Abandoned (20 page)

This didn’t sit well with Georgie, who already suspected that she was in over her head, but she trusted Taylor, and reluctantly agreed to his request. They gathered the woman’s belongings and returned to the hotel where Georgie was staying and informed the woman that she would not be able to leave until she received instructions that it was safe to do so.

***

Taylor went to work by himself the next day as Georgie decided to take the day off and find out as much information as she could from the woman. He made up an excuse on her behalf to the Chief Inspector and told him that he had a couple of leads to follow up on regarding the death of Brian Jenkins. Messenger was by this point starting to become extremely impatient with
Taylor and threatened to replace him as lead detective on the case as he suggested that he wasn’t up to the job. Taylor did his best to reassure him that he was, and convinced Messenger to give him another few weeks to try and locate the missing Jonathon McMullen, as they had managed to rule out all the other names on the list they had received of all the children that ever stayed with the Beatties.

Taylor addressed his team and asked if there had been any recent developments on the case and, more importantly, in the search for Jonathon McMullen. Everybody was baffled; there were just no leads on his existence, let alone whereabouts turning up. Taylor knew that he was running out of time before the killer struck again, it could be weeks or even days. If only they knew who his next target was going to be, then he might just be able to catch him in the act by having around the clock surveillance on the intended victim. But once again he knew that he could not put that suggestion forward. He just knew that it was probably going to be someone on his list!

As a frustrated Taylor made his way into his office he received a phone call from one of the forensic experts involved in all of the recent deaths.

‘Detective Taylor?’ the voice on the end of the phone asked.

‘Yes? Can I help you?’

‘Maybe quite the opposite, Detective. I’m thinking I might be able to help you.’

‘How so?’ Taylor asked.

‘Well, Detective, my name is Frank Sinclair, and I am one of the leading forensic experts that attended at the scene of not only Amber Thompson’s body, but the bodies of James Beattie and Brian Jenkins also.’

Taylor’s interest was roused. ‘Please tell me you’ve got something good for me?’

‘Well, I believe that one of my colleagues has told you already that we picked up a partial foot print on the river bank where Amber’s body was discovered?’

‘Yes, yes, go on.’

‘Well we also managed to get a footprint from the home of Mr Jenkins due to the amount of blood that was on the floor. And I can now confirm that they are the same size eleven, and exactly identical shoe patterns, which probably confirms that the two murders was committed by the same lone attacker.’

Taylor immediately started to feel deflated at being told something he already knew. ‘Is that it?’

‘Actually no detective, if you let me finish, I was just about to get to the good part!’

‘Which is?’ he pressed.

‘We also managed to get a partial finger print from the door knob at Haywood farm, which isn’t that of Mr Beattie. And that’s not all — we also managed to find a hair fibre near to where the body was found that doesn’t belong to the victim.’

Taylor thanked the man and told him to get back in touch as soon as the two pieces of evidence had been analysed, and let him know if they manage to present a match. Taylor then immediately left his office and was heading towards Chief Inspector Messenger’s to let him know of this recent discovery, but stopped as he approached, deciding against informing his senior. If he was to identify the man responsible he wanted to question him first, before Messenger could take over proceedings and possibly collapse the case Taylor was building against him.

***

It was an anxious wait over the next twenty-four hours as he expected to hear back from Frank Sinclair over the analysis of the evidence, but Taylor was soon elated as he received the phone call stating that they had got a match on the fingerprint, but the hair fibre was unhelpful as it belonged to a bovine animal.

‘The match we have on the fingerprint belongs to a Mr Charles Lee. I hope that can help you in your enquiries
and you manage to find the sick bastard behind these murders, Detective. In all my years in forensics, I have never witnessed anything like that of the discovery at Haywood farm.’

Taylor agreed and assured Frank that he would keep him updated on any progress it might lead to, before hanging up and going to his team and quietly asking them to get any details on a Mr Charles Lee that lived or worked in the local area, but to keep it between them at this moment in time as it might not be any use at all.

