Walk On By: DI Ted Darling Book 7

by L M Krier

  Walk On By

  DI Ted Darling Book 7

  L M Krier

  First Kindle Edition

  Copyright © 2017 LMK Tither

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Design by DMR Creative

  Cover photo "Hollywood Park steps"

  Photographer : MartinM3C2 [25 June 2010]

  The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Fisherman’s Friend is a registered trademark of the Lofthouse of Fleetwood Ltd Company of Lancashire

  Shewee is a registered trademark of Dales Distribution Ltd

  To Kate the Cow

  (you know who you are)

  Just love your comments and stickers

  – long may they continue

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  About the author

  Contact details

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  ‘Afternoon, Ted, Magnus here. Before I forget, congratulations on the promotion. About time too.’

  ‘Hello, Magnus, and thanks. Long time since I’ve heard from you. How’s life on the posh side?’

  ‘Wilmslow’s getting so I can’t afford to park here, never mind live here,’ the inspector from Cheshire Constabulary grumbled. ‘I’m just giving you a call as we’ve had a fatal stabbing on our patch today, and rather an unusual one. Do you have an Inspector Galton at your nick?’

  ‘Galton? No. Not sure I can think of one anywhere, off the top of my head. You’re sure it’s Galton? Not Dalton? Or Walton?’

  ‘Have you got one of those?’

  ‘No, sorry, not one of those either. I’m not being very helpful, am I? It’s just that they’re more common names. What’s it about?’

  ‘Well, here’s the strange part. A woman’s been robbed in a car park on our patch. We’re not sure why it escalated as it did but she was then fatally stabbed. All her possessions seem to have been taken, so it’s not immediately clear why she was killed, unless she knew her attacker, perhaps.

  ‘A woman in her sixties, we think, although we don’t have a definite ID yet. My team are out working on it now. It does seem as if everything of value has gone, bag, phone, possibly her car, but we’re not sure yet. That’s just how it looks from the initial reports. And we don’t have a name for the victim either, at this stage.

  ‘She didn’t die at the scene, only it was a close thing. She actually bled out in the ambulance on the way to hospital. But before she died, she told the paramedics that she was working undercover for a Detective Inspector Galton, at Stockport nick.’

  ‘A civilian? In her sixties? I’m struggling to think of anyone who would use someone like that undercover, especially as it seems as if it was for something dangerous, or at least potentially so.’

  ‘Hang on a sec, Ted, just got another call ...’

  Ted could hear him talking briefly in the background, then he came back on the line.

  ‘That was my sergeant. They’ve got a likely ID now, and the woman’s definitely from your patch, Ted. I know it’s ours to take, but with all the odd aspects of it, I wondered if you fancied coming over, just initially, to see what you can make of it. Maybe give me a few pointers? I have to confess it’s way outside my experience. I know you’ve headed up a lot of murder enquiries, with some good results. It’s not something we get much of here. Our daily round is more of the white powder sort, and handbags at dawn between the WAGs. I’d really welcome your expertise, especially with the link to your patch. Just to make sure I don’t make a total tit of myself with the basics on my first murder enquiry.’

  ‘Something like this sounds a bit outside my experience, too, with phoney police involved, if that’s what it is. But I’m happy to come over and take a quick look, if you think it will be of any help. It would give me an excuse to abandon the paperwork for a bit. And in case there is any connection to us here that we might need to follow up. I’ll just have to clear it with my boss first, stepping onto another force’s territory.’

  ‘Ah yes, I heard you got the Ice Queen, for your sins. You must have been very bad in a previous life, Ted. See you shortly then?’

  ‘Half an hour or so, Magnus. And, surprisingly, she’s not as bad as her reputation. Almost human sometimes, in fact. Although things are a lot different to when I had Jim Baker as my boss.’

  Detective Chief Inspector Ted Darling headed up an experienced team of officers who investigated Serious and Serial crimes in Stockport and other divisions within the Greater Manchester Police Force area. He grabbed his trenchcoat as he headed for his office door. It was pouring down outside, had been doing for days now and there was no sign of an end to it. He looked round the main office to see who was available to go with him. There may be nothing in it for them, but it was worth checking out at first hand, in case there was any involvement. He hated having to pick up a case later on when vital clues might have been missed by an inexperienced team. It would be an interesting one, by the sound of it, even if it turned out not to be one for them.

  Ted’s eyes fell on one of his two Detective Sergeants, Rob O’Connell. Young, keen, recently promoted. It might be the ideal case to put him on.

  ‘Rob, how do you fancy a quick run over to Wilmslow, to see how the other half lives? It’s a fatal stabbing, a woman in her sixties. There may be nothing for us, except that the victim is from our patch and she’s mentioned an officer, supposedly from Stockport, so I’ve been asked to go over and take a look. Can you get my car and I’ll meet you outside? I’ll just let the Super know where we’re going and why.’

