Abandoned (16 page)

***

As the pair of them prepared to leave the farm in the hands of the arriving forensic team, Taylor can’t help but notice that the dead man he now knows as Mr James Beattie
appeared to have bulging cheeks — and not just from the gag which was pushed to the front of his mouth. He leant down to take a closer look and took out a pen from his jacket pocket with his gloved hand. Slowly, carefully, he placed the pen in the man’s mouth to try to prise open his jaw and gain an insight as to what it may contain. As the mouth opened, the detective reeled back in horror as the man’s once-attached genitalia flopped out and dropped onto the floor in front of him. All he could do is cover his mouth with his hand; this was unlike anything he had ever witnessed before. He swiftly stood upright and passed over this information to the forensic experts before he and Georgie made their way out of the house, towards their waiting car. Taylor spoke only to tell one of the police officers outside to get a full, detailed statement from the neighbour who had made the call, and also instructed them to knock on all the surrounding properties and find out if anybody had witnessed anything.

***

As they pulled away from the farm and made their way back towards Carlisle, Taylor turned to Georgie.

‘I sure could do with a drink after seeing that! Care to join me?’

She too needed a drink and somewhere to sit and ponder over what had just occurred, at least to try and figure out what it all meant and, more importantly, what led to Mr Beattie’s gruesome end.

She nodded. ‘Sure, it might do us both some good.’

Taylor then took his colleague back to the hotel where she was staying and parked the car, and both headed inside and towards the bar area.

Georgie asked Taylor, ‘What will it be? I’ll get these in’.

Taylor liked her more and more by the minute. ‘I’ll have a brandy please Georgie, and make it a large one would you?’

‘Coming right up,’ she informed him.

She casually strolled towards the bar, leaving Taylor
to find somewhere for them to sit. He couldn’t help but cast his eyes over her slender frame and pert behind as he watched her approach the bar.

He pulled out his phone and proceeded to send his wife a text message informing her that he might not be home till late this evening, as a new lead had come up at work. All lies, of course. He had always fancied himself as a bit of a womaniser, and had already indulged in a number of pre-marital affairs behind his wife’s back; he was hoping tonight may lead to something happening between him and the beautiful new colleague assigned to him, as he was convinced he had sensed a chemistry between them.

He quickly put the phone away as she made her return from the bar with their drinks. She lounged back into her chair with a sigh, mentally drained after such an intense day, her head spinning.

The pair of them sat for the next couple of hours drinking and engaging in general conversation, anything to try and get their minds off the day’s events, and spoke about trivial and mundane things instead. The later it became, and the more the drink flowed, the conversation inevitably became more relaxed and now relatively loosened due to the alcohol consumption, the topic of sex came up when Georgie asked about his wife. Taylor palmed her off with some half-arsed story about him and his wife drifting apart and only staying together out of habit, and that it was a loveless marriage.

‘I’m more interested as to why such an intelligent, beautiful, young woman like you is still single…?’

Georgie blushed at his flattery and thanked him for his kind words, placing her hand on his as she did so. Her touch lingered just that little bit too long, deliberately giving him the green light to continue, as she too had started to develop an attraction to him. Even though she knew it was wrong as he was a married man, and it went against her morals, she had a weakness for men in authority; even though she sometimes didn’t like his arrogance, she could not help but find his commitment
and drive a turn on.

Taylor didn’t need any further encouragement and thought it was time to flirtatiously test the water. ‘Well, I suppose I’d better be making my way home and let you get your beauty sleep — not that you need it, I might add.’

He pulled his car keys out of his pocket.

‘You aren’t in any fit state to be driving anywhere tonight, mister!’ she fired back at him, then playfully snatched the keys from his hand.

By this point he knew his cunning plan had worked and was just waiting for her to offer her bed for the night. ‘Well, what else do you suggest?’ he asked coyly.

‘Well,’ she says, ‘there is option A, where you could call a cab and I will bring your car into work tomorrow, which could potentially pose some questions and suspicious looks. Or, there is option B.’

‘Which is?’ he asked her before she even had chance to finish what she was saying.

‘We could stay down here and have another couple of drinks and put the world to rights, but seeing as it looks as though the bar staff are gearing up to close for the night, we could grab a bottle of wine or two, and maybe head up to my room for a night cap before you book into one of the other rooms for the night. What do you reckon?’

He thought about this for a few seconds, trying to figure out how he would explain it to his wife, then decided to take her up on her offer. Excusing himself, he left for the bathroom and rang his wife to inform her that he won’t be home at all now, as he and his team would be working through the night to try and solve the case. She knew this case was the biggest of his career so decided not to question him, even though she knew he was probably lying; she had just kind of accepted her husband for the man that he was, choosing to live in blissful ignorance rather than face the truth.

Upon his return, Georgie flashed him a smile as she raised her hands, showing him she had already got the wine, then led him to her room. They both knew what was going to happen as they staggered and swayed
along the corridor and up the stairs towards where she was staying, but in an alcohol fuelled state they couldn’t see past their lust and think how it may affect their professional relationship. They had barely finished their first glass of wine in the room before they were tearing off each other’s clothes and making passionate love to one another, totally lost in the euphoria of the moment. Taylor never did book into another room that night, as by the time they had finished they had both fell asleep in her bed in a sweaty mess, totally exhausted.

***

Georgie was the first to wake early the following morning; her head was pounding from the effects of the alcohol and she was blurry eyed due to lack of sleep. God, please let it all have been a dream. She nervously rolled over and freaked out when she saw Taylor still fast asleep beside her. She then peeked under the duvet; her thoughts of last night’s events were confirmed when she saw that they were both still fully undressed.

