Castle Killing

by Alec Peche

  DI Jones gave Jill the squint eye and asked, “What do you mean by a mutual sharing relationship?” he asked the question with a frown on his face and a hand rubbing his temple. Jill wondered if this is how he looked whenever an investigation wasn’t going the way he envisioned.

  “This is what I think we should do,” Jill replied. “I’ve got nearly two decades of experience as a medical examiner. I’d like to join your medical examiner during the autopsy. I think you should take Angela to the castle and let her photograph the crime scene and talk to anybody that might have witnessed Nick’s fall. Jo and Marie can best serve the Welsh police and Nick by doing computer searches. If you’ll share any information you already have and any news that comes your way as we will with you; I think we’ll find Nick’s murderer faster.”

  DI Davies still hadn’t gotten his brain around a potential role that these women might play in his investigation. The Welsh police department had never used civilians to assist them formally in solving crimes. On occasion they used informants, but they had never so much as hired a private detective from Cardiff to help them with a case. Furthermore, he had this feeling that the women would at best, solve the murder before them, and at worst get harmed by the murderer. He and Jones needed to step out of the room and discuss how they were going to incorporate these new and unique resources into their case.

  “Ladies, would you mind if DI Jones and I step out of the room?” Davies said. “As you can imagine we’ve never been offered the use of private investigative services before and I think we need to discuss privately how we can use you and yet still stay within the policies of the Welsh Police Department.”

  The two Inspectors left the room, and the women just shrugged and moved on to discussing Nick’s death. Jill heard her phone sound with an incoming email. She looked at it and said, “Nathan’s awake and he also does not recall Nick mentioning any family. He also asked if we need him to arrive a few days early.”

  Nathan had been planning on joining them in Edinburgh. While Jo, Marie, and Angela flew back to the United States, Nathan and Jill were staying two additional days to visit two wineries in Scotland as well as some distilleries.

  “We don’t need him here at the moment and it’s not like Nick’s funeral is going to happen before he originally planned to land in Scotland,” Marie noted. “So I would tell him to meet us as planned in a few days.”

  Angela and Jo nodded their agreement to Marie’s suggestion. Jill took a moment to reply to Nathan, then settled into the case. She asked Marie to look up the murder and autopsy rates in Wales. The murder rate was low but autopsies were performed on about twenty percent of all deaths, so Nick should be in good hands here. Besides it wasn’t like his cause of death was hard to identify, falling some distance off a castle wall would result in brain damage, possibly a broken neck, and potentially the break of over two hundred other bones in the body. Maybe his body would contain scars, markings, or tattoos that might identify who he was or where he’d come from.

  DI’s Jones and Davies returned to the room resuming their seats. Jones said, “Our Assistant Chief Constable is going to join us in a few minutes. We’d like to set some ground rules with you.”

  The women nodded in agreement. While they were waiting, Jill decided to ask a few questions of the detective inspectors.

  “How many murder investigations have you closed? I wouldn’t think that you have a high homicide rate here in Wales.”

  DI Jones replied, “I’ve been on the force for close to twenty years and a detective for the past ten. You are correct that we don’t have many murders in Wales, I’ve probably closed around thirty murder cases over that decade.”

  Jill looked over at DI Davies who replied, “I’ve been his partner the entire time.”

  Thirty cases was a solid track record for murder investigations, Jill thought. Nick should be in good hands.

  “Have you had many unsolved cases?” Angela asked, anxious to hear validation of their great detecting abilities.

  “Over the decade perhaps one or two at most. As with your country, many of our homicides are linked to drugs and gangs and they leave evidence of their criminal behavior.”

  The door to their conference room opened and a woman in uniform walked in. They didn’t know what the stars on her uniform meant, just that she had a lot of them, so that likely indicated that she was the Assistant Chief Constable that they had been waiting to arrive.

  The woman held out her hand as she said, “Hello I’m Assistant Chief Constable Lily Morgan. Would you introduce yourselves and tell me about your investigative skills.”

  Jill took the lead introducing herself and her teammates while describing each of their particular skills. With the introductions complete, Jill hoped this would be the start of the Welsh police cooperation going forward.

  ACC Morgan said, “I understand you've been friends of the victim for about two years and yet we’re not sure if we have his real identity or if he has any family. That is most unusual, and I can’t think of a prior case in Cardiff that began like this one. We on rare occasion have a dead body that we can’t identify, but that is usually due to the degradation of the body; however, that’s not the case here.

  “I also understand that you’re asking to be active participants in our investigation and that DI Jones has verified your helpfulness with both the Belgian police and your own FBI. We have never used resources such as yours in any other case of the Welsh police.”

  Great, Jill thought, they were not going to be allowed on the inside to solve Nick’s murder. It would take them so much longer to solve the case without the help of the Welsh police.

  After a pause, Morgan continued, “I’m all about trying new techniques to solve terrible cases and so we’ll include you in our investigation. I believe you called it mutual sharing. I would like to get a verbal confirmation from the four of you that you’ll share information immediately with the Welsh police and you won’t share any information with anyone other than us.”

