Nothing but Meat: A dark, heart-stopping British crime thriller Page 21

  Natasha was a natural worrier and that peculiarity had gone into overdrive since Russ died and Sylvia had been left so utterly devastated and alone.

  She looked to the restaurant door as it opened expecting to see her sister but it was just another customer. Danielle was still outside – Natasha could see her through the window. She was on her mobile phone now and had definitely started another cigarette. Natasha called Sylvia’s home phone but it just rang without answer. She decided to give Sylvia another half an hour and then if she didn’t show, go to her house and make sure she was okay.

  Danielle eventually made an appearance.

  ‘Finally,’ said Natasha as she approached the table.

  ‘Sylvie still not here yet?’ She sat down.

  ‘Does it look like it? You know, that’s a bad habit of yours, leaving people on their own in restaurants – always has been.’

  ‘Bloody hell Tasha what’s got into you?’

  ‘I’ve been sitting here on my own for quarter of an hour worrying about Sylvia.’

  ‘Sorry, I thought she’d be here by now.’

  ‘Me too, that’s the point.’

  ‘Ring her.’

  ‘I did; it went to voicemail and there’s no answer at home.’

  ‘She’s probably just forgotten.’

  ‘Probably.’

  ‘What do you want to do, go round there if she doesn’t show up?’

  ‘Maybe, let’s give her half an hour and see if she turns up. I’ll try calling again.’

  They ordered a quick bite to eat and Natasha tried to convince herself that her worrying was just foolish but she couldn’t help herself.

  They left the restaurant and drove straight to Sylvia’s house.

  ‘She’s forgotten, I’m telling you,’ said Danielle at the sight of Sylvia’s car in the driveway but Natasha didn’t know what to think – if anything it made her even more worried.

  ‘She can’t have forgotten. It’s not like we made the arrangements weeks ago, she came round for dinner on Saturday.’

  ‘It still could have slipped her mind.’

  ‘Why isn’t she answering her phone?’

  ‘She probably hasn’t seen the missed calls - you barely get a signal out here anyway.’

  ‘The home phone?’

  ‘Let’s just see okay. Stop worrying Tash.’

  They rang the doorbell and waited for about five seconds before Natasha pulled her keys from her handbag and unlocked the door.

  They walked into the entrance hall and called out her name into the silent house. ‘Sylvia, it’s me and Dannie, are you here?’

  Nothing.

  ‘You check down here, I’ll go upstairs,’ said Natasha.

  ‘’Kay.’

  Natasha noticed Danielle looked concerned as she turned to look around downstairs. Natasha went to the master bedroom first, saw a scene that made her heart race, ran to check the bathroom and then the other bedrooms calling Sylvia’s name repeatedly. She raced back to the master bedroom. The bed was unmade, the bedside light lay on the floor and her handbag had been knocked over, spilling its contents across the floor. Her heart sank at the sight of her sister’s iPhone sitting on the carpet next to her purse and a couple of scrunched up tissues.

  Danielle came into the bedroom. ‘Anything? She’s not downstairs.’

  Natasha didn’t even turn around. ‘We need to call the police,’ she said.

  20

  Kris Jung lifted the blue and white tape over his head and held it for Simone as she ducked underneath it. They approached the front door of the house where Caroline Sheppard was stabbed to death. They flashed their badges to the solitary bobby that stood watch and entered the house.

  Inside, the forensics team was still there, for how long was anyone’s guess but, thought Jung. It would be a long time before the house was released back to the owner. If he lived.

  They stood in the hallway unwilling to continue further into the house for fear of contaminating the crime scene. Jung caught the attention of the first person he saw, an androgynous being with facemask, dust shoes and coveralls coming out of the lounge area. He explained who they were and what they were doing at the house and the being removed the facemask to reveal an attractive woman who introduced herself as Kirsten.

  ‘Where can we go?’ said Simone. ‘What can we touch?’

