Lucy Spires – The Blind Detective

by Peter Hamilton

  “Lucy,” said the man opposite. “That is an argument I have nothing to come back with. Emma, get Phil Henderson and take yourselves to the ’Shopwell Tyres/ depot and have a closer look at both our suspect and the lorry he cares enough to take home and bloody polish. I’ll let our Chief Constable know our new line of enquiry.” With that, he sat down and picked up his desk phone. He looked up. “Ladies, what are you waiting for? Please close the door when you leave!”

  Lucy Spires’ heart was pounding in her chest. DC Emma Harper guided Lucy Spires towards DC Phil Henderson. Lucy Spires quickly went through the details she had told Detective Chief Inspector Butler. He sprang to his feet, ready for action. Lucy Spires lifted a hand and spoke. “Can we take a marked police car? If our man is there, I want him to know who we are. I want him to feel uncomfortable from the second we arrive!”

  DC Phil Henderson made a quick call to the police garage. He had always liked driving marked police vehicles as every driver adhered to every letter of the highway code when they were around.

  Chapter 10

  The two detectives and Lucy Spires drove to the ‘Shopwell Tyre’ depot. On the way through traffic, Chief Constable James Ingram rang DC Emma Harper to tell her he had sent further police officers to support in case needed. He had spoken to his new ‘friend’, the managing director of ‘Shopwell Tyres’. He would give them as much help as possible. The drivers were returning following delivering stock to their customers. Lucy Spires asked DC Phil Henderson to park the police car in full vision of the employees of the tyre company. Before they got out of their police car, Lucy Spires asked to go straight to the target vehicle. Identify their target suspect Richard Edward Garner, keep watching him, and she said he must be kept away from the vehicle. She also asked DC Phil Henderson to keep the owners away from the parked lorries and keep them busy and away from any interfering. He agreed to do this as he trusted Lucy Spires’ judgement completely, although what he was going to say he didn’t know.

  Phil Henderson led them into the workshop where there were four lorries parked, all reversed into the building. The lorry at the end of the row was the suspect one. He double checked the registration number with police headquarters. They confirmed it was indeed the target vehicle. Phil Henderson went through a glass door with a sign above it saying ‘Office – Private’. He had his identification card in his hand. Lucy Spires and DC Emma Harper waited near the lorries. DC Emma Harper looked around. She could see a half dozen faces looking through a window from a room to the left of the office where DC Phil Henderson was talking to a man in a smart suit and a younger man, also smartly dressed. She took them to be the managing director and his son. The six faces peering through the glass looked like they were indeed drivers and warehouse staff. Three had mugs in their hands, and one had a newspaper. The other two looked as though they were using mobile phones. Phil Henderson came out of the office, putting his ID wallet in his jacket pocket as he walked toward them.

  “The MD and his son are only too pleased to help us with our enquiries. There is still a vehicle due back anytime, but it’s a pickup truck, used for very local jobs. We have free reign to look at all the vehicles. Our Chief Constable wants his help in eliminating them from our ongoing investigations.”

  With that, DC Emma Harper led them both to the back of the lorries. The end vehicle was the one of most interest. The lorries had hydraulic tail lifts, all on the floor, presumably ready to be loaded for the following day. Lucy Spires and DC Emma Harper stepped onto the tail lift of the end lorry.

  “Going up?” asked Phil Henderson as the tail lift jerked into life and the two girls were lifted around four feet from the ground. Lucy Spires held onto the side as they rose up. She felt a little queasy. When the lift had stopped, Lucy Spires walked into the empty space. The smell of rubber from the tyres was all around. She walked slowly further into the lorry. She turned to face her friend.

  “Emma, please tell me what the staff in the room next to the office are doing?” she said.

  DC Emma Harper spun slowly around. She glanced then turned back facing Lucy Spires. “Ok, two are playing on mobile phones, one is reading a newspaper, the other three are not looking toward us, having a hot coffee by the look of them. Why do you ask?”

