Death on the Coast Read online

  ‘That’s because they understand that we are dealing with real murders, Bill,’ said Dan. ‘They don’t want their reputation damaging, do they?’

  The small picture in the corner of the screen winked off, to a cheer from Sally.

  * * *

  ‘Where’s Jay?’ Tana asked, as the clock ticked past 8pm.

  Scarlett flicked a glance at Amber but the younger girl kept her eyes on her hands. ‘We called at his flat but the lights were off,’ she said. ‘Maybe he’s sick?’

  Tana’s anger bloomed as two red patches on her white skin. ‘We all knew what we were doing. We have to be in it together or this will not work.’ She looked at Kegan. ‘Go and get him. I can’t risk him talking.’ She waited until Kegan had left the room then spoke to her remaining followers.

  ‘They’ve taken down my website and knocked me off Instagram, the pathetic eejits. Just got a little Facebook surprise for them in a day or two. Don’t worry,’ she said, flicking a hand at Scarlett who had let out a gasp of surprise, ‘the accounts are all registered under false names and there won’t be any way they can trace it back to us.’

  Scarlett subsided onto the sofa with a frown. The trouble was, she knew who Tana had stolen the Facebook access from, and she wasn’t at all sure it was a safe enough prospect to avoid tracking back to a rather stupid girl who would give them away in a second. ‘It’s just that I thought you weren’t going to use Facebook as they’re much stricter now, and it’s easier to trace back if it’s not done right …’

  Tana stared at her. ‘If you know something I don’t, you’d better tell me. Don’t just sit there, gawping like a fish, silly bitch.’

  Scarlett stared back, mouth open. Bitch? ‘No, there’s nothing specific,’ she said. Bitch, was it? ‘Just asking.’ She glanced at Amber, who was sitting quietly on the floor with her head down, and wondered if Jay had been right, and Tana was using them all for some reason of her own. Had she been a total idiot? She looked with clearer eyes around the room, and understood for the first time that if anything went wrong with Tana’s planning, it would be them carrying the can, not her. Their friends’ accounts had been hacked or borrowed, not hers. Tana knew all their real names, they didn’t know if she was even called Tana. Jay had said Tana meant fire.

  Tana waved a hand at her. ‘It’ll be fine, I have everything covered. Stop worrying.’ She brought up the photos on her laptop. ‘Come and have a look. You did a great job out there, Amber, these are really clear. And it’s going crazy on social media.’ She scrolled through Twitter. ‘Look, trending all over the world. How satisfying is that?’

  She sat quiet for a few minutes, staring at the laptop, and Scarlett wondered if Tana was ever going to tell them anything about why there had to be three murders. She wasn’t stupid, she knew the cult stuff was a cover for something darker, but she hadn’t a clue what it was.

  Tana closed the laptop and pushed it to the corner of the bed. ‘Now, the third and greatest sacrifice is almost ready. It was supposed to be at the end of the month, but we’ll bring it forward to next week and call it a late All Souls day – when the dead come back to visit the earth before they go on to greater glory. That’s a good one to hang our hat on, don’t you think?’ She grinned at the girls and rolled a cigarette while they took in the change of plan.

  Scarlett had to ask, even though she didn’t want to be singled out again. ‘Why have you really brought it forward, Tana?’

  Tana looked at her through black eyelashes, as she ran her tongue along the edge of the cigarette paper and pressed the edges together. ‘Let’s just say I want this particular sacrifice fresh and eager, and I don’t want him disappearing on me or getting wise to what’s happening. That all okay with you, Scarlett?’

  Scarlett was saved from answering when the door slammed back against the wall and Jay was thrown roughly into the room.

  He stood in front of Tana, eyes wild. ‘What’s going on?’

  Tana sat back against the bedhead and took a drag of her cigarette, removing a thread of tobacco from her bottom lip. ‘You were late. Kegan gave you a lift.’

  ‘I wasn’t planning on coming. I’m sick. I need to be in bed.’ He dragged his hand across his eyes.

  Tana stared hard at Jay, as if she really wanted to understand.

