Personal

by S Thomas Thompson

  “Boyle, I’m sick of shovelling your shit. You’ve managed to convince Marie that you can let this one go, but you have to convince me too,” Foley was trying to close rank on Augustine, but with no more authority and less years in the force is wasn’t going to wash.

  “I don’t have to do shit,” Augustine fought fire with fire when he knew he would get the backing of his bosses. Even the disparity in detection figures wouldn’t get Foley out of this one. Augustine wondered what the problem was. It had to be more than being handed a case that he didn’t want. Foley did that in reverse all the time.

  “I don’t want the crap that you picked up on last night’s shift. You’re making no progress at all with the case you have now, so why would you not have time for another dead-end investigation? You and your team of fuck-ups seem to specialise in them,” Jon Foley continued to bait Augustine to respond. It was a classic tactic that would work with a criminal but not another detective. Augustine slowed it all down.

  “I have researched as much as I could. All my notes are on the file. You can pick it right up from there,” Augustine tried the classic tactic of deflection. He wouldn’t get drawn into an argument where the outcome was already determined. He had won the argument already by passing the case over with the express authority of their line manager. What would he gain from getting angry with this prick?

  “I’ll tell you what,” Jon Foley sensed a gap and went for it, “I’ll let you deal with this one and I’ll take the others off your hands. Does that sound like a deal?”

  Foley had cut to the chase. Augustine had kept his cards close to his chest because he didn’t feel the need to play any, but the result was that his opponent had revealed everything. Maybe his grandfather had something with this tactic. Augustine Boyle had waited for others to circle around his investigation. It didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, but the publicity was too much for the other detectives to bear. They wanted the high-profile case, the one that all the newspapers were covering and the one all their friends were talking about. The fact that Augustine Boyle had the case was enough to make their blood simmer away for hours on end. The plots were going on behind his back to relieve him of the investigation. Boyle would stand firm. There was no chance of him giving this one up.

  Foley could see that it wasn’t going to be that easy. But he wasn’t going to give Augustine the easy win of walking off with his tail between his legs. “I’ll get one of my team to come and pick up the notes later. Some of us are busy,” and with that Jon Foley opened the door with a wild swing and stormed off out of the office.

  After Detective Jon Foley left, Boyle sat and thought for a fleeting time. He wondered how long he might have to produce some results with this before the noise from people like Foley would get louder. He thought that maybe one or two more murders with no progress might see the case handed to another detective and him relieved of his command over this killer. Augustine wanted desperately to find a chink of light in the case. As it was, the only unnatural light in the room came from the door that was still wide open from Foley’s exit. The glare of a torch was shining straight at Augustine’s face. At the other end of the torch was Gary Hole. He looked pissed off. He was looking at the back on his upturned monitor with the light half shining on the subject of his anger and the other half shining directly at Augustine. If it had been anyone else it would have been a complete coincidence. As it was Gary, Augustine was sure it was contrived. Of all the people in the building, Gary was the one that would have loved the conversation he had just been through with Jon Foley. Voices were raised, but Augustine was sure they were quiet enough for even the likes of Gary to not overhear.

  He walked out into the office to see what was going on. As he got closer Gary lifted the light and it shone fully in Augustine’s face. Like before, he thought, ‘if this was anyone else…’

  “What’s up Gary?” Augustine wanted to show that he cared. In some ways, he did care. He cared that Gary didn’t go off telling other detectives that they had made no progress. He cared that Gary didn’t piss of the productive members of his team. He cared that Gary didn’t get the upper hand with him. He cared that he was still able to control his movements. But Augustine really didn’t give a shit about the state of Gary’s monitor. He did precious little with it anyway.

  “I don’t know. It just went off, “Gary replied with the torch still shining full in Augustine’s face. The rest of the room had now stopped what they were doing to see if Augustine was going to have his second confrontation in ten minutes but he seemed resigned to help rather than argue. As Augustine approached he could see a light from the downturned monitor screen and wondered what was going on. Gary looked at where Augustine’s eyes were and quickly put the torch away. “I think I’ve got it now,” he said with a smile and put the black monitor screen back on the desk. Augustine, baffled, returned to his office without offering any more on the subject. Perhaps he should be worrying about what Gary was up to this time, but Augustine had long since decided not to waste time on him. He couldn’t be arsed.

