The manager who runs the mill is on our books and paid a healthy wage to ensure that doesn’t happen. They all think it is just a disused storage space.’
Babik then cut the chat short, as he pulled into the mill’s car park and found a space at the end where there was plenty of room. He told Susan to wait in the car; he wouldn’t be long.
He walked into the mill and five minutes later he was barely able to contain his anger at what he’d been told. He grabbed the piece of paper the manager offered, which had a name and mobile phone number written on it.
‘What are you going to do?’ the manager asked.
‘Nothing for you to worry about. Look, I’d better get going; I don’t want any of your skivvies to notice me.’ And with that, he turned and left. Once outside he marched straight to his vehicle and climbed in without speaking.
‘You look happy,’ Susan said.
‘I will be in a few minutes,’ he replied, and then put his finger to his mouth as he pulled his phone out. She took the hint and he dialled the number on the paper. It was answered after two rings.
‘Hello, who is this?’
‘I’m the owner of the mill,’ Babik said.
‘What mill? I don’t—’
Interrupting him, Babik said, ‘Cut the crap. You are gold card holder number 27.’
‘Oh,’ the gold card holder answered. ‘Is there a problem?’
Babik calmed a little; he knew he needed to be careful. He adopted a more contrite tone. ‘Sorry for my abruptness, it’s just one of those days, and I’m in a bit of a hurry.’
‘That’s OK, I’m having a similar day, three drop offs in Preston, all out,’ the card holder said, sounding more relaxed.
‘Oh, if you are still local I could do with a face to face, it’ll only take a mo,’ Babik said.
‘Problem with my subscription?’
‘No, nothing like that, but I would like a quick chat regarding your special requirements.’
‘I, I didn’t mean to… but that was ages ago. Last time I was around.’
‘Quite the reverse, I have something uniquely special for you, which is why I can’t say too much on the phone.’
‘Understood,’ the card holder said, with an upturn in his tone of voice.
Babik could almost hear him salivating. He then arranged to meet him in an hour and ended the call. He turned toward Susan and could see the look on her face. ‘Don’t ask; you don’t want to know. Come on, I’ll drop you at the pig shed on the way.’
Babik had arranged to meet gold card holder number twenty-seven at a quiet street corner, not far from the mill. It was early evening now but the mill wouldn’t be open for business until after dark. That was the rule. They charged the punters more in summer, but they received extras. Babik hoped his hint on the phone and the proximity of the meeting point were enough to whet the man’s appetite. He knew with this fellow, that wouldn’t take much.
Babik had only been there two or three minutes when he saw the punter’s vehicle pull over behind his. He quickly got out and made his way towards the driver’s door. The window came down as he reached it.
‘You’ve certainly got me interested, I just hope the subscriptions don’t go up,’ the man said.
‘For you, no. Let’s just say we want to try something different, something that requires a certain taste. You were the obvious choice. I do have an admin issue to straighten out with you, but we are more interested to test a new extra with you. You’ll get it for free. And if you recommend it, we will offer it to other gold card holders for a modest increase in subscription, but we’ll keep yours the same for twelve months. As a thank you, for being our tester.’
Babik could see the man’s eyes widen with perverted glee. He couldn’t begin to imagine what thoughts were now traversing the synapses of his warped imagination. Before the man could reply, Babik continued. ‘But not here, too open. Just follow me, I’ll find somewhere quieter, it’s too early to go to the mill. I chose here to meet as I knew you would know it.’
The man just nodded without comment, his ugly face still supporting its eerie smirk. Babik turned and headed back to his motor.
Before he’d dropped Susan off he’d asked her to suggest somewhere to meet the gold card holder, and she had suggested a place out of a town on the Chorley side. It was a motorway bridge over the M6, but the road itself was seldom used. He wondered what she had used the location for, but hadn’t asked. He’d also done a quick recce before meeting up with his man. The road was indeed very quiet. A backroad which linked two major A roads, but without other purpose. The bridge was high above the busy M6 motorway, just south of Preston. The embankments of the motorway both had a ridge of established trees towards their summit which provided further cover high above the bridge. There was a row of houses which backed into the other side of the trees on the westerly edge, but any view above their garden fences was totally obscured by foliage at this time of year.
