Lulu’s phone rang, waking her from a dreamless sleep. She picked up the phone. It was half past seven. She blinked and sat up. Conrad was lying at the bottom of her bed, his eyes open. ‘It’s for you,’ he said.
Lulu laughed. ‘Of course it’s for me – whoever heard of a cat using a phone?’ She took the call. It was DI Friar. ‘There’s been another murder,’ said the inspector. ‘A body has just been found on Stretford Meadows.’
‘Stretford Meadows? The same place where Fraser Robinson’s body was left?’
‘The very same.’
‘That doesn’t make sense, does it? The killer has never used the same place before.’
‘The body is naked and there’s a rope noose around the neck. A couple of PCs have preserved the area and I’m meeting DC Townsend out there. I can have him pick you up, if you’d like.’
‘Oh my goodness, yes. How about I meet him at the Midland Hotel with DI Jackson? I’m only a ten- or fifteen-minute walk away.’
‘That’ll work,’ said DI Friar. ‘I’ll see you at Stretford Meadows.’ She ended the call.
Lulu phoned Phil, explained what had happened, and arranged to meet him in reception. She pulled on a blue and white Ted Baker dress and grabbed her blazer and handbag.
‘No make-up?’ asked Conrad.
‘Really?’
‘I bet DI Friar will be wearing make-up.’
Lulu laughed. ‘Yes, you’re probably right. Thank you.’ She went into the bathroom and spent five minutes on foundation, mascara and a touch of lipstick before presenting herself to Conrad for his approval.
‘Perfect,’ he said.
‘Cats are so lucky,’ said Lulu.
‘Fur does cover a multitude of sins,’ said Conrad. Lulu bent down so that he could jump onto her shoulders. She climbed the steps onto the rear deck, locked the doors and stepped onto the towpath.
She arrived at the Midland just before eight, where Phil was sitting in reception with a cup of coffee in front of him. ‘This is a turn-up for the books,’ he said. ‘Usually there are long gaps between the killings. It’s been less than a week. Do you want a coffee?’
Lulu’s phone rang. It was DC Townsend, telling her that he was outside. Phil gulped down his coffee and they headed out. They climbed into DC Townsend’s white Toyota Corolla and he waited for a tram to go past before they headed west.
‘So what do we know?’ asked Phil, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.
‘Just that a body has been found, not far from where Fraser Robinson’s body was found last week.’
‘Dog walkers again?’ asked Lulu.
‘Apparently,’ said DC Townsend. ‘There’s a forensics team on the way, and a doctor.’
‘And no idea who the victim is?’ asked Phil.
DC Townsend shook his head. ‘Just that it’s a man.’
It took just under twenty minutes to reach Stretford Meadows. Lulu and Conrad peered out of the window as they drove by the same Sainsbury’s that they had seen on their last visit, pulling up in the parking area.
‘It’s fairly close to the previous spot,’ said DC Townsend, ‘but not as far to walk this time.’
‘But the killer would have parked here again?’
‘I assume so.’
They pulled up next to DI Friar’s Corsa. There were several other vehicles nearby, including an ambulance and two GMP patrol cars.
DC Townsend got out of the car and opened the boot. ‘I have spare foot covers and gloves,’ he said.
They all rolled blue plastic covers over their footwear and put on latex gloves. DC Townsend used his smartphone to pay for parking, then headed through the hedge. Conrad jumped up onto Lulu’s shoulders. ‘There’s no way our killer uses the same place twice,’ said Phil, as he and Lulu followed the detective.
‘Not unless he’s changed his way of operating,’ said Lulu.
‘Why would he do that, when he’s been so successful in the past?’
‘That’s a very good question, Phil.’
As they passed through the hedge they saw a group of people gathered in the field, about fifty feet away. There were four uniformed officers in high-vis jackets standing guard around the crime scene. DI Friar was with a middle-aged Asian man in a heavy overcoat with a bright red scarf wrapped around his neck. Three SOCOs in full forensic gear were walking around, one of them snapping away with a digital camera.
Lulu and Phil stayed by the hedge as DC Townsend went over to DI Friar. He spoke to her and then she waved them over. As they got closer they saw the body on the ground and the length of rope around the neck.
‘This is Dr Patel. He’s putting time of death at about midnight, maybe an hour or two either way,’ said DI Friar.
Dr Patel nodded at them. His eyes widened when he saw Conrad. ‘There’s a cat on your shoulders,’ he said.
Lulu smiled brightly. ‘I know,’ she said. She looked down at the body. It was never easy to look at a corpse, and it didn’t get easier over the years, especially when violence was involved. It was lying on a bedsheet, pale blue, the lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. The rope was around the neck and Lulu immediately recognized the knot as a round turn and two half hitches.
‘Was the body found like this?’ asked Lulu.
