It feels to Ben as if backup takes forever to arrive, though in reality, it’s probably no more than half an hour before the first response vehicles screech into the woodland car park with their blue lights flashing. There is a quick briefing, decisions about how to divide up the cave system, which entrances to man, the most effective route through the tunnels to flush out their target. Then another delay as they await the arrival of the dogs. Ben is itching to get going, concerned that every passing moment is another moment their suspect could be burrowing deeper into the tunnels.
His phone buzzes. It’s Rachel, calling at the worst possible time. His finger hovers over the ‘decline’ button, until he remembers his dream about Ellie. ‘Hey,’ he answers. ‘Everything OK?’ The dog handler’s white transit van is pulling into the clearing.
‘Ellie’s fine. She’s at home. That’s not why I’m calling. I wanted to run something by you. Something that could be important to your case.’
Ben watches the van navigate into a parking space, the sound of yelping and barking filling the clearing. ‘I’ve got to be quick, Rach. I’m in the middle of something.’ He eyes the van impatiently, only half listening.
‘It might be nothing, but I assume your team has looked into the school staff here. Specifically—’
‘Rach.’ He turns his back on the assembled crowd and lowers his voice. ‘You didn’t hear this from me, but we’ve got someone. A suspect. I’m in the woods now.’ He sees Khan’s Volvo pulling into the car park right behind the dog van and lifts his hand in greeting.
‘Oh, OK.’ She sounds surprised.
‘It’s good, Rachel. This should clear Ellie of any involvement.’
‘Yes.’ She still sounds distracted. ‘So, you guys checked the staff?’
‘Yes, Maxwell spoke to all of Sarah’s tutors and Khan had someone go over the teachers’ files. Was there something else? Something specific?’
She hesitates. ‘No. I’ll leave you to it. Sorry to bother you.’
Hanging up, Ben goes to greet Khan. ‘Fill me in,’ says the DCI, stepping from his car, no preamble.
Ben brings his boss up to speed as they set off up the half-mile track back to the quarry. At the basin, the officers and detection dogs split into two groups. Ben veers left with the first group, back to the original access point he’d discovered, Khan tripping and stumbling behind him on the overgrown path. The others, as agreed, fan out around the far side of the escarpment where secondary points have been identified on the map. If they do flush out their suspect, they’ll need to cut off any possible escape route.
Ben adjusts his head torch and climbs through the grate, back into the cavern where the evidence he’d found earlier has already been secured and removed.
Khan is next to enter, letting out a low whistle as he takes in the cave walls. ‘Did forensics get all this graffiti photographed?’ he calls back to the chain of officers outside.
‘Yes, Chief.’
The dog leading the charge, a bouncy chocolate-and-white springer spaniel, is given the scent. She strains on her leash, eager to get going.
‘Let’s hope they haven’t gone too far down,’ says Ben. ‘It could be hard going.’
‘Everyone ready?’ asks Khan.
They edge through the cavern and begin the precarious slide down into the tunnel, all daylight soon far behind them. The ceiling starts at a decent height, but it’s not long before they are forced to crouch and stumble, the cool air and dank smell of earth wrapping around them like a musty blanket. The deeper they go, the greater Ben’s unease. It’s not like his vertigo, but more a general sense of claustrophobia, as if they are slowly being buried alive beneath mountains of solid earth.
Khan lets out a low whistle. ‘I had no idea these tunnels were here.’
Ben is puffing now, crouched low, his hands trailing the damp stone walls as they move further down. ‘Most of the stone in Bath came from these hills. They used the caves as munitions stores in the war.’
‘You can see why. They’re a perfect hiding place.’
‘Too perfect,’ adds Ben grimly.
They come to a split in the tunnel and the officers in front plough on, following the straining dog. Only Ben hangs back. He’s not sure why, but something – instinct – makes him pause. If he were alone and seeking refuge in a cave, he would reach his limit, not wanting to go blindly further and further underground.
He stands still then switches off his head torch, allowing the pitch black to envelop him as the sound of the search party moves further away. He waits, trying not to let the oppressive atmosphere twist his imagination. Then he hears it.
It’s a soft shuffling noise, a scrape against stone, but Ben’s ears prick up. He’s motionless, trying to control his breathing, wondering if he’s got it wrong. Nothing more than a rat, a bat, or some other earth-dwelling creature he doesn’t really want to identify, perhaps, but then he hears it again. Footsteps moving away in the direction they came from. Someone doubling back on them.
