Shot of Silence (Justice Again Book 3)

by M A Comley

  “Right you are then. I’ve done my bit and set it up for you. I likes to be organised, you see. Didn’t get to where I am today without being prepared. Yep, I came on duty at around eight. It wasn’t until I did my rounds that I found her lying there. I suppose by the time I’d made a cup of coffee, drunk that, it must have been about eight-thirty.”

  “I see. If you’d like to start playing the disc. Thanks,” Roberts requested.

  Comparable to a sardine in the confined space, Warren started the disc. On the screen, Andrea arrived in the garage with a couple of colleagues.

  “Do you recognise the other two?” Roberts whispered.

  “Yes, Ben Thompson and Steve Abbott,” Charlie responded without hesitation.

  Warren nodded. “She’s good and she’s right,” he confirmed. “This is where it gets interesting.” He pointed at the monitor.

  The two men waved farewell, and one after the other, their vehicles left the garage. Andrea was waylaid because she was on the phone. She laughed and smiled broadly all the time she spoke.

  “Why didn’t she just get in the damn car?” Charlie muttered. She shook her head, aware of what was about to happen next.

  “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” Roberts asked in response.

  “She quite often does it,” Warren added.

  “I see, okay, so if it’s a regular occurrence, then possibly the killer knew this and waited patiently for his chance to come.”

  “Here he is now,” Warren announced.

  A man came into shot wearing a clown’s mask. He stood to the side of Andrea for a good few seconds. Being so engrossed in her conversation, she failed to notice him. He moved a few steps ahead of her, and she screamed, almost dropped the phone. The masked man applauded and tipped his head back, obviously laughing at her.

  “Bastard, he got a real kick out of this before he finally did the deed,” Charlie said.

  “Aye, you could say that. Watch,” Warren advised.

  The man pointed at the ground. Andrea dropped her phone down by her side and got down on her knees in front of him. The woman, rightly so, looked shit-scared of what was about to happen to her. The masked man aimed a gun at her chest. It went off three times. Andrea fell to her side and lay there, dead. But that wasn’t enough for the man. Whereas other killers might have done the business and run, fearing they might be caught, he remained there for a while. It was hard to tell what was going on, but Charlie presumed he was holding a conversation with the victim.

  The murderer bent low and wagged the finger of his free hand while still aiming his gun at the dead Andrea. Then, he seemed to pause, pace the area for a few seconds before he directed the gun at the back of her head and shot her again, twice.

  “Oh shit! That was a bit extreme, the woman was obviously already dead,” Roberts murmured.

  “I’d say so. Heartless piece of shit. We need to find him, and quickly,” Charlie said.

  “That’s it. He takes off in a mo and doesn’t even look back.” Warren fast-forwarded the disc a little.

  “Did he get away by car or on foot?” Roberts asked.

  “Foot, I believe. I tried to pick him up on different cameras, but he disappeared as if he knew where the cameras were and how to avoid them,” Warren said. He messed around with the buttons and then ejected the disc. “There you go.” He placed the disc in a plastic case and handed it to Roberts.

  “Much appreciated, thanks. A uniformed officer will drop by in a day or so to take a statement from you, if that’s all right?”

  “Aye, I’ll be here. I’m here between eight in the morning and eight at night most days, except the weekends. This place is locked up then.”

  “One last question,” Charlie said. “This all happened at around eight, after you left, I take it? How is the car park locked up at night?”

  “I’d not long knocked off for the night. There are automatic gates, they come down at eight- thirty. Everyone knows they have to be out five minutes before that. It bugs me that the woman spent all night here alone. Maybe she was still alive, you know, after the shooting.”

  “I doubt it. Try not to let it eat away at you.” Charlie rubbed at his arm.

  They bid the man farewell and made their way back to Patti. She was examining the corpse.

