INVESTIGATIONS OF DCI BAXTER AND DR HIDE: THE BURNT CLUE

The Dead Lawyer

“Interesting” David voiced while stepping around the body. 

     “What is?” Kirk replied standing in the doorway watching.

     “How much you have missed.” He bent down and looked at the two marks in his neck that Kirk had told him about in the car. He then stood up straight and turned his head. He saw something so moved his eyes closer to zoom in on what he saw. He got onto his knees and stared at the ash in the fire place. He picked up a pile of ash. “Fire burnt out at about…” he let it slide through his fingers, “one o’clock this morning.” He announced while standing up. He walked around the body again and as he passed the metal bin in the corner of the room he pointed to it. “The bin’s empty.”

     “Is that important?” Kirk asked.

     “Could be, you never know.” David answered while sniffing the wooden desk. “The desk has been cleaned recently with an antiseptic wipe.” He stated. “Don’t know why someone wouldn’t just use a tissue or…” he stared at the fireplace again, “hang on…” his voice drifted as he took big steps towards the where he was looking. He bent over and took a small bit of paper out of the ashes. “Take a look at this” he ordered Kirk. Kirk walked forward to see what David had found. He was holding a bit of note that looked as though it had been burnt. The paper was small but looked as though it had been bigger.

     “Sim?” Kirk said puzzled.

     “Probably part of a surname?” David considered. “See how there is an ink spill over the rest of the word so we can’t see the rest.” Kirk saw what he meant and considered what sim could have been, Simon? “I think I have found all I need for now but I would like to know who are victim is.” David said to Kirk.

     “Amber should know I asked her to research who he was at the station.”

     “Let’s go then.” David shouted leaving the room swiftly.

     When David and Kirk joined Amber at the police station she was sat at a desk in the middle of a large room with lots of other police officers sat at their own desks. The desks were in rows like an office. Amber was at an old white PC that took up nearly her whole table. She was sipping a cup of tea when she saw Kirk over her mug. She leapt up and grabbed a load of paper and walked quickly towards him.

     “I have the information you needed.” She said flustered “He was called John Paterson, he was a lawyer, he had no wife or children, his parents live in Winchester, he has no siblings…” she took a deep breath.

     “Calm down and tell us the rest slowly.” Kirk interrupted.

     “Us? Oh yeah I didn’t see you there. You must be David? I have heard a lot about you, just rumours around the station.” Amber put her arm out for a hand shake but David pushed her hand to one side and smiled.

     “Do you have a list of suspects, people who might have a motive?”  David asked.

     “Yeah I was going to say that.” Kirk said quickly before Amber could answer, annoyed that he had not thought of asking that first.

     “Yes and that is the problem. Look at this.” Amber said pointing to her PC and stepping towards it. David and Kirk followed. On the computer screen was a long list of names. “Like I said he was a lawyer and not a very nice one by the looks of it. All of these people could have had a motive one way or another and there are a lot of them.” She looked straight to Kirk for an answer.

     “Well can you go through all the suspects and make a smaller list of people that have the strongest motives so then we can go and interrogate them tomorrow.” Kirk answered.

     “Why tomorrow?” David asked Kirk.

     “Because I am going to go on a long car journey to see his parents and tell them the bad news.”

     “You can just phone them, we don’t have the time to waste.”

     “Wasting time, wasting time!” Kirk started to raise his voice and turn a shade of red in the face. “If you had children, actually looking at you ancient age you probably do, how would you like to be told that your only child was dead!” Kirk stormed down the corridor between the desks and slammed the doors at the end of the room behind him.

     “I don’t think he likes me much.” David said quietly to Amber.

    Kirk drove for miles and miles nonstop. He was determined to deliver the news himself in what he thought was the nicest way he could, in person. Was David right should he have just phoned and concentrated more on finding the murderer. ‘No’ he thought ‘I’m going there now and it is already the end of the work day.’ Kirk got more tired as he drove more into the night. His eyes were becoming more limp and harder to stay open but he didn’t have much further to drive now. 

     He parked the car outside some terrace housing. He was lucky to find a parking place considering how many cars were lined up next to the squashed houses. He did up his long grey coat agents the harsh sideways attack of the rain. He knocked on the old metal door and stood shaking in the cold. He heard someone approaching and then the door swung open. A tall woman stood in the doorway holding a tea towel and wearing an apron.

     “Are you Mrs. Paterson?” Kirk asked.

     “Yeah and who are you?” she said sharply. Kirk got out his police ID and held it up.

     “Bath police can you let me in please madam?” Mrs. Paterson stepped to one side to let him in. She walked through a door in front of him and Kirk followed. They had gone into a small front room with a small TV and battered sofas and he thought about how much money the lawyer had had. “You may want to sit down Mrs. Patterson.” She sat down. “Is Mr. Paterson home?”

     “No he’s working late.”

     “Well Mrs. Patterson I have some news about your son.”

     “If he has got himself in trouble I don’t care. Do you know how much money that boy has and yet that guy won’t help us a penny. We are in all sorts of debt and he won’t help us, he won’t even talk to us.”

     “I’m sorry to inform that your son has been murdered.” Kirk looked away from her.

     “Murdered?” grief had started sticking her voice. A tear ran down her face. “My boy!” she screamed. Kirk walked over to her, sat down and put his arm around her in comfort.

     “It’s ok,” he said kindly, “we will catch the person who ended your son’s life.” Kirk stood up slowly and exited the room.

     The journey home was just as long as on the way there but this time there was traffic. His eyes were still sore for sleep but he kept driving. He stayed still in traffic for half an hour and he had started to get frustrated in his tiredness. It had been a long day and he didn’t think tomorrow would get any easier.

     When he had finely parked his car in his spot he stepped out and shuffled through the door and struggled up the stairs. He swung his door open and fell onto his bed. He just needed to lie down for a bit. His eyes sunk closed into darkness.