Eyes of the Wicked Read online

  “Holloway wants to see me.”

  He nodded sympathetically. No one liked being called to Holloway’s office and Matt knew there was bad blood between Dani and the superintendent. “I can hold down the fort here,” he offered. “We probably won’t have much to go on until Forensics get those test results and the coroner does an autopsy. In the meantime, I’ll try and find out who she is and put out an appeal for witnesses.”

  “Thanks, Matt.” She left the barn and walked back towards her car. When she was halfway between the barn and the farmhouse, she turned and let her eyes wander over the moors.

  Someone had carried the woman’s body over that bleak landscape in the early hours of the morning during a snowstorm. They were determined, she had to give them that. But why go to such lengths to leave the poor woman crucified in a barn? The killer was either trying to recreate a scene or make a statement. Which was it?

  She resumed her journey to the car and on the way, fished the phone back out of her pocket. She rang Holloway.

  “What is it?” he said when he answered.

  “Sir, I’d like to request a forensic psychologist to help us with the Brambleberry Farm case.”

  “There’s no need for that, Summers.”

  “Sir, I feel there is a need. The way the body has been posed—“

  “No, I don’t mean that. I mean there’s no need for you to request a psychologist.”

  She didn’t know what he meant by that. “Sir, I’m not sure what you—“

  “Just get to my office, Summers, and you’ll understand soon enough.” He ended the call.

  His cryptic manner was grating on her nerves. She had half a mind to take the scenic route to HQ and get there in her own time just to piss him off. But his enigmatic comments had piqued her curiosity and she wanted to know exactly what he meant by saying there was no need to request a psychologist. He obviously knew something she didn’t.

  So instead of taking her time, she drove directly to Headquarters at Northallerton.

  When she got up to the floor where Holloway’s office was situated, she saw that his door was closed. Had he got tired of waiting for her to get here and started a meeting? How long was she going to have to wait to see him? She didn’t want to be loitering around HQ when there was a dead woman’s case to investigate.

  Holloway’s door opened and he stuck his head out. “Summers, get in here.”

  “Yes, sir.” So she wasn’t going to have to wait after all.

  When she entered the office, she was surprised to see Battle sitting on the side of the desk closest to her and a man she didn’t recognise on the other. That man wore a chief superintendent’s uniform. He had close-cropped black hair and steel grey eyes, which he used to look Dani over as she entered.

  “Sit down,” Holloway said, indicating a seat next to Battle. He took his own seat on the opposite side of the desk with the unknown superintendent.

  Dani sat and waited. Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong as far as she knew, she felt as if she were about to receive some sort of disciplinary warning. With Battle here, though, that didn’t make sense. He worked for a completely different force so there was no way he’d be in Holloway’s office for a disciplinary hearing.

  “This is Chief Superintendent Gallow,” Holloway said, indicating the man next to him. “He’s come here all the way from the Met.”

  “Pleased to meet you Detective Inspector,” Gallow said, reaching across the desk towards Dani with his right hand.

  They shook. His grip was firm, and Dani made sure she matched it. It might seem like a trivial thing but as a woman in the police force, she knew she must not show any sign of weakness.

  “I’ll let the Chief Superintendent explain why you’ve both been called in here,” Holloway said.

  Dani looked at Battle. She’d assumed that because he’d already been in the office when she’d arrived, he must have been told what he was doing there. Battle gave her a look and minuscule shrug that said he was just as clueless as she was.

  “As Brian said, I’m here from the Met,” Gallow said. “I was in Derbyshire yesterday, speaking to Superintendent Powers. I also wanted to speak to DCI Battle while I was there but there seems to have been some sort of mix up in communication.” He looked at Battle with accusation in his steel grey eyes. Dani had no idea what that was about.

  “I was coming to Northallerton to speak with you today, DI Summers,” Gallow continued, “So it’s fortuitous that you two have already met because now I can speak to you both together.” He offered them a smile. Dani didn’t return it; she still had no idea what this was all about and the details of Gallow’s journey around the country didn’t interest her.

  “I’ll get straight to the point,” Gallow said. “The Home Office has decided that people don’t feel safe anymore due to a decline in the number of police officers and the fact that there are unsolved murders appearing in the media all the time. It’s bad press for the police and according to a recent survey, the general public don’t think we’re doing enough to protect them.”

  “We’re working as hard as we can, sir,” Battle said.

  “Yes, we are,” Gallow said. “But we’re not seen to be doing anything different. In the eyes of the average man or woman on the street, we’re just carrying on as we always have, with no forward thinking. Reactive rather than proactive.”

  He paused—probably for dramatic effect, Dani thought to herself—and then said, “So we’re going to do something proactive and we’re going to make damned sure everyone knows about it.”

  He got up and walked over to the other end of the office, where a flip chart had been set up on an easel. Gallow flipped to the first page where two words were written in black marker.

  Murder Force.

  “The high-ups in the Met were tasked by the Home Office to come up with a way to get people on our side again. To show them that we can be proactive. This is what they came up with.” He pointed at the chart.

  “Murder Force,” Dani said. “It sounds a bit dramatic, sir. What is it?”