  Lucy Spires then walked towards the front of the empty lorry. She stopped when she felt a wooden wall in front. The smell of rubber was stronger here. She thought the warm sunshine would have made the rubber tyres warm up, hence the smell. But there was something else, something she couldn’t quite explain that was wrong. She felt her way back toward the rear door. She counted her steps. Twelve in total. When she reached the back of the lorry, she heard Phil Henderson talking to the two gentlemen from the office about tyres for his daughter’s car and moaning how he would end up paying for them. Lucy Spires felt her way toward DC Emma Harper, who took hold of Lucy Spires’ arm as she was near the edge. Lucy Spires moved her head nearer to DC Emma Harpers.

  She whispered, “Emma, please look over my shoulder and tell me if any of the six have changed or moved.”

  Again, DC Emma Harper looked through the dusty glass, over the shoulder of Lucy Spires. She took a breath and said, “The one reading the paper hasn’t moved. Two are washing up cups, one is talking to a colleague while still looking at his phone, and the other is still on his phone.”

  Lucy Spires asked her friend to pretend to make a phone call while watching the men at the same time. DC Emma Harper did as she was told. She discreetly pretended to be talking on her mobile while watching the men. Lucy Spires again walked towards the front of the lorry. The rubber smell was stronger the further she went, but there was something else, something wrong. She couldn’t work it out. She again paced to the rear of the lorry. DC Emma Harper unprompted turned towards her friend.

  “Lucy, the newspaper reader hasn’t blinked, hasn’t turned a page and is staring at your every movement. The other five are going about their business in a completely normal way. I think one of them, washing up their mugs has broken one, the others are laughing and joking. Our newspaper reader has not moved a muscle.” Her voice was trembling as she finished her sentence.

  Lucy Spires felt for her friends’ arm and squeezed gently. “Time to go down now,” said Lucy Spires.

  DC Emma Harper pressed a button with a downward arrow on it. The tail lift stuttered for a second then with a bump, the tail lift was on the floor. Lucy Spires still held her arm.

  She said softly, “Is newspaper reader on his feet?”

  “No, he hasn’t moved. He is staring at us,” came the reply.

  Lucy Spires felt the side of the lorry. It felt smoother than the inside roughness of the wood panelling. She asked her friend again to watch the reactions through the window as she paced up and down the outside of the lorry. As she neared the front of the lorry, she had the unnerving feeling something wasn’t right. She walked to the end of the lorry, just before the cab part of it and let her hand slide along the side as she counted her steps from front to back. She did this twice to make sure she hadn’t miscounted. On the inside, she had taken twelve steps, but on the outside, she had taken almost fourteen. Then she realised the thing that was nagging at the back of her mind. She could smell rubber, obviously from tyres, but there was also the smell of petrol.

  Lucy Spires could hear Phil Henderson talking rubbish. He had done a great job, as he was asked. Lucy felt along to the rear of the lorry. She reached out for Emma’s arm.

  “Emma,” said Lucy Spires. “Get our lads in here now. Call for back up as I think newspaper reader may turn violent.” With that DC Emma Harper took out of her pocket her police radio and called in the car full of officers into the building.

  The two owners stood looking at the swarming officers running into the building. DC Emma Harper took charge,

  “Lads, over here please.”

  Five uniformed officers came and stood before the two women, joined by a smiling Phil Henderson. Lucy Spires told the police officers to k
eep everyone where they were. She gestured to DC Phil Henderson to come close to her.

  “Phil,” said Lucy Spires, “I don’t think I’m wrong, but if you come with me, you can help to prove me right.”

  With that she stepped onto the tail lift. DC Phil Henderson held Lucy Spires’ left arm as he pressed the button with an arrow pointed upwards. The tail lift shuddered again as it lifted the two detectives and Lucy Spires up four feet. It came to a stop. She walked toward the front of the lorry. Confident steps; she knew how many she could take. As she got to the wooden wall, she stopped.

  She took a breath and said, “Phil, Emma, behind this wood you should find a black or dark coloured motor cycle with no lights or registration number on it. Plus, I would guess a pair of new leather gloves and a box or a chart containing trophies, earrings from all the girls this coward has murdered.”

