Page 82 of First Blood
No joy around the tinned goods or the chilled and frozen.
He was considering asking one of the shop assistants he’d passed if they recognised it when he reached the condiments.
Something in his brain snapped a flash of recognition from his childhood, of Friday night tea when his mum didn’t feel like cooking and his dad came home with a steaming carrier bag.
His eyes scoured the shelves until he found what he was looking for.
He lifted up the object with a red top and took out his phone.
This red top, found in the waistband of Hayley Smart’s jeans, had come from a bottle of vinegar.
Chapter Seventy-Four
‘Okay, guys, let’s get to it,’ Kim said, taking what was becoming her usual spot perched on the edge of the spare desk.
She reached for one of the coffees in the cardboard carrier.
‘Thanks, Bryant, but I’ve already told you…’
‘Wasn’t me, guv,’ he said as Dawson raised his hand.
Kim nodded her thanks for the gesture, given what appeared to be a dire financial situation.
She looked across the wipe boards trying to focus on the information they had rather than the gaps that were smacking her in the face. If only she had access to all of these damned cases.
The first genital mutilation had occurred six years earlier, to someone who remained unidentified. The second victim had been Lester Jackson, at Redland Hall, a month ago. Next had been Tommy Deeley in Wolverhampton almost a week ago, followed by their own victim: Luke Fenton, who was found on Monday. And now they had Hayley Smart too.
‘Okay, so we have either our second or fifth victim, Hayley Smart, the ex-girlfriend of Luke Fenton. We know from his sister and the photos on the computer that she left him and then went back. There was no genital mutilation so what does that tell us?’
‘That our killer is pissed off with her but not as much as he is with the others,’ Dawson offered.
‘Why?’ she asked.
He thought for a second. ‘Because Hayley didn’t actually abuse anyone but she put her daughter back in a position to be abused.’
‘My thoughts too,’ Kim said. ‘I think Hayley has paid the ultimate price for going back to Fenton after her time at the shelter.’
‘The sister?’ Stacey asked. ‘I mean she did punch her dead brother in the face, so she’s still pretty angry.’
Kim had been thinking the same thing. The voicemail left on Hayley’s phone could have been deliberate to draw her out. In addition, after reading Keats’s full report first thing she’d found it odd that Hayley had consumed her first proper meal just hours before she’d been murdered. Had someone else bought her that meal, and given that she’d been hiding, who did she trust? She knew and trusted Luke’s sister enough to give her her new phone number.
‘Can’t see any link between Lisa Bywater and any other victim, but she’s definitely a person of interest,’ she said. And even more so if they ruled out the other incidents like people wanted them to, because then Lisa was the only person they’d encountered who knew them both. Except, she wasn’t yet prepared to accept that three other deaths had nothing to do with the cases of the two victims that were on her desk.
She nodded towards Stacey. ‘Start checking out ViSOR and see what you can find. The two victims we know anything about were both paedophiles.’
‘Will do.’
They all knew that ViSOR was the database of those required to register with the police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which included persons jailed for more than twelve months for violent offences and un-convicted people thought to be at risk of offending. Commonly referred to as the sex offenders’ register it was accessed by Police, National Probation Service and HM Prison Service personnel.
‘Boss, I found something else out last night,’ Dawson offered, taking his phone from his pocket. ‘That bottle top found in Hayley Smart’s clothing. It came from a bottle of vinegar. You know, the old-fashioned Sarson’s bottle that…’
‘I saw the picture,’ she said, and although the shape had looked familiar, part of her had wondered if it was just crap from the nearby chip shop bins.
‘I’m just wondering if it means anything, boss. These small things we’re overlooking at the crime scenes like the priest hole, the bell, the shoe. I wouldn’t mind looking into them further.’
A sound and reasonable argument presented as a request. A startling change from the beginning of the week.
‘Okay, Dawson, get into it.’
