Bloody Valentine Read online

  ‘Then we cut them,’ Amy declared. ‘Your choice? What’s it to be?’

  ‘Will just one suit you?’ Michael picked up a Stanley knife and inserted a blade.

  ‘Michael …’ Anni began.

  ‘If you want to get these to the exhibition, Anni, you’re going to have to sacrifice one. Once these idiots see the weights inside them, they’ll let the rest through.’ He looked at Amy. ‘Pick one, but only one.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  Amy looked along the row. She chose a witch, simply because there were two similar sculptures.

  Anni turned her face to the wall. ‘I can’t look.’

  Michael sliced down the sides of the figure. He finished by lying it flat on its back and cutting round its head and feet before pulling the two halves apart. ‘Satisfied?’ he demanded of Amy.

  Amy turned to the sergeant. ‘Compare the weight of every papier-mâche sculpture removed from this studio with that one. If any appear unusually heavy, leave it here.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  Amy and Ben returned to the incident room. Ben pulled up a couple of chairs and set them in front of Liam’s desk. Exhausted, Amy sat between the men.

  ‘This is the first sighting of Zee Barnes, ma’am.’ Liam slowed the tape.

  Amy watched the door of the penthouse open. Zee emerged. A shadowy figure was in the doorway behind her. ‘Her cleaner?’

  ‘Sara Hilger,’ Ben noted the time in the corner of the screen. ‘Eleven oh-one a.m.’

  The door closed. Zee walked to the lift and pressed the button. As Amy had feared, she found the images disturbing. She wanted to wind the clock back. To stand in front of Zee and demand that she return to her apartment – and safety.

  ‘Zee entering the lift, riding down one floor,’ Liam commented.

  The image of Zee in the lift wasn’t as clear as the one in the hall. The film was grainy. Zee was wearing a light-coloured suit. Her blonde hair appeared paler than her clothes, her handbag and shoes darker.

  ‘Leaving the lift on the floor below her apartment,’ Liam continued.

  ‘Eleven oh-four.’ Ben noted.

  ‘Knocking on the door, moving to the stairs, reappearing outside the artists’ studio. Leaving flowers and cards. Disappearing back to the stairs. Reappearing on the floor below the artists’ studio.’

  ‘Leila and Mamie’s apartment,’ Ben commented.

  ‘Knocking on the door. Waiting for a reply. One minute,’ Liam observed.

  ‘That’s a long time; you’d think she’d realise no one was in.’

  ‘The apartments are vast,’ Amy reminded Ben. ‘You could fit ten of mine into one of them. If someone was on the balcony, it could take them a minute to answer the door.’ Amy watched Zee take cards and rosebuds from her oversized handbag. She laid them in front of the door before walking through the fire doors to the stairs and vanishing. ‘There are no cameras on the stairs?’ Amy checked.

  ‘Only the exits to the street and yard,’ Liam confirmed.

  Zee was next seen outside Bruno Gambrini’s apartment, where she again left flowers and cards.

  ‘She didn’t knock,’ Ben murmured.

  ‘Probably assumed the chefs had left for work,’ Amy suggested.

  Zee left the lift in the foyer at 11.10. She approached the porter’s desk and spoke to Ted.

  Amy studied Zee, looking for signs in her body language that might indicate she was having an affair with the porter. ‘I wish I could hear what they’re saying.’

  ‘I wish I could see the expressions on their faces,’ Ben added.

  ‘They seem friendly but not over-friendly,’ Liam interposed. ‘She’s there for thirteen minutes. I’ll bring up the outside CCTV images on the screen to the right.’

  The officers followed Zee’s progress. She left Ted and the foyer through the automatic doors. She hesitated in front of the building for forty-two seconds, lifted her arm, looked at her watch and turned right.

  ‘These are the last sightings,’ Liam warned. ‘When she leaves the area covered by the building’s CCTV, she appears on the one fixed in front of the florist’s a block away.’

  ‘You fetched that tape this morning?’ Amy asked.

  ‘I put in a request for all the CCTV images covering this street between eleven o’clock and one o’clock, which was when I arrived.’

  ‘Efficient.’

  ‘I try, ma’am,’ Liam responded dryly.

  ‘Sorry,’ Amy apologised. ‘I didn’t mean to patronise.’

