Episode 5 - The matchmaker

Chris managed to get a decent night’s sleep on the narrow couch he had set up in the lab for when he had no time to go home, before opening the corpse of the unidentified woman early on Thursday morning. Nigel was also at work early and had tried to identify the dead woman through various search engines the police use to find identities. On Gary’s instruction he had obtained Len’s photos, but his search was negative. The woman had no police record.

“Gary’s OK, in fact he’s a decent guy, whatever you might have heard to the contrary” Nigel told Len, who had given up his free weekend to be of assistance and was very anxious to get it right with Nigel.

Nigel was impressed that Len had hit it off with Gary, who could be difficult. “If he took you home he really likes you,” he said. “I’ll bet you could hardly believe your eyes.”

“Fantastic,” said Len. “What a family! I had a problem with Mike Curlew and it didn’t escape Gary’s notice.”

“We all have a problem with Mike Curlew,” said Nigel. “Especially his wife. She was promoted to Mike’s rank while he was still in Birmingham and has done a lot of work with Gary. Mike doesn’t like that. I’d like to know why she didn’t use the move Middlethumpton to ditch the guy.”

“He’s a mean bastard,” said Len.

“I know he has spread rumours about Gary and Mia, Len, but they are lies.”

“He spread them in my direction, too,” said Len. “I rhink Gary wanted me to know how things stand with him. We’ll have to sort Mike out out somehow.”

“If I know Gary, he already has the answer. I know what I’d do, but here he is now.”

“What would you do, Nigel?”

“Promote Mia,” said Nigel.

“That’s exactly what’s going to happen,” said Gary. “Hi Len. Working today? Don’t you have a free weekend?”

“Not if you need me here,” said Len.

“Can you get Greg and Mia here, Nigel? I think they both wanted to work today.”

“Why Greg?”

“He was hoping for my job, Nigel.”

“So the two of them can share it, can’t they?” said Nigel, who was very often on Gary’s wavelength.

“That really depends on Henry,” said Gary.

“Who’s Henry,” Len asked.

“Cashier in this joint, Lenm and you have the same status, Gary.“

“Bunkum! He who holds the purse-strings rules the house. Coffee, you guys?””

Gary went into the cubbyhole that served as a kitchen in his old office, which he much preferred to his grander superintendent office a floor higher.

“I brought cream,” said as he busied himself with the coffee machine, his pride and joy.

“No muck out of the corridor automatic or the kitchen here,” said Nigel.

Len was taken aback. Mike had thrown his weight about in the little kitchen all the cops could use. He had insisted on being served with whatever was going. It was one of his ways of emphasizing his superiority.

“Have you got time to be stay and see two happy people get promotion?” said Gary.

“I’d like to.”

“Just as well. I’m going to stick my neck out and promote you too, Len,” said Gary.

“I don’t know enough,” Len protested.

“Shut up, Len. Gary does not do things he hasn’t thought about,” said Nigel.

“This is not revenge on Mike,” said Gary. “I’ve got a better way of putting him in his place. You are now a DS, Len, like Nigel. We’ll have to talk about the money later, but you’ll have a higher rank and that will put Mike in his place, I hope. He’ll think twice about sneering at you in future.”

“Join the club, Len. Better get stuck into it,” said Nigel, “I can hear Mia and Greg having a discussion outside the door.”

“Speculating about who’s going to be the next Boss, no doubt,” said Gary, going to the door and flinging it open.

“Surprise, surprise,” he said. Don’t be shy!”

“What’s this all about?” said Greg.

“You tell me!” said Gary.

“You’ve given Mike your job,” said Mia, unsmiling.

“Wrong,” said Gary. “I’m giving both of you the job.”

“I’ll have to sit down,” said Mia.

“No bun in the oven, I hope,” said Nigel.

“No and I moved out at home,” said Mia. “I’m in a shelter with my little boy.”

There was a long silence as all those present took in what Mia had just said.

