by M A Comley
Katy chuckled. “I think that was their thought process behind giving us the loan. To help AJ succeed in obtaining a better life for him and his family.”
“It’s a tough one to call, isn’t it? Are they in the right or wrong here?”
“I can see it from both sides; however, it’s always better to let adults make their own mistakes or screw-ups in this life. It’s how we learn and grow as human beings, isn’t it?”
The conversation was interrupted by the phone ringing. Katy wiped her mouth on the napkin and answered it. “DI Katy Foster, how can I help?”
“It’s Mick on the front desk, ma’am. I’ve just heard of a shooting in the centre of London. Are you up for this one?”
“Charlie and I are on our way, have the details ready for us.” She ended the call and tucked her half-eaten roll back in the bag and shoved it in the top drawer of her desk as she stood. “Are you ready? There’s been a shooting.”
Charlie downed the remains of her coffee and followed her out of the office.
“Heads-up, guys. We’re going out to attend a shooting. No other details as yet. We’ll be back soon. In the meantime, finish up the paperwork from the last case and keep your eyes and ears open for any chatter about this one on the lines.”
The team acknowledged the request. Katy and Charlie raced down the stairs and paused at the desk sergeant’s counter to obtain the information and to sign out a Taser as their trip could be a potentially volatile situation. “My guys are at the scene, doing their best to cordon off the area—not easy, given the location, ma’am.”
Katy glanced down at the paper. “Damn, when you said the heart of the city, I didn’t think you meant it.”
“I’m not one for exaggerating, you should know that by now.”
“I do, Mick.”
They exited the station and jumped in the car. There was no need to use the satnav, Katy knew the route well enough. They arrived at the scene around twenty-five minutes later, thanks to the traffic wedging them in for at least five minutes halfway through their journey, after a car broke down at the traffic lights, of all places. The poor woman seemed mortified and grew redder the more the other drivers blasted their horns.
Katy slowed down and shouted at the woman, “Hang in there, I’ve called for assistance. One of our boys should be with you soon. Have you called the breakdown services yet?”
“I have. They can’t get here for another hour or so. I’m so sorry, I feel such a fool.”
“It’s not your fault. Good luck.” Katy drove on. “Poor bloody woman. How embarrassing for her. I wonder if she’s run out of petrol.”
“Possibly. I’d hate that to happen to me, especially on a main stretch like this.”
“Yeah, a real bummer. Here we are. Bloody hell, look at the punters around here having a snoop. What’s wrong with people?” She spotted the pathologist’s van off to the right and several SOCO vehicles. The technicians were hurriedly trying to erect a marquee over the victim, but the fierce wind was hampering their efforts.
Katy and Charlie left the car after tucking it alongside the vans.
“Hi, Patti. Do your guys need further assistance?” Katy asked.
“Sure, if you have any bodies spare. They’ll need to get suited and booted, though, before getting near the corpse.”
“I can arrange that. Got any spare suits?”
Patti dipped into the back of the van, extracted a handful of paper suits and handed them to Katy. She set off, leaving Charlie behind with Patti, and distributed the suits to a few of the PCs lingering near the cordon.
“Boys, get over there and help the SOCO team with the tent. The quicker that’s up, the likelihood of getting rid of this lot will be in our favour.”
Each of the officers took a suit and slipped it on. They sprinted to offer their assistance, and within seconds, between the eight men, they had battled the elements to successfully erect the marquee.
Katy exhaled a sigh of relief and returned to find Charlie already sporting the latest in protective fashion. “Do you have a spare one for me?”
Patti tutted and withdrew another one from the van and threw it at Katy.
“We were told it was a shooting. Any ideas on anything further yet?” Katy held on to Charlie’s arm for balance and attached her shoe covers over her new ankle boots. “I’m fit, when you are.”
Patti collected her silver case from the van, and together, the three of them entered the tent. Once Patti had removed the coat covering the victim, Katy surveyed the body.
