Mystery: The Isherwood Case Files (Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Murder, Detectives, Fiction, Unsolved Mysteries, Mysteries, Thriller, Intense, Drama)

by Johnny Scotland

  “You do need to stay here for a little while longer.” he explained.

  Going through the footage proved fruitful and, as Isherwood suspected, the image of Kim's husband's face appeared not long after she had left. He looked violent. He looked angry and had moved across the hall toward the stairs. After that, the cameras had lost track of him, though he was definitely on his way into the hotel. They continued to watch the videos until he made his exit, one hour later. That was sufficient evidence to put him in the frame for murder. What poor Kim hadn't realized was that although Ian had suffered a heart attack, he hadn't actually died from that. It was the injuries sustained in the chute that had killed him.

  “I want you to stay here Kim for about another hour. If you want to telephone your child minder, then do so now.”

  She did as she was bid, and said nothing at all to alarm the babysitter, simply that she would be another hour or so. Once she had done that, she gave the phone back to Isherwood. There was a kind of question in her eyes that he was unable to answer yet.

  “Did your husband know you were seeing Ian?” asked Robert.

  “He must have done from what you tell me but I have been trying to rack my brains as to how he found out.”

  When the lads from the station brought Tom Bell in for questioning, he looked furious.

  “I will lose my job if I take too much time off.” he objected.

  “Then we will not keep you long.” said Charley. “We are looking into a homicide.”

  “If a man is dead, can't it wait until I finish work?” Tom Bell asked.

  “I'm afraid not.” said Isherwood as he entered the room. He felt an irritation toward this man who did so much physical harm to his wife. He had always loathed that kind of cruelty that comes out as violent though does more harm mentally to its victim.

  “I need to know your whereabouts between the hours of five and seven on Tuesday.” said Isherwood, knowing full well that the man would lie.

  “I was with my buddies. You can check that out.” said Tom Bell.

  “Then how come I see you in this video footage?” he asked, showing the man the entrance to the hotel and the exit an hour later.

  “Okay, so I went to the hotel. Wouldn't you? My wife has been seeing someone. I found a note and needed to see for myself. She had marked the room number and I had overheard her talking about this place with a friend of hers. Didn't take long to put two and two together.”

  “Then why the laundry chute?” asked Isherwood.

  “You wouldn't believe me if I told you.” said the man.

  “Try me.” said Isherwood. “I need a full statement of what happened.”

  Chapter 8 – Putting the Clean Laundry out to air

  “I knew that my wife was thinking of leaving me.” he said. “but I didn't want her name to be emblazened across the newspapers in a sordid story of an affair.” said Bell.

  “So are you willing to make a full statement?” asked Robert.

  “You have no proof that I had anything to do with this.” said Bell. “All you know is that my wife had an affair and that I was in the hotel.” he said. “But you have no proof of murder.”

  “So tell me what happened and let us judge that.” said Robert.

  “I went into the hotel to get my wife. I knew which room she was in. The maid let me in when I told her that I had forgotten my key. Upon entering the room, the drapes were closed. There was that horrible smell of perfume that Kim insists on using, so I knew it was the right room. When I pulled back the curtains, I saw the dead man in the bed. That's when I freaked. If they found him there, there would be signs of Kim having been present and that's the last thing we needed.” he said.

  “So?” said Robert who had taken over the investigation.

  “So I had to protect her. She's my wife. I had to move this dead body out of her room so that no one could associate him with her.” he said. The man could have saved himself the bother, as the room was clearly registered to Bradshaw himself. Ignorance and pride were the motivation for this act, rather than protection of his wife's reputation.

  “No one killed anyone.” he said. “Sure I was a bit rough with the guy putting him down the chute, but I never killed him. You can't exactly be cruel to a dead man can you?” he scorned. It was this scorn that Isherwood picked up on.

  “And you are not usually a violent man?” he asked.

  “Of course not.” said Bell. “Ask my wife.”

  “I already have, which has given me my answer. You are under arrest for the murder of Ian Bradshaw.” he said with some look of satisfaction on his face. Not only was the man a cruel and vindictive one, though had he believed that Bradshaw was dead and he had shown no respect for the dead either.

  “But I am telling you the man was already dead.”

  As they led him to the holding cell, Isherwood rang the coroner's office to confirm the exact situation. Yes, the man had suffered a heart attack, but he was still alive when he was placed into the chute. His head had been thumped before he was placed into the chute and subsequently twice against the wall of the chute and the floor at the bottom of the chute. He had multiple bruises where he had been manhandled along the corridor and there was undue force used to place him into the chute because marks on his body suggested several attempts before finding the right position to get him into the chute.

  “I have to inform you that you are being charged with murder in the second degree.” said Isherwood, although the violent manner of the guy possibly deserved more than that.

