by Rashad Salim
The more I worked with Richardson, the worse an impression I got of him and after the recent run-ins with DI Clark and the Chief I started wondering if he was dragging me down with him. As a new member of the department, I still had to prove myself. The last thing I needed was my reputation tarnished even if by association.
His pager beeped. He checked it out and groaned. “Burton. I wonder what she wants.” He went over to the payphone in the corridor.
I went to the toilets and picked a urinal. I was only getting started when Richardson barged in. I looked into the mirror on the wall in front.
Richardson stood at the doorway with his mouth open, making it harder for me to relieve myself.
“What is it?”
“They found another body in the canal.”
22
Asim
I was watching TV at home with Rizwan when the phone rang around eleven o’ clock. He answered the phone and told me it was Omar.
I wondered if he had called to get some help on his science homework which was due the next day. That was usually why he rang me on a school night.
“Make it quick, Omar. You’re making me miss Cheers.”
“They found another body!” He blurted it out loud and clear but I didn’t know what he meant at first.
“What?”
“Down the other end of the canal! There’s cops everywhere!”
I frowned. “How do you know?”
“My auntie phoned my mum just now, told her what my uncle saw on his way home.”
His aunt and uncle lived near the canal about ten minutes from my house.
I knew exactly where he was referring to. All the neighbourhood boys did. We used to mess around all the way up and down the path beside the canal.
“Did your uncle say he saw a body?”
“All he said was there were people standing around and there were cops at the scene. They covered the body.”
My heart thumped against my chest.
“...What do you think, Asim?” he sounded worried. “What if it’s Ravi?”
What if it wasn’t? What if Ravinder was still missing and this was someone else?
I never liked him and DI Richardson had been right about the two of us never getting along but as much as I never wanted to see him again, I was desperate for his return. Admittedly, a big part of that was to get the cops off my back.
I had to find out if what Omar said was true. I had to go to the crime scene and see for myself. Maybe someone there would shed some light on it.
There was a sound from behind. I spun around and saw Rizwan with his arms folded across his chest. Judging by the look on his face I guessed he got the gist of my conversation with Omar.
I told Omar I’d speak to him later and hung up.
“...They found another body.”
“I thought so,” Rizwan said.
I grabbed my jacket off the coat hook on the hallway wall.
“Where you goin’ at this time?”
“I gotta know, man.” He was aware of Ravinder and his disappearance. “I gotta know if it’s him.”
“We’ll go in my car.”
I was in the backseat of Rizwan’s car. He was driving while his bum chum Salman sat in the front passenger seat. I didn’t understand why we had to bring Salman along but Rizwan insisted his nerdy friend join us.
It was a chilly night and Rizwan had the heater turned up but I was still shaking and dreading whatever we learned at the crime scene.
“...I never thought somethin’ like this would happen,” Salman said, adjusting his glasses. “You see it on the news all the time but who would’ve thought...?”
“Don’t be so stupid,” Rizwan said. “This is Binford. You tellin’ me you already forgotten the corner shop off Binford Lane that got robbed last year? You don’t remember the shopkeeper got shot dead? What about that neighbour of yours who killed his wife?”
“He wasn’t my neighbour,” Salman said. “He lived down my road, that’s all.”
“And what about that white boy got stabbed by them niggers last month? That shit happened in the afternoon!”
It was a five-minute drive to reach the crime scene but by then it was half an hour after Omar had phoned. I looked out the car window and wondered what we had missed.
Rizwan slowed the car when we were close. “Get out,” he said to me. “I’m gonna park the car over here. You better be back in five minutes. Don’t make me come lookin’ for you.”
I opened the door and got out. Rizwan drove a little further while I weaved around the crowds.
The crime scene was sealed off just like the time with Rishi Malhotra’s corpse. There were two ambulances parked nearby and a few police cars parked in the middle of the road, blocking the way for other motorists. It was a bigger scene than the one days earlier.
I wondered what the locals had made of all this. Clearly it was the talk of the town.
I tried to get as close to the scene as possible, to get a better view, but there were too many people in the way. Then I spotted the narrow canal bridge less than fifty feet away. The path to the bridge hadn’t been sealed off. I took off as fast as I could until I reached the bridge. Once I crossed the bridge, I came to the middle of it where I had the best view of the crime scene investigators moving around the body, which they had covered in a blue plastic sheet. I stood there for a minute or two until I heard someone shout in my direction.
“Oi!”
I turned sideways and saw a uniformed officer pointing at me.
“Come here! Now!”
I panicked. I knew I was in trouble now so I didn’t flee and make it worse for myself. I walked over to him, the dread getting worse with every step.
“What d’ya think you’re doin’?” he asked.
“Nothin’,” I said, I was out of breath, more out of fear than exhaustion.
He looked at me with the kind of suspicion I had associated with school teachers.
“Go home.”
“I think I know who that is.”
“I beg your pardon?”
