by M A Comley
“Who are you? How do you know about this?”
“How do I know? I was there. I witnessed first-hand what you and your disgusting mates did all those years ago.”
“Why now? After all this time? I’ve changed, I have a new life. I haven’t thought about what happened that night for years.”
“Yeah, I’m well aware of what you’ve become. I’ve been keeping an eye on you for months. Gone off the female sex, have you? Suddenly realised that deep down you’re gay? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Nick knows exactly what type of man you were at your funeral. I’ll take pleasure in giving him all the details of what went on that night and the frequent nights before that. In the end, he’ll be glad you’re dead, feel relieved that he’d only had the misfortune to spend a few miserable nights with you.”
“No, you don’t know what you’re saying, we’re devoted to each other. He won’t believe you. It’s in the past. Why revisit the incident after all these years?” His head throbbed, his speech now affected due to the whacks on the head, his words coming out slurred.
“The time has come for…retribution. You will all be punished for the sins of your past. For the way you treated that woman, many times over. Why? Why disrespect her the way you did?”
“I’m sorry, I never wanted to be involved. It was the others, they forced me to do it.”
His attacker lowered and looked him directly in the face. He cowered, and the stranger’s hot breath bathed the side of his face.
“Don’t lie. I was there, remember. I’m well aware of what happened back then. Not once did you show any form of reluctance to joining in. You were a willing participant, so don’t bullshit me.”
“I wasn’t. I objected numerous times, but the others threatened to do all sorts to me if I didn’t join in.” Another swipe with the bar, this time to the side of his face, and more bones crunched. He cried out, his jaw slack when he touched it, his voice muffled when he said, “You broke my jaw. Please, no more.”
“Or what? How are you going to prevent the inevitable? I know you go to church. You’re such a frigging hypocrite, begging for God’s forgiveness after what you did. The world will be a better place without you. I’ll make sure Nick knows all about your filthy little secret. He’ll end up being forever in my debt for disposing of you.”
“No. You don’t know what you’re saying. After what went on that night, I turned to God, and He forgave me. If He’d wanted to have punished me, He would’ve struck me down by now.”
“What, like I have? Maybe I’m God. You can’t see my face; how do you know I’m not your saviour?”
“My God wouldn’t punish me the way you are. He seeks out to punish people for their sins that’s true, but He wouldn’t do it like this, with such…brutality.”
“Brutality? Yes, I like that. It fits most sins you’ve been guilty of throughout your miserable, deceptive life. To marry a woman, to lie to her for years, knowing that you batted for the other side. You think that was right? To rob her of the chance to lead a happy, fulfilling life with another man, someone who would have bent over backwards to have treated her right? Unlike you, you charlatan. You knew from an early age you liked men and still you put your wife through a life of misery. Why? To make up for what you did? Is that how that warped mind of yours worked in the past?” The stranger prodded his temple.
“Ouch! No. You’ve got it all wrong. My sexuality has nothing to do with what went on that night, I swear it doesn’t. Please don’t punish me for the sins, I’ve done my best to put those behind me and move on.”
“Make good on? You killed an innocent woman during your repulsive sex games and you think the world will be a better place if you come out of the closet? No, that’s not right. It took you almost twenty years to reveal your true sexuality. In the meantime, you put another woman through fucking hell. You’re a selfish fucker with a capital S. What you want, you seem to get, stepping over other people in the process. I’ve met your type before. Others like you have met their comeuppance long before you got yours. I’m bored now. Is there anything you wish to say before the lights go out, so to speak?”
“Yes, I want to talk to Nick, to tell him how much I love him.”
“Nope. I didn’t say I was allowing you a final call. Don’t worry, I’ll take pleasure in putting him right on a few things.”
He sobbed.
The stranger had heard enough. Blow after blow rained down on their target, the man who had ruined so many lives during his own existence. Until his screams and whining could no longer be heard.
The stranger took the bar back to the car and left the man in the road. A new form of roadkill for the scavenging birds to peck at during the night until someone discovered him.
9
Katy groaned and glanced at the clock on her bedside table. The green digital face announced the time as five-forty-five.
“Answer the damn phone,” AJ complained. He buried his head under the pillow.
“Hi. DI Foster. This had better be good.”
“Sorry to bother you at this early hour, ma’am. I’ve had notification of another murder on your patch, and the pathologist thought it imperative that I call you right away. She’s predicting the death is possibly connected to your ongoing investigation.”
“Oh right. Okay, you’d better give me the details. Is the pathologist still at the scene?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The woman on control gave her the details of the location and hung up.
Katy turned over to cuddle AJ.
He re-emerged from under the pillow and kissed her. “What a way to get woken up in the damn morning.”
“I’m sorry, love. I’ll have a quick shower and shoot off.”
“Want me to make you a drink and some toast? I don’t mind.”
“No, you go back to sleep, you need your rest.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You’re the one who could do with a rest. You were barely in five minutes last night before you dropped off to sleep, and now, you’re on the move again long before the birds have even crept out of their nests.”