  “You can't murder a dead man!” Bell mocked.

  “He may have been unconscious but the coroner confirms that the man was not dead until your manhandling of him. That makes you a murderer.”

  It was ironic that this man of violence who had mistreated his wife so badly was now about to find himself the victim of circumstance, found guilty of murder even though he believed the man to have already been dead. The man's face looked ashen for the first time since his arrival. Yes, he was accustomed to inflicting violence, although there was little satisfaction from inflicting it on a man who played dead.

  “Before you are taken down to the cells, I need to know what you did with Bradshaw's telephone and wallet.” he said.

  “They're in the dresser at home.” said Bell.

  Isherwood wanted to make a special attempt in this case to take Kim Bell home himself. Now he had another reason. He had seen women who were beaten before and she deserved better than she was getting. They stopped to pick up the baby and he could see her nervousness and sense of loss.

  “I need to come in with you.” he said. “Apparently Ian's wallet and his phone are in the dresser.”

  She walked toward the dresser and retrieved it. Looking through the messages on the phone, Isherwood noticed that there was a text ready to be sent. Who knows when that text would have reached Kim, perhaps after making love, perhaps the next day. All he knew was that she deserved to receive it.

  “We will find happiness.” was all that it said and though that happiness might never be assured, at least Kim had a chance to start again, taking advantage of the time her husband was locked up and unable to harm her. She could now move forward in tiny steps toward a place where there was no more dirty laundry left to hurt her.

  Mystery 4:

  The Isherwood Case Files

  A Case of Check Mate

  By Johnny Scotland

  Chapter 1 – The Man With a Limp

  “An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.”

  Margaret Atwood

  Murder is never a pleasant matter to deal with, and the scene of the crime was being examined in great detail. This was the murder of a gentleman who had been a leader in the local church. The man was practically a saint from the reports that had been taken from all of the people who were potential witnesses, though Isherwood doubted the authenticity of his reputation. He had come across staunch religious people in the past and usually it was fear of God, rather than re
spect for the man, that led people to making such glowing statements. The preacher had been found by the cleaning lady, who had immediately alerted the police.

  Looking over the crime scene, the strange thing that Isherwood noticed that people had given little significance to were the contents of the pockets of the deceased. In his cassock pocket, they had come across a white knight from a chess set. The white knight was always a powerful piece on a chess board, and Isherwood thought that there would be some significance to this.

  The wound was strange though Isherwood would wait until the coroner had taken a look before investigating that further. There had been no sign of a forced entry into the building but there were a few strange things that he did notice.

  “What page is the Bible open at?” he asked Charley, his partner. Charley wasn't a big reader or a Bible man but knew that if Isherwood asked something, there would be a good reason for it. Charley looked baffled because he didn't know where to look though as he passed it to Isherwood, he could see the words that were highlighted.

  The words “An eye for an eye.” told him that this was some kind of revenge. Revenge for what he didn't know, but all of the evidence was bagged up and taken down to the station for him to ponder a little further later. For the time being, he looked around the room. He asked if he could listen to the answering machine, and the forensics guys said it was okay. Listening to the message on the machine, he got the distinct impression that the preacher had indeed been a fire and brimstone type of preacher and had probably made a fair few enemies over the course of his career. There was that smugness in his voice that spoke volumes, and it wasn't all Biblical verse.

  Charley Bradley was getting accustomed to Isherwood's idiosyncrasies. The guy was a little strange, but he seemed to get results and that was what mattered. Standing holding the Bible that Isherwood had passed back to him, he tried to use his powers of observation. That was the whole purpose of Isherwood being here, to teach the homicide division new tricks. He looked toward the door which the intruder had no doubt entered. The forensics guys were getting all of the info that they could from the area, though he did notice something outside the door which no one seemed to have notice. The footprints which came up the garden were strange.

  “Isherwood!” he called, and Isherwood approached.

  “Our man had a limp.” he commented feeling proud of himself for the discovery. He had to admit he might not have noticed that in the past, but there was a definite limp that could easily be detected from the footprints. The man's right side foot seemed to have left impressions which were lighter than the left hand side. Isherwood called the forensics to check out the prints and to take casts. They were remarkable in detail, to the point of being able to detect the tread, much like a tire print. These would indeed be helpful. Isherwood thanked Charley for his observance.

  Having spoken to all the neighbors and people who had been near to the scene when the police had arrived, Isherwood and Charley made their way back to the station. There was a kind of bond of friendship forming between them. Charley felt it and so did Isherwood. Together, they would work toward catching this perpetrator, but there was much legwork to be done first.

  Chapter 2 – Game, Set and Match

  “Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.”

