Nine Elms (Kate Marshall #1)(78)

“The young woman in question has been identified as Abigail Clarke. Her badly beaten body was found behind an electrical substation in Tranmere Street, on the outskirts of Crediton,” Varia was saying. A man came up to the till to pay for his petrol, and Kate stepped out of his way, her attention glued to the screen.

“A witness describes seeing a black van with tinted windows in Tranmere Street opposite the electrical substation with the Southwestern Electrical branding. However, Southwestern was unaware of a call out or anyone from the company working at this substation. We are putting out an appeal for anyone else who saw this van in the area around five to six p.m. yesterday evening. We believe this murder may be linked to the abductions and murders of Emma Newman, Kaisha Smith, and Layla Gerrard.” Pictures of the three young women flashed up on-screen, and then a photo of a young girl with blonde hair. “We believe that this individual intended to abduct Abigail on her way home from school but, instead of abducting her, murdered her at the scene.”

The news report then cut back to the news studio, and the presenter repeated the appeal for witnesses.

“Police are eager to speak to the driver or any witnesses of this van caught on CCTV two hundred yards from the scene of the crime.”

A blurred CCTV image of a black Southwestern Electrical van flashed up on-screen, and then the news report went on to show a map of the sports ground where Abigail had been training that evening and the bus stop they believed she was headed to.

Kate paid for her petrol, and as she went back to her car, her phone rang. It was Tristan.

“Did you see the news?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. “They must be really desperate if they’re releasing so much information to the public.”

“I’m home in five minutes. Come over and let’s talk it through.”



Tristan arrived at Kate’s just as she was putting a frozen lasagna in the oven.

“Do you always eat ready meals?” he asked.

“Yes. I don’t have a wife to cook for me,” she said, setting the timer. “Do you?”

“Have a wife? No. I do like to cook, though, when I have time.”

“There’s enough for two if you’re hungry,” she said. He sat down at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, and they started to talk their way through the case so far.

“This is a huge breakthrough,” said Tristan. “They have a witness to a vehicle, and he was obviously surprised at the scene.”

“They also have a definite point where he wanted to abduct her,” said Kate. She went to the countertop and picked up her computer. “They’ve put down the location as Tranmere Road, Crediton . . .”

“Tranmere Street,” said Tristan.

“Street near Crediton . . .”

“Crediton is a bit rough. What the hell was she doing walking through it on her own?”

Kate opened up Google Maps and typed in the address. She pulled up the map, and she zoomed out.

“This is the playing field they mentioned on the news,” she said, pointing at the map, “and this is the bus stop where she was due to catch her bus home.” She traced her finger along the map and found Tranmere Street.

“Bloody hell. She got so close to catching that bus,” said Tristan. “Look at the scale. She was four hundred meters away.” Kate zoomed out of the map. Tristan went on, “We don’t know where Emma Newman went missing because she was the only one who didn’t have a fixed routine. The other girls were on their way home from somewhere . . .”

“I’ve got the location of where Kaisha Smith went missing,” said Kate, going to her bag and pulling out her notebook. “She took the number sixty-four bus from the stop closest to the school training ground.”

“We just need to find out where Layla Gerrard went to catch the bus,” said Tristan.

“I can phone Alan Hexham and see if he can get it from the police report. Let’s look at the routes taken by the other victims, and let’s start thinking like a serial killer. Where would be the best spot to lie in wait and abduct someone?” said Kate.

They spent the next few hours working painstakingly through the routes on Google Maps, cross-checking where the victims lived with the bus routes they would take, and in each instance, they found a shortcut.

“I want to go and look at these locations,” said Kate. “These shortcuts the girls took or could have taken. Someone in the area might have seen something, or someone, without realizing the significance.”





46

It took an hour to drive to the location where they believed that Kaisha Smith, the second victim, had been abducted. When they searched the route, they found a point where two residential streets, Halstead Road and Marham Street, connected through a small alleyway.

Halstead Road was fairly busy, but where the alleyway emerged onto Marham Street, it was a quiet cul-de-sac, shrouded by bushes and overlooked by only one house, which happened to be empty and up for sale.

“It would be the perfect spot,” said Tristan. “He could have parked up the van and lain in wait for her here.”

Kate spied a woman coming out of a car in front of the house diagonally opposite. She opened the boot and took out a small box of cleaning supplies.

“Looks like a cleaner,” said Kate, seizing the moment. “Let’s see if she’ll talk.”