My Little Eye

by matureskinsfan

Four years on from leaving Roundview, Emily and Naomi are living in Oxford when they unwittingly get dragged into a murder investigation conducted by DI Lewis & DS Hathaway from Thames Valley CID. Find out what happens when two different worlds collide.

3. Chapter 3

AUTHOR'S FOREWORD

Previously On My Little Eye: Effy turns up at Naomi and Emily's house with the plan of hanging out with the girls for a few days. Lewis and Hathaway are called to the scene of a headless corpse found at a rubbish dump. The three girls have a boozy night out at the pub to cheer up Effy who is having boyfriend problems. At the pub Effy runs into Sgt Hathaway again who is playing guitar in the pub band. Lewis is furious to find out that officers are speculating about his relationship with Hobson.

CHAPTER THREE:

PART 1

Naomi and Emily rolled over onto their backs, panting heavily and trying to regain their breath, their eyes closed as if to savour the very last drop of sweet delight that each had given the other. There wasn't a sound to be heard in the house save for their increasingly controlled and rhythmic breathing as the sun filtered in through a crack in the curtains to cast delicate patterns of light on their flushed, contented faces.

After a minute or two of peaceful recuperation back to the land of the living, Emily turned on her side, reached out a hand and gently yet lovingly caressed her long, delicate fingers through Naomi's hair, which shone almost like silver in the morning half-light. 'Wow!' said the redhead, with a shy grin on her face, 'that was pretty mind-blowing.'

'Yeah,' agreed Naomi, turning to face her girlfriend. 'But next time Ems, try not to bang the wall so hard. There's not much point covering your face with a pillow to muffle your groans if you're going to wake the whole neighbourhood, never mind anyone in the house, by bringing the walls down.'

'Oh, shit! I didn't, did I?' Emily sat upright and looked aghast at Naomi who burst out laughing at the sight of Emily's terribly serious and horrified expression.

'You were priceless,' chuckled the blonde who never ceased to be amazed at how dreadfully shy and embarrassed Emily still managed to be at the thought of anybody overhearing them have sex. 'I can't imagine for one second that Effy would give a toss or be the slightest bit embarrassed if we had sex right in front of her in the living room. Besides, after the amount she put away last night I should imagine she's still out like a light.'

The two of them laughed and after enjoying a five minute cuddle they reluctantly dragged themselves out of bed, threw on a few clothes and went downstairs to see if Effy was still fast asleep. As Naomi had accurately predicted, Effy hadn't even made it up the stairs to the spare room where the girls had made up the sofa bed. She was still spark out on the sofa where they had left her in the small hours of the morning, dreamily hugging half a bottle of white wine. They tiptoed out of the living room and went into the kitchen to make breakfast.

'So, who was this guy she was coming on to big time last night?' asked Naomi as they sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee and eating marmite soldiers, a particular breakfast favourite of Naomi's which Emily had been converted to in recent times.

'I don't know, she wouldn't say. I think she met him in town some time yesterday when she arrived but she was being very secretive and mysterious about him. He was quite good-looking, though, don't you think?'

Naomi wrinkled her nose in that cute way that Emily adored as she considered the proposition a while before answering 'Too tall, too fair, too dull-looking, too….male,' she concluded, which elicited a warm smile from Emily. Before Emily could challenge Naomi's withering put-down of Sgt Hathaway a groan emanated from beyond the kitchen, indeed one might have ventured to suggest from beyond the grave, such was its chilling intensity and blood-curdling anguish. As the two girls exchanged knowing, amused looks Effy suddenly appeared in the doorway a few moments later. She was hanging on to the door for dear life and looked like death warmed up; hair all over the place, make-up smudged and face as white as a sheet. She peered over at the two girls through bloodshot eyes, yawning hideously, a true picture of early morning loveliness and grace.

'Hi, Gorgeous! You're looking hot this morning.' Naomi said to Effy with a wicked grin and howled with laughter as Effy returned the jovial, tongue in cheek greeting with a coughing fit, which may or may not have been brought on by the cigarette on which she was now puffing furiously in a futile attempt to get some fresh smoke into her already clogged up lungs.

