Snow Kills (27 page)

‘No, I’ll call again this morning,’ he said.

‘The bicycle bell? Any news on its age, make?’

‘I’ve got an appointment with a bicycle dealer later today. There aren’t any markings on the bell but I thought it worth a shot. He’s been recommended; an old guy, been in the job years, but about as much of an expert as I think I’ll get on this one.’

‘Good work. Vicky I want Jackie May back. Have a word with her Inspector, Mark Baggs, today will you? We need more hands to the pumps. Tell them that Chief Superintendent Hugo-Watkins has okayed it.’

‘He has?’ she said, her eyes the widest he’d seen them this morning.

‘He will. He was supposed to be coming to our briefings to show his support, but he hasn’t. It’s the least he can do for us.’

‘I want you or Jackie to keep Mrs Harwood and Kayleigh’s boyfriend updated.’

‘Will do boss. I’ve got some good news for you.’

‘Good, I could do with it.’

‘Fingerprints are running the biscuit wrappers we found in Kayleigh’s car through the metal deposition machine to see if they can come up with any prints for us. They’ve managed to lift Kayleigh’s from the mirror we seized from her bedroom.’

‘For God’s sake, are they only just doing that? I thought they’d cleared her car, printed it and found nothing other than her fingerprints there,’ he said through clenched teeth.

‘There were Matt’s and her mum’s too, we got their elims.’

‘Yeah, course,’ he said, tetchily. ‘So when will we know?’

‘Hopefully today. I asked them to let you know A.S.A.P. To be fair, they have been working systematically through items in the car.’

‘We need that data back from her mobile.’

‘Today boss. Okay, if I get on?’ said Andy.

Dylan nodded. ‘Tell Lisa to get hold of Perfect and Best will you? I want to know if Longbottom’s told them anything else, on or off the record.’

‘Better get you some more caffeine before you burn out this morning, boss,’ said Vicky.

‘We’ve got to move this investigation forward. It feels like it’s stagnating,’ Dylan snarled.

‘A bit like whatever you last had in this mug on the window sill. Are you growing penicillin?’ she said, screwing up her nose.

Dylan sat looking at the screen of his mobile phone, contemplating calling Jen, but his office phone rang before he got the chance.

‘Now then,’ said a big bright, cheery voice.

‘Dawn,’ he said with a sigh and half a smile.

‘What you up to?’ she asked.

‘Trying to move forward with the missing girl enquiry, although it feels like I’m walking though treacle; you haven’t heard from Jen have you?’

‘No, why?’

‘I’ve got the tickets...’

‘You’re going ahead with the plan then? Look, I’ve been thinking about what you said. You don’t think she might be suffering from post natal depression, do you? Something I learned is that the symptoms don’t always show up directly after birth, like they did with me, but they can come on months after baby’s arrival.’

‘I don’t know what’s wrong,’ he said with a sigh. ‘I wish I did.’

‘Well, if you think I can help, remember I’ve been there, bought the T-shirt and worn the socks as they say. I was going to ask you if you’d heard any more from Shaun Turner?’

‘No. Why should I?’

‘Did you know he knew Jen before?’

‘Before when?’ Dylan’s brow furrowed.

‘Before, when they both lived on the Isle of Wight?’

‘No, no I didn’t ...’ he said feeling little shivers of cold down his back. ‘Why didn’t they say?’

Lisa knocked at the door. She could see Dylan sat perfectly still, gazing out of the window.

The room was overheated, outside was a bleak, brittle and dark day. His mind was blank, his stare fixed. He felt dreadfully alone.

‘Come in,’ he called distractedly.

‘Lin Perfect on the phone for you, boss,’ she said, popping her head around the door. Dylan looked round at her vacantly. ‘She couldn’t get through, your phone’s off the hook,’ she said pointing to the receiver in his hand.

‘Sorry,’ he said with a shake of his head as he replaced it on its cradle.

‘Donny Longbottom, for what it’s worth, tells me that he saw someone speaking to Kayleigh as she sat in her car that night, an older guy he guessed, but he couldn’t give me a description,’ said Lin.

Dylan sighed deeply. ‘So he’s admitting to seeing Kayleigh in her car that night on Manchester Road?’

‘Yes, but the bad news is that he isn’t up for making a statement to that effect.’

‘Right, thanks anyway.’

‘I’m on holiday for the next three weeks, so if you need anything you’ll need to speak to Yvonne, I’ve brought her up to speed with the case.’

