Wild Thing: 'a chilling cold-blooded killer' (Ted Darling crime series Book 7)

by L M Krier

  'No, it's fine, thank you, Constable, I can manage to retrieve him. And because you're clearly thinking I've lost the plot, I'll just point out that this was by way of a scientific experiment. A successful one, I think.'

  Susan Heap looked interested now. She knew that, despite being different, in a good way, from most of the other senior officers she'd encountered, Ted was a good detective, with an excellent track record.

  'Tyler's mother said he was a good boy who never went out of the garden. But she also said he couldn't bear to be parted from his Batman toy. I've just proved that Batman is capable of flying out of the garden, and I've found how a little lad like Tyler could manage to let himself out of the garden, despite the gate being bolted. Now all I need is a break in finding who he met when he came out of the gate and why he went off with them.'

  'I think I can work that out for you, sir,' Susan Heap told him. 'The why he went with them, at least. Shall we go and get Batman?'

  Ted looked puzzled but went with her. As they got near to the toy, she bent down, grabbed it, and sprinted off at high speed. Ted watched her for a moment without following and saw her disappear from sight round the corner of a hedge surrounding the last house in the row. Then he smiled to himself as he jogged after her, PC Jackson trailing behind.

  She appeared, grinning, back round the corner of the hedge as Ted caught her up.

  'Just a suggestion, sir, but could that be why he went with whoever it was?'

  'Brilliant, Susan, thank you. That's something else I owe you for. Sorry again to have inconvenienced you.'

  As the two PCs were walking away, Gavin said to her, 'I can't believe you told a DCI off, and he took it from you. I thought he was the original Kung Fu Panda? He doesn't look all that impressive.'

  'I wouldn't let him hear you calling him that. He has four martial arts black belts, none of them in Kung Fu, and he's a stickler for detail. And I can get away with murder because I probably stopped him bleeding to death when he got knifed. He's very good at what he does and he's one of the nicest senior officers you could ever meet. Just don't ever underestimate him. He'll solve this case, because he won't rest until he does.'

  As the officers walked away, Ted returned to the gate and stood there, looking round, thinking things through. He continued talking to himself.

  'So, Tyler, who would you run after, if they picked up Batman? Not a bigger kid, surely, unless you were very brave. You might get thumped.'

  Ted knew all about bullying. As a child, small and slight – 'runty' he always described himself as – and called Darling, he'd known his fair share of playground bullies, until his dad had paid for the martial arts lessons. No matter how much Tyler loved his toy, Ted was having difficulty imagining a small boy running after a bigger one, or possibly more than one.

  As he stood in the increasing drizzle, a small, shaggy, white dog came trotting down the path and stopped in front of him. Ted couldn't read dog body language like he could cat and human so he wasn't sure if the fact that its mouth was open and showing a lot of sharply pointed teeth should worry him or not.

  'Nice dog,' he said warily, by way of greeting.

  An elderly lady was walking up the path behind the dog. Shorter even than Ted and quite stout, with a waterproof coat and a folding plastic rain hat.

  'Good morning,' she greeted, her voice well-spoken. 'I hope Bobby isn't bothering you. He's just wondering if you have a toy or something you could throw for him.'

  Ted looked at the dog with renewed interest. It appeared to be grinning at him, its short tail threshing the ground as it willed him to produce an object to throw. It looked hopeful for a moment as Ted reached in his pocket for his warrant card, which he held out towards the woman.

  'Good morning. I'm a police officer. Would your little dog pick up a toy if he found one on the ground, Mrs...?'

  'It's Miss. Miss Dean. I can't actually read that without my glasses but it certainly looks official enough. But you don't look tall enough to be a police officer,' then as Ted smiled, having heard the comment so many times before, she added hastily, 'Oh dear, that was very impolite of me. Do excuse me, officer. I'm sorry, I couldn't read your name.'

  'It's Darling, Detective Chief Inspector, and yes, I've heard all the comments about that, too. I'm quite used to them. But please tell me about Bobby.'

