by G D Parker
‘Been better! You here to give me some good news?’ asked Tommy weakly. His skin was pale, his eyes were bloodshot, and he had sores around his mouth.
‘Depends what you consider as good news.’ Valentina leaned forwards, talking with a whisper. ‘I’m going to be candid, Tommy. You look like absolute shit.’
She sat back in her chair, waiting for his response. He looked at her, his eyes filled with sorrow and sadness. Something wasn’t right. This place was killing him. Prison can do that to an innocent man.
‘I know.’ Tommy turned his face away as his eyes begin to fill with tears. He fought them back, as he didn’t want to cry in front of Valentina, but he lost his strength, and began to sob.
Valentina stood, walked around the desk and placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder as he hunched forwards, crying into his forearms resting on the table.
‘I can’t take it in here anymore! I want to die, but I can’t even do that properly. This place is torture! You’ve got to get me out of here!’ He raised his head and turned to Valentina. She felt a little on edge. ‘Please, you’ve got to get me out of here.’
She gently rubbed his shoulder a little more, then moved back around and took her seat.
‘Tommy, what’s happened to you to make you like this?’ Valentina asked.
‘It’s the others here. They do things to me; beat me, spit at me, and other stuff.’ He was looking down as he spoke, his shame obvious.
‘What other stuff?’
‘You know, you see it all the time.’ Tommy was still unable to look up.
‘I don’t know, Tommy. Can you please elaborate. Look at me.’ His eyes slowly met with hers. ‘If you tell me, I can help you. I can make it go away, but you have to be open with me.’ Valentina gave him a nod of reassurance.
Tommy stood, his fists clenched, as though he was ready for a fight. Whatever thoughts were going through his mind, he was reliving them now. He grabbed the chair and launched it across the room. A guard rushed in to restrain Tommy, but Valentina intervened and placed her palm on Tommy’s chest, which was heaving with his heavy breathing. Tommy slowly calmed down.
‘Stand back, ma’am,’ insisted the guard.
‘No, I can handle it.’ Valentina positioned herself as a barrier between the two.
‘Ma’am, I need you to move, please. You are interfering with prison procedures. McGregor needs to be restrained and returned to his cell immediately.’
Valentina looked at the guard, then back at Tommy, who was seething through his teeth with his eyes looking through his brow.
‘You’re not going to do that again are you, Tommy?’ Valentina looked him deep in the eyes, gesticulating as she spoke.
Tommy looked at the guard, slowly shaking his head, confirming Valentina’s words. The guard admitted defeat.
‘Then sit your arse down, McGregor. Act like that again, and I’ll have to put you to the ground!’
Tommy moved to collect his thrown chair and sat back down without saying a word. Valentina then followed suit. Just as her backside touched the seat, the guard made a move for Tommy, tackling him straight to the floor, then tied his hands behind his back.
‘Get up!’ the guard bellowed as he pulled Tommy to his feet.
‘I told you I had it sorted!’ shouted Valentina. ‘There was no need for that!’
‘It’s standard procedure. I had no choice.’
‘I asked you not to,’ Valentina stated.
‘You can ask me till you’re blue in the face, but procedure is procedure. If I didn’t restrain him after that action and he then harmed you, who they gonna look at?’
Valentina knew the guard was right in what he was saying, but she couldn’t help feeling somewhat protective over Tommy.
The guard pulled Tommy from the room, and Valentina called after them, ‘Wait!’ They both halted.
‘Tommy, I’ll be back in a few days, okay, and we’ll talk some more. Keep your head strong and I’ll see you soon.’
Tommy gave a little smile, which Valentina returned, then she looked to the floor. I’m getting too emotionally involved here, she thought to herself as she walked back to her car, but she couldn’t help feeling that she had a duty towards Tommy with the information she had.
Back in his cell, Tommy was shaken up from the meeting. He sat on his bunk with his knees pulled tight to his chest, thinking, hating the world, hating his world and what it had become.