‘Lucky you,’ he said before putting the phone down.

Lin Perfect stared at the telephone in her hand. ‘Well, thank you Lin for all your trouble,’ she said out loud.

Dylan’s mind was in a spin. Why hadn’t Jen told him she knew Shaun Turner, if she did? The thought moved him to an unexpected emotion. Why didn’t DI Turner tell him he knew her? It didn’t make sense. He couldn’t process the news that Dawn had sprung on him and for once his methodical mind couldn’t work through the thick fog that descended upon him. Could it be true, Shaun Turner and Jen shared a secret? It would explain why she was acting so oddly. Dylan suddenly realised an insecurity and vulnerability he had never experienced since being a teenager. He wasn’t young, he wasn’t naïve but he had for good reason chosen to live the life of a bachelor – until Jen had come along. He knew he shouldn’t dabble in such sentiment.

He walked up the stairs to the police canteen. He’d pick up a playpen on his way home for Maisy – she was such a handful at the moment. Maybe that would give Jen time for herself. Time to think, reflect, and talk to him.

‘Omelette and chips,’ he said.

‘Do you always have to be so bloody difficult? Can’t you just have something off the board for once?’ said the usually jolly kitchen assistant.

Difficult. Is that what he was, difficult? Maybe Jen daren’t tell him she knew Shaun Turner because he was difficult?

‘Difficult’s my middle name, didn’t you know?’ he replied, with half a smile. ‘You should know that by now.’

‘You’ll have to wait,’ the counter assistant said, mopping her brow with the back of her hand before stuffing the tea towel she was holding back in the string of her apron.

‘No problem, I just thought I’d try an omelette, like you’ve advertised on that banner up there.’

‘It says,
Please Put Used Crockery Here
, over yonder, but nobody ever does,’ she said nodding her head in the direction of the condiment section.

‘I’ll just sit over there quiet then. Give us a shout when it’s ready.’ Ten minutes later he walked past the counter, dropped his crockery in the elected spot and threw a forced smile at the counter assistant. She grimaced. ‘Lovely omelette,’ he said. He let the door of the canteen swing noisily behind him.

The afternoon was an arduous one of paperwork that needed decisions and signatures. It appeared to him that more and more people were frightened to death of doing what was required of them, terrified of making a decision in case it came back to haunt them. He wasn’t cavalier, but he did what he got paid for, which was taking charge and making decisions and he wished others would do likewise.

 ‘Dylan,’ he said, his voice sounded odd to his own ears when he answered his phone. He hadn’t spoken to anyone for hours. He coughed to clear his throat.

‘Detective Inspector Dylan, it’s Stewart Viney from HQ Fingerprints. DC Hardacre, Vicky, asked me to ring you when I had news for you in respect of my examination of the biscuit wrappers from the Harwood girl’s motor vehicle.’

‘Yes.’ Dylan was all ears.

‘We’ve identified some marks on the wrappers as the girl’s, but we have also found a partial left thumb and forefinger on the foil wrapper too, which makes me think that someone held it and maybe offered it to her.’

‘Is it the boyfriend, Matt Prentice?’ Dylan asked.

‘Definitely not, we have eliminated him.’

‘Her mother?’

‘We’ve eliminated her too.’

 ‘It looks like this person may have a very slight blemish on the thumb. I can’t be too exact... but it’s a mark that stands out, although it may not be very visible to the human eye. It may be an old wound.

‘That’s good news, right?’ Dylan said. For the first time in the investigation, he had hope and evidence that would put a person into the enquiry.

‘Yes, it’s good. However, the downside is that it’s not good enough for a database search.’

Dylan’s joy was brief.

‘But we can check it against any individual you put forward, providing of course whoever takes the prints gets a proper roll on the thumb,’ he said. ‘Whether or not it would be good enough to put before a court I can’t say for sure at this time, but that’s for the future.’

‘I understand. That’s great work, excellent news Stewart, thank you.’

‘Kit Kat’s are better than Ginger Snaps.’

‘My favourite too,’ Dylan couldn’t stop the smile.

‘No, you’re missing my point Inspector I meant the quality of the marks are better on the foil of a Kit Kat than the wrapper of the ginger biscuit that was also there.’

‘Yes, I know Stewart. It was a joke... never mind.’

‘Oh yes. Right,’ said the serious young man. ‘I’ll send the report out to you. If you require any marks to be checked, send them to me. If the person is recorded with us we’ll have the prints to eliminate them or bring me the prints over I can quickly eliminate them for you while you wait.’

