One Saturday Afternoon

An outing to the park has an unexpected ending.

 

 

ONE SATURDAY AFTERNOON

 

Her body was found in the park. Saturday afternoons are always the busiest in the park and that one was no exception. The police had to fight their way through the crowd of women and children. The noise of screaming people, young and old, had attracted the attention of the policemen who patrolled the area. An ambulance was called for and that, too, didn’t have it easy in getting to the corpse, which was eye examined and then zipped up in a plastic bag. The ambulance left and the police began questioning the onlookers who were now not so keen on being found there. In a very short time those with children suddenly discovered that the children’s attractions were far more interesting than a dead body, and the police had to inform their superiors that nobody had seen or heard anything.

 

Vere and his lady friend, Sarina, were in the park with his little son, Barney. Ever since they had met, the child had fallen in love with his father’s lady friend. Vere’s brother Justin, who was waiting for his girlfriend Dawn, had accompanied them to the park. The love of his life was as usual, late in arriving. It was sheer bad luck that the quartet saw the dead woman moments before the police arrived. The event of  the corpse of an unknown woman found in the park on a sunny afternoon rather took away some of the pleasure of being out in the open air. The ice cream seller was worried that everyone would start going home and leave him with full containers. He didn’t need to worry, the shock had made people feel thirsty and the children pleaded for ice creams and ice-lollies. The area of the park where the corpse had been found was cordoned off with police tape. A reduced number of the general public were still hanging around and watching the forensics and detectives carry out their at-scene investigation. The only conversations to be heard were those of the officials who from time to time called to a companion to come and see something. Tyre tracks in the grass were closely examined.  Vehicles were not permitted inside the park. There were wrought iron railings surrounding the park which were climbed over at night by ardent youngsters, when the gates were locked for the night. There had been no rain during the night and the only moisture to be seen and which was rapidly disappearing was that left by the sprinklers.

 

 “I’m going to ring my mother, she might be worrying about me,” Sarina said to Vere, who stared at her and said, “Don’t you think you’re a bit old for your mother to be worrying about your whereabouts?”

“Yes, I suppose so, but mothers are always mothers however old their children are. Shan’t be long.”

“OK, see you in a minute,” Vere said, bending down to pick up Barney, who was after an ice cream.

Sarina walked away to a discreet enough distance and rang the police station.

“Hello, Sarina here. I’m in the park where a body was found. Has cause of death been established yet?”

The person at the other of the line responded, “No, not yet. The results will be made public later today or tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you. ’Bye.” Sarina hung up, and walked back to where Vere and Barney were waiting for her.

“That was quick. How’s your mother?” Vere asked Sarina.

“Oh, she’s fine. She just worries, that’s all,” Sarina swallowed hard, that was her second lie to Vere that afternoon. She wondered how many more she would tell him.

Barney was sitting on a bench with his father and Sarina, he had managed to get himself an ice cream and was now in the midst of quaffing it back. Sarina and Vere weren’t saying very much, each one was thinking about the other.

 

Appearing out of the blue, and slightly out of breath, Dawn arrived at last. “Sorry, Justin,” she said. “I hope I’m not too late. I had something pending that had to be finished. Did I keep you waiting very long?”

Justin, pleased to see her, smiled and said, “Now you’re here, it seems as if I haven’t had to wait at all.”

“Let’s go for a bite to eat,” suggested Vere. The others thought it a good idea and directed their steps towards the café in the park. After eating was over, Barney asked to go on the swings, and Dawn offered to push him. Vere, Justin and Sarina were back sitting on the bench.

 

. The sound of a motorcycle came to Sarina and Vere’s ears, and two men dressed all in black with helmets and a scarf to hide their faces, rode up to where they were sitting. One of them tried to grab Sarina’s handbag, but was thwarted by Vere who stood up and pushed Sarina out of their way. The pillion rider, who had been intent on grabbing Sarina’s handbag, almost toppled off, but he straightened up and they went off in a deafening noise. Dawn was still pushing Barney on the swing when the motorcycle roared up and she turned round at the exact moment when the pillion rider made an attempt to snatch Sarina’s handbag. Justin and the women watched while his brother Vere rang the police and informed them about the bag snatchers on the motorcycle. The sergeant at the other end told him to get down to the police station as soon as possible to have a look at the mug shots to see whether he was able to recognise anyone with a record.

 

Vere had to leave to go to the police station and, anyway, it was getting late. Sarina said she was going home to her apartment.

Justin said, “We’re off, so see you later.”

“OK. Goodbye,” said Dawn.

The  park was losing the last rays of sunshine and everything was becoming as dark as the tall, dark trees. People were leaving, the best part of the day was finishing and the evening was just starting. Sarina waved Vere and Barney goodbye, and walked towards her car, which she had parked out of their sight. She got inside, making sure that none of the others’ could see her, and drove off in the direction of the police station. She sighed with relief that they hadn’t seen her in her car, as she was becoming fond of Vere and the child and didn’t like the subterfuge she was forced to carry out.

 

The interior of the police station was hot and bright with artificial lighting. Everyone was talking at once. Sarina walked in and went to her boss’s office and knocked on the door. The voice from inside told her to enter.

“What have you got for me?” asked Arnold.

“To begin with those two idiots nearly blew it when they tried to grab my bag. Have you got a decent photo of Dawn from the photographer who was waiting, or not?”

