Body by the Docks: detectives investigate a baffling mystery Page 2

  They left the troops to get on with it. It was late and they felt not much would be accomplished but Jordan needed to know everything was set up ready for an early start the following day, plus they would at least catch the residents who were usually out at work. In the incident room, the desks were already equipped with electronics and landlines. There was a whiteboard for images and notes, and a screen. They would have some clerical assistants allocated in due course. It was frustrating when he just wanted to get going but he had done all he could for the time being.

  He had his coffee machine. Terry had grinned and given him a thumbs up when he saw it. The other option, a machine in the corridor, dispensed brown liquid that nobody was able to name no matter which buttons were pressed, except for the soup because it had lumps in it. “I’m getting one of them for home. Your fault – I didn’t mind the stuff out of the machine or instant until you brought that thing in.”

  “Oh well, there’s hope for you yet.” Jordan grinned. “We’ll start as we mean to go on this time. Before you go, put a call in to the mortuary will you, ask them to make sure we’re informed when they schedule the examination. I’ll go with Rosalind. You can handle things here, yeah?”

  “No probs, boss. We’ve had nothing show up on the missing persons list yet. We’re not going to be able to do much in the way of appeals or anything with this one. Not with her all crispy like that.”

  Jordan winced, but he didn’t correct the black humour. It was the way some people handled the grimmer side of the job. Terry was a bit free with his mouth and he had to learn to curb his thoughtless comments but now wasn’t the time to get into that.

  “Surely if your mother or your gran went missing, you’d have the alarm sounded pretty quickly. It’s possible she’s wandered off from a care home or hospital so that’s something we need to double-check. Get in touch with the missing persons section first thing. Of course, we have to keep in mind she could have been on her own somewhere. You know, some poor old soul with nobody to miss her. Then there’s the burning, there has to be a reason for that, surely not just some random act.”

  “I hope not but it’s not impossible. A mugging gone wrong and someone trying to cover their tracks. Jesus, that’s grim,” Terry said.

  “Talking about muggings, how is your mum now, after her run-in with a thug?”

  “Ah she’s fine. Just shrugged it off really. She doesn’t even talk about it now, just something that happened. I’ve bought her a personal alarm. She’s supposed to wear it around her neck. She was less than pleased, accused me of treating her like a kid or some old one. She did take it with her, mind, last time she went out on her own at night, so that’s something.”

  “Well, you can only do your best. Anyway, early start tomorrow, get the team organised and so on.”

  “Boss, we won’t have that Beverly woman this time, will we?” Terry screwed up his face remembering one of the clerical team from their last big case. “I mean, she was okay but talk about obsessive. Do you remember?”

  “I do. Colour-coding all the files, notice board with a legend, oh and flags. Yeah, different coloured flags on the emails. Well, I hope not, I don’t think we parted the best of friends, did we?”

  “No, she was pretty, erm – sensitive, wasn’t she?” Jordan dragged his jacket from the back of the chair. “Right, that’s it I reckon. “

  “Have you got time for a quick one, boss?” Terry Denn asked.

  “No, I think it’s best I get off home. We could be in for some long days and I want to see Harry before he goes to bed. See you in the morning, unless anything happens before then, of course.”

  Chapter 4

  Molly ran down the stairs. The hammering on the door would wake little Jakey and she’d just got him off. As she passed the hook on the wall she reached out and touched the handbag. It had quickly become a habit. It was turning into some sort of religious observance. While it was there she knew her mother would be coming back. It was just waiting for her, her bus pass, her purse, and her rain hood inside, all just ready to carry on as normal. Tears started to her eyes as she looked at the brown leather, the rubbed part of the handles worn away by constant use. It was still hard to believe she’d gone anywhere without it. She must have been really upset. She was missing her, she needed her there telling her what to do, helping. They usually got on well and this was horrible.

  She dragged open the door.

  “Cut the noise, Gary, what the hell are you doing? The baby’s in bed.” As she shouted at her brother, she pulled her long hair back and secured it with an elastic scrunchy.

