Ugly Duckling (4 page)

'Bill please stop, let me explain.'

But Bill was away, disappearing into the crowds that filled the streets at that time of night in town centre. He didn’t want to hear what she had to say.

'Bill Please!'

He could hear her getting further in the distance, he wasn’t going to put up with that sort of shit, not from her, he just wanted to get as far away from her as he could, he crossed the road and decided to go across the Common.  As his pace slowed a little he could still hear the sound of  distant crowds but there was something else, someone behind him, he tried not to pay too much attention he just wanted to get home and he was still thinking about what she had said. What a fucking bitch she was. The steps behind him seemed to get closer and closer and then, they vanished. He turned to look but there was nobody there.

'If that’s you pissing around just fuck off and leave me alone, I don’t want to hear any more of your pathetic excuses' he shouted. He didn’t even want to glimpse her again let alone sit down for a nice cosy little chat while she blurted out her ridiculous story about why she'd done it.

He turned back and continued walking, as he approached the flyover he saw a figure appear from the shadows and slowly removing its hood.

'Oh its you, what the fuck do you want, Roger, you fucking Freak?'

'Don’t call me that, there’s no need to be nasty.'

'Well that’s what you are isn't it? A fucking freak.'

'I said there’s no need to be nasty.'

'Look at you! You are a complete freak Roger!'

'Don't put me down! And stop calling me that!' Anger was rising in Roger’s body, completely enveloping him.

'You're a pathetic, little, freak of nature Roger.'

Slash.

'What the fuck?'

Slash.

In a split second the look in his eyes went from anger to realisation to fear back to anger and then, nothing. He dropped like a marionette that had had its strings cut.

'I told you not to call me that you gutless bastard, now lets see what you're made of.'

As John and Ian approached the car they saw Liz in the car park.

'Liz!' called John 'Horseshoe Common, we've got another one.'

'OK see you there' came the reply.

Ian looked at John, studying his face he seemed to be looking for some sort of sign or clue.

'What’s up with you' John asked.

'Nothing J.D. I was just wondering, you and Liz are you an item?

John chuckled 'No Ian, I don’t think so.'

'But you did, you know, find out what she wears under the lab coat, so to speak?'

'Oh yes Ian, I definitely did that.'

For the rest of the short journey Ian sat looking at John, still not quite sure if he could believe that Liz and J.D. had finally got together.

***

Horseshoe Common was so named because of its shape, along the bottom straight edge ran the Old Christchurch Road, Where the “laughing Pig” was situated, to the right is Madeira Road with the police station located at the top and the right side is flanked by Dean Park Crescent, the Wessex way flyover was about half way up. Arriving at the scene John and Ian walked briskly to the area where the body was still laying. Liz had already started her work and the area had been cordoned off from prying eyes, a small crowd had gathered including a young woman with a camera, taking notes.

'Ian, Go tell her, and any others, not to publish a word or any photos before the press conference will you?'

'Are we having a press conference?' Ian enquired.

'We are now' John said, then added 'I don’t want those bastards publishing the same sort of crap they did yesterday; I still want to know who was responsible for that.' He looked at the body, throat cut, intestines on display, got to be the same killer. But this one was different, there were pools of blood surrounding the body turning that part of the pathway into a sticky red stream but apart from that it looked a lot neater.

'First impressions Liz?'

'Well, whatever cut this one was sharper, a lot sharper, and the throat hasn't been cut all the way round, just two lacerations, one either side of the wind pipe, enough to cut the jugular and carotid’s. Death would have been fairly swift, also the abdomen, it wasn't a single vertical cut this time, it’s in the shape of a “T” and the sides folded back. If you look at the blood pool surrounding you'll notice foot and paw prints and it looks like someone had slipped quite badly in the blood, but that happened after the event, after the blood had coagulated.'

'Time of death?'

'Its difficult to be accurate here, like the last one the body has been opened up and with the amount of blood loss the temperature would have dropped at a faster rate than normal but considering the coagulation of the blood and the fact it was quite a cold night I'd estimate between eight and twelve hours.Sorry I can’t be more accurate than that at the moment.'

'That’s alright Liz, I know you're doing your best' he touched her gently on her arm.

'What about these foot prints? You said they happened after the event.'

Ian had returned 'I can answer that. The old feller that reported it, sat in the back of the ambulance over there, he was out walking his dog when he discovered the body, he slipped in the blood trying to administer CPR.'

'What? Didn’t he see the state of this poor sod?'

'Thought he might be able to help, dog wasn’t on a lead so both him and his dog are covered in it.'

'That’s great! Contaminate the scene before we even get here.'

'I'll need his clothes and samples from him' Liz said.

'Yes, I'll go and talk to him, Ian you get onto the station tell them we want a reporting ban on this until we can give them the facts, we don’t want any more sensationalist crap coming from them, its bad enough already.'

He approached the ambulance where he saw an old man sitting on the back step, the ambulance crew had given him a blanket, he was sipping a cup of tea and shaking slightly, he had a look of shock about him. Next to him was a dog, now on its lead, both were smeared in blood.

'Hello, I'm Detective Inspector Dickie' John said sitting down beside him.

