Goodbye My Precious Child

by M A Comley

  “I was about to leave when I was instructed to come and see you. It’s up to you if you want to come or not, but I’m leaving now.”

  “Give me two minutes to instruct my team. I’ll meet you in the car park.”

  “Mine’s the silver Beemer,” he replied smugly.

  “See you soon.” She dismissed the man then turned her attention to her team. “I don’t have to tell you what to do, guys, on this new case. See if anything shows up regarding the inhabitants at the address et cetera.”

  “One suggestion, boss, if I may?” Joanna asked.

  “Shoot.”

  “The address. It’s roughly in the same area. If I were to put pins in a map, I’m sure all those people we’ve recently spoken to would live within a ten-mile radius of the crime.”

  “Definitely worth considering. Well spotted, Joanna. Are you all right, Jack?” She noted he was sitting in his seat, arms folded, straining the fabric on his suit, wearing a thunderous expression.

  “Not really, but the decision has already been made.”

  “Meaning?”

  “You’re gonna have a new partner for the foreseeable future. So where does that leave me?”

  Sally rolled her eyes and stroked a hand across her face. “It means nothing of the sort. You really think I’m up for spending time with that sourpuss? Although it’ll make a pleasant change from spending time with my normal sourpuss.” She grinned at him, trying her best to cut through the atmosphere he’d created.

  He glared at her. “Sorry, am I supposed to laugh at this point?”

  Sally shook her head. “Partner, you can do what you like. I’m off. You’re in charge while I’m gone. Stop sulking, you have work to do.”

  “For your information, I am not sulking. I’m concerned.”

  “And I appreciate you showing your concern in such a forceful way, Jack.” She smiled tautly at him.

  He retorted with his usual childish answer, something he’d picked up from his kids, no doubt. “Whatever.”

  Not wishing to argue the toss further with him, she collected her bag from the office and left. Jessop was waiting in his car for her at the entrance. She hopped in. “Nice car.”

  “Thanks. I don’t have a significant other or kids so I can afford to be extravagant and treat myself now and again. I’ve only had her a few months. Purrs along nicely as you’ll discover soon enough.”

  “It’s nice when we can treat ourselves; I don’t blame you in the slightest.”

  The conversation dried up after that. It was obvious that Brian Jessop was one of those men who preferred to talk about himself all day long. Was it any wonder he was single? He probably bored any potential girlfriends within thirty minutes of meeting them.

  Sally never thought she’d be telling herself she was better off having Jack as a partner, but compared to Brian, Jack was a thousand times better.

  The journey eventually ended at the crime scene. She was surprised to see the young family lived in a bungalow. The parents were in the lounge, the husband comforting his sobbing wife. Sally decided to hang back with any questions she had, leaving Brian to interview the parents. She regretted her decision once he started his line of enquiries using the same abrupt tone he’d used on her before she’d rung his superior.

  “What time did the incident occur?” he demanded.

  “We’d gone to bed around eleven, sometime between then and two. Our son was crying; he shared the same room as our daughter. I went to check on him and that’s when I found the pillow over her…” Mrs Kilpatrick said, tears falling as she spoke.

  “It’s all right, love, take your time,” her husband consoled her. “What my wife was trying to say is she found our daughter with the pillow over her…face and the bedroom window wide open.”

  “We’re sorry to have to do this right now, Mr and Mrs Kilpatrick, I’m sure you understand the reasons behind that. Please, if you’re finding this too difficult, we can stop at any time,” Sally interjected swiftly, not giving Brian another chance to fire more questions at the couple without any thought for their feelings.

  Brian shot her a glance, his eyes narrowed with anger.

  She smiled at him. “Sorry, DS Jessop, carry on.”

  “Thank you.” He faced the couple again and, his expression appearing to soften a little, he asked, “Did you hear anything? Was the window open when you went to bed?”

  “Yes, we always leave the window open a little. We won’t in the future. That won’t help Holly, though,” the father said. “No, my wife and I were both asleep.”

  “How old is your son?” Sally interrupted again.

  “He’s four, our daughter was seven. Oh God, can she really be gone? At such a young age? I can’t believe it.” He buried his head in his shaking hands.

  His wife leaned her head into him, and he hugged her.

  Sally’s heart broke in two watching the distraught couple deal with their grief, knowing there was no easy fix for something as traumatic as losing a child at such a young age. Anna and Louie Pickrel were testament to that. Brian went to ask something else. Sally touched his arm, and when he looked at her, she shook her head, telling him to give the parents a moment’s respite.

  He turned away and walked over to the window where he peered out at the other houses. Sally figured he was sizing up if any of the neighbours had a perfect view of the bungalow. In her book, it wouldn’t really matter unless the children’s bedroom was at the front.

  “Where are the bedrooms, front or rear of the house?” she asked gently.

  “At the rear,” the father replied.

  Brian left the window and stood beside Sally once more. “I have to ask the most obvious question: have you noticed anyone lurking on the estate recently?” Brian asked.

  The couple glanced at each other and shook their heads.

  “What about visitors? Has anyone visited the house, a tradesman for instance, in the past month or so?” Sally jumped in again.

