Baby's Got Blue Eyes: Introducing DI Ted Darling

by L M Krier

  'Or what about, now here's something you might not have considered, a couple at work. Him to do the sexual stuff, her to slit the throats? Again, there are precedents. Both West and Myra Hindley were operating in conjunction with a man.

  'I can imagine a certain type of couple would find it the ultimate sexual thrill. Some murderers kill at the point of ejaculation as they find it intensely stimulating. I can just imagine the depravity of a certain type of couple if he was satisfying carnal lusts whilst she was busily slitting throats. But I hasten to add that that is merely a theory, and a pretty wild one, as well.'

  Ted shook his head in bewilderment. 'Every time I think I've plumbed the depths of human depravity, someone comes up with evidence that I have not, yet. Roger, can you manage without me now? I'm really having a lot of difficulty with this conversation at all, let alone in front of Tina.'

  'But of course, dear boy,' the Professor replied. 'I still have a lot of work to do here. I'll email you my results when I've finished. I'll probably fly out to St Moritz tomorrow, if all goes well, but I will try and chase up any results for you, so that you have them as soon as possible.'

  'Thank you. Oh, and Roger, can I just ask you, purely as routine, for your movements after you left The Grapes on Christmas Eve?' Ted asked. 'As we were all collectively amongst the last people to see Tina alive, I've been asking everyone, and checking alibis.'

  'Yes, of course, I quite understand,' Hard G said. 'As I told you when I popped in, I had the blonde job outside in the Jag, so as soon as I left, we went back to the Edge, ate a light supper, drank rather a lot of champagne then, erm, well, predictably, enjoyed an awful lot of bedroom activity.

  'The dreadful call from the coroner yesterday morning interrupted us, but as I was already too far over the limit either to drive or to carry out a post-mortem, we drank some more and I let the blonde job console me as only she knows how.'

  'Thanks Roger, and thanks for sparing me too much detail,' Ted said. 'We will, of course, again as a matter of routine, have to check your alibi with the young lady in question. Can you give me her name, please?'

  'Ah, Ted, how embarrassing!' the Professor exclaimed. 'Is it Linda or Belinda? Something like that. Or was that the one before? I have no idea about a second name, I never keep them long enough for it to become necessary to know. But I will be seeing her in a day or two, I hope seeing rather a lot of her, so I will ask her and I can text you her details, and her mobile phone number so you can get in contact with her.'

  'Do you not have her number on your phone?' Ted asked.

  The Professor gave him a pitying look. 'Oh, please, dear boy. My women chase after me. I absolutely do not make the running. Why would I want to phone them?'

  Ted smiled and shook his head. 'Have a good delayed Christmas, Roger, and thanks again for taking the time to do this. I really appreciate it.'

  'I may be crass, my boy, but you can rely on me to afford Tina the consideration and dignity due to her. She was a remarkable young woman.'

  Chapter Forty

  DS Hallam was working at his desk when Ted got back to the station. No one else was in sight.

  'Anyone using my office at the moment, Mike? he asked.

  'No sir, everyone's out,' he replied. 'I'm just going over everyone's witness statements and noting alibis to be checked.'

  'Great,' Ted said. 'Come on, I'll show you mine if you show me yours.'

  Hallam gaped at him open-mouthed.

  'Don't worry,' Ted told him, 'I'm just trying to lighten the mood after a truly crap morning. Witness statements, about Christmas Eve. I'll take one from you, you take one from me.'

  Knowing how fast the DI was capable of moving, the DS was surprised at his slow and stiff progress to his office. He saw him wince involuntarily as he sat down.

  'You all right sir?' he asked. 'You look as if you've been in the wars.'

  'Absolutely fine, Mike,' Ted said with a small smile.

  'You can't kid a kidder, sir,' Hallam said. 'I know the look of someone in pain.'

  'Martial arts training that got a bit enthusiastic,' Ted said and would have shrugged, had it not been too painful. 'Now, tell me about your Christmas Eve, from the moment you left The Grapes.'