  The four women nodded and verbalized their agreement with the ACC’s requirements. She nodded back to them and left the room. DI Jones directed the conversation.

  “Dr. Quint and Ms. Weber, if you would like to accompany me, we’ll head to the crime scene as our techs are wrapping up their evidence collection. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and after we visit the crime scene, we’ll make arrangements to get you to the Coroner’s office in the morning. Ms. Simon and Ms. Pringle we can set you up with computers here or perhaps you would like to work at your hotel.”

  Jo and Marie looked at each other, read the answer in each other’s eyes, and then Marie said, “Could we check out two laptops from you to work at our hotel?”

  “I think I can arrange that, give me a moment,” replied DI Davies and he left the conference room.

  Jill was concerned for Angela as she and Nick had a deepening relationship for the past two years and she'd hoped that this might be the year that Angela and Nick could work out a long distance relationship. They all liked and respected Nick, but Angela was the one that ‘liked’ Nick the most. At least when they visited the crime scene, his body should’ve been removed and Angela wouldn’t have the opportunity to view Nick dead. The friends split up and went in two different directions to help with the investigation.

  Angela and Jill followed DI Jones outside to his car, a Ford Focus in royal blue and fluorescent yellow with the word “Heddlu” in bold letters with “Police” underneath. Welsh was one of six Gaelic languages and Welsh schoolchildren were required to learn the language in school. Thus every sign they’d seen was bilingual. There was no cage between the front and back seats, so Angela asked, “How do you protect yourself from criminals in the back seats of your cars?”

  “They don’t ride in these cars; we call for a transport van if we need to move a criminal and it has a cage inside of it.”

  “Are those transport vans busy all day? Do you transport many people? What do you do with dru
nks?”

  “We don’t have as many crimes here as in your States. Many of our drunks go to A & E at the hospital rather than jail.”

  “Is that working?”

  “Is what working?” Jones asked.

  “Are your alcohol-related incidents higher or lower than the rest of the UK or Europe?”

  “We don’t have the answer to alcohol or drug abuse if that’s your question. Nothing seems to work from my perspective. We even tried cameras in bars recording people that behave like idiots while intoxicated and that offered no deterrent to drinking.”

  They arrived at the service entrance to the castle and were waved through by security. The castle appeared deserted with few people walking around. Jill checked her watch and noted that it was close to closing time for the castle, but then again the police had probably ordered the castle closed to aid in the collection of evidence at the crime scene.

  “Where exactly did Nick fall from at the Castle?” Jill asked.

  “The summer smoking room at the clock tower,” replied Jones.

  “Were there witnesses?” Jill asked. “I would think during regular visiting hours, that there would be a lot of witnesses.”

  “There were witnesses to his falling but no witnesses in the summer smoking room from where he was pushed out the window.”

  Both Angela and Jill closed their eyes thinking about what it was like to watch such a fall. They’d visited Cardiff Castle perhaps an hour before Nick’s murdered. Jill was certain that she would have nightmares if she witnessed such a fall. Sure she’d come close to violence both as a pathologist and from being close to murderers in some of their recent cases. As she got older, she was starting to fear heights and the thought of falling from the distance of the tower just made her shudder on so many levels. The sheer panic while you were in the air before hitting the ground. The desire to grab onto anything before you landed, and the massive pain in the seconds before you’re unconscious. It was one of those questions experts would be unable to answer; if you fell and broke all of your bones how long were you conscious after impact?

  Jill put the thoughts out of her mind. There was no reason to dwell on the question as it was unlikely that any scientific study would ever be undertaken to provide an answer to the question.

  DI Jones parked next to other police cars and exited the vehicle. Jill and Angela had stood in the summer smoking room and close to the base of the tower where Nick landed during their castle tour. Now they approached the ground where Nick landed and they could see mostly dried blood where his body came to rest. They stood looking up trying to grasp how Nick had fallen.

  “It appears he struck that roof on his descent to the ground,” Jill said while pointing toward another blood stain on the roof.

  “That is what our crime scene staff determined as well,” replied Jones.

  Angela was looking pale after looking at the blood stains, and so a concerned Jill asked, “Do you have your witnesses sequestered somewhere? Perhaps we could take Angela there to begin interviewing the witnesses.”

  Jones looked at Angela, noted her pallor and understood why Jill wanted to move from the crime scene. He was surprised, as these women had been involved in several high profile murder investigations. Then he mentally shrugged and concluded that the other murder cases had not focused on a friend. He walked the two women over towards a castle office and found his constables and witnesses in a series of empty rooms behind the public areas.

  After talking to one of the officers he came back to where the ladies were standing and said to Angela, “Our constables have interviewed about half of the witnesses. We’re going to gather them together and introduce you as an expert consultant, and then you can start at the beginning interviewing them.”

  Angela nodded and then said to Jill, “I don’t have any paper, do you?”

  Jill shook her head and said, “I don’t have any either.”

