Three Little Maids (22 page)

The two police officers listened. Both feeling the strain of the repetitive visits to the lab which had become a much disliked chore to them both. Turner spoke out after an uncomfortable silence. ‘Does that look like a ring was torn out from her nostril, sir? That dried blood round the nose?’

‘It does. And what is not quite so noticeable she’d also worn a stud in her tongue. It was ripped out while she was still alive, I would say.’

‘Christ!’ Turner’s easily read face quickly formed an unmistakable expression of horror. And he turned away for a second or so retching in his throat.

Kent standing beside him brought his long arms up into the air and growled under his breath. ‘What a bastard!’

‘Yes. It was forcibly taken as an
afterthought during her dying moments, I would say. Hence the congealed blood in the mouth. Poor little girl. I have a god-daughter the same age. There seems to be an angry man here who hates these young women enough to plan their destruction most carefully.’

‘Good grief. It makes me feel like killing the bastard myself. If I could only get my own hands round the throat I’d give him a taste of his own medicine, guv. I’d-I’d rip his tongue out and worse,’ Turner said as they thankfully left the medical man to carry out the rest of his work uninterrupted.

‘I never reckoned you could harbour such violent thoughts, Turner, but you echo my sentiment entirely,’ Kent said quietly.

44

In the Incident Room there was an air of desperate activity. Computer screens alight with action as Kent walked in. He clapped his hands together sharply for attention.

‘Right then lads and lassies. Pay attention now. We can’t afford to miss any vital clues. What have we got to go on with
- let’s see now.’

Kent tapped the pictures of the three dead girls in turn as he spoke. ‘Maureen, Yvette and Jodie. Three young girls. School girls. All three killed in the same manner, in the same place, by the same man, we think.’

‘With the exception of Jodie, the other two were not virgins, guv.’

Kent shook his head. ‘That means nothing, Gearing.’

‘They were moved afterwards. None were sexually assaulted. No sign of semen in any orifices on their bodies. The pervert gets his kicks in other ways obviously. Has an obsession with cleanliness. He’s not going to be picked up with DNA tests.’

‘Cunning bastard.’

‘Yes, Carter, he is.’

‘There’s no possibility is there, sir, that it could be a woman? Someone who hated pretty girls?’

‘That thought had crossed my mind, Carter. But I dismissed it. It’s not likely that young Maureen could be lured into a meeting with another woman. And there is the weight of the bodies to deal with. They were no lightweights after death. Remember that. So what suspects have we that fit the bill, and the possible motives? And would be likely to have the transport to remove the bodies?’

‘All the suspects would have transport. All have cars, sir.’

‘Except Raymond Perkins.’

‘Yes, Gearing. So we come to the motives then,’ Kent said writing down the details with chalk on the board as he spoke. ‘Mayor Tom Berkley had ample motive for killing Yvette. He was caught by the short and curlies doing what comes naturally to him.’ A light cheer went up round the room. And was quickly smothered by a frown from Turner. ‘And he was bled dry by blackmailer Cliff Jones. He has films to show for it. Berkley must have been besotted by the girl not to see that he was being caught on candid camera.’

‘Wouldn’t he be more likely to feel like killing Cliff Jones, guv? He obviously set Yvette up to it.’

‘Probably at first, Burton. But I don’t think Berkley has the guts to see it all through. The murderer hasn’t made a mistake yet. Berkley left a slimy trail behind him like a slug when he trashed Yvette’s room.’

‘He might have thought by removing Yvette he could silence Cliff once and for all.’

‘I doubt it, Burton. Then we have Maureen Carey. The first of the victims. Her diary reads like a prologue to Moll Flanders.’

Loud baying sounds emitted from the male officers around the room followed by ‘Permission to read it, guv?’ from DC Gearing.

‘You can’t keep a good thing to yourself, sir. How about letting us females have a look in?’

