Payback

by Charlotte Mills

  “It’s Sandy.” she said and rubbed at her face, genuinely saddened by Sandy’s demise. She’d known him for years, pretty much since her arrival in the town. He’d become one of her faithful eyes and ears; he saw things others didn’t.

  “Is it…? Are you sure?” a uniformed officer asked.

  Helen glared at him. “He had those trousers on the other day. I remember asking him about them. He nicked them out of the charity clothing bin by the supermarket, said he needed an extra layer.”

  “Who’s Sandy?” Kate’s voice piped up.

  “He’s a homeless guy, a vagrant from the area,” Helen replied. She nodded back towards the screen. “Play the rest.”

  Almost immediately a loud voice boomed through the speakers as Fire Officer Brown entered the room, and the image blurred as Kate turned around with the camera to face him. Once again, Helen noticed Kate cringe at the muffled argument that ensued. Sniggers erupted behind her as the film came to an abrupt end.

  Helen stood up straight, hands back on her hips. Turning, she glared at the two uniformed officers. “Right, you two, you find out everything you can about Sandy’s last known whereabouts, friends, et cetera.” She waited until they’d walked away before continuing. “Virginia, can I have a word?” she asked, nodding towards her office.

  In her office, Helen retook her seat behind her desk and watched as Kate hesitated a moment before taking the seat opposite.

  “Now then, Virginia—”

  “Virginia?” Kate enquired.

  Helen looked up from Kate’s open file, eyebrows raised at Kate’s tone. “Everyone has a nickname here. You’re a university graduate, I’m sure you can work it out. Mine is Guv. I’m sure there are a lot of alternative names out there, but I only respond to Guv.”

  “Yes, Guv.”

  Helen responded to the grin on Kate’s face with one of her own. She was relieved to see that she had a sense of humour underneath all that defiance.

  “I can’t have you going rogue on me. I need to be able to rely on you.” It was time for the first layer of the shit sandwich she had to serve. “I’ve read your file.” She looked up, seeing Kate shuffle uncomfortably in her seat. “You obviously have a lot of promise according to your last DI. Had a hand in breaking several cases down there.”

  Helen raised her voice to a level that the occupants of the outer office could hear.

  “We work as a team here in Warner. I need you to be part of that team, Virginia, not upsetting everyone you come into contact with. I don’t want to have to send you back home with another blot on your record. Am I making myself clear, Detective?”

  Kate nodded.

  Helen studied her new officer for a moment. She looked uncomfortable. She felt a tinge of satisfaction as she sucked in a breath, preparing for the final layer.

  “As you’re probably aware, you’re replacing my current DS. So, after looking at your file, I think you have the experience to step up and temporarily become my new acting DS.” She saw the shock on Kate’s face and tried to backpedal a little. “It’s not official, obviously, but think of it as an opportunity to show the boys back down south. Okay?”

  “Thank you, Guv. I’ll try not to let you down,”

  The dimpled grin facing Helen made her momentarily reflect on the irony of what she’d just done—rewarded bad behaviour. She’d make a terrible dog owner. Shuffling through some files on her desk, she wondered if she’d just made an awful mistake, but shook it off.

  “Now, back to the business in hand.”

  After selecting the file she was looking for, she handed it over to Kate.

  “We’ve had a series of arson attacks in the area over the last seven months or so.”

  Kate flicked through the sparse file, scanning the reports and glancing at the glossy photos.

  “As you can see, they have been pretty minor, starting with bins, until now.”

  Kate met her eyes over the top of the file. “You think this latest fire is an escalation of that?”

  Helen raised her eyebrows. “Maybe. It’s a pretty big jump, though.”

  Kate nodded. “Most arsonists are generally male, thrill seekers enjoying the chaos that they have created, or small groups of vandals having fun. This doesn’t look like profit or terrorism, more like a serial offender; but this last one, it might not be connected. He was a tramp, right? Maybe he was just trying to keep warm, and it got out of hand.”