He felt a pain and an itch. He was sore from sitting, so he stood and moved towards the toilet in the corner. He dampened some toilet paper, then pulled his joggers down, placing the damp paper on his back passage to try and soothe the wound. It stung, so he removed the paper and looked at it. The toilet paper was soaked with dark blood. He took some more paper and pressed it hard against him to try and stop the bleeding. He needed medical assistance but was too ashamed to come forward about the damage caused by Killroy and his mates.
25
Valentina had been informed that she was not to be involved in the planned raid, following a tipoff about where Roberts was possibly being held. She was too close to Roberts to be within the vicinity, in case their worst fears were confirmed. It was Valentina’s wellbeing that they had in mind, but, of course, Valentina herself had fought this. She wanted to be there, but the powers that be had ensured that Valentina got the message.
DI Alex Wright was to take over for this particular incident, with Valentina waiting on the end of a phone ready for the verdict; dead or alive, if found at all. For the team, tension was high as they prepared to raid the property where they believed Roberts was being held.
DI Wright was a highly experienced detective, with over thirty years of service under his belt. He was tall and trim with rugged features; a man not to be taken lightly. Wright stood tall facing his team, ready to give the briefing on what was about to go down. Valentina reluctantly took a back seat.
‘WE’ Wright pronounced with exaggeration, ‘all know why we are here. One of our own has been taken.’ His voice propelled across the room, hitting the back wall, while his eyes scanned over the thirty officers sat facing him. ‘Detective Constable Roberts.’ A portrait of Roberts was displayed on a screen behind Wright. He pointed at the portrait. ‘It’s our job to ensure we bring him back.’ He paused, taking his time, making sure everyone was listening. ‘There’s an abandoned farmhouse, here.’ He used the cursor on his screen to highlight the area. ‘It’s just off Leckwith Road. I’m sure you are all familiar with the area? Any questions before I continue?’
The officers looked around at one another. No questions.
‘Good! So, Team Bravo will gather at this section,’ he used the cursor again to point, ‘with Team Alpha here. Standard house clearance procedures, ladies and gentlemen, and please remember our firearms protocol.’ He looked around the room. ‘I don’t want the paperwork that would follow if someone decides to get trigger happy, seeking revenge for Roberts.’ He stared intently at a few officers who were close to Roberts. ‘You know who I’m talking about. Keep it a clean in-and-out operation. Just to prepare you all, we believe Roberts has been murdered, so bear that in mind when searching.’ Wright continued with the brief.
Valentina sat at the back, her palms sweaty. She wanted to be involved but understood why she couldn’t be. Hearing the brief relating to the possible murder of a colleague and friend was a hard pill to swallow. She promised herself she would allow herself time to grieve once this was over and they had caught whoever was responsible.
She fought the tears that teased the ducts in her eyes, trying to maintain her composure. Anger filled her veins like a virus, with sadness tagging along behind. Her thoughts went out to Roberts’s poor wife and unborn child; the child he had always wanted, who would never get to kiss their daddy or see him smile and laugh. She squeezed her eyes tight, pushing away the thoughts, but it was impossible not to cry.
The ground around the farm was wet and boggy, but luckily the sky was clear with the sun trying to
peer over the horizon, casting a morning glow across south Wales at 07.00am. The farm smelled fresh, but there was the scent of smoke in the air from a nearby fire, presumably from another farm.
Team Alpha got into position at the front of the farmhouse. From the outside, the house appeared to be empty. The front gate was closed and there was a black cat outside, purring and rubbing itself up against the gatepost. The front garden was overgrown, with the path barely visible from the weeds. The house was derelict, with smashed windows, fallen roof tiles and ivy climbing the walls in a rough attempt at decoration. There was a small square window in the centre of the wooden front door, and the green paint on the door was flaking.