It only took 10 minutes to reach the bridge and Babik pulled over onto the wide footpath next to the bridge’s railing. He’d often seen cars parked up on motorway bridges and always wondered why they chose to stop there. He’d assumed they were some kind of traffic spotters, as opposed to train or plane. He could just about understand the latter two but had always found the concept of traffic spotting beyond geeky. He was sure of one thing though; his reason would be a first for this particular bridge, or most bridges, for that matter.
The punter pulled up behind him; Babik alighted and walked towards the railing. He leaned on it and waited for the man to take the hint. He joined him a few moments later.
‘What are we doing here? I was expecting to follow you to some sort of premises,’ the man said.
‘The mill’s not open yet and as you know we have lost two premises, one very recently.’
‘I know about the house by the docks, I was there earlier,’ the man said.
Babik was surprised by this and turned to face him. ‘What, today?’
‘Yes, before I tried my luck at the mill. Incidentally, you need to have a word with the manager there; she was well arsey with me for calling during the day. Anyway, I’ve been working all over as of late, first time back in Preston for ages.’
Babik could feel rage rising again within. The manager had reassured him that no one working at the mill had clocked this idiot, but it would only have taken one of the workers to have overheard and the whole place could have been compromised. He knew how pissed off his associate already was. If they lost the mill as well, he would lose far more himself. He was just about to speak when the man continued.
‘I saw one of your girls leaving the old place, and I’m telling you, if it’s her that is doing the new thing, I won’t mind paying extra, I’m flush at the moment.’
‘Where?’ Babik asked.
‘The house on the docks.’
Babik had no idea who he could be talking about. ‘You sure it was one of our girls?’
‘Well, she never said as such, but she didn’t say she wasn’t,’ the man said.
‘You spoke to her?’ Babik asked, with incredulity. This idiot was a real risk. ‘Recognise her?’ he pushed.
‘No, she must be new.’
Babik relaxed now, he knew that they hadn’t had any knew girls for quite a while. Something he intended to sort out with his associate soon. Whoever this idiot thought he had seen, it wasn’t one of his girls. ‘Look, forget that, there must have been a misunderstanding.’
‘OK, if you say so. Are we waiting to be taken somewhere else?’ The man asked.
Babik weighed the man up for the first time before he answered. The man was in his fifties, overweight, but not too much, and fortunately quite tall. He was unkempt and smelt bad; no wonder he couldn’t find a woman without paying for one. Not that too many women would approve of this deviate’s predilections even if he was Prince Charming. As if reading his mind, the man asked, ‘What exactly is on offer here?’
‘Pain.’
‘I don’t mind a bit myself, as you know, but I much prefer to give. You know that, too.’
‘I know that,’ Babik said.
‘Apart from that incident of course. I hadn’t meant to go that far, but it was her fault, she’d hurt me with that whip. You should train them better. What happened next was entirely involuntary. As you know. Anyway, moving on. What exactly is it you want me to test?’ the man said, with that sick gleeful grimace back on his face.
‘This,’ Babik said. And before the man could react, Babik punched him hard in the face. The man had turned to face Babik whilst leaning on the railings and now rocked backwards from the blow. A look of confusion replaced his habitual smirk and Babik punched him again, harder. This time, the blow pushed the man further and Babik could see that the small of the man’s back was acting as a pivot on the handrail. He quickly squatted down and grabbed at the man’s shins, whilst the element of surprise was still on his side. He wrapped his arms around the man’s lower legs and then heaved upwards in a conventional squat thrust movement. The man’s excessive upper weight aided Babik. He let go and stood back… as he watched the man’s expression turn from questioning to terrified realisation.
