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Justice Postponed
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereLunghezza: 244 pagine4 ore
- Editore:
- Austin Macauley Publishers
- Pubblicato:
- Aug 30, 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781528957335
- Formato:
- Libro
Descrizione
The book opens with the police attending a sheltered accommodation bungalow in response to concerned neighbours reporting the yowling of many of an elderly occupant's cats. They are confronted by a horrific murder scene where the frail old woman has been stabbed many, many times on her bed surrounded by her distressed and starving pets.
The team of detectives, having been summoned, followed closely by their forensic colleagues, spring into action, but there seems to be no real clues or help when they canvass the neighbours. Nothing suspicious had been noticed and no visitors had been seen.
However, after 48 hours, the forensic report produced proof positive as to the identity of the killer from blood and partial fingerprints, as well as the full fingerprints found on the knife left behind in the victim's body. Forensics even came up with the name and address of the suspected murderer… a petty burglar and well known to the local police force.
The team of detectives, having been summoned, followed closely by their forensic colleagues, spring into action, but there seems to be no real clues or help when they canvass the neighbours. Nothing suspicious had been noticed and no visitors had been seen.
However, after 48 hours, the forensic report produced proof positive as to the identity of the killer from blood and partial fingerprints, as well as the full fingerprints found on the knife left behind in the victim's body. Forensics even came up with the name and address of the suspected murderer… a petty burglar and well known to the local police force.
Informazioni sul libro
Justice Postponed
Lunghezza: 244 pagine4 ore
Descrizione
The book opens with the police attending a sheltered accommodation bungalow in response to concerned neighbours reporting the yowling of many of an elderly occupant's cats. They are confronted by a horrific murder scene where the frail old woman has been stabbed many, many times on her bed surrounded by her distressed and starving pets.
The team of detectives, having been summoned, followed closely by their forensic colleagues, spring into action, but there seems to be no real clues or help when they canvass the neighbours. Nothing suspicious had been noticed and no visitors had been seen.
However, after 48 hours, the forensic report produced proof positive as to the identity of the killer from blood and partial fingerprints, as well as the full fingerprints found on the knife left behind in the victim's body. Forensics even came up with the name and address of the suspected murderer… a petty burglar and well known to the local police force.
The team of detectives, having been summoned, followed closely by their forensic colleagues, spring into action, but there seems to be no real clues or help when they canvass the neighbours. Nothing suspicious had been noticed and no visitors had been seen.
However, after 48 hours, the forensic report produced proof positive as to the identity of the killer from blood and partial fingerprints, as well as the full fingerprints found on the knife left behind in the victim's body. Forensics even came up with the name and address of the suspected murderer… a petty burglar and well known to the local police force.
- Editore:
- Austin Macauley Publishers
- Pubblicato:
- Aug 30, 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781528957335
- Formato:
- Libro
Informazioni sull'autore
After spending eleven years in the Royal Navy, Andrew Challoner left to become a teacher. It has been his lifetime ambition to write, in his own words, a 'page-turner' and to introduce believable characters, good and bad, whom his readers might almost recognise and relate to.
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Anteprima del libro
Justice Postponed - Andrew Challoner
24
About the Author
After spending eleven years in the Royal Navy, Andrew Challoner left to become a teacher. It has been his lifetime ambition to write, in his own words, a ‘page-turner’ and to introduce believable characters, good and bad, whom his readers might almost recognise and relate to.
About the Book
The book opens with the police attending a sheltered accommodation bungalow in response to concerned neighbours reporting the yowling of many of an elderly occupant’s cats. They are confronted by a horrific murder scene where the frail old woman has been stabbed many, many times on her bed surrounded by her distressed and starving pets.
The team of detectives, having been summoned, followed closely by their forensic colleagues, spring into action, but there seems to be no real clues or help when they canvass the neighbours. Nothing suspicious had been noticed and no visitors had been seen.
However, after 48 hours, the forensic report produced proof positive as to the identity of the killer from blood and partial fingerprints, as well as the full fingerprints found on the knife left behind in the victim’s body. Forensics even came up with the name and address of the suspected murderer… a petty burglar and well known to the local police force.
Copyright Information ©
Andrew Challoner (2019)
The right of Andrew Challoner to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528957335 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
Firstly, I would like to express my appreciation to all the various ‘teams’ at AM Publishers for their sterling work in bringing my first book to life. Also, I must accept full responsibility for all the errors or mistakes my eagle-eyed readers may wish to point out. Those errors are mine alone. Sorry!
