Pulse (A Kate Redman Mystery Read online

  It was obvious by the look on his face when he came back into the bedroom and the way he marched straight over to the wardrobe and began pulling clothes out with sharp tugs.

  “What’s happened?”

  Anderton turned to look at her. He was silent for long enough to make her anxiety spike higher and then spoke. “They’ve found another body. Another young man.”

  Much as their department dealt with murder on an everyday basis, Kate didn’t make a flippant comment about that being a surprise. She knew exactly what he meant.

  “In a graveyard?” was all she asked. Anderton’s nod of agreement made her shoulders drop as she sighed. “God.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Kate threw back the covers, uncaring now about her nakedness, and bent to collect her overnight bag. She and Anderton were silent as they moved about, getting ready to go. She wondered if he was thinking what she was thinking; remembering the butterfly case, the prostitute killings; the murdered women who had all died at the hands at the same person, the terror of not knowing whether they would be able to catch them in time to prevent another murder.

  When Kate came back from the bathroom, showered, dressed and ready to go, Anderton was sitting on the edge of the bed. For an alarming moment, she thought he was slumped, head in hands, but he was actually leaning down to tie his shoelaces. The spike of adrenaline from the relief made her speak again. “Are you all right?”

  Anderton sighed and got up. “I’m fine, Kate. Just thinking.” He looked hunted for a moment. “Another bloody serial killer, is what I’m thinking. Just what we need.”

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Kate said, rather awkwardly, not wanting him to think she was trying to tell him his job.

  “I know.” Anderton kissed her, tipped her chin up with one finger, kissed her again. “Presumably someone’s filled you in on the details already?”

  “Yes. I just spoke to Rav.”

  “I’ll see you there, then.”

  *

  When Kate had first heard the news that the newest victim had been found in a graveyard, she’d assumed it would have been the same one as the place Joe Vickers’ body had been found. She was wrong. Having got the details from Rav, she keyed the new coordinates into her car’s satellite navigation system and set off, repressing the usual desire to go back and check that she’d properly shut the door to Anderton’s cottage. I must ask for a key. She pondered that thought, as she drove through the sunshine of the autumn morning, before dismissing it. Once keys were exchanged, surely that was a declaration of the relationship moving into more serious territory. Did she actually want that? She thought she did, but…

  Keep your mind on the job. She thrust every thought of Anderton out of her head and attempted to switch to ‘work mode’.

  She didn’t know this area of Abbeyford well – it was a suburb lying between the rundown houses of Arbuthon Green and the ring road that encircled the south side of Abbeyford before fields and woods took over. Struggling to find a parking space, Kate eventually managed to squeeze in at the end of a row of cars and walked the half mile to where she could see the blue and white crime tape stretched across the entrance to the graveyard. It was a smaller church than the one before, and the graveyard itself was fenced with a crumbling stone wall and then a thick belt of evergreen trees. A row of down-at-heel houses faced the side of the graveyard that ran beside the road but the thick dark branches of the pine trees cut off the view as effectively as a blindfold.

  Kate had expected to see at least some press here already, but perhaps it was too early – or someone in the department had managed to keep their mouth shut for a change. Leaks of information to the media were a perennial source of annoyance to Anderton.

  She flashed her credentials to the officer guarding the entrance to the graveyard and ducked under the tape. She could see that the forensic tent hadn’t yet been erected – two Scene of Crime officers were unpacking it, ready for construction. Kate made her way to where the biggest group of people were standing, right over at the far wall.

  Even though she had been expecting it, the first sight of the body made her shiver. The young man – very young, hardly more than a boy – lay on his back, his arms crossed over his chest. His head had fallen to one side, and Kate could see, even from a distance away, the wound in his neck. This time, there was blood, dried in a trickle on the dirty skin of his neck.

  Anderton looked up as she approached and caught her eye. This time, neither of them could quite help the intensity of their gaze before Kate blinked and looked away, hoping nobody had noticed.

