Woman in Black (6 page)

After leaving that first hand, the killer had watched the television, listened to the radio and kept an eye on the major Internet news sites for two whole days. Things had gone pretty well. A bit more prominence would have been nice but perhaps that would come in time. The key thing was the police didn’t have a clear picture; they had a good enough image to get them excited and put the photos out to the public but nothing specific to go on.

It felt so satisfying when all the hard work paid off. The endless mornings and evenings of mingling in all those crowds had worked out. The practice runs of walking through the square, gently angling away from the various cameras, had been worth it. The killer thought that if all the other locations turned out this well, they really would be in the clear.

The killer picked up the evening paper and looked at the enlarged CCTV image on page five. Even the nickname was brilliant.

‘The Woman in Black’.

The killer thought it was almost a shame that wasn’t what they had christened themselves. A calling card would have been good with that name written on it, although perhaps it would have been overkill. Using a put-on American accent, they played with the words. ‘The Wom-an in Bah-lackkkkk,’ they said out loud, extending the final word. A big grin appeared on the person’s face; it really was a terrific moniker.

It only took a few moments for the smile to fade and the killer quickly felt sickened by their own flippancy. There was a real purpose to everything that had and was going to happen. The coverage had so far been decent and the nickname was a massive bonus but that was no reason to forget the reason behind it all.

Annoyed with themselves, they put the paper down and opened the lid of their laptop. Sending the finger had been a late addition to the scheme. At first they had just thought leaving the hands would be enough but the plan needed something a little extra to really draw the police in. It would have helped in advance if the killer had known which officer to send the finger to but hopefully it would have arrived with the right person.

The killer skimmed through the same news sites as they had that afternoon looking for a name. Most of the places directed witnesses to call a number but that was far too general. It took a while but eventually the name of a specific officer was found; Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel had spoken to a radio station about ‘the woman in black’ that afternoon and her quotes were now on the news section of their site.

Using a search engine, the killer looked up Sergeant Daniel. There was a photo of her on the police’s website and a few interesting articles from the past few years. She had certainly been involved in a couple of interesting cases. Nodding as they read, the killer knew this woman would be their main point of contact from now on. There was something quite nice about it all – this woman up against ‘the woman in black’. As long as the plan was stuck to and all the other locations were scouted as extensively as the first few, the killer knew there was only ever going to be one winner but it should be interesting. They hoped Ms Daniel was up to the task of unravelling all the information she would need to. From everything the online news archives said about her, she certainly seemed capable.

With everything in place, the killer closed the computer down and stood. They walked upstairs to pack the right shoes and the outfit and then made the journey to the storage unit that was such an integral part of the plan.

The trip didn’t take too long and the killer had been careful to visit regularly even before any bodies had been left there. The routine was important just in case the security officers present actually paid attention, which they never seemed to.

After entering the unit, the killer opened the lid of the large chest freezer. The size of it had initially been important just in case entire bodies needed to be kept in there but it had been easier than the killer thought to dispose of the bits that weren’t needed; the heads and torsos would never be found.

As the steam rose from the ice, the figure gave a slight shiver as they reached in with their gloves to pull out the frozen hand. The finger had already been removed and sat snugly next to where the appendage had been placed. That would go in the post to Ms Daniel in the next day or so but, for now, the hand had to be left and location two was an absolute belter.

The killer thought of Sergeant Daniel and remembered the reason everything was happening. ‘See you soon,’ they said to no one in particular.

SIX

Jessica sat in Cole’s office for the morning briefing trying to listen to what he was saying but constantly finding her mind drifting. It had been twenty-four hours since a second hand had been found in St Peter’s Square, again with the ring finger missing. Whoever was leaving them was going out of their way to find Manchester’s most public spots and Jessica couldn’t figure out what was going on.

‘Jessica? Sergeant?’ Cole was speaking.