'Good morning Sir, Dunn, Frederick Dunn.' He started to stand up but John gently rested a hand on his shoulder 'are you OK?' he asked.

'Oh yes sir, I'll be fine, don’t know about Patch though, bit of a shock for him.'

'Is that your dog’s name, Patch? Lovely dog.'

'He's been with me a while now sir, ever since my wife died he's been my best friend and companion.'

'That's nice, we all need someone don't we? Should I call you Frederick or Fred?'

'Fred if you like sir.'

'Please, you can just call me John. Now Fred can you tell me what happened?'

'Well sir, I was just out walking Patch, we go for a walk every morning you see, about the same time, we always come through here, Patch likes to have a little run you see sir. Then we go down to the cafe and have a cuppa tea and cake, Patch doesn’t like tea that much but he always enjoys the cake. Don’t you Patch?'

'But today?' John asked.

'Sorry sir, went off topic a bit didn’t I? Well today as we were walking through here I heard Patch barking see, well he doesn’t bark much normally so I thought something might be up, he was just over by the path there near the flyover,' he pointed 'well I called didn't I. What’s up old fella? I said. Patch just kept barking so I thought I'd better go and investigate, and there I saw him, all covered in blood. Well sir, I saw some terrible things during the war, people with limbs blown off, blood and guts everywhere, but you know some of them survived, so I thought to myself, you gotta try old son, so I did. I tried the kiss of life and chest compressions just like I was taught, even Patch was licking his face trying to get him to wake up, weren’t you Patch? But I think we were too late, he'd already gone. Now as it happens it was my birthday last week and my son, he’s an Architect you know, gave me one of those mobile phone things, bloody marvellous they are sir, have you got one? Anyway he said, here you are dad just in case of emergency, I'd not used it up till today but I thought, I think this'll class as an emergency, so I called 999, you were very quick as well top marks to you for that.'

'You did well Fred, and I'm glad we got here quickly for you. Fred, would you mind going with this constable to the police station to make your statement? I'm afraid we're also going to need those clothes, some fingerprints and a mouth swab from you. It’s just so that when we examine the body properly we can eliminate you from our findings, is there anyone we can call to get some fresh clothes bought up?

'Oh that’s alright sir, I understand, its no problem I can call my son on my new mobile he brought for my birthday, he'll bring some stuff up for me, he's a good boy, Architect you know, very successful.'

'Is he really?' John interrupted ‘you must be very proud of him. So if you could just go with this constable he'll get you sorted out and back home as quickly as possible.'

'OK sir, will do, anything I can do to help, just give me a call.'

'Thanks Fred, I'll do that' John turned to walk back to Liz.

'Oh and sir, I was nearly forgetting, Patch brought me this.'

He went into his pocket and bought out a knife, it was the type of craft knife that had a long retractable blade, you just snapped a bit off when it got blunt.

'When patch found it the blade was right out, I think it nicked his mouth a little bit, but he's OK. Aren’t you Patch? But I put the blade back in, bloody sharp it was, didn’t want to cut myself, anyway thought it might be important.'

'Did you see where he found it?' John asked.

'No, sorry sir, Patch was running around like a puppy by then, could've been anywhere.'

'Not to worry' John reached into his pocket for a tissue and carefully took the knife from Fred. 'That could be very important. Thank you Fred'

'Oh don’t thank me, if there’s any medals to be had its Patch that should get them. Don’t forget if me and Patch can assist in any way, reconstruction or anything, just give me a call.'

John watched as Fred walked across to the car still talking to the P.C. He shook his head slightly and smiled 'old war heroes' he thought 'God bless them.'

John went straight back to were Liz was working.

‘Liz got something for you' he was holding the knife out in front of him.

'Have you got a bag? It'll have Mr Dunn's prints all over it and probably some canine DNA.'

'OK we'll get it checked, you never know.'

'Any I.D on him?'

'Yes I've got his wallet, his name is William Broom, lived in Bearwood, 32 years old. His wallet had seventy five pound and credit cards still in it.'

'So again not a robbery. Ian see if we can find any next of kin for him, then I want you to get back to the station, get a team together, arrange a room and tell them we'll be meeting at 2.30. We're going to find the bastard that did this to Billy boy here, this time at least we have something to go on!'

Billy boy, Billy, Bill.

'Ian, 'he called' and get the CCTV footage for last night from the Horseshoe Common roundabout cameras.'

John and Ian were studying the images from the CCTV from the night before. The roundabout was at the junction of Old Christchurch Road and Dean Park Crescent, they were interested in the east facing camera aiming up the Old Christchurch Road, It showed a row of shops, pubs and clubs including the Laughing Pig on the right and the edge of Horseshoe Common on the left.

'There, that’s it! Bring that with you to the meeting Ian.'

It was three o’clock when John and Ian finally entered the room, the team had gathered, but thanks to the delay they resembled a classroom full of school kids, paper planes being thrown, people sitting on the desks, all talking at once and all trying to talk louder than the others so that they could be heard.

'Hooray!' the cheer went up as John and Ian entered.

