Baby's Got Blue Eyes: Introducing DI Ted Darling

by L M Krier

  Tina looked stubborn. 'It's an angle we have to consider, boss,' she insisted. 'I wasn't doing anything underhand, I was just chatting to him. I'm just doing my job, boss, like you taught me to.'

  They locked eyes for a long moment, then Ted sighed. 'All right,' he said. 'But just be careful. Have you considered that if you start fishing and asking questions like that, if the DCI really was our man and he got the slightest hint of what you were doing, you could be putting yourself in danger? Remember that the Big Boss is not just a pen-pusher, he is first and foremost a copper and a damn good one, at that.

  'Let's keep it by the book until we have considerably more to go on. And let's keep any and all interviews formal, recorded and inside the nick.

  'Good night, Tina, and Happy Christmas.'

  Tina followed her Christmas tradition and kissed him on the cheek. 'Night boss. Happy Christmas to you too and thanks for being the best boss I've ever had.'

  Chapter Thirty-five

  No golden tones of Freddie Mercury. Just an insistent, muted buzzing of a mobile phone on silent, its lights flashing the news of an incoming call.

  With a sickening feeling in his stomach, Ted reached out an arm and picked up the phone.

  Bill, once again the sergeant on duty, his gravelly voice thick with emotion.

  'It's bad, Ted,' he said, clearly having difficulty speaking.

  Ted shot upright in bed. 'Rosalie?' he asked.

  'No, Ted,' there was a pause, while Bill cleared his throat several times before he could speak again. 'It's Tina. It's DC Bailey, Ted. Her body was found dumped just near the nick.'

  Ted killed the call. He was totally unable to speak. Words seemed so futile. He turned to Trev, who was awake.

  Trev seldom saw Ted in tears. It broke his heart when he did. Silently he sat up and folded his arms round his partner, holding him close.

  'Rosalie?' he asked softly.

  Ted shook his head, still not sufficiently in control of his voice to say anything. He was shaking.

  With a supreme effort, he said thickly, 'It's Tina. They've found Tina's body near the nick.'

  He pulled free and looked at Trev, tears rolling unashamedly down his face. 'How can I go in, Trev? How can I go and face the team when I've let them down? When I've let this happen to Tina?'

  Trev reached for him again and hugged him fiercely. 'You can do it, my love,' he said. 'You can put on your work face and go in there and get things rolling. You are going to get this sick piece of shit. You're going to do it for the team, and for Tina. Go and get a shower, I'll put the kettle on.'

  'I've no idea what time I'll get back tonight, if at all,' Ted told him.

  'I'll phone Willow, tell her what's happened and put her off,' Trev replied.

  'No, please don't do that,' Ted said. 'You know Tina wouldn't have wanted you to. Have as nice a day as you can together. Save me some food for whenever I can eat it. The best thing you can do now for Tina, and for me, is to have the Christmas Day we can't have.

  'Ring Willow and tell her she's staying over, then you can both drink as much as you like without worrying. Don't let her drive, and don't let her get in a taxi, not after this, when we still don't know who's out there doing this.'

  Ted didn't feel any better after his shower and green tea. He was starting to doubt if he would ever feel better again. But he was at least functioning when he arrived at the station.

  He went straight to the CID office, not yet ready to face the sight of Tina's body.

  Bill had read his mind and called in the whole team, who were just arriving. They looked shocked rigid, any effects of drinking the night before gone in the face of such news. Young Steve's cheeks were wet, his eyes red-rimmed. Maurice kept blowing his nose noisily.

  DS Hallam arrived just after Ted did. There was a rough bandage on his right hand, fresh blood showing through.

  Ted had to struggle again before he trusted himself to address his team.

  'We all know this is as bad as it gets. One of our own, and one of the best,' he began. 'That's why we're all in today. I'm sorry about your ruined Christmases but we won't rest now until we have this killer. It just got seriously personal to all of us.'

  He took a moment to clear his throat again and needed a few deep breaths before he could continue. Tears were now running down young Steve's cheeks. He made no move to wipe them away.

