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THREE
Grace, Nick and Perry presented their warrant cards to another uniformed officer with a clipboard and, once he’d noted them down, began the sombre walk to the body. The school was at the end of a road that led to a single access lane. With hedges on both sides, and knowing what she was about to look at, Grace couldn’t help feeling claustrophobic. It was eerily quiet too, once they’d left behind the noise of the school. Grace shivered, even though the April day was mild.
After a steep incline, the entrance to the field loomed at them. There was another police car parked, its tailgate open. Inside were the items they were required to put on before going to the crime scene, to avoid contamination and help them catch only their killer’s DNA and vital evidence – forensic white suits and shoe covers, latex gloves and masks to cover their mouths.
They each dressed in the appropriate gear and turned off the lane, through a gap in the hedge. Grace looked in front of her; there were a few bushes scattered across the grassy landscape and a large hedge around the perimeter. To her left, she had a clear view across some of the city, seeing rows of houses and gardens, and a large football playing field with a changing hut.
If this death was suspicious, Grace mused, it would be the second murder investigation in Stoke-on-Trent since she’d arrived. Back in September, she had helped to catch a serial killer. The timing couldn’t have been more poignant, but then again, the killer was someone she had known, so it was no coincidence that their rampage coincided with her return to her birth town.
Since then, the city had been fairly quiet. There had been the usual assaults, domestics and some low-level crime, but nothing as big as her first case with her team.
They reached the tent. In the far distance, Grace could see a row of gardens from properties that backed onto the field. She doubted any surveillance would scope this far, but made a mental note to send someone to contact their owners anyway. Then she took a deep breath before following Nick.
It was unprofessional, she knew, but she couldn’t stop the tears welling in her eyes as she took in the young girl at her feet. She had long blonde hair and a heavy fringe. Her head was partly facing away from them, her eyes open and thankfully looking in the opposite direction.
The bruising around her neck was prominent now, popping up from above the collar of her sweatshirt. The uniform of leggings and long sleeves was different from the one Grace remembered from her school days: T-shirts and short skirts, and the mottled legs that weren’t a nice look when it was cold.
She seemed a pretty girl. Grace wondered if she had been popular at school.
‘She would have been so full of life until this morning.’ Her voice was low. ‘Why would anyone take that away from her?’
‘Are you okay?’ Nick asked.
‘Something in my eye.’ Grace blinked profusely, not caring who saw her in distress. ‘Although if I didn’t have any emotion, I couldn’t do this job.’
‘Whereas I have to switch mine off to do it,’ Dave Barnett, the senior crime scene investigating officer said, acknowledging them at the same time. ‘I wouldn’t survive a week if I didn’t.’
‘I think it’s good to have feelings,’ Grace said. ‘What happened to her, Dave?’
‘On first thoughts, she’s been asphyxiated.’ Dave pointed to the bruising on the victim’s neck. ‘But it could be a case of a murder not quite there. Either someone cocked up and didn’t finish the job, or they knew what they were looking for and left her to die.’
‘I don’t follow,’ Grace said.
‘You can strangle someone until they stop breathing altogether, or if you press on the carotid artery in the right place, the heart will slow down and a victim will lose consciousness quite quickly, usually in seconds. If left that way without being revived, it takes no more than five minutes to die, depending on the age and health of the victim.’
‘So you suspect she was still alive when the girls ran for help?’ Grace swallowed.
‘I think our killer either panicked or ran out of time.’ Dave nodded.
‘Based on several statements, it would seem it was a time issue. And everyone thought she’d had a seizure at first, until the bruises started to appear,’ Nick explained.
‘How did she get singled out?’ Perry questioned. ‘She would have been in a class of, what, thirty?’
‘It could be someone who is close to our victim, who knows her routine,’ Grace suggested.
‘Any sexual assault?’ Nick asked Dave.
Grace found herself holding her breath as she waited for an answer.
‘It’s not looking likely,’ Dave said. ‘Maybe your killer was disturbed when the other girls came back to look for her. Poor kids will be traumatised, no doubt.’
‘If they had nothing to do with it.’ Grace nodded, knowing they’d be talking to their witnesses very soon.
‘We need to check out any known offenders in the area, regardless,’ Nick continued.
Grace moved closer to the victim. ‘Are we looking at an opportunist?’ she asked. ‘We’re in the middle of a field. Our killer might have seen the pupils out on a run, else how would someone have known she’d fall behind? And there would only have been a matter of minutes to pounce.’
‘It’s a tricky one.’ Nick paused. ‘We’ll inform the parents after talking to the headmaster. And we’ll have to be quick as I bet it’s already broken out on social media.’
‘But she was ID’d by her teacher,’ Perry said, ‘as well as the girls who found her.’
