Glass dolls, p.8
Glass Dolls, page 8
DI Blackman nodded. “What’s your thinking? Anything coming through from the last cases?”
“Copycat slash hero worship and so maybe the killer spent time in this area, or lives in this area and was soaking up the memories? I don’t know. I haven’t watched the recent documentary on Hayworth, but it seems plenty of people did. It might be worth chatting to the production company, as a long shot,” Dove suggested.
“Go ahead with both those things. Oh, hang on a moment—” DI Blackman held up his hand to Dove and answered his phone.
She waited, heart pounding, hearing from his half of the conversation that the preliminary lab results were back.
“Thanks, Jess.” He put the phone down, and called across the office. “Okay, people, the lab results are in. She tested positive for ketamine, but there was no semen present and no sign of sexual assault. Cause of death is confirmed as suffocation, which we already knew from the preliminaries.”
There was a flurry of activity, and Dove caught DS Allerton giving her another hard look. Did she know about Dove’s connection with Hayworth or was she still incredulous that Dove’s sister ran a strip club?
Dizziness, which she told herself was lack of sleep, made her grip the doorframe. Hayworth had also used ketamine to control his victims. This was a perfect copycat, but she clung to the fact that the girl hadn’t been sexually assaulted. Hayworth had raped all of his victims, so either this perpetrator didn’t have a taste for it, or couldn’t get it up.
Eden’s face spun across her vision, all bright eyes and wide, trusting smile. And now there was another girl, another set of grieving parents.
Chapter Fourteen
It’s Monday evening and I’m back in front of my screen, reading my messages. Each site requires careful access, and each time I leave or enter a new chat room, I check my own security. Most of the users are familiar with the Dark Web, and they have advanced cloaking software that can never be traced.
But some are dipping a toe for the first time, and they get trapped by Bollo, who’s a tech genius and professional hacker. He can trace these people, get them shut down and, again, sometimes that’s enough of a warning.
I wander back into the Sugar Teens site, clicking on the link that takes me into the illegal chat forums. This is not one where I post. This is a site for those seeking underage pornography, and I am here to watch. Familiar names occasionally pop up and we can link them back to other sites. I know Taj and Ellie are on here, but I’d never spot them. Deep cover is what this is all about.
Alan1 is back with more photos, and others cautiously offer to trade. I skim down the chat to where BigDaddy is posting a link to a paid live chat.
These are always horrifying, involving child abuse, and I struggle to watch. Taj and Bollo will take over and get as much information as possible, before passing it over to the police.
I spot another familiar name, Jase&Girls. “Taj, I think I’ve got another one,” I call over to him. One of the bigger players is putting a call out for girls. They do this sometimes when they have something major planned.
“Where is he?” Taj is next to me, his dark eyes gleaming with excitement.
“UK, I think. Hard to tell.” It always is, these sites attract perverts worldwide. “He’s looking for anyone under fourteen — oh, boys and girls this time . . .”
“All right . . .” Taj skims through the forum posts. “Yeah. Keep on it. Maybe try a few posts on some of the chat sites he’s on and post as Kerry.”
Kerry is one of the names I use when I’m online. Kerry is a frequent visitor to online chat rooms but she hasn’t trapped anyone yet. Her web history is untarnished. She’s just a normal, lonely eleven-year-old girl looking for a bit of fun on forums like Teen Chat and MyMate.
The excitement of possibly reeling in a vast and vile predator keeps me buzzing until two in the morning. By then, Kerry is deep in conversation with “Kyle” who claims to be a fifteen-year-old boy. He’s a catfish, and there are enough alerts on his profile and in his messages to make me link him to Jase&Girls. Either he/she trades with Jase, or this is just another identity of the big player.
I sign off, telling Kyle I need to go to bed. He sends me a GIF of a kitten throwing kisses. Another sign that this is not a fifteen-year-old boy.
