Wrong Place: A gripping serial killer crime thriller. (5 page)

“It’s like this, Liz—I’m afraid I have some bad news. Maddie’s body was found down by the river. I’d rather not go into detail right now, not in front of your daughter.”

Liz collapsed against the worktop and placed a hand over her face. “Body? You mean she’s
dead
?”

“Yes. Can you tell us where she worked? You mentioned an evening shift somewhere.”

“That’s right, she was a barmaid at the Wellington Arms in Connaught Road. Oh my, I can’t believe it. Was it some kind of accident? A hit-and-run perhaps?”

“No. She was murdered.”

Liz dropped into one of the spare chairs with a thump, and Sally asked Jack to take over making the drink. Tears misted the woman’s eyes. She reached for her daughter’s hand and lightly grasped it in her own. “Murdered,” she whispered eventually. “How? Why? Who would do that to Maddie?”

“I’d rather not go into the gruesome details just now. I was wondering if you knew anyone she might have been having problems with? Maybe an eager customer at the pub she might have mentioned during a conversation.”

“Not that I can remember. She broke up with her fiancé several months ago after she caught him in bed with someone else.”

“Can you give me his name?”

“Terry Dolan. He works as a mechanic at the local Ford garage. Or he did, the last I heard anyway. You can’t be thinking he would do this to her?”

“It’s something we need to check up on, if only to eliminate him from our enquiries. Did they part on bad terms? Has Maddie seen him since the break-up?”

“Not that I know of. She would have mentioned it to me if she had.” Liz gasped and covered her mouth.

“What is it, Liz?”

“Her mum. Have you told her mum yet?”

“No, this is our first stop. Is there something we should be aware of?”

Jack placed a cup on the table in front of the two ladies, then took his seat and pulled out his notebook.

“Glynis is in ill-health. She has a frail heart. This news is likely to kill her. Oh, shit! Her dad died only last year from a bad accident at work. He was a forklift driver. The bloody thing tipped up and crushed him. To this day, they have no idea how that could have happened. Now this!”

“Can you give us Glynis’s address? I promise to break the news to her gently. Is she under the doctor, do you know?”

“Yes, and a specialist at the hospital, too. Damn! Why Maddie, of all people? She’s such a caring girl.”

“That’s what I intend to find out. Has she complained about anyone showing her any form of attention recently, a customer at the pub, for instance?” Sally repeated to the bewildered woman.

“No, nothing that I can think of. She wasn’t interested in starting another relationship after what happened with Terry. She said men were all cheating bastards, and she wanted to have nothing more to do with them.”

“Well, something must have changed her mind. Unless someone pounced on her after her shift. Does she have a car? Or did she use public transport to get to work?”

“She could drive, but her last car fell apart with rust. Since then, she’s been taking the bus into work. One of the other members of staff usually gives her a lift home after her shift. Either that, or if her boss was in a good mood, he’d fork out for a taxi.”

“Thanks, we’ll look into that when we question her colleagues and her boss later. Are you sure you can’t think of anything else? Perhaps you’ve noticed someone hanging around in the road outside when you’ve been out shopping or taken the kids to school. Anything?”

“Like a stalker? No, I’m constantly on the lookout. You can’t be too careful these days, can you? Folk are just weird. Any excuse to ki—” She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

Sally rubbed the woman’s upper arm. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of such sad news. We need to get on with the investigation. I hate to leave you like this. Is there someone we can call to come and be with you?”

“No. I’ll be fine. Please, you go and find whoever did this.”

“We’ll call by Maddie’s mother’s house first. I don’t suppose you have an address for her?”

Confused, Liz’s eyes darted to certain areas of the room. “I’m trying to think where I jotted it down for emergencies.” She crossed the room to a bookshelf and pulled out a little red notebook. “Here you are.” She handed the slip of paper to Sally, who passed it on to Jack to transfer into his notebook.

“I don’t suppose Maddie gave you a key to her property?” Sally asked.

“Yes, how silly of me to forget that.”

