The Headhunters

TWENTY-TWO

Hen didn’t bother much with snail mail. Everything that mattered reached her by phone, email, or internal memo. The few letters with her name on them got dropped into a tray on her desk and could stay unopened through the day. Most were junk. A few were from attention-seekers who’d seen her on television or in the press. Rarely anything worth troubling over.

So it wasn’t unusual that a typed envelope with a London postmark didn’t get opened until mid-afternoon.

It wasn’t even a proper letter.

She almost tossed it aside without reading it.

The sender had scribbled a few words on a Post-it attached to a white invitation card. ‘Found this among Merry’s papers,’ was all Austen Sentinel had written before adding his initials.

The wording couldn’t have made more impact if it had grabbed Hen by the throat. Embossed lettering on fine, cream-coloured board.

In September, 1987, the skeleton of a mammoth was uncovered on Selsey’s East Beach and excavated by a team from Brighton University, assisted by volunteers. To mark the twentieth anniversary of this notable event you are invited to a reunion barbecue on the section of beach where the dig took place.

Saturday 15 September, 8.30 p.m. Free food, drink, and eighties music.

No reply necessary. To have fun with old friends just turn up.. like the mammoth did.

She now knew why Meredith Sentinel had returned to Selsey for the first time in twenty years.

Heart racing, she snatched up her phone and dialled Sentinel’s number. He answered at once.

‘Hen Mallin, Chichester CID,’ she said. ‘Just read your note. Quite a discovery.’

‘Yes, it answers one question and begs some others,’ he said as if he were talking about an essay topic instead of the invitation that had led to his wife’s death. ‘I thought you should see it for yourself.’

‘You found it among her papers?’

‘A few items I’d overlooked when I went through her belongings last week. She sometimes put letters and such things in a glass cabinet where we keep the silverware. It served as her PENDING tray. After she’d dealt with them she threw them out.’

‘Was the invitation in an envelope?’

‘Not when I found it. She got rid of envelopes.’

‘You’re certain of that?’

‘Didn’t I just explain? I don’t understand why it matters.’

‘Because I need to know who was behind this invitation. It may be crucial to find out. We can get DNA from an envelope. We might get some from the card itself, but the envelope would be better. And the postmark would be useful. There’s no return address or name on the card.’

‘I noticed that. No RSVP. Unusual.’

‘You’re telling me there’s no chance at all of finding the envelope? Not even with a special search?’

‘Sorry to disappoint you. My wife was well organised. She didn’t keep wrappers of any kind. And she made a point of using the shredder.’ The voice sounded smug, as if he enjoyed frustrating the investigation.

Hen let it pass. There was more to prise out from this obnoxious man. ‘How would they have traced her? She’d have been known by her maiden name in 1987.’

‘Through the university, I expect. They have an alumni association. Their magazine publishes news of former students and there are always reunions being organised.’

‘She was in her first year when it took place, you said?’

‘A fresher, yes.’

‘How many other people would have received one of these invites?’

‘How would I know?’

She felt a surge of fury. ‘You were in charge, for God’s sake. You’d know how many were involved in the dig.’

‘Can’t be precise. Anything from twenty to forty.’

‘I’m going to need their names and addresses.’

‘Don’t ask me. I couldn’t even begin to remember. I told you before, they were just willing hands as far as I was concerned.’ His attitude was breathtaking.

‘Where could I find a list?’

‘God knows, all these years later. I don’t suppose one exists.’

She was trying to suppress her annoyance and not succeeding. ‘You told me you published some illustrated articles about the dig. Get them out, please, look at them and see if you recognise anyone in the photos. Where can I get copies for myself?’

‘The university library ought to have them.’

‘Thanks. You must have had one of these invitations yourself.’

‘I don’t recall one.’

‘Come on, Dr Sentinel. You led the dig. It would have been Hamlet without the Prince.’

‘Ha. That’s a point.’ He seemed to enjoy that. ‘But the Prince was missing. I don’t need to remind you I was in St Petersburg at the time.’

‘Or Helsinki.’

‘Er, yes.’ Not quite so bumptious.

