Team Work

[smallhobbit]

Title: Team Work
Rating: Green cortina
Word Count: 1,730 words.
Notes: Written for hambelandjemima  as part of Life on Mars Ficathon 2010, with the prompts ‘case-fic, families, soldier on'.  With thanks to my beta jinxed100 for her rapid response

 

CID had been called to a shooting one evening.  A small time drug dealer had been shot in his home.  What had made the shooting all the more unpleasant was that his 19 year old wife had also been killed, leaving their six month baby daughter an orphan.

“So what do we know about this Hardy?” Gene had demanded.

“Unpleasant git.  Dealt mostly in cannabis.  His name’s been mentioned in a couple of gambling rings, but nothing major.”  Ray was avoiding looking at the young woman’s dead body. 

“So maybe he earned himself a beating, but not this.  Right, you lot, go ‘ome get some kip, we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, as we’re going to nail the bastards that did this.”

The following morning Sam met Chris as they entered the station.  It didn’t look as if the constable had had any sleep at all.

“Chris, are you okay?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking once I got ‘ome.”

“I know it’s difficult, but you have to learn to distance yourself.”  Sam didn’t add that at times that was easier said than done.

“The thing is, Boss, that Sandra was at school with my sister.  And when our Linda had her Ben, well, Sandra was on the same ward with her baby.”

“Oh Chris, no wonder you’re upset.  But why didn’t you say anything last night?”

“Didn’t know she was married to Andrew Hardy until I saw ‘er body.”

Sam nodded to show he understood and they made their way to CID, where Gene was giving his orders.

“Ray, get out and see what we can find out from the local low-life.  Most of them won’t be too upset about Hardy’s death, but there’s no way the girl deserved to die, so someone may be prepared to speak out.  Take Chris with you.”

“Cartwright, plod have taken statements from all the neighbours.  I need you to go through them and see if you can find anything useful there.”

“Gene,” Sam interrupted, “we’re going to need some background information.  It might be better if Annie went to talk to the women, they’re more likely to open up to her than one of us.  Chris could go through the statements.”

“Chris?” Gene looked questioningly at him.

“That’s fine by me Guv.”

“Right then, what are you waiting for?”

Gene spent the day following up his own contacts who either genuinely knew nothing or were too frightened to say anything.  Sam meanwhile checked on the progress that forensics were making, once again bemoaning the amount of time everything took in 1973.   Feeling frustrated he went to see Oswald, who told him in no uncertain terms to leave him to work in peace or he’d be the next body on the slab.

Sam stomped back to CID where Gene’s expression told him that his day had been equally fruitless.

“Okay, what have we got?” Gene demanded of Annie and Chris; Ray hadn’t returned.

“I’ve spoken to all the women who live nearby,” Annie began.  “Most of them are like Sandra Hardy, young mums with small children.  They’re at home most of the time and none of them remember seeing anyone unexpected around last week.  The only slightly dodgy character is the bloke from the garage who visits Helen Smith two or three times a week, and that’s been going on for at least six months – a number of them were happy to tell me all about him.”

“Okay, well if all else fails we could bring ‘im in, but I doubt he’s involved.  Chris?”

“I’ve gone through all the statements from last night and I can’t find anything at all.”

“Cars that weren’t normally there, people who didn’t belong?” Sam snapped.  “There must be something.”

“Sorry Boss, there’s nothing at all, and I read through every statement twice like you’ve shown me.”

Gene looked at Chris and nodded.  “Have we got anything from Ray?”

“He phoned about half an hour ago.  This is what he told me.”  Chris produced a list, most of which appeared to be pub names, interspersed with an occasional comment.

“Right, well I don’t think we’re going to make any more progress tonight.  I suggest you both get off home and we’ll start again tomorrow.”

Sam waited until Chris and Annie had left when he exploded, “Typical bloody Ray.  Spends the day in pubs when we’re doing all the work.”

“So it’s okay for Annie to spend the day drinking coffee and chatting to the women, but Ray’s not allowed to have a drink?  ‘Ow else do you think he’s gonna get anything from them?”  Gene pushed Sam forcefully against the wall, taking some of his own frustrations out on the slighter man.

“Okay Guv.  You’ve made your point,” Sam gasped.  “But there must be something we could do; something to jog people’s memories.  Do you think Rathbone would let us mount a proper reconstruction?”

