‘Probably because he couldn’t find it,’ answered Frost. ‘It’s hard to spot in daylight – at night it would have been impossible. It was too well hidden. I’m banking on this sequence of events, but if anyone can come up with anything better, let me know. I’m not too proud to pinch it as my own.’ He waved his cigarettes around, then lit up.
‘I reckon Debbie Clark was going to meet someone and she was a bit worried about it – bloody rightly so, as it turned out – so she asked her boyfriend to follow and keep an eye on her. Whoever she meets takes her into the office block. Thomas hides outside, then sees lights come on at one of the floors, so he climbs up the trellis to get a closer look, and gets his head smashed in for his troubles. The first thing we’re going to do is find out which floor he fell from. I want the patio on all four sides searched for traces of blood. The poor sod would have bled like mad, both when he hit the ground and when his brains were knocked out. When we find where he fell, we can then check the trellis for signs of him climbing – the greenery should be crushed or disturbed, which should lead us to the actual balcony he was hanging on to when he was helped down. We might find blood and prints on the rail. When we know the floor, we can search inside to see if there is any trace of the girl having been there. It’s going to be a cold, back breaking task and if you find anything, I’ll take the credit, which Skinner will then take for him self. I also want the surrounding area searched to see if we can find the brain-splattered blunt instrument that finished off the boy.’ He pinched out his cigarette and dropped it in his pocket. ‘All right. Let’s get going.’
It was PC Collier who found it. ‘Inspector!’
Frost came running over. Not only was the gravel stained and. flecked with blood, there were marks where the boy’s body had been dragged before being lifted. Frost shouted for the others to stop the search. ‘We’ve found it!’
They gathered round him as he moved over to the trellis. ‘This is where he climbed up – look.’ He pointed. ‘You can see broken stems where he trod on them.’ His eyes followed the ivy upwards. ‘I reckon he made it to the fourth floor – the plants seem undamaged above that point.’ He pointed to the blood marks. ‘Get them covered up and radio Forensic. Now let’s take a look inside.’
They clattered up the stairs to the fourth floor, a vast echoing barn of empty space stretching the entire width of the building. It was pitch dark – all the blinds had been closed. Frost jabbed a finger at Jordan. ‘Get on to that caretaker and ask him if the blinds should be shut in an empty building.’ He fumbled for the switches and clicked on the lights. ‘Now open the bloody things.’ He waited while the blinds were opened and daylight streamed into the barren area. Frost opened the door to the balcony and checked to confirm there were no more broken branches above this level. This had to be it. ‘Get Norton up here to check for prints and blood.’
While Norton went to work, Frost struck a match on the NO SMOKING sign and dragged at a cigarette. He moved to the balcony to watch, then looked out over the distant houses to the outskirts of Denton. What a dump the place looked. But dump or not, he wasn’t going to let the bastards chuck him out. But how was he going to stop them? Why the hell did he start fiddling his expenses? it wasn’t as if he needed the money. His thoughts were cut short. Morgan was calling him.
‘Guv!’ The DC had found something and was holding it aloft triumphantly.
‘Show me,’ said Frost, holding out his hand. It was a spent match. ‘I just used that to light my fag, you prat. Now make yourself useful for a change. Go downstairs and wait outside. I want to know if anyone would have been able to hear the poor cow when she screamed her bleeding head off, begging the bastard to stop.’ He ordered the blinds to be shut again, as they would probably have deadened the sound on the night.
Minutes later, Morgan phoned to say he was positioned outside. Frost yelled, ‘Mullett is a sod!’ at the top of his voice. The sound echoed around the empty floor. He phoned Morgan. ‘Well? Did you hear that?’
‘No, Guv – and I was listening.’
‘Without me telling you to,’ said Frost. ‘Get back up here.’
As he thought – from the double-glazed fourth floor, the poor girl could have screamed and screamed until the whole floor echoed to her pleas, and no one outside would have heard her, even if anyone was about in this remote area.
Norton reported marks on the rail, but no distinguishing prints. ‘If he was gripping the rail, Inspector, and someone then cracked his knuckles, he would have released his grip, his hand would have slid open and smeared whatever prints were there.’
‘No matter,’ shrugged Frost. ‘We know he was here, prints or not.’
‘There’s specks of blood. I’ll get Forensic to match it.’
‘If you want,’ said Frost. ‘We know whose blood it will be.’
Jordan reported back. ‘The caretaker said the blinds are never shut, Inspector.’
‘Then the killer shut these,’ said Frost. ‘That clinches it. The boy would have seen the lights come on and then the blinds close – that’s why he shinned up here.’
The searchers, now at the far end of the floor, had found nothing, except for a few bits of ancient rubbish.
Frost dug his hands in his pockets. ‘She was here. The poor little cow was stripped, beaten and raped. She screamed her bleeding head off and no one heard. All right, let’s retrace our footsteps. Let’s assume she came in by the main entrance…’
‘She couldn’t do that, Inspector,’ Collier pointed out. ‘The time lock. She wouldn’t be able to get in after four and she left home at half seven.’
‘Good point,’ said Frost. ‘Bloody good point. You’ve shot my theory right up the fundamental orifice, but…’ He stopped. ‘There must be some way of overriding the time switch. Supposing some silly sod got themselves locked inside the building and wanted to get out? Phone the caretaker and ask him. The rest of you, downstairs.’
As they clattered down the stairs, Frost yelled after them, ‘Keep your grubby paws off the hand rail. If he had a spark of bleeding decency, our killer would have left prints.’
The lobby by the main entrance where Frost had been the previous night was the only part of the building that was fitted out. Its floor was covered with heavy-duty green carpeting and it was equipped with visitors’ chairs. Frost nodded at the two ivory phones on the reception desk. ‘Check them.’
‘Wiped clean,’ reported Norton. ‘But the phones are dead, so they could have been cleaned months or more ago.’
‘Right, now check the lift-summoning button and the button inside for the fourth floor.’
Norton checked and shook his head. ‘Blurred prints all on top of each other. I reckon the caretaker uses it every day.’
‘You’re bleeding useless,’ said Frost. ‘Check the handrail to the fourth floor.’
Collier hurried down the stairs. ‘The caretaker says you can set and un-set the time switch from the lobby. The switch box is under the reception desk.’
Frost bent and looked. There it was. A white switch box with buttons setting ‘on’ and ‘off’ times and days of the week. A green button was marked ‘Emergency Override’.
Frost called Norton over. ‘See if you can get any prints off that. The rest of you, search this place from top to bottom. See if you can find some trace – anything – that the girl was here or that something dodgy was going on, or can find the weapon that knocked the boy’s brains out. I know she was bloody well here, but I can’t bloody prove it… Apart from that, I’ve got this case tied up.’ He shook his head. ‘Whoever killed her knew this place. He knew how to get in – how to work the time lock. He knew he could do what he liked with her and she wouldn’t be heard. But why did she come? It must have been someone she trusted… or thought she could trust. Her father? That bastard – he’s involved in this somehow. We know he had it in for the boyfriend.’
‘Perhaps Debbie saw her dad kill Thomas Harris and had to be silenced, Guv?’ offered Morgan.