Chapter 1: All The Crazy Comes Out To Play

Nikki climbed out of her nice warm car and immediately felt the bitter cold October wind on her face. She pulled her scarf around her a bit more as she reached over and grabbed her silver forensic case from the passenger seat, then straightened up and observed her surroundings.

She was parked at the edge of a field, and in the middle a large white crime scene tent was being erected over a scarecrow. For a moment Nikki thought that this was rather odd, and shouldn't they be putting that over the body. But then she realised that the scarecrow was the body. As she got closer she could see police rushing about, plus a very shaken woman sat on a wooden box nearby.

"Dr Alexander?"

Nikki looked to her left, where a middle-aged, smartly-dressed man was rushing towards her. She nodded and the man smiled.

"Hi, DCI Paul Harmer," he told her. Nikki shook his hand.

"Hello, nice to meet you," she said politely.

"Likewise, although I'd rather it was better circumstances," he grimaced. Nikki liked this man. He had a kindly face underneath his mop of brown hair, which was rather like Harry's in that it didn't seem to ever look brushed.

"All in a Halloween's work," she said lightly. Paul laughed and led her through the flap in the tent.

"Well, I don't know how many of these you've seen before," he commented. "Halloween or no Halloween." Nikki gulped when she saw the body. He was attached to the wooden frame precisely how a scarecrow would be, except Nikki doubted whether any scarecrow ever had the frozen look of fear on it's face as this poor man had. His eyes were wide and horrified, and his mouth was open slightly. He was wearing beige trousers with a scruffy shirt and green gilet, and a tweed flat cap was on his head. If it hadn't been for the purple strangulation marks along his neck, Nikki might have thought that this was just an elaborate Halloween joke.

"Do we have a name?" she asked the DCI.

"Yeah, he's Graham Potts. He's the owner of the farm that this field belongs to. His wife says that they went to bed together at ten last night, but when she woke up this morning, he was gone. She couldn't reach him on his mobile, so she went looking for him. Poor woman."

Their conversation was interrupted by a young-looking uniformed police officer coming over. He passed Nikki a forensic suit and black shoe covers.

"Thanks," she smiled.

"Ah, Nikki, this police constable Andrew Bowen. Andy, this is Dr Nikki Alexander," Paul introduced.

"Hi," Andrew grinned in a cockney accent. "You gotta love Halloween, eh? It's when all the crazy comes out to play."

"Yeah, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I was told there was a body in a field," Nikki agreed. Andrew laughed then turned to Paul.

"Boss, I thought I'd take Mrs Potts back up to the house and ask her a few questions. I'll get Jones to come with me as well."

"No, don't take Jones," Paul frowned. "He's never been good at the whole sympathetic thing. Find PC Archer and take her."

"Mary?"

"Yes, Bowen, Mary. Go on then!"

Andrew scuttled off and Paul sighed at Nikki. "I don't know. They're so eager, these young coppers."

Nikki chuckled, she'd rather taken to Andrew Bowen. "Right, I'll just get changed and then I'll examine the body," she told the DCI.

Ten minutes later and Nikki was back in the tent and looking at the body. They couldn't take it down from the frame until the scene had been properly recorded and photographed, and this was making her job especially hard.

"I'll be able to give you a better evaluation back at the mortuary, but it definitely looks like he's been strangled. I'd say with some sort of rope or chain. His eyes also look red and the skin around them is inflamed, which suggests that maybe he was incapacitated with some sort of irritant." She took a swab. "I'll get it tested."

"How has he been attached to the frame?" Paul asked Nikki. She examined the victim's wrists.

"Plastic ties," she observed. "They're very tightly tied. Look, you can see where they have cut into his skin." Nikki bent down and looked at his ankles. "Hi legs have been tied on with string though. Common, garden string. Again, very tightly, but I think his trousers have prevented it from cutting him."

It was then that Nikki noticed he wasn't wearing any shoes, just thick white socks.