  Helen had been impressed by her new detective’s knowledge until that last comment.

  “Sandy wasn’t daft. He wouldn’t have started a fire with petrol. From your video, it looked like there were plenty of other things to burn to keep warm.”

  Kate nodded again, closing the file. She carefully placed it back on Helen’s desk.

  “When you were in there, did you see any sign of a trolley, like a small supermarket trolley, probably full of bags and stuff?”

  “Uh…no, I don’t think so. Why?”

  Helen pursed her lips in response. “He never went anywhere without it.” Rubbing her chin in thought, she knew there was something more going on here. “Maybe there’s another scene out there we haven’t found yet.”

  “You think it’s a body dump?” Kate asked.

  “Maybe. Okay, send me that video, and then get it to Forensics. And print some images of the room and the body.” Helen made some notes as she spoke. Even with her vast experience of violent crime and death, she found it hard to use Sandy’s name when talking about the blackened remains she had seen on the shaky video. He wasn’t exactly a friend; more of an acquaintance—someone she would chat to a couple of times a week. He’d chosen an alternative lifestyle, but he’d been a good man. And nobody deserved that.

  Focusing her attention back on Kate, she took in the large brown eyes surrounded by a slightly grubby face. “Do you want to go home and clean up before we head out?”

  “No. Thanks, I’ll be fine.”

  Helen shrugged. She obviously needed to be a bit more direct with her new charge.

  “Okay. You might want to, er…” she looked away, not wanting to see the embarrassment on Kate’s face, “splash a bit of water on your face before we go.”

  She saw the colour rise in Kate’s cheeks without even looking directly at her. A reputation for insubordination, reckless at crime scenes, and so easy to embarrass: the next six months could be very interesting.

  Chapter 3

  “Where are we going?”

  “First to the house, then we need to look for some of Sandy’s friends.” Helen led the way to the car park.

  “Friends?” she asked, almost shocked at the thought that a tramp would have a string of friends and family to call on, and who would need to be informed of his untimely death.

  “Yes, Virginia, even people like Sandy had friends. We need to piece together the sequence of events that led to his death,” Helen said, quoting endless police manuals.

  She flinched. Great. Now her boss thought she was a heartless bitch on top of being terrible at her job. “Sorry, Guv.” The points she’d scored earlier with her arsonist research wilted before her eyes.

  The early morning had taken its toll on her patience. This is not how she wanted her first day to go. She wanted to blend into the background, ride out the next six months until she could return to her real life.

  Helen stopped abruptly as they entered the car park, and she almost barrelled into her back. “You can drive, to make up for that last remark.”

  Her gaydar was pinging uncontrollably as Helen stared at her. She had come to realise that it was far from the most reliable of her senses, after being pretty sure of the leanings of work colleagues in the past, only for them to talk of boyfriends later. But right now, if her gaydar were a Geiger counter, she’d need ear defenders. She’d always found older women attractive.

  Not that Hel
en Taylor really fell into that category; she didn’t look much older than her own thirty-four years. Her dark hair was loose around her shoulders. Dressed in a white shirt tucked into dark-grey suit trousers—ordinary, but she wore them well. The white shirt brought out the marble effect of her skin, and if the black smudges under her eyes were any indication of her tiredness, then she’d definitely been burning the candle at both ends. Her long coat smothered her small frame, gently swaying with her movement. Maybe that explained why she’d been called out instead of her new DI.

  Considering her rank, she’d expected the DCI to be much older. Maybe her intrinsic skill had helped her climb through the ranks. Hot and good at her job. Great. Just great.

  Getting turned on within ten minutes of meeting a woman, well that was something that hadn’t happened in quite some time.

  Settling in Kate’s car, Helen felt a twinge of amusement as Kate immediately turned on her satnav.