  'Yes, he would most definitely pick things up. He's always doing it in the park. Are you here about the little boy? So very tragic. I used to see him in the park sometimes, with his mother. A nice little boy, very polite. He had some sort of a toy which flew. Bobby tried to catch it a few times so I had to put him on the lead when I saw them.'

  'Did you happen to see the little boy or his mother at any point on Monday?'

  'We didn't come to the park on Monday. I had to go to the doctor's. I so dislike going on Monday mornings, it's always crowded.'

  'Are there any other dogs who come to the park who might pick up a toy and run off with it?'

  'Oh yes, we often meet dogs out by themselves and they sometimes try to take Bobby's toy. Luckily all the ones I've met so far have been quite friendly. You look as if you could probably throw a ball very well. I can't do it much these days; arthritis in my joints. But if you would be kind enough to throw Bobby's, he would be your friend for life.'

  She took a much-chewed ball out of her pocket and handed it to Ted. He was no cricketer but he made a respectable overarm swing which saw the ball fly off into the distance, with the ecstatic small dog in hot pursuit.

  'Thank you, Inspector, that was very kind of you,' the woman said as she walked off after her dog.

  'And thank you, Bobby. You've given me an idea,' Ted said to himself as the pair wandered off.

  Chapter Nine

  Ted's next port of call after the park was the station. He often went in at the weekend, to keep on top of things. With Trev away, his office was his refuge from the empty house. He'd been up early, as usual, and had seen to the cats before leaving. They would complain, but he could safely leave them until much later in the evening if he needed to. He'd given them enough dry food to cover emergencies.

  Sal and Steve were on duty in the main office, Steve on the phone, Sal just finishing a call.

  'Morning. Plenty of calls coming in?'

  'No shortage, boss,' Sal told him. 'Unfortunately most of them appear to relate to people who saw Tyler in the park with his mother on other days. Nothing much for Monday yet.'

  'I'm just going to make a brew before I start. Do you two want one?'

  Even after his recent promotion to DCI, Ted didn't consider himself above brewing up for his team members. He usually remembered what everyone drank and how they took it, too. Sal nodded his thanks as he picked up another call. Steve hadn't reacted so Ted made the universal drinking motion in front of him and Steve raised a thumb, going pink, as he generally did when the boss had any kind of contact with him.

  When he came back with the drinks, Ted perched on a desk until there was a lull in the calls allowing him to ask for an update.

  'We're noting everything for checking later on, but nothing so far that's of much use from the calls I've taken. I think Steve's have been the same?' As Steve nodded, Sal went on, 'It seems Tyler and his mum were often to be seen in the park together and people are getting mixed up about days, I think.'

  'I'm almost certain the mother had nothing to do with it. Her reaction appeared too genuine. I've been at the house this morning and I think I can see why Tyler left the garden. I do need to check out the positioning of the telephone, and I want to get details of incoming calls to his mother on Monday. I'll start the ball rolling for that. I need to know if she really was on the phone when she said she was. I'm going to look stupid if I don't check her alibi and it turns out she was involved.

  'As long as the caller number wasn't masked, we should be able to get it traced. Do these cold callers keep a record of the calls they make, I wonder? Might someone remember speaking to an individual for any reason?'


  'Not sure, boss. I imagine they're on some sort of piece rate, or performance related, so they must keep some kind of record. They probably get a lot of people who just hang up on them so they may remember one who actually agreed to do their survey, or whatever it was.'

  'Especially if the mother suddenly broke off the call saying something about her little boy having disappeared, sir,' Steve suggested. 'That might have stuck in someone's mind. Although they may not have heard anything about the case, if they were from an overseas call centre.'

  'Good point, Steve, I hadn't thought of that. I'm being particularly dim at the moment, not thinking of a lot of things I should. I also want to check out all of the mother's family and other contacts. I don't want to overlook anything that could be staring me in the face.

  'Right, I'll be in my office, buried under paperwork, but shout if you need me for anything. Oh, and if anyone's going out for sandwiches at some point, please let me know.'

