Chapter 53

FIFTY-THREE

A pall of smoke hung over the town as they walked to the Petit Lane car park. Traffic was being diverted from the centre to allow the recovery and rescue to continue at the courthouse. Lottie glanced over at the terrace where the first two bodies had been discovered. Mrs Loughlin stood at her gate. She returned Lottie’s wave and made her way into her house.

Kirby and McKeown were up ahead, walking along the perimeter wall of the car park. Lottie and Boyd had parked there earlier. She’d seen the CCTV images and hadn’t thought they meant anything. Still, she had approved this venture.

‘Chasing shadows,’ she muttered. ‘I don’t think McMahon will be too happy with us.’

Boyd said, ‘The only thing he’s ever happy about is a balanced budget.’

She had to agree with that statement. Walking behind him, she noticed how he winced as he moved. Her own bones ached, but neither of them was complaining. There was no time or sympathy for that. Walking wounded just about summed them up.

‘It’s about here that the shadow disappeared.’ McKeown had stopped a few paces ahead of them. He held the image up, then surveyed the area.

‘There’s a manhole cover here.’ Kirby bent down. ‘It’s been opened recently.’

‘The council were probably clearing the drains,’ Lottie said.

‘But this isn’t a drain, or a sewer. It hasn’t got the correct markings.’ He looked up hopefully. ‘Anyone got a screwdriver or a knife?’

Lottie leaned against the wall and stared as McKeown took a knife from an ankle strap.

‘That’s not allowed,’ she said, trying to keep her jaw from dropping.

‘I didn’t see anything,’ Kirby said, taking the offered blade.

Lottie turned away as she heard Kirby sliding the knife around the edge of the manhole cover. It screeched as it moved.

‘Got it!’ he said.

As she turned back, a gust of wind blew litter into her face and the sky decided to take that moment to spill its load down on top of them. She pulled up her hood as the rain pounded on her head. ‘It’s just a sewer.’

‘No, it’s not.’ McKeown hunched down beside Kirby. ‘It’s definitely an entrance to a tunnel.’

‘It’s still a sewer,’ Lottie insisted. She leaned over Kirby’s shoulder. An insane thought flew into her brain. Could her girls be hidden there? ‘What are you waiting for?’ she said with renewed urgency. ‘You found it. Down you go.’

Kirby gave McKeown a nudge with his elbow. ‘You discovered the shadow on the CCTV footage. I think you should go. Have you got a flashlight strapped to your other ankle?’

Boyd pulled a pencil torch from his inside pocket and handed it over. McKeown took the light and pointed it down into the darkness.

A voice echoed back up at the four detectives.

Lottie tottered against Boyd, and McKeown looked at Kirby.

Then they heard it again.

‘Get me out of here.’

McKeown radioed for assistance while Kirby trotted across the car park to the cordoned-off scene at the courthouse. He came back with a couple of fire personnel and a ladder.

Lottie was on her knees, torch in hand, directing it into the tunnel. The muddy face of Conor Dowling stared back at her from possibly five to ten metres below ground.

‘Are you okay?’ she shouted.

‘No. I need to get out of here.’ His voice was hoarse. From shouting, she thought.

‘Any injuries?’

‘I’m thirsty and starving.’

The rain thundered down and water flowed into the hole.

‘Hurry up,’ Lottie told the assembled crew.

After the ladder was shunted downwards, a fire officer climbed down to make sure Dowling was strong enough to come up under his own steam.

‘Is there anyone else with you?’ Lottie asked.

‘No,’ echoed the reply. Closer now. He was climbing the ladder.

Lottie offered her hand as he reached ground level. He ignored it and hauled himself up and out. He lay on his back, inhaling fresh air. A squad car with uniformed officers arrived. Boyd took a heavy jacket from one of them and, after lifting Dowling to a sitting position, threw it over his shoulders.

‘You’re coming with us,’ he said. ‘You’ll be checked over at the station.’

Lottie kept her focus on Dowling. He was shivering and dirty. But his eyes were alive and piercing. He returned her stare before turning to glance at the courthouse.

‘What happened over there?’

‘I thought you could tell us that,’ Boyd said.

‘Nothing to do with me. I was working below ground. Tried to get back out, but the entrance was blocked. I’ve spent all night in that dark hole, imagining that I would never be found.’

