Haunted 1/?

Disclaimer:- Don't own them just borrowing!

Episode:- None

Pairing:- Sandra/Gerry thought really a group story

Rating:- M

Achieve:- . /group/new_tricksff/

Summary:- A twenty-six year old case leads to some interesting times for Sandra and the boys.

Author's Note:- Written in an answer to Gee's "include" challenge to include :- A nightmare, A box of tissues, A derelict hotel, A school playground and something blue. Really this is supposed to be an old fashioned "ghost" story I hope it works ad you all enjoy it! As always reviews would be delightful!

1987

"I can't get the door open! Susan! Susan what's going on? Unlock the door!" Outside the staff quarters room door in his Georgian hotel Robert Peters banged loudly as the screams from his bar manager became louder. "Susan I'm coming in."

Running at the door with his shoulder he groaned loudly grasping his shoulder and sinking to the ground as the door refused to move and pain surged down his arm. Running along the hall he banged again on the door of the hotel's handy man finally hearing some movement inside.

"Jamie for fuck sake didn't you hear the screaming or me battering your door?" He shouted as the young man opened the door.

"Jesus what's going on in there? No I had my headphones on can't you get in with your pass key?" He asked following Robert down the hall to Susan's room again as the owner tried the pass key again as if to prove that he wasn't stupid enough to have forgotten o try and it refused to turn.

"She must have the privacy snib on, help me, I tried to break it down myself but it wouldn't shift."

"Ok, together, one, two, three run!" Jamie shouted as they both ran at the door and it finally flew open the sight before them stopping them both in their tracks. The middle aged bar manager was lying in the middle of the bed the small TV in the corner playing nothing but snow and the white nightgown she was wearing soaked in blood. Her screams had finally stopped and it was obvious that the life was slowly ebbing away from her as surely as her blood was soaking into the sheets.

"Jamie go downstairs phone the ambulance and the police!" Robert shouted staring around the room noting the fact that all the windows appeared to be closed and locked from the inside and that there was no one else anywhere in sight before moving to the bed. "Susan it's going to be ok Jamie is going to get help, what happened who did this to you."

"She did…..you're next…Robert please…..go…get out…." Susan muttered her voice failing and her breaths ragged as she tried to lift her hand and point to the corner of the room. "Go! She's coming!"

"Susan I'm not going anywhere you're delirious the ambulance will be here soon." Robert continued taking the hand she was trying to point with an releasing the small fragment of blue satin cloth from it. "What's this? Who did this, where did he go?"

"She….she did it….she…." Susan tried to say again before she stared screaming again terror exploding in her eyes for a moment before her body rose off the bed and flopped back onto it lifelessly and he knew she was gone.

"They're coming is she ok? Who did this I didn't see anyone when we got through the door!" Jamie gasped as he ran back into the room stopping in his tracks as he saw Robert get off the bed shaking his head.

"She's gone." He said quietly moving around the room until he came to the wardrobe doors the only place he could see an attacker having been to hide motioning to Jamie to come beside him as they both stared at the door and he finally flung it open.

"What the hell?" Jamie gasped as the door swung back and forward on its hinges and no one and nothing was inside.

UCOS 2013

"So that was how the scene was when the original investigating officer…Steve Polish arrived." Sandra explained pointing at each picture in turn as she spoke. "The victim Susan Bowles had multiple stab wounds and barely a bone in her body wasn't broken. She was 43, had worked at the Georgian Manor Hotel for nearly 15 years and had been living on site for 6 years since her marriage break up. No enemies that the team could find, even her ex was a good guy who kept in touch he'd married again and they seemed perfectly happy with their separation. They had no kids and she was an only child herself so there was no family to link in basically she was on her own other than these two. Robert Peters owner of the hotel and long-time friend of victim he was in the staff kitchen making coffee before he turned in for the night which was on the same floor as the staff bedrooms when he heard the screaming he went to try to see what was wrong and couldn't get the door open so he went back and got his pass key and tried to raise Jamie McCullough the first time."

"So there was only the three of them in the building? It was a hotel shouldn't there have been guests?" Gerry asked interrupting Sandra's flow as she looked through the notes in her hand for an answer to the question.

"It was January. Peter's had closed the hotel for a fortnight for some general repairs in his statement he said that in central London the hotel trade dies a death after Christmas and New year's so he always closed that fortnight to do any repairs or and generally spruce the place up. It checked out when Polish asked around all the local hoteliers said the same thing between New Year's and Valentine's Day trade was non-existent."