Team Bravo gathered at the rear of the farmhouse. The back yard contained a fallen, rusty, corrugated garage and there was a deteriorating, clapped-out old Peugeot 106 sitting on bricks. The back of the house was built from red bricks. There were two windows at the top and two at the bottom, with an old wooden door in the centre, which had a cat flap built in at the bottom.
The teams were on standby, ready for the green light to enter the building. Anticipation built whilst they waited for their orders from Wright, who was crouching behind a hedge near the front gate with two armed police officers inches in front. He radioed over to the look-out patrols to ensure that there were no members of public nearby, then he gave the green light. ‘Go, go, go!’ he shouted over the radio.
Team Alpha stormed the front of the house. ‘Armed police!’ they shouted as the brittle door gave way with one kick from a police-issue boot.
Downstairs was searched within a matter of seconds.
‘Kitchen clear!’
‘Front room one clear!’
‘Front room two clear!’
‘All of ground floor clear!’
Then the dreaded confirmation could be heard over the radio. ‘First floor front room one, confirm, we have a body.’
Whilst Wright investigated the front room on the first floor, the rest of the house was searched and the entire house and grounds were contained.
The room on the first floor was humid and muggy from the rotting body that had been found. Blue bottles were buzzing loudly as they hovered around the body. The smell was rank and putrid mixed with a hint of sickening sweetness. The body was sitting in a wooden chair, which was straining to take the dead weight, and the head of the body was bowed. A blood-soaked shirt clung to the corpse, and a large dark red patch circled the chair.
Wright knew straight away that it was Roberts. He looked up at the ceiling, closed his eyes and said a little prayer for Roberts’s poor wife and unborn child, promising to find whoever had done this. He looked back over at Roberts, fought the emotion that was climbing up his insides, then turned and exited the room, unable to stand another second in there. It was time for CSI to do their job, whilst Wright handed back over to Valentina.
Wright stepped outside, pulled out his mobile and made a call to Valentina, as he promised he would as soon as he had any information.
‘Valentina,’ she answered with a tremble in her voice.
‘It’s me. You okay?’ Wright didn’t sound himself, and Valentina knew instantly what the verdict was.
‘With the greatest respect, Wright, spare me any small talk,’ Valentina demanded.
‘I’m sorry, V. It’s Roberts.’ There was silence on the other end as Valentina took in the bad news. ‘You still there, V?’ Wright asked. He could almost hear her broken heart through the phone without her saying anything. There was no reply. ‘V, please, just take a moment, and call me when you are ready.’
‘Okay,’ Valentina replied with a whisper as she ended the call, not wanting to talk, as she needed to process what had happened.
Valentina sat in her office at Cardiff Bay station, crying and holding a photo that Roberts had kept on his desk of himself and his wife. They looked so happy. The photo was filled with their white smiles, and their eyes were full of love for one another. They were only 17 when they had met and had been together ever since. Valentina felt the pain but realised that it was not a smidgen on what his family would be feeling.
Roberts had been a caring, kind man, who had devoted his life to the force and his family. His big heart had touched many lives during his career, with the number of lives he’d saved and the justice he’d given to many victims. He was a man who would never be forgotten and would always hold a place in Valentina’s heart.
Valentina pulled out a cigarette and sparked up, not caring that she was within the office; something Roberts had hated but tolerated. ‘I know you’d hate this,’ she said and gave a little chuckle with a side of sadness.
Back at the crime scene, Wright’s team were combing the entire house, with forensics taking sample after sample, and bags of evidence being loaded into the back of the van. It was confirmed that there had been a lot of traffic through the house, so the team prayed that there would be a lead.
The BBC and other media organisations swarmed the area outside the farmhouse, with officers marginally keeping them at bay. Wright was required to inform the public of their findings and reluctantly stepped forwards. Cameras flashed, and there was a large BBC camera only metres from his face. They all fell silent as they waited for the information. Knowing the news feed was live, Wright wasn’t able to confirm the name of the victim, as Roberts’s family were still unaware of their findings and needed to be informed first.
