As he got out of his car he could hear the ARV team clearing the rooms and then the distinct sound of them ordering someone to the ground, maybe the killer was still in the house, now that would be convenient. He turned to the two police officers from the area car.
“Don’t let anyone else onto the drive unless they need to be here.”
The two moved into position at the end of the drive.
* * *
Trainer looked up at the house from the driveway. It was an impressive structure, one of the older houses on the street. He also knew exactly whose house it was. It belonged to Martin Fenner, he was well known to the police. His firm was into drugs, prostitution and human trafficking. They had been after him for years but he was clever, he wasn’t a hands on type of crime lord, he kept a distance that allowed him the luxury of always having an alibi. And when they got a bit too close he was ruthless, people had gone missing just as they were about to turn on him.
They had come close about a year ago, Trainers boss had cultivated an informant to the point where she was going to give them information on the next shipment of girls coming in from the eastern block and she said Fenner would be there to meet it. But before the informant had given them the information she was found face down in Fairlop Waters lake. Her tongue had been cut out, an obvious warning to anyone else that might decide to talk to the police. It had hit Trainers boss hard, the informant was only a young girl and his boss felt responsible for her death. They had been working with her for months and against all protocol and advice from her bosses, they had even become friends.
The gravel driveway formed a semi circle around the front of the house, forming an obvious in and out route for vehicles. From the driveway was a pathway that led between the majestic marble columns that created a frame around the solid wooden double width front door. The door was open and so he entered slowly, he couldn’t hear the ARV team anymore so assumed that they had cleared all the rooms and hopefully had a suspect in custody. The hallway was even more impressive, a double height ceiling lifted up from the marble floor, a large glistening chandelier hung down from the ceiling, the sunlight coming through the large glass panes that ran the length of the front of the house was bouncing off the glass of the chandelier and creating patterns on the bright white walls, dancing like fireflies across the walls and marbled floor.
In front of him was a double staircase that led to the upstairs. Like the driveway it seemed to create an up and down route as the two staircases started on each side of the hallway and met at the first floor landing. He looked up at the landing and could see one of the ARV team beckoning him. Trainer climbed the stairs and was greeted with the scene of the ARV team surrounding a man. The man was on the ground, face down with his hands zip tied behind his back.
“So who is the lucky gentleman to have the latest fashion bracelets,” Trainer asked of the ARV team.
As he looked at the man on the floor, Fenner lifted his face from the floor and looked Trainer straight in the eyes.
“I didn’t do this,” He shouted. “I’ve been framed. I walked in to find them like this.”
Trainer couldn’t believe his eyes, it was Martin Fenner. Had they finally got something on him. His boss would love it if they had. It would be a big win for the team.
“Of course sir.”
“I didn’t do this you idiot, if I wanted to kill anyone do you think I would do it in my own house,” retorted Fenner.
“You make a habit of killing people sir?” responded Trainer.
“Before we go any further sir, I am going to read you your rights.”
“Fine, I want my lawyer.”
“Of course sir, as soon as we get you back to the station.”
Two members of the ARV team hooked Fenner under his arms and hauled him to a standing position. With a grin from ear to ear Trainer said the words he had longed to read out to Martin Fenner.
“You do not have to say anything...”
Five
As with all reports of shots fired an ambulance had been dispatched from the local station. They arrived at the scene just as the two police officers were taking up their positions at the end of the drive and they were waved onto the drive. They parked up and rushed out of their cab and went round the back of the ambulance to get their kit. Shots fired could mean anything, so they made sure they had everything they thought they would need, from wound dressings to a defibrillator. They headed towards the door and caught sight of Trainer entering the house. They followed behind him, assuming if he was going in that it was safe. As they entered the house they saw him climbing the staircase so they followed a few steps behind. As they reached the top of the stairs they saw the man on the floor, hands zip tied.
“Are there any victims?” One of the paramedics asked.
“Yep. Two victims in the bedroom.”
The two paramedics entered the room and took in the situation. There were two victims, both female, lying naked on the bed. Both covered in blood. They could see the amount of shots that had hit the bed and the wall, it looked like a crazed person had just sprayed bullets everywhere. They moved to the bed and checked the pulse on one of the victims, there was none.
“This one’s dead, Steve.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“You alright Steve,” said one of the ARV team as he entered the room. “How do you like the porn scene?”
“What sort of porn you been watching, Pete,” replied Steve.
“Will you two shut it and show some respect for the dead.” added Debbie as she got up and moved over to the second body.
“You gotta make a joke in these situations, Debbie, or it will eat you alive,” replied Pete.
“Idiots,” she chided.
Debbie got to the other side of the bed and put her fingers against the victims neck.
“Fuck sake,” she shouted
“Whats up now, we haven’t said anything,” moaned Steve.
“Not you two idiots, this one has a pulse.”
“What.. No way, that’s impossible,” said Pete.
“Its weak, very weak, but its there.”
