Page 80 of Deadly Cry

‘Clockwise or anti-clockwise?’ she asked.

‘Anti,’ he answered. ‘I’m feeling like a bit of a rebel.’

They all turned and began walking the other way with Penn in the middle. ‘Let’s break this down and go through it piece by piece.’ He turned to his right. ‘Alison, what strikes you the most from what you’ve learned so far?’

She thrust her hands into her pockets. ‘I think it’s the differences in the first two murders. Children involved in both, but he leaves the first and takes the second. Many killers escalate but the pattern remains the same. The escalation is normally in the type of crime, but he’s either interested in kids or he’s not. It’s not something I’ve come across before.’

Alison paused to step back as an officer passed them on his way to a squad car. She waited until he was out of earshot to continue. ‘No kids involved in the third murder but everything else is the same. Female, broken neck and she’d been in the public eye. Does that mean anything or not? So far we’ve found no link between the victims themselves, no common friends or places they visited. There’s commonality but no commonality, if you know what I mean.’

‘Okay, Stace, what about you?’ Penn asked as they passed the bins halfway through their first circuit of the building.

‘Why the rush?’ she asked. ‘What’s happened to make him kill three women in three days? What prompted him to start now?’

Penn stopped walking, but she and Alison carried on. ‘Unless these aren’t his first crimes,’ he said, drawing level with them again. ‘What if he’s done other things elsewhere?’

Stacey realised that showed just how tired she was because that was something she should have considered. She turned to her colleague as they passed the automatic doors and continued around again.

‘What about you? What’s bugging you?’

‘The scratches,’ he answered. ‘Present on the first victim but not the second.’

Alison shook her head but waited to speak until an articulated lorry had thundered past the station car park on the dual carriageway. ‘See, that’s what makes no sense. If a killer leaves a calling card, either as a message or a taunt to the police, it’s present in every crime. They don’t pick and choose when to do it. It’s part of the whole process, it’s important—’

‘Ooh, hang on,’ Stacey said as her phone dinged an email. ‘It’s from the network provider for the burner phone that called Nicola earlier today.’

She sat on the wall to the car park before opening the attachment.

The document was shorter than she’d expected and tidy. Very tidy.

‘That’s strange,’ Stacey said as Penn took a seat beside her. Alison sat on the other side.

‘Other than calling Nicola’s phone this morning, that phone has only been in contact with one other number.’

Penn looked at her screen.

‘So eight calls to that same number in the last month?’ he asked, trying to take a better look. ‘And no incoming calls at all.’

Stacey checked the dates at the top of the page.

‘It’s not a monthly statement, Penn. This is the sole activity of that burner phone for the last twelve years.’

Sixty-Six

It was almost eight when they reached the house of Kate Sewell, which stuck out sorely from the properties of her neighbours. The row of quaint, cottage-style homes appeared unchanged with their pretty, well-manicured gardens and low white walls, except for number nineteen, which had a dropped kerb and a black brick driveway.

Must have gone down well with the neighbours, Kim thought as Bryant blocked in the Toyota Corolla on the driveway.

The village of Belbroughton sat approximately four miles south of Stourbridge and was once at the centre of the north Worcestershire scythe-making district. It had a population of around two thousand three hundred and was famous for its scarecrow festival at the end of September. It was an area known for its affluence and peace.

The door to the cottage was answered on the second knock.

The face Kim recognised from Monday creased into a frown.

‘Inspector…’

‘Stone,’ Kim said, helping her out.

The suit she’d been wearing when they’d last met had been replaced with a leotard and Lycra leggings. Kim spied a yoga mat on the floor behind.