Chapter Fifteen
“Jesus! So she was still alive when he shut the lid on the glass case. That’s a fucking awful way to die.” Quinn, Dove’s boyfriend, still in his dark green uniform, slumped on a chair in her living room and dragged a hand through his hair. “Although I suppose if the ket was still working, and he’d given her a decent dose, she wouldn’t have been fully aware what was happening . . . Babe, I’m so sorry this had to be your first case. It’s a bit freaky, isn’t it?”
Dove handed him a mug of coffee and perched on the chair opposite. Quinn had just finished a run of night shifts, and his shadowed eyes and drawn face matched her own. “Yeah, well, murder is never nice, is it?”
“Must be bringing up memories, though. How’s Ren taking it?” His dark eyes showed concern. Her elder sister liked Quinn, but Gaia, for whatever reason, did not.
Dove pulled a face. “Not good. I spoke to her earlier and having this in the news is tough for all of them. Delta’s been having nightmares, too. Ren’s been off her meds for at least a year now, but Alex is talking about getting her an appointment with the counsellor for next week. She went down so fast last time. Before we realized it, she was suicidal, and it nearly tore them apart.” She shuddered. “I would hate for that to happen again.”
“Yeah, of course. Alex is a good bloke . . . I can’t believe the dead girl was working for Gaia. That also freaks me out a little, so God knows how you must feel.”
“I went over to Hayworth’s old house on my way home,” she said. “Me and Steve just drove over to get a feel, not really because I thought we’d find the current killer sitting on the doorstep.”
“You did? Babe, he’s dead,” Quinn said softly. His fingers linked into hers, comforting and familiar, the other hand stroking Layla’s soft fur. The cat was purring rustily, enjoying the gentle caress.
“I know, I’m not thinking his ghost is walking around committing murders . . .”
“Just one, and no, you’re right. No ghosts.” It was a firm statement.
“Anyway, we checked his old house, and then we parked next to the industrial estate.” She met his concerned gaze. “I had Steve with me, so it felt okay. If this is about hero worship, the killer might have gone so far as to visit the places where his idol lived. The lab results came back and so far, we have nothing. The MO is classic step-by-step Hayworth apart from the fact the girl wasn’t sexually assaulted. The glass casing was made in the same way, the method of subduing the victims is the same . . .”
“But you told me the place where he kept the girls was destroyed, and there must be new people living in the house?”
“Yeah, that’s true, and the new housing covers the road he lived on. His place was knocked down and these little red brick bungalows stretch right up to Hallows Hill.”
He nodded slowly, then changed the subject. “You around tomorrow night?”
She raised an eyebrow and he grinned. “Okay, dumb question. Let me know if you get some free time and we’ll go out for dinner to that Italian place on the seafront. Or do a takeaway in front on the TV.” He leaned in for another kiss. “Don’t forget, Dove, you can’t lose yourself in this one, no matter how tough it gets. We’re all here for you.” He paused. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it couldn’t be anything to do with Gaia, could it? Like, her past catching up with her and somebody killing one of her employees as a warning . . .”
Dove sighed. “The DI did ask about Gaia, and I know she has a criminal record, but she’s been out of drugs for years. The club was her way of cleaning up her act. After Eden, I just don’t see it. It affected all of us so much, and with Gaia, it was like she felt she needed to work harder, make more money, just not on the wrong side of the law.”
“Okay, babe, just a thought. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know.” For a moment, the silence was easy, the cat purred and Dove felt herself reaching out for him, slipping an arm around his shoulders, feeling the warmth of his body, his breath on her cheek.
It was like turning back the clock, and she almost opened her mouth to ask him to move back in. But he hadn’t ever asked for them to live together again. Maybe he was having second thoughts.
“Steve’s wife is having a baby.”
His muscles tensed under her arm, and she looked up, watching his face. The dark eyes stayed steady. “How did that make you feel?”
She shrugged. “Weird still, I suppose. But I can’t freak out every time I see a baby in a pushchair, or when someone else gets pregnant, can I?”