  “I’ll come to that,” he said. “And yes, it sounds dramatic, but it’s meant to. They wanted a name that’s down-to-earth, something everyone will understand. When people hear that the Murder Force is investigating, they’ll feel safe in the knowledge that the best of the best are on the case.”

  “So it’s a department?” Dani asked.

  “It’s a team,” Gallow said. “An elite team of detectives that will reignite public trust in the police.”

  “Sounds like a tall order,” Battle said. “How will it do that exactly?”

  “By solving the high-profile crimes,” Gallow said. “The ones everyone reads about in the papers. We sort those out and our reputation goes up. It’s all about optics. The general public doesn’t know or probably care about our new initiatives to fight crime, but they’ll take notice when the cases that the media latches onto are dealt with quickly and efficiently.”

  To Dani, it sounded like this Murder Force was set up to fail. Not every crime could easily be tackled, and some would never be solved. She didn’t like that any more than anyone else, but it was the way things were.

  Gallow flipped over the page to reveal an outline of Britain with a line of blue dots drawn through it just north of London. “There are going to be two teams,” he said. “One will be part of the Met and serve London, the south of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. A second team, run by me, will serve the Midlands, the north of England, and Scotland. I’ve been asked to recruit personnel for that team. You two are the first detectives who came to mind.”

  Dani groaned inwardly. The only reason she and Battle had “come to mind” was because they’d both been involved in high profile cases and had both been in the papers. What was that word that Gallow had used? Optics. She and Battle were good optics because they were known to the public as detectives who had solved complex murder cases.

  “No offence, sir,” Battle said, leaning forwar
d in his chair, “but have you chosen us simply because we’re good PR?”

  “I’ll be honest with you,” Gallow said. “The answer is yes. You’re both known to the public. You’ve both been involved in high profile cases and you solved them. You’re good press. But, you’re also damn fine detectives. You didn’t solve those cases by chance or good luck. You worked hard. I’ve read your personnel records and you’re the sort of people I want on my team.”

  Now Dani knew why Holloway had been particularly salty with her today. She was being recruited to a new team that would get a lot of media attention. If he’d been jealous about the media attention she’d been getting after solving just one high profile case, how much more jealous must he be knowing she was being asked to join a team that actively chased them?

  She was convinced that this offer had only come because of her—she hated the word but had to use it—celebrity status. What Gallow was proposing—being in the public eye all the time—was everything she hated. And she didn’t know the logistics regarding this new team.

  “Where will the team be based, sir?” she asked Gallow.

  “The headquarters will be in York,” he said. “It’s a good central point for the areas we’ll be serving and far enough north that we won’t be stepping on the London team’s toes. The building we’re going to use as a headquarters is on the eastern outskirts of York, so you won’t even have to move, DI Summers. You can drive there in less than an hour.” He turned his attention to Battle. “I’m afraid the same isn’t true for you, DCI Battle, but we can sort out the details of all that later.”

  Battle nodded. He looked, to Dani, as if he was deep in thought. She guessed that his opinions on this new team were probably the same as hers.

  “Now, we want to get the full team up and running as soon as possible,” Gallow said, “I’m going to have to recruit support staff, uniformed officers, and more detectives by then. But I’d like to get you two on board as soon as possible. I know this isn’t a decision to be taken lightly so take some time to think about it.”

  He handed each of them a business card. “My mobile number is on the back. Give me a call as soon as you make a decision.” He looked from Battle to Dani. “Any questions?”

  Dani shook her head. She had her misgivings about this new team and doubts about the exact reason it was being formed—it seemed like a PR exercise more than anything else—but she also had to consider how much important work the team would be taking on. High profile cases usually involved serial killings or abductions and solving those cases meant saving lives.

  “Dismissed,” Holloway said.

  Dani left the room, followed by Battle.

  As they crossed the floor to the lift, Battle said, “I heard a body was discovered today. Foul play?”

  “Definitely,” Dani said as they reached the lift. “Unless she nailed herself to a barn wall.”

  Battle’s nose wrinkled. “Sounds gruesome.”

  Dani shrugged. As dead bodies went, she’d seen worse. A lot worse.

  The lift arrived and the door opened. They both got on and Dani hit the button for the ground floor.

  When the door closed, Battle asked, “What do you think about this new team Gallow’s putting together?”

  “The Murder Force?” Saying the name out loud made it seem even more ridiculous. “I think he’s looking for pretty faces he can parade in front of the press.”

  “Well that’s me out then,” Battle said.

  “No, you’re his grizzled, world-weary detective,” she told him. “You fit the bill perfectly.”

  “Grizzled?” He stroked his stubbly chin. “Maybe I need to level up my grooming routine.” He grinned at her.

  “The thing is,” she said, “a team like that could put some serious criminals away. Despite Gallow’s underlying agenda of creating an easily digestible media presence, it’s certainly something worth thinking about.”

  “I’m in,” he said.

  That surprised her. Battle didn’t seem like the type of man who would rush to a decision without giving it long consideration first.

