Only the Lonely: DI Ted Darling Series Book 5

by L M Krier

  Steve lodged with DC Maurice Brown, who was on sick leave after a serious knife incident which had nearly cost him his life.

  'Making good progress, sir, he should be back the week after next, with any luck.'

  'Right, Steve, when we get back, I want you to prioritise our body from the hotel. Find out everything there is to know about him, particularly what he was doing here. You'll be getting some help any day now, in the shape of a new computer expert. But I also want you to do a bit of digging into Sabden House in respect of the two deaths from there. John's on a secure tenancy. Find out if the others were as well. Have a check around, see if there are any plans afoot to do anything with that building which might give somebody some kind of motive for wanting to free up flats occupied by secure tenants.'

  Ted got the team together when they arrived back at the end of the day, for a catch-up on the day's progress. Mike had started a whiteboard with what information they had so far on the victim from the hotel, Duncan Waters. A further search of his wallet had revealed that he was a sales rep for a company selling photovoltaic panel installation packages.

  There would be no photos of this victim up on the board. Once they received all the shots from the scene of crime, they would be put in folders for all the team to see but not kept on public display. There was no telling who might come into the main office from time to time, like the cleaners, and Ted didn't want to inflict those images on anyone unless it was essential.

  'Now we have the ID, we need to get on to Southampton to contact the next of kin and let them know. Rob, can you see to that, please? Whoever it is will need to come up at some point to identify the body in some way. I'm waiting to hear from the Professor about when the PM will be. I've said I'll take that one, unless anyone wants to fight me for it?'

  There was a ripple of amusement from the team. They appreciated the boss's attempt at humour in a case which was hard for all of them. They appreciated even more him attending the PM himself without delegating, as some senior officers had been known to do in similar circumstances.

  'Still nothing at all from any witnesses who heard anything?'

  'Boss, the room next to the victim was empty that night. The victim's room was at the end of the corridor, if you remember, so only one adjoining room. The couple in the room opposite had been to a family gathering where they drank quite a lot of wine and were sleeping like logs. They admitted they wouldn't have heard anything,' Rob told him.

  'What about access? Can anyone just walk into the hotel at any time?'

  Rob shook his head. 'After ten o'clock at night you need the code to the keypad at the door to operate the lock. That's issued when you check in. There were some guests who had already checked out before the body was discovered. We're trying to track them down to talk to them.'

  'And who discovered the body? Was it someone coming in to clean the room?'

  'Yes, boss. Interestingly, the swipe-card for his door had been returned to the reception desk so they thought he'd checked out. It was a pre-paid booking by credit card. That's why the cleaner used her pass-card to get in. She thought he's already left. When she found him, she threw up then went to get the manager, who did the same thing. That's when they called 999.'

  'So the killer, presumably, picked up the card from somewhere in the room and left it at reception when he went? That seems like a rather cold and calculating act, after such a frenzied attack. Anything from the CCTV to indicate who the killer might have been?'

  'Jinxed there, boss,' Rob told him. 'The system's been playing up for some time. It kept cutting out last night, and there are chunks missing from the crucial timing. That seems to be genuine. We had a quick glance at some other dates and it's clear it's been an ongoing problem that's not yet been fixed. We're not going to get anything from that.'

  'Right, well, we need to find out everything we can about the victim and his whereabouts in the hours leading up to his death. I'll leave you to get on with that before you all knock off, then we'll come at it fresh tomorrow. I'm going to talk to the Super to see about our new team members. We might be glad of some extra help with this case. Good start, though, well done, everyone.'

  The Ice Queen was at her desk when Ted went down to find her. She offered him a seat and a coffee. He sat down but shook his head and said, 'No thanks, no coffee this late in the day or I'll be pinging off the walls all night.'

  He gave her his initial report on the case, sparing her the worst of the details, though stressing that it was a frenzied attack, the worst he and many of the others had ever witnessed.

  'I certainly don't envy you this one. I hope it's something you will be able to wrap up quickly. I'll make sure we have a press release ready. I wouldn't want any details or wild speculation of this to be bandied about in the papers too soon and cause widespread panic.

  'Now, on the subject of your team members. I've managed to source a DI, a DC and a CFI who look good on paper and are available immediately. Obviously, you'll want to look at their files and probably interview them for yourself.'

  She pushed three files across the desk to Ted, who briefly scanned the first page of each then said, 'I'm no good in interviews myself so I don't tend to judge people on their performance in them. If you've read through their files and think they would be a fit for the team, let's start them and see how we get on. After all, on paper, I would have been mad to accept DC Vine, but she's turning out to be an excellent officer, a real asset to the team.'

  'Which is largely down to you and the way you manage people,' she smiled.

  'My only reservation is why they're available, if they're good. As long as there's a valid reason for that, I'd be happy to go for them.'

  'The computer expert has recently moved to the area. I think the combination of her and young Steve Ellis could be our secret weapon in a lot of things. I imagine, for example, your victim today has a laptop, which will need rummaging through? And a phone? It means we can now do a lot more of that here, without having to outsource and put up with the consequent wait.

