The Devil's Edge (9 page)

‘Check with the company who installed the security systems anyway. Jake Barron might not have told anyone, not even his family.’

‘The forensic examination will continue for some time,’ said Hitchens. ‘But as of this moment, we can only be sure of the suspects entering one part of the house – the kitchen, via the decking and the utility room, and the sitting room, with a short length of passage in between. If they went into any other area of the house, there is no evidence of it so far. So all we have are some shoe marks, and those aren’t too clear. A few faint impressions on the tiles in the kitchen, where Mrs Barron was attacked. Nothing in the sitting room, except for small deposits of soil from the garden. The carpet has retained no footwear impressions. The weather was dry, so there are no muddy prints.’

Hitchens was starting to sound a bit desperate now. His tone of voice quietened the restlessness as officers realised the magnitude of the task ahead of them. At this stage, the hopes would be of some early suspects, and a bit of help from forensics. Or at least a sighting of a suspicious vehicle.

‘Also, we have yet to establish the route the attackers took to approach the house,’ he said. ‘Forensic examinations will be going on for some time, given the size of the property. So it would be very helpful to us if we could get an angle from someone who saw or heard anything in Riddings last night. Anything. It would at least give us a line of inquiry to follow.’

‘Can we establish a definite connection with the earlier assaults, sir?’

That was Becky Hurst. A good question. So far, it had been an assumption in everyone’s minds.

Hitchens shook his head reluctantly. ‘Nothing specific enough to rely on in court. Only a similarity in the choice of target – a high-value property in the eastern edges.’

‘Within striking distance of Sheffield.’

Cooper turned round, but couldn’t see who had said that.

Hitchens ignored the comment. ‘And, of course, the MO is comparable to the previous incidents. The difference is that a higher level of violence was used. It’s a standard pattern of escalation when suspects of this nature are able to continue their activities over a period of time.’

That was an uncomfortable fact, too. If the Savages had been apprehended after any of the first four incidents, the attack in Riddings would never have happened. Zoe Barron would still be alive, and her husband wouldn’t be critically ill in hospital. Three children wouldn’t be facing the loss of their parents.

If the same attackers were responsible, anyway. Cooper was still waiting to hear the evidence for that.

‘Meanwhile,’ said Hitchens, ‘all the available information from the earlier incidents will be referenced by the HOLMES databases to establish any firm links. As you all know, we don’t have descriptions of the offenders, except that they’re male. In previous incidents they wore masks. In this latest assault, we have no one who is capable of telling us what they saw. It could be that they became concerned about being identified. That might actually help us, if we can find out what led to that concern.’

‘You mean they might have been seen earlier? Maybe in Riddings?’

‘It’s a possibility. DS Cooper’s team have been interviewing the Barrons’ immediate neighbours. Want to give us an idea of the lie of the land, Ben?’

Cooper stood up. This was the part of the briefing he’d been preparing for. A map of Riddings had been projected on to a monitor so that the whole room could see it. The names of properties and householders had been written in.

‘This is Curbar Lane, where our inquiry is centred. The Barrons live here, at Valley View. As you can see, the grounds are quite extensive. No neighbouring property overlooks the house, or the drive. If you were going to choose a location where you wouldn’t be seen by the neighbours, this is certainly it.’

He consulted his notes, making sure he was absolutely accurate. It would be bad to get confused at this stage.

‘Just along Curbar Lane, we have the Hollands at Fourways,’ he said. ‘Martin and Sarah. He’s a retired commercial lawyer. No connection with the Barrons, so far as we can tell. Then here we have the Chadwicks at The Cottage. Last night, they were out on Riddings Edge.’

‘In the dark, Sergeant?’

‘Watching for shooting stars,’ said Cooper. ‘It was supposed to be one of the best nights for observing the Perseid meteor shower.’

There was a bit of laughter. For some reason, it made Cooper feel more relaxed.

‘The Chadwicks’ property is shown on the map as Nether Croft, but they renamed it. William Chadwick is a head teacher, currently on suspension following an incident with a pupil.’

‘Which school?’

