by R. S. Higham
“Is Audrey Hope actually complimenting me? I may have to get this in writing.”
“Hilarious. Ever thought about writing comedy?”
“My life is too dull for that.”
“You think comedian’s live in wacky warehouses and wear bow ties that spin on cue?”
“I mean I’m generally not in the mood for laughing.”
“Now that is depressing.”
They stuck to the beige gravel path that stretched for at least half a mile around the park and over the lake via a bridge. There were others walking along it; dog walkers, joggers and ordinary folk enjoying the brisk early February weather, with all the snowfall recently the grass was still wet and muddy and the only creatures slipping and rolling on it were the dogs, their bellies getting filthy.
James and Audrey stopped and sat at a memorial bench after reading who it was in memory of, a woman names Elsie Barnes ‘who loved this park’ and Audrey pulled out a flask of coffee.
“You kept that secret.” James smiled hoping she would offer him a cup, with Audrey’s manners you just never knew.
“I always come prepared. Wanna cup? There’s milk in it.”
“I don’t mind, anything to warm me up.” She passed him a plastic cup full. “Thanks, so what’s been going on with you?”
“Work, meetings, being busy. You?”
“Same.”
Audrey elbowed him. “Shut up. You’re so aloof, what are you hiding?”
“Nothing! What are you going on about?”
“I’ve read more detective novels than Ready Mcrime I know when a man’s lying.”
“I have a suspicion that isn’t because of the books.”
“See? You’re on the defensive. I’ll get it out of you!”
“We’ll see about that.” He wasn’t going to spit it out that easily.
“Don’t put that in the bin!” Audrey yelled grabbing James’s arm.
“It’s just my sandwich crust…”
“Feed it to the ducks.” She said.
“I’m not ten…”
“If everyone said that they would starve.”
“You do it then.”
Audrey swiped the bread from his hand and stomped over to the edge of the lake, her dagger-like heels sinking into the earth at various intervals making her lose her balance. James knew when she came back she’d be bubbling under the surface. Whilst she was just a red blur in the distance James sat back and looked up to the sky. The trees were dotted black with crows and the powder blue sky suggested another cold day. A thin slick of cloud was painted along the skyline like a snail’s trail. He looked forward, it was a beautiful scene, in the summer this park would be a hot spot. In spring the trees would be pink, cherry blossom fireworks and the wildflowers would have sprouted from the frozen earth. The park had an eastern feel to it, perhaps the cherry blossoms were planted after the war along with the others, whatever the reason it certainly felt like a different world. Looking back at Audrey he saw she had made friends with two fat, white swans who, with every step back she took, took one more towards her.
“What did Tchaikovsky see in them?” He muttered to himself before noticing an elderly couple looking at him strangely. He shrunk into his jacket. Audrey returned smiling.
“That’s a rare sight.”
“What is? Oh, ha-ha. Funny.”
“Have fun then?”
“Those swans are ruthless! You know they can break a man’s arm.”
“You don’t seriously believe that?” James laughed.
“Maybe not but I wouldn’t put it past those two, they were definitely well fed, I take back what I said.”
“Good. Now, are we off? I’m getting cold sat here.”
“Sure –oh look at my shoes! –Where we off? Starbucks?” She took a tissue from her purse and scraped the clots of mud from her red suede heels.
“Fine by me, I think there’s one down the road there.” He stood and helped her up by the hand as she corrected her foot in her shoe and they left the park through the big, black brass gates that led onto the main road.
37
Sergeant Sullivan thumbed through the late edition paper waiting for his black coffee to cool, he wouldn’t usually drink it this late but he wasn’t planning on an early night. His supper had been polished off in record time. Mrs Sullivan was now scrubbing the grease off his plate in the sink.
“Oh! Would you look at that?” He said, throwing the paper down.
“What? What’s happened?” Sarah asked as she turned to face him.
“The bloody ink, I’ll have to wash my hands. You’re gonna have to start ironing it for me.”
“You cheeky –! She threw the dish towel at him.
“Would you like me to arrest you for domestic violence!?”
“You can dry the pots; since it’s your evening off.” She smiled sarcastically. They were always play fighting, it was a release for Sarah who was sick with worry every night when Mike left to do his rounds. He’d been lucky so far, he had never been as much as flicked on the nose by anyone. He wasn’t a big man, he was athletic and not overly tall, but he had a presence or a sort of charisma that Sarah felt probably reached even the hardened criminals.
Mike put his arms around Sarah’s waist and dried the dishes in front of her.
“There’s a case I’ve been working on.” He began. Mike often told Sarah about his cases, especially if they were interesting or if they bothered him. “His name is James. He seems like a nice bloke, a little odd but… anyway his friend has been murdered, a lady friend and at first I thought he’d done it, definitely, but, he was in jail at the time it happened. He was in jail because we thought he’d killed somebody else, before Kate. We didn’t have much evidence or any reason why he would, as far as we knew they had never met each other. So we let him out. Anyway, he swears that there is another man named Stacey who murdered them, he won’t tell us much, I think he’s guilty of something but I sort of believe him, he just doesn’t look the type to kill and if it was him who killed the first bloke then there is no way it was him who killed Kate so he must have had an accomplice. What do you think?”