  ‘Zee walking past the florist’s.’ Liam looked back at the screen.

  ‘Eleven twenty-three.’ Ben noted the time.

  ‘She stops, looks at the flowers. Turns. Something’s attracted her attention,’ Ben remarked.

  ‘She looks over her shoulder, steps back alongside the van, and that’s it. She disappears.’ Liam froze the frames before replaying them.

  ‘Go back one,’ Amy ordered. ‘That van in front of the florist.’

  ‘She could have got into it,’ Ben agreed, ‘but she could also have entered the shop, or climbed into the Fiat parked in front of the van, or the BMW behind it.’

  ‘Has anyone visited the florist?’ Amy asked Sergeant Reece.

  ‘Sergeant Reece sent constables to check out the premises two hundred yards either side of this building. Only the florist remembered seeing Zee. When he was out at the front arranging flowers, he noticed a lady from Barnes Building stopping to look at the display.’

  ‘The van?’ Ben prompted. ‘The BMW and Fiat? Have they been traced?’

  A constable approached the desk. ‘The results have come in on the Fiat, van and BMW, Sergeant.’

  Sergeant Reece left his chair.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘How’s that for efficiency, Inspector Miller?’ Liam took the paper that the constable handed him. ‘The Fiat belongs to the florist. The BMW is owned by a local resident. He’s an editor and returned to pick up a manuscript he’d forgotten to take to work.’

  ‘The van?’ Amy questioned.

  Liam fast-tracked the images until they showed the transit driving away. ‘It was parked too close to the BMW and Fiat for the number to register on CCTV. Once it pulled out into the traffic, it was out of range of the street cameras. It left the kerb at eleven thirty-seven a.m. and was caught on a speed camera at the end of the road at eleven forty a.m. See the number plate.’

  Amy frowned. ‘It looks blank.’

  ‘It’s been painted with photo-blocker paint.’

  ‘What’s photo-blocker paint?’ Ben asked.

  ‘It’s invisible when painted on. But when the plate passes a speed camera the paint produces a high-powered gloss that reflects light back to the camera. It overexposes the image, which makes the plate unreadable.’

  ‘This paint is legal?’ Ben asked.

  ‘It’s legal. You’ve never worked in the traffic division, sir,’ Liam commented.

  ‘Any distinguishing marks on the van?’ Amy asked Liam.

  ‘It’s a white transit, like a few thousand others in London. We can’t be sure that the paint is a ruse. Hundreds if not thousands of vehicles have photo-blocker paint on their plates. The van might not be connected to Zee Barnes’s disappearance at all.’

  Sergeant Reece returned to the incident room. He, Ben and Amy retreated to a smaller office. Amy closed the door.

  ‘Nothing in the artists’ studio, ma’am. I sent a constable to the gallery with Anni Jones and Michael Barnes,’ Sergeant Reece reported. ‘And no clothing – bloodstained or otherwise – in the skips or rubbish chutes. I’ve sent for a dog handler. Forensic are working on stains on the floor of the boiler house. There’s an incinerator there.’

  ‘Good work, and you can call me Amy when we’re in senior officer-conference, Sergeant. I remember playing football with you and Dad when I was small.’

  ‘I never thought that one day you’d be my boss. The name’s David.’

  ‘I remember – David. First, let me
thank you and your team for all the work you’ve done in such a short time.’ She opened a file. ‘Let’s start with the timeline. Ben, you’ve kept a record.’

  Ben referred to his notebook. ‘Shadows moving in the corridors, picked up on CCTV between two fifteen and three oh-five a.m. First noticed on the studio floor.’

  ‘The only floor no one lives on,’ David Reece commented.

  ‘Then seen on the floor the chefs live on at two nineteen …’

  ‘Could have been the murderer picking up the knives?’ David interrupted.

  ‘We can’t be sure the knives found in the sink and the one that killed Bruno Gambrini belonged to the chefs.’

  ‘They match other knives in the apartment,’ David said.

  ‘I’d like to interview Adrian Wills and get the forensic results on the knives before coming to any conclusions.’

  Ben continued. ‘A shadow appears at the basement garage door at two twenty-five a.m.’

  ‘Has the garage been searched?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Only around the vehicles.’

  ‘Organise a search of every vehicle, with the dogs if you can get them. Tell the officers to break into the vans if necessary.’

