by M A Comley
“What role did he have here?”
“He was my warehouse manager. He was pivotal in ensuring this place ran like a well-oiled machine. I’m going to miss him. He had a wicked sense of humour as well.” A soft reflective smile developed.
“Maybe you can give us an insight into what his role consisted of and the hours he used to work?”
“He was in charge of stock levels in the warehouse, organising the stock once it had been delivered, that sort of thing. He locked up on a rota basis, together with the evening supervisor and myself on the odd occasion. It was his turn to secure the place last night, as it happens.”
Charlie whipped out her notebook and started scribbling. “What time do you close?” she asked.
“We’re open to the public until eight p.m. He would have left between eight-ten and eight-fifteen, I suppose. There were no notes left to suggest he stayed longer than necessary. Sometimes, he’ll be delayed because a problem has arisen during his shift; he was professional enough to stay behind to sort anything out before heading home.”
“I take it you have CCTV on site.”
“We do. We also have an alarm system. I can verify the time he left by either means. Do you want me to do that?”
“If you could. Pinpointing the actual time would be a great start to our investigation.”
“Give me a few minutes.” He bounced out of his chair and left the room.
“It’ll be interesting to see what shows up,” Katy mumbled.
“Very,” Charlie agreed. “It’s not like we’ve got that much to go on so far, is it?”
“Sadly not. I detest cases like this, those that make us use our heads more than necessary, it’s so damn draining.”
They both laughed.
Evans returned to the room and requested they join him. He led the way down the corridor and into a small office which held several monitors. “I’ve checked back on the cameras. I’ll hit the play button and you can see for yourself what happens next.”
Katy frowned. “Are you saying you’ve found something of interest?”
“I’ll let you be the judge of that.” He ran the disc, it showed a few members of staff leaving at around five-past-eight and then Bobby Simmonds appeared, dressed all in Lycra. He locked the back door and set the alarm, then jumped on his bike. The cameras followed him to the front of the building. “Here’s what I found.”
Katy shuffled closer to the grainy screen. A car left its parking space and followed Simmonds. “Wait, can you tinker with the image? Home in on either the driver or the registration number?”
He tried his best, but the image, instead of becoming clearer, got progressively worse. “Sorry, no can do. You think he was being followed or could that have been just a coincidence?”
“I’m not sure. Do you recognise the car? Perhaps it belongs to a member of your staff?”
“No, sorry, I can’t help you. All the staff are told to park in a designated area at the rear of the car park. This person, in my opinion, seemed to be waiting for him. Or is that my suspicious mind working overtime?”
“No, I believe you could be right. Would you mind creating a copy for us? We’ll get it analysed and see if we can improve the image.”
“Of course, I’ll do it now. It shouldn’t take me long, if I can remember how to do it. I think I’ll need to refer to the manual.” He searched in a nearby drawer, extracted a small booklet and flicked through it from back to front and the other way again. “Damn, I can’t find it.”
“Less haste more speed,” Katy replied with a stiff smile. “Why don’t I have a look for you?” He handed the manual to her, and she noted how much his hand was shaking. “Try and calm down.”
“This is possibly the last time I’ve seen a colleague of mine and you’re standing there telling me to calm down!” he snapped. His head dipped in shame. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. My emotions are twisted and all over the place.”
“Don’t worry, I’m the forgiving type in extenuating circumstances.” Katy searched the reference index at the front of the booklet. “Here we go.” She issued the instructions for Evans to follow, and between them, they managed to obtain a copy of the incident footage.
Evans ejected the disc and placed it in a plastic case, then handed it to her. “Glad to be of assistance. I hope this incident is an innocent mistake, can’t stand the thought of knowing that the driver was intentionally following him. Umm… is it all right if I ask how he died?”
“All we can tell you at this stage is that he died in what we perceive to be an accident, involving his bike.” Katy deliberately chose to keep the truth from him, conscious of his emotional state.
“How sad, after all he’s been through this year as well.”
“Sorry? Would you care to elucidate?”
“Going through the divorce from Anne, I meant. Another month or so and he would have been a free man and now he’s gone.”
“Are you telling me his marriage was a tumultuous one? I mean, we’re aware they were getting divorced, but…”
“Oh yes, he used to come to work with the odd bruise now and again. When I talked to him about the issue, he always told me he’d bumped into things. I could tell he was lying. One day, I took him to one side and forced it out of him. He sat in my office and broke down in tears, admitted that Anne had been abusing him for years. I don’t mind telling you that I was dumbfounded by his confession. I’m probably in the minority when I say this, I just didn’t think women abused their husbands. Nagged them to death, yes, but physical abuse?”
Hmm… that would explain Anne’s awkwardness during our conversation. “You’d be surprised. Was he getting any help?”
“From his doctor?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t ask. The conversation was an awkward one. I broached the subject, but that’s as far as it went. I dried up then, we both did.”
“So you didn’t discuss it any further?” Katy queried.
“No. I couldn’t, I was out of my depth. I don’t do relationships, you see. I’m a single professional who intends to climb the promotion ladder at the earliest opportunity. I can’t do that if I’m tied down to a significant other, someone who could possibly get in the way of my success.”
