Mary Grieve walked her dog every day at seven in the morning and seven at night, regular as clockwork. She had done for the last five years, since she had been given the puppy as an anniversary present from her late husband. Her grandson had bought her a shiny fuchsia pink iPod shuffle for Christmas and put all of her favourite songs onto it. He even had the words ‘Best Nan xxx’ engraved on the back of it. She didn’t understand how it worked but all the same it was the best piece of modern technology she had ever been bought.
As she passed the old paper mill, dormant for at least forty years, she paused. Spot was acting strange this morning; his hackles rising he began to whine. Pulling her earphones out she looked around. Mary didn’t get scared – well very rarely. She had lived through World War II and a car crash in which her husband had been killed. No, she was a survivor and believed that when your time came that was it and there was nothing you could do about it. She had studied the buildings over the years and had seen it all: smacked up druggies so off their heads that they were asleep in puddles of their own urine; drunken teenagers getting frisky and doing things which made her hair stand on end. And then she saw the girl inside the doorway to one of the buildings and gasped.
‘Hello, lovey, are you OK? I’m going to call an ambulance, you hold on there.’ The lifeless, naked body made Mary sob out loud. As she got nearer to it she knew there was nothing she could do to help this poor girl but she had to keep talking as if there was otherwise for the first time in sixty years she might lose control and that would never do. As she got closer she shuddered at the girl’s open eyes, which stared straight at her. They were locked forever in the nightmare that had ended her life. Her forehead was a mess of grazes and dried blood. Mary took off her jacket and covered the girl as best as she could to give her some dignity. She couldn’t let the poor thing be stared at by every Tom, Dick and Harry. Mary dialled 999. Not sure who to ask for so she asked for all three emergency services.
Will grinned as he squeezed his car into the last free parking space near to the station and then his phone rang. It was a control room operator to tell him that an emergency call had come in from Salthouse Mill’s reporting a dead body.
‘Crap, I’ll be there in a minute.’ He pulled back out and followed the flashing lights of an ambulance and a fire engine to the crime scene, wondering who the hell had phoned the fire service; not much they could do. He parked behind the ambulance and watched the paramedics as they jumped out of it and made their way over to a uniformed officer who must have been first on scene. Will got out and opened the boot to take a pair of the blue paper overalls from his emergency stash. After fighting for a minute to get his arms and legs into the thing without bursting it at the seams, he slipped on some boot covers and a pair of latex gloves. He was relieved to see the officer had taped the area off and was actually holding a pale green scene log. He noticed an elderly lady sitting in the back of a patrol car. She had a small Shih Tzu on her lap. Will rustled his way over to the officer who was just signing the paramedics back out of the crime scene.
‘Has death been pronounced?’
The paramedic nodded to confirm. ‘We’ll leave it in your capable hands, poor lass.’ They went back to sit in the ambulance and complete their paperwork until they were told they could leave the scene.
‘Sarge, I only went in there to lead the old lady who found her away from the scene and sit her in the back of the car. Nothing has been touched apart from Mary placing her coat over the body to give her some privacy, but she said she never physically touched her.’
‘Excellent, well done, mate. It’s nice to see that someone actually paid attention on their training.’
The officer, who looked about nineteen, smiled.
Will ducked under the tape. This wasn’t how he had envisaged meeting Jenna White. As he got closer he focused on her face, it was hard to tell. Teenage girls change so much and she had no make-up on. He thought this girl looked a little bit too old to be Jenna but he couldn’t be sure, he would need her parents to make a positive ID. It was then that he looked at the blood-soaked matted hair.
‘Fuck.’
This girl had long brown hair; Jenna’s was brown but shorter, more spiked. He stepped back feeling defeated. This thing was something bigger than he had ever dealt with. There was nothing he could do now until CSI arrived to work their magic. Debs was the only one on call for South Cumbria. Like every other department they were short-staffed and she was tied up at the other scene so wouldn’t be allowed to process this one for fear of cross-contamination. It would be at least an hour before they drafted someone in.
He looked around. There were no obvious signs of anything being left behind; just the body. He turned to walk back to the patrol car and to speak to the old lady while he waited. He opened the car door.
‘Mrs Grieve, my name is Will, I’m a Detective Sergeant with the police. That must have been quite a shock for you. How are you doing? Do you need any medical assistance?’
‘Just call me Mary; Mrs Grieve makes me sound ancient. To be honest with you, young man, I’m not actually sure how I’m doing. How could someone do that to such a pretty young thing? What is this world coming to?’
‘I know, it makes me sick to my stomach. It’s dreadful. Mary, can you tell me exactly what happened?’ He listened as she described everything in minute detail; she was precise and straight to the point. ‘Mary, when you were walking on your way here did you pass anyone in a car or a van, any cyclists?’
She shook her head. ‘Not a soul. Usually there is the odd person around but this morning it was just me, Spot and that poor girl.’
‘Thank you, Mary. I’m going to get someone to drive you home now. An officer will come and speak with you later and take a statement. Is that OK?’
‘Yes that’s fine and thank you, officer, but I can walk. Spot needs his exercise and so do I. I will be in all day until I walk him again at seven.’
Will smiled at her and she nodded her head. ‘If you’re sure, it’s up to you.’ He watched her untangle some earphones and then push them into her ears.
‘I’m positive, thank you, Just make sure you catch the monster who has done this because until you do I don’t think I will sleep at night.’ She stepped out of the car and walked off briskly pulling the small dog behind her.
It took six long hours before the body could be removed from the scene and taken by the undertakers to the pathology lab at the hospital. Six long hours of the scene being guarded and processed. The officers left at the scene all bowed their heads as a mark of respect when the undertakers wheeled the gurney past them with the girl’s body and loaded her into the back of a waiting black Mondeo estate.
In the last two hours quite a crowd had gathered, which meant more officers and PCSOs had to attend to keep the scene secure. The local press were here. The guy Will hated had been caught trying to sneak around the back and take photos of the body. For once Stu had used his initiative and arrested the prick for obstruction and had him handcuffed in the back of a van where he was shouting about public interest and freedom of speech. No doubt the custody sergeant would have a hissy fit and let him go without charge but at least he was taken care of for now. When they had done what could be done they left the scene to be guarded by the PCSOs so they could go back to the station for a briefing. Will was angry, hungry and fed up. When they got out of the meeting and everyone had been given multiple tasks Will and Stu headed back to their office.
‘I’m starving, Will, should we go up to the hospital canteen for some breakfast before we have to go to the path lab for the post mortem?’
‘Stu, that is a bloody brilliant idea. That’s twice in one morning you’ve excelled yourself. Don’t make a habit of it though, I can’t take the excitement.’
Will had just come off the phone to the White family liaison officer to let them know that a body had been found but it did not match Jenna’s description. He didn’t want them hearing about it on Facebook or anywhere else. Laura and Paul, who had recently done their family liaison officer training, had been dispatched to prepare Emma’s family for the worst and to bring them up to the hospital to see if they could identify her. Will felt like crap, his head was banging and he wanted it all to be over.
Derek Edmondson was sitting at the table drinking his second cup of tea. The Times was laid out in front of him but he wasn’t reading it. He needed to find the woman and the only thing he could think of was to go to the police station and ask for some help. He didn’t really have a choice in the matter.