Got you! One of his staff gave him the details on Mr Charles Lee and continued to tell him that he was a local veterinarian in Carlisle and handed him not only the address of his practice, but his home address also.

***

Meanwhile back at the hotel, Georgie was gathering loads of evidence on the people behind the abuse from the cooperating victim. She had dates, times, places and now names of the people involved after carefully studying the photos over and over again. Georgie could not believe that these so-called “respectable” figures in the community operated at the highest levels inside the network. She was just about to call Taylor and inform him of the in depth of the knowledge she had managed to gain when he actually called her.

Before she could tell him what she had discovered, he excitedly blurted out, ‘I think we’ve fucking got him, Georgie!’

‘Jonathon McMullen? You mean you’ve managed to find him?’ she asked, totally forgetting everything she was about to tell him.

‘Possibly Georgie, except this guy’s name is Charles Lee. He’s a local veterinarian and knows the area, but also, the forensic team managed to pick up a partial fingerprint from Beattie’s door handle and it matched his!’

He then informed her that he needed her to accompany him to go and question Charles Lee immediately, so she
would have to leave the woman alone in her hotel room for a few hours. This news didn’t go down too well with the witness when Georgie relayed this information to her, but Georgie reassured her that everything would be fine and that she would be back within a couple of hours.

As Georgie made her way down the foyer and out towards the car park, she was so absorbed in her own thoughts and anxieties about the man she was going to interview with Taylor, that she totally failed to notice Chief Inspector Messenger waiting patiently outside. Unbeknownst to Taylor and Georgie, Chief Inspector Messenger had been running his own investigations ever since the death of James Beattie. Just as Taylor had kept records on Brian Jenkins’ calls and internet activity, Messenger had been monitoring Taylor’s activities and knew exactly what they had been up to. He could not let their evidence become public, and so he’d waited. Finally his opportunity had come; Georgie had left the witness alone and vulnerable. He knew what he had to do.

***

As Taylor and Georgie made their short journey to Charles’ practice, Georgie gave him her theory on it all, stating how it all made perfect sense; Mr Lee was a veterinarian, he would have access to Ketamine, which was found at Amber Thompson’s post mortem. Also he would have an in depth knowledge of the areas in which the murders had taken place. And when Taylor told her that his home address was situated in the Scottish borders, this confirmed things even more, due to the disappearance of Lucy Mitchell from Gretna. The fact that James Beattie was murdered on his own farm only solidified this theory. There were just two things that did not add up. Why the girls? And what of the main suspect Jonathon McMullen?

Charles instantly recognised the detective and his assistant from the news and papers as he caught a glimpse of them from his office window getting out of their car and making their way towards the practice.
Sheer panic and a sense of impending dread took control of him as he sat and waited for Linda to show them through. He could not understand how they had managed to find him, as he had been so careful to cover his tracks. He thought about making a run for it, but knew this would only add to his guilt. Instead all he could do was straighten himself up and try to play it cool and just see exactly what they knew.

Linda showed the two of them to Charles’ office and knocked before entering, explaining to her boss how the two had come to ask him a few questions. Charles looked up from where he sat and politely invited them to make their way inside and take a seat. He then thanked Linda and asked her if she wouldn’t mind preparing some coffee for the visitors, immediately putting on the charm offensive, all the while secretly scared to death about what would happen next.

As Linda made her way out of his office, Taylor thanked Charles for the offer of coffee and also for taking the time to speak with them and try and help them with their enquiries. The first thing Georgie noticed was the scar that ran along Charles’ jaw line and she discreetly made Taylor aware of it also, taking them back to their first meeting and her initial profiling of the suspect.

‘So, how may I be of assistance, Detective…?’

‘Taylor, it’s Taylor.’

‘Yes, right, Detective Taylor.’

‘Yes, and this is my partner, Detective Riley.’