“I see.” Katy waved the disc. “Well, thanks for this. We’ll get it examined by our experts.”
“I’ll show you out. I hope the disc helps with your investigation.”
“I’m sure it will. Thank you.”
Charlie waited until they’d left the building before asking, “Will you take it to Forensics for them to try and enhance the image?”
“Yep, we’ll shoot over there now. Maybe we’ll strike lucky and find a tech available to do it on the spot.”
They reached the car. Charlie paused and raised an eyebrow. “Is that wishful thinking on your part?”
Katy sniggered. “Maybe. We’ll give it a try, let’s face it, we’ve got nothing to lose. If we luck out, then we’ll hand it over to one of the boys when we get back, see what they can come up with.”
The lab was a fifteen-minute drive away from their location. Katy put her foot down when the traffic was at a lull, but most of the time, she found herself at a standstill, tempted to use the siren to get through the mind-numbing weekend roadblock. “Damn, and I thought it was bad enough during the rush hours around London, this is a nightmare to contend with.”
“Yeah, I avoid coming into the city on the weekends, correction, I take the tube where I can, if I have to come in.”
“Now you tell me. Thanks for that super useful nugget of information, partner.” She was on the verge of doing a three-point turn when Charlie gestured for her to take a side street up ahead.
“I’m sure that’s a short cut, might be worth a shot.”
“We might as well. This is doing my head in. Why in God’s name do people insist on bringing their damn cars in? I thought the congestion charge would have put paid to that line of thinking.”
&n
bsp; Charlie grunted. “Maybe people have got more money than sense around this area.”
Katy inched forward until she could finally access the street. She looked in her rear-view mirror and snorted. “Follow my leader going on behind us.”
“A mass exodus. I hope I’m right if not, there are going to be a few drivers pulling their hair out.”
“That’s the risk they take for following a woman driver, eh?”
“You have a nasty streak running through you, DI Foster.”
Katy turned, grinned and winked at her partner. “Don’t you forget it.” Facing the road again, she asked, “Which way now?”
“Left then a sharp right.”
Katy did as instructed and smiled when she saw the lab emerge in front of them. “Not just a pretty face, are you, Sergeant?”
“I’ve had my moments over the years.”
Katy sniggered.
She found a parking space close to the entrance and they entered the building. The security guard grilled them for several minutes, and eventually, allowed them through.
Several technicians were chatting in the hallway. One of them looked their way. “Hello, ladies, can I help?”
“Possibly. I’m DI Foster and this is my partner, DS Simpkins. I was wondering if we could speak to someone about getting some CCTV footage enhanced. It’s important that it’s done ASAP as we have a possible murderer to try and trace, and well, this is the only clue we have to work with so far.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place. Come with me. See you later, chaps.” He turned and walked down the hallway with Katy and Charlie right behind him.
The corridor was endless, with a door on either side at regular intervals. Eventually, they came to a room near the end of it.
“Here we are. Let’s see if Hudson can help you out.” He poked his head into the room. “Can you spare five minutes to help out two damsels in distress?”
“What’s it worth?” a man with a gruff voice replied.
“You’ll have to ask them that, they’re standing right behind me.”
“Shit! Okay, send them in, I’ll see what they need.”
The man stepped to one side, smiled and motioned for Katy and Charlie to enter. He leaned in and whispered, “He adores helping people really, I promise.”
“We’ll take your word for that,” Katy chuckled. “Hello there, I’m DI Foster, I wondered if you could do me a favour and try to enhance a grainy image we have, please.”
The thirty-something man with blond spiky hair held out his hand. “Let me see what I can do. You want to wait?”
“We were hoping to, yes.”
“Grab a stool. Grainy you said? What am I about to see?”
“Images of a man leaving work; he was later found dead. What we need to establish is who the person in the car that appears to follow him out of the car park is.”
“Should be simple enough.”
Katy and Charlie sat on the two spare stools and the three of them watched the image flicker onto the screen.
“Shit, this is really poor quality. If I manage to get anything clearer for you, it’ll be a bloody miracle. Not the clearest footage I’ve seen over the years.”
Katy grimaced. “Can you do your best for us?”
“Oh, I will. But I was just pre-warning you, doubt it’s going to be good enough for what you need, that’s what I’m saying.”
Katy’s gaze remained on the screen, emphasising her need to get on with things quickly. Hudson took the hint. He jabbed at a few keys and within seconds, the graininess dispersed and the image became a lot clearer. “Wow, that’s amazing and you thought it wouldn’t be possible.”
“Okay, I’ve cleaned up the pixilation, we’ve still yet to see if it produces anything useful.” He ran the disc for a few more seconds until the car came into view.
“That’s what we need.”
He concentrated his efforts on trying to highlight the vehicle and, before long he had homed in on the number plate, only for Katy to curse under her breath. “I should have known it would be too good to be true.”
“Ah, yes, the old lay-thick-mud-on-the-plate routine. It would appear you have a very crafty killer on your hands, ladies.”