Grace finally stepped out of the tent and breathed in heavily. It always got to her when she first saw a victim’s body – the heaviness, the sadness, the sheer callousness of these acts. She wondered how Dave coped with it all the time.
Alongside Nick and Perry, she removed her forensic clothing and placed everything carefully into evidence bags. Then they began the walk back to the school. All around her was that feeling of bleakness, a sense of desolation. Glancing back, she reflected again on the pointless loss of life.
Once on the lane, she took out her phone. She wanted to see who was saying what about their dead girl. Like most cops, Grace had a love-hate relationship with social media. Sometimes it was great for their intelligence, getting to the root of things, because some people are more likely to be honest online than to the police. Other times, it was macabre, reporting on real-time crimes before victims’ families had been notified.
She clicked onto Twitter and typed in the girl’s name. Nothing there yet, thankfully, but she saw the hashtag #deadgirlatDunwood was trending in the local area. Next, she tracked down Lauren Ansell on Facebook, the image of the girl startling her as she popped up so full of life on her page. Despite her age, Lauren didn’t have a closed profile, so it was all over that feed.
Posts were coming through, even though her status hadn’t been updated since nine thirty the night before, which could mean that some of the pupils’ parents would know by now as the rumour mill exploded.
Are you okay?
I’ve heard something’s happened at your school. Message me!
This can’t be true. Not Lauren. This is a wind-up!
‘It’s all over Twitter and Facebook that something’s going on at the school.’ Grace showed Nick the screen. ‘Some are already sensationalising it. I do hope we can get to her next of kin in time.’
‘I just pray she isn’t friends with her own parents,’ Nick added. ‘We’d better get over there as soon as we can.’
FOUR
Dunwood Academy was an L-shaped two-storey building. It had been rebuilt on the grounds of a previous high school and then given a different name as well as a complete makeover. Everything about it was modern and new, markings still fresh outside on the tarmac and painted white walls inside with hardly a scuff. But today it had an eerie sense of shock, an undertone of fear that made it seem duller than it was.
As Nick went back to his car to make some calls, a man at the entrance gave them directions to the headmaster’s office, checking first via his phone that the head was there. Grace walked by Perry’s side, along two empty corridors and up a flight of stairs. The school secretary’s office was the first on the left. Nathan Stiller was in there waiting for them.
Nathan was in his early forties. Grace couldn’t help feeling she was stereotyping him, but he was fashion model material. Discreetly, she clocked his choppy dark hair, short but tidy beard and navy-blue suit with slim-fit trousers and waistcoat. His black brogues were shiny, his shirt the proverbial crisp white. Not at all what you’d expect from a schoolteacher.
But his demeanour was forlorn. All this would come down on him, Grace assumed. He would most likely blame himself too, as much as the teacher who had taken the PE lesson.
After introducing themselves, Grace and Perry were shown into his office. Grace glanced around before they all sat down. On the wall were certificates for qualifications Stiller had taken, an award for the school itself and a few photos of pupils gathered together. One she spotted was a clip from Stoke News. Several pupils were holding up a giant cheque for £2,000 for local charity Douglas Macmillan Hospice.
‘I can’t believe this has happened,’ Nathan said. ‘It’s such a shock. I’ve been the head at this school for five years, so I’ve known Lauren since she first came here in Year 7.’
‘Obviously, we need to contact her parents as a matter of urgency, Mr Stiller,’ Grace said.
‘Please, call me Nathan. They’re divorced. I wasn’t sure whether to contact her mother or not until I’d spoken to you – she lives locally. In the end, I felt I had to ask her to come to the school. But her phone went to voicemail. I left a message about half an hour ago.’
‘Do you have any other details?’ Grace asked. ‘Does she work? What about Lauren’s father?’
‘Yes. I’ve got them up onscreen.’ Nathan sat down at his desk and wiggled the mouse to wake up his computer. ‘Mrs Ansell remarried and is named Gillespie now. She works at Mintons Solicitors in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Her ex-husband lives in Derby.’
‘Does the class take cross-country every week at the same time?’ she asked.
‘No.’ Nathan wrote down details before looking up again. ‘It’s as and when the weather permits and never more than once a month. Robert sorts it out so that each year has a lesson.’
‘Robert?’ Perry queried.
‘Robert Carmichael. He’s the PE teacher. The classes get very competitive and it gives the pupils a good workout in the fresh air.’
‘Who owns the field where Lauren was found?’ Grace questioned.
‘Arthur Barrett and his family – a local farming generation. The school have been using it with their permission for over twenty years.’ Nathan shook his head in disbelief. ‘I hope I don’t have to suspend Robert for not watching them all.’
‘He can’t have eyes in the back of his head,’ Perry said.
‘I guess. But it only takes one person to blame him. And me.’ Nathan ran a hand through his hair and swallowed. ‘Although, according to some of the pupils, he shouted at them to hurry up a few times.’
