At Your Door

Copyright

Published by AVON

A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

Copyright © J. P. Carter 2019

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

Cover photograph © Ellie Rollason/ Arcangel Images (hallway)

Cover photograph © Miguel Sobreira/ Arcangel Images (houses)

Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com (man)

Cover photograph © imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo (teddy)

J. P. Carter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008313302

Ebook Edition © July 2019 ISBN: 9780008313319

Version: 2019-06-17

Dedication

To my three wonderful daughters.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Eight

Chapter Forty-Nine

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Six

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Keep Reading …

About the Author

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

He was a bag of nerves because he had never disposed of a body before.

He knew that if he made a mistake, or was simply unlucky, then he could be caught red-handed or leave clues for the police to find.

He’d briefly considered driving out of London into the countryside, but had decided against it the moment he’d got behind the wheel. The longer he was in the car the greater the risk of something unforeseen happening. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he’d be pulled over by a couple of bored coppers working the night shift.

And then there were the ubiquitous traffic cameras to take into account. All the routes out of the capital were packed with them, and it was essential he avoided as many as possible.

Having taken all this into consideration he had opted to drive to a spot he was familiar with. It was on the edge of a wooded area on Barnes Common. He would only have to travel another mile or so and he’d be there. By then it’d be well after midnight and the area would hopefully be deserted.

His heart was pumping furiously and beads of sweat pulsed on his forehead. He was struggling to focus and he needed to. He couldn’t afford to slip up. Dumping the body would be the easy part. He knew exactly what he was going to do. The important thing was not to leave any traces of himself behind such as fingerprints, DNA and incriminating fibres. But after she was found things would hot up, become ever more dangerous.

If he had known what was going to happen earlier this evening he would have made plans. And they would have included finding somewhere to bury the corpse. But that was out of the question now. It would take ages to dig a grave even if he had a shovel and the inclination to do so. And he would first have to find a suitable spot that didn’t require him to haul the body any great distance.

Luckily the roads were quiet and the weather calm. But according to the Met Office there would be showers later in the morning to welcome in the first Wednesday of September. He hoped the forecasters were right because it would mess things up for the forensics team when they eventually arrived to examine the ground around the body.

He was past Putney now and the common was up ahead. He could feel the panic rising inside him and he tried to push it down. Hold your nerve, he told himself. Just concentrate and this will soon be over.

A bout of trembling gripped him when he reached the common and turned onto the road that led to his chosen spot. Trees pressed in on either side. He drove for half a mile and passed only two cars coming in the opposite direction.

When he arrived at his destination he slowed down and made sure there were no cars approaching from behind. Then he stopped before reversing onto a short patch of gravel that formed the entrance to a field with dense woodland on one side. In doing so his headlights picked out the gates to an old cemetery on the opposite side of the road.

Once the car was stationary he switched off the engine and the darkness descended. He sat for a full minute as the adrenalin surged through him. Only one car passed during that time and he saw no sign of life around him.

Eventually he sucked in a lungful of air through gritted teeth and put his gloves back on. Then he got out of the car. He had parked at a slight angle so that passing motorists wouldn’t be able to see his number plate. The back of the car was a few feet away from a metal gate that blocked vehicular access to the field. But on one side of it was another smaller gate that opened onto a narrow walking trail.

He walked around and opened the boot, confident that he wasn’t visible from the road. Inside, the body was wrapped in black plastic bin bags that had been taped together.

She only weighed about eight stone so it was easy enough for him to lift her out. He carried her through the small gate and along the trail to the right into the woods. The vegetation between the trees was high and thick and he found the perfect spot after only a short distance. He dropped her onto a bed of ferns and then carefully removed the bin bags so she was lying there naked, her skin pale against the dark undergrowth.

As he stared down at her he realised there were tears in his eyes and a voice inside his head was telling him to stay with her for a while so that he could get off his chest the things he wanted to say to her. But another voice told him not to be stupid and to get away from there as quickly as possible. And it was that voice he listened to.