  'Not much to tell really, sir,' the DS replied. 'I think we were the first to leave. I drove home, we helped the mother-in-law to bed as she was tired – she gets tired very quickly since the accident - then packed the kids off quite early. Then we just did our Christmas preparation, really. Wrapped presents, got things ready, had a fairly early night.'

  'So your wife and mother-in-law can corroborate your movements?' Ted asked.

  'Yes, sir,' Hallam said rather hesitantly. 'Will that be necessary? It's just that the wife … She's having a bit of a hard time of things at the moment. I try not to involve her in stuff.'

  Ted raised an eyebrow. 'Stuff?' he queried. 'Stuff like the murder of a valued colleague?'

  'Sorry, sir, of course, that came out all wrong,' the DS looked awkward.

  Ted leaned back in his chair and looked at him. 'Is everything all right at home, Mike?' he asked. 'If there are problems likely to affect your work, I'd prefer to be kept in the loop. If you feel you can talk to me, I'm always available.'

  DS Hallam flushed red and mumbled his thanks, but said nothing further.

  'So to recap, your wife and mother-in-law can alibi you but, for instance, if either you or your wife or even both of you had gone out later on that evening, would the mother-in-law have known?'

  'But we didn't, sir,' the DS said rather too quickly, then followed up,' but no, I suppose she may not have heard if we had done.'

  Ted nodded. 'All right. This is just purely routine for all of us at the moment. Right, my movements. I took the bus in on Christmas Eve morning as I left the car for Trev to bring in all the food. After everyone had left The Grapes, he and I stayed to have a drink and a chat with Dave, the landlord, then packed everything up and went home. We didn't see either Tina or her car on our drive home.

  'By the time we'd unpacked things it was getting late. We watched a bit of something mindless on television, and I have no idea what it was, then we went to bed.'

  Ted could see that the mental image was a difficult one for the DS.

  'So your, er, your …'

  'My partner, Mike,' Ted smiled, 'Trev is my partner. And yes, he can confirm that. So unless you have come across any discrepancies in any witness statements you've taken or gone over so far, I would say we are right back on the starting blocks with a big fat zero.'

  Ted stood up to put his kettle on. 'Green tea?' he offered the DS.

  'No thank you, sir,' the DS sounded as if it had been an indecent proposal, but then continued, 'I really can't see where Tina's murder fits into this at all, sir. In fact, there's a bit of a discrepancy between the first victim and then the second and third. Maggie Fielding and Nicola Parks were runaways, Vicki Carr wasn't.'

  Ted interrupted him. 'Have we actually checked that, for a fact?' he asked. 'Have we gone through her history to see if, perhaps as a young, rebellious teenager, she ran away from home or got into any other trouble? If not, why not?'

  'We haven't sir. We should have done. I'll get someone on it straight away. But then if that is the link between the victims, where does Tina's death fit into it? I'm assuming she was never a runaway? But again, I'll get someone to check.'

  'Someone I know has a good saying, Mike. If you hear the sound of galloping hooves and you're not on the plains of Africa, it's more likely to be horses than zebra,' Ted told him. 'Most likely reason for a police officer involved in a case like this to finish up as a victim?'

  'Getting too close to the perpetrator, sir,' Hallam said. 'So are you saying that someone who was in The Grapes that night is our killer? And that Tina knew that and talked to them, trying to flush them out? But then she talked to a lot of people, including me. And the DCI. Er, has he been excluded, sir?'

  'At this stage, I am satisfied that the Big Boss is
not our man,' Ted said tersely. 'Mike, there was stuff that came out at Tina's post-mortem that I'd rather the rest of the team didn't know about unless it becomes absolutely essential. But the Professor did say he couldn't entirely rule out the involvement of a woman in the killings. If not as the killer herself then possibly as an accomplice. Or that perhaps we are looking for a couple.'

  The DS looked absolutely flabbergasted. ' A woman, sir?' he gaped. 'But how is that even possible?'

