"What a way to make a living"
Chapter 1:
"Kevin, put that coin away before..." DCI Gill Murray's voice trailed off as she noticed that Kevin was sitting there- his shirt neatly pressed- looking eager eyed and expectant, with a pen in his hand.
"Sorry boss"
Gill swung round in disbelief as Rachel sheepishly gave a coin to Janet who pocketed it with a guilty smile. She turned back round to Kevin, who smiled at her.
Gill blinked hard. Was she dreaming? Kevin in early? Rachel mucking about, and Janet encouraging this? Gill began to wonder if she'd been inhaling too many of her son Sammy's aftershave fumes.
"Boss?" Gill was suddenly aware that everyone was staring at her.
"Yes?" She turned to Lee, who had been the one addressing her.
"There was a phone call for you just now! Apparently some of the paperwork on the Sandra Coleman murder has gone missing. The coroner says, despite your meeting with him yesterday, he now won't release the body until he's received copies of all relevant documents."
"Shit" said Gill, closing her eyes. She'd thought it was too good to be true that she'd been fitted in a meeting with the coroner the previous day. The body should have been released today. Missing paper work was always a time consuming problem, and the team were on a time clock. That was always the down-side of the major incident team. They were never given long to investigate a murder. Within a week or two it was either handed over to C.I.D, or filed as 'unsolved' if no new leads were uncovered. Gill knew they weren't getting very far with this case, and unless they found something soon, it'd be handed over before they even got post-mortem results from the body. "Do we know which paper is missing?" she asked Lee.
"They wouldn't give me that information over the phone. It seems to be a sensitive subject and I think they want to tread carefully"
Gill nodded, turning to Janet. "Who's on disclosure?"
"Kimberly! You did say she's mad for it."
"Mad bitch" muttered Rachel.
"Yes, thank you Sherlock" said Gill "we don't all like solving crimes on the front line."
"Yeah, we don't all love the glory" said Kevin, jokingly
Gill shot him a look, although she was secretly pleased to see that he hadn't lost his cheeky persona, despite feeling the need for a clean-pressed shirt. "Yes Kevin, but you do, so you'd better get on with what you're supposed to be doing. Which is...?"
"Errrmm" said Kevin looking round at Janet for help.
"House to house" Pete muttered under his breath.
"Mouth to Mouth?" said Kevin quickly. His eyes widened as he suddenly realised what he'd said, and he shrunk back in his chair quickly. Pete rolled his eyes helplessly.
Gill opened her mouth to reply before thinking better of it. Instead she turned to Janet. "We pulled in a couple from the house to house" She put extra emphasis on the last words as she turned to Kevin meaningfully. Kevin's face turned from confusion to a look of realisation and embarrassment. He shrunk even further down into his chair as Gill looked back to Janet. "They claimed not to know her when police came calling, but we'd had a tip off from a neighbour that a girl matching Amanda Coleman's description was seen coming out of their house quite regularly, right up until the week before she died. They also had a few pictures of Amanda stuck up on their living room wall. One of which showed her cuddled up to an, as of yet, unidentified male of a similar age. The couple denied knowing him and still maintain that Amanda was only a friend of a friend. I'm hoping a night in the cells may have jogged their memory." She smiled at Janet "So, I want both of them interviewed as a priority, separately if you can spare the team members?"
Janet nodded, smiling in the familiarly calm manner that Gill loved about her. Gill was delighted to have Janet as her sergeant. Her serenity in most situations was admirable, and contrasted well to Gill's rather fiery nature. This, Gill assumed, was the reason Janet and Rachel made such a good team. Rachel was much younger, and still had a lot to learn, but her passion for solving riddles and seeking justice was something Gill could identify well with. Rachel was good, one day she'd be very good, and Gill was proud of the way she was developing as a young detective.
Gill suddenly thought of something, she turned to Lee. "Have we got all the family?"
"No, ma'am the brother hasn't been found. Uniform have made this a priority but as of yet, nothing!"
"Right" said Gill, walking towards her office as she spoke. "I want the remainder of the victim's family TIE-ed and house to house continued" she shot a look at Kevin who nodded fervently. "We need to find the brother. We also need to check CCTV from the pub she was in on the night of her murder" She looked at Mitch who also nodded. "I want to know whether she was talking to anyone that night, I want to know exactly what time she left, whether she appeared to be scared, and whether she was expecting anyone. There's CCTV on the street next to the one where she was murdered as well and..."
"We haven't got that yet ma'am" Mitch cut in
"Why not?" asked Gill, a tone of annoyance in her voice at having to stop mid way through her carefully constructed game plan.
"Again" Mitch sighed "It's a paperwork issue. It's a public camera and takes longer to secure. I've had a couple of uniform's from downstairs go and pick it up."
"Has Kimberly completely lost her mind?" Said Gill, frustrated "Janet, can you have a word with her, make sure she's not hitting a mid-life crisis?" Janet nodded again.
"Should I also ring up security in the local area, see if we can fast-track it?"
"Yes please!" smiled Gill, Janet was always so sensible.
Gill put her hand on the door of her office. "Right, well, when it finally finds its way to us, I'd like that checked as well. This may turn out to be our last visual of Amanda alive"
Gill nodded at her team in the way that she liked to think said 'go and be brilliant' but she knew in reality probably looked like 'I'm the boss, I've told you what to do, now go fetch!' – Gill smiled. She walked into her office and shut the door. It was going to be a late one that night. She sighed at the thought of having to ring the coroner- 'deep joy!' she thought. 'What a way to make a living' ...