Three Little Maids(60)

‘How’s that?’

‘This girl was a virgin, Inspector. Although it seems tasteless to dwell on this. It barely warrants thinking about, that she should have her life taken in what seems to be a motiveless crime. And she was choked to death with a pair of cotton panties. Not so up market as the two other girls. She wouldn’t have had sufficient funds to buy anything else,’ he said, and the tones of his voice were harsh. He’d not enjoyed the work he’d had to do that day.

The two police officers listened. Both feeling the strain of the repetitive visits to the lab which had become a much disliked chore to them both. Turner spoke out after an uncomfortable silence. ‘Does that look like a ring was torn out from her nostril, sir? That dried blood round the nose?’

‘It does. And what is not quite so noticeable she’d also worn a stud in her tongue. It was ripped out while she was still alive, I would say.’

‘Christ!’ Turner’s easily read face quickly formed an unmistakable expression of horror. And he turned away for a second or so retching in his throat.

Kent standing beside him brought his long arms up into the air and growled under his breath. ‘What a bastard!’

‘Yes. It was forcibly taken as an afterthought during her dying moments, I would say. Hence the congealed blood in the mouth. Poor little girl. I have a god-daughter the same age. There seems to be an angry man here who hates these young women enough to plan their destruction most carefully.’

‘Good grief. It makes me feel like killing the bastard myself. If I could only get my own hands round the throat I’d give him a taste of his own medicine, guv. I’d-I’d rip his tongue out and worse,’ Turner said as they thankfully left the medical man to carry out the rest of his work uninterrupted.

‘I never reckoned you could harbour such violent thoughts, Turner, but you echo my sentiment entirely,’ Kent said quietly.





44




In the Incident Room there was an air of desperate activity. Computer screens alight with action as Kent walked in. He clapped his hands together sharply for attention.

‘Right then lads and lassies. Pay attention now. We can’t afford to miss any vital clues. What have we got to go on with - let’s see now.’

Kent tapped the pictures of the three dead girls in turn as he spoke. ‘Maureen, Yvette and Jodie. Three young girls. School girls. All three killed in the same manner, in the same place, by the same man, we think.’

‘With the exception of Jodie, the other two were not virgins, guv.’

Kent shook his head. ‘That means nothing, Gearing.’

‘They were moved afterwards. None were sexually assaulted. No sign of semen in any orifices on their bodies. The pervert gets his kicks in other ways obviously. Has an obsession with cleanliness. He’s not going to be picked up with DNA tests.’

‘Cunning bastard.’

‘Yes, Carter, he is.’

‘There’s no possibility is there, sir, that it could be a woman? Someone who hated pretty girls?’

‘That thought had crossed my mind, Carter. But I dismissed it. It’s not likely that young Maureen could be lured into a meeting with another woman. And there is the weight of the bodies to deal with. They were no lightweights after death. Remember that. So what suspects have we that fit the bill, and the possible motives? And would be likely to have the transport to remove the bodies?’

‘All the suspects would have transport. All have cars, sir.’

‘Except Raymond Perkins.’

‘Yes, Gearing. So we come to the motives then,’ Kent said writing down the details with chalk on the board as he spoke. ‘Mayor Tom Berkley had ample motive for killing Yvette. He was caught by the short and curlies doing what comes naturally to him.’ A light cheer went up round the room. And was quickly smothered by a frown from Turner. ‘And he was bled dry by blackmailer Cliff Jones. He has films to show for it. Berkley must have been besotted by the girl not to see that he was being caught on candid camera.’

‘Wouldn’t he be more likely to feel like killing Cliff Jones, guv? He obviously set Yvette up to it.’

‘Probably at first, Burton. But I don’t think Berkley has the guts to see it all through. The murderer hasn’t made a mistake yet. Berkley left a slimy trail behind him like a slug when he trashed Yvette’s room.’

‘He might have thought by removing Yvette he could silence Cliff once and for all.’

‘I doubt it, Burton. Then we have Maureen Carey. The first of the victims. Her diary reads like a prologue to Moll Flanders.’

Loud baying sounds emitted from the male officers around the room followed by ‘Permission to read it, guv?’ from DC Gearing.