Katy smiled and strained her neck to listen. In the distance, she recognised the familiar morning chorus of the birds in residence near to their home. “Nope, they beat me to it, just. I’ll try and call you later this morning, if I get the chance. I’m sorry we didn’t get around to discussing the news you wanted to share with me regarding the business.”
“It can wait. Go. We’ll talk about it tonight, depending what time you get home.”
“Sorry, AJ. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” She kissed him and leapt out of bed.
“I’ve heard it all before,” he grumbled behind her.
She chose to ignore his hurtful comment—whether it had been intended that way or not, she wasn’t sure. After suffering a quick tepid shower, she carried her clothes downstairs and got dressed down there rather than disturb AJ a second time.
Twenty-five minutes later, she arrived at the scene, which was cordoned off and being patrolled by two constables in uniforms. She flashed her ID. One of them held the tape up for her to duck under. The area up ahead was being lit by mobile floodlights set up by Scenes of Crime Officers even though the sun was fully awake by now.
“Don’t come any closer,” Patti shouted, stopping dead.
“Why?”
Patti stared and looked her up and down. “You really have to ask me that, Inspector Foster?”
Katy bashed her hands against her thighs. “Sorry, my mistake, I’ll correct it right away.”
“Grab a suit from the back of my van.”
Her lapse in concentration signified how tired she truly was. She’d never knowingly strolled up to a crime scene in the past without putting on a protective suit. Well, maybe she had, back in her early days when donning one hadn’t yet become a formality to her regime.
Suited and booted, she returned to the crime scene and stood alongside Patti. “Shall we start over, now my wrists are black and blue?”
�
��Bollocks. You’d soon know if I was angry with you, so don’t give me that hogwash.”
“Bloody hell! Nothing like telling it how it is, Patti. By your pissed-off attitude, I take it you’ve been here all night.”
“More or less, and before you start kicking off, just remember I waited until daylight broke before I decided to get you out of your comfy bed. I’ve yet to see mine, it’s been over twenty-four hours for me.”
Katy placed a hand on Patti’s arm. “Sorry about that. Let’s call a truce, shall we?”
“Done.”
“The woman on control said that you’re linking the crime to the others. Can I ask why?”
“Pure speculation at this time. Let’s call it a hunch. I didn’t want another team turning up to this one in case they muddy the waters. It would be best to have you guys involved in this from the outset. That was my logic anyway. Was I right to call you?”
“Only time will tell. What have we got? Apart from a bloody mess.”
“ID says he’s Robin Hewitt.” Patti extracted an evidence bag from a pile near her feet and held it up for Katy to see.
Her mouth dropped open when she saw the man’s photo on his licence. “Shit, damn and blast!”
“Don’t tell me you know him?”
Katy’s nod sped up. “I do. You’ll never guess where from.”
“Go on, surprise me.”
“The first victim’s funeral. I’ll stand corrected if I’m wrong but I’d swear this man was one of his pallbearers.”
“Fuck, really?”
“I’ll need to do some digging to get clarification, but yes. Shit, Patti, tell me you’ve got a time of death for him?”
“I can give you a rough idea; nothing concrete as yet, not until I’ve performed the PM.”
Katy motioned with her hand for Patti to hurry up. “Well, what is it?”
“Any time between eleven and eleven-thirty. May I ask why?”
Katy stared at the hedgerow, trying her hardest to remember what time she and Charlie had left Nadia’s house. “Damn, I have a suspicion about a certain person. We were with her just before that time last night. If I recall, we left her gaff at around ten-fifteen, give or take a few minutes. Which means she had the time to get out here and kill him.”
“Whoa! She? Who are we talking about here?”
“The daughter, Nadia Crawford. Something isn’t sitting right with me. She acted strangely towards the men at the funeral. Finding her father like that and being covered in his blood, most SIOs would probably brush away my concerns but, she’s a nurse; yes, instinct would kick in to save him, but surely, wouldn’t she also take a step back, knowing it wouldn’t be right for her to end up covered in his blood? Or am I guilty of overthinking things here?”
“Possibly. Put yourself in her shoes. Wouldn’t you step up to the plate and help a loved one in dire need of your help?”
Katy sighed. “I guess. I can’t explain why or what I’m feeling, Patti…” She spread a hand over her stomach. “It’s here, something deep in my gut. Charlie and I paid her a visit last night to question her about Dale Peters’ death. She had no alibi—she’d finished work at six, she could’ve easily followed him home and killed him. And now this. Obviously, I’ll need to check if she stayed at home last night after we left or not. She did tell us she had to get up early, so I presumed she would’ve climbed into bed not long after we left.”
“Maybe she did. What about coincidence, or doesn’t that come into it?”
“You know I’m not really a believer in that. Okay, let’s set that aside for now. Tell me how he died.”
“He was clobbered is the best way to describe it, numerous times. Maybe the perpetrator carried out the attack over a few minutes, having a conversation in between, but the man suffered a fractured skull in several places, a broken jaw, plus dozens of other bones on his arms and legs. I will be noting this down as a frenzied attack, and you know what that means.”
“I believe you’re intimating that the perpetrator knew him well.”
