’s when I saw the photos of these girls, one after the other, and then I saw my Megan among them. Some of them didn’t have any clothes on, and some of them were doing awful things. Things no kid should know about, never mind do.’
‘Megan.’ Kate prompted. ‘What were her photos like.’
‘Shots of her taken in her school clothes, and some when she was all dressed up, but the one that bothered me was where she was tied up in some kind of shed or cellar.’ A tear slipped down May’s cheek. ‘You’ve got to find her. She’s a good girl, she doesn’t deserve this.’
‘We’ll find her.’ Kate’s voice was grim. ‘We’re taking the computer in for examination so we can find out where she is.’
Bill nodded in agreement, although he had doubts about how much they might find out.
‘Is there anything else you can tell us?’ Kate placed her hand on May’s shoulder as the woman’s body shook with sobs.
‘I did see someone going up to his flat yesterday about teatime, but she didn’t get him in.’
‘Can you describe her?’
‘She was wearing a hoodie. I didn’t get a clear look.’
‘Try to remember, anything would be a help.’
‘Couldn’t see the colour of her hair but she was definitely a woman.’
‘Young? Old?’
‘Maybe about my age, slim, nice looking. That’s about it.’
Bill glanced at Kate wondering if she’d made the connection. But how could she miss it? A middle-aged woman, looking for Paul Carnegie. It could only have been Diane.