  “You won’t need that. I’ll direct you,” Helen said as she pulled a wad of paperwork from one of her numerous inside pockets. She knew she should have offered to drive, with Kate being new to the area, but something told her that Kate needed taking down a peg or two. Helen needed an acting DS that knew her place, not a cocky Londoner who dove headfirst into a scene.

  “Right, Guv,” Kate hesitantly agreed. “Which way are we going?”

  Helen pretended to be engrossed in her paperwork, forcing Kate to get her attention by stepping sharply on the brakes as they stopped at the exit. She kept her voice even. “Take a left out of here, keep going till you reach some traffic lights.”

  “Okay.”

  She knew the route to Morley Lane was complicated and decided to have a little fun with it. The traffic lights were around a sharp bend and easily missed if you were not paying attention. She shuffled through her paperwork until a jolt made her look up. The lights were red. She was just about to make a joke about heavy shoes when she noticed they were in the wrong lane.

  “We need to go right here,” she offered before going back to her paperwork, covering her face with her hand. She could feel the grin on her face.

  “Shit!” Kate barked as she flicked on her indicator to get into the other lane, pissing off several drivers behind her simultaneously.

  The road took them to the outskirts of town, and before she knew it, they were in the countryside, flanked by dry-stone walls with muddy fields beyond, on both sides. The rougher road made it more difficult for her to focus on the reports she was trying to read. She’d never been a particularly good traveller, endlessly travel-sick as a child. Now karma was paying her back for tormenting Kate.

  She focused on a stand of trees on the horizon. Kate slowed the car down as they came up behind a tractor and trailer taking up three-quarters of the road. Helen smiled at Kate’s obvious frustration as she tailgated it instead of sensibly backing off like a normal person. The car was so close to the trailer, it forced Kate to swerve across to the other side of the road to see if the road beyond was free to overtake.

  “Fuck!” Kate blurted out as an oncoming four-by-four quickly came into view. She turned the wheel quickly and slammed on the brakes.

  Helen grabbed for the roof handle as the car swerved back behind the tractor.

  “Jesus Christ, Virginia! Did you learn to drive with the Banana Splits?” She held in a laugh as Kate ducked when the driver of the four-by-four passed them and blasted the horn.

  “Stupid bloody tractor taking over the whole fucking road!” Kate shouted.

  “Get used to it, Virginia. You’re in the country now.” She looked across at Kate: her jaw was as tight as a drum; in fact, it twitched a couple of times. Maybe she’d pushed her too far—Kate’s white knuckles were gripping the steering wheel. To her relief, they relaxed a little as the tractor turned off into a field.

  At first glance, the only indication that they had reached their destination was the presence of a fire engine still parked outside the house. Shoving her paperwork back in a pocket, Helen took off her seatbelt.

  “Maybe I should wait here?” Kate offered.

  “Why? Not planning on making another exhibition of yourself with Fireman Brown, are you?” Any more infractions of the rules would have serious repercussions for the new detective, especially considering the past indiscretions in her file, but despite her best efforts, Helen could feel the slight grin threatening to overtake the frown she’d put there to worry Kate.

  The officer on the scene grabbed his clipboard from the garden wall as they approached.

  “Morning, Guv,” he said before nodding in Kate’s direction.

  Taking the offered clipboard, Helen passed it expectantly to Kate while making small talk about the officer’s family.

  Approaching the house, they were met by a fire officer. Blessedly, it wasn’t Graham Brown, she didn’t want to have another fracas in front of Kate. Spotting the two crime-scene tech vans parked along the road, she was grateful there was progress being made in the house.

  Her softly-softly conversation with the fire officer informed her that they’d shored up the building, allowing the body to be removed early that morning. Crime-scene technicians were currently processing the scene. She even managed to get him to clarify that the accelerant was most likely petrol, based on the smell that had been present when they arrived on the scene.

  She caught Kate’s smile as they walked around the back of the house.

  “What?” Helen retorted, realising that the smile was directed at her. “Good manners don’t cost anything.”

