And Then They Were Dead

by Michael Martin

  Falls stands motionless staring in the mirror. He doesn’t even register what Small has just said to him. Then out of nowhere he bursts into tears.

  “Sir we killed an innocent man, we did it sir, we killed an”

  “Shut the hell up Falls, keep it down.”

  “But sir we”

  “No Falls we didn’t, he did it, now pull yourself together. We don’t need that rumour flying around the station, not now.”

  “But sir we”

  “No Falls we have to catch this man, that’s what we have to do, now shut up and come on.”

  Falls follows Small out to the car, he doesn’t say a single word.

  “Look Falls I still think he’s involved, we just have to prove it. OK?”

  Falls does not say a word both officers know he’s clutching at straws saying this. Falls opens the passenger door and silently climbs in, he sits staring directly in front and does not speak a single word on the way to the crime scene.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I'll Teach You

  Chapter 20 I’ll Teach You

  The officers pull into the street where the crime has taken place, the whole street is overrun with people, even the press are there and all the neighbours are out. Small turns to Falls “We’ve made this cunt a celebrity, we need to catch this guy and we need to catch him fast.”

  They pull their car in at the end of the road, and walk up towards the house. The press spot the officers and quickly run over.

  “We thought you’d caught the killer?”

  “Is the man who died in prison innocent?”

  “Have you saved enough tax payers money now?”

  The officers continue toward the house under a barrage of questions, they reach where the house has been taped off and can see that the forensics van is already here, officers have circled the parameter like a wall to keep people from charging through the tape into the house.

  Small produces his badge “DCI Small and DI Falls.”

  The officer standing in the manmade wall looks at his badge and lets them both through.

  Small enters the property first, it is a box like terrace house which opens into a coat room no bigger than a cupboard, this then leads straight into the living area. The walls are decorated in a summer yellow, there is dark leather furniture matching the wooden floor and pictures of a boy on most walls. Lying directly in front of the TV unit is the body a plump teenager, she has her head bashed in and the bottom half of her face is completely missing. Small feels a relief as he looks down at the body, he thinks maybe we did get the right man.

  “This doesn’t look like the work of our killer she’s much older than the other girls, and he doesn’t appear to have spent much time with her.”

  The forensics officer looks over to Small and shakes his head, “It wasn’t her he was after sir, the victim is upstairs and the family are still in the kitchen. This girl is just the babysitter.”

  Without a word Small closes his eyes, sighs and walks past the stairs which are central to the house, like a purpose built divide between the kitchen and living areas. He enters a bright kitchen, enhanced by the sunlight coming through the large open window. The pastel orange walls and a terracotta tiled floor would usually give the room a summery feel, but not today, today the room doesn’t feel summery at all.

  There is a dark haired woman slumped over the kitchen table that looks unconscious, she is lightly built and is probably in her 40s. A tall dark haired man is sitting by her side with his arm over her shoulder. He is a large slender man, thin in build but looks quite muscular. The man stares directly into the Smalls face. Small immediately recognises him from the school and his heart sinks, god another innocent couple from the school have been targeted, he thinks.

  “Please don’t ask her any more questions at the minute officer, I don’t think she could take it.”

  Small nods to the man in recognition of his instruction and proceeds back to the stairs and up the narrow stairway. The forensics officer at the top of the staircase looks sickened, he doesn’t speak, just points toward the Childs bedroom.

  Small has no idea what he is about to find in the room directly up the stairs and to the left. All he does know is that this killer is just getting started and that these killings are getting worse. His heart begins to race. He freezes on the stairs for a while, not going any further. He does not want to enter the room directly up the stairs and to the left.

  This is a little boy’s room, the walls are covered in Manchester City and Ricky Hatton posters, the DVDs on the shelf directly below the television are mostly football and action movies. There is a blue number 3 football shirt hanging over the chair in front of the Childs desk, the name on the back reads ‘Bennett’.

  The officer suddenly remembers Ms Bennett from the school and realises who the woman slumped over the table downstairs is. A small pair of football boots sit beneath the chair in front of the desk, folded neatly on top of these boots are a small pair of shorts, some socks and a pair of shin pads, as though these were supposed to be used today.

  The curtains, carpet and wallpaper are all navy blue and a football shaped alarm clock sits alone on the bedside table.

  Small looks over to the Childs bed, a naked corpse lays central on the small wooden bed. All the skin from the child has been removed from the waist down. The small red legs could easily have been mistaken for a man’s arms and the head, again, has been removed. Both arms have been cut from the centre of the fingers right the way up to the elbow. There is a lot of blood around the arms, and it looks as though this injury may have been done whilst the child was still alive. Skin from the legs and buttocks has been rolled into a ball and placed on top of the neck where the head should be. On the corner of the pillow, there is folded piece of paper that looks like it has been put there intentionally.