  The two detectives stood speechless. Phil Henderson looked at the way the wooden wall was held in place. There were butterfly type nuts holding up the wall. He undid the top four, then the middle two and two near the base. He was a tall man. He moved the panel. It dropped a little in height, then fell backwards into the empty storage space. DC Emma Harper moved Lucy Spires further back from the wooden panel DC Phil Henderson was lowering down.

  Behind was indeed a medium sized black motor cycle, on a stand held at an angle to keep in place. There was bag with a set of black clothes on top of the seat. A small petrol can to the left-hand side, a pair of gloves, used for gardening or DIY covering his wrists. Above that was a pegboard with small jewels taped to it with a little note with a time and a date. At the side of the motor cycle was a small handmade wooden shelf with a wet shaving set, a razor, shaving gel, a pack of moistened toilet tissues and a large opened pack of condoms.

  “Lucy,” he said, his voice trembling. “We have the murdering bastard! I’m looking at leather gloves, a black motorbike, a full set of biker’s leathers, a board with clear taped earrings and a note of times and place of the murders. How on earth did we do this?” His voice fell away. He turned to see Lucy Spires standing, holding on to the wall. Tears were rolling down her face. He walked over and put his hand on her arm. He started to guide Lucy Spires toward the back of the lorry. She put her hand firmly on his, her heart racing. They walked slowly towards a row of uniformed faces, almost all were smiling.

  The other officers had watched the events in the back of the lorry unravel. The atmosphere among them became a noisy one as most realised what had just happened.

  From nowhere came the scream of a very angry man who tried to fight his way toward the two females. He was stopped in his tracks by four burly uniformed officers.

  He kept shouting profanities, screaming, “The whores deserved to die! Every bitch whore deserves my hands on their necks!”

  He was very strong. The two uniformed officers were brushed aside. He was intent on stopping his lorry from any further investigation. A team of six policemen manhandled him to the ground. He was trying to lash out, bite, head-butt and still screamed profanities and threats to kill the two female officers with his bare hands.

  He was still screaming as he was bundled, his hands behind his back safely handcuffed and moved towards a waiting police car. DC Emma Harper ran towards him. She stopped the officers putting him into the back seat of the car.

  She took a deep breath, looked at Lucy Spires and said, “This is for you Lucy. Richard Edward Garner, I am arresting you on suspicion of murder, murders including Julie Ann Cooper, on fifteenth of March, twenty eighteen. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?” She looked at the leading uniformed officer, nodded and within a second he was pushing his head down gently as he went into the back seat of the car.

  DC Emma Harper looked at his face through the passenger door window, he had a look of disgust on his face. His brow had drops of sweat from his exertions. He stared at her and banged his forehead twice against the glass. DC Emma Harper smiled as she could see a red mark above his dark, staring eyes. Blue lights flashing, the police car pulled away with three uniformed policemen squeezed into the car along with the suspect.

  Dc Emma Harper walked back to Lucy Spires. She put her arms around her and gave her a hug. She could hear DC Phil Henderson breaking the news to Detective Chief Inspector Toby Butler on his mobile. He barely stopped to take a breath. This was the biggest case he had ever been involved in. DC Emma Harper held Lucy Spires for a further few seconds. They parted, Lucy Spires still holding her friend’s arm. DC Emma Harper looked around for her colleague, DC Phil Henderson, who was walking toward them.

  He said, “The whole team have sent their congratulations. DCI Butler is absolutely delighted. I don’t think we could make him any happier. He wants our statements on his desk by nine tomorrow morning. Chief Constable Ingram has personally sent his thanks. We have all made a difference and brought something to solving this case.”

  After all the mayhem, more officers arrived. She could hear various voices as the officers were taking statements from the employees of ‘Shopwell Tyres’. She heard the managing director and his son talking about the suspect they’d just arrested. They were so shocked and trusted this man. She heard them say he was the perfect employee. He was never late, was the last man to leave. His customers thought he was a genuine friend to most of them. He’d even told the managing director he was to join a choir at his local church to help a few elderly neighbours out and take them along with him. He even took his lorry home some weekends to clean and polish it on his own time as he wanted to represent the company in such a good way.

