CRIME ON THE FENS a gripping detective thriller full of suspense (9 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

After seeing the superintendent, Nikki decided that she needed to pay another visit to Barnby Eaudyke, and Kris Brown.

As she drove, Joseph stared out across the miles of flat, open fields that edged the marsh.

‘Do you really like this place?’ he asked.

‘It’s my home. I love it,’ replied Nikki simply.

Joseph nodded. ‘I guess seeing 360 degrees of sky has its good points, but don’t you find it a tad . . .’ he looked for the right word, ‘overpowering?’

Nikki shrugged and gently reduced her speed as they approached a hump back bridge over a dyke. ‘You can breathe out here. When I was a probationer and I’d had a bad shift, I’d go up to the seabank, be on my own and get my head back together. I know exactly why young Kerry likes to go there.’

‘Or, she did. It looks like her last trip could have been a bad, if not fatal, mistake.’

Nikki drew in a long breath. ‘Let’s just stick to the premise that as we don’t have a body, she’s still alive, shall we?’

‘I want to believe that, it’s just that time is slipping away, and . . .’

‘No need to go on. I’m fully aware of the ticking clock,
and
the statistics regarding missing youngsters.’ She gritted her teeth, then said, ‘I wonder if Kris Brown knows Lisa Jane Leonard?’

‘Doubtful. I can’t see that a beautiful, young model would see much in a skinny anorak who spends his nights with a telescope, can you?’

‘I’ve been thinking that there could be a tenuous connection.’

Joseph’s eyes narrowed. ‘Tell me.’

‘Frankie Doyle.’ Nikki found even saying the name difficult. ‘Lisa Jane knew her, they were the same age, and Archie told us that they lived quite close when they were kids. Kerry knew her. Her parents said they went to the same school. Ergo, Kris may know her too.’

‘But that doesn’t mean that Kris would also know Lisa Jane?’

Nikki pulled a face. ‘I said it was tenuous.’ Before Joseph could answer her, the radio crackled into life and they heard her call sign. ‘DI Galena. Over.’

‘Ma’am. It’s Sergeant Jack Conway. What’s your position, please?’

‘Siltmarsh Lane, on route to Barnby Eaudyke.’

‘We’ve had a call from the farmer who owns Amber Drove Farmhouse. He’s reported finding the body of an IC1 female in one of his barns. Can you attend?’

Nikki stiffened. ‘On our way, Sergeant. ETA two minutes.’ She floored the accelerator.

* * *

Amber Drove Farmhouse was an imposing stone building with a collection of massive barns and numerous outbuildings and glass houses. The whole place was meticulously neat and reeked of old money.

As Nikki parked close to a stable block, the farmer hurried out to meet them. As she got out of the car, she noticed the pale face of a woman, probably the man’s wife, staring at them from a downstairs window of the house. From the look on her face, finding bodies was clearly not in the country diary for a Tuesday afternoon.

Nikki flashed her warrant card and made the briefest of introductions.

The farmer was a big, broad-shouldered, florid-faced man, ‘I’m Nigel Grieves. God, you got here quickly! I only rang 999 a few minutes ago!’

‘Has this area been checked by the search parties yet?’ asked Nikki.

‘No, although I had a call yesterday to ask me to look in all my outbuildings. Which I did, but somehow I forgot the lower barn. It’s just a shell, and it’s so inaccessible that I left it until last, then I got side-tracked.’ The man looked apologetic. ‘I’m sorry, but running all this can be pretty demanding.’

‘So where is she, Mr Grieves? Can you take us to her?’

‘Of course. This way, Inspector.’ The man moved off towards the stable. ‘Know how to ride one of these?’ He pointed to two quad bikes that sat on the edge of the field.

‘No problem,’ said Joseph.

‘Then you take that one, and follow us.’ He jumped on the first bike and switched it on. ‘Hope you don’t mind riding pillion, Inspector.’ He patted the seat. ‘But it’s the fastest way to get out there.’

‘Out where?’ shouted Nikki over the noise of the engine.

‘Bottom field. By the Amber Fen drain. As I said, it’s just a wreck of an old barn, and I’m preparing to demolish it.’