  The trip to the sewers the day before had delivered nothing of note for the investigation but had satisfied the rest of the team that Gary had been given this unenviable task. For his part, Gary played the role he should have. He stayed there all day and filed a report to Augustine at the end of it. He didn’t want Augustine to derive any satisfaction from giving him the shit jobs. It wouldn’t be long in Gary’s eyes before he would be at least Boyle’s equal, if not his superior. He was willing to play the long game.

  As he sat back at his desk, Augustine decided that he would read through the report one more time before one of Foley’s underlings arrived. If he was going to be abused for it, he might as well make sure it was as good as he could leave it. Another thought entered his head. What if he was taken off the serial killer case? He might end up back with the case if he didn’t make any progress with what he was doing, so it could be in his best interests to make sure that the file in his hand was as complete as could be.

  While reading, and urge to call Sally came across Augustine. There was nothing in the notes or the interview that caused him any concern but something was tapping him on the back of the head all the time about her. He decided that after a cup of tea he would probably do that. Electra was getting up out of her seat just as Augustine walked through his office door with eyes on the exit. She walked alongside him for a few strides without saying anything. She knew this face. She knew his destination. Without a word, she walked with him to the café over the road from the station. She was happy to sit in silence with him if he wanted.

  On their return, Gary told Augustine that someone had come to collect the file from his office. One of Foley’s team, he thought. Augustine saw the file missing from his desk, but the single sheet he had been studying before the trip across the road was still on top of the filing cabinet that sat behind the modern ergonomically-designed chair behind the large dark-wood desk that could have easily been mistaken for a dining table because of the size and the quality of the wood. Augustine had inherited the desk from the previous occupant of the office and loved the solidity it represented. He hoped that anyone who met him in the office would feel that he had the same solidity of character. It obviously hadn’t happened for Jon Foley around an hour earlier.

  The piece of paper was beckoning Augustine to the cabinet and he walked past the desk and brushed it with his hand. He wanted to feel the quality. Augustine Boyle took the piece of paper between two fingers as though it was dirty and placed it on his desk. For some reason, he didn’t want it to look as though it had been hidden or well-used. When it made its way back to the rest of the file he didn’t want it to stand out in any way. He hadn’t kept it back with a purpose but it felt like it had one now. Augustine had a telephone call to make.

  15

  Sally had only been up for a short while and JoJo was already agitating to get out for a walk. Sally slept well after she had managed to doze off and was still in
sleep mode on her second cup of coffee when JoJo first began. Sally loved her coffee. It was only cheap stuff that she bought from the local pound shop, but she would go through a couple of jars a week. She knew people that would drink as much as she did but in the expensive coffee shop chains and spend hundreds of pounds a month on coffee. She just wanted a strong black pick-me-up and didn’t mind too much about the flavour. JoJo would have to wait until she was dressed and presentable. Walking around scruffy in the dark with a dog was one thing but walking without getting dressed properly in the daylight was another thing altogether. Sally went to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn’t much impressed at what she saw. The rain from the night before had given her hair that frizzy look that the humidity of holidays only usually delivered. The bags under her eyes were reaching towards the floor in a manner that she had never seen before. And this is what sleep does for you, she thought.

  Sally took her time over getting ready. The sound of the shower, the electric toothbrush and the hair dryer drowned out the agitation of the dog and allowed her a little time to do what she wanted. She wasn’t going in to work. She had texted her boss and he understood. Official company policy stated that she should ring within half an hour of her shift beginning but he wasn’t the type of manager to get worked up over the occasional absence. She told him briefly in the text what she had seen and knew this would buy her a few days at least, not that she needed them. In all likelihood, she would be back in the following day and would be the centre of attention as her colleagues would want to know what she had been through. She was quite private with many parts of her life but this was an opportunity that she couldn’t miss out on.

  JoJo had enough of waiting and began to bark and whine to go with the scratching at the door. Sally knew the game was up, but she was almost ready by that point. She grabbed her coat and slipped on her shoes as she left. It had stopped raining and was a fine day by the time the two of them has walked to the edge of the property and joined the pavement. Sally immediately regretted putting her coat on, but JoJo was off and away. She tied the two arms of her coat together around her waist and followed her dog. This time JoJo walked in the opposite direction to the one that they followed the night before. Sally was torn between getting away from the events of the previous night and getting a closer look as part of her intrigue. She decided to follow her pet and then maybe see if she could steer her towards the road they found the body in later in the walk.

  Sally took her time ambling along behind JoJo, who now found every aspect of every part of every inch of pavement interesting. Sally couldn’t help but wonder if it was the find from the night before that had sparked this intrigue from her dog or whether it had always been there and she hadn’t noticed. In any event, Sally couldn’t get JoJo to walk where she wanted. The dog was off on a mission that only she could decipher. Her owner was just there to follow behind.

