2. The Kid

DS Vega's evening is cut short when he is called in to visit the crime scene.

2

The dress would have looked good on almost anyone but her. The fifties style was flattering, tailored in such a way as to emphasise feminine curves, but Cherry had no shape to showcase. She was a frail scaffold of bones braced together by tattoos and bangles. She looked lost.
    And then she sang.
    My god, that voice. It filled the room, seeming to reverberate from somewhere other than the stage, from some celestial space perhaps. It wasn’t a clear, pure sound. Like her it was a little dirty, a little rough, but it was drenched with so much emotion that he knew the skin of everyone clustered there in that tiny bar would be tingling. Every eye filling. She swayed slightly, only the pint glass of red wine held steady. Occasionally she dipped away from the microphone stood in front of her but it didn’t matter. Her voice carried.
     Her final note wavered into a silence soon scattered by applause. He saw her look around, scanning the upturned faces. He knew she was seeking him. He knew that her look of apprehension would be replaced with a girlish grin the moment she spotted him. He’d been late getting there though; he couldn’t reach the seating set around the stage and so was stuck in the bar watching her on the grainy screens.
     The crowds opened up a little as a few people headed back to the bar to get in another round before the next song. He began to move forwards when he felt that infernal buzzing in his breast pocket. He almost didn’t bother answering the phone. He didn’t want to, he wasn’t supposed to be working, but the habit was an old one and hard to shake. He found himself reading the caller ID before he’d even realised the phone was in his hand.
     MIT Desk.
     Piss off.
     He let it ring through to answerphone although it made him itch to do so. He was almost grateful when the caller rang straight back and he stepped out to answer, leaving the laughter of the bar behind and walking out into a bitter spring night perfumed by the promise of snow.
     ‘DS Vega speaking.’
     ‘Evening, Rich. Sorry, mate, I know you’re not on tonight…’
    ‘That’s all right, Phil. What can I do for you?’
     ‘DI Rosen has a sus death just off Vauxhall Lane, some way into Little Rook Wood. She’s requested the pleasure of your company as apparently I won’t do.’
     ‘Well, she’s a woman of taste. Besides that any idea why she�"’ And then Vega knew why the senior detective wanted him instead of the equally capable DS Phil Llewellyn, who was the man currently on call. It was just a suspicion at that point, nothing to corroborate it other than the sweat suddenly dampening his palms, but he knew it would be confirmed soon. ‘I’ll head that way now. I’ve got to walk to my car but tell her she can expect me shortly.’
     ‘Will do. Thanks, Richard.’
     ‘No problem.’
     No, not a one. DS Richard Vega looked back up the crooked staircase which led into The Grey Lady. Inside the venue Cherry’s band were warming up for the final number. Did he have time to catch the last song? Not really. Still he headed up, watching his step on the uneven stairs. The crowds had tightened about the raised stage area again and the only space he could find was the threshold between the bar and the cloakroom. He watched her on the screens set up in the corners. Her voice came through like she was stood at his shoulder.
     ‘This is a song for my daddy. Not my actual daddy, coz he’s a prick,’ Cherry mumbled, the brassy voice she sang with replaced with the fumbling speech of a child. There was a murmur of laughter which encouraged her and she took a long draught of the wine which left purple flicks at the corners of her mouth. ‘So here we go! For my not-actual-daddy who was supposed to be here but probably got a better offer, probably.’
     The band played her in. Richard Vega’s phone vibrated again; a text from DI Rosen. We’ll need to move quickly on this one.
     He shrugged on his coat and left his songbird to her audience.