“The doorman placed his coat over her,” Patti said. “He saw the incident—really shaken up, he is. I’ve told him you’ll be wanting a word with him. He’s inside the building, downing half a bottle of whisky, I shouldn’t wonder. Poor bloke.”
Katy pointed at the victim. “At least he’s alive which is more than can be said for her.”
“True dat.” Patti grinned. She crouched to examine the victim. “Looks like she was coming back from lunch.” She thumbed behind her at the baker’s bag and cup with its contents spilt on the pavement close to the woman.
“We’ll make a detective out of you yet, Patti.”
“Sarcastic cow. I know I was stating the obvious, sometimes it’s what is required. What do we have here? Ah, yes, looks like two shots to the back. No idea which one was first. If it was this one, she would’ve probably been paralysed.”
“Maybe the shooter felt sorry for her if his aim was bad and decided to finish her off,” Katy replied.
“Perhaps, or maybe that was his intention. To shoot her twice, one to disable her, if you like, and the next to kill her. The shots came within seconds of each other, so the doorman said.”
“Did the doorman see anything? Could this be a possible drive-by shooting?”
“He didn’t see. He heard the gun go off but couldn’t make out which direction the shots came from.”
“I take it the doorman knows her then,” Katy said. She glanced up and down the street and noted how busy it was. Had the killer intentionally targeted the woman, or had he taken a pot shot in the hope he’d hit someone? The second seemed an unlikely scenario even to her mind.
“Yes, apparently she works in this building at Zedex.”
“Hmm…was it a pot shot or did the killer intentionally murder her outside her workplace. Interesting. Could the doorman tell you anything else, Patti?”
“No. My advice would be to go easy on him, he’s in shock.”
“Understandable if he saw the incident happen and felt helpless in trying to assist her. Was it just the two shots or were there more?”
“The doorman seems to think it was only the two.”
“Hmm… So both shots hit their intended target. Not seen anything like this before, have we?”
“I dare say I must have over the years. If you’re requesting that I summon up such a case off the top of my head, then you’d be out of luck.”
Katy smiled at Patti. “I wasn’t. Okay, we’ll leave you to get on with things here, and I’ll organise uniform, get them to question the crowd, see if any of these fine upstanding citizens saw anything or if they’ve just popped up, you know, gruesome thrill-seekers.”
“My bet is they’re the latter. The crowd has doubled, if not trebled, in size since we got here.”
“Bloody brilliant. Catch up with you in a moment, Patti.”
Katy and Charlie left the tent.
“As I stated, we need to see if any of the onlookers can give us anything. Do you want to organise that while I have a word with the doorman?” Katy asked.
“Sure. Want me to take down a statement from anyone or leave that for now?”
“Leave any likely statements, let’s concentrate on the facts for now. See what people saw, if anything.” Katy scanned the area. It was built-up. High-rise buildings on both sides up and down the busy street.
“What are you thinking?” Charlie probed.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. If the shooting wasn’t a dri
ve-by, then where was the bastard hiding?”
Charlie blew out a breath. “Jesus, that’s going to be impossible to ascertain, isn’t it?”
“Nothing’s impossible, although I admit it’s going to test us, but what’s new? Look how many windows are facing the scene. We need to get the trajectory of the bullets and then see where that leads us.”
“Not an easy case to solve either way, without bloody witnesses,” Charlie mumbled.
Katy tutted. “I was thinking along the same lines. Let’s get cracking. Dig deep, partner.”
Charlie headed off towards the crowd while Katy spun around and entered the building thirty feet behind her. Over by the reception desk, she found two people. One was a man in his late fifties to early sixties. His steel-grey hair was messed up, as though he’d been constantly running his hands through it. The other person was a woman in her thirties with shocking pink hair. Bending over to make sure the man was all right, Katy figured the woman was unaware that her miniskirt had ridden up her thighs and the cheeks of her arse were on show. Katy averted her eyes and approached the pair.