  After a short while Sally noticed JoJo walk across the road and on to the shaded side of the street. They had walked in the sun all the journey to that point so Sally hadn’t even considered that there was anything in the way of shade present that day. As she walked along the street shaded by the buildings above and hemmed in by the cars parked along the side of the road, Sally felt a cool breeze and decided to put her jacket back on. The slight chill that told her summer was starting to fade and autumn was on its was enough to persuade Sally to put her hands in her pockets. She had heard of Reynaud’s Disease and wondered many times if she had it. The cold on her knuckles and her feet was painful and once it began she found it almost impossible to shake the feeling. After a few seconds when the numbing had died down a little she felt a piece of paper in her pocket. Sally remembered that she had removed it from the body she found to check for any injuries. It was too dark to see the night before. Sally looked at the paper. It had a single letter imprinted on it – I.

  She thought this was strange and put it back in her pocket. It couldn’t have anything to do with the body She had found. It must have been from a printed document and blown there before landing on the body. There is no way that someone would print a single letter and leave it on a dead body, would they?

  JoJo was heading towards home and Sally just followed. The traffic at this time of day was light as most had already begun their day’s work. The few others that she saw were on foot as the weather was pleasant out of the shade. Sally returned home and put the kettle on before she did anything else. JoJo was still itching for a bit of activity, so she opened the back door and let the dog run around the garden. Sally listened to the increasing churn of water in the kettle until a click went and the sound died down. She poured the scolding water over the cheap instant coffee powder and stirred vigorously. It took a bit of work to get the granules dissolved but Sally felt that a cheap coffee habit was better than an expensive coffee habit. The detective in Sally wanted to know what had happened to the body she found. She sat down and put on the 24-hour news channel to see if there were any reports for her to go on. There was a row going on in Brussels about something to do with the Euro and this dominated the news reports and discussions. It was on in the background while Sally let her imagination go wild about the body of the woman.

  It was a love triangle and the other two have run off into the sunset together.

  It was suicide and she left the letter on her chest to denote that ‘I’ did it.

  She was hunted and killed by an alien species and the body fell into the undergrowth from their space craft.

  Now she knew she was getting too carried away with it. Suddenly the phone rang. Sally threw all thoughts of the body to one side and answered.

  “Hello….” She never really knew what to say on the phone so just hoped the person at the other end would take the lead.

  “Sally? It’s Augustine, the detective. We met last night. I just wanted to see if you were OK. It can be quite a shock to see a dead body.”

  “I’m OK, I think. I’m not really awake, but I think that it might be the disruption to my sleep pattern rather than the shock of seeing the body. It didn’t feel real.”

  “I’m glad you’re OK. I suffer badly when seeing bodies and I have seen a great deal of them. If you ever need anyone to talk to you have my number.”

  “Thank you, Augustine. I’ll bear that in mind.”

  “I was calling to talk through your statement from last night. Nothing to worry about, just checking that it was all correct, now you have had time to sleep on it. I have handed this case over to a colleague, who will be investigating from here. His name is Jon Foley and he is very good at what he does.”

  “That’s a shame. I was kind of hoping to deal with you in the future, detective.”

  Augustine blushed. Sally blushed. Neither could see but they both suspected that the other was going through the same physical reaction to her comment. Augustine waited for a few seconds before speaking again. He wanted to retain composure. After the short wait, he went through the different parts of her statement again, as he remembered it, just to be thorough. He started with the journey behind her dog, he couldn’t remember the name, so he was sure how she approached the wooded area. He wanted to know if she had the same feeling of being alone in the world that she described the night before. She did.

  Augustine checked the other parts of her account, like the number of times she touched the body, what her dog was doing at the time (Sally reminded him the dog was called JoJo) and how long it took her to call the police. He made no notes whatsoever as he saw no reason to pull her up on any of her account. He just felt that he should keep her talking.

  At the end of the account, Augustine asked Sally if there was anything else she had remembered after a good night’s sleep. Sally paused for a few seconds.

  “Sally. Is there something else?” Augustine felt this was the time to prompt her. She had given him nothing new up to that point but he was compelled to push he on this question. Her hesitation was enough to pique his interest.

 
; Sally replied, “I don’t know if it is connected or even if it is important. I forgot last night and then I found it again this morning. On the centre of her chest was a piece of paper with a single letter printed on it. Do you think it might be significant Augustine?”