"And the McCullough guy was his excuse that he had head phones on and didn't hear anything even plausible? I mean on you can have music playing pretty loud but if there's screaming and attempts to batter in a door going on you're going to hear something." Jack interjected "it wasn't that big a hotel was it?"

"No it was an old Georgian end terrace house that had been converted the top floor was all staff quarters there were six rooms only three of which were occupied at that time of year. Peters said he often employed students to help out in the summer months and the other rooms would be occupied then. So basically it was 6 average sized bedrooms, a small kitchen and an even smaller living room on the staff floor which is exactly when Polish wasn't convinced at first by McCullough's story."

"So what's his background?" Brian asked staring at the picture of the mousy looking young man. "He doesn't look like he could have lent much extra weight to the attempts to break the door down would be lucky to weigh 9 stone soaking wet."

"He was had a vague connection to Peter's family, son of one of his cousins or something, and Peters had taken him under his wing because he was constantly getting in trouble at home with his parents. He was prone to recreational drug use and Polish says in his notes that he gave the impression of being spaced out when interviewed, they put it down to shock but to be honest he could have been on something and passed out which is why he didn't hear the commotion at first." Sandra continued going on to point out various features in the crime scene photos as she spoke. "The windows were all latched on the inside and there was no sign of forced entry, even if someone had thought about coming through them it was 4 floors up and there was no way to get to them without a ladder and the ground below wasn't disturbed, it had snowed the night before and the drift immediately below the window was still smooth so no one had put a ladder anywhere near them. There was also no sign that there was anyone else in the room the wardrobe was empty there was no one in the small en-suite and when Peters and McCullough got into the room there was no one there and no one ran out past them."

"So one of them must have done it." Gerry sighed wondering why they were even considering the case, it seemed open and shut one of the two men who had been in the building with Susan Bowles must have killed her, either that or they both did and cooked up the "locked room" rubbish to put people off.

"That naturally was Polish's first thought but when forensics, such as it was back in '87, had finished they said that the door had definitely been broken in from outside and been latched on the inside."

"So they did it together, then one went out, probably Peters since he had the bulk to break the door down, the other stayed inside and locked the door then it was broken down and it all looked convincing." Brian concluded throwing his hands up in the air like he'd just solved the mystery of Lord Lucan's disappearance.

"I'd imagine Steve Polish thought of that Brian you remember him don't you? He was like a pit bull he cleared practically every case he ever worked." Jack sighed. He had a feeling this was not going to be a cut and dried case and it was going take a long time to unpick.

"Right Jack! But there was no evidence that they had been in the room other than after they had broke the door down and then there was what Susan Bowles had said as she died or what Peters claimed she had said. When he was finally up to talking to the police he gave Polish a story worthy of the exorcist. He said that there was a legend that the hotel was haunted by a violent poltergeist that they'd had people staying in room 21 directly below Bowles room ask to be moved because they felt like they were being smothered in their sleep and their stuff was being moved around. He believed that Susan's rambling about "she" and this "she" coming after him next was linked to the haunting in the hotel."

"What? Shit Sandra what are we now Ghost Busters? Why are we even being given this case we can't catch a ghost." Jack grumbled as Sandra added a new picture to board and pointed to it with her pen.

"This is Myrtle Star…"

"Let me guess with a name like that she's got to be some psychic crack pot." Gerry snapped rolling his eyes as Sandra nodded.

"Got it in one. The hotel is now derelict Peters ended up in the nut house six months after the murder and committed suicide three weeks later leaving a note to say he wasn't waiting for the ghost to come for him. McCullough disappeared off the radar but was found a couple of years ago with a needle in his arm dead from a heroin overdose. Now Ms Star claims she is in contact not just with the spirits of Bowles and McCullough but the poltergeist too. She's been making a big stink the tabloids and the commissioner has told Strickland he wants it all to go away and we're to make that happen by looking into the case and finding out who did it, preferably a flesh and blood person rather than a ghost."

"Great, just great now we're expected to solve the unsolvable I mean everyone connected to the case is dead what the hell are we supposed to do?" Brian sighed as Sandra shrugged.

"Polish isn't dead he's alive and kicking and in the police retirement home in Mayfair which is where you and Jack are going."

"And us?" Gerry asked

"We're going to check out the hotel I have the key do you think you're man enough Standing?"

"Just watch me." Gerry smiled as they all got up dispersing to the allocated tasks as Sandra stared at the board again. For all her bravado and teasing of Gerry she wasn't looking forward to wandering around the abandoned hotel herself but she had no intention of telling them that.