“Have you spoken to Jess recently?” His voice was soft.
“Yes. She mentioned the adoption thing again.”
He turned, gently moving in her arms so that they were nose to nose. His heartbeat was strong and steady against her chest, and he reached up with a familiar little gesture, pushing her hair away from her face. “You know I’d be happy to go with whatever you feel is right.”
“But I don’t want you to do that, Quinn. I want you to be part of any decisions, not just going along with stuff to make me happy,” she told him.
“You know I still love you, and when you’re ready, I want us to live together again.” He dropped his gaze, playing with her fingers. “I would never pressure you, though. Take all the time you need.”
“I know . . .” She couldn’t quite do it, couldn’t quench her alarm at the thought of him being with her when she had a nightmare or a panic attack . . . There was still a strong urge to see what she experienced as weakness, to keep it a secret, and at the moment she couldn’t override it.
He pulled away. “Okay, I need to head off now. See you tomorrow, babe. Oh, by the way, I got you this . . .” He pulled a jumbo bag of jelly sweets out of his bag, and winked at her. “Just to keep you going.”
She nodded, keeping the tone light. “A takeaway tomorrow sounds perfect. I’ll call you.” She leaned in for a quick kiss before he left. But as the front door shut, she felt like bursting into tears, like flinging open the door and letting him back in.
* * *
Ren would be back from the coffee shop by now, so it was a good time to drop in and see how things were. She grabbed her car keys, leaving her empty coffee mug on the table. Thank God the evenings were getting lighter now. She hated the winter. Eden had died in the snow, Ren had tried to commit suicide at Christmas, and she herself had suffered her breakdown in November. All bad things made worse by the relentless grey and cold.
It was a ten-minute drive to Ren’s place, and Dove was relieved to see Alex unloading furniture on the driveway. She could grab a quick chat with him before she saw her sister.
“Hi, love, how’s it going?” Alex was blond, tanned, heavily built and wore glasses which were permanently slipping down his nose. “Cuddly” was a good description for him, but Dove also knew he was tough as hell when he had to be. The good-natured rough and tumble of the market fascinated her. The close-knit traders braved all weathers to breathe life into the old cobbled square.
“Okay, I guess. I just came by to see how you were all doing. Is Ren back?” She held her breath, almost afraid of his answer.
He hauled a polished wooden dresser down the ramp, heaving it deftly onto a trolley. Dove noted the red “sold” sticker. Clearly it had been a good day. “She is. She picked up Delta from college on her way.”
“I thought Delta stayed late on a Tuesday for swim training?”
“It was cancelled, I think. Anyway, Ren didn’t want her to get the bus home.” He glanced up, wiping sweat from his face, taking off his glasses and squinting at her, before rubbing the lenses on his grubby white T-shirt and replacing them. “She also said she doesn’t want Delta going out to the beach party on Saturday night.”
Dove frowned, picking up the worry that tinged his voice. After Eden’s death, and Ren’s downward spiral ending in a suicide attempt, she had been admitted to a facility for eight weeks’ treatment. One understandable reaction to her elder daughter’s death had been to smother her remaining child with love, hardly letting her out of her sight. Which hadn’t been too bad when Delta was younger. But now she was a young woman heading towards university after her college course.
Alex finished piling a stack of cardboard boxes on the next trolley, and hit a button near the tailgate of the van. The hydraulic ramp neatly folded itself away, and he slammed the doors shut. “Come in, love, and have a chat with her yourself. I really don’t know if I can go through all this again. Seeing her in that state, and Delta too, kills me. You know she still blames herself?”
“Delta does? Ren said she was having nightmares again.”
“She always felt it was her fault because she never passed the message on about pick-up. They were going through an awkward stage, her and Eden.” His face contorted with pain for a moment, and he rubbed a big hand around his face.