He gathered up some leaves and branches and threw them on top of her, and while doing so he wondered if the body would be discovered before the animals and insects feasted on it.

Finally, he picked up the bin bags and used the torch on his phone to make sure he’d left nothing behind.

Then he returned to the car and put the blood-soaked bin bags into an unused bag. He then placed this in the boot alongside her clothes, handbag and purse. Seconds later he was back behind the wheel.

But his work wasn’t finished. On the way home he stopped next to half a dozen different street bins into which he deposited her belongings along with the bin bags. As a precaution everything had already been wiped clean, her phone had been smashed and all her credit cards cut up into small pieces.

The only item he intended to keep was her driving licence, which he took from his pocket after he pulled the car to a stop in front of his home. He stared at it for almost half a minute, and was careful not to touch the spatter of blood on the back. Then he blew a kiss at her photograph, and said, ‘I’m so very, very sorry. You really didn’t deserve this.’

CHAPTER ONE

Anna was glad that nobody in the office had realised it was her birthday. The last thing she wanted was any kind of fuss.

It was depressing enough knowing that she was another year older. She didn’t want to be teased about reaching the ripe old age of forty-three.

It was scary how quickly the time had passed, and how many milestones she had clocked up. A lot of tears had been shed during those four decades, and she didn’t feel inclined to celebrate the fact that September the sixth had come around again.

The only reason she was going out for dinner tonight was because Tom had insisted.

‘You’ve had a tough year, Anna,’ he’d said this morning just before they left her house and went their separate ways. ‘And I wouldn’t be a very good boyfriend if I let your birthday pass without making it at least a little different to every other day.’

He was right about it having been a tough year, especially on the work front. She and her colleagues in the Major Investigation Team had been swamped by the biggest tidal wave of serious crime ever to hit South London. The murder rate was up, along with knife attacks, shootings, robberies and gang violence. The last case they’d dealt with had been the most challenging, though. It had involved the abduction of nine small children from a nursery school in Rotherhithe, and the murder of one of their teachers.

The investigation had ended dramatically two weeks ago, but the paperwork was still piled up on the desk in front of her. She’d been wading through it all afternoon and her eyes were tired from reading the case notes, interview transcripts, forensics reports and briefing documents that were being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Still, in another forty-five minutes it’d be five o’clock and that was when she’d decided to call it a day. It was only a short drive from the Wandsworth HQ to her home in Vauxhall so she’d have plenty of time to shower and get dressed before Tom arrived.

He was getting ready at his own flat, which was only a mile away, and coming over by taxi. He’d booked a table at their favourite Italian restaurant for seven-thirty and she was hoping he hadn’t done something daft like ordered a cake or arranged for someone to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her.

The more she thought about tonight the less she felt like going. But if she cried off without having a really good excuse it would upset Tom and give him another reason to believe that she was no longer committed to their relationship. The issue had taken root in his mind and she’d been struggling to convince him that it wasn’t true.

But she knew it would take more than just words to banish his insecurities. The main thing he wanted was for them to live together and she simply wasn’t ready for that.

A burst of activity out in the main office seized her attention suddenly. She watched through the open door as several detectives gathered around the desk of DI Max Walker, who was holding a phone to his ear with one hand while scribbling frantically on a notepad with the other.

Instinct told Anna that something had happened and that Walker was being fed the details by an operator at central control. If so then it could well be the start of a new investigation.

That was usually how it began. A single phone call that prompted a collective rush of adrenalin and then a dash to the scene of whatever crime had been committed.

Anna was on her feet and out of her tiny office in a flash. By the time she reached Walker’s desk he’d finished the call and was tearing a page from his notebook. He looked up at her but when he spoke it was loud enough so that everyone could hear.

‘A body has been found on the edge of Barnes Common,’ he said. ‘A young woman. She’s naked and has a stab wound to the throat. And it seems she hasn’t been there very long. Uniform have just arrived and a forensics team are only minutes away.’