  Gary made no attempt to come into the house. His face was flushed, sweat had popped out on his forehead and he gasped as he tried to speak. “I need to speak to Mam, is she okay? I want to talk to her. I know I’m being daft, but I just want to see her.”

  “But is she not with you? I thought she was at yours. She was in a strop and I reckoned she was staying with you. I was miffed with her because it’s not my fault. He’s teething. She knows what it’s like.”

  “There’s a woman. They said it’s a woman. Up on the spare ground, the building site.”

  Already Molly was reaching for her coat. “Is it Mam? Is she alright? Why is she up on the building site? Just a minute, let me get the baby.”

  Before her brother had time to respond she had turned and was thundering up the stairs grabbing Jakey’s snow suit as she went.

  When she came out of the bedroom Gary was on the landing. “Hang on, I don’t think you should go. Just wait,” he said.

  “Get out of the way, Gary, of course we have to go. Don’t be stupid. Come on. Is she sick, did they say? Maybe she’s confused. Christ, she could have that Alzheimer’s or maybe she’s had a stroke.” She tried to push past her brother, jiggle the fractious baby against her hip, and slide her arms into her own jacket. “Shit. Here.” She thrust the baby at Gary, but he pulled away.

  “No, wait. Chrissake, listen. It’s a body.”

  For an endless moment there was a lull, the clock in Mam’s bedroom, the old one that had been in the Irish farmhouse all those years ago, was loud in their ears. Even the baby had quieted. It didn’t last long.

  “What are you saying?” Molly spoke softly, just above a whisper, shock and fear suppressing her voice. She stepped backwards and Gary had to reach out and grab at her jacket to save her and the baby from the stairs.

  “It’s a body. A woman they’re saying. Dead.”

  “Aw, Jesus. No, Gary, don’t.” A floodgate opened. Tears flowed down Molly’s cheeks. “Aw no. Did you see, Gary, did you see? Maybe it was just some other old woman, maybe it wasn’t a woman at all. It could be a dummy, or a scarecrow or, or…”

  “I don’t know, Molls. All I know is there are bizzies everywhere and a crowd of people and one of them tent things. I asked Davo and he said Chip and Kelly had found a body.”

  She was shaking her head now. “It’s not Mam, I’m sure it’s not. If it had been Mam I’d have known already. She always said I had the sight. You know I do. I see things. No, if it had been Mam I’d have known. We should go though. I’ve got the baby up now and we should find out what’s going on.”

  “I don’t think you should. What if you’re wrong? What if it is her? We can’t be there if it is.”

  “Well, why did you come then? Why did you come here getting me all upset? Course we have to go. Come on.” She thundered down the stairs and out of the front door, flicking open the stroller as she staggered down the short path and out into the street.

  Chapter 5

  Jordan couldn’t sleep; the things he had to do in the morning were churning in his brain. He’d started his book but there was so little to put into it. In the end he slid out from under the duvet and dressed in the bathroom. He went into Harry’s room and stood for a moment, watching his son sleeping.

  Was it really possible this woman had been so alone that nobody had missed her? With youngsters it happened, they ran away, it had always been
that way. But surely a mature woman had someone to miss her. If she’d been a bag lady, a street sleeper, then that would be one thing, but it wasn’t the way the evidence pointed. What was left of her after the burning had been the body of an ordinary woman. The shoes weren’t worn and tatty, they fitted her feet. More importantly there had been a ring, a simple gold ring on the remains of the woman’s wedding finger. No way would a rough sleeper wear jewellery so obviously, in the unlikely event they had any in the first place.