‘Thanks again, that’s excellent. We will be in touch  as soon as we have some prints to be checked.’

‘Thank you sir, it’s a pleasure.’

Dylan had wondered where the biscuits had come from. They had been eaten, so the wrappers were the only thing left for them to examine. It was positive news and he was looking forward to updating the team at debrief with the latest revelation.

Was this the day that moved the enquiry forward? Oh, he hoped so. The team meeting was planned to go ahead in the next five minutes. Should he ring Jen? And say what? He decided to text instead.
I’ve got that surprise for you. I hope it will make you smile,
he texted. He half closed his eyes and looked up to the ceiling. He pressed SEND before he could change his mind.

His phone bleeped as he walked out of the door. He hesitated, should he go back?

‘Boss,’ shouted Vicky bouncing in front of him. ‘Good news about the fingerprints!’ she said thrusting a half cup of coffee in his hand.

‘Do you have to?’ moaned Ned.

‘Have to what?’

‘Be so bloody cheerful,’ he said, holding his head in his hands.

‘Takes longer to get over a hangover when you’re old I’ve heard, old fella.’

‘Whatever.’

Dylan’s office phone rang on an external line. Lisa looked at him.

‘Shall I get it?’

‘No, it’s late, we need to get this debrief over so we can all get to our homes tonight. Barrowclough’s telephone?’

‘I can’t get the billing information until the supervisor in Intel gets back to me – he’s floundering, tells me there is a lot of intelligence to assess on the system.’

‘Tell him I want it and I want it now, otherwise I will speak to him tomorrow.’

Dylan looked at him pensively.

‘I already told him it was a matter of life and death.’

‘It will be – his – if he doesn’t come back to us tomorrow morning.’

Ned yawned. ‘Too old for these late nights are we Ned?’ Vicky said her flaying arm cutting very close to his ear.

‘Get off my case, will you?’ he said, dodging the slap.

‘Vicky,’ Dylan scolded. The CID office phone rang. Lisa once again looked at Dylan, who shook his head. ‘Andy, anything?’

‘Apart from him securing a date with the lovely Marlene, boss, haven’t you pal?’ said Vicky winking at her blushing colleague.

‘I don’t want to know Andy,’ said Dylan. ‘What’s up with you Vicky, have you been on the Red Bull again?’

Vicky wrinkled her nose.

‘I have spoken to Marlene today sir, but sadly she has nothing to add other than Mavis Beanland, Kayleigh’s last customer had a suitcase with her when she came for her hair doing. It seems she was going to stay at her sister’s. She promises to ask her to contact us when she calls to make her next appointment on her return,’ said Andy.

‘And that’s it? Doesn’t anyone know where the sister lives?’

‘No sir.’

‘Do we know how long she’s gone for?’

‘No sir.’

‘Can we try to find out where Mavis Beanland lives, please? Someone must know.’

‘Yes sir,’ said Andy.

‘Okay. Come on then Vicky, what have you been up to, apart from teasing the hell out of the lads?’

‘You’ll be glad to hear PC Jackie May will be back with us tomorrow and I have arranged for us to see Kim Harwood and Matt Prentice already.’

‘Excellent, the bike bell Andy?’

‘The expert had a hospital appointment today and forgot about me. Seeing him now tomorrow, first thing.’

‘Joy! Okay, thanks everyone. I’ll speak to you in a minute about the skull enquiry John, but before I do, Stewart Viney rang me from SOCO. They’ve managed to lift some fingerprints, from the eaten biscuit wrappers in Kayleigh’s car.’ The room fell silent. ‘Don’t get too excited, it’s only a partial left thumb and forefinger print. The quality isn’t great, he tells me, but it’s as valuable as gold dust to us right now. Maybe it will put someone else in the frame for us and we can check this print against elims taken from any suspects that come into the enquiry. Sadly they’re not good enough for a database search, he doesn’t think. We need to know where the biscuits came from, home, work maybe? It’s a long shot, but it is just about the only substantial evidence we’ve got so far. Her boyfriend is eliminated and so is her mum, but we need elims from the salon owner, Andy, and I’d also like you to ask Mrs Harwood and Marlene if they have Kit-Kats or Cafe Bronte Dunking Bars Ginger Snap at home or at the salon.

‘They have the Bronte biscuits at the salon,’ said Andy. ‘I’ve had one.’