  “All right, mate?” Theo greeted her. Kate felt a rush of fondness for him for being just the same as usual and noticing nothing.

  “Yes, I’m fine.” She realised that Olbeck wasn’t amongst them and looked around for him. A quick scan of the graveyard didn’t reveal him.

  “Mark’s late,” Anderton said, reading her mind.

  Looking down at the body, Kate felt a shiver of deja-vu. This was just like the first time; a young man dead, pale and posed on the ground, Olbeck missing…

  “Good morning,” said a familiar, quiet voice, and Doctor Kirsten Telling moved between them, smiling her usual reserved greeting. She placed her bag some distance from the body and began to unpack her instruments. A moment later, the young intern, Joshua Garton, arrived and stood by Kirsten, clearly awaiting instructions. He looked quite calm and unfazed by the macabre setting. Kate thought he was probably getting used to all the death.

  “Right,” said Anderton, drawing them all back so the doctors could get to work. “I want us to start moving on this one. House to house – Kate and Theo, you take that. Chloe, talk to SOCO and see if they have anything for us yet and do a general search, see if there’s anything we can start with. Rav, you stay here and get any medical info that we can run with. Anyone have anything to add?” They all shook their heads. Kate debated whether to bring up the possibility of this being a serial case. Just as she decided not to mention it yet, Anderton himself added, “You’re probably already thinking what I’m thinking. And you’re probably right. But we don’t know enough yet to draw any conclusions, and I certainly don’t want anyone saying anything to the press, is that clear?”

  Again, they all nodded. Anderton stepped back, dismissing them.

  Chapter Ten

  Kate and Theo made their way out of the graveyard, and over the road, to the row of houses that faced the plot. A few people were already beginning to cluster on the pavement, drawn by the flashing lights and the busyness of what was surely a normally quiet, peaceful place.

  Kate and Theo worked their way methodically along the row of houses. Several of the occupants had clearly gone to work or were otherwise not answering their doors. Kate spoke to a young mother, who clutched her young baby to herself as if for comfort. Theo spoke at length to an elderly couple who had noticed the light of a torch bobbing amongst the gravestones during the night. Theo was sufficiently interested in their observations to go and fetch his colleague from her interview with the young woman and bring her into the couple’s house.

  Kate sat down on an overstuffed couch crowded with crochet-covered cushions and listened as Theo asked the couple, a Mr and Mrs Elmsworthy, to repeat what they’d told him before.

  Mr Elmsworthy looked pale and excited. “Well, I’d got up in the night, to spend a penny, and I just happened to look out of the hallway window as I was going back to bed. I saw a light over in the graveyard, sort of dancing about—”

  “Bobbing,” contributed his wife. “That’s what you told me when you got back to bed.”

  “Yes, I did. Bobbing about in the darkness. I thought it was a bit strange but I was tired and didn’t think much more of it until – well, until you knocked on our door.”

  “What time was this, Mr Elmsworthy?” asked Kate, knowing that Theo would have already asked bu
t wanting to know.

  “I don’t know exactly to the minute but it was late – very late. After two in the morning. I caught sight of the alarm clock as I got back into bed but I didn’t really see exactly what time it was.”

  “Thank you.” Kate scribbled notes. Without a definite time of death, it wasn’t much to go on but you never knew…

  “Did you see anything else? Any cars? Any people?” Theo asked.

  Mr Elmsworthy looked disappointed. “No. I couldn’t even see who was holding the torch. I just saw the light moving around. It moved up through the graveyard and went behind the hedge and I couldn’t see it anymore. I was heading back to bed by that point, anyway.”

  “And you think it was a torch you were seeing?” Kate frowned a little at Theo’s question. What else did he think it could have been?

  “Oh yes, I think so. It was that kind of light.”

  *

  When they left the Elmsworthy house, Kate asked Theo what he’d been driving at with his last question. “What else could it have been?”