I knew I was making a mistake but I was desperate to find out whether or not that was Ravinder’s corpse.
“It’s a body, right? You found a body, didn’t you?”
“That’s none of your business, son. Now if I were you, I’d clear off before I nick you for contaminatin’ a crime scene. Go on.” He gestured for me to walk away but I stood my ground.
“Is DC Cole around?” I asked.
He gave me a funny look. “...Why?”
“What about DI Richardson?”
“Stop wastin’ my time and go home. We haven’t got time for this.”
“I need to speak to them right away.”
“That’s it.” He grabbed me by the sleeve. “You’re comin’ with me.”
Fuck, I thought, he’s going to toss me in the back of one of the police cars and Rizwan’s going to kill me when he finds out the trouble I’m in.
23
DC Cole
Richardson and I rushed to the crime scene as fast as we could.
“It’s gotta be Ravinder Singh, right?” I asked him.
“The body hasn’t been identified yet but that’s what I’m thinkin’ too.”
I wondered how well the crime scene had been preserved. They could be contaminated so easily and often were. I hoped it had been protected as well as the Malhotra crime scene.
We would need to be filled in on everything when we arrived. There was no telling how much we had missed. Luckily, PC Enfield was among the first ones on the scene. Having one of our team members present as early as possible would be crucial later during the team meetings and ongoing investigation.
When we reached the crime scene I took in the surrounding area and wondered how the body had got there. The area was cordoned off and uniformed officers were handling the crowds nearby. The area had been lit with lamps the department had set up everywhere.
I spotted Enfield talking to another uniformed officer. Richardson
and I approached him.
“Who discovered the body?” Richardson asked.
“Some fella walkin’ his dog. Said he smelt a foul stench, took a peek in the canal and saw the body.”
Richardson nodded. We thanked him and walked towards the site of the body.
As usual, the forensic team were busy examining everything from the body to the whole part of the canal where it had been dumped.
Richardson and I passed through the cordon and approached Dr Booth at the canal side. We had to wait a while because he was still examining the body. Eventually, he stopped and came to us.
“What can you tell us?” Richardson asked.
“Cause of death seems to be strangulation. He also has other wounds. Looks like he had a serious nosebleed at some point and what appear to be cuts on his arms caused by a blade, possibly defensive wounds.”
“Any signs of a sexual attack?” I asked.
“Hard to tell right now. I’ll know later but I’m guessing there’s a good chance of that.”
Richardson and I looked down at the concealed body still in the canal.
“What are the chances he was dragged down there and killed?” I asked.
“Seems unlikely,” Booth said. “Only one set of footprints when we checked. A size 11 boot print.”
“The same as the last one?” Richardson asked him.
Booth nodded. “We haven’t found any trails of blood in there neither. The boy was killed elsewhere and dumped here.”
We had to get a better look at the corpse so moved in as close as possible. I dreaded the unveiling of the blue plastic covering the corpse.
We were less than ten feet away when Booth lifted the plastic sheet and revealed the corpse to us.
The boy lay on his side facing away from us. He had been dirtied up pretty good with the canal mud.
He wore a T shirt and black trousers. No shoes.
“How long’s he been here?” Richardson asked.
“I’d say at least six to ten hours,” Booth said.
I looked at my watch. It was 11:40pm.
Time of arrival would’ve been between 1:40pm and 5:40pm.
One of the other crime scene investigators in protective white suits approached Richardson and handed him some Polaroid photos. They were close ups of the boy at different angles.
Richardson looked and them and sighed. He handed them to me and walked off.
I examined them and caught my breath.
It was definitely Ravinder Singh.
Richardson thanked Booth for his work and the two of us walked back up the canal slope.
I looked all around us.
“What you thinkin’?” Richardson asked.
“Just wonderin’ if he’s here.”
Richardson looked around too. “I’m gonna go over the crowd tapes tomorrow.” He told me two members of the crime scene investigation team had set up cameras and were filming everyone since they had arrived. I knew I had to check the footage later too. Even if I didn’t know what exactly it was I was looking for.
Quite a few times in the past, the perpetrator of the crime had returned to the crime scene and mixed around with all the other spectators. I was hoping that was the case here.
One of the uniformed officers at the scene handed us hot tea, which I was grateful for.
Hot drinks always made a big difference at a crime scene.
I was still trying to collect my thoughts when the uniformed officer told me one of the other uniforms needed to see me and Richardson.
I wondered what it could be. My mind was already coming up with different possibilities.
“He says there’s someone here that wants to see you.”
“Who’s that then?” Richardson asked.
“Some boy he found sneaking around on the bridge over there,” he nodded to where it was, “Said you knew him, apparently.”
Richardson and I exchanged hopeful looks. We headed to where the officer and boy were. Crowds blocked my view the further we got and Richardson made a crack about how he wished we could just seal off the entire area so no one could see shit.
When we reached the officer and my view was no longer obscured, I grew annoyed when I spotted the boy.