‘We need a list of the pupils who took his class, too,’ Grace said. ‘We’ll have to speak to them all over the course of the next day or two. If there aren’t enough teachers spare to sit with the pupils, or if any parents or guardians specifically want to be with their children when we speak to them, we’ll arrange appointments. Whatever happens, everything will be dealt with in a sensitive manner.’
Nathan nodded his understanding.
‘What’s the school like?’ she asked next. ‘Any problems you’re aware of?’
‘Dunwood Academy is doing well this year.’ Grace heard pride in his voice as he continued. ‘There used to be two high schools until we joined forces, covering a wider area. There was initially concern about the number of its pupils, and special measures being in place at one of the two previous schools. It could have gone either way. One could have brought the other down to their level, but it didn’t. The academy’s performing well now.’
‘There was never any tension between the students from each school?’ she asked.
‘There was, but not for a long time.’
‘We’ll require a register of both staff and pupils – who is present and also who is absent today, please,’ Grace said. ‘Likewise, we have your CCTV to check, especially with the lack of surveillance equipment and witnesses in the lane.’
‘I’ve already arranged for that to be done.’ Nathan gave a loud sigh. ‘I only found out when Robert called me after he’d requested an ambulance. When I saw Lauren, that was when I called the police.’
‘What’s Robert like?’ Grace asked.
‘He’s a good man. I’ve known him for five years, since I started here.’ Nathan lowered his voice. ‘And there was no … sexual assault?’
‘It’s too early to say.’ Perry was non-committal. ‘But we’ll keep you informed.’
Nathan’s face paled as his thoughts went into overdrive.
‘It’s highly unlikely, seeing as the whole incident could have only lasted a few minutes according to the timeline of the Piggott twins,’ Grace said, hoping to pacify him. ‘We like to keep an open mind until we have forensic evidence, though.’
Grace thought back to her last case. She’d kept an open mind then but had been totally shocked at the end result. Relocating to Stoke after the murder of her estranged father earlier that year had left her vulnerable. The shock of her first murder case being on her family’s grounds was immense, and after her half-sister had been apprehended as the killer, things could have turned out worse for Grace, but her team had stood by her. She wouldn’t take any chances or make any assumptions this time.
Jade Steele was in prison now, awaiting trial for murdering four people and assaulting her brother Leon. It would stay with Grace for the rest of her life what Jade had been capable of, but she also believed it was only because of Jade’s upbringing. Jade had been abused for most of her life by their father and his friends, and she was taking revenge on a group of men who had been grooming young women. It had been hard to police – Grace herself got away from the man when she was twelve. Could she have gone down a similar path if she hadn’t? But it had also been thrilling when she’d been involved in solving the case.
‘Well, you have my full cooperation to do whatever’s necessary,’ Nathan said. ‘Also, if there’s anything you require while you’re here, be sure to let me know.’
‘We’ll need to set up a mobile police unit in your car park,’ Grace said, ‘and we could do with somewhere to use to speak to people.’
‘I’ve made the decision to close the school for lessons. It won’t be popular with everyone, but I thought it was the right thing to do. We can arrange counselling sessions from tomorrow. Most pupils will be collected as soon as possible, but we do have some who will need to stay here until parents can pick them up at the end of the day. You can use any of the classrooms.’ Nathan paused as if he were gathering his emotions. ‘We’ll look after everyone as best we can. I’ll assemble them in the large hall. It serves as a school canteen during lunch break. We can hand out drinks and food where necessary. I think it will do the students good to sit together.’
‘Yes, it’s going to affect a lot of them,’ Grace replied.
When there were no more questions, Grace turned to Nathan. ‘Can you see if Courtney and Caitlin are still here, please?’ she said. ‘We need to have a chat with them.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Nathan nodded. ‘I’ll get in touch with their form teachers.’ His phone went off and he quickly read the message. ‘Robert’s in the medical room when you need him. He was feeling sick, well, after seeing the body.’
Grace nodded. ‘Can you bring him to us?’
‘Yes. You can use my classroom, too.’
FIVE
Grace was startled by all the images on the walls when they were shown into the classroom. It seemed as if she had walked into a set from Game of Thrones. She assumed they were in a history room and, even though the novels were fantasy, Nathan Stiller was using the popular series to encourage the pupils to learn about darker times.
She tried not to stare at an almost life-size image of the actor Sean Bean at the back of the room, looking all caveman rough-and-ready. To her right, fictional character Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, was looking just as tempting. It was quite some show, as were the books themselves. Grace had been bereft when the seventh series had finished on a cliff-hanger after binge-watching all of them. She looked forward to watching the final season, if she ever had time.
