Spa Slaughter (DS Leah West Book 5): A fast-paced crime thriller (DS Leah West Crime Thrillers) Read online

  Jonesy could tell she was fuming, considering she was not using his nickname.

  “I…” he stammered before finishing, “He went for my neck.”

  Leah paused. She’d seen it. In those fleeting, loaded moments, she’d seen how his body had tensed up, how he had gone into self-defence mode. She couldn’t bring herself to chastise him, knowing he was living with this trauma.

  But then she remembered the look of fear on the masseuse’s face and pressed forward. “Sam, you assaulted a man. If he wants to take it any further, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Maybe if they understand what you’re dealing with they will go easy on you. Maybe they will understand.”

  “You think I want those people looking at me like I’m some kind of basket case?” Jonesy demanded, suddenly alarmed at the possibility of feeling weak before other people.

  “It’s better than them thinking you’re some kind of thug who attacks without provocation,” Leah responded, hating the use of these words with her partner but unable to think of any other way to get through to him.

  Before she could take things any further, there was a knock at the door, and Leah wondered if this was indeed the spa looking to press charges.

  She walked over to the door, glancing back at Jonesy with concerned eyes.

  She opened the door and found the same assistant that had supported them earlier standing there. He was out of breath from having clearly been running, and there were sweat patches on his shirt.

  “You’re a detective, right?” he asked between gulps of fresh air. “You need to come quick. We’ve found a body.”

  3

  Under most circumstances, Leah wouldn’t have worn the outfit she was wearing—jogging bottoms and a white t-shirt over sandals. But she’d needed to get dressed in a hurry, as the assistant—who had given their name as Tim—led them down the corridor.

  “We found her about twenty minutes ago,” Tim explained as they walked. “We figured because you were a police officer, you might be able to help us.”

  “I bet you guys are beginning to wish you had Wi-Fi,” Jonesy said snidely. Leah wanted to chastise him for the insensitive comment but was conscious of putting up a united front in front of the staff, so she settled for a dirty look.

  They finally arrived at the steam rooms. Leah noticed the moisture hanging off the walls and could feel the damp air waving against her clothes. The door to one of the steam rooms was pushed wide open, almost coming off its hinges.

  The assistant ushered them inside.

  There was a woman lying on the floor in there, face down on the tiles. One of the attendees had clearly draped a towel over her to preserve her dignity.

  Leah knelt down next to the woman. “Do we have a possible ID?”

  “Yes, we do,” Tim confirmed. “Her name is Kelly Burton. She’s one of our guests. Came down here two days ago.”

  Leah wanted to reach out and turn the woman over, get a good look at her face to work out what her horrific final moments of living might have felt like, but she was conscious of disturbing the crime scene, a very real risk considering she was stripped back from her usual resources. She didn’t have the benefit of a forensic investigative team, and she imagined that by the time anyone got there, the scene would have been contaminated.

  “Why did you call us?” Jonesy asked, his participation in the conversation surprising Leah. “Why not call a doctor?”

  “We have a first-aider on-site,” Tim acknowledged, looking away as he said the next part. “But when we discovered her, it was clear to us she was already dead.”

  “And the police needed to be involved why?” Jonesy queried bluntly, and Leah couldn’t tell whether this was a glib remark or a searching question.

  Tim steadied himself before he said the next bit. “We thought that this might be an accident. That the victim might have had an ailment she didn’t disclose when she came here. But someone had ranked up the temperature to 120 degrees, and…” He gulped, as though bracing himself for what was to come. “Someone had barricaded the door.”

  Leah’s eyes went wide with alert, looking down at the corpse and trying to imagine what it must have been like to have been steam-boiling in her own juices, unable to breathe, banging on the door, trying to get out, screaming for…

  “How did nobody hear her?” Jonesy asked pointedly.

  “We don’t know,” Tim replied regretfully, but before he could say anything else, a woman entered the room. For a building that was meant to suggest rest and relaxation, this woman had perhaps the most rigid dress sense of anyone Leah had seen. She was dressed in a tight cream-coloured business suit and walking in high heels.

  “I understand these are the two detectives?” the woman asked, gesturing to Leah and Jonesy.

  “That would be us,” Leah replied, stepping forward. “Detective Sergeant West, and my partner, Detective Constable Jones.” She was about to perform the common reflex of taking out her badge and showing it to the woman before remembering she didn’t have it on her.

  The woman raised an eyebrow at the idea of two detectives visiting a spa together before pressing her thoughts aside and holding up her hand. “My name is Tanya Perry. I’m the manager of Lotus.”

  Leah shook the offered hand tentatively.

  Tanya finally looked down at the woman still lying in the sauna. “What would be the standard procedure for something like this?”

  “That depends,” Jonesy said, looking from the body to Tanya. “How often do you find a body in here?”

  Tanya ignored the comment, keeping her attention on Leah, clearly the more senior of the two. “I was wondering if it would be possible to keep this hush-hush for a while.”

  Leah felt her mouth fall open at the suggestion. She had plenty of things she wanted to say, but instead, Jonesy spoke up for her. “You fucking serious? A woman has just died on your premises, and you want to keep this quiet!?”

