Accused: (Mystery Series) (My Murder Mysteries #3) (2 page)

About twenty seconds later, a scream was heard. Everyone rushed outside, where they found Angela standing over the body of Barry Scott. She was in shock, for she could not move.

In the dark background, Tammy emerged and saw what had happened. Barry Scott had been standing in exactly the same place as he’d been when he was last seen by Tammy. Everyone gathered round the body of Barry Scott, not knowing what to think. Tammy approached him and looked deep into his eyes. They were bloodshot. It was clear that Barry had suffered a terrible, painful death.

The police returned to the station, surprisingly. Miranda was the first to speak.

"So, Tammy, what is the name of that perfume you always wear again?"

"Euphoria," Tammy replied, enjoying the fact that she did not care about the death of Barry Scott.

"Alright, you've made your point", said Pam, "but you know that we are going to have to investigate this murder?"

"Yes, I know," Tammy sighed.

"I hated that man! I don't understand why we have to investigate," Miranda said rather defensively.

"It's our job," Tammy replied in a pessimistic attitude.

"The first thing you can do is sort out the alibis of the five people at that table. They were relatives of Scott's victims, so they had a strong motive. We need to establish where everyone was then," Pam said.

"I'll get to it," said Tammy, knowing it was her duty. If she did not at least try to work out who the killer was, she would be in deep trouble, and she would not want to ruin her reputation as an amazing detective, even if half the town wanted Barry Scott dead, especially in that horrible, gruesome way.

Tammy tracked each of the five suspects on the same night, as they were still in the pub, excited about what had happened. They were celebrating, at least until Tammy came in.

"Oh, look!" cried Tracy. "Here she is!"

"Here who is?" asked Tammy.

"Well, you murdered Barry Scott, didn't you?" asked Joseph.

"Why do you think that?" Tammy asked them, intrigued.

"Well, you were caught shouting at him, and not a moment later, he was dead! It does not take a genius to work out it was you!"

"Well, maybe you're not a genius," said Tammy. "As much as I hated him, the five of you had stronger motives, didn't you?"

"But we have alibis!" said a drunken Bethy.

"I'll have to talk to each of you individually," said Tammy, looking at the five of them and thinking it could have been one of them.

The first person who Tammy talked to was Tracy. As the mother of a murdered victim, Tammy did not think a prison sentence would make her suffer any more than she was suffering now, so Tammy did not care if she was the killer, as Tracy had been through the worst thing that could ever happen to her in her life.

"So, Tracy, do you mind telling me where you were between the last time Barry Scott was seen alive, and when Angela found him dead?"

"Well," said Tracy, "to be precise, I was in the toilet, with Bethy Sanders."

"Right," said Tammy. "I'll check up on that. Anyway, do you mind telling me about Barry Scott?"

"I'm glad he's dead, if that's what you're asking?" replied Tracy, "but I didn't kill him, because my son would not have wanted it to be resolved in that way. Barry Scott would have suffered in prison. That's where he should have gone - he'd have suffered more there!"

Tammy agreed with that, but since that could not be achieved, making him suffer a horrible, painful death would have been the next best thing. Tammy did not need to know much else, because this was a rather simple case. She moved on quickly to Bethy Sanders. She asked Bethy where she was, and Bethy said that she was in the toilet with Tracy. Tammy needed to think about that later on. Next to be interviewed was William Sanders, the brother of Bethy. He said that he was at a table with Linda. Linda said the same thing, although there were no witnesses to this, and the CCTV evidence was waiting to be recovered. Finally, Joseph Hart said that he was outside, taking some air. Tammy was the most suspicious of him, although he was not definitely the killer yet. Evidence needed to be gathered.

"Why don't you just stop investigating this?" said Joseph, "he made a fool of you! Why don't you just accept that justice has been done and let the killer get away with it!"

"Because it's my job, unfortunately", said Tammy, "and I don't think a prison sentence would hurt any of you much more than you've already been hurt!"

Joseph shut up after that.

Tammy returned home that night, and sat down with a nice glass of fresh orange juice - she had a big day ahead of her, so she needed to relax while she had the time.

Suddenly, she heard a piece of paper get shoved through the door. It's half past ten at night! She thought to herself. She opened the door to see who it was, but nobody was there; they had vanished. She picked up the piece of paper, and read it:

"Stop the investigation now or you will pay the consequences."