The three adults and the child left the house by the back door and entered Maddie’s home. Sally glanced around and was surprised to see the home tidy. Not a plate or cup was out of place in the kitchen, and the lounge was immaculate, too. Liz crossed the room, hitched the baby in place on her hip, and searched the drawer in an oak cabinet along the back wall. “Here’s Maddie’s address book. Maybe this will help with your enquiries.”

Sally took the book and tucked it into her jacket pocket. “That’s excellent. We’ll work our way through it and see what we find. Thanks for all your help. My condolences once again.”

“Glad to be of help. Please catch the culprit soon.”

“We’ll do our very best, Liz.”

Jack followed Sally and Liz back through the house to the back door, which Liz locked after they left.

“I hate this part,” Jack complained the second they were seated and buckled up in the car.

“What part? Telling loved ones their relatives are dead?” The statement sounded blunter than Sally had intended it to come out.

“Yep.”

“It’s a good job the task always lands in my lap then, isn’t it? I can’t say I’m doing a bloody happy dance at the moment, either, Jack. Now we have to go and tell a grieving widow who is under the doctor that her daughter has been murdered. Shit happens, eh? Feel free to take over from me at any time during the next conversation, all right?”

“Your sarcasm can be so bloody caustic at times, boss. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Actually they had. But if her partner proceeded to aggravate her with daft comments, then surely she had every reason to be sardonic with her response.

They arrived at Mrs. Webster’s semi-detached house on the edge of the countryside, and after Sally introduced herself and her partner, a puzzled-looking Mrs. Webster welcomed them into her home.

“What can I do for you, Inspector?”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Webster. I have some bad news regarding your daughter.”

“My daughter? Has she done something illegal?” She clutched a hand to her chest, and her face rapidly drained of colour.

Sally inhaled a large breath. “No. It’s nothing like that… there’s no easy way to say this but tell you outright. Your daughter’s body was found early this morning.”

“Her…
body
?” The woman let out an agonising cry and collapsed on the floor.

Jack sprang into action, dug out his mobile, and called for an ambulance.

Sally dropped to the floor alongside Mrs. Webster. She felt the woman’s neck for a pulse but couldn’t find one. Then with her limited first-aid knowledge, she proceeded to carry out CPR. Sally knew her efforts were a waste of time as she saw the woman’s lips turn blue, but still, she pumped away until help showed up. A full ten minutes passed before the paramedics arrived.

Sally’s hands shook as she relayed what had happened. “I tried my best to save her.”

The first paramedic knelt beside the woman and tested her neck for a pulse. He looked up at his colleague. “She’s gone.”

Sally covered her face with her hands and Jack threw a comforting arm around her shoulder. “You did your best, Sally.”

She shrugged his arm off. “But it wasn’t good enough, was it?”

“Did she have any health problems, do you know?” the paramedic kneeling next to Mrs. Webster’s body asked.

“Yes, she was under the doctor. I guess the news I delivered was just too much for her to take.”

“What news?” the other paramedic asked.

“I just told her that her daughter’s body was found this morning.”

“Christ!” the kneeling paramedic said. “Poor woman. The shock must have killed her.”

Sally and Jack left the house, and Jack lit up a cigarette then forced Sally to take a puff.

She immediately started choking. “What are you trying to do? Kill me?” she spat at him after recapturing her breath and filling her lungs with some clean air.

He cringed. “Believe it or not, I was trying to help. Guess I forgot you don’t smoke.”

“Thanks. If you have any further bright ideas like that, kindly keep them to yourself. My throat feels like I’ve swallowed a cheese grater.”

“Okay, no need to go on about it, boss. What do we do now?”

“You mean do we move on from here and see if we can kill another of Maddie’s relatives with the news of both deaths?”

“I wouldn’t quite put it like that myself, but we’re going to have to break the news of Maddie’s and her mother’s deaths to another member of the family soon, aren’t we? We can’t just walk away as if nothing has happened.”

Sally pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and stood within a few inches of her partner. If he’d been a foot shorter, they would have been standing nose to nose. “Thanks, partner. I’m well aware of that. I’m going to contact the station, see if we can find another relative living in the area. In the meantime, we should set off and see if we can pick up any clues at the pub where Maddie worked. The Wellington Arms, wasn’t it?”

Glancing down at her, he nodded. “Yep. What about the boyfriend?”

