by A L Fraine
“Something come up?”
“We know where Spencer’s car is.”
A grin spread across Kate’s face. “Aaaand, let me guess, you want to head over there… now?”
Jon nodded, smiling.
“Good,” she replied, pointing at him. “Because I would have suggested it if you didn’t.”
“Great minds and all that,” Jon replied.
“Shut up and move, dingus,” Kate said, already starting to jog towards the courtyard and their waiting car. “Let’s go.”
Jon ran after her, crossing the grass and courtyard before jumping into their car. Within moments, they were back on the roads and making their way towards Guildford, with Kate on the phone to Nathan, getting directions.
“He’s on the northwest side of Guildford, and he doesn’t seem to be moving,” Kate said as they moved with the traffic.
“On the other side of town? Shit,” Jon remarked as he stared into the back of a string of cars ahead and then sounded the horn. ”Move it, arseholes!”
“Blues and twos?” Kate asked.
“Fudge it, do it,” Jon replied. “Bring the noise.”
Kate hit the button, bringing their lights and siren to life. Yanking the wheel, Jon accelerated and manoeuvred around the cars ahead. It took them a few minutes to clear the bulk of the traffic and cross town, and as they drew nearer to the area where Spencer had been spotted, Jon turned the siren off to mask their approach.
“Ask Nathan if we have any backup nearby?” Jon asked.
Kate did as he asked. “He says a car just arrived. They’re keeping their distance but have the car in sight.”
“Good, tell them to stay put until we get there.”
Two more minutes passed before Jon turned the car into a side road and spotted the BMW parked up. There were commercial properties on either side, with other vehicles parked up. Spencer’s car blended in with the others and didn’t look out of place at all.
“Where are the Uniforms?” Jon asked.
“Up there,” Kate said, pointing up the road. They came from the other direction. They’ve not seen anyone near the car.”
“Shit. Okay, I think we should take a look.”
“Let’s do it,” Kate agreed and informed Nathan and the Uniforms of their intentions.
Climbing out, Jon paused to look around, checking the area and looking for anything suspicious. But everything looked normal, and there was no sign of Spencer. They’d need to get closer.
Setting off, Jon spotted the Uniforms up ahead, approaching from the other direction along the road. Jon stayed in the road while Kate moved up the pavement on the other side of the parked cars.
Jon reached the BMW without incident, but it was empty and undamaged. There was nothing suspicious about it unless you knew who it belonged to.
“There’s no one here,” Kate reported over her phone. “How long has the car been stationary? Eight minutes?”
“Then he’s not far,” Jon said and looked around again, turning in a complete circle. “Shit, where is he?”
“We didn’t see anything or anyone while we were waiting here,” one of the Uniforms said.
“Any idea?” Jon asked Kate.
“Fan out? We could have a look around and see what we can find?”
Jon nodded. “Okay, You two head that way, Kate, that way, I’ll—”
A gunshot echoed through the estate.
Jon ducked. It was close.
“Crap, where did that come from?”
Another one rang out.
“Shots fired,” Kate barked down the phone. “We have shots fired. We need backup. Send an ambulance too.”
“I think it came from over there,” one of the officers said, pointing up the side of the closest building. Jon agreed. The second shot was easier to follow than the first, probably because it wasn’t as much of a surprise.
“Come on, we need to check this out,” Jon said.
“Are you sure?” one of the officers asked. “Shouldn’t we wait for backup?”
“Someone could be dying over there. We’re going, now,” Jon barked and set off with Kate and the two officers running with him.
Leading the way, Jon ran up the side of a nearby building, along a side road that looked like it might lead to a rear loading dock or parking area. The building itself seemed quiet, and there was no one around from what Jon could make out. Keeping close to the wall, Jon occasionally glanced behind them to make sure they weren’t being set up but saw nothing unusual.
As they neared the rear of the building, Jon could see a wide-open space at the back. He slowed and reached for his baton, taking it in hand.
At the end of the structure, Jon stopped and peeked around the edge, looking out into a roughly square-shaped area of concrete. A couple of parked cars stood empty, along with a skip and some dumped refuse. Out towards the centre, Jon spotted what could only be a body, slumped to the ground, and beyond it, a man walking away, his back to them and his hands in his pockets.
“Shit,” Jon cursed. “Do you think that’s Spencer?”
“I don’t know,” Kate replied. “Look, he’s still moving.”
Kate was right. The man on the ground rocked back and forth, as if in pain.
“What do we do?” Kate asked.
Jon hissed. “We need to get to him.”
“Agreed,” Kate replied.
“Okay then, let’s go. Fan out, don’t clump together and watch that man,” Jon said and set off. Jogging across the old concrete sections with grass growing up through the cracks, they moved towards the downed figure. As they got closer, Jon noticed something on the ground near the man and realised it was a gun.
He pointed it out without speaking, and Kate nodded.
As he got closer to the figure on the ground, Jon recognised Spencer. Blood pooled beneath him as he writhed in agony.
“Help, me,” Spencer gasped, grunting and wincing in pain.
