Chapter 3 - No Coffee

No Coffee

Novel had only just arrived in the office and already his day was ruined. He glared at the flashing device in his hand as if he could scare it into submission. Predictably, that did no work and the message remained annoyingly unchanged on the brightly light mobile screen.

Missed booked flight home. Organising alternative. Will update you when I know more. Can you feed the furball tonight please?

She had promised him that she would be back in the office tomorrow. Now she might not be. He needed her here tomorrow. The office had already descended into chaos without her. Someone had attempted to reorganise the filing system on the computer yesterday – a phonecall confirmed that this had been IT – and now none of his desktop short cuts worked and he could not find a single thing. If Cassie had been here she could have fixed it – made them change it back.

But she was not here and the chaos had continued on. To make it worse, he would have to go and feed that stupid feline on the way home.

Unlocking the screen, he typed out a reply:

The cat will be fed. What is your flight number?

With this information he could at least keep track of her now.

He called HR to let them know that he has authorised an additional day of emergency holiday for Cassie. Then he started reading through the report he had been sent through.

When Novel arrived home – after surviving another ordeal with the cat – he pulled his mobile out from his pocket again. Cassie had sent him through the required flight number and he used this to check details of her flight. Apparently it had landed over an hour ago – perhaps she was still stuck waiting for her luggage?

It was almost time for the mid-week briefing by the time Novel realised something was missing. He check his phone again, there was still no message from Cassie, so the only conclusion was that she was already in the office…. But why had she at not at least apologised?

He stood and walked out of his office. Then he asked the room, “Cassie, can you come to my office please?”

There was no reply except for a few strange looks from the other officers. After meeting the stares, daring them to comment – no-one did – he stepped back inside his office.

His first action was to call the reception to see if they had heard from Cassie – they had not. The HR line was also similarly lacking in information. His gut was telling him that something was seriously off. But it had been feeling like that since Cassie had initially gone off on holiday – so a complete sense of trust could not be completely provided to him gut today.

He pulled his work mobile (only mobile) from his pocket.

“Call Sarah Lucas,” he told the phone slowly.

A non-descript silhouette of a person with the words Sarah Lucas appeared on his screen. The word Dialling… quickly followed.

It was answered after a few rings, “How can I help Assistant Chief Inspector?”

“I need you to see if you can trace someone for me please?”

“Yes Sir, who?”

“Do you remember Cassie?” there was an affirmative noise though the speaker, “she was due to return to work today after some delayed flight. I know her plane landed in Northern Ireland, can you access the database to make sure she went through passport control please?”

“Text me the flight number, and her passport number if you have it. Try calling her again – because I’m guessing you haven’t yet?”

“I’ll do that now.”

This was a number he could speed-dial. However, while Sarah’s suggestion had been a good one, it did not produce the results that he had been hoping for. The phonecall went straight to voicemail. Cassie either had no signal or her phone was off. This was not helpful and entirely out of character.

After leaving the message, he hung up. The phone started ringing again about 30 seconds later.

“Any luck with the phonecall?”

“Straight to answerphone.”

“Well she definitely landed in Northern Ireland. I cannot find any details of any flight or ferry crossings, so she is definitely still in the country.”

“Any other details that might be useful? I really would like to be able to get in contact with her ASAP. This is completely out of character for her.”

“For some reason she appeared to be traveling with some guy named ‘Mohammed’. He’s got a different surname to her – any thoughts?”

“No. But she left me an emergency contact number at hers. I’ll give her family a call and see if they know anything. Can you check any CCTV from the airport? I could do with a lead as to where she went from the airports. Can you put an alert on her passport? I need a warning if she leaves the country.”

“Get me the paperwork and I can have it with you in 30. I’ll email it over to you.”

After disconnecting the phone, he left the room and headed down the corridor. He needed to ask for some time off and to explain what little he knew about the situation.

Within 15 minutes he had the equivalent of a blank cheque for resources he needed – providing he got a sanity check on anything that involved foreign governments. He forwarded the confirmation email to Sarah and headed out of the building.

Within half an hour he found himself staring at the Cassie’s white plastic front door. He hovered there for a few minutes before eventually knocking.

No answer.

He knocked again, louder his time. Then shouted a greeting through the letter box.

If in the increasingly unlikely event that she was in he would have to re-explain basic etiquette to her. This was just rude.

After a pause, he wondered how she would have got in anyway. He had new locks put in after the break in…

After using the key to let himself him, he scanned the small entrance hall. It was as he had left it.

There was a small black folder on the left side of the desk labelled ‘travel papers – Novel’ on the spine. That would be a good place to start.

He picked up the folder and made himself comfortable in the lounge with a coffee. Flicking through the folder, he quickly found a printed itinerary of her trip. A neatly typed page of emergency contacts was next.  Her place of accommodation – the house of a cousin – would have to be his starting point for intel.

After deciding to use the landline, the phone was picked up after a couple of rings.

“Hi Cassie,” greeted a woman, “how was your trip back? We were expected to hear from you yesterday.”

“This isn’t Cassie. I am her boss, Chief Inspector Novel. I’ve been looking after her cat while she has been away.”

“Chief inspector, may I ask why Cassie isn’t calling?” the woman on the other side of the phone was starting to sound worried.

“She has not made it home yet. All I know is that she missed her initial flight, took an alternate flight home to Northern Ireland and I can’t trace her from there.”

“The last time I saw her was when she left from here with her cousin, Mohammed, he kindly agreed to escort her to the airport.”

“He was still with her in Northern Ireland. Can you think of any reason why?”