“I’ll get the guys back at the station looking into his background while we’re at the Wellie.”

They made their way back to the car. Sally shuddered against a sudden breeze that arose just before they settled into the car. She rang the station, issued orders on what she expected from the team to DC Jordan Reid, and told him where they were en route to next. She hung up and stared ahead of her for a second or two.

Jack nudged her arm with his elbow. “Time’s getting on, boss. Do you want me to drive?”

She shook her head, trying to dislodge the image of Maddie’s dead mother lying in her lap. She fired up the car and slapped the steering wheel with her hand. “I’m fine, or I will be. Professional head on, and it’s off we go.”

The Wellington Arms public bar was relatively quiet when Sally and Jack walked in and announced they were there to speak to the manager. The pretty young barmaid went in search of her boss and returned with a man in his early fifties.

Sally and Jack produced their IDs for the confused man.

“Is there somewhere private we can chat, Mr. Locke?” Sally asked.

“My office. Come through.” He held open the bar for them and walked through to the back area of the building, away from the prying eyes and straining ears of the customers. “What’s this about, Inspector?”

“We’re here to inform you that one of your members of staff lost her life last night.”

“Lost her life? In an accident? Who?”

“No, it was no accident, Mr. Locke. Maddie Webster was found murdered in the early hours of this morning.”

He flung himself back in his chair. “What?”

“Not very pleasant. I’d rather not go into details about the crime. What I would like to know is if Maddie had any ‘admirers’ at the pub?”

“Admirers as in weird folk who would set out to end the poor girl’s life?” he asked coldly.

“If you want to put it that way, yes,” Sally agreed.

“No, not that I can think of. Everyone loved Maddie. She was my longest-serving barmaid.” He ran a hand through his greying hair. “Shit! Sorry, I just can’t believe someone would set out to intentionally kill that poor girl.”

“Can you tell me if she was friendlier than usual towards one of the customers last night, perhaps?”

He inhaled and exhaled a large breath. “It was my night off, the wife’s birthday actually. Damn, Maddie filled in for me. She gave up her one night off this week so I could share it with my wife, and now she’s
dead
. There’s just no rhyme or reason for that, is there?”

“No, there isn’t. We called at her address earlier and spoke to her neighbour, Liz, who mentioned that Maddie had recently split up from her fiancé. Did you know this?”

“Yes, everyone in the pub knew that. She was strong, though, always put her smile on at work so nobody would have been aware just how broken-hearted she was about ditching that scumbag. Some men just don’t know when they’re on to a good thing with a girl. I offered to go round there and see him, give him a piece of my mind, but Maddie insisted she was okay about the break-up. She wasn’t aware that I used to listen to her in the toilet, crying her eyes out.”

Sally frowned, thinking the man was some kind of voyeur.

He corrected himself, “Nothing sinister in it, Inspector. The ladies’ loo is right next door, and the walls to this office are paper thin so, unfortunately, I tend to hear everything that goes on in there. I assure you, at times, I wish that really wasn’t the case.”

“I’m sure. If you aren’t able to tell us what went on here last night, do you think another member of staff could fill us in?”

“No one is on duty until later on this evening, I’m afraid. I’m not a slave driver with my staff like other pub landlords. I like to give them a decent amount of time off between shifts. I find it keeps the staff and the customers happy.”

“So, Maddie filling in for you was a genuine one-off then?” Sally asked.

“Yes. Crap, I’m going to be riddled with guilt now for the rest of my days.”

Sally decided then not to tell the landlord about Maddie’s mum dying. She feared it would only leave an extra burden on Mr. Locke’s shoulders. “These things happen, Mr. Locke. There’s no point blaming yourself, no point whatsoever. Any chance we can question the staff on duty last night at home, or would you rather I send uniformed officers to take down statements when they show up for their shift later?”

“I’ll give you their addresses, if you don’t mind? There were only three other staff members on duty anyway last night. Monday is always a quiet day of the week for us.”

“That would be great. Do they live local?”

He stood and opened the top drawer of a metal filing cabinet. “I believe so. I’ll just check.” He returned, holding a sheet of paper with names and addresses typed on it.