Nikki wanted to ask him to describe the girl, but the two revving engines meant she would have to wait and see for herself.

Nigel Grieves checked that she was ready, then accelerated out onto the narrow path across the fields.

Joseph spun his bike around, and with considerable skill, caught them up.

It may have only taken about three minutes, but the track was rough and uneven, and as Nikki hung on grimly, she wondered if they would ever get there. Finally the dark, dilapidated hulk of a barn drew closer, and she began to worry.

Would it be Kerry Anderson, or Lisa Jane, or maybe another girl, one they didn’t even know about? Whoever it turned out to be, Nikki was not looking forward to walking into the gloom and seeing a dead youngster. She swallowed hard. After everything that had happened in the past, she was going to need every ounce of her strength just to walk in there, and as the bike pulled up, her feelings of deep concern turned into dread.

A silence fell over the vast landscape. In the distance she could see the Wash, glistening and sparkling. A light breeze whispered across her skin, and she stared at the decrepit old barn. This disgusting, decaying building was not fit to be the last resting place of a lovely young woman, no matter who she was.

‘She’s at the back. She’s lying on some old hay bales.’ Nigel Grieves’ voice held a hollow tone. ‘I’d rather not go in again, if you don’t mind. I’m no coward, mind you, but I’ve got kids of my own, and . . .’

Joseph leaned forward and gripped the man’s shoulder. ‘We’ll take it from here, sir. No need to see more than you have already.’ He gave the man a serious kind of smile then added. ‘Would you go back to the farmhouse and wait for our colleagues? This is a pretty remote spot, I would think it’ll take them about fifteen to twenty minutes from town.’ He looked around. ‘I assume there is no other way to get out here?’

The man shook his head. ‘No. The seabank veers around towards the coast about a mile back. The way we came is the only route, I’m afraid. And you won’t get any normal vehicle out here either, you’ll need something that’ll go off-road.’

‘You get back, sir. We’ll radio in and get a 4x4.’

‘You’re welcome to use some of the farm vehicles.’ Nigel Grieves climbed back onto the quad bike. ‘Eh, there’s one thing I haven’t mentioned.’ He paused and looked at them, suddenly uncertain of himself.

‘And what’s that, sir?’ Nikki was getting very bad vibes from the man.

‘When I phoned in, I couldn’t describe her, because she’s wearing some kind of horrible mask. Shocked me rigid, I can tell you. I only knew she was a young woman from her clothes and her body shape.’

‘Okay,’ said Joseph gravely. ‘You go now, sir.’

Grieves didn’t need a second telling, and he rode way, earth flying up from the thick tyres, and with not as much as a glance back. The man was more than glad to be leaving his wreck of a barn and all that it concealed.

Nikki wished she could do the same. Then she took hold of herself. There was no way around it. She pulled on a pair of gloves.

‘Come on, Sergeant. Let’s get this over with.’ She moved forwards, knowing that she looked far more in control than she really was.

It took a moment or two for their eyes to grow accustomed to the gloom inside the old building. The floor was littered with detritus, and they had to pick their way between shattered packing boxes, heaps of decaying root vegetables and small piles of bird shit.

‘Watch where you walk.’ Joseph had moved ahead of her, and his voice had taken on an air of command. ‘There are bits of old farm machinery here. An unprotected blade or spike could shear clean through your ankle.’

He’s back on patrol, thought Nikki, and suddenly she was glad to have him with her.

Slim shafts of light criss-crossed the barn, where the sun had found its way through the gaps in the broken and rotted walls. Dust motes swam in them, giving the whole place a strange, surreal effect.

As they carefully moved forward, the smell of decaying vegetation and musty wood turned into something else, something far nastier.

Nikki almost gagged. It was a smell she never got used to. She glanced across to Joseph, but like an automaton he was still moving forward, his face set like stone. Nikki sighed. Gentle and mild-mannered he may appear, but Joseph was obviously no stranger to violent death.

‘She’s here,’ he said softly.

Nikki shivered. She really wasn’t sure how she would cope, but she had a damned good idea it would not be well. This was all too familiar. Too close to home.

‘Who is it?’ she whispered. Joseph’s body was still between her and the dead girl.

