Duet

by O'Gorman, Brian

  “Oh I bet I know. He was probably smoking his dope. He isn’t allowed to do it in his digs. The landlady goes nuts and threatens to kick him out. I warn him about it, but he isn’t doing any harm. Besides, the dope keeps him quiet,”

  “I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear that Greggy,” said Louis with a wry smile on her face.

  They walked up to the bridge that led across the reservoir and the overflow. Their shoes clacking the hard surface of the bridge sounded very loud in the stillness of the morning. There was a light mist on the surface of the water and the morning sun was threatening to break through it at any moment. Once it did, it would take away the chill in the air that made Greg shiver as he made his way across the bridge.

  “Where are we heading?” he asked Louis.

  “Follow the path to the second field, there is a clearing which leads right down to the water. That’s where it is.”

  He knew the path pretty well, he had walked it a few times with Nicola and they held hands and giggled like love sick teenagers. He had told her how much fun it would be to sneak down here at night and make love against one of the wooden fences that separated the fields. She had slapped his arse and told him that it was going on their to-do list. In light of what was going on right now, he thought to himself that he must delete that particular nugget off the list.

  “If there wasn’t such a grisly element to all of this, I would be loving my job right now,” said Louis.

  “Bit of a country girl eh?”

  “Well, you know me Greg, I wanted a whole new life out here in the sticks.”

  “It’s just a pity that these small town folks don’t even know what a lesbian is.”

  “Excuse me mister....”

  “Sorry, sorry, I know. I will rephrase: Most of these small town folks don’t know what a bisexual is.”

  “Now that’s better,” said Louis smiling.

  “Not had any luck in the whole man or woman search then?”

  “Nothing, zip, fuck all. I’m beginning to lose hope Greg,” said Louis and sighed.

  “I’ll tell you what, when we get to the end of the shift I will take you out and get you drunk, how’s that.”

  Louis put her arm around his shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “What would I do without you Gregory.”

  “You would probably get shagged more,” he said and they both laughed. They came to the style that led to the other field. Greg allowed Louis to go first.

  “Ever the gentleman,” she said.

  Greg climbed over the style and they continued walking. The field began to open up at the side of the path and soon the bushes on the right hand side of them thinned out until they could see the edge of the water again. Greg saw it first and he had to blink his eyes a few times just to double check that what he was seeing was real.

  There were two deer at the edge of the water. One of them was lay on its side and the other one appeared to be kneeling at the edge of the water as if it was drinking. The one that was lying on the ground looked like it had been gutted. The tissue from the underside of the animal’s throat to its belly looked like it had been stripped away. They could see the internal organs of the animal, which were still locked away in the safety of the ribcage. The bones were poking through the stripped flesh like a set of perfectly white teeth. Just like the ducks and the fox they found yesterday, the bones were clean and undamaged. The kneeling deer had lost all of its skin from its head which was still resting in the edge of the water. The flesh had been stripped away down to the animal’s shoulders. Two orbs lay on the floor near the deer’s body and it took Greg a moment to realise that they were the animal’s eyes. Greg was glad that he hadn’t had time to eat breakfast because right now his stomach was lurching. There was a smell hanging in the air, a sort of sickly sweet smell that reminded Greg of the times when he had been to visit his dying grandmother in the hospital. He knew that it was the smell of death.

  “Look at this Greg,” said Louis. She was pointing at the ground around the two animals. “What do you notice?”

  He didn’t see it at first and he was about to ask Louis for a clue but then it clicked. “There’s no blood,” he said looking up at Louis.

  “Not a single drop. No blood, no bits of skin, no splatter, nothing.”

  He scanned the floor. Louis was right, it was the cleanest kill in the history of the world. Then something else occurred to him.

  “There is no sign of any struggle either. When an animal gets attacked, it fights to survive. Whatever happened, it happened quick,” he said.

  Louis looked around on the ground, he was right, there wasn’t a rock out of place nor were there any...

  “Tracks. There are no tracks either. If something had been here on this soft ground, there would have been footprints of some kind. There is nothing extra, just deer hooves. Looks like there was more than these two here. They must have scattered when all this happened.”

  “What do we do now?” said Greg.

  “Time to get your yellow tape again, and I think we should give the D.C.I. a shout.”

  Greg reached into one of the pockets on his vest and pulled out the roll of tape.

  “Way ahead of you Louis. Should we get that vet down here again?”

  “Who, Rogers? Yes, that might be a good idea.”

  They both went to their radios. Louis sent a message for the D.C.I. and Greg sent one for John Rogers. As he began to tape off the area he smiled to himself, wondering if Rogers would be able to hold onto his breakfast when he copped an eyeful of this one.

  After the area was sealed off they both stood in front of it, doing their best to shield the early morning dog walkers from the grim scene that was behind them. Of course, it damn near impossible because to area was too large for them to conceal. Nearly every dog walker had to call back their animals from going into the scene and sniffing around at the deer corpses. Most of them asked questions as they clipped leads onto their dog’s collars and they gave they gave the same answer each time, ‘we don’t know anything yet.’