  'Both DI Rodriguez and DC Jennings are casualties of staffing level reductions in various divisions. Roles are being reshuffled and those two were outstanding amongst the list of officers looking for other positions. Would you like me to arrange for them to start tomorrow, if possible? It might be a good idea to have all three start at the same time, then you can do a single induction and it won't take you away from valuable operational time.'

  Ted's head was reeling as he drove home at the end of the day. He could scarcely believe that in such a short time he had found himself promoted and about to head up an expanded team on what was looking like a challenging case. Even if this killing proved to be a one-off, it was still, in terms of the means of death, one of the worst he had encountered to date.

  He was definitely not looking forward to the post-mortem, and he'd had a call from Professor Nelson, just as he was leaving, to say that she had scheduled it for early the following morning. It meant he'd had to hand over the induction of his new team members to Mike Hallam.

  There would have to be some rapid rearranging of offices and furniture, and the Ice Queen had promised early delivery of a new computer for their CFI. After consideration, Ted had decided to keep his old office, judging it too small to accommodate two people. His new DI could move into Jim Baker's vacated room, with Mike Hallam to keep him company.

  Trev was in the kitchen when Ted arrived home and the kettle was on. Having turned down coffee, Ted was keen for a mug of green tea. The two exchanged a hug and Trev asked, 'How was your day? I've not started cooking yet, I wasn't sure how long you'd be. Well, I've thrown some jacket potatoes in the oven and it's lamb chops, which won't take long. Is that all right for you?'

  Ted bent down to stroke cats vying for his attention as he replied, 'That sounds good, as long as my chop is not even remotely pink. I've seen enough blood today to last me for a while. And I've got a particularly gruesome PM to look forward to tomorrow morning. Oh, and I'm getti
ng new team members tomorrow. How do you pronounce this name correctly?'

  He picked up a handy pen and scribbled on the back of an envelope, pushing it towards Trev who read it and said, 'Depends. Some people Anglicize it and say George, but in Spanish or Portuguese it would be Jorge,' with perfect mastery of the rasping H sounds for J and G.

  Ted had a tentative go himself. 'I don't want to start off by not knowing how to pronounce his name,' he smiled.

  'What are they like?' Trev asked, checking the potatoes and putting the grill on ready for the chops.

  Ted shrugged. 'You know me, I prefer to keep an open mind about people, so I've barely glanced at their files. Whatever they're like, they'll all need to be able to hit the ground running with a case like this one as their baptism of fire.'

  Chapter Five

  'How the heck are the next of kin going to be able to identify him?' Ted asked Professor Nelson, as he got his first close-up look at the battered remains of the face which had belonged to Duncan Waters.

  'Luckily one of his eyes is still intact,' she told him breezily, looking closely and appraisingly. 'What we usually do in cases like this is rely on judicious padding and bandaging, and leave only the most presentable parts on show. The relatives stay in the viewing gallery, of course, so they don't see a great deal anyway. We usually manage to give them something they can recognise. We'd probably leave a hand exposed if there was a distinctive ring or other feature, for example. Although our man here wasn't wearing what looked like his wedding ring. That was in the drawer of the small unit next to the bed.'

  'You know I don't like to jump to hasty conclusions, Bizzie, but if that was the case, I'm guessing there's a good chance that the long blonde hairs in his bed didn't belong to Mrs Waters. Trev and I don't do rings but I know most people who do tend to leave them on, and certainly when going to bed with the partner they represent.'

  'Are you going to be all right with this one, Edwin?' she asked briskly. 'Only none of it is very pretty.'

  Ted was already sucking on the first of his Fisherman's Friend lozenges, which had got him through some difficult and gruesome situations. It was as much the comfort factor of remembering happy times with his father, the two of them fishing up at the canal or at Roman Lakes and never catching anything. Just enjoying each other's company, while his father munched on his lozenges to ward off the cold and damp.

  'You're not going to stick things under my nose and ask me to sniff them again, are you?' he asked suspiciously. 'As long as you don't, I'll probably be fine. Hopefully. But not guaranteed.'

  The Professor chuckled, then became her usual professional self as she set about skilfully getting the body of Duncan Waters to give up its innermost secrets.

  'Is there any news on your whisky drinker of the expensive taste?'

  'You were right about the whisky. Something expensive with the Highland Park label. We went back and found the bottle, and the fancy box it came in. I'm getting them checked for prints, but even if we find and identify any, there's still a long way to go to make any kind of case for us, and this killing needs to take priority.'

  The Professor nodded her understanding as she worked. 'I think the most we can hope for with the drinker is a misadventure verdict at the inquest, unless you get very lucky with fingerprints. But even so, it's surely not a crime to give someone whisky, even if you know or suspect that it may kill them?'

  'It would be a very complicated case to bring, as the Super has already reminded me. I don't want to abandon it, though. It's so cynical, if those deaths really were caused deliberately. But for now, I need to concentrate on Mr Waters. This is bad enough if it's a one-off, but if this killer has more than one victim in mind, it doesn't bear thinking about.'

  'From what I can see so far, I can tell you that more than one of these knife wounds would have proved fatal on its own. The last one, to the neck, would certainly have killed him. The combination of all of them together would have caused him to bleed out in much less than ten minutes. Some of the wounds severed arteries, which caused catastrophic blood loss. I think you now know, at first hand - no pun intended - what the effects of arterial bleeding are.