  Small looks back to the forensics officer and points to the paper, the forensics person nods and small picks up the piece of paper. It reads:

  I’ll teach you!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Three’s a Family (almost)

  Chapter 21 Three’s a Family (almost)

  Adam gets home and quickly runs down to his cellar. Looking that copper straight in the face has been the highlight of his week. Teresa acted just how he had hoped she would, she was distraught, heartbroken, a total mess. The police asked him to call in and see them as soon as possible. He decides he will go later today, but first he wants to spend some time with his trophies. How he misses them when he isn’t here. He has 3 heads now and is collecting quite the little family together. One of his heads those idiotic coppers don’t even know about, but they will do, they will do real soon.

  Adam strips every piece of clothing from his body and lays on his dissecting desk. He takes each head from its jar in the order of the Childs death it resembled. There was Rebecca Redgrave, a girl he didn’t yet know the first name of and then the newest one, that of young Andrew Bennett.

  He places the heads across his naked chest so they are all looking at him and begins to masturbate. Adam could still smell Andrews mother on him from the night before, oh how he’s evolved in the last two weeks, how he’s erupted into his own. As he thinks this semen spurts over the back of all 3 of the heads, he is in his element he is becoming his ultimate self, a detached being, one detached from all this vermin that infests his planet.

  Adam finishes and places each head back into the jar that it came from then collects together all his clothes from the stone cellar floor. He then goes upstairs to shower and is soon ready to go to the police station and answer questions.

  Adam knows Teresa won’t be going to see the police anytime soon, they will probably have to chase her, but not him, he is different he will go to them. He walks into the police station, head held high, feeling confident and elevated, he is better than they are, he is smarter than them and he wants to rub it in their dirty little pig faces.

  “Hello Adam” comes from across the room.

  “Hel
lo DCI Small.”

  “Thank you for coming in to see us so soon, I know it must be hard after what you have seen today.”

  “Yes, it is officer, but I want to help you catch this man as soon as possible.”

  “Thank you, we appreciate that, so Adam what were you doing over at Ms Bennett’s house this morning?”

  He looks shocked and taken aback with the question.

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  DCI Small can see the uneasiness in Adams face.

  “It’s nothing to worry about Adam, I was just asking.”

  “Teresa and I are kind of seeing each other, we went on a date to Leeds last night and when we got back, well you know the rest.”

  Yes and that clears me for the killing Adam thinks to himself smiling inside.

  “Have you ever met her son before Adam?”

  “No, this morning was going to be the first time we got to meet in person, although I am sure she will have told him lots about me before today.”

  DCI Small can feel a cockiness coming from the man standing in front of him, an arrogance that he doesn’t like. The man in front of him did not seem to care that a boy had just been tortured and mutilated to death. Small knows that doesn’t make him the killer. He wasn’t going to jump the gun again and ruin his own career, this man was in Leeds when the boy was killed anyway.

  “Did the child go to your school Adam?”

  “No he didn’t, I don’t know where he went to school, Teresa never mentioned it.”

  “Who at your school knows that Teresa has a son? Besides yourself obviously.”

  “I’m not totally sure, probably most of her female friends will know.”

  “I know this is a hard question and I want you to think about it carefully, but is there anybody you can think of at your school who you believe could do something like this? If not a teacher, maybe one of the parents, or somebody involved with the school?”

  “No definitely not, nobody at our school would dare do what this man is doing, they wouldn’t have the bottle.”

  Adam stands and thinks for a moment

  “Mrs Redgrave has a very violent temper though and she does have a wicked side that she tries to hide, but I can see it in her.”

  “What makes you say that Adam?”

  “When you know someone you know someone; I guess I just know her very well as I have known her for such a long time.”

  “Can you give me an example of a time you’ve seen her temper?”

  “You’ll have to speak to her, I can’t think of one off the top of my head.”

  “OK Adam thanks for coming in to see me so soon.”

  “No problem, so are you any closer to catching this man?”

  “We have some strong leads to follow up, I can’t really say more than that.”

  “Ok I see, well if you need my help again please just ring me.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Cheeky Grin

  Chapter 22 Cheeky Grin

  Small wakes up early the next morning, he can’t get the man he had met the day before out of his head. He knows Adam was in Leeds the night of the killing and couldn’t have anything to do with it, or could he? The only way he can see that Adam could have had anything to do with the crime, would be if Teresa was also involved.

  He quickly pushes that thought to the back of his mind, he can’t run with his gut on this case anymore, he has made a fatal mistake on this one and can’t afford another. That would surely ruin his career.

  “DI Falls? Hi it’s Small, what time you coming into the station this morning?”

  “I’ll be there within the hour sir.”

  “Ok ill meet you there, we need to talk.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Falls hangs up the phone and pulls the cord to switch his shower on. His boss sounded funny on the phone then, he wonders if he is he in trouble or something, he didn’t know the answer, but he did know something wasn’t right.

  Small walks into the station to find Falls is already there waiting for him.

  “Morning sir, have you seen the papers?”

  Smalls heart sinks, he had forgot all about the press coverage.

