‘You need to give up the smokes,’ Downes said, as he took the stairs two at a time. The lift was out yet again, and Ruby was made to feel wholly inadequate as she clambered behind him in between heaving intakes of breath.
‘I’m working on it,’ Ruby said, the craving stronger than ever. ‘Now if you just let me catch… my breath… ’
Fumbling in her pocket, she produced a shiny new key. It wasn’t good enough that she had replaced the locks. Downes had insisted on walking her back to her flat, reasoning that her daughter could be waiting to pounce. Given that Nathan had taken her in it was highly unlikely. In fact, the idea of Cathy being the killer was sounding more ludicrous by the minute. But there was a personal connection: how else would they have known her middle name?
As her eyes fell to the floor the world stopped turning. The black-edged envelopes were something she dreaded, and this one had been shoved under her door. A low groan escaped her lips. They were too late.
‘Don’t touch it,’ Downes said, as if they were dealing with a poisonous snake. Pulling a glove from his pocket, he pointed towards her bedroom. ‘Check the rest of the flat, just in case they got in.’
But her search proved fruitless. She returned just as Downes gently plucked the card from the envelope with the tips of his gloved fingers.
‘In Memoriam:
ANITA DEVINE
Died in her sleep
Rest in Peace’
‘Oh God,’ Ruby groaned. ‘What about Sophie? What about the little girl?’
Downes checked both sides of the card before sliding it into an evidence bag. ‘There’s no mention of her,’ he said, his voice low. Pausing only seconds, he slid his phone from his pocket and updated control.
Ruby clasped both hands behind her neck, bowing her head as responsibility formed a physical weight on her shoulders. A thought lit like a beacon in her mind. ‘I checked the flat after Nathan took Cathy in, which means she couldn’t have sent the death notice.’
‘Someone could have sent it for her,’ Downes said.
‘But it’s not just the notice, is it? She’s been with him all morning. Anita’s out there waiting to be discovered. It would have taken time to stage the body, put it in place. They’d need transportation too. It couldn’t be her.’
‘As you said, she’s been with her father. How far would Nathan go to keep her out of prison?’
‘You’re so bloody cynical. It wasn’t Nathan, alright?’ Ruby snapped, unwilling to allow the thought to cross her mind. As far as she was concerned, her ex would never hurt a woman. Growing up in a cycle of domestic abuse repelled him from any such act.
‘Steady on, girl, I’m just saying keep an open mind.’ Downes lumbered towards the door. ‘I’m heading to the Park Royal Hotel. It’s on the watch list as a possible dump site. You coming with me?’
It was the name of the fictional hotel featured in the movie. There were a few variations of the name in several London hotels: The Park Royal, The Royal Park; police were attending them all, and judging by the updates Downes had received they had all turned up blank.
‘Has it been under surveillance?’
‘Yes,’ Downes said.
‘And it’s a no-show so far?’
Downes nodded in affirmation.
‘Then there’s got to be another location.’
For once, Ruby asked Downes to drive. He negotiated the traffic with as much haste as he could while Ruby tapped on her phone, seeking out possible dump sites.
‘The hotel in the movie: it could be any number of places. How would someone dump a body, if they’re all on high alert?’
‘Don’t ya think we’ve been asking ourselves that? How did they get into those houses and leave Emily and Monica for us to find?’
‘Those houses were empty… ’ Ruby’s voice trailed away, unwilling to admit that they were all on the Crosby Estate Agents’ books. ‘Of course! Turn left here.’
‘Where are you taking me? This isn’t the way to the Park Royal,’ Downes said.
Ruby tapped on her phone, indicating he take the Marylebone flyover. ‘Bear with me, boss; I have a theory. Emily and Monica, they didn’t know the movie. That’s why they suffered violent deaths. But Anita did. In fact, she probably knew it off by heart – her husband said she used to watch it over and over again. So the happy ever after wouldn’t be the reunion in the hotel: it’s where they drive off together into the sunset.’
Ruby was referring to the final scene. It wasn’t set in a grand house or hotel but a car. Having found her daughter, the mother of the little girl sat behind the steering wheel waiting for Lucy to jump in beside her, before driving away.
‘Except it’s not a happy ending, is it?’ Downes said in a gravelly voice. ‘We’ve just been served a death notice.’
‘I know. But maybe the killer’s come to the conclusion there’s no happy ending to be found.’
‘Where does this leave Sophie? Is she a replica of the adopted child? Are we going to find her in the car too?’ Downes said.
‘Maybe, maybe not.’ Ruby replayed the final scene in her mind: mother and child driving away; Lucy’s suitcase on the back seat of the car. A chilling thought surfaced. Emily had been found in the foetal position, the forensic pathologist surmising she had been kept in a box-like space. What better way to transport a body in broad daylight than in a suitcase?