  He thought of his own granny. Nana Gloria. She was surrounded by people who loved her. His big extended family down in London never left her alone. If she had so much as a cold, they swarmed around her making sure she was taken care of. So, why were the police not aware of a missing elderly lady. Even if she was from outside the area it would have been in the national reports. He went into the kitchen and switched on the kettle. While the water heated, he booted up his laptop and went through the notices for the last couple of days. No alert about a missing woman in the Liverpool area. He checked the force Facebook pages, nothing. He typed in ‘missing woman – Merseyside’. There were reports. There were a couple of older pleas. Help me find my mum. My granny is confused and we haven’t seen her for three hours – all that sort of thing but they were old. Mostly they had been solved, one way or the other. It was odd. The other option was that she hadn’t been missed yet. They would need to put something on the system. The front desk officers had to be alerted because they couldn’t send concerned relatives away telling them to wait a while longer. Those manning the phones had to take details and pass them on. They couldn’t miss this, if they did there’d be hell to pay. The newspapers would tear them to pieces and the internet would be unforgiving.

  He drove out to Wavertree, down dark streets. It was drizzling with rain and his headlights reflected in the wet tarmac. There was just the swish of his tyres through the standing water. He parked beside the deserted building site. The hubbub of earlier had dispersed now and there were just two uniformed constables trying to find some shelter under a feeble, struggling tree. The tent was still in the field but there was no light inside, no movement. He flashed his warrant card. “Has the body been moved?”

  “Yes, sir. About two hours ago. Crime scene manager reckons there’s no point trying to do any more now, the SOCO team’ll be back in the morning, early doors.”

  “Nothing unusual going on? Nobody loitering, no cars hanging about?” Jordan asked.

  The officer shook his head. “Nah. Once the body had been moved everyone lost interest. A few punters hung about a while jangling, but they’d gone by the time it got properly dark.”

  “Were you here then?”

  “Aye, me and my mucker.” He pointed to the other man who made a casual salute and then went back to studying his feet, keeping the rain out of his eyes.

  It was a miserable shift and Jordan felt sorry for them, but it was part of the job and there was nothing to be done about it.

  “Nothing seemed off to you? Nobody asking questions?” he said.

  “Nothing particular. Some people were more upset about it than others. Especially the older ones. Some of the youngsters were a bit – inappropriate, shall we say. We had a job stopping them taking pictures. But otherwise, no. They just hung about and then drifted away when the excitement was over.”

  “They get my goat.” This from the other bobby who had wandered over to join them. “I mean, they bring their kids, they stand around for ages. What are they hoping to see? They can’t do anything, it’s just sick really. Like public hangings – that’s what it feels like. Then they pretend to get all upset. One of them skriking and carrying on, had to be taken away by her fella. Stupid bint. If it’s so upsetting, she should have stayed at home.”

  “Human nature, I guess. You don’t know who it was, I don’t suppose? She didn’t speak to you?” Jordan said.

  “No, just some rubbernecker with a kid in a pram.”

  “Okay. Anyway, thanks, guys. I know this isn’t a nice job but if anything seems off, you will be sure to let us know, won’t you?”

  “For sure. I could do with a couple of extra hours, sir. Any chance I could help with the house-to-house later?”

  “Yeah, have a word with the sergeant, tell him I’ll clear it. Constable…?”

  “Howarth, sir.”

  “Get your name on the rota, Constable.”

  The dashboard clock was showing half past four. Jordan headed for the office. There might not be much he could do but just being at his desk would make him feel better.

  He’d only been there a short while when he heard footsteps outside. Terry Denn swung in through the door. He’d brought milk and a couple of sausage rolls, still warm, from the supermarket down the road. The day had started.

  Chapter 6

  Terry didn’t say anything when Beverly Powell walked into the incident room along with two other civilian assistants. But Jordan caught the raised eyebrows and the way he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and covered his face with his hands. He knew he’d been meant to see but didn’t acknowledge the overreaction. Yes, she was what Terry called ‘tightarsed’. She was finicky and obsessive, but she got the job done. The bigger problem as far as he was concerned was she found it hard to work as part of a team. It had become a bit of a joke last time that she had a crush on him. She was rather prone to appearing at his desk with a slice of cake she’d brought in from home, a bag of mixed nuts, when she found out that was his favourite snack, a cup of coffee as soon as he came back into the office. Teacher’s pet, Terry called her, and it made Jordan uncomfortable, and he knew it affected the way he interacted with her. The danger, however, was that she held information to herself so that she could be the one to tell him.

