View all Contributions for Open Story
This story is an Open Book story and therefore you can read the whole lot before making your contribution. Below are all the contributions that have been made for this story so far. If you are up for it - why don't you help continue the story and make a contribution yourself.
If you prefer to read it all on one page you can view all pages at once (also good for printing). If you would prefer the story to be broken down into pages you can divide story into pages.
Story Title: Jane Doe
The Body was found beside a dam in a remote paddock far away from anywhere. There were no tyre tracks and no evidence of foul play and yet I had a strong feeling that something wasn't right.
Call it gut instinct if you like. I have been a police officer for twenty years. I have seen many dreadful things and this young female body, although not in any way mutilated was one of them.
How did she get here for a start? She was wearing high heel boots, not the type of footwear one would expect to find in the middle of the bush. she was well dressed and she had on what women would call the full make-up.
She had been found, lying beside the dam, not in it. The young farmhand came across her this morning at six am while he was out mustering cattle. He had taken his horse for a well earned drink and there she was, he is still in shock.
My first job of course is to find out who she is.
"Why do they always turn up right at the end of our shift?" moaned Smithy, my partner, scratching his substantial belly.
"Inconvenience you did she Smithy?" I could barely contain my irritation.
Smithy made an unpleasant snorting sound in response, then spat a substantial wad of god knows what into the mud. "Looks like just some hooker, anyway..." he muttered.
Repressing an overwhelming desire to knock Smithy's head clean off his shoulders, I made my way back to where the farmhand still sat slumped miserably in the tall grass, his head in his hands. Something told me he would not be of much use to us.
"What's your name Lad" I asked. He looked at me with a kind of blank stare as if he didn't know, then slowly he said " Graham"
"Well Graham can you tell me how you found her"
"I was taking my horse for a drink and there she was, I had my mobile with me and I called my boss, I didn't know what else to do. Did I do something wrong?"
"No laddie you did fine" I said. I could see I wasn't going to get much more from him so I left him sitting there and went back to look at the girl again. She didn't look like a hooker to me she looked classy,smart clothes, nails done. I couldn't move her because we were still waiting for the forensic crew to turn up.
I turned to my partner and couldn't believe what he was doing.
I made no further attempt to conceal my annoyance. "For God's sake stop standing there scratching your arse and do something productive!"
"We're sposed to knock off in ten minutes" Smithy whined.
I glared at him with a look designed to enlighten him in no uncertain terms as to what might occur if he did not shift his soory shape into gear. Smithy muttered something unintelligible - like most of his conversation - and ambled up the slope to the car.
I turned my eyes back to the girl. "Don't worry, darlin'" I said, quietly, so no-one else would hear. "We'll find out who did this."
I scanned the scene, starting from the area immediately surrounding the body. It seemed clean. There was nothing... nothing to indicate how she might have met her untimely end.
But then...
Hold on just one minute what have we here? I moved towards the shiny object lying in the grass and found myself looking at a tie pin. Odd I thought. No one ever wears tie pins these days do they?
"Hey come here Smithy, take a look at this" My partner stopped scratching his crutch and ambled towards me. He looked down and said
" What is it?"
"It's a tie pin" I said and then asked him if he had a bag in his pocket to put it in
" A what?" He said. He asked me how I knew what is was and I had to explain to him how people used to dress in days gone bye. He is a real dumb arse how he ever got into the police forse I will never know.
Anyway he picked it up and put it in a bag explaining to me that it was a complete waste of time because it had probably been there years
I continued to search the area but found nothing else. Which was unusual. Very unusual. Most crime scenes yielded at least some suggestion as to what had taken place. Not so here.
By this time forensics had arrived and I stepped aside to allow them to do their work. I filled the team in on my own observations, then returned to the car where Smithy was already ensconced, awaiting the trip back to the station where he could clock out and go home.
I got behind the wheel. I tried my best not to look at Smithy. Something about the way the buttons in his shirt strained to restrain his hefty girth when he sat down made me slightly nauseous.
As did the fact that at this very moment, at seven-thirty a.m. and having just observed a dead body, Smithy was happily tucking into a king-sized Mars Bar.
Disgusting.
There is no accounting for taste.
Ignoring Smithy I decided to concentrate my thoughts on the case in hand. First we had to establish who this woman was and secondly we had to try and work out how she got there and how she died.
It wasnt going to be easy, we had nothing to work on and it looked as if we were going to have to wait for the toxigoligy reports to come back. The only thing we had thus far was the tie pind and I wasn,t even sure if that was part of the crime scene.
As we pulled into the yard at the station one of my men came running towards the car yelling at me, Igot out and asked him what was up. He said there was a man on the phone up in the office who wanted to speak to me about his girlfriend, he wouldn't speak to anyone else.
It appears she had gone missing and this guy had heard on the radio that we had found a womans body.
I was filled in on all this information as I climbed the stairs to my office, Maybe this was the break I had been waiting for.
I moved hastily into my office and picked up the telephone. "Sergeant Harrison speaking."
"Are you the one who saw the body?" The voice on the other end of the line was panicked.
"One moment please - who am I speaking with?"
"What does she look like?"
"Sir, I need you to identify yourself."
