Playing with trouble
Chapter 7
A shortened chapter but it does start to connect scenarios piece by piece leading the team to a potential suspect, who has cleverly avoided questioning in the past
Brian surveyed the chaotic traffic scenario situated around him, a group of young cyclists struggled to cycle down on a cycle lane in which its space had been taken up by a Ford Escort, as he exhaustingly approached the Forest Burrow Library. He'd strapped his backpack over his shoulders the longer he cycled the more heavier it felt.
He pulled his bicycle up to a halt on the pavement, when he finally arrived, locking and securing it tightly against the hand bike railing before walking up the pebbled stoned steps and making his way inside, clutching his bicycle helmet underneath one arm and holding one strap of his backpack with another hand. His long black overcoat swayed sideways, its edges almost become trapped in the revolving door, finally stepping within the multiple surroundings of the building.
"Are you alright sir?..do you need any assistance in finding a book that you would like to purchase?" An elderly female librarian kindheartedly offered knowledgeable assistance as Brian acted bafflingly, unsuccessfully failing to spot his old friend, he remained thoroughly convinced this was the right library.
"I'm looking for Thomas Baxter…. He mentioned he works here.. Just need a quick word with him if that's no problem…. Its Brian Lane from the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad " He replied optimistically, leaning against the counter desk as he awaited to see if Thomas might be working in the staff room.
"He's not arrived for work yet.." she suddenly remembered, placing a hand on her mouth confusingly, the woman was a close friend to Thomas and rapidly expressed some hidden concern as to why he chose to arrive late when the library prominently opened early each and every morning.
"I tell yer what.. I'll wait for as long as possible.. I could do with some reading.. Read the latest fascinating books…while I wait.." Brian suggested politely, as he made his way over the book isle, curiously extending a hand to pick a book unfortunately he had awkward competition with an unpleasant 15 year old teenage girl.
"Mummy…I want to read this book…This man's being rude and negative towards me..stop pulling faces at me.." she hissed mockingly, Brian embarrassingly averted his eyes elsewhere, careful to a confrontation that wasn't necessarily his fault, unsurprised someone else was attempting to precisely cause unwanted trouble for him and found himself hurrying to stand in another book isle.
xxxx
As UCOS remained blissfully quiet Gerry and Jack took an opportunity for an early shortened mid afternoon coffee break in Starbucks across the street mulling over Sandra's recent behaviour towards the suspects they bought in for questioning.
"Sandra's not been herself of late has she. I know I don't want to make a big fuss over it don't get me wrong Jack… I just automatically presumed she might have physically bitten Douglas nose off and spat it out in the interview room a couple of hours ago…You don't reckon he's feeding us the truth do you. Something just don't add up in all this… feels as if its one enormous cover-up between all of them" Gerry attempted to make common sense of this cryptic investigation.
"I know Gerry..I think its best to see whether Brian finds out anything significant and informs us when he returns… I wonder if Thomas might have acted too protective of his brother… made some unforgiving deals… to keep his brother from harms way…maybe he got in the way.. Found himself involved in the crossfire and died as a result of it" Jack profusely revealed his theory.
"Thanks Poirot…think you just blew my theory away into thin air" Gerry sarcastically confessed, saddened in realization if this apparently could turn out to be the case.
"Oh stop complaining we might as well return…Sandra will be breathing down on necks soon enough as to what took us so long to simply buy food and drink replenishments" Jack nudged Gerry to rise up from his chair in the café and they quickly left.
xxxx
Thomas curiously tapped Brian on his shoulder, requiring if his former friend had uncovered some crucial evidence within the current proceeding reinvestigation. His appearance appeared to be changeable today, blue waist jacket, matching trousers and violet silk shirt. When Brian never replied, Thomas expressed his disbelief at the lack of confirmation and reassurance, he desperately suspected he might take it into his own hands.
"Brian so what did you find out?… Did Douglas use an excuse.. To wriggle his way out of answering questions?"
"Before I left to come here got a phone call on my wife's borrowed mobile phone that my colleagues discovered Douglas is an asthmatic he explained he ran away after the murder took place. Claimed he never committed it because he spotted an unidentified figure lurking over Vinny's body..Are you sure you don't remember any other rival… that your brother got in the wrong books of?"
"What is this Brian…bloody QI… I really can't offer any further help to you with this… All I know that there was other guy.. Younger heavy built like Giant Haystacks.. They shared a disagreement over an unpaid restaurant bill… Vinny briefly mentioned the guy came looking for him..a couple of times demanding he pay up or he'd use a baseball bat to break his legs" Thomas agonized intensely, a flood of images overflowing through his mind, the scared young brother pleading for his life to be speared, crying emotionally when the tall heavy male smashed a brick through his house windows.
"You alright Tom..hope I'm not bringing up to many difficult bad memories.." Brian sympathized compassionately, offering a hand of support of dearest sincerity.
"I don't remember his name. I'm sorry I guess Vinny was too frightened to say anything incase the guy carried out his threats…Hang on..if he was heavy built in height and in weight..he might have worked at a gym maybe a fitness instructor in his spare time as well as working in the restaurant..Brian I'm fully convinced if it is this guy he did it " Thomas sighed sadly, lowering his head ashamedly, feeling he'd become an utter failure in his quest of finding justice.
"Don't blame yourself ..You've got nothing to worry about Tom..when I get back to work I'll do a background check. Pull some strings carefully incase I anger my Detective Superintendent…run a check on any possible uncanny descriptions of him.." Brian promised to find out the truth, even if it practically cause him to stumble into trouble.
