4) – The Employer
Everyone in the room held their breath as they watched Ada examine the reports and photos taken from the crime scenes. The blonde girl reached up and itched the left side of her face as she studied the last photograph. Finally she put it down on the table and leaned back in her chair.
‘Normally I would conclude that the killer was a male,’ Ada said as she sipped at her cup of tea, ‘but in this instance I can say with about 75% certainty that the killer is a female.’
Pilkington and Koslovski exchanged a confused glance.
‘How did you get to that so quickly?’
‘Well,’ Ada began, ‘all five of these victims are female, with the exception of Kael Reade – one of the first victims – on August the 24th. Most serial killers who target women are male sex killers, or males who have reason to want to avenge themselves on the opposite gender. However, as we all know, all of the women killed by this murderer were mutilated in a very specific way – even Reade’s body was tampered with, although obviously not in the same way as the female victims. Clarke, have your team figured out whether the mutilations were performed before or after the murders yet?’
Vincent Clarke, head of the forensics team, sat opposite her in a white lab coat. A pair of spectacles balanced precariously on the bridge of his nose and he cleared his throat before addressing the group.
‘We c-c-concluded that the time of m-mutilation differs between the v-v-victims,’ Clarke stammered, playing nervously with a loose strand of his curly brown hair, ‘Reade’s ... m-mutilation was quite obviously p-p-performed at least two hours before he d-died. His wife, Queenie Reade w-was killed about half an hour to f-f-forty m-minutes before her husband, and her u-uterus was removed not long a-after she d-died.’
‘Her... uterus?’ Koslovski echoed, obviously not understanding the English word, ‘what is a uterus?’
‘A womb,’ Xenos interjected before anyone else could, ‘the organ where a foetus develops inside a woman’s body.’
Comprehension dawned in Koslovski’s eyes and he pulled a face of disgust.
‘The killer ripped out their wombs?’ He spluttered, ‘what about Kael Reade? I doubt he even had a womb.’
Xenos raised an eyebrow at him.
‘Reade’s genitals were removed,’ Ada said matter-of-factly, plopping a sugar cube into her cup of tea as though she were discussing the weather, ‘that and he was stabbed multiple times in the face, am I correct, Clarke?’
Clarke nodded. Ada sighed and leaned back in her chair again.
‘If you don’t mind me asking, Ada, how can you be so sure that the killer is a woman just by the fact that the corpses were mutilated in this way?’ Pilkington asked.
‘It has happened before in the past, when a woman who has either experienced a stillbirth or is infertile will steal either unborn babies or wombs from another woman,’ Ada explained.
‘But couldn’t it also be a man who is frustrated that he isn’t able to give birth?’
‘Highly unlikely,’ Ada said, ‘if it were a man it would virtually cross out the possibility that he killed because he was depressed about a stillbirth – and before you ask I know for fact that women tend to be effected a lot more deeply by stillbirths than men are.’
‘Oh,’ Pilkington still couldn’t understand why a man couldn’t have done it anyway, but he didn’t want to argue with his future roommate. He had also heard that she was generally right about 99% of the time.
‘Ideally I would like to visit the crime scene myself,’ she murmured, ‘I fear that the police and other Inkblot employees might have overlooked something important. Something not all that obvious to the untrained eye.’
Pilkington rose to his feet and began pulling his jacket on.
‘Where are you off to, Leo?’ Xenos asked.
‘Reade’s house – the crime scene,’ he replied, looking at Ada, ‘I was planning on going there to check it out myself, so everyone’s welcome to come if they want to.’
Officer Matthews couldn’t believe that they were still investigating a crime scene from August last year when it was now February. His superiors wouldn’t tell him the details, but he could tell that the whole force were frustrated with Inkblot for taking all the evidence and getting more attention from the press. He blinked in surprise when he saw Ada walking towards him. He remembered how that girl had surpassed the entirety of the police force in deductive reasoning tests and how she had beaten a lot of them up when they had tried to make fun of her.
‘Ada,’ he inclined his head as she approached him, ‘when did you...’
She walked straight past him, without giving him any acknowledgement. He turned, frustrated that she had ignored him.
‘Hey, wait!’ He overtook her and positioned himself so that she couldn’t get into the house.
‘Let me in,’ she said coldly.
‘Don’t you remember me? Iain Matthews? We worked together on the...
‘I don’t recognise you and to be honest I don’t remember your name,’ Ada stared at him coolly, ‘I only remember things I care about.’
‘Well, um, I can’t let you go in.’
Pilkington and Koslovski arrived behind her.
‘Why not?’ Ada asked, her lidded eye unblinking as she glared at Matthews.
‘The police are taking care of this, and correct me if I’m wrong but you left Inkblot two years ago.’
‘We didn’t,’ Koslovski said, gesturing to himself and Pilkington, ‘and Ada rejoined yesterday.’
Ada tilted her head at a strange angle and raised her eyebrows at the officer.
‘Now, do I really need to show you my ID?’ She asked him in a slightly bemused voice. Koslovski and Pilkington started in surprise – it was unusual for their co-worker to show even the smallest hint of emotion, least of all amusement.
Matthews shook his head dejectedly and moved out of the way. Ada walked past him without hesitation and began making her way upstairs.
Koslovski coughed and covered his mouth as they entered the bedroom upstairs. The whole house smelt of blood and rot.
Two silhouettes were outlined in chalk on the mattress. The bed itself used to be white, but was now splattered with dark red. The outline on the left, where Kael Reade had been, was positioned as though the man had been sleeping. Queenie Reade’s silhouette was the wrong way round, with her feet at the headrest and her head at the bottom of the bed.
