Hushabye (22 page)

Olbeck had split up with his partner, Joe, several months ago. Having been the one to instigate the break-up, Olbeck had been making the most of his newly-found freedom. Night after night, he’d been out clubbing, partying, drinking and dancing. When he wasn’t out living it up, he was working all hours, clocking up the overtime, constantly in the office. To Kate, it seemed very much like the actions of a man who was trying not to face up to something painful. However, having had her head bitten off more than once when she’d tried to broach the subject, she’d decided discretion was the better part of valour and was currently keeping her mouth shut.

She dismissed both Jay’s and Olbeck’s private lives from her mind, mentally squared her shoulders, and turned her attention to the massive amount of paperwork littering her desk while trying to ignore the long-suffering groans Olbeck kept making under his breath.

“What have we got today?”

Olbeck shoved a file across the desk.

“That domestic assault case is coming up.”

“I thought Rav was doing that one?”

“He is, but—”

The phone rang. Olbeck picked it up.

“Olbeck here.”

He said nothing else, but there was something in the change of his posture that made Kate sit up. She sat with pen poised, feeling her stomach tighten a little. It was a sixth sense, that’s what it was; you knew when something big had happened. Olbeck wasn’t saying much, just asking a series of blunt questions and scribbling down the answers. He said goodbye and put the phone down.

Kate put her pen down.

“What is it?”

Olbeck stood up, reaching for his car keys.

“Dead girl in the river. Patrol just called it in.”

“Oh, no.”

“Afraid so. “

“Where?”

“Arbuthon Green.”

Kate was reaching for her coat and looked up in surprise. “Seriously? I was there last night. Just last night.”

“Should I arrest you?”

“Ha, bloody ha. Come on, you can tell me what you know in the car.”

It was a twenty-minute drive to Arbuthon Green, and their route took them past the Black Horse, shut up now at 10.30am in the morning. The pavement outside was littered with cigarette stubs and empty bottles. Olbeck drove on through streets of terraced houses, their walls grey with pockmarked pebbledash and festooned with satellite dishes. Abbeyford was a reasonably affluent town, but every town has its poorer areas. Arbuthon Green was one of them.

The river was a winding oasis of beauty in the squalor. A footpath ran parallel with the water, and the banks were fringed with graceful willow trees, frondy branches dipping into the water. The banks were shallow, covered in patchy grass or thick mud. As Kate and Olbeck walked towards the little knot of people further up the footpath, they could see the pale shape of the body on the bank. No tent had yet been erected to screen the body from public view.

“Where’s Scene of Crime?” Olbeck muttered, almost to himself, as they walked along.

Kate said nothing. As they got closer, she was aware of a sensation very much like shock that was beginning to set in. it was worse than shock: a sense of unreality, a feeling of dislocation. She could see the girl properly now; she was lying on her back, arms outflung. There was mud in her blonde hair, and her face was blue-lipped, ghastly pale.

“Oh my God.”

Olbeck turned as Kate stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?”

Kate was staring at the body. For a moment, she wondered whether she was still at home in bed dreaming.

“The body…it’s the scene—”

“Kate, talk to me. You’re not making sense.”

Kate turned a pale face to Olbeck. “I know her. The girl. I met her last night.”

Olbeck’s face mirrored the shock on her own.

“You’re kidding.”

They’d reached the scene now. There were several uniformed officers, a shivering man in a wet tracksuit and Theo Marsh, one of Kate and Olbeck’s colleagues.

 Behind Theo, Olbeck saw the white vans of the Scene of Crime Officers draw up.

Theo raised a hand in greeting, and then frowned when he saw Kate’s expression.

“What’s up?”

Kate was breathing deeply, trying to get a hold of herself. She kept seeing the painting hanging even now on her living room wall: Elodie’s mock-dead face, her blue lips. All brought to reality right in front of her. How was it possible? She brought a hand up to her face, pinching the bridge of her nose hard.

“First time, is it?” one of the uniforms asked in a bored and patronising manner.

