Dead Sweet: A D.I. Turnbull mystery

by Sally O'Brien

  "Come on, out of the way." Todd moved past the most forefront watcher, a large male who seemed particularly intent to remain where he stood. Todd gave him a gentle push then held his warrant card up in the male's face as he started to protest.

  "Fucking pigs," the male whispered as Todd passed. Todd did nothing about it; he had more important things to deal with in the coming minutes.

  When they finally got to the front door of the flat in question, Todd nodded at the Police Community Support Officer who stood, arms crossed, at the door, a human barrier to the prying eyes.

  "Hello," Todd smiled at her as Candace and he were pulling on latex gloves.

  "Sorry sir, this is a crime scene, you can't go in there." The PCSO held out her arms to stop Todd crossing her two handed barrier.

  "D.I. Turnbull; the gloves aren't just for show." Todd introduced himself, holding his warrant card up yet again for perusal.

  "Oh sorry," the now embarrassed officer said, moving out of the way to grant access to Todd.

  "DS Whelan," Candace smiled waving her own card as she passed, pausing only to pull on the blue plastic shoe covers which would prevent her shoes contaminating the new crime scene.

  "Yes, yes, you may go in." the PCSO smiled back.

  Todd and Candace walked along the corridor of the ground floor flat; laminate floor loudly proclaiming their arrival. A white clad woman in overalls poked her head out from a door a little way along the corridor. Todd walked towards her, noticing an unkempt living room to his left and an even more unkempt kitchen to his right. A quick assessment told him it was a one bedroomed flat, so Todd assumed it was occupied by one or two people and the lack of any toys or photos of children made him believe it would be a single person or a couple. These assessments were made in a blink of a policeman's eye which was now on alert and looking for clues and evidence everywhere Todd went.

  "Jan," Todd greeted the woman in her white overalls. She was one of the Scenes of Crime Officers for Olinsbury nick, always quickly on scene and hardly ever perturbed by the gruesome scenes which were her place of work. A cast iron stomach and a thirst for knowledge were Jan's best friends in her business of evidence collection. She acknowledged Todd as he greeted her with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

  "This is a bad one Guv; there are some sick people out there." Jan said, giving a shake of her brown hair as she pulled her paper hood away from her head.

  "I just don't know where they get their ideas from," she mused as she walked up to Todd, stopping him before he could enter what he assumed was the bedroom.

  "Tell me," Todd ordered.

  "White female, early twenties," Jan began, ticking points off on her fingers as she spoke.

  "How was she killed?" Todd asked, "Mark said something about sherbet?"

  "Yes Guv. She's had a funnel pushed down her throat and her lungs have been filled with the stuff until she died from suffocation.

  A loud wail came from the living room Todd had passed; he looked enquiringly at Jan.

  "That would be her boyfriend Guv, he found her."

  "Not pretty." Todd sympathised with the male he was yet to meet.

  "If only it was just that." Jan continued.

  "Oh god, was she raped?" Todd asked.

  "Of a sorts Guv; I'm afraid she's been pretty badly mutilated with sweets."

  "What?" an incredulous Todd asked. He couldn't even begin to imagine how a person could be mutilated with sweets. Candace stood beside him looking equally incredulous. "It's better if you look for yourself Guv." Jan said, stepping aside to allow Todd and Candace to access the bedroom. What Todd saw next was an image which wiped out all bad images Todd had ever held before. No other body Todd had seen murdered had been in such a totally horrific state.

  The young woman lay spread-eagled on the bed before him; her hands hanging from handcuffs either side of her head. She was naked but appeared to have white spikes poking out of her skin all over her body. Closer inspection showed Todd that cuts had been made in the female's skin and the sticks were poking out of these holes.

  "Lollies Guv," Michael the coroner said as he came to stand beside Todd. He reached over to one of the white sticks and pulled at it, a red ball came out of the cut with a sickening squelch as it was released from its fleshy casing. Michael looked at the sweet, "Strawberry," he proclaimed as he gave it a sniff before placing it into a plastic police evidence bag.

