TOUCH: A DI Charlotte Savage Novel. Mark Sennen

went down the field’s gentle slope towards the copse at the bottom, always keeping close to the edge and making light work of the heavy soil. Isaacs reckoned that this and the tyre size made it probable it was a 4x4 some kids had nicked from a rich townie. Maybe there was a sort of perverse justice in the world after all. The tracks stopped at the bottom of the field next to the copse and Isaacs saw the vehicle had turned round by reversing into a patch of scrub in the corner and had then gone back the way it had come. Strange. It didn’t seem like the driving style of some drugged-up hooligans from a sink estate. On the other hand maybe they were so tanked up with cheap cider that they couldn’t drive fast.

      He peered into the woodland where the last of the day’s light dappled patches of soft, green grass. A couple of years ago he had some pheasants in there. Was it possible someone had hoped to get a few birds? They were pretty ill-informed if that was the case. Still, it might be worth taking a look to make sure of things.

      The rickety stile creaked as he climbed over it and Isaacs followed the narrow path that wound into the shadows. For a moment he felt uneasy. He wasn’t sure why and he tried to put the feeling from his mind; it was stupid, he’d been down this way hundreds of times. As a kid he’d played here, built dens and won fantastic battles against the Germans or the Indians. Later on as a young man, he’d taken a neighbour’s daughter here and they had got sweet on an old blanket. He was already engaged to Sandra then. And it had happened again, with others, after they were married too. In more recent years he’d raised pheasants down here, stalked foxes, thinned out some trees. So it was stupid. There was nothing here to be scared of. Despite that he wished he had his gun with him, but it was locked away in a cabinet back at the farmhouse. Once he had always kept it in the Landrover, ready to take care of a stray dog or to bag a rabbit for the pot. Bloody bureaucrats and their rules, they simply couldn’t stop meddling.

      He shook his head to clear the ridiculous thoughts from his mind and followed the path for thirty yards or so to where it led into a glade at the centre of which some lilies were trying hard to cling to their beauty. Isaacs stopped and breathed in the air. Closed his eyes and breathed again. Sweet smells, earthy smells, and then he remembered the neighbour’s daughter on the blanket, her mild protestations, her ‘no’ which meant ‘yes’. It was all so long ago now, yet the memory was still clear. And he realised why. There weren’t many memories worth recalling anymore.

      He opened his eyes and sighed. As he turned to go something caught his eye. Something in the long grass on the far side of the clearing. He stopped and stared and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Lying in the grass in among the dying nettles and brambles was a young girl. A shaft of light shimmered down through the misty air and illuminated her. Brown hair, angel face, a white cotton sheet covering her body. Isaacs gasped in a lungful of air and then put his hand to his mouth and let the air escape. He moved one step forward. A twig cracked under his right foot. The girl didn’t move. He edged closer across the mossy glade and now he noticed her eyes were shut. Closer still and he could see her full lips parted in a half-smile that made his insides go all light and tingly. She was beautiful, so very, very, beautiful.

      He stood over her now and still she didn’t wake. He realised he was still holding the plastic pipe and now he used it to probe the white sheet.

      ‘Excuse me, er, miss?’ he said, but got no response. He hooked the edge of the sheet with the pipe and pulled it down, sweeping the covering from her body. Golden skin, white bra and panties, nothing else. Legs long and not too thin, round hips, curvy waist, pert breasts. In his younger days Isaacs and his mates had a word for girls like this. The word was ripe.

      There was still no reaction from the girl and she lay still, an object of perfection frozen in time. He poked her again. Nothing. A slow chill began to creep across his shoulders and down through his chest. He stuck out his foot and pushed it against the girl’s arm. It moved in response and fell back.

      Isaacs chucked the pipe away into the bushes and knelt beside the girl. He put the back of his hand over the girl’s face. No breath. He looked down at her chest. No rise and fall. He moved his hand down there and placed it over her left breast. No heartbeat. He slipped it inside her bra, cupping the breast in his hand. Still nothing.

      The breast was cold, but the round fullness hit him like a sudden white heat. He pulled his hand back. The sensation shocked him, set off a troubled train of thought in his head, the pleasing beginnings of an erection in his trousers. He glanced around the clearing, and beyond into the depths of the copse. There was nobody. Nobody to tell. He reached out and touched the girl again. She was like ice. Cold, but pure. Then, without knowing quite why, Isaacs bent over and kissed the girl on the lips.

       Chapter Five

       Barbican Leisure Park, Plymouth. Tuesday 26th October. 10.47 am

      The glitter balls sent light spinning round the room, the patterns morphing as they swept over the floor and walls. Calter and Enders bopped in the centre of the empty dance floor to an old Police number, the club manager’s idea of a joke, while Savage skirted the edge making notes.

      It was Tuesday morning and the three of them were checking out clubs in preparation for Hardin’s Big Night Out operation and so far they’d done the White Rabbit on Breton Side and Annabel’s next to the marina. Now their focus had turned to Oceana, a huge club situated on the Barbican Leisure Complex along with a multiplex and a Pizza Hut. The club had several different themed rooms and right now they were in an area that mimicked a seventies New York disco, complete with flashing multi-coloured floor panels and a mirrored ceiling. Savage had pages of notes covering exits, vantage points, possible numbers of clubbers and anything else she thought might be of use for the undercover officers who would be on the ground come Saturday night. Even so the venue would be a nightmare to cover, what with the separate dance floors, booths and private rooms.

      At this time of the morning with the venues empty, they all had the same sterile atmosphere. Savage had to remind herself it was the clubbers who made a venue, the ‘in crowd’ who gave a place its unique vibe. She thought, rather wistfully, that she hadn’t been part of any sort of vibe for a good number of years. With that in mind she beckoned Calter over.

      ‘What sort of people come here then?’ she asked.

      ‘Kids, ma’am. Fifteen-year-old girls trying to pass for eighteen. Eighteen-year-old boys trying to look older than their mates so they can snare one of those girls. A few older guys ogling the goods. It’s that sort of place.’

      ‘You’ve been here?’

      ‘Once or twice when everywhere else has been full or when I have been too drunk to be sensible.’

      ‘Well, snared is a good word, Jane. Both Sally Becker and Tayla Patterson were enticed from this club. Looking around though I’m wondering how.’

      ‘It’s like the other venues, ma’am. You wouldn’t believe the place when full. The club is heaving. Anything could happen.’

      ‘Yes, but someone couldn’t be dragged out could they? The door staff would notice at least.’

      ‘They are more concerned with stopping people coming in than worrying about who is leaving, and if someone looks drunk or ill and about to throw up then I would imagine they would be only too pleased to see them go.’

      The CCTV from the camera at the entrance had shown Sally Becker looking ill. She had left alone, staggering down the pavement, pissed out of her brain, whereas Tayla Patterson had been with a man wearing a hoodie who had almost had to carry her away. The bouncers hadn’t remembered the couple, but then why should they? They would shepherd a thousand drunken people in and out of the club every weekend. A half-comatose girl being helped, or even coaxed, to the exit by a guy was nothing out of the ordinary. It went with the territory. Most of the girls would wake up the next morning with a bad head and some would have regrets, maybe even require a visit to the doctor for a pill. The victims in operation Leash came home with