‘The woman who did this must have been a real bitch,’ Pilkington growled, ‘it’s disgusting.’
Ada said nothing. Instead, she started searching all the drawers and cupboards in the room.
‘With all due respect, Ada,’ Matthews said, resting his weight on one hip and raising an eyebrow at the young woman, ‘if the whole police force hasn’t managed to find anything, then I doubt that...’
He stopped as the detective withdrew a diary dated 2013-2014 from one of the drawers.
‘Have you read this?’ She asked him without turning around.
‘Yes. It’s an ordinary diary – it belonged to Queenie. Most of the entries are from last year.’
Ada sat down cross-legged on the floor and began to flick through the pages of the diary. She skipped right through 2013 and went on to the current date – February 27th 2014.
Immediately something caught her eye.
Due to meet up with a friend from my prayer group in the church. Whenever she’s around we play Cluedo – I normally win but she’s very good. There’s nothing like a healthy bit of competition between friends!
Ada clenched her teeth. How stupid were the police to have not noticed this? She couldn’t tell Pilkington or Koslovski – knowing them they would insist on a whole SWAT team accompanying her to the church. Matthews was out of the question. Whoever the killer was, they were obviously not playing around. They must have taken a lot of dates into consideration to work out that she would be here to read the entry on that exact day.
‘Koslovski,’ Ada said abruptly, passing the diary to him, ‘tell Clarke to have a full DNA analysis test done on this. I’m going back to headquarters – I need to sort through some paperwork.’
‘Alright, call me when you’re done.’
Once she was out of the building Ada immediately dialled Xenos’ number into her phone.
‘Hmm? Yes?’
‘It’s Ada.’
‘What is it? Did something come up at the scene?’
‘In a way – are you busy?’
‘No.’
‘Meet me outside the church in ten minutes – I think we may have a lead.’
Ada hung up and sat down on a bench outside the church, shivering in the crisp February air. An old man was sitting next to her – he smelled strongly of alcohol and something like urine.
‘Hello pretty,’ he leered at her, but she didn’t react, ‘you want to sit on old papa’s lap?’
Ada didn’t look at him. She just pretended to be rummaging in her pockets.
The old man leant closer so that his shoulder was pressing against hers. He reached out and was about to touch her face when she turned and glared at him. He started in surprise when he felt the barrel of a gun pressing again his bony leg.
‘Lay one finger on me and I swear I’ll shoot,’ she stared at him coldly, ‘got it?’
He gulped, nodded and walked away. A few seconds later Xenos pulled up on her motorcycle outside the church, receiving disapproving glances from elderly couples gathering in front of the building.
‘Who’s that guy?’ Xenos asked, jerking her thumb at the old man limping away.
‘Nobody,’ Ada put the gun away, ‘I trust you didn’t tell anybody about this?’
‘Of course I didn’t.’
‘Good. In Reade’s room I found a diary – the entry in it for today was that they were going to meet a friend in the church. They mentioned that there was healthy competition between them.’
Xenos nodded.
‘Tell me what to do.’
‘I’m guessing that she’ll want to meet in the confessionals so that her face isn’t revealed – I’ll be the one to go in. After securing the perimeter, sit in the pews and just keep a watch out for any associates she may have keeping guard.’
‘Right. Ada, please be careful – I know that you are always very keen on solving the case as soon as possible, but don’t ask too many questions. We don’t want to scare her away.’
Ada nodded and turning on her heel began to walk towards the church.
Ada hadn’t been in a church for years, but she knew enough about them to tell that this one was very small. She noticed immediately that there was only one confessional room in the whole church. She walked up to it, hesitated, and then stepped inside.
‘Hello, Ada,’ the voice whispered. Ada presumed that the killer was speaking at the quiet tone because they did not want be overheard. Ada realised that it was almost impossible to tell whether the voice was male or female at that tone.
‘Hello,’ she stopped herself from addressing the person on the other side as the killer – they may have been sent instead of the killer herself so that they would not have to worry about their identity being discovered.
‘I’m presuming that you’ve been sent by your employer to talk to me..?’
‘Go ahead and presume that.’
‘Alright. I will. Now, I’m not here to play around, so please get straight to the point.’
A hoarse laugh sounded from the other side.
‘You’ve changed.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘I said you’ve changed.’
‘From what?’
‘From what you used to be like.’
‘You say that like you know me.’
‘Maybe I do know you – but then again, maybe I don’t. It all depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On whether you cared about me or not.’
Ada started in surprise, and then scowled.
‘Have we met?’
‘Hmm. I’ll leave that one for you to think about. I wanted to warn you – please do not interfere with my employer’s work.’
‘How can you say that? How can you expect anyone to stand on the sidelines and watch while someone murders people?’
‘Heh,’ the voice chuckled quietly, ‘that part of you hasn’t changed. You’re not one for sitting back and watching the show, are you Ada?’
‘Please stop talking like you know me,’ Ada murmured in a strained voice.
‘Oh? Sorry. I have a bad habit of winding people up,’ the voice giggled, ‘well, if you’re not going to comply and let my employer finish their work, then I think we can make this a bit more competitive. Nothing like healthy competition, eh?’
Ada turned in her seat, trying desperately to peer through the gaps in the confessional barrier. All she saw was a hunched figure in a green hood.
‘Who are you?’ She whispered, ‘how do I know you?’
‘If you don’t recall meeting me, then you don’t know me. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Ada.’
‘Tell your employer that she’d better be prepared,’ Ada hissed, ‘I swear I’ll find her – and you.’
The hooded figure giggled again, and to Ada’s surprise shoved its head right up to the barrier. Through the wooden grid, Ada spied a black-rimmed, emerald green eye wide in glee.
‘No need. I am the employer.’