Kate shook her head, flicking the torch from her phone back on and encouraging Patel to do the same. ‘Never mind. What can you tell me about the layout?’
Linus pointed ahead of them. ‘The main hall is through those doors there. Off to the left there are doors leading to storage rooms where we used to house the vaulting horses and such. Oh, and there is a room to the right where the old gymnasium equipment is now kept; exercise bikes and the like. The window we looked through is at the far side of the hall. I’ll see what I can do to get some power back in there for you.’
Closing the door behind them, Kate shone the beam around the inside of the entrance. Immediately to their right were two doors, leading to what would have been the boys and girls changing rooms and toilets. Bypassing those, they pulled open the door to the hall and were greeted by a stale smell of dried sweat and varnished wood.
‘The window is over there in the south-east corner,’ Patel offered, shining his light ahead of them, ‘which means the tarpaulin should be ahead of us here.’
Walking side-by-side, their torch beams slid over the soft wooden floor following the faded painted lines marking out various courts. Kate shuddered as a draught overhead ruffled through her hair.
‘This place gives me the creeps,’ Patel muttered.
Kate could understand; there was a deathly silence, and their phone lights were throwing strange shadows across the walls where the beams hit PE apparatus on the walls. It was hard not to think of their own kids in a place like this; wondering if they were safe, tucked up at home and waiting for them. They crept towards the tarpaulin, the air suddenly feeling much cooler around them.
‘Shall I do the honours?’ Patel offered, nudging the material with his foot.
‘Together,’ Kate proposed, bending and clutching the end of the material. It felt damp.
She waited for Patel to grip an edge, and then the two of them carefully raised it up and over the mound. Kate’s phone clattered to the floor as she saw the lifeless eyes staring back up at her.
3
Kate stumbled backwards, dropping to her knees, as she scrambled to retrieve her phone and its light.
‘A doll!’ Patel gasped. ‘It’s a doll, ma’am. Thank goodness.’
Her heart racing, Kate threw herself closer to the body, her torch in her hand. Lifeless painted eyes stared back at her, and as she took in the pink-coloured plastic skin, painted lips and fake, ratty hair around them she knew he was right.
‘It’s one of those resuscitation aids, isn’t it?’ Patel continued, raising his own torch so he could see Kate’s face. A small chuckle escaped. ‘That explains the outline, I suppose. Should I break it to the caretaker, or do you want to?’
For a moment, when the tarpaulin had first been pulled away, Kate had seen Daisy’s face staring up at her from the floor: the short brunette bob, the smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose, the smooth and taut skin, it had all been there. Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment.
A flicker above their heads confirmed that Linus had managed to reconnect the power as the halogen strip lights buzzed into life, lighting up every inch of the old hall. With the gloomy shadows suddenly evaporated, their own sense of foreboding disappeared just as quickly. Off to their left two treadmills, a couple of exercise bikes and a rowing machine lay idly by, covered in layers of dust.
‘Seems like such a waste, doesn’t it?’ Patel offered, moving over to the equipment. ‘I mean, I know this stuff is pretty dated now, but I reckon I could still work up a sweat on it.’
Kate joined him, spotting a punch bag and chain propped up against the wall. ‘I should ask the supe whether we have budget to buy it off them. I could just see this punch bag hanging in the incident room for us to work out our stresses.’ She paused as a realisation dawned. ‘Didn’t Linus say all the gym equipment was being held in one of the storage rooms?’
‘So?’
‘So, why is it out now?’
‘Maybe someone moved it ahead of the demolition,’ Patel offered, pointing at where some of the dust had been disturbed on the handles of one of the bikes.
Kate looked from the equipment back to the door to the storage room to their right. ‘Hmm… maybe.’ But then she spotted something else out of place and marched purposefully to the door without another word, using the light on her phone to brighten the red smear that had caught her attention. ‘Is this… blood?’ she called over her shoulder.
Patel jogged over to where she had crouched, studying the dried stain on the panel above the handle, careful not to touch it.
‘Maybe one of the builders cut himself?’ Patel offered, always hunting for the most logical of explanations.
‘Maybe,’ Kate agreed, standing and removing a sealed packet of white forensic gloves from her pocket, and snapping them on. ‘Stand back a sec, would you?’ she asked, as she carefully took hold of the handle, and slowly lowered it. She paused with the door halfway open.
‘Can you smell that?’
‘Sickly sweet?’ Patel suggested as he sniffed the air. ‘Strawberries?’
Kate pulled the door further, stepped through to the adjoining room and immediately wished she hadn’t. Her blood went cold as she took in the translucent plastic sheeting lining most of the floor of the former gymnasium, the reddy-brown smears that clung to it and sprayed up the walls, and the strawberry-scented air fresheners that hung all around her. Kate covered her mouth with her arm as she recognised the unmistakeable copper smell of blood beneath their fragrance. She swayed backwards as Patel stepped around her to see for himself. Opening his mouth to speak, he found nothing.
‘What the hell…’ was all Kate managed to say.
Kate had witnessed many a murder scene in her years as a detective, but only metres from where children had played outside just this afternoon, she knew something truly horrific had occurred.
‘Get Scientific Services here now,’ Kate commanded, not willing to take a step further, for fear of contaminating the scene.
Unable to answer, Patel left to make the call.
* * *
A large white tent now covered the entrance to the sports hall where those few allowed admittance to the scene could change into protective polythene suits. The scene-of-crime team from the Scientific Services Department had arrived twenty minutes ago and were analysing and documenting every inch of the gymnasium, after which they would pack up their findings for further forensic examination back at the lab.
Several portable floodlights had been erected outside the tent so nobody would stumble on the slippery tarmac where a fresh downpour was beginning to freeze underfoot.
‘They reckon it might snow,’ Patel commented, warming his hands on the mug of coffee Mrs Kilpatrick had made them when Kate had briefed her on why the sports hall was now out of bounds to all staff members and pupils.
A figure in white emerged from the tent and hurried over to them. ‘DI Matthews?’ the technician said, his eyes wired with worry. ‘I need you to follow me, please.’
Kate passed her mug to Patel and proceeded to the small tent, putting on the protective overalls and following the young technician back into the hall. He didn’t utter a word as he led her to the familiar face of pathologist, Dr Ben Temple.
He immediately picked up on her surprised look. ‘I was at the SSD lab when the call went out,’ he explained, ‘and you’ll be glad I came. Follow me.’