“Help is on the way,” Kate reassured him as he grabbed her.
“Help, please,” he hissed.
Jon looked up at the man walking away. “Did he do this?” Jon asked.
“He…” Spencer moaned, reaching out before curling up again with the pain.
The man turned and glanced back. Surprise filled his face as he hesitated, then turned and ran.
“You two, stay with him,” Jon said to the Uniforms, before glancing at Kate. “Let’s get him.”
Jon charged across the yard.
“No you don’t,” he hissed and piled on the speed, running as fast as he could. Kate was right beside him, her legs pumping hard.
The man charged around the side of the next unit, sprinting along an alleyway, over gravel, grass, and around more dumped rubbish. They were gaining on him, and Jon pushed himself harder. With just a handful of metres between them and his adrenaline pumping, he was so close. But he could feel his speed fading. He needed to stop him. They needed this man.
In frustration, Jon threw his baton. It caught the man’s legs, and he stumbled. Jon was on him a second later. They tumbled to the mud and grass. The man rolled and scrambled to find his feet, but Kate was right there and swung her baton, hitting him in the arm.
Jon jumped on him and tackled him back to the floor, slamming the man’s face into the dirt.
“Aaagh, get off me,” the man shouted in a Russian accent.
Crouching down beside him, Kate helped wrestle the man’s arms into the cuffs she held, snapping them shut with a satisfying snap.
“Stop struggling,” Jon said. “It’s over.”
“Piss off, pig-dog.”
“Sir, I’m arresting you on suspicion of murder…” Jon said, and reeled off the standard police caution before pulling him up to his feet. He roared and fought against him, only for Kate, who stood before him, to extend her baton again with a flick of her arm.
“Try it,” she warned him.
The man stopped and stared at Kate. He grunted and relaxed.
&nbs
p; “Alright, this way, Rambo,” Jon remarked and guided the man back around to the wasteland where they’d found Spencer. He could already hear the familiar sirens of an approaching ambulance. They weren’t far from Guildford hospital.
“I’ll go with Spencer,” Kate said.
“Sure,” Jon replied. “Meanwhile, I’ll keep this idiot company.”
20
Kate watched as the paramedics lifted Spencer onto the gurney and raised it. Nearby, Jon stood talking with several officers. The man they suspected of shooting Spencer sat in a nearby car, guarded by armed police.
“Let me know how he does,” Jon said.
Kate nodded. “I will.”
“Good. I hope he gets through this. But in case he doesn’t, if you get any chance to talk to him, you take it, okay?”
Kate nodded. They’d tried talking to him before the ambulance had arrived but hadn’t got anything useful out of him. He was a mess.
Kate followed the paramedics over to the ambulance.
“Are you coming?” one of them asked.
“Yeah,” she said and climbed in, taking the seat that was offered to her as the medics continued to work on Spencer. The sirens flared into life as the vehicle bumped over the uneven ground, back to the road, before picking up speed and making for the Royal Surrey Hospital, just a few minutes away.
The trip was fraught with activity as the paramedics did their best to keep him stable and alive.
Partway there, Spencer started jerking around on the gurney.
“He’s fitting,” one of the paramedics called out.
Kate felt like she should be able to help, like she should be doing something. But she was out of her depth here and was forced to just watch as the ambulance crew did their work. They were efficient and calm, working quickly to make Spencer comfortable until finally, the ambulance reached the Accident and Emergency department, and he was wheeled off and into the building.
Kate followed closely, as he was wheeled along a corridor and into a side room where a veritable army of medical professionals waited for him. The consultant in charge talked with the paramedics, who ran through the situation, listing the injuries and the state of Spencer’s vitals while others cut off his clothes.
“Alright,” the consultant said, “let’s roll him and make sure there aren’t any bullets in him they haven’t told us about.”
“On my count, one, two, three, roll,” a nurse called, and the team rolled Spencer onto his side and checked his back, before righting him once more.
By now, the paramedics were already gone, no doubt getting ready to head out on whatever call-out came next while the team here continued their work.
“Let's get some house red into him,” the consultant said before he glanced back and spotted Kate, standing at the rear of the room. She’d kept quiet and out of their way so far, but she’d seen this kind of thing before and knew what was coming.
“Sorry, would you mind?” he asked and waved to the door.
Kate nodded. “Can you bag his clothes for Forensics?”
The man hesitated in his answer but then nodded.
“Thanks,” she said and stepped out into the corridor, looking back through the window as the team continued to work. He’d lost a lot of blood. It trailed over the floor and out into the corridor. Kate stepped back, realising she was standing in it.
“Crap,” she hissed as a nearby cleaner set to mopping up the mess. He looked up and nodded to a nearby door. She followed his gaze and spotted the women’s bathroom.
For a moment, she glanced back into the room but reasoned he wasn’t going anywhere and moved into the bathroom. She set to wiping the sole of her shoe with some tissue paper and cleaning the blood off her hands. She’d seen worse than this. She’d attended RTCs as a PC, and seen people literally ripped apart by the wrecked vehicles, and comforted survivors with horrific injuries. As she cleaned the blood off her hands, she found herself wondering if Jon had done these kinds of things. Had he followed a suspect or victim into hospital and watched as they fought for their lives?