‘Sorry, I don’t…’ Jessica mumbled.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes, I was just thinking about the hand.’ Jessica didn’t want to admit it but the finger that arrived in the post had troubled her more than she wanted to let on. At the time she had been so engrossed in having January in reception and trying to shield the object from view that it hadn’t really sunk in what had happened. Someone had cut a human hand off and left it in a public place, then sent them a finger as if to emphasise the point. Then, within days, a second hand had been left. Jessica had dreamed of the finger for two nights in a row and the squelching sound it made as it fell to the floor. She generally thought of herself as having a strong stomach for the job but, for whatever reason, it was getting to her.

Cole was sitting behind his desk with Jessica, Reynolds and Cornish in three chairs across from him. The office hadn’t changed much from when DCI Farraday had occupied it the year before. Two of the walls were glass-fronted, the others decorated with various photos, awards and certificates.

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Cole added.

‘Yes, no worries.’

‘Okay, well, I know Jason and Louise have been elsewhere so I wanted to catch everyone up to where we are. Our resources are pretty stretched at the moment. Jessica?’

Reynolds had just told the room that the investigation into Christine Johnson’s disappearance was going nowhere. They’d had no useful tip-offs and no idea where she had gone. The media attention her case was getting was detracting from Jessica’s and she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing.

‘Yes, sorry,’ Jessica said. ‘As you know we discovered a second hand just outside of the town hall on St Peter’s Square yesterday. There were no fingerprints or anything else found on the first hand and we’re still waiting for any results back on the second. We have no idea who either of them belong to. Each hand had its ring finger cut off. The finger belonging to the first was mailed here but we’re yet to receive anything from the second.’

Jessica paused for breath. The DI and DCI were both watching her but Louise was looking at the frames on the wall. ‘Our only lead is CCTV images of the person who left it,’ Jessica continued. ‘We know it was someone wearing a black cape who, given their height, shape and the fact they were wearing low heels, we’re pretty sure is a woman. We have no clear photos of the person’s face but it seems obvious whoever it is knows where the cameras are.’

‘When are the test results due on the second hand?’ Reynolds asked.

‘Any time now, I guess. I thought it might have been this morning. I’m not really expecting much though – whoever left these knew exactly what they were doing.’

‘Any suspects?’ he added.

‘As many as you’ve got for your disappearing act,’ Jessica replied with a wink. ‘There was a woman, Vicky Barnes, whose son Lewis went missing a month ago. The mother reckons her lad’s girlfriend, January, owns a black cape like the one in the camera footage. The girl has a record for DV but the hand didn’t belong to her boyfriend. She’s been bailed but there’s no reason to associate her with anything really.’

‘What about the finger that arrived?’ Reynolds asked.

‘All we know is that it belonged to the first hand. There were no fingerprints or skin samples or anything on the envelope. Well, except for mine.’ Jessica looked sideways towards Cole but he didn’t react. ‘We know it was sent through a local post box but there was no saliva or anything on the stamps.’

‘Were they those self-adhesive ones?’ Cornish asked, acknowledging Jessica for the first time.

‘Yes, Royal Mail have really screwed us with those things. At least with the old lickable ones, the stupider criminals would give themselves away. Either way, we have nothing. The address was printed out. We’ve asked the labs to look into specific types of ink and printers, which they’ve said they’ll do but the guy I spoke to said there’s very little chance of finding anything that could be unique. We…’

Jessica was interrupted by the phone ringing on Cole’s desk. He held his hand up to indicate for her to stop talking and then answered it. Jessica thought he was as disconcertingly calm on the phone as he was in the field. All she could hear from the one half of the conversation was a series of ‘yes’, ‘okay’ and ‘I see’ responses. It could have been his wife calling to ask what he wanted for tea or the Prime Minister phoning to talk about a serious domestic terrorist incident. Either way he kept a perfectly straight face.

When he put the phone down, he scratched his chin and looked directly at Jessica. ‘That was your test result.’

‘Did they find anything?’

‘Actually they did but I’m not sure it’s what you would be expecting.’