  'But I want you to remember something. Tina was one of ours, but we also have three other young women to consider. Especially Number Three, whose identity we still don't know. They may not have been police officers, two of them may have been “only” homeless street girls – but don't let me catch any of you voicing that thought – but they also deserve our respect and consideration.

  'I need to go and talk to Doc Elliott now, get some detail. Clear your heads in the meantime, drink lots of coffee. I want you all at your sharpest.

  'I'm going on the assumption that Tina never made it to her parents' house last night so I'll need to go and inform them, get them in for formal identification. I'll take …'

  He looked instinctively round the room for Tina to take with him, to help break the worst kind of news to grieving parents, then caught himself up short.

  'I'll take an officer from Uniform with me. The rest of you, normal routine. Check all her last known movements. Where's her car? She told me it was parked near The Grapes. Is it still there? If not, where is it? Find it.

  'You know what you need to do. Get it done. Mike, I want two people exclusively on victim number three today, too. We mustn't lose sight of the fact that she is still unidentified and we still have work to do on her case.'

  He somehow couldn't bring himself to use the name Tina had given to the last victim before she became one herself.

  'Maurice, Virgil, come with me and work the scene. See if you can spot anything, check out CCTV camera location. Perhaps this time we may just get lucky.'

  He headed to the furthest corner of the car park where the familiar sight of an incident tent and taping showed him Tina's last resting place. He stuffed a small handful of Fisherman's Friends into his mouth and took several deep breaths before he was able to go into the tent.

  Tim Elliott came over, surprisingly shaken and sombre. He wasn't even sneezing.

  'Bad business, Ted, a very bad business. My condolences,' he said. 'Death certified, not killed here. Same type of cut to the throat, again with a very thin blade. On a first and superficial examination, no sign of any mutilation, but the full post-mortem will reveal more. This time death is very recent, a matter of less than twelve hours, I would say.'

  'Barely that,' Ted him. 'The whole team was together in The Grapes last night. Tina left just before eight o'clock.'

  'I've informed the coroner, of course. He's left a message for Professor Gillingham but so far we've not been able to speak to him. It is Christmas Day, after all. I'm so sorry, Ted. A great loss,' Dr Elliott continued.

  'Oh, and this time, it really is personal.'

  He held up something in a clear plastic evidence bag, for Ted to see. It was a computer print-out, a single sheet, the edges adorned with festive symbols, holly, snowmen, reindeer and little Santas. In the centre, in Comic Sans capitals, was typed, 'Merry Christmas Ted. Hope you like your present.'

  'Just give me a couple of moments alone with her, will you please, Doc,' Ted said.

  The police surgeon hesitated. 'Erm, I'm sure I don't have to remind you about not getting too close … ' He dried up under Ted's glare and slipped out of the tent.

  Ted took a hesitant step nearer to Tina's naked body. He felt extremely uncomfortable at the sight of her lying there like that and had to fight down an urge to cover her to protect her modesty and stop her from feeling the cold of the frosty morning.

  'Tina, I'm so sorry,' he said. 'I let you down. I may have put your life in danger and I didn't do enough to protect you. You were an excellent officer, you would have gone a long way. I'm sorry.'

  Dr Elliott was still
waiting, just outside the tent, when Ted came out.

  'I'll wait with her, Ted, until they come to collect her. I'll make sure she is treated with dignity every step of the way.' He held out an awkward hand to shake Ted's. 'It's a dreadful business, really dreadful.'

  Ted nodded. 'I'm just going to tell her parents that their daughter hasn't turned up for Christmas not because she was working late but because she has become our latest victim.'

  Chapter Thirty-six

  When Ted went back upstairs, DS Hallam told him, 'Sir, the DCI is in, he wants to see you in his office as soon as possible.'

  Ted asked him, 'What happened to your hand?'

  The DS looked embarrassed. 'I dropped a glass when I heard the news,' he said. 'Cut myself picking up the pieces so the kids wouldn't stand on them.'

