Snakes and Ladders

Chapter 6

6

Jack stood at the front of the major incident room and addressed his team, which was, of course, now one man short.

‘Okay. This is the first briefing on Operation Artisan,’ he said, complete with air quotes around the name that’d been generated by the police computer. This was, like many things, something for which Jack couldn’t quite bring himself to muster up the tolerance. ‘It concerns the murder of an as-of-yet unnamed male, in his late teens or early twenties. His body was discovered by a jogger in Mildenheath Woods early this morning. All we know at this stage is that he appears to have spent some time on his knees — no jokes, please, Steve,’ he said, looking pointedly at DS Wing, ‘and had his hands tied behind his back with cable ties. The official cause of death is yet to be determined, but it’s likely to come back as showing he bled out due to the knife wounds to his neck. He’d been beaten badly around the head and body with an unknown blunt instrument, potentially something quite heavy like a crowbar or a tool of some sort. We’ll get more information on that when it comes in. The only other piece of evidence we have so far is the presence of an adhesive around his mouth area, which Dr Grey reckons is from some heavy-duty tape, which was presumably placed over his mouth to silence him during the ordeal. That piece of tape hasn’t been found, so we’re looking at the presumption that the killer took it with them. Any questions?’

‘What state was the body found in?’ Ryan Mackenzie asked, chewing the end of her pencil.

‘A pretty bloody s**t one,’ Jack replied. ‘Buried in a shallow grave, covered with loose soil and leaves. There’s evidence a shovel was used to dig it, but evidently our killer either didn’t realise how much earth has to be shifted to bury a body, or he was too knackered from his little exertions a few minutes earlier. Ryan, while you’re listening, can you look at missing persons and see if there’s anyone on the list who matches the description? We’ll keep eyes and ears on the ground, too, because if our boy hasn’t been reported missing yet, it’s likely he will be at some point. We’ve made frontline aware.

‘We don’t think there’s CCTV covering the car park at the woods,’ he continued, ‘but Steve, can you get onto the council to double-check please? You and Debbie can pop down and have a wander about the residential roads that surround the woods, maybe see if anyone has CCTV on their house that might cover any other ways in. If our man’s gone in and out with a shovel and some heavy tools, he’ll either be blindingly obvious or in a car. Either way, it’s a lead.’

‘The shovel could’ve been used to beat him, too,’ Debbie Weston offered.

‘Possibly. I thought that, but the bruising and markings indicate it probably wasn’t. They’re still scouring the woods for anything that’s been dumped, but nothing’s been found yet. Our main priority at the moment is finding the knife. If that’s got DNA evidence or fingerprints on it, or if we can trace it back to its owner, we’re onto a winner. On the shovel, I doubt we’ll find it. I don’t think it’s likely our killer will’ve taken the tape off the lad’s mouth to hide that piece of evidence, then left his shovel up against a tree somewhere. We’re working on the assumption we won’t find it easily. I imagine this’ll be one of those where things drip in over time, so we’ll crack on with what we have and we’ll update as and when we need to. Class adjourned.’

As Jack opened the door to his office, his phone began to ring. He leaned over the desk to pick it up, then listened as the officer on the other end gave him the message.

Jack wrote down the details on a piece of paper, then headed back out into the incident room. ‘Okay,’ he said, getting his team’s attention. ‘We’ve had a call come in from some concerned parents, saying their little darling didn’t come home last night. They’re not able to get hold of him and were panicking, so they phoned the police. It sounds like he matches the description of our victim, so we’re going to head over and confirm. Knight, grab your coat. You’re coming with me.’