‘It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that we have found the body of an officer of South Wales Police. The death is being treated as suspicious, and I ask that you respect the family of the concerned. I cannot confirm the name of the officer at present, but I can assure you all that South Wales Police will be pursuing this horrific crime through to the end, and we will leave no stone unturned.’
Wright paused to compose himself, not wanting to get carried away as his emotions began to take hold. Being live, he could not say the wrong thing.
‘An official police statement will follow shortly. That is all for now.’ He took in a shuddering breath as he turned his back to the cameras and the cacophony of journalists shouting questions. Wright ignored them and slowly walked off, placing himself in the back of one of the vans to gather his thoughts.
Valentina’s phone rang, and she ignored it, not wanting to answer. However, the moment it stopped ringing, it started again. She looked at the display; it was Annette, Roberts’s wife. She’s seen the news! She knows! Fuck, she knows! Why does it have to be me that has to break the news to her? Valentina thought as her phone screen flashed, begging her to answer the call. I can’t! I can’t be the one to tell you! Her emotions pulled on her heart strings. She didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to be the one to deliver the sad news. She ignored the calls, then received the notification of a voicemail.
“I know it’s him! Please call me. The pain is killing me! I don’t want to wait for Family Liaison. I want to hear it from you!”
The sound of Annette’s voice and the heartbreak within her tone caused Valentina to break down. She took a moment to gather her composure, then returned the call.
‘Annette, I’m so sorry I missed your calls.’ Valentina couldn’t camouflage her cries.
‘It’s my Daniel, isn’t it?’ Annette asked despairingly. Valentina had no words. ‘Just fucking tell me!’ screamed Annette.
‘I’m so, so sorry! I’m sorry!’
Annette hung up with the confirmation she needed. Valentina buried her head into her arms on her desk, her breathing becoming uncontrollable. Suddenly, there was a knock at her office door.
‘Not now!’ Valentina shouted.
The door opened anyway. It was the chief constable. ‘We need to chat,’ he stated.
‘Please, can you give me a minute?’ Valentina raised her head from her arms. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face was mottled, and her hair clung to her damp cheeks.
The chief walked in and closed the door, taking a seat opposite Valentina at her desk. He was calm and c
ollected, oozing sympathy. ‘I know this is a difficult time, V-.’
Valentina cut him short. ‘You’re telling me! Please, I don’t want to talk at the moment!’
‘I’m still your commanding officer, V. I want to talk to you.’
She sat up in her chair with anger on her face, knowing he wouldn’t be going anywhere. ‘I’m sorry, I’m finding it hard to come to terms with all this.’
‘I understand. That’s why I’m taking you off the McGregor case. You’re too emotionally involved now.’
Valentina slammed her fists down hard on the desk, but the chief didn’t flinch. ‘NO! I want to see it through to the end! Please don’t do this to me!’ Tears trickled down her face as she spoke.
‘I’m sorry, V. I need you to take some time off.’ He nodded at her, making it clear that it was a command. ‘Okay?’
‘Please don’t do this!’
‘I’m sorry, V. It’s my job to look after you. Go home. I don’t want to see you around here for at least two weeks, and then we’ll chat.’ He was stern again, but with sympathy.
Valentina respected him and understood what he was doing, but she simply couldn’t step down from the case. ‘If you pull me off the case, then you can accept my resignation.’ Anger pushed the words from her mouth.
‘Just go home, V, please. I will not accept any form of resignation. You are too emotional. Come and see me in a couple of weeks, and we will talk then.’
Valentina stood. ‘No, fuck you! I’ve just lost a dear friend! I want to seek justice for him, and if you pull me off the case, I’m done! I mean it!’ She glared at him. She had never barked at him like that in her entire career.
‘Easy now, V. I will let that one slide, given the circumstances. I mean it, go home. We will talk soon.’
Valentina walked past him, slowly placing her badge on her desk in front of him and walked out of the office. The chief sat for a moment, staring at her badge, then shook his head.