CHAPTER TWO

Anna told DI Walker and DC Megan Sweeny that she wanted them to go with her to the common. She then issued various instructions to the rest of the detectives.

‘Check missing persons to see if any young women have been added to the database recently. And I want us to locate all the street cameras within a half-mile radius of where the body’s been found.’

Anna hurried back into her office to collect her jacket and shoulder bag. As she was stepping back out her mobile rang. She answered it without checking the caller ID.

‘DCI Tate,’ she said.

‘Hello, detective. This is Jan Groves in the Media Liaison Department. Can you spare a moment?’

‘Not really. I’m on my way out of the office. And if you’re calling to ask about the body found on Barnes Common then I don’t have any information yet. We’ve only just got wind of it.’

‘Actually it’s got nothing to do with that,’ Groves said. ‘This is more of a personal matter.’

Anna paused in the doorway and frowned.

‘In that case I’ll let you satisfy my curiosity,’ she said. ‘I can give you sixty seconds. So fire away.’

‘Well, we’ve been contacted by a producer at Channel Four,’ Groves said. ‘He just finished the second instalment of the feature about you that’s been published in the Evening Standard. He said it blew his mind and he’d like to do a programme on it for their true crime series. He wants to know if you’d be willing to cooperate.’

Anna’s heart skipped a beat. ‘Of course I’m up for it. And the sooner it happens the better.’

‘I thought that would be your reaction,’ Groves said. ‘I’ll get back to him right away. Your superiors will need to sign off on it, but I don’t think that will be a problem. We’re working closely with several TV channels on a whole bunch of programmes at present.’

Anna was well aware of that. True crime documentaries were all the rage with broadcasters these days. Viewers were lapping them up, and that was good for the force because they often shed new light on unsolved cases going back years.

‘As a matter of interest have you had any other response to the article in the Standard?’ Groves asked.

‘Nobody has contacted me yet,’ Anna said. ‘I checked with the paper a few hours ago but they said they hadn’t received any calls or emails either.’

‘That’s a shame. I thought it was a really well-written piece, and the story itself is just extraordinary. Hopefully you’ll have better luck if we can get this doco off the ground.’

‘I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed,’ Anna said.

‘And I’ll keep you updated on where we are with it.’

After ending the call, Anna took a moment to reflect on this latest news. In the ten years she’d been searching for her daughter she had never felt so close to finding her. Now, for the first time, the full story of Chloe’s abduction, including the recent shocking developments, was going to be aired on a mainstream TV channel. With luck it would be seen by someone who had information that could end Anna’s long-running nightmare.

It was hard for her to contain her excitement, but she knew she had to, at least for now. If she didn’t squeeze it to the back of her mind it would become a distraction, and she couldn’t allow that to happen at the start of what might prove to be a major new investigation.

She needed to focus all her attention on the job at hand. She owed that to the family of the young woman whose body had turned up on Barnes Common.

Anna travelled across South London in a pool car with DI Walker and DC Sweeny.

Walker, who was in his late thirties, had been part of the team for four years and was Anna’s most trusted wingman. Sweeny, who was several years younger, had joined only three months ago and Anna was keen for her to have plenty of crime scene experience.

Walker was driving and Sweeny was in the back Googling the location of the body on her phone browser.

‘It’s right next to the road that passes between Barnes Common and Putney Lower Common,’ she was saying. ‘Just opposite there’s a cemetery that’s been closed to new burials for years. But it’s quite well known because it contains some Commonwealth war graves.’

Anna was familiar with the area, which had more open spaces than any other part of London. To the south of Barnes Common was Richmond Park, Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common. To the north was the Thames and the London Wetland Centre, an urban oasis for wildlife, with lakes, ponds and gardens.

The area contained hundreds of acres of woods and heathland, but very few bodies had ever been found there, which was perhaps surprising given the capital’s high murder and suicide rates. That wasn’t to say there weren’t dozens buried beneath the topsoil or lying undiscovered amidst thick hedgerows.