  Looking beyond the enclosed garden, Kate frowned as she asked the obvious: “Why would they have such a high fence?”

  “The last known official occupant had a large dog that was prone to escaping and causing havoc in the local area,” Helen supplied as she walked along the path, looking up at the back façade of the house.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because, Virginia, it’s my job to know these things. And the dog toys were a bit of a giveaway,” Helen said as they continued walking to the front of the house. “Did you notice any spray paint when you went inside earlier?”

  “Spray paint?” Kate repeated.

  “Yeah. You know, that stuff kids spray on walls and call art, like cats marking their territory and what not?”

  “Right. Er, no, I don’t think so. Why?”

  “There were a couple of cans of spray paint thrown in the back garden. Could be kids taking advantage of an abandoned house—or maybe something else.”

  “Spray cans.” Kate half turned. “I didn’t see them.”

  “Let’s talk to the neighbours.” She walked along the road towards the next house. With no CCTV in the area, they were relying on eyewitnesses, but without a timeframe it was going to be difficult.

  “Maybe I should wait outside,” Kate said, stopping by the path leading up to the Goode’s house.

  Helen turned to look at Kate square on.

  “Not made an impression on them too, have you?”

  “Uh no, it’s…umm.” Kate seemed to fumble for the right words. “It’s the smell. I think I singed the inside of my nostrils last time I was in there.”

  Helen looked away to suppress a laugh. “I’ve got something that might help with that.” She fished around in one of her inside pockets, producing a small tub of Vicks VapoRub. “Put some of this under your nose and you’ll be fine.”

  “That’s a bit Silence of the Lambs, isn’t it?” Kate noted.

  “My old boss in Manchester used it every time we went to the hospital. Hated the smell of the place.”

  Kate dipped a finger in the pot, then dolloped a hefty lump under her nose.

  Approaching the front door, Kate jabbed at the doorbell twice, before stepping back.

  Anger issues? Then Kate was behind her, probably trying to avoid the full force of the smell wh
en the door opened, she realised.

  Helen looked up as the warm, stale air wafted over her. Gloria’s black leggings were stretched to their limit as they encased her ample legs in contrast to her baggy pink-teddy bear-covered T-shirt. “Hello, Gloria, can we come in for a chat?”

  “Inspector Taylor, you come on in. Hello again,” she directed at Kate as she walked past her into the hallway.

  “Chief Inspector Taylor,” Kate corrected in a harsh tone.

  Helen mentally rolled her eyes. Was Kate really that petty or just a moron? Why do the women I find even mildly attractive always have to be so fucking annoying the moment they start to speak?

  “What?” Gloria asked, confusion etched in her round face.

  “It’s Chief Inspector Taylor,” Kate repeated irritably.

  For the first time in recent memory, Helen wanted to disappear into thin air.

  “It’s fine, Gloria,” she said and turned to glare at Kate, who looked totally unfazed. Did she really want to upset a potential witness before she’d had the chance to question her?

  “Right,” Gloria said, obviously still confused as to what was going on.

  “Arthur not around?” Helen asked as she eyed the empty sitting room. She knew he never strayed far.

  “He’s just out with Buddy. Be back any minute I ’spect. Terrible business,” Gloria said, nodding her head in the direction of next door as she entered the sitting room behind them both.

  Helen nodded. “It certainly is. I just wanted to ask if you’ve seen anything odd recently.”

  Gloria wrung her hands together. “Tea?” she offered, ignoring Helen’s question. “You’ll be wanting one with your cold, Officer,” she directed to Kate.

  “Oh no. I’m fine, really.”

  She caught Helen’s eye and raised an eyebrow from across the room.

  The front door slammed, making everyone look in the direction of the hallway.

  “That’ll be Arthur now. I’ll put the kettle on. He’ll want a tea.”

  Arthur appeared in the doorway, his large frame almost filling the space. “Thought you’d turn up at some point.”