CRIME ON THE FENS a gripping detective thriller full of suspense (12 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The general noise in the CID room ceased the moment she entered.

Nikki moved to the front of the room and faced them. ‘There’s no good news this morning, in fact things are going from bad to worse. I think it’s time we recapped on what we know, throw in anything that has come to light in the last few hours, and make sure that we are all up to speed.’ She looked across to Dave Harris. ‘Could you give us the latest from uniform regarding the hunt for Kerry Anderson?’

Dave stood up, his face drawn and his eyes tired. ‘Along with the volunteers and the dog handlers, three main areas have now been covered. The seabank and the marsh, for four miles in each direction from where we believe Kerry Anderson was abducted, the surrounding farmland and buildings in a three mile radius, and the area surrounding the university. The Coastguards have patrolled the Wash banks, the estuary and the river. Nothing of note has been found.’ He looked apologetically at Nikki, and sat heavily back down.

‘Thank you, Dave. What about the other major incidents that have occurred?’

‘Well, there’s a cordon in place around the spot where the unidentified youth was attacked, ma’am. The recreation ground is closed and boards have been put up to ask the public for assistance. And with regards to your particular find out at Amber Fen, the barn and the farm land is off-limits to everyone until a full forensic examination has been conducted and the crime scene released.’

‘Okay, right. Let’s take these occurrences in order, shall we?’ Nikki walked across to where a large glass evidence board was in place. ‘Here,’ she pointed to the right hand side of the board where the title,
Unknown young white male
, had been written. ‘We have the brutal attack on a youngster. For those of you who were not here late yesterday, the boy, who we believe to be around twelve years of age, was found at around 7 p.m. last evening. He had been beaten and stripped of his clothes. All he was wearing when he was discovered was a mask. His status is critical, but despite all our enquiries, a local radio station alert, and a slot on television news this morning, no one has come forward to identify him.’

‘CCTV cameras, ma’am?’

‘The only two in the vicinity had been disabled prior to the attack.’

‘What about the schools, ma’am?’

‘That’s our best hope, WPC Collins. I’ve already sent a general description out to the schools in the area. We just have to wait and see.’

‘He could be a runaway, ma’am.’

‘He looked too clean, Constable, but we are running a missing persons check for that age group.’ She looked back at the board. The only information they had was a photo of the area where he was found, and a list of his injuries, and that made Nikki feel both angry and sad. It seemed all wrong.
Someone
must have missed their son by now, after all, he’d been missing all damned night.

‘What are his chances of recovery, ma’am?’ asked Yvonne Collins.

Nikki paused, and saw again the battered child convulsing on the hospital bed. ‘Not good, I’m afraid. We have officers there with him, and the hospital are keeping in close contact regarding his condition. Swabs have been taken from him for DNA testing, but it will be a while before we get any results. So, anything you guys can pick up off the streets regarding a missing friend, sibling or relative, check it out immediately, okay?’

There was a murmur of assent.

‘Moving on, the stabbing of Callum Lodge requires no more attention at present. He is recovering well, and his family are sending him to stay with an aunt somewhere miles from the Carborough. The incident was witnessed by myself and several other officers, and the weapon used was confiscated at the scene. Forensics will sew that up nicely and the suspect has been detained, so forget that for the time being.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Now, what we need to be working on is our other major worry; the finding of the body of Girl X at Amber Fen.’

Nikki looked in turn at each of the grave-faced officers.

‘I don’t have to tell you how important it is that we keep this girl’s identity a closely guarded secret. Last night she was positively identified by Archie Leonard, and it’s time you all knew that he has pledged his support to us, in order to help facilitate the catching of his niece’s killer.’

A ripple of surprised voices echoed around the room.

‘Yeah, I know this is irregular, but Greenborough is in a shit state right now, and I’m taking help from every available source. Even the Leonard family.’

‘Does he have any leads for us, guv?’ asked a young detective constable.

‘Not yet. The Leonard family are as much in the dark as we are. But, Archie is not just going to support us regarding Girl X, he’s offered to make some street level enquiries about both Kerry Anderson and the Mask Wars.’

