‘You okay, ma’am?’ Patel asked, handing her a fresh mug of coffee, while the rest of the team began to gather in the incident room for the final catch-up before she sent them home to their families.
‘It was another bloodbath,’ she whispered. ‘I never thought I’d ever witness anything as gruesome as Friday night, but this… we have to catch whoever it is. Promise me we’ll catch him.’
‘With you running point, ma’am, he doesn’t have a chance of escape.’
She forced a thin smile to acknowledge the support, but smiling was the last thing she wanted to do.
Standing to address the team, she wasn’t even sure where to begin. ‘I’m guessing most of you have heard about the horror show at forty-eight Abbotts Way? If you haven’t, picture the crime scene photographs captured at the sports hall at St Bartholomew’s and you’ll have a pretty good guess of what I’ve just come from. Someone out there is hard at work dismembering bodies. This could be the worst case any of us will ever deal with in our careers.’
She paused and reached out for the printed image of Chris Jackson, sticking it to the board. ‘We know that Daisy Emerson was seen in the vicinity of forty-eight Abbotts Way the night she went missing, and SSD are rushing through testing the bloodwork at the scene to see if any is a match for Daisy. Until those results are in, we need to keep all of this in-house. The last thing I want is more leaks to the media adding to the speculation.’ She glanced at Quinlan. ‘We need to let SSD process the scene. But, while we’re waiting for that, our priority must be to find Chris Jackson, the self-employed photocopy engineer who we have on site at the school on Thursday and Friday, and who hasn’t been seen since the discovery was made in the sports hall. Laura, where are we with tracing his vehicle?’
‘Nothing back from the neighbouring counties. It’s as if he just up and vanished. Mobile phone is still off and there’s been no activity on his debit or credit cards.’
‘Thanks, Laura,’ Kate said. ‘Commit this face to memory, people. It is not in my nature to jump to conclusions, but when a person of interest in a murder investigation goes dark like this, it usually means he is planning to strike again. We know our killer dismembered Maria Alexandrou at St Bartholomew’s, and someone else at Abbotts Way. That second victim could be Petr Nowakowski, or it could be Daisy Emerson, or worse still, an as-yet-unidentified victim. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to have to do everything within our power to stop him. I want a patrol car at Jackson’s home in case he shows up there. Ewan, he has a Facebook page for his business, which must mean he probably has a private one too. Do your magic and find it. I want to know who his friends are, whether he’s married or dating, where he likes to go on holiday. Somewhere in there will be a clue as to where he’s currently hiding out.’
Freeborn nodded.
‘Vicky, check his phone activity for where he’s been prior to switching it off. If he’s been scoping out somewhere he can stay, maybe he’s been dumb enough to leave a trail we can follow.’
Rogers fixed Kate with a nervous look. ‘I was just called by the student who’d claimed to have seen Daisy at the bus stop in Portswood. He’s now retracted his statement, admitting he was nowhere near the area that night. Seems one of his housemates dared him to do it.’
‘So Georgie Barclay is confirmed as the last witness to see her.’
Rogers nodded.
‘CCTV, ma’am?’ Patel piped up.
‘Yes, of course. I know vehicle recognition can’t find him now, but let’s see where Jackson was the night Daisy went missing. Can we place him in the area of Portswood? What about near the homes of Maria Alexandrou and Petr Nowakowski in the days before their disappearances? The man Georgie Barclay described at number forty-eight did not match Chris Jackson, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an accomplice.’
‘I’ll take that, ma’am,’ Laura volunteered.
Kate nodded her thanks. ‘Humberidge, I want you to stop looking into Barry Emerson’s activities for that night, and focus on finding anything to tie Jackson to Daisy, Nowakowski and Maria, as well as anything that directly links our victims. Cover every possible scenario. We need to establish whether he’s hunting them, or whether they’ve been opportunistic crimes.’
For once Humberidge didn’t argue, and Kate was grateful for that.
‘It’s getting late, and they’re threatening more snow overnight. Work for as long as you feel you can and then get home and get your heads down for a few hours and get in as early as you can tomorrow.’
Kate dismissed them and turned back to face the picture of Chris Jackson, wondering just how long he’d been planning this spree.
42
As the clock hit nine, Kate had nothing but pride for the half dozen detectives who were still feverishly busy working the phones and their computers. Fuelled by Patel’s strongest coffee blend and adrenaline, everyone was working flat-out. Kate herself would happily work through the night if it brought them to their killer sooner.
‘Ma’am,’ said Laura, approaching the desk, and stifling a yawn, ‘number forty-eight has been on the market for nearly a year.’
This was news Kate had been half-expecting, owing to the lack of furniture in any of the rooms, and the thick layer of dust on each of the windowsills.
‘For sale or to let?’
‘Sale. Found it on Zoopla, but it’s very low down the list.’
‘Is there an estate agent listed? I didn’t see a For Sale sign in the garden.’
‘Local firm in town is listed, but their office is now shut, so I’ll have to go see them in the morning.’
‘Do we know whose name the property is currently registered in? Who’s selling it, I mean.’
‘I tried contacting the land registry people, but again their offices are closed for the day, so have sent them an email, which I will follow up first thing.’
‘Council tax?’
‘Will also have to be contacted first thing, I’m afraid.’
Kate fought back her own yawn and failed miserably.
‘You ought to get home, ma’am. It’s been a long day.’
‘I’m not going until the last of you have given in,’ Kate smiled, appreciating her colleague’s concern.
‘You do realise that none of the team will leave here until you go, or you send us home. Nobody wants to feel like the first to turn in, because that would mean giving up on Daisy and the others. In fact, you might need to order breakfast now.’
Kate looked around the office. Patel was pinching the bridge of his nose, straining to keep his eyes open as his head rested on his flexed arm, the phone pressed to his ear. Beyond him Vicky was mid-yawn, and next to her Ewan was stretching his arms high over his head. In fact, the only one who didn’t appear to be feeling the fatigue bug was Olly, who was pacing back and forth behind his desk, also with a phone glued to his cheek.
Laura was right: not a single one of them would stop unless she forced them to, and in her role as their leader it was time to make that call. Ultimately the enquiries they were trying to make now would be largely met by office answering systems, as the rest of the city had long since gone home for the night.
‘Thanks, Laura,’ Kate said, relieving the young detective before standing herself and moving to the middle of the incident room floor space. ‘Listen up, folks,’ she called out. ‘I want to personally thank you for all your efforts today, but I’m calling it to an end for now. Go home and rest; we’ve done all we can and we’re all running on close to empty.’
Kate returned to her own desk, briefly looking at the photograph of Chloe which was stuck to the bottom of her monitor, vowing she would catch up with Jackson before the weekend.
The phone ringing on the edge of the desk snapped Kate back to reality.
‘Kate?’ Ben said down the phone. ‘I’m up with SSD and they asked me to call you. They still have technicians processing the scene, but we’ve definitely found Petr Nowakowski’s blood at the scene. It will be some time until they finish processing the remaining samples, but they’ve positively identified four of them so far, with plenty more to test.’