The following morning was an early one. Tammy could barely sleep; she was too busy debating with herself about whether or not going ahead with the investigation was the right thing to do. Ignoring the threat that she had received the night before, Tammy thought about the morals of it all. On one hand, she should go ahead with the investigation, because it solves the murder of somebody, and that is what she was paid do. On the other hand, she should not, because that would upset the relatives of his victims. It could have been argued that whoever killed Barry Scott was actually a good person, as doing a bad thing to a bad person cancels itself out, and therefore, a good person would have killed Barry Scott. However, Tammy decided to proceed a little while longer to see how things worked out.

That morning at the station, the others were still reeling with excitement about what had happened the night before. Barry Scott was dead! Tammy had to tell the truth to herself - it was like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders, because she knew that she would never give up fighting until he was behind bars, or at least, until justice was brought to him. Then Tammy thought about something: the night before, when she received the threatening note, where did she put the note? She had forgotten where she had put it. As a matter of fact, she could not remember much about the night before - was there a chance that she had dreamed it?

She walked in the room, and the rest of the team were sat in silence. A knife could be cut through the atmosphere in there.

"What's the matter?" said a confused Tammy.

"We have nothing against you", said Pam, after a few awkward seconds of silence, "but we think that it is wrong, you doing the investigation".

"I went through this with you last night!" Tammy said passionately.

"Just this once, let it be", Pam said, as if she were giving an order.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not", said Tammy, "not yet, anyway".

"You look a little shaky", Miranda said suddenly, even grinning slightly.

"I'm fine", Tammy replied.

Miranda decided to put pressure on her.

"You sure about that?" she asked.

"I'm fine!" said Tammy, "anyway, I'm more than fine! I am happy that Barry Scott is dead, if that is any consolation to any of you!"

Tammy then sat down.

"I remember the times he was acting really smug", said Graham Mitchell, "well, we all had the last laugh, because he paid for what he did! I don't care which of the five of them did it, but I hope they don't get caught! They've lost their relatives, for crying out loud! Why would prison help them?"

"Alright, you've made your point!" exclaimed Tammy, feeling rather left out.

"What kind of upbringing do you think he had?" asked Pam.

"Probably sadistic", said Tammy, "judging from what I know about most serial killers".

"Libby...what's her name was not abused growing up. She was crazy!"

"Well, that's just one in a million", replied Tammy. "The vast majority of the time, serial killers have been abused, and there is a real reason as to why they kill people".

"Now it's that age old question", said Miranda, jumping in, "is evil created or are people born evil?"

"We'll never know", said Pam, finalizing the conversation.

In all of a sudden, the boss rushed in.

"Tammy, I need to speak to you!" he cried.

"Why?" asked an extremely confused Tammy.

"Will you just come with me now?!" said the very angry man.

Tammy followed him down the stairs. Not a word was said. It was tense, when everyone was approaching the car. There were several police officers hanging around the area, and even forensic scientists. What Tammy saw next shocked her completely: in the boot of her car, there was a crowbar, and on that crowbar, there was blood, and lots of it!

"What the Hell?!" she screamed. "How did that get there?!"

"We are hoping you'll be able to answer that", said the boss.

"It wasn't me!"

"Look, this crowbar will be taken in for analysis, and it will be kept as evidence against you. I am not going to arrest you at this stage, but if any more evidence against you appears, I am going to arrest you for the murder of Barry Scott!"

Tammy could not get over the shock - was somebody trying to frame her? It certainly looked that way. If so, it was a race against time to catch the killer, or else Tammy could have been framed for it! She was scared now, because Mitchell thought it was her - she knew it. She was determined to prove him wrong. Nobody could prove that she did it, not yet, anyway. Was there more 'evidence' to come?

There was indeed more evidence to come. Unfortunately, later that day, more evidence came to light when the police examined the perfume bottle that Tammy had used for that night. The evidence from the perfume bottle suggested that Tammy had been near Barry Scott, or in direct contact with him. The clothes on Barry Scott had the same smell as Tammy's perfume bottle, and there were several policemen who confirmed that. This meant that Barry Scott had to come in extremely close contact with either the perfume or someone who was wearing it to carry the strong smell. There was no other apparent explanation as to why Barry Scott smelled like that, so it was assumed that Tammy had come into close contact with him. However, Tammy was not arrested yet as there was not enough evidence, although some of the police officers in the station did say themselves that they thought it was her.