‘Maybe you should have stayed in prison,’ Lottie offered. ‘Go with McKeown. I’ll talk to you in a while.’

While Dowling was escorted to the car, Lottie remained standing at the opening to the tunnel. The fire officer made to remove the ladder.

‘Leave it,’ she said. ‘I want to have a look.’

Boyd put a hand on her arm. ‘I think Amy and Penny’s killer used this tunnel.’

‘Because of the shadow on the CCTV footage?’

‘I doubt it was used as a means of escape, but it would be an ideal place to stash a murder weapon.’

Kirby piped up. ‘We need to get our hands on maps or drawings first. There’s probably a maze of tunnels down there. No point in any of us ending up lost.’

‘And none of you geniuses thought of getting one before we left the station?’ Lottie said.

They shook their heads.

‘I’m going down,’ she said. ‘Katie and Chloe might be in there.’

‘Boss,’ Kirby said. ‘Dowling has been down there since the incident, so there’s no way he could have taken your daughters.’

‘I don’t care. I need to see for myself. Hold that flashlight, Boyd, and when I’m safely down, follow me.’

Without waiting to hear any further argument, Lottie gripped the ends of the ladder, eased herself over the opening and carefully made her way downwards.

The dark was all-encompassing. The walls were close and the roof closer still. She hunched her back and felt around her with her hands. Damp and cold.

The light returned as Boyd’s feet thumped down beside her and slime splashed up over her boots and legs. She grabbed the torch and turned.

‘I really think we should get a map first,’ he protested.

‘Follow me or go back.’ Adrenalin fused her resolve. Could her girls be down here? Logic told her no, but all reason had deserted her. ‘I hope there’s fresh batteries in this fiddly yoke.’

‘Of course.’

She came across Dowling’s work jacket and hard hat.

‘Maybe you should put that on,’ Boyd said.

She kept walking. A junction in the tunnel stalled her progress. ‘Which way do you think we should go?’

‘I’d chance right.’

‘Let’s go this way and see where it leads us.’ She hoped she wouldn’t come across a rat, or she’d be jumping into Boyd’s arms, and she wasn’t in any humour for that.

There was less air now, and what little there was, was dank. She could feel it sticking to her as if it had a form of its own. She felt as if they’d been walking for ever, but she estimated it’d only been about five minutes, slowed by the low roof and narrow passage, when she stopped.

‘Wait,’ she said. She bit her bottom lip, the torch flickering up and down in her hand as she attempted to focus it on something that had caught the thin shaft of light. ‘Boyd, what’s that?’

She stepped into a curved cavern. The way ahead was blocked by a brick wall, though a hole seemed to have been bored in it. Bricks and cement lay in a pile. But that wasn’t what had caught her attention. Illogically, she thought she’d found either Chloe or Katie, and her heart seemed to suspend its motion before kicking off again, racing like a sprinter. Dropping to her knees, she felt Boyd’s breath on the back of her neck.

‘It’s a body,’ he said. ‘Here a while by the looks of it.’

‘Is it male or female?’ She stared at the skeletonised remains.

‘Remnants of a shirt and denim jeans. It could be either sex. I’d say the rats had a good feast on this one.’

‘Shut up, Boyd.’ She glanced around, moving the light up and down the walls and along the floor. ‘No footwear, and no bag or anything that could give us an identity.’

‘We’ll need to get SOCOs on site.’

‘Either this person was murdered or they were left down here to die. That wall looks more recent than the rest of the tunnel.’ She pointed to the brickwork with the gaping hole smashed through the middle. ‘But why? Who? Jesus, I don’t know what’s going on.’

‘We’d better make our way back and call it in.’

‘What was Dowling doing down here when the crane collapsed? And why was he alone?’

‘We will ask him those questions.’

She cast the light once more over the body leaning against the wall. ‘Should I move it? There might be some evidence behind or under it.’

‘Leave it be. We need to have it forensically examined in situ . You don’t want to damage something that might give us an identity or perhaps provide us with a reason why this poor soul was abandoned here.’

‘You’re right. My head hurts anyway. Come on.’ Her girls were not here. She should be relieved, but it was no consolation. She had no idea where they were.

As she turned to leave, her eye caught the glint of something silver on the ground, just beside the bones of the left hand.

‘Fuck,’ Boyd said.

‘Double fuck,’ Lottie agreed.