“That’s often the case and would be my first port of call with any assumption I’m likely to make either before, during or after the post-mortem.”
“Good to know. Shit, what a way to go out and in similar circumstances to the second victim. By that, I mean, out in the sticks. Why? I’m taking it that the perp knows where these guys live, follows them and attacks once there is no chance of someone witnessing the murders.”
“I think you’re right. The perp would definitely need to know where these guys live and the possible route they’re likely to take home. Why would people pull over whilst driving, would you?”
“Nope, not a cat in hell’s chance. What if the perp was coming in the opposite direction and blocked their path?”
“Plausible, I suppose. Who knows? I think the only person likely to tell us that would be the perp themselves.”
Katy nodded and scanned the lit area. “Any DNA or evidence around?”
“Nothing so far.”
“What type of weapon do you think they used, Patti?”
“Hard to say. My guess would be a heavy bar, possibly a crowbar. I’ll be able to give a definitive answer after—”
“The PM,” Katy finished off for her.
“How did you guess? Anyway, that’s as much as I can tell you. Sorry for getting you out of bed early, I hope you can forgive me for that.”
“Nothing to forgive. If you believe the crimes are linked, then yes, I should be here. I don’t mind telling you, Patti, I don’t know where to turn with this investigation. We’re desperate for some form of evidence to show up, aren’t we?”
“Too right. I have a suggestion to make, but you can tell me to butt out if you want.”
“Go on, I’m all ears.”
“Would it be worth putting a tail on your prime suspect?”
“I think I’m veering that way. At least if we tail her, we can pounce if we feel she’s about to bump someone else off. Getting back to the victims: if she is guilty of killing them, we need to find out what her motive is. It would take a lot of angst to kill your own father, right?”
“Angst and a vast amount of courage. What age is she?”
“Around the twenty-eight mark, I believe.”
“So, if, and it’s a big if, she’s the guilty party, something must have happened lately to have triggered such hatred to turn on her father after all this time, right?”
“Yep, you’re not wrong. How the hell I’m supposed to work out what that trigger is, well, I fear it’s beyond me. During the conversations we’ve had, she’s not been as forthcoming as I would’ve preferred.”
“What about relatives, can’t you ask them?”
“There’s only her sister, and she’s up in Scotland.” Katy chewed her lip and then clicked her thumb and finger together. “Her sister suggested that her father might have abused her. She left home at the age of sixteen, but Nadia chose to stay in the family home with her dad.”
“Why? Did he abuse both girls or just one?”
Katy was enjoying this back and forth with Patti, who wasn’t usually one for getting involved in the investigation side of things.
“I suppose I need to ask the right questions and see what trees I shake to get the answers.”
“What about the mother?”
“Ah, yes, she died when the girls were both very young, three and four.”
“Ouch, so he brought them up by himself? Not every father would do that, he was to be admired.”
“I’m unsure about that. Maybe if he did abuse the kids, he didn’t want the likes of anyone else hanging around. It’s all supposition until the true facts emerge. Maybe I need to call her in for an interview at the station.”
“That’ll shit her up appropriately. Failing that, do as I suggested and put a tail on her for now. We’ll hurry the PM and tests through for you on this and the other murders.”
“Thanks, Patti, you’re a goodun. I don’t care what other officers s
ay about you.”
Patti slapped her arm. “Now, if you’re finished, I’m going to tell you to piss off and let me get this man prepared for his journey to the mortuary.”
“Speak soon, once you have the results back.” Katy left the scene and removed her suit, dumping it in the awaiting black bag close to the cordon.
The drive to the station was performed on autopilot as Katy summarised things in her mind. Patti was spot on, it was imperative they put Nadia under surveillance, immediately. Her first job would be to arrange that then sort out a next of kin to break the news about Robin Hewitt. The clock on the dashboard said it was now nearing seven-thirty. Her stomach grumbled. She made a quick detour and drew up outside the café around the corner from the station. “A bacon roll to go, thanks.”
The chubby woman behind the counter smiled and took the money from her. “No drink, love?”
“No, I’ll get one at work.”
“Very well. It’ll be five minutes or so if you want to take a seat.”
“Okay.” Katy picked up a Daily Mail from the nearest table. She sat and whizzed through it, pausing to read the odd article of interest. The investigation into Bruce Crawford’s death took up half a column on page fifteen. There was no blaming the police, and the fact that the paper had given the number for the station pleased her.
“Here you go, love. It’s all ready for you. Help yourself to any sauce you might want.”
“I’ll take a sachet of ketchup and be on my way. I’m looking forward to this. See you again soon.”
“Take care. Enjoy.”
Katy slipped behind the steering wheel and pondered whether to eat the roll there and then but decided to continue on to the station instead.
She met up with Charlie in the car park.
“Hey, I’m going to tell AJ. What’s up, isn’t he feeding you enough?” Charlie laughed and pointed at the greasy paper bag Katy was holding.
“Ssh…actually, I’ve been at work for a while. Patti required my attendance at a murder scene, so I had to skip breakfast. For your cheek, you can buy your boss a cup of coffee.”