'Do you want some coffee, Ef?' asked Emily who instinctively moved forward to help her as she rather unsteadily staggered over towards the kitchen table and slumped down next to them in a chair. Naomi whistled softly under her breath. It had been a long time since she had seen Effy look as rough as a badger's arse first thing in the morning. She knew the three of them had knocked back a right old skinful in the pub the previous evening but Effy must have carried on drinking on her own long after she and Emily had turned in for the night for her to be in such a state this morning.

'Black, very strong and lots of it, please,' croaked Effy as she put her head in her hands and tried to focus on the room, the table, anything in fact just to stop her head from spinning out of control and dropping off her shoulders.

A quarter of an hour later and after chucking down her neck three piping hot cups of coffee so strong it could have doubled up as paint stripper, Effy felt sufficiently invigorated and revitalised to attempt something approaching civilised conversation as Naomi got ready to go into college and Emily busied herself in the kitchen.

'How come you're not at work?' asked Effy, gradually waking up and feeling more with it as she sat marvelling at Emily's domesticity and wifely skills which she knew would have been way beyond her capabilities.

'I've taken the week off,' said Emily. 'I was due a week's leave so I thought this would be a good time to take it, you know.' She winked at Effy and nodded in the direction of Naomi who was getting her stuff together in the living room next door. Effy looked at her blankly for a second then the penny dropped and she nodded, though not without wincing a little as the throbbing in her head hadn't completely disappeared.. 'Good idea. So how's work going, anyway? Have you had your name appear in the paper yet?'

'Not yet,' sighed Emily with more than a hint of frustration. 'I'm still just 'a local correspondent'. I haven't been there long enough yet to deserve to get my own name in print.'

'Oh, well, never mind. I'm sure it'll happen soon enough. As soon as you stumble upon your first big story they won't be able to keep your name out of the report. What sort of stories are you covering?'

'Oh, really exciting stuff like the fire brigade being called out to rescue a cat stuck up a tree, or the latest council plans for improving the street lighting, you know, really juicy stories like that. Something you can really get your teeth into and use to develop your reporting skills.'

'Be fair, Em,' said Naomi, as she came into the kitchen looking for some fruit to take with her to college,' three months ago all you were doing was making the tea, running errands and buying everyone's sandwiches at lunchtime. What they're giving you to do now is real progress from just being the office dogsbody.' Naomi didn't bother to hide the withering sarcasm as she had long thought the local paper was taking the piss. They were blatantly wasting Emily's undoubted potential as a talented writer by fobbing her off with menial tasks or sending her out to report on stupid crap 'human interest' stories that were of bugger all interest to anyone. If she had been Emily she would have kicked up the mother of all fusses long before now.

'Everyone's got to start somewhere, Naoms,' Emily pointed out calmly. 'I bet even Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward spent the first couple of months making the tea. It doesn't matter what job you're in, when it's your first one you have to expect to start at the bottom of the ladder and then work your way up gradually.'

'That's all very well,' muttered a clearly unimpressed and unconvinced Naomi as she kissed Emily sweetly on the lips and waved goodbye to Effy, 'but they could at least have given you a fucking ladder, couldn't they?' Emily smiled ruefully as Naomi left the two girls behind and then looked over at Effy who pulled a face in sympathy.

'Do you fancy the idea of some fresh air and a bit of a walk? I could show you around some of the colleges and we could stroll along the river before grabbing lunch'

Effy marvelled at the beautiful simplicity of Emily's plan. 'Sounds just what I need to blow away the cobwebs in my head,' she said with a gesture of relief.

PART 2

Sergeant Hathaway listened intently and with growing disquiet to the message from the station before hanging up and waiting for Detective Inspector Lewis to emerge from the card shop holding the item he had popped in to purchase.

'Sir, it looks like we've found the head.'

'So, uniform have finally stumbled across it, have they?' Lewis ventured to presume.

