So, on Saturday morning, Kate, Tristan, and Jake had to clean and change the beds in eight caravans and ready the site for new guests.
Kate was halfway through cleaning the toilet and shower block. It was a grotty, depressing job, but she’d volunteered to do it, knowing how much Sarah disapproved of Tristan having to work on the campsite.
Kate was trying to fix the toilet seat in one of the stalls when her phone rang in her pocket. When she slipped off one of her rubber gloves and looked at her phone, she saw it was Alan Hexham.
“Kate, do you have a minute?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said, wiping the sweat off her brow with her forearm. She came out of the toilet block, glad of the cool sea breeze blowing across the caravan site.
“I’ve had some luck with those names you gave me,” said Alan. Kate hurried over to the caravan next to the road, and she knocked on the window where Tristan was changing the beds. He put his head through the window, still holding a duvet.
It’s Alan Hexham, she mouthed. “I’m just putting you on speakerphone, Alan. I’m here with Tristan.”
“Hi, Alan,” said Tristan, putting down the duvet and kneeling on the bed.
“Hello, Tristan,” said Alan, his voice booming through the speakerphone. “As we discussed a few days ago, I asked one of my research assistants to look at postmortem examinations conducted on unidentified bodies of young men aged eighteen to twenty-five, over six foot tall, with muscular, athletic builds and dark or blond hair, where hair color could still be determined. We also investigated the type of death recorded during postmortem, concentrating on signs of sexual assault, if the wrists or ankles were bound, and if their cause of death was asphyxiation. We identified four postmortems with these traits.”
“Four?” said Kate, looking up at Tristan.
“Yes. If I may explain,” said Alan. “The first case we found was of a body washed up off the west coast close to Bideford on April twenty-first, 2002. The body was never identified because it was badly decayed. The unidentified male was over six feet tall, and there were lacerations to the wrists. The body was found tangled in a net, and it had been washed up during a storm, so much of the skin and soft tissue were decayed by the water. After a postmortem, and after all stages of trying to identify the body were exhausted, the poor chap was cremated. However, dental imprints were taken from the body. I was able to request dental imprints for David Lamb and Gabe Kemp. The decayed body found washed up on the beach in late April 2002 was Gabe Kemp.”
“Jesus,” said Kate, leaning against the side of the caravan. Tristan took the phone and put it on the windowsill. “Gabe Kemp was reported missing in the first week of April 2002.”
“Yes, and that would account for the decay—the body could have been in the water for two weeks . . . I have more,” said Alan. “We matched a second body from your suggested criteria. It was found on Dartmoor, on Mercer Tor, and it was found by a dog walker in the early spring of 2000, wedged between two rocks. Much of the face had been eaten away. There had been heavy snowfall over the winter, but looking at the rate of decay, the body had been dumped five or six months before it froze . . .”
“Which would make it April or May 1999,” finished Kate.
“Yes. This young chap was found wearing full walking gear with a backpack . . . So this, coupled with the decay, meant that the police couldn’t rule foul play. At the time, dental impressions were taken, but they were only compared with the records of two other walkers who’d been reported missing on Dartmoor, and they didn’t match. On comparison with David Lamb’s dental records, it was a match.”
“David Lamb wasn’t a hiker,” said Tristan.
“Yes. The police were confused as to why the body was found wearing all this brand-new walking gear, but no money, no identification,” said Alan.
“You said there were two more victims?” asked Kate, who was already reeling from the news that the bodies of Gabe Kemp and David Lamb had been found.
“Yes, the bodies of two other unidentified men matched your criteria. The first was found next to the M5 near Taunton Deane, in November 1998, in a storm drain. Postmortem results showed that the body had been dumped within the previous twenty-four hours. The body had all the same hallmarks as the death of Hayden Oakley last week. He’d been tied up, sexually assaulted, and asphyxiated. The second young man’s body was found in a landfill site in Bristol in a black plastic bag in November 2000. The body was decayed—it had been there for a week to ten days—but the postmortem showed he’d been tied up and asphyxiated.”