THIRTEEN
The radio in the lifeguard office began to spit static and Williams cursed and pulled his ear away from the ear piece. “Christ!” He had been told to stand by and await further instructions which had set his nerves on edge. What the hell else could they do? Widow’s Bay was only a mile from the mainland, but at the moment they just might as well be a thousand miles from anywhere for all the help they could expect.
He looked at the others, they all looked dead on their feet. Suzy and the doc’ had hardly said a word since coming back from seeing the girl in the next room. He had thought about going through to talk to her himself but what could he say to get through to her that Suzy and Patten couldn’t? Pete, bless him, had been pacing nervously around the room for the best part of an hour until about five minutes ago when he had fair collapsed exhausted into a chair in the corner all the nervous energy that had thus far been keeping him going had seemingly fled in an instant and it had knocked the wind right out of him.
“Hello? Hell-o, can... You...” The voice came through on the radio’s headphones making Williams start in shock, it was distorted to the point of almost incomprehension. He cursed and tried to listen. “Hello, can you hear me?” It said again.
“Hello, yes I can just about hear you,” Williams replied. Everyone, even Pete perked up at this new development.
“Hello? Who’s this?”
“This is P.C Williams, who the hell is this?” He strained to hear as the reception faded in and out.
“Who is it?” Munro asked.
“Give us a chance!” Williams snapped back.
Pete moved over to the radio’s console. “Here, I’ll put it on speaker then we can all hear.” He flicked a couple of switches. “You can switch the mic off Ian then they should be able to hear us as well.”
Williams switched off the mic and spoke into a small speaker/mic type contraption on the desk. “Hello?” A burst of static came through masking what the person on the other end was saying. “Christ, this reception’s shit,” he told Pete who shrugged. “Hello? Say again I didn’t catch that last part.”
“That any better?” The voice said a little clearer now.
“Yes, much better, thanks,” Williams replied with some relief. “Now who the hell is this again?”
“This is Chief Inspector Pearce. Scotland yard.”
Williams cursed under his breath. “Sorry sir,” he gave the others a look and cringed.
“Your fading in and out a bit, but that can’t be helped I’m afraid. I’m in a chopper on route to Scarborough. Has Chief Inspector Lyle filled you in on the situation?”
“No sir,” Williams replied. “Not really, to be honest he was a bit vague.”
“Scotland yard!” Munro said forgetting she could be heard.
“Who else is there with you, Williams?”
“Erm, W.P.C Munro, our local GP Doctor Rachel Patten and the lifeboat volunteer Pete Mulgrave, sir.” Then added. “Oh, and the witness, she’s in the next room.”
Suzy lent forwards towards the mic. “Sir, this is W.P.C Munro. Excuse me for asking, but what has all this got to do with Scotland Yard?”
There was a long pause and for a moment Williams feared the connection had been lost. Pete was about to mess with the tuning when the Chief Inspector spoke again. “Right, now listen carefully. And I must insist that what I’m about to tell you goes no further. That includes the good doctor and the lifeboat chappie, understand?”
Everyone nodded to Williams and crowded around him listening intently. “Of course sir,” he replied.
“Good, now who else knows you have a murder up there?”
“Just us,” Williams said. “And the killer I suppose.”
“Of course, right that’s good. I understand everything’s on lock down there due to the storm?”
“Yes sir, it’s hit us pretty bad.”
“Okay, now might sound mad from your point of view, but from mine that’s a good thing. Right, what is the situation as of right now?”
Williams thought for a moment before replying so he didn’t miss anything. “Erm, we have the witness here with us at the lifeboat station, it’s the only place with half decent power at the moment. I had to put the body in the boatshed I’m afraid, nowhere else I could think of.”
“Good man, don’t worry about it, that couldn’t be helped.” The Chief Inspector paused again before continuing. Rachel for one got a knot in her stomach, they all knew something bad was coming. “Right, judging by the pictures you took, more specifically the scarring on the victim’s back. This was the work of a serial killer we have been tracking for years.”
“Shit,” Munro gasped her blood running cold. Of course she thought she had seen the markings somewhere before.
“A serial killer?” Pete said. “Christ.”
“Of course we need to see the body for ourselves,” Pearce continued. “But I’d stake my career on it, and believe me I’ve seen too many of his victims to think otherwise.”
“Right, okay sir,” Williams said trying to keep his voice even. “What’s next?”
“What’s next is that you have a serial killer trapped on your little island for as long as this storm holds.”
“Fuck, me,” Pete whispered and got to his feet, he went over to a window and peered outside as if half expecting to see the killer standing right outside.
“Right.” Williams said all business. “What do you need us to do, sir?”
