Left Or Right?

Chapter 2 - Injuries and Investigations

Left

Mickey and Jo returned to the station to talk to the DCI. "I fink we need to combine the enquiries into the Leisure Centre break in and the hit and run, there's too many coincidences for them not to be connected." Mickey said.

"Right, run me through what you've got so far." Jack replied leaning against Mickey's desk.

"Point of entry at the Leisure Centre looks like it was a window in the staff toilet that wouldn't lock, so the thieves were either lucky to find a window that they could force open or it's an inside job 'cos only staff would know about it." Mickey began.

"And they were very specific, they were after a particular CCTV recording of the 24th of August, nothing else seems to have been touched. The manager says that he has no idea what was on the disc because he hadn't had reason to look at it but we can guess that it shows someone doing something incriminating." Jo continued.

"The assistant manager, Steven Andrews, didn't turn up for work today and the manager says that he's really reliable and has never even been late before. He phoned Mr Andrews but couldn't get an answer on either his mobile or his home phone."

"Then at about eight o'clock this morning there was a woman involved in a hit and run on Wethington Way which happens to be the road that Steven Andrews lives on. And the victim matches a description given by the neighbour of his wife. Number 17 Wethington Way, the Andrews house, was empty and PC Noble found the door open when she did the house to house, blood has been found in the kitchen but there is no sign of the husband. Now either this is a massive coincidence or these two cases are linked."

"Yeah, and I've check out both Steven and Lyndsey and they're clean." Mickey added and then stopped as his phone rang. He walked away to answer it and came back a second later. "That was Smithy. Mrs Andrews died from her injuries."

"Have we got any witnesses to the hit and run?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, Smithy said that they've got a witness that reckons that Mrs Andrews than out into the road."

"So she runs out into the road after leaving her front door open and there is blood in the kitchen. Sounds like something in there scared her and she was either running away from it or running to get help." Jack said.

"If she ran out into the road then can we rule out the driver of the car as being involved. If it wasn't the drivers fault then we can guess that it wasn't deliberate and they drove away because they were drunk or uninsured or don't have a licence or some other reason." Jo said.

"Do we know anything about the car?"

"According to the witness silver and normal looking, that was all she could tell us."

"I think we can rule out the driver for the time being." Jack agreed with Jo. "We need to find out whether the blood belongs to Mrs Andrews or someone else."

"Forensics have just arrived at the scene."

"It's going to be a while before we get any leads from them so I'm going to look through the CCTV from the Leisure Centre, I picked up the recordings from the days around the 24th and from last night. Think that's going to be our best lead at the moment."

"I'm going to go and see Mr Andrews parents, see if they can shed any light on this." Jo said grabbing her coat and leaving the office.

Mickey sat himself down to watch through the hours of CCTV. Finally after two hours, he found Mr Andrews having an argument with another man.

"Guv, look at this." Mickey said leaning back in his chair as the DCI walked past. "This guy was caught on CCTV arguing wiv Steven Andrew on the 25th, it get's pretty heated. I ran him through facial recognition and came up wiv a name. His name's Liam Travis, got convictions for theft, assault, possession. I've got an address for him, I'm going to go round there."

"Alright, take Kezia with you and be careful, don't forget that this is a potential abduction."

"Yes, Guv." Mickey said grabbing his jacket. "Come on then." He said to Kezia.

They drove round to the address of the suspect, rain still pouring. "I'll go and have a look around the back. Wait for me to ring you before you knock on the door." Mickey dived around the corner of the house and past a couple of over flowing bins. He slid along the wall and looked in through the first window he came to. He phoned Kezia. "Can you see anything your end?"

"No, the place looks empty. Shall I knock on the door." She replied.

"Yeah." Mickey said then he felt an almighty bang and his phone dropped to the floor with a clatter as he fell forwards. He felt someone kicking him in the ribs and then the foot connecting with his head.

"Mickey?" Kezia said into the phone after hearing the thuds.

She ran around the back of the house and found Mickey lying on the concrete, rain water soaking into his clothes.

"Mickey?" She shouted kneeling down beside him.

His eyelids flickered and he opened his eyes slowly.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Looks like we've found our suspect." He muttered.

"Just stay still, I'm going to get an ambulance."