'Alright, alright, sorry we're a bit late, but settle down now we've got work to do. As you already know we have another murder on our hands, this one took place on Horseshoe Common sometime last night, we don’t have all the reports in yet but here’s what we do know. William Broom was 32 years old, he lived in Bearwood with his wife and 2 kids, he didn’t wear a wedding ring and according to his wife he had had several affairs, but she stayed with him for the sake of the kids, that and the fact she thought she would be homeless if she left him.'

'Is she a suspect?' somebody asked.

'Well, no. But I think its possible she might have killed him if someone else hadn’t got there first,' he smiled 'but she was home with the kids last night, the neighbour next door confirmed that her husband was with her for several hours yesterday evening, we've not spoken to him yet, but we will be when he's home from work. Now unlike the first one, this time we have what we believe to be the murder weapon, a long bladed craft knife, again we're still waiting for the report on that to see if there is any trace evidence mixed in with Mr Dunn's and the dogs.'

Laughter filled the room.

'Come on! Come on!' Mr Dunn is a great Old Soldier, thought he could help so show a little bit of respect please. Now usually we can get some sense of the direction that the perpetrator fled in by where the weapon was dropped or dumped however, this time it was the dog who found it and we don’t know where but whichever way he went you can be sure there would have been blood on him, so I want people out on the streets in the area tonight asking everybody if they saw anything.  Pay particular attention to the area around the laughing pig and Yates's in Dean Park Crescent, those areas were packed last night so we might get a bit of luck. Also we have this, Ian could you start the video please.'

The TV screen lit up and the video started to play.

'This is the CCTV footage from last night taken from Horseshoe Common Roundabout towards the “Laughing Pig”, now watch.'

As they watched they could see the time stamp was 10:30 pm, when two people appeared, a man and a woman, the man had his arm around the woman’s shoulders and was obviously the worse for wear, they stopped briefly while the woman removed her shoes, she was clearly having difficulty supporting him in the killer heals she was wearing, they then continued to walk towards the camera as it zoomed in on them.

The team erupted again into rowdy laughter as they realised they were watching John and Liz.

'IAN!'

With that Ian stopped the playback, but gave John a knowing look, as if he knew there was no way Liz and John could have done anything last night.

'Perhaps, Sergeant Cripp, you could stop pissing around and show the proper footage.'

Ian apologised and restarted the video.

'OK, now you know I was out last night, the operator in the control room seemed to be obsessed by the fact that D.S. Cripp and I were out for a drink and zoomed in as close as he could to us, thankfully he caught what happened. Watch.'

They watched as the video showed Ian entering the pub and somebody bumping into him.

'OK pause there and Zoom.'

The picture zoomed in to show their victim William Broom leaving the pub.

'That is our victim leaving the pub, notice the time, 8:03 pm. OK Ian next bit.’

The video started again and showed John entering the pub as a woman came rushing out and crashed into him.

'OK stop again there and Zoom. This woman bumped into me as I entered the pub, as you can see she was pulling on a rain hat due to the drizzle but this is about the clearest image we have of her, I distinctly remember her calling out the name “Bill”.

We need to know who she is and talk to her; she could be the last person to have seen William alive.

The camera operator zoomed out a bit after we were in the pub and if you look now at 8:08 pm you can see our victim at the top of the screen crossing the road towards the Common. I believe he was cutting through the Common to return to his parked car which we have located in Madeira Road, just down from here in fact.

The time, 8:08 pm, just about ties in with the estimated time of death provided to us by Elizabeth Collingsworth, as I said we're still waiting for the full forensics report on the body and the weapon.

Now Ladies and Gentlemen, I've had my wrists slapped, I instructed D.S. Cripp to stop the reporters from taking photographs at the scene this morning and told them there was a reporting ban, Media Relations at HQ have since kindly drawn my attention to a document that states, and I quote

“The work of a journalist is to collect as many facts and opinions about an incident as quickly as possible. Some of this information may seem irrelevant, unimportant or improper to an officer. However, as long as a journalist does not break the law, interfere with an investigation or cross a police cordon, the officer should not impede a journalist.” 

Now I did point out that the press were reporting bullshit, but the MRO weren’t very impressed with me, the good news is that they will be taking over all communication with the press regarding this case from now on. In the same document regarding the press it also says, and again I quote

“Enquiries from journalists should be directed to someone who can deal with their query and officers should avoid passing on personal opinions or sensitive information such as personal data.”

Now, I'm telling you that the only people who can deal with press enquires regarding this case is the Media Relations Office at HQ and as far as I'm concerned everything regarding this case is sensitive information, in short I don’t want any of you lot to be seen with, talk with or even have a cup of tea with, anyone from the press, is that clear?'

'Yes sir' came the muted reply.

'Good, any questions? No. Good. Ian.'

'OK' Ian said' lets get out there, ask around, just do the ground work and the rest will follow, if anyone comes up with anything, report directly to D.I Dickie or Myself, you've all got your instructions, so lets go!'

With that the team filed out and went to work.

Ian had another look at the girl in the video, he was sure he'd seen her before somewhere, he couldn't think where it was, but he was sure he knew her.