The Singhing Detective

by M. C. Dutton

  Sharon and Tony were waiting for him. It was 11.30 a.m. and time was ticking on. He had requested and got a side office to set up for his enquiries. He had explained that all his enquiries were highly confidential and certain names had to be protected. He had alluded to his undercover contacts and how they needed to be protected. DCI Radley was giving him what he needed for the time being. He hoped his 2 p.m. meeting with him ensured he kept the case.

  The storyboard was looking more interesting. There were pictures on there and he sat back and let Sharon and Tony explain what they had found out. He would keep the names he was given until last.

  Sharon started. She said she had found out that Tiger Holdings was owned by a shipping company but when Stephen Paine searched the records it appeared that Tiger Holdings was nothing to do with shipping, and the details started to get quite fuzzy. The most that could be found out was that it was based in the Far East with a head office in Taiwan and the link to the shipping company was quite tenuous. Tiger Holdings was an import/export company that on the face of it bought and sold silk. But there were no records of any silk having been bought and sold and searching through all the information didn’t show what else it bought and sold, if anything. There was a reference in an obscure sub-subsidiary company of Tiger Holdings, called Eastern End Company, to a Mr Tran Tan Giap. He appeared to be the owner of the car.

  It all sounded very confusing and strange. Sharon said that Stephen could investigate more if necessary. He said it would take a long time to unravel the company. In his experience, they had something to hide. No legitimate company, even those trying to find legitimate ways of saving tax, would go to all this trouble. There was more to this than he could find in under 24 hours. Jazz asked him to continue to look. In summary, he asked Sharon to check out Mr Tran Tan Giap and see what she could find.

  Tony pointed to the pictures on the storyboard. He told Jazz that these were the two identified by Lenny the postman. They were illegal immigrants who had been missing for over a year. Apparently, they had come to the notice of the police 18 months ago for handling drugs and there was a warrant out for them for failing to appear at court. Their names were Giang Nguyen and Tho Luong. To Sharon and Tony’s astonishment, Jazz jumped up and punched the air, shouting yes! More excited than he had felt for a long time and breathless with adrenalin, he told Sharon and Tony that his informer had given him these names as the two men he was looking for and tomorrow he would know where they were. The case was theirs and sorted. He asked Tony to follow up with SOCO to find out if these two men’s prints were found in Alice’s house and the house next door. This would nail them. He asked Sharon to go and see Stephen and ask him to continue looking through the Tiger Holding Companies to see where that led.

  It was 1 p.m. by the time they finished and he wanted some downtime before his meeting with DCI Radley. He had to get his story straight regarding Mr Singh and the ashes. He said that lunch was on him and he led both off to the canteen. Milly welcomed them with her best smile. She had a soft spot for Jazz; he always treated her with respect and made her laugh. She would blush to admit it, but she thought he had a thing for her and that made her feel very girly. Not bad for an older woman, she told herself.

  As they sat eating, a few DCs came over to ask how they were getting on with the murder. Jazz was flattered they bothered. He knew he wasn’t their favourite DS and he knew the rumours about the incident were rushing around the place like wild fire. Gossip in a police station was breathtakingly fast in the speed it got round and soul destroying in its bitchiness. Sharon and Tony had been told to watch their backs with Jazz. It was intimated by some and blatantly told by others that Jazz wouldn’t be there for them if they got into serious trouble. He hadn’t heard exactly what had been said but he could guess. Things hadn’t changed much over the years at Ilford Police Station, he told himself. They had all agreed in the incident room that the answer to any questions regarding the murder was to be ‘Everything is coming together and we should have something worth telling you within a day or so.’“You just don’t know who to trust and what could be said within earshot of a villain. Police stations are full of villains,” is what he told Sharon and Tony. “That is, after all, what police are paid to do; catch the bastards!”

  Sharon wished him luck with DCI Radley and Tony chipped in and said they would wait outside to hear the verdict. They both wanted to keep this case and they could feel that they were getting close to nailing it. The adrenalin around the table could have powered a lighthouse for a week. Tomorrow would challenge their stamina, their skills and their nerve.

  Lunch was good, steak and kidney pie with mashed potatoes and baked beans. Just what the doctor ordered, Jazz told his team. He didn’t exactly tell them how Mr Singh’s ashes had irreverently sat on the stones at Tilbury instead of wafting out to sea in a poetic fashion, but he did tell them he was in trouble. They sat discussing possible reasons why he had already scattered Mr Singh’s ashes and it was interesting to see what weird and wonderful ideas came up. Sharon suggested aliens came down from a spaceship and took the urn full of ashes. Jazz discounted her idea. He suggested he could say something about the time of the month and when the moon was full the ashes had to be scattered. All thought that sounded complicated because no one knew what the moon was doing anyway. Another suggestion was that the crematorium had lost the ashes. They suggested Jazz dropped the urn as he left the crematorium and the ashes blew away. It was getting silly now and Jazz looked to them for something credible he could use.

  Tony was the most imaginative. “Okay,” he began, leaning back in his chair. He looked at each of them and, seeing he had their full attention, continued. “Relatives of Mr Singh came from India, unbeknown to you, and took the ashes back with them. When you went to collect the ashes, they had gone.”

