Death in the Black Wood, Oliver Davies [short story to read TXT] 📗

he walked out of that house was a natural reaction to what he’d seen in that room. The sight of any woman found in that condition would have had the same effect on him.

His cousin appeared from round the side of the house and began his circuit of the garden, looking down at the little device he was holding shielded in his hand. He stopped briefly in front of the wall that ran along the front before pacing on. A few yards further on, he crouched down and began to dig at the soil with his gloved fingers. We walked over to watch him and Philips got up to come and see too.

“There’s a camera hidden in the wall,” Shay said as he exposed a small metal device. “He left the antenna sticking out of this thing.

“What is it?”

“It’s both the receiver and a signal boosting transmitter.” He left it lying in its hole and removed his gloves, wiping his hands on his trousers before pulling his phone out. “No good,” he said after another minute. “He’s disconnected from whatever he was watching us on.”

“You were right again, then. He wanted to observe our reactions to his handiwork.”

Shay just shrugged.

“It seemed like enough of a possibility to be worth checking. Here, you’ve still got your gloves on.” He passed Conall a small evidence bag from his pocket. Once Conall had bagged the receiver, Shay led us back to where he’d stopped before and pointed. Conall extracted a tiny camera from a crack between the stones and held it up so his cousin could examine it.

“Nothing special,” Shay said unhappily, “you can buy sets like this easily from loads of sites, and that model’s been available for a couple of years.” Once that too was bagged, he took it back and peered at the bottom of the little thing. “The serial number’s been scraped off too. Let me see the booster.” They exchanged bags, and he examined that too before shaking his head. “Sorry, Cuz, no joy there either.”

Philips, who had been watching them silently until then, cleared his throat. “Mr Keane, are you saying that the killer has been watching us all go in and out of Jackie’s house this morning?”

“I’m afraid so, Inspector.” Shay gave him a reluctant nod. “It seemed to me that it might be the sort of thing he’d get a kick out of.” I saw Philips pale with fury and his fists clench in a very Conall-like manner.

“Well, I guess we gave him quite a show then. I should probably head back to Burnett Road. There’s nothing useful I can do here. Sir, Sergeant, Mr Keane.”

We each got a curt nod. The poor man didn’t look in any state to work, but I knew how desperately he’d feel the need to. Simply going home, after this, was unthinkable to me too.

“It’s alright,” Conall told me as Philips walked out of the gate. “A patrol car will escort him back. Like I said, nobody goes anywhere alone from now on.”

“McKinnon won’t allow him to keep working on this, will he? Philips is too personally invested.”

“And you’re not? We’re all emotionally compromised to some extent, McKinnon included. Jackie was one of ours. Are we supposed to walk away from the case? Call in an outside team to take over and waste time bringing them up to speed?”

Hell no!

“That’s what I figured,” he told me, in response to my outraged expression. “So we’re all going to pretend we’re not bending any rules here, aren’t we? Come on, we’d better head down to Area HQ ourselves. Do you want to come with us, Shay, or shall I detail someone to escort you home?”

“Put a patrol car on my tail if you feel you must, but I’m going home.”

“Alright. There’s one parked up two cars behind you. Wait until I’ve talked to them before you drive off.”

“And at your house?” I asked. “He gets to be on his own?”

“I’m not a police officer,” Shay pointed out as we walked to our cars. “Plus, you should be hoping our man attempts something at our place. With my security system, he couldn’t get anywhere near the house without triggering a few alarms.”

“Even if he cut your power?”

“I’ve got enough stored in Powerwall batteries to last for a few days.” Of course he did. Shay Keane really didn’t go in for half measures. He looked regretfully back at Jackie’s house. “I really wish your friend had installed even a basic alarm system, Caitlin.”

Conall shot him a sharp look. “You think that was a factor?”

“I think he’s been watching some of you and may know where a lot of you live. How else could he have picked a target so quickly after seeing that composite on the news? An alarm system may or may not have put him off… Shit, Conall! I didn’t mean it like that! McKinnon is not to blame for this and neither are you.”

“You warned us airing that sketch might trigger something.”

“I advised you that it was a possibility, yes, but it might also have given you a lead that helped you catch him. It still could. It was a risk either way, and someone had to make the decision.” He shrugged helplessly. “You may as well argue that if we hadn’t spotted him on Tuesday, none of this could have happened. Standing here trying to figure out how many more, or fewer, victims every move we make might result in isn’t productive. He’ll stop when we stop him and not before. So let’s focus on doing that, shall we?”

After Conall had spoken with the patrollers and Shay had driven away with his escort, we climbed into our own car. “Did he have any useful insights to offer? Upstairs?” I asked as we drove towards Burnett Road.

“A few. He said that he thought the fact that Jackie’s eyes had been left intact was significant. The earlier murders were ritualistic. Stabbing the eyes was a part of whatever the killer thought