“No, it bloody isn’t,” snapped Kate. She wheeled on one heel, not waiting to hear his response, and walked rapidly away along the riverbank. She took just ten steps before stopping, but it was enough to take her away from the body. The feeling of unreality receded slightly. She stood, back turned to the scene, watching the ripples on the surface of the river. Sticks and rubbish had drifted up against the muddy banks. Half a pumpkin floated by, one carved eye socket and several grinning teeth still evident, reminding Kate that Halloween had come and gone.

She heard Olbeck and Theo walk up behind her.

“Kate? You all right?”

She turned round. SOCO had already begun to cordon off the riverbank. The man in the wet tracksuit was being shepherded towards a waiting police car.

“I’m all right. It was just a shock.”

“Mark says you know her,” said Theo. He looked worried and young. This was a situation they’d discussed before, over drinks.
What if the victim was someone you knew? What would you do?

Kate opened her mouth to tell them about the painting—and then shut it again.

“I met her last night for the first time. She’s called Elodie. She’s a musician, goes to Rawlwood College.” She remembered what Jay had told her. “I think her father’s the headmaster there.”

Olbeck’s eyebrows went up.

“God. If you’re right, this is going to be…” He didn’t need to elaborate to his colleagues.

“Are you sure it’s her?” asked Theo. “I mean, if you’ve only met her once and with the water damage, and all…”

Kate was conscious of a sudden spurt of hope. How wonderful it would be if it 
wasn’t
 Elodie.
Wonderful? Listen to yourself, Kate. You’re talking about someone’s daughter, someone’s child.

She dismissed her inner critic and walked up to the tape line, staring at the body. Once again, she was reminded of the painting. The posture, her face. Was it possible that the painting had actually caused her to misidentify the body because of the resemblance? Kate looked closer and her heart sank. It was definitely Elodie.

She walked back to the others, shaking her head.

“As far as I can see, it’s her.”

“Shit,” said Theo. “We’d better tell Anderton as soon as he gets here.”

“He’s on his way now?” asked Olbeck.

Theo nodded. Kate watched the river slipping slowly past. She hadn’t thought this far ahead yet. Anderton was the DCI for Abbeyford and surrounding areas; he was Kate’s immediate boss. He would have to know about the picture. He would have to know everything. Kate remembered Jay sitting across from her on her new chair, tipping his mug full of champagne towards her, smiling.

Who’s the model? My mate Elodie.

“Kate?”

Kate realised she was standing with her eyes tightly shut. She gave herself a mental shake.
Get it together. You have no idea what’s happened as yet, so stop panicking
.

“Here’s Anderton,” she said as she saw his car draw up, pleased her voice sounded so normal.

The three of them walked towards their DCI. Anderton had just returned from holiday—three weeks at his holiday home in the South of France, Olbeck had explained to Kate—and he was certainly tanned, his grey hair lightened by the sun. But he didn’t look much like a man who’d enjoyed three weeks of relaxation. His brows were drawn down in a frown and there were dark circles under his eyes.
Probably doesn’t want to be back at work, and who could blame him
? thought Kate as she returned his subdued greeting.

“Suicide, murder or accident?” said Anderton as they walked back towards the crime scene.

“We don’t yet know, sir,” said Kate. She pictured the painting hanging on her living room wall and heard her voice falter a little. When was she going to have to mention it?

“Well, any ideas at all? What have you people been doing all morning? Have I just been dragged down here to stand around like a spare part?”

Kate flinched under his tone. He could be brusque, she knew that, but he was not normally so rude.

“A jogger discovered the body at about eight thirty this morning,” said Olbeck, hastily. “He thought someone was drowning, waded in and pulled them out, although obviously the girl was long dead by then.”

“So the body was found in the river?”

“That’s right, sir.”

Kate grabbed Olbeck’s arm. “Is that right? The body was pulled out of the river?”

“Yes,” said Olbeck, looking down at her hand on his arm with a quizzical expression. “Didn’t I say?”

“No, you bloody didn’t!”

All three men were now looking at her strangely. Kate tried to pin a neutral expression on her face and tried not to show the waves of warm relief washing over her. The resemblance of the body on the riverbank to the picture on her wall was coincidental, that’s all. Oh, wonderful relief. For a moment, she felt dizzy with it.