I am grateful to so many friends I have ‘met’ online for their encouragement and suggestions offered during the writing of this book. It was a welcome team effort. Two, in particular, shared their own expertise. Both Angie Kersnick and Debra Carter were there for me every step of the way. Debra, a talented author herself, helped me enormously with great suggestions or alternatives to the direction of the plot. They offered ideas when I needed them, criticised my work constructively where necessary but always supported my efforts. Thank you all!
Chapter 1
Tuesday, 12 November
Barry Osborne rolled over in bed to avoid the sharp elbow of his wife Theresa and to reach out blindly for the bedside phone.
DI Osborne,
he mumbled into the phone.
Within a minute or so, he groaned and rolled into a seated position on the edge of the bed and asked once more for the address in Allenton where a corpse had been found. PC Harvey and WPC McCrum had been summoned by worried neighbours, who were disturbed by the noise of howling cats inside the sheltered home of the elderly resident, a Mrs Ursula Raines. No more information was offered so Barry dressed quickly checked his watch, 2:45 am, and was soon on his way through Alvaston and across to Allenton. He knew that his sergeant John Williams would probably be there before him as he lived nearer to the address given and was proved right as he made out the tall, burly figure of ‘Jonno’, Sergeant John Williams, stepping out into the road from the shelter of a handy bus stop into the less welcoming driving rain.
In the background he could see that the two patrol car officers had made themselves useful and had erected the blue and white plastic tape used to keep sightseers away. He couldn’t actually see either uniformed officer but knowing Jonno they would be beavering away somewhere, hopefully out of the rain, on their next task. ‘Not a natural death then,’ he thought to himself as he joined Jonno; now back in the relative dryness of the bus shelter.
Have SOCO been called?
Already done guv and I rang Doctor Smith. They are all on their way. I think you better have a quick look first but cover your nose and mouth, and, for what it’s worth, this is a bad one.
They walked swiftly to the locked front door and ‘Jonno’ knocked softly. The door was briskly opened and WPC Debbie McCrum stepped sharply outside, and took great gasps of the much-welcomed fresh air outside…closing the door just as quickly behind her.
We have to keep the door closed to keep the cats inside Inspector, but I am slowly herding them all into the kitchen until you decide what must be done with them. They have all been starved for more than a week we think and so they have eaten the food available…their owner, I’m afraid. She is not a pretty sight now, bless her, but she has a knife sticking in her chest and there are multiple other stab wounds.
Thank you…errrrr.
Debbie…sir, Debbie McCrum.
So where is your partner right now, Debbie?
Probably in the back garden sir, we have been taking it in turns to be inside or outside and he is probably throwing up in the back hedge. The smell in there is so bad it makes your eyes water… Oh and be careful where you tread, the cats haven’t been fussy about where they do their business!
Right then, continue rounding up the cats and keep them in the kitchen…how many are there anyway?
There are eight in the kitchen but the last few are getting harder to corner.
Jonno, ring the station and ask for a dog van without the dog and warn the driver to bring thick gloves and blankets for transporting all the cats away from here. They are to be kept in a single dog pen until further orders. Meanwhile, I will enter the property and take as short a look as I can…the priority right now is to remove the cats so we can establish an aired scene of crime… OK, everyone? By the way Debbie, where did you find that key?
The most stupid place to leave your emergency key sir,
she smiled.
Not under the mat, Debbie?
Certainly not sir, it was under the potted plant!
The second most stupid place to leave your spare key then. Right?
They both nodded their heads wondering at all the daft tricks the public get up to. Barry snapped out of his thoughts and asked, Did you check all round to see whether there was any sign of a break in?
Yes, sir and no, there wasn’t.
Hmm. that means our murderer returned the key to where he found it. So very thoughtful of him, wasn’t it?
The SOCO van arrived and parked close to the blue and white tape. They were told to remain in the van until the cats had all been rounded up and the windows opened slightly to get some breathable air into the place.
Right, Debbie, open up and show me to the bedroom and then you can go back to bagging the last of the cats so we can disperse the smell.
****
The smell inside the bungalow was like a hammer blow to the system. Despite the warning from his sergeant and another from the young WPC, and considering the many other terrible crime scenes he had experienced, none of them prepared him for the toxic miasma of cat faeces, rotting human flesh and the various wet puddles of cat urine that permeated the fabric, table tops, seats, carpets and any other surface that the cats could reach.