Babik felt transfixed as time slowed and he stood up to watch the man fall backwards into the roaring traffic below. He smiled, as he stared into the man’s eyes for the last time. He didn’t wait to see the impact. But he heard it, followed by the screech of brakes, followed by the sound of metal on metal.
In the moments before the collisions, as the man sailed through the air, Babik had been amazed at the pitch of his screech. He’d never heard a human voice reach such a tone. It wasn’t a sound he would forget too soon, he was sure, but it wouldn’t bother him. He just found it interesting. Anyway, problem solved he thought, as he climbed back into his blue motor.
Chapter Forty-Two
Vinnie and Christine finished at the wine bar and then Vinnie led the way, still using his borrowed CID car to drive to Hutton on the western fringes of Preston. They parked in the Anchor’s vast car park, which was virtually empty. He was surprised to find the pub itself quite busy. Different times when this place was built; as with many rurally-located pubs of that era, everybody drove to bars then. Not any more. Vinnie knew that a lot of rural pubs had failed, once people stopped drinking and driving. He didn’t know anyone who did it now; 15 years ago he hadn’t known anyone who didn’t.
As they took a seat in a corner with their drinks, Vinnie took in the clientele and reckoned that a large percentage were cops from residential training courses; that was probably what kept the pub going. Though, he wasn’t sure for how long, as most courses nowadays were not residential. Budget savings and all that.
The next couple of hours passed quickly and it was good to relax and spend some time with Christine. True to his word, when they walked across the bypass to the gatehouse he duly announced himself, warrant card in hand and introduced Christine as his boss. Fortunately, the sentry was happy enough just to see Vinnie’s card, not that he expected otherwise, due to his rank. And even though the sentry hadn’t asked to see Christine’s warrant card, he called her ‘ma’am’, which seemed to amuse her greatly.
He felt like a naughty young cop sneaking his girlfriend back to his room, which was actually pretty accurate — apart from the ‘young’ bit. Once they found their block, he was relieved to discover that all the doors to the 10 or so rooms on their floor were open and he could see that they were not in use. They would have the entire floor to themselves.
He showed Christine to the facilities at the end of the corridor and then waited until she returned, before he made his way to use them. That way he could afford her some privacy in getting undressed and into bed. He was starting to get excited, and for some daft reason, felt like some inexperienced adolescent.
He had a quick shower and wrapped a large towel around his waist as he walked back to their room. When he entered he could see Christine grinning from the bed, with just her face and naked shoulders on display. His pulse raced and he knew he didn’t have long to get under the covers before his towel would start to displace itself, and that would be embarrassing.
Quickly, he slipped his watch off, noting that it was after midnight. He was just about to get into bed when his mobile started to ring and dance around on the small desk at the foot of the bed.
Who the hell could this be? He was going to leave it, but decided to check the display first. Then he would turn it off and call whoever it was back in the morning. That was until he saw Harry’s name on the screen. ‘So sorry, I’ll have to take it, it’s Harry. Whatever he wants shouldn’t take long,’ he said.
‘I’ve waited this long, I can wait a couple of more minutes,’ Christine replied.
Vinnie pressed the green icon and Harry spoke first.
‘You at training school?’
‘Yes, J block.’
‘Been drinking?’
‘Yes, why?’
‘I’ll send a car, there’s been another murder,’ Harry said, and then the line went dead.
Vinnie felt his towel start to droop.
Chapter Forty-Three
It was nearing one o’clock by the time Vinnie approached the scene. The local roads were full of HGVs, no doubt displaced from the motorway. Harry had asked to meet him on the bridge. Both the road below and the bridge were sealed off as crime scenes. Vinnie could only get to a spot 30 metres prior to the bridge before he had to pull over. There was blue and white tape across the road and a PC with a clipboard looked on. Vinnie went to the boot of his vehicle to put his paper over-suit on when Harry approached, already suitably dressed.
‘Suicide?’ Vinnie asked.
‘That’s how it looked at the start, which is why we are late to the party,’ Harry said.
‘How late?’
