those front-page bylines and showing up in the press room looking as expensively turned out as a London fashion journalist. She’d nearly destroyed Kevin Matthews’ career and his marriage when she’d seduced him into an affair and a series of operational indiscretions, but still she sat there in the front row at police press conferences as if she were made of stainless steel.
Today, she was being as tenacious as ever. Once she got an idea into her head, she was like a serial killer with a victim in her power. She wouldn’t give up until she’d exhausted the possibilities of her prey then finished it off. It was an admirable trait, Carol supposed. Provided you had the judgement to know when the idea was actually worth the pursuit. She’d been driven to the point of public rage by Penny herself; she knew exactly what Pete Reekie was experiencing now. It didn’t help that Penny was actually on to something Reekie wanted to keep under the radar. There was a dull flush across his prominent cheekbones and his brows were drawn down low. ‘As I said right at the start of this press call, the aim of this morning’s exercise is to identify an unknown murder victim. Somewhere out there is a family who are unaware of what has happened to their daughter, their sister, maybe even their mother. That’s the number one priority,’ he said, biting his words as if they were a stick of celery.
Penny Burgess didn’t wait for an invitation that surely wouldn’t have come. She was straight in there, coming back at the point she’d introduced some time earlier. ‘Surely the number one priority is to catch a killer? To stop the death toll rising any further?’
Flustered, Reekie looked around for help. But there was none. ‘That goes without saying,’ he said. ‘But our first step is to identify the victim. We need to know where she encountered her killer.’
‘She encountered him on the streets of Bradfield,’ Penny interrupted. ‘Just like his first two victims, Kylie Mitchell and Suzanne Black. Superintendent, do you have a warning to issue to the city’s street prostitutes while this serial killer is at large?’
‘Miss Burgess, I have already said there is no reason to believe these murders are the work of one man. The women were all killed in markedly different ways and locations—’
‘My source tells me there’s a link between all three crimes,’ Penny Burgess cut in. ‘The killer leaves a signature. Would you care to comment on that?’
The same truth had finally dawned on Reekie. ‘Can you elaborate?’ he snapped. ‘Because I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking about. I think you’re just looking for a sensationalist angle. Because that’s the only way you can get your editor interested in the murder of a street sex worker. It’s only got value for you if you can spin it into something that sounds like an episode from a TV series.’
There was a shocked silence in the room. Then a cacophony of voices began shouting questions.
The police press officer managed to bring some calm to the half-dozen reporters in the room. Then Penny Burgess’s voice rang out again:
‘Will you be inviting DCI Jordan’s Major Incident Team to contribute to the inquiry?’
Reekie glowered at her. ‘I’ve no intention of discussing operational matters in this forum,’ he said. ‘I’m going to say this one more time, and then this press conference is over.’ He half-turned and gestured towards the cleaned- up image Grisha Shatalov had managed to produce. The woman still looked dead, but at least now she wouldn’t give most people nightmares. ‘We are concerned to identify the victim of a brutal murder that occurred in Bradfield some time between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Someone must know this woman. We urge you to come forward in strictest confidence with any information about her identity or her movements prior to her death. Thank you for your cooperation.’ Reekie turned on his heel and marched out, ignoring the questions still coming from the reporters.
A few moments later, he burst into his office and threw his papers on a small table by the door. Carol swung round in the swivel chair and pasted a sympathetic look on her face. ‘Bit of a nightmare, Penny Burgess,’ she said.
Reekie glared at her as he subsided into the comfortable chair behind his desk. ‘I still don’t see why I had to deal with her. What’s the point in trying to pretend we’ve not got a serial killer on the rampage? Why can’t we just front up about it? Reveal your team’s on the case?’ He picked up a pen and began tapping it end to end on his desk. She noticed a faint indentation on his finger where a wedding ring should have been. ‘That would reassure people.’
Carol swivelled to face him. Reekie needed his feathers smoothed down; yet another of the political games she hated having to play. ‘But as you pointed out in there, it would get a lot more media attention. Which is a problem on two counts. One: it’s always harder to run an investigation with the world’s press breathing down your neck, and these days the faintest whiff of a serial killer generates the kind of media shit-storm that makes life impossible for investigating officers. Greedy media on a twenty-four-hour cycle means a level of scrutiny that none of us wants to operate under. And two: this kind of killer revels in publicity. He wants to be a star. He wants to be the centre of attention. Take that away from him, and you put him under stress. And stress leads to mistakes. And mistakes are how we catch them.’
‘That’s easy for you to say. You didn’t have to stand up there and lie.’ He kept up the annoying thing with the pen. Carol wanted to snatch it from him, to play the martinet teacher to his sulky small boy. She resisted the urge with some difficulty.
‘You didn’t have to lie. Just not reveal the whole story. The one thing that was a relief to me from that display was that her source isn’t at the heart of the investigation.’
Reekie nodded. ‘I suppose so. If he was, she’d have known about the tattoo instead of having to go all coy about the “signature”.’
‘So we’re in the clear for now.’ Carol stood up. Reekie made no move to shake hands or get to his feet. Clearly he still felt bruised from his close encounter with Penny Burgess. ‘Let me know if your guys on the ground get anything on the ID.’
‘As soon as we hear anything, you’ll know. Let’s stay in close touch on this one, Carol. We don’t want it to get away from us.’
Carol turned and made for the door. They always had to have the last word, to remind her who was the ranking officer. At moments like this, she knew exactly why she appreciated Tony Hill.
17
Tony Hill was well aware that his responses were not the same as those of other people. Take memory, for
