by M A Comley
“Your sarcasm can be so bloody caustic at times, boss. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Actually they had. But if her partner proceeded to aggravate her with daft comments, then surely she had every reason to be sardonic with her response.
They arrived at Mrs. Webster’s semi-detached house on the edge of the countryside, and after Sally introduced herself and her partner, a puzzled-looking Mrs. Webster welcomed them into her home.
“What can I do for you, Inspector?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Webster. I have some bad news regarding your daughter.”
“My daughter? Has she done something illegal?” She clutched a hand to her chest, and her face rapidly drained of colour.
Sally inhaled a large breath. “No. It’s nothing like that… there’s no easy way to say this but tell you outright. Your daughter’s body was found early this morning.”
“Her… body?” The woman let out an agonising cry and collapsed on the floor.
Jack sprang into action, dug out his mobile, and called for an ambulance.
Sally dropped to the floor alongside Mrs. Webster. She felt the woman’s neck for a pulse but couldn’t find one. Then with her limited first-aid knowledge, she proceeded to carry out CPR. Sally knew her efforts were a waste of time as she saw the woman’s lips turn blue, but still, she pumped away until help showed up. A full ten minutes passed before the paramedics arrived.
Sally’s hands shook as she relayed what had happened. “I tried my best to save her.”
The first paramedic knelt beside the woman and tested her neck for a pulse. He looked up at his colleague. “She’s gone.”
Sally covered her face with her hands and Jack threw a comforting arm around her shoulder. “You did your best, Sally.”
She shrugged his arm off. “But it wasn’t good enough, was it?”
“Did she have any health problems, do you know?” the paramedic kneeling next to Mrs. Webster’s body asked.
“Yes, she was under the doctor. I guess the news I delivered was just too much for her to take.”
“What news?” the other paramedic asked.
“I just told her that her daughter’s body was found this morning.”
“Christ!” the kneeling paramedic said. “Poor woman. The shock must have killed her.”
Sally and Jack left the house, and Jack lit up a cigarette then forced Sally to take a puff.
She immediately started choking. “What are you trying to do? Kill me?” she spat at him after recapturing her breath and filling her lungs with some clean air.
He cringed. “Believe it or not, I was trying to help. Guess I forgot you don’t smoke.”
“Thanks. If you have any further bright ideas like that, kindly keep them to yourself. My throat feels like I’ve swallowed a cheese grater.”
“Okay, no need to go on about it, boss. What do we do now?”
“You mean do we move on from here and see if we can kill another of Maddie’s relatives with the news of both deaths?”
“I wouldn’t quite put it like that myself, but we’re going to have to break the news of Maddie’s and her mother’s deaths to another member of the family soon, aren’t we? We can’t just walk away as if nothing has happened.”
Sally pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and stood within a few inches of her partner. If he’d been a foot shorter, they would have been standing nose to nose. “Thanks, partner. I’m well aware of that. I’m going to contact the station, see if we can find another relative living in the area. In the meantime, we should set off and see if we can pick up any clues at the pub where Maddie worked. The Wellington Arms, wasn’t it?”
Glancing down at her, he nodded. “Yep. What about the boyfriend?”
“I’ll get the guys back at the station looking into his background while we’re at the Wellie.”
They made their way back to the car. Sally shuddered against a sudden breeze that arose just before they settled into the car. She rang the station, issued orders on what she expected from the team to DC Jordan Reid, and told him where they were en route to next. She hung up and stared ahead of her for a second or two.
Jack nudged her arm with his elbow. “Time’s getting on, boss. Do you want me to drive?”
She shook her head, trying to dislodge the image of Maddie’s dead mother lying in her lap. She fired up the car and slapped the steering wheel with her hand. “I’m fine, or I will be. Professional head on, and it’s off we go.”
The Wellington Arms public bar was relatively quiet when Sally and Jack walked in and announced they were there to speak to the manager. The pretty young barmaid went in search of her boss and returned with a man in his early fifties.
Sally and Jack produced their IDs for the confused man.
“Is there somewhere private we can chat, Mr. Locke?” Sally asked.
“My office. Come through.” He held open the bar for them and walked through to the back area of the building, away from the prying eyes and straining ears of the customers. “What’s this about, Inspector?”
“We’re here to inform you that one of your members of staff lost her life last night.”
“Lost her life? In an accident? Who?”
“No, it was no accident, Mr. Locke. Maddie Webster was found murdered in the early hours of this morning.”
He flung himself back in his chair. “What?”
“Not very pleasant. I’d rather not go into details about the crime. What I would like to know is if Maddie had any ‘admirers’ at the pub?”
“Admirers as in weird folk who would set out to end the poor girl’s life?” he asked coldly.
“If you want to put it that way, yes,” Sally agreed.
“No, not that I can think of. Everyone loved Maddie. She was my longest-serving barmaid.” He ran a hand through his greying hair. “Shit! Sorry, I just can’t believe someone would set out to intentionally kill that poor girl.”
“Can you tell me if she was friendlier than usual towards one of the customers last night, perhaps?”