  Superintendent Debra Caldwell – the Ice Queen, as everyone called her, not entirely fairly, as Ted now knew – listened attentively while Ted gave a brief summary of what details he had so far.

  ‘Interesting. Even if the victim is from here, the death itself is down to Cheshire, I would have thought. But I agree, you should go and take a look for yourself, to see if you can get to the bottom of this undercover idea. There may be nothing to it. Wires may simply have been crossed somewhere. But I don’t like the possibility that someone clearly put this woman in serious danger. We need to get the full facts on that, for a start, and we
need to find out who this so-called Inspector Galton is. While you’re out, I’ll try to find out if there’s some sort of covert operation going on involving our patch that we’ve not been made aware of, which would of itself be highly irregular.’

  ‘I’ve already put Océane on to searching the Scams Book to see if there’s anything current involving bogus police officers. Steve’s contacting other stations to see if there’s an Inspector Galton anywhere, or if anyone else has had anything similar. It’s an unusual name, I’ve not heard it before. I’ll know more when I get over to Wilmslow. I’m taking Rob with me; it’ll be an interesting one for him. It’s nothing I’ve come across before.’

  She nodded her agreement.

  ‘It certainly won’t be a wasted trip, even if it provides nothing more than a training exercise for DS O’Connell. Good personal development. And I’m sure your input will be very helpful to Wilmslow. Please keep me posted. I’m likely to be working late this evening so you’ll probably find me still at my desk on your return. Yet another budgetary planning meeting to prepare for. I’m constantly having to make the case to retain our current staffing levels. The powers that be want higher detection rates with fewer personnel hours.’

  Ted felt a wave of sympathy for her. Number crunching was never his favourite activity.

  ‘Do you ever miss Firearms?’

  They’d both previously had careers in Firearms which they’d given up for family reasons, she because of her sons, Ted because of his partner, Trevor.

  ‘Do you?’ she countered.

  ‘It all seemed a lot simpler, back in those days. Certainly a lot less paperwork. I think about it sometimes. I’m not sure whether I miss it or not. Right, I’d better get going and see if I can help to get some justice for this victim.’

  Rob had the car ready outside the entrance, the engine running and the heater on. He glanced sideways at the boss as Ted lowered himself rather awkwardly into the front passenger seat.

  ‘You all right, boss? You look like you’re in pain.’

  ‘Just a bit of muscle strain, nothing serious,’ Ted told him.

  ‘Martial arts stuff?’

  ‘Something like that,’ Ted said evasively.

  He wasn’t about to let the team know that Trev was teaching him to ride. Ted had had his first long hack out at the weekend on a safe but rather broad cob called Walter. He’d enjoyed himself, more than he ever thought he would on a horse, but the breadth of his mount had left him aching.

  Magnus Pierson had given Ted directions to a small car park behind a row of shops, all now taped off. Rob parked the official car as close as he could get and he and Rob identified themselves at the entrance to the crime scene. The uniformed officer who took their names called Pierson over.

  ‘Hello, Ted, good to see you. I could certainly do with your input on this one.’

  Ted made the introductions between him and Rob O’Connell then asked to be filled in. His experienced eyes were travelling round the scene, missing no detail, as he listened.

  ‘I’ve had officers out round and about to see if we could find out who she was and what she was doing here. She didn’t give a name to the ambulance crew, she was too busy trying to tell them about this so-called Inspector Galton, and she didn’t say much more before she died.

  ‘As she’d mentioned Stockport and as she was found lying bleeding on a car park here, I thought we’d start with the assumption that she was from your area and had driven here. I’ve put all my available officers, which doesn’t amount to a lot these days, on to seeing if we could get a trace on her and we got lucky at a jeweller’s shop nearby. Someone answering her description had been in not long before she was found and bought a Cartier watch. Sixteen-and-a-half grand’s worth.’

  ‘Sixteen-and-a half grand for a watch?’ Ted echoed in surprise.

  Pierson laughed.

  ‘You’re in Wilmslow now Ted, not Stockport. Small change here. Wilmslow folk would probably spend that much on the nanny for a birthday present. Anyway, she paid by credit card. We’ve got the details and the purchaser was a Mrs Freda Ashworth, lives in Marple. We’re trying to track down next of kin for a positive ID.’

  ‘Who found her?’

  ‘Another shopper, coming back to get their car. She was on the ground, bleeding heavily. Luckily, it was someone sensible enough to phone an ambulance straight away. It’s getting depressingly common for people just to walk past and do nothing.’

  ‘What makes you think she had a car, apart from assuming she did?’

  Ted tried to keep any note of criticism out of his voice. He just didn’t like assumptions, not in his line of work. It could slow an enquiry down, especially in the early stages.