  “It would be bad for morale,” Tanya pleaded, making the case like a saleswoman selling a car. “This incident, though regrettable, will sully Lotus’ reputation. People come here for the chance to unwind. Lotus takes its namesake from the flower, opening up and blooming, just like our guests.”

  “Funny metaphor, that,” Jonesy murmured, and Leah could tell she wouldn’t like what she heard next. “Last time I checked, lotus flowers were poisonous.”

  Realising she was going to have to play the role of the ‘rational cop’, Leah said, “A woman has been found dead on your premises. We need to be able to bring in people to secure the scene, forensic investigators to gather evidence, and we will need to find out the specific cause of death.”

  “You realise that if we shut down for even one day, it will hinder our business model?” Tanya implored, making it sound like Leah was cutting off a lifeline.

  “That’s a risk we’re going to have to take,” Leah replied, not willing to budge on the matter.

  “Because we’re looking for a murderer.”

  Tanya could see she was not going to win this sales pitch. She furrowed her brow, and Leah wondered if this was the first time anyone had actually said ‘no’ to her before now. “Okay, so what happens now?”

  “We need to go somewhere there is a mobile signal,” Leah responded, grateful to have the chance to voice her pet peeve with the system. “We’ll need to bring in some people to secure the area and then find out this woman’s last movements and anyone who might have interacted with her.”

  “I’ll get on to it right away,” Tanya announced and began to leave the room.

  “No,” Leah declared pointedly. “My people will do it.”

  “My staff are more than equipped,” the manager insisted, feeling she was losing control of the situation.

  “Your staff, Ms Perry, are under as much suspicion as the guests,” Leah pointed out, not wanting to mince her words.

  Tanya balked at this suggestion. “You can’t mean—”

  “And if they are required to do anything,” Le
ah continued, keeping the momentum, “they will be supervised by my officers.”

  Tanya stood there in silence, clearly trying to weigh up the benefits of protesting, but she could see this wasn’t a negotiation but a notification. She would have to play ball. “Okay,” she finally said, admitting defeat, and left without saying another word.

  Leah turned her attention back to the deceased woman before looking up at Tim. “We’re going to need to have a look at Ms Burton’s personal records to see if there were any underlining health issues that someone might have taken advantage of.”

  “Of course,” Tim replied dutifully, nodding his head, and it occurred to Leah, if only briefly, that she could be looking into the eyes of a killer.

  4

  Leah had travelled out of the spa to the nearest spot she could get a signal, leaving Jonesy in charge at the spa.

  She made a few calls, alerting her superior, Detective Inspector Neil Wilkins, about what had happened. She was still getting used to the idea of having Wilkins as a superior and had still found herself calling him ‘ma’am’ after her late commanding officer, DCI Kim Betts, was killed by the Self Killer. Wilkins had been steadfast in his support, telling Leah that he would send over some officers but confident that she had everything in hand.

  Within the hour, a forensic team arrived, headed by lead forensic investigator Priya Kapoor. She went to work dusting down the place for prints, a difficult thing to accomplish considering the high level of steam and vapour in the room. She took the victim’s fingerprints and looked over the body while an assistant took pictures of the scene. Leaning closely, Priya noted, “It looks like she’s been in a fight recently. There’re some faint signs of bruising.”

  Leah took this as sign that whoever Kelly had been in her past life, she likely had enemies.

  Tim provided Leah with a health questionnaire that Kelly had filled out upon her arrival.

  Looking through it, there were no signs of anything alarming. Leah had been secretly hoping to find something like a heart murmur, anything to suggest that it wasn’t a murder.

  Leah looked through the clothes she’d brought, feeling the need to at least look professional, but found that very few of the shirts and trousers fit the part. Thankfully, Priya had brought her a spare set of clothes when she’d travelled up.

  When Leah found Sam later, he was trawling through CCTV footage, directing a member of staff to zoom in on specific locations, looking at people, places, anything that might seem out of the ordinary.

  Leah walked over to the attendant, and Jonesy noticed how close he was standing in his personal space, looming over him like a giant bat. “What’s your name?” Leah asked gently, finding herself stepping into the role of ‘good cop.’

  “Andrew,” the attendant said, and Leah noticed how young he was, looking like he was barely out of his teens. There were heavy bags under his eyes, clueing Leah in to the possibility that he’d been working night shifts.

  “Andrew, did you see anything irregular over the last twenty-four hours?” Leah asked, effectively taking the lead from her partner.

  “We tend to keep cameras out of the treatment facilities,” Andrew admitted bashfully, glancing back at the cameras. “I don’t think the guests would take too kindly to us spying on them in their downtime.”

  “God knows how many laws you’d be violating,” Jonesy added, clearly taking it upon himself to be doom and gloom.

  Changing the subject and wanting to stay on point, Leah asked, “Do you have any footage specifically depicting Kelly Burton?”

  “Getting everything I can,” Andrew replied, bringing up some images of Kelly walking to and from appointments. “For the most part, she seemed to keep to herself. She was booked in for three days, due to travel back tomorrow.”

