Ugly Duckling (15 page)

6:50 am and the alarm screamed into action telling John it was time to get up. The news from the night before still rolling around his head. it had only taken two hours, half a pizza and three large scotch for him to get to sleep but it had been a good sleep, thoughts of cracking the case filtering into his dreams and after the case was solved perhaps a holiday to Corfu with his friends, Ian, his wife Jane and Liz altogether for two weeks of sun, crystal clear seas and powdery sand. He showered and made his customary coffee; switching his mobile from silent mode he noticed three missed calls and two text messages. The three calls were all from Jenni, but she hadn't left any voice mail messages, one of the text messages was also from Jenni, it simply read “John I'm really sorry please call me :-(. “ feeling that he ought to reply he typed, “Jenni, Don't worry about it, really busy at the moment, had a breakthrough, I'll call Soon. J. XXX” The other message was from Ian “see you in the office, don't forget Liz's Birthday. L.P 2nite“. 'Shit Liz's birthday! Thank fuck Ian sent the reminder' John thought, 'I'll pop out and get her present later'.

The team were already assembling ready for the morning briefing by the time John arrived at the station, Ian had moved the board from Johns office into the larger briefing room and had arranged for coffee for himself and John, as he entered the team quietened down waiting for his first words anticipating what the breakthrough that Ian had mentioned was going to be. None of them noticing the words Roger Green at the top of the board.

'OK' John began 'I'm sure D.S Cripp has already mentioned to you that we have had some very good news, from our point of view. So I'm just going to quickly fill you in on the details. Elizabeth Collingsworth.' wolf whistles and cheers went up around the room at the mention of Liz's name as they remembered John and Liz's night that wasn't. 'Alright settle down.' John waited until the noise had subsided 'Elizabeth Collingsworth and her team have identified the DNA traces from the hair of the third incident and the knife of the second as the same person, furthermore she has linked that DNA to the DNA from Jeremy Green, our first victim in Bournemouth, it shows that our murderer is a male relative of Jeremy's. As he only has one male relative that could possibly be living, we now know that the person we are looking for is his son, Roger Green. This picture of Roger was found in amongst Jeremy's possessions,' he held up a picture of Roger which he blue tacked to the white board as Ian passed copies around to everybody present 'The Media Relations Office are going to release this picture in a press statement saying we would like to talk to Roger regarding the death of his father. I must stress that at this moment in time we must not state or intimate in any way that Roger is the murderer or that he is connected in any way to any other incident. We may believe he is our man but we cannot state that without proof, so just be careful what you say to people.' John paused and took a sip from his coffee. 'Its possible, even probable that Roger Green will go to ground when he sees this, it is also possible that it might spur him on to more activity, so we need to be quick, he is obviously in this area, so somebody must know him, he has to buy food from somewhere so Shops, Bars, Clubs, Pubs we need to ask everybody everywhere if they have seen him. Now before the press release is seen he may just be wandering around, so keep your eyes peeled and if you spot him call for back up, don't try to handle it by yourselves, we already have one dead copper, we don't want any more. We must assume that he is armed and dangerous, so caution in everything we do is the keyword,  Do I make myself understood?' a few half hearted 'yes', 'yes sir' and nod’s went around the room. It was time for John to wake this bunch of morons up, he slammed his hand hard on the desk and shouted 'Listen you bunch of twats, I'm being fucking serious! and when I ask a question I expect you to answer in the proper manner, so I'll ask again, Do I make myself understood?' this time the whole team replied 'Yes Sir!' in unison 'That's better, now Any questions?' a hand went up at the back of the group 'Thompson, you have a question, fire away.'

'Well sir, it’s about Roger Green, weren’t we informed he died in a house fire accident in Florida?' a few groans echoed around the room from the other officers.

'What’s the matter with you lot?' John asked 'it’s a bloody good question. The rest of you should be ashamed you didn't think to ask it, at least I've got one person that's up to date with what's happening.' he took another sip from his now cold coffee 'Yes D.C Thompson, we were originally led to believe that Roger had died in a house fire in America, however since then doubt has been thrown on this assumption by the Americans themselves who are now in the process of re-opening the file. We will be contacting them shortly to politely inform them that they were totally fucking wrong, because Roger appears to be alive and well and murdering people in Bournemouth, having arrived here from Brighton. God knows how he got there. With a bit of luck our colleagues in America will be able to shed some light on his movements and may even have a more recent photo, we'll have to wait and see. Any other questions?' he scanned the room 'Right then that appears to have wrapped it up for today, you should all have you're tasks but if you haven't come and see me or D.S Cripp and we'll give you something to do.' he took one final sip from his stone cold coffee 'in fact. You!' he pointed at Walsh who had dropped his pencil on the floor and was scurrying around under his chair trying to find it 'Walsh!' Walsh lifted his head quickly banging it on the arm of the chair

'Me Sir? Yes Sir!'

