by Alex Pitt
People turned away as soon as they saw me enter the Venus club, Officer Cooper in tow. They didn’t know the exact reason we were they, but I think they could hazard a pretty good guess.
“How lovely to see you both again,” Spider joked, as we approached him.
“Let’s make this quiet, OK?” Cooper said to him, snapping open a pair of cuffs.
“You’re arresting me? What the hell for?” he asked, and that was when second thoughts started to cross my mind.
What if we had got the wrong guy? He was glad that Rachel was dead, he said so himself, but that didn’t mean he’d killed her. Then I remembered the way in which he spoke about her, the utter distaste, and I quickly brushed the thoughts of his innocence away.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Cooper said, fastening the cuffs over Spider’s thick and hairy arms. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?”
“Absolutely, Officer,” Spider grinned, obviously not taking this seriously at all.
I looked around us to see people frozen, watching the scene. Even the strippers had stopped flashing their bits for once.
“Get back to work,” I shouted at them all, put-out and annoyed by Spider’s behaviour.
“He’s feisty, isn’t he?” Spider said to Cooper, as we forced his head into the car.
“Not usually, no,” Becky admitted, and she was right. I don’t usually raise my voice, but this case was getting to me.
“Come on Cooper,” I mumbled at her. “No conversing with the suspect.”
The drive back to the station was in complete silence. Even Spider didn’t have any witty comments to make. If the owners of the club had heard the way he’d spoken about Rachel, and probably all of the other girls, I didn’t think he’d be keeping his job for much longer. I would make sure that happened, but that was in the extremely unlikely event that he wasn’t found guilty.
In the police station, we sat Spider in an interview chair and took the handcuffs off him. I sat opposite him, with Cooper next to me. Whether he actually committed the murder or not, he knew something, and we would weasel it out of him. I was sure of it.
“We are recording this interview. Please state your full name, and date of birth,” Cooper instructed.
“Tom Skellig. Fifth of January, Nineteen Ninety-Two,” Spider informed us, but I would always refer to him as Spider. Creepy little shit.
“You said something to us both last night, and we need to get to the bottom of it. You said that you’re glad Rachel was dead. Why was that?”
“Because she always took guys outside for a shag,” he smirked, amused by the confrontation.
“So, she enjoyed sex, what of it? That doesn’t seem a good enough reason to want her dead.”
“She was just one of those girls, like, who always got into trouble. She never did as she was told.”
“If that was the case, why wasn’t she fired?” I frowned.
“Because the guys liked her so much. Firing her would be bad for business, we all knew that. Especially the guys she took out back. They always came back, and invited their friends.”
“You know what, Tom,” Cooper said, placing a hand on the table. “I think we should cut the shit, and get straight to it. Did you kill Rachel?”
“No.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“Then do you know who did kill her?”
A slight pause. Then, “No.”
“Cigarette, Tom?” I asked pulling a pack from my pocket and handing one to him.
He took it gladly and I placed one in my own mouth, lighting both of the tips. Cooper didn’t smoke, meaning she’d probably live longer than both Spider and I, but she didn’t mind a bit of second-hand instillation.
“Officer, I’m a bit confused,” Spider confessed, taking a long drag from the fag.
“And why’s that?” she asked, brow furrowed.
“Well, you asked me if I’m guilty. I said no. Unless you actually find proof that I killed her, surely you can’t keep me here.”
I may not be an officer, but I knew he was right. Without reasonable cause, we could no longer detain Spider. Sure, I could ask him all the questions I wanted, but he was free to leave at any point. I just hoped that he wouldn’t, because we didn’t have a single lead when he was gone.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” Cooper said, and she was literally just a minute, sauntering back in the room, a folder clutched in her hand.
Throwing it down on the table and making Spider and I jump, she opened it up and tossed out the photo of the knife.
“Seen this before?” she demanded, slamming her fists on the table and getting in his face.
Spider shrugged, as I tried to pull Cooper back. “Becky, come on, sit down.”
“Get off me, damn it. I know he’s guilty. Look at him. You can see it in his eyes.”
I agreed with her on that, but there was no proof. Without proof, we had nothing to go on.
“To answer your question, Officer,” Spider started. “No, I haven’t seen this knife before. Now I suggest you back the fuck off, before things go too far.”
Spider used the table to lever himself to his feet and headed for the door.
“Don’t you dare leave,” Cooper spat at him. “I’ll roast your balls on a fire if you leave without giving us something.”
“You don’t have the evidence to charge me. I’d love to help, but I’m afraid I can’t. The only reason you arrested me in the first place was because you don’t know what else to do. I made it aware that I didn’t like the girl, that doesn’t mean I killed her. If you have any further questions, you know where to find me,” and he left the room, departing with a cheeky smile.
“Fuck!” Officer Cooper screamed, slamming the table in front of us. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
“Hey, calm down, Becks. Please.”
She hesitated, turned to me, and then said, “You’ve never called me Becks before.”
“I know. Come here.”
