Snow Kills

by RC Bridgestock

  ‘She’s the cats mother!’ snapped Mrs Merryfield.

  ‘Did you go with him?’ said Andy.

  ‘Not far.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘He started going down people’s paths and stuff, looking in their windows. He was trying to catch someone getting undressed, naked and that, he said. At one house he got up the drainpipe onto a porch roof because from the road you could see this woman walking about in her bedroom with what looked like a towel around her from where I was standing.’ Ryan sniggered. ‘The drainpipe came away from the wall and made a right noise, so I ran off.’

  ‘So you both went to try look at this half-naked woman?’ said Andy.

  ‘Well, it wasn’t quite like that, but yeah, I suppose we did. Sorry mum,’ he said turning towards his mum with a bowed head. ‘I think Donny frightened the woman though.’

  Mrs Merryfield looked at him with tears in her unblinking eyes.

  ‘How’d you mean?’

  ‘Well when I ran I heard this scream and when he caught up with me he was laughing. He was still buttoning up his flies, so you didn’t need to be too clever to guess what he’d done.’

  Andy and Ned looked briefly at each other.

  ‘Do you know which house it was?’

  Ryan shook his head.

  ‘Okay, let’s put it this way, if we asked you to show us, do you think you could?’ said Ned.

  ‘Now?’

  ‘No, not just now but another time maybe?’

  ‘I know whereabouts it was and it was the only house with no curtains upstairs. Like I said before, Donny notices stuff like that.’

  ‘So go on, what happened then?’ Ned said.

  ‘Snow was really, really heavy. It bothered me, like I say I was cold, wet and hungry by this time. Donny was drinking, a lot.’

  ‘My son’s a peeping tom. How am I going to live that down,’ Mrs Merryfield said quietly as she wiped away a tear that ran down her cheek with a handkerchief from her apron pocket. Ryan looked at his mum as she blew her nose loudly.

  ‘Carry on, Ryan. Anything else you can remember from that night?’ said Ned.

  ‘There was a car at the side of the road and Donny said he knew whose it was. He banged on it and shouted something to the person inside but I didn’t see who it was, I only heard a woman’s voice. He thought it was highly amusing. Like I say, he was drunk,’ he said by a way of an explanation. ‘Then a man shouted at us. He sounded really angry and so we legged it. Donny went one way and I headed home, I’d had enough and that’s it. God’s honest truth mum, I haven’t seen him since.’

  ‘And that’s everything you know?’ said Andy.

  ‘I swear,’ he said, nodding his head.

  ‘You say Longbottom said he knew the person whose car he was banging on?’ Andy said.

  ‘He said he did, but he says he knows lots of stuff, just like...’

  ‘He thinks everyone fancies him,’ said Ned, nodding.

  ‘I don’t know whose it was. The cars were all covered in snow but it was a pink car though, I could see that much.’

  ‘And you don’t know who owns the car?’ Ned said.

  ‘No, it was a woman’s voice, that’s all I know.’

  ‘What about the person who shouted at you?’

  ‘It was a man but I didn’t stick around to see him, he sounded proper mad. Donny shouted ‘run’, and I scarpered.’

  ‘We’ll need a statement from you, Ryan. It may help us with the girl’s movements before she went missing.’

  Mrs Merryfield nodded. ‘So the girl that’s gone missing, that’s her car you think?’

  ‘Yes it is,’ said Andy.

  ‘There won’t be a problem with you giving a statement, will there Ryan?’

  ‘No, mum.’

  Andy and Ned were pleased. They had a statement from Ryan Merryfield. It was a few new pieces in the jigsaw puzzle. Donny Longbottom could now be put at the scene and they had no doubt the ‘flasher’ reported that night had been down to him too. Could it also have been Norris Regan who had shouted at them?

  Chapter 24

  Dylan picked up his mobile. ‘It’s gonna be a late one love. One of the lads is coming back for tea, but don’t worry, I’ve warned him it’ll be fish and chips,’ he texted Jen.

  Dylan’s office phone rang. Vicky walked in the office as he picked it up and she stood quietly waiting for him to finish.

  ‘So, Longbottom’s charged with attempted rape,’ he said, raising his eyes to look at Vicky from where he was seated. ‘I want to see the remand summary,’ he said before putting the phone down.