“What do I think?” She looked at him with wide eyes. “Well, let’s see. Perhaps he did murder the first man and this man’s friend or relative murdered Kate as revenge.”
One word stuck in Mike’s mind– ‘Revenge’ that must be it. That’s why she was killed. Someone was pissed off with James.
“Baby, you’re a genius.” He gave her a smack on the cheek.
“I am?” She laughed, her innocent smile reminding him why he loved her so much.
“Yes. Now, I have work to do.”
“Work?”
“I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you.” He gulped his coffee just managing to stop several drips landing on his white shirt and trotted into his office. He pushed the more recent documents aside and searched for information on Andrew O’Toole. Here it was, only one page but it should be enough. He looked for names of relatives; a mother, a father, two sisters. There had to be more.
“Where was he born?” He pin pointed his place of birth with his thumb. “Georgia. The south? Why does that ring a bell?” James was from way up north, you could tell by his faded accent, it was becoming less likely they knew each other at all.
“It was a planned murder, they went to his apartment, if it was a random attack they would have killed someone on the street, the murderer had to have known him, I’m certain.”
His eyes fell on the house phone. If he was going to catch the culprit he needed James to tell him everything he knew, but James, despite what Mike thought, was still a suspect and he couldn’t risk making the wrong move. Suddenly it rang making him jump but it stopped before Mike could grab it.
“Michael!” Sarah called. Mike knew she only ever addressed him by his full name when someone had phoned for him. “Telephone!” With a groan he stood from his desk, tidied his papers and picked up the other line.
“I’ve got
it, Sarah. – Hello?”
“Sergeant, we need you at the station, a woman has been found murdered.”
“Can’t you boys handle it?”
“Officer Johnston left about an hour ago feeling sick and Officer Hamilton is in Honolulu.”
“Ok, fine. I’m on my way. But you owe me big.” He checked his watch, 9PM
“I’ll leave the last doughnut for you.”
Mike slammed it back on the hook. Sarah didn’t say anything, she just handed him his coat.
37: 2
It was crawling up to 5PM now, the streetlights were lit up in uniform rows and the sun had begun its rounds on the other side of the Earth. James was escorting Audrey to the train station.
“Thanks Aud’, you cheered me up today.” That wasn’t entirely true but her face lit up and James wanted her to feel good, after all she’d come all this way for him.
“I’m sorry I said I didn’t want any more manuscripts off you, I can tell you’re going through a rough time even though you haven’t told me what exactly, but that’s OK, you know I love your writing.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know I can be a nightmare, hopefully one day I’ll be back to my old self.”
“Let’s hope.” She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “I can walk from here; you get back, its cold. And be careful.”
“I’ll be fine, have a safe train journey.” They hugged and James watched her go, she turned and waved, James waved back then turned and started his walk home. He knew a short cut from here, less than ten minutes he’d be on the couch with a pot noodle. He could still here the ‘clip clop’ of her heels when he had a strange feeling deep in his gut. It was unnaturally quiet and leaving a young(ish) woman on her own suddenly didn’t feel right. James spun round. She was gone.
“Could she have gotten to the station already? I thought it would have taken longer”. He gulped hard. He knew it would have taken longer.
“Audrey?” He shouted. There was no answer, although his voice wasn’t carrying very well. He jogged a way up towards the train station looking in every direction. “Audrey!” He called again. “She’s fine, she’s fine, she’s fine.” He assured himself over and over but he wouldn’t leave til he saw her, he started to run further up the road to see if she was at the station but tripped and landed painfully on his knees. He turned to see what had tripped him; a red suede heel.
“Oh my God.” He lifted his hand to his mouth, his lungs felt like they were going to collapse. “No… no… no… Audrey!?”
“mmmmmmm!” A muffled scream came from his left but as he turned all he saw was a woman’s legs disappear around a corner kicking and resisting. He flew down the alley faster than he’d ever moved before, his feet almost sending him flying after every step but somehow he managed to stay upright. He slowed himself down for the turn and leapt around the corner in attack mode but only a half dead woman was there to meet him. Her throat had been slashed from ear to ear and in her last fight for life she clutched at James’s feet.
James stifled a scream with both hands held tight to his mouth, his head pulsed as the pressure built in his skull and hot tears bloodshot his eyes.
“He must have been watching us, it’s like Kate all over again, it’s all my fault.”
He wanted to touch her, to tell her he was sorry, but he couldn’t risk the police knowing he was here. He didn’t want to leave her, but he had no choice. He crouched by her side, not for one moment thinking Stacey could be right behind him, he was in too much shock, he couldn’t believe that it was real, that this was her body lying in a pool of blood. If she had died any other day he’d be upset, sure, but after spending time with her this afternoon he felt gutted like a fish. A thousand thoughts soared through his mind, but he needed to collect them, he scrambled to his feet and once he was a safe distance away he made an anonymous phone call to the police. After that he had only one more thing to do.