‘Are we quite sure he’s not involved with that in any way?’ asked Niall suspiciously. ‘The masks seem to emanate from the Carborough, and we all know that Archie is the big daddy there.’

‘Sorry, PC Farrow, but Archie Leonard is as sincerely pissed about the troubles that they are causing as we are.’ She drew up a chair and sank back into it. ‘So, what have we got on the masks? Sergeant Easter? Any luck last night?’

Joseph stood up. ‘I managed to have an informative chat with the graffiti artist who has recently been decorating the Carborough. It’s fair to say that he’s been pretty badly frightened by whoever commissioned him. He really does not know who it is, but he gave me a web site to check out regarding the name
Griffyx
.’

‘Well, bugger me! I’ve been working on that for days!’ muttered Cat Cullen. ‘So what’s the story, Sarge?’

‘I need your help with it,’ said Joseph. ‘The site is some sort of online game. All weird fantasy stuff.’

‘What sort of fantasy?’ Cat’s eyes lit up.

‘Violent and pornographic. Not one for the kiddies, that’s for sure.’

‘Ooh, I bet that upset the good
Reverend
Easter,’ whispered an anonymous voice.

‘Whoever said that,’ hissed Nikki, ‘should keep their stupid mouth shut until they have something worth saying, do you understand?’

She did not expect an answer, and she didn’t get one. Which was fine, she’d made her point. It wasn’t until she looked around afterwards that she noticed a lot of mildly surprised expressions. Apparently it must have been some while since anyone had heard Old Nick spring to the defence of a second in command.

Cat broke the silence. ‘So, Sarge, just pass all that computer stuff my way and I’ll take a look at it for you.’

‘I’ll bet you will!’ said Niall with a grin, and the awkward atmosphere dissipated.

Nikki rapped on the desk top. ‘Okay, anything else? Anything sensible, that is.’

‘Figures from control show that mask-related crimes have increased to around ten a day, ma’am,’ said Yvonne. ‘And that doesn’t include the serious issues.’

‘And I’ve temporarily hit the wall regarding the manufacturing of masks, ma’am,’ said Cat. ‘I’m not giving up, but my main line of enquiry has gone AWOL, which leads me to believe that at least I am on the right track. It’s just getting trickier.’

‘Keep on delving, Cat. Discovering where they come from would be a major breakthrough.’ Nikki looked at the clock. ‘One last thing, does the tag ‘Fluke’ mean anything to anyone?’

There was a low buzz of discussion, but the consensus of opinion came up only with a vague ‘It sort of rings a bell.’

‘Then ask around. Speak to your snouts. This tag is cropping up too regularly for comfort. I want his or her name, and I want it soon. Right, back here at four o’clock, and I know I don’t have to tell you this, but Kerry Anderson is still, above all else, our major priority. Off you go!’

Nikki leant back in the chair and exhaled.

‘What now, ma’am?’ Joseph sat down next to her.

‘I’m going to ring ITU about the boy, and then I think it’s time we completed the journey that we were on the other day, don’t you?’

‘Barnby Eaudyke?’

‘Barnby Eaudyke and our creepy Night Watcher.’

Joseph nodded. ‘I’ll go introduce Cat to my computer game while you talk to the hospital.’

* * *

‘I can’t believe that you’ve got a lead on the Griffyx when I’ve been working my butt off looking for a connection.’ Cat sounded mildly miffed.

‘If you’d come with me to see Petey last night you’d probably have it all figured by now.’

‘Yeah, and if I’d known my lead on the manufacturers was going to bugger off, I wouldn’t have wasted my time waiting on a phone call.’

Joseph grinned. ‘Bummer, but that’s the way it goes.’ He handed her his notes. ‘This is the pathway I was given.’ His tone turned serious. ‘It’s pretty disgusting stuff, Cat, and I mean by anyone’s standards, not just mine.’

‘Bet I’ve seen worse. I worked the Vice Squad for two years.’

‘Oh.’

