What Lies in the Dark by CM Thompson Page A

around or for matches to the footage from the other attacks. Madison Albrook was killed and placed in a very busy area, there is a high chance that he has been caught on camera.”
    Murmurs drift across the room.
    Bullface waits, glaring at them to be quiet.
    “Who found Isobel Hilarie?”
    “Someone called in from a nearby pay phone. I have the message here.” With the image of the fallen Isobel still on the screen, she presses play and the message blares through.
    “999, What’s your emergency?”
    Silence.
    “Caller? What’s your emergency?”
    “There’s a girl lying on the pavement. I think she is hurt.” The voice is calm. Barely above a whisper. The line is crackly, making the voice barely audible.
    “Is she bleeding?” The caller ID has picked up the area, Dispatch is already issuing an unneeded ambulance and squad car.
    “Yes.”
    “Is she still breathing?”
    End of recording, silence in the conference room.
    “The victim was lying in full view of the phone box.” Bullface explains quickly. “Dispatch sent an ambulance to the telephone’s location, that’s when they found Isobel. I have had an investigation team process the pay phone. Shewas still warm when they found her. Coroner estimates that he called as she was dying.”
    “That’s a little sloppy.”
    The glares force the speaker to elaborate.
    “The ambulance may have been able to revive her.”
    “It could be more of a taunt than being careless.”
    Bullface decides it is best to ignore them and continue with the briefing.
    “Madison Albrook is different.” She loads the next image on screen. The photo of the twenty year old criminology student is an artistic print in a sick way, the photo has captured Madison surrounded by a sea of memorial poppies. Face down so no-one can see the ugly slit across her neck. Her light blonde hair obscures her face completely. Madison had been wearing dark black jeans and a dark grey sweater, contrasting harshly with the sickening bright poppies.
    “As you can see, she was dumped in the middle of Westgate’s Park’s Memorial Gardens. Her throat was cut in a similar fashion to Isobel Hilarie, Adelina Sasha and Fran Taylor. But as you can see here, her number was not cut into her hand. Instead the killer used a felt tip marker. Now,” Bullface hurries before anyone can get a question in. “There are a number of possibilities. This is a busy park, even in November, particularly because it was Remembrance Day. Madison was found within an estimated ten minutes of her death. There is a possibility he switched to felt tip for this kill because he knew he would not have the time to carve the number in. This would mean that this murder was premeditated, he had chosen the park and waited for the right victim. Other possibilities include the most obvious, that this is a copycat, although the mutilations on the previous murders were not released to the press officially, perhaps word has leaked.” Bullface feels tired, very tired, her face a heavy mass of worry and anger. She didn’t go to bed until three am and her husband accidentally woke her at seven. Bullface is fighting the urge to drop, drop right there in the conference room, or to yell at one of the less senior officers present,
‘You, you have disrespected me since you arrivedhere, how about you do my job for a while. Huh? See how well you can do this.’
She swallows quickly, trying to bury the tension before continuing in her dry dull tone.
    “However the number inflicted on Madison Albrook continues in the sequence, if this was a copycat, it would have had to have been a lucky guess to get the number right. Or one of our earlier theories included a possibility that the assailant has a partner due to the inconsistency in the kills, the difference between Madison’s and Isobel’s death could also imply this.”
    “What kind of inconsistencies?”
    Bullface hated when they didn’t do the pre-reading.
    “As you can see from this,” Bullface