‘Can’t say. It’s like the farmer said, she has one of those damned masks over her face.’

‘Kerry was wearing hiking boots.’ Nikki moved closer, but still could not bring herself to look directly at the girl’s body. Then she saw two white, straight-toed, bare feet protruded from the end of the rotting hay bale.
Oh dear God! The poor child!

‘We have to get that filthy mask off her,’ said Joseph.

‘No,’ she snapped. ‘We’ll compromise the crime scene. They’ll need to photograph it.’

Joseph’s voice was calm. ‘Ma’am, we
have
to know who she is. I’ll take every precaution.’ He pulled a large evidence bag from his pocket.

He was right. ‘Then do it, Sergeant.’

All Nikki wanted to do was run away, but this was something she knew she had to face. So she set her jaw and pulled on a mask of her own; the professional face. With her stomach churning, she stepped forward and began to clinically appraise the scene.

The girl, clothed only in a short blue skirt and a thin, cap-sleeved T-shirt, lay on her back across two mouldering hay bales. The hideous rat-like death mask concealed her face, and from the blotchy discolouration of the skin, she had been dead for a while. Nikki had seen her fair share of unnatural deaths and she guessed at maybe two days. There was no obvious cause of death.

‘Right. Are you ready?’ Joseph had carefully moved around to the back of the grotesque tableau, and with gloved fingers prepared to remove the mask.

‘Just do it,’ she muttered.

With a deft movement, the sergeant peeled back the mask, and as he did so, a cascade of brunette hair fell gently over the girl’s shoulders.

Nikki tried to stifle it, but a low moan escaped from her slightly parted lips. And in that moment, the years fell away and she was back in a filthy cellar, cradling a dying girl in her arms. ‘Oh no! Oh please, no!’ She stepped backwards, almost tripping in her haste to get away. She knew that her breathing was becoming erratic and she felt horribly light-headed. Then her heart began to pound like a hammer against her ribs and she knew immediately what was happening. She had not had a full blown panic attack for years, and the intensity of it was terrifying.

‘Breathe! Come on now, Inspector! Look at me, and breathe with me.’

Joseph was in front of her, holding her by the shoulders and demanding that she watch him. His face looked weirdly distorted, but she heard his voice echoing as if they were underwater, and she tried to do as he asked.

‘Can’t!’ A roaring noise filled her head and her chest tightened.

‘You can! Concentrate on me! Now, in, and out. Slowly, calmly, you can do it. In, and out.’

After a while, her desperate battle for breath began to ease, but she still couldn’t focus properly or talk to him.

‘It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s not Hannah. Do you understand me, Nikki? It’s not Hannah.’

Hannah? What did he mean? She sunk down onto a storage box, and tried to understand. What was he talking about? ‘What . . . ?’ She gasped, still trying to control her breathing. ‘What the hell . . . do you know . . . about Hannah?’

‘I’ve seen her. I saw you with her, at the hospital.’

Even through her own discomfort, she knew that he sounded horribly miserable at the admission.

‘I never mentioned it, because I wanted to respect your privacy. No one at work mentioned the fact that you had a sick daughter, so I gathered they didn’t know.’

Anger burnt through her, then almost immediately it abated, and was replaced by a cathartic kind of relief. She stared at him, then sighed, ‘I wasn’t thinking of Hannah. It was another girl. Her death was . . .’ she paused. She
never
talked about the death of Emily Drennan. ‘. . . just too much of a waste to bear.’

Joseph sat beside her, and with no hint of embarrassment, placed an arm firmly around her shoulders. ‘An old case? A bad one?’

‘The worst.’

‘There’s always one that takes your world and tears it to shreds.’

Nikki nodded numbly, then had the saddest of thoughts. It was irrelevant to the case, but she could not remember the last time that someone had held her. A tear formed in her eye, and she sniffed it back. When she’d had attacks in the past, and there had been quite a few just after Emily’s death, they had always been immediately followed by a period of black depression. It didn’t last long, but during that time she felt unnaturally aggressive and was best left alone. Today was different. She just felt sick, tired and vulnerable. And there really was no time for all this. She straightened up. ‘We should contact the station. Let them know . . .’