You Are Dead

63

Wednesday 17 December

At the 8.30 a.m. briefing, Sarah Milligan, the HOLMES analyst, gave the news that Unknown Female had been identified, subject to DNA confirmation, and that she had been working through the information that was known. Her name was Denise Patterson, and she had gone missing from her home in Aldwick Bay, Bognor Regis, at the age of nineteen. It seemed possible that, like the other victims, she also had long brown hair.

Roy Grace pointed at the grainy, black and white photograph of the young woman on the whiteboard behind him. As he stared at her face, he wondered what her story was. He had been ten years old, thirty years ago. Sailing his little boats on Hove Lagoon. At the same time as the Brander was killing Denise?

He was feeling bad about the pressure the move — and the baby — was causing Cleo. She was taking it pretty stoically and coping, somehow. Last night’s outburst was rare, considering what she’d had to put up with recently. He couldn’t help but compare her to Sandy, who regularly got mad at him over his working hours. No one could predict when a murder would take place. Whether it was day or night, or in the middle of a birthday celebration, homicide detectives had to be prepared to drop everything and be gone within minutes, and then virtually live at work for the first days of the investigation, at least. That never went down well with spouses or partners. Because Cleo’s own role as Chief Mortician had involved the same instant callouts, 24/7, she had always understood.

The sight of Norman Potting’s drained face didn’t help his mood either. The fifty-five-year-old detective sergeant sat at his place at the conference table, smartly dressed in some of the clothes Bella had helped him choose. He caught Grace’s eye and gave him a stoic smile.

On the table in front of Grace was a copy of this morning’s Argus newspaper. It had not really bought into the Brighton Brander damage limitation slant. The dramatic front page splash read: BRIGHTON BRANDER POISED TO STRIKE AGAIN?

All of the national tabloid press featured the story prominently, too. The Mirror asked whether Brighton was about to regain its former notoriety as the UK’s murder capital.

Roy Grace opened his notebook. ‘For the benefit of all the team, especially as we have new members, I intend to run through both of the investigations, and the individual investigative leads for each case are here, should there be any further questions.’

He then recapped the circumstances around the disappearance of Emma Johnson. ‘We’ve had very little intelligence or contact from the public in respect of Emma,’ he continued. ‘She has been missing before but I am sure that on this occasion the circumstances of her disappearance are more mysterious and linked to the man we have labelled the Brighton Brander. We’ve had no sightings of her since the last time that she was seen leaving her home address, and her whereabouts remain a mystery. Her disappearance has been included as part of the overall operation due to her description and similarities with the other missing girls.’

He turned the page of his notebook and said, ‘We will now run through the lines of enquiry and updates on the female remains that were found near Hove Lagoon. She has been provisionally identified as Denise Patterson. She went missing in September 1984. Lucy Sibun is of the opinion that she was probably moved to a new body deposition site at the Lagoon in the mid-1990s.’ He went on to outline in more detail the forensic examination, post-mortem and other scientific processes that were being undertaken.

Next, Roy Grace gave a concise summary of the investigation into the undetected murder from 1984 of Catherine Westerham. This case had been the subject of a cold-case review a couple of years earlier but no new leads had been identified. He outlined the actions that various members of the team were carrying out and updates were provided.

Then he said, ‘I am now going to talk about the two most recent cases, that of Logan Somerville and Ashleigh Stanford, starting with Logan. It would seem fairly certain at this stage that her fiancé, Jamie Ball, is not involved. Like Emma, there have been no potential sightings of her and very little information has been forthcoming from the public. It is her appearance that links her to the possible serial killer.’

He sipped some coffee. ‘In conclusion I will now deal with the fifth victim, Ashleigh Stanford. There have been no sightings reported since her disappearance in the early hours of Saturday morning in Hove, when it looks like she may have been abducted whilst cycling home from work. Her mobile phone has been found nearby and it is her appearance that again links her to the other young women.’ He ran through the details of her particular investigation.

He paused for a moment to let several members of the team finish their notes. ‘OK, the next few days are going to be busy and you’ll all need to put in long hours. I’m hopeful that our strategy through the media to rile the killer will be successful. There will be the publication of photo-fits and twice-daily press conferences. I’m anticipating the response from the public to be huge, so we’ll need to focus on key elements of the investigation in order that we don’t get distracted. You should be ready for swift action with house raids, searches, and hopefully interviewing of suspects. You have all been working hard in difficult circumstances and Bella would be proud of you all, as am I.’

Suddenly Grace noticed the conference room door opening, and his new assistant, Tish Hannington, peered in, then signalled to him.

‘Excuse me a moment everyone.’ He went over to the door.

Tish was a slim, neatly dressed woman in her late thirties, with a seemingly unflappable demeanour. She was holding a small Jiffy bag in her hand. ‘Roy,’ she said, quietly. ‘The editor of the Argus has just sent this over, it was waiting for him when he arrived this morning. Someone had pushed it through the letter box during the night.’

‘Yep, well I’m not too pleased with the paper after that ridiculous scaremongering headline this morning — just what we don’t need. What’s in it?’

‘I think you’d better take a look, now.’

He slipped his hand inside the envelope. Inside were two plastic sleeves. He looked down at them and read the small writing. He looked back at his assistant.

‘Bloody hell.’