  David reached for his mobile.

  Ben resumed when David had given the order. ‘There was a twenty-minute lull before shadows were seen in the reverse order, ending on the studio floor at three oh-one. At eleven ten this morning, shadows appeared again on the studio floor.’

  ‘When Zee Barnes was entering the foyer,’ Amy commented.

  ‘There was another on the basement garage floor at eleven fifteen a.m.,’ Ben murmured.

  ‘Is there a camera logging the vans in and out?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Yes,’ David answered. ‘Attached to the barrier. It snaps number plates as the vehicles enter and exit.’

  ‘Something else that needs checking, David. Phone the order through.’

  David did as Amy asked.

  ‘So we have a someone—’

  Ben interrupted. ‘Could be more than one person.’

  ‘A person or people,’ Amy conceded, ‘creeping around Barnes Building in the early hours, and again the following morning. We have Zee Barnes exiting her apartment just after eleven. Leaving flowers and Valentine cards …’

  ‘For everyone in the building, including her sister-in-law who didn’t answer the door.’ Ben followed the timeline in his notes.

  ‘Zee Barnes spoke to Ted Levett for thirteen minutes, stepped outside the building just before eleven twenty-three, then turned right and vanished in daylight in front of a florist’s.’

  ‘If she entered a vehicle and was driven away, her body could be miles away,’ David declared.

  ‘I doubt it,’ Ben said. ‘It would take time to remove her heart. It was on the porter’s desk at twelve fifteen. I’d say our killer is a quick worker who has access to a local safe place.’

  ‘Not in Barnes Building – we’ve searched everywhere,’ David insisted.

  ‘Zee Barnes was kidnapped, murdered, had her heart removed and parcelled up in fifty-two minutes,’ Ben declared. ‘That suggests the killer or killers knew Zee, and also knew Barnes Building – and the residents’ movements.’

  ‘Ted saw the parcel at twelve fifteen but it could have been on the desk for longer. It was left on the one spot on the porter’s desk that is out of CCTV range,’ David observed.

  ‘The courier picked up the parcel at twelve twenty. Jack Barnes received it ten minutes later.’ Amy stared thoughtfully at the last stills of Zee that Liam had printed.

  ‘Whoever killed Zee Barnes had access to this building,’ David stated. ‘No stranger could have left the heart without alerting a porter. We’ve interviewed both. They insist no one called between Zee’s departure and the arrival of the courier Ted summoned.’

  ‘Let’s eliminate the residents with solid alibis,’ Ben suggested. ‘To start at the top of the building: Jack Barnes arrived at his office before Zee left the apartment. He remained there with his staff until the heart was delivered. The cleaner, Sara, left the building half an hour after Zee disappeared.’

  ‘Both are in the clear, but we should interview the cleaner for background information on Zee.’ Amy marked Sara’s name on her own list. ‘Michael Barnes and Anni Jones?’

  ‘Anni Jones was at the gallery until twelve thirty. We’re checking CCTV around the Hyde Park area for a sighting of Michael Barnes. Without it, he has no alibi.’ David scribbled a question mark next to Michael’s name. ‘But I can’t see what motive he’d have to kill his sister-in-law.’

  ‘Leave the motive for the moment,’ Amy ordered.

  ‘Leila and Mamie Barnes,’ Ben continued. ‘Mamie’s at school, so her movements should be easy enough to check. Leila was in all morning and didn’t leave the building until twenty to one. Count them out?’

  ‘Not Leila. Not until we’ve checked her computer and phone records,’ Amy said decisively.

  ‘Adrian Wills was at a market at six thirty a.m. He arrived at the restaurant at eight o’clock and left at twelve thirty-five. So he could have killed Bruno but not Zee,’ David said. ‘I sent a constable to the restaurant. According to the staff, Adrian was furious with Bruno for not turning up for work. At ten o’clock, Jack Barnes sent a messenger round to check Bruno was all right, but Bruno didn’t open the door to him. At ten thirty Jack sent a doctor who did gain admittance, examined Bruno and diagnosed a hangover.’

  ‘Adrian would have had to kill Bruno quickly, and there’s the sighting of the mystery figure in chefs’ whites,’ Amy said thoughtfully. ‘But I agree, whether Adrian killed Bruno or not, he couldn’t have killed Zee.’