He probably had. It was part of the job, but that didn’t make it any less fraught or stressful.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she sighed and hoped Spencer pulled through. Losing one member of the family to a violent attack was one thing, but two in three days? Despite all the family’s flaws, no one deserved that.
She didn’t think there was anything they could have done better or sooner, not without potentially risking lives, but there would be some questions asked. There always were.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped back out into the corridor, taking care to avoid the blood, and peered back into the room where Spencer was still being worked on. The activity in the room had increased, and as she watched, she saw his heart monitor suddenly flatline.
The incessant beeping turned into a drone. A single high-pitched tone that cried out for someone to do something. Within moments, paddles were brought out, and they shocked him. The monitor beeped twice, and then flatlined again.
Damn it, it didn’t look good. He might not make it, and that would turn this investigation on its head.
The next few moments were a whirlwind of activity as the team worked to revive him. Seconds passed. Then a minute.
But in the end, they gave up and pronounced his time of death.
Inside the room, the medical practitioners stopped, some of them backed away from the bed, defeat and frustration clear to see on their faces, as their patient’s death got the better of them.
Kate moved away from the doors and pulled out her phone. She was annoyed about what had just happened and felt sorry for the family that they were investigating. They needed to know what had happened.
She called Jon.
“Kate, how is he?” Jon said.
“He didn’t make it,” she replied. “He died, just a few moments ago.”
“Damn it,” Jon remarked.
“Was there anything we could have done?” Kate asked.
“I don’t think so. Look, I’ll arrange to let the family know. I’ll get Faith in on that, but I don’t think we can really go back there today and keep asking questions. Besides, we need to interview the shooter.”
“Has he said anything?”
“No, nothing. We’re waiting on his solicitor.”
“So, we’ll get to speak to him next week then, yeah?” Kate quipped.
“Something like that. Just get yourself back to the station, okay? I want you here. I’ll send an officer over to get what we need from Spencer.”
“Sure thing,” she replied. “See you soon.”
After talking with the consultant and putting certain procedures into place, Kate suddenly wondered if Harold was well enough to chat. She wandered through to his ward, using her warrant card to reach it, only to be denied at the last moment by his nurse, who said he’d not had a good day and needed to rest.
Kate asked her to call when he improved and then left the building, making for a taxi rank.
21
“No news?” Jon asked down the phone.
“No. Nothing. He’s still talking to his solicitor,” Rachel replied. “They’re taking their time.”
“Of course they are. Okay, keep me updated,” he replied and hung up the phone on his desk. Things were getting a little out of hand, and he couldn’t help but think that losing Spencer as a suspect was a major blow to their case. Even with his alibi of him being on the patio with Portia at the time of Lizzy’s death, Jon couldn’t help thinking that Spencer was involved in this somehow.
His criminal connections to the Russians were just too suspect. As were his actions during the party and the morning after, and his constant lies.
That fact that they had what Jon believed was Spencer’s killer in custody, did bring him a glimmer of hope.
Had this guy killed Lizzy too?
Maybe he was a hitman for the Russian Mob. If so, and if the mob were aware of Lizzy’s snooping, it would make a lot o
f sense that they would send someone like this guy to kill her.
He wasn’t convinced, though, not yet. It was almost too simple, too neat that this was Lizzy’s killer. But if he wasn’t, then who was?
Could it be one of the Lockwoods? Any one of the secrets they’d uncovered so far could be reason enough for someone to kill her.
Jon sat in his office, running through the various scenarios that he could think of, trying to figure out who Lizzy’s killer might be from the information they already had, but nothing felt conclusive yet.
Without warning, Kate wandered into his office.
“Hey,” she said without looking up. She looked exhausted, with her hands swinging limply by her side, and her head hung low.
“Hi,” Jon replied as she turned and dropped into the sofa and let her head lull back against the seat as she slouched into the embrace of the soft cushions. “Watching someone die is never easy.”
“I felt helpless,” she replied.
“Yeah, and you always will. You’re the fifth wheel in those situations, and you just have to let those guys do what they do best.”
“They tried to save him. They did everything they could…”
“But it wasn’t enough.”
“No, not this time. Jeez, it was horrific. There was so much blood. I need to get changed. It’s still on my clothes.”
“Don’t let me stop you.”
“Heh. I’ll do it in a bit. Have you informed the family?”
“Yeah,” Jon replied. “Faith is there. She’s handling it.”
“Oh, excellent. She’ll do a good job.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“So, now what? Where do we go from here?” Kate asked.
“We keep going. We keep pulling on those threads and hope something shakes loose,” Jon replied. “Plus, we talk to the suspect downstairs and hope he admits to Spencer’s murder.”
Kate laughed. “Yeah, fat chance of that. You know how these interviews go. ‘No comment, no comment, no comment.’”
“I’m an eternal optimist, Miss O’Connell. I live in hope.”
“Yeah, right, piss off, Mr Grumpy-pants.”
