When the Evil Waits by M Lee (top fiction books of all time txt) 📕

of the park with dogs, beaters and members of the public was organised at eight the following morning.’

‘But the boy wasn’t found?’

‘No. The body turned up a day later and a couple of miles away at Chorlton Ees. We interviewed Daniel that afternoon. He sat with the artists and they produced the photofit of the man.’

‘So the next step was to organise a door-to-door canvas of the area around Wythenshawe Park where the boy had disappeared.’

‘Exactly. We were checking anybody and everybody who had been in the park between one and two p.m. on the day of David’s disappearance.’

‘Did anybody report the man?’

‘No, but we got a description of somebody similar hanging around the local school. Year 1 and Year 6 had already returned.’

‘We checked all the local pervs?’

‘Every single one. Plus we’ve canvassed the area twice more since then, with coppers hanging around in a marked tent in the park asking if people saw anything.’

Ridpath thought for a moment. ‘So from the park, we’ve only got this to work with?’ He pointed to the photofit on a whiteboard. It was a pretty good likeness of a man, not as generic as these sometimes were.

‘Dark hair, spectacles, aged twenty-five to thirty, slightly under six feet in height. No scars, no tattoos, wearing a dark green bomber jacket and jeans. The kid’s description was good.’

‘But nobody’s come forward?’

‘Not a whisper.’

‘If he’s out there, he may have changed his appearance,’ added Chrissy, ‘dyed his hair, used contacts, ditched the clothes.’

Ridpath stared at the photofit. Was this the man who had kidnapped David Carsley? The mere fact he hadn’t come forward was significant. There was so much information about the case in the papers, people couldn’t miss it. If they were in the park that day, they would have identified themselves.

‘Right, that’s the abduction. What about the disposal area?’

‘Chorlton Ees, a lot of dog walkers use the spot. He was found at 8.40 a.m. on 23 July.’

‘So the boy was missing for over a day. Where was he?’

‘We don’t know,’ answered Emily. ‘According to Schofield, he hadn’t been in the open for long, a couple of hours at most.’

‘Time of death?’

‘The pathologist was cagey as usual, but Paul Turnbull eventually pinned him down to from two a.m. to six a.m. on the day he was found.’

‘It means he was kept somewhere before he was murdered. I need to talk to Schofield.’

‘You want me to arrange that, Ridpath?’ asked Chrissy.

‘No, I’ll get Sophia to do it. She has a special “arrangement” with our pathologist.’ He formed quotation marks with his fingers. ‘Or at least she did have last time we talked.’ Ridpath realised he hadn’t asked Sophia about her life other than the ongoing problem with her mother. Not that he had any right to know, but he should have at least asked her about what was happening and how she was. In truth, he realised he had become a little self-obsessed in the last six months.

He changed the subject, pointing to another picture that could have been any woman. ‘So how did we get this photofit? This woman hasn’t come forward either?’

‘A witness saw her leaving the area around the time of the discovery of the body, but she hasn’t responded to any of our notices.’

‘Strange. And the dog walker who discovered the body?’

‘Jon Morgan.’

‘We checked him out?’

‘Of course. Normal bloke, lives nearby, walks his dog regularly, married with two kids. A regular Joe, according to the neighbours.’

‘So basically after nearly two weeks, we have nothing.’

‘That’s about the size of it.’

‘Whose brilliant idea was it to release the photofits to the press and TV?’

‘Take a guess?’

‘But didn’t Turnbull realise he was going to be swamped with calls?’

‘Over 3000,’ said Chrissy, ‘and we’re still getting them. There was one woman today who was talking about MPs, satanic death rites involving young children and a pizza place on Chester Road. I’ve referred her to the Trafford social workers.’

‘So from over 3000 calls, didn’t we get anything?’

Emily posted to another whiteboard. ‘We’ve responded to every single one of them, checking them all out. Other than the two people in the photofits, there are only three other sightings we haven’t been able to explain. One: a man was seen walking an Alsatian in Wythenshawe park thirty minutes before the disappearance of the boy. He hadn’t come forward either. Two: a white car was seen in the area of the park with a young man and a boy sitting in the front. The boy wasn’t wearing his seatbelt; that’s why the witness noticed it.’

‘Any description?’

‘Nothing clear. A white car, no numberplate and a man and a boy.’

‘Could be anybody. Go on…’

‘Number three: a dark van was seen reversing down the lane into Chorlton Ees at 5 a.m. on the morning of the discovery of the body. I say “seen”, it was more like heard. The witness was getting up and the noise of the engine made her go to the window to check. She just caught a glimpse of a dark van.’

‘That’s it?’

Emily cocked her head. ‘That’s it.’

‘No wonder Claire Trent is scared. After two weeks, there’s nothing else?’

‘Nothing.’

‘What about HOLMES 2? Anything?’

HOLMES 2 was the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, used to coordinate the investigation of major incidents such as serial murders and high-value frauds.

‘Turnbull has been using it to consolidate all the information from members of public, enquiry officers and the house-to-house enquiries.’

‘Has it given us links to any other crimes?’

‘Not a lot,’ answered Chrissy. ‘There was the stabbing to death of a young boy in Liverpool six weeks ago, where the body was also dumped in a park. The Scousers have already got a suspect, plus the MO is completely different. There’s no DNA evidence linking the crimes.’

‘It’s a bit of a coincidence that we have two child murders in the space of six weeks in two cities less than thirty miles apart?’

‘But the deaths are so different, Ridpath. After talking with Merseyside, Turnbull ruled out any connection between the two crimes,’ said Emily Parkinson.

Ridpath