  Theo’s normally affable face was troubled. His black eyebrows were knitted. “I dunno. There’s something seriously weird about this case. I don’t like it.”

  Kate didn’t push him. She was troubled herself by the emphatic note in his voice. Was he – was Theo actually scared of something? But what?

  They waited by the side of the road to cross back over to the graveyard, having exhausted the possibilities of finding another witness. As they ducked back under the crime tape, Kate couldn’t help herself. “What don’t you like about it?” She rolled her eyes internally at the question and then qualified it. “Well, apart from the young men dying, that is?”

  “It’s not that.” Theo paused, looking around as if to check they weren’t going to be overheard. “It’s just – well – you know, the graveyards and the – the throat thing—”

  “What?”

  Theo gestured towards his own neck. “You know, being bitten there…”

  Kate snorted. “They weren’t bitten—”

  “Weren’t they?”

  “No.” Theo’s face was so tense that for a moment she doubted herself. “They weren’t, were they?”

  For a moment, the two of them stood looking at each other. Then Theo leaned forward. “Have you – have you read Salem’s Lot?”

  Kate thought she’d misheard him for a second. Then she realised what he was saying and half-laughed, as much in shock as in amusement. “Oh, come on—”

  “Don’t laugh at me, Kate. I’m serious. That’s how it starts—”

  Anxiety was now knotting Kate’s own stomach. Surely Theo didn’t really believe what he was saying? “Look, that’s a bloody novel, a work of fiction—”

  Theo stepped back, crossing his arms defensively. “Well, maybe. All I’m saying is, I don’t like it. At all.”

  Kate put a hand up to her hair, running her fingers through it in a vain attempt to groom herself back into stability. She felt oddly as if she were dreaming. “I never realised you were so superstitious, Theo.”

  “Yeah, well. Maybe nor did I.” For a moment, Theo looked like a small scared boy.

  Kate couldn’t believe she was actually going to say what she was about to. “You know there’s no such thing as—” She found herself oddly reluctant to say the word and forced herself on. “As – as vampires, don’t you?”

  Theo didn’t blush. Instead his brows drew down even further. “Yeah,” he said eventually.

  There was a short silence while they regarded each other with equal anxiety.

  “What if that’s just what they say?” Theo said quietly.

  “Oh, God—” Kate found herself turning away and walking back towards the forensics tent, leaving Theo behind her. She fought the urge to pinch herself. That conversation hadn’t just happened, had it?

  She pushed the entrance flap to the tent aside and went in. The body had been removed and both pathologists had gone. Olbeck stood over at one side of the tent. Happy to see him, Kate went over and tapped his arm. “Hey, you.”

  He looked more relaxed than he had done for a while and his face broke into a proper smile. “Hi. Anderton told me you and Theo have been doing the house to house. Anything pertinent?”

  Kate told him about the Elmsworthy’s sighting of a torch. She was about to convey something of her misgivings about what Theo had just said when she caught sight of him coming into the tent and quickly shut up. Her colleague didn’t look at her as he came up to them, and Kate knew, just from his demeanour, it would be as if their most recent, surreal conversation had never taken place. All of a sudden, she felt very tired. Too many emotional currents swirling around this case, she thought. Having to deal with Anderton, and then Olbeck, and now Theo…she suddenly longed for the brisk, acerbic companionship of Chloe Wapping and decided, on impulse, to go and find her.

  Kate walked most of the way around the graveyard before she caught sight of Chloe’s blonde head over by the far gate. Crowds were massing at the main entrance to the grounds, and as Kate made her way towards her friend, she could hear the choppy roar of a helicopter overhead; a media one, no doubt. She was painfully catapulted back in her memory to those hideous days of the Butterfly Killer case; the ceaseless press speculation, the mounting death toll, the final, brutal confrontation with the murderer. Kate could feel her hand going automatically to the scar on her back, a reminder of the injury she’d sustained then. She forced herself to stop thinking and walked up to Chloe, trying to move in a brisk and controlled way.

