by M A Comley
The man barged through the door to the men’s toilets and slammed it shut in Katy’s face. The lock clicked on the other side.
“Damn,” Katy grumbled, kicking the base of the door.
Lorne thumbed at the exit and mouthed to Katy, “I’ll go outside.”
Katy knocked on the door and shouted, “Police! Open the door. We just want to ask you a few questions. There’s no need for this.”
Outside, Lorne darted around the side of the building. She couldn’t see many options for hiding herself as she waited for the man, expecting him to attempt an escape through the toilet window. She squatted behind a bush about ten feet away. She didn’t have to wait long. He dropped to the ground with a groan and scanned the area urgently, no doubt seeking an easy getaway route. Lorne left her hiding place and sprinted after him, weaving between the parked vehicles in their way. “Stop, police!”
“Screw you, lady!”
“You’re only going to make things worse if you don’t stop right now,” Lorne called after him. The distance between them was lengthening, and her breathing had become laboured already. She knew instantly he would outrun her and she would struggle to keep up with him as he skipped over the small wall and took off up the high street. Dejected, Lorne returned to the club and went in search of Katy. She shook her head and sighed heavily. “He got away.”
“Not to worry.” Katy waved a disc in her hand. “The manager kept a copy of the footage from that night. Plus… I got the chance to talk to the assistant manager, who offered another name—Colin Simms.”
With her heart rate nearing normal, Lorne said, “The guy who just ran off?”
“Yep.”
“That’s great. We can look at picking him up tomorrow, give him some breathing space. He’ll think we’ve let him off the hook. Let’s hope the disc shows us what took place that night and who the men were who jumped on the stage with Noelle. It’s going to be a pain in the arse trawling through all the punters, though. Maybe someone with a previous conviction will crop up. If they’ve got a previous, we’ll pull them in for questioning. Simms has obviously been in trouble before. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken off like Usain Bolt.”
“Okay, we’ve got enough to be going on with now. Let’s call it a night. We’ve been at it for fourteen hours as it is. We’ll start afresh in the morning.”
Lorne puffed out her cheeks. “I’m all for that. I’m totally knackered after chasing him.”
Katy dropped Lorne back at the station, where she picked up her car, and they both went their separate ways.
Entering the driveway of her home, Lorne was surprised to see that Tony’s car was absent. Charlie greeted her at the back door with Henry. Lorne kissed Charlie on the cheek and bent down to cuddle her best friend, who’d been her constant companion through some very rough times in the past. “Hello, mate. How’s the old legs doing?”
Henry lashed her face with kisses. Resisting the temptation to complain about his smelly breath, Lorne kissed his nose.
“He was a little tired this afternoon after his walk, Mum. I think I’ll have to consider taking him for shorter walks.”
Lorne ruffled the dog’s head and stood up. “Well, he’s getting on in years now.”
“I know. Sad, really. He barely runs after his ball, either. He used to be besotted with that thing once upon a time.”
“Old age catches up with us all, I suppose, at some time, Charlie. Is Tony not back yet?” Lorne closed the back door and switched on the kettle.
“Nope. He rang about twenty minutes ago, said he was on his way back. He sounded pretty pissed off, too. Don’t let on that I told you. I made a chilli and saved you some, both of you.”
“That’s kind of you, sweetheart. I’ll give it a miss tonight, if you don’t mind. Katy and I ate a huge meal at lunchtime, thinking we’d be home late. I’ll pop it in the freezer, unless Tony wants my share.”
A car drew into the drive.
“All smiles. Let’s see if we can get him out of his foul mood before it has a chance to fester,” Lorne told Charlie.
The door opened, and Tony eyed them with concern. “All right, what have I done wrong?”
Lorne sauntered across the floor and slid her arms around his neck. “Is that any way to treat your adoring wife and your favourite step-daughter?”
He pecked her on the nose. “Er… that will be only step-daughter, unless there are other step-children of mine running around out there that I’m unaware of?”
Lorne tutted. “You’ve always got an answer, haven’t you? How was your day?”
