Page 39 of First Blood

She recognised the man immediately. She knew him as Butcher Bill, a homeless guy who had graced the streets of Wolverhampton for decades. No one knew his exact history but had been so named as he’d slept in the doorway of a butcher’s shop for almost twenty years, although he was looking a little cleaner and smarter than she remembered.

Lennox forwarded the footage to a point in time he obviously knew well.

‘Dirty bastard had it coming,’ Butcher Bill said with a smile. He leaned forward across the desk towards Lennox. ‘I enjoyed every minute.’

She watched as Lennox glanced sideways at his colleague as though all his Christmases had come at once.

‘You saying you did this, Bill?’ he asked.

No hesitation. ‘Yeah, I did it. Dirty bastard had it coming.’

The man raised his right hand and made a slicing motion with his fingers. ‘Snip, snip,’ he said before he burst out laughing.

‘Bill, I need you to listen carefully to what I’m saying,’ Lennox said across the desk.

‘Snip, snip,’ he repeated.

‘Are you confessing to the murder of Tommy Deeley?’

He nodded. ‘Snippety snip.’

Lennox stopped the recording. ‘Satisfied?’

‘You’re taking the words “snip snip” for proof that he performed the genital mutilation?’ Kim asked.

‘Wouldn’t you?’ he asked. ‘What else could he mean? Those details weren’t released to the press.’

Kim was saved from any further response as her phone rang. She turned away from the screen.

‘Stone.’

‘It’s Jerry at the lab. I’m into that laptop and you might wanna come take a look.’

His tone was low and dark. Shit, what the hell had he found?

‘On our way,’ she said, ending the call. She turned to Lennox.

‘If you’re happy with that as a confession, you’re an even bigger prick than I thought,’ she said before heading back towards the door.

‘So, what do you really think, guv?’ Bryant asked as they exited the police station.

‘What I thought before I went in there. They’ve definitely got the wrong guy.’

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kim had dealt with Jerry before and knew that as a police constable he had not blown anyone away. Eleven years ago, he’d been injured in a riot incident when he had been pushed to the ground and then trampled by one of the horses. His left leg now contained metal plates and screws and he was forced to use a crutch to get around. The police force had retrained him in digital forensics for which he’d appeared to have an aptitude.

‘What you got, Jerry?’ she asked, pulling over a chair from an empty desk. Bryant stood behind.

‘Nothing you’re going to like,’ he said, placing the laptop in front of his own computer and opening the lid.

‘This guy certainly knows how to hide stuff. I won’t go into detail but I’m not sure I’ve found everything yet. However, I’ve found enough to give you some idea of the kind of man he was.’

Kim could see the tension in his jaw. Her stomach began to churn in response. He’d been doing this job for a long time and it looked as though Luke Fenton had been hiding this computer in the cooker for good reason.

‘Go on,’ she said.

‘Images, Inspector. Indecent images of girls aged anywhere from six to about twelve years of age.’ He glanced at his notepad. ‘So far I’ve located in excess of twelve thousand photos dating back thirteen years. Half of those were transferred from a hard drive.’