“Stay where you are for now. We are going to stomp all over that island as soon as the weather breaks. Your priority is to keep the body and especially the witness safe until we do... Huh?” He broke off and sounded to be speaking to a woman next to him, after a brief conversation he came back on. “Sorry about that. Do you have an ID on the witness?
Suzy leant forwards. “Sir, this is W.P.C Munro. Sorry no ID, she’s borderline catatonic. We got a first name though. Mary.”
“Okay,” Pearce said. “That’s a start. Do you have a photo of her?
“Yes, I think so,” Williams replied. “He motioned to his mobile which he had put on the desk. “Suzy, check my phone will you, I’m sure we took one earlier.”
“Will do,” she moved off and picked up the phone and started scrolling through the photo folder.
“Great, send it through,” Pearce told him. “Okay, now listen all of you. You have to assume the killer is still at large. Christ, he might live on the island for all we know. And if he knows you have a witness, he may try to get to her. So keep an eye out.”
“Yes sir,” Williams said.
“About the witness, I know she’s in shock, but you need to press her for a description. We’ll need something for when we hit the island.”
Patten didn’t like the sound of that, she moved forwards and put a hand on Williams’ shoulder, he sat back and she leaned into the mic. “Chief Inspector. This is Rachel Patten, the doctor? I’m sorry but she’s in no state to tell us anything at the moment. She’s too far gone. What she really needs is a professional psychologist.”
“I sympathise doctor, really I do,” Pearce said, his voice growing more distorted as the storm continued playing havoc with the signal. “But by our reckoning there’s close to a hundred and fifty, two hundred people on that island. Mostly students who come and go. I need to know what this guy looks like. Like it or not doctor, you have a mad man running around on that island, one we’ve been after for years. This girl is the only real lead we’ve had so far. She’s seen him, Christ, she might even know the bastard.”
“We understand sir,” Williams said. He gave Patten a sympathetic shrug but she just gave him daggers back.
“I’m sorry to be harsh, but don’t pussy foot around with her, we don’t have that luxury.” Pearce said with an ominous finality. Patten moved to speak but Williams touched her arm and shook his head no.
“Jesus Christ,” Patten said and turned away for fear she would say more.
Suzy put her hand on the doctor’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Then she turned to the mic. “We’ll do our best sir,” she said.
“I know you will,” Pearce replied sounding more and more like a Dalek as the signal phased in and out. “Keep her safe, and yourselves. We’ll never get a better chance than this. I’ll contact you again when we know when we can get across to you. Good luck. Out.”
“Yes sir, thank you, out.” Williams hit the off switch and the speaker faded out.
Pete pressed his face against the window and cupped his hands over his eyes to look outside. “Holy Christ. A serial killer, here?”
“Sleepy little Widow’s Bay, eh?” Suzy said.
Widow means death, Patten thought bleakly. Wasn’t that what Mary had said before?
Without realizing it, Rachel found herself almost guarding the door to the next room when Williams got to his feet with an air of real purpose about him. She moved between the policeman and the door ready to block him if he tried to interrogate Mary. “Ian,” she said as firmly as she could. “She’s not ready for this we need to give her some space.”
Williams held out his hands defensively. “I agree. But I think maybe you should try again. The last thing she needs is twenty questions from the police, I get that.”
“I’m not a shrink,” she said and saw Williams looking down at her hands which were by her sides. She glanced down and saw she had made them into fists.
“I know,” he said softly. “But please, give it ago. Anything she can remember might be the difference between catching this guy and him getting away.”
“I’ll try,” Rachel relented and made a conscious effort to relax her hands.
“Thanks,” he said then turned to Munro. “Get your gear on Suzy, we’re going to give the area the once over, just to make sure.”
Suzy pulled on her coat and began checking her duty belt, taking out each item in turn to make sure it was in working order. CS spray, baton, torch and cuffs.
As she did so, Williams clipped on his own belt and pulled on his coat. “Pete, keep your eye out, we’ll only be a few minutes and don’t open the door for anyone but us, okay?”
“Jesus Christ,” Pete uttered looking green in the gills. “Okay, but you know if we were in America you two would have guns. I’d probably have one too.”
“Things are bad enough as they are without you wandering about with a gun,” Suzy said. “You’d almost certainly shoot yourself in the foot.” Then to Williams; “Right, I’m ready.”
“Okay then, five minutes tops, see you soon.” With that Munro and Williams moved over to the door. Williams opened it ever so slightly and it immediately began rattling violently on its hinges as the wind outside caught it. He turned to his colleague. “You know, I can’t remember the last time I was dry?”
And then they were gone out into the night. Pete forced the door closed with his shoulder. “Can you believe this shit?” He said.
“No,” Rachel replied. “No I can’t.”