Ben waits, his heart hammering so loudly in his chest he feels certain whoever is in the tunnel must hear it, too. Then, in one quick move, he flicks his head torch on. There’s a man, crouched low, making for the exit. He glances back at Ben, his panicked eyes illuminated in the torchlight, before making a dash for it.
Ben lets out a shout to alert the others then follows, throwing himself back up the tunnel as fast as the narrow stone channel will allow. The man is scrabbling at the rock, but Ben closes the gap, then he’s on him, shoving him down, pinning him to the dirt floor and holding him there with the weight of his body.
The man flails and knocks Ben’s head torch, sending it skittering away, the light failing. Beneath him, the suspect is all skin and bone. He feels long greasy hair and bony joints jabbing at him. Ben squeezes, feels a sudden rage take hold, wanting to hurt the man just as he hurt Sarah, but the target cries out, and Ben releases his grip just a little as a rasping whisper curls through the dank air. ‘I took care of her,’ he hisses. ‘I made sure I took care.’
Ben shoves the man’s face into the ground. The unwashed stench rising off him makes his stomach churn. He averts his face as he slides handcuffs over the man’s wrists. ‘You’re under arrest for the murder of Sarah Lawson. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.’
As Ben finishes reading the man his rights, the rest of the team emerge from the darkness behind, one of the officers moving in to escort the man from the cave, allowing Ben a moment to regroup and catch his breath. ‘Good job, Chase,’ he says, slapping his shoulder as he goes.
They trek back through the tunnel up to daylight, Ben trailing behind with one eye on the man’s stumbling progress, following him out into the fresh air, grateful for the soft woodland colours and the weak sunlight. In the car park, Ben watches as the suspect is bundled unceremoniously into a waiting police van. He frowns as the doors are slammed shut. There’s something about the man’s posture, his shuffling gait, something nagging at him, like a tiny pebble caught in his shoe.
‘So, what part of “you’re off the case” did you not understand, Chase?’ asks DCI Khan, sidling up beside him.
‘Just taking in the morning air, Chief.’
Khan stands with his arms folded across his chest, trying to meet Ben’s height and bulk. ‘I should be giving you hell, and not just because you dragged me out here again in these.’ He points down at his black brogues, the leather no longer immaculately polished but scuffed and smeared with mud. ‘You could’ve jeopardised the entire case with this cave stunt.’
‘If we’d left it to DC Crawford, we’d still be standing around scratching our arses. So much for having checked the cave entrances.’
Khan tuts. ‘I’ll be having a word.’
‘You got the phone?’
‘What’s left of it. Tech will need to work a miracle.’ Khan narrows his eyes. ‘Tell me,’ he asks, ‘what brought you out here to the cave?’
‘Connor Carlisle phoned. He confirmed Jasmine Ware’s story about someone watching the party from the treeline. I figured if our assailant had been scoping out the kids, but then evaded the boys’ search, it made sense that a cave could be the nearest hiding place. It seemed worth another look.’
Khan throws him a begrudging look. ‘Good police work.’
Ben hesitates. ‘Let me interview him.’
Khan frowns.
‘It makes sense,’ Ben persists. ‘We’re overstretched. Ferguson is still off sick. Maxwell’s been flat out at the school and you sure as hell don’t want Crawford doing it. Put me back on the case.’
Khan sucks his teeth and Ben can see he is wavering.
‘This arrest changes everything,’ Ben presses. ‘You know it. Ellie shouldn’t be a suspect. Let me back on.’
Khan nods. ‘Fine. We’ll interview him together. I’ll see you back at the station.’
Ben punches out a message to Chrissie as he heads to his car. ‘Called into work. Could be a long day. Sorry, babe.’ Seconds later, two blue ticks light up next to the message. He waits for the typing dots to appear, but nothing comes. Chrissie’s online status blinks at him, then disappears.
The adrenalin is beginning to fade as he pulls out of the car park. It’s a massive leap forward in the case. Whoever their suspect is, Ben is hopeful they’ll get him talking. They need a confession. It would certainly help to speed things up while Tech work on the phone. It’s good news. The school and the local community should rest easier tonight knowing there is a man in custody. So why, Ben wonders, catching his own worried face in the mirror, does he still feel on edge? Why, when he thinks about the dishevelled man they’d hauled away in cuffs, does he feel as if something has escaped him? As if something isn’t right?