  Scarlett could see his face was white, with black circles around bloodshot eyes. He looked terrible. Was he really taking this so hard? Two tramps?

  ‘Fair enough, you do look a bit peaky,’ said Tana. ‘But your mum’s not here to sign your note. Just sit down and shut up while we plan the next one. Then you can go back to beddy-byes.’

  Kegan dragged Jay to the floor and sat next to him. ‘All for one and one for all, mate,’ he chuckled.

  Scarlett reached down in front of her to where Jay had sat on the floor, and squeezed his shoulder. She pulled him back so he was resting against her legs and kept her hand on him. If he went doolally on them now, she wasn’t at all sure that he wouldn’t end up being the next sacrifice. Or she would. She was going to have to be very careful indeed to get out of all this unscathed.

  * * *

  Chief Superintendent Oliver called Dan up to her office a little after 9pm; he was surprised she was still there.

  ‘Come in and take a seat, I’ve made us some coffee,’ she said, and passed over a mug of dark stuff. ‘No milk until tomorrow.’

  Dan swigged it down without – he needed the caffeine.

  ‘The press gave us a mauling, didn’t they?’

  ‘I was expecting it, to be honest,’ he said. ‘We’ve not got a lot to give them, have we? Not British policing’s greatest moment when the bad guys just seem to be able to do exactly as they like, when they like. They have a point, I feel totally useless.’

  ‘You’ll get there. You have the website holder to interview, and I think you’re spot on focusing on the university. You just need a break, and it will come. Chin up.

  ‘I've been thinking, let’s say they are students, and they’ve been watching too many cheap horror films.’

  ‘You being serious?’

  ‘You must have watched all the Friday the Thirteenth and Chucky schlock when you were a student, surely?’

  ‘Hmm. Didn’t make me plan to murder anybody though.’ He winced. ‘Well, there may have been a couple of people on the list …’

  ‘Psychology of a psychopath, Daniel: when someone has crossed over the moral taboo that humans have about committing murder, or child abuse, or hitting the wife, or whatever, and they’ve gotten away with it, they will do it again and again until they are caught. It becomes a compulsion. They do it because they can, and they have no need to justify to anyone what is so clearly a “right action” in their own eyes. What if the person behind these murders feels entirely justified?’

  Dan chewed the end of his pen and thought about it. ‘A clever student with access to willing volunteers who are out for the excitement, and a secret mission they must accomplish?’

  ‘Could be a student. Or a lecturer. Easy to hide in the middle of a crowd.’

  Dan stared out at the black sky over her shoulder. It was a feasible idea, and it made a bit of sense – better than he was coming up with anyway. ‘I think you’re onto something, ma’am. We’ll focus the team on the university on Monday and see what we can find. Thanks.’

  Oliver stood up and collected both mugs in one hand. ‘Do you think there’ll be another one, now that the website and Instagram site have been taken down and they know we’re after them?’

  ‘I don’t know, depends on what this is all about, doesn’t it? If you read the blurb on the website, it says something like: one for the cleansing, one for the power, and one for the something else. Maybe there’s the third to come.’

  ‘Maybe they’re planning it as we speak,’ she said.

  18

  ‘The problem with students is that they get up really late, especially on a Monday morning. We’re just wasting our time,’ said Adam Foster, stirring
his cappuccino with a stick taken from the counter.

  ‘La la la,’ sang Lizzie, with fingers jammed in her ears. ‘Deaf to the complaints today.’ She grinned at him and blew cappuccino froth in his direction. ‘Actually, most of the students will be in lectures at the moment.’

  ‘Or still in bed.’

  ‘Or still in bed, right. But you know, there must be courses here that attract the more weird type of student – arty or a bit eastern. Anyway, the boss is in with the dean as we speak, explaining what we need and alerting security so we don’t get hassled. He might have a better idea about what we’re doing when he’s talked to the professor guy. For now, I suggest we have a chat with anyone who’s around, about the pictures on the Internet, anything strange they’ve seen or heard, any people acting weirdly. You know, get the feel of the place.’