  Ted wanted some quiet time to go through all the witness statements on both cases. He was particularly intrigued by Jezza's assertion that the figure who pushed an old lady to her death under the wheels of a bus was female. He respected her judgement and had learned to trust her intuition, but she was the only person so far to suggest that, as far as he knew. He wanted to go through the statements for himself to check on that.

  With no real risk of disturbance, he could spread papers about, make himself notes, litter statements with Post-Its. Ted's methods may have been a little old-fashioned, but he found they worked best for him. Above all, he was trying to get some idea of motive in the two cases. A child abduction ending in death was sadly not all that rare, but there was usually an obvious motive, often sexual. Without a 'why' in the Tyler Bradbury case, it would be hard to work back to the 'who.'

  He was similarly baffled in the South Manchester case as to motive. Another sign of the times in that purse-snatching was not all that rare. But what could have prompted the thief to go a step further and, having robbed Joan Murray, to callously shove her into the path of the bus, almost certainly knowing it would be fatal? He made himself a note to check with Leona Rakale if there was any record of what had been stolen from her trolley.

  He broke off to join Sal and Steve over sandwiches. Steve had been sent out to get them, while Ted once again brewed up for all three. Steve wasn't going as far as the deli, so Ted couldn't have his usual bagel.

  'Get me a cheese and tomato then, please, Steve. No, tuna. Tuna and tomato. Or cheese and tuna?' Ted realised he was burbling, not able to make a simple decision. It wasn't like him. 'Surprise me,' he said, taking out his wallet and giving Steve enough to cover them all.

  He always enjoyed down time with his team members. It helped them work better together, and emphasised that he was approachable. Both were off the following day, Sunday, so he asked them about their plans.

  'Shopping with the girlfriend then a meal with her parents for me.'

  'Getting serious, then, Sal, meeting the parents?' Ted asked.

  'Oh, we've met before a few times. They seem to approve so yes, I think it might be.'

  'What about you, Steve? What have you got planned?'

  'Gaming, sir, MMORPGs,' Steve told him, always uneasy about dropping the formalities with the boss.

  'I'm not sure I even know what that is,' Ted confessed with a smile.

  'Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Things like World of Warcraft.' Steve's face lit up with clear passion as he started to speak about his interest. 'They're online games. Players take on a role and can play with other people from anywhere in the world.'

  'So this is all online, you never actually get to meet up with the people you're playing with?'

  Steve blushed furiously as he replied, 'It can often be like that, sir, but sometimes people do meet up in real life too. I'm actually meeting another player tomorrow.'

  'Is it someone you actually know, or is this a bit like blind dating?' Ted was genuinely intrigued by how the young man spent his off-duty time.

  'Sometimes you don't know the people you play with, but in this case, it is someone I know.'

  He was looking decidedly uncomfortable, so Ted decided not to press him further. He kept a lot of his own private life to himself so he didn't want to intrude on Steve's.

  'Well, I hope you have an enjoyable day off, both of you. Right, now I'm going back to my paperwork, but don't forget to shout if you need me for anything. And please keep me updated on any sightings of Tyler with anyone we can't immediately identify from the description.'

  The afternoon appeared to fly by and it didn't seem long before Sal was tapping on Ted's door and putting his head round to tell him that he and Steve were done for the day and heading home. Ted had compiled himself a To Do list for both cases. It wasn't much to show for his efforts, but it felt like some degree of progress.

  He was looking forward to talking to Trev later that evening. They'd arranged between them that Trev would always be the one to call. Ted didn't want to cramp his style by interrupting him when he was enjoying himself. He was imagining his partner's reaction when he told him about almost getting tasered. He could almost hear him laughing, just thinking about it. Trev was always quick to laugh, often collapsing in giggles at the most banal things. His laughter was just one of the things Ted missed about him.

  The call came earlier than Ted feared it might. He moved senior cat Queen off his lap to take the call, not wanting her loud purring to monopolise the conversation. Trev was sounding even more enthusiastic, making Ted feel almost envious with mention of the warm sunshine they were enjoying.