‘Had it’s up side,’ said Cat, as her fingers flew deftly over the keyboard. ‘At least I got the chance to remove a lot of human garbage from the streets.’ She stared at the screen, ‘Here we go. It’s loading.’ She looked across at him. ‘If you’d like to avert your delicate eyes, I
can
take it from here.’

‘My eternal thanks.’ He stood up. ‘I have an appointment with the guv’nor, so I’ll catch you later. Best of luck.’

* * *

Cat watched as he left the room. Nothing had changed her earlier opinion of him. Sergeant Easter was sincerely hot.

She shook her head and tried to stop her hormones going into free-fall. There was work to be done, and it would help if her mind was actually on the job and not on luscious, fit detectives!

Suddenly the monitor screen went black, then a small red dot appeared in the centre. It slowly increased in size until it was about two inches in diameter, then morphed into a blood-shot eye. A leathery, heavily veined lid blinked a few times, then a strangely echoing voice asked if she would like to enter the Kingdom of LycoRapture.

‘If I must,’ she mumbled and hit Enter. A new screen, full of light and unimaginably colourful flowers filled the monitor. Waterfalls cascaded into crystal pools and eagles flew over snow-covered peaks. The voice told her that this was her home, and she was the guardian. She would need a name and a physical appearance before she could play.

‘Oh, I don’t know, what . . . ?’ She turned around and called over to Dave. ‘Give me a name to use on this computer game.’

‘What sort of name?’

‘Anything! Just think of something quickly.’

‘Bumtilda?’

‘Lovely! Can’t you think of something a bit more, well, attractive?’

Dave grinned across at her. ‘Considering that magazine you were looking at, how about ‘Rubbatitti’?’

‘Oh, get a grip! That’s from a
Carry-on
film! Oh just forget it, Bumtilda will do.’

She typed in her ‘name’ and was given a selection of body types to adopt. She chose tall, athletic, scarlet hair, and incredibly sexy.

‘Can I watch?’ asked Dave.

‘No, you can’t. It’s very difficult to get dribble marks off a silk blouse. Now shut up, I have to defend my new kingdom from the Lyco-monsters.’

Cat sat engrossed for almost twenty minutes, then saw Dave placing a coffee next to her mouse mat. ‘How’s it going?’ he asked.

‘I’ve reached level 6, and if this is anything to go by, I don’t think I want to get to level 10!’

‘Is it as bad as the sarge reckoned?’

‘Worse,’ said Cat, and exited the programme. ‘And from his description I’m pretty sure he never got past level 1. It’s all about going to extremes for something you care about, then getting rewards,’ she paused, ‘or punishments as the case maybe.’

‘And the Griffyx?’

‘It’s there alright. You don’t meet it until you reach level 5. It’s one of the monsters, kind of half rat, half human, and it dispenses the most unpleasant retribution, if you are unlucky enough to cross it. It also has the biggest dong I’ve ever seen.’

‘Thanks for sharing that.’ Dave grimaced. ‘And does it look like the masks?’

‘I’d say they are based on it, yes. What I need to do now, is find out who the devil Lyco is.’

‘Do you reckon he’s connected to the mask war?’

Cat stretched and massaged her shoulders. ‘We won’t know until we meet him, Davey-boy. And if I’m honest, I’m not sure that I’d want to be in the same room as the twisted mind that devised this.’

She had needed to deal with some pretty hard-core material while with the Vice Squad, but this particular game had shocked her. There was a vicious ruthlessness there, that made her believe that its inventor had already lived out one or two of his sadistic fantasies for real. She shuddered. Sergeant Easter had said that a school kid had told him to view the site. If
she
felt physically sick, what the hell would a vulnerable youngster feel like? A wave of anger burst through her. She hated injustice, and just for a moment, she changed her mind about being in the same room as Lyco. Only she’d make sure she took a pepper spray and a meat cleaver with her.

* * *

‘His mother says Kris is out’ Nikki put the phone down and pulled a face. ‘She reckons he’s been scouring the marshes, day and night, looking for Kerry. Even his dog’s been chasing all over the fen trying to find her. No point in driving all the way to Barnby Eaudyke if he’s not there. I’ve asked her to get him to contact us when he gets back.’