Jenny happily handed Erin a list of the places she’d visited on her daisy wheel jaunt. In contrast to her gothic look, Jenny’s handwriting was full of loops and swirls, a style she probably adopted as a teenager and never lost. The list was impressive, around twenty places in total, and Jenny assured her she’d visited every site on the list. What a way to spend a summer vacation, although Erin couldn’t help feeling a little jealous of her colleague’s passion. If she was given the opportunity to spend a summer on one of her own enthusiasms, she’d struggle to identify anything to occupy her time. Not for the first time, she envied Generation Z and their determination to do things their own way.
‘And every one of these marks has been in the building for centuries?’ asked Erin.
Jenny, who was transferring images from her camera onto a laptop, laughed. ‘Oh no. There’s been intermittent revival of interest in ritual house protection since it first began.’
‘You mean someone could buy a house and the first thing they do is score a hexafoil in a doorway.’
‘Exactly. It’s a little niche, but it does happen. What we were interested in though were the older markings. The earliest we found goes back to the seventeenth century.’
Erin glanced at the list again, but it failed to reveal any secrets. There was even a cemetery on the list, which wouldn’t have been difficult for Jenny and her friends to access. Lawrence Hill was the oldest graveyard in the town, although it had closed for burials a few years earlier. It was a vast tract of land surrounded by an iron railing fashioned into a series of interlocking arches. Very gothic and useless for keeping out kids at Halloween. Nevertheless, it was an easily accessible public space as opposed to the private houses where Jenny had pestered householders for admittance. She must mention the spot to Carla.
Erin tucked the list away in her desk drawer, wondering how Carla was getting on with Viv Kantz over the Iris Chan killing. That had been one of Viv’s big successes and she’d gained a promotion because of it. Erin wouldn’t want to be in Carla’s shoes that morning as she was pretty sure the lieutenant wouldn’t take kindly to someone interfering in a closed case. More than once, Erin had been on the receiving end of Viv’s acidity. She had an unerring sense of bullshit and wasn’t afraid to call it out. Also, unlike with most cops, there was no scandal to her name except for that car accident all those years ago. Even then, she’d come out unscathed – the dirt had refused to stick.
Erin spent the rest of the morning on the autopsy of a morbidly obese man whose weight came in just short of three hundred pounds. As he’d died in hospital under the care of a physician, a post-mortem wasn’t strictly necessary. His weight had contributed to a raft of medical conditions, but the family had still wanted to know which one had killed him. It would be a time-consuming job to extract the organs from the layers of fat covering them. Eighteen years earlier, when Erin had first stepped foot in a pathology lab, the overweight had been the exception. Now she was no longer sure what a normal weight was, but it was a damn sight heavier than the average when she’d started her career.
As the autopsy progressed, it was clear her patient had died from myocardial infarction due to coronary artery insufficiency. In other words, his blocked arteries had caused a fatal heart attack, although he was also showing signs of fatty liver disease. She would need to tread carefully when she phoned the relatives. The deceased’s wife matched him almost for size and Erin would need to ensure her report suggested no fault on the man’s part. Obesity, after all, was a more complex phenomenon than simply eating too much.
In the shower, Erin leant against the wall as the water rained on her scalp. She was dog-tired and not sleeping well. Carla had stoked a hornet’s nest with her questions and she was no nearer making any sense of what was going on. She had warned Carla that Jericho didn’t give up its secrets easily. For her, if the deaths were linked, Erin’s money was on a local killer. It had the hallmark of obsession and subterfuge and where better to hide your deviancy than in a town like this. For all she knew, she might know the person responsible.
As she towel-dried her hair, she could contain her curiosity no longer. She picked up the phone and called Carla.
‘How did it go?’
Carla groaned. ‘I’m in the doghouse. Viv didn’t want to even discuss Iris Chan. She was steaming, so I didn’t dare ask her about Lauren’s death.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I was thinking it all over last night. Don’t you think it’s funny that Lauren died shortly after doing a spot of investigating? Not a million miles from where I am now and she winds up dead.’
‘Now hold on.’ Erin felt a surge of anger. ‘I did that autopsy. Lauren died from drowning and there were absolutely no defensive wounds. She’d weighted her pockets down with quartz stones.’
Erin heard Carla suck in her breath. ‘Quartz? You never told me that.’
‘You never asked. So what?’