'No sir,' said a grave looking Hathaway. 'It's turned up at the office of the local newspaper.'

'What?' said a stunned Lewis, staring in disbelief at his equally perplexed and agitated sergeant.

'It was left outside the offices in a box, Sir, about fifteen minutes ago. It was addressed to the chief editor of the paper.'

'This is not good, Hathaway. This killer's playing more games with us. He wants to get the press involved in the case. When we didn't go public with the notes he sent us, he decided he would go straight to the press himself – in the sickest way he could think of. Come on, we'd better get over there fast and try some damage limitation.'

'There's more, Sir, apparently. He's left a note with the head.'

DI Lewis's shoulders twitched visibly and Hathaway could have sworn he also noticed him give a slight shudder. 'What was the message?'

'I don't know, Sir. They didn't say.'

'Not another bloody riddle for us to solve? A clue as to his next victim?'

Hathaway looked at his boss in silence and then followed him over to his car. He had a nasty feeling this was going be a long and painful afternoon. Ten minutes later the two detectives were sitting in the offices of the Oxford Herald with a badly shaken and seriously stirred chief editor. The severed head had been briefly inspected by Lewis and Hathaway before being taken away by the police forensics team to be examined in detail by Dr. Hobson. Lewis was reading the note which had been left with the head, sickeningly and deliberately left sticking out of the unfortunate victim's mouth.

'What the hell does this mean?' said a bewildered Inspector Lewis. ''In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty'' Sergeant, you're the one for the quotes, normally. Can you throw any light on where this comes from?'

Hathaway took the note held out to him by Lewis in its sealed plastic wallet and read it carefully, before staring hard into the distance in intense concentration. He shook his head sadly before handing it back to Lewis. 'I'm sorry, Sir, it isn't a quote that I recognise. I'll make some enquiries to see if it shows up anywhere. It could be one of the lesser known poets or philosophers, I suppose.'

'Of course you'd know if it was from Shakespeare or Keats or any of that lot, wouldn't you?' Lewis often made light fun of Hathaway's literary and intellectual knowledge and tastes and yet they had often proved invaluable in their investigations so he was disappointed that this time Hathaway was at a loss to explain the source of the quote.

'Well, there's nothing particularly beautiful about this crime, is there, sergeant? Is that what all this is about, do you think - some bitter and twisted political or religious protest about something or other?'

'I don't know, Sir. It strikes me as something more…personal than that.'

'Such as what?'

Hathaway gave a slight shrug of the shoulders. 'It could be anything. But why send the head to the local paper? What was the killer trying to achieve unless it was simply to embarrass us and make sure he got maximum publicity. The papers are already full of the murder as it is.'

DI Lewis went over to the chief editor who was finishing off the stiff drink he had poured for himself to steady his nerves. 'Can you think of any reason why this…package might have been left here, Mr Wells?'

The chief editor shook his head from side to side and looked up at Lewis, utterly bewildered. 'I haven't got a clue, Inspector.'

'Can you think of anyone whom you might have upset recently - you know, maybe because of some article that's been published in the paper?'

'This is the Oxford Herald, Inspector, not the Sunday Times or the News of the World! We don't tend to go in for major political exposes or lurid sex revelations.'

Lewis nodded sympathetically. He could see the man was still suffering from shock but he needed to get as much out of him as he could. 'But has the paper run any special local stories or campaigns recently which have attracted a lot of attention from the public? Have you received any letters, perhaps, from disgruntled or angry members of the public? Has anything unusual or out of the ordinary happened at the paper recently, anything at all?'

Mr Wells considered the question for a few brief seconds then shook his head again. 'Nothing springs to mind, Inspector. Look here, we're just an ordinary little local newspaper that runs stories about ordinary local news. I can't imagine there's anything that we've printed that could upset someone so much that it would make them want to…do something as vile as that.' He reached for the whisky again and poured another large shot, his hand shaking noticeably. The two detectives thanked the chief editor for his help and left him to recover in peace.