John almost laughed at the sight of Walsh, he looked like a naughty school boy, ‘Yes you Walsh, Go and get me and Cripp some fresh coffee and bacon sandwiches, quickly please, I'm starving.' he turned and retired to his office with Ian following 'I thought that went well' he said to Ian as he closed the door behind them. Sitting at the desk he said to Ian 'Are you ready for a night out tonight?'

'For Liz's birthday J.D? I certainly am, we're all meeting at about 8.'

Just then the text alert sounded on John’s phone, it was from Jenni, he looked, looked again, blushed slightly and hit the delete button. 'What? No. I meant work. We need to go visit a couple of places with the photo, we believe Roger is gay so you and I need to ask around in a couple of gay clubs.'

'Can’t we get the uniforms to do it J.D it is Liz's birthday and we said we'd be there.'

John thought for a moment eventually coming up with a compromise. 'OK tell you what, we'll meet Liz and then just pop down the road to the “Straight around the bend” club, it’s only a few doors down the road, shouldn't take long.'

'You could go on your own if you want J.D' Ian was hopeful, he hated gay clubs, they bought back memories if Thailand.

'I need to pop out and get Liz's present before then, thanks for the tip by the way Ian' he paused, 'Oh but you can still go fuck yourself' he said matter of factly 'We're going to that club together.'

                                                                                                                                                          Jenni woke that morning feeling apprehensive, she'd tried to phone John several times the night before but he hadn't answered or returned the calls, she hated leaving messages on answer phones so decided just to text him instead “John I'm really sorry please call me :-(“was what she had written but still had received no reply by the time she went to bed. She had to talk to John before Wheeler did. She didn't want that bastard spoiling things. The thoughts of Wheeler and what she was going to do about him had plagued her sleep all night, the only thing she new for sure was that she had to meet him, appeal to his better nature, even have sex with him if it meant he would leave her and John alone and in the meantime, if he did Skype her, she would have to do her little show, just to keep him sweet. After she had showered she lay on the bed and carried out her moisturising routine, it was so important to her to keep her skin soft and properly moisturised, she spent a fortune on products to do just that, 'thank the lord for my trust fund' she thought, she had been the beneficiary of the trust fund for some years now, it was set up by a very generous Aunt who didn't much care for the way Jenni intended to make money so put everything she had into the fund naming Jenni Everitt as the sole beneficiary, a fact that had helped with her career as a freelance journalist, especially as she hadn't actually had anything published in over two years, in fact she hadn't written anything in over two years apart from the short piece she'd sent to the newspaper about the murder at the pier, which they had promptly stolen. But the money she received from the fund was more than enough to live the way she wanted for some time yet, and who knows, by the time it runs out she might be married to a policeman. As she finished her moisture routing her phone received a text “Jenni, Don't worry about it, really busy at the moment, had a breakthrough, I'll call Soon. J. XXX” Jenni smiled, three kisses at the end. He was just busy, not ignoring me, I knew he couldn't do that, he can’t resist me. She lay on the bed still naked and made the sexiest pose she could, taking her phone she set the timer set it down on the table at the foot of her bed and took her own photograph, naked, full length and pouting. Satisfied that it was a good photo and showed off her assets to their best advantage she sent the photo to John with the message “I'll be waiting, come up and see me.” she imagined how pleased John would be to get it and immediately started fondling herself, the thought of him masturbating while looking at the photo helping her to climax quickly.

***

Later that afternoon Amanda was waiting in the Café for Jenni to arrive, she hadn't seen Jenni since the day she was going to Wimbourne to meet her new man for a meal and was desperate to catch up on all the latest sexploits of her friend. She looked down at the front page of the early edition of the local paper, the headline 'Have you Seen this Man?' stared back at her with the picture of Roger Green. 'How sad that he doesn't even know his father's dead' although the article that accompanied the picture didn't say it, she was very good, she thought, at reading between the lines. Then Jenni appeared in the doorway.

'Jenni!' Amanda screamed 'How great to see you' she kissed Jenni on each cheek and they both sat and ordered Coffee and Danish 'It seems so long since we had a chat, what's been going on? How's the new man?'

Jenni smiled 'What can I tell you. He's completely infatuated by me. We can’t get enough of each other.' she stopped, noticing the front page of the newspaper, Amanda noticed her looking.

'I know, isn't it sad? They can't find him and his fathers dead.'

