Frozen Grave

Chapter 1

DC Willis got out of the passenger side of the black BMW and looked down the street past the SOCO van.

‘Who found her?’ DI Carter asked her whilst putting on his coat. He pulled up his collar as the cold hit him.

‘Anonymous caller, guv,’ Willis answered, studying the row of derelict buildings that had once been large commercial properties, some still with a shop face, but now boarded up and covered in graffiti. Across the street from them a 1990s tower block marked the start of the sprawling Hannover council estate. On the other side of Parade Street was a smart new row of red-brick terraces in a Victorian style.

‘Accent?’ Carter tied his Armani scarf loosely around his neck.

‘English. Male. Well-spoken.’

Parade Street was cordoned off at both ends, with police officers stopping anyone entering. No one had tried while they’d been standing there the last three hours because no one lived on the condemned street except rough sleepers.

As Carter swivelled round to get his bearings, the pathologist’s car drew up and parked up behind them. Dr Jo Harding switched off the engine but stayed where she was, talking on her phone.

‘Were there any cars on this street when you arrived, Officer Gardner?’ Carter asked the officer standing outside number 22 with the crime-scene logbook in her hand.

‘Three, sir, and they have been traced to their owners. One was abandoned, one belonged to a couple on a night out who left it and got a cab home and the other is owned by a woman who lives on the next street.’

‘She chooses to park it here overnight?’

‘She’s new to the area. She’s waiting for a resident’s permit, sir.’

Carter looked up and down the street. He was searching his memory banks. He turned to Willis.

‘Do you recognize this place?’ Willis shook her head. ‘Must be before your time then. I reckon it was five years ago when these buildings first started being pulled down and we had a murder here. Polish immigrants, one was kicked to death over a row about drink. You’d think they would have done something with these buildings by now.’ Willis zipped up her jacket. Carter was still surveying the outside of the building. He looked up and his eyes filled with the deep blue of the cold winter sky. ‘Council ran out of money maybe.’ He turned back to PC Gardner. ‘Have all the buildings on the street been searched?’

‘Not yet, sir.’

A tall, white-suited figure emerged from number 22, taking the mask from his face as he did so. He came round to the back of the SOCO van and opened the doors.

‘Sandford?’ Carter said by way of greeting to the crime-scene manager. Sandford looked at him but didn’t answer; he nodded at Willis. He liked her. He wasn’t so keen on Carter. Carter had a laddish brashness, a chunky bit of gold around his wrist and wax products in his black hair. That, so far as Sandford was concerned, constituted what people termed ‘chavvy’.

‘Are you getting déjà vu here?’ Carter asked. ‘Must have been five years ago at least.’ Luckily, Carter never minded or noticed Sandford’s low opinion of him.

‘Yes.’

‘Is it the same sort of thing this time?’

Sandford looked down at his forensic suit and his soiled knees. ‘Same filth, it’s come right through the suit, difference is – it’s a woman this time.’

Dr Harding got out of her car, took out her bag from the boot and joined them.

Sandford began pulling out packets of forensic suits from the back of the van and handing them out.

‘Carter – extra-small?’

‘Yeah, funny.’ He passed the suit on to Dr Harding. Willis was an inch taller than him at five ten. ‘What about the rest of this street?’

‘I want my team to go through this one first. This whole street is used by rough sleepers – we need to start where we have a chance of finding something.’

‘Is it okay for us to go in?’ asked Carter.

‘Only as far as the inner entrance and be careful what you step on and what you step in.’

Harding took the overshoes from Sandford and sighed impatiently.

‘Sooner we get in, sooner we get her out,’ she said, zipping up her suit.

Willis took off her black quilted jacket and put it in the back of Carter’s car.

Carter waited until she’d thrown hers down then he folded his overcoat and put it neatly on the top along with his scarf. He eased the elastic hood of the forensic suit over his hair and straightened out the suit so that it fitted better. Sandford looked down at Carter’s expensive shiny shoes and then reached in and pulled out two more pairs of overshoes.

‘You’ll thank me for these.’

He shut the doors on the back of the van and picked up his Croc box containing an assortment of variously sized evidence bags. ‘Follow me.’

Dermot, the scenes of crime officer, stood to greet them as they stepped inside.

‘That’s far enough,’ Sandford said, leaving the detectives at the entrance as he crossed carefully on stepping plates to the far side of the room. There were battery-powered LED lights in the corners. The only other light was filtering in past boarded-up windows and through the open entrance.

Carter switched on his head lamp and pulled up his mask against the smell of human waste mixed with cigarettes, alcohol and dog shit.

‘Christ – what a place to end up. You wouldn’t want an animal to die in this, let alone live,’ he said, looking around.

‘I reckon this is home to about twenty people,’ Dermot said, shining his torch into the far left-hand corner of the room. ‘And it looks like they left here in a rush,’ he said as his torch beam lit a mound of broken glass. ‘Besides all the empties, I found half a bottle of Smirnoff over there and three of these – used recently.’ Dermot held up a crack pipe in his hand.

‘Party time,’ said Carter.