  ‘And there are how many students on this campus?’

  ‘You don’t have to talk to them all, Marvin. Just get a feel of how the murders are sitting here, that’s all. Put feelers out. Are they shocked, scared, excited?’

  ‘I’ll go to the student union,’ said Foster, ‘see if it’s open yet.’ He muttered ‘waste of time,’ under his breath as he walked away.

  Lizzie drank the rest of her coffee and took a moment to have a think. She was almost certain that students were at the bottom of this, but why they would make the leap from Halloween prank to murder, was more than she could get her head around. There had to be a compelling reason to put their own lives and liberty at risk. Surely, they must know they would be caught sooner or later? There was no way it could have been a prank that went wrong. Not after the second murder. There had to be a link between the victims and the gang, and she hoped she’d find it here. She threw her empty cup into the bin and headed off towards the library, no wiser for her thinking session.

  * * *

  Dan sat in a chair, opposite Professor Navinder Patel, and waited until he had finished his phone call in which he appeared to be cancelling a tutorial to make way for an ‘important meeting’. Dan observed that, even though it was cold outside, and he was quite comfortable wearing his coat and scarf indoors, Patel had a line of sweat on his top lip and was finding it hard to meet his eye.

  Patel finished his call and smiled at his visitor. ‘Sorry, I needed to cancel one of my senior students in order to accommodate you. So, what can I do for the police? The dean mentioned that I may be able to help you with your inquiries.’

  Dan watched him closely. The professor was giving off all sorts of signals, if he could only read them, so he relaxed back into the chair, undid his coat, and adopted an open position with his hands relaxed on top of a closed notebook. ‘Thanks for agreeing to speak to me, sir. You’ll have heard about the murder that took place on Halloween?’

  ‘I have indeed, terrible business. What a truly frightful way to die.’ He used his forefinger to wipe the sweat from his lip.

  ‘And, of course, the second murder on Saturday night, Bonfire Night, you’ll have seen that all over the press as well?’

  ‘Yes, yes, of course. You’re wondering if this is a serial killer?’ He nodded sagely as if he had worked all this out himself and was giving Dan new information. ‘Sadly, I cannot help you, Inspector. I thought you had criminal profilers for this kind of crime?’

  ‘We do, and we are building a profile, but I wanted to ask you for some details about these fire cults. One of our DCs has done a bit of investigation and suggests that they are alive and thriving in some less well-developed areas of the world, but not here in the UK.’

  ‘Well, yes, they are. Fire is seen as a cleansing agency for disease of the body or the spirit. Nowadays people may sacrifice an animal in place of a human, but it is true that there are cultures that still sacrifice their own members for various reasons. In fact, the British culture still follows the traditions of sacrifice.’

  ‘It does?’

  ‘Why yes, when you cook a turkey or a goose at Christmas, it represents a sacrifice to propitiate the gods, so there will be a spring and you can continue to farm and live. We dress it up, but we are all savages underneath, praying for godly intervention whether it be for good or evil purposes.’

  Patel had relaxed into lecture mode. Whatever he had been frightened of at the start had faded, as Dan dutifully took notes like one of his students. ‘I can see that you’re an expert, Professor, thank you. So, if I was a student, how could I find out more about such areas of interest?’

  Patel clutched a hand to his heart. ‘Dear me,’ he cried. ‘I hope you are not suggesting that any of my students might be caught up in these terrible murders.’

  And there we have it, thought Dan. That is indeed what he’s frightened of. ‘I’m just making inquiries at the moment, sir, but you do have to admit it would be the best place to learn about such matters. So, tell me about your courses.’

  Patel’s face turned red as he stared at the table top. With extreme reluctance, he said, ‘In fact, we do study the rise of cults. We focus on the cults in the USA such as the Charles Manson one, the Waco Texas tragedy, and others.’

  ‘You run a course that focuses on cults?’ Dan’s heart did a little leap. Closer. ‘Who teaches it?’

  Patel looked even more uncomfortable. ‘I do. I have a lecture this afternoon, in actual fact.’