  “We’ve seen the disc. She was shot three times in the chest then, after a while, the fucker seemed to be having a conversation with her. Once he’d finished, he fired off another two shots in the back of her head.”

  “Sounds about right, I came to the conclusion that’s how it must have gone down. Poor woman, maybe she pleaded for her life.”

  “I think she did, who knows?” Charlie said. “She was a nice lady. Katy and I interviewed her a few days ago, and now she’s joined the victim list. This bastard is working his way through his previous colleagues, that’s how it looks to me.”

  “Whoa, if you believe that, how many are left?” Patti asked.

  “The two men we saw accompanying her to the car park, Ben and Steve, they parted and left for home. She was engaged in a conversation on her phone. She must have been distracted. I think if she’d seen the perpetrator she would have started running,” Charlie filled the blanks in for Patti.

  “Jesus. If only she’d got in her car and driven away, maybe she’d still be alive today.”

  Roberts agreed with Patti’s assumption. “Too late to consider that now. We’re wasting time. We need to get back to base and get things actioned.”

  Charlie cleared her throat.

  “Something wrong, Charlie?” Roberts asked.

  “We can’t return to the station just yet, sir, we have an important task to perform.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not attending a post-mortem, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”

  “I wasn’t. We need to go and pay the deceased’s next of kin a visit. Let them know of her passing before the press get a hold of the news and start spouting about it.”

  He bashed his thigh with a clenched fist. “I told you I was rusty, yes, of course we should do that as a priority. Do we have an address for the victim?”

  “I’ll get in touch with Karen, see what she can find out for me.” Charlie stepped away from Patti and Roberts and exhaled. She rang the station, and Karen supplied her with the address almost immediately. Charlie hung up and returned to where Patti and Roberts were discussing the ins and outs of why the perp would overkill his victim.

  “Anger, there’s no other explanation,” Patti said.

  “There are other ways of dealing with pent-up emotions other than killing people,” Roberts was quick to suggest.

  “Yep, not everyone realises that,” Patti agreed. “I need to get on. Nice meeting you, DCI Roberts.”

  “You, too, Patti. Thanks for looking after my team so well. Keep up the good work.”

  Patti smirked. “I’ll do my best. I hope you locate this bastard soon.”

  “We’re going to do our very best, aren’t we, DC Simpkins?”

  “We are, sir.”

  Charlie and Roberts jumped back in his vehicle. He asked Charlie to punch the address into the satnav, and set off.

  “I’ve just had a thought,” she said.

  Roberts turned to face her. “What about?”

  “The phone call she was making. She was laughing, seemed really happy. What if she was on the phone to her next of kin at the time?”

  Roberts groaned. “Damn, you’re right, this could be a sticky situation.”

  “Sticky? We could be in the same boat as we were with Camilla.”

  “I’m not with you?”

  “Camilla attempted to kill herself when it sank in that her fiancé was dead.”

  “Fuck. Hang on tight.” Roberts pushed his foot down on the accelerator, and the car surged forward. He also flicked on the siren and weaved in and out of the traffic until they reached their destination.

  Andrea had lived in a small terraced house in a quiet suburban street. Roberts found a parking s
pace easily enough, something Charlie thought was probably a rarity come six p.m.

  Charlie rang the bell.

  A young woman in her early thirties with bloodshot eyes opened the door. “Yes?”

  Charlie produced her warrant card. “DCI Roberts and DC Simpkins. Can we come in and have a brief word?”

  “If it’s about Andrea, you’re hours too late. What the hell has taken you so long?”

  “Sorry, we were only told about the incident this morning. What can you tell us about it?”

  She stood back and allowed them to enter the hallway. “Come through to the lounge.”

  Roberts closed the front door, and Charlie followed the woman up the hallway into a room at the back. Lying on a big squishy bed was a golden retriever, wagging its tail. Charlie paused to pet the dog and then sat on the sofa next to Roberts as instructed by the woman.

  “I don’t think I caught your name,” Charlie said.

