Title: I'll Be Seeing You
Author: Emily Lawrence
Summary: Barnaby's niece, Forensic Psychologist Eliza Lockier is asked to work a particularly puzzling case alongside her uncle. Returning to Midsomer for the first time in years, she is confronted with memories of her past and the meeting of one Sergeant Dan Scott.
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.
Rating: Not sure yet
Chapter Two
X x X x X
Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby uncorked the wine and set it on the side, allowing the deep red liquid to breathe. Turning back to the stove he stirred the Bolognese gently and smiled slightly as he caught a glimpse of a mother blackbird in the garden, sat in a small square of light on the grass with her wings spread out, sunning herself in the day's last remaining rays.
Joyce and Cully had been out all day shopping in Causton and when they returned they would have an extra person with them. Earlier that day, Joyce had received a telephone call from their niece in Liverpool with some interesting news. Eliza worked as a Forensic Psychologist at HMP Liverpool but every so often gave profiling advice on murder cases. Jonathon Smith had called her to ask if she would analyse the case that Barnaby was currently working on - Three dead in Midsomer Worthy with seemingly no link. Barnaby knew that Eliza had gained quite a reputation in the North of England for seeing things that members of the constabulary hadn't spotted, and to be honest, he was glad that they were receiving this kind of input on the case. However, his niece had left Causton years ago under somewhat unsavoury circumstances and Barnaby was a little puzzled as to why she had chosen to accept the case.
When they were young, Cully and Eliza had been inseparable and Cully still went to Liverpool on occasion to visit for a few days of shopping and over-indulging in activities that young people considered important, but Eliza had not returned to Causton since she was nineteen. She had lived with her mother (Joyce's younger sister) in Badger's Drift until that fateful August evening all those years ago. Barnaby shivered a little despite the warmth of the evening. He remembered Eliza as a lively, funny young woman, but now he feared that years of being in close contact with some of the country's darkest minds along with the baggage her past created would have made her a different person.
The case in Midsomer Worthy had come to a dead stop. The first victim, Annie Walker, had been found tied to a tree. When she had disappeared she had been wearing jogging attire, but had turned up in a 1940s tea dress with her hair coiffed to perfection. The same had been true of the next two victims, Sara Wakeman and Millie Barnes. All were of varying ages and had been beaten and asphyxiated but there were no signs of sexual assault. The most bizarre thing however, had been the victims' feet. Dr. Bullard had described them in his post-mortem as being 'distressed', meaning they had been covered in bruises and abrasions.
The murders meant that the village had descended into chaos. There had been numerous requests for officers to be posted randomly around the village – requests which were unreasonable given the lack of manpower Causton CID actually had to spare. Barnaby had barely had a wink of sleep since the first murder just under a fortnight before.
The sound of Cully's car pulling up in the driveway brought Barnaby out of his reverie. The front door opened, Joyce and Cully spilled in, elated from their day of retail therapy. Behind them, petite and slender, came a face he hadn't seen in years.
Eliza had cut her blond hair into a bob and wore it messily to frame her elfin face. Her petite frame was dressed fashinably and gave the impression of a modern independant woman. What stuck Barnaby the most, however, was the black eye and split lip, both in the last stages of healing. Eliza smiled at the sight of her uncle.
"Hello, Uncle Tom."
"Lizzie..." Barnaby pulled his niece into a light hug "What on earth happened to you, young lady?"
"Oh," Eliza grinned sheepishly and dipped her head in what Barnaby could tell was a well-rehearsed move to stop people from looking at her "It's an occupational hazard. My housemate despairs of me."
"Are you sure that job of yours is entirely safe, Lizzie?" Joyce looked on, worried as Cully handed her a glass of wine. Eliza smiled good-naturedly, but Barnaby could tell that she was asked this on a regular basis "We have prison officers who are always close by when we're with patients, Auntie Joyce. It's just that sometimes the patients have aggressive breaks that you can't predict and so you get a little bit roughed up."
