by S G Read
‘Drowned, which one?’ Rebecca asked.
Chastity looked at her notes.
‘It was called the Flying Peach.’ She answered.
‘And it definitely drowned?’ Clayton asked.
‘It did.’ Chastity answered.
‘So Faster Than Light drowned, the flying Peach drowned, are we not seeing a pattern here?’ Rebecca declared.
‘Well yes we are, Rebecca, someone is going round and drowning the faster birds,’ Clayton answered, ‘the only problem we have is finding out whom?’
‘Maybe I can help there,’ Bill declared as he walked in, ‘I ran some more tests on Billy Bryant’s bird, the one which drowned…’
‘Faster Than Light.’ Rebecca interceded.
‘That very bird,’ Bill acceded, ‘I found DNA on Faster Than Light which does not match Billy Bryant’s so I think it is likely that the bird’s killer also buried it.’
‘Does that help us?’ Clayton asked.
‘It does if we can match up the DNA to a suspect.’ Rebecca answered. ‘At least then we would know who killed the birds, it will give us some very interesting questions to ask the perpetrator.’
‘It definitely will, but we can’t very well run DNA tests on the whole pigeon racing club, the CI would never wear it!’ Clayton exclaimed.
‘But we could test the suspects to rule them out of our enquiries.’ Rebecca countered.
Clayton thought about it.
‘How long can you keep these tests below the CI’s radar, Bill?’ He asked after a few seconds.
‘It sounds like you have just changed it from suspects to all members.’ Bill answered. ‘Still, I will do what I can, he doesn’t know about the disinterred birds yet.’
‘I bet he does!’ The chief inspector answered from the doorway. ‘Clayton a word, in my office if you please.’
They watched him walk away.
‘Letter of resignation at the ready.’ Bill commented.
‘Quite.’ Clayton replied. ‘Still carry on the good work and I will get you some samples to test, if I still work here.’
The other two left and Clayton walked off to see the chief inspector.
‘You wanted to see me, sir.’ He asked from the open doorway.
‘Yes, come in please Clayton. I want an update on both of the cases you are looking in to.’
‘No news on the Leslie Felltham case as yet but I still hope to solve it, the pigeon fancier case is moving forward now that we have some evidence on the killer of the birds.’ Clayton answered.
‘And that helps us how?’
‘It could be that Billy Bryant came across the killer, who was killing his bird at the time and in the struggle was drowned himself.’ Clayton answered.
He was making it up as he went along.
The chief inspector read his notes.
‘But the bird in question was dead and buried when we found Bryant.’ He argued.
‘Yes it was.’ Clayton answered with more than a little interest.
There was a pause while he thought, during which time the chief inspector did not speak.
‘And it was buried by the killer because his owner was already dead!’ Clayton declared. ‘I think you have just moved the whole case forward for me, sir.’
‘I am glad of that, Clayton. You can think about it when you are going to look at the body they have just found under a lift.’ The chief inspector replied.
‘More flats, sir?’
‘Yes, more flats, Clayton, a good deduction as I mentioned the lift.’ The chief inspector answered, then dismissed Clayton with a nonchalant. ‘Keep me apprised on all the cases, and do try to find the Felltham murderer.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Clayton answered.
Rebecca was standing by her desk with her handbag over her shoulder when he walked back into the office.
‘You heard then?’ Clayton asked.
‘I had a call from Chastity, she is on her way there now.’ Rebecca answered.
Clayton tidied his desk before the drove to the flats.
‘Why do they all look the same?’ Clayton asked as they walked in.
‘At least it won’t matter if the lifts are out of order.’ Rebecca said happily.
Chastity was already in the well beneath the lift looking at the body. The smell was atrocious but neither Clayton nor Rebecca made any comment, or retreated. Clayton leaned over to look down at the body which had obviously been securely wrapped in plastic to stop the smell escaping and letting people know that there was a body there.
‘Someone tried to make sure we did not find it.’ He commented.
‘Yes, they forgot about the bloating which occurs and when it was high enough the lift caused the wrapping to split, exuding a rather unpleasant smell.’ Chastity called up.
‘I don’t suppose there is any identification on the body?’ Clayton asked hopefully.
‘No, no clothes either.’ Chastity answered. ‘I can tell you it is a Caucasian female, possibly mid-twenties, but might be younger. I will tell you more when I get her back and perform the post mortem.’
‘The first thing we need to know is her identity and then how she died.’ Clayton replied. ‘How long has she been dead?’
Chastity looked up from where she was working.
‘I will also know that a bit later, when she is on my slab. The liver is of no use now to find out but there are ways to work it out.’ Chastity answered.
‘A guess to get us going?’ Clayton begged.
‘More than four weeks, at a guess,’ Chastity answered, ‘but it is ‘how long is a piece of string’, at the moment.’
‘At least we can start looking through missing persons on that time line and working back in case it is longer but we will need an artist’s impression of her when she was alive to try to narrow the field a bit.’
‘Well I am ready to move the body now, so where is Bill?’ Chastity called up.