Their training kicked in and they started to work in unison.
“Pulse, shallow breathing. She needs oxygen and we need to get these wounds dressed to stop the bleeding,” Debbie stated.
Steve was fitting the defibrillator to the victim, it would monitor her heart rate.
“She has stopped breathing,” Debbie said as she placed a mask and bag on the victim and started to squeeze the bag to push air into her. Steve had fitted all the defibrillator pads to the victim and was monitoring her heart rate. It was very shallow, hardly noticeable. Suddenly the defibrillator started to beep.
“No pulse, starting CPR.”
Steve took up position and started CPR on the victim. They worked together, squeezing the bag to get air into her lungs and CPR to keep the oxygen and blood flowing around her body. They needed to stem the flow of blood from her wounds, otherwise all the bagging and CPR would be a waste of time. There was only two of them, they needed help.
“A little help in here, Pete” said Steve.
“What do you need?”
“We need to keep going but also dress all her wounds to stop the flow of blood,” Debbie said. “Come and take over the bagging. Just squeeze the bag when he tells you to. You need to do it between the CPR compressions.”
The three of them worked together to keep the victim alive. Slowly but surely Debbie worked around the body and dressed all of the wounds, trying to stem the blood loss.
Six
As Trainer completed the last line of the arrest rights his boss reached the top of the staircase.
“Detective Sergeant Trainer, have you read Mr Fenner his rights?”
“I have, Ma’am.”
“Does he have anything to say?”
“Nothing that really matters Ma’am.”
“Apparently he has just returned home to find the scene in his bedroom.”
“Mr Fenner, I am Detective Inspector Alexa Blake,” she looked him right in the eyes as she introduced herself.
“Let’s go see what you have been up to, shall we.”
She walked to the bedroom door. What she saw when she reached the door shocked her to the core. She wasn’t expecting to see paramedics in the room working on one of the victims, that hadn’t been in the plan.
What was she going to do now?
What if she survived?
She turned to Trainer trying to remain calm and not show any outward signs of the panic that was building up inside her.
“Is that the gun used to shoot these women?” she asked.
“We believe so Ma’am, the ARV team found it on the floor in the doorway after they had subdued him.”
She walked out of the bedroom doorway and onto the stair landing. She turned to Fenner.
“Not able to satisfy your wife Mr Fenner?” she said trying to bait him, it looked like it was working.
His face couldn’t hide the anger although he resisted the temptation to respond. It would be futile to engage with her, given so many other people around.
“Maybe downstairs wasn’t up to the job?” she carried on with her baiting.
A ripple of laughter went around the officers.
“Get him to the station and once the paramedics are finished get the forensic team in here. I want everything fingerprinting and bagging. I want the evidence to nail his arse to the wall for this.”
Alexa turned on her heels and walked back to the room. She had planned the whole operation, it had taken her six months to plan all of this and now she was looking at the possibility of the whole plan falling down around her ears. The paramedics were working hard on Fenner’s wife, was she going to survive. If she did that could cause problems for Alexa. She had seen her face, she hadn’t bothered with hiding it as she never expected anyone to survive. Maybe she wouldn’t pull through and even if she did, the scopolamine had perfect side effects, it virtually wiped the memory of the person who took it. Hopefully the dose was large enough to bring on amnesia. Alexa walked back through the house and to her car, she needed to get to the station and start the interview of Fenner.
Seven
Alexa turned left out of the drive and headed down Forest Lane, across Manor Lane and onto New Forest Lane. As she reached the junction of New Forest Lane and Tomswood Hill, thoughts kept flashing through her mind.
How the hell was Felicia alive?
She had emptied the clip into both bodies, she should be dead. She couldn’t get the picture of the paramedics working on Felicia out of her head, it was like it was on repeat. A car behind her sounded it’s horn. She pulled out onto Tomswood Hill and made her way to the station. Her head full of the possible paths that this mess could now take if Felicia survived.
She pulled up to the station gate, swiped her ID badge and watched as the barrier lifted. She drove in and found a parking space. She sat for a few moments, composing herself before she went in. She needed to carry on as if everything was normal even when her head was shouting at her to get the hell out while she still had a chance. She got out of the car and made her way to the custody suite door.
“Ma’am.”
Alexa took a while to register that the custody officer had spoken to her.
“Sorry Sergeant, I was miles away.”
“I’m not surprised Ma’am, from what I hear you may be about to take down Martin Fenner, we have been after him for years.”
“Yes, it will be quite a win for us if we can make it stick.”
She walked to her office. She couldn’t help but think about what had happened. If this all goes wrong she could end up in prison alongside people she had put there, that wouldn’t end well for her. She didn’t regret what she had done, Fenner was a nasty piece of work, they had been hunting him down for years. The final straw for Alexa was the murder of Tracey. She had been arrested by a local constable for prostitution and offered some information on Fenner. The information had led to the closing down of quite a few of Fenner’s whore houses. Alexa had got involved when her best friend from School, Tracey had been arrested for the fifth time, this time though she had offered up more than just a whore house or dealer, she had offered a lot more.