“Not a chance, Sammy boy, but there’s nothing to stop us going to have another look at the scene.  You up for it?”

They drove back to Miller Road in silence: Sam still annoyed at Ray’s absence; Gene longing for a drink but at the same time wanting to feel they had made some progress in the case before he stopped.  When they reached the house they dodged the exclusion tape and Sam instantly started to search for clues at the bottom of the path.  Gene grabbed him by the shoulders and half dragged

him up the path to the front door.

“Right Tyler, just for once you’re going to do things my way.  Plod have already combed the garden and found nothing.”  Sam attempted to say something, but received a sharp punch in the back for his pains.  “Shut up and listen.  Stand here and look around you.  Ask yourself, does it feel right?  Well, go on then.”

Sam took a deep breath.  “Right, there’s no sign of a forced entry, so Hardy must have known his killer.  But we’ve established that no-one saw a stranger afterwards or saw a car leaving and they wouldn’t have had much time to make an escape because the neighbours heard screaming and came out to see what was going on.”

“Right.  Anyone leaving would have had to go down the path and into the road.  There’s no way they could have left without being seen.  So clearly the killer didn’t leave by the front door.”

“But the back door was bolted and none of the windows were open.”

“So we’re either looking for the invisible man, or there’s another solution, Sherlock.  What are we missing?”

“Maybe the killer never left?”

“He could hardly stand there with a gun and pretend he had nothing to do with it.”

“Stuck the gun in his pocket and made out he’d got there first?”

“No, the first of the neighbours arrived together and the others followed shortly afterwards.”

“And then they all went in and trampled all over the place.  Someone even turned the gas off, ‘cos Sandra Hardy was in the middle of cooking tea.  Wait a minute, if they went in the kitchen then they could have easily bolted the back door.”

“So our killer shoots Hardy and his wife, nips out the back door, up the lane behind the hedge, in through another back door, out the front, and back here.” 

They walked back down the path towards the Cortina.  As Gene opened his door he heard Phyllis on the radio.  “Guv, I’ve got a message from Chris.  He’s at The Railway Arms.  He and Ray think they’ve got something.”

It didn’t take long for them to reach the pub.  “Okay, Chris, what have you got to tell me?” Gene barked as soon as he saw his DC.

“I saw our Linda this evening.  She’s really upset about Sandra being killed.  She’d bumped into her last week in Woollies and she’d been really happy and had been saying how another of her friends, Angela Neale, had recently moved in a few doors down from her.  Well, I’d read all the witness statements and there hadn’t been an Angela Neale, but there had been an Angela West, so I sort of assumed that she was Angela Neale at school but was Angela West now she was married.”

“Thing is, Guv,” Ray interrupted, “although I’ve not found out much today.”  He ignored Sam’s exasperated sigh.  “One name that did crop up a few times was Richard Neale.  It would appear that he’s starting to make a name for himself in the gambling circles.  No-one would actually accuse him of anything specific but they seemed to think ‘e would be capable of shooting someone if he felt they were encroaching on his territory.”

“And,” Annie had joined them, “When I was talking to Angela West I thought there was something odd.  Most of the others had lots of family photos on show – you know wedding, christening, that sort of thing, but she didn’t have any.  We’d assumed that she was living with her husband, but what if Richard Neale is her brother?”

“Right,” Gene leapt up.  “I think it’s time we had a word with Richard Neale.”

“Guv,” Sam began, “we need to arrange backup – we know he’s armed and ...”

“Do you or do you not want to get the bastard who orphaned an innocent baby girl?”

“Ye –es.”

“Then come on and stop blathering.”

They all piled into the Cortina and sped back to Miller Road.  Once there Gene and Sam headed for the front door, whilst Ray and Chris took the lane round to the back. 

Gene banged on the door, “Open up. Police!”

Angela West slowly opened the door and Gene pushed past her.  Hearing the sound of the back door opening he hurtled into the kitchen.

“Get down Ray, he’s got a gun,” Chris shouted.

Gene threw himself onto Neale who collapsed underneath him.

“You’re nicked sunshine!”

Gene got back on his feet, hauled Neale up and pushed him over to Ray to be handcuffed.  “Ray and Chris, get this scum back to the station.  Cartwright, you bring in Mrs West, if that is indeed her name, and find out just ‘ow much she did know about events.  Sam and I are off to the pub as my DI has offered to buy me a drink to celebrate the successful conclusion of this case.”