Willis stepped round to stand beside him and get a better view as she shone her torch into the room. The woman’s body was lying on the far side near the back wall; the pale skin of her flank glowed in the dim light. Above everything else, all the obvious smells of dirt and defecation, Willis could smell the unmistakable sweet overtones of clotting blood.

‘I need more light on her,’ Harding said as she stepped across on the plates and squatted down beside the body.

Sandford picked up one of the LED lights and brought it nearer.

‘Rigor mortis is fully established,’ said Harding. Sandford knelt beside her, to help roll and hold the body on its side.

The corpse sighed.

‘Lividity is established too. She died here.’ Sandford rolled the body back. ‘Extensive bruising around the pelvic area and the hips, top of the thighs. Evidence of sexual assault, rape. Lacerations,’ said Harding. ‘There are also large areas of bruising around the shoulders, ribs and collarbone. Consistent with pressure being applied,’ she continued.

‘So she was held down and raped,’ said Carter.

‘There are multiple footwear marks around the body,’ Sandford said as he angled the light for Harding.

‘Which would explain the hasty exit,’ said Carter. ‘Everyone in here was involved in this in some way.’ He looked around. ‘Maybe she came in here with someone. Maybe this wasn’t her usual place to sleep and she drifted onto someone else’s turf. She pissed someone off.’

Carter was watching Dermot as he moved a mattress and propped it up against the wall then knelt to examine it.

‘Someone’s been bottled by the look of it. There is fresh blood on the mattress – still wet.’

‘No evidence of wounds consistent with being bottled,’ said Harding. ‘It looks like someone tried to strangle her though.’ She moved to one side so that the detectives could see the ligature around the woman’s neck.

Dermot stood and held something in the air for them to see.

‘Expensive knickers.’

He walked across and passed them to Carter.

Carter looked at the label. ‘La Perla. Very posh.’

‘There’s also one half of a pair of stockings attached to a suspender belt,’ Dermot said, taking the knickers back from Carter and putting them into a crime-scene bag. He handed the stocking across. ‘Just one so far.’

‘The other one is round her neck,’ said Willis, who was squatting level with the body and leaning into the room to get a better look.

‘This is expensive lingerie,’ Carter said, holding the stocking. ‘This outfit must have cost a hundred quid – probably two. La Perla is expensive, isn’t it, Doctor?’

‘Yes.’

Carter knew there was no point in him asking Willis. Dermot walked back across the plates and resumed his examination of the mattress.

‘Do we know the cause of death, Doctor?’ asked Willis.

Harding turned the woman’s head away from her.

‘There is a crush wound to the skull, a lot of blood lost here, and possible brain injury.’ She shone the light onto the woman’s face. ‘But there are so many other poss—’ She paused mid-sentence. She moved the light closer. Her voice quietened: ‘We’ll have to get someone else to perform the post-mortem.’

‘What’s the problem, Doc?’ Carter moved towards the body, stepping on the first plate.

Dermot stopped working and stood upright.

‘I know her.’

‘You sure?’ asked Carter.

‘Yes… of course I’m sure – I wouldn’t say it otherwise. I don’t know her well but I’ve met her a few times. Her name is Olivia Grantham. Early forties. She lives in Brockley, south-east London. She works for a solicitors’ firm in London Bridge, near the Shard.’

‘Any idea what it’s called, the place she works at?’

‘Spencer and Something. As far as I remember, she’s a junior partner.’ Harding started to pack away her kit.

Sandford and Dermot were poised, listening to the outcome of the conversation.

‘When was the last time you saw her, Doctor?’ Carter asked.

‘Not sure, about six months ago, probably.’

‘Could she be sleeping rough here, Doctor?’ asked Willis.

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ snapped Harding. ‘You don’t go downhill that fast. The last time I saw her, she was drinking cocktails and hoovering a line of coke.’

‘How exactly did you know her?’ Carter asked, interested now that Harding had painted a scene and accidentally painted herself into it.

‘Through friends. Social events. That kind of thing.’ Harding stood, ready to leave. ‘I’ll organize for someone to do the post-mortem for me and I’ll let you know what time it’s happening.’ She turned to Sandford. ‘When you’re ready for her to be moved, phone me and I’ll send someone down to collect her.’

As Harding passed him, Carter turned and followed. By the time he got outside, she was already half out of her forensic suit.

‘You all right, Doc? It’s not easy when it’s someone you know.’

Harding didn’t look at him. She opened the boot of her car and deposited her bag inside.

‘I told you, I didn’t know her well. Merely a social acquaintance.’ She glanced his way as she got into her car.

‘But still…’

She held his gaze. ‘But still, nothing, Inspector. Don’t read into it.’

Carter hovered by the door. ‘Do you know what street she lived in?’

‘No.’

She slammed the door.

Carter was watching her drive away as Willis came out of the building and joined him.

‘What was that all about?’ he said, peeling off his suit. ‘She was even more abrupt than usual. She couldn’t wait to get away, could she?’

‘She had to, guv – difficult position to be in. I guess she must have felt really bad seeing her friend like that.’

