Nine Lives by Anita Waller (best english books to read .txt) 📗

mum, but we won’t encourage them to see you two, not at this moment anyway. You will be in your safe house shortly, so can I ask you to go and pack what you need, please?’

Becky and Katie stood and headed off to their rooms, leaving Will and Beth downstairs.

‘They’re scared,’ he said. ‘We’re not even letting them have the comfort of their families.’

‘We can’t. We daren’t let this address be compromised. I don’t know if you’ve had time to read the case files from five years ago, but this is a clever killer. We found nothing then, and we’ve found nothing now he’s resurfaced.’

‘You’re saying “he” again.’

‘It’s not a woman’s way of killing. It feels like a male crime. And I felt it was a he, five years ago. I think there was no sexual activity because that would have left a trace of him. He couldn’t risk that, and he got his kicks from the death, not from the sex. His planning was meticulous. He picked four pretty girls with nice figures, all with names beginning with L. We never discovered the significance of the letter, in fact we discovered bugger all. Then it stopped, and despite numerous meetings where we threw around ideas, the case slipped into the cold case category.’

‘It’s certainly climbed back out now,’ Will said. ‘I was reading through it when I was called to come here. Why do you think he stopped for five years?’

‘Something happened. Maybe a marriage, or simply falling in love. His mindset changed, he had achieved what he planned, and he settled down. But something is changing in his life again, and the need to kill is there. I suspect this rain has assisted him, given him a way of operating, helped by the fact that people are staying indoors. The only thing I want to stress is don’t underestimate him. We missed him once, and he’ll not let us get to him easily.’

9

Telling Diana Vincent that her daughter was dead ranked with one of the worst things Erica had ever had to do, and she held the fragile lady close and let her cry until she could cry no more. Taking Flick Ardern with her had been inspired; the young DC was calm, unobtrusive, and damn good at making a cup of tea without being instructed to do so.

While Flick rang Diana’s sister Hazel to ask that she come over to stay with her, Erica talked to Clare’s mum, gently, questioning without making it obvious she was doing so.

‘When did you last speak to Clare?’

‘Yesterday afternoon.’ Diana’s sob was almost a hiccup. ‘She told me about Susie. I asked her to come home, to be safe here, but she seemed to think she was fine. She didn’t want to leave Becky and Katie.’

Inwardly, Erica cursed the fact that she hadn’t explained the full circumstances to the girls – the obsessive nature of the person they believed had killed Susie, and that while they had nothing concrete to go on telling them he would attack the other three girls, they should have considered it a possibility and briefed everybody remaining in that student house. Because the killer had targeted girls with the same initial letter didn’t mean he would go around seeking out girls with the letter S for the start of their Christian name.

Flick brought in the pot of tea with three mugs and looked at Diana. ‘Hazel will be here in ten minutes. She’s packing for a few days.’

A smile flashed across Diana’s face; it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

‘Good,’ Erica said. ‘You don’t want to be alone at this time.’

‘She came before my husband died and stayed with me. It was a hard time because he died from cancer, but this is so much harder. You’ve told her…?’

Flick gave a brief nod. ‘I have. We’ll wait with you until she arrives. Drink your tea. It can’t take anything away, but it always helps.’

Erica listened to Flick talk, all too aware that this was the first time the young DC had ever notified a death and yet she was handling the situation in such a mature way. Ms Felicity Ardern was destined for a worthwhile career in the Major Crimes Unit, Erica felt.

On the drive to Crookesvale Gardens, Erica and Flick were quiet, lost in their thoughts. The arrival of Diana’s sister, a slightly overweight woman with a massive personality, had allowed them to leave, and when Erica had mentioned a formal identification of Clare, Hazel had reassured them that she would accompany her sister. Erica and Flick had left with a promise to ring with details of when the sisters would be needed, and as Erica softly closed the front door, they heard both women crying.

Beth met Erica and Flick at the door, and held out a slip of paper. ‘We have a safe house. This is the address. The girls are packed, but scared. They’ve both said they’ll go home to parents, but I’ve carefully explained the situation with this killer and his planned obsessiveness, and now they don’t want to go to their parents, they want our protection. We should get them there as soon as we can, and Will and Flick can accompany them and stay with them until we get a team organised.’

‘Thanks, Beth.’ They all went through to the lounge where two large suitcases stood behind the sofa, ready for the two girls leaving. Becky and Katie looked up as Erica joined them.

‘I’m so sorry to disrupt your education like this, girls, but your safety is our priority,’ she explained. Neither of them looked convinced, but both gave a slight nod of acceptance of Erica’s words.

‘Can you find him quick?’ Becky asked. ‘We’ve lost two friends in two days, plus the lives we’d planned on living for this year.’

‘We’ll find him or her much more efficiently if we can devote our resources to tracking him or her down, without having to worry if the killer has got to you two.’