‘But quartz isn’t something you pick up from the ground around here, is it?’
‘Of course not. These were polished stones. She must have brought them from a dig.’
‘From a dig? You don’t pick up polished stones from a dig.’
‘All right, she bought them in a shop. The fact she carried them to the site shows intent. What’s your problem?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Carla sounded desperate to cut the call.
Erin sighed. Carla was upset and had probably done her career some damage by going up against Viv. Albert wouldn’t like his wife’s authority challenged, which could make things tricky for Erin. She was going to need an ally and Erin liked someone prepared to go against the established order.
‘Look, let’s not argue about Lauren and focus on Iris Chan. The coordinates are on Lauren’s list, which would suggest the site’s important.’
‘I’m sure of it.’
‘Then why don’t I take you there? We can have a look round and see what you think. You showed your cards too soon to Viv, who won’t open the Iris Chan file unless a judge tells her to. So, now you’re on the back foot.’
Carla groaned. ‘I’ve made a mess of things, haven’t I?’
‘Probably, but you’ve got me. That is, until you start questioning my professional competence. Lauren drowned. I’m positive of it.’
Carla had a class which finished at three. Erin would have preferred to leave the trip to the following morning when the light was at its best, but Carla wouldn’t wait. They drove to Shining Cliff Wood as the sun was sinking over the horizon. They probably had an hour of daylight left max and that wasn’t enough wiggle room if they got lost or distracted by something. If Silent Brook was scrubby and down at heel, Shining Cliff was dank and unwelcoming.
They parked up on the road near to its entrance. It was a popular tourist stop and Erin pointed out to Carla a spot across the highway where a witness had provided the statement which had led to the arrest of Michael Lines.
‘There were two vehicles that parked that evening so the occupants could take a walk in the woods. They had dogs with them and initially no one remembered seeing Iris either enter the woods or on one of the footpaths.’
‘And police initially had the death down as a suicide.’
‘Correct. Hanging is the most common form of suicide among what we call completers. In other words, those who were successful. However, when the case gained a bit of traction publicity-wise, a witness came forward from out of state. She and her husband had passed through Jericho and had decided to exercise their pooch before leaving town. However, the wife began to feel ill – an off bowl of clam chowder – and told her husband to go on ahead while she had a rest in the car. She remembers seeing a person of Iris’s description – she had a distinctive appearance, remember – going into the woods with a man wearing a dark coat and black beanie.’
‘Hardly a heart-stopping description.’
‘Tell me about it, but, nevertheless, it suggested that Miss Chan wasn’t on her own. The witness couldn’t remember much else. Iris’s companion was taller than her – she was around five six in height – but she couldn’t tell us by how much. But she was reliable, and it made all the difference to the course of the investigation.’
‘OK. Can we see how far they went into the woods?’
They stopped for a moment as a pickup slowed down as it passed by, its driver openly staring at the two women.
‘Recognise him?’ asked Carla.
‘No. I think he’s getting off on scaring us a little.’ She gave him the middle finger. ‘Do you still want to go in given he’s clocked us?’
As they were considering, a car pulled up behind them and a family of four along with two Alsatians spilled out.
‘Reinforcements,’ said Erin. ‘Let’s get in.’
As they left the road, the noise quietened and the air grew damp and thick. ‘Iris was found off the path. I’m going to do my best to find the spot, but I’m not promising the exact tree or anything. I don’t have that good a memory.’
‘It’s better than nothing. There’s no way I’m going to get a look at this police file.’
They peeled away from the family as the path forked, Erin looking for the bench where she remembered she had placed her belongings before ducking under the police tape to inspect the body. They came across it under a huge oak tree, although it was a different design to the one Erin remembered. The simple wooden seat had been replaced by a grey stone bench, probably paid for by Iris Chan’s family. The backrest bore an inscription of Iris’s name and the years of her birth and death.
‘It’s simple but beautiful,’ said Carla, running her fingers along the inscription. ‘Did you meet the family?’
‘I’m afraid not. I really hope the location of the bench hasn’t changed because it’s the only reference point I’ve got. Iris was found a hundred feet from here.’ They pushed on under a canopy of greens and brown until Erin sighed.
‘It’s around here. I don’t know which tree. They all look alike. Is the place saying anything to you?’
