John Steel Collection - Books 4-6

Chapter 3-2

“No, ma’am,” Tony replied, trying to keep a straight face. However, the quick lift of the corner of his mouth gave him away. As Tooms and Tony headed back to their blue Challenger, McCall looked up at the building, towards the fourth floor. She took a deep breath to get herself in the right frame of mind.

* * *

McCall had ended up taking the elevator, having rejected the prospect of the long walk up the stairs. She felt a little lazy for doing so, but then it was far too early for a Stairmaster workout—besides, she hadn’t had her coffee yet. The steel box elevator was small, and she wondered how the designated ‘twenty people allowed’ was even possible.

With a shudder and an alarming flicker from the lights, the elevator stopped on the fourth floor. The doors slid open to reveal the crime scene technicians getting to work on evidence collection. McCall could see through the open door her friend Tina, kneeling over the body, taking the liver temperature of the young woman.

As she approached, McCall tried to repress a sudden expression of disgust at the way the woman had been brutalised. Amber Taylor had been tall with long brown hair. Her blue eyes were open, and still registered the terror she must have felt. The rest of her face had been badly cut, and the jaw was broken. If she had once been a pretty woman, someone had clearly gone out of their way to hide it.

“Hey, Tina,” McCall greeted the ME as she walked round to the side of her friend.

“Are we sure it’s her?” McCall asked, almost daring to hope there might have been a mistake.

“Tony identified the clothing,” Tina replied. “They had met up that morning, and she had worn the same outfit then, in fact, poor Tony showed me a photograph he had taken on his cell.” Tina picked up a small evidence bag, inside which was a necklace. “The photograph also shows that this was around her neck.” The doctor pointed to a purse next to a large beige handbag, which lay on the breakfast bar. McCall picked up the purse and found Amber’s ID inside.

“I will still run tests, but I think we’ve got enough for an identification for the time being.” Tina sounded as sad as she looked. McCall nodded as she placed the purse back onto the breakfast bar.

“Hey. How’s our boy doin’?” Tina still couldn’t forget the look on Tony’s face when he had identified her.

“Too soon to tell, I guess,” Sam said as she pulled on her surgical gloves. “I sent him back to the precinct to do a check on our vic.”

“Are you sure that’s the right thing to do? Why not send him home?” Tina’s question made McCall give her one of those ‘really’ looks.

“If I send him home, then he goes stir crazy and does God knows what. Besides, you’re a fine one to talk, lady. Did you stay at home after that trouble in the morgue?” Tina shot McCall a guilty look, knowing that her friend was right.

“So, what killed her?” Sam asked, taking out her small notebook to note down any facts the ME had.

“Well, I don’t know for sure until I get her back to the office, but I’d say she was tortured. Possibly for hours,” Tina said, jotting down another point on her report form.

McCall took a small camera from her jacket pocket and started to take her own photographs. This was something she had learnt some time ago, and it made sense because she didn’t have time to wait for the CSU to produce their shots. Besides, she figured that she might pick up on something that they missed.

“By the look of things, they started at the feet and worked up. Some of the injuries I won’t find till later, but others are obvious.” Tina pointed to a hole in Amber’s upper leg. “Someone took a corkscrew to this poor woman’s femur. By the look of things, it went in deep.” Tina pointed to the metal corkscrew that lay next to the body.

“They removed the skin from her fingers using a potato peeler. Sammy, I tell you we are lookin’ for one sick individual.” As Tina finished her sentence, she could see the look of horror in McCall’s face.

“Could it be him – could he back?” McCall mumbled. A shiver ran down Tina’s spine as she realised who McCall was talking about, a sadistic killer they had all encountered almost a year ago, a man who now called himself Mr Williams.

“But he has been gone for over a year now. In fact, I thought he was dead,” Tina said, standing up. The two women looked at each other, terror in their eyes. A sudden noise from above made the pair jump, breaking McCall from her trance of concentration. Someone was in the room above. McCall turned to one of the two uniforms who were guarding the door.

“Officer!” she yelled to get their attention. The young cop immediately turned to face her.

“Yes, Detective?” he answered, but he did not enter the room for fear of contamination of the crime scene.

“Has anyone spoken to the neighbour’s upstairs?” Sam asked as she looked up at the sound of heavy footsteps on the flooring above.

“I don’t know, but I will find out,” the cop replied and was about to head off to check.

“Never mind.” She raised a hand to signal for him to stop before he disappeared to find someone.

“Go upstairs and talk to whoever is above us. They may have heard something. If they say they didn’t, ask again, because we can hear everything that’s happening up there,” Sam said with a smile. The officer nodded then rushed away to go and find out what he could.

McCall turned back around to face her friend. Dr Tina Franks was busy watching two men in blue overalls with the words ‘Coroner’s Office’ on the back in white lettering. The men were carefully placing the body into a black plastic body bag ready for transport back to the morgue.