  It was a fantastic answer to his problem. Jazz grasped his idea with both hands. Simple and easy and very believable. He patted Tony on the back and promised him a drink later. It was bloody brilliant. It shouldn’t upset DCI Radley and with a bit of luck and the wind in the right direction they would get to keep the case too. He went to his meeting feeling much more confident than he had earlier in the day. DCI Radley was, as usual, behind his desk waiting for Jazz.

  THE BOND AND THE PROMISE

  It was strange, they had worked together for a few weeks before Jazz came on the scene. They coped alone with the newness of the job and the brutal teasing newbies got in a police station. It wasn’t until Jazz arrived that they looked on each other as work partners. Jazz was like a blender, when he arrived, everything got stirred up and whisked together. They had both bonded with Jazz and were in the process of bonding with each other. His way of working was unique and it worked. In the short time Jazz had been around, both Sharon and Tony felt invincible as part of his team. They could see he was a winner. It was a good feeling, if somewhat dangerous. There was always someone ready to poke a stick at complacency.

  Sharon and Tony waited in their investigation office with their fingers crossed. They knew the case shouldn’t have been given to them. They also knew that Jazz seemed to have nine lives and they reckoned he would talk the DCI into giving them more time. They had names, the car registration, and they were close to getting the killers.

  Sharon was on the phone to Stephen, sweet-talking him into taking on the job of delving into the affairs of Tiger Holdings and giving it his full attention. Stephen moaned that he had enough to do but Sharon was adamant that this was a very sexy case with murder, drugs and goodness knows what else. Much better than the dry cases he usually dealt with. She said she would help him and she would do anything he wanted her to do. Tony listened and wondered what she was going to help him with. Her voice was suggesting more than paperwork. When she came off the phone, Tony murmured that perhaps she was offering too much. Sharon laughed and told him to bog off. She knew what she was doing and hadn’t offered anything other than help with the files.

  Tony phoned the Fingerprint De
partment. After a few minutes’ discussion, he was put on to the head of the department and it was agreed he was to email through the fingerprints of the two men picked out by Lenny. These would be looked at and compared with the fingerprints found in the murder victim’s house and the cannabis factory next door. He was promised results by the next morning. It was understood how urgent this was because it was a murder enquiry. The paperwork was up to date; they had built two files of papers so far. They had set the wheels in motion and now all they could do was sit and wait for Jazz to return and hopefully tell them they still had the case.

  Doors certainly opened when you mentioned you were working on a murder enquiry. If it had been one of their small-time thefts, they would have had to join the queue along with other officers waiting to have fingerprints examined. The murder enquiry gave them a heady sense of superiority, prestige and deference. The two of them said how fantastic it was to be involved in this case and they could get used to the treatment you got from everyone involved when on a murder investigation and they didn’t want to lose the case, not when they were getting somewhere. They couldn’t believe their luck. Two rookie Detective Constables working on a murder case had never been heard of before. They were beginning to think that Jazz was either a saint or the devil to have this luck. They hoped his luck would last. If he had made a pact with the devil, they didn’t care, they just wanted to keep this case.

  They chatted whilst waiting. Sharon realised she knew nothing about Tony. They had been so busy getting to know the station and how it worked, and then all hell was let loose when Jazz arrived, that they just hadn’t had time to properly get to know each other. She asked where he lived and he told her he lived with his parents. That sounded odd to her, but then, she thought, she was very independent and had left home as soon as she could. She wasn’t that old before she got married to the bastard. She asked Tony many questions about who he went out with, what sort of girl was he looking for but stopped for a moment when she noticed he was looking a bit uncomfortable. Tony was a nice looking chap. Nothing special, but also nothing out of place, no big nose or horrible teeth and he had all his hair. He didn’t smoke and he didn’t drink much. She wondered what he did do. Her questions got more and more personal and he told her to stop. After a pause, she asked quite blatantly if he was gay. He was mortified by such a question and answered that he was celibate and not gay. She was quite mystified by such an answer and changed the subject completely and asked if he liked modern music or classical. They discovered they both loved blues music and a bit of classical. Sharon reckoned Tony would make a good friend with no strings attached. She had always wanted a gay man as a friend; all the pleasure of a man without the sex. She wouldn’t raise the issue of whether he was gay or not again, she figured he would tell her in his own time.

  There were things that Tony never told anyone. He would never call himself gay. He was ashamed that anyone would think that about him. He was in his teens when he discovered he wasn’t interested sexually in girls. They just didn’t appeal to him. He tried the usual fumbles with a girl but he wasn’t interested and it actually sickened him. He had never done that with a boy; he never would, he told himself. There was a young man called Anthony who lived near him that he was friends with. He was blonde and slightly built. He had an air of grace and moved like a dancer. Tony was entranced and charmed by him. He had hands with the longest and most beautiful of fingers that tapered exquisitely and Tony loved to watch them wrap themselves around a book or hold a pen. For some time he followed Anthony around, just waiting for him to look at him or speak to him.