  Todd's face crinkled in disgust, "That is sick." He voiced his feelings as his eyes continued their travels along the body. More white sticks protruded from the body and he could see that there were also sticks visible in the vagina and the anus of the young girl. There were longer cuts at intervals along the torso and Todd looked to Michael for explanation.

  "Liquorice twists." He told him, Todd could just see the shine off the black twists as they nestled in their bloody slits. What were infinitely worse than all of this were the girl's eyes which had been previously hidden by the plastic funnel which protruded grotesquely from the mouth. Todd had to walk right up to the body so he could view the rest of her face. The girl's eyes appeared to be missing, now replaced by what looked to Todd to be toffee pennies, still encased in their shiny golden wrappers. A small amount of blood oozed from the eye socket, eventually making enough to drip onto the girl's flesh, its splash marking another moment in time of the decomposition which was now in progress. Todd could smell the sweet almost metallic aroma of the blood intermingled with a burnt sugar smell, closer inspection showed this to be hot caramel which had been poured over the victim's hair.

  Todd heard Candace gag behind him. A clench of his stomach told him that he was in the same mind set of disgust and Todd moved quickly away from the body before his stomach contents came up and defiled the crime scene.

  Todd grabbed Candace by the arm and they walked out of the bedroom and into the hallway, taking deep breaths to clear their noses and minds of the sights and smells they had just witnessed.

  Michael came out to speak to them in the corridor, similar disgust still displayed on his face, his extra time at the crime scene not being able to dampen the picture of horror which had been etched onto his brain.

  "Was this done before or after she died?" was Todd's most urgent question. He needed to know the full extent of the girl's suffering.

  "There's not a lot of blood Guv." Michael told him, "Which tells me the cuts were made post mortem; after the heart stopped beating."

  "Well that's something at least." Todd was consoled by the fact the poor girl hadn't suffered the pain of the horrific mutilation to her body.

  "I'll be able to tell you more when I get her back to my table," said Michael.

  "Ok, I've seen enough, where's the boyfriend?" Todd asked.

  A uniformed officer appeared in the corridor, two pips on his epaulettes letting Todd know it was the duty Inspector. Todd nodded at him, "Hi Callum," he said and followed the officer's pointed hand into the untidy living room.

  A young male sat on the brown leather sofa, head in hands, streams of snot snaking their way through his fingers. "Mr Walton," The Duty Inspector said to the male, shaking him gently on the shoulder.

  "Mr Walton, this is Detective Inspector Turnbull, he has come to talk to you about what happened."

  Mr Walton brought his head up and wiped the snot away from his face with his hands, smearing the shiny substance onto his trouser legs. His brown eyes were swollen and red from crying.

  "Hi Mr Walton, I'm sorry for your loss." Todd said to him. The Duty Inspector passed Todd a notebook with information about the dead girl on it. Todd saw her name was Amanda Thomas, 21 years old. Mr Walton's first name was Tony. "Mr Walton, may I call you Tony?"

  Tony nodded his head silently.

  "Tony, tell me what happened when you got here today."

  Taking a deep breath, Tony relayed his story to Todd as he continued to wipe his hands up and down his trouser leg. He told Todd that he had a day off work and had arranged to meet up with Mandy an
d go out for a walk in London. Tony informed Todd that they often went for walks in London, it was one of Mandy's favourite past times.

  "She wanted to be a model," Tony explained. "She thought she would get spotted if she walked around London. We always go up to Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, Soho." Tony paused and looked at the floor before giving a loud sigh and starting again; "Hyde Park, Kensington, Chelsea. Harrods; she loved to go to Harrods, was absolutely convinced that someone would spot her there. Then we used to go to..." Tony continued to reel off place names in London. In ordinary circumstances Todd would have butted in and asked Tony to get on with his story, considering he was in shock at his findings this morning and feeling very sorry for the snot filled man in front of him, Todd decided to allow the soliloquy to continue. Eventually Tony's voice trailed away to nothing and he sat with his head hung low, lips mouthing the well-known London streets over and over again.

