‘I’m on it, ma’am,’ Khosa said. ‘Trisha, did you follow that up?’
Trisha consulted a notepad. ‘The original senior investigating officer was a DCI Sutton. He’s now in Thames Valley.’
‘It’ll carry more weight if they know it’s a DS who’s asking,’ Anna said.
Woakes let out a mirthless laugh. ‘I thought you wanted me with you at Charterhouse?’
‘Getting a handle on the previous investigation is as important. We may be lucky and find one or two people still around. I’ll leave that to you.’
Woakes’ eyes slid towards the ceiling, but Anna turned back to Trisha. ‘And let’s set up a board for these four. Nothing elaborate. Dates, places, witness reports. I’ll send you the photographs I took.’
‘Blair Smeaton’s on that list, ma’am,’ Holder said.
‘I know. Since it’s an ongoing, I’ll speak to Edinburgh myself, but only if it becomes relevant. It’ll be manic up there and I don’t want to complicate things unless we get something concrete. For now, this stays on our radar only. Everybody happy?’
Holder, Khosa and Trisha all nodded. Woakes did not.
* * *
Anna had barely sat down in her office when Trisha appeared at the door. ‘It’s about the special constable witness, Kevin Starkey. He left four years ago, but we have a contact number so I’ve left him a message to ring you.’
‘Thanks, Trisha.’
When she didn’t turn away immediately, Anna looked up. Trisha was grinning.
‘What? Toothpaste on my cheek? Mascara running?’
They both knew the latter was a bloody impossibility as she didn’t wear any.
‘No,’ said Trisha, still smiling. ‘It’s just good to have you back, Inspector Gwynne.’
Anna nodded. She found compliments difficult, both to give and receive. But this one she acknowledged. There’d been times during the aftermath of Willis’s attack when the idea of ever running a team in a full-blown investigation again seemed laughable. She’d seen that doubt reflected in the faces of visitors when they’d seen the stitches and the bruises. But she’d not read that doubt in Trisha, nor the rest of the MCRTF.
She’d always be grateful for that. And it did feel good, really good, to finally be back in the saddle.
Eighteen
The location where Rosie’s remains had been found took them out to a section of the Force’s patch Anna was not that familiar with. This neck of the Mendips was all wooded lanes looping up and over hills, past derelict stone buildings and limestone outcrops. A forty-minute drive brought them to the village of Charterhouse. Khosa had a map in a plastic folder and a GPS reference, and once they’d parked in a field study centre, they set off up a side road and across a stile and out into open countryside dotted with little green hillocks.
The day was warm and dry and the ground underfoot rock hard. After ten minutes of walking from where they’d parked, they were alone on a windswept expanse of paths winding between tumbled-down stone walls. To their left a fenced-off area in the distance drew Anna’s attention.
‘Any idea?’ she asked Khosa with a nod towards the fence.
‘Mine shafts, ma’am. Lead. This place is pockmarked with them, not to mention the caves and sinkholes.’
‘Has a sort of Arthurian feel to it,’ Anna said.
‘You’d be right there, ma’am. I knew someone in college who came from Taunton. She said the Mendips were nothing but old ghosts and the ruins of cathedrals.’
‘What the hell was the killer doing here with Rosie’s remains?’
Khosa shrugged and walked on. Ten more minutes and they were at the spot. Merely a point on a path, a slight depression. Khosa took out a photograph from her folder and twisted it this way and that.
‘Roman fort to the north, Neolithic settlement to the east. There’s a church with a medieval crypt half a mile south… erm. The plastic bag and the bones were found… there.’ She pointed to a spot behind the remains of a wall. ‘Found by walkers out with a dog who paid a lot more attention to the bag than he normally would, apparently.’
Anna looked around her. There was nothing here.
‘Let’s walk to the rise.’ She pressed on. Fifty yards later they emerged from the sunken part of the path. This point afforded a better view. On both sides, heathland stretched away. Towards a farmhouse on one side and a road on the other. Once more Anna pointed to a fenced-off area, this one much bigger, fifty yards to the right. She stepped off the path onto tussocks and rough ground and walked to the edge of the fence. It marked the boundary of a deep depression perhaps thirty yards in diameter, lined with grass and gorse bushes but with a dark opening right at its centre.
‘Sinkhole, ma’am,’ said Khosa, joining her. ‘It’s marked on my map.’
Anna turned, stared back along the way she’d come and retraced her steps. This was a lonely spot on the outskirts of a pretty isolated village. Whoever had brought Rosie’s remains here had been hoping not to be disturbed.
At the point where the bag had been left, it would not have been possible to see anyone coming over the ridge until they were fifty yards away.
‘Any thoughts, Ryia?’
‘None, except this is not a place I’d like to be alone in. Not even in daylight.’
Anna knew what she meant. The place had a desolate feel about it. The sort of place it might be easy to get rid of evidence, perhaps down a sinkhole, if you knew where to find one.
‘He wasn’t here by accident, that’s for sure,’ Anna said.
‘What do you think happened, ma’am?’
‘If he’d wanted Rosie’s remains to be found, he’s hardly likely to have chosen this place. There are a million better spots that would guarantee discovery within a few minutes of you discarding something. No, he was hoping not to be seen. Perhaps he was on his way to a sinkhole to get rid of the evidence once and for all. Did you say there was a church and a crypt?’
Khosa nodded.
‘Maybe he was on his way there. To bury her. Might have been some sort of ritual for him, who knows. But down in that dip you have no line of sight. He might have been preparing, opening the bag and suddenly someone appeared. A dog maybe. What if he panicked and dumped the evidence and made himself scarce?’
Khosa said, ‘It fits. But why here?’
‘Because he’s familiar with the area. He knows about this place. Putting it together with knowing exactly what he was doing in the park in Clevedon when he took Rosie makes him someone with good local knowledge.’
Khosa nodded. ‘I suppose that puts the kibosh on your doctor’s theory, then. I mean the other girls were taken from all over the place. He wouldn’t have local knowledge in those cases.’
Anna nodded. ‘There is that.’
Khosa kept looking at her. ‘You don’t sound convinced.’
Anna shrugged. ‘I’m letting it all marinate. Let’s see what it turns into.’
* * *
When they got back to HQ, Anna noticed the board Trisha had put up with Hawley’s list of mispers. Four more images had joined Rosie’s. Holder looked pleased with himself.
‘I got hold of the FLO that looked after Lily Callaghan’s family. She confirmed that Lily had diabetes and was seen sometimes in the paediatric clinic in the Nottingham Children’s Hospital. I put a call in to their Human Resources department. They confirmed that Hawley had never been employed there. Lily left a friend’s house 50 yards from where she lived. Not seen since.’ He tapped a pen towards another image. ‘Same story here. Jade Hemmings, eleven. Manchester still have the file open, though it’s five years since she went missing. No one saw her. She went to a birthday party in a park on her bike and disappeared. Jade had eczema. She attended the dermatology clinic at the kids’ hospital in Manchester. No record of Hawley ever having been near it.’
‘Good work, Justin. Any sign of Dave?’
‘No, ma’am. He left soon after you did.’
* * *