"Where are his shoes? I mean, he's a farmer, surely he'd go out wearing wellington boots or something," Nikki wondered out loud.

"Mrs Potts reckons his wellies are missing. That's how she knew he was outside," the DCI put in. Nikki frowned. "Do you think it might have been the killer?"

"It has been known for a murderer to take something from the body. Kind of like a souvenir," Nikki told him. Just then Andrew Bowen walked back into the tent.

"I'm pretty sure Mrs Potts is innocent, Sir," he told Paul after flashing Nikki a quick grin. "She seems really devastated. But I thought we could take her back to the station anyway. Put her in the relatives room while forensics go through her house. She's not coping very well, at least there we'd be able to keep an eye on her."

"Okay, you and Archer do that. We'll just finish up here and I'll see you back at the station," Paul said.

"Yes Sir," Andrew said. "Bye Doctor," he added for Nikki. She grinned at him and he left the tent.

"Could a woman have been capable of doing this?" Paul then asked Nikki.

"The strangulation, yes. The irritant in the eyes, yes. But the lifting of him and attaching him to this frame would have needed the strength of a man, if not two men."

"I was hoping you'd say that. I like Mrs Potts," Paul grinned.

Nikki peeled off her gloves and turned to a SOCO. "Could we get this body down and back to the lab as soon as possible, please?" she asked.

"Right away, Dr Alexander."

Nikki followed Paul out of the tent. "Are you coming to the mortuary?" she asked him.

"Yes. Do you need a lift?"

"No thanks, it's okay. I bought my own car," she smiled.

"Okay. I'll see you there then. I'll beat ya!" he grinned as he walked off to his car. Nikki laughed and shook her head as she hastily pulled off her suit and put her coat back on. She made sure that all her samples and swabs were safely secured in her case, before she clicked it shut. Nikki got into her car, put the heating on full blast and made her way back down the narrow lane that led to the road.

What was usually a moderately busy road, surrounded by trees on either side, was empty due to the fact that the police had cordoned it off at both ends to anyone that wasn't authorised to be there. They were examining the turn off from to the lane, where a single skid mark had been spotted.

However, Nikki wasn't the only one on the road. A motorbike suddenly zoomed up behind her. Nikki didn't know what it was, but the bike was making her uneasy. The driver seemed intent on getting as close as he could to Nikki. She gulped and sped up, hoping to come across someone else, but the road really was empty apart from her and the mystery biker, who was now drawing close to the left side of her car.

Nikki rummaged in her pocket for her phone, but in her nervous state as soon as she'd pulled it out she dropped it on the floor.

"Bugger!" she swore. The motorcyclist now was level with her passenger window. A bend was coming up in the road that meant Nikki would have to turn left, but the biker was just in front preventing her from doing that. Nikki suddenly realised what he was doing. He was trying to run her off the road.

Nikki let out a scared sob, her hands shaking so much she could hardly hold onto the steering wheel. She sped up, but so did he. She slowed down, but so did he. The bend was getting nearer and nearer, and the bike was slowly but surely edging her off the road. Suddenly the driver pulled up his dark visor to reveal his face underneath.

The complete shock and horror at seeing who it was under the helmet was all biker needed to make Nikki lose control of her car. He nudged her left headlight, causing the car to spin out of control. Nikki screamed as she careered off into the trees, she was being shaken and thrown about like a rag doll, until finally a huge, old oak tree was there for her car to smash in to. Smoke was pouring out of the bonnet, and Nikki could feel something hot and sticky trickling down her face.

Her eyes were so heavy. So, so heavy. All she wanted to do was go to sleep. Every part of her ached, but she still saw the biker stop beside her car, watching Nikki slowly slip away from out of his lifted visor.

"You..." Nikki croaked, however, the pain in her stomach became unbearable and she let her eyes close. As she slipped in and out of consciousness, Nikki's last thought was that she'd never see Leo or Harry again. Then everything went black.

Just a short opening chapter. What do you think?? It's going to be quite an angsty fic, just to warn you. Please review!