‘Ready and waiting.’ Bill answered from outside. ‘Just giving my sniffer a rest.’
‘I can understand that.’ Rebecca exclaimed but did not move away.
‘Very sensitive is my sniffer,’ Bill continued, ‘I use it well when the body has been removed and the smell improves. That is when I do my best work.’
They watched as the body was extricated from its, would be final resting place and had to dodge back when it started dripping on the concrete. Bill was ready with a container and walked with the body catching the drips until it was laid in the body bag and zipped up.
‘Right, you can leave the rest to me and my team.’ Bill announced and ushered those not wanted there out of the door.
Rebecca took no persuading to go and was followed by Clayton, outside they walked into the chief inspector as he was arriving.
‘Ah Moore, another case has come along which needs your services.’ He announced.
He turned to walk with them.
‘An MP has disappeared and it has caused a bit of a flap, put all other cases on the back burner as much as possible. His name is Nathan Carswell and he lives in Moat house, I have the full address here.’ He passed the address to Clayton who in turn passed it to Rebecca. ‘I know you will still look in to all the cases even if I tell you not to but this is an MP and it is rather important.’
‘It is still only a missing person though, sir.’ Clayton pointed out.
‘I agree but I have orders from above to put this high on my priorities and I have assured them that I will put my best man on it.’
That caused Clayton to smile.
‘I will give it my full attention but as you say, without losing track of the other cases, sir.’ He answered.
‘Good.’ The chief inspector replied and walked away.
They both watched him go.
‘A missing MP, that doesn’t happen as much as I would like.’ Rebecca commented.
‘My sentiments exactly.’ Clayton replied.
‘His girlfriend has probably decided to go public and he is trying to upstage her
.’ Rebecca declared.
‘The men who control our country, surely not.’ Clayton replied without conviction. ‘Still we’d best go to his country residence and see just what is going on. We can see about the dead girl when we get back and it will seem like we are pulling out all the stops in this case.’
They drove to the country residence and found the local police there.
‘Inspector Moore.’ Clayton announced and flashed his warrant card. ‘This is Sergeant Stone.’
‘We have been expecting you sir, the sergeant is inside.’
Rebecca and Clayton walked into the large, expensive house, noting the ornate furnishings, calculating just how much all this had cost the tax payer as they walked. They were shown into the large reception room where the MP’s wife was waiting for them.
‘Have you any news?’ She asked when she saw them.
‘I am Inspector Moore and I have been assigned to the case Mrs. Carswell. I need to know about his movement for the last two weeks, up until the time he disappeared.’
‘You can get all that from his secretary.’ Mrs. Carswell answered. ‘I thought you might have found him by now.’
‘No, we have not found your husband yet, Mrs. Carswell but have men out searching for him as we speak. We know what he looks like, as he is an MP, and we also know where he should be. We have men at all the places he has been to or should have been to, just to build up a picture of his movements. I was hoping you could give me an idea of his state of mind in the days leading up to his disappearance?’ Clayton replied.
‘Well he has been a bit edgy lately but that seemed to have passed and he was back to being his normal happy self.’ She answered.
Clayton questioned her further, trying to get insight into what the household was like but she was an MP’s wife and used to avoiding saying anything likely to upset anyone. He did realise that she did actually want him back and that surprised him, knowing what MP’s generally get up to.
They left her in the large mansion and headed back to town. That was where they could find the small office, in the office they found the secretary. The office was far from small however, when they found it. Clayton was not surprised by the size of the office but he was surprised when the secretary greeted them, she was no picture. This was not the type of secretary Clayton was expecting.
They left with a list of his appointments for the day he went missing and went off to find out whether he reached a particular appointment or not. That they did by phone to the appointed place, with the possibility of a follow up visit, if it was needed.
While Rebecca chased down the MP’s movements Clayton followed up the body which had been found under the lift. They still did not have a name despite having a DNA sample. Officers were trawling through the missing persons files to try to get a name but until they knew more it was like working with their hands tied. Clayton had sent the skull to get a facial reconstruction done but that would take time. Rebecca drew a diagram representing the MP’s movements, on a glass board, which stood in the office for that very reason.
‘So where did you get to?’ Clayton asked, when he had not moved the other case forward.
‘Well, he reached the fete, which he duly opened and that was the last anyone saw of him.’ Rebecca answered. ‘He had a go on the coconut shy, free of charge I expect and then no one recalls seeing him again but his car is no longer there.’
The phone rang on her desk.
‘They just found his car, burnt out in Kent.’ She announced.
Clayton groaned.
‘We’ll have to go, not to go would antagonize all parties concerned, not that we will glean much from the visit.’ He complained.
They walked out of the office and met the chief inspector.
‘Hello, sir, we are just going out to look at the burnt out car.’ Rebecca exclaimed.
‘I won’t keep you then, I didn’t know if you had heard yet.’ The chief inspector answered.
He was a poor liar, he had come to make sure they did go out to the site of the burnt out car and wave the flag to show that the police were interested.
‘Just heard, sir,’ Clayton added, ‘might get some useful information from it.’