‘No. It’s got a weird atmosphere, hasn’t it? If you were to hazard a guess, which tree do you think is most likely?’
‘Carla, I don’t know. All I’m seeing is trees and then some. Iris died, what, two years ago. There’d be no marks left from the investigation.’
Carla was looking around the space, her eyes drawn to the branches forming a canopy above them. She frowned and walked towards a tree dominating its neighbours, its huge trunk gnarled with age. ‘Do you know what variety this is?’
‘Um, ash, I think.’
‘It’s definitely ash. It’s the only one I’ve spotted here.’
‘Why’ve you picked it out?’
‘For a start, it’s the largest around here and Iris’s killer would have wanted to make sure any branch was sturdy enough to carry her weight. Ash trees are also connected to witchcraft. Ash berries were sometimes left in children’s cradles to protect them from disease and malignant spirits. In some druid traditions, the staffs of holy people are made from ash.’
‘You believe in all that druid stuff?’
Carla smiled. ‘Not really, but it’s not what I believe, is it?’ She was inspecting the trunk, her face close to the striped bark.
‘Don’t take too long. It’s getting dark and I’ve got better things to be doing than tree hugging out here.’
‘I can come back now I know where—’ She stopped. ‘Erin!’
Erin stumbled towards Carla, panicking at the tone of her voice. ‘What is it?’
Carla had used the light from her mobile phone to illuminate a patch of the trunk. ‘Can you see?’
‘There’s a circle and some petals like the ones you were talking about, but maybe that’s just because we were talking about hexafoils the other day.’
‘They’re not random markings. You have to trust me on this. Someone’s scored this in a hurry, which is why it’s a bit rough and ready.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘They’re ritual markings I’d expect to find in a building. Why weren’t they spotted at the time?’
‘I don’t know. Do you think it’s possible the killer came back sometime afterwards to make the mark?’
Carla continued to run her hands over the grooves. ‘I’m not sure.’
On the drive back into town, Carla was distracted, fiddling with her phone as she tried to get a better view of the image. Erin wanted to tell her to give it up and concentrate on the prestigious job she’d been recruited for. There were plenty of academics who would happily step into Carla’s shoes and Erin suspected reputations were hard to shrug off in Carla’s world. One word from Albert, and her mentee would be sent back to England with a note on her personnel file that she was difficult to work with.
‘What next?’ she asked.
‘I’m thinking I need to try James Franklin again.’
‘You back on Franklin? What’s he got to do with Shining Cliff Wood?’
‘Well, I don’t know, but there’s got to be a connection to him. The shopping mall was designed by him, Lauren went into the water by Suncook, which he owns, and his name’s in Lauren’s notebook next to Baros’s.’
‘There’s no connection between him and Shining Cliff.’
‘I’d still like to try.’
‘You’ve got no chance. Think Elon Musk of Jericho. This man has influence. You don’t just pick up the phone and ask to speak to him.’
‘I must be able to somehow. If he’s a public figure, then what about if I turn up to one of his events?’
‘He has a security guard for public appearances, I think. It’s not a permanent thing, I suspect. I see Franklin driving around town occasionally. He has a black Range Rover, so he’s easy to spot and he’s often driving by himself. He had security with him when Franklin Mall was opened though and the same with Suncook.’
Carla turned in her seat towards Erin. ‘When was this?’
Erin felt herself colour. ‘I don’t know. The mall’s been open a few years. The gardens just before that. Why do you ask?’
‘I don’t know. If the locations are important, then perhaps the killer was at the openings.’
‘Them and a couple of hundred other Jericho residents.’
‘I’ll give his office a call again anyhow.’ Carla had taken a mulish tone. ‘I can only try.’
God, she’s infuriating, thought Erin, thinking of the email she’d deleted the previous evening. ‘Look, there’s this fundraiser taking place soon. It’s run by the town’s guild every year. I’m a member because I was strongarmed into joining one year and never got round to cancelling my subscription.’
‘Don’t tell me Franklin will be there.’
‘Guest of honour. There’s an auction and they want his money for the bids. I’ve never been to the dinner, but I’m invited every year.’
‘You can get me an invitation too?’
‘Yes, according to the email I had, but it’ll cost you two hundred bucks. You got the money to pay for mine too?’ Out of the corner of her eye, Erin saw Carla wince. ‘Forget it.’
‘No, you’re on. We’re going.’