‘Mum, can we have a lift to the pictures, please?’

Cathy sighed and turned around to walk back out.

‘And is it okay if I sleep at Ellie’s house?’

She nodded. Another night of peace and quiet. It also meant she could go to Jake’s house and not have to worry about leaving Georgia on her own while they discussed the possibility of Henry Smith being back on the scene. Her daughter had an overstuffed backpack with her that rattled. As long as it wasn’t her bottle of vanilla vodka she didn’t care, so she ignored it.

‘Stick that in the boot, Georgia, and take that bloody football out. It’s been rolling around all the way home driving me mad.’

‘I haven’t got a football. Did you leave a tin of baked beans in it when you went shopping last night?’

‘Possibly. Well, have a look and take it out, whatever it is, please.’

Georgia, who was chattering away to her friends, opened the boot that never locked because it needed fixing and waited for the light to flicker into life. When it did it took her a few seconds to register that the face staring back at her was dead. She pulled away and looked for her mother, wondering if this was some kind of joke and if it was a mask, but then a bluebottle crawled out of the woman’s open mouth and Georgia began to scream.

Cathy, who was gulping cola from the bottle in the kitchen, heard the noise and dropped the bottle onto the worktop where the fizzy brown liquid glugged all over. Her heart skipped a beat. She didn’t understand what her daughter was screaming at. She ran out of the front door to see Georgia standing at the boot of the car, her mouth open and the most awful sound coming from it. Thinking that she’d trapped her fingers or dropped the bottles of alcohol in her backpack she ran around to see what the commotion was.

Cathy looked down into the boot and felt the world begin to swim as bile rose up her throat. There was a woman’s head staring back at her. She pushed her daughter away, and her friends, and screamed at them to get inside the house and lock the doors. After pulling her phone from her pocket she dialled the control room and told them to get patrols to her house now. She looked once more at the head and wondered why the fuck it was in the boot of her daughter’s car, and who would have had the audacity to do such a thing?

The neighbours from either side came out to see if everything was okay and Cathy wasn’t been able to speak to them. For once in her life she was speechless and just shrugged and held her hand up for them not to come any closer. She had been relieved to see them, but she couldn’t have them seeing what was inside the car. She was going to have nightmares for the rest of her life. She couldn’t inflict that on two seventy-year-olds. She’d driven all the way back with it rolling around the inside of her car. Finally snapping herself out of it, she went to her front door and asked Georgia if she was okay. Her daughter was sniffing but had thankfully stopped screaming. Her face was white. Her two friends were sitting either side of her on the sofa.

‘I need you to stay in here, make sure the windows and doors are locked and shut all the curtains.’

‘Mum, how did that get into my car?’

‘I don’t know, sweetie, I really don’t. It’s been in there since I set off from the police station at Windermere so whoever did it is probably still up there, but I don’t want to take any chances.’

‘We locked up before it got dark, but I’ll check again.’

‘Good girl. I’m really sorry but I’m not going to be able to take you to the cinema now. You’re going to have to talk to the police officers who come. They won’t be long and you’ll have to give them a statement, and then I’ll get one of them to drive you to Ellie’s house and you can all stay there. Is that okay?’

All three girls nodded and the sirens in the distance got louder. Cathy had never felt so relieved to hear them and she turned around and walked to the edge of her drive to flag them down. Then Cathy phoned Will.

***

Will put the phone down and relayed what Cathy had told him to Jake, Kav – who’d just arrived – and Annie.

‘I’ve got to go. Please can you stay here with Annie, Jake?’

Kav stood up. ‘I’m coming with you, then we’ll come back if it’s not too late. We need to sort out what we’re going to do about this situation.’

Jake escorted them to the front door where he let them out and then locked it again. He went back into the kitchen.

‘All those bloody flies – now we know why. I can’t believe he would be so brazen as to dump a head in the boot of a police inspector’s car. I can’t sit here; I need to know what’s happening. Do you know where she lives?’

Annie nodded. ‘You’re right, we need to be there. I want to know what’s happening. It’s no good sitting here like a pair of wimps.’

Alex came downstairs and Jake pecked him on the cheek.

‘I’ll be back as soon as I can. There’s been an emergency. All hands on deck sort of thing.’

Alex frowned at him. ‘Please be careful. I’m not too happy that you’re both going wherever it is. Should I know where you’re going and why?’

They both replied ‘No’ in unison.

‘Lock the doors, Alex, and ring me if you need me. I’ll be back here before you know it.’

Alex sighed but shut and locked the front door behind them. He didn’t really want to know but now he was going to be worried sick until they came back. Alice started crying and he turned around and ran back upstairs, glad he had her to take his mind off wondering what the emergency was.

Chapter Fifteen

Will pulled up behind the two vans with flashing lights and ducked under the crime-scene tape that was sealing off the drive. Cathy was huddled to one side, her arms wrapped around herself, and Will didn’t think he’d ever seen her looking so scared. She was talking to the young officer who must have been first on scene and she smiled to see Will.

‘Thank God you’re here. This is a right mess. My daughter found it because I told her to take her sodding football out of the boot of the car. All the way home, around every bend, there was a thudding sound as it rolled from one side of the boot to the other.’ She shivered.

‘How is she? That must have been an awful shock for her.’

‘She’s inside the house with her two friends. I think she’s calmed down now. At least she’s stopped bloody screaming.’

Will walked across to the boot of the car and peered inside; he felt his insides turn to ice as two cold, dead eyes stared back at him. He couldn’t say because that was Matt’s job, but he would bet money that this head belonged to the body Stu had found this morning. He had no idea who this woman was. She hadn’t even been reported missing, but whoever she was she hadn’t deserved to die like this. He turned to Cathy who was relatively calm now that she’d got over the initial shock.

‘What are we going to do, Will?’

Before he could answer he heard Jake’s voice talking to the officers standing guard. He turned and saw Annie in the front of Jake’s car and smiled at her. He was going to kill Jake, bringing her here. He strolled over to Jake, grabbed hold of his elbow and dragged him over to where Cathy was.

‘What the fuck are you doing bringing Annie here – to a crime scene?’

‘She wouldn’t stay with Alex. What was I supposed to do? And do you not think she’s been to enough crime scenes? I think she knows what to expect and I’d rather she was here where we can all keep an eye on her. I made her promise to stay in the car.’

Cathy looked at them both.

‘So I’m asking once more, what are we supposed to do? It’s getting personal. Why would whoever this is put a head in the boot of a police officer’s car? They must have known that it was. I’m trying my best to think of a reason that someone might want to do something so sick and twisted but I can’t. Every single time it comes back down to him. He is the only person sick enough, with an axe to grind and a grudge as big as a mountain. We don’t know where Henry Smith is but I’m positive that he sure as hell knows where we are. We couldn’t be easier to find. We even had the bloody flashing lights and bells to give him a clue.’