She walked through the office that was home to all the detectives she was in charge of. Most of them were at the house of Martin Fenner, collecting evidence. Trainer was sat at his desk.
“Fenner is in a cell Ma’am. Once you are ready we can start the interview.”
“Thanks Frank. We can get started in a few minutes.”
She sat down at her desk. How was she supposed to interview Fenner when all she could think about was her own predicament. She needed to find out quickly what had happened to Felicia.
Was she alive?
Will she survive?
What might she remember?
A sudden thought came to Alexa, what if she needed to deal with Felicia before she had any chance to remember what had happened. Could she do that. Framing Fenner had been necessary, she needed to avenge Tracey’s murder. She had considered ending Fenner’s life but had decided framing him for murder was a better plan. He would end up where he should be and she could take pleasure in visiting him regularly on the pretense of getting information about his businesses. There wasn’t a choice, she had used Felicia as a pawn in her plan once, she saw no reason that she shouldn’t finish the job she started and kill Felicia if necessary.
Eight
“Frank.”
Trainer heard Alexa shout from her office. She may very well be a posh graduate but she had the ability to shout across the office like a Hull fish market seller. He rose from his desk and went to Alexa’s office.
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Has Mr Fenner’s lawyer arrived?”
“Yes Ma’am, they arrived shortly after Fenner was brought in. The advantages of having a scum lawyer on speed dial.”
Frank didn’t like his job, he had once, a long time ago. He liked the scum lawyers even less than the criminals. They chose to feed off the dirty money coming from their clients and that left a bad taste. He waited while Alexa picked up her notebook and started to walk out of her office.
“Well we had better get started then, we don’t want to leave him too long, he may think up a half decent alibi.”
########
They walked out of the detectives room and down the stairs to the custody desk. The custody officer looked up from his desk at the two of them.
“Good afternoon Ma’am, I assume you are here to speak to Mr Fenner?”
“Yes please sergeant.”
“He is in his cell with his lawyer at the moment, lets go see if they don’t mind being disturbed.”
The custody officer came around from behind his desk and the three of them walked past the first few cells until they got to cell six. He rapped on the door and opened it. He took a step inside so he could see both Fenner and his lawyer.
“Mr Fenner, Detective Inspector Blake would like to speak with you.”
Alexa stepped into the cell behind the custody officer so that she too could see both the occupants.
“Detective Inspector Blake, my name is George Tythe, I am Mr Fenner’s lawyer. He is ready to give a statement but will not be answering any questions.”
“Shall we move this conversation to one of the interview rooms and we can discuss everything in there,” Alexa replied.
They all left, what was now, a very cramped cell and walked through the block to a set of interview rooms at the far end of the ground floor. Alexa opened the door to interview room four and beckoned everyone in. The room was rather bland, cream walls with the panic alarm bar running around the room half way between the ceiling and the floor. In the middle of the room was a single black top desk with metal legs that were screwed to the floor. On each side of the desk were two black plastic chairs. Alexa moved around to the left of the room, pulled out a chair, sat down and invited everyone else to.
She pressed record on the digital panel in front of her and waited for a few moments.
“This is a recording of an interview with Mr Martin Fenner. Present are myself DI Alexa Blake, DS Frank Trainer, Mr Martin Fenner and Mr Fenner’s lawyer Mr George Tythe. The interview is being audio and video recorded and copies will be made available to Mr Fenner’s lawyer. The date is the 21st July 2017 and the time is three PM. Mr Fenner, you were read your rights at the scene of the crime. Do you wish me to read them to you again or did you understand them at the time?”
“I don’t need to hear them again.”
“Mr Tythe, are you happy that your client understands his rights?”
“Yes I am.” Tythe replied.
“Good, shall we move on to how and why you murdered two people in your bedroom then Mr Fenner.”
* * *
Fenner’s lawyer had read the prepared statement and true to his word Fenner had not spoken a word after that.
“So let me get this straight Mr Fenner, you’ve been setup. You walked into the bedroom, saw the two women on your bed but have no idea what happened.”
“As my client has already stated, that is what happened and he will not be answering any questions,” Tythe said.
Alexa had grown tired of the interview now. The evidence all stacked up against Fenner, she had made sure it would.
“Thank you Mr Tythe, for the last hour your client hasn’t answered any questions, despite the fact his story... sorry statement, makes no sense. Maybe you need some time to think.”
Fenner finally broke his silence.
“I don’t need any time to think, you stupid bitch. How simple can it be, let me repeat it for you,” barked Fenner.
“No need to repeat it Mr Fenner, it’s just that the time-line and evidence we have really is air tight. DS Trainer can you outline everything for Mr Fenner and his lawyer.”
Recompense Page 2