‘Black Brook High.’

‘In Sheffield.’

That was the same voice, the person who’d mentioned Sheffield before. Cooper could see him at the back now – a detective he didn’t know, probably drafted in from C Division. He looked like a veteran, one of Gavin Murfin’s generation, with an expression that suggested he’d seen it all before.

‘Yes, Black Brook High School is in Sheffield,’ said Cooper. ‘In the Fulwood area, to the west of the city. Only eight miles from Riddings, if it’s relevant.’

‘Well, we don’t know what’s relevant, do we?’

Cooper wondered if he’d encountered the detective before, maybe rubbed him up the wrong way somehow. But it was more likely that he was this way with anyone. There always had to be the awkward squad.

‘At the back, we have Mr and Mrs Nowak at Lane End, and a Mr Russell Edson at Riddings Lodge. The Nowaks’ property can be accessed from The Hill, which is the main road through Riddings. But there’s also a lane here, which leads past the Chadwicks’ gate to Riddings Lodge, then on to Lane End.’

‘Russell Edson is rumoured to be a lottery winner,’ chipped in Murfin.

‘I hate him already,’ said the voice at the back.

‘The one immediate neighbour we haven’t spoken to is Mr Kaye at Moorside House. That’s the biggest property on Curbar Lane, the other side of the Barrons. There’s a housekeeper in residence, though. She says Mr Kaye is in Florida.’

‘It’s all right for some.’

‘But he’s due back in the country later this week, so we might get a chance to speak to him. I doubt he’ll be able to tell us much if he hasn’t been around.’

‘Tyler K,’ said Irvine.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘That’s his professional name. He started off as a rapper and DJ on the club scene in Sheffield. Then he opened his own club and went into promotion and management. I heard he has five or six clubs now. Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham. He’s done really well for himself, considering he was just some kid off the Manor Estate.’

‘Could he have criminal connections?’

‘Well, I don’t think you can assume that,’ said Irvine defensively.

‘It’s possible, though. Likely, even. We’ll do some checking.’

‘He wasn’t even in the country.’

‘That’s the best sort of alibi. It’s a question of known associates.’

Irvine went quiet and slumped in his chair, casting a frustrated glance at Becky Hurst. He looked sorry to have spoken.

‘As you can see, those properties cover all the possible approaches to Valley View, with one exception. If our suspects approached along Curbar Lane, they would either have to pass Fourways, which would mean coming through the centre of the village, or they would have to come from the direction of Curbar, past Moorside House. The back of the property borders on to the garden of Riddings Lodge, with The Cottage and Lane End directly across this lane. From any one of these directions, the suspects must have known they were likely to pass witnesses.’

‘And the one exception?’

‘It’s obvious.’ Cooper pointed to the eastern boundary of the Barrons’ property. ‘On this side, there are no neighbours. There isn’t anybody. On this side, there is nothing. It leads only to the edge.’

DNA and trace evidence had gone to the lab. Normally, results would take a week, but the extra expense had been approved to make them a rush job, so they might expect something within forty-eight hours or so.

Fingerprints ought to be back tomorrow, even with a complete search of the national database. It was good to have a shortlist of suspects to compare prints against, but there was no list in this case, not even a shortlist of one.

‘It’ll be the husband,’ said Murfin as the briefing came to an end. ‘You’ll see, it’s always the husband.’

‘The husband is in hospital with serious head injuries,’ pointed out Cooper.

‘That’s a minor quibble.’

‘You don’t believe in the Savages, then?’

Murfin snorted. ‘There are plenty of savages out there. Some of them work in this building. Have you seen that custody sergeant?’

‘Are you with us on this, Gavin? Because it has to be everyone pulling together.’

Murfin looked startled. ‘Of course. I was only kidding.’

‘Yeah, okay.’

Murfin was still regarding him curiously.

‘What?’

‘I’ve never noticed before,’ said Murfin.

‘What are you on about?’

‘Since you got to be DS, I’ve never noticed how much you’re starting to sound like Diane Fry.’