Tina looked up and met McCall’s gaze, which reflected her own look of concern. Previously they had known a man, an evil man, who had killed three women in the most horrible way. Now their thoughts went back to that person and hoped it was him because it was terrifying to think that there could be another who was as depraved as he was.

“So, where’s your shadow?” Tina asked, looking around for the tall detective. McCall shrugged as if it was no big deal he wasn’t there.

“He’s probably off saving the world or something,” McCall’s words were uncaring. She had work to do, and he knew the address and the circumstances. She figured that if he wanted to be there, he would be.

But he wasn’t.

The sound of the uniformed officer knocking on the door’s frame caused both McCall and Tina to turn to face him.

“Detective, the couple above said they didn’t hear anything until around ten o’clock. That’s when they heard a woman scream.” The officer almost sounded apologetic that he didn’t have more. McCall smiled and thanked him before turning to Tina.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Tina said, shaking her head. “There was no way that she could have endured that much pain and not screamed out.”

Sam had to agree. Amber must have wanted to scream out, if only as a way of attracting the attention of neighbours.

“Where’s the roommate?” asked a voice that came from behind the young officer. McCall tried to hide her smile at the sight of the uniform, who had nearly leapt out of his skin at the sudden appearance of the man behind him. Detective Steel was standing close enough to the man to be his shadow.

“Where have you been, Steel? I texted you ages ago.” McCall’s words sounded hurt and angry.

“I met Tony and Tooms on the way. I was making sure Tony was OK.” His British accent had a calm and gentle tone. The officer turned to face the tall detective; whose unorthodox appearance had made him nearly soil himself. At six foot two, Steel was taller than the officer by about two inches. Enough to make the young cop rethink the scornful look he was about to give him. Steel wore a black suit with a high-collared black shirt. Black Bugatti boots shone from being highly polished, but the uniformed cop only noticed two things: the strange leather-and-wool trench coat that stretched from Steel’s broad shoulders to his calves, and the sunglasses. It was eleven at night, and he was wearing sunglasses!

“Good evening, doctor. Always a pleasure to see you, despite the circumstances in which we have to meet.” Steel’s words sang with an innocent flirtation, which made the attractive ME blush. Steel watched as one of the orderlies closed the body bag. He noticed the victim’s face had been pretty before someone had gone to work on her. He wondered how Tony could have been so sure of her identity after such injuries. As the zipper closed, there was a silence from everyone, as if they had all lost a friend. In a way, they had, for she had been Tony’s girlfriend, which made her family. Steel headed towards McCall, who was still taking photographs of everything she felt was important.

“Any idea where the roommate is?” he asked.

McCall stopped shooting and shook her head.

“We don’t even know who she is or what she looks like. And in case you hadn’t noticed, this place isn’t exactly bustling with photographs,” McCall said, waving a gloved hand around the room, pointing out the unusual lack of pictures of anything on the walls. “No pictures of boyfriends, family, or even of a pet. Nothing.”

“Maybe she’s camera shy?” Steel joked as he looked around the room, then headed for a stack of boxes that sat neatly in the middle of the floor near the breakfast bar. The boxes were full of Amber’s stuff. Each one was neatly labelled, showing its contents like an inventory list. Steel found it strange that there were only around seven large boxes but then figured that the rest were in storage or en route.

“She had just moved in by the look of things,” Steel pointed out.

McCall nodded, but he figured that she had already noticed that.

“Surely the building super should know what her name is, a neighbour even?” Steel said, shocked that there was nothing to show there was a roommate apart from a bedroom full of clothes and some personal items.

“We will speak to the super in the morning. Unfortunately, he picked tonight to see his kid in New Jersey,” McCall added. “We called him, but he doesn’t have a car, but he’ll be on the first train tomorrow.” Steel shot McCall a strange look, which she disregarded, turning away from him.

It was too late at night for stupid conspiracy theories.

It was too late at night for stupid conspiracy theories“Do we suspect the invisible friend to be part of this?” Steel asked as he continued to browse through the boxes. McCall shrugged at Steel’s question.

“Who knows? But you can be sure I will ask her as soon as we find her.” Her voice was angry, but the fury was not directed at Steel. She was angry that one of their own had been hurt. Tony had not been physically hurt but emotionally harmed.

Tina Franks picked up the metal suitcase, which contained her examination kit, and turned to the two detectives.

“I am heading back to get her ready for the autopsy,” she told the pair of detectives. “If you want to be there, I will be starting around eight o’clock.”

McCall shook her head, although she was pleased to be invited.

“No, it’s fine, you can just let us know when you’re done,” McCall replied.

“Sure. It looks like your vic died between eight and ten o’clock, but I will have more for you once I get her back to the lab,” Tina said, pulling off her blue surgical gloves.

McCall nodded. Tina waited for the orderlies to finish strapping the body onto the medical gurney then followed them out. Samantha McCall looked back around the room, hoping to get some sort of clue as to why the girl had been tortured. The room was still immaculate. She could have understood if the apartment had been trashed, indicating a frenzied uncontrolled attack.

But everything looked as if nothing unusual had happened there.