Double Noose

by Jay Sharman

  Tony took a deep breath and put his back to the chair. ‘What do you want me to say, Mr Jackson. I just wanted to stay away from all the troubled spots; otherwise you may implicate me for these killings, instead of finding out the real murderer.’

  ‘No, the reason you did not go there is because that you already knew that Robin was dead, as you both killed him to take revenge and now the fourth Green must be the next target by you. Tell me that when are you going to do it.’

  John was shaking and said, ‘How can you make a statement like this, Mr Jackson. We have got nothing to do with Robin’s death. He probably hanged himself.’

  Jackson seemed unmoved and moved few inches nearer to them to ask, ‘How can you say that Robin hanged himself. He was in a perfect health and in a happy mood just before his death.’

  John replied still with a frown on his forehead, ‘I don't know that how should one behave before committing a suicide. I am not a doctor, but one thing that I know for certain, is that I did not kill Robin. Moreover, he was twice my size and even two people would not be enough to hold him in one place.’

  Jackson looked puzzled and thought for a minute and said, ‘I see your point. Look, I need to wait for the forensic team, including blood reports of Robin. David was found to have increased potassium levels in his blood. It will be interesting to know what changes can be found in Robin’s blood.’

  Medical staff tried to resuscitate Robin but were unsuccessful as they had already declared him dead.

  Jackson was impressed by the speed in which the forensic team had also arrived on the scene.

  DC Lewis was there with his own team of detectives and took control of the situation. The blue and white tapes had surrounded the crime scene, and nobody was allowed to leave, until everybody was interviewed by DC Lewis and Mr Jackson. The sky was overcast, and thunder and lightning were becoming more frequent and louder.

  DC Lewis was keen not to make the mistake of last time when his investigation of David’s death, produced no results. He felt that suicide should not be ruled out and still be considered number one reason for Robin’s death.

  The other dilemma was that why should all the Greens be committing suicide one by one and then leaving no clues behind. They did not show any signs of depression or isolation so why then they were committing suicides. Maybe, they signed a pact with each other to commit suicide one by one. If that was the case, they would have done a mass suicide at the same time, but Dc Lewis felt that he had no answers.

  DC Lewis asked questions to all the persons present there to rule out their involvement in Robin’s death. DC Lewis recognised Julian from the last meeting, when he saw him soon after David’s death. Julian stood up in the corner of the room, still looking nervous and shaken by the whole ordeal. DC Lewis asked, ‘Julian, it is amazing that you are present here again after the similar incident that happened only few weeks ago.’

  Julian did not like the suspicious looks in Lewis’s eyes and replied assertively, ‘I did not come here by my own choice. I was requested to help somebody after fainting earlier in the workshop.’

  ‘I see.’ said Lewis. ‘And when you do come here, Robin loses his life only few minutes later. I was told that you had gone to the shower room just before Robin died.’

  Julian ruffled his wet hair with his fingers and said, ‘That is right, the prison officer asked me to have a shower here, instead of going back to the gym.’

  Lewis had a cigarette in his hand but could not light it because of smoking restrictions. ‘So tell me Doctor, how did you do it? Did you inject Robin with some drugs, or did you put some poison in Robin’s drinks’

  Julian covered his face with his hands and whispered ‘DC Lewis, I live in a prison where I do not have access to any drugs or any poison. I do not have any syringes with me, so how do you expect me to do this act?’

  Lewis rotated the cigarette in his hands to ask, ‘Doctor, you can easily smuggle these items inside here or get some other prisoners to that heinous act for you.’

  Julian cleared away the drops of water from his face and said, ‘Listen officer, I have no reason to kill any of the Greens. They have not harmed me. Moreover, I am busy in preparing for my trial and hope to get out of this prison as soon as possible.’

  Lewis was preparing to corner Julian and get some admission from him. He laughed as he looked at Julian whose eyes were focussed to the floor, instead of looking at him. ‘Doctor, you are in the prison because you killed your wife in your surgery, so it is easy for you to kill somebody else second time, third time and even fourth time.’

  Julian had lost his temper by now and was fuming at DC Lewis with penetrating eyes.

  He shouted, ‘DC Lewis, you are not a judge of a court but simply a police officer. I have not been found guilty yet of murder by a jury and I am only under suspicion and there is no evidence against me and that makes me not guilty until it is proven by the court. Moreover, Mr Lewis, you are also a witness for the court like I am.’

  Jackson realised that the situation was getting out of control and tried to diffuse it by saying, ‘Julian, DC Lewis is only raising his suspicions and every single person in this building is also a suspect, so that is why DC Lewis has asked similar questions to the other prisoners as well.’

  Julian counteracted, ‘Look both of you officers, with due respect, Robin was a big man and a single person couldn't lift him and hang him with a rope.’ Lewis and Jackson were both looking at the floor thus avoiding Julian’s glance, who carried on by looking at both the officers and continued to say, ‘Just look at those pipes from where he was hanged, they have almost bent into two by the sheer weight of Robin. If you think that somebody killed Robin first and then hanged him afterwards, then the forensic team will confirm that there are other causes of death.’