'What about missing persons, Hathaway? Has anyone been reported missing in the last twenty-four hours?'

'The team are checking up on it, gov. We should get something soon. Besides, if Dr Hobson confirms the head belongs to our corpse from the rubbish dump…..' but Lewis interrupted him with a pained expression on his face.

'Good God, Hathaway! I don't even want to think about the head not matching up! We'd have two decapitations on our hands if it doesn't.'

PART 3

'It's a really lovely spot here,' remarked Effy as she finished off the last of the cheese and washed it down with a gulp of fizzy drink. She was glad that she had allowed Emily to persuade her to have an impromptu picnic by the river as their lunch rather than find a café or pub in town. The sun was shining down very pleasantly on the two girls as they lay on the river bank and watched the occasional punt drift past and the ducks fight with each other for the scraps of bread that they threw over into the river.

'Yeah, Naoms and I love it. We often make up a picnic at the weekend and come here and find a nice quiet spot on the bank, just to enjoy the scenery. It's so beautiful and…restful.'

Effy smiled at Emily's charming description of the simple pleasures that she and Naomi took from life which sounded a far cry from her own complicated, tortured, lonely existence. She envied them though she would never have said as much to their faces.

'So, is everything all set up for Saturday?' The brunette lay on her back with her arms behind her head, looking up at the few wispy clouds that were drifting slowly across a bright blue sky.

'Pretty much, I think. I've got all the food and drink in. I've hidden it all in the cupboard under the stairs. Naomi hardly ever goes in there so it should be fairly safe.'

'Who's coming to the party?'

'Well, Katie of course and JJ and Lara have said they're definitely coming now which is great. I'm still waiting to hear from Panda. You know she's back in England, don't you?'

Effy sat upright and looked at Emily surprised and, if truth be told, just a little hurt. She hadn't heard from Pandora for quite a while now. They used to be such close friends when they were at school, best friends even, despite being such complete opposites, but now it seemed they had become almost strangers to each other.

'No, I didn't. Why? What's happened?'

'She and Thomas have split up – for good this time. It was never going to work really. He was always away, travelling around the world competing at race meetings while she was stuck at home on her own, working on her PhD. She couldn't take the loneliness any more, I think. She was missing her Mum, Bristol, us, as well, I think'

Maybe they hadn't drifted so far apart after all, thought Effy. It sounded as if the normally ever cheerful and happy-go-lucky Pandora was suffering the same painful fits of depression and despair as she had been. .

'Poor Panda,' said Effy quietly. 'I hope she does get in touch and come up this weekend. It would be good to see her again. I miss her.' She fell silent and thoughtful, a sad expression creeping over her face as she thought of the last time she spoke to Panda which must have been over a year ago. Effy knew she had always been rubbish at keeping in touch with people, it was her fault they had drifted apart, she readily acknowledged that fact.

'We'll still have a great night even if Panda can't make it. I've invited a few of the students and lecturers from Naoms' department and some people from my office as well. There should be about twenty of us in all.'

'Um….. you might need to make that twenty-one,' said Effy sitting up and putting on a vaguely apologetic expression for Emily's benefit.

'What do you mean?' replied a bemused Emily.

'Well, I've asked a guest to the party. I thought you probably wouldn't mind, seeing as there were going to be quite a few other people there I didn't know.'

'Who?' Emily was intrigued and stared at a half smiling Effy a few seconds before it dawned on her who Effy was referring to. 'Oh, hang on a second. Don't tell me it's the guy you were talking to last night in the pub, the guitarist in the band?'

Effy nodded and flashed a broad grin as Emily's mouth shot open in amused astonishment. 'Why, you cheeky cow! You've only just met him, for Christ's sake!'

'I know but…I like him. I know I hardly know him but he interests me and I like interesting men. Most of the ones I tend to meet nowadays are so fucking ….dull and boring.'

'Well, I suppose playing in a band isn't your average job. That must be quite fun and interesting.'

'Oh, that's not his real job. That's just a hobby.'

'So what does he do then when he's not playing in a pub band?'