  ‘The porters know the building, the residents and their movements. Both were alone for most of the morning.’

  Ben added Ted Levett and Damian Clark’s names to his list. ‘That makes three people who had the opportunity to kill Zee and Bruno, and one who could have killed Bruno.’

  Amy’s phone rang the same time as David’s. Amy’s conversation was short. She ended the call and said, ‘The blood on the knives found in the sink in Bruno Gambrini’s apartment is confirmed as belonging to Zee Barnes.’

  ‘The number plate on one of the vans in the basement garage has been painted with photo-blocker paint. I told them to wait for us before opening it.’ David left his chair.

  Chapter Twenty

  Amy looked around the underground garage. ‘It’s larger than I expected.’

  ‘It extends under the yard at the back as well as the building.’ David had studied the architect’s plans.

  ‘There have to be fifty vans here, as well as the cars.’ Ben eyed the Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Alfa Romeos and BMWs lined up in front of the door that connected with Barnes Building.

  ‘Sixty-two vans and eighteen cars.’ David consulted the list a junior officer had drawn up. ‘The Rolls and three other cars belong to Jack Barnes. Zee drove the gold BMW. The rest belong to the other residents. Michael Barnes also owns a van.’

  ‘And the twelve-year-old Astra?’ Ben asked. The battered, rust-spotted car was parked some distance from the Barnes’s cars.

  ‘Belongs to the night porter, Damian. Ted Levett doesn’t have a car.’ David waved to an officer. ‘The van with the plates painted with photo-blocker is over there, ma’am.’

  ‘The darkest corner,’ Amy observed. The wall lights were low illumination and set more than five metres apart.

  They headed for the van, which was parked in the furthest corner from the street exit. Spotlights had been set up around it. The bodywork glistened with fingerprint powder. Two officers – suited, booted with gloves and hats – were waiting, skeleton keys in hand.

  ‘Prints?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Only smudges, ma’am.’ The officer handed out sheets of paper. ‘Information on the van.’

  ‘It was reported stolen?’ Ben said.

  ‘Over a week ago.’

  ‘But it was owned by Jack Barnes?’ Ben checked.


  ‘His company, sir.’

  ‘Anyone notice it here before today?’ Amy moved close to a spotlight and scanned the sheet.

  ‘No one we’ve spoken to, ma’am.’

  Amy went to the box of protective clothing and handed one suit to Ben and another to David. When they’d finished covering their clothes, she nodded to the officer holding the keys.

  ‘The cab first, ma’am?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The officer opened the door and shone a torch inside. ‘Street maps of London.’ He pushed the bundle aside with his gloved hand. ‘Plug in satnav, newspaper. Brown paper bag …’

  ‘Careful,’ David warned.

  ‘It contains a half-eaten sausage roll covered in mould, sir.’

  ‘Anything on the floor?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Footprints, ma’am.’

  ‘Leave them for now, we’ll check the back. Dust the entire cab for prints – finger, foot and swab for DNA.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ The officer slammed the door and walked to the side door. He opened it and reeled back into Ben.

  Ben picked up the torch the officer had dropped. He shone it into the van.

  Amy had been a police officer for four years. She thought she’d seen all the horrors of life. But she’d never been faced with anything like the interior of that van.

  ‘It’s a slaughterhouse.’

  Amy heard Ben but was too stunned to reply.

  David Reece walked a few steps and vomited. He slumped against the wall. Tears were running down his cheeks. ‘Did you see her face?’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘Her eyes. I’ve never seen such terror in a corpse’s eyes.’

  The barrier lifted at the entrance to the car park. The constable manning it stepped in front of the incoming car.

  Ben whispered to Amy. ‘Jack Barnes has arrived.’

  Amy assumed command. ‘Sergeant Reece, close the van. Call the pathologist and forensic teams and order them here.’

  ‘What about formally identifying the body?’ David Reece was pale, still trembling.

  ‘The DNA of the heart delivered to Jack Barnes has been identified. The corpse in that van is female, dressed in a similar outfit to the one Zee Barnes was wearing on CCTV. The corpse’s chest is open, the heart missing. All the evidence points to the body being Zee Barnes, Sergeant Reece.’ Amy knew she was being unfair to David but, after seeing what was left of Zee Barnes, she was struggling to maintain her self-control.