  Jackson looked at Julian admirably as his speech was no less than that of a barrister. Jackson said, ‘Julian, I do take your point seriously and I know that we need to wait for the forensic reports and the possible other causes associated with that. DC Lewis, shall we ask questions from the next person now’

  DC Lewis looked at Jackson and nodded willingly. ‘Yes, we need to move on. I needed to ask some of these questions to clarify few points. I think that we must go back to the shower room to look at the damage caused to the pipes.’

  ‘Do you think that we will interfere with the work of the forensic team by this?’ Jackson asked curiously.

  ‘No Mr Jackson, we will not touch anything, but just want to look at few things there.’

  DC Lewis then turned towards Julian and said, ‘Look outside, it is flooded with water as the rain is so heavy. I don't like too much thunderstorms and lightening.’

  Lewis then turned towards Julian to shake his hand and the moment Lewis touched his hand, he felt a huge surge of electricity going through his body and he could see sparks flying on the wooden table lying under their hands and within seconds the table cracked in the middle. Lewis fell backwards but was held by Jackson before they both fell down to the floor.

  Everybody rushed towards the table, but Jackson shouted, ‘Everybody stay back, we have been struck by the lightning. ‘Lewis how are you feeling now?’

  Lewis was standing in a corner still shocked and shaken by the incident. He opened his closed fingers many times as he felt a sense of numbness and burning in his hands. He said, ‘What was that? I thought that I was going to be electrocuted. Did you feel the same way, Julian?’

  Jackson noticed that Julian did not move at all from his place and looked still and very calm and serene. After being questioned by Jackson, he shook his hand with him and pretended that he was also feeling the pain in his hands. He replied, ‘Yes, I felt something in my hands, but it happened so fast, I did not even know that the lightning has struck us. Officer, we both are lucky to be alive.’

  Jackson looked at Lewis’s hands and whispered, ‘Dc Lewis, do you think that you need to go to casualty to check for any internal damage to your body?’

>   Lewis felt that he had recovered completely, he replied, ‘No, I am fine now. I better finish checking the shower room before I go back. Mr Jackson, come on let us go before we face another disaster today in the workshop.’

  Jackson then shouted at the prisoners, ‘Come on everybody, you can go back to your rooms now, we will ask you more questions on another day.’

  Jackson and Lewis both went back to the shower room, where the forensic team were still doing their investigations there. The area had separate changing areas for the four shower cubicles but the pipe of only one of them was bent.

  Lewis asked the forensic scientist, ‘I know that you are in the middle of your investigations, but can I ask you a question?’

  ‘Yes, you can.’ replied the forensic scientist.

  Dc Lewis asked, ‘Can these pipes carry the weight of Robin, I mean that he must be at least one hundred kilograms in weight.’

  The scientist replied as he was busy packing the stuff in his bag, ‘It is very difficult to say, but anything is possible. That is what I have learnt after handling hundreds of cases over many years.’

  Lewis looked at Jackson, ‘What do you think, Mr Jackson?’

  Jackson’s right hand was covering one side of his face, he muttered, ‘I was thinking the same. We have three deaths, they all are connected with shower rooms and in each case, the victim was very heavy and strong. We need to send these pipes for some tests to see if they have enough strength to sustain the weight of these victims.’

  Lewis was looking at the nails that had come out of the wall and then looked at his right hand and said, ‘I am still recovering from the shock of that electric current that I got after touching Julian’s hand. I am lucky that I did not die, as very few people survive from lightning. The weather is awful today, we must not stay here for too long.’

  Jackson looked at Lewis’s hand and commented, ‘I can't see any signs of burning in your hand, despite the fact that the wooden table cracked.’

  Lewis looked at Jackson with amazement, ‘Are you thinking the same as I am?’

  ‘Probably. What are you thinking?’ asked Jackson.

  DC Lewis looked at the sky through the window and whispered in Jackson’s ears ‘There is something very fishy about Julian. He has been found on the site of murders each time and, but we found no signs of any DNA or fingerprints on the site.’

  Jackson said, ‘Your hands did not burn when you touched Julian’s hands, but despite that, the table cracked. Now think about the priest in the chapel, when he touched Julian’s forehead with his hands, he collapsed to the floor, without showing any signs of medical illness. He was taken to hospital and where they fully examined and tested him. The doctors commented that he could have collapsed because of exhaustion and then discharged him from the hospital without any follow up.’

  Lewis seemed a bit taken aback. He moved nearer to Jackson to mutter, ‘You did not mention that before. Oh My God, there is some connection between Julian and these people who have died. I think that he probably possesses some supernatural powers.’

  Jackson nodded, after shrugging his shoulders. ‘I never believed in supernatural incidents in the past, but now I have started to think differently. It explains now. We could spend months in looking for forensic evidence but may not find anything.’

  Lewis walked away from the window, as there were more thunderstorms and lightening outside and said, ‘I best stay away from the window, and now I am scared of lightening as well. ‘

  ‘Yes, Mr Jackson, coming back to Julian, I am still not sure that if he can kill all these people. All three guys were bigger and much heavier than Julian. There is no way we can prove in the court that Julian hanged these guys on his own. Both judge and jury will laugh at us and may even drop the case. Moreover, jury will not believe about supernatural phenomena without any evidence. We need to keep a close eye on Julian to check all his movements and even take his photographs secretly. We need to check all his telephone conversations. He must have family and friends outside.’