  After about an hour Greg began to wish that he had brought his folding chair with him from the shed at home. His legs were beginning to ache, and he was craving a bacon sandwich from the cafe. This job had its high points and it certainly had its low ones too. He was just about to suggest that one of them go over to the cafe and get refreshments when D.C.I. Jack Soames turned up. He was smoking a cigarette and strolling towards them like a man who didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Sergeant Nelson, good morning to you,” said Soames.

  “Morning sir, I’m well thank you, how are you this fine day?” said Louis.

  “And who do we have here?” said Soames looking Greg up and down like he was a museum exhibit.

  “This is P.C. Greg Farnham. My protégé if you like,” said Louis.

  “Well then, your career’s fucked right from the off,” said Soames and balked out a wheezy laugh. “Right then, what have you got me out of bed for this time?”

  Louis showed Soames the dead animals whilst Greg distracted another dog walker from what was going on with another ‘we don’t know anything yet.’

  “Holy Jesus. That’s some weird shit,” said Soames when he first saw the remains of the two deer. He went through the same routine as Louis and Greg, first noticing the lack of any blood anywhere and then the fact that there was no sign of a struggle of any kind. After about twenty minutes of inspecting the scene he went back over to the two officers.

  “Well, it sure beats the shit out of me. There is no sign of any interaction with anything else, be it another human or an animal. There are no tracks, no teeth marks, no scratches, nothing. If I was to say anything about it, I would say it almost looks like this was a chemical attack of some kind. I am calling some of the forensics in and I understand you have the vet on his way down here to do an autopsy on the animals, am I correct Farnham?”

  “Yes....sir,” he said. He was momentarily fearful that he might have overstepped the mark. />
  “Good work young man, initiative, not enough of that these days,” said Soames and patted Greg on the shoulder.

  Louis tipped Greg a wink. He thought in that moment that if he wasn’t with Nicola he could have gone right over to her and kissed her.

  “Well, whilst we wait, I think one of us should go and get breakfast in, how about it Greg?” said Soames.

  Greg could have kissed him too.

  6.

  John Rogers puked before he even got near to the dead animals. Again, Greg couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. He wondered how he got on performing surgery on injured or ill animals in his practice. He had no idea what had caused the deer to be killed and it seemed like he was keen just to wash his hands of the whole situation. However, Soames insisted that he take the bodies away to perform an autopsy. Begrudgingly, he accepted defeat and began to make phone calls to get his people up there to move the bodies. They had to wait around for around two hours before they actually turned up. John complained bitterly about the amount of appointments he had to cancel to be there for another wild goose chase. Soon, his people were there and they wrapped the dead bodies in large black cloths that looked similar to body bags. When the kneeling deer was moved a large chunk of what looked like brains fell out of, what used to be the animals nose. John retched noisily three times which was so loud that it echoed all around the surrounding woodland and across the water. He left with his team and Soames had another look around the area. He could still not find anything to suggest that there had been anyone or anything there along with the deer. It was a head scratcher that was for sure. Three people from the forensic team had arrived just as they were finishing the bacon sandwiches that Greg and gone into town and bought for them. They had taken photographs and tickled around the area, mumbling to each other as they went. They couldn’t find anything amiss and they even scooped up a small sample of the water to send off for testing. Everything they could have done had been done. There wasn’t even anything left behind to clean up.

  All three of them made their way back across the bridge and back towards the cars.

  “Well, be sure to keep me informed if that puking vet finds anything out,” said Soames, lighting a cigarette.

  “Will do, sir,” said Louis.

  “Hopefully, whoever is doing this will get bored and go somewhere else for their kicks, that is, if it is a somebody. I’m sorry I can’t offer anything more. If it was a human body then we would have the full might of the force behind us, but that a politics thing I guess. I don’t do politics,” said Soames and dragged deeply on his cigarette.

  “I don’t either, I just like to do the job sir,” said Greg.

  Soames regarded him for a moment. He was impressed with this kid, and he normally wasn’t easy to impress, especially on a first meeting. Most of the young recruits these days had a big chip on their shoulder, they wanted to change the world on their first week in, but Greg was level headed and willing to do whatever it took, and he was respectful to his sergeant without being an arse kisser. Yep, Soames liked him. Anyone who would run off for bacon butties without putting up a protest was alright in his book. They had reached the end of the bridge and they were back on the road. Soames was about to head off to his car. He offered his hand to Greg and they shook. Greg had a good strong handshake, and he didn’t do that annoying thing that a lot of young rookies did, he didn’t try to crush Soames’s hand to show him how strong he was, it was just a good firm and confident shake and Soames was pleased.

  “Good to meetcha young man, look forward to working with you in the future,” said Soames.

  “Likewise sir,” said Greg.

  They parted ways and got in to their respective cars. Louis was looking at Greg with a half-smile on her face that usually meant that she was going to make fun of him.

  “What?” said Greg.