  Ted nodded and headed over to the DCI's office. He knocked briefly and went in. Jim Baker looked as bad as he felt, although he had clearly not started the day with a shower, nor a change of clothes, by the look of it. He smelt strongly of stale alcohol. Ted was worried by the idea that he might have driven in.

  'That poor young lass, Ted,' the DCI said, pouring two mugs of his special brew. 'Why her? What are we missing in this investigation?'

  'If I knew that, Jim, I would have prevented this from happening,' Ted said shortly.

  'Sorry, yes, of course,' the DCI said hastily. 'I put that badly. Have the parents been informed?'

  'I'm on my way over there next,' Ted told him.

  'Are you sure you're up to it?' the DCI asked.

  'How do you get up to it?' Ted asked ironically. 'It's bad enough telling any parent news like this. Where do you get the strength from to do it when it's one of your own team, and one of the best?'

  'Would you prefer me to go?' the DCI offered.

  Ted gave him a long look. 'With respect, Jim, you don't exactly look the part.'

  'So what's your starting point?' the DCI asked.

  'I'm going to play it by the book,' Ted told him. 'Basic police work, forget the victim was one of ours, do it like I would do it for anyone else. First off, all of us were amongst the last people to see Tina alive last night. So I'm going to begin by checking alibis of all of us, where we were last night after we all left The Grapes, who we were with. Starting with you, Jim.'

  The DCI stared at him. 'My movements?' he asked in astonishment. 'Am I a suspect suddenly? How and when did that happen?'

  'You know that it's standard police procedure, Jim,' Ted said. 'I'll be giving a statement myself. It doesn't mean either of us is under suspicion.'

  The DCI leant back in his chair. 'My God,' he said, as the realisation hit him. 'That's what last night was all about, isn't it? You really do suspect me. That's why Tina was asking me about my television habits. Where in hell has that come from? Ted, for God's sake, talk to me!'

  'It's routine, Jim, a routine witness statement, nothing more,' Ted repeated obstinately.

  'Bullshit it is!' the DCI roared, standing up. 'Tina was checking my alibis for all three killings, not just interested in whether I watch East Enders or Coro-fucking-nation Street! And now she's dead you clearly think I killed her, because I got wind that she was onto me.'

  He was pacing up and down in the tight confines of his office, his voice getting louder as he got more angry.

  'But just tell me why, Ted,' he said, trying to regain control of himself. 'Why in the name of God would you think me capable of such a thing?'

  They were interrupted by Freddie Mercury. Ted's mobile phone was going off. He glanced at the screen and said, 'I need to take this, it's Hard G.'

  The DCI slumped back into his seat. He looked utterly beaten and bewildered.

  'Roger, hi, thanks for calling,' Ted said.

  'My dear boy, I am so very sorry,' the Professor said and actually sounded it. 'I will, of course, be carrying out the post-mortem myself on this one, I wouldn't dream of putting anyone else on it. I'm afraid I'm not really up to the task today, slightly too much festive spirit last night, but I will start on it first thing in the morning, early. I'll phone you when I'm beginning.'

  'That's very kind, Roger, I appreciate that,' Ted said. 'I thought you were flying out first thing, though?'

  'Absolutely out of the question now,' Hard G said firmly. 'I'll send the blonde job on ahead then catch her up when I can. It's the least I can do for you and for such a promising young officer.'

  'Hard G,' Ted told the DCI as he disconnected the call. 'He's going to do the PM himself. He was meant to be flying out to Switzerland tomorrow but he's cancelling to do it.'

  The DCI looked more weary than Ted had ever seen him, even on his darkest days after Rosalie went. 'Ted, please, we've been friends a long time. Tell me how you could possibly even think I might be behind any of this. Please.'

  'I never thought that, Jim. Never,' he said. 'Tina was looking at a completely new angle. I didn't agree with it. But she was right, we wouldn't have been doing our job properly if we hadn't looked at everything, no matter how far-fetched.

  'We'd been going on the theory that our killer was a woman-hater, then it got personal to me, so Tina started looking at people who could have a grudge against me. She came up with the idea of parents of missing children.'

  'So as Rosalie was never found …' the DCI trailed off, then nodded. 'All right, I see. It's plausible, just. But it's not me, Ted.'