Charles instantly picked up on this lie, as he knew exactly who she was, and knew that she wasn’t a detective, but chose to go along with the lie to avoid suspicion.

‘Like I was saying, how may I be of assistance to you?’

‘We were wondering how well you knew one of the recent victims in a murder case we are currently investigating. Mr James Beattie, to be more precise?’

‘Ah yes, Mr Beattie, I heard of his tragic death on the local news. I hope you can find the person responsible, Detectives.’

‘We’re working on it, Mr Lee, I can assure you of that. So did you know the victim at all then, Charles? You don’t mind if I call you Charles do you?’

‘Not at all, Detective Taylor. I prefer it, it makes things a lot less formal.’ Charles did not know how else to respond as he couldn’t be sure how much they knew at this point, if anything at all.

Taylor, sensing his hesitance then added, ‘The thing is, Mr Lee, our team of forensic experts have discovered a fingerprint which belongs to you at the scene of the crime, and we are just looking to find out if there was a reason for this?’

Charles’ hands were clammy at this point. What excuse could he offer as to his print being found? How could this have happened? He’d specifically remembered to put on his surgical gloves before entering. Then all of a sudden he remembered being at the farm a few months before, which immediately started to calm his nerves as he knew this would give him an explanation. He knew he had a record of the visit and a copy of the invoice he sent to Jim to back this up. His nerves instantly started to settle, and he composed himself before explaining to the pair how he had visited Mr Beattie’s farm a few months earlier to tend to one of his cows, and that Mr Beattie had invited him inside of his home and made him coffee and thanked him for his work. He further added that he had not seen the man before that day, or had any further contact with him since. He then confidently pulled out a copy of his records from his filing cabinet, confirming what he had just told them. He went on to state that Mr Beattie was a very welcoming, friendly old man that did not strike him as the kind of man who would have any enemies that would want him dead. Taylor’s elation soon dissipated as what he was told made perfect sense, and with no other concrete evidence to put forward against Charles, he accepted that they had the wrong man at this point and thanked Charles for his time and explained that they may need to speak to him again at some point, but as for now that was all.

‘Just one more thing, Detective…’ Charles said, as his inquisitive narcissistic mind took over as they made their way towards the door.

‘What’s that, Charles?’ Taylor replied.

‘It just occurred to me, you said that you discovered a fingerprint that matched mine at the scene. How is this even possible given the fact that I have never been in trouble with the police or broken a law to my knowledge in my entire life?’

‘I believe you are an ex-military man, Charles, is that correct?’

‘Yes, that is correct, Detective. What does that have anything to do with this?’ Charles asked, confused as to where this was leading.

‘I also believe you spent a bit of time in the Glass House before you left?’ Taylor asked him, letting him know in doing so that he had done his homework on him.

‘Ah, now I get it.’ The penny had finally dropped: his time in military prison had caught up with him.

‘Yes Charles, even our minor discrepancies of our youth come back to haunt us at some point.’

Charles could only offer a faint laugh as he replied, ‘Indeed they do, Detective, indeed they do.’

How could he have forgotten that? He mentally kicked himself for being so unusually careless as they left the practice.

***

Taylor’s frustrations were running high as he gave Georgie a lift back to the station, and he became snappy towards her for no other reason than this frustration.

‘That was another fucking waste of time, and we’re still no closer to finding Jonathon McMullen! Please tell me you managed to get something good from our witness for God’s sake?’

‘I did, but I’ll get back to that. In the meantime — and I don’t mean to be rude — but are you totally overlooking the obvious, Taylor?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Did you not see the way in which Charles squirmed when you mentioned the fingerprint at Beattie’s farm? Or his scar? Also, did you not see the way he looked at us? I got the impression he knew exactly who we are, yet chose not to question you when you introduced me as Detective Riley.’

‘We can’t go off your gut feeling though can we, Georgie!’ Taylor said, frustrated. ‘The fact is, that Charles has a valid reason for being at the farm, and there is absolutely no motive at this point that we know of to suggest otherwise.’