"You're very casual about it, Lizzie." Cully remarked as they moved to sit around the table. Lizzie shrugged "I guess I've just accepted it as a part of the job, like late office hours or having the desk next to the annoying smelly guy."
They all laughed at this and Eliza smoothly changed the subject to Cully's current acting job. A little too smoothly, Barnaby noticed. She was well practised at diverting the attention from her career choice.
The evening passed pleasantly enough and all retired early, Barnaby making plans with Eliza to visit the latest crime scene the next morning.
X x X x X
Eliza lay awake in the guest room as she knew she would, partly because she was so used to city sounds that she was unable to fall asleep without them and partly because the country made her uneasy these days. It was the reason she had chosen to live in a densely populated area, surrounding herself with noise and light.
So actually, she was unduly relieved when she heard the hallway telephone ring, and Uncle Tom stumble out to answer it. He spoke too quietly for Eliza to hear, and a few moments later the conversation was over and there was a quiet knock at her door. Getting up, Eliza opened the door to reveal a dishevelled and apologetic looking Uncle Tom.
"Sorry Lizzie. Looks like you might be visiting Midsomer Worthy sooner than you thought. There's been another murder."
X x X x X
Sergeant Dan Scott rubbed his eyes wearily as he stared at the scene before him. A replica of the ones that had gone before it. Why couldn't they catch this guy? That is, if it was a guy. Scott had seen plenty since arriving in the countryside and his experiences had taught him not to rule anything out.
A vehicle approached, its headlights casting a momentary but nevertheless gaudy and unpleasant shimmer over the scene. Scott turned in time to see Inspector Barnaby and a young woman emerging from the car and walked over to meet them.
"Evening sir." Barnaby nodded in response and Scott took the opportunity to quickly study the woman he had brought with him. Petite and elfin looking, she had short blond hair and thoughtful eyes, one of which was sporting the remnants of what had probably been a nasty shiner. She hadn't appeared to notice him yet, her gaze still trained fully on the scene. Inspector Barnaby must have caught him looking because he immediately cleared his throat "Ah yes. Sergeant Scott this is Eliza Lockier, the Behavioural Investigative Advisor from Liverpool that Chief Smith requested the services of."
At the mention of her name, Eliza turned to see who she was being introduced to, offering Scott a brief smile and extending her hand "Nice to meet you." Scott took it and returned the smile.
"I should also mention Sergeant, that Eliza is my niece."
Scott hid a surprised look as best he could. The meaningful intonation in the Inspector's voice told him that he should watch himself. Scott cast his mind back for any times in the recent past when he may have voiced his general disdain for psychological experts, or indeed any times when he may given the appearance that his brain was powered by his libido.
His thoughts were pushed aside quickly and he was brought back to the present as Dr. Bullard approached them looking weary and jaded. He nodded to Barnaby "Tom."
Barnaby nodded in response "Hello George. I'd like to introduce you to my niece Eliza. She's the BIA that Chief Smith requested come and look at the case. Lizzie, this is Dr. George Bullard, our resident pathologist."
George held out his hand and Eliza shook it "Pleased to make your acquaintance. Now Tom, did you want me to brief you on the body?"
"Yes George, thank you. Scott, perhaps you could escort Eliza around the scene so she can begin her notes?"
Scott nodded, feeling slightly irritated that he couldn't be there for Dr. Bullard's briefing and was instead being asked to babysit one of the Chief's numerous efforts to bring policing in Causton into the twenty-first century. Before he could say anything, Barnaby had wandered off with Dr. Bullard and he was left standing with Eliza who was busy ignoring him and scribbling in her notebook.
"Do you want to look at the scene then?" he asked, attempting to get her attention. Eliza looked up at him and blinked, having apparently forgotten that he was there. Scott felt yet another twinge of irritation. Eliza smiled gratefully and Scott's attention was drawn to the nearly healed cut on her lip "Yeah that would be great, thank you Sergeant... Scott, was it?"
"That's right. You can call me Dan, though."