Tammy was devastated. As a result of this revelation, Tammy was sent home until further notice, because she was now considered a suspect. She cried all the way home, but nothing could be done.

"Do you believe me?" Tammy asked Pam.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what to believe", was Pam's last words to Tammy on the phone.

Tammy knew that she would resurface from this. She was more determined than ever to solve the crime, even though the most ironic thing was that it was the murder of the person she hated most, but she knew that she had to do it. She was losing support quickly, and therefore, she knew that she needed to gain it again. Firstly, she had to think deeply about the killer, but there was not yet that much to go on, except for the evidence that was left to frame her. Somebody must have really had it in for her - she assumed that it was one of the five relatives of the victims, because it would be nobody else.

Suddenly, Miranda came to visit.

"Come to see how I am?" Tammy asked in a fairly bitter way.

"Hello, Tammy", said Miranda, "I'm here to search your house to gather evidence".

"Why?" asked Tammy.

"You know it's procedure," Miranda replied plainly.

"You know it's not me," Tammy protested.

"I don't know it's not you", said Miranda, "I'm not assuming anything. That's what you always taught me in every case that we have done together - it could turn out to be the person you'd least suspect, and you have to keep that in the back of your mind".

"You know fine well it's not me!" cried Tammy.

Miranda stopped talking to her, and began to focus on her work. She put some latex gloves on. Tammy hated her more than ever now. After a while, she went into Tammy's back garden, and searched the flower pots.

"What's this then?" Miranda said, pulling out a knife from one of the flower pots!

"I don't know!" screamed Tammy. But Miranda took no notice.

"Tammy Williams", Miranda begun, "I am arresting you for the murder of Barry Scott. You don't have to say anything..."

At that moment, Tammy froze. This cannot be happening! Was her life about to end in tatters?

Tammy was put into the car, and one person even took a photograph. It still hadn't sunk in yet. Tammy knew that she needed to think of ways to prove her innocence, no matter how hard that would be.

Tammy sat in the cell in the police station - so this was what it was like. She felt so trapped. There was nothing there for her to do, except use the toilet and lie down on the extremely thin mattress. It was dark, too, for the window was very small - if there was a fire, she would not be able to escape the building, which would count as a health and safety issue, although it was ignored by all, because nobody cared about prisoners, guilty or not.

Eventually, a police officer came to give her some dinner.

"This is absolutely ridiculous!" she cried, but the police officer did not listen. "It wasn't me! Nobody can prove that!"

She knew that nobody would listen to her. After she finished her dinner, ten minutes later, the same officer came, and took her to the desk. She knew that was coming.

"Tammy Williams", said the officer at the desk, "you are charged with the murder of Barry Scott. You are refused bail".

"I'll prove my innocence!" exclaimed Tammy, "and I'll put a claim in for this mess!"

She was taken back to her cell. She decided to make a start on proving her innocence by thinking about the evidence that was planted. Nobody could have got into her back garden without taking a risk. Tammy assumed that it was one of the five suspects who was doing this to her, if not all of them. How could they find out where she lived? However, nowadays, there are many websites online that help to track people down, so she assumed it was that way. Knowing that the plant pot incident would get her nowhere, Tammy decided to think about the perfume. How did her perfume get on to Barry Scott? She thought about that for a while. The final piece of evidence left to her was the crowbar found in the back car. Then, she remembered something - for five minutes, she left the table to go to the toilet, leaving the keys on the table. Other than that, her keys were in her back pocket at all times, so nobody would be able to get hold of them. That five minutes would prove crucial to her, and she knew it. She thought about where everyone was when she went to the toilet; the rest of the squad were there, and the five main suspects were also there on a nearby table, watching her every move like a hawk. That provided with them with the opportunity to do it. Could it be possible that the five of them managed to distract the rest of the squad while taking Tammy's keys, before putting the bloody crowbar into the back of her car? However, there was one major argument against this - Scott was murdered after Tammy went to the toilet, so it was impossible for a bloody crowbar to be placed into the car at that time. Was it actually Scott's blood on that crowbar? Hopefully not, then there would be evidence that Tammy was framed. However, she did not want to count on it, because the murderer was an intelligent person, and Tammy knew it.