“What happened, Mia?” he eventually asked. “You should have told someone before it got so bad.”

“He was drinking more and more and getting violent with me. I tried to reason with him and get him off the drink. That made him even more violent with me and then he raped me and struck my son. That was the last straw. I didn’t have anywhere to go, so I went to a women’s shelter while I sort things out. At least we are protected there.”

“You could have come to us,” said Gary.

“You’ve already got a full house,” said Mia.

“We’ll make toom,  Mia. Cleo would want that, too, and you little boy would be loved by all.”

Mia burst into tears. Nigel rushed to put his arms round her.

Gary immediately rang reception to find out if Mike was in the house. He was in the canteen having a breakfast of strong black coffee and cigarettes, though they were banned in the whole of HQ. Mike was dundamentally lawless, however, and the canteen staff would not want to cross him.

Greg went down to collect Mike and Mia went with Len to the next door office, from where they could witness events through a one-way mirror and listen through a tannoy.

Very soon Greg returned with Mike. He had not said what it was about and Mike thought it would be his promotion.

“Have you been drinking, Mike?” Gary started.

“Only coffee. I don’t drink alcohol when I’m on duty.”

“How much alcohol do you drink when you are not on duty?”

“A whisky or two or a beer like everyone else. Normal amounts,” said Mike. He was resentful. He was not expecting a penny lecture.

“Normal? You drink enough to lose control and knock your wife and son about, don’t you?”

“Who told you that?”

“Never mind who told me. Where is your wife now?”

“At home if she isn’t snooping around somewhere.”

“You must hate her.”

“I just don’t want her meddling in my career.”

“What career?”

“My job here, of course.”

“As Superintendent and your superior I’m firing you now, Mike, so you have no job and can stop competing with and abusing your wife and son.”

“The bastard is not my son and you have no right to do take my job away from me,” spat Mike.

“I have every right, Mike. I can’t have members of my teams upholding the law during the day and breaking it at night.”

“I want a lawyer.”

“You’ll get one. Arrest him, Greg, handcuff him and take him down to an arrest cell. You disgust me, Mike Curlew.”

A guard entered looking anxious. He had been summoned by a ‘help’ button Nigel had pressed.

It took the guard only seconds to figure out what was happening. Curlew was a rat. They all knew that.

“Is Greg Winter too weak to cope?” sneered Mike.

“Security, Mike,” said Gary. “Cowards like you tend to scarper if they can.”

When Greg and the guard had taken Mike, Nigel shook Gary by the hand..

“That was long overdue,” he said. “The guy has been a trouble-maker ever since he got here.”

“I’ve been blind,” said Gary. “Did you know about his domestic abuse?”

“No. I don’t think Mia told anyone,” said Nigel.

“I was ashamed,” Mia said through the two-way speaker. “And it is Mike’s son. He just wanted to get at me through him.”

“Come back in here, you two!” said Gary. “It’s over now, Mia, and the filth he’s been spreading around about us will also stop.”

“Why should you be ashamed, Mia?” Nigel asked. “The guy’s not worth it and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Read Cleo’s book on that subject. She went through it herself.”

“Thanks, Nigel,” said Gary. “That’s what I should have said.”

”I should have seen it coming,” said Mia. “I did not protect my little boy from his outbursts.”

Nigel put his arm round Mia’s shoulder again. If he had been romantically interested in women, Mia would have been a good choice.

“It’s over now,” Gary said. “Mike will get prison. That’s what happens to cops who make a mockery of the law they are supposed to be upholding and domestic abuse is finally being taken seriously.”

Mia nodded and smiled at Greg when he returned after handing Mike over to a second security guard who searched him before shutting him up in an arrest cell, totally oblivious to Mike’s cursing and threats.

***

“Let’s think forward,” said Gary. “You can go back to your flat now, Mia. Mike will not be let out, but I think you should find somewhere else to live and start again. I’ve decided to make you and Greg joint section leaders. My job here covered homicide and drugs so one of you will form a new drugs squad. Would you want that job, Mia?”