  'Believe me,' Ted told him, ' there were things the Professor was telling me which were definitely in the category of Too Much Information. Tina was very clever, very quick to see things from an unexpected angle. What's that current phrase I dislike so much? To think outside the box.

  'There is just the possibility that she had an idea which she was working on, or that something she said to someone that evening made them realise she was starting to close in. So she needed to be removed.

  'So I hope you can see why it is so important that we look closely at the movements of everyone who was there that evening, even if it goes against the grain, feels uncomfortable or annoys our Significant Others.'

  'Sir, I'll also send someone round to The Grapes to talk to the landlord and the bar staff. They will need to be eliminated too, they were all there that night.'

  'Good, that's more like it, we need ideas like that,' Ted said. 'We're missing something here, something simple. Think horses, not zebra. Our killer is clever, very clever, but if we plod through routine work, we're going to find something basic he's overlooked and then we'll have him.

  'We need to redouble our efforts to find a murder weapon and trace the clothes and personal possessions of all four victims.

  'In a few days, we'll all be at Tina's funeral and that's going to be very hard for everyone who knew her. I want us to be able to stand there with heads held high knowing we have either got him or our noose is tightening very quickly around his neck.

  'Speaking of the funeral, I want everyone there that day, and I do mean everyone. Not just out of respect for Tina, which I hope goes without saying. But I want to know who everyone is who attends, what their connections were to Tina, and what they were doing on Christmas Eve.

  'At the end of the day, it may be a grunt, but short of a miracle, that's going to be the thing that leads us to this killer – solid, routine police work.'

  Chapter Forty-one

  With the news of Tina's death, and particularly the fact that her body had been dumped so close to the station, it was now not just Pocket Billiards that Ted had to dodge whenever he arrived for work. There was also a determined press pack, more or less camping out on the police station steps, lying in wait for a lead.

  The observant ones had picked up on the fact that Ted was always an early bird and they were often there when he arrived. He always tried to dodge them by using a back entrance, but they sometimes caught him on the car park and trotted across with him, microphones and cameras thrust into his face.

  Ted disliked the press and media on principle and went to great lengths to avoid them. In the case of Tina's death, he couldn't trust himself to talk to them, even if he had been authorised and willing to do so. It was too raw a subject.

  Inevitably, with four murder victims and no suspect in custody, the questions were getting more probing, even accusatory.

  Crossing the car park felt more like running the gauntlet or walking the plank to Ted. He usually managed it by imagining speedy ways to dispatch each of them using martial arts.

  'How is it that the Stockport Slasher is still at large, Inspector?' asked one particularly obnoxious reporter, walking half backwards so she could make eye contact as she threw her questions at him. 'With the resources at your disposal, how is it that he was able to go on and kill a member of your own team?'

  Ted stopped so abruptly that she almost fell over. He looked at her long enough for the silence to become uncomfortable, his eyes flashing warning signals. When he finally spoke, his voice was level and measured as he reminded them all, yet again, that all their questions needed to be addressed to the Press Office.

  Although he was small, quietly spoken and extremely polite, the woman had read something in his gaze which had unsettled her. She made no attempt to follow him any further as he continued his way to the station.

  Despite his bruising, aches and pains, Ted took the stairs three at a time, eager to get back to work. Perhaps this would finally be the day when they saw some sort of a breakthrough.

  In fact his first phone call of the day was Tina's father, phoning to let him know the funeral would take place early in the New Year.

  'Our daughter is dead. Delaying the funeral won't bring her back to life, so we've taken the first available date that we are allowed to,' he said in a dull voice, as if he were talking about booking the car in for a service. Ted was glad the man had reached the stage of numbness in his grief, to help him get through the difficult times to come.

  It was to be a burial, he explained, and gave Ted the date and time. 'I hope you will be there, Inspector. I know my daughter thought very highly of you. She was always telling us you were the best boss on the force,' his voice choked slightly.