  Leah scanned the footage, watching Kelly move through the spa. Looking at her, she seemed to be a little skittish. Even though she was in a place where she was supposed to be relaxing, Kelly seemed to be doing anything but.

  “I think something spooked her,” Jonesy said, unknowingly agreeing with Leah. “Look at her. This is a woman who clearly doesn’t want to mix with anyone. The body language gives it away.”

  It wasn’t a bad hypothesis, as far as Leah was concerned. But considering who was saying it…

  “Andrew,” Leah started plainly, “would you mind giving us the room for a moment?”

  Andrew looked from Leah to Sam, clearly sensing some kind of unrest between the two but unwilling to share his own opinions. He simply got up from his seat and left the room, closing the door behind him.

  “Is this the part where you give me a dressing down?” Jonesy asked, arms folded and increasingly belligerent.

  Leah wanted to be careful with how she handled the situation. “A dressing down is the least of your problems. You assaulted a member of staff; you’re lucky they’re not pressing charges. Hell, solving this case might be the only thing that gets us in their good books.”

  She could see that getting angry wasn’t going to do either of them any favours, so she tried the gentle approach instead. “I know a guy who is a really good therapist. Speaks with a lot of officers, helps them come to terms with past—”

  “Leah,” Jonesy interrupted, holding up a hand. “I am not having some head shrink scramble around my head, and I don’t appreciate the suggestion.”

  Leah noticed how he’d become very good at standing up for himself. He was certainly a far cry away from the young detective desperate to please he’d once been. Feeling her patience stretched, she asked, “What if it’s not a suggestion?”

  “And that means what?” Jonesy clearly wasn’t going to rest until she came out and said what she meant.

  “Meaning that if you don’t want to get help, it will be out of my hands,” Leah replied plainly.

  “You are seriously pulling this shit now?” Jonesy demanded, flaring up. “We’ve got a dead body, we’re already short-staffed as it is, and you want to have this conversation now?”

  “This is the perfect time to be having this conversation,” Leah countered angrily. “We’re trying to solve a woman’s murder, and I need to know that your mind isn’t going to be preoccupied with other things. When you were discussing the victim’s headspace, were you talking about her? Or yourself?”

  Sam shut up, unwilling or unable to offer a response.

  “Look,” Leah tried again, trying to display the same patience he had shown her countless times. “I am on your side. I know you better than most. I know you wouldn’t lash out unless you have a damn good reason. But the new guv? He doesn’t know you as well as I do. So, if this gets back to him, he might decide to take it further, maybe even suspend you, and I won’t be able to do anything about that. So, I am begging you, for your own sake, go and get some professional help.” When Jonesy stood there in silence, clearly having no intention of budging on the matter, Leah added, “What if that’d been me you belted in the mouth?”

  Sam was shocked by the suggestion and was clearly imagining the scenario and how dangerously close he could be to making her observation a reality.

  He was about to offer a response when out of the corner of her eye, Leah noticed several of the monitors going blank.

  She rushed over to them, unsure what to do with the controls. “Get Andrew back in here right now!”

  5

  Andrew rushed back into the room and immediately resumed his position at the control panel. “I’m going back a few minutes,” he told the detectives. The blank screen remained until finally, an image started playing. It showed Kelly wearing a robe, about to walk through the door that led to the sauna. And then the screen went black again.

  “Why did you stop it?” Leah asked, tempted to reach over and take over the controls herself.

  “I didn’t,” Andrew protested, pointing to the screen. “The footage is still rolling.” He peered at the screen.

  “Is the monitor damaged?” Jonesy asked.

  “No, it isn’t.
It seems to be in working order. But…” Andrew pressed a few more controls futilely. “There’s just a blank screen. I don’t get it.”

  Leah’s mind was already racing, thinking of the possibility that someone might have erased the footage. “Who else has access to this room?” Leah asked quietly, as though conscious she was being seen.

  “A few key members of staff, myself included,” Andrew replied before realising what he’d said, potentially implicating himself and his colleagues. “But I’m pretty sure that none of them had anything to do with this.”

  Leah didn’t know what to think. On the one hand, she didn’t want to start making accusations without any evidence. On the other hand, she was conscious of letting a potential killer slip through her fingers.

  She looked at a monitor that hadn’t been taken up by footage of Kelly, instead focusing on the car park. “Has anyone left since Kelly was found?” Leah asked, changing tactic and thinking if they were going to have to chase down a potential killer.

  Jonesy wondered aloud if they needed to lock down the spa.

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  Tanya Perry was sat in her office with Leah and Jonesy sat opposite her. The office clearly was her own little kingdom, and she had no intention of surrendering any control. “I have spent three years building up this business. I put myself in debt to get it up and running. Do you know what it takes to get a business out of the red? No, of course you don’t.”

  “It’s not about locking down the spa,” Leah replied, stepping up to be the voice of reason while Jonesy sat stone faced and silent. “It’s about making sure that no suspects get away.”

  “Have you found anyone yet who might be a suspect?” the manager asked, clearly wanting the case closed as soon as possible.