She scribbled a note telling Beth she was going to the search areas on the river, put on her dried out coat and ran to the car park. She skipped across, jumping over puddles until she reached her car, standing entirely surrounded by water. She waded through it, and almost fell into the driving seat.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ she grumbled. Her coat was wet once more, and her boots were squelching. She took out her mobile phone and rang Ian Thomas to see where his team was, then reversed out of her parking place. It briefly occurred to her that sails might be a better idea than an engine.
Ian had said that he was nearing the stretch of river running by the Porter Brook Pocket Park, so she headed there, aware of how little traffic was on the roads. The rain was certainly keeping people indoors.
Getting the image of Susie Roebuck out of her mind was proving difficult. Had she been a random target, or did her killer know exactly where she was going? And had Clare Vincent had a lucky escape? Although they hadn’t found anybody to confirm the theory, it was felt that for some reason Susie had got into a car, maybe to shelter from the blessed downpour that had met her on exiting the theatre. That meant she would have known the driver; surely she wouldn’t have got into a stranger’s car? The more Erica turned over things in her mind, the more her headache increased.
She parked the car as close as she could to Ian’s targeted area and changed into her waders before walking across to the pocket park to find him. He was actually in the river, struggling to keep his balance, and staring up towards the little park.
He held his hand up in her direction and climbed out.
‘What is it?’ he asked, waving his arm around. ‘Why is it here?’
She laughed. ‘My feelings exactly. I’d no idea it was here. According to Google, the council had to remove a culvert, so decided to smarten up the area where the culvert had been and built this. It’s called the Porter Brook Pocket Park, and they made it like a little amphitheatre as it’s built on the slope into the river. People bring their sandwiches on the lunch break, and eat them here by the side of the water. It’s also part of the new flood defences. As you can see, when the water rises, it overflows into this park. Won an award a couple of years ago, did this little beauty.’
‘Huh,’ Ian said. ‘Nobody will have been eating their sarnies here for a couple of weeks.’
‘Exactly. Deserted in the rain. Perfect place to throw in a body, isn’t it?’
‘That’s why I was standing staring up at it. Is there CCTV on it?’
‘If this killer is who we think it possibly is, it won’t help other than to confirm this was the spot Susie was thrown in. Definitely a smart arse, this chap.’
‘You think it’s a man?’
‘I have no idea but I get so cheesed off saying him or her. Help me down, and I’ll stand and stare at it as well.’
It was difficult to balance standing in the turbulent waters, and they stared up to the top of the pretty little park holding on to each other.
‘You know, we’ve no proof, but if I was going to throw a body into the Porter, I’d choose this place. There has to be CCTV somewhere around, surely.’ She looked up towards the right, to the high building about a hundred yards from the park. ‘I’ll get Beth to go there, see what they have.’
They battled their way up river, doling out words of encouragement to the team as they reached them; nobody had anything positive to report.
Back at the pocket park, Erica sat with Ian on one of the seats, wet through and cold. Both of them looked miserable, hair flattened to their scalps and feeling quite desperate for a cup of tea. They turned around in unison as they heard the engine note signifying the arrival of the refreshment van, followed by a small truck bearing a single toilet unit. Ian immediately used his transmitter to tell everybody to come and get drinks and food.
The men and women of Erica’s team began arriving from upriver and downriver, using the pocket park to sit down, knowing they couldn’t get any wetter anyway.
‘Thank you, everybody,’ she called. ‘I know it’s a lousy job, but a necessary one. We’ll carry on until four, then it’ll be too dark to see anything much. Back again tomorrow at eight, but we’ll be higher up. I want four to start at the source, up at Ringinglow, and the rest to start where we finish off today. I’ll leave Ian to sort out the logistics of who is where, and we’ll have the refreshment van in the lower reaches, so the ones up at the top, bring a couple of flasks.’
Several thumbs were held up, and she responded in kind. A quick phone call to check on Beth’s tooth issues resulted in Beth saying she would find out what the building was, and head down there straight away, before finding Erica to tell her.
The team drifted back towards the areas they had left for their break, leaving Erica to sit deep
