The Soul Collector

One

I was putting the finishing touches to my weekly column in the Daily Independent-“Matt Wells on Crime”-when I heard the key turn in the lock.

“Hi,” I called. “It’s a filthy night, Detective Chief Inspector.”

Karen Oaten hung up her coat and sat on a chair to pull off her knee-high black boots.

“Oh, no,” I said, as I went to greet her. “I was looking forward to you dominating me in those.”

She raised her blond head and gave me an intimidating look. “Don’t push your luck, Matt. I have not had a good day.”

I leaned over and kissed her, feeling cold cheeks and only slightly warmer lips. “What’s up? You been pounding the streets?”

She got up and pushed me away gently. “No, I couldn’t find a bloody parking space anywhere near these poxy rich people’s flats.”

“Oh, shit.” I’d moved into the Chelsea Harbour block about a year back, after my book The Death List had been a global success. Although I was a novelist at heart, the book was nonfiction and detailed my battle with the vicious killer who called himself the White Devil and had put all my other efforts in the shade. The fact that Karen featured in it, but didn’t get a penny of royalties, needled her when she was feeling down. Not that her career prospects had exactly been damaged.

She went over to the drinks table, her long legs striking even without footwear.

I caught up with her. “What would you like, darling?”

She looked at me curiously. After years of living on her own, she was still surprised when I did things for her when she came to my place three or four times a week. She hadn’t given up her own house. We’d been together a couple of years, but she still needed her independence.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Her stern features relaxed. “A gin and tonic would be great.” She went to the nearest of the four black leather sofas I’d bought to fill the enormous living area. “What have you been up to today, Matt?”

“My column,” I replied, handing her a glass and sitting down beside her. I picked up the stereo remote and got Peter Bruntnell’s latest CD playing.

She took a long sip of her drink. “I thought you were meant to be starting the novel.”

I gave a wry smile. “I did. Pages of deathless prose, done and dusted.”

She jammed her elbow into my ribs. “Smart-ass. What’s it about?”

I put my arm around her and took a slug of malt whisky. “The usual stuff-killers, stunningly beautiful cops, violent death…”

She didn’t push me off. If she’d wanted, she could have floored me in under a second. She’d been a seriously good athlete as a student and she’d recently got her judo black belt. Then again, so had I.

“Oh, nothing much,” she said with a yawn. “The usual run-of-the-mill Violent Crimes Coordination Team fare. A drugs gang killing in East London, an unidentified torso in the river and the assistant commissioner all over me for the quarterly report.”

“Lucky him,” I said, and got another, harder nudge for my pains. “Can I have the inside story on the gangland killing for next week’s column?” Since we’d met during the White Devil case and subsequently started dating, Karen had used me as an unofficial conduit between the Metropolitan Police and the public. Several times I’d been given information that had elicited information from readers, leading to arrests.

“Depends,” she said, emptying her glass.

“On what?”

“On how nice you are to me.”

“How about a steak, a good claret, creme brulee and a massage?”

“You’re on.”

I went to the kitchen at the far end of the living area. “You can talk to me while I slave over the stove.”

Karen sat at the bar that separated the kitchen from the eating area. She shook her head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“That’s what you always say. Come on, Karen. Your boss knows you talk to me about cases.”

“About cases that he approves. He hasn’t cleared the latest killing.”

I laid the steaks on a board and started to pound them. “He will.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. But how many of the Daily Independent’s readers are going to send you e-mails identifying a gangland hit man?”

“Several members of the opposition gangs?” I suggested.

“Oh, yeah, like that will stand up in court.”

I turned to the stove. “All right, it doesn’t bother me. I’ve got plenty of other contacts in the Met.”

Karen laughed. “Plenty of other contacts who want to take you down the cells and kick the shit out of you.”

It was true that my diligence in publicizing Karen’s cases had made me some enemies at New Scotland Yard. I laughed. “I seem to remember you wanted to arrest me once.”

She screwed up her face at me. “No, I didn’t. That was Taff.”

“How is that Welsh sheep abuser?”

“I’ll let him know you called him that.”

Karen’s sidekick, Detective Inspector John Turner, wasn’t my biggest fan. Then again, he didn’t like anyone except his wife and kids-and Karen.

I tossed a green salad and served the steaks. We both liked them rare.

“Let’s not talk about work right now,” Karen said.

“Okay,” I said, pouring her a glass of seriously expensive wine. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Mmm, this is good. I don’t know…is everyone all right?”

“I thought we weren’t discussing work.” I sniffed the wine’s bouquet and took a sip. “God, it’s actually worth what I paid for it.”

“Just checking,” she said, eyes on her plate.

What she wanted to know was whether my family and friends were in one piece. The White Devil’s partner, my former lover Sara Robbins, had escaped and threatened revenge in the most chilling fashion, although I hadn’t heard anything from her for over two years. I was still scared shitless of Sara. She’d pretended to be a normal person when we were together, while she’d been busy graduating to stone killer level. That included pounding one victim’s head open with a hammer, biting off another’s nipples and gassing several others, including children, fortunately not fatally. She’d also put several bullets into my best friend. Who could blame me for setting up a daily reporting system with my ex-wife, my mother and those of my friends who’d been involved in the hunt for the White Devil?

“Everyone’s okay,” I reassured her.

“Including Caroline and Lucy?”

My ex-wife had custody of my eleven-year-old daughter. They’d moved to Wimbledon. I saw Lucy every weekend, but I still missed having her nearby.

“Including Lucy and her mother.”

Karen stretched out a hand. “I know how difficult it is for you, Matt.”

I squeezed her hand. “It isn’t long till the Easter holidays.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do in your week?”

“Lucy wants to go to Euro Disney. I’m trying to get Caroline to do that.”

“Good luck.” Karen and my ex-wife couldn’t be left alone unsupervised. “What are you going to fob Lucy off with?”

“I thought we could walk in the Peak District.”

Karen laughed. “Yeah, that ought to do it.”

“At least it’ll get her away from the big city,” I said defensively. “My little angel has become worryingly street-wise.”

Thinking of Lucy always made me anxious. The divorce hadn’t been easy for her. I regretted that, but back then I couldn’t handle Caroline’s scorn for my lack of success as a writer any longer. I managed to cheer up by the end of the meal, mainly because I’d succeeded in not torching the dessert to a blackened crisp like the last time.

“Well, Chief Inspector,” I said, as I put the last of the cutlery in the dishwasher. “I believe I owe you a massage.”

Karen gave me a foxy look. “Neck or full body?”

“Whatever Madame desires,” I said, in a ridiculous French accent.

“Madame desires the latter,” she said, opening the buttons of her blouse.

“Tres bien,” I said, feeling my blood quicken as I wiped the table and then followed her to the master bedroom. There was a trail of discarded clothing on the parquet floor.

Karen was lying naked and facedown on my bed, her head turned to the side but her features obscured by the blond hair she had loosened from its chignon. I managed to get my clothes off before I reached the bed. I straddled her and put my hands on her shoulders. She giggled and squirmed when she felt me between her buttocks. I started to work my fingers across her impressively muscular upper body, all the time moving my lower torso up and down. Things were getting very interesting.

And then her cell phone rang.

“What are we doing here, guv?” DI John Turner was waiting for DCI Oaten on the steps of number 41 Ifield Road. There was a uniformed policeman below him and a crime scene investigator in a dark blue coverall on his way into the house.

“Ask the assistant commissioner, Taff,” she said. This time she hadn’t cared about finding a space. She’d double-parked her silver BMW 318i next to the CSIs’ white van. “He seems to think this is up our alley.” She stamped her booted feet in the cold and had a flash of Matt’s face when she was taking them off. She smiled and then let out a groan. “Shit.”

The inspector followed her gaze down to the high-heeled boots. “They’ll look good with a pair of overshoes on.” He grinned, but not for long. Oaten, known only behind her back as Wild Oats, had a notorious temper.

A middle-aged man in a white coverall appeared at the door. “Any sign of the very important VCCT?” He made no effort to keep the scorn from his voice. Most other detectives saw the elite Violent Crimes Coordination Team as a gang of interfering glory-snatchers.

“DCI Oaten and DI Turner of the same,” Karen said icily, taking out her warrant card. “And you are?”

“DI Luke Neville, Homicide Division West,” he replied, his cocky manner suddenly missing in action. He chewed his unusually large lower lip as Oaten and Turner got into protective gear. “Bit of a weird one, this.”

Oaten glanced up at him. “Who called it in?”

“Next-door neighbor,” Neville replied, angling his head to his right. “He was ranting about loud music coming from number 41. Said the lady was always quiet as a mouse. He’d hammered on the door, but got no reply.”

“What kind of music?” Turner asked.

Neville was looking pleased with himself again. “Well, that’s one of the weird things.” He paused for effect, then started speaking rapidly when Oaten’s eyes bored into his. “We found a CD with only one song repeated ten times on it.”

Oaten went up the steps. “And the song was…?”

“An old Rolling Stones one, actually.” Neville gave a weak smile. “‘Sympathy for the Devil.’ The volume was turned up full.”

Oaten raised an eyebrow. Matt had got tickets when the band had played Twickenham a couple of years back. That song had been the standout number, Mick Jagger high above the stage in a red top hat and tail coat.

“I was always more of a Beatles man, myself,” Turner muttered.

They followed DI Neville inside. The house was impeccably clean and tidy, shelves full of books on every wall. At the far end of the long sitting room, a familiar figure was standing over the short but bulky female corpse lying facedown on the floor. The dead woman wore a calf-length blue skirt, and pink slippers with pom-poms were lying at irregular angles to her feet, about a meter away.

“DCI Oaten, what a pleasure.”

“Good evening, Dr. Redrose,” Karen said, her tone formal. She didn’t much like the potbellied, red-cheeked pathologist, even though he was good at his job. “What have you got here?” She bent over the remains of the obese woman. The thick legs were bare and marked by the purple cobwebs of varicose veins. There was a patch of blood on the gray carpet at the left side of her head.

“What I’ve got,” said the medic, “is something less than pleasant.” He looked up at his assistant, who was standing by. “All right, the police photographer’s finished and we’ve taken our shots. Let’s turn her over.”

The woman was moved onto her back, the two men grunting with the effort. The victim’s face was a mess of blood and ripped skin.

Taff Turner swallowed hard, trying to prevent his weak stomach from erupting.

“And also rather unusual,” Redrose said, his normally languid tone replaced by one that suggested a fascination bordering on the unhealthy. “Severe lacerations and heavy blows to the face.” He extended an arm. “And the left ear has been removed.”

“Jesus,” Turner said, averting his eyes from the sight.

Oaten looked at the carpet around the body and the nearest wall. There was no blood spatter. “I take it the injuries were inflicted after death.”

Redrose nodded. “I’ve examined the skull. There’s a serious depressed fracture, probably from a fall.” He shook his head and then smiled. “But that wasn’t what killed her.”

Oaten was irritated by the pathologist’s ability to take pleasure from his work, but she didn’t show it. That would only have encouraged him. She looked back at the dead woman. It was impossible to tell if any other trauma had been inflicted. Apart from the face and head there was no blood, and her clothing didn’t appear to have been disturbed.

“Let me help you, Chief Inspector,” Redrose said. He turned the victim’s head to the right and put his forefinger close to an area of the neck. “You see the ligature mark?”

Oaten nodded. The dull red line was narrow. “Any sign of what was used?”

“Not in the immediate vicinity, ma’am,” a uniformed officer said.

The pathologist laughed. “Careful, laddie. The chief inspector’s one of those female officers who prefers to be called ‘guv.’”

Oaten gave Redrose a tight smile. “So she was strangled.”

“Correct. The marks suggest by something pretty narrow, like a shoelace. I’ll see if there are any fibers later.”

“And the time of death, Doctor?” Oaten asked.

The pathologist looked affronted. “Surely you realize it’s too early to say.”

She raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Would you care to hazard a guess?”

“Oh, very well,” Redrose said, with a brief smile. “Given the body temperature, I’d say no more than two hours ago.”

Oaten looked at her watch. It was nearly ten.

DI Neville appeared at her side. “The neighbor called about the noise at 8:43 p.m. So that gives us a pretty tight window of eight to around eight-thirty. I’ve just been talking to the guy next door. He isn’t sure, but he reckons that the music started about a quarter of an hour before he made the call.”

“Did he see anyone leave the house?” Turner asked, his notebook and pen out.

Neville shook his head.

Karen Oaten stood up and took in the room. The back door was ajar and on the carpet near it were some small bloodstains. “What happened there?”

Neville stepped up. “The CSIs have already taken them away.”

“Them?”

“The severed head and body of a black cat,” the detective inspector said. “There’s more blood on the paving stones out back. It looks like it was slaughtered there.” The bottom lip went between his teeth again.

“Do we know if it was the victim’s?” Oaten asked.

Neville nodded. “The neighbor confirmed she had one like that. It, or rather he, was called Noir.”

Black, thought Oaten. The victim must have liked black humor. Or was she into old crime movies? She turned to Neville. “Do we know who she was?”

“No formal identification yet. The neighbor declined, but we’ll work on him once she’s been cleaned up in the mortuary. There are bank and credit cards in a purse in the hall. The name’s Shirley Higginbottom. There’s a nameplate on the front doorframe that says S. Higginbottom, so there isn’t much doubt that was her.”

“Any cash?” Turner asked.

Neville looked at his notebook. “Sixty-four pounds and eight pence. And there are two laptops, a plasma TV and a load of jewelry upstairs.”

Oaten was looking at the body again. “Well, clearly we’re not looking for a burglar who was interrupted-”

“Inspector?”

They all turned to the back door. A fresh-faced young man in a crumpled suit and white overshoes stood there, looking at Oaten and Turner in confusion.