Barry looked at the WPC, whose eyes were already watering, and passed her his spare handkerchief. He nodded to her as she went in search of the last roaming cats and putting on his latex gloves, entered the bedroom. He walked carefully across the smelly carpet and saw the wreck of what had been a human being.
He was battle-hardened by his job and had seen much to wonder at man’s inhumanity towards his fellow man but his first sight made him falter. This poor woman had been smothered first if the discarded pillow on the floor was an indication of the method of death. The one remaining eye was bloodshot, usually a tell-tale sign that she had probably been smothered, and most of her face was nibbled away by sharp cats’ teeth. She was small, frail, certainly and no threat to any intruder. At the end of her life she had probably weighed not much more than ninety or a hundred pounds.
Most sickening was the fact that bedclothes covering her lower body had been flung off her and her nightie was around her waist. She had been stabbed several times but there were no defence wounds. That fact alone led Barry to consider that the stabs were possibly post mortem. There was little sign of blood. He hoped that the poor lady was dead before her defilement and savage knife attack, but a voice in his head cautioned him that the lack of blood present might be due to the raging thirst of twelve or more cats.
Within twenty minutes, the numerous cats had all been rounded up and then been gently transferred to the dog cage in the back of the police dog van and driven off to the station in the city centre but not before the dog handler, the WPC and a white faced PC Harvey had gained their fair share of cat scratches and bites for their pains.
Right, Jonno, tell the Scene of Crime team to go ahead now and do their thing and ask Dr Smith to have a word with me before he enters the property.
****
Good morning Barry, I hear you have a body for me.
Doctor Smith was a round, red faced, jolly looking person whose demeanour completely contrasted with the dark ghastly sights he saw on a daily basis. Barry looked at his long-time colleague and guessed that the smiling bonhomie was really a front to help deal with the starkness of his daily work but ‘Smithy’ always went about his business with his own bluff cheeriness that helped to lighten the sad scenes of the aftermath of violence and helped to steady the nerves of the younger members of the SOCO team and the odd new policeman or woman. The SOCO team were working silently and efficiently to secure the site and got on with their own specialist tasks.
"I know you always give of your best in every investigation Smithy, but I have to tell you, this one makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There is something really strange about this one but I will wait patiently for your report. They think the murdered person has not been seen for at least a week and I suspect it may be much longer.
Nobody likes to think that they have been guilty of neglecting Ursula Raines by not calling on her or being alert to her non-appearance recently. I know the longer a corpse has lain undiscovered for that length of time the more difficult it becomes for you to accurately establish the TOD, but I have an idea that our chances of catching this killer may actually rest on a reasonably close guesstimate of the time of death if that is at all possible.
As usual Barry, I will do my best for you and Ursula but as you already said, the longer the interval the more variables come into play,
his face broke into an understanding smile, I’ll take a look now but I will be able to give you my best possible estimate, taking all those variables into account, in my preliminary report after I get her on the operating table.
With that Barry had to be content with waiting until 9 am when he had the numbers of policemen and women to canvass the immediate neighbours and then the visiting traders and postmen and other likely local residents, who may have had dealings in the area. It would take the best part of the day to achieve all this and not very much would be useful when sifting through and studying all the statements gathered by his team. He mused that it would not be helpful yet to go public and ask the help of the community until he had more information to share with them. With a sinking feeling he could see that this case would take many, many days to even understand let alone being able to identify any likely suspects. The murderer will be miles away by now and probably free and clear unless SOCO or Doctor Smith could shed some light on the case. It’s going to be a long day he thought as he stared out at the heavy rain still lashing down on his team as they squelched from door to door.
Chapter 2
Wednesday, 13 November
Barry Osborne drove into the station car park at around ten to eight the following morning and ran across to the main door to avoid the onset of yet another wintry shower. Entering the incident room he spotted Jonno sitting in his office with a bunch of damp and crumpled statements from the day before.
Anything?
he asked, more in hope than expectation.
Not much guv, sighting of a strange car in the close maybe a fortnight ago…most of the visitors’ cars are well known to the neighbours but this one was blue or black and was largish, they think, and they didn’t know the make and it was gone by the next morning.
Oh, and the postman did think he heard that day’s mail hit another letter or the weekly free paper as he posted it through the letter box about three days ago…he thinks.