  “Oh nothing. I just never seen Soames be like that with someone he hasn’t met before. He is normally the most crabby and ill-tempered man you could ever meet. You are such a polished arse kisser; it takes my breath away.”

  “Well, I learned from the best Louis,” said Greg, a wise-guy smile breaking out on his face.

  “Right, that does it, you’re buying lunch.”

  “Like tic-tacs do you?”

  Louis scrambled for a good response, but he had got her. She was saved by the radio blaring out a message. A shoplifter had been caught in the corner shop.

  “Wow, a major incident,” said Louis.

  “Shall we get the armed unit down here?”

  “Better had, just to make sure,” said Louis and they both laughed.

  Louis put the car in gear and pointed them in the direction of the corner shop so they could go and deal with the crime of the century.

  7.

  The corner shop robber turned out to be eighty-year-old June Dobson. Both Greg and Louis knew her well. She was a resident of the Hurndell nursing home and had been for many years. She had developed Alzheimer’s disease whilst she was living alone in her small home just two minutes’ walk from the reservoir. Her increasingly erratic behaviour had caused a lot of the villagers (and in this village, everybody knew everybody) to become concerned. After a lot of visits from doctors and the social services, she had been moved to the residential home so she could be looked after and supervised properly. But she was a crafty old buzzard, and she would find new and more interesting ways of escaping from the home so she could go walkabout. On this day she had either been very lucky or vey unlucky depending on your outlook. There had been a new girl working on the shop counter who had seen June loading up her little straw bag with as much meat as she could possibly carry. The girl had called the police the moment that June had stepped outside the door and told the security guard to go and grab her. The guard who was called Joe Gerry already knew June and rolled his eyes when he went outside and found her trying to withdraw money from the cash machine with her library card. By then Louis and Greg were already on their way and Joe kept her talking until the police had got there. He knew that she wouldn’t be charged with anything but he could be sure that June would be escorted back to the home safely and placated with a good strong cup of tea and the lunch time news.

  Louis and Greg pulled up outside the shop and saw who the robber was and they both sighed and rolled their eyes. It wasn’t the first time that the old girl had got herself in trouble when she had gone wandering. Greg was relieved to see that at least this time she was fully dressed. A few weeks ago they had to take her back to the home and she had been naked from the waist down. She had made it all the way to the cafe and sat at one of the tables. Mrs Cranman hadn’t noticed her come in straight away and then she had seen her sitting at one of the tables, her nose in a crossword and her naked scrawny buttocks squished up on the seat and she had quickly gone to the shop front and turned the sign to closed and brought June a pot of tea and a blanket to try and cover her up as best she could. Louis and Greg had drawn the unfortunate task of getting her back to home whilst trying to protect her modesty as best they could.

  They had managed to persuade June to get in the back of the car and they took her back to the home. The home was about halfway up the hill at the far side of the village. If you went inside and sat at the large bay windows in the lounge area, you had a pretty good view of the reservoir. June loved sitting there and watching the sun come up in the early hours of the morning. Greg and Louis buzzed the door and told the receptionist that they had brought June back from her latest excursion. The crackly voice on the intercom told them to come in. They took June inside and she began to chirp and ramble about her holidays and what a great time that she had. She wouldn’t let go of Greg’s arm and began to introduce him as her new male friend. Louis stifled a laugh behind him along with the other members of staff that were nearby. Louis thought about breaking it up but she decided to enjoy the moment for a little bit longer. She could rib Greg about it for a couple of days at least and that would keep coming to work just that little bi
t more fun.

  June was giving Greg the guided tour of the home. Greg was just thankful that June couldn’t remember where her bedroom was, otherwise he might not get out alive. June led him into the lounge and the large bay window that overlooked the water. She shooed him into one of the chairs and she sat in the other one next to him. They looked out of the window and at the large expanse of water. From here Greg could see the bridge that they had walked across just a few hours ago in search of dead animals. He could also just about see the small clearing were the bodies had been discovered.

  “I loved that water. It was such a lovely walk. Feed dem ducks I did. I would give ‘em me crusts,” she said and wheezed out laughter.

  “Do you like sitting here June?”

  “Sits here every morning I does. I watches the sun come up. Reminds me of summer at my granny’s house. Must go and see Granny again, but I be fucked if I knows where she lives.”

  “I went down the reservoir this morning. Just routine patrol, and then...”

  “Don’t be going down there young man, it’s dangerous,” said June. Her eyes had suddenly become clear and the perpetual smile that crested her face was gone. Greg felt a surge of cold run through his bones and fear? Yes, a sliver of fear ran down his back.

  “What do you mean?” he said.

  “I saw it young man. That thing in the sky. Now it’s here. It’s in the water, and you needs to stay away.”

  Horror rolled through Greg. He turned to Louis and she had the same look on her face. She stepped forwards and squatted down in front of June. She took both her hand and looked her in the eyes.

  “What was it June? What did you see?” said Louis.

  June pulled one of her hands free and began to stroke Louis’s face. “Well, aint you just a pretty girl. Bet you got yourself a nice young man haven’t you? Is this your young man?” she said nodding at Greg.