  DC Emma Harper took hold of her arm. “Chief Constable Ingram wants to speak to you. He’s got the press on his back and he’s preparing a statement,” she said, putting her mobile in her hand.

  “Ex Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Spires!” he said slowly. “What can I say. How the hell did you fathom this out? The whole police headquarters is talking about you. What gave you your breakthrough?”

  Lucy Spires brushed the wetness from her face and took a deep breath. “Well,” she began. "I knew it must be our man. I don’t do coincidences. There were too many things that led to him. Being unable to see and being distracted, I went over the pieces again and again. I came to the conclusion the lorry was the key. A vehicle can’t be in two places at the same time. But if you are clever, the driver can. I went through all the statements. There were snippets of information. The motorcycle, seen a few times, he free-wheeled quietly. Why? The way he killed these women. The trophies he took from them, they couldn’t be larger ones for storage. The dates of the offences were too close not to be important with the CCTV sightings. Then, when I got onto the target vehicle, I could smell petrol. My father had a moped when I was growing up. The smell of two stroke petrol filled our garage constantly, so I knew it had to be a petrol driven motorcycle. I counted my steps inside the lorry, then counted them from the outside. There had to be a false wall, with what was hidden behind I wasn’t quite sure what we would find. Then I realised exactly where he parked his lorry in the motorway services was a key piece of evidence. He parked the lorry there to use the motorway service station service road. This is the road used for deliveries for the shop, restaurants and emergency vehicles. They are never used at night, no CCTV needed and links to all routes. Our man would open the panel in his lorry, take out his motorcycle, free-wheel out of earshot, go to the woman, do what he did and return the same way.

  “There was no DNA to pick up as he shaved all his hair off and always used a condom. I realised this when I heard his work nickname of ‘Hairless Reg’. I just put these pieces of the jigsaw together. They fitted and that is why I knew it could only be this man. Sir, you have no idea how good this feels!” With that, she took the phone from the side of her head, passed it to DC Emma Harper, who terminated the call.

  Lucy Spires had never felt so tired. She turned to her friend. “Emma, will you take me home? I’m shatte
red. But will you please go via chicken in a bucket! I’m absolutely famished!”

  DC Emma Harper laughed out loud. The butterflies racing around her body were starting to settle down. Taking a good friend to share a large amount of fried chicken would be a pleasure. The circus of the police team was left behind as they drove away. Forensics were busy taking photographs of every inch of the lorry. Both didn’t speak as until they reached the home of Lucy Spires. They went in and went through the whole case.

  This was the first major case DC Emma Harper had been a major part of. She hoped it would not be her last. She had planned a long and progressive career. She also wanted a family. She came from a large family: a sister and two brothers. Her father worked as a hospital porter and her mother as a library assistant. Both were surprised at her career choice, but she really enjoyed the police force. Every day is different, with fresh challenges and working with a fantastic number of people she thought.

  Lucy Spires later said goodbye to her friend. She was to pick her up at eight o’clock the following morning to complete her statement. She wondered if this was to be her final contribution, her final case. She knew she would see Chief Constable James Ingram in less than twelve hours. She wondered if he would ask for her help again, or would she live in her total darkness alone. There was one final case she would like to close, that of Farooq El Haj. He was the person who caused her blindness. As she was still alive, she was the loose end he should have cleared up. She knew this man, knew how evil he was, and knew how much suffering he brought, bringing in his cache of drugs, bringing in people illegally. She had time to plan how to bring this man to justice. She knew his secrets and she had a person on the inside. The only thing she didn’t know were the names of the members of all the agencies Farooq El Haj had on his payroll. She knew he kept a book and inside were all the names, contact details, payments made, the reasons they had no choice, but to join his organisation, which meant reasons they would never leave. The file on him was in Lucy Spires’ head. She would never read it again, but the knowledge she had would put this man in jail for a very long time.