Chapter 9
The plan April had received in the morning at the disused sand extraction site had been amended and added to the white board in the Incident Room that had quickly been established during the morning. Key links were added to the various boards. Now classed as a major crime, the missing person investigation would be stepped up rigorously within the enquiry but it was now secondary to the main line of investigation. April was now SIO of a potential double murder case, and with it came the resources and the responsibility. She looked at the photographs of both Carla Sharpe and Cameron Jennings. They stared back as if waiting for answers.
The keys found on Jennings had been for his home and his car. The car was now with CSI and the flat was in the process of being inspected by Forensics. DC Kasum Kapoor had been drafted to support the case and attached the latest findings on the murder from pathology. The CSI had been correct in his assumption. The murder weapon was described as a professional carpet fitters’ blade, long and concave with a sharp curved tip. The killer knew just where to insert and drag the blade along the victim’s neck. In this case, such force had been applied that it not only severed the external jugular vein but also the sternocleidomastoid muscle. It had then sliced but did not sever the common carotid artery and the internal jugular vein.
It was clear from the report that Jennings had been in a rush, as he had put on his sweater inside out. This could happen to anyone who was either frightened for themselves or for others. His phone record indicated that he had received an early call from Carla Sharpe’s phone. It could be surmised that he was heading out to see her. What was not clear to the Forensic Team was the condition of his shoes. They were new. One was not properly tied whilst the other was slightly downtrodden at the back. This would have made both driving and walking especially difficult and uncomfortable, considering the slope leading to the spot where he was found. Neither did they contain any trace of the ground from that immediate area. What was found were clear traces of a loamy soil contaminated with elements of clay. This, according to their records, was compatible with and therefore more likely to be found on the farmland of the Lancashire Plain. The cap contained his DNA.
April and Tony looked through the findings.
‘We need to move Carla Sharpe’s missing person status up to high risk level. Like Jennings, I want access to her phone as I need live site data. Get the phone pinged so we know if or when it’s used. We need to locate where it is and hopefully, we’ll know where she is.’
Tony put in the call to gain the necessary clearance.
‘Skeeter spotted the lace on one shoe when we were there and suggested he could have been meeting with Carla for a quick shag?’
Tony had been looking down at his own shoes and had just started to rub the right one on the back of his trouser leg. On hearing his boss utter the word ‘shag’, he stopped abruptly and embarrassingly felt his face flush a little.
‘Had she phoned him to tempt him there, to lure him to this remote spot at an ungodly hour with the promise of sex?’
‘The police files are littered with such rendezvous with similar conclusions but why meet in one remote spot? They both have apartments, they’re both single and have warm beds. Why would they go there? The place where his car was abandoned is an area full of hidden footpaths, bushes and trees suitable for alfresco sex. Why then drive to a more remote spot a mile or so away? What was their raison d’être? Why drive another mile or so? If we knew that we’d be closer to knowing the killer.’
April looked at Tony for a moment. He talked a lot of sense for someone who, from their general appearance, looked to be clueless. She felt sure it was a deliberate ploy. He stood looking at the board chewing some skin on his thumb. There was more to this book than what you saw on the cover, she thought.
‘Indeed, Tony. How right you are. Forensics will be completing a full test on the shoes. If they’re not his, then there should be DNA everywhere but then, as they have already stated, they were new. You’ll find his shoes were changed post death. The pathologist should be able to track that. It’s my understanding shoes tend to leave marks on the skin, particularly if they are tight.’
Wiping his finger on his sleeve, he turned to April.
‘But if they were swapped immediately, wouldn’t that …’ He did not finish his question as self-doubt suddenly crept in. ‘I’ll just wait and see what results come back.’
April changed tack.
‘According to the log we’ve just received, only one call was made on his phone from Sharpe since she went missing and that was early this morning. There have been no other calls made from it. So, if Sharpe is still alive, we can suspect that this was a honey trap, but if she’s not, then we have a potential serial killer working in the area. The phone call was made close to the spot where his car was found. Without our insomniac drone pilot, we’d just have had another missing person.’ She stopped and turned to look at Carla Sharpe’s photograph.
The pause allowed Tony to carry on remedying the lack of lustre on his shoes and he began to polish the left one. ‘So, you think Sharpe’s already dead but just not been discovered, ma’am?’ Checking the