  “All right, bird?” was Chloe’s amiable greeting as she spotted Kate. The other woman was patrolling the far wall of the graveyard, making what looked like a rough sketch of all the entrances and exits.

  “Hello.” Kate fell into step with her and they walked slowly up to the very far corner of the graveyard, where the two boundary walls met. A large yew tree grew dark and thick up against the crumbling stone, and the ground beneath was scattered with its bright red berries.

  “Did you know you can actually eat yew tree berries?” Chloe conversationally as they walked past it.

  “Don’t be daft. They’re deadly poisonous.”

  “Aha, but they aren’t!” Chloe’s tone was triumphant. “The seed is the poisonous bit. You can eat the flesh, no harm done.”

  “Why on Earth would you want to?”

  “Well, there you have me,” Chloe admitted. “Anyway, our guy here didn’t die from yew tree poisoning. Or probably didn’t.”

  “Did Rav get anything from the paths?”

  “Not so far. Just like Vickers – it’ll have to wait until the PM.”

  “Hmm.” Kate stopped walking, pondering. Chloe looked at her enquiringly.

  “What’s up?”

  “Oh – it’s just—“ Kate stopped herself. “I’m just thinking aloud, really.”

  “And?”

  “Well – these two cases – they’ve got to be related, haven’t they?” Kate looked over at her companion. “They’ve got to be, haven’t they?”

  “Same sort of location, same manner of death, whatever that is, posed on the ground, both young, probably gay men. Yeah, I’d say they were related.”

  “Yes. Exactly.” Kate scuffed at the ground with her boots, wondering whether to say what was on her mind. She decided to. “Anderton clearly thinks there’s going to be more.”

  “Yes.” Chloe’s face tightened a little. “He’s probably right.”

  “We aren’t moving quickly enough on this.” Kate finally came out with what was really bothering her. “If he’s out there – it’s got to be a he, really, hasn’t it?”

  “Almost certainly.”

  “If he’s out there, we need to start tracking him down now.”

  “Look, bird, do you think we don’t know that? We don’t even know how the victims died, let al
one how they met their killer.”

  “I know.” Kate knew she sounded frustrated and snappish. She turned away a little, looking back at the dark, spiky branches of the yew tree.

  There was a short silence. Then Chloe cleared her throat and said, slightly artificially, “Well, I’m almost done here. Let’s head back to the station and see where we can go from there.”

  Kate gave in. “Okay.”

  She followed her friend through the gravestones. Faintly, she could hear the flap of the forensic tent as it shook in the breeze, an ominous counterpoint to the rising buzz of human voices and camera flashes that came from the graveyard’s entrance.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kate was yawning over her first cup of office coffee the next morning when the slap of a folder down on the desk in front of her made her jump. She looked up to see Rav gesticulating at the cardboard file he’d just dropped on her desk.

  “What’s this?” she asked, biting back another yawn. She’d had a bad night’s sleep – not because of making love with Anderton but because, back in her own house and bed, she’d had a night of horrible dreams; of fangs and blood and ghostly figures seen outside bedroom windows. I blame Theo for this entirely.

  “Tox tests are back and a few other forensic reports.” Rav was about to turn away when Kate stopped him with a question.

  “Rav—”

  She was silent for so long that he looked at her, quizzically. “What’s up?”

  Kate shook her head. “Nothing. Forget it.”

  He gave her a wave and went back to his desk. She had been going to ask him something along the lines of whether he believed in vampires but then she’d noticed Theo was within earshot. It was a stupid question, anyway.

  Kate rubbed her eyes, attempted to sit up a bit straighter, and reached for the reports. A quick read of the summary sheet at the start of the report made her raise her eyebrows. Joseph Vickers had died from an overdose of the street drug GHB – hydroxybutyric acid – with the report noting that ‘blood loss may have been a contributory factor’. Kate carefully read through the rest of the report and then sat back, tapping her fingers on the desk as she thought. Then she got up and made her way to Anderton’s office.