He waited until he was back at the flat before dialling Mallory’s number and after three or four rings she answered.
“Hello?”
James almost didn’t know how to begin, he didn’t know if she would even want to speak to him.
“It’s James.”
She was silent for a moment, probably trying to recall the name. “Oh, hello.”
“Can we talk? It’s important.”
“Is it about Kate?”
“Not exactly. It’s about Stacey, the man who murdered her.”
“Have they caught him!?”
“Not exactly.”
“Oh…”
“He’s killed somebody else.”
“Oh!”
“My friend, an old friend, just now.”
“What!? And you call me!?”
“I’ve called the police! Look I know it’s crazy, this whole situation is crazy, but I… I don’t know… I have a plan.”
“For someone who’s lost a close personal friend you don’t sound so upset.”
“I guess I’m used to it. Sorry, no, it’s the worst thing in the world, I want to curl up and die but that won’t bring either of them back.”
“Fair enough.”
“Will you come and meet me to talk?”
“You’re not exactly safe to be around are you?”
“Please… don’t say that.”
“Sorry. Fine, I’ll come to you, What’s your address?.”
“Ocean Apartments, I’ll wait for you in the lobby. Do you know it?”
“No, but my GPS does. I’ll be there in a few.” She hung up.
37: 3
“Sergeant!” Greg Barnes came bounding over before mike had managed to remove his coat.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m here.”
“There are a couple officers there now but you’re the most experienced.”
“You can’t keep doing this, Greg. You need to let these other guys learn, they need to be out of their comfort zone sometimes.”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know what to do.”
“Alright, let’s go then. Hopefully I can be home before Sarah’s in bed.”
“Does she go early?”
“Yeah she’s not much of a night owl.”
Greg carried his hat and coat out the door and pulled them on as he was clambering into the police cruiser. He was driving since he had the address.
“Near the train station.” He said.
Mike was lost in thought, another murder. “Could it have been James?” If he had any ties to this victim then he wouldn’t wait to arrest him. The yellow tape awaited them at the scene, being a police officer meant restraining that instinct to stay behind it.
“Hey, Triggs.” Greg shouted getting out of the car.
“Greg. Mike.” Officer Trigons nodded and began giving Greg the details. Mike was hardly listening, he swung his body under the tape and knelt down beside the body. The woman was beautiful with strawberry blonde curls that lay, matted with blood around her head like a halo. Her face was soft except for the hairline wrinkles around her mouth, an obvious sign of a smoker. Below her mouth was the fatal wound, the black touch of a demon on pale, heavenly skin.
Mike’s eyes fell on the small purse still wrapped around her arm. “It obviously wasn’t a robbery.” He took it in his hands and fiddled with the metal clasp until it finally opened in his clumsy man hands. If he found her I.D that would make his life a lot easier. He unzipped the inside pocket, there it was, her wallet. He flipped it open and pulled out her driver’s licence. “Audrey Hope, born 1983.” He said aloud and jotted it down on his notepad. He took her business card next. “A publisher? Interesting.” That he slipped into his top pocket.
“Mike.” Greg’s voice came from behind him startling him. “What’s the protocol?”
“You should know by now. Get the Crime scene photographers here, get the forensics team here… Come on Barnes you can’t seriously think having the boys put up a bit of police tape is quality policing? I’m going to have to inform the Chief that no one around here is qual
ified for the job.”
“Mike…”
“No, I’m not being your minder anymore, you’re not a child.”
“I know I’m not a child.”
“Then I suggest you stop acting like one, if I wasn’t here I dread to think what would happen, you and those other louts are why I have never booked a holiday off.”
“I’m sorry.”
“If I take the cruiser will you still be able to get back to the station?”
“Yeah I’ll hitch a ride with–“
“Great, see you.”
Greg moved aside as Mike stepped past him making a point of the little space he’d left him and after instructing the junior officers on the necessary actions to take sunk into the worn driver’s seat of the car.
“Publisher, publisher, publisher.” The word swam round his head. “Hadn’t James mentioned something about being an author?” He knew the answer and he knew James had to be involved but after the first arrest being a shambles getting another warrant wouldn’t be a walk in the park. He put the car in drive and headed back home, tonight would be his wife’s. James had no idea he was onto him, Mike had plenty of time. Tomorrow he would head to the office where all the documents of people of interest were stored including felons and victims, whatever information he needed regarding James he could get.
37: 4
James paced anxiously around the lobby of his apartment building, his feet squeaking on the newly polished floor. He checked his watch for the third time. “What’s taking her so long? Should I call her, make sure she isn’t lost?” He tried to trick himself into thinking that he was only worried she couldn’t find the place, not that she might be in danger. As he sighed the door opened loudly and he spun round to see a different woman than he had this morning. Her hair was still in ringlets but was tied back from her face and most of her make-up had been wiped off. She was wearing a grey sweatshirt and a pair of pencil thin pink pants with pastel pink pumps, she was almost half a foot shorter without her heels and her head only reached James’s chest.