Out of the shadows
Chapter 1: The tangled web.
When Janet walked into Oldham police station that morning, chatting to Lee and Mitch about what was on telly the night before the last thing she was expecting was the grim face of her boss, and friend of 20 years, Gill.
"Morning Boss." Said Lee, heading straight to his desk and dumping the files he had been carrying around, archives, ready to be stored away in disclosures, and most probably never see the light of day again, Gill reflected. A waste of time space and money.
"Morning. Go straight through to the briefing room, everyone's in there, I just need to make a phone call, ill be in , just give me 2 minutes." She said, sombrely, with a small smile which didn't quite meet her eyes.
Janet and the two men walked into the smaller briefing room, and Janet took her usual seat next to Rachel.
"Morning, do you know what's going on? Where's Andy? He should know." Janet asked, facing Rachel but leaving her questions open for anyone who had any more information than herself.
"No, we have no idea. Boss is coming any second now though." Someone said, Pete, or maybe someone else. She didn't know, wasn't really listening. Her eyes had caught the name, in small print, along with an identification number of a pitch black grainy CCTV still.
ROPER, ANDY ID: 17736.
Although, as he was the DS there were plenty of official documents that bore his name and collar number, so what was so strange about that? Dismissing the thought, she turned back to Rachel, who was partaking in what would appear to be a rock paper scissors competition with Kevin, probably over who was going to make the coffees, and when Rachel won he sighed, mumbling "bitch" under his breath as Rachel smirked happily, finger swearing at him in response to being called a bitch.
At that moment, Gill burst through the door and the room fell into silence. The DCI made her way to the head of the table, before sitting down and removing her glasses.
"Right everyone, quiet please. I have some bad news I'm afraid, this will come as a shock but DS Andy Roper has been found dead at his home, it was phoned through to command at half past one this morning, forensics have been at the scene since half past three, so far they have found nothing to suggest anything… well, dodgy, but we are waiting on the post mortem results off Scary Mary to determine an exact cause of death. So far it's all pointing to one thing – suicide by drug overdose mixed with 3 bottles of whisky – but for some reason Scary Mary is more concered with faffing about and getting a bloody lung capacity testy thing then she is actually finding out what the cause of death was…" She trailed off, looking at the pale faces of the team, and the way Rachel was holding her best friend's hand underneath the table.
Taking a deep breath she continued.
"Obviously this is a big shock, Andy was a well-respected colleague, and for some of you, a friend. However – this doesn't mean we can make assumptions based on what we knew, know, about him. As Andy is no longer able to… um… carry out his duties on account of him being, well… So I'd like Rachel and Janet to be designated acting sergeants for now. Any questions, come to me, but Lee, I'd like you on last sightings, cctv, that kind of thing, Mitch, can we get a house to house on his street please?" Mitch nodded, and Gill continued.
"Um, Kevin, you are on house to house with mitch, Pete, interview anyone from that. Rachel and Janet, I want you to put together a detailed picture of his life – who he contacts, who are his friends, any relationships, places he goes, you know the drill." She said, sighing as Rachel noted down in her notebook.
Everyone stood up to leave the room, and Gill signalled for Janet and Rachel to stay behind.
"Janet, I understand that this is going to be hard for you, but we need to really find out what was going on to… cause this." She said, quietly, unlike her normal 'Godzilla' style shouting.
"Well, it's not really sunk in yet, but we weren't together, I wasn't interested and I think it upset him. I think I caused this, it's my fault." Janet ran a hand through her hair, hands shaking slightly.
Rachel moved closer to Janet, pulling her tighter into her chest as Gill squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
"Janet, I've got something for you – a letter. One of the uniforms has scanned it for anything useful, found nothing. Nobody else has seen it, I didn't want to because it's private. I'd like you to sit and read it though, anything at all, you knew him well, you might know." Gill said, signalling towards the brunette DC to leave the room with her.
"Stay?" Janet asked in a small voice, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.
The letter lay on the table, the white envelope standing out on the darker table. Janet picked it up, carefully, running her finger along the edge. She felt the tears prick in her eyes, and willed them not to fall. The hand Rachel was resting on her leg was helping, grounding her, showing her support.
Sliding the letter out of the envelope she sighed. It wasn't long, he mustn't have had a lot to say. Still, it was his last chance to tell her everything, to set the record straight. If that was what he chose to do.
Dear Janet…
This isn't your fault. I had to do it.
But none of that matters anymore.
Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.
The three women sat in silence. It wasn't just a suicide. He'd done something, something bad enough for him to worry about getting sent down for a very, very long time.