The box had a surprising weight as he moved it from the desk and onto the large double bed. He smoothed down the duvet with both hands and began emptying the contents. He placed the documents out evenly covering the bed, the pictures sat to one side and the disc containing the self-filmed footage was moved to the side table under the lamp. Lying at the bottom of the box was a sealed packet of adhesive balls. Jack knew that Nathan liked to stick information on a case upon a large clear wall, enabling him to sit back and scan it or walk to and fro absorbing the details. He smiled realising this. His brown eyes scanned the room for a suitable location to start sticking his new task.
The large mirror with its bold golden frame shimmered, catching the lamp light as he pulled it from the wall, slight wall damage, never mind. He started from the left, placing the Crime Scene Investigators list of finds on first. Four pages in total, not much, he thought, followed by the Analysis by the eccentric Doctor William Lime, more pages than the CSI findings, twelve to his surprise. He had completed a full row, underneath in an individual line he had decided to place the images taken by the killer. Nathan stood emotionless, the picture of her delicate young face starring back at him, nothing was said nor thought………total silence.
***
Jack had arranged for his driver to collect Nathan from the hotel. The phone call to his room had lasted several seconds as Nathan repeatedly told the driver he would be down as soon as possible. The journey from his current place of rest to the Metropolitan Headquarters at New Scotland Yard was a silent one, his driver never made a peep, absolute silence. Oddly, Nathan welcomed it.
The traffic was back to its normal chaotic behaviour, does this place ever slowdown? They passed the entrance, the large triangle shape block, rotating slowly clockwise, its silver backing glistening under the morning sun, the bold white letters displaying the words New Scotland Yard. The driver manoeuvred the Mercedes to the rear parking area, stopping by the single door entry point, allowing Nathan to climb out and make his way inside.
It had been several years since he had set foot inside the building, the last time, he recalled using the front entrance. He stood still as a flood of old memories overpowered him, the rush he felt when entering the building, the noisy surroundings of keyboards being tapped by quick fingers and telephones constantly ringing from all desks. He tried to picture the internal layout, attempting to find the Briefing Room from an old mapped memory.
‘Can I help you?’ the woman’s voice sounded welcoming and fresh.
‘Morning, I’m attending a briefing with Jack Dawson this morning, I’m just…’
‘Mr Nathan Cawley?’ she interrupted, Nathan nodded
‘Chief Inspector Dawson informed me of your visit, the briefing began fifteen minutes ago. I suggest you take the lift, second floor, turn right, end of the corridor and the room is on your left’.
‘Thanks’ he attempted to remember the directions hoping not to need a repeat from the young woman. He imagined her temper becoming un-friendly, even after he used his ageing memory as an excuse. He headed for the large metal doors of the advised method of transport.
The rapping of his bare knuckles against the solid oak door caused a pause in the brief, heads turned to the location of the sound. Nathan edged the door open and poked his face inside cautiously, a precautionary move on the off chance he had the wrong room.
‘Nathan, please come in’ greeted Jack, the huge smile on his face displaying the humour he felt for Nathan’s late arrival, ‘Everybody I would like you to meet Nathan Cawley, a veteran of the Met and a good friend’ his bony finger waved to an empty chair to his side. Nathan acknowledged and made his way towards it, planting himself under watchful eyes.
‘Nathan has being asked to assist us with the case, you may be aware of his previous efforts in assisting us with The Golden Boy case four years ago. He has a very keen eye for this type of material and it is a great relief to me that he has accepted to help with this new case. Nathan, give us your thoughts’.
He stood slowly, not expecting the immediate introduction or to voice his own opinions, nothing like being thrown in two feet first, he thought. He stepped up onto the small raised platform and approached the rectangular briefing box.
‘Firstly, I’m just here to assist with the case, nothing more. I know as much as everyone else at this point so for now we are all singing from the same song sheet. I looked through Doctor Lime’s portfolio last night, a lot of what he states is usually found within cases such as this. But as of now we have only the one body, which means a connection from the victim to the killer is difficult to establish. The fact that he has sent us the package containing the images of the victim when she was alive and also the movie he had made, tells us that he wants to be known. He wrote a name upon the cover of the package, the Wolf, which is obviously what he goes by, he wants us to know this, he wants us to look for him and he isn’t scared of the chase. The girl’s body was found in an open area used regularly by walkers and ramblers, this again tells us that he wanted her to be found before the body was covered by the snow or eaten by the wildlife. He will consider his work important and mistakes will rarely be made, if not at all’.
‘Sir’ the young PC spoke softly, the front row turned their heads to establish where the voice came from. Nathan scanned the four rows of chairs and spotted the woman at the rear, her hand slowly rising.
‘Where would you start with the evidence we have so far?’ she asked
‘Well, firstly we should look at what we have. The killer abducted the young girl, this we know as her parents had filed a missing person report around sixteen hundred hours the day she went missing. So the killer may know that area well, may live or have lived there. They may have family, relatives and friends or work in that area. The first thing should be a door to door questioning, ask the locals for any information they may have. Check the local CCTV for any footage in and around the hours of her disappearance. It was a business day so she would have been going home from school. We need to establish the route she used and how often she used it. Look to see if there are any cameras on that route as the killer may have followed on foot or slowly behind in a vehicle.’ He paused to drink from the small glass on the table, the cool water soothing his throat.
‘I can say for definite that the killer used a vehicle, something with a deep boot space, possibly a people carrier or van of some sort. He would need one to transport a body in. We can look on CCTV or ask locals if they spotted a vehicle matching this description. It may seem like we have nothing to work off, but, we need to break this down as small as we can, we have to disseminate the information into small fragments and build a case. Yes it’s hard but it’s our job to catch this person, team work is a huge key to breaking this lock, we must work together……………thank you’ he smiled awkwardly.
Nathan stepped down and moved toward Jack who was resting his back against the magnolia wall. He adopted a similar posture and exhaled heavily.
‘Been a while?’
‘Four years Jack, I’d call that a while yeah!’ smiling.
Doctor Lime moved toward the rear of the room and dimmed the lights, the room gradually became darker. He aimed the small black remote control at the white canvas hanging just behind the briefing box. The room was filled with a brilliant white light as the projector started up.
‘Morning ladies and gentlemen’ he began. Nathan detected a slight lisp in his voice, the ‘s’ at the end of ladies dragged on a little too long, imitating a snake. William moved in front of the canvas and suddenly stepped back sharply, his hand held up to his face as the light blinded him. He decided to stand at one side.