Robert Carmichael was sitting at the desk at the front of the room. He was of average build with dark brown hair. His face was as white as chalk, the smell of vomit lingering around him. He wore grey tracksuit trousers and a black T-shirt that was in need of an iron, obviously a spare. Grace knew that he would have changed out of his clothes regardless. Forensics would have bagged them up after he left the crime scene.
After introductions, Grace asked him to run through what had happened that morning.
‘It was another lesson, nothing out of the ordinary,’ Robert began. ‘Most of the pupils were in front of me, with only the lane to run. There was a supply teacher helping me out at the front.’
‘Name of?’ she asked.
‘Sarah Flynn. She’s only been with us a few weeks at the most.’
Grace wrote down the woman’s name for future reference.
‘There were a few girls at the back of the group who I’d had to cajole to finish,’ Robert added.
‘How many are in the class?’ Perry asked.
‘Thirty-one.’
‘So twenty-eight on the lane and three left in the field?’
Robert nodded. He held a hand over his mouth as he swallowed quickly a few times.
‘Are you okay?’ Grace asked, wondering if he was going to be sick. ‘Would you like a glass of water?’
Robert shook his head, faltering before speaking again. ‘I should have kept an eye on them.’ Tears welled in his eyes. ‘But when I looked behind me, I could see them on the lane, so I kept on going. I now realise there must have been only two of them. I was almost back at the school when Courtney came running down to fetch me.’
‘Courtney’s one of the girls who found her?’ Grace queried.
‘Yes, Courtney Piggott. She said that Lauren had collapsed in the field and that Courtney’s sister, Caitlin, was with her. She said I needed to hurry, as she didn’t think Lauren was breathing. I told her to go back to the school and let the headmaster know what had happened, but she was hysterical, so I rang Nathan on my phone while I ran back up the lane. When I got to Lauren, I realised that Courtney had followed me. The rest of the class had gone back inside the school, luckily.’
‘Did you notice anyone else around?’ she asked.
‘Not that I recall, but then I was worried about Lauren.’ He took a deep breath before looking at them. ‘When I got to her, I could see she wasn’t breathing, so I called for an ambulance. I know basic first aid, so I tried to resuscitate her. All the while the twins were crying by my side.’ He swallowed. ‘I tried for such a long time, but in the end, I knew I’d lost her. That’s when I noticed the marks coming out around her neck.’
Grace noted he was pointing at the floor, as if the body were at their feet. She couldn’t help but feel for the teacher. He was doing his job and this would probably scar him for the rest of his life. People would look at him differently, despite him doing nothing wrong.
Lots of people had regrets after things like this happened. It only took a second or two for something drastic to occur, for lives to be ruined: the child who wriggled out of its father’s grip and ran out into a busy road; the woman who decided to walk through a dark alley rather than the long way around; someone driving too fast because they were late for an appointment. While they weren’t in the right, Grace had sympathy.
‘I waited until Nathan arrived and he confirmed what I knew. The paramedics came quickly after, and they worked on her too, but we all knew she was dead. Then the police arrived and declared it a crime scene.’ Robert put his head in his hands and wept unashamedly. ‘It was my fault. I should have checked again to see there was no one lagging behind.’
Once Robert had gathered himself, he left the room. Grace turned to Perry and sighed loudly.
‘That poor man’s going to be haunted by this. He’s going to torture himself for not being there, for having his eye on most of the class rather than all of them; though how he was supposed to do that is beyond me. He’s going to think he could have stopped her death if he was behind them.’
‘He can’t see everything.’
‘Try telling him that when he wakes up covered in sweat after a nightmare in which he sees Lauren running and then being grabbed, and there’s nothing he can do about it.’
‘That’s a bit dramatic,’ Perry added.
‘I’ll bet it’s what happens. Carmichael didn’t do anything wrong and yet we both know he’s going to be made into a scapegoat until we catch the killer.’ Grace checked her phone for messages. ‘We need to move fast on questioning the twins,’ she confirmed. ‘First up on our list will be to find out if Lauren had a boyfriend.’
‘You think she might have been killed by another pupil?’ Perry frowned. ‘I mean, I’m not ruling it out. It could have happened, but really?’
‘Assuming that Lauren knew her killer, I’d say we need to rule out jealous peers first.’ Grace shrugged. ‘Maybe Caitlin or Courtney Piggott had a grudge to bear. Twins might cover up for each other, too.’
Perry pulled a face. ‘It’s a possibility – gruesome though.’
Although she’d seen some similarly awful things in the past, Grace shuddered at the thought.
‘I’d say anything is game at the moment, with no witnesses or camera footage to go on.’ Grace’s phone beeped and she retrieved the message that had been sent. ‘Nick’s after me. He wants you to speak to the Piggott twins while I go with him to inform Lauren’s mum and dad.’
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