Anything else?
Ursula Raines kept herself to herself according to her next door neighbour and it wasn’t strange at all for her not to be seen for quite a while. She did her own shopping down at the corner shop and the shop owner, Mr Patel said that she often bought UHT milk in bulk and got it home in her trolley so she could live off her tins of food and that milk and not necessarily visit the shop for ages. She always stocked up on her cat food and soups at the corner shop but Mr Patel knew that she had the occasional delivery by a Tesco van. She was 92 years of age, she didn’t do much in the way of gardening or conversations with her neighbours and she had a granddaughter, Ellie Haywood, who visited her from time to time…but not recently.
Is that it? After almost 24 hours of interviewing the local population we have only some observation, something that may or may not have happened and helpful, hopeful guesses?
Don’t shoot the messenger guv, I am only repeating what these rain sodden statements are saying. Ursula Raines was almost a recluse. All she had to fill her days was her love of cats, her television and not much else. She didn’t seek the company of people nearby and very few people could tell you what she was like or even what she sounded like.
Most people reckoned she was harmless and no one had a bad word to say about her apart from her ‘family’ of goodness knows how many cats.
I know, I know Jonno but until I get something to work with, hopefully from SOCO or Dr Smith, I have to brief our troops with absolutely zilch unless we can come up with some theories to follow up. Let’s hope someone at the briefing can come up with something. Eh?
Don’t hold your breath Boss,
was Jonno’s grumbled and barely audible reply.
****
So what we have, ladies and gentlemen is simple, straightforward murder of a frail elderly woman living alone with her cats. We have no idea whether it was a burglary gone wrong or what, or even if anything is missing.
Barry stopped for a moment or two and then continued… Or was it just that simple?
Noting a few nods from his listeners he warmed to his theme, Did anyone think that there was a certain overkill in the method?
Encouraged by more nodding from the assembled detectives and others he continued, You have seen the photographs on the wall over there…despite the numerous knife strikes, does the murder scene really look like that of a frenzied killing… A hate crime?
More nods. "And finally, the lifted nightie…no obvious sexual attack there…more like a staged murder I would suggest. I would also think that the murderer was in no particular hurry and deliberately left the bedroom door open because he knew the cats would certainly be hungry in a day or two and that could only complicate the work of the inevitable investigation.
And now ladies and gentlemen, the floor is yours. Have any of you thought of something we are missing…? Nothing…? Right, well we will know more when our scientific and medical colleagues pass us their findings so far, but in the meantime our priorities are the further interviews not yet completed and re-visiting some of our witnesses where they may need to focus again on what they can actually recall. The weather report for the rest of the day is for dry and sunny weather after 10 am so that, at least, will be a bonus. Bring me something that might shed light on this nasty murderer.
****
Superintendent Barker, who had been at the back of the room throughout the briefing waited until most of the policemen and women had left the room and strolled up to Barry and his sergeant, Well done Barry, a great briefing, considering you have very little to offer them except your insights of the murder scene which were useful. Ever thought of becoming a profiler?
He smiled at the Inspector’s grimace at the very thought. Joking, Barry, but you were spot on there…the murder scene had the whiff of theatrics. The press are all over this one and of course I will have to make a decent statement available to them soon but, for the moment, I am holding off for a while until we have evidence, something, to back our words. The murderer took his time so we may need to do the same until then… Agreed?
Agreed,
replied Barry, But right now I need to join Dr Smith to find out what he has found out at the city mortuary and then I may be able to join some of the dots and furnish you with fresh material for when you do have to meet the press. I will update you as soon as I have something positive to offer, sir.
The superintendent nodded and smiled briefly but he looked distracted and to Barry’s observant eyes somewhat tired…exhausted even. Catching the look on Barry’s face he chuckled, Try and phone me sometime during the budget meeting mid-morning Barry, I could do with distraction from this month’s shed load of statistics and need for economies especially if the news is good.
Try my best, Sir,
Barry replied as they parted, as he and Jonno left for the mortuary.
Over his shoulder he called to his sergeant, "Get Tom Harvey down to the car as well Jonno, it’s about time he got to see Smithy at work. After his performance at the scene of crime the other night he will have to toughen up and lose some of his squeamishness. I am all for empathy and natural fellow feeling for the victim but we can’t have him throwing up every time he sees a nasty
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