  "Tony." Todd finally cut in.

  "Yes?"

  "I know you've had a terrible shock." Tony guffawed at Todd's statement, Todd continued; "It has been really tough for you, but we need to know what happened if we have any chance at all of finding out who did this to Amanda."

  "Mandy, she liked to be called Mandy." Tony informed Todd.

  "Mandy, sorry, please tell me what happened when you got to the flat today Tony?" Todd gently asked him.

  "Well I came around as I always do; we were going to go for a walk in London as I said. I have a key to her flat, we were starting to get serious, I may have moved in you know?" Tony looked up at Todd, tears beginning to form in his eyes once more.

  "Please," Todd said, "Carry on."

  "I let myself in; there's no point knocking on the door, Mandy spends forever getting ready and she wouldn't bother with the door if she was putting on an eyelash or straightening something. So I let myself in, shouted her name, looked around, went in her bedroom and found... found.... Her" Tony once again put his head in his hands, a fresh batch of snot making its way from his nose to the floor.

  "Was the flat disturbed in any way?" Todd asked. "Is it usually this messy or is this unusual?"

  "No, no she wasn't very tidy; it's always a little messy." Tony looked around; "I can't see anything out of place. I really don't know, sorry."

  Sensing he wasn't going to get any further useful information from Tony, Todd decided to get searching the flat to see if he could come up with any evidence from address books, diaries or even discarded business cards that may be lying around the flat. He asked one of the uniformed officers to take Tony away to the police station so a formal statement could be made and then set about searching the front room for any clues.

  "Guv we are ready to move her body if you're finished." Michael stood in the doorway of the living room.

  "Yes that's fine, have all photographs been taken?"

  "Yes and she has been un-cuffed from the headboard."

  "Go for it, get the poor mare out of here, and let me know if you find anything that may give me a clue where to start looking please because I haven't got a fucking clue." Todd grimaced. "Who does that to someone?"

  "It's a sick world." Michael agreed before turning to complete his job in the bedroom. Todd looked around the front room, picking up magazines and searching them for clues; his latex gloves making the job of turning the pages very difficult. "Candace." He shouted.

  "Yes Guv?" Candace poked her head in from the hallway.

  "Get in here please, we need to go through all this shit, there must be some clue as to who she was meeting today; it doesn't look like the flat has been broken into, it must have been someone she knew and was happy to let into the flat."

  "Yes Guv," Candace entered and began to search the sides of the flat.

  "Every drawer, every surface, every cushion, every gap; I'm gonna nail this fucking Willy Wonka."

  Candace chuckled at the ever present dark humour which accompanied police investigations. "Just don't eat anything." She added.

  "Ha fucking ha." said Todd before returning to his eternal search for justice, "That's put me off sugar for life."

  Chapter Four

  Saturday July 6th 2013

  09:30 hours

  D.I. Todd Turnbull stood outside the Coroner's office waiting for the autopsy of Mandy Thomas to end. Todd never attended the autopsies; it wasn't because he had a weak stomach or couldn't stand the horror of death. It was because Todd felt it was disrespectful to the dead. Whilst others may see it as all part of the job and happily discuss evidence over the ripped open body of the recently dead, Todd knew he served no actual purpose by being present and preferred instead to afford the dead some decency and wait to discuss their cases with the Coroner in his office.

  As he waited, Todd contemplated what he had been through in the last twenty four hours. Tony Walton had been about as much use as tits in a gay bar; he had known no more than the information he had given Todd at the scene of the crime, snivelling uncontrollably at the station until Todd's patience began to wear thin; there were only so many hours any human could tolerate persistent crying, regardless of the situation and Todd had had to ask Tony to go home once five hours had passed. The only thing Todd had learnt from Tony Walton was the contact details for Mandy's parents. They were estranged from each other which meant Todd had to break the news of their daughter's death twice over. Informing parents their loved ones had passed was never easy but the job was even harder when you had to explain to people their daughter had been turned into some sort of macabre display. It had been a very hard day for everyone concerned and Todd had felt drained both physically and emotionally by the time he had finally entered his flat and collapsed fully clothed onto this bed at 11:30 that evening.