‘I’m surprised at you, Sherwood. You wouldn’t appreciate it.’ Kent held up his hand and the noise ceased. ‘The strong overwhelming motive there is her sex life. A nymphomaniac in the making. She had more men sniffing around her probably than we are aware of as yet. Till we shake them out of the woodwork.

‘We know that Maureen made a strong play for Tom Berkley and his son Michael too. The kid wasn’t having any. He’d got more common than his old man. Roger Welbeck didn’t want his missus to know that Maureen tried it on with him.

‘But she did. Maureen made sure of that. He had good reason for not wanting to lose her. A brave, lovely, woman well worth hanging onto. And he still feels guilty for causing the accident which crippled her. He wouldn’t want to bust up his marriage for a little trollop like Maureen. He might have been good and mad, angry enough to killing in a fit of temper. If pressed too hard.

‘So then there’s Aiden Ludlam. Let’s try putting him into the frame, shall we? He admits to cheating on his wife only when his car got pinched from a place it shouldn’t be. Outside Miss Frances’s Leach’s house. And his lady friend can give him an alibi for all three killings.’

‘Raymond Perkins, guv. He’s been associated with all three girls. Has he got alibis for all three killings?’

‘He was in the Nag’s Head before the first two took place,’ Turner said. ‘We have only his say so that he walked around the town in a moody when Maureen was killed. They’d been an item till she said she was seeing someone else. And the same goes for Saturday when Yvette met the same fate. He flirted with her over the bar counter. She did with all the men. I can’t see her going out with Raymond. She gave him the bum’s rush. He’s got no money for a start. And she was too keen on cashing in on Berkley. He could have been jealous.’

‘So what about Jodie, guv?’ Sherwood asked from the back of the room. ‘How well did he actually know her?’

‘She was a friend of a couple of days standing. He was actually with Jodie most of the evening before she was done away with. They were seen together at the firework show then he had a call of nature. She was nervous and according to him she just ‘buggered
off.’

‘And as for transport we have discovered that according to Susan Flitch, Raymond used the Carey’s old van from the Funeral parlour to take Maureen out in. Carey allowed Raymond the use of it occasionally. I had a word with Jack Stewart, driver of the hearse, over a pint in the Nag’s Head. Carey has a soft spot for the boy,’ Turner chipped in. ‘Raymond has quite a presence at funeral with those pale soulful looks of his. And he had a talent for making the dear departed look good for their loved ones. So it seems Carey was encouraging and grooming the lad up the ladder in the funeral business.

‘So he could have been making use of the van on the nights Yvette and Jodie were killed. He could have strangled them in the back and then dumped them afterwards.’

‘Thank you, Turner.’

‘What about Carey, the undertaker?’

‘What about him, DC Gearing?’

‘Well, I’ve met him. He strikes me as a grim dour person. Maybe…’ The red-haired young detective looked earnestly around at the interested faces now turned towards her. ‘He might have been abusing his daughter. Maureen was very sexually aware, wasn’t she? He might have introduced her to sex from an early age. And she could have threatened to expose him. How about that? It would have been curtains for him in this small town. For his business and his marriage.’

Murmurs around the room didn’t disagree and with this encouragement she carried on. ‘So he could have picked out the other two victims to cover his tracks and his motive. He could have known about Berkley’s assignations and blackmail by Yvette, and Jodie’s homeless problems from Mrs Perkins, his wife’s cleaner. She picks up tit-bits of information like she does her varied health problems. She could well have gossiped about the girl and the need for a bed at the hostel. Perhaps he thought they were expendable.’

‘Thank you, Gearing. But I think you will find that his wife can give him an alibi for the night that Maureen was killed. And more than likely for the other nights too.’

‘His wife. Exactly! She would want to protect and cover up for him,’ Gearing retorted and sat with her arms folded.

‘Could be a sexual pervert getting his kicks at the seaside, away from town. Away from his usual haunts. He might have done something like this up North. And buggered off by now. And checking on single men on the razzle-dazzle down here is an impossibility with no DNA to go on. And like I said, he could have left by now,’ Detective Lilly said cheerfully accompanied by agonized groans around him.