  'I got into a bit of a pickle today...' Ted started to say, then he heard a voice in the background calling something.

  'Ted, look, I'm really sorry, I can't talk now,' he said, then, clearly to someone else, 'Oui, j'arrive. Deux minutes. We're going to a beach barbecue and I literally daren't miss the boat or I'll have to swim ashore. Tell me all about it when I call tomorrow. Love you.'

  Ted was left forlornly saying 'Hello?' into the silence.

  Jezza and Megan were on duty together on Sunday. They'd be manning the phones, in between doing their own paperwork, still hoping for a reliable witness sighting of Tyler in the park on Monday, with someone other than his mother. The phones hadn't yet started ringing and they were taking advantage of the lull before they started to catch up with one another.

  'So, how's it going with you and Maurice?' Jezza asked.

  'He really is a lovely man, so kind and caring. Not at all what anyone would expect. He's brilliant with my Felix, and his own girls. We've had some great times out together.'

  'I'm sensing there's a big but coming?'

  'It's always us with either all the kids, or with Felix. Never just the two of us. I'm starting to think he doesn't fancy me.'

  'Of course he does! I'll tell you another unexpected thing about our bonny lad Maurice. He really is a great big softy who's afraid of making the wrong move. I practically had to rip his clothes off him. He's not the caveman he looks as if he would be.

  'Look, here's an idea, why don't you bring Felix over and leave him with me and Tommy one evening, when Maurice hasn't got the twins with him, then get him to take you out, just the two of you? Then I'll reclaim the favour one evening when I want to go out with Nat. Maurice is a bit possessive and I'm starting to think Nat is secretly afraid of him.'

  Megan was about to answer when the door opened and the boss walked in and asked if there had been any more calls from potential witnesses.

  'Nothing much yet, boss, it's perhaps too early on a Sunday morning for most people,' Jezza told him.

  'If you get chance, can you start to draw up some sort of priority list of people to talk to further. It doesn't sound as if Sal and Steve had anyone much worth following up, but have a look through all the calls, see if you can pick up on anything. I'm just on my way to South Manchester to catch up with things there, but don't forget, I'm on call if you need me.'
>
  As the boss headed back down the stairs, Megan smiled across at Jezza and said, 'You're on. It sounds like a fair trade to me.'

  It would be the first time Ted had seen DC Eccles at South Manchester since having had to deal with him on an earlier case. He and Leona Rakale were both working at their desks when he went in. To his surprise, Eccles greeted him with a fairly civil nod and a muttered 'sir'. DS Rakale was clearly already having a good effect on turning around what was left of her team there.

  'How are we getting on after the press appeal?'

  'Still getting calls, sir, all still saying pretty much the same thing. A young lad, grabbed something from Mrs Murray's trolley, shoved her with his shoulder then ran off.'

  'Do we know yet what was taken?'

  'We're going on the assumption that it was her purse, sir, as none was found either on her or in the trolley, and she had clearly just been shopping.'

  'Good, thank you. Can we just be a bit wary of any kind of assumption, though. Make sure we check everything out carefully, although I agree, a purse would seem to be the most likely. Are all of the witnesses saying the suspect is male?'

  DC Eccles looked up from his notes in surprise.

  'Are you saying they might be female?'

  'As I've just said, I'm trying to avoid assumptions. We've had one person who's seen the CCTV footage who pointed out that it could conceivably be a teenage girl.' Then, remembering his previous experience of Eccles and his former team-mates, he added, 'But I do not want that idea planting into the head of any potential witnesses. No leading questions, no suggestions. Is that clear, DC Eccles?'

  'Sir,' Eccles' tone turned surly at what he perceived as a reprimand. But Ted couldn't afford to take chances. He'd had witness testimony spoilt before by a former DC who had worked closely with Eccles. He wanted to make sure everything was done by the book.'

  'Good, thank you.' First the reminder, then the praise. It was how Ted always liked to work. 'DS Rakale, is there somewhere we could have a quick catch-up?'

  'There's the old DI's office, or, if you fancy a brew, we could go to the rest room?'