  ‘There’s no marked out parking spaces here, as you can see, but she was lying in a car-sized gap between two other vehicles. And there was a tyre track through the not inconsiderable pool of blood. Even with people being inclined to look the other way, I didn’t think anyone would be callous enough to drive off and leave her there bleeding if they weren’t involved in the crime.

  ‘We deduced that whoever stabbed her took her car and drove off, leaving the tyre track through her blood. We can see from the tracks that the car came out forwards, and fast, so it had been backed into the space, and it just missed running over her as she lay there. It could have been her attacker’s car, of course. We’re just checking for details of any vehicle registered to her, so we can see if hers was parked somewhere else.

  ‘Initial reports from the hospital say she had no personal possessions with her at all. No handbag, car keys, house keys, nothing.’

  ‘I’d like to talk to the people in the shop myself, if that’s all right with you? As a starting point.’

  ‘Absolutely fine. I called you over because, like I said, it’s not something I’ve come across before and I know Serious and Serial is much more your thing than mine.’

  ‘Rob, next stages?’ Ted asked.

  Rob was doing well since his promotion and Ted was keen to give him every opportunity to show his initiative.

  The DS turned to Inspector Pierson and asked, ‘Have you sent anyone to her home address yet, sir?’

  ‘Next on my list, sergeant. It’s not all that long since we got the details, and we’ve been checking them out. I didn’t want to get it wrong. This is my first real experience of a murder enquiry. The last thing I wanted was to start off by telling the wrong person their other half was dead.’

  ‘Boss, I think we should send someone from our nick round to the address, as soon as possible. Not just to look for next of kin but if whoever it was took everything, including the car, there’s a good chance they have the keys to the victim’s house, too. Do you want me to get someone on to watching the property, in case anyone turns up there?’

  Ted nodded, pleased. Rob was thinking along the same lines as he was. Pierson looked impressed as Rob got on his mobile to organise it.

  ‘It’s glaringly obvious you two know much more about this sort of thing than I do. I’d better brush up on my “Every Boy’s Book of Managing a Crime Scene.” If you don’t mind, I’ll tag along with you to the shop, to see what I can learn from you.’

  ‘Just a couple of things, before we do that. Is this the nearest car park to the shop where she bought the watch? I take it there was no sign of that anywhere?’ Ted asked.

  ‘No sign of the watch or anything else. Nothing on her at all, according to the hospital. And no, there’s plenty of parking nearer to the shop than this, and easier to find. You’d have to know about this parking to get here. There’s no signage pointing to it.’

  ‘CCTV?’

  ‘None currently operational. This area is mostly used by people working in shops and offices nearby rather than by Joe Public doing their shopping. There was a camera, on the back of that building there, but it was vandalised recently and hasn’t been fixed yet. So you’re thinking ...?’

  Ted’s eyes followed the direction Pierson was indicating.

&n
bsp; ‘Nothing yet, until we have more details. So can we walk round to the shop now, see what they have to say?’

  It was a short distance to the nearby shop, which they covered briskly, Ted asking more questions as they walked.

  ‘What can you tell me about the injury? Knife wound? Any indication of what sort, how many wounds, anything like that at this stage?’

  ‘All I know so far is that the victim was stabbed. I haven’t heard anything further yet, other than the fact that she was DOA at the hospital. We’ll know more after the post-mortem, of course.’

  ‘Macclesfield Hospital?’

  ‘No, in the end they took her to Stepping Hill. There’d been a major incident, with victims being sent to Macclesfield, so the ambulance crew were told that would be quicker. That means she came from your patch, and she died back there, officially.’

  Ted laughed.

  ‘That sounds like a good attempt at buck-passing, if ever I heard one. Any CCTV in the shop?’

  ‘Yes, and with a good shot of the person we think is our victim. We went off the description the first responders gave us. Fortunately for us, she was wearing a distinctive bright red coat.’

  They watched the CCTV through first at the shop, before questioning anyone. An ash-blonde woman in a red coat, possibly in her early sixties, approached the counter and appeared to ask for a specific item, which the assistant went and found for her. The woman was on her mobile phone the whole time, and the transaction didn’t take long. She paid by credit card, then left with the expensive watch neatly wrapped and in a small paper carrier bag.

  ‘Can we find out what she was saying?’ Ted asked.

  They asked to speak to the young assistant who had served her. Ted asked her if she remembered anything of the conversation.

  ‘The lady was on the phone when she came into the shop and she was talking on it all the time. I thought she was perhaps a mum, buying a gift her son had asked her to get for his girlfriend. You know, something like that. But then as she was getting ready to leave, she said something I thought was a bit odd. She said, “your officer hasn’t made contact with me yet, so I’m just going to find him.” Just for a moment, I thought about a Trading Standards Officer, or something like that, but that seemed strange. The watch was perfectly genuine. We don’t sell counterfeit goods here.’