  Oh well, it appeared she was with them again and he’d handle it better this time. He’d be more careful how he spoke to her, keep in mind she could be easily offended, make sure she felt included. He didn’t need this. He needed to be able to concentrate on his poor dead victim not mollycoddling adults who should know better. He could, of course, say he didn’t want her on his team. If he did, he would probably never find a civilian assistant willing to help him again. His paperwork would be delayed, his internet searches would somehow be lost or forgotten, endless disruptions. No, Beverly was here again. So be it. He took a breath, walked to the whiteboard which naturally became the default place from which to address the room, like a teacher. She was gazing at him, a small smile on her face and when he glanced towards her, she blushed. Great.

  “Okay. The images are disturbing, but we keep them on the board. It’ll remind us just what we’re working for. I’m going to the post-mortem examination later but what we think at the moment is that this is an elderly woman, white, a suspicious death obviously. That’s it right now for facts, that’s about all of it. As you can see someone has tried to burn her body. There are a couple of reasons they might do that. To send a message, a warning. But we see it more often with gangs, and with a woman her age – well, we have to keep an open mind, but it doesn’t feel right. As far as it goes, we are not aware of any other incidents of this nature recently in this area, but someone needs to get into the HOLMES system and look for reports of burned bodies. Terry, could you do that as a matter of priority while we are out this morning? The other reason is pretty obvious, and probably more likely. To cover up what has been done to the poor woman and obliterate evidence. We’ll have to wait for Dr Grant to tell us just how successful that has been. I want you to bear this in mind while you’re knocking at doors and reviewing responses. Beverly, could you make sure all the reports are collated as soon as they come in. I remember you were really good at that?” He was doing it already, wasn’t he? Treating her differently. She nodded at him and beamed at the others around the room. Terry was doing the eyebrow thing.

  “Why are you so convinced it’s an elderly victim, boss? I heard she was pretty much unrecognisable.” This from the rain-soaked constable he’d spoken to earl
ier, in the dark.

  “Well, Constable Howarth, I don’t know if you had a look?”

  There was just a short shake of the head in response.

  “Understandable,” Jordan acknowledged. “As you can see from the images, we only have the lower body to go on from at the scene, the top was too badly damaged for much examination out there. I’m thinking they are an older woman’s shoes. Clunky and fastened with Velcro, plain, really a bit ugly. Not what you expect a younger person to wear. Also, there is what’s left of the clothes. The skirt just says elderly to me and the tights. I know they are grubby and ruined but you can see they have been a tan colour. Not that I’m an expert but again they say mature female. The ankles are thickened, which is something age can do. Then there is the ring on the wedding finger.” He pointed to a close-up of the piece of jewellery. “It looks worn, the top is flattened as though it has rubbed against another ring for many years. Possibly an engagement ring. All this is hardly more than supposition at this point, but we’ll know more by this afternoon. I am pretty convinced, though, at this time. Right, that’s all I’ve got for now. Organise yourselves with desks, those who’ll need them. The computers are all up and running and the internet connections have been tested while you were all snoring in your beds. The rest of you, get out there and find me some witnesses. Ros, you’re with me. I’ll meet you outside as soon as you’re ready. We’ll take my car.”

  They knew it would be unpleasant and Rosalind Searle, who hadn’t seen the body yet, gave a quiet gasp when the bag was unzipped, and the corpse exposed. “God, that’s nasty isn’t it?” she muttered. “I’m glad they’ve got a viewing room here. Do you think it smells – you know – cooked?”

  Jordan didn’t answer, he didn’t want to go there.

  The burning to the upper body was very extensive but what was left was treated with the respect Phil Grant always showed to her ‘patients’. Her voice was calm and quiet as she recorded her findings. The little gold ring clattered slightly as it was placed in a plastic bowl.