covering the back door was rusted and didn’t take much striking from a rock to break it. He pushed open the door and entered.
The back door led straight into the kitchen, once the heart of the family home. It was dark and had the bitter smell of death. Cobwebs hung from the walls and light fittings, and a thick film of dust covered every surface. The kitchen had all the mod cons a wealthy family could wish for, though everything was now dated. The food processor was the size of a microwave oven. A yellowed salad spinner sat on the work surface next to the cooker. Did people still use salad spinners?
The man went through the kitchen into the large hallway. A sweeping staircase with ornate wood panelling led up to the first floor. The stairs looked warped. He wasn’t sure if he should risk climbing them.
He went through to the living room and was surprised to find the furniture still there. He could understand burglars not taking the relic kitchen implements, but he thought someone would have made use of the corner suite and even the bulky television set. He smiled at the memories the room brought back and sat down on the seat he had graced as a child. It was closest to the television so he could watch his favourite programmes without being disturbed by someone passing the screen and blocking his view.
The dining room was a sad sight. The unit that housed the best crockery had been pulled off the wall, all the plates smashed on the floor. He bent down and picked up a jagged piece. He wiped the dust from it and smiled at the pink flowery pattern. His mum loved this dinner service. It was only to be used on special occasions; Christmas, birthdays, and big family dinners. Probably kids had broken in and smashed it, not caring about the sentimental value.
From the hallway he looked up the stairs. He was tempted to ascend, despite how unstable they looked, but was frightened about what he would see. If the kitchen had been left in the state it was on the final night someone was living here, what would the bedrooms be like? Did the police clean up after a crime or would the walls be covered in dried blood, carpet matted with the leaked insides of its occupants, and bodily fluids allowed to dry and disintegrate into the very soul of the house?
The memory of what happened on the first floor angered him. It all came flooding back. He no longer wanted to go upstairs. He wanted to leave this place. He should never have come back.
He quickly left, slamming the back door behind him and securing the plywood back into position. Nobody would care that a padlock had been broken. He looked at his shaking hands, they were covered in dust. It was in his hair, up his nose, and in his mouth. He could taste the decay, the mould and the decomposition, not only of the building but of the people who had once lived inside.
Everything had already been set out for Matilda; a room allocated and the dusty Harkness files brought out of storage.
The office was no bigger than one of the holding cells in the bowels of the police station. Behind the door was an old mop and metal bucket, long since abandoned. The room had a pungent smell of damp. The only window was covered with a yellowed venetian blind, each metal slat caked in years’ worth of dust.
She went around the desk, briefly glancing down at the files, and pulled at the cord. It was brittle and snapped in her hands; the blind was staying shut. There would be no natural light in here. The only light came from the bare sixty watt bulb dangling from the ceiling. If there was ever a room to tip a depressive DCI over the edge, this was definitely it.
Matilda turned her back on the window and took in the room, which would be her place of work for the next four to six weeks.
‘Welcome back Matilda,’ she said to herself, ‘we’ve really missed you.’
She looked at the faded labels on the folders neatly placed on what was her new desk; witness statements, forensic reports, crime-scene photos, police reports – it was all here: everything she needed to know about the Harkness case. She reached out for one, but her hand stopped short of picking it up. What was this mental block she had all of a sudden?
There was a box file on the corner of her desk. She leaned forward and quickly flung back the lid. It was practically empty apart from a thick paperback book. Frowning, she lifted it out and studied it. The pages had yellowed with age and it had obviously been well thumbed before being archived. The cover, although faded, was an image of a crime scene: the slumped body of a naked woman lying face down on a crumpled bed surrounded by splashes of blood. Matilda knew straight away what this was: A Christmas Killing by Charlie Johnson was the ‘definitive true account of Britain’s most brutal unsolved crime’, according to the blurb.
She briefly remembered the book being released in the late 1990s but had never read it. She tried to avoid true-crime books wherever possible.
According to the first page, Charlie Johnson was one of Britain’s leading crime writers, having worked on several national newspapers in a career spanning two decades. Apparently he had covered many of Britain’s shocking crimes for national and international media. Matilda wondered if Charlie Johnson had actually written his biography himself. There was no author photograph, but she pictured him having small piggy eyes and a permanent smug smile that could only be removed by a sharp slap.
INTRODUCTION
The British police force is one of the finest, and most respected, in the world boasting an array of dedicated detectives who will stop at nothing until they find their culprit. Unfortunately, there are times when a case can go cold, the killer goes to ground, and justice for the victim is trapped in a state of limbo.
One crime which shook the nation in the 1990s was the case of the Harkness killings at Christmastime. A hard-working husband and wife were brutally slain while their youngest child was forced to look on in horror. What happened on that fateful night has never been fully revealed…until now. Featuring lengthy interviews with witnesses, family, friends, and neighbours, A Christmas Killing will throw a new light on the case and…
Matilda’s reading was interrupted by her mobile phone ringing. She was thankful of the interruption. The introduction, written like he was a fly on the wall at the time of the killings, was vomit-inducing.
‘Good morning DCI Darke. How does it feel to be back in the saddle?’ The cheery caller was Adele Kean, the duty pathologist and Matilda’s best friend.
Adele’s breezy tone was infectious and Matilda found herself smiling for the first time. ‘I’m not back in the saddle unfortunately. You could say I’m in the side car.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Matilda leaned back carefully in her wooden chair, hoping it wasn’t as brittle as the blind. ‘Apparently I’m not to be trusted. I have to prove myself again before I’m allowed to play with the big boys.’
‘Oh Matilda. I’m so sorry. We did wonder whether this would happen didn’t we? I suppose it’s not come as too great a shock.’
‘No, I suppose not. I’m not even allowed to sit with the big boys. I’ve been given a grotty little office no bigger than a cupboard under the stairs.’
‘Well if it’s anything like the cupboard under my stairs the cat usually puts her finds there. Be on the lookout for dead sparrows.’
‘Judging by the smell I think there may be a dead albatross in here somewhere.’
‘Is