And I did something I never even dreamed of doing to Becky before: I gave her a hug. I could feel her tears on my cheek, and I wiped them away with a finger. I was as torn up about this case as she was, but I was better at hiding my emotions than her.
“Let’s go back to mine,” Becky suggested, and I liked that idea. “Just for a few drinks,” she added.
“Sure,” I smiled. “I think we could do with them.”
So that’s what we did. We went back to Becky’s flat. It was clean and smelt a lot nicer than most flats I’d been in. I ordered an Indian from a local curry house, and we sat on the sofa with our legs crossed, watching the rugby. I was more of a football fan myself, but it was just something in the background, to drain the silence.
“That was so good,” she said, wiping the last of her sauce up with naan.
“Agreed. We’ll definitely have to do this again.”
And after that, the drinking began. It was weird because this was the fifteenth case I’d done with Officer Cooper, and I’d never regarded her as anything more than an acquaintance. But, as we chugged beer after beer, I slowly got to know the woman more, and a definite friendship blossomed.
Then, as we were both completely out of it, she kissed me. It was so unexpected, so out of the blue, that I pushed her away. Then I studied her face, her sad eyes, her trembling lips, and pulled her back in for another one. I’d never noticed it before, but Officer Cooper was quite the pretty lady.
She slowly slid off her top off and dragged me over to the bed, hopping under the covers. A thought occurred to me as I fumbled with her bra and took off the rest of our clothes; I was finally reminded, for the first time in six years, what it truly felt like to be happy.
Chapter Fourteen
June 2nd 2017
The day was a Friday, yet again. More i
mportantly, it was the Friday before exam week. Even more important than that, there was only one more week left until we were free from college for the summer.
I had decided it was time to talk to Daisy. I’d been putting it off for so long, but I had to do it. I loved her, and that was the reason I hadn’t mentioned it yet; I didn’t want to lose her. But, well over a month after meeting her, I felt pretty confident that it would go well if I told her the truth now.
We had grown increasingly close over the weeks, although not as close as Scooter and Trisha were. Trisha didn’t go to our college, but she waited outside the entrance a couple of times a week, and they always had a grossly over-the-top make out session.
This made me ping with jealousy. Not over Trisha, but over the fact that Scooter was able to get a girl just by snapping his fingers, something I never thought would be possible. If Trisha and Scooter could work, then me and Daisy would also work. We were right for each other, I knew it.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, coming up from behind and startling me.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, opening my English book and jotting down a few notes from the board.
“Mind if I sit?” Daisy queried, and I indicated for her to take a seat.
“How are you?” This question came from me.
“Fine, I guess,” and she shrugged.
“Good.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Daisy, are you sure everything’s alright?”
The thing I’d learnt about Daisy in the five weeks since meeting her, she’s a very mixed emotions kind of girl. One second she can be extremely happy and flirtatious and she snuggles up to me and puts her arms around me, and the next she is cold and distant, and acts like she’s been crying. She wasn’t either of those today. She was somewhere in the middle, a smile on her face, but distant.
“I’m fine, Jack. Listen, we’ve got that party next Saturday, and I was wondering if I could go with you. Not like a date, just someone to walk there with and turn up with, so I don’t have to go alone. Please,” she begged, and I couldn’t say no to that.
“But not a date?” I clarified.
“Well, it can be a date if you want it to be.”
“Daisy, I would love for it to be a date,” I told her, and blushed so brightly.
“You know,” she said, placing a hand on my arm and pressing her face to me, “I always imagined our first date would be something more glamorous than a house party, but I guess it will do. It’ll be a load of fun.”
So, Daisy had been thinking about our first date before. In fact, she’d probably been thinking about it for weeks, waiting for me to make the first move. I’d just been too slow, too scared, but no longer. We’d go to the house party together and, in admist the drinking, I would tell her that I love her. Then, hopefully, she’d say it back, and we’d be together, and make sweet love in Sam Higgin’s bed.
I smiled at this thought, and Daisy smiled back. I could imagine her running over to her friends after college, screaming, ‘he finally asked me. We’re finally going on a date’. And, to be honest, going to Sam’s party as our first date was not what I wanted either, but there wouldn’t be an opportunity before then, with exams the following week.
When college was over for the day, I was walking down the corridor by myself. Daisy had gone off with her other friends, and Scooter wasn’t in that day, claiming he was ill. Yeah right!
That was when I bumped into Sam Higgin’s, party man himself, for the first time in months. He’d been a complete dick to us at the start of the year, all the way up until the Christmas break but, when we’d come back in January, he’d seemed to have forgotten our existence. Nevertheless, I still hated his guts.
“Heard you were coming to my party,” he addressed me fiercely.
“Who told you that?” I frowned, perplexed as to who it could have been.
“I just heard it around. You know, people talking, they were heard by other people and then those people were heard by other people. Anyway, point is, I’m crossing you off the list.”
“What?” I stumbled, not sure entirely what he meant.