  “No, no one at all. Why, do you think the person who did this picked on us? Chose to kill our child?”

  Sally shook her head. “It’s far too soon to establish that, Mr Kilpatrick. We hope to have some clear and insightful answers for you soon. Is there anything else you think we should know?”

  He shook his head. “No, nothing.”

  “What about relatives? Have you fallen out with any relatives or friends lately?” Sally asked.

  “No, not at all. None of our friends or family could ever be responsible for something as horrific as this,” Mr Kilpatrick snapped, clearly upset by the notion.

  “Sorry, I had to ask,” she replied.

  “How long have you lived here?” Brian asked.

  “Three years. We moved not long after our son was born.”

  “Did your son see anything? You said he woke you up and you heard him crying,” Brian said.

  “He said a man was in the room,” Mrs Kilpatrick sniffled.

  “Could he describe this man?” Brian pressed.

  “I don’t know. I think he’d be too traumatised,” the husband answered.

  “Where is your son now?”

  “In our bedroom; he’s asleep. We called the police and the ambulance at two. He’s been awake since then, only dropped off an hour or so ago. You can’t be considering asking him any questions,” Mrs Kilpatrick announced, horrified.

  “No. We wouldn’t do that, not unless you were present anyway,” Sally replied quickly.

  Brian turned to look at her. She shrugged. It was true. What could a child of four tell them anyway?

  “We’ll leave you for now and go and question the neighbours. Again, we’re truly sorry for your loss and want to assure you that we’ll do our very best to bring the person responsible to justice.” Sally left the room with Brian close on her heels.

  Outside the bungalow, he pulled on her arm. “We agreed I’d be in charge of this investigation. I wasn’t done in there.”

  Sally peered behind him, ensuring the f
ront door was closed. “When you’ve quite finished having a hissing fit… You were too abrupt. I had to intervene. These people are grieving. Where’s your compassion, man?”

  He hung his head in shame. “I know. I’m doing my best to catch a suspect. I can’t do that without their assistance, can I?”

  “Granted, we’re both trying to achieve the same result—not like that, though. You were firing the questions at them as if you were interrogating them. May I remind you that they’re the innocent parties in all this? They’ve just lost their child, for fuck’s sake.”

  “I’m sorry. I was in the wrong. Do you want me to go back in there and apologise?”

  “No, leave it for now. We have work to do. We need to question all the neighbours. Anything they likely saw will go a long way to help us solving this case. You have to set aside the parents at this point in an investigation of this ilk. They’re too close to the victim; their answers are likely to be blurry at best.”

  “I appreciate that now. Again, I apologise, I’ve never dealt with a child murder before.”

  “That’s okay, we all have to learn somewhere. Just rein in your enthusiasm, put yourself in their shoes. If you had a visit from the police regarding the death of one of your relatives, think about what state of mind you’d be in.”

  “I get that. I can’t keep apologising to you.”

  “I’m not asking you to. Anyway, it’s not me you should be apologising to, it’s them. Let’s draw a line under this for now and press on. If you’re unsure how to handle things in the field, you need to ask for guidance from those accompanying you at the scene.” Sally began walking towards the first neighbour’s house. She paused outside the gate to the bungalow next door.

  “Thanks for the advice. Half the time I’m out here alone, so your advice doesn’t really count.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “Nope. It’s the cuts. That’s what they’re always enforcing upon us anyway. I noticed how many members of staff you had on your team today and I have to say I was flabbergasted.”

  “We’re lucky; however, we work hard. You know the history behind the cold case team being set up, right?” He shook his head. “One DI screwed up on several cases. Because of the dubious nature of his findings, we’ve been tasked to check all the cases he ever dealt with and the convictions pertaining to those investigations. What we’re discovering would blow your mind. We’ve already released several people from prison who were incarcerated wrongly. I know this case is different, no one has been convicted in the past, but we’re aiming to remedy that. Now your case could be connected—how, we’ve yet to find out. My team is all about righting the wrongs of an inspector who didn’t care enough about his job. Don’t be guilty of being like him, Brian. You’re a bright young man. Take the time to think things through properly before jumping in and getting your feet wet. Okay?”

  “Thanks for the pep talk. I’ll try and do better in the future.”

  She patted his arm. “That’s a start. Shall we split up, or do you want to watch me do the first one and split up after that?”

  “If you don’t mind, that’d be great.”

  She smiled. “It’s my pleasure. Come on then, time’s a wasting, and we have a killer to catch.” Sally opened the gate to a neatly presented bungalow. She was guessing by the way the pristine garden was exhibited that she was about to find elderly neighbours in residence.

  The ring on the bell was answered promptly by a man in his sixties who greeted them warily. “Hello, what can I do for you? I’m taking it that you’re the police?”

  “You’d be correct, sir.” Sally showed her ID and introduced herself and Brian. “Would it be okay if we came in for a brief chat?”

  The man peered up at the grey sky. “I should, it’s going to piss down soon. Shut the door behind you, laddie.”

  Sally grinned at Brian, and they both entered the house. The man turned left into a large living room that stretched to the back of the house. The garden at the rear was equally as well-maintained as the front.