"No, I'm fine." He said sitting up carefully.

"I'm going to phone the DCI, then." She said looking suspiciously at him. She picked her phone up from the ground beside her, dried it and called Jack.

"Guv, it's Kezia. We lost our suspect, he assaulted Mickey and then legged it. Thinks he's our guy."

"Is Mickey ok?" Jack asked, his voice anxious.

"I think so but he was knocked out for a couple of seconds and he won't let me call an ambulance."

"Let me speak to him." Kezia handed the phone over to Mickey.

"Are you alright?" He asked bluntly.

"Yeah, I'm fine guv."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep just a couple of bruises."

"I'm sending a couple of uniform around so when they get there I want you two to get yourselves back to the station and then you're going to see the FME."

"Guv, I don't need to see the FME. I'm fine."

"You'll see him even if I have to drag you there."

"Alright." He hung up the phone and handed it back to Kezia.

Kezia drove Mickey back to the station as soon as Roger and Nate arrived.

"FME." Jack ordered as Mickey tried to sneak into CID without him noticing.

"Guv, I'm fine, honest."

"Now!"

"Fine." Mickey muttered like a child who hadn't got their way and sloped off to see the FME.

He returned ten minutes later. "He said I was fine."

"Maybe you should go home."

"Guv, I'm fine."

"Alright, but take it easy." Jack conceded knowing that it would never happen.

"Yes guv." Mickey said sitting at his desk to look back through Liam Travis' file as Jo came back into the office.

"What happened to you?" She asked seeing Mickey bruised face.

"You should see the other guy." Mickey muttered.

"Unfortunately we can't seeing as Mickey let him go." Kezia said grinning.

"Well I was unconscious at the time."

"What happened?"

"Found a guy arguing wiv Steven Andrews on the 25th on the CCTV from the Leisure Centre and identified him through facial recognition as a Liam Travis who's got a record of theft, assault and possession so we paid him a visit, trouble was he saw me before I saw him. Uniform are searching his house as we speak."

"Aw, poor Mickey, did the nasty suspect beat you up." Jo teased.

"Shut up." Mickey replied looking back at the file, he was feeling inexplicably irritable.

"Oi, tetchy!"

"Any luck wiv Andrews' parents?" Mickey asked to change the subject.

"Not really, apparently he is a model son, they didn't seem too upset to hear that his wife had died though. Got the feeling they didn't approve of her. According to them she'd grown up in care after her mum had died when she was thirteen, had no other family. Apart from that they didn't know anything about her."

"So this Liam Travis is our only lead. I reckon we should to go back to Andrews' parents, see if they recognise him, and see if anyone at the Leisure centre recognises him." Mickey said as he grabbed some water from the machine and swallowed down a couple of Aspirin tablets.

"That sounds like a plan." Jo said grabbing her jacket and following Mickey down into the car park.

They got into the car and Jo directed them to Mr Andrews' parents house.

"Mickey!" Jo said looking behind them as they sped along the road, the traffic seemed to have finally cleared..

"What?"

"You just went through a red light."

"No I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

Mickey looked in the rear view mirror, the cars behind him were queued at the traffic lights, he had gone through it while it was red. "I didn't see it."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I wish people would stop asking me that."

"Not your day is it."



They arrived at without any further drama. "Keys." Jo said holding her hand out as they got out of the car.

"Why?"

"'Cos you just ran a red light. Hand them over."

"Fine." He replied slamming them into her hand.

They walked up the drive and knocked on the door.

"Mr Andrews, I'm sorry to bother you again, this is my colleague DC Webb. Could we come in, we've got a couple more questions to ask you?"

"Yes, of course." He stood aside and let them passed.

They sat down in the living room. "Can you tell me if you recognise this man?" Jo asked handing over the photo of Liam Travis."

"Yes." Mrs Andrews replied. "He was at the wedding, Liam something. He's a friend of Lyndsey's, I think they were in the Children's Home together. Does he have something to do with Steven's disappearance?"

"We're not sure yet. Do you remember if Steven and Liam got along?" Mickey asked frowning.

"No, I don't think they did. But he was a good friend of Lyndsey's so Steven had to put up with him. Liam was very over protective of Lyndsey though."

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