“Yes please,” said Mia. “I was going to suggest that you give Greg your old job since he’s been here longer than me, but…”

“It’s the right decision, Mia,” said Nige, “so shut up!”

“I agree,” said Greg. “We can work together really well, Mia.”

Len was amazed at this whole dialogue. Administration was not part of basic police training and neither was diplomacy, but here he was experiencing both. Gary turned to him.

“Len, Have you any experience of drugs?”

“Not personally, Gary.”

“Your face is unfamiliar, so you will be ideal in the drugs team.”

“Are you serious?” said Len.

“Of course I am.”

“Welcome aboard, Len!” said Mia and this time she hugged him.

Gary’s matchmaking for me again, Len decided, feeling warm and wanted. He was rather glad he had got away from the Danish au-pairs. Mia was a different kettle of fish and she had gone through hell with Mike. It was his duty to look after her. It would have bothered him to know that Greg felt exactly the same.

“Why don’t you all go to the canteen for a drink?” said Gary. “I’ll phone Cleo and then join you. I’m quite hungry, actually.”

***

“Playing Cupid again!” said Nigel when the others had left.

“Again? You overestimate my powers, Nigel. Those two were meant for each other.”

“Mia and Len? Mia and Greg? Len and Greg?”

“Len was not communicating well with the Danish au-pairs.”

“The ones I met were little man-eaters.”

“Not woth me,” said Gary.

“Cleo would make sure of that,” said Nigel.

“I’m not into girls in gymslips, Nigel. Stop baiting me.”

“Mia is still married to Mike, of course.”

“Not much longer, I’m sure.”

“Toni tried to get off with me,” said Nigel. “She’s rather awesome, as Cleo would say.”

“I’ve never thought of her in that light. Have I ever told you about her Siamese ...”

“…cat?”

“… boyfriend.”

***

Gary had the feeling that he had been at HQ for the whole day, but in fact it was just about time for elevenses.

“When we’ve had our get-together in the canteen I’m going to say a final farewell to this office and make myself at home upstairs, Nigel.”

“Do you want me to move the coffee machine?”

“Heavens, no. There’s quite a good communal one upstairs and if that doesn’t do the trick I can always invest in a personal one.”

“Do you still want me to work for you?”

“Were you thinking of leaving?”

“No, but won’t Greg and Mia expect me to be here for them?”

“You will be. We’ll sort out a timetable. OK?”

“your wish is my command, good Sir!.”

“We’ll need another assistant, Nigel. If you agree to do some of Gisela’s business, it would make it feasible for you to have your own office upstairs and be in charge of us all. A new assistant could be trained by you and work down here.”

“Would I like that?” Nigel said. He was sceptical.

“I don’t see why not. Gisela is almost dysfunctional. I don’t think she does much of anything these days except look after her mother and blame herself for putting her in a home. She’s into repentance. Henry is an accountant totally lacking in communication skills and I think he’s getting a bit demented.”

“Gisela’s mother was almost killed in that OAP place, wasn’t she?” said Nigel

“But we have her to thank for saving us a lot of work. There could have been a mass extermination of pensioners, including her, if that carer had not been put away thanks to Giselle Thring,” said Gary. “Changing the subject, can you get Jet Black up to my 3^rd floor office in about an hour, Nigel?”

“I thought you were going home?”

“I’ve changed my mind. “Do know Black? Is he the new guy in the arrest cells?”

“Isn’t he the guy you found on the balcony of the dead woman’s flat?”

“Yes. I won’t go through it all now, but I’m sure Len will put in a report today and I’ll question Black in such a way that you will find out enough to keep us going.”

“Handcuffed?”

“Definitely, and with security. Please take notes, Nigel.”

“Just like old times.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t mend it.”

***

Greg could not resist drawing Gary aside and thanking him for getting him to work woth Mia.”

“Aren’t you still clinging to that extravagant little lady names Rosie?” said Gary hitting on reather a sore topic.