She produced her warrant card. “Hi, I’m DI Katy Foster. I take it you’re the doorman who witnessed the incident, is that right?”
“Yes. I’m Frank Windsor. Terrible, terrible thing to happen. She was such a nice lady as well. It still hasn’t registered with me yet.”
The young woman stood upright and straightened her skirt. “I’m Claire. Poor Frank tried to help her but…”
“Please, try not to upset yourselves. Did you see anything?” she asked Claire.
“No. I heard a faint noise but didn’t realise what was going on until Frank staggered back in here and shouted at me to call the police. Not sure how I managed to do it, let alone tell the woman on control what was going on. Why would anyone want to do such a dreadful thing, and in broad daylight as well?”
“That’s what we intend to find out, Claire. Are you up to telling me what happened, Frank? No pressure, I appreciate how difficult this must be for you, but the sooner we get the information we’re after, the sooner we can punish the person responsible for killing your colleague.”
“I understand that. My brother used to be in the force, I’m well aware of how these things work.”
“That’s good to hear. In that case, you’ll appreciate the urgency behind me asking these questions at this distressing time.”
“I do.” He picked up a glass from the floor beside him and downed the amber liquid. “Something to steady my nerves.”
“I quite understand. I would like you to run through the events leading up to the shooting, if you wouldn’t mind?”
Frank stared up at her and scratched at the stubble decorating his chin in patches. “I saw Grace coming back from lunch and opened the door for her. I came down the steps, thought I’d get some fresh air. My intention was to join her and have a quick natter on the way back. It’s part of our routine, you see. She always had a kind word for me. I would never pester anyone, if they didn’t want my company, she did. I regarded her as a dear friend, and now…”
“I’m so sorry for your loss. I appreciate how hard this has hit you, it’s never easy to witness the passing of a friend.”
“Passing? She was killed. She didn’t just die, she was bloody murdered, for God’s sake,” he bit back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. I’m hurting. My heart is breaking because she has a husband and two kids. That’s where she was coming back from—she met up with them for a Christmas shopping trip. She just told me she hadn’t had time to eat and said she’d bought a coffee and a roll to eat when she got back to her desk. I keep thinking that if she hadn’t stopped off for that she would’ve been tucked up inside the building a good ten minutes before the incident happened. Such a shame. Hindsight and all that.”
“Did you see anyone suspicious hanging around, you know, during your morning shift?”
“I’ve tried to recollect if I had but all I keep thinking about is the shock on her face as she went down. My heart went out to her. I rushed towards her to try to help her, and that’s when the second shot went off. I didn’t know what to do for the best. I was torn between diving for cover and remaining there to try and help Grace, but her eyes…they were staring at me without seeing me. I knew then that she was dead. I rushed in here and yelled at Claire to call nine-nine-nine. I picked up my coat and went outside again. I know I probably shouldn’t have covered her over, but at the time all I wanted to do was shield her from the onlookers. By the time I got back, there was a small crowd gathered around her. What the hell is wrong with people? If Grace was a stranger to me, I’d be buggered if I’d stand around gawping at her. I stayed with her; I knew I shouldn’t touch her, otherwise I would have got down beside her and put her head on my lap. To see a friend, go down like that, someone as nice as her, with a bloody family… I can’t tell you how much it hurt, still hurts.”
“I know. We’re going to do all we can to arrest the person who did this.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to do that. I certainly didn’t see anyone odd hanging about. Where were they? Look around you. The number of places where they could possibly hide must be in the thousands, mustn’t it?”
“True enough. I can give you my assurance, we won’t let this drop until we have the culprit sitting in a cell.”
He sighed and then let out a shuddering breath. “I hope that’s soon. The thought of having someone that dangerous out there who kills innocent women…it’s just wrong, isn’t it? What is this world coming to when you can’t walk down a main street during daylight hours without getting shot?”