"Well thanks, Dan. So, this is the fourth victim, yes?"
"That's right. Amanda Johnson disappeared after evening mass last Sunday and found by a bloke coming back from the pub about three hours ago. Victim was in her late twenties and had been asphyxiated as well as sustaining blows to the head and body.. The clothes she disappeared in haven't been found and the victim appears to have been... dressed up."
Eliza listened intently and nodded, pointedly ignoring the obvious fact that Sergeant Scott would much rather be hearing what the Pathologist had to say alongside his boss "I remember that from the case file I was faxed. All of them in forties fashion, right?"
"Right," Scott confirmed, lifting the police tape for Eliza and then following her under it "So where would you like to look first?"
Eliza straightened up and surveyed the scene. They were stood in a lane on the edge of Midsomer Worthy, just where the village joined the woods. If the victim had been missing for over a week – the longest time any of them had been gone – then this was clearly the dumping ground and not the killing site itself. The killer was intelligent enough to kill at one site and dispose of the body at another, which made them mentally stable enough to be answerable for their actions. These kinds of offenders were usually quite interested in the processes that their crimes initiated and would sometimes return to the crime scene. Had there been a group of nosey pedestrians craning their necks to get a good look over the police tape, Eliza might have been checking them out for any suspicious looking characters. However, it was nearly three o' clock in the morning, so all the sensible serial killers would have been in bed long ago.
Realizing that she had been caught up in her own little world, Eliza turned to see a somewhat impatient looking Sergeant Scott. She smiled sweetly, pretending once again that she hadn't noticed his bad-temperedness "How about the body?"
X x X x X
Two and a half hours later, Eliza had taken all of the notes she would need, had requested post-mortem reports of each of the victims from Dr. Bullard and full crime scene reports and photographs from Causton Police department. She now sat to one side, nursing the cup of coffee that some kind stranger had given her and wondering about the significance of the attire all the victims had been found in.
The body had been partially obscured by leaves and greenery, but not so much that one could not have spotted it upon a second glance. The discoverer of this particular victim had stumbled upon a stray rock on their drunken way home from the pub and upon picking themselves up had come face to face with the wide, dead eyes of Amanda Johnson. This meant that whomsoever had dumped the body there had intended it to be discovered, perhaps not by some drunk rolling home in the wee hours, but possibly by some early morning dog-walker or jogger.
"Lizzie?" Eliza looked up to see her uncle as he strode up to her, Scott in tow, both looking tired and anguished. The morning light was starting to creep over the rooftops, and in Eliza's experience this was the time when all crime scene attendants were at their most irritable as the daylight just served to remind them how long they had been there.
"How are you getting on?" Barnaby questioned his niece. Eliza nodded as enthusiastically as she could in response "Really well actually, plenty of psychopathology. I'll be able to tell you more once I have the scene reports though – I've seen everything I can here for now."
Upon saying the word 'psychopathology', Eliza heard what she thought sounded like a dismissive snort on the part of Sergeant Scott which she chose to ignore. Barnaby heard it too and, rolling his eyes slightly skyward, gave a weary look that only Eliza caught "Well if you're finished here Lizzie, I'll have Scott drive you back to Causton so you can get some rest and the pick up the reports you've requested from the police station later."
Upon hearing this, Scott's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to protest at having to miss any more time at the scene "Uh, actually sir I was planning on waiting for it to get a bit lighter and then go and knock on a few doors, see if anyone heard anything-" Scott gestured randomly towards the row of cottages backing onto the lane.
"Well you can do that when you get back from Causton then can't you Scott? I mean after all, there's no use having a spare body hanging around the scene waiting for it to get light is there, eh?" Barnaby's eyes twinkled in a way that reminded Eliza of her youth, and she fought the urge to giggle as she watched Scott flounder for a moment and then realize his defeat "Yes, sir."
"Marvellous. Off you both go then."
X x X x X
Would love to know thoughts, suggestions critiques and I'll be bluntly honest - I love praise.
Take care,
Emily Lawrence