  Dylan’s mobile phone beeped. He sat with it in his hand. ‘Longbottom expected to be going home,’ he said to Vicky, while reading the text. He closed his eyes momentarily and put the phone back down on his desk. ‘Someone else I’ve upset today,’ he said. ‘Better make that fish and chips and a big bunch of flowers.’

  ‘Donny Longbottom expected what?’ said Vicky.

  ‘He didn’t think he’d be staying in for Court.’

  ‘Wait ’til he knows that it’ll be recommended that he should be remanded to prison until his trial,’ she said.

  ‘Prison is a place he hasn’t been yet. I expect his defence team to be making an application for bail.’

  Vicky sat down and took off her shoe. ‘My bloody feet are killing me,’ she said, rubbing the ball of her foot. ‘I don’t know how I ever walked the beat.’

  ‘You were younger and fitter then,’ he laughed.

  ‘Cheeky sod, I haven’t put on weight since I’ve been in CID.’

  ‘Yeah, whatever,’ he said, absentmindedly.

  ‘DI Turner about, Lisa?’ he called, looking past Vicky and out into the CID office.

  ‘No sir.’

  ‘Get hold of him will you and give him my home address. I’m going to have to call at Court and speak to the solicitor, so it’d be better for him to make his own way there tonight.’

  ‘Will do,’ she called back.

  Vicky looked at him with a furrowed brow. ‘Oh, I’ve invited him round for tea. The others have gone back today and he was on his own. I felt bad I hadn’t even had a drink with them.’

  ‘And how does Jen feel about that? Ah, get it, the big bunch of flowers...’

  ‘Ah, she’ll be fine.’

  Vicky shrugged. ‘She’s a better woman that me, coping with a teething child and entertaining your bloody cronies.’

  ‘That’s why I married her and not you Vicky,’ he said with a grin. ‘It’ll be right. He’s from down there isn’t he? They’ll have lots to talk about when she gets over herself. She’ll be pleased... she just doesn’t know it yet.’

  ‘Changing the subject, I’ll tell you what,’ Vicky said, quickly. ‘They don’t miss much in Merton village where I’ve just come from. I’ve been to a W.I. meeting at the Church Hall up Manchester Road today and those who knew Mrs Regan and her son from old, said they’ve been known as a strange pair for as long as any of them can remember. He used to push his mother about in a wheelchair and they’d swap their wigs years back. They say, he thinks they don’t know it’s him that dresses as his mum but they just accept him as he is.’

  ‘So, he’s known as being strange, nothing else?’ he said, chewing his lip.

  ‘Well they said that they hadn’t seen him as her, oh God you know what I mean, about for a while... but then no one goes out much up there in winter if they don’t have to. I’ve wrote it all up in my pocket book and got all their details, but since I had to go on my own I’ve got no statements as yet.’

  There was a knock at the door. A uniformed Sergeant stood, in his shirt sleeves, with his hand resting on the door handle.

  ‘Can I have a quick word in private?’ said the Custody Sergeant.

  Dylan looked bemused. ‘Of course, Sergeant Maude, come in,’ he said.

  ‘I’ll make a drink boss,’ Vicky said, hopping to the door as she tried to put her boot back on. She squeezed past the Sergeant, who was
built like a tank. Maude stepped into the office with a twinkle in his eye and shut the door behind her.

  ‘Take a seat,’ Dylan said, ’What can I do for you?’ he asked him.

  ‘It’s more what I’ve done for you sir,’ he said, tapping the side of his red, bulbous nose. His voice was deep and deliberate with an impressive rasp. ‘This Longbottom, what a weirdo. I’ve just been down to his cell doing a bit of interviewing, off the record like. I thought I’d have a go at him about the Misper; Harwood girl for you. I made him shit himself,’ he laughed. ‘Uniform said you lot were gonna have a little chat with him later but you don’t need to now, I got the cough.’

  Dylan could feel anger bubbling to the surface. His fingers held his pencil just that little too tight and it snapped. His arms were rigid but he allowed the officer to continue.