“I agree. These types of incidents are a rarity. That’s why it’s important to do the groundwork thoroughly. To dig deep, to ask all the relative questions from the outset.”
“I can’t tell you any more than I have already, I wish I could. I want you to find the bastard, and quickly. What if he comes back? What if he attempts to kill me now that I’ve spoken to you?”
“I doubt that will happen. All I can advise you to do is to remain vigilant at all times.”
“I intend to. Bloody hell, I doubt I’ll ever walk the streets again, knowing there’s someone out there who is capable of killing innocent people.”
Katy exhaled a breath. “Until we find out more it’s hard to advise you what to do regarding your own safety. I have to ask, I take it you sat with Grace after the incident, until assistance showed up?”
He nodded.
“Did you happen to see anyone walk by, carrying something bulky perhaps?”
“Like a gun? No, I can’t say I did, and yes, I sat on the pavement with her until the ambulance and police arrived, then they shooed me back in here. That’s when Claire poured me a shot of brandy. Done me the world of good. I was a mess. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Claire will tell you, won’t you, love?”
“He was proper shaken up. I had to give him a drink to calm his nerves. Bloody terrible situation to be confronted with, worse when it happens to a colleague.”
“Did you know Grace very well?” Katy asked the receptionist.
“Not really. I’ve only been here six months, but well enough to say good morning to her and to know a little about her family. She was so proud of her kids. Shit! Her husband, he needs to be called. I did ask the woman on control if I should call him, but she advised me not to and to leave that for the officer in charge to sort out. I think he should be told soon. It’s been like over an hour now. I’d want to know ASAP if I were in his shoes, wouldn’t you?”
Katy smiled. “I agree. I don’t suppose you have an address for her, do you?”
“I don’t, but I can contact her boss for you, he’ll have it in the personnel file.”
“If you can arrange that for me while I speak to Frank, that would be brilliant.”
Claire waddled off as fast as her belt-sized skirt and four-inch stilettos would allow her to move.
“How are you feeling now, Frank?” Katy dragged a cha
ir across the floor and sat next to him.
“Numb. Still can’t believe it. I’ve never seen a dead body before, you see. It’s bloody tough when you regard that person as a friend. Sickening, it is. Downright despicable. It makes no sense to me, that’s what’s bugging me about this. She walked towards me with a smile on her face, happy with life, she was, and then to have it snuffed out like that, it’s shocking. That’s what it is, absolutely shocking.”
“It is. Any words I have for you will seem insignificant right now.”
“I know. Hard to know what to say to someone who witnesses the light disappear in a friend’s eyes. I could do nothing to help her. I have this thought running through my head, it’s a daft one really…”
“What’s that?”
“That she didn’t have time to suffer. Yes, I know there was a delay between the shots, but in all honesty, I don’t think it would have registered as a long delay…oh God, I don’t know what I’m trying to say, everything is muddled in my head. Does it get better?”
Katy placed a hand over his. “I’ve heard it can take a few days and sleepless nights to deal with such a trauma. Hang in there. No one will think badly of you if you took a few days off to get over the shock.”
“You think I’ll need it? My legs, look at them, I can’t stop them jiggling. Christ knows what would happen if I tried to stand. Trouble is, I’m usually on my feet all day, looking after people as they come in and out of the building. I wouldn’t be up to doing that.”
“Maybe Claire could suggest that your boss sends you home. Do you have anyone there?”
“No, my missus walked out on me five years ago. Went off with one of those toy boys or whatever they’re called. Thirty years younger, can you believe that? How is a man of my age supposed to compete with a youngster? I’m closer to my grave than he is to his nappy era.”
“Sorry to hear that. Do you have friends or other family members? Someone who could stay with you a few days?”
“Not really. I’m a loner when I’m not at work. That’s why these people mean so much to me. All we might do is share the odd smile, but they treat me well. Friends and family always seem to shaft you these days, that’s why I prefer to keep my distance.”