Katy could have done without Hudson pointing out the bloody obvious.
“What about the driver? Can you possibly get a clearer image of them?” She crossed her fingers until it became painful as if resorting to some kind of personal torture as punishment.
“I can but try. Let’s see what happens when I do this?” He prodded another couple of keys and all three of them stared intensely at the screen.
The driver came into view, sort of. There were no streetlights on the driver’s side of the vehicle, only on the passenger side, therefore the driver remained in the shadows.
“Damn! Can either of you make them out, tell whether it’s a male or female?”
Charlie shrugged. “I think it’s impossible to tell from this angle.”
“I have to concur.” Hudson’s tone was one of disappointment. “Let me have a fiddle for a few more minutes.”
Katy watched him punch in a code or two, but nothing on the screen really changed. “It’s utterly pointless, isn’t it? We’ve hit a brick wall and it has frigging smacked us in the face, hasn’t it?”
Hudson hitched up a shoulder and his mouth turned down at the sides. “Sorry the news isn’t better.”
“You’ve done your best. Thanks, Hudson. Is it possible for you to print us off a few of the clearer images? You never know, they might prove handy later on.”
“At least you have the make and colour of the car, that’s got to count for something.”
Katy stared at the dark coloured Mini on the screen. “I wouldn’t go that far. Is the vehicle black, dark green, dark blue, brown or what?”
“Ugh… okay, maybe the information is going to be as much use as a bag of crisps in a pig sty, then.”
Katy wrinkled her brow at the analogy. “That’s a new one on me, I won’t even try to interpret what it means.”
“Yeah, I shouldn’t bother, my colleagues always take the piss out of me about using them. All I seem to do is confuse people.”
Katy jumped off her stool and patted him on the shoulder. “Never mind, at least you tried.”
The printer churned into life. Katy was expecting the usual black and white on grade B paper; instead, he printed out coloured pictures on glossy photo paper, not that it made much difference, given the crappy images they were working with.
They got back on the road and headed towards the station. “We’re no further forward, are we? Which is bloody depressing, considering the amount of time we were caught up in damn traffic in our eagerness to get to the lab,” Katy complained.
“Hard to figure out what’s going on at this early stage. Want to know what I think?”
Katy shot her a quick glance and then refocussed on the road ahead once more. “Go on, don’t hold back, never do that, Charlie.”
“It sounds foolish, even to my ears. I wasn’t about to spill my guts in front of a total stranger, the thought of being mocked rankles with me.”
“No one would have mocked you for having an opinion. Come on, spit it out.”
Charlie sucked in a large breath. “Well, I’m just throwing this out there, but I believe the two crimes are connected.”
“You’re going to have to give me more than that, love.”
“Did you see the frame of the driver?”
“I couldn’t really make out much, what are you getting at?”
“To me…” Charlie sighed. “It looked like the driver was either a woman or a slight male. Hear me out, bearing in mind that we’re already on the hunt for a woman who we believe carried out the first murder.”
Katy drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “While I appreciate what you’re saying, partner, I prefer dealing with the facts, otherwise we could be guilty of going around in circles.”
“That’s what I t
hought, which is why I tentatively voiced my opinion. There’s another thing, the type of car seen on the footage.”
“The Mini?”
“Yes, at the prospect of sounding sexist, isn’t that car one of those more likely to be owned by a female? Or am I just reading things into it that simply aren’t there?”
“No, I don’t think so. It might be something worth considering, if there’s nothing else really coming to light. Okay, let’s go with that. When we get back to the station, why don’t you do a search for Mini owners within a twenty-mile radius and see what comes back?”
“You’re on. It’s not like we have anything else vying for our attention at present, is it?”
“Hey, don’t sound so despondent. It’s par for the course to get dips and lows during an investigation, you should be aware of that by now.”
“Yeah, I am. Just trying to do my bit to keep the momentum going. The last thing we need is things to turn stale at this early stage.”
Katy smiled. “You’re a good officer, Charlie.”
The rest of the day was spent discussing both cases and their similarities. It was enough for Katy to cautiously admit they should consider that the same person was responsible for both crimes. She cringed when she admitted that openly with the team.
“Is something wrong?” Charlie picked up on her disposition.
Katy tapped the whiteboard with the thick black marker a few times. “It’s just that if our assumption is correct, then we could be on the lookout for a female killer. That in itself, doesn’t sit well with me. Over the years, I’ve dealt with a few similar investigations, and I have to say, mostly, they turn out to be far more intelligent than their male counterparts. As much as I hate to heap praise on any type of criminals, if you get my drift?”
Graham shuffled in his chair. “I’m casting my mind back to Lorne’s days with us, and yes, I’m inclined to agree with you, boss.”
“Thanks for backing me up, Graham. Just because we think this person might have committed the two crimes, I still believe we should err on the side of caution, in case we’re wrong. How’s the research going, Charlie?”
Her partner rolled her eyes. “I’m kind of regretting my decision to take on the task. I’ve got a list of around a thousand to trawl through.”