*

Detective Inspector Daria Rosen held out her hand for him to shake almost before he’d climbed out of his car. She was brisk, officious, but she had a smile for every occasion. She had a good manner, particularly with the younger detectives. In another life he could see her as head of some prestigious girls’ school. In this life she had chosen corpses over children, although that morning he supposed there was some overlap.
    ‘Thanks for coming, Rich. I do appreciate it.’
     ‘A bad one, is it?’
     ‘Not at all. It’s a fairly fresh scene and it’s been largely undisturbed. I’m optimistic.’
     Not what he’d meant, but he didn’t care to correct her.
     They were down a length of lane with old Kent woodlands reaching out on either side; oak and beech trees, interspersed with tangles of rhododendrons which spread out to claim every space between. There was no street lighting but the moon was high and full and turned the road to silver. Pulsing blue lights from the patrol cars parked at either end made a dazzling light show.
     ‘Where’s the crime scene?’
     ‘Down the bank, on for about half a mile and to the edge of a clearing. It’s a bit of a climb, I’m afraid. We’re coming at it from this angle since we think it’s likely whoever placed the body would’ve come from the other side, so we’re trying to preserve that as much as possible.’
     Placed the body. Not dumped, placed. His initial suspicion began to ring a little louder.  
     Vega followed her into the fringe of trees and down a near vertical decline. The descent was complicated by dead undergrowth and the steep angle of the bank, but some bright spark had tied a length of tow rope to a sapling and by gripping this they slithered down with most of their dignity intact. Vega called over his shoulder to her.
     ‘So Phil called me back with a few more details while I was driving over.’
     ‘Oh?’
     ‘Yeah. He said a couple of teenagers had parked up to “enjoy the view”. The bloke jumped out afterwards for a post-coital piss, fell down the bank, and when he was trying to find a way back up to his sweetheart he found the body. Is that the gist of it?’ Vega’s jug-like ears were now crimson with the cold and Rosen’s teeth were chattering like a pneumatic drill, worsening her developing headache.
    ‘Pretty much. We’re still waiting to take the kids’ statements. Their car absolutely stank of weed. They’re still stoned and still shaken.’
     ‘You said it was a fresh scene; how long do we think it’s been there?’
     ‘I don’t want to commit to anything exact, not until Rooker’s had a look. I don’t think it’s been there long though, or I certainly hope it hasn’t. There’s no obvious signs of decomposition but with this cold...’
     It was nearly April, there should have been blossom, but winter was holding on tight. A low fog scudded across the grass which was kept short by wildlife, and Vega cursed as he tripped in a half-dug rabbit hole. Rosen belatedly threw him a torch.
     At the treeline on the other side of the pastureland a voluminous white forensics tent had been assembled to preserve the scene from the elements. Vega found himself struggling with a bad case of déjà vu. This was a night he’d lived before, six years previous. Except it wasn’t. Of course it wasn’t.
     A young SOCO met them and handed them the required outfits: blue gloves, white suits, elasticated booties and face masks. Rosen exchanged pleasantries with her while Vega dressed in silence. They signed into the crime scene and the SOCO held the flap open for them to duck inside.
     After the darkness it was blindingly bright in the tent, and Vega stood still a moment waiting for his eyes to adjust. The body wasn’t immediately visible; the SOCOs were hunched around it, talking in low, reverent voices as they plucked from it the fibres and specks which might later make the basis of a conviction. The police photographer stepped back to make space for Vega.
     ‘We’ve don’t know his identity yet,’ Rosen was saying from behind him. ‘He had no personal effects. We’re checking his description against local MisPers but we might need to extend it to the surrounding counties.’
     Vega supressed a middle-aged groan as he lowered himself onto his haunches and crouched beside their victim. ‘Hello there,’ he said, softly. ‘What’s happened to you, then?’
     The boy was dressed in jeans that hung low on his skinny frame, exposing the elastic of his boxers, maybe because of a struggle, maybe because of fashion. “Sagging”, he seemed to remember it being called. Kids all dressing like rappers.
     His jacket was thin, waterproof, with no pockets and a hood. Dark blue, with three white stripes down the arms. His trainers were well worn, so much so the soles were coming away and the laces were frayed.
     DS Richard Vega leant in a little closer to better look at the boy’s face. He had probably been a good looking kid in life but it was hard to imagine him animated. His skin was now blanched except for the cheek pressed to the ground which was mottled and puce where the dead blood had pooled. He had numerous injuries, but between the grazes and an ugly welt the detective could see a light scattering of freckles and a chickenpox scar just below his hairline.
     Vega looked back to Rosen. The boy’s grey eyes weren’t quite closed, he’d kept them open until the moment of death, and the unfocussed stare always unsettled Vega. ‘Thirteen, fourteen years old?’ he ventured.
     ‘About that, yes.’
     ‘I don’t like how he’s positioned.’ Vega reached out as if to touch him before thinking better of it. ‘Looks pained.’  
     Rosen couldn’t disagree. The boy was on his stomach but his legs were buckled as if he’d been writhing. His shoulder didn’t look right either; dislocated, perhaps. And then there was that head wound.
     Vega had avoided looking too hard at it until now. The wound was neat, round, about the size of a two pound coin. The skull had splintered inwards and an area of brain was exposed. The boy’s clipped brown curls and the hood of his coat were encrusted with old blood but there was none on the leaves on which he lay.
       ‘Still, at least he was dead when he was placed here,’ Vega said. He straightened up slowly, clasping his fingers behind his head. His own skull was beginning to ache in sympathy. ‘We’d be seeing buckets of blood if this was where he’d been killed.’
     ‘We’re not convinced he had expired,’ Rosen said, her suit rustling as she knelt beside their boy. ‘You see here, by his mouth? A faint spray of aspirated blood, suggesting he was alive when he was laid out.’
     ‘Jesus…’
     ‘A traumatic brain injury doesn’t always result in immediate death. He’d have been incapacitated though.’
     ‘Yeah. Poor little b*****d.’  Vega looked around at his masked colleagues. He thought it likely that the SOCOs knew why Rosen had asked specifically for him to visit the crime scene. It was the elephant in the forensics tent.
     ‘So…’ DI Rosen prompted, ‘do you agree?’
     ‘Agree with what?’ he said, electing to play ignorant.
     ‘That there are similarities between this boy and Healy. He’s been killed like Healy. Laid out like Healy. He’s maybe a couple of hundred yards from where Healy was found…there are similarities, wouldn’t you say?’
    Vega looked again at the unknown boy. At his hands, bound behind him with cable ties, and that unique wound to the base of his skull that looked like a bullet wound but which he knew was not.
     ‘I’d say…’ he said, delaying his answer by exploring a cavity in his molar with the tip of his tongue. ‘I’d say the M.O is near identical. So I guess the question is...did we c**k up?’

