‘What if it doesn’t? How will it try and kill me?’
‘Rip out your throat. Anyway, how are the kids? How are you? Fancy a drink some time?’
‘I’ll let you know – thanks for the advice.’
She parked up, got out of the car, and walked across to the tower block. On the sixteenth floor, she listened hard at Balik’s grandfather’s flat. She could hear the sound of the dog moving. It was walking up and down behind the door, pacing back and forth. She knocked. The dog went ballistic; it hurled itself at the door.
‘Mr Balik, can you hear me?’ There was no reply.
Inside the flat, Mr Balik was dead. His throat had been ripped out but not before he had been bitten one hundred and seventy-three times.
Chapter 48
‘We came here expecting to talk to Lisa about her connection to a murder in London and another in Exeter,’ Carter said to the crime-scene manager, Jesse Arnold, who was standing with them at the cliff edge. A tent had been erected around the point where Lisa fell.
‘We didn’t treat it as suspicious at first. We get suicides all the time on this stretch of the coastline, but we had a report of a driver seeing what looked like a scuffle and he saw the woman being lifted over the fence here. One of the officers recognized her from the gym he goes to. When you contacted us about your enquiry, we knew it was her.’
‘Who was the driver?’
‘A local man, name of Mendrik-Sutton. We have his statement.’
‘What made him come forward?’
‘He drove past here this morning and saw the police activity – he thought he should come forward.’
‘Can we talk to him?’
‘Yes. He works from home – a web designer.’
Tucker parked his car and walked across to them. He had driven straight up from Exeter.
They looked over the railings. Beneath them were three SOCOs. The body was shielded from view by a makeshift screen to either side and suspended across the front. ‘The doctor said she had probably died from a broken neck. She’d been dead about twelve hours when she was found at eight this morning.’
‘Who found her?’
‘A man walking his dogs. We don’t know what injuries are on the body yet but there are signs of a struggle here at the cliff edge. Several sets of footprints here at the edge and leading to this spot. The grass is so wet there are some slide marks here and over there, where the area has been ringed for casts to be taken.’
Carter and Willis walked across to take a look. Willis squatted at the edge of the disturbed patch of grass.
‘It’s going to be difficult to get a clean print. Looks like someone’s been stamping on this ground.’
‘Our best bet is what’s on her body. It hasn’t rained overnight. We might be lucky. We haven’t been able to get her off the cage; it’s going to take a crane.’
The officer in charge looked up at them.
‘We’re going to be able to get her down soon. If you want to take a look at her from this angle you’d better hurry up.’
‘Coming,’ Carter said.
Tucker led the way back down the road and down some steps that led to the walkway beneath the cliffs.
Lisa Tompkins’s body was caught on the metal cage. There was a scattering of stones on the path beneath it.
‘Anything fall with her?’
‘We haven’t found anything so far. We might dislodge something when we move her,’ the officer said.
They watched as the recovery of the body began. It was extracted from the cage and lowered to the walkway beneath.
Willis stooped forward to take a better look at the body as she donned protective gloves. It was frozen solid in a twisted position.
‘She has wounds where she was impaled on the cage,’ Willis said as she stretched the fabric on Lisa’s running top and jagged puncture wounds became visible. The T-shirt beneath was saturated and crisp with blood. ‘And she lost a lot of blood.’
‘She didn’t die from a broken neck?’
Willis stood, shook her head, as the rain started. Large icy drops settled in her hair.
‘She was alive long enough to bleed out.’
‘Mr Mendrik-Sutton?’
A slim, tall man, wearing thick black trendy glasses and dressed in a T-shirt and expensive jeans, opened his front door to the three detectives.
‘Yes.’ He smiled.
Carter showed his badge. Willis and Tucker did likewise.
‘We phoned earlier. Can we come in?’
‘Please, do.’ He stepped aside and held open the front door for them to walk through to his lounge/office. It was an uncluttered space with more PCs than sofas.
‘We’d like to run through what you saw on Saturday evening when you were driving along the coast road.’
‘Yes, sure. Please sit down.’
All three detectives sat on the red 1960s sofa, which was more chic than comfortable. Willis perched on the edge of the seat and took out her notebook. Mendrik-Sutton sat in the only other seat – an orange armchair.
‘Can you just tell us what you saw.’
‘Um, well, it was just after nine. I’d been to dinner with a friend and was driving home when I saw two runners.’
‘Male or female?’
‘I’m not sure. I saw them out of the corner of my eye. One had a hoodie on. I remember thinking that it was a very cold night. The road was freezing. I had to watch out for black ice. I thought that I wouldn’t have been running so late in the evening.’
‘Did they look like they were running together?’
‘No, not at first. One was a few paces away from the other. The next time I looked they seemed to be alongside one another and then something caught my eye and I nearly crashed as I saw what seemed to be a fight between them. There was a car passing me and I took my eyes from them for a split second and then I looked back and they were both gone. When I drove by this morning and saw the police activity, I thought I should say something. I hope it helps.’
‘Yes, many thanks and we’ll get back to you if we need anything further.’
After they left Mendrik-Sutton’s they drove to Lisa Tompkins’s house. They parked at the end of the road. The house had an officer outside. The team of SOCOs were finishing up. The man in charge of them – Penny – stopped to talk to Carter.
‘Any sign of anything untoward going on here?’ Carter asked him.
Penny was a slight man. The white suit ballooned around him.
‘No,’ Penny answered. ‘No signs of any disturbance. Just what you’d expect to find.’
‘Would it be okay if we bring our team down here? This could be connected to another investigation. This woman was on a list of women involved with a man we’re looking into. Three of the women are now dead. All died in different circumstances.’
‘Let us know what you need and we’ll oblige,’ said Penny.
‘Can we have a look round now?’
‘Be my guest.’
They stepped inside the front door and walked straight into the lounge.
‘You can’t swing a cat in here,’ Tucker said as he stood in the middle of the room, looking around.
‘No, you don’t get a lot for your money. Location, location, location,’ said Carter as he moved through to the kitchen. ‘This is a bit better. At least you can sit down in here. There’s a table and chairs.’ Carter began opening the drawers. Willis opened the back door and stepped out into a lean-to.
‘Nice bike,’ she said. A racing bike was leaning against the wall there. Tucker joined her and took a step past her, down into the lean-to and then to the tiny patio beyond. He walked to a back gate and opened it.