He inhaled and exhaled a large breath. “It was my night off, the wife’s birthday actually. Damn, Maddie filled in for me. She gave up her one night off this week so I could share it with my wife, and now she’s dead. There’s just no rhyme or reason for that, is there?”
“No, there isn’t. We called at her address earlier and spoke to her neighbour, Liz, who mentioned that Maddie had recently split up from her fiancé. Did you know this?”
“Yes, everyone in the pub knew that. She was strong, though, always put her smile on at work so nobody would have been aware just how broken-hearted she was about ditching that scumbag. Some men just don’t know when they’re on to a good thing with a girl. I offered to go round there and see him, give him a piece of my mind, but Maddie insisted she was okay about the break-up. She wasn’t aware that I used to listen to her in the toilet, crying her eyes out.”
Sally frowned, thinking the man was some kind of voyeur.
He corrected himself, “Nothing sinister in it, Inspector. The ladies’ loo is right next door, and the walls to this office are paper thin so, unfortunately, I tend to hear everything that goes on in there. I assure you, at times, I wish that really wasn’t the case.”
“I’m sure. If you aren’t able to tell us what went on here last night, do you think another member of staff could fill us in?”
“No one is on duty until later on this evening, I’m afraid. I’m not a slave driver with my staff like other pub landlords. I like to give them a decent amount of time off between shifts. I find it keeps the staff and the customers happy.”
“So, Maddie filling in for you was a genuine one-off then?” Sally asked.
“Yes. Crap, I’m going to be riddled with guilt now for the rest of my days.”
Sally decided then not to tell the landlord about Maddie’s mum dying. She feared it would only leave an extra burden on Mr. Locke’s shoulders. “These things happen, Mr. Locke. There’s no point
blaming yourself, no point whatsoever. Any chance we can question the staff on duty last night at home, or would you rather I send uniformed officers to take down statements when they show up for their shift later?”
“I’ll give you their addresses, if you don’t mind? There were only three other staff members on duty anyway last night. Monday is always a quiet day of the week for us.”
“That would be great. Do they live local?”
He stood and opened the top drawer of a metal filing cabinet. “I believe so. I’ll just check.” He returned, holding a sheet of paper with names and addresses typed on it.
Sally motioned for Jack to note down the addresses. The man pointed out the three relevant names, and her partner added them to his notebook.
“We’d better pay these folks a visit. If there’s nothing further you can add?”
“Not that I can think of. Will you be having a word with that dickhead of a boyfriend, Terry?”
“Yes, of course. One thing before we go.”
“What’s that, Inspector?”
Sally glanced around the office. “Do you have any form of security cameras on the premises?”
He sighed heavily. “The cameras outside are there as a deterrent only, I’m afraid. There’s nothing in the bar area at all. Never felt the need for it before. This is a quiet area, and trouble is virtually non-existent.”
“That’s a shame. Maybe you should consider it for the future.” Sally rose from her chair.
“Oh, I will. Don’t worry about that, Inspector, although it won’t help to bring back poor Maddie, will it?”
“Unfortunately not. Thanks for your time, Mr. Locke. Sorry to have spoilt your day.”
“Will I have to make contact with Maddie’s family about the funeral arrangements? Glynis idolised her daughter. This news is going to hit her very hard. She’s under the specialist for a bad heart, you know.”
Sally shook the man’s hand when they stepped back into the bar area. “I’m sure someone will be in touch with you from the family soon enough.”
“Crap! That was awkward,” Jack said once they were outside in the car park.
“It sure was. I didn’t have the heart to tell him about Glynis. The poor man felt guilty enough as it was. Let’s see what the staff have to say about last night. My gut feeling is that we’re going to draw another blank.”
“Yep, I’m inclined to agree with you.”
They set off for the council estate where the first member of staff lived. Jason Trent was still in bed when they rang the doorbell.
“Yeah, what is it? Can’t a man get any peace and quiet around here?”
Sally flashed her ID in his young face. He swept his long fringe out of his eyes and peered at her warrant card. “Coppers? What have I done wrong?”
“Nothing, we hope. Can we discuss this inside perhaps?”
“You’ll have to excuse the mess. A few of us had a bit of a party here last night after work.”
They followed the man into the messy living room, which looked as though a hundred five-year-olds had created havoc in it. A person was asleep on the sofa; Sally could just make out the top of a head but couldn’t tell if the occupant of the sleeping bag was male or female.
With nowhere to sit, Sally stood near the open galley kitchen but soon regretted her decision when the fumes of stale beer and garlicky remains of an Indian takeaway attacked her nostrils. “We’re here about a colleague of yours, Maddie Webster.”
The young man shrugged, and the person buried under the fraying sleeping bag stirred. “What about her?” Trent asked. “And no, she wasn’t here last night, although I did invite her.”
“Why didn’t she come?” Sally asked.
He shrugged again. “Not her scene. She didn’t really give us an excuse, and I didn’t push her on it.”
“I see. Okay, at the bar last night, did you notice Maddie speaking to anyone in particular?”
“Nope. Maddie’s a bit of a gas-bag. If someone’s got ears, then that’s Maddie’s kind of person.”