He buried his head into her shoulder. “Remind me why I said I wanted to become a PI again?”
Lorne pecked his cheek. “That bad, huh?”
“Our client must be nuts if he thinks his wife is cheating on him. She works endlessly long hours, end of! Joe and I have been going out of our minds all day, parked up with a set of binoculars each, and my bum…”
Lorne squeezed it with her hands, and he moaned softly.
“Well, it feels like it’s been dumped in an ice pool for hours—it’s that numb.”
“I think I’ll leave you two love birds to it. Goodnight.” Rolling her eyes, Charlie mumbled under her breath as she left the room.
“You embarrassed her. How could you do that when she went out of her way to make you a meal?” Lorne pulled away and wagged a chastising finger in front of her.
“Meal? What kind of meal? A beans-on-toast variety or something far more appetizing?”
Lorne slapped his upper arm. “Has anyone ever told you how ungrateful you can be? Good job Charlie isn’t around to hear you. She’d never step foot in the kitchen again. She made a chilli. Are you hungry?”
“I’m starving. Is it hot?” Tony homed in on the saucepan on top of the stove and lifted the lid. He blinked when the fumes from the pot hit him. “Yikes, it smells super hot. I’ll have some if you do.”
“Not unless you want a big fat momma to share your bed, hon. I’ve eaten one huge meal today. Couldn’t face another one. Do you want rice with it? It’ll take me ten minutes to cook some.”
Tony took Lorne’s hand and sat down at the table, pulling her onto his lap. “I’d rather have an early night and a snuggle with my adorable wife.”
She pulled away from him and cocked an eyebrow. “Have you been drinking?”
“No! Can’t a man be a little mushy with his wife now and again?”
“I think your job has already messed with your brain after only one day out in the field. I dread to think what you’ll be like after work tomorrow night.”
He nipped her neck with his teeth. “Maybe we should ask Charlie to visit her dad for a few nights.”
Lorne jumped off his lap and renewed her endeavours to heat up his dinner. “Maybe you should learn to control your urges and sexual fantasies a bit more.”
He placed his head in his hands and mumbled, “Spoilsport, and there was me praising what a wonderful wife I had to Joe today. Guess I’ll have to reassess that and tell him the truth tomorrow.”
“Shut up! Do you want to hear how my day went?” She opened the bag of rice and poured enough grains in the pot for a large helping to satisfy Tony’s healthy appetite then filled the pan with boiling water from the kettle.
“Go on then. I bet it can’t match mine,” he jested with a smile.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Lorne spent the next ten minutes telling him about the cold case. By the time she got to the part about the guy absconding from the club, the food was ready to be dished up.
“Interesting case. Far better than ours, anyway. What’s your gut feeling on it? Is this Noelle dead or alive?”
Lorne placed his dinner in front of him and sat down with a cup of coffee as a substitute for her own meal. “To tell you the truth, I’m not really feeling anything one way or another on this case just yet. Maybe that’ll change in the coming days with the more clues or suspects that come our way. There must be something amiss for
that bloke to do a runner like that.”
“Yeah, or he could be some kind of druggie or something else along those lines. One whiff of a copper after him, he’s sure to take off, isn’t he?”
“I suppose so. I didn’t get that impression, though.”
Tony tentatively took a mouthful of chilli, chewed it a little, and began nodding appreciatively. “Not bad! She’s obviously been watching the master at work and paying attention when I’ve cooked her stunning meals.”
Lorne, who’d just taken a sip of coffee, spluttered the liquid across the table. “I can’t believe you said that! Are you forgetting the time you put raw spaghetti in a pan on a lit stove, without water? Hmm… you men always seem to have selective memories when it suits you, don’t you?”
He winked at her and took another mouthful of chilli. “I have other memories, too. Fancy an early night?”
Lorne laughed, finding it hard to resist his boyish good looks. She’d long forgotten all about the scar others saw that decorated his cheek. “Sounds like a good idea.”
