Ugly Duckling

by Malcolm Allen

  '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.'

  Chapter 9

  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 G
entlemen, 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.

  Chapter 10

  The next morning John and Ian were in the office studying the crime scene photos. The usual spread of coffee cups and bacon sandwich bags littered the area.

  'Did you see Liz last night?'

  John didn’t look up from the photo he had in his hand.

  'No.'

  'Playing it cool are you?'

  'She was busy, pass that one over will you'

  Ian passed the print over.

  'Thought now you’d broke your duck you might be going for the winning score'

  'Told you, she was busy.'

  'Of course, if you hadn't actually done anything the other night then it'd be more understandable.'

  'Have we got the pictures from the first one here?'

  Ian went to the filing cabinet and retrieved the file for Jeremy Green.

  'I mean, if nothing happened you two are just the same as ever, good friends' he passed the file to John.

  John finally looked up.

  'Give it a rest Ian' he took the file and started to examine the photos.

  'I'm just saying, you’ve known each other a long time, since we were all at Uni. You, Me, Sonia and Liz, of course then it was all about you and Sonia and quite right too, you were both madly in love with each other. Everybody thought I was going to get together with Liz, but we never did. Do you know why?

  'No' John replied.

  'Because even then Liz was madly in love with you.'

  'Oh shut up Ian.'

  'No. its true, she told me! It was a long time ago, but I'm telling you she is still in love with you.'

  'Take a look at these two pictures for me would you' John said handing them over 'do you notice anything?'

  Ian studied the images for a while.

  'What am I looking for?' he asked.

  'Might be nothing.' John took the pictures back 'don’t worry about it.' He went back to studying the photos.

  There was a long silence until Ian eventually said 'so if you and Liz did get together so to speak, could be wedding bells.'

  John started laughing.

  'For fuck sake Ian, give it a rest.'

  'You didn't did you?'

  'No, we didn’t, I passed out after a half glass of wine, there you happy?'

  'You lying bastard!' Ian was laughing 'and she’s just as bad!'

  'Oh mate you don’t know the half of it,' John was suddenly eager to tell his old friend all 'I woke up in her spare bed completely naked! She'd undressed me!'

  'What completely?'

  'Yes completely the whole lot and I can’t remember a thing about it.'

  'What, you can’t even remember if she had a little fiddle?'

  John stopped laughing 'er no, hadn’t even thought of that,' he paused while he thought about it, 'no she wouldn’t do that.'

  'She wouldn’t tell you! Especially if it was undersized, and she's seen plenty to compare it to.'

  'Don’t be stupid Ian!'

  Ian didn’t say anything he just put his hand in front of his mouth wiggled his little finger and sniggered.

  'Piss off' was John’s only remark as he went back to studying the photos.

  Suddenly John looked up.

  'Come on, we're going for a walk' he said collecting the photos.

  Outside it was a lovely spring like morning, warm, no need for coats, possibly the first time this year so far. And there was a fresh smell in the air. John took a cigarette and lit it.

  'You smoking again?' Ian asked, surprised to see John light up after three years not smoking.

  'No, not really, only every now and then when I'm thinking.' He stubbed the cigarette out again, having taken only two drags.

  They walked down Madeira Road to Horseshoe Common. John stopped, 'His car was up there' he said, mainly to himself, looking back along the route they had just taken, 'and the Pig is down there', looking the other way towards Old Christchurch Road.

  They walked onto the Common and over to the flyover, where the body had been found, it had been cleaned up now, hardly any trace of the horrific incident that had taken place there less than 36 hours before. John stopped again and looked towards the Pig and the road.

  'Let’s walk down.' he said.

  As they walked John asked Ian about him and Jane, about AFC Bournemouth, said what a nice day it was, in fact he chattered on about anything and nothing, he seemed not quite there. Ian had seen this before it was almost as if John put himself into a trance whenever he had something on his mind or something he wanted to work through, this is how he went, it didn’t really matter what Ian said because John wasn’t listening anyway. They walked way past the Laughing Pig down through the gardens and eventually ended up at the Pier.

  'I see they've got a new hot dog stall over there, do you like hot dogs Ian?'

  Ian wanted to test his theory.

  'I think hot dogs should be rammed up the ass hole of anyone who asks do you like hot dogs Ian.'

  'Yeh, that’s what I thought, better with onions though' John said sitting on a bench.

  They sat there for nearly an hour without speaking. It was busy in that area, people out and about, making the most of what was definitely the best day of the year so far. Parents and children with ice cream cones, office and shop workers out on their breaks laying on the grass catching a few rays, after all this could be the only day of summer they have, Ian thought. It would soon be bank holiday, they were usually pretty lucky on May bank holiday weather wise, there’ll be another picture of a packed Bournemouth beach on the front page of the tabloids with the headline “Phew what a scorcher!”

  Suddenly John seemed to snap out of it, he took the pictures from the envelope he'd been carrying and looked at them again, Ian waited, and waited, he knew something was coming.

  'Have another look at these pictures Ian, Tell me what you see.'

  Ian took the pictures and looked.

  'I see the heads and shoulders of our two victims taken at the scenes' Ian started, 'there’s much less blood in the first one than the second, but the second looks slightly less gory, they've both had their throats cut in a
similar, but not exact manner, the first one rough, slightly torn, the second two clean cuts either side of the wind pipe.'

  'What else' John asked.

  Ian looked hard at the pictures 'sorry J.D. I don’t know what you're getting at.'

  'Just describe what you can see.'

  'Well,' Ian continued 'I can see their mouths, noses, ears, eyes …'

  'Eyes! Ian, Can you see their eyes?'

  'Either side of their noses.'

  'Look again.'

  'Ah.' It dawned on Ian what John was getting at' J.D. the eyes are closed.'

  'Exactly!' John said 'it’s not right is it? Someone would have had to close the eyelids, our murderer didn’t want the victims to watch while he disembowelled them, why not?’

  'Perhaps he just didn’t like the idea of being watched.'

  'I've thought about that' John replied 'but there’s something in my gut telling me that there’s a connection between these two, I think that these weren’t random murders, I think these two knew our murderer and, perhaps more to the point, he knew them, not only that, but somewhere in that twisted mind of his, he even cared for them.'

  'It’s a bit of a leap J.D. but if you're right we need to find one person that both our victims knew.'