  “I didn’t give it. It’s Maria Miller. Andrea and I were engaged to be married. The registry office is all booked, the wedding venue, everything was in place and now…she’s gone.”

  “We truly are sorry for your loss. Was she on the phone to you when she lost her life?” Charlie asked.

  “When she was murdered, you mean. Yes. We were flirting. All that is gone now, I don’t even have that as a lasting memory of her. All I have is her pleading for her damn life. Why? Why her? She’s never done anyone any harm. Why would someone strip her of years of happiness within two minutes of meeting her?”

  “We believe she knew the murderer.”

  “No! Who is it?”

  “We think it’s James Boyd, a former colleague of hers.”

  “Shit! I knew him, or should I say, of him. Why? He left the firm not long ago from what I can remember.”

  “You’re right, he did.”

  “Why kill her, she never did him any harm?”

  “That was going to be my next question, had they fallen out at all?”

  “No, not really. He was up for promotion. A woman got in ahead of him, maybe that’s what he objected to. Are you telling me that the two deaths which have already happened there, Grace and Colin being killed, were down to him?”

  “That’s what we believe, yes.”

  “Bloody hell. What does that say about our society? If you’re given the sack…hang on, he wasn’t even sacked, not from what I can recall. How sick is that?”

  “We believe he left Zedex and set up his own rival firm in the last couple of months.”

  Maria frowned. “Rival firm? So he thought he’d wipe out the people he worked with at his prior firm to gain an advantage, is that right? Or am I missing something here?”

  “I think you’re going along the right lines. We need to track him down and get his take on things before the investigation makes any sense,” Charlie said. She cast an eye sideways at Roberts who was nodding.

  Damn, say something. Don’t leave it all to me.

  As if reading her mind, Roberts asked a question. “Were you together long?”

  Charlie groaned inwardly. What type of question was that, and what relevancy does it have on the case?

  “Around ten years. Does it make a difference?” Maria snapped.

  “No. I was just wondering,” Roberts mumbled.

  “Why aren’t you out there searching for the killer?”

  “We are, we have teams gathering information on him now. As you can imagine, things will take a little time to piece together. He’s a dangerous criminal and…” Charlie stated.

  “And he’s just gunned down my fiancée, and forgive me for saying this, but it’s taken you over…” She glanced at the sunray-shaped clock on the wall. “I was wrong, it’s more like fifteen or sixteen hours to get here. I rang the station, you know. They didn’t want to know.”

  “What?” Roberts beat Charlie in saying. “Can you give me some details about that?”

  “What else do I have to tell you? I was frantic. As soon as I heard the shots, I rang the station. Maybe I would’ve been better off calling nine-nine-nine. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

  “Can you tell me who you spoke to?”

  “A young woman. I figured she would do something about it and get back to me. I’ve been sitting up all night, waiting for someone to drop by.”

  “We spoke to the parking attendant. The garage was locked around eight-thirty and remained closed until around eight this morning. In our defence, maybe a patrol car turned up at the location, found it locked and—”

  “Are you serious?” Maria interrupted Roberts. “I’ve bloody heard it all now. My friends are always telling me the police are a waste of time, you guys have just proved it. Is it because of who we are? Because we’re not straight we don’t get the same treatment as straight folks? Tell me, I’d love to know.”

  Charlie sat back and let Roberts take over. This was way over her head.

  “No, I don’t think that’s accurate at all. I promise to delve into your complaint when we get back to the station. All I can do for now is apologise for the way your emergency call was handled. It’s a grave concern to me that we appeared to have failed you. Please, let us try and put that right for you.”

  “And how do you propose doing that?” Maria sneered.

  “By capturing the killer and making sure he faces the justice he deserves. There is also a complaints procedure you can enter into, if that’s the route you’d like to take.”