  ‘We started upstairs,’ said Kristen, ‘and we’re as good as done up there, we’ve just got some finishing up to do in the spare bedroom. The lounge is still ours at the moment but if you want to go in there just let someone know and we’ll sort you out with some kit to wear.’

  ‘We’ll go upstairs first and keep out of your way,’ said Jung, ‘but I'd appreciate it if we could get whatever clothes we need so we can go where we want.’

  ‘No problem. Go out to the van, whoever's in there'll sort you out.’

  They did as they were told and returned to the house wearing paper suits and hats. They both paused in the hallway while they fitted the latex gloves and overshoes inside the house.

  Kirsten saw them from the lounge and came back out. ‘Get everything?’

  Jung held his arms out. ‘Think so.’

  ‘Okay guys, I'll leave you to it.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Jung paused before going upstairs and stood still with his back to the front door and hands on his hips.

  ‘What’s up?’ said Simone.

  ‘Where was Caroline when the killer entered the house? Did he break in or did she let him in willingly? Did he force her upstairs or did they go up together?’

  Simone thought about it for a second. ‘Caroline was very defensive of Gary Stevens when we met her in the hospital, I think she loved him. It seems unlikely she was having an affair so I doubt they went to the bedroom together,’ she said, but then shrugged and added, ‘but who knows?’

  Simone moved to the lounge doorway. She wasn’t interested in going in there straight away but she was curious to see the room. The house had been turned upside down by the Scene of Crime officers and was still buzzing with activity. She looked around the room and surveyed the mess.

  ‘What you thinking?’ said Jung who moved to her side.

  ‘There’s only one photograph,’ she said. From her vantage point she could only see one picture of Gary and Caroline, a simple shot of the two of them with their arms around each other’s waists. ‘It just seems unusual. Do you have a list of all the items forensics have bagged and tagged so far?’

  He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. ‘It just so happens.’

  ‘Is there a photo album on the list?’

  He scanned the sheet of paper. ‘Not that I can see.’

  Simone sighed, lost in thought.

  Jung called out to Kirsten, not actually sure which of the three white-suited beings she was, but he got her attention and asked, ‘Did you find a photo album yet?’

  ‘I haven’t.’ She looked to the others. ‘Anyone else find a photo album?’ They shook their heads and she answered for them, ‘Not yet.’

  Simone said, ‘I just think it’s unusual for a couple not to have a photos of their time together. Don’t you?’

  ‘I guess so,’ said Jung.

  Simone caught Kristen’s attention, ‘do you mind if I come in? I’ll keep out of your way.’

  ‘If you want, just let us know if you want to move anything around.’

  Simone said to Jung, ‘Do you want to head upstairs? I’ll follow you up there in a minute.’

  Jung nodded and left her in the hallway.

  When he went upstairs Jung headed straight into the master bedroom and his eyes landed immediately on the carpet and the gory red stain that dominated the room. The image of Caroline Sheppard dying came to mind and also the image of Simone standing behind her, cradling her head and comforting her during her last minutes.

  Jung had spoken at length with Jackson and voiced his concerns as to whether it would be the right thing for Simone to return to the
house where such an extreme thing had happened. After all Jung had been there too and witnessed the ordeal first-hand and he knew as well as anyone how being a part of such butchery was enough to keep almost anyone awake at night. They agreed that although it would probably conjure raw emotions, Simone would be able to cope with it, but now Jung was beginning to have doubts about that assessment and considered that her questions about the photo album were possibly a diversion tactic to avoid going upstairs and back into the room where the bloodshed had been so liberal.