“Fuck’s sake, what’s he doin’ here?” Richardson muttered.
It was Asim Patel.
“Sorry to bother you, sir but he was adamant on seein’ you,” the officer told Richardson. “Thought it might be important.”
Richardson nodded, thanked the officer and told him we’d take it from here. The officer left the three of us alone.
“Isn’t it past your bedtime, sunshine?” Richardson asked Asim.
“I was at home. Someone told me about this.”
“Right. And you thought you’d pop around and take a look too?” Richardson asked.
“I had to come.”
“No, you didn’t,” Richardson said. “If I were you, I’d stop showin’ up every time there’s a dead body.”
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Asim asked. “You found Ravi.”
There was a panicked look in his eyes. I studied him carefully.
“Stop wastin’ our time. We appreciate you doin’ the right thing alertin’ us about Rishi Malhotra but that’s as much we want from you. Now unless you have any vital information that could help us with this case, I suggest you go home right now.”
“Tell me that’s Ravi down there and I’ll go.”
Richardson threw his head back and swore. “Alright. How about you tell us that’s him, hey?”
Before I could say or do anything to stop him, Richardson reached down into his coat pocket and pulled out one of the Polaroid’s – which I hadn’t known he still had on him– and shoved it in Asim’s face.
It was the most outrageous thing I’d seen him do up until then.
The boy’s jaw practically dropped to the ground and his eyes popped out of their sockets.
“Is that your mate? Can you verify that’s Ravinder Singh?”
Richardson held the photo up and kept it there for a long time. I wanted to snatch it out of his hand but didn’t want to undermine his authority in Patel’s presence.
“...Yes.” Asim looked away from the photo and then down at his feet.
“Thanks for identifyin’ the victim. Now piss off.”
Richardson shouted the uniformed officer over. When the officer came, Richardson instructed him to escort Asim away from us. The officer led Asim away as I stared at Richardson in disbelief.
“What the fuck you doin’?”
He looked at me and snorted. “What?”
“What the bloody hell was that? Have you gone mad?”
He raised his hand to silence me. “Relax, mate. I wanted to check his reaction.”
“You scared the shit out of him! What if he goes home and tells his parents and they tell everyone?”
I imagined sitting in the Chief’s office with Richardson, while the Chief chewed us up and shat us out over Richardson’s erratic behaviour towards Asim. It crossed my mind that if complaints were made, I’d be used as a witness against Richardson – the consequences of that terminating my future at Binford.
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I had to play that card as soon as it came to me. Anyway, I didn’t get any bad vibes off him, did you?”
“No, but that lad’s gonna have nightmares for the rest of his life.”
“I suppose that rules him out then,” he said.
“You honestly thought he was involved?”
“It wouldn’t have surprised me. Suppose he had an axe to grind with Ravinder? What if he had got someone to do away with him?”
“I’ve never heard of school boys hookin’ up with a hitman.”
“Stick around Binford and you might.”
The way he challenged me showed how he didn’t like being challenged himself.
“Anyway, this one could’ve been a gang thing. One of Ravinder’s enemies hookin’ up with a gang to settle a vendetta.”
“That boy who nearly pissed his pants? Are you havin’ a laugh?”
“Whoever, mate. Whoever.”
“You don’t really think it was one of those things, do you?” I asked. “Boys killin’ boys?”
“...No, it seems unlikely but I can’t rule it out. It’s happened before around here. That’s all.”
“Rishi never bothered anyone and even though Ravinder was a bit of a rascal, he wasn’t mixed up with anythin’ dodgy neither, drugs and stuff.”
“Look, maybe they’re linked after all. Rishi and Ravinder.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you were bangin’ on about it before.” I looked at him hard. “...So we’re lookin’ at the same killer?”
“What d’you think?” The words were laced with sarcasm.
Just a second ago Richardson had speculated about this murder being gang related and now he was back to his initial prediction. I could see he was struggling to keep up with the events over the last couple of days.
Making sense of it all was our job but I had more difficulty making sense of him.
24
Asim
The night they found Ravinder’s corpse I stayed awake for most of it. I couldn’t sleep and no amount of fantasising about Shazia made me feel any better.
I couldn’t get Ravinder’s face out of my mind. He looked so different no longer alive. I didn’t think I could face everyone at school in the morning. It was too much.
I wanted to phone Omar when Rizwan and I returned home just to fill him in on what happened but it had been past midnight so there was no chance of that happening. I needed a friend to talk to but had to wait for that.
I thought about Max but by this point I didn’t think we were friends anymore. I was so sad about the state of everything that I began to cry. The more I thought about the possibility of Ravinder’s friends or others at school suspecting I had been involved in his death, the more I wept.
I thought about Max, Ravinder, Omar and myself. The way we were with each other.
Up until recently, Max was my best friend and Ravinder had been a pest. But it wasn’t always like that.
I thought about our entire history – the five years we had almost spent together in secondary school. We had seen each other grow up.
