Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

full homicide forensic team up here… PC Okeke has the directions… There’s no doors, so I won’t need a door-to-door team, just some uniforms to secure the scene. What I need is for you to plot this locus on a map then figure out which are the nearest roads with ANPR. Get the data and work out which vehicles disappear between cameras where there’s a turn-off on to this road… Soon as.’
    Grimshaw returned with a couple of sealed blue polythene evidence sacks and a sheet of paper at risk of being snatched by the bitter wind. ‘You’ll need to sign for this,’ he said, sounding as if he was already arguing with a refusal.
    Paula dug in her bag for a pen and scribbled a signature on the damp paper. ‘Thank you,’ she said politely, holding out her hand for the sacks. Grimshaw dropped them at her feet and headed back to his boss. She liked to think she’d never been that petty to anyone her boss despised. She couldn’t be certain, however.
    She picked up the sack containing Bev’s handbag and its contents. Staring at her, tinted blue by the plastic, Bev smiled out from her hospital ID. Her throat tightened, and she blinked away tears. How was she going to tell Elinor her friend was dead? Worse, how was she going to face that moment when she had to tell Torin his mother was never coming home? The death of hope was always the hardest part of any investigation. Knowing the victim, feeling so personal a loss intensified Paula’s sense of failure. But it was also a potent spur to action.
    Paula examined the contents of the bag as well as she could through the plastic. A moorland car park wasn’t the place to take them out of their protective covering. There was nothing that she didn’t expect. But the mobile phone did give her a moment’s pause. She pointed it out to Fielding, who was studying the body intently.
    ‘What about it?’
    ‘Nadia’s phone was among her things too,’ Paula said. ‘That suggests her killer knew there was no threat to him from the phone. He knew we weren’t going to find his name or his number on their phones. Doesn’t that suggest a stranger or a stalker rather than somebody they knew?’
    ‘Either that or he used a false name and a pay-as-you-go phone so it wouldn’t matter.’
    She had a point, Paula thought. ‘But it would still be taking a risk. If we found messages from untraceable numbers on both victim’s phones, we’d know we might be looking for someone in their lives. Surely to be on the safe side, he’d take the phones?’
    Fielding shrugged. ‘On balance, you’re probably right. Unfortunately it doesn’t take us any further forward.’
    A little encouragement would go a long way, Paula thought. It almost made her not bother offering her other idea. But she couldn’t let pettiness interfere with the hunt for Bev’s killer. ‘Another thing struck me,’ she said.
    Fielding looked up. ‘What?’
    ‘The lack of cameras. Here and around the crime scene in Gartonside. When you think how much of our road system is covered by ANPR or speed cameras, it’s a bit of a coincidence that he dumped both his victims in places he could approach without any concerns about being recorded.’
    ‘You don’t think that’s a stretch?’
    ‘I think it’s worth bearing in mind. We should ask Traffic how you could find out where the camera blind spots are and how somebody could find that out.’
    Fielding nodded. ‘Not a bad idea. But it feels a bit like clutching at straws. Let’s see what the forensics give us on both victims and, if we’re no further forward, you can talk to Traffic. I tell you what I’m more concerned about right now…’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Franklin was a pushover about handing the case over to us. I’m wondering whether he knows something we don’t.’

34

    B y the time their forensics team arrived with the uniformed officers who would see to it no unauthorised feet trampled the car park, Paula was chilled and bad-tempered. There was nothing useful for her to do at the crime scene, but she and Fielding had to stay put to make sure there were no gaps in the preservation of the scene that a defence counsel could later exploit. Fielding had retreated to the car and her mobile, but Paula had chosen to remain with the body. She knew it was pointless, but she felt the need for some sort of gesture. Keeping vigil was the least she could do.
    The first of the support vehicles had no sooner appeared in the distance than her phone rang.