'Is that what it says?' Jenni asked 'if that's true this is a bit of an odd way for him to find out.'

'No silly, it doesn't actually say that, but what else could it be? You have to learn to read between the lines.'

'Well, in that case it is very sad, poor man' Jenni had tears in her eyes

'You are soft' Amanda laughed 'Anyway, come on, tell me all about your new man, you can’t just say we can’t get enough of each other and leave it at that!'

'Well' Jenni began, recomposing herself  'the other night he came round to my place, I cooked him a fabulous dinner but he took one look at me and just ripped all my clothes off and started kissing me all over'

'No! Really!' screeched Amanda

'Then he went to the kitchen and got some spray cream from the fridge, he squirted it all over me and licked it all off right there on the floor under the dining table, we never even got to eat dinner. He just kept going and going till about 7am, non stop.'

'God how fantastic' Amanda gasped

'Well, I've had to tell him we need to cool it, I have to have some time to eat and sleep' Jenni was laughing and Amanda looked as though she was about to orgasm, 'but its ok because soon he needs to go undercover on a very important mission, he couldn't tell me everything but its something to do with national security.'

'Really!' Amanda's eyes where straining to stay in their sockets 'Is he some sort of a police spy?'

'Well he hasn't said that, but I think he probably is, Very high up.'

'Oh God' Amanda was almost bursting at the seems 'You've got your very own James Bond'

'Oh no.' Jenni looked at Amanda very sternly 'that’s just a story, this is real, and much more dangerous than that, who knows what could happen. But when he gets back he'll be glad to have me waiting for him, legs open and willing' Jenni giggled uncontrollably for a few moments then the stern look returned to her face 'But you mustn't breath a word of this to anyone, it could ruin the mission'

'My lips are sealed' Amanda insisted

'So will mine be, till he gets back' giggled Jenni.

'Perhaps you should try lesbian love' laughed Amanda

Jenni laughed briefly then quite seriously said 'With you?'

Amanda's laugh slowed 'No! I wasn't suggesting that!'

Jenni watched as Amanda Blushed, and smiled 'Have you ever tried sex with another woman Amanda?'

'No certainly not' Amanda protested, then added 'but I have thought about it once or twice' her face had now turned scarlet.

'Who do you fantasise about?' Jenni asked 'is it me?'

Amanda's face blushed even more and a small bead of sweat appeared on her forehead, she wiped the sweat away under the pretence of moving her hair from her eyes 'Well actually yes! There I said it! I've fantasised about having sex with you! You have such a beautiful body.'

Jenni giggled 'I'll let you into a little secret; I imagine having sex with you all the time, you licking my nipples and giving me the most fantastic orgasm with your tongue'

'Jenni stop! It’s embarrassing.' Amanda was looking around to see if anyone else could hear their conversation, 'I'm sure he's listening over there.' she pointed to the corner behind Jenni.

'Don't be silly, why would he be listening.' she turned to look where Amanda was pointing and there in the corner she saw a man in an electric buggy, a baseball cap covering his face, on his lap was a napkin and his right hand was underneath, moving slowly, he could have been cleaning his glasses, but Jenni knew he was doing something altogether different, she decided to challenge the man, invalid or not. She got up from the table and walked behind the buggy, there she crouched down at the side of the man and put her hand under the napkin, sure enough she found his rock hard member, the only movement the man made was to remove his hand and allow Jenni to feel the size of his erection, she started to stroke it. 'Having a good time?' she said, then she gripped him so tightly stopped the circulation.

'Oh please my little chicken, not so tight!'

Jenni stopped, and instantly withdrew her hand, a shiver went down her back, she new that voice, the man slowly turned to look at her.

'Hello my dear, it appears I've been rumbled. So now you know one of my secrets, perhaps we should meet a little later for a drink and I can tell you some more, I like the thought of the two of you.' he nodded in the direction of Amanda 'Do you think she'd be up for a threesome?'

Jenni couldn't talk, she just looked at the man sat in front of her, remembering all the times she had been places and an electric buggy had been there, including last time in the Café when he'd spilt coffee on her, What was it he kept saying? He was never far away, always looking out for her. 'I think we should meet for that drink.' she said 'I'll see you at six. In the laughing pig'

'OK my dear, that'll be lovely don't you think? I'll look forward to it. Now you better get back to your friend before she starts to get jealous.'

Jenni returned to Amanda and carried on a more mundane conversation about the weather and clothes, ordering more Coffee and Danish she watched Wheeler leave.

'Do you know him?' Amanda asked noticing Jenni's glare at the man now leaving.

'Oh yes. I know him better than he thinks' Came Jenni's reply.