  'I know that,' Ted assured him. 'But now can you see how important your witness statement is about what you did after you left The Grapes last night?'

  The DCI nodded. 'All right. I took a taxi home, because I'd been drinking. I had to get one to come back in this morning, my car was still on the car park. I can give you the details of the taxi firm for both times.

  'When I got home, there was no sign of Margery. She never came home. I sat and watched a porn channel, with all the sordid details that implies. I got very well acquainted with a bottle of Glenfiddich. I must have fallen asleep in my chair at some point, because I was still there when I got the call from the station this morning. I came straight in, as I was.'

  'There you have it. The full details of my pathetic life. And no alibi.'

  Ted looked at his boss and friend, with sadness in his eyes. 'Thank you,' was all he could manage to say.

  When Ted went back into the main office, there was a feeling of high tension.

  'Some news, sir,' the DS told him. 'Virgil worked his way out from the car park towards The Grapes. He found the Cooper, sir. Both the nearside tyres had been slashed, with a very sharp blade.'

  'Bastard,' Ted spat between gritted teeth. 'So he made sure she was stranded then just came along and picked her up? Would she have got into a vehicle with someone she didn't know?'

  The others shook their heads. Rob spoke up. 'No way, sir, Tina was far too streetwise. Why didn't she just call her breakdown cover? She was with the AA.'

  'Perhaps she did call them, and that's who took her?' Maurice suggested.

  'Maurice, get onto them, give them the Cooper's details and location, see if they took a call last night from Tina and if they did, who they sent out,' Ted told him. 'She'd also take a lift from someone she knew, of course. That's why I want witness statements from all of you of your movements from the moment you left the pub.

  'You're grown-ups, sort it out between yourselves, get together, interview each other. These are routine witness statements only, at this stage, no one is a suspect. Treat it as you would for any other witness. And check alibis.

  'We desperately need to find her personal effects, her mobile phone. Is he dumping stuff somewhere? If so, find it. Is he keeping their clothing and possessions as some sort of sick souvenir?

  'Let's widen the search out from where ...' he hesitated for a moment, hating to use the word bodies when Tina was one of them, ' … where these young women were found. Do a proper job. Do it for Tina.

  'I've already talked to the Big Boss for the record. Someone needs to take my statement. Anything the slightest bit
suspect anywhere, I want to know about it.

  'If you don't like checking up on each other as a job, I'm just going to see Tina's parents to break the news, if anyone wants to swap with me?'

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Ted arranged for a uniformed officer to go with him and asked for an unmarked pool car. He knew Tina's parents by sight, having met them with Tina at a police open day. They would know the moment he turned up on their doorstep on Christmas Day that it was the worst possible news. There was no point in signalling it to all the neighbours as well by arriving in a patrol car.

  He knew the constable by sight but had to ask her name to remind himself. She was clearly badly shaken up and had been crying.

  'PC Heap, sir, Susan,' she told him. 'I'm … I was a friend of Tina's, we used to play badminton together sometimes.'

  Ted decided to drive and opened the passenger door for the officer. As he sat in the driving seat, he said gently, 'There's no shame in crying, Susan. I cried myself when I first heard the news. Take a moment before we set off, get it out of your system. We're going to do possibly the hardest part of the job and we need to be totally professional when we do. '

  As he hoped, his kind words meant she cried some more, but by the time they reached their destination, Handforth, she was fully composed and ready to do her job.

  The house was a neat semi on an estate on the Wilmslow side of town. The front garden looked cherished. There were demurely twinkling silver Christmas lights festooned around the front window and porch and a festive holly wreath on the front door.

  It was Mr Bailey who answered the door, for which Ted was grateful. He greeted him formally, trying to keep his tone neutral. 'Hello, Mr Bailey, you may remember me, I'm DI Darling, this is PC Heap. May we come in, please?'

  Ted could see at once from the man's eyes that he knew this was not going to be good news, or a social Christmas call. He said nothing, simply stood aside and motioned for them to enter. He indicated the first door on the right.