  Raniveshalam Kaniganyagam or just plain Rani for short; came out of the Coroner's room, pulling off his gloves as he walked. He said "Hi," to Todd and stopped to discuss what he had discovered.

  "It's sick," he informed Todd. "We pulled one hundred and forty seven different sweets out of all parts of that girl's body. They were even inside her, stuffed in every orifice. I'm just glad the girl was dead before it happened."

  "Any trace evidence?" Todd asked; he was hoping there may be traces of semen or even blood in the injuries belonging to Mandy's killer."

  "Yeah, looks like semen is present." Rani confirmed, "But will take a few days to get DNA results."

  "No way, that's a stroke of luck." Todd got the itch of excitement in the pit of his stomach, he wondered if it was actually possible that this was a case which would be open and shut.

  "Was she raped?" he asked Rani.

  "Impossible to tell, she is so badly injured from the objects pushed into her, it's hard to know if there's been recent sexual activity. She isn't bruised so it doesn't seem as if a struggle has taken place."

  Todd knew the presence of semen could mean that Mandy had been raped post mortem but it could also signify that she had previously had consensual sexual activity; maybe with her killer; before things became evil. It was just as likely, however, that she had had sex with her boyfriend or even A. N. Other; a male she may have been seeing without her boyfriend's knowledge. Considering her beauty and perfect figure, Todd knew Mandy would have been an object of desire with many offers of sexual coupling. It was highly probably she had given in to temptation and had been having an affair behind Tony Walton's back.

  "Anything else you can tell me?" Todd asked Rani.

  "No, she definitely died from suffocation. All cuts were made post mortem. Her eyeballs weren't actually removed; they were pushed into her head by the toffees." Rani took a moment to contemplate that; his face showed the disgust he felt. "Her silicone implants were cut open, emptied and stuffed with marshmallows."

  "What about on her back?" Todd wanted to know if the killer had turned Mandy over to ensure her entire body was defiled.

  "No her back was left alone. Don't forget she was handcuffed. It would have meant undoing that and turning her over. No she was only cut where s
he was exposed to the air."

  Todd considered it possible that the killer didn't have the strength to turn Mandy over. The absence of any defence wounds or bruising on Mandy's body suggested she did not struggle; it appeared she had been willingly handcuffed. Todd was beginning to piece the clues together; semen present and a consent to be handcuffed told him the killer was likely to be a male, known to the victim, invited into the flat in order to have consensual sex, but from the point of being handcuffed the killer had taken a different direction and murdered Mandy.

  Todd wanted to know the significance of the sweets; men liked to give ladies chocolates; maybe this was a sick gift from a twisted mind. Todd also wanted to find the talent scout Tony Walton had told him about. He needed to know if this was the guy Mandy was seeing behind Tony's back or if he was just a coincidental part of the puzzle.

  First things first, Todd needed to check the semen against the Police National Database to see if it was on file from a previous suspect. He also needed to contact Tony Walton again as they would need a sample from him to be able to eliminate him from the enquiry. Todd made sure he had a packet of tissues with him as he left the Coroner's office for Tony Walton's house; if yesterday was anything to go by Todd would be needing the tissues and a great deal of patience over the next few hours.

  -x-

  "Hello?" Todd answered his phone as he walked towards Tony Walton's flat in the Bickford Lock area of Olinsbury.

  "Hello Uncle Todd," the cheery voice was like manna to Todd's ears.

  "Hey pumpkin; how is my favourite niece?"

  "I'm fine," Todd could envision his six year old niece Jasmine's face; born to his younger sister, Trina, the result of a coupling with a Nigerian doctor she had met on a hen night with her best friend. Jasmine was a light in both Trina and Todd's lives. She had the most startling blue eyes which shone from her hazelnut face and her hair was a mass of curls crowning all three feet of her deliciousness. Todd thought she was the most beautiful creature on the planet and adored the very bones of her.