“I’m not sure who is clinging to whom.”

“Just keep clinging, Greg, and tell me if you like the new job arrangement. You didn’t say much upstairs.”

“I feel privileged”

“Chuck it. I’m glad Mia told us about Mike Curlew’s drunkenness and violence. I had already decided something had to happen, but his behaviour towards Mia has made it so much easier.”

“Is Nigel going to work with us, I mean Mia and me?”

“Of course,” said Gary. “At least until you get a new assistant. We’ll make a rota. I’ll leave you the coffee machine.”

“I can stay in my old office and let Mia have yours to herself,” said Greg.

“Mia has no office of her own, so that arrangement would be logical,” said Gary.

“I’m going to interview Joseph Black upstairs. Do you want to be in on it?”

“Try and stop me,” said Greg.

***

Gary took Greg and Nigel to his upstairs office. Nigel would sit out of Black’s view and take notes. Gary had not yet had new equipment installed in that office, so there was just one recording microphone and no camera. Greg would be in full view of Black as a witness and questioner, though Gary was in a better position to do the interview as he had been at Daphne’s flat. To be sure he left nothing out he called down to the canteen and asked Len to please attend the questioning if Mis coulds spar him.

She could. He was too juvenile fr her,m whereas Greg…

***

Joseph alias Jet Black was in a bad mood to match when the security officer brought him in. Len followed having leapt up the 4 flights of stairs to the superintendent floor. Gary nodded approvingly as Len tried to get his breath back before taking a seat next Nigel.

***

“Homesick?” Gary started, looking at Jet disapprovingly.

“You’ve got my key,” Jet retorted.

“Where’s Daphne, Jet?”

“I’ve told you I don’t know.”

“But you’ve moved in with her, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Who is the woman we found dead, Jet?”

“I don’t know.”

“I think we’ll take a look at the corpse. That might jog your memory,” said Gary. “Organize it with Chris, Nigel.”

Nigel forewarned Chris in a text message. Ten minutes later, Gary, Nigel, Len, Jet and his security guard marched down to the cellar to view the dead woman. Nigel and Greg would be getting a first look at the dead woman. Gary would brace himself for a second one. It was anyone’s guess how Black would react.

Chris could already report that the woman had indeed been pushed underwater and her head held there until she drowned.

“A particularly shocking and cruel way of killing someone,” said Gary, moving away from the slab on which the woman lay. The smell of formaldehyde was making him nauseous.

“The woman must have trusted whoever did it,” said Len. “She would not have undressed and lain in a bathtub otherwise.”

Mia had heard about the trip to Chris’s realm from a guard wh was was there for a coffee after dealing with Mike. She made her way down to the forensic lab.

“It could have happened to you, Mia,” said Len when he saw her. His hand reached out for hers. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he whispered.

Quick work, thought Gary.

“I’m not sure Mike would go that far,” said Mia.

“Don’t defend him,” said Nigel. “He’s a bastard.”

“We still don’t know who the woman is,” said Gary. “Mr Black might be able to tell us after all.”

“Mr Black does not know the woman either,” said Jet.

“Look again.”

Chris drew back the blue cotton cover a second time  to reveal the dead woman’s face.

Jet looked.

“I agree that she looks a bit like Daphne,” he said, “but it isn’t her. Daphne has a mole.”

“A what?”

“A mole; a sort of birth mark– on her left side at about waist level.”

The woman’s skin was pale and unblemished but Gary noted that Jet’s friendship with Daphne could have been an intimate one.

“She wore a top that showed her waist,” he explained when everyone had turned to gaze at him.

Gary mused that Cleo would have told him not to jump to hasty conclusions.

***

The group moved back to Gary’s office. The view of the dead woman had shaken them all. Even Jet said nothing, but he seemed upset..

***

“You did have sex with Daphne, I take it,” said Gary.

“A few times,” said Jet. “But she did wear a top that showed the mole,” he explained.