  'Tina was a very valued member of my team, Mr Bailey. I and all her colleagues will be there for her. And I promise you again, we are going to catch her killer.'

  'Oh, I know you will, Inspector,' Bailey said. 'Tina told us you always got your man. She said you were like a terrier after a bone. That made us laugh. She always had a funny way with words, did our Tina.'

  Ted went into the main office to pass the information to the team. They were all in again, back to working standard hours now Christmas was behind them.

  'Do we send flowers?' he asked them. 'What would Tina have wanted? I'd like to do something from the team, but it's a question of what.'

  'I know she liked flowers, sir, but I'm not sure how she would think about expensive ones just to … ' Rob started but broke off, then regained control and continued, 'just to wilt away on her grave.'

  'A charity donation, then?' Ted asked. 'Anyone know what charities interested her?'

  'Dementia, sir,' Rob said, 'her granny's got Alzheimer's.'

  Ted felt a fleeting moment of shame that he didn't know that.

  'Sir,' young Steve piped up. 'What if we get some flowers for the church, for Tina, then make sure they go to an old people's home afterwards?'

  'Brilliant idea, Steve,' Ted said. 'Can I put you in charge of sorting that out? Do you know what Tina liked, favourite colour, special flower, that sort of thing?'

  'Oh, yes, sir,' Steve said, going red but looking pleased.

  Ted could see from his expression how much he had idolised Tina and just hoped, if she had been aware, she had let him down gently. He felt sure she would have; she was that kind of person.

  'Right, listen up,' he said to the team. 'The funeral is going to be a hard day for all of us. Tina was a colleague and a friend. But please remember, no matter how hard it is for us, it's a hundred times worse for her parents. So I want dignified professionalism from all of you. Do your grieving before or after, but not at the funeral.

  'Remember, too, that you will also be there to work, not just to pay your respects. Eyes and ears working overtime, please. I want to know who everyone is at the funeral, all their connections to Tina. And watch everyone. Look for any body language that's not quite as you would expect at such an occasion.

  'Right, Steve, you're in charge of flowers. No idea how much these things cost these days so I'll start you off. Nobody feel you need to give more than you can afford. You know Tina would have hated that. And remember to ask the Big Boss, too. I'm sure he'd like to contribute and he doesn't bite – often. Tell me if you need more from me.'

  Ted dropped a twenty pound note on the young TDC's desk and the rest of the team started getting out their wallets to make their contribution.

  The DS stood up and started to go through his pockets, looking acutely embarrassed. 'Sorry, guy
s, you're never going to believe this but I really have left my wallet at home,' he said. 'I got it out this morning to give the kids some spending money, must have forgotten to pick it up again. I'll give you mine tomorrow, if that's all right?'

  Ted dropped another tenner on the desk and said, 'You can owe me, Mike, rather than owe young Steve.

  'As the funeral is at eleven, we'll have a quick round at The Grapes afterwards – my shout – to say our own goodbyes to Tina.

  'Don't forget, the most useful thing we can do for Tina now is to catch her killer. It may feel like we're getting nowhere at the moment but it's this routine work that's going to get us to where we need to be.

  'Keep at it. We'll get there.'

  Chapter Forty-two

  The church was crowded on the day of the funeral. There was a large uniformed presence, from Tina's days in the Uniform branch, with colleagues from that period of her career to act as coffin bearers. The Divisional Commander was also there. She made time to have a few formal words with Ted, expressing her condolences and asking for a progress report. Ted didn't have much to offer, other than yet more assurances.

  Steve had done the team, and Tina, proud, with a magnificent bouquet of pink roses and white lilies, and a card with all their names on.

  There was still no sign of the DS, but the rest of the team had arrived. Trev had taken the morning off work to attend, to pay his respects to Tina, and to support Ted in what he knew was going to be an extremely difficult day.

  Ted dispersed his team around the church where they could discreetly watch those present. He put young Steve nearest the door to check names. Luckily some old fashioned local newspapers still collected mourner's names from funerals, so those present were signing themselves in.