[2022 Wattys shortlisted story]
A missing family. A twenty year old murder. An old ghost story. And a private detective from London. But what do they all have in common? It's the job of DCI Neo Denzel to figure it all out.
In the quiet town of Mart...
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Neo watched Superintendent Palmer as he reclined in his chair. Two fresh cups of coffee sat on the table between them as she reviewed his notes so far on the case.
'One dead, second one missing. Just terrible.' Palmer shook her head in sympathy as she flicked through her phone.
Neo leaned forward. 'Dead?'
Palmer looked up from her phone and sighed.
'Forgive me. It's easy to forget that you didn't grow up here. Mrs Bennett, the wife that's gone missing, her sister and her sister's boyfriend were murdered at Felton Pond over twenty years ago. Tragic case. I'll have someone pull the old files for you. They should have all been transferred onto the computer, but well, you know how those things go.'
Neo silently agreed. Though he knew London had been integrating its systems for decades, the smaller stations had resisted, until they'd been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Marton was one of those stations. He wouldn't be surprised if half the original file had been scanned into the computer upside down or was completely illegible.
'You think it has something to do with why the family disappeared?'
Neo sipped at his coffee and enjoyed the hit of caffeine as it buzzed through his system. It couldn't replace his cigarettes, but it was something to get him through the day.
Palmer finished sending her email and stood.
'Their killer was a local boy, a friend of theirs, Jack Teece. We never found him. He just disappeared, done a runner no doubt after he realised what he'd done. His parents moved away not long after that, couldn't live in the village, not after everyone knew what he did.'
'I'll look at the files and see if there is anything useful from the original case. Though I somehow doubt that Jack Teece just happened to have come back to abduct the younger sister and her family,' Neo replied smoothly.
He was skeptical that the details would be useful. A case solved over twenty years ago was unlikely to have a bearing on the missing family.
Except for the fact they both happened in the same place, he reminded himself.
As a rule, Neo hated coincidence. In his book, coincidence was just an excuse for poor police work. That notion that some things are simply unexplainable. In his world, no such thing existed. Everyone had a motive, everything could be explained. A police officer only had to look at the evidence in front of them.
'Keep me up to date on this case. Don't mention the specific area you found the car at to the press. The last thing we need is for locals to think something is happening up at Felton Pond. There are already enough ghost stories floating around as it is.'
Neo went to ask her to elaborate on what ghost stories she was referring to when a wailing sounded from outside his office, followed by shouting.
'What the devil...' Palmer trailed off as she followed Neo to the reception area.