“Yes, we have.”

The noise of applause in the outer office was heard, and Sarina asked, “Why are they clapping?”

Arnold, her boss, got up and opened the door, “Take a look who’s here.”

Sarina went into the outer office and nearly died of shock. Zoe was standing there in all her glory. For a corpse, she seemed to have resuscitated rather well. Sarina went over to her and kissed her on both cheeks. “Seeing you on the ground in the park nearly killed me. I thought you’d died. It was more than difficult to keep calm, as I was on a job too. Do you know who tried to get rid of you?”

Zoe, looking less like a corpse, smiled at Sarina and said, “We kept the plan quiet to get the right reactions from the general public and from those who know me. It worked, didn’t it?”

“Who did it? You haven’t said yet.” Sarina insisted.

“Dawn, of course. She was the brains behind all those fancy robberies in those wealthy homes over the past couple of years,” Zoe said.

Arnold spoke up, “Sarina, ring Dawn, and do your best to get her to come down here, we need to have a chat with her.”

“I’ll do my best. Then you must tell me as much as you can. Poor Justin will be upset, he’s quite close to her,” Sarina said.

Arnold added, “Not that close from her point of view. She has several young men running round after her. Still, let’s get her in here as fast as we can. After all, that was why we put those two on the motorbike. A simple way to get her down to the police station, unsuspecting.”

Sarina rang Dawn’s number, and said, “ Hello, Dawn. It’s me, Sarina, here. How are you? Do you think you could pass by the police station to help them answer some questions about the motorcycle incident this afternoon?”

Dawn was silent for a moment, and then she said, “Is it all right if Justin comes too?”

“By all means. See you in a minute, then.” And Sarina rang off.

“What are you going to do, Zoe? Are you going to stay and let her see you or would you rather go home?” Sarina asked.

“I’ll stay, and when it’s convenient I’ll appear and ask her why she had to kill me.”

“One of two things, either she did a really shoddy job, or you were wearing some kind of protection,” said Sarina.

“I can’t answer that. It’s top secret, but protection was provided. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to carry it off. I feel like going home and having a good sleep till tomorrow. But I’ll see it to the end if you want me to.”

 

Dawn and Justin arrived at the police station with Vere in tow. Arnold asked Dawn to go with him to the interview room, with the excuse that he needed information about what she had seen that afternoon when the motorcyclists had driven up and tried to grab Sarina’s  handbag. Justin sat down in a chair offered to him by one of the agents.

 

 “First of all, we have you down for attempted murder, and now we’d like to know all about the scandalous robberies that have been taking place over the past few years.”

Dawn intended to say said nothing, so Arnold, with his second in command, Niles, just sat and waited for her to begin. It was only a matter of time before it would come pouring out of her mouth.

Arnold was not prepared to wait for ever, so he started his interrogation. “We all know who you are, so there’s no need to waste time. During the past two years there have been startling robberies from the homes of the rich and famous. On various occasions you were sighted and a build up of your description was obtained. None of the purloined goods have ever been found, so where are they, what have you done with them? Another thing, how did you manage to avoid being detained by the bodyguards for so long?”

Dawn continued in her attitude of silence. She gave the appearance of absolute boredom. Arnold refused to be taken in by her, and went on, “Sooner or later you have to let us know the whys and wherefores of the park and  you have been identified as the person who put an end to Zoe’s life.”

Dawn was still not saying anything.

“It makes no difference to me whether you explain yourself or not. Niles, carry on the questioning for a few minutes, will you?”

Arnold left the interrogation room and called for Zoe. The would-be corpse entered  with Arnold.

Dawn screamed.

“You thought I was dead, didn’t you? Well, you were wrong. As you see, I’m alive and kicking.”

 

Later, Zoe explained to Arnold and Sarina. “I’ve had Dawn under surveillance for a couple of months or so. For this, I went under cover and discovered where she lived and who she hung out with, the bars she went to, and where she bought her clothes. That part was easy, the difficult part was making sure she didn’t find out she was being followed. From the first day on the job I wore protective clothing just in case she went for me.”

“What were you afraid of?” Arnold asked her.

“She’s a judo and karate expert, and she was capable of zapping me out of nowhere and leaving me dead on the street, which is what she finally tried to do. I had a capsule of red liquid in my mouth to make it look as if she had killed me, which was in place from day one. I knew something would happen once she had a clue as to who I was, so I took precautions.”

“How much did Sarina know?” Arnold asked.

“She certainly didn’t know about the capsule, which was to make her realize how dangerous Dawn was. If  Sarina thought I was dead then she would behave more naturally.”

“Both you and Sarina were working on the same case, then?”

“Yes, but from different angles. Sarina was working through Vere, then  Justin, in order to get at Dawn. The problem was the little boy, Barney. Sarina really got to like him. He looks like a great kid.”

Arnold stared at Zoe for a minute and said, “Well, that’s the nature of this job at times, the need for deception in order to trap a bad person. Let’s go and see if Niles has got anything out of her yet.”

 

Back in the outer office, Justin and Vere were two very confused men. One had a classy crook for a girl friend, and the other had an undercover detective. They both felt they were the victims of the two women. It was as if they had been blatantly used.

 

Well. They had been, hadn’t they.

Reviews

[JLD]

Wow! I really did enjoy this bit of fiction. So much drama in such a short passage. Great job!