“Can you tell me if you know of anyone who could have been pestering her over the last few months?”
A frown wrinkled the young man’s brow. “What is this? Has something happened to her?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I should’ve said when we arrived. We’re investigating Maddie’s murder.”
“Murder?” Trent shouted, his bloodshot eyes widening.
The man on the couch bolted upright at the sound of his friend’s raised voice. “What? Who?”
Trent collapsed onto the arm of the sofa next to his friend. “Maddie,” he whispered, clearly shocked by the news.
His friend looked up at him then at Sally and Jack. “Maddie! This is some kind of April Fools. It’s got to be.”
“No. That’s not the way we do things, sir. Sorry, I didn’t get your name?” Sally asked, unamused by the young man’s comment.
“Wayne Frobisher. I work at the same pub as Maddie. We both did.”
“Ah, you’re on our list of contacts. So you were both working at the pub alongside Maddie last night, is that right?”
The two dazed men nodded.
“Did you see Maddie talking to anyone in particular at the bar?”
“She’s a bloody barmaid! That’s kind of in the job description. Chat up the punters, flirt a little, and hopefully, get them to spend more,” Trent replied sharply.
“Really? I thought their main aim was to serve the customers—it was when I first started out. I used to work part-time behind the bar at my local when I was eighteen. Are you telling me that things have altered now?”
Trent shrugged. “The full-timers are encouraged to go the extra mile, if you like, while the rest of us serve and move on to the next one.”
That news totally surprised and appalled Sally. Is that the way every pub works? Uses its bar staff as some kind of prostitute? “Maddie was a full-timer then?”
“Yep. She was really nice, too. Why would anyone kill her?”
“We’re trying to ascertain that, but unless you guys can enlighten us about what went on last night, our job is going to be impossible. Please think—was there a stranger sitting at the bar, engaging in conversation with her?”
The two men looked at each other. “I didn’t notice. Did you?” Trent asked Wayne.
“Nope. We were too busy making arrangements for the party afterwards. She turned us down at the start of our shift, and we didn’t try to bug her into changing her mind.” Wayne ran a hand through his dishevelled hair.
“Great! We know there aren’t any cameras at the pub, which is a shame. Okay, let’s try another avenue. Have either of you noticed a stranger perhaps arriving at the bar and talking to Maddie on any other occasion, say in the last week or so?”
Both men shook their heads. Then Trent said, “We didn’t have any reason to be on the lookout for anyone. Why should we? Murders just don’t happen around here, do they?”
“Actually, a fair few do. They just never hit the headlines,” Sally said. “What about Maddie’s ex? Did he used to frequent the pub?”
Trent shrugged. “Maybe once or twice, when they first started going out, not so much lately. He took to dipping his end into some other pussy while she was working at the pub.”
Sally cringed at the man’s vulgar interpretation. “Thanks for putting that so eloquently. He’s on our list of people to question.”
Trent’s cheeks turned pink. “Sorry, just telling it how it is, lady.”
“Inspector!” Jack reminded Trent.
Sally smiled at her partner, thanking him for his gallant behaviour. He never let her down there. Thinking there was no point questioning the two men any longer, Sally decided to end the meeting swiftly. “Well, if nothing is coming to mind, then we’ll leave you guys in peace and get on. Here’s my card. If you think of anything, no matter how insignificant you think it might be, ring me, okay?”
“Will do. Hope you find the bastard who did it,” Trent said, show
ing Sally and Jack to the front door. “Can I ask how she was murdered?”
“No, you can’t. We don’t divulge details until after we’ve held a press conference. Does it matter?”
Trent shrugged. “Not really. I just hate the thought of her suffering.”
“I see. Well, that’s one thing we’ve yet to have confirmed by the pathologist. I can tell you this, though, her death wasn’t pretty, and we believe the crime might have been sexually motivated.”
“Shit! Poor Maddie. She didn’t deserve that.”
“No person does, Mr. Trent. Have a good think about the customers you saw at the pub last night and get back to me if anything crops up, okay?” Sally prompted the man for the last time before she left the house with her partner.
CHAPTER FIVE
The rest of the week turned out to be murder-free, nevertheless uber-frustrating for Sally and her enthusiastic team as they waited impatiently for the DNA results to come through from the pathology lab. They had managed to track down and question Maddie’s ex-fiancé, who seemed so genuinely traumatised by Maddie’s death that Sally had no alternative but to cross him off the suspect list. Returning to both pubs to question staff and numerous customers had been a fruitless exercise, too.
“Why don’t people take an interest in what goes on around them anymore?” Sally complained, shuffling papers in her office just before six o’clock struck.
“Too self-absorbed maybe. I don’t know. What have you got planned for the weekend? Still unpacking?” Jack asked.
“Nope, that’s all done now. Believe it or not, I’m going on the Broads with my parents. Over the last few months, Dad’s fixed up the cruiser, and this will be the first time it has been fit for use this year. Should be a relaxing weekend, I hope.”
Jack shook his head and shuddered. “Dry land for me all the way. Can’t be dealing with all that rocking on the ocean lark.”