Hen played to his vanity. ‘It seems odd for anyone to have organised a reunion without consulting you first about the arrangements.’

‘Going by the wording on the invitation, I’m not surprised. It was my dig, my show, but they don’t mention me by name. I get the impression this was an undergraduates-only event.’

‘They’re not undergraduates any more. They’ll be forty-year-olds with their own careers.’

‘You don’t understand, do you? I was in the senior common room in nineteen-eighty-seven.’

Hen couldn’t see how that made a blind bit of difference. ‘Something else you can do for me immediately after you put down the phone, Dr Sentinel. Look through your own correspondence and see if you can find the invitation to you, preferably still in the envelope. Handle it as little as possible. Get back to me at once and we’ll arrange to pick it up.’

Immediately after the call she announced the breakthrough to the team. Spirits had not been high since the blunder over the body in the pool and it was a huge relief to have a new lead. There was spontaneous applause.

‘The priority now is to get hold of some more of these invitations,’ Hen told them. ‘There could be as many as forty in circulation. Some will have been thrown out by now, but some people keep such things as souvenirs. What I’d dearly like to find is one in its original envelope that we can get forensically tested.’

‘So we discover who was behind it?’ Paddy Murphy said.

‘That would be a start.’

Hen explained about the alumni association and said she would speak to them herself. She asked Gary to check with Brighton University library for articles and references to the mammoth excavation. ‘Don’t get bogged down with the technicalities. It’s the people who interest us.’

Stella said, ‘If I remember, Dr Sentinel said the dig was before the start of term, so he was recruiting anyone he could get hold of, including locals.’

‘Good point. We can go on local radio tonight and ask for help. The listeners are good at responding to that sort of appeal. Would you take care of that?’

‘Absolutely.’

Hen knew it would be done well. ‘One other thing, Stell. When we were searching the beach at Selsey, do you recall seeing signs of a recent barbecue? Blackened stones, ash, bits of tinfoil lying about?’

‘Can’t say I do, guv.’

‘Must have been another section.’ She snapped her fingers. ‘They told us where it was. Paddy, find out the exact place where the mammoth was found.’

The alumni association proved to be the ideal means of contacting ex-students. Once Hen had explained to the secretary who she was and why she needed the information, she was supplied with contact numbers for seventeen archaeologists from the late 1980s.

‘Great. We’ll have some witnesses soon,’ she announced to the team.

In the next hour the incident room resembled a call centre as attempts were made to reach former students. A thumb would be raised in the air each time contact was made.

But the initial response was disappointing. Most remembered the mammoth dig, but hadn’t taken part because it was all over before they arrived for the new term. The third woman Hen managed to contact was more helpful. Like the others she’d missed the dig, but she recalled the name of a friend who took part. Although they hadn’t seen each other in years, she had a phone number.

Hen raised both thumbs.

The woman was home and confirmed that she’d joined in the dig. Her name was Brenda Sutton and she sounded intelligent and keen to help. ‘Yes, I remember the whole thing. It was fascinating. I was so lucky to be part of it because I was reading English, not archaeology. I just happened to be up at the uni early looking for a flat, which-with more good luck-I found on the first day. Dr Sentinel was in the refectory asking for volunteers and I jumped at the chance. There must have been twenty of us being bussed out to Selsey each morning.’

‘Do you remember an American fresher called Merry or Meredith?’

‘Not by name, but yes, there was an American girl with a marked Southern drawl. I was with a couple of friends and we tended to stay together, so I don’t recall the other people’s names.’

Even so, this was real progress: someone who had been there in 1987. ‘And did you go to the reunion in September?’

‘No,’ she said, her voice rising in surprise. ‘Was there one?’

Hen’s hopes plunged again. ‘For the twentieth anniversary. A barbecue.’

‘I missed that, I’m afraid. Pity.’

‘Invitations were sent out.’

‘I’ve moved recently. Perhaps mine got returned to the sender.’

‘You spoke of a couple of friends on the dig. Have you kept up with them?’

‘Noreen Chick and Peter Schooley. Wait a moment while I get my address book.’

