Ruby was silent as she negotiated traffic, taking shortcuts only known to taxi drivers and those well versed with the maze. A former burial ground, St Thomas’s recreation ground was overlooked by high terrace Victorian houses. As they reached it through the archway of Mare Street, Ruby’s mind was working double time as she tried to second-guess what lay before her. Officers had conducted door-to-door checks in this area already. If Danny Smedley was responsible for this crime, how would he have dumped the body in such a public place without being seen?
Crime scene tape flapped around the borders of the park, attached to the trees, which had long since shed their leaves. Their bare branches shuddered left and right in the twilight breeze as if they were warding off the evil within. Ruby fingered her long dark hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Her earlier jubilance had disintegrated replaced by a dark sense of foreboding. The setting seemed to add to her unease. Moss-covered headstones, once plucked from their original resting place, lined the walls on one side. What was once a graveyard had now been converted to an open space, although some of the original headstones and resting places still remained, along with some tombs.
On one of the tombs lay the body of their latest victim. Stepping into a forensic suit and overshoes, Ruby felt heaviness descend on her shoulders as she walked towards the crime scene investigators. They had got here in record time, and were already planning to erect a tent to assist them in their harvesting of forensics at the scene. A fourteen-year-old boy, pale-faced and shaking, was being led away.
She drew in a breath as she approached the body, tiptoeing through the dying nettles lining the single point of entry. The last thing she expected was another body turning up so soon. The job still managed to surprise her, even after all this time. The young woman, who looked in her early twenties, was carefully positioned but, unlike Lisa Caldwell, she was fully clothed.
Ruby listened as officers at the scene briefed DI Downes. At first, residents thought it was a shop window dummy, which someone had dressed up and left as a sick joke. The fourteen-year-old informant had got there the same time as the helicopter and, realising he had an audience in the sky, dialled 999 to report his findings. Most people in that area knew about Lisa Caldwell’s murder, and most likely the boy did not want to be put in the frame.
It was as if Ruby had stepped into a scene of a fairy tale. The girl was positioned in a state of permanent sleep, eyes closed, the shock of her red ruby lips a contrast against her pale skin. Ruby took in the full-length yellow satin skirt, the blue and red velvet bodice and the dramatic white collar, which rested beneath her bobbed black hair.
The words left her voice in a whisper. ‘Snow White.’
She touched the grey, weathered tombstone as if to remind herself that she was not caught in a dream. ‘It’s all so surreal,’ she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. Unlike the girl who had been found staring up at the stars, this victim was not a natural beauty, but someone who had been tampered with to produce a shocking wax-like effect.
There was something about the lie of her chest that made Ruby look again. She itched to remove the outer clothing to see what lay beneath. This was nothing like the frenzied attack where the killer had fled the scene of the previous victim. This was a careful, deliberate killing, a crime scene, which had been carefully prepared. She frowned as her investigator’s mind warned it was too early to discount a connection between this victim and the last one. She thought about the delay in arresting Danny Smedley due to Worrow’s hesitation. Did this grant him enough time to find and kill another victim? They were no distance from the park where Lisa Caldwell’s body was found.
She could feel the eyes of the nearby residents boring down upon her as she surveyed the area. The girl needed to be shielded but, with night closing in, time was not on their side. After photographing the scene from every angle, the tent was being erected to protect crime scene investigators as they worked inside. The light was fading, much to the hindrance of the fingertip search, which would also be organised with haste. Public parks were incredibly difficult scenes because of the amount of transient evidence. Chewing gum, cigarette butts and even condoms were often found. It would all need to be seized and bagged, but, given the amount of people trampling through the park, its value would be questionable.
Ruby stepped aside to allow CSI to get to work. One last glance at the victim’s face made her blood freeze. ‘I think I know this girl, our Snow White,’ she said, the words cold on her breath, ‘but I need to get closer.’
She felt Downes’s firm grip on her arm. ‘No rush, best we let Bones get on with it. That poor wee lass isn’t going anywhere just yet.’
Bones was the head crime scene investigator, and Ruby knew him well enough to agree that he would not appreciate her interference. She drew back, impatient. Downes was right: she was always moving too fast, and the scene had to be treated with slow and steady deliberation. But she could not bear that somewhere out there was a family waiting for their girl to come home; a girl now lying on a cold slab of weathered stone.