  Eventually it became obvious to everyone that Tony was acting more like a lovesick fool than a schoolboy friend. Anthony was not allowed to hang around with him anymore and Tony’s mum banned him from going out after school for quite a while. She never mentioned why but her tight-lipped frown said it all. All she ever said to Tony was “Nice boys don’t do things like that.” The statement was never explained but he thought he must never ever again think about male friends.

  Tony carried the guilt of just looking but not touching into adulthood and even his adult knowledge of life could not shake his mother’s statement. He decided to call himself celibate. He pushed all sexual thoughts and needs into the background and refused to let them come out to play. He was fooling only himself.

  Tony, wanting to get off the conversation about him, asked Sharon about her life and she gave him the potted version. She left home at 16 years and lived in a house with two other girls and a boy. She worked in retail until she joined the police force. She met her husband, who was also in the job, and was married for quite some time before she found out he was on the job with some other woman. She divorced him and enjoyed her freedom. She didn’t mention that her freedom entailed sleeping with as many men as she could. After some time, she got it all out of her system and realised it was all meaningless. Her career was her goal now. She wanted a man she could rely on and yes, she wanted a good sex life, but she wasn’t going to take as many lovers as she had at Bethnal Green. She knew she could get any man she set her mind on and for the moment knowing that was enough. Jazz would have done her nicely, she liked him and she liked his attitude, which she found very sexy indeed, but if she had learned nothing else, she had learned not to mix business with pleasure. He was safe for the time being.

  Now they had both shared a little about their lives she wanted it sealed with a handshake. She held out her hand to Tony and said, “Let’s shake on it. We will be buddies and I am there for you.” She was a forceful girl, and Tony was taken aback by such a display. He looked at her and hesitated for a moment. Something must have touched him, for he smiled and shook her hand in agreement. Neither would have picked the other as a friend, they were too different in temperament and style, but they each had things in their past they would rather bury. Perhaps that is why they needed to make this alliance work. They would certainly need a buddy to watch their backs in the next few days.

  With Sharon in control and Tony embarrassed by such a display of comradeship, they both sat and waited for Jazz to appear. As they were drinking their third cup of coffee, Jazz breezed into the room. He stood still and they looked for some sign on his face of whether it would be good news or bad. He was having none of it and made them wait. He asked for a cup of coffee and threw himself into a chair.

  Whilst Sharon was fetching the requested coffee, Tony enquired, “Well?”

  To Tony’s dismay, Jazz shook his head. “We will wait for Sharon before I tell you,” was the answer. Tony nodded, relieved that the shaking of the head had nothing to do with not having the case and more to do with not saying anything until Sharon came back. The tension was high and they both sat tightly and quietly waiting for Jazz to tell them the news. He blew on his coffee and sipped it tentatively “God this is hot,” was all he said. He knew he was being a bastard but they could wait a few more seconds.

  “Come on, skip, tell us,” was Sharon’s whining plea. Both were fidgeting now and enough was enough, they needed to be told.

  “We keep the case for a week,” was all Jazz said.

  The scream from Sharon and the shout of “Yeeessss” from Tony was heard in the CID general office. It didn’t need saying but Jazz told them they had to work hard to get this case finished. The paperwork had to be perfect, and DCI Radley wanted to see the prepared papers in the morning to ensure all was up to scratch. They raised their coffee cups and chinked them together, the case was theirs and they were going to solve it! Just then there was a tap on the door and an officer entered saying they needed to get to the CAD room immediately, a couple of bodies had been found in a house in Ilford.

  Charteris Avenue was nearer Newbury Park than Ilford. It was a tree-lined road with very pretty terraced houses and small front gardens. The house was on the corner of Charteris Avenue and Benton Road. Jazz had his gloves on this time. Jenny, the SOCO, was already there, moaning as usual.

  “Are you the only SOCO ever on duty
Jenny?” was Jazz’s cheery hello.

  She muttered something filthy in his direction and carried on looking at the bodies. He was told to wait outside for 10 minutes and then she should be finished. He had a cigarette and told Sharon and Tony to look around. The flask in his pocket called to him and he turned and took a quick swig. He felt edgy; he wanted to know who these two were. He had been called because it was supposed it was something to do with his case. He needed to find out why.

  Jenny joined him for a cigarette. John, her assistant SOCO, was told to get on with his job. She was a tyrant to work for, Jazz thought.

  “OK, my darling, what have you got for me?” he asked with the sweetest of smiles.

  She looked at him and muttered something about him being too bloody fresh and told him the doctor said they had been electrocuted. He reckoned they had been dead about 24 hours. An anonymous phone call came through to Ilford telling officers to go to this address. They were Vietnamese by the looks of them. She said they were in the process of setting up another cannabis factory. The wiring was in ready for the lamps. She reckoned they tapped into the live mains and got careless. She took fingerprints and yes, she knew what he would say, and yes, she would get him an answer by the morning. He kissed her on the cheek and asked if he could go inside. She protested at his kiss just enough to make him realise she enjoyed it. On her say so he went inside. The mortuary van arrived but before they were taken away, Jazz took a look at the bodies. He called in Tony and got confirmation that they were looking at the bodies of Giang Nguyen and Tho Luong.