“Something wrong, Kate?” Anderton spoke in a voice that implied she had to tell him.

Kate struggled and managed to subdue her euphoria. “Sorry sir, nothing wrong. I just hadn’t been informed of all the facts, that’s all.” Olbeck shot her a hurt look, which she ignored. “I wasn’t aware that this wasn’t the original crime scene.”

Anderton exhaled in disgust.

“You lot are not impressing me this morning. Theo, tell me something useful, for Christ’s sake.”

“Yes, sir.” Theo almost stood to attention. “As Mark said, the body was discovered by a jogger, Mark Deedham, this morning at about eight thirty. He often runs along this path, according to him. He said he saw something in the water—in fact, he said he saw ‘someone’ in the water—and thought they were drowning, plunged in, dragged them out onto the river bank and then realised they were, well, dead already.”

“Humph.” Anderton looked over at the police car where the man in the wet tracksuit had been taken. “That’s 
his
 story. We’ll have to take a much more detailed statement. Anything else? Do we know who the victim is yet?”

Olbeck nudged Kate’s arm and she shot him an annoyed look.  Anderton intercepted it. “Kate Redman, what is the matter with you this morning? Do you know who the victim is, or not?”

Kate spoke. “Yes sir. She’s a young student called Elodie, I’m not sure of her last name.” Olbeck nudged her again. “For fuck’s sake, Mark! Let me finish. She’s a musician, a student at Rawlwood College.”

Anderton studied her face.

“And how do you know all of this?”

Jay’s face swam in front of her eyes. Kate swallowed. “Because I met her last night, sir.”

Anderton’s grey eyes regarded her steadily.

“Is that so?” he said. “Well, you’d better tell me all about it.”

***

Buy
Requiem (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 2)
on Amazon Kindle, available now.

The third novel in the series,
Imago (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 3)
, is now available on Amazon Kindle.

IMAGO

(A KATE REDMAN MYSTERY: BOOK 3)

“They don’t fear me, quite the opposite. It makes it twice as fun… I know the next time will be soon, I’ve learnt to recognise the signs. I think I even know who it will be. She’s oblivious of course, just as she should be. All the time, I watch and wait and she has no idea, none at all. And why would she? I’m disguised as myself, the very best disguise there is.”

A known prostitute is found stabbed to death in a shabby corner of Abbeyford. Detective Sergeant Kate Redman and her partner Detective Sergeant Olbeck take on the case, expecting to have it wrapped up in a matter of days.  Kate finds herself distracted by her growing attraction to her boss, Detective Chief Inspector Anderton – until another woman’s body is found, with similar knife wounds. And then another one after that, in a matter of days.

Forced to confront the horrifying realisation that a serial killer may be preying on the vulnerable women of Abbeyford, Kate, Olbeck and the team find themselves in a race against time to unmask a terrifying murderer, who just might be hiding in plain sight…

Buy
Imago (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 3)
on Amazon Kindle, available now.

Want more Kate Redman? The new Kate Redman Mystery,
Snarl
is available now.

Snarl (A Kate Redman Mystery: Book 4)

A research laboratory opens on the outskirts of Abbeyford, bringing with it new people, jobs, prosperity and publicity to the area – as well as a mob of protesters and animal rights activists. The team at Abbeyford police station take this new level of civil disorder in their stride – until a fatal car bombing of one of the laboratory’s head scientists means more drastic measures must be taken…

Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is struggling to come to terms with being back at work after long period of absence on sick leave; not to mention the fact that her erstwhile partner Olbeck has now been promoted above her. The stakes get even higher as a multiple murder scene is uncovered and a violent activist is implicated in the crime. Kate and the team must put their lives on the line to expose the murderer and untangle the snarl of accusations, suspicions and motives.

Snarl
is the new Kate Redman Mystery from crime writer Celina Grace, author of Hushabye, Requiem and Imago.
Available now from Amazon.

Celina’s psychological thriller,
Lost Girls
is also available from Amazon: