get answers to questions that occurred to him.
Brook shrugged. ‘It hardly narrows the field but it’s possible,’ he said trying to keep the doubt from his voice. ‘But then why leave the weapon behind to flag that up?’
‘Good point.’
Brook looked at the floor briefly, then faced his audience. ‘Okay. Sergeant Noble and I have been with DCI Hudson and Sergeant Grant for the last twenty-four hours. We’ve also spoken to Jason Wallis and, before we came here this morning, Dr Habib. We think we’ve pieced together a sequence of events. John.’
Noble walked over to the display boards behind him to point at an enlarged photograph. ‘This is a Weber One Touch Gold barbecue. It was brand new and according to Jason Wallis it was stolen by the Inghams last week — from where we don’t know and neither does he. We’ve got a call out to various local retailers, B amp;Q, Homebase and the like to find out. It’s possibly stolen from other residents but no one in the canvass mentioned it, and the fact that it’s new would seem to be against it.’
‘Why does it matter where this barbecue came from?’ asked Charlton.
‘Maybe it doesn’t,’ answered Brook. ‘But the Inghams acquired this barbecue the week before winning a large selection of meat supplied — we think — by The Reaper. With his MO it’s unlikely to be a convenient coincidence. Go on, John.’
‘The Ingham family used the barbecue to cook their last meal on the night of the murders. On the eve of the murders someone, we presume The Reaper or his accomplice, rang the Ingham house from an untraceable prepaid mobile phone. According to the Ingham’s phone records that call took place at 6.32pm. We don’t know the exact contents of the call, but we think it was to tell the Ingham family that they’d won a competition. It’s the only call received on the Ingham landline in the two days preceding the killings. We know from text messages that Stephen Ingham texted Jason Wallis to tell him the same thing, and to ask him to come round for a barbecue the following night to celebrate his release.
‘Jason Wallis confirmed to us last night that, according to Stephen, the family had won a hamper full of burgers, sausages and kebabs as well as a substantial quantity of beer and cider that was delivered after the call. How and when the delivery was made we’ve no idea, but obviously that’s a question for door to door. Chances are, delivery was made after dark.
‘As most of you know, two years ago the Wallis family were persuaded to believe they’d won a free meal of pizzas from a local takeaway. The pizzas had been doctored and so the Wallis family were left defenceless when The Reaper returned to slaughter them. Interestingly, none of the food or drink had been doctored this time but because all the victims had been drinking heavily, even the young lad, it wasn’t really necessary. It looks like the food and drink was a tool to concentrate the Ingham family and friends in one location ready for the killing.
‘A neighbour, Mrs Patel, claims to have seen a strange man loitering near her garden, which is across the street from the Ingham and Wallis houses. That was about ten o’clock so it may be nothing. Our best guess for The Reaper’s arrival is around one o’clock in the morning. He-’
‘How does he know the Inghams are going to have the barbecue the same night as he delivers the food?’ interrupted Jane Gadd. ‘I mean, it’s not warm at the moment.’
There was a hush while people cast around for an answer.
‘Maybe he didn’t know,’ said Grant. ‘Maybe he was watching and waiting.’
‘Where from?’ asked Noble.
‘There’s the Wallis house,’ she added.
There was an outbreak of impressed nodding from the CID officers. ‘That is a very good thought, Sergeant,’ said Charlton.
‘Forensics hasn’t come up with anything yet to suggest The Reaper spent any significant time in there, sir,’ noted Noble.
‘It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,’ said Brook. ‘The Reaper of old would have left no trace.’
‘Then given us his voice and a thumbprint?’ noted Hudson.
Brook nodded. ‘It’s odd; I still can’t explain it.’
‘And if he was watching, it would explain why he didn’t medicate four of the victims,’ said Grant. ‘He knew what condition they’d be in.’
Noble continued. ‘So The Reaper arrives at the house to find his targets in the state he wants them. It’s around one in the morning. There’s a thick fog developing. Streetlighting is virtually nonexistent and he knows he’s unlikely to meet anyone. Nobody sees him. Maybe he’s got a car nearby, but nobody sees or hears that either. Possibly he’s travelled the rest of the journey on foot — maybe even on a bicycle. At the moment we have no idea and door to door has produced nothing.
‘He’s got various pieces of equipment with him that tells us this is no random killer. Most importantly he has a scalpel, not the everyday weapon of choice. You won’t be surprised to learn that not a single doctor or surgeon lives on the estate.’ There was a ripple of laughter at this. ‘Just a nurse and a few hospital workers.
‘Okay. The four lads in the yard are unconscious when he enters the yard. We think he gets his Debussy CD from his bag or rucksack ready to play. The classical music is a Reaper signature. He has a length of rope which he puts to one side. He takes off the rap music and puts on his own CD, then takes out his scalpel and cuts the throats of Stephen Ingham and the Gretton and Anderson boys. In what order we’re not sure yet, but we know they died before the couple and the lad because of the bloody smears in the house and transference onto the victims upstairs from gloves — latex probably. Also the boys would be the most able to defend themselves if they came round, so he has to get them out of the way.’
‘But he leaves Wallis alive?’ queried Charlton.
Noble shrugged. ‘We can’t explain it.’ He paused, waiting for further interventions before continuing. ‘After he kills the three teenagers he heads up to the main bedroom with the rope. Even though both the kid and the mother have been drinking, they would be unlikely to have drunk as much as the men so, probably as a precaution, the killer drugged them. But unlike two years ago he injected the victims directly into the neck, so obviously he has a syringe, maybe two.
‘He covers Chelsea Ingham’s mouth with his hand and injects her with a mixture of scopolamine and morphine, the same combination of drugs used to disable the Wallis family two years ago. It’s a powerful and toxic narcotic that would have subdued her almost immediately.
‘The dose is enough to kill her within half an hour if he wants to just leave her to die. Then he moves around the bed and cuts Ryan Harper’s throat, this time with a backhand slash across the windpipe — he can’t get behind him because the bed’s up against the wall. While Harper’s dying the killer goes into the boy’s bedroom. He injects a lethal dose of the same cocktail of drugs into D’Wayne Ingham’s neck and leaves him while he goes back to the main bedroom to set up the rope.
‘He uses a chair, and/or possibly an accomplice, to help him climb into the loft space and tie the rope around a beam. The noose is already tied and the rope is just the right length because the killer has already tested his method in the derelict Wallis house.
‘He goes back to the boy’s bedroom and carries him through to the main bedroom and hoists him into the noose. According to Dr Habib, the boy was dead or on the point of death when he was strung up so The Reaper can do what he likes. He cuts off the boy’s index and forefinger and puts them in a breast pocket, in a copy of the MO used in Harlesden, the first Reaper killing in 1990.’
‘Why copy the MO in that killing?’ asked Gadd. ‘With the rope it makes it much harder. Why not copy the later murders?
They were more polished.’
Brook looked up wearily. ‘Harlesden was the first. I think that’s why.’
Charlton’s brow furrowed. ‘I don’t understand.’
Brook caught his eye. ‘Whoever’s doing this wants to tell us something.’
‘What?’ replied Charlton with a hint of exasperation in his voice. ‘That The Reaper is starting again,’ nodded Grant. ‘That this could be the first of many.’
‘Christ.’ Charlton looked aghast.
Brook nodded at Noble.
‘With the boy now in the noose, The Reaper replaces the chair against the wall then cuts Chelsea Ingham’s throat, to pre-empt the drugs that would have killed her…’
‘Why bother?’ asked Morton.