Across the room, Paddy was waving. He’d traced another of the diggers. In the next half hour a list of Dr Sentinel’s team began to emerge. Fourteen names were scribbled on the display board, most with phone numbers.

Unfortunately, of the first eight questioned on the phone, not one had come to the barbecue or even received an invitation.

Paddy spoke for everyone when he commented that it was a real downer. They’d contacted twenty per cent of the original group and drawn a blank.

‘We keep trying,’ Hen said.

She’d had another idea. Jake Kernow was still in a cell downstairs. He’d been questioned in three long sessions about his links to the second victim, Fiona, and little of significance had emerged. The custody clock was ticking. Because murder was a serious arrestable offence he could be held for up to thirty-six hours without charge, but a warrant would be needed after that.

She had him brought to an interview room. Stella was sitting in this time.

‘You can do yourself some good now,’ Hen said to Jake. ‘This isn’t connected with what we talked about before. It’s about Meredith Sentinel, and you freely admit you met her. In fact you texted us and made a voluntary statement when you heard she was the dead woman on the beach. I appreciated that. This is safe territory, Jake.’ To underline the confidence-giving, she was entirely candid with him, telling him all she knew about the barbecue invitation.

He listened in silence as she expected, but there was more than a flicker of interest.

‘I’ll get to the point,’ she said. ‘You met Meredith more than once in London, at the Natural History Museum. I asked if she talked about coming to Selsey and you said she didn’t. Does that answer still hold?’

He gave his trademark nod.

‘You drank coffee together and talked about the rainforests and the ecology, but you must have touched on some personal matters as well. When people meet for the first time they look for things in common. She must have asked where you live, am I right?’

After some hesitation, another nod.

Leading the witness like this would be inadmissible in any court, but what else could you do with such a reticent man? ‘And then she would surely have said something like, “I’ve been to Selsey. I was there for a dig twenty years ago.” Is that what she told you, Jake?’

‘Yes.’

A small triumph.

‘Right. I need your help here. Did she tell you anything else about the dig?’

‘It was done in a hurry.’

He’d actually crafted a sentence.

‘Because of the tides, yes. Did she mention anyone else who was there?’

‘Dr Sentinel.’

‘No others? We’re trying to trace people. We believe she was murdered at the reunion.’

He leaned forward and his voice was more animated. ‘Why?’

‘That isn’t clear. We may be looking at a motiveless murder. A psychotic killer who takes any opportunity to strike. As you know, a second woman was drowned at Emsworth. And you won’t yet have heard that another body was found today in a private swimming pool in Apuldram.’

‘A woman?’

‘Not yet identified. She was discovered by two of your friends, Jo and Gemma.’

He released a long deep breath that developed into a sigh. He looked personally troubled.

‘Do you know anything about this, Jake?’ Hen asked.

‘No.’

‘If you do, and someone else is killed, she could be on your conscience for the rest of your days.’

Silence. He’d retreated into non-communication again.

She exchanged a look with Stella, who rolled her eyes.

‘Jake,’ Hen said, ‘I’m going to release you without charge. I’m sorry all this has been necessary, but you can’t deny that you acted suspiciously trying to avoid arrest. You’ll be driven back to your home. Get some sleep. If you can think of anything you haven’t mentioned, call me.’

He continued to sit there, deep in thought.

Hen was on her feet. ‘Come on, fellow, let’s get you out of here.’

He looked up, the dark eyes haunted by something unspeakable. ‘Have you… ’ The words faltered.

‘Have I what?’ she asked.

He got it out. ‘Spoken to Rick?’

On southern Counties Radio the same evening the lines buzzed with Selsey residents who remembered the finding of the mammoth. In the nature of chat shows, the focus of discussion kept changing. Some had watched from the promenade. One caller remembered a photographer falling over in the water. Another spoke about the fisherman who had first noticed the bones and thought he should have been given more credit and this started a spate of comments. Among all these, two of the original volunteers phoned in with their memories. Stella spoke to them later. Neither knew anything about the barbecue.

Hen was alone in the incident room when Stella returned.

‘I listened in to most of it. Worth trying.’

‘This barbecue is a mystery,’ Stella said. ‘Did we find out which stretch of the beach they used?’

