Legacy (8 page)

“Stand behind me!” he spoke to me quietly and I instantly did as he said, shaking with fear.

But my plan of leading my pursuer towards the Police Station in order to scare him off did not work in the least and he showed no sign of fleeing the scene whatsoever and the three of us stood still in the empty car park, each wondering who would make the next move.

The man protecting me grabbed me by the wrists and gave me further instructions.

“Run to the door and use the intercom to get help out here quick! Tell them what’s happened to you and say that the Coroner needs help urgently in the car park!”

As he spoke, I couldn’t help but notice the tattoo that he had on his right forearm - it was of a dragon and I’m sure that I had seen the very same one on someone else recently, but recalling who that person was would have to wait for another time and I ran quickly towards the Police Station door, leaving the two men behind.

The Coroner warned my pursuer not to come any closer, but his verbal warnings were useless as the space between the two men became smaller and smaller until they were literally face-to-face.

This didn’t look good and as I pressed the button on the intercom, the deadlock in the car park came to an end as the man made his move and attacked the Coroner - who would never make it back to his car.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Detective Sergeant Short was sitting at his desk typing out the report regarding their questioning session less than half an hour ago and as each new word appeared on the screen, he couldn’t escape thinking how weird this case was becoming – but the seriousness of it all was the fact that someone had been killed whilst he was trying to rape a woman by some mysterious vigilante.

Their only witness hadn’t long left them and she was adamant that a man had saved her, but the preliminary Coroner’s report says that the wounds on the body were made by an animal of some kind.

No matter how many questions had been asked and no matter how many reports had been generated, Short felt that this investigation was going nowhere fast.

Detective Inspector Harran felt the same way, but being the more experienced senior officer, it was his job to remain calm and not show any personal feelings that he may have – but instead decided to use what energy he had in studying all of the information they had on the case intensely, in case anything vital was missed.

Harran looked over to Short, who by now had temporarily stopped typing to look out of the window.

              “You okay, Short?” Harran asked.

Short immediately turned his chair to face Harran.

              “Yes, sorry Sir,” he answered, “I swear blind I just saw that Gallagher woman running across the road towards this building.”

Harran felt his stomach turn slightly at the mention of that woman’s name – after all, in all his years as a detective, he was famed for obtaining information from any witness through questioning and he personally felt that he had failed earlier.

              “What would she be doing around here, Short? I obviously haven’t done my job properly in scaring her off!”

              “Maybe she’s returned with more information?” Short answered.

Harran laughed.

              “That girl doesn’t even know what day of the week it is! She is our chief witness and is as helpful to us as a chocolate kettle – she told us she was saved by a man when all evidence points to an animal – and when she was asked to describe this supposed hero, she tells us she passed out when they looked each other in the eyes! She even told us that she had a flat mate, but we haven’t been able to track her down and none of the neighbours have even seen her! So any vital piece of evidence that she may have for us could once again be another figment of her overactive imagination.”

              “But didn’t you always teach me that every piece of information is just as important as the last?” Short replied.

              “Indeed I have and when you’re a senior officer like me then you can have my desk and tell your jumped up understudy the same!” Harran joked, “But until then just remember who’s in charge – and right now a coffee would be very much appreciated.”

Short knew that he had lost his verbal contest with Harran and reached out to pick up what he thought was an empty mug from his desk, but unbeknown to him the cup was still half full and cold coffee spilt onto Short’s desk.

Harran tutted to himself and went to grab a box of tissues for Short to clean up the mess and then a moment of sudden genius hit him.

              “Short, where is the crime scene report?” Harran asked excitedly.

The two men went through the piles of paper on Harran’s desk until they found it and Short instantly knew that the coffee would have to wait a few moments because when Harran acted like this, it was worth listening to what he had to say.

              “What is it, Sir?” Short asked.

              “Blood!” was the only reply he had, “Why didn’t I see it before?”

And with that, Harran passed the piece of paper to Short.

              “Read what it says about the blood at the crime scene out loud.”

Short started reading.

              “There was a large amount of blood splattered across the alleyway on both the ground and walls.”

Harran took the piece of paper off Short and passed him the Coroner’s preliminary report.

              “Now look at the cause of death.”

