‘Any more from the phone signal?’
‘No. The battery’s probably down at this point. We’re concentrating the search where Caroline’s body was found, over to the left and all the way up to the Military Road.’
‘What about over there?’ Kate looked out to the barren landscape on the opposite side of the road.’
‘What about it?’
‘It’s an area of special conservation, runs for miles, nothing but flora and fauna.’
‘Kate, talk sense will you.’
‘The SAC is protected, which means no one is allowed to live, farm or even so much as turn a sod of turf on it. He isn’t stupid, O’Connor. The phone was a mistake, but if he took her up here, he wouldn’t go back to the same place and take a risk on some nosy sheep farmer spoiling his plans again. If he has taken her and buried her, the SAC makes sense.’
O’Connor gazed out on the landscape stretching as far as the eye could see, sighing. ‘That’s some amount of land, Kate.’
‘All the more reason he would pick it.’
Kate could tell O’Connor had his doubts, he was probably still thinking about the conversation they’d had about the timing of the next abduction and killing.
‘Listen, this guy is a planner. He didn’t abduct a young girl in broad daylight without thinking things through. If he has taken Amelia, it means, somehow, he is able to gain his victim’s trust. He will know you’ll look where Caroline was found. If he did see Amelia as a loose end needing to be tidied up, and so brought her out here, he’d bring her somewhere nobody would find her. Had it not been for the second phone, O’Connor, none of us would be standing here even asking this question.’
≈
The army aerial search continued, but it was the tracker dogs working the ground that picked up Amelia’s scent. The dogs led them to an area of raised soil, which answered their questions immediately. Even before it was confirmed that there was a body, both Kate and O’Connor knew to expect the worst. O’Connor pulled out his phone and called in Morrison. It was time for him to be involved.
Amelia’s body had been laid out in the same way as Caroline’s – hair plaited and tied with red ribbons, both hands joined at the front and the body positioned sideways and in the foetal position. This time her limbs had not been forced into position, probably unnecessary because of the speed with which he’d buried her. Morrison noted that the markings on her neck meant Amelia’s death was most probably caused by asphyxiation, just like Caroline. However, there had been no blows to the head, although the face was badly bruised.
‘Kate, what sort of mindless fucker is doing this?’
‘The kind who doesn’t think like you or me, O’Connor.’
‘Don’t give me any sympathetic psychological crap about fucked-up bastards.’
‘I’ve no intention of it,’ she retorted.
‘Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing, Kate, and from what you’ve already told me, he takes great care in getting the thing done exactly right.’
‘No argument on that score, but there are differences.’
‘The terrain, you’ve already covered that.’
‘I’ll want to see the other site first hand. Even if Amelia was a complication to be dealt with, both logic and intimacy played a role in how this man thought about his victims. There’s a lot more to this.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Look around you, O’Connor. The place is barren. It’s like Amelia was less worthy. You can’t deny the similarity between both girls. I mean, they look almost like twins. He obviously has a fit he’s trying to achieve.’
‘Jesus Christ, Kate. Whatever about the public outcry and the shit we’ve been dealing with up until now, it will be nothing compared to the fucking mayhem this is going to cause.’
‘I know that.’
‘Rohan is going to buy us time with the second burial site, Kate, but it will have to be announced soon.’
‘The ribbons, the plaiting, the positioning of the body, it’s all part of his signature, but with Amelia, apart from the choice of burial site, there is another important difference. She’s not wearing a silver cross.’
O’Connor threw his hands up. ‘Thank heavens for small mercies. Nolan hates all that religious shit raising its head.’
‘Caroline’s parents, what did they say about the one she was wearing?’
‘It was just a cheap thing, like you’d find in any pound shop.’
‘But he left it on her, although the earrings were missing. This guy does things for a reason. If he left the cross on Caroline, he deliberately wanted it there.’
‘We can’t be sure he took the earrings. They could have fallen out.’
‘Maybe, but the crucifix is an iconic symbol, he didn’t leave it there unless it pleased him. People do similar things for different reasons.’