‘All the local hotels have been on high alert,’ Downes said. ‘I can’t see how our killer could just turn up and dump a body in a car with people walking by.’
‘Neither do I,’ Ruby said. ‘That’s why we’re going to a derelict hotel. It’s empty, just like the houses where the other bodies were found. It doesn’t matter if it’s no longer in use. They can park outside and still be in keeping with the theme.’
‘I never thought of that.’
‘I could be wrong. But it’s worth checking out.’ She could have asked a local unit to attend, but she had an unofficial ownership of the case and could not relinquish it now. The hotel in the movie was grand: the building looming into the view looked anything but.
‘The Magnat?’ Downes said. ‘Why have you brought us here?’ The Magnat Polish Pub had been derelict since 2012, closing down after numerous reports of violence. The drab two-storey building was a shadow of the once beautiful 1930s hotel.
‘It hasn’t always been a pub,’ Ruby said. ‘It used to be called the Park Royal Hotel.’
‘The same name as the one in the movie,’ Downes said. ‘Good thinking.’
‘I’ve found it on a site on my phone: Derelict London.’
Downes pulled up a small distance away. ‘Let’s walk,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to spook them if they’re already here.’
But as Ruby’s heels echoed on the gritty pavement all she could see was a lone, rusted Fiat Panda. And in it was a blonde woman wearing sunglasses, her face tilted in the direction of the road ahead. Her hands gripped the steering wheel as if she was waiting to drive away. Ruby’s heart plummeted as she drew near. Dressed in a black netted hat and skirt suit was the body of Anita Devine.
‘Don’t touch anything,’ Downes said, signalling he was returning to his car. ‘There’s crime scene tape in the boot. We’ll cordon the area off and call for backup.’
Soon the street would be buzzing with crime scene investigators and police. But for now it was deathly calm. Nobody had noticed that the woman sitting behind the steering wheel was a corpse.
Ruby peered through the dust-streaked car window. Her pallid face, her bloodless lips; it was a heart-breaking sight to see such a young woman trussed up in this way. Cable ties looped around the steering wheel under the black leather gloves tied Anita’s hands into position. A thin rope looped under a neck scarf attached to the headrest kept her upright. Blood bloomed from the centre of her suit jacket, difficult to see against the dark fabric. ‘I’m sorry,’ Ruby whispered, her words sticking in her throat as she noticed a thin layer of fog on the inside windscreen. Could it be?… Wrenching back the door she pushed her two fingers against Anita’s carotid artery. The faint soft pulse of a heartbeat. ‘Shit,’ Ruby whispered, ripping open her blouse. The wound was superficial, but the bruises on Anita’s neck told a different story. Had an attempt at asphyxiation brought her to the brink of death? Ruby swivelled her head to call for Downes. ‘She’s alive. Call for an ambulance, she’s alive!’
Downes raced towards her, his radio pressed to his ear. Wasting no time they performed emergency first aid. But one thought was drowning out all others in Ruby’s mind. Where was Sophie?
Ruby felt a jolt in her chest as she caught sight of the oversized suitcase on the back seat. Please don’t let that be what I think it is, she thought, as Downes’s radio broke the silence behind her.
Death had almost touched Anita, but what about her child? She thought about what Anita must have gone through, and the panic she must have felt for her daughter. ‘We’ve got to get that suitcase open,’ Ruby said, turning to her superior for permission. ‘Sophie could be in there.’
Downes nodded, handing her a set of PVC gloves. ‘Do it.’
Pulling back the door, Ruby forced herself to take cool steady breaths. She didn’t know if the killer had meant to finish Anita off, but after seeing what she did to Emily’s husband, Harry, little sympathy would have been afforded to her child. Kneeling on the seat, she leaned over the brown canvas suitcase, her heart sinking as she felt its weight. Her internal voice shot a warning down the corridors of her mind. Prepare yourself. It’s a dead weight. She glanced around the car, her heart beating against her ribcage. She was encompassed by the promise of death; the tar-stained ceiling felt like it was closing in. She tugged the zip across the jagged silver teeth. Discovering Anita was harrowing enough – the thoughts of finding her dead child was horrific.
Ruby pulled the zip harder, cursing under her breath as it jammed. These were the times she wished she worked as a school teacher, or in a supermarket checkout. To have the luxury of falling asleep in bed worrying about simple things, such as telephone bills and if the bins had been put out; not whether the suitcase she was opening was going to house the corpse of a murdered child.
Finally, the zip became free. She opened the suitcase preparing for the worst.