  “Don’t stand on ceremony, take a seat now.”

  Sally sat on one end of the Dralon couch while Brian sat on the other, his notebook finally emerging from his pocket. “I didn’t catch your name, sir?”

  “I’m not surprised, I haven’t told you what it is yet. I’m Donald Cotton. I’ve lived here twenty-odd years and have never had the police on my doorstep, not until today. All this is quite unnerving, I have to say.”

  “We appreciate that, sir. It’s tragic circumstances that bring us here.”

  “It is. I’m aware of what has happened to the child. Absolutely deplorable that someone should enter the house and intentionally do that to a youngster. Whatever possesses someone to do such a thing?”

  “We can’t answer that, not yet, not until we find the person who committed the crime, sir. Did you either hear or see anything last night?”

  “I heard the screams of the poor mother, Jessica. That sound will remain with me forever. No parent should be subjected to such an ordeal. To know that your child was killed while you were in the next room, asleep in your own bed. Jesus, they must both be devastated. I haven’t seen them yet, thought I’d give them a bit of space.”

  “They’ll appreciate you for being so considerate. They’re distraught by what’s happened. So, am I right in thinking that you didn’t see a stranger lurking on the close last night?”

  “No. I’m not one of these people who stand at their window spying on their neighbours at all hours, I’m sorry to say. Wish I was now; perhaps I could have stopped the bastard. Do you know what time the person entered the house?”

  “We believe it was sometime around two this morning.”

  “Bugger! I doubt many folks around here will be able to help you. We have a good community spirit amongst us, we all look out for each other. I assure you, if anyone had been hanging around here then someone would have done the right thing and rung the police. We don’t take no shit, if you get what I mean?”

  “I do. You’re the first person we’ve interviewed. Hopefully someone else will be able to help us then.”

  “That is if there was an intruder in the first place,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

  “Are you suggesting one of the parents might have committed the crime, sir? Killed their own child?” Sally was taken aback by the suggestion. She’d been so focused about matching the two cases that she’d blocked out any other possible scenarios.

  “Who knows? There’s so much anger around these days, isn’t there? I hear the mother shouting at the children all day long. I bought this bungalow expecting the residents to be elderly like myself. They’re the only youngsters on the close and, well…sometimes they drive the rest of us to distraction.”

  “Oh my, terribly sorry to hear that.”

  “Don’t be. There’s one less to worry about now. Maybe that’ll put an end to all the screeching we have to listen to every day.”

  Sally winced at his words. Surely, he hadn’t meant for his statement to sound so heartless. “Do the other residents feel the same way as you do?”

  “Some do, some are too deaf to hear all the damn noise, lucky buggers. There are days when I curse my good hearing. There’s something about a kid’s scream that puts your teeth on edge, wouldn’t you agree?”

  She sighed heavily. She wasn’t sure how to take this man. Was he just airing his grievances with her while the opportunity was open to him? Or could what he’d told them be taken as the truth and viable information for the investigation? Sally had a feeling the former option was at play here. “Can’t say I’ve really noticed that myself. Is there anything else you think we should know regarding the family? For instance, have you ever witnessed the parents hitting either of the children?”

  His eyes narrowed as he thought. “Nope, nothing like that. I’m sure most parents get tempted these days, don’t they? What with their kids being far more unruly than in my day. I blame all these damn computer games. A
lot of them are noisy and kill people from what I can gather.”

  The old man had a point. She knew there was always some form of research going on, probing into whether the use of these types of games had a detrimental effect on people’s character. Maybe they were to blame for the way children, and adults who played them for that matter, reacted to things in normal life. But would someone intentionally go out and kill a child because of a game?

  Sally rose from her seat, and Brian followed.

  The man seemed surprised. “You’re not going, are you?”

  “We have to question the other neighbours, sir. Thank you for seeing us today.”

  “That’s the trouble these days, everyone is in such a hurry. I’m sorry you feel this conversation has been a waste of time.”

  “Now you’re simply putting words in my mouth. As I’ve said, there’s just the two of us and we have to speak to the other neighbours quickly if we’re going to catch the culprit. Thank you for sparing us some of your valuable time, sir.”

  He humphed as he got out of his chair and showed them to the front door. “Old Bob over there, he tends to be up until the early hours of the morning. He suffers from that insomnia.” He pointed at one of the bungalows opposite.

  “That’s very informative. Thank you for your help.”

  “Just catch the bastard. We need to feel safe in our own homes.”

  “We’re going to do our best,” Sally called over her shoulder.

  Brian closed the gate behind him; they were still under the watchful gaze of Donald Cotton. Her temporary partner leaned in close. “I thought you handled him well. I think I would’ve lost my rag with him not long after the conversation started.”

  “Thanks. You’ll learn to be patient when trying to seek out the information you need. Let’s split up. I’m going to see Bob next. Why don’t you work your way along this side, and I’ll continue on the other. Just ask the basic questions. Ask them predominantly if they saw anything last night, if so, what? At the end of the conversation, enquire what the family are like. Mr Cotton might have stumbled upon something there without realising it.”