She made her way out of the bed and towards the bathroom, picking her way through the numerous items of clothing strewn across the hotel room floor. As she closed the bathroom door behind her, she sat on the toilet with her head held in her hands. What had she done? She could not believe that she had potentially destroyed a marriage, and promised herself that she would not let anything like this ever happen again. She stepped into the shower and cleansed herself of any evidence of last night’s actions ever taking place.

Back in the bedroom, Taylor was also starting to regain his senses and, although he felt guilty for deceiving his wife, he’d actually really enjoyed the previous night and hoped it may develop into something more regular. He was taken aback as Georgie returned from the bathroom draped only in a towel that wrapped around her slender frame, with her hair still soaking wet and dripping down her front as she picked up a brush and started to run
it through her sodden locks. Taylor glanced up at her sheepishly; as his eyes met hers he could tell that she was remorseful as she immediately disengaged from his gaze and looked at the floor.

‘Last night should never have happened,’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t know what came over me. You are married and I feel like a complete and utter bitch! Please can we forget that last night ever happened and get back to being just colleagues? I don’t want this to affect our working relationship.’

Taylor could sense her genuine sincerity and remorse and, although he was somewhat disappointed, he agreed. He scooped up his underwear from beside the bed and made his way past Georgie and towards the bathroom to shower himself.

***

The pair of them made their separate ways to work that morning so as to avoid any awkward questioning or suspicion. They simply nodded knowingly at each other and greeted each other with a ‘good morning’ as they met at the headquarters of the investigation.

Taylor rallied his team together to see if any more information had come to light in the wake of Mr Beattie’s murder, and also in the investigation into the three girls. He addressed his team.

‘Right, this is what we know. Due to yesterday’s discovery, it is looking very much a possibility that the case with the dead farmer, Mr Beattie, and the case of Amber Thompson may possibly be related due to the exact same way in which their limbs were bound together. Although the M.O. does not match up with the previous three girls’ disappearances, it is looking as though we are faced with the very real possibility that this is the work of a serial killer. And the likelihood is that he
will
strike again.’

He paused for effect as members of the team around him shuffled uncomfortably.

‘I want to know everything there is to know about
James Beattie — anything that might give us some indication of why he was brutally killed. His lifestyle, his family, his friends, anything that can maybe shed some light on why he could have become the victim. And as far as the press, or anybody else for that matter, is concerned, we are investigating the two cases separately and there is no obvious connection between them. The last thing we need is more nationwide media coverage and speculation over the issue, and not to mention mass hysteria in the local community if they were to believe that a serial killer is on the loose!’

Taylor dismissed his staff, letting them return to what they had been previously been doing. He then looked at Georgie.

‘You come with me.’

There was an awkward silence between the two of them as they made their way downstairs and out into the car park towards Taylor’s waiting car. As they entered the vehicle, Taylor just had to get the elephant out of the room and assured Georgie that he wholeheartedly agreed with what she had told him earlier. He was lying, of course, as he undoubtedly wanted a repeat performance, but did not want her to resign her services as he knew he was much more likely to solve the case with her expertise. She could see right through his comments but just chose to nod in agreement and assured him that from now on until the case is over she would conduct herself professionally at all times. The pair of them finally became more relaxed.

‘Where are you taking me?’ Georgie asked.

‘We’re going to see Minister Davies from Carlisle Cathedral to try and get an understanding of the meaning behind the message the killer left for us on the wall at the murder scene. He has agreed to meet with us this morning to try and assist us with any of our questions.’

She agreed that this was probably a good idea, and they left the station car park and made their way to see the minister. When they arrived they were greeted by the clergyman. Details of James Beattie’s murder were yet to be released to the press, so Minister Davies had no idea why the detective and his colleague had arranged to meet with him; all Taylor had told him over the phone was that he needed some help deciphering a biblical verse and its meaning. The minister welcomed the two of them into his private chambers, offered them a seat and exchanged pleasantries. Finally, they got down to business.

‘So, what exactly can I do for you today?’ the clergyman asked.

Taylor removed his notebook from his jacket pocket and opened it to the page where he had written down
the quote word for word. ‘Can you explain the meaning behind the words and where they came from?’

As Minister Davies read the words he knew instantly that they were from the King James Version of the Bible. It was a passage from Levictus 20:13. He just didn’t know why they would bring it to him instead of just typing the verse into a search engine to find the source and meaning.

His curiosity was now excited and he couldn’t help himself from asking, ‘What is this in relation to, Detective?’

‘Would it make a difference?’ Taylor replied.

The minister knew full well that he is not being given the full picture. ‘Well, actually, it would make a massive difference if it was taken out of context! What I mean by that is that first and foremost this is a direct quote from the Bible, more specifically the King James Version, which in itself has more of a hellfire and damnation feel about it. Secondly, you would not be bringing this to me just to explain this to you unless it was directly related to something I may be able to help you with.’

‘For example?’ Taylor asked.

The minister was extremely confident now that the detective wasn’t being exactly forthright with him. ‘Proof-texting by any chance?’ he said, in a manner that showed Taylor that he had a fairly good idea of why he had arranged to meet with him.

Taylor was unfamiliar with this term, but before he could ask the minister to elaborate, Georgie quickly chirped in.

‘Oh yes, of course! The art of taking verses and passages from the Bible and twisting the meanings to suit yourself, or something along those lines. Why didn’t I think of that? We learnt about that in our third year of study at university. I can’t believe I didn’t remember.’

She knew exactly why she hadn’t remembered, and that it was because she had been riddled with guilt all morning thinking about what had happened the night before, but now it was all starting to make sense.

‘You’re almost right,’ the minister says to Georgie.