  If that was the case, even unconsciously, then it was only because what had happened was still so fresh in the mind. Jung recognised that what Simone did for Caroline was actually something special; it takes a particular type of person to cope in circumstances as extreme as that and Simone had that ability in abundance. He had liked her ever since their academy days and was pleased when he heard he had been partnered with her. He hadn’t met West before and hadn’t really had time to form an opinion of him yet but it was obvious there was a connection between West and Simone. He wasn’t interested in gossip, but it was clear that Simone was going through a hard time, not only was she dealing with what had happened to her other partner, Barratt, but she had issues in her private life too. Jung had heard people talking about her in the locker rooms and noticed that Simone’s friend Lucy was always at the heart of the gossip. Jung found Simone not only to be headstrong and realistic, but always willing to go out of her way to help others. Simone had all the qualities Jung liked in a person and she was very attractive too, most of the time anyway, when she hadn’t been beaten to a pulp.

  Jung went to the bedside cabinets and slid the drawers one by one. He felt uncomfortable rummaging through other people’s belongings and only found a few books, a lot of sex toys, condoms, and some jewellery but nothing of real interest. He sat on the bed and looked around the room. The wardrobe door was wide open and the clothes inside had been searched and put back. He noticed a video camera on the floor, the clothing that had been strewn around obscured it but the lens peaked out from beneath and caught his eye. It was a state of the art digital video camera and Jung recognised it as being an expensive high-end Sony. He opened the viewfinder and pressed the play button.

  The dark screen came alive. Caroline was naked on the bed, she was on her back with her head tilted back, her mouth was open and Gary Stevens was masturbating above her. She was pale, skinny and tattooed, and looked like every inch the ex-junkie they thought she was.

  The camera moved smoothly around Stevens’ back and to the other side, capturing the best angle for his climax. As the angle changed Jung knew this wasn’t a home video in the true sense of the term. Someone else was in the room; someone else was filming them. The camera panned up and Gary Stevens looked into it, his face was sweaty and red and he was out of breath, he spoke to the person holding it, ‘Get ready Sickman. I’m gonna come all over her fucking face.’ He looked back down and the camera followed his line of sight and zoomed in on Caroline’s face. ‘You fucking want it don’t you?’ he said. ‘You want me to come on your face?’

  Caroline said that she did and sucked her fingers and stuck out her tongue in anticipation.

  Jung glanced at the time and date signature at the bottom of the image and realised the video was taken only four weeks ago. He snapped it shut and tossed it on the bed and started pulling the clothes out of the wardrobe but he didn’t find what he was looking for.

  The third bedroom of the house was a study containing some small filling cabinets, a desk and computer. He flicked the computer on and found it password protected.

  He went back downstairs and walked straight into the lounge, saw what he wanted and made a beeline across the room. The TV stood on a cabinet and he caught the attention of the crime scene photographer. ‘Have you been in here yet?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Right, get your camera over here.’ The man did as he was told and photographed the cabinet just before Jung knelt down and clicked the doors open. Inside, were two shelves of DVD's; standard movies like Die Hard and Kill Bill. The camera flashed over Jung’s shoulder just before he pulled the front row of DVD's from the shelf to reveal another row of movies, these all had the same type of self-printed spines and when Jung slid a couple from the shelf he found the covers were homemade too. They all had similar shots of different girls in various sexual positions, each movie was titled by the girl's first name and prefixed with the slogan ‘Loadstar Productions Presents...’ and the back cover of each sleeve showed Gary Stevens was the stud in every production.

  Jung took all the discs from the shelf and laid them on the floor as the camera behind him flashed. He turned to Kirsten and Simone who had now come over to see Jung’s discovery and said, ‘We need to catalogue these and get someone to hack that computer in the study.’

  21

  ‘When’s West due back into work?’ asked Jung.

  ‘Not for a couple of days yet,’ Simone said and looked up from her paperwork. ‘Jackson said West could have as long as he needed. The funeral is tomorrow.’

  ‘No problem. How’s he doing?’

  She shrugged and tried to look nonchalant; as if West was just a colleague. ‘As well as you’d expect, considering.’

  An officer put his head around the office door. ‘I’ve got a missing persons report you might be interested in.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘A couple of women came in to report their friend missing. They’re still here if you want to see them.’

  ‘What do you know so far?’