'He's a Detective Sergeant in the Thames Valley CID.'

Emily's eyes stared wide at Effy in total disbelief. 'Fuck off! You have got to be kidding me! You- going out with a copper? I've heard it all now.'

'I'm not going out with him, Em. I'm just inviting him along to a party, that's all. It's no big deal. I'll probably never see him again after the weekend. Anyway he might not even turn up. He probably just accepted the invitation to get rid of me.'

Emily scoffed at the idea that a bloke might actually stand Effy up. She couldn't imagine for the life of her that Effy had ever been stood up in her whole life. What normal, straight, intelligent guy would pass up the opportunity to spend an evening in her company? All the same, Emily made a quick mental note to make sure that all the weed in the house was either well hidden or fully used up before Saturday night. Sure, she wanted the party to be a huge surprise for Naomi but getting herself, her girlfriend and all the guests busted by the police for possession of illegal substances by a copper who was actually at the party was not part of her plans for a memorable night.

PART 4

Lewis and Hathaway looked at Dr Hobson expectantly as she concluded her examination of the head that had been delivered to the Oxford Herald.

'Well, I can confirm that you've only got one dead body to investigate. This head definitely came from the body you brought in the other day,' she said to Lewis' obvious relief.

'Thank God for that,' he said. 'Anything else you can tell us? What did the killer use, for instance?'

'Well, I can't be precise, but I would suggest something like a common or garden saw. But the killer knew what he was doing. It was quite a neat and tidy decapitation. You'd need to be a pretty cool customer to carry out such an operation without making a complete mess of it.'

'Presumably the decapitation was done after death, Doctor, so how did he die?' asked Hathaway.

Hobson motioned towards the back of the victim's head and invited the two detectives to come round and have a look. 'Blow to the back of the head with some kind of blunt instrument. Basically his skull was smashed in. That was the cause of death. But why saw his head off? It seems so unnecessary.'

'Why indeed, Doctor,' said Lewis, staring uncomfortably at the victim.

'Obviously he was trying to make a point of some kind,' suggested Hathaway. 'Sawing his head off was a conscious decision by this killer. He must have had his reasons. It wasn't enough for this guy just to die, cutting his head off must mean something, even if only symbolically for him.'

'And why send the head to the local paper?' Hobson added, looking as perplexed as the two coppers. 'If cutting it off was as important to the murderer as killing his victim, why not leave it with the body where he dumped it?

'Another good question, Doctor. You're full of them today.' Hathaway forced a weak smile at Dr Hobson who had echoed their thoughts precisely. This case had already thrown up several oddities which were baffling the hell out of them at this early stage.

Hathaway's mobile suddenly cut through the awkward, heavy silence that had descended on the three colleagues whilst they rattled a few preliminary ideas and theories around in their minds. The sergeant moved away from the other two and went over to the lab door to take the call, leaving Lewis briefly free to speak to Dr Hobson in private.

'I just wanted to say thanks again for last night,' he said in a low voice, anxious that Hathaway shouldn't overhear their conversation. 'I really enjoyed the evening.' He hoped that the furtive smile which he gave Laura whilst turning his back on Hathaway was evidence enough that he was speaking from the heart.

'So did I, Robbie. You must come round again. I enjoyed cooking for you. I hope it made a nice change for you from cooking your own meals.'

'Oh, I don't do much cooking at home,' said Lewis apologetically. 'I've never been much good in the kitchen.'

'Oh, Robbie, don't tell me you're still surviving on those awful Meals for One from the supermarket.'

'Why aye,' said Lewis in his broad Geordie twang which had a tendency to come out of nowhere at the most unexpected moments. 'And Chinese and Indian takeaways too, of course. I do have a bit of variety in my diet, Doctor!'

Laura Hobson giggled as she smiled at Lewis and her eyes sparkled with an easy warmth and reassuring kindness which even an essentially shy and reserved old sweat of a copper like Lewis couldn't fail to spot and respond to in kind. But before they could continue their conversation Hathaway had hung up and rejoined them, his solemn face suggesting that more bad news was about to be delivered.