 

Author's Note

All constructive criticism gratefully received.

Reviews

[IK]

I really like this chapter and I think its marginally stronger than the first. Your dialogue and handling of the crime scene was excellent and I like DS Vega, the woman cop, and Rich.

Other thoughts:
1. This para just sounded too long and I'm not too sure what it's adding: " ‘This is a song for my daddy. Not my actual daddy, coz he’s a prick,’ Cherry mumbled, the brassy voice she sang with replaced with the fumbling speech of a child. There was a scatter of laughter which encouraged her. She looked up in surprise and grinned. ‘Well I could sing a song about my actual daddy if you want, only Paul would probably sling me out. Watch the swears, honey bear!’ she raised her glass to the organiser of the event and chuckled as she took a long draught of the wine which left purple flicks at the corners of her mouth. ‘So here we go! For my not-actual-daddy who was supposed to be here but probably got a better offer, probably.’"

2. "Detective Inspector Daria Rosen held out her hand for him to shake almost before he’d climbed out of his car. She was brisk, officious, but she had a smile for every occasion. She had a good manner, particularly with the younger detectives. In another life he could see her as head of some prestigious girls’ school. In this life she had chosen corpses over children, although that morning he supposed there was some overlap. " - beautiful

3. "and Rosen’s teeth were chattering like a pneumatic drill, worsening her developing headache" - third mention of teeth making noises in 1.5 chapters - might be a bit too much ;)

4. "Vega found himself under the influence of déjà vu and he tried to shake it off. It was bad practice to go into a job with preconceptions, but in this instance he couldn’t help himself. It was eerie. " - rephrase - sounds clunky.

5. Ending - pretty strong but might become even strong if you replaced "But then what do I know?" with something along the lines of "But this raises even more questions" or "this makes it even more gruesome" or "[insert any other way of complicating the current case]".

[IK]

ps: i want to see more :)
pps: some gorey/sensationalist detail about the original case might be suitably chucked into this paragraph...but then maybe that's just because I want to read that!

[SLD Bailey]

More fantastic suggestions, thank you so much! It really does take a fellow writer to reintroduce you to your work, and that you're such a proficient crime writer as well is an added bonus. Also, I had no idea I was so obsessed with teeth?! How odd. Rephrasing away!
And the lovely gory/sensationalist stuff about the previous crime will come in chapter three, don't worry :)

[avant security guard]

really noir--detective stuff is very popular--crime fiction--murder mystery much so--this is like that--Cherry--I'm worried about her--Rich is a good character--likeable--which is very much needed, in order to have the reader identify with someone--so, I could identify with him--well done

[SLD Bailey]

Thanks!! I'm really glad the character of Rich is working for you, as you quite rightly said, it's incredibly important for the reader to identify with the protagonist. Could I be a total pain in the a*s and ask you to elaborate on what you said about Cherry? Are you worried about her as in worried something might happen to her, or worried about her because she's not working for you as a character? Thanks again for sticking with the story!!

[NoelHC]

Another captivating chapter, the descriptions paint an excellent picture of all the scenes, the dialogue is excellent, and I look forward to reading more. Off to the next chapter now.

[Stephen]

This chapter now clears many points that I couldn't in your previous chapter. Now the beginning of the book's here .. I liked the chapter especially the characters which are well plotted and the dialogues are too well expressed .. now few questions i'd love to know ..
First one .. Who's Healy? Is there any special role of her into the next chapter or not?
Second one ... Why you chosen the book title #Dead Do Lie?

[SLD Bailey]

I'm so pleased that you've enjoyed this chapter, and that it has cleared some things up for you :) As for who Healy is, that will become clearer later on. Sorry to keep doing this! The slow-reveal is one of the cornerstones of the genre...you're kept guessing/wondering. As for the title, it's kind of a working title for now. It's a cryptic way of saying that a death is not always what it seems. Thank you for reading this :)

[Stephen]

Yeah, i've enjoyed this chapter even am enjoying reading this book. Hope to read some more new chapters in a mean while! Now, yeah the things that's left as the mystery been revealing through these new chapters ..so, keep on! Yeah, keep it secret :) or keep it in a suspense because it's awesome to reveal the suspense in an end of the chapters .. All the best, do hard-work and put yer hard efforts ending this whole book. Ah! I hope to read this whole book in a month cos, am curios to complete reading this whole book ASAP ;) but yeah, take your time and be easy ..post chapters with relaxations ..No hurry! ;) Yeah, if you do create a "Healy's
character in the next upcoming one chapter then it'd be a twist to read more and I love turning points, twists in the characters .. Ah! Okay ..now I got it ..well, yeah, the title's not that bad, it's cool but you can replace it with the other one in future if you'd like to but this one still looking cool ;) Last, my all wishes are always with ya so, keep hitting the floor and touching the sky with your talent! It's always my pleasure to read your beautiful stuffs :)