Tony bolted down the rest of his chilli and rinsed his plate under the tap while Lorne checked the lights to the kennels and put Henry out for his last wee of the day. Together, they climbed the stairs, arms wrapped around each other’s waist with Henry at their heels. The dog turned left at the top and headed along the landing to Charlie’s room.
“I think he senses he’s not welcome in our room tonight,” Lorne said, pushing open the door to the master bedroom. Eagerly, she dragged Tony through it then closed it behind him.
CHAPTER FOUR
The investigation began in earnest the following morning after Katy and Lorne had apprised the team of what had gone on at the club. Karen and AJ teamed up to go through the CCTV footage. They hoped two heads would prove to be better than one on that chore. Meanwhile Stephen and Graham went through the results of their house-to-house enquiries and turned up very little. A neighbour spotted a dark car in the area a few times, and that was about it.
“Great!” Katy sighed in frustration. “What is it with folks nowadays? Why can’t people be more observant?”
“No sense of community, I suppose. People moving house far more often than they used to. That’s my interpretation anyway.” The phone on Lorne’s desk rang. “Hello. DS Warner. How may I help?”
“Mum. Sorry to trouble you at work, but I think you should come home right away.”
Lorne gasped then asked urgently, “Charlie? Whatever is the matter? Is it one of the dogs? Has there been an accident? Can’t Tony deal with things?”
Charlie tutted. “Tony’s here. It was his suggestion that I should ring you. I don’t really want to go through things over the phone, Mum. Just trust me on this one, please? Oh, and you should bring Katy with you, too.”
“All right, love. If you think it’s that serious, we’ll be there in half an hour. Can you at least give me a hint what it’s concerning?”
“Carol. Can’t say anything else—she won’t let me.”
“All right. Put the kettle on.”
“What was that all about?” Katy asked, watching as Lorne replaced the phone.
“Well, knowing my lot, it’s sure to be something intense. Strange that Charlie asked us both to be there.”
“Let’s sort the team out first then head off. I love a bit of intrigue usually. However, when it concerns your family, it always comes attached with an element of danger.”
Lorne ran a hand through her hair. “Crap, don’t say that. It is odd that Charlie refused to let on what it was about. I’m getting an uncomfortable feeling about this.”
Ten minutes later, with the team fully instructed, Katy and Lorne swiftly made their way out of the station and into the car. Turning the key in the ignition, Katy patted Lorne on the knee with her other hand. “Stop worrying. You can be such a worry guts at times.”
“Ha, with good reason, I think. Don’t you? How would you react after having your daughter kidnapped and raped by my nemesis and having to deal with an ‘invalid’ husband thanks to the Taliban kindly taking his leg off? Not that Tony likes to be recognised as disabled. However, that’s what it amounts to.”
“Chill, Lorne, there’s no need to snap at me. I was only winding you up. If it was anything drastic, Charlie would have sounded more panicked, wouldn’t she?”
“I suppose. Just ignore me.”
Fifteen minutes later, Katy pulled into Lorne’s drive.
Lorne bolted out of the car and through the back door before Katy had even switched off the engine.
“What’s wrong? Tell me, for goodness’s sake?” Lorne’s gaze took in her family and friends and eventually settled on Carol, who was sitting next to Charlie at the table, holding her hand. “Carol? What on earth is the matter? You look deathly white.”
Katy burst through the kitchen, and Lorne turned to face her with wide puzzled eyes. Then she walked over to the table and sat in the seat next to Carol. She threw an arm around the woman’s quivering shoulders.
“Never, never have I seen something so vivid in all my years of having this gift.” Carol swallowed noisily, and Lorne’s heart went out to her.
“Carol, please tell us what you’ve witnessed?”
The woman pulled her hand from Charlie’s and covered her eyes. Then she started to rock back and forth in her chair. Lorne knew only too well what the action meant—a spirit had a hold of her and was refusing to let go until its message had been heard.
Lorne glanced up at Tony and Katy, who both looked enthralled by what was taking place. Katy stumbled across the room and sat opposite Carol.
