‘OK, listen up, everyone…’
Phil scanned the room. The whole team looked tired but wired. The news of Scott Sheriff’s murder had done that to them. It was up to him now to ride that adrenalin wave.
‘Apologies once again for bringing you all in on your day off. But with Christmas coming we could all do with the overtime.’ There were no complaints. ‘The first thing I have to say is that there have been big developments in the case we’re working on. It’s by no means definite, but we think we may have found the killer of not only Glenn McGowan but Keith and Kelly Burkiss too.’
He waited while that news travelled round the room.
‘As I say, at the moment, without forensic and DNA tests, not to mention a post-mortem and further investigation, it looks like we have our man. Or it seems that way.’ He held up his notes. ‘His name’s Scott Sheriff, aged thirty-one, originally from Rotherham, and he has the double honour of being not only on the sex offenders register but also on the list that Elli put together of known sexually violent individuals.’ He looked at Elli. ‘So well done.’
She smiled, bashful. Today’s T-shirt, he noticed, involved a scrapyard in Totters Lane owned by I. M. Foreman. He had no idea what that meant.
‘The one thing that we won’t be able to do is bring Scott Sheriff in for questioning. He’s dead. Murdered.’ Phil waited while the news sank in.
‘I doubt we’ll be on overtime looking for that murderer,’ said Sperring. His reply was a ripple of laughter.
Phil ignored him, continued. ‘It looks like – and again we haven’t had time to do a full investigation – a sex game gone badly wrong. Or it’s been made to look like that. He’s been beaten up and strangled.’
‘Maybe that’s what whoever did it wants us to think,’ said Khan. ‘Maybe it’s some victim of his getting his own back.’
‘Maybe,’ said Phil. ‘At this stage we keep an open mind. However, he owned a load of serial killer literature, not to mention extreme bondage stuff, and we’re bringing it in to be gone through. We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but trying to link him not only to Glenn McGowan but also to Keith and Kelly Burkiss will be a priority. Let’s see what we’ve got.’
He turned to the board behind him. Sheriff’s badly beaten face had now joined the other dead up there.
‘We believe Glenn McGowan was acting out his ultimate fantasy. He wanted to be murdered. Scott Sheriff, from what we’ve found in his boat, wanted to be a killer. We also believe Sheriff is the man in the videos with Glenn McGowan. Someone must have put them together. Introduced them. We think that happened at a place in Digbeth. A disused factory turned into a private club for extreme deviants to meet. We’re still not sure how people find the place or each other, but we know it’s there.’
Elli put her hand up. ‘Yes, Elli.’
‘I’ve been doing some research,’ she said. ‘And there are some parts of the internet that are completely unregulated. Way, way down behind walls of code. The kinds of places most people never go. They could have met there.’
‘Are there, I don’t know, chat rooms there?’
‘Everything. The bottom of the internet is like the bottom of the sea. All sorts of weird and wonderful monsters live there.’
‘Right,’ said Phil. ‘Keep on it.’
She nodded. It looked like there was something else she wanted to say but didn’t. No doubt she would later.
‘Sounds like that German cannibal bloke,’ someone said. ‘What he did.’
‘Armin Meiwes, good analogy,’ said Phil. ‘Can everyone remember him?’
Plenty of nods, a few shrugs.
Phil continued. ‘Worth mentioning because I think it has some bearing here. He was obsessed with killing and eating someone, so he advertised for a victim, on the internet of course, and found one. He cut this guy’s penis off first and they both ate it. Then he sat by him while he bled to death in the bath. Meiwes read a Star Trek novel while this happened.’
Phil saw the looks on everyone’s faces as he spoke. It wasn’t pleasant. ‘This case always disturbed me. I’m sure it disturbed everyone. I read up on it after we found the body of Glenn McGowan and there are loads of similarities. Apparently Meiwes looked outwardly respectable but actually had a severe psychiatric disorder and an appetite for self-destruction. That seems to be the same with McGowan. His murder looks to have been premeditated, with McGowan fully complicit. Remember the photos we saw. What he allowed to be done to his body. Lot of self-hatred there. A victim who went looking for his murderer. Looks like he found him.’ Phil waited while they took it in. ‘So we think that connects Sheriff with McGowan. But we don’t know what connects Sheriff with the Burkisses.’
‘Think I can help there,’ said Khan.
All eyes were on him.
‘When you phoned up earlier and said there might be a connection, I went and had a look on Keith Burkiss’s computer. Found some interesting emails. Looks like he was making payments to someone.’
‘For what?’
‘To kill him. That’s what it looks like. Keeps talking about wishing he could see the look on the bitch’s face when she realises she’s not getting a penny. How that’ll be his only regret.’
Phil frowned. ‘The look on the bitch’s face?’
Khan nodded. ‘Got me thinking. Maybe Kelly wasn’t meant to be there?’
‘Maybe,’ said Phil.
‘So did Burkiss know Sheriff? And if so, how?’ asked Sperring. ‘Doesn’t seem the type to go to this club. Unless they have disabled access.’
More laughter. Phil ignored it.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘That’s what we need to work on. Establish a link. For now, the club might be the best place to look. It seems to be run – or owned – by someone called Ben. That was also the name of the man in the video who we now believe to be Scott Sheriff. So maybe calling him Ben was a joke. We don’t know. Yet.’
‘What do we do next?’ asked Imani.
‘We look into Scott Sheriff. Uniforms are out canvassing the area, asking if anyone saw him coming home last night. If anyone was with him. If they saw anything suspicious. Long way to go yet. In the meantime, I want everyone to keep working on this case. Find a solid link between Scott Sheriff and the victims, preferably one that ties in with the club. Go through his book collection, see if he’s done anything like this before.’
‘Should we read them in italics?’ asked Elli.
Phil frowned. ‘What d’you mean?’
Elli blushed. ‘Well, it’s just that all the books with serial killers in, they all have their inner monologue in italics.’
Phil smiled. ‘Just the bad ones.’
She smiled too. Pleased that her joke hadn’t completely fallen flat.
‘And they always make them out to be superhuman,’ said Imani.
‘When in reality,’ said Phil, ‘they’re just pathetic little nobodies. Right. In the meantime, I think it might be time to pay this club a visit. Let’s get prepared for that.’
He looked round at the team once more.
‘Again, thank you. You’re doing a fantastic job.’
The meeting broke up. DCI Cotter approached Phil. ‘Can I have a word, please?’
She walked into her office. Phil, not liking the tone of her voice, followed.