  ‘A white, forty-one year old female that hasn’t been seen for three days. Her sister just reported it. She thinks the woman was taken from her home.’

  *

  Simone and Jung went through the preliminaries with both Natasha and Danielle as they tried to establish what kind of person Sylvia Croucher was.

  ‘You said she was recently bereaved? Even if it was out of character before that happened, do you think it possible that she just needed some space and some time alone?’

  ‘She has dealt with her life really well since Russ died. She was crushed, I know that, but she’s a fighter my sister,’ said Natasha. ‘Always has been. She’s stronger than I’ll ever be. I don’t believe for a second that she would have upped and left without telling me or our parents.’

  ‘What about the house; you said there were signs of a struggle?’

  ‘We told all of this to the officers when we first got here about half an hour ago,’ said Danielle with an impatient tone.

  Natasha shot her a glance and said, ‘Her car is still outside the house, her handbag has been kicked across the floor, her bedside light has been knocked over and she’s not there. What else do you want? Please help me find her.’

  Jung drove Danielle home while Simone and Natasha went to Sylvia’s house and entered it together.

  ‘From now on Natasha,’ Simone said gently to her, ‘please try not to touch anything.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Show me where you think she was taken from.’

  Natasha lead Simone into the master bedroom and it was just as she had described it. Simone stood and looked at the scene and noted that Sylvia’s iPhone, purse and keys were amongst the strewn contents of her handbag. She also saw that the curtains were still pulled closed and wrote ‘taken at night?’ in her notebook.

  She heard a vehicle pull up outside and guessed it was either Jung or the forensics team were arriving. She walked to the windows and nudged one of the curtains aside just to see who had arrived. She looked down at the street below and many images hit her at once. Firstly she saw the forensics van as it kicked up against the curb, secondly she noticed that all the houses on the street were well spaced apart and secluded by trees and thirdly, she noticed a single red rose lying on the sill of Sylvia Croucher’ s bedroom window.

  22

  ‘So it’s the same guy? As if I dare ask,’ said Jackson.

  ‘Definitely,’ said Simone. ‘
Sylvia Croucher was taken from her home in the middle of the night and he left a rose on her windowsill.’

  ‘Get hold of the forensics report as soon as it’s complete, there’s a chance he made a mistake this time.’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘What else do we have?’

  ‘We got a name and the contact details for one of the girls that appeared in Stevens’ home movies, I’d like to have a chat with her, we need to find out who this Sickman is,’ said Jung.

  ‘Sort it out. Go with him Simone.’

  She looked at her watch. ‘I have to go with West to his father’s funeral in a couple of hours but I’ll meet up with Jung as soon as it’s done.’ She hated sounding like she was stalling the investigation but there was no way she was going to miss the funeral.

  ‘Okay but I don’t have to remind you that we are against the clock more than ever now and we need to keep moving forward if we want to be in with a chance of saving Sylvia Croucher.’

  ‘Nobody wants to close this case more than I do,’ said Simone, ‘but I promised West I’d be there for the service; it shouldn’t take more than an hour.’

  ‘Okay, fine. Jung keep Simone updated if you get anything.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Okay next.’ Jackson pulled a thick file from his desk. ‘DNA and dental results matched the tooth that was put into June James’ pocket to an old murder investigation – a student called Angela Baily was found in Bishop’s Thorpe Wood in nineteen eighty-eight, she was strangled, found on her back, legs together, arms by her side.

  ‘A German citizen called August Hirsch, was arrested in Munich ten years later for a string of similar murders. He was heavily linked to the Baily case but it was never proved.’

  ‘Where is he now?’

  ‘Serving life inside a German prison.’

  ‘What about Angela Baily’s face, did he remove the skin?’

  ‘The MO was the same for all the victims, they were all strangled, they were found face up, legs together, arms by their side, and with their faces intact. August Hirsch was connected to the Baily case, not only because Angela Baily held a striking similarity to the other victims, but he was in England at the time, teaching languages in Cambridge.’