Carol withdrew her hands and turned to stare through Katy, as if she hadn’t seen her. “She was murdered.”
Lorne waited a few seconds for Carol to continue before she finally asked, “Who was murdered, love?”
“The young lady reaching out to me,” she said, her voice strange, sounding as if she were in a trance.
“Carol, try and get the girl’s name. If she won’t give it, try to get anything else she’s willing to share.”
Rocking back and forth again, Carol began to wail. The pitiful noise hurt Lorne’s ears. “She was murdered… she roams the earth, looking for comfort… he took her life. Why?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Lorne saw Katy shudder. She smiled reassuringly at her friend. Lorne was used to Carol’s behaviour—she’d witnessed it several times over the years, but this was the first time Katy had observed the psychic’s abilities close up.
“Search for names, Carol. Without a name, we can’t do anything, love,” Lorne pleaded a second time.
Carol’s head swung from side to side, and a deep guttural moan escaped her lips. Then her head dropped forward and hit the kitchen table. Lorne and Charlie helped Carol to sit upright in her chair.
“Tony, fetch me a glass of water, will you?”
Her husband also looked shocked. He jumped out of his bemused state, filled a glass sitting on the draining board, and quickly placed it before Carol.
“Drink this, sweetheart. Come back to us now.” Lorne ran the rim of the glass along Carol’s lip, urging her to take a sip.
Carol’s hand touched Lorne’s when she took the glass. “You have to help her, Lorne. Her soul will not rest, knowing that this man could do to others what he has done to her.”
“We’ll do everything we can to help, but we need more. You know that, love.”
“I haven’t slept a wink. Why me? She visited me in my bedroom last night and stayed with me throughout until the sun rose this morning. Her sobs filled my room. My heart will remain heavy while her murderer is still out there.”
“I’m sorry you’re going through this, sweetheart. It can’t be easy to be at a spirit’s beck and call in this way. Can you try asking out again? One last time?”
“I’m used to spirits visiting me, but never have I had one so determined to stay with me during the night to get their message across. Even Onyx whimpered. She wasn’t scared in the s
lightest, but she definitely saw the spirit.”
Lorne looked under the table when a head rested on her leg. “Hello, you. I didn’t see you under there.” Lorne encouraged the boxer out from under the table. She and Charlie had rescued and nursed the dog back to health a few months ago. “My, don’t you look beautiful. Look at her coat. What a fantastic sheen.” She bent down and kissed the dog’s head. Onyx wriggled free and licked Lorne on the cheek.
“She’s amazed everyone. Even the vet said he’d never observed such a rapid recovery from the mange.”
“That’s down to your love and care, Carol. She certainly landed on her feet the day you welcomed her into your home. So, Onyx sensed the spirit’s presence, too?”
“Oh, yes. She’s very perceptive. Most dogs are, really. People just don’t realise it. Like I said, she whined and cried a little, but it was as though she was sharing the spirit’s grief. It didn’t freak her out at all.”
“Where do we go from here, Carol?” Lorne asked, still petting the dog.
“The reason I wanted Charlie to call you out here is because I believe it must have something to do with the case you’re working on.”
Lorne’s head snapped around. She glanced at Katy and raised a questioning eyebrow. “Shall we tell Carol the victim’s name?”
Katy shrugged. “I’m not disbelieving what Carol says, but if we divulge that, wouldn’t we be putting words into her mouth?”
Carol raised her hand. “I agree with Katy. Do not tell me the name. I’m sure I haven’t seen the last of this spirit. When she visits next time, I’ll ask her to confide in me more. Here’s my line of thinking—it’s too much of a coincidence not to be connected.”
Lorne nodded. “You’re right, totally. It has answered an important question for us, though, if we are referring to the same victim.”
“What’s that?” asked Katy.
“That we’re looking for a corpse.”
“Well, we need to rein in those thoughts for now, Lorne, until we’re one hundred percent sure of the facts. If we can really deem what Carol gives us as facts. For now, I think we should keep this information between us. Am I making myself clear on that, Tony? Charlie?”