Anna was already wondering about the woman whose corpse they were going to see. Was she married or single? Did she have children? Did she die on the common or elsewhere? Who found her? And why was she naked?

The questions would pile up as per usual and it would be their job to seek out the answers. They would also have to break the news to those with whom the woman had a relationship. The next of kin, be it mother, father, husband, son or daughter. It was a thankless task that Anna had carried out far too many times during her seventeen years on the force.

Her thoughts were interrupted by another call on her mobile. This time she checked the caller ID before answering. It was her boss, DCS Bill Nash.

‘I can guess why you’re ringing, guv,’ she said. ‘We’re on our way to Barnes Common now. Traffic’s pretty heavy but we should be there in ten minutes or so.’

‘Well, I won’t be back in London until tomorrow,’ he responded. ‘But I want you to keep me updated. This sounds like a nasty one.’

Anna had forgotten that Nash had been attending a two-day conference in Newcastle with other senior police officers from all over the country.

‘Everything is in hand,’ she said. ‘Uniform are already at the scene and forensics should have arrived by now too.’

‘Well, don’t hesitate to call me if there are any problems.’

It was only about two miles from MIT HQ to Barnes Common, but it was rush hour and therefore slow going even with the blue light flashing.

They finally arrived at their destination at five-thirty. It was a rural setting that should have been deserted and peaceful. Instead it was a scene of frenzied activity.

On one side of the road three patrol cars, a fast-response ambulance and a forensics van were parked in front of the wall to the cemetery that Sweeny had mentioned. On the opposite side a small group had gathered on a rough patch of gravel leading to a field. They included four officers in hi-vis jackets, a paramedic and a woman with a small dog on a lead.

Walker parked up next to the ambulance and Anna was the first out. The sky had clouded over and she was glad because it had taken the heat out of the day. It meant she could leave her jacket on without sweating buckets.

‘Well, it’s time to find out what we have here,’ she said as she led the way across the road.

The detectives flashed their warrant cards and one of the uniforms quickly put them in the picture.

‘We’ve just been informed that the pathologist will be here any minute,’ he said.

He gestured to a metal gate behind him that blocked any vehicles driving onto the field, but there was a smaller gate to one side which led to an unpaved walking trail.

‘We’re trying to find out who owns the land so we can get them to open the gate,’ he went on. ‘The body is about forty yards into those woods over to the right. The SOCOs arrived ten minutes ago and are getting themselves sorted.’

‘So who found it?’ Anna asked.

The officer nodded towards the woman with the dog, who was speaking to the paramedic.

‘Her name’s Joyce Connor. Her mutt sniffed it out and she called it in. But understandably she’s in a bit of a state.’

‘We’ll talk to her in a moment,’ Anna said. ‘First we’ll see the body for ourselves.’

‘Well, you need to brace yourselves,’ the officer said. ‘It really isn’t a pretty sight.’

CHAPTER THREE

Anna and her two detectives followed the walking trail and saw the scene of crime officers as soon as they entered the wood. There were five of them. They had already unpacked their equipment and were starting to do their job with grim-faced determination.

Anna knew that it wasn’t going to be easy for them. Crime scenes that were open to the elements were always more difficult to control and process. Contamination of evidence was inevitable and dead bodies usually fell prey to insects and animals. Much would depend on how long the woman had been here and that was for the pathologist to determine with any degree of accuracy.

The three detectives were greeted by a SOCO wearing a white paper suit. Anna had never met him before so she introduced herself and the others and then they all signed the crime scene log.

The officer pointed to a large cardboard box containing overalls, masks and shoe covers.

‘You’ll need to get suited up,’ he said. ‘And for your information another team will be here shortly. There’s a lot of ground to be covered and it’s pretty messy.’

Once they had the gear on they followed the officer into the wood along a narrow, uneven trail that looked as though it didn’t get used much.