The Doll's House

66

‘This is fucking out of order and I will not stand for it.’

Ceri Harwood seldom swore. It was strangely enjoyable, watching her superior lose her cool and Helen privately resolved to provoke her more often.

‘DI Grace knows the chain of command,’ the incandescent Harwood continued. ‘She knows she should have come to me first.’

Chief Constable Stephen Fisher nodded, before turning his attention to Helen.

‘Would you care to explain to me why you didn’t, DI Grace?’

Because Harwood would have told me to go jump in a lake, Helen thought, but swallowed that down. Her decision to go direct to Harwood’s superior was deliberate – a calculated gamble.

‘Detective Superintendent Harwood and I have already had this discussion and she’s made her feelings clear -’

‘So why are we having it again?’ Fisher interrupted.

‘Because the situation has changed,’ Helen replied. ‘Further investigation -’

‘Investigation that was not authorized,’ Harwood interrupted.

‘Further investigation has revealed a number of potential victims,’ Helen continued. ‘I have always believed that Pippa’s killer had the potential to be a serial offender and the evidence now points that way.’

‘Evidence?’ Harwood queried, witheringly.

‘Roisin Murphy and Isobel Lansley. Two young women with the same look, the same profile, who’ve been missing for over a year and who text and tweet at the same times of day and the same locations as Ruby and formerly Pippa. The geography doesn’t make sense – the New Forest, then Southampton city centre, then Brighton, then Hastings – their movements are so random and unlikely that the only explanation is that someone is deliberately trying to throw the young women’s families off the scent. Furthermore, what are the odds that four unconnected girls would be travelling around in the same seemingly random pattern?’

‘So you want to go back to the beach?’ Fisher interrupted decisively.

‘Yes. That’s the only deposition site we know of and serial murderers are creatures of habit. It’s a discreet, out-of-the-way location, which regularly washes away surface evidence, footprints and so on. It’s perfect for his purposes and he’d be a fool not to use it again.’

‘He? You keep referring to “he”. Who is he? You sound like you know him?’

‘We don’t have anything concrete so far -’

‘But still you want us to close a public beach, exhaust our resources digging up great swathes of it and create an unholy storm of public concern and negative publicity in the process. All because of your gut instinct.’

‘Because of the pattern of his offending. There is almost zero chance he won’t have attempted to abduct more victims in between Pippa and Ruby – and Roisin and Isobel fit the bill perfectly.’

‘We need more time, Stephen,’ Harwood countered, now turning to her superior. ‘Let’s investigate the circumstances of the girls’ disappearance and then see -’

‘It’s already been done,’ Helen returned aggressively. ‘Roisin had a one-year-old baby when she went missing. She tweeted saying she couldn’t handle being a mum any more and it’s true she had struggled at times, but her family are totally convinced that she would never have willingly abandoned her baby boy. They’ve spent the last two years searching for her. They’ve used the police, missing persons, local charities. They even hired a private detective – none of the “leads” provided by her tweeting check out. She simply hasn’t been seen anywhere since she went missing over two years ago.’

‘Even so, the investigations of a local family are no substitute for proper police work,’ Harwood fired back. ‘Let us pursue this line of investigation in a measured, methodical way and see if any of these “hunches” bear fruit. Rushing headlong into a major search operation only risks making us look very foolish indeed.’

Both women had finished now. Fisher regarded them, weighing up his options. Harwood had been his appointment and it had worked out well for him. Which is why Helen was surprised when he said:

‘You’ve got one day on the beach, Helen. Make the most of it.’