‘May I ask…?’
‘Not that I have to explain my decisions to you but a deserted terror cell was discovered in Digbeth yesterday afternoon.’
Ah, she needed no further explanation. That was a priority job. Every inch of an abandoned cell would be analysed. Over here, Kim was dealing with one person who was already dead. Clues in Digbeth could lead to saving hundreds if not thousands of people.
But just because she understood it didn’t mean she had to like it.
‘Okay, sir, thank you for letting me know.’
She ended the call before he could respond to her little dig about being kept in the dark.
Catherine glanced back towards the Portakabin that was only three hundred feet away and held up the empty pen.
‘I need to get…’
‘Can you send Bryant out?’ Kim asked. Her mind had already left Catherine and was heading back over to the crime scene.
Catherine nodded and headed back.
Kim took a few steps away from Elvis and his occupants and watched as Catherine strode back towards the office.
It took a very special kind of person to derive so much pleasure from the activity and habits of insects, Kim couldn’t help thinking.
Fourteen
‘You could have removed your jacket, Bryant,’ Kim said as he approached.
‘Happy the way I am, thanks.’
Kim shook her head. She had rarely seen him without a jacket outside of their squad room.
‘Get anything from inside?’ she asked, walking across the field.
‘In that amount of time?’ he retorted.
‘Well… something… anything… ’
‘And you found out what exactly?’ he asked.
Kim smiled. ‘Well, since you ask, I found out that Catherine appears to like insects more than she likes people. She has very curious scarring to her right hand and is not easily rattled.’
Bryant let out a breath. ‘All that without any threat of waterboarding?’
‘Yeah. Your turn.’
‘I found out the security guy’s name.’
She growled.
‘Okay, he lives half a mile down the road and although the place gives him the creeps it’s convenient. He used to work the doors, but the boss moved him here.’
‘Anything else?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, he’s supposed to do a full patrol every two hours but most nights he doesn’t bother and just signs the sheet off as checked.’
‘Fabulous,’ Kim said. ‘I suspect he’ll be doing his patrols now if he wants to keep his job.’
Bryant nodded towards the location of the crime scene. ‘So why the early withdrawal?’
‘Abandoned terror cell in Digbeth.’
Bryant sighed his understanding. ‘So are we forensics now as well?’
As detectives, he knew they became whatever they needed to be to get the job done.
They’d reached the other side of the field. She stepped across the brook and located the exact spot where Jemima had been dumped. The ankle-high grass had been flattened underfoot like a crop circle. A single trail had been trodden down the hill where the tech van would have been parked while they worked.
Kim stood at the crest of the hill. The land started rising in height about six feet from the path, climbing steadily for about thirty feet, before dropping down towards the entrance gate.
From where she stood, the direct route down to the path was quicker but steep, so the techies had walked along the brow until the incline had lessened, making it far less hazardous.
‘Unlikely there’s anything left to find, guv,’ Bryant said, using a handkerchief to wipe his forehead. Although the techs had left the area, a line of tape stretched the 150-feet gap between two trees.
‘But not definite,’ she said, walking past him but continuing to look down over the descent. The area behind them was meaningless now it had been examined but worse, trampled. And a line search wasn’t going to do any good with just the two of them.
But activity had occurred before her. The killer had parked his vehicle, extracted Jemima, dragged and carried her up the hill and then laid her down and killed her.
She walked another few steps to the east and then turned back.
‘Wait here,’ she said as she trod the path that the techs had made and arrived at the foot of the hill. She walked along the path until she was level with Bryant’s position.
She assessed that she was now at the shortest, most direct but steepest route from the path to the top.
‘Bryant, come down,’ she called.
By the time he reached her she had already found what she was looking for.
‘Look at the grass,’ she said, pointing to a flattened area a foot away from the path.
Bryant shrugged. ‘What am I looking for exactly?’ he said, stepping to the other side of the line.
‘This is his trail,’ she said, walking up the hill, following the line of flattened grass.
The route was not completely straight and where the route adjusted slightly, a circular indent was faintly noticeable in the grass.
As they continued to follow the line it was clear they were headed for the exact spot Jemima had been found.
‘What do you make of those other marks, guv?’ Bryant asked as they headed back down the hill.
Kim paused halfway down and lowered herself to the ground. She lay in the grass and adjusted her position until she fitted into the shape that had been made by Jemima’s body. Taller grass and nettles rose up either side of her.
‘Guv, is there any need…?’
‘It’s her head,’ she said, ignoring him. ‘As she’s being pulled along her head is bouncing around, freely.’
While she was being dragged in a straight line Jemima’s head would have made no impact in the grass already flattened by her body but when her killer changed direction, even slightly, her head would have taken a second to catch up.
She was about to raise herself up when she heard a familiar voice.
Daniel Bate called to her from the bottom of the hill. ‘Hey, Inspector, is this a private picnic or can anyone join in?
She sat up. ‘Daniel, how many times do I have to tell you to—’
‘Piss off?’ he asked. ‘Not at all, Inspector, as I didn’t come looking for you.’ He looked up to the hill. ‘I think you’ll find I actively tried to avoid you.’
Good – they finally understood each other.
He stroked the head of Lola beside him. ‘Although it was worth it to hear you use my first name.’
Okay, maybe they didn’t. And she hadn’t noticed the slip.
‘Bryant, take photos,’ she instructed.
‘Of what?’ he asked.
‘Just take one of exactly where I am, then the line back up the hill and the top of the hill.’
He took out his phone and took a photo, trying to hide his smirk. Daniel didn’t even try.
‘Isn’t there somewhere you have to be?’ she asked him, making a move to stand up.
He chuckled and shook his head. ‘Actually, no, I’m quite enjoying myself.’
Kim responded with a sound of disgust as she placed her hands either side of her to push herself up.
‘Shit,’ she cried as her right hand met with something in the grass. It was the hand she’d cut almost to the bone on her last major investigation and which still gave her a little discomfort now.
‘What?’ Bryant asked, stepping forwards.
She reached down, gingerly, and retrieved the object.
‘What the hell is that?’ Bryant asked, as she held out the palm of her hand.
It looked to her like a hairgrip. White plastic covered the wire that shaped it. A brass-coloured motif decorated its centre.
She looked closer. The motif was a heart cut into two with a jagged edge. The section that had dug into her palm. It reminded Kim of a necklace that she’d seen somewhere that came in a pack of two and each person wore one half of the heart.
‘My missus uses something like that,’ Bryant said. ‘Without the heart, obviously, but it’s for holding her fringe back when she’s straightening her hair.’
Yeah, that was exactly what she’d been thinking.
Bryant took an evidence bag from his jacket pocket. She dropped it in and turned to Daniel.
‘Well, it’s been lovely to see you again…’ she reached down and patted the dog ‘… Lola.’