  “No I haven’t. Anything I should know?”

  “You mean besides the whole of the UK thinking an innocent man died in prison because of you sir!!”

  Falls grins at his superior, like it was a funny joke.

  “Not funny Falls, where is it?”

  “The paper is in the kitchen sir, go take a look”

  Small walks into the kitchen, its a mess as usual, dirty cups fill the sink, dirty tea towels cover the sides and old newspapers are piled at least a foot high on top of the microwave. “Do we have a bloody cleaner in this building or not?” he says to himself.

  He takes the paper from the top of the pile and there, front page he sees Adam, the man he can’t get out of his thoughts staring back at him holding poor Teresa Bennett in his arms walking from her house. She looks like a mother distraught, a woman who has lost her only son, a woman on the brink of suicide. Adam on the other hand seems to have taken the time out to smile for the cameras, he looks like a man who has just struck big on the lottery, or has had his biggest achievement spread across the front page of the local paper.

  Small cannot help but think this man has something to do with the crimes, this man knows something he’s not telling us.

  “Falls get in here.”

  Falls skips into the room lightly panting, “Yes sir?”

  “Have you seen this fucking man’s face, look at that smirk from ear to ear, he has something to do with it, I know it.”

  “No sir not again, that wasn’t what I was on about and if you want to go on another wild goose chase can I please play no part in it.”

  “Falls look at his face, he’s smiling, why the hell is he smiling, can you not see it?”

  “It wasn’t his kid sir, was it?”

  “I know he’s involved Falls I just know it.”

  “Sir we’re detectives not gossips, let’s do our jobs properly and get it right this time.”

  “Your right Falls sorry, just for my curiosity though will you come and speak to him with me?”

  “Yes sir, but can we please follow up more solid leads first?”

  “We don’t have any Falls. In fact I did meet this guy yesterday, he came into the station and I got a funny feeling about him, like he was boasting or bragging.”

  “Sir that sounds a bit farfetched to me and definitely isn’t what I meant by solid lead.”

  “He also said he thought Mrs Redgrave could have something to do with these crimes.”

  “Is he crazy sir? Mrs Redgrave seems like a lovely woman, and she lost one of her kids remember.”

  “Yes but have we seen her since Falls?”

  “No we haven’t sir, she’s not been there since the day of the killing. Could you be in the house where your child was slaughtered though sir?”

  “I think we need to follow all leads up Falls and that’s the only one we have.”

  “Smart arse aren’t you sir, but you win as usual.”

  Both men smile at one another like old friends, they are old friends really, just rank makes Small senior.

  “So you’ll come with me then?”

  “You know I will sir, we have been partners for ten years, if they take you down, then they take me down too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The Bad Date

  Chapter 23 The Bad Date

  Teresa sits in her kitchen staring into nothing. She can’t go in the living room or upstairs. Her heart is breaking with the thoughts of what her baby had gone through. The pain he must have felt before dying is running over and over through her mind, he must have screamed for her. She feels overwhelmed with guilt at the thought of enjoying herself whilst he was being tortured and mutilated. She keeps picturing someone hurting him, someone cutting into his skin whilst he writhed in agony and tried to escape. A man must have looked st
raight into his eyes and told him he was going to hurt him, going to kill him, and he meant it, he did it, he did it right here in this house.

  She puts another Valium into her mouth and gulps it down with a glass of water, tears streaming down her face.

  A knock comes at the front door, Teresa doesn’t want to see anyone but she doesn’t want to be alone either, not in this house.

  “Hello Teresa, sorry to come around unannounced like this I just wanted to make sure you are ok.”

  “That’s ok, come in I don’t want to be here alone anyway.”

  “How are you feeling today?”

  “Worse, much worse, everything keeps going through my head, the pain he must have felt, what the man must have said to him, how scared he must have been.”

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  “No, I’ll be ok.”

  Teresa breaks down crying, tears roll down her puffy red face, she begins to scream as though she is in immense physical pain.

  “I keep seeing him over and over again lying on his bed, they took his head, oh my god why would they do this, where is it, what have they done with my baby’s head?” She howls, sobbing uncontrollably.

  She clutches the person in front of her and cries for what seems like forever.

  “We had nobody else, we had no family, I have no real friends, nobody to talk to, it has always just been me and him. I’m alone in this now even he’s been taken away from me. Thank you for coming round Adam.”

  “That’s OK Teresa, shall I make us a drink of Tea?”

  Teresa looks up from his chest and nods. Adam steps toward the workbench and picks up the white plastic kettle from the side. He fills the kettle and puts it on its holster to boil.

  “Do you think you want to live without him Teresa?”

  “What?”

  “Do you think you want to go on living without him?”

  “I don’t know Adam; I just don’t know if I can handle it.”

  Adam smiles at her, not a nice smile. Teresa notices something about this smile, something she doesn’t like.

  “Why the fuck are you smiling Adam? Nothing’s funny!”