  Garry Kasparov

  The chess piece that had been placed into the evidence bag was the first piece to be taken out at the station. There had to be some significance, though Isherwood wasn't sure what it was.

  “Do you know if we have had any homicides reported where a chess piece was found on the victim?” he asked Robert Wilding, who was seated at his computer and was in an ideal position to cross-check.

  “I am not sure, but I will cross-check it and see what we come up with. What time scale?”

  “Does it need a time scale? I would say that our perpetrator was fairly old from his limp. That was a fine find, Charley, by the way.” said Isherwood, smiling over at Charley. He wanted to acknowledge Charley's part in the discovery, since Charley was obviously very pleased with himself.

  “Okay” said Robert, after some time. “I have isolated two cases where chess pieces were used, although there may be more. These date back quite a way and I am continuing to go through the database to see if there are more.”

  The homicide crime board was being filled out by Charley. He had the name and photograph of the victim, the people who had last seen him alive, the woman who had found him at 9 in the morning and the small pieces of evidence that they had gathered. So far, that wasn't much. The man was not criticized by anyone who they had interviewed and that wasn't unusual immediately after a death. People needed a little bit of time and acceptance before they usually opened up about a victim, and they had noted that it may be necessary to interview the cleaning lady at a later date, since she may be more privy to the preacher's movements than anyone else. They had his diary but that was proving to be of little use, and there were no messages of significance on the answer phone.

  Isherwood waited for the print out from Robert's computer though it was taking a long time going through all the old cases. When the screen stopped and the printer made its final print, Robert tore off the sheet and passed it to Isherwood. There had been several murders where chess pieces had been left in the pocket of the deceased. That was interesting. What was particularly interesting was the fact that these were in the kind of order they would be used during a chess game, the pawns being the first followed by classic moves that even Isherwood had played in the past.

  “Can you map out the locations of all of these murders onto a grid?” he asked Robert.

  Robert loved the new software. He was able to do so much with it, and he was out to impress Isherwood with the technology the department had. Isherwood may have the brains, but it was nice to be able to show off the capabilities of the computer and to come up with concrete results. The map was easy to do and pinpointed each of the murders. This was helpful because all of the murders had been within city limits. Who the guy was playing the game against, Isherwood was not yet sure, but he was sure that there was significance in all except one case. In this case, the King had been left in the pocket of the victim and since it was too early in the game for a King to have been played, this ruled out this murder as being a part of the series.

  “Now can you look up whether anyone was found guilty of these crimes?” he said.

  Robert was fast to come up with the information. “The first of these crimes was committed in 1980 and the perpetrator was not captured. Then there are a series of murders through the eighties and up until 1995 when a perpetrator was arrested. He was subsequently found guilty on three counts, although he got a pretty light sentence considering there were multiple murders. His name was Josiah Hettenburg and he was sentenced to twenty years the term being finished this year.”

  Isherwood was delighted with the results of the computer inquiry because it gave him all he needed to know to either find or to eliminate Josiah Hettenburg from the inquiries. Before tracing him to his accommodation, Isherwood thought that a talk with the prison officials may be of use. Grabbing his coat, he coaxed Robert to join him. Together, they would find out the past of the man who left a chess piece as his trademark. Perhaps the inquiries would lead to nothing. In the meantime, he instructed Charley to interview the cleaning lady and find out what he could about the deceased.

  Chapter 3 – An Old Hand at Murder

  “Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.”

  Thomas M. Cirignano

  There was a lot of fuss at the prison. They guy on the desk remembered the perpetrator and said that during his stay there, he headed the chess team and won a great reputation for himself as a gentleman. When pressed further, it turned out that the man had suffered a stroke while under lock and key and that
the resulting injury would have made it unlikely for the man to up to his old tricks. That didn't put Isherwood off the scent. People had been known to have strokes before and recover so that wasn't at issue. What he needed to know from the staff was whether this had caused injury to his right side or his left side. The officer couldn't remember, but referred Isherwood to the infirmary where it was confirmed that the injury was to the right hand side.

  “How did he deal with it?” asked Isherwood.

  “He adapted. People have to. They don't really have a choice.” said the doctor.

  “How did he adapt?” Isherwood pressed.

  “He learned to use his left hand and by the time he left here, he was quite proficient.”

  As they turned to leave, Isherwood offered one more question.

  “Did the man have a pronounced limp after his stroke?”

  “Indeed he did.” said the doctor, and that was sufficient evidence for Isherwood that they were on the trail of the right man. Having taken all the details of the whereabouts of this man, they were ready to visit. Isherwood was a little doubtful that the man would be where he was supposed to be. After all, he wasn't on parole. He was a free man since he had served his sentence, albeit a light one for the lives that he had destroyed.