              “Multiple fractures from the force of impact when he was thrown against the wall, but a number of puncture wounds were also found on the victim’s neck made by some kind of animal with very long sharp teeth.” Short said, unaware of where this conversation was going.

Harran got off his chair and walked towards the window, speaking to Short as he did so.

              “Is it my imagination or if an animal was to attack in such an aggressive manner as what happened in that alleyway, wouldn’t that animal have to be quite a substantial size to be able to throw a grown man against a wall with such force?”

              “But the Coroner picked up on the wounds on the victim’s neck!”

              “Yes he did, but didn’t the Coroner also report that the body had lost an immense amount of blood too?”

              “Of course he would have if he was attacked by a wild animal!” Short said sternly.

              “But there is nothing mentioned in the report of the body soaked in blood as well! If the victim had been attacked by a wild animal, it’s the cleanest one I’ve ever known because it does so indiscriminately and if it scrammed and bit at its prey, how come forensics did not pick up any traces of an animal being there? Surely when it scrammed, blood would get on its claws at least, but not one animal print was found whatsoever at the scene.”

              “So was it a man or an animal that was in this alleyway?” Short asked.

              “That Gallagher woman says it was most definitely a man who saved her and one of our reports says an animal – so one of them is incorrect!”

              “Or maybe they’re both right!” Short stated.

              “So you’re telling me that this vigilante hero had some kind of massive pet with him?”

              “No – maybe the animal wandered into the alleyway and scared the man off.” Short added.

              “Didn’t the Gallagher woman say that she passed out in the alleyway?” Harran asked, “Surely wouldn’t she be an easy target lying there unconscious? Why would the animal only attack one person and leave the other?”

It had been an incredibly long night for the two detectives and this case was definitely not going to be as straightforward as they would have liked and little did they know now that it was going to cause them a lot more headaches and dilemmas as it continued.

Their best option right now was to make themselves more coffee and get their brain cells working before another victim is claimed.

Detective Inspector Harran was waiting for the call from his Chief Constable to find out how the case was moving and he knew how unimpressed he was going to be when he told him of their lack of progress.

Harran was a well respected member of the force which meant that he was also expected to close every case he was involved with closed inside a ridiculously short amount of time.

As Short placed a new mug of coffee onto the desk, Harran picked up the phone to ring his wife and explain that he would once again not be coming home for lunch, knowing deep down that his stay in work could be an indefinite one.

It was at moments like this, Harran wished he was single like Short and didn’t have to explain himself to anyone, especially his wife who he knew would not be happy with his call.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I banged frantically on the locked police station door that faced the car park, turning around to see my would-be rescuer being thrown around the car park and almost certainly, facing death.

An officer eventually came to the door and spoke to me through the intercom speaker.

              “What’s the matter?” he asked.

              “You’d better come quickly!” I screamed at him, “someone’s been chasing me and there’s one of your men out here being attacked by him! Please, hurry up! He’s killing him!”

As I begged for the policeman inside to help, my voice was almost drowned out by the sound of car alarms going off one by one behind me as my helper was bouncing off each one after being thrown repeatedly through the air.

This made the doubting officer inside finally listen to my pleas for help after he checked the security monitors behind his desk which showed a man lying face down on the ground motionless.

It was at this moment that all hell broke loose inside the station.

All it took was one press of the emergency button and an audible alarm echoed loudly throughout the station. For many years, the police officers inside had trained for this very moment and when one of their own was in trouble, none lay idle.

Every person inside the police station stood at their posts that had been allocated to them during their numerous training drills previously.

Finally after what felt like hours, I was allowed into the building and taken into a room far away from the melee that ensued and as I was quickly pushed past the front desk, I noticed a number of officers gathering around the security monitors to see what was going on outside.

But no riot was awaiting them – just a horrific scene of damaged cars and a motionless body laying face down on hard ground covered in blood.

I noticed that one of the officers surrounding the desk was none other than Detective Sergeant Short, who took his eyes off the screen as he caught a glimpse of me passing and I instantly knew that he would soon be looking for his boss Detective Inspector Harran to inform him that I was back yet again with a dead body and a whole lot of trouble.

My instincts were correct and it wasn’t long before they found me and this time Harran burst into the room like a bull at a gate and headed straight for me as I sat in a chair at the back of the room trying to drink a plastic cup of water that had been given to me seconds ago.