  ‘Brilliant. I need a list of names and contact details for everybody on that course at the moment, everybody who has taken it over the last three years, and anyone else who helps you teach it.’

  ‘I am not at liberty to divulge that information.’

  ‘Well, get the liberty, because I’m not leaving this room without the lists. This is a double murder investigation, and I’ll arrest you for wilful perversion of the course of justice if you prevaricate. Do I need to get a warrant, or will you help us with our investigation?’ He took out his phone. I think I just invented a new criminal offence, he thought as he scrolled through the list. But it should definitely be one.

  ‘You have to understand that I can’t just hand out personal information without permission. This is unacceptable bullying on your part.’

  The redness in Patel’s face extended down his neck and under his shirt. Dan didn’t want to give the man a heart attack, but he needed the intel, and now. Why was he so reluctant? Did he have an idea who the cult members were? Why would he try to hide that? Protecting his own arse probably. You’d struggle to keep your job if it turned out you were harbouring, and indeed teaching, a bunch of murderers.

  ‘I do understand that, Professor. I’m not trying to bully you, I’m trying to hurry you up. It’s urgent. We need to stop any more murders. You do get that? Please go and get permission to release those details, now.’ He waved his phone. ‘Or shall I get that warrant and have a word with the dean? She seemed like a very nice woman and offered us full cooperation.’ He checked his notebook for the dean’s number.

  Patel shoved his chair back and stormed from the office, shouting at his secretary in the next room.

  Phew. Dan got up and had a nosy on Patel’s desk. It was messy, and full of crumbs, and half-marked papers on interesting topics. What on earth did you do with a degree in ancient religions? Not that he’d found much use for his geography degree so far, he’d have to admit.

  Right at the bottom of the pile on the desk was an A4 pad on which Patel had written something then scribbled it out until the paper had worn through to the page underneath. The guy was clearly under stress, and it might not take much to get him to blurt out what he knew. Another little push might just break him. Cruel, possibly, but Patel was such a pompous git that he didn’t feel too bad about it. He felt sorrier for the two men who’d been burned to death.

  He stood by the window, watching the sky turn grey with the promise of more rain, and got ready to tell Professor Patel that he would be taken into the station for an interview later in the week, then he sent a text to Lizzie and told her to gather the team in the cafe. They were in for a busy afternoon as soon as he got t
he list of names.

  19

  Scarlett Moorcroft and Amber Northrop sat at the back of the lecture theatre as Professor Patel gave a lecture on the Mayan civilization and their sacrificial rites. Scarlett checked her phone for the umpteenth time and flicked a glance at Amber. Nothing from Jay at all. They all tried not to miss lectures, as Patel always noticed and told their tutors. Scarlett was on a warning already and her last assignment was late. But it was hard to concentrate when she was alternately hot and cold with excitement, then fear, then excitement again. They had done it, twice, and got away with it. Maybe she didn’t need to worry about Tana having a go at her. Maybe she was right and they were all idiots, the straight people. Her exchanges with Tana had really bothered her last night though. She was worried that she had seriously underestimated Tana’s madness and Jay’s weakness. Both of them could land her in deep shit if she wasn’t careful. She sat quiet as a mouse in the top corner, staring down at the prof doing his thing with a slideshow of these long-dead people and their burning sacrifices, and did some thinking.

  ‘It’s different, now, isn’t it?’ whispered Amber. ‘You can feel what the Mayans experienced when they did it, can’t you?’ She shuddered. ‘Wow.’

  Scarlett smiled. ‘Makes you feel powerful, doesn’t it? Invincible.’ She clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent a snort. ‘If we don’t get an A on the next assignment, there’s something wrong,’ she said.

  A few minutes before the end of the lecture, Patel stopped talking and three people she hadn’t noticed sitting on the front row stood up and turned to face the class.

  ‘Good afternoon, everyone,’ said the good-looking one in the grey suit. ‘I am Detective Chief Inspector Hellier and these are my colleagues, DCs Singh and Foster.’ Scarlett sat upright in her seat in order to see more clearly. What was going on?