‘Yeah, right… she doesn’t have any friends.’ Carter looked around as he made a mental map of the area. ‘The nearest station is Woolwich Arsenal,’ he said. ‘And that’s a good eight, ten minutes’ walk, especially in heels. She’d got to have been wearing heels with that outfit. I think she would have got here by car – she drove or took a taxi. We need to find out all the local taxi firms; see if there’s any CCTV as well.’

‘Yes, guv.’

He took out his phone to make a call to the crime analyst back at the office.

‘Robbo? We have a possible name for the victim: it’s Olivia Grantham, early forties. Dr Harding recognized her. She thinks she works in a solicitors’ office at London Bridge – Spencer and Something. See if you can find it and an address in Brockley for her. There was a fight here; someone got bottled; check the A&E departments as well. Do you know what, Robbo? This place is the same derelict buildings where we had that Polish man kicked to death a few years ago. That’s progress for you.’

He ended the call and looked back towards the entrance of number 22. ‘What a place to end up in: “Shit Central”,’ he said as he discarded his suit and handed Willis a bag for hers. ‘Got to hand it to Sandford and that lot in there – it’s a shit job but someone’s got to do it.’ He smiled a little at his quip. Willis didn’t react but took the bag from him as she stared down the street.

‘Don’t get it, guv. Who comes to a place like this on a Sunday evening dressed in expensive lingerie?’

‘I agree – I don’t know many women who wear stockings unless it’s to add spice to the bedroom. This is certainly not a romantic setting to slip into your La Perla. If Harding is right about her, then Olivia Grantham didn’t need to slum it.’

‘I’ve seen some women in the changing room at the gym wearing them,’ Willis said. ‘Coming straight from work, I suppose.’

‘Really?’ His eyes glazed over for a few seconds.

‘Okay, well maybe some women wear them for work as well, but I think the majority of women put them on especially. But not especially to come into a shithole like this. Plus, it was sleeting last night. Not the kind of night to walk around in your underwear.’

Willis bagged up her suit and signed it off in the logbook as she thanked PC Gardner.

Carter took out his coat and handed Willis hers. Willis was studying a street map of the area on her phone.

‘See if Robbo has that address for Olivia Grantham’s place and we’ll go there now,’ said Carter.

‘He’s already sent it – 103 Station Road, guv.’ Willis began reading it from her phone. ‘Runs from the High Street to…’ She stopped talking and began running towards shouts coming from the end of the street.

Carter shouted across to Gardner.

‘Call for back-up but stay here, tell Sandford what’s going on.’

Willis reached the officer and helped him up from the ground.

‘You okay?’

‘Yes. I’m okay. I couldn’t stop him, I’m sorry. He came out of nowhere and the dog charged me.’

‘What did he look like?’ asked Carter as he got to them.

‘In his late twenties, scruffy, blood on his face, hands… he had on a grey woolly hat pulled down over his ears. His dog looked like it had been in a fight too. It’s light-coloured – one of those big ugly ones. He came out of the space behind the bins over there on the second to last property.’

‘Did you see where he went?’

‘He ran off into Hannover Estate.’

‘Okay. Help is on its way. Be ready. There could be more people hiding.’

They started towards the estate. Carter reached inside his jacket for his phone, dialling as he ran.

‘We’re going after a suspect in Hannover Estate – entrance opposite Parade Street… I need a car around the back of it. Looking for a white male with dog. He’s injured. Be careful – the dog will attack.’

They ran past the row of scruffy garages and lock-ups in the parking area. Carter signalled to Willis that he had seen something and was headed towards the gap between the tower block and the four-storey building that flanked it. She began to follow but then slowed as she heard a sound coming from the garages. She went to call to Carter but he was already twenty metres away.

Willis walked towards the last of the garages, plastered in graffiti, spray-painted in blocks of colour and covered with the name ‘Hannover Boys’.

‘Police.’ She waited for a reply. ‘Come out and show yourself. Come out now.’

Carter was out of sight by this time. She stepped towards the door and pulled it open.

‘Police – come out. I need to see you.’ She took a step inside the garage and shone her torch around. The walls were covered in graffiti. There was silence. She heard a shout go up from Carter and a dog bark. From somewhere outside she heard running. She turned to leave but stopped – in front of her was a man wearing a woolly hat, his face slashed by a gaping wound that ran over the top of his nose and split his eyebrow before it pierced his cheek in a semi-circle. He was holding the dog by its collar as they blocked her way.

The dog reared and snarled as it bared its teeth.

‘It’s okay. Keep calm. Make sure the dog stays under control. Are you all right?’ The man didn’t answer. He was breathing hard. The front of his T-shirt was soaked in blood. ‘Look, you need help – your face needs seeing to. Let me help you.’

He held the dog’s collar in a stronger grip with one hand as he touched his face, then looked at the wet sticky blood on his fingertips.

‘Something happened on Parade Street last night. Did you see it?’

He didn’t answer. He looked nervously towards the sound of someone approaching outside.

‘You need to come with me.’ Willis took a step closer and the dog lunged forwards at her. She held up her hands for calm. ‘I can help you.’

He shook his head, released the dog, and ran.