  'There is some small comfort in the fact that Mr Waters was dying when the kicking to his head began and he probably lost consciousness before much of it was done to him.'

  'Can you tell me any more about the footwear yet?'

  'All I can safely tell you for now is that they were a size forty-four European, which equates to nine and a half in old money, so not all that big. Still probably more likely to suggest a man than a woman. Also that they were something like a work boot, with heavy tread soles, and I wouldn't rule out steel toecaps, because of the extent of the damage. We will be able to give you the exact make later on.

  'It's good to see you back, Edwin, and seemingly in such good form. How is the arm doing? When will you be able to lose the bandaging?'

  Ted grinned guiltily and said, 'Don't say anything to my boss but it could come off now, really, or at least I could manage with a much smaller dressing. It just gives me a valid excuse not to wear my suit to work. I always feel much more functional in casual wear.'

  Bizzie laughed delightedly. Ted always marvelled at her ability to go from serious and professional Professor of Forensic Pathology to the warm-hearted and caring individual he knew her to be.

  'Your secret is safe with me,' she promised. 'I'll email you all my findings later on but for now I think I've given you all I can. Death was the result of several stab wounds, plus the serious trauma to the head. You'll get exact details of the knife later, with my conclusions in full detail. So now I better let you go and get on with trying to find this killer, just in case they are planning more of the same.'

  Ted was glad to get back into his own clothes and to leave the smell of the mortuary behind him as he drove back to the station. He was keen to meet his new team members, assuming the Ice Queen had managed to arrange for them to start at such short notice. Despite the difficult morning so far, he felt surprisingly optimistic, keen to get on with the task in hand.

  Ted was just back to work after extended sick leave for the knife injury and subsequent surgery. He'd needed a complete break to give him time to think about his career. Policing seemed to get harder by the day, with more and more restraints on officers. Ted had never been a rule-bender; he'd never needed to be, and he despised a bent cop as much as anyone else did. But constantly being hit with enquiries into every move he and the team made had sapped his morale after the last case.

  Although he hated being apart from Trev, he'd gone to Wales for two weeks, to stay with his former DS, Jack Gregson. Ted loved to walk. Jack could walk a bit and was encouraged to do so by his doctor. But sometimes his Parkinson's disease would cause him to freeze up, so he couldn't go far.

  The two men had settled into a comfortable daily routine. Both would walk, slowly and companionably, down to a nearby hotel which had a bar and restaurant open to non-residents, in time for morning coffee. Ted would leave Jack safely installed while he went off to walk the tracks of nearby Brechfa Forest, coming back at lunchtime so they could eat together and talk about old times.

  Once they'd eaten, Jack would walk home slowly by himself while Ted went off to explore further afield, desperate to discover some of the wide open spaces of Llanllwni Mountain, which were the nearest things locally to his preferred desolate and windswept uplands of the Peak District at home. Then when he got back, the kettle would be on and they would talk some more until Jack's daughter came home and got the supper on, often helped by Ted.

  The break had done him more good than he had thought it would. Now he was back, secretly thrilled by his unexpected promotion and the new responsibilities that went with it. He was determined to make his expanded team a force to be reckoned with. And their first task was going to be to catch the killer who had had the effrontery to commit such a violent act on his patch.

  Before he went upstairs to meet the new team members, Te
d took a moment to catch up with Kevin Turner. He'd spoken to Maurice Brown and was able to report that he was happy to go with the inspector to the hospital and do whatever hand-holding duties were necessary.

  'And seriously, Kev, you really can trust him. He knows how to keep a secret. It'll cost you a few pints, but he's just what you need to make sure you're all right. I hope it all goes well for you.'

  The new DC was the first person Ted saw when he went into the main office. She'd taken over Mike Hallam's old desk, now he was moving in with the new DI. She stood up when she saw him come over to her desk to introduce himself, shaking his hand.

  'Morning, boss, I'm DC Jennings. Megan. I'm just getting up to speed with the current case. Not a nice one. I hear you're just back from the PM?'

  Ted liked what he saw. She looked to be around mid-thirties and her grey eyes had a direct, searching look which made him suspect she was formidable at interviewing witnesses and suspects.

  They exchanged a few words then, as Ted crossed the office to where Steve was now sharing work space with the new computer expert, he could see that his newly made up Acting DC had got it bad. The young man shot to his feet, peeling his adoring gaze away from his new work colleague with evident difficulty.

  'Sir, this is our new CFI, Océane. This is our boss, DCI Darling,' he made the clumsy introduction.

  The young woman unfolded languidly to her feet with the feline grace of one of Ted's cats and held out a hand for a somewhat cursory handshake. She was tall and incredibly slim, with dark auburn hair in wildly rebellious curls, pulled back into a thick ponytail, and her eyes were almost as intensely blue as Trevor's. She smiled as she trotted out an explanation she must have had to make many times. Ted knew to his cost the problems of having a somewhat unusual name.

  'Sorry, my mother is an ageing French hippy.'