Cold as Ice

Chapter 24

Carter pulled up the hood of his forensic suit as he and Willis waited to be allowed to cross over into the crime scene. They saw the tall frame of Sandford walk across to them from where he’d been searching the far side of the trees. He climbed over the fallen tree debris; moving cautiously, picking his way amongst the branches.

‘I’ve finished here, for now.’ he said to Carter. He nodded to Ebony. ‘We’ll keep it taped off for a few more days yet. We’ll have to wait till the snow melts to look for tracks.’

‘How long’s she been here, do you think?’ Carter asked Sandford. Ebony was looking down over the white expanse of the Heath. In the distance, people were walking their dogs or jogging along the paths around its edge. Carter followed her gaze and then swung back to Sandford. ‘She can’t have been here any longer than a couple of days. This is a busy place.’

‘Twenty-four hours, Doc estimates,’ replied Sandford. ‘Left here before last night’s snowfall. She’s frozen solid.’ Sandford turned and led the way woods.

‘Who found her?’

‘A jogger named Janet Leonard. She’s waiting in the squad car.’

‘Does it look like it’s the same man? Is it Hawk?’

Sandford stopped walking and turned to fix Carter with a gaze that told Carter that, even for a seasoned professional, it was a sight not soon forgotten. He nodded. ‘Her body’s a real mess.’

They came to the area beyond the fallen tree trunk and the woman’s body began to come into view. Harding had brushed away the snow from around her.

Carter stopped in his tracks. ‘Christ.’

Ebony took a step to his side and crouched beside her.

‘It’s the same as last time.’

‘Yes,’ said Harding.

‘What happened to the bag?’ Ebony was looking at the plastic shards scattered in the snow.

‘A badger, fox or even someone’s pet dog has been at it,’ answered Harding. ‘Maybe they were disturbed.’

Carter drew level. ‘What about her eyes?’ he asked.

Harding looked up at the pine trees around them. The crows watched them. The air hung dank and dark, trapped in the shadows of the trees. The crows shifted in the upper branches of the pines as they waited, ever hopeful of finishing their meal.

‘Crows have large beaks for tearing flesh. The birds have had a go at her face. Soft entry points like the eyes were the best option; the rest of her is frozen.

Ebony watched Harding brush the last of the snow away from the body and onto a plastic sheet she had tucked in around it. She looked down at the ulcerated sites across the body. ‘She is just like Emily Styles but a lot thinner, a lot more emaciated.’

Harding paused in her work and sighed; her white breath stayed as a shroud in the air. She shook her head. ‘It’s hard to know how she made it to even this point. She has been like this for a long time.’

‘She looks like a sick joke,’ said Ebony. She looked at the remnants of blue eye-shadow and the few spikes of painted-on lashes visible above the empty eye sockets, the clownish circles of red stain on her cheeks.

‘He must really hate women, all women – vanity, masks of make-up.’

‘Absolutely,’ said Carter. ‘He’s saying – do you still find her pretty? Folded the skin from her breasts like a bra top, exposed the flesh beneath to say: look at the woman beneath. We can rule out this being Danielle Foster,’ said Carter. ‘This woman’s skeletal, she must have been kept somewhere a long time to get like this.’ There was silence except for the slip and splash of snow from the branches. ‘How did she die, Doctor?’

Harding moved the woman’s head to one side as she examined her neck.

‘There are signs of damage here. I can’t rule out strangulation or asphyxiation. But with her being in such a poor state, any massive trauma could have been her last. I think she would have died quite fast after he began skinning her.’

‘She was alive when he did that?’

Harding nodded. ‘She wouldn’t have bled like that otherwise… she must have been.’ The remnants of trails of blackened blood were streaked down the woman’s body.

Carter looked around him, fighting back the nausea. He needed to breathe in the scent of the pines, the cold from the damp air.

‘Did she die here?’

‘No,’ said Harding. ‘She was definitely moved and placed here. Suspended from the wrists while he mutilated her. The blood has flowed in even paths down over her torso.’

‘Where’s the nearest car park?’ Carter asked, swallowing the taste of bile that filled his mouth.

‘About five hundred metres away,’ answered Sandford. ‘Down by the Lido.’

‘I suppose someone could carry her this far but would have to be fairly fit to get her up this hill.’ Carter looked at Sandford. ‘How else would you get her up here – by car?’

‘You can’t drive a vehicle up here unless you are one of the maintenance gardeners,’ replied Sandford.

‘I’ll see if there’s anyone on their staff list who has history, any padlocks broken or interfered with,’ said Ebony, taking out her radio. ‘And I’ll ask if there’s any CCTV footage we can find in any of the car parks around this side of the park.’

Carter looked around him.

‘He must have gone to a lot of trouble to put her on the Heath. He chose to place her here. He didn’t even try and cover her up.’

‘The snow did it for him,’ said Sandford.

‘But she was always going to be found. It’s too public. Just to stall us then maybe?’

They were interrupted by the approach of a familiar figure climbing the steep bank up towards the copse. Robbo was sweating despite the cold.

‘Any idea who she is?’ asked Carter.

Robbo was taking his time to study the victim. He needed time to see beyond the horror.

‘I have several people on my list I think it could be,’ answered Robbo. ‘I need some DNA confirmation first. Any operation scars?’

Harding ran her gloved hands down the woman’s limbs. ‘I’d say she’d had a few broken bones in her time.’

‘He’s left us a lot more clues this time,’ said Carter.

‘Is there evidence of sexual assault?’ asked Robbo.

‘Yes,’ answered Harding.

‘We might have a chance of getting a specimen of DNA from her then. When can you start the post mortem, Doctor?’

‘We need to wait till she thaws.’

‘How long will that be?’ asked Robbo. He had a million things now that were zapping across his database of a brain. All the photos of all the names on his list.

‘Twenty-four hours at room temperature.’

Sandford unpacked a new body bag and helped Harding wrap the body in its plastic sheet. As they lifted up her left arm a silver charm bracelet slipped to the ground, a silver heart uppermost.