'What is it, sergeant,' Lewis asked with a heavy heart, noticing Hathaway's expression and fearing the worst.

'We've received another anonymous message at the station, gov,' he replied.

'Come on then, we'd better get back. I can't wait to see what hilarious riddle our joker has come up with this time,'

'I think you'll find the Joker and the Riddler are two different characters, Sir,' said Hathaway and Laura Hobson was forced to put her hand to her mouth to prevent a snigger coming out. But DI Lewis wasn't in the mood to appreciate Hathaway's little witticism. He was livid that this sick individual was pissing them around again and, far worse even, had caused his enjoyable private moment with the dear Doctor to be brought to an untimely early conclusion.

'Oh, very funny,' he said, pointedly not laughing. 'I look forward to seeing you start acting like a proper super-hero, then, Robin.'

PART 5

Naomi knocked on the door of Professor Greaves' study and after waiting a few seconds for a response that never came, pulled down on the door handle and confidently entered the room. Despite the door usually being closed Naomi's Professor was known throughout the Department for having an 'open door' policy and rarely insisted on callers being made to wait until they were officially admitted with a loud 'Enter!' into the hallowed chamber of learning.

Naomi had only intended to stay briefly to hand in some coursework and have a quick five minute chat about the progress of her thesis so she wasn't totally put out to find that the room was empty. Clearly Professor Greaves had popped out for a moment as the huge desk which dominated the study was covered in papers, the computer was still on and a jacket was draped around the back of the comfortable and expensive leather chair. After muttering a mild 'Oh, bollocks!' under her breath, she decided not to hang around waiting but just leave her coursework right in the middle of the desk on top of all the other papers where the Prof couldn't possibly miss it. She walked round the side of the desk and leaned over it to place her file in a suitably conspicuous spot and without deliberately meaning to, she couldn't help but notice the computer screen which displayed her professor's email inbox and one particular email which was open and which the professor must have been reading before having left the room.

Before she could stop herself from nosily prying into someone else's private business, which of course she knew to be wrong, Naomi glanced up at the screen and was startled to see that the email in question had come from Emily. The message was only a couple of lines long so it took her next to no time to read it but what she read instantly made her heart almost stop beating, an icy chill run down her spine and her stomach tie itself up in knots.

'Hi Ellie!

Just checking you're still definitely on for Saturday. I really, really hope you can make it. I'm so excited, I can hardly wait. Please, please, please don't say anything to Naomi. This has got to be a secret. I'll be absolutely devastated if she finds out!

See you soon!

Emily

x

More than the content of the message itself which in Naomi's eyes was excruciating enough, that one final small kiss at the end of the email felt like a dagger being ruthlessly driven through her fluttering heart. She felt her legs shake and give way beneath her and she almost collapsed into the chair without making a conscious decision to sit down and have a quiet think about things. She was totally stunned and her mind was so scrambled by what she'd read that it was almost impossible for her to start thinking logically and rationally as she would otherwise have done. What the fuck was going on here? Was Emily seeing her professor behind her back? They were definitely planning to meet up on Saturday, the email made that quite clear and their meeting was supposed to be a secret, one that had to be kept from her at all costs!

JESUS CHRIST!

Naomi felt close to breaking down and bursting into tears and probably would have done so if she hadn't become aware of the sound of people talking from outside the room. It sounded quite distant though so probably they were a fair way down the corridor or perhaps even around the corner. She was seized with a sudden fit of panic. The one thing she knew she just couldn't face was seeing her professor right now. She had to get away from there fast and find somewhere to sit on her own and think things through. She rushed over to the door and peeped out, looking both ways down the corridor. Sure enough, there was her professor engrossed in conversation with another student down at the far end of the passage. Naomi didn't stop to think – she just fled down the corridor in the opposite direction, not caring one iota where she was going, anywhere suited her fine just so long as it was far away from her prof's study and that gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, stomach-churning email from Emily.

_o_ o_o_o_o_o_

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