‘Had the shop been broken into?’ Jack asked.
‘The rear door was left open, which is how he was found. Another stall owner found him... poor woman.’
‘What’s the guy’s alibi?’
‘He was in Southampton, shipping some frames out, and had missed a pick-up. So, he booked into a B&B for the night and got his girlfriend to meet him there. He was there the entire weekend.’
‘And he couldn’t help ID the victim? No identifying scars or tatts?’
‘Nope. And no face to show him either! We even tried to get a court artist to see if she could give us an impression, but she said it would be impossible. I mean, we could only show her photographs, obviously, but whoever beat the crap out of the poor guy made sure he couldn’t be identified.’
They fell silent as Jack drained his coffee and sat holding the empty cup. The monitor was still hiding the figure encased in the bed, and the nurses were standing in front of the camera.
‘Could I get a look at him?’ Jack asked.
‘Hell no. I told you, it’s a sterile unit. Any infection and he’s gone.’
Jack was thinking he might be able to identify the man based on height, weight and build. ‘What are the other monitors for?’
‘After the medics leave, we switch all monitors on. There’s a camera at the door, one showing the rest of the room, the patient. Anyone who comes and goes.’
‘How tall is he?’
Collingwood thought a moment. ‘I reckon five-ten maybe. I can tell you, he’s quite muscular, in good shape. I reckon he’d recently been abroad as well. He’s quite tanned.’
‘Age?’
‘Thirties. Forties. Hard to guess without the face.’
Jack hid his growing tension. The description could be Adam’s. ‘What about his hair?’
Collingwood looked over to Ralph. ‘See what I mean, real detective we got here. I mean, have you heard Morrison asking about any of this? If he did, it’s not in the notes. Shoulder-length, dark blond, at least it was before they shaved it all off for the operations.’
‘The reason I’m asking is that I reckon you could put out a request for information; you’ve got quite a good description, even without his face.’
‘It’s on standby, but we have checked the missing persons reports. Nothing relevant. We’ll check with Interpol next.’
Although Jack knew that Adam was at least six feet tall, the hair colour and his suntan matched. Collingwood suddenly stood up, gesturing to the screens which now showed the medics moving away from the patient’s bedside.
‘What would be your next port of call, Jack? You can see more of him now.’ Jack stood next to Collingwood as the three other screens now showed the same room. There was a cage over the lower part of the man’s body, breathing tubes attached to his mouth, but most disconcerting were the number of wires and steel rods coming from his chin, cheeks and jaw. All designed to keep his facial features in place and all covered with a fine mesh that hid his entire face and skull. But now that Jack could see the man’s toned physique for himself, his instinct was that it wasn’t Adam Border. Relief filled his body and he physically relaxed.
Jack now acted like a police officer, answering the question Collingwood has just asked. ‘Somebody wanted to inflict the utmost pain on this guy, before making sure he was unidentifiable This assault took time. So, there’s real hatred there. Your victim would have known he was going to die. He’s defied the odds, perhaps by being found earlier than the killer predicted. Also, I reckon this attack could have taken more than one person.’
Collingwood looked to Ralph, gesturing for him to stand up. ‘He was about two feet off the ground, ankles crossed and chained, the chain hammered into the wood. His arms were splayed out... spread your arms, Ralph, that’s it... wrists bound and chained. His head was held up by another heavier chain that went round to the back of the cross, and there was a big iron ring hooked up onto what we think was some kind of stand for a heavy shelf.’
Ralph stood, arms stretched wide before he lowered them and, like Collingwood, he looked to Jack for his opinion.
‘That would all take a lot of time, hours. And I definitely think it could have been two people; lifting and attaching your victim wouldn’t be easy. I’d have fought like hell even if they had a gun on me. Then the place was cleaned up. Again, that takes time. Was there a substantial amount of blood?’
Collingwood nodded. ‘Oh yes. We’ve questioned the neighbours, but a lot of the properties are used as business storage for the market, not many residents live in them, and to date, we’ve not had anyone come forward saying they heard or saw anything. I reckon we should have had a press release days ago.’
‘I agree.’ There was just a fraction of a second when Jack thought about mentioning his visits to the shop, but Collingwood looked at his watch interrupting Jack’s chain of thought.
‘I’m going to kick you out, Jack,’ Collingwood said. ‘We’ve got DCI Morrison coming in for an update. God forbid he finds out I’ve been spilling the beans to you. I trust you won’t let on that I have. He’s hard enough to work with without any further aggravation. Just in case you bump into each other, what are you doing here?’
‘Questioning a woman who’s been attacked by her husband with a claw hammer. She’s been in theatre since I arrived. I was in the visitors’ waiting room, needed to take a slash, and this place is like a rabbit warren. The next minute, Ralph slapped me on the shoulder and said he’d seen me wandering around on the CCTV monitors.’
Collingwood laughed. ‘Yeah, this place they call the new build is already outdated and understaffed. At one point, they were going to move our patient to another ICU unit, but we needed to have this area to monitor his progress. Good to meet you, Jack. See you around. Ralph, walk him back to the visitors’ section.’
Ralph took Jack back to where he had entered the mushroom-shaped section, now manned by numerous staff. As he headed down the almost familiar corridor, it was already after 2 p.m., but he didn’t mind as his day had been more fruitful than he expected. He sat in one chair and drew another over to rest his feet on. Leaning back and closing his eyes, he once again thought that the victim was not Adam Border. That horrific sight of the victim clinging to life was shocking, but now Jack had to consider that, if it wasn’t Adam... Jack swung his legs to the floor and rested his head in his hands. ‘Shit, shit’.
He remembered what Helga had said about Adam, that Jack had no concept of what he could do and that he was very vengeful. Jack also recalled her saying that Adam had many helpers; he would have used these people to clear his studio in the school. Jack needed to learn who these people were.
But Jack was really getting palpitations remembering what Helga had overheard Adam shouting to someone on the phone.
‘I’ll crucify you!’
Chapter 21
Jack waited in the visiting room for an hour and a half and was eventually told by a male doctor that Maria Barras had undergone major surgery and was now in the recovery ward, heavily sedated. He would not be able to interview her for at least 24 hours. Frustrated, Jack had asked if Mrs Barras would recover, but the doctor was non-committal. He gave him his phone number and asked to be updated regarding her condition. Then he headed into work.
Jack went up to the canteen only to find the hot lunches had already been served, but limp salad and some dried-up cold cuts were still available. He decided not to bother and went into the incident room to find it half empty. The only news was that DI Armani had organised a community meeting at the YMCA hall the following evening. Jack threw his jacket over the back of his chair and started looking at the files left on his desk with a Post-it note asking him to appraise the contents. He was flipping through the reports when Laura came in, looking pissed off.