‘Jane! Get in here!’
‘Ma’am?’
Savage jumped. Calter was right beside her. Savage nodded into the room and Calter peered past her, drawing breath at the sight of the bed.
‘Cosy.’
Savage pointed over to a steel wheeled table next to the bed. On a tray lay a weird metal device like a beak from a large seabird, about six inches long and with a sort of trigger grip at the bigger end. The stainless steel glinted under the harsh lights.
‘What the hell is that thing? A medieval torture device?’ Calter said.
‘A speculum.’
‘Ma’am, you know we shouldn’t be in here? Forensics.’
‘I want to follow Harrison.’ Savage pointed to the door on the other side of the room.
‘Ma’am, shouldn’t we wait for back up?’
‘What’s got into you, I thought you had a black belt in Jujitsu?’
‘I am giving it back. This just doesn’t feel right.’
‘Two words: Alice Nash.’
‘Bugger.’
Savage moved forward and reached the door. An inch open, a thin line of black revealing nothing about what lay on the other side. She pushed with her foot and the door swung wide. A humming filled the air now and some flickering neon lights glowed green, orange and red. Savage fumbled for a light switch.
The square room measured about four metres a side. Around the edge of the room several chest freezers stood against the walls and snake-like tails led from each to a jumble of adapters plugged into a socket on one wall. The freezers didn’t look like the sort you would have at home, they were bigger, more industrial, more clinical. One, two, three… six.
‘Bloody hell, ma’am,’ Calter whispered. ‘Are you thinking what I am thinking?’
‘I am thinking how many mispers we have who had connections to nurseries or were au pairs or childminders or babysitters.’
‘Exactly.’
Savage stepped over to the nearest of the freezers. A green neon light shone out from the handle. It was the locking type but the key was in the lock. She turned the key and the latch slid back. She grabbed the handle and heaved the lid up until it opened on the built-in springs. What the unit contained was unexpected and brought a gasp from Calter.
‘Ma’am, please tell me-’
‘No. It’s not.’
The freezer was filled with meat. Regular cuts of meat from the supermarket or a butcher. Savage had no idea what a human would be like cut up, but it wasn’t like this.
‘Look, half a lamb and a leg of beef. The beef has got a stamp on the side.’
Calter started to laugh her infectious giggle.
‘Thank God, I thought “Hannibal” for a moment.’
‘That’s a movie, Jane. This is Devon, cream teas and all that.’
‘Yeah? I hadn’t noticed.’
Savage brought the lid down and clicked the lock shut. The next freezer wasn’t switched on or locked. The lid swung up and a faint smell of disinfectant wafted out. The inside gleamed clean and bare.
‘Simone Ashton could have been in here. Or Kelly.’
‘Doesn’t bear thinking about, boss. Gives me claustrophobia just looking.’
The next freezer had a red light that was blinking on and off. Savage moved closer and realised the temperature alert had triggered.
‘Something is wrong with this one.’
‘Not sure I want you to open it, all things considered.’
Savage ignored Calter and twisted the latching handle. She swung the lid open until it popped up.
‘Fuck, ma’am! The Nash girl!’
Up one end a naked body lay curled in a foetal position. A strong smell of burned out electrics mingled with a more unpleasant odour of urine. Savage leant in and more out of procedure than hope she searched for a pulse.
She touched the girl’s neck and felt a tingle in the end of her finger, a faint throb, throb, throb. Almost undetectable, but there.
‘She’s alive!’
*
A little later and Alice saw light, a brilliant white luminescence surrounding her which could only come from heaven. She could feel herself floating on a wave of warm air even though her skin bristled with cold.
As cold as death.
Someone was coming for her, an angel calling her name as she floated down the corridor of light.
‘Alice. Alice. Alice.’
Her mother, her face smiling and radiant, her hair a flash of vermillion, just as it had looked before she had got ill. Arms scooped her up and embraced her and it was like when she had fallen over as a kid and mum had held her so tightly that she had known through the pain and the tears that everything would be alright.
Chapter 35
Netherston, South Hams, Devon. Tuesday 9th November. 12.30 pm
Savage heaved herself up and into the freezer, standing inside and bending down to scoop up the girl in her arms. The girl’s skin felt icy and there was no noticeable response as Savage struggled to lift her up over the lip of the freezer. Cradling Alice in her arms Savage bent her head to the girl’s face. A faint movement of air from the nostrils touched Savage’s cheek and she saw a tiny flicker from the eyelids.
‘Get upstairs and call for help!’ Savage said to Calter.
Calter was already on her way, sprinting through the door. Savage had an afterthought and yelled after her.
‘Make it an air ambulance!’
Seconds later she heard Enders clumping down the stairs and he came through the door and helped Savage with the girl. They carried her out into the main part of the cellar and up the stairs.
‘In here, ma’am!’
Calter was in the living room and had ripped some heavy velvet curtains down from the windows and was spreading them on some cushions on the floor.
‘How long?’ Savage asked as they lay the girl down and covered her.
‘Flight time seven minutes. That was two minutes ago.’
‘Seven!’
‘Yes, we got lucky. The helicopter was already airborne on its way back to Exeter.’
Savage thought that Alice Nash deserved a bit of a break, but it would take more than luck to pull her through. Calter had done a good job with the curtains, but they weren’t going to warm the girl up. Savage looked around for inspiration and noticed a wooden wheel-backed chair on the other side of the room. A couple of leather belts criss-crossed through the dowelling on the chair’s back and behind it on the floor Savage spotted a fan heater. It was angled up to point at the chair.
She went over and pulled the heater out, moving it across the room as far as the cable would allow. Then she switched the unit on and turned the heat setting to the highest possible.
‘He would tie them to the chair and heat them up? Is that some sort of torture?’ Calter wasn’t getting it.
‘Defrost,’ Savage said. ‘He’d get them out of the freezer, give them a bath and stick them there to dry and thaw out fully. Then he’d have sex with them.’