‘Coming back to Raymond Perkins would then have had the necessary transport to move the bodies. Turner?’

‘Yes, guv. I noticed the old runabout in the undertaker’s yard in passing when we called in the other day. He would be able to drive it around during the day for Carey. He did errands for his boss in town. No one would notice if it had been moved at night. Susan Flitch said he took Maureen out in it. So he wouldn’t scare her if he picked her up in it. Maybe he offered Yvette a lift last thing from the pub that night. And Jodie, he could have caught up again with her on the way to the hostel.’

‘Could be he met up with Maureen down the end of Susan Flitch’s road. We shall never really know. She’d made him good and mad remember. He wasn’t going to let her treat him like that. And get away with it. And Yvette could have made him feel small.’

‘Okay, Carter. We’re bearing this all in mind.’

‘Jodie also made him feel stupid. And let him down after he’d treated her generously.’

‘Yes, Gearing. Just run over Raymond’s background once again if you will, for everyone here please, Turner.’

‘His mother left him at three years old, according to his Gran,’ Turner said. ‘That’s why he used to take off on buses to find her. Mrs P. had quite a task bringing him up. As a fifteen year old single mother, Pam was too tough for June Perkins to handle. June was left a single parent herself when she lost her husband Billy in the Falklands. He was a sailor. And the girl got out of control because June was in a bad way when Billy was gone. June Perkins lost her father at sea too. He was a lifeboat man. And was awarded a posthumous medal for bravery.’

‘You know quite a bit about the family, Turner. As the community policeman.’

‘That’s right. And my wife used to call on Mrs Perkins. As a small child Raymond had quite a paddy on him. His
gran used to worry about it but she kept a tight rein on him. She was glad to see him settled in the job at Carey’s. He took to the job well.’

‘Could be why the bodies were tidied up so nicely, sir. So clean and neat afterwards.’

‘Could be.’

‘Let’s take a look at the van, Turner. Get Forensics on to it, straight away.’

45

‘Tell me what is the common denominator here in these three cases, Turner? Who seems to be connected with all three victims?’

Turner grimaced. ‘Raymond Perkins, guv.’

‘Exactly. And what’s our next move?’

‘We must get permission to search his room, guv.’

‘And Forensics going over the van. So let’s make it a united move on both fronts, shall we? We can’t ignore the possibility that Raymond is our Jack the Lad. With all the background gen we have on him already.’

‘Mrs P. is not going to like it. But she’ll co-operate with careful handling, guv.’

‘You can look in Raymond’s room. He has nothing to hide, Mr.Turner. He doesn’t like me going in to tidy much. And he keeps it neat and clean. He likes lots of pictures. You’ll see them when you go in. It’s the second door on the landing.
It’s got his name on it. He likes to keep it private.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Perkins.’

Looking into the boy’s room was a complete eye opener for Kent and Turner. It was bizarre, Turner thought popping a peppermint chew into his mouth absently. It was something like a set out of a Hammer Horror film. It was decorated in a dramatic fashion that was both striking and brilliant. Certainly not what they’d expected to see when the two police officers stopped in the open doorway to stare back at the sight that met their eyes. It was all the more astonishing because they weren’t at all prepared for it.

There were life size drawings, startlingly recognizable, executed in bold black ink on the sheets of white paper pinned up on the walls. But it was the way they were done and the subject matter that made them so striking. The three girl victims were portrayed lying naked on grassy mounds with tomb stones prominent in the background.

‘My God, Turner,’ Kent gasped. ‘How on earth did he find the talent to do these? They’re amazing. This other life size one of Maureen draped beside a coffin puts Sara Welbeck’s work in the shade for creative originality. Looks like Maureen posed for him. These others he must have done from memory,’ he said rubbing his nose with forefinger and thumb as he looked them over. ‘I recall now an autistic boy who could sketch buildings like a trained architect. Does his grandmother come into this room often? It reminds me of Dracula’s lair. Is he really the artist?’