"Blonde, shoulder length hair, attractive?"
Actually, yes... I thought. I said "Sir, I need you to calm down, tell me who you are, and what reason you have to think that you are acquainted with the deceased."
"Oh God" - he was sobbing now - "Julie..."
"Sir - "
"We argued... she wanted... I told her to leave... I didn't mean it..."
This was getting us nowhere. Fast.
"Sir! Your name please!"
"Rogers. Lou Rogers." More sobbing
"Well Mr Rogers I would like to come and speak with you, would this morning be alright"I asked him
"Yes, anytime please come please tell me it's not her" Yet more sobbing, I managed to get the address from him and told Smithy to move his arse and get into the car! He moaned all the way there saying it was time he was off, Dam him we had a body and a possible murder on our hands and all he could do was complain, where the hell do they find these people?
When we arrived at the flat where Mr rogers lived we knocked on the dorr and a very distrought man answered, he did really look upset, I honestly hoped this woman wasn't his girlfriend, poor man looked as if he had had no sleep at all.
He took us through to the sitting room which was emaculate. He asked us to sit down then once more broke down in tears. I had to ask him questions and wasn't looking forward to the ordeal.
"When did you see your girlfriend last" I asked him
"Last night, we had a row and I was very angry with her
"What did you argue about?" I asked.
This produced a fresh flood of tears. "She... she wanted to move in... here... with me."
As he spoke I looked around the room. It was very tastefully furnished. The stuff looked pretty expensive. Our Mr Rogers did not appear to be short a few bob. My eyes lighted on a silver frame containing a professional black and white portrait of Rogers with an attractive middle aged woman. Not our girl. Relieved, I pointed to the photo.
"That your girlfriend?" I asked.
"That? Oh - no, that's Patricia. My wife."
"Your - ? Oh. I see." Of course, it couldn't be that simple, could it?
"And where is your wife now?" I asked.
"At our house in the city."
Smithy snorted. I shot him the death stare.
"So she didn't know you were married eh?"
"Yes she did but she thought we were separated" he explained.
"Do you have a photograph of her ?" I enquired.
"No I'm not stupid" he said "why would I carry a photo of her?"
Smithy snorted yet again. I was getting fed up with him. I really must ask my boss to give me another partner. I made a note to myself.
"Would you come and identify the body sir?" I thought I was pushing my luck but we had to try.
"If I must" he said
"Do you know if she had any family or friends. Can you tell us something about her?"
"So you do think it's her?" He started wailing again. To tell the truth I was getting jack shit of this man, what a moron.
"Sir. It would be most helpful if you could focus for just a moment and tell us all you can about - er - Julie?" I tried to prevent my growing distaste for the man from showing in my voice.
"What do you need to know?"
I sighed. "Anything you can tell us Sir. Let's start with her full name."
The man appeared stumped. "Her - full - ?"
"Her name, Sir. What is it?"
He looked from me to Smithy and back again. I noticed beads of sweat forming on his top lip. For a moment he greatly resembled a deer in the headlights. As he hesitated I looked him over. Snappy dresser, very smart. Immaculate, like the apartment. And then I saw it.
"That's a fine tie pin you're wearing, Sir" I said.
"Oh, thankyou..." he answered, somewhat distractedly.
"Very nice" I added. "Classy. Don't see them too often these days." I watched him intently.
He seemed to wither slightly I wanted to find out why and ask him a few more questions.
"Where were you last night sir when you saw your girlfriend?"
"I was here, she came round for dinner and we had the fight, she ran out about 10pm."
"What did you do after that? " I asked hin.
" Well first I had to ring my wife, but she wasn't at home and by the time I reached her on her mobile about ten minutes had passed. By that time I thought it was too late to follow so I went to bed. I thought she would have calmed down by morning and we could talk again then."
" You had a row with your girlfriend, then rang your wife!"
"Yes, I know it must seem strange but that's what I did"
I thought this was very strange, what the hell was going on? Smithy was moving round the room and looked at me as if even he thought there was a rabbit off!
"What makes you think this could be your girlfriend then" I asked him
"Ok, listen. The fight we had was about some trouble she had down where she works. Supposedly some drug dealers were after her for some reason or something. She said it was really serious."
"Drug dealers?"
"Yes. So she's going on about how we should both flee the country together and I tell her I can't. You see...I still love my wife. I can't just run off with some hooker. So then she gets really mad with me. She asks me whether I still love her and I tell her yes. But then she storms off out the house."
"Where is this place she works?"
"Eveldale drive. By the strip club there."
"Okay. Okay. I'll... I don't know. I'll try to help you."
"What about your superiors...?"
"They don't look too close at this sort of thing. I'll do it."
"This is a heated situation you're going into, and she won't be pleased to see you after what happened last time. She knows you, and she knows I'll have sent you."
"She's just a hooker, I can manage."
"Don't call her-"
"But if the dealers get involved I'm out of there."
"Let's try and keep this quiet. I can't believe my wife still doesn't know, but I'm planning to keep it that way."
"I'll do my best."
Bookmark Story
Comment written: 21 May 2009 at 21:05:26 Comment made by: alboyd
This story is excellent so far! I love Smithy the lazy little git!