"Please do before its too late…Brian I cannot risk not knowing the truth when it pains me to say.. I feel like resorting to old policing methods"
"Been watching too much Ashes to Ashes have you?" Brian knew instantly upon second guessing.
"Pretty much" Thomas nodded his head refutably in acknowledgment, half smiling giving evidence of evidence.
Xxxx
"Where the bloody hell have you two been,… This isn't a one person office for an individual to keep running while her colleagues bugger off to buy food outside" Sandra bellowed, exchanging an displeasuring glance, her arms folded in a professional standard bossy manner.
"Is Brian back yet?" Jack asked
"No not yet..just hope he's bought something interesting back for us to question" Gerry searched high and low around the empty quieting vacated office . "something else I've had Strickland offering to load potential cases upon us he's getting dismayed at our lack of slowness, doesn't seem to understand we have had no visible evidence in this..reason why we've gone and flashbacked hope you're right Gerry..can't bare to see case being closed as unsolved hate letting people down even myself surprisingly enough"
Some minutes later, Brian eventually arrived back just before 3.30pm, lifting his bicycle through the office door, avoiding Sandra's examining eyes as she studied his nervousness and avoidance.
"Well?" she acted impatiently, unprepared to be kept waiting for much longer when there was other important matters to be getting on with.
"Well what?. Thomas said the same thing as Douglas…the unidentified mysterious, ambiguous figure…the one that got away…said he selfishly hounded Vinny over some unpaid restaurant bills.. Threatened to take a bat and knock his kneecaps out" Gerry pulled an excruciating face, as to display his expression.
"So what are we saying here.. Do we assume this is the guy were after…the one that got away?"
"I guess so.. Brian try and bring up a list on your computer of anyone connected to the Baxters…Gerry head downstairs to Emily see if she can shed some light on possible image of this brutal guy…Strickland soon enough is going to be pressing us to close the case when its solved" Brain followed orders and Gerry shrugged his shoulders eventually complying to followed procedures, both got to work immediately.
"Don't be too snappy towards them Sandra. I know we've all got a lot on our plates to be coping with…I sat talking to Mary in the garden last night told her about this case…She'd be telling me not to allow myself to get to personally involved…Brian no doubt has it occupying his mind…"
"Trust me I'll have my thoughts elsewhere.. Believe it or not I'm not becoming grouchy as I think I am. Maybe we should go for well deserved drink one night when the case is completed..what do you say?" Sandra hinted, hoping Gerry might agree and not make an unfortunate excuse of excluding himself out of it.
Xxxx
As tea time approached, Brian realized he'd been typing for over an hour so far with significant result, he typed Thomas' name firstly which bought up no results, before trying Vinny''s name which bought up a whole heap of names that read like a phonebook alphabetically.
"Any luck?" Jack eagerly requested pulling a chair up to sit by Brian as he studied every single name.
Curiously clicking on one name, Kenny Andrews, an old profile picture displayed itself on the computer screen, his image beared a resemblence to what Douglas described, Kenny was heavy built, tall 6ft 2ins, larger biceps, a large outlined neck and brown fluffly hair, by now they both knew his imagine might be different, intriguingly they awaited Gerry's enquiries, waiting became a long cricket game.
"Should be back by now I promised Esther I'd cook her tea tonight..one of the recipes out of Jamie Oliver's recipe books" Brian tapped his boot heavily on the cold surfaced floor, almost accidentally banging his underneath the desk as he pivoted to check the main office door to his right hand sode.
"Esther will understand..I'm certain she will" Jack guaranteed, fiddling with a pen as he joined in the wait.
"You don't think he's sneaked off early has he. Sandra's going to be undoubtedly furious if he has" Brian found himself wondering as he looked up in time to see an exhausted Gerry finally arriving back.
"What took yer?" Brian acted unimpressively, looking slightly annoyed as he tapped his watch.
"Blimey Brian no need to rip my head off in one attempt..Where's Sandra?"
"She's in the office" Jack answered
"Not gonna believe this when I tell yer" Gerry had found a breakthrough in the case, but wanted everyone to be present when he informed them. Sandra exited her office and chose to stand side by side by the evidence board.
Gerry placed a photo of Kenny up on the board and wrote, his previous convictions underneath it, 1 GBH assault 1982 , assault on a young teenager 1990 and blamed for a car crash reasons unexplained as to why he escaped being jailed when evidence pointed at him being the main suspect in the previous unsolved case.
"That's Kenny..I've just bought his name up on my computer.. Why was he not charged with any of these crimes… was someone protecting him acting as an alibi.. When the police became suspicious?" Brian put his hardest opinions in one suggesting it as a possible theory.
"Maybe.. Bought its clear.. He's definitely Vinny's killer… What I find must interesting is that him and Douglas were old school friends…knew each other quite well…I think when we bought Douglas in for questioning he quite noticeably buckled under pressure..acted shifty cryptic even.. thankfully i think he's lead us on the right track towards Kenny.. According to Emily when she recovered some files for me…she found out that Kenny likes to filter in and out of London…he's avoiding police arrest because he is another who was never got questioned over Vinny's murder.. In 1980 he was just 20 years old..about now he'd be around 50 years old apparently still attending the gym every Wednesday morning tends to go between the one in Rose Hill and Newbury Street…If its alright Sandra I think a bit of undercover work might help us in arresting him finally"
"I fully agree Gerry.. Stop trying to outclass me at this" Sandra challenged him, as she made eye contact.
"No I wasn't really" Gerry used his hands to protest, unhappy that a bemused Brian and Jack chose to step in the background and make a bid for the exit as Gerry and Sandra continued to argue like a married couple.
"Lets get one thing perfectly understood..you're not a Detective Superintendent I am" Sandra made herself be heard properly.
End of chapter