Jessica felt her heart jump slightly. ‘What?’

‘The second hand belongs to Lewis Barnes.’

Jessica was speechless for a moment. She stared at her boss, who met her eyes. ‘Really? How do they know?’

‘They already had a swab from his mother to test the first hand. The person I spoke to said the DNA samples were stored in the same file so it automatically threw up the match.’

Jessica pushed back her chair and stood quickly, confused and excited in equal measures. ‘We’re going to have to go and pick up January. We let her go but she’s the only suspect we’ve got. She’s even got the bloody cape.’

She knew she was speaking too quickly. All she could think about was the fact they had let the girl go. It wasn’t anyone’s mistake as they had no reason to keep her but the media and ultimately the public wouldn’t see it like that if it turned out January was involved. A lot of things didn’t make sense, such as the fact she would have been released and then gone back to the streets to leave the hand, but that could all be figured out once she was returned to custody.

Cole’s demeanour hadn’t altered and Jessica struggled not to be frustrated by his steady voice. She wanted to shout as if it would make things happen quicker. He was perfectly calm as he spoke. ‘If you take a team to her flat to pick her up, I’ll apply for a warrant to search her property. Bring her back for questioning but leave an officer there to wait for the Scene of Crime team to arrive.’

Jessica didn’t need telling twice. She turned and raced down the stairs two at a time, feeling the adrenaline flowing through her. Once they had January in the cells they could try to connect her to the first hand, even though they didn’t yet know who it belonged to.

Jessica dashed through to the main floor and first found DC Diamond. ‘Iz, are you busy?’

‘A bit, not really.’

‘I need you to start looking at something. On our list of missing persons is the name “Lewis Barnes”. Find out what you can about him – where he’s worked, where he went to school – that type of thing, then check that information against anyone else registered as missing. The second hand belongs to him and I’d be stunned if there wasn’t a connection to the first.’

Izzy took the request in her stride. ‘Is there anything I’m looking for specifically?’

‘A man between twenty-five and thirty-five. Lewis was thirty, so anyone he went to school with would be the same age. Don’t worry about women and don’t worry about former or current workmates who are much older or younger. Use whatever officers you need as long as they’re not trying to track down Christine Johnson. That’s the priority around here but anyone else is fair game.’

Jessica had only worked with her for a short while but knew Izzy was the type of officer who would get things done. After the conversation, she grabbed Rowlands plus some uniformed officers who were milling around, including the one who had chased down and caught January a few days before. They again took two marked cars to the woman’s flat but, unlike their previous visit, this time they used the sirens and flashing lights.

Jessica sat in the passenger seat as one of the uniformed officers drove but barely waited for the car to stop before opening the door and dashing towards January’s front door. Members of the public who were visiting the adjacent shop stopped to watch as she hammered on the front door. The other officers caught her up as she knocked aggressively for a second time.

Rowlands caught her eye as he arrived. ‘Bit of déjà vu, this.’

Jessica ignored him, taking her phone out from her suit jacket pocket. ‘Come on, answer,’ she muttered irritably as it rang. Cole soon picked up. Before he could say anything, Jessica jumped in. ‘Did you get the warrant?’

Cole spluttered slightly at her abruptness. ‘Not yet. We’re talking to a magistrate now, it shouldn’t be long. What’s going on?’

‘She’s either not in or not answering.’

‘Well, stay there, it won’t be long, I’ll call you back.’ Jessica hung up.

‘Can we go in?’ one of the uniformed officers asked.

Jessica didn’t think twice. ‘Yes, break it down.’

She had no doubt the warrant would be granted but didn’t want to wait the ten minutes it might take. She could feel Rowlands peering at her but didn’t move to meet his stare, instead standing back to give the officer room. If the door proved to be a problem they would request a tactical entry team, who would bring tools such as a battering ram to help them enter. From their first visit, Jessica had seen the door was made of thin wood and didn’t think they’d have any issues getting in.