“DC Lineham,” Neville said unenthusiastically. “Two weeks on the job and thinks he knows it all,” he said to Oaten, not bothering to lower his voice. “What is it then? You can talk in front of our colleagues from the Violent Crimes Coordination Team.”

“I thought I recognized DCI Oaten from the TV,” Lineham said, stepping forward.

“Not inside!” yelled Neville. “You need a coverall and a change of overshoes, idiot.”

The young constable’s cheeks reddened. “Sorry, guv,” he said. He was well-spoken, probably a graduate on the fast-track scheme. “Perhaps you’d like to come out here then.”

“What have you found?” Neville said wearily. “Don’t tell me there’s another headless moggy in the garden.”

“No, sir. It’s a bit more…em, sinister than that.”

Oaten and Turner exchanged glances and went to the back door. They took off their bootees. Steps led down to a garden that was lit by lamps set into the side of a paved path. A CSI was on his knees on the grass next to one of the stone slabs, examining it close up.

As they got closer, Karen Oaten’s heart began to sink. This was the last thing she needed.

The investigator looked up at them. “White chalk, drawn with a steady hand, I’d say. It’s a-”

“Pentagram,” Oaten and Turner said in unison. They’d worked more than one case involving the paraphernalia of Satanism.

“What’s that writing in the middle?” Neville asked, peering forward from the closest stepping plates that had been put down to protect any footprints.

“It’s Latin,” put in DC Lineham eagerly. “‘FECIT DIABOLUS.’” He looked around the blank faces excitedly.

“Meaning?” Oaten prompted.

“Meaning ‘The devil did it.’”

Inspector Neville groaned and slapped his forehead. “This and the bloody Stones track. We’ve only gone and got ourselves a sodding Satanist murder.”

Oaten looked at John Turner, then they both concentrated on the pentagram.

“Black cat cut up like that,” Turner said, “and the victim’s ear removed…” He broke off. “I presume it hasn’t been found in or near the house.”

“You presume right,” Neville said, squatting down by the pentagram. “What is this shit? Why can’t people just kill each other and leave it at that? The press are going to have a field day.”

“Well, you’d better not encourage them, Inspector,” Oaten said firmly. “At this point, we don’t know if the pentagram has any connection to the killing. The victim herself might have had an interest in devil worship.”

“Excuse me, Chief Inspector,” Lineham said. He looked like a boy bursting for the toilet. “Don’t you think-”

“Don’t interrupt me when I’m thinking,” Oaten ordered.

DC Lineham stared at the pentagram, looking aggrieved.

“Is there something I’m missing here?” Inspector Neville said suspiciously. Then he made the connection. “Oh, Jesus. You’re the ones who investigated that other devil case, the one with the heavy-duty killings.”

“That was the White Devil,” Taff Turner said. “And he’s dead.” He glanced at his boss. They both knew that wasn’t the whole story.

Neville was looking at Oaten. “Are you taking over the case then, ma’am?”

Oaten was sure that he was deliberately using the traditional mode of address for female superiors, despite Redrose’s warning to the other officer. To her, it was sexist, old-fashioned and demeaning. Not only that, it made her feel like the queen. None of those things were acceptable, but she decided against correcting Neville. He would imagine he’d put one over her. “Not yet, Inspector. Please make sure that I receive a copy of the full case file and daily updates. And give me your contact numbers.”

They exchanged cards, and then she and Turner headed for the door.

“Aren’t you going to attend the postmortem, Chief Inspector?” Redrose called after her. “You never know, I might find a message tucked away somewhere…personal.”

Karen Oaten looked over her shoulder. “No,” she said.

“Ghoul,” she continued more quietly to Taff. “He loves seeing us squirm in the morgue.”

“I hope you aren’t going to send me,” Turner said dolefully.

She smiled grimly. “No, that wide boy Neville can have the pleasure.” On the pavement, she stripped off her coverall and overshoes.

“So you don’t think the devil angle should concern us?” the Welshman asked. “Could it be-”

“Don’t say it,” Oaten interrupted. She shrugged. “Whoever’s responsible, it’s not exactly a run-of-the-mill murder.”

“It certainly isn’t as straightforward as a drugs gang killing, not that we’ve got a handle on the scumbag who did that.” He paused. “Even if we don’t mention you-know-who, some smart-arse in the press is bound to.”

Oaten gave him a fierce look. “Let’s just hope this isn’t the first of a series, then,” she said, heading for her car.

Turner watched her drive off. His stomach was still queasy from the sight of the dead woman’s face, as well as from the fact that all his instincts and experience were telling him this wouldn’t be a one-off.