He was a poor liar as well but the chief inspector said nothing.
Rebecca set the satellite navigator to take them to the spot the car was found and drove to the spot. It took half of an hour to get there and it was a total waste of time, they gained no information for their trouble. The car was a burnt out hulk and whereas it had been worth a lot of money, now it was almost valueless. Rebecca drove back to the office their duty done and they looked through what information they had. They knew where the MP had got to before he disappeared and they knew which appointments he failed to get to. All they had to figure out, was, what happened to him. They sat in the office discussing the case with the office deserted.
‘So what do you think happened to him?’ Rebecca asked.
‘I think he pissed someone of big time and he is buried somewhere for his trouble, MP or no MP.’
‘So we have to find where he is buried before we get any further then?’ Rebecca asked.
‘That is about the size of it, not that that will go well with the CI. He wants answers, sooner than later.’ Clayton complained.
‘We can’t work miracles.’ Rebecca replied.
‘Talking of miracles, do you want to see me at work in the kitchen again?’ Clayton asked.
‘I will need to pop home first, so I’ll drop you off, go home and feed Tiger, then come back in time to eat it.’ Rebecca answered. ‘If that is alright for you?’
‘That sounds fine, let’s go.’
Another night of passion ensued.
They arrived together the next morning, just as they always did. While they were enjoying the night together, Belinda Mainwaring was finishing the reconstruction of the girl under the lift’s face. They found that out when they arrived and Bill was soon doing a thorough search to find out who she was.
He arrived later in the day with the news they waited for. He could have phoned the information up to Clayton but that was not his way, when he had important information, he liked to pass it on in person.
‘She is Veronica Thomas, Kemo Sabe, she’s been missing for a couple of weeks, her mother reported her missing when she did not come to see her when she normally did and did not answer her phone.’ Bill reported as he passed Clayton the file that would have told him all that anyway.
‘Thank you for the update, Bill. It saves me from having to read the file you brought up.’ Clayton answered.
‘There is a little more in it than that, Kemo Sabe, it might be worth a chat to her mother. The girl in question was living in a penthouse which she could not afford, according to her mother.’ Bill added.
‘A chase the money job then, Bill, better than sitting on our hands looking into this other case.’ Clayton answered.
‘Don’t let the CI hear you saying that, sir.’ Rebecca warned.
‘I think he knows how I feel about MP’s and such the like, people who get paid to lie, or bend the truth to suit whatever they want it to suit.’ Clayton answered.
‘And most of them have mistresses.’ Bill added.
Clayton smiled a big smile.
‘There we have it then, she was his mistress and by chasing the money it will lead back to him. He killed the daughter and her mum killed him.’ He declared. ‘So by chasing the money we are working on the MP’s case!’
‘Now that is what I call a leap of faith, Kemo Sabe.’
‘But it gives me a good reason to see who was paying for the dead girls flat. I can imagine why she was living in a penthouse, as she was a looker according to this picture.’ Clayton answered, holding up the picture he was talking about.
‘Good luck with that then.’ Bill replied and left them to it.
With someone to interview, Rebecca and Clayton were soon on their way to see Mrs. Thomas, Veronica’s mother. She opened the door and let them in, n
ot knowing that the news in the search for her daughter was bad.
‘At last someone is actually looking for my daughter,’ she declared as she let them inside, ‘all I got when I asked was, that they were not sure she was missing at this point in time, every time I asked and I have asked a few times.’
Clayton and Rebecca walked in and went into the room she indicated, neither of them was looking forward to giving her the news, and Rebecca was glad for once that she was the sergeant.
‘Do sit down, please.’ Mrs. Thomas insisted. ‘I suppose it is bad news but I am ready for that.’
Clayton was glad that the woman broached the subject and seized the opportunity to tell her.
‘We have found the remains of a young woman and are seeking to find out if she is or isn’t Veronica.’ He announced and watched the woman’s face.
It turned to a mask to hide the distress she was feeling.
‘So you are not sure and would like a DNA sample?’ She asked.
‘That is about the size of it Mrs. Thomas.’ Clayton answered.
‘I do have her hair brush from when she was a little girl, I have heard that DNA can be collected from hair, if that is the term used.’ The woman answered.
‘We can get DNA from a hair sample and that will let us know one way or the other if it is Veronica.’ Clayton answered.
Mrs. Thomas picked up a clear plastic bag containing the hairbrush that she was talking about, it was there and ready to go whenever it was asked for. She obviously feared the worst.
‘You had it there already for us then Mrs. Thomas.’ Clayton said showing her that he had noted that very fact.
‘I hoped someone would find her one day, dead or alive to give me closure. We did not see eye to eye on all occasions and argued about the fact that she was living in a penthouse, one that she could not afford to live in. I knew someone else was paying for it but I did not know who.’ She answered.
‘You had no idea?’ Clayton pressed.
‘No, she kept it a close secret but I do have the address, that way you can find out who was paying for it and ask them what happened to her!’ Mrs. Thomas answered.
‘We can certainly follow the money trail and hope it leads somewhere.’