‘Happened a few hours ago. The local DI, Jim Day got it as on-call SIO for the coroner, but soon became unhappy due to reasons I’ll let him explain.’
‘Hello again,’ said Jim Day as he joined Harry and Vinnie, who by now was zipping up his paper suit.
‘Hi,’ Vinnie replied.
‘I hope you weren’t enjoying your evening too much?’ Jim said.
Vinnie didn’t reply, and all three of them looked at their respective wrist watches.
‘Sorry, I should have said sleep; forgot how late it’s become.’
‘What have we got?’ Vinnie asked.
Jim then gave him a quick appraisal of the known facts. A middle-aged man had apparently leapt to his death, causing a seven vehicle pile-up.
‘Anyone else hurt?’ Vinnie asked.
‘Fortunately not, but I’m not sure how. Though, the couple whose car the aggrieved hit will have some psychological issues, no doubt. They saw him fall but couldn’t get out of the way; not that it would have helped anyone.’
‘They saw him fall?’ Vinnie asked.
‘Yes, and it was after they had been spoken to that my suspicions were aroused.’
Neither Vinnie nor Harry spoke as Jim continued. ‘He fell from the bridge backwards. I’ve never known a jumper go that way before.’
‘Nor me,’ Vinnie agreed.
‘Then, I had some initial house-to-house enquiries done.’
‘Where?’ Vinnie asked, looking around.
‘Behind that copse is a row of newly-built houses whose gardens back up to the trees, and with it being a warm summer evening and all that,’ Jim said.
‘Any luck?’ Vinnie asked.
‘Yes, in or far as there was one couple sitting out at the time, but no, in that they didn’t see anything.’
‘So that’s the end of that then.’
‘Not quite and here’s where my suspicions were further raised,’ Jim said. Vinnie nodded for him to continue. ‘They heard what they thought was the sound of swifts screeching, which the man of the house thought strange.’
Vinnie asked why, and Jim explained that the man was a fan of the swifts and would often sit out of a
n evening and watch them feed and screech, and their remarkable aerial displays. But he was certain that they had all fled their nests two to three weeks ago to migrate. And, when he’d looked up from the noise, the sky was empty.
‘Relevance?’ Vinnie asked.
‘It got me thinking,’ Jim said. ‘So I checked with the witnesses and fortunately, one of the vehicles involved was a convertible with its roof down. The driver heard it too.’
‘Heard what?’ Vinnie asked.
‘“The most unearthly screech I’ve ever heard. It pierced the traffic noise”, is how the convertible driver described it. The deceased was screaming his head off. Most jumpers are silent; they know they are jumping to their death, and why,’ Jim said.
It crossed Vinnie’s mind to suggest that the jumper may have had a change of heart half-way down, but knew if even plausible, it was highly unlikely. He liked Jim and respected his hunches, and he had to be honest with himself, his own suspicions were aroused now. He nodded.
‘Any idea who he is yet?’ Harry asked.
‘Just on my way to tell you,’ Jim said, adding, ‘the van over there is his, he’s a rep from Rotherham, and he has many things to live for.’
‘What do you mean?’ Vinnie asked.
‘South Yorks Police have just spoken to his next of kin, and apparently, today was his last day as a rep — he’s just won £250,000 on the lottery.’
‘That’s a lot of reasons to live,’ Vinnie said.
‘That’s what I thought,’ Jim added.
‘Harry?’ Vinnie asked, as he turned to face his boss.
‘Ok gents, I agree this is suspicious, so let’s start off publicly that it’s an unexplained death, but run this thing from here on in as homicide. We can always downgrade things in the light of fresh information, but as we all are fully aware, we can’t reclaim what’s lost by going at it the other way around.’
Vinnie and Jim nodded, Harry carried on. ‘I know you have other responsibilities, Jim, but unless you get dragged away elsewhere I would appreciate you co-ordinating both scenes and supervising a more formal house to house. I’ll have two DSs and a number of DCs here shortly to help you.’
Hidden Page 19