“And she still went off with another guy, didn’t she?” said Mia. “That must have upset you.”

“I knew she’d come back,” Jet replied.

“How romantic,” said Gary.

“She had offered me a place to live and she went with the flat,” said Jet.

“If you had moved in with Daphne, why aren’t any of your clothes there?” Gary asked him.

“Because I haven’t finished moving in yet. I just had a sports bag with me. It should still be there.”

Gary and Ned had seen the bag and left it there.

Chris said that they had confiscated the sports bag but all that was in it were size 43 men’s running shoes and some sports togs.

When told that, Jet said he did not wear pyjamas.

“Where are your clothes then,” Gary asked.

“I slept at a friend’s for a few weeks,” he replied.

“Address? We’ll want to check that.”

Jet shrugged his shoulders and cited the address.

“Where did you meet Daphne?”

“At a disco.”

“Did you pick her up?”

“She picked me up,” said Jet.

“How long has it been going on between you?”

“Not long. A few weeks.”

Gary looked at Jet for a moment before saying in a low voice “Where is she, Jet?”

“I don’t know,” hissed Jet.

“If you already had a key, why did you steal hers at the disco?”

“I just did,” said Jet.

“Tell me more about the sports bag, Jet. Your story has too many holes in it.”

After a pause, Jet started his story again.

“OK,” he said. “I did take the key out of her pocket.”

“When?”

“Last Wednesday.”

“Where?”

“At the disco.”

“And she didn’t notice that her key had gone?”

“I don’t know. She went off with some other man. I don’t know where they went.”

“Let’s recap, shall we? Daphne had not asked you to live with her, had she?”

“No.”

“Why did you say she had?”

“I thought it’s what she wanted.”

“Did you know the man she went off with?”

“No.”

Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”

“I might.”

“We’ll go back to pathology and look at Chris’s collection,” said Gary.

“I’ll set it up,” said Nigel.

“I don’t want to see that dead woman again,” said Jet.

“Was downstairs the first time you had ever seen her?” Gary said.

“Yes… No.”

Gary deliberately slowed down the pace of the interview. That often unnerved suspects.

“Tell me about the other time,” he said.

“I didn’t do it,” said Jet.

“Why did you go to Daphne’s flat without her?”

“I had the key, didn’t I?”

“Let’s recap, shall we?” said Gary. “You had the key and decided to move in despite Daphne having gone off with someone else.”

“Yes.”

“So early on Monday morning you went there, taking your sports bag along.”

“Yes.”

“Why did you wait over the weekend, Jet?”

“I had a gig.”

“We can check that.”

It’s the truth.”

“Were you expecting to find Daphne in the flat? You had the key.”

“Yes. A neighbour has one so she could get in. I wanted to catch her before she went to work.”

“But she wasn’t there and her bed had not been slept in, had it?”

Jet nodded.

“Then you needed to use the bathroom, so you dropped your sports bag and went there.”

“Yes.”

“And then you discovered the dead woman, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“So you made a hasty exit, forgetting the sports bag.”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t try to collect it before we caught you on the balcony hiding.”

“No.”

“Why did you go back there?”

“For the sportsbag. I wanted to go running,” said Jet.

There was a pause.

***

“Who is the dead woman, Jet?”

“I tell you I don’t know.”

“Where do you think Daphne went?”

“I don’t know that either.”

”We’ll call it a day now,” said Gary. “I want you to try to identify the guy who went off with Daphne.”

Jet nodded and they all trouped to the lift and back down to the pathology lab.

“When we find Daphne, if she can confirm what you have said you can go, Mr Black. Until then you will stay in custody unless you have been lying about the dead woman in the bath. Do you understand how serious this all is?””

“I’m telling the truth. I swear it,” said Jet.

He was in very deep water, and he knew it. But he had not murdered the woman and he did not know where Daphne was. He was scared out of his wits that he would be blamed, however, and he had no idea how he could prove his innocence.