  ‘But I cannot understand his motive behind these murders. Yes, Julian was supposed to have a girlfriend, but after the murder of Julian’s wife, she has disappeared from the scene. I want to do another test. I am going to shake hands with him now and then want to see if I feel the electric current or even fall down to the ground.’ said Jackson.

  Julian had already left the workshop in a hurry, as he himself was worried about the incident. Julian kept thinking about the lightening and how the table had cracked and then the way DC Lewis fell to the floor after touching his hands. Julian looked at his hands again, but there were no signs of any burning. Before he could leave the workshop, the prison officers started to do Julian’s security check up by searching his jacket and trousers, but nothing was found. The officer had plastic gloves on to prevent from getting any infection from the prisoners.

  The second officer then used his metal detector to check for other items that a prisoner could steal from the workshop. The detector could not find anything but when it approached Julian’s hands, suddenly the bleep sound of the detector became very loud and in the next minute, white smoke came from it and then it fell to the floor. The officer felt a certain amount of electric current going through his body. The second officer asked the first officer, ‘Are you all right?’

  He replied while looking at the detector on the floor, ‘Yes, I am fine. I felt a bit of shock in my hands, as if a lightening current has passed through my body.’

  The other officer picked up the detector from the floor and said, ‘Maybe, we should keep the detector away from the lightening as this is the second time, we have been affected by that today.’ He picked up the detector from the floor and tried to use it again on Julian but this time, there was no bleep.

  The officer looked at the detector again and gave it a few jerks and tried to use it again, but still there was no response. He said, ‘Let us do manual searches of the prisoners, there are only two more left after Julian, but I will have to search you again Julian with my hands.’

  Both of the prison officers checked Julian’s pockets again but could not find anything.

  ‘OK Julian, you can go now. Anyway thanks for coming to see one of our prisoners.’ Julian walked past them without saying a word.

  Chapter 31

  Jackson and Lewis were still in the shower room making last minute inspections, but nothing new was detected. The forensic team had been packing their last few bits of finger printing.

  Lewis had few more questions to ask them, ‘Did you find any finger prints on the pipes, where Robin was found hanging?’

  The forensic scientist replied, ‘No, I could not find any finger prints there, but that could be due to use of gloves or somebody could have put a rope around the pipe without touching it.’

  ‘What about foot marks or shoe prints on the floor?’ asked Lewis curiously.

  ‘In the shower room area, there are many foot marks, as many people come and go all the time. Moreover, this is a wet area and any marks are washed away by water. Anyway, I have few finger prints, but as I said earlier, I can’t make any comments until we get all the results back. I must leave now.’ He extended his hand to shake up with both Lewis and Jackson and then he left.

  Jackson then said, ‘We were supposed to shake hands with Julian to see if we get the same reaction as before. Let us do that, before he goes back to his room.’

  ‘Yes, let us go and find him.’

  They found no prisoners in the workshop except for two prison officers and Jackson asked them, ‘Where is Julian?’

  ‘He has gone back to his room, but why do you still need him’ asked the officer?’

  ‘We want to check if we can feel any electric current after we touch him. Did you touch him during your security check up?’

  The second officer said, while scratching his hand, ‘I did not touch his hands directly as I had gloves on but something very strange happened, the metal detector made a big buzzing noise and
then it fell out of my hands to the floor and afterwards it stopped working, which has not happened before, Mr Jackson’

  ‘Did anything happen to Julian?’ asked Dc Lewis.

  ‘No, he was normal like before. I thought that lightning had struck at us again and the detector fell to the floor. I think that is what made it functionless.’

  Lewis seemed excited as he rubbed his hands and said, ‘There is something funny here. Where is Julian? We must talk to him now.’

  The officer replied, ‘I have seen him going back to his room. What are you looking for? As far as I know, Julian is a nice person, who stays away from any trouble and fights.’

  Jackson got a bit annoyed by the officer’s positive comments about Julian and replied , ‘Julian may look like a nice person from outside, but he may have a devil inside him, and according to my opinion that turns him into a killer.’

  Lewis observed that the situation was getting out of hand so stepped forward to diffuse it, ‘Look officer, we only have suspicion about Julian, all we are doing is to eliminate him from our enquiries. Anyway, Mr Jackson let us go and find him.’

  Jackson went to Julian’s landing and opened the door of his cell. He only found Nicki there lying in the bed.

  DC Lewis asked her, ‘Where is Julian? We just need to have a word with him.’

  Nicki stayed in her bed and used the sign language to say that he had gone to the shower room. Lewis did not understand, so he started to shout. ‘Can you not tell us where he is?’

  Jackson intervened, ‘Nick can’t speak, as he is a dumb.’

  Let us go to the shower room to speak to Julian.

  Nicki asked them with her hands, ‘What is the matter?’

  Before Jackson could reply, they had left the room.

  Jackson opened the shower door to go inside, where Julian was under the shower and another prisoner was drying his wet body with a towel.