“I remember. They’d had a row, hadn’t they, and that’s why she didn’t tell you about picking Eden up earlier from her friend’s house?” Dove remembered the exact details. She also recalled Delta’s horror at her realization that her actions had helped to put her sister in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“We told her so many times that it wasn’t her fault. It was Hayworth.” He almost spat the name. “That man said he saw her walking past the car park. She fit his profile and that was it.”
“It was fate, bad luck, whatever you want call it,” Dove said. Her heart ached.
“I still want to vomit every time I think about it. You can’t ever heal from that, can you? When someone has taken your child, the first thing you think is that you failed to protect her, but it’s just the cruellest glitch of fate that had her in that exact time and place that day.” His voice cracked and he pulled a packet of cigarettes out his pocket.
“It wasn’t your fault either, Alex. Hayworth was evil, and he was the one who committed the crimes, not anyone else,” Dove told him. But there was always a chain of events, always a way for the parents to blame themselves, because that’s just how it was.
If your child died, a piece of you died too.
Chapter Sixteen
Dove wasn’t surprised to see Ren was washing her kitchen floor. The smell of lemon disinfectant mingled with the scent of baking cookies. Under stress, her sister became fanatical about cleaning and baking, rushing around all over the place, trying to distract herself from whatever issue had occurred. She once said it was an attempt to escape the pain and sheer panic in her head.
“Hi, Dove. I’ll be with you in a minute. Just want to get this done.” Her black curls were tied in a knot on top of her head and she was still wearing her red Coffee Fix T-shirt from work.
Treading carefully, so as not to get dirt on the shining tiles, Dove moved onto the carpet of the living room. The house was modern, open-plan and, on a sunny day, flooded with light. It was the opposite of Dove’s battered Victorian renovation project.
“Mum’s been cleaning ever since we got home,” Delta informed her, scowling from her position at the table. Her homework books were out, and her tablet, but she was tapping a message out on her phone. “She didn’t have to come and pick me up, did she?”
Delta was tall and slim, with straight brown hair, which she’d had tinted red, and Alex’s blue eyes. Her skin was tanned a golden honey colour from all her outdoor sports clubs. Today, in her ripped jeans and blue-check shirt, she looked just like her sister at that age. But then, even as babies they had been beautiful . . .
“All the pretty girls.” Dove’s throat clogged and she felt her hand had crept to her stomach. She snatched it away, fidgeting with her hair.
Alex came through the door, taking his boots off and carefully lining them up on the mat.
“I guess I thought it would be better to pick you up,” Ren told her daughter, her cheeks flushed with effort as she wrung out the mop and straightened from her task. “Safer.”
“Just because another girl’s been killed it doesn’t mean I’ll be next. You told me that Eden was unlucky, that it wasn’t anyone’s fault, so it should be the same with me. If something’s going to happen, it’s like karma, you can’t stop it!” Delta snapped. “I’m not stupid, and I’m old enough to take care of myself.” Her voice softened. “And you worrying so much about me makes me stress out. I can see how shit it is for you and Dad after this new murder, and how much it hurts. I miss her too . . . So much.”
Alex walked over to the table and gave his daughter a hug, chin pressed on the top of her head. “I know, love, I know, but we have to accept Eden will always be with us, even though we can’t see her.”
“You mean like a ghost? Leave it, for Christ’s sake, Dad, I’m not ten.” Delta blinked her tears away, but she was almost smiling at her dad. “She’d have thought that was so funny.”
“How about like a guardian angel?” Dove suggested, and Delta bit her lip, her eyes shining again, before she nodded, playing with her necklace.
“Yeah, I guess that works better.”
Ren was taking cookies out of the oven now, banging the tray against the oven door with unnecessary force, her face red as she straightened up.
“And, Delta, nobody is suggesting that you are stupid. Of course you can get the bus home from training as normal.” Alex flicked the kettle on and sent his wife a warning glance as they passed each other. “It’s just a question of being careful. Any updates you can share, Dove?”
“Not really, and we’re still in the early stages of the investigation. Everything we know is already public. Have you had any journalists round?” Dove asked.