  “I just need to ring my wife,” he said. “We’ve been talking about retiring to the coast all of our lives. York is only an hour’s commute from the east coast. This way, we can have the house by the sea, and I can still work. Seems like the best of both worlds.”

  “Sounds ideal,” Dani agreed.

  The doors opened with a ding and Battle said to her, “Come and be a part of it. I know you’re a good detective. Gallow might only want something he can show off to the media but he’s only going to be the figurehead. The success of the team will depend on people like you and me. Just think how we can shape it and build it into something good. As you said, we could put some very bad people away. And we’ll probably save a lot of lives while we’re at it.”

  “It’s certainly tempting,” she said truthfully as they crossed the foyer to the entrance doors. Outside, the snow had started to fall again. It was nothing more than a few white wisps floating on the breeze at the moment, but Dani knew that could change at any moment.

  “Are you going to the hospital?” she asked Battle. “How is Abigail?”

  “Still not talking,” he said. “And no, I’m not going over there. My boss has taken me off the case. He was so sure I’d take Gallow’s offer when he met with him yesterday that he pulled me off duty. He obviously doesn’t want me to be in the middle of an investigation when I leave his force. So he’s sending another DCI up here to work the Abigail Newton case with DS Morgan.”

  Dani paused at the doors. “So where does that leave you, guv?”

  He looked at the snowy car park and let out a long breath. “In snowy Yorkshire with nothing to do. I suppose I should go home and have a quiet Christmas. I’ll call Rowena first and see what she thinks about moving up here. Although this weather isn’t much of a selling point.”

  “All right. I need to go and find out if my body has been identified. Nice meeting you.” She held out her hand.

  Battle shook it. “We’ll hopefully meet again. Think about what I said.”

  They left the building. Dani went to her car while Battle, holding his hat on his head and stooping against the wind, made his way to a green Range Rover.

  Dani got behind the wheel of her car and watched Battle pull out a mobile and make a call, presumably to his wife.

  He had a point; whatever Gallow envisaged regarding the Murder Force, it would be detectives like herself and Battle who shaped the team. And from what she knew of the DCI from Derbyshire, she’d have no problem having him as her guv’nor. He was nothing like Holloway and seemed to be doing the job for all the right reasons.

  She called Matt. He was probably still at Brambleberry Farm since he hadn’t returned to the office.

  “Guv,” he said when he answered. “I’m still here. They’re taking the body away now.”

  “Any new leads?”

  “Nothing. Although apparently it wasn’t the knife wounds that killed the victim. She was struck on the back of the head. Looks like the cause of death is blunt force trauma.”

  “So why all the cuts?” Dani said under her breath.

  Matt didn’t answer; he was used to her thinking out loud.

  She remembered the conversation she’d had with Holloway on the phone about a psychologist. He’d said she didn’t need to request one and had said everything would become clear when she got to his office. The Murder Force business had distracted her.

  “Matt, I’ve got to see Holloway again.”

  “I’ll be coming to the office now anyway,” he said. “There’s nothing more to do here at the moment.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you when you get here, and you can fill me in on the details regarding our Jane Doe.”

  “Will do, guv. See you later.”

  Dani hung up and got out of the Land Rover. Battle was still sitting in his car, talking on the phone as she stalked back into the building. How could she have forgotten about the psy
chologist? In a case like this, where the killer was obviously living some sort of internal fantasy life, a psychologist could offer valuable insights.

  Instead of waiting for the lift, she took the stairs. When she got to Holloway’s office, the door was open but Gallow was still in there and the two officers seemed to be deep in conversation.

  Dani knocked on the open door and both men looked up at her.

  “Sir,” she said to Holloway. “I rang you earlier about requesting a forensic psychologist and you said there would be no need. I wasn’t sure what you meant by that.”

  “The answer’s simple,” Gallow said. “I’m taking over the Brambleberry Farm case and Murder Force already has a psychologist.”

  Chapter Seven

  “I don’t understand, sir” Dani said to Gallow. “You said the Murder Force isn’t up and running yet.”

  “It isn’t,” he said. “But I have some personnel, including a forensic psychologist, as I just mentioned. I also have a DCI. Battle just rang me to accept his position on the team.”

  That was quick, Dani thought. Battle’s wife must have jumped at the chance to move up here. If it had been her lifelong dream, then why not?

  “But the Brambleberry Farm case isn’t high profile, sir,” she said.

  He looked at her incredulously. “An unknown woman crucified in a barn in the middle of a snowy moor? The papers will be all over it.”

  “You’ll still be working on the case, whether you accept Chief Superintendent Gallow’s offer or not,” Holloway said. “The only difference is that DCI Battle will now be in charge.” He gave her a grin and Dani wondered if he had handed over her case so readily just to piss her off.

  “Because my team isn’t at full strength yet,” Gallow said, “I’ll be utilising the resources and personnel here, along with the ones I already have. Perhaps I’ll find some more new recruits while I’m at it. I’m sure someone here will impress me.”

  “We have an impressive team here,” Holloway said nervously. “But don’t poach all of them, sir.”

  Gallow chuckled. “Don’t worry, Brian, I’ll leave you some staff.”