‘The invitation was clear on that: the section where the dig was done. Paddy looked it up. The strange thing is, it was right where the body was found.’

‘I don’t see what’s strange,’ Stella said. ‘We’re assuming she was murdered at the barbecue.’

Patiently, Hen explained her thinking. ‘Picture it, Stell. The barbecue going. Music. Beer. Smoke. Some people standing about or sitting on the pebbles talking about what they’ve done in the past twenty years. The moon is up, and a nearly full moon at that, so they can see what’s going on. What do you reckon happens next?’

‘Someone suggests a swim?’

‘My thought exactly. They don’t have costumes, so they skinny-dip, or strip to their undies.’

‘All of them?’

‘This is the problem. In a party of people you’ll get a few bold souls, but not all will want to go in. The others watch. They may even come down to the water’s edge and shout encouragement. With all that happening, how does the killer carry out a drowning that can take up to five minutes?’

Stella tilted her head. ‘Tell me, then.’

‘It can’t have happened in the presence of everyone else, can it?’

‘Not the way you tell it, boss. I suppose they paired off- Meredith and the killer-and snuck away to another bit of the beach where they could be alone. He suggested a dip and they went in and he attacked her.’

‘Reasonable, except for two things. She was found on the exact section of beach where the original dig took place. And there was no evidence of a barbecue there.’

‘The tide must have washed over it.’

‘These things tend to be held high up the beach where the water rarely reaches.’

‘Well, I can’t think of anything better.’

‘Try this, then,’ Hen said. ‘What if the barbecue never happened?’

Stella blinked. ‘You’ve lost me now.’

‘We’ve been trying for hours to trace people who were there. Yes, we found about a dozen from the original dig who could have come. Not one of them did. They didn’t get invitations. And the reason is that there was no barbecue. It was never going to happen.’

Stella thought a moment and frowned. ‘Invented by the killer?’

‘Exactly. He’s devious. There was only ever one invitation and we’ve seen it. The killer sent it to Meredith as bait, to lure her to Selsey. Handsomely printed, official-looking, friendly. She was tempted. Her husband would be away, enjoying himself in Moscow or wherever. The dig had been a highlight of her student life, and now she makes her living as a fossil expert. Why not join in the fun and meet some friends from way back?’

‘It’s vile,’ Stella said. ‘In her shoes, I would have gone.’

‘Me, too. What precisely happened in the hours before she was murdered we can only guess. I see her arriving at the beach around eight-thirty and finding nobody. Then he appears and says he, too, received an invitation. Whether he really was around in nineteen-eighty-seven is uncertain. Probably not. But he’s done his research and he knows she was there. He says the event must have been cancelled and nobody told them. He has wine with him and something to eat. He suggests they sit on the beach and drink the wine. If Austen Sentinel can be believed, Meredith likes men.’

‘I think you’ve sussed it, guv. He suggests a moonlit dip. She’s game, but she keeps her pants on, as I would. And he does what he’s been planning all along, grabs her in the water and drowns her.’

‘And because he’s a cold-hearted calculating killer, he gathers up her clothes and bag and removes them from the scene. His hope is that she’ll be taken for someone who died at sea and was washed up by the tide.’

‘That could easily have happened. The planning that went into this!’

‘I know. It makes me wonder if the other killings were equally premeditated.’

‘Are you certain Jake isn’t the killer? I know he admitted being a friend of Meredith as soon as the news broke, but that could have been a smart move to wrong-foot us.’

‘If you’re right, I shouldn’t have let him go. But I think it suits the real killer to have Jake in the frame. We’re dealing with someone of exceptional guile. What you see with Jake is what you get.’

‘He was pretty upset at the end of that last interview.’

‘You noticed it, too? I think it was when I told him Jo and Gemma found the body at Cartwright’s place. There’s something he’s holding back.’

‘About Rick?’

Hen nodded. ‘It’s high time we spoke to that young man.’

‘But we’ve got nothing on him. He’s been in the background all along.’

‘Yes, and up to now Jake has taken all the flak. Our first move tomorrow is to see Rick.’