‘It was actually on its side,’ said DI Friar. ‘But wrapped in the sheet. We moved it so that Dr Patel could get a better look at the neck.’
‘Who found it?’
‘Two dog walkers. They didn’t touch anything; even with the sheet over it they could see what it was. A patrol car came and the officers moved the sheet but then preserved the crime scene.’
Lulu looked over at Dr Patel. He was in his fifties; his hair was jet black, but his beard was greying. ‘What do you think, Dr Patel?’
‘He was certainly killed elsewhere and dropped here,’ said the doctor. ‘Lividity suggests that he was on his back for several hours after death.’
‘But the noose wasn’t the cause of death, was it?’
The doctor raised his eyebrows. ‘You have a keen eye,’ he said.
Lulu smiled thinly. ‘I’ve seen more than my fair share of strangulations over the years,’ she said. ‘The thumb marks around the trachea suggest that he was manually strangled. From the size of the bruises on the sides of the neck the killer had large hands, so it’s more likely it’s a man.’
The doctor nodded his approval. ‘Exactly. There are marks from the rope, of course, but they are abrasions that were almost certainly made post-mortem.’
‘Someone wanted it to look as if he had been strangled with the rope,’ said Lulu. She looked at DI Friar. ‘So not our killer, then. Other than the knot, nothing else matches. The sheet, the way the knot is loose around the neck, the closeness to the car park, the type of rope – it’s all different.’
DI Friar nodded. ‘Someone is trying to pass off the murder as the work of the serial killer.’ She scowled down at the body. ‘This is down to Dickie McNeil going public with the details of the knot.’
‘Didn’t he used to be a detective?’ asked Dr Patel.
‘He did,’ said DI Friar. ‘And he should know better.’
Dr Patel looked at his watch. ‘I have to go,’ he said. ‘I’ll email you my report and death certificate.’
‘Thank you, Dr Patel,’ said DI Friar. The doctor smiled and nodded at Lulu and Phil, then walked back to the hedge.
Lulu looked up at the clouds that were darkening overhead. ‘It looks as if it’s going to rain.’
‘We’re almost done here,’ said DI Friar. ‘I’m hoping that the sheet will help us.’
‘The fact that the body was covered suggests that the killer knew the victim,’ said Lulu. ‘The killer wanted the face covered, which points to a personal connection.’
‘Perhaps,’ said DI Friar. ‘But it might have just made it easier to carry. We’ll do a full DNA check on it.’
They began walking back to the hedge. Phil took out his pack of cigarettes and lit one. DI Friar looked longingly at the cigarette as he blew smoke up in the air. ‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’ she said.
Phil held the cigarette behind his back. ‘Sorry,’ he said.
‘I forgot to put a patch on this morning.’ She looked over at DC Townsend.
He checked his pockets and grimaced. ‘I’m sorry, boss, I’m out. I could pop to the chemist.’
‘Not on police time, you can’t,’ said DI Friar. She smiled ruefully. ‘I’ll survive.’
Phil took out his pack of Lambert and Butler and offered it to her. ‘One wouldn’t hurt,’ he said.
‘Oh, you are a bad man,’ she said.
He grinned. ‘You’re just swapping one nicotine delivery system for another.’
DI Friar stared at the pack for several seconds, then sighed. ‘Just the one,’ she said.
Phil tapped a cigarette out of the pack and she took it. He clicked his lighter and she cupped her hand around the flame as she lit her cigarette. She took a deep drag and then blew a tight plume of smoke up at the gathering clouds. ‘Oh, that’s good,’ she said.
As they reached the car park, they spotted Dr Patel driving away in a blue BMW. He waved at DI Friar and she waved back. She looked at her watch. ‘We should get back to the incident room and get the details entered into HOLMES.’
‘How long does it usually take your lot to identify a body?’ asked Phil.
‘It depends if they have been reported missing or not,’ said DI Friar. ‘Sergeant Sawyer was identified almost immediately because his wife had been frantically phoning all evening when he hadn’t come back from work. Fraser Robinson’s parents didn’t report him missing, so it took longer.’ She looked over at DC Townsend. ‘We identified him through his dental work, didn’t we?’
DC Townsend nodded. ‘He had a missing back tooth and some distinctive bridgework, so we got a hit within forty-eight hours.’
‘We’ll check the missing persons lists for this latest victim, and run his DNA and fingerprints through the databases and if we’re lucky we’ll get a hit. If not, we’ll go the dental route.’ She bent down and extinguished her cigarette on the ground, then wrapped it in a tissue and popped it into her handbag. ‘Best not to contaminate the crime scene, obviously,’ she said, before unlocking her car and climbing in.
‘Can we come with you?’ asked Lulu.
‘Of course you can,’ said DI Friar. ‘I’ll need you and Inspector Jackson around when we eventually identify him.’
‘In case there’s a London link?’
‘Exactly.’