  ‘I had him in tears, nearly crushed his balls. A wrestler would have been proud of that testicular claw,’ he snorted. ‘He admitted the indecent assault. Yeah, just before one of them bloody civilian gaolers came down the corridor to see what all the fuss was about. I had to look sharpish and get out, but not before I told him we knew he was also a murderer. And do you know, reckons he’s a hard knock, he just curled up in a ball and cried like a little baby. Soft bastard kids these days, should be made to do national service,’ he sneered.

  Dylan stood up, slapping both hands down on his desk and gave an almighty roar that rattled the office window, ‘You fucking idiot!’ he shouted.

  PS Maude jumped in the chair and Dylan’s voice dropped to nothing more than a whisper.

  ‘Not only have you broken every rule in the book, you twat, you have assaulted him for no good reason. I’ve heard it said before, but it’s right you shouldn’t even be in this job, let alone be a supervisor. You’ll go back and record on the detention sheet what you have just told me, now. Do I make myself clear? And I want a duty statement from you. Mark my words, you’ll be dealt with for assault. Now get out of my office.’

  ‘But I thought …’ he said.

  Dylan picked up the phone but held it to his heaving chest. He stopped. ‘That’s just it though isn’t it? You didn’t fucking think. You egoistic prick, you just wanted to get an admission, which is fucking worthless to me. You’ve crossed the line once too often, Maude – and this time, it’s big time.’ He dialled a number on his landline. ‘Discipline and Complaints please,’ he said, giving Sergeant Maude a glare that could have cut steel.

  Vicky stopped at the door, tray of drinks in hand. She took a step back and rested it on Lisa’s desk. ‘If I were going to pick a fight with someone, Lisa, I might choose somebody smaller than Maude,’ she said under her breath.

  ‘From what I’ve heard, it’s not Dylan that needs to worry,’ Lisa said, pulling a face.

  ‘Get out of my sight,’ Dylan roared.

  The door flew open and Lisa and Vicky turned away.

  ‘You’ll regret this. If I lose my job... if I lose my pension because of you, you’ll pay. Mark my words, you’ll pay,’ Maude said.

  ‘You threatening me, Sergeant?’ Dylan shouted after him. Sergeant Maude stormed through the CID office, his face like thunder, slamming the door in his wake. The girls flinched. The door almost came off its hinges as it crashed back into the frame. Dylan’s eyes followed Sergeant Maude out of the CID office. He was tempted to go after him and arrest him, but he knew gathering the evidence first was necessary. Maude was the sort of officer that gave the police a bad name. With his length of service, he should know better.

  ‘Guess you’re off his Christmas card list then this year,’ said Vicky as she cautiously entered Dylan’s office waving a white napkin a couple of minutes later.

  ‘No one is above the law, Vicky. D & C have taken charge. I’m required to make a witness statement. Ned called him Thumper didn’t he? He’s already under investigation. I can’t get over the fact that he thought he could simply walk in and interview someone in a case of mine like that.’

  Dylan put his pen to paper. ‘The sooner the statement’s completed, signed and faxed to D & C, the better,’ he said.

  ‘Guess our interview with Longbottom will be delayed?’

  ‘It will now,’ he said.

  Within the hour, rumours were flying around Harrowfield nick, quicker than any intelligence system could ever circulate information. On leaving Dylan’s office, Sergeant Maude had picked up his coat and left the police station, telling his supervisor he felt ill. The internal team of D & C were already in the cell area interviewing Donny Longbottom, who confirmed to them what the Sergeant had told Dylan. Longbottom was being medically examined and his injuries would be photographed as evidence.

  ‘It’d be only right to wait, or even do a prison visit to talk to Longbottom after he’s remanded tomorrow. An interview now will be frowned upon in the future and seen to be unreliable as well as pressurised,’ he said, with venom in his voice.

  ‘Well, Sergeant Maude was always said to be someone you didn’t want as an enemy but he met his match with you boss. I know a lot who’d have turned a blind eye.’

  ‘No one frightens me Vicky,’ he said. ‘One thing I won’t do is walk away.’ Glancing at his watch, a look of horror crossed his face. ‘Oh, my God, I should have left for home half an hour ago. Jen is going to kill me.’

  Vicky laughed. ‘No one, boss?’ Jen had definitely got under the once confirmed bachelor’s skin.