“You’re out. You’re not coming. You and your little posse can stay the hell away from my house.”
“But I thought everyone in the year was invited,” I pointed out innocently, and he grunted.
“He has a point,” the coloured kid next to him stated. That was Morgan. Psycho Morgan.
Sam looked sideways at him, not quite believing his ears. Nor could I, to be honest. If Sam didn’t want us at the party, then it was extremely hard to believe that Morgan would. I didn’t have to wonder for long, because then it all became clear.
“I’m just hoping he brings that chick along. You know, the new one?” He meant Daisy, but clearly he didn’t know her name. “God, she is hot. I bet she’ll look even hotter with my balls on her face.”
Morgan burst out laughing and Sam laughed even harder, clutching his sides and falling to the wall besides him. Most people had left the college already, but there were a few stragglers who turned and looked alarmingly at the situation, before carrying on their merry way.
“I mean, put it like this,” Morgan snarled. “I presume Daisy likes Subway. Who doesn’t? But would she rather have a plain six-inch veggie patty, like you can offer her? Or would she like a foot long, shoved with all the chicken tikka she could ask for and a shit load of mayo on top? That’s what I can give her Jack, and it’s so much more than you.”
Sam continued howling with laughter, hammering the wall with his hands. What a strange analogy Morgan had come up with, I thought to myself, but it had done the job. He was trying to provoke a reaction from me, and I could feel my temper rising. But why now, after not speaking for several months?
“Just leave me alone, yeah?” I asked, trying to calm things down.
“Ooooh, did you hear that?” Morgan shouted, gaining the attention of everyone around him. “Jacky boy wants us to leave him alone. Afraid Daisy doesn’t love him enough to choose him over me.”
“Back off, Morgan,” I warned him, clenching my fists and getting in his face.
“Or what?” he queried sharply. “What are you going to do?”
And I punched him. I punched him so hard, square in the face.
Sam didn’t know what to do for a second, standing there with a dumbfounded look on his peachy face. Then, he charged forwards and wrestled me to the ground, launching a flurry of punches at me. I managed to twist my neck and dodge most of them, but I took a particularly brutal one to the jaw.
“No one disrespects Daisy, you son of a bitch,” I said, lifting my feet up and kicking Sam in the balls.
We’d gathered quite an audience, and people cheered when they saw my kick to the privates. Morgan filled in Sam’s place, climbing on top of me and getting ready to beat the living daylights out of me. He’d probably do a better job of it than the slow, snail-like movements of Sam.
“Get off him,” someone shouted from behind, and Morgan was suddenly ripped from my view. “What the hell is going on here?” my Chemistry teacher, Mr Johnson asked.
“Just a bit of a rough and tumble, sir,” Morgan remarked innocently.
I wiped my lip on the sleeve of my top, alarmed to find a torrent of blood pouring from it.
“Get out of here, Morgan, before I get you in real trouble. Jack, do you need the nurse?”
In reality, the answer was yes. I probably could have done with a plaster, but my face was red with embarrassment and I just wanted to go home.
“I’m fine,” I said, stumbling to my feet.
“Right. Everyone back away please,” Mr Johnson instructed. “Go on, go away.” He raised his hands in a shooing motion.
I launched myself towards the front door, limping away from the building. I’d just had my ass handed to me but, to be fair, both guys were much bigger than me.
On the bright side, it wasn’t too long until Daisy found out.
Chapter Fifteen
Heard you stuck up for me today??
Of course, those dicks really had it coming!
Are we still invited to the party?
No, but we never were anyway. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he lets us in.
And how will you do that??
By turning on my masculine charm.
What charm?????
Cheeky????
I waited a few more minutes, but another message didn’t come through. Placing my phone back in my pocket, I raced up to my room. I shouted a vague hello to my mum, not wanting her to see my face before I’d had a chance to clean it up.
“Hello, Rufus,” I said, patting my golden retriever on the head and placing my bag on the chair.
Turning to the mirror, I was shocked by how bad my lip actually looked. The punch had been pretty hard, but the whole of my jaw was caked in dried blood.
Racing to the bathroom, I quickly filled the sink and splashed warm water over my face. Five minutes later, the only evidence that I’d been in a fight was the small cut on my lip, and the out of place look that my jaw was currently supporting. That was probably just my imagination though; it didn’t feel dislocated.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” my mum asked, pushing open the bathroom door.
“Good job I wasn’t taking a dump,” I joked, surprised that she’d come into the bathroom like that, and I glanced at her face in the mirror above the sink. “Don’t worry, Ma,” I continued. “Just a little scrap. Nothing too serious.”
“Boys will be boys, I guess,” she tutted at me. “Here, let me look at that.”
Using her hand, she moved my chin towards her and studied the cut. It wasn’t serious, but I’d been alarmed when I’d first seen it, covered in blood. It could have been a lot worse, especially since Morgan was involved.
“No more fighting, Jack. Promise me?” my mother asked, looking me straight in the eye.