  Angela looked over Jill’s shoulder to the gift shop behind her where it appeared that a salesperson was counting money getting ready to close for the day. Jill turned and then looked back at Angela with a nod to follow her, and they walked into the gift shop. Sure enough they found some castle stationary that they could use to take notes. Minutes later, purchases in hand, they were ready to begin the interviews.

  Jill watched as Angela entered the first room, resolute to help them find Nick's killer with terrible grief just under the surface. Angela took a shuddering breath to begin her interviews, and she turned and followed DI Jones back to the crime scene.

  Chapter 3

  Jill studied the exterior of the tower and took pictures. Then she was ready to go inside and examine where Nick had been pushed out the window to his death.

  “How many entrances, both public and private are there to this building?” Jill asked.

  “At least six entrances on three different levels of the building. We haven’t completely mapped the castle out yet,” DI Jones replied.

  “Do you have any video that shows Nick buying a ticket and entering the castle grounds?”

  “My crime scene techs have collected all security tapes from the castle.”

  “How about other camera coverage? Do the businesses across the street have store cameras that face the castle grounds? Have you asked witnesses and employees for any pictures or videos they took of the scene?”

  “My techs are taking care of that as well.”

  “Can we watch any of the footage? I would like to understand how Nick entered the castle grounds - through a public or private entrance. Was he covert in his actions to meet his murderer or was this some whacked visitor that pushed him during a fit of insanity.”

  “Fit of insanity? Is that an American cop term?”

  “No, it’s my term to describe when some perfectly reasonable individual turns and kills someone. There is no way to describe it other than insanity.”

  “I have to agree there. I’m still dumbfounded when I interview rational individuals that commit crimes. I wouldn’t call it insanity; to me, it’s like their brains exit their head. Let’s go over to my crime scene techs to see if they have the answer to your question on how your friend entered the castle.”

  DI Jones spoke to an officer asking where the security camera room was and soon they were traveling a series of corridors until they arrived at a security office. Inside was a monitoring person from the castle and an officer from the Welsh police, and they were sorting through video footage.

  Jones performed introductions and then asked, “Do you have footage of the victim’s entrance to the castle? Did he buy a ticket and enter through the public entrance?”

  The two men responded they hadn't looked for that footage; they were merely making sure that no footage was lost or recorded over.

  “Can you pull up the footage of the public entrance in the thirty minutes before Nick’s death?” Jill asked.

  They did, and they looked for Nick on the video. After getting a description of what Nick was wearing the four of them watched as the film was fast forwarded. They didn't see him in the footage. She then asked for the same footage of any other castle entrances, and there were four – one was the employee entrance, and the other three were maintenance doors cut into the castle walls. A quick review of the employee entrance yielded no view of Nick.

  “Finding where Nick entered this castle is going to take some time,” Jill observed. “Let’s make sure we have the last twenty-four hours of castle visitors on tape.”

  The crime scene tech nodded his agreement and DI Jones and Jill left the security room to head to the tower. As they walked up to the summer smoking room, Jill was checking for cameras along the way.

  They reached the room, and Jill’s eyes went immediately to a broken window through which the wind was blowing. She paused a microsecond and said a quick and silent prayer for Nick. She had a sense of the pain of the broken glass and the seconds of panic as he fell to his death. What an awful way to go, she thought as a shiver ran through her wh
ile her eyes teared up. Taking a deep breath and reminding herself that she could grieve later, but first she owed Nick her best focus on finding his killer.

  Jones must have sensed that Jill needed a moment to regroup as he stood near the broken window in silence staring out at the grounds of the castle. After a moment Jill joined him at the window and looked out and down.

  “I’d hate to be the tourist that watched Nick fall. I’d have nightmares over that,” Jill said. Then looking around the room, she pointed to a camera and asked, “Is that the only one in this room?”

  Jones studied the room and then agreed with Jill’s assessment, “Yeah.”

  Jill added, “Nick is, was tall; I think about six feet two inches or almost two meters, so I think his murderer was at least as tall and strong. Nick trained in martial arts. Perhaps someone snuck up on him - caught him by surprise. I simply can’t imagine Nick just standing there and letting himself be pushed out a window to his death. Maybe we’ll get some information off the camera, but since it’s aimed away from this part of the room, I don’t know if we’ll see what happened.”

  DI Jones, looking around the broken window mused, “Based on our witness statements, Mr. Brouwer didn’t jump; he came through the window with arms cartwheeling like when someone has pushed you from behind. I agree that given his skills as you’ve described, that he should have been able to move out of the way of the average criminal.”

  “This looks like antique glass. I wonder if it's stronger or weaker than today’s glass? With the decorative lead, I would have thought stronger.”

  “Many of the windows were redone in the 18th century before the creation of plate glass, so while the individual panes are stronger than plate glass; unless it was safety glass, a body of a fourteen stone man would break it.”

  “You know a lot about glass DI Jones,” Jill said.

  “My father retired from being a window installer, so I know more than your average cop on that topic.”