The divisional CID teams would get the legwork, of course. As expected, Cooper was put in charge of house-to-house in Riddings. The SIO wanted a detailed map of the village showing all the properties near the Barrons, every lane, every footpath and every rabbit track. The attackers must have approached and left by some route, however obscure. And with a bit of luck, someone might have seen them.

‘If they knew the area, they must have been in the village before,’ said Cooper, as Irvine came over to join them. ‘An earlier visit to get an idea of the layout, the routes in and out. Make sure you ask about the last few weeks. Any strangers acting in a suspicious manner, or asking questions. They might have posed as inquisitive hikers, or as potential house buyers looking to move into the village. You know the sort of thing, some trick to get information out of the residents.’

‘The thing is,’ said Irvine, ‘you can get a lot of what you need online these days. All they had to do was log in to Google Street View. And there are plenty of aerial maps on the internet.’

An aerial view was of limited use, though. It might show you the layout of buildings and where driveways ran. But it didn’t tell you anything about the lie of the land, whether you would be hidden from view by those trees, what windows were on this side of the house, whether there was a dip in the terrain to conceal your approach, or would you be marching downhill in full view of the whole world?

So what about Street View? But that only showed the public roads. And in Riddings, the view of many of the properties was hidden from the Google camera van. If Cooper was a burglar, he thought, he wasn’t sure he would get what he needed from it.

‘If we can pin down where everyone was and what they saw,’ he said, ‘we might get an angle on the route the attackers took. In and out. We’ve got the approximate times.’

‘They must have used a vehicle, surely,’ said Irvine.

‘If they did, it wasn’t on the Barrons’ property. The gates were closed, and they can only be opened from inside. There’s a lane running along the back here, though. It borders on part of the Barrons’ property. It’s only a track really, but it would be possible to get a vehicle up there.’

‘Who else in the village knew the Barrons?’ asked Irvine.

‘Uniforms are doing a trawl right now,’ said Murfin. ‘But my guess is that it’ll be a short list.’

‘What about this Barry Gamble? First on the scene, and all that. He has to come into the frame. Did he have a justification for being at Valley View?’

‘We’ll be talking to him again today, Luke,’ said Cooper.

Zoe Barron’s sister was on TV, being interviewed on behalf of the family. It was a routine that seemed to be demanded by the media after any personal tragedy.

‘She was a good mother, and a good wife. A very bright, loving woman. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If she hadn’t disturbed those intruders, she would still be alive and with us today.’

‘Did she disturb them?’ said Cooper afterwards. ‘Is that the way it went?’

Murfin shrugged. ‘They came in across the decking and through the back door into the utility room.’

‘Yes, they came into the kitchen, where Zoe was already standing. They came to her, not the other way round. Something about that doesn’t feel right. And, as I asked before, what’s missing?’

‘A motive,’ said Murfin. ‘That’s what’s missing.’

‘Not to mention a clear idea of how they got in and out,’ added Irvine.

‘Right. All we have on that are the views of the loony tendency.’

There were certainly plenty of theories being floated around, if you followed the news sites on the internet, or simply did a Google search. After the attack on Valley View, some members of the public suggested the attackers must have abseiled down the rock face like the SAS. Others claimed they flew in by hang-glider launched from the edge. They didn’t bother to explain what had happened to the glider after it had landed in the Barrons’ garden.

The thought of Google made Cooper remember the biblical reference carved into the stone below Curbar Gap. He didn’t need to find someone with a Bible, of course. Google could come up with it for him in an instant.

He typed in
Isaiah 1:18
, and the quotation appeared:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:

though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;

though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Wool? He was puzzling over the simile when DI Hitchens appeared by his desk.

‘Ben, you’ve got a new addition to your team,’ said Hitchens.

‘Oh?’

‘She’s just on her way up from reception.’

Cooper had been waiting for a new recruit ever since he’d become DS. He’d been starting to think that it would be a long wait. Cost-cutting meant that staff wouldn’t be replaced. ‘Natural wastage’ it was called. Nobody had said anything, but he knew how these things were done. Now it seemed that he’d been wrong.