  “I might want to do that in the future, not right now. I need to grieve the loss of Andrea. She meant everything to me. We’d overcome a lot in our relationship, enough to know that we were right for each other, no matter what hurdles were erected in our path to happiness. I know that probably sounds sloppy, but it’s fact. Being gay…well, I’m sure by now you can understand how difficult it still is in our society. Everyone in authority believes we have equal rights, but when it comes down to it, we have nothing. It’s all a load of bollocks. Unless you’re straight in this life, well, it’s one huge struggle to get noticed and have a voice of your own.”

  “I can understand you thinking that way. I’ll give you a card. When you’re ready to talk, or make a complaint, you’ll have my backing, I promise you.”

  Maria’s eyes glistened with tears. “You’d do that for me?”

  “I would. I’m on the side of justice and I believe you were seriously let down by the force today. I’ll ensure this doesn’t happen in the future. I know that’s not going to help your situation but I’d like to do my bit for the future.”

  “Thank you. That’s very kind of you. What will happen to the person who accepted my call and did nothing?”

  “I’ll make it a priority to find out who was responsible and punish them accordingly.”

  “I hate to get someone in trouble but…well, I can’t thank you enough for this. It’s something that should never have been allowed to have happened. I’m too numb with grief to be angry, I suppose that will come later. At the moment, I’m too overwhelmed by my loss.”

  “We totally understand,” Charlie chipped in, eager to show her support to the injustice of the situation.

  “Okay, we’re going to leave you alone now. Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Roberts rose to his feet.

  Charlie couldn’t believe how quickly he was leaving but stood also.

  “I have a friend coming down from Liverpool to be with me. She should be here by midday.”

  “That’s good to hear. Here’s my card, don’t hesitate to call me if you think there’s anything we should know about the investigation. Again, you have my condolences for your loss, and my word that I’ll look into what went wrong on your behalf ASAP.”

  She showed them to the front door. Charlie patted the dog on her way out.

  “Thank you. Do your best to find the shit before he kills someone else and causes more pain in his wake.”

  “You have my word,” Roberts replied.

  Outside, Charlie was quiet on the way back t
o the car. Once they were inside the vehicle, she said, “Do you think that was right, to tell her about the complaints procedure? Shouldn’t you be shielding the officer who screwed up?”

  He tutted. “You really have a lot to learn about me, Charlie. I’m a fair man in every respect. If I believe someone has been let down by the very people who have sworn to protect the public, then I will do everything in my power to right that wrong and to make amends.”

  “What consequences will the officer face once you find her?”

  “She’ll be reprimanded, might even face a suspension for her lack of commitment to the job. What would you do if you were in my shoes?”

  Charlie pondered the question, aware of who she was riding with. “Probably the same, truth be told. How does someone screw up like this? It beggars belief, if you ask me. Even a novice would know it was imperative to follow up on a shooting incident.”

  “Not only that, this case has been rife in the media, therefore, it should have been treated as a matter of urgency. Wait, talking of media, has Katy held a press conference yet?”

  “No. She hasn’t had the time. We’ve been going from one murder scene to the next with very little time in between to organise anything. Mind you, now that we know who the suspect is, do you think it would be a good idea to hold one?”

  “I know she was wary of holding one, I’m overruling her, think it’s a must. We need to flush him out. Let’s face it, we don’t have a clue where he is, do we?”

  “True enough. Do you want me to arrange one when we return to base?” Charlie asked.

  “Do you think you’re up to the task?”

  “Of organising one, yes, I can do that.”

  “What about chairing it?”

  Charlie got the impression he was testing her, again. “Umm…I’m not sure I’m up to performing on the grand stage just yet. I could sit alongside you while you do it, though.”

  “Coward. Okay, we’ll compromise, I’ll chair it and you give out the details as you’re more familiar with them. How does that sound to you?”

  Charlie turned to face him, her mouth gaping open. Recovering, she replied, “Goodness me. You’re really going to throw me to the lions this early on in my career?”