  Seven o’clock, there was a rap at the front door. Jen had just got Maisy settled and she flew down the steps to avoid further commotion that might wake the sleeping child. She couldn’t make out who the person was standing at the other side of the patterned glass but guessed it must be Dylan’s guest. She practised her false smile in the hallway mirror as she passed and hoped the make-up she’d applied earlier had survived Maisy’s bathtime antics. Once tonight was over, she would speak to Dylan and tell him the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about her past and DI Shaun Turner.

  Opening the door, she gasped. It couldn’t be. Her stomach flipped. Max hurtled past her to greet their guest. It was true, dogs didn’t forget.

  Chapter 25

  Andy and Ned arrived back at the nick, just in time to see Dylan jogging out of the building.

  ‘Sir, hold on! We need to speak to you before you go, it’s urgent,’ shouted Ned.

  ‘Jesus, make it quick, Turner must be on his way to ours by now,’ called Dylan.

  ‘I think we’d better go inside boss,’ said Andy as they met in the middle of the yard.

  ‘Can’t it wait?’ Dylan said.

  ‘No sir, it can’t.’

  The men followed Dylan back into the nick.

  ‘Vicky, here now,’ shouted Dylan from the CID office door. Vicky threw down the papers she was reading off the spewing fax machine, took off her coat, tossed it on her desk over her handbag and followed her colleagues into Dylan’s office without a word.

  ‘Ryan Merryfield has just put Donny Longbottom on Manchester Road for us the night Kayleigh went missing,’ said Ned.

  ‘Never,’ said Vicky.

  ‘And not only that, her car...’ said Andy. Vicky stared at her workmate wide-eyed.

  ‘Merryfield told us that Longbottom and him went their separate ways, after a man shouted at them when a drunken Longbottom banged on a pink coloured car. He also said Longbottom knew the woman inside the car,’ said Andy.

  ‘And it also appears Longbottom might just be the flasher that was reported that night, according to Merryfield,’ Ned said.

  ‘So you think the man they heard that night is our man, Norris Regan?’ said Vicky.

  ‘It fits in with the timeline,’ said Andy.

  ‘And Longbottom, who is already out perving, just happens to come across Kayleigh who he’s been stalking for weeks, vulnerable and alone in her car. Coincidence?’ said Ned, cocking an eyebrow.

  ‘We can corroborate some of what Merryfield says and we know he did go home afterwards. What I’d like to know is whe
re Longbottom went after he and Merryfield parted company?’ Dylan spoke his thoughts out loud.

  ‘We’ve been faxed a list of Council workers on duty that night who might be able to support what he’s saying, although I’ve noticed there’s a couple with previous which might not be a good thing as far as reliable witnesses go,’ said Vicky.

  ‘Good work. We need to prioritise the Council workers that were working, however. Vicky will you update these guys regarding recent events here for me? I really have to go,’ said Dylan, looking up at the clock. ‘God, is that the time?’

  ‘Armitage Arms lads, for a swift one?’ said Vicky.

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ said Ned.

  ‘Count me in,’ said Andy.

  ‘You coming Lisa?’ asked Vicky. ‘They’re buying,’ she said throwing the men a glance over her shoulder.

  ‘Yeah, I can give you a quick one if you like,’ said Ned as he walked past Lisa’s desk. Lisa put one finger up at him without looking in his direction.

  ‘You wish. I’ve got other fish to fry tonight,’ she grinned.

  ‘I’ll see you all early tomorrow,’ Dylan laughed. ‘Talking of frying, I’ve got to go to the chippie on my way home to get some tea... er supper, now,’ Dylan said, looking anxiously at his watch again, ‘for Shaun Turner.’

  Lisa’s hand flew up to her mouth, ‘Oh, God,’ she said.

  ‘What?’ said Dylan.

  ‘I forgot to ring him with your address. He didn’t come back to the nick.’

  ‘Well he’s not here now, so I guess he must be there?’

  Lisa shrugged.

  ‘No worries. He’ll have got our address from Dawn.’

  Jen could feel her heart beating rapidly against her breastbone. She opened her mouth but found she couldn’t utter a word. Her knees buckled and the only reason she didn’t fall was because Shaun Turner reached out to hold her upright. She stepped away, forcing him to release her. His smile faltered, but he thrust forward the bunch of freesias he was carrying.