“Perhaps he was still escorting her? He did promise to keep an eye on her…” the voice was sounding less than convinced at this point, but she would not elaborate any further. However, she did make him promise to make Cassie contact her once he had found her.

Upon returning home, he gave his mother a summarised version of events so as to explain why he would be leaving.

Her only reply had been an enigmatic smile combined with a set of twinkling eyes. However, she did offer to make him a sandwich for the road – so he presumed she understood.

Within an hour, there was a taxi by the front door. His passport was tucked safely in a hidden pocket in his backpack – along with his credit card.

It was the middle of the afternoon when Novel arrived at the airport. The driver handed him his backpack and received his payment before driving away.

After moving into the airport, he walked purposely over to the ticket desks. After reaching the front of the queue, he inquired as to the availability of tickets.

“Good morning Sir, how can I help you today?”

“I could do with getting to Northern Ireland as soon as possible. Do you have any available seats please?”

She smiled politely and did a quick search on the computer in front of her.

“We have a spare seat in business class on a flight leaving 3 hours from now. How does that suit?”

“That would be ideal. I’ll pay by card.”

After the payment had processed successfully, she handed Novel his newly printed ticket. “We hope that you have a pleasant trip. Please take the time to enjoy the airport’s duty free facilities and the executive business lounge.”

“Many thanks,” he replied, carefully storing the ticket in his jacket pocket and moving in the general direction of Check-in.

“Holiday Sir?” asked the man at the check-in desk. He paused briefly to peer over his glasses at Novel to compare to the unflattering passport picture.

“Just meeting up with a friend.”

After receiving back his passport along with a bright pink stick emblazoned with HAND LUGGAGE he headed in the direction of security

Eventually, Novel emerged into the brightly lit shopping mall that was the duty-free area. It was packed full of items he would not normally buy and people he did not have any inclination of speaking to.

He had some time before his flight, so he headed into the calmness of the business lounge. Once he had found himself an armchair, he settled himself down with a coffee to wait.

After the customary safety talk, the plane took off without incident. Once the seatbelt sign had been switched off, Novel reached into the back and retrieved the paperwork Cassie had left for him.

It was evident from the paperwork that she have planned to return on the booked flight. There was a clear travel timetable typed up, along with the confirmation email of her flights. It was unclear how she could have missed her flight from the plans – although the escort of her cousin could have thrown her initial planning.

A/N: Apologies that this didn't go up  last night. My went out to a work do last night and drank to much prosecco (it's amazing how much pregnancy reduces your ability to drink).

Chapter 2
Why Family Weddings Should be Avoided

Family weddings were a particular breed of nightmare.

Although, to be fair on her cousin, this one had been relatively bearable so far. However, this did not prevent the sense of relief that she felt on the day of her return home.

It was the departure of the happy couple the night before that had eventually opened the floodgates. She had been cross-examined for over an hour before dinner about why she was not yet settled down with a husband. Her mother’s ‘helpful input’ of “she’s married to her job” had not stemmed the tide.
It had been a sympathetic female cousin who had let her into the secret that they were placing bets on Cassie getting married next. She had sighed, exasperated.

Cassie could not remember who had made the original comment at dinner. But, in the same vain as the pre-dinner conversation, Cassie traveling independently home seemed to be another hot topic of debate. Cassie’s grandmother was only silenced when her cousin Mohammed offered to accompany her. He said he had business anyway in the UK and his flight was leaving a little later, so he did not mind being a bit early to the airport.

“The taxi’s here!” Cassie’s cousin called from the bottom of the stairs, “Cas are you packed?”

“Coming!”

Cassie checked the guest room one final time, making sure she had not left a stray book under the bed. It would be a while before she returned and she did not feel like giving them an excuse to visit.
After the traditional series of goodbyes were completed, she finally escaped into the taxi.

Her face was creased with worry as she checked her watch again – making sure she had read the time correctly. How was this trip taking so long? Nervously, her eyes flickered back to the watch face, it was already 15 minutes after the time she had originally planned to be at the airport by.

“Is it just me, or is it some sort of ‘National Roadworks Day’?” Cassie inquired, only half joking as she stared at another group of fluorescent jacketed men the car slowly crept by.
There was a small sound of laughter from Mohammed, “don’t worry so much! You’ll be where you need to be on time.”

By the time the pair arrived at the airport, Cassie was seriously regretting accepting the offered lift. Upon arriving through the departure entrance, her eyes quickly located the nearest flight information screen.

Her heart sank like a rock in a mineshaft.

“I’ve missed check in...” she moaned, realising the possibility of making it home today was starting to slip through her fingers.

“Cassie I am so sorry, I really did not thing that journey would take us so long,” Mohammed had materialised back into her field of vision and was offering her a coffee, “Look, it’s my fault and I will get it sorted.”

Gratefully, she accepted the coffee. It would be nice not to have to worry about paying a horrendous amount of money to replace her non-fundable ticket.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, she figured she had better get in contact with Novel. Otherwise the cat would go unfed and she did not want to have to deal with a grumpy fur ball when she arrived back in the UK.

The phone’s screen flashed into life and a poorly taken picture of the aforementioned cat stared back at her. After deciding that the price of an international call would be higher than her month’s rent (or at least her electricity bill), she made the decision to text her boss.

Missed booked flight home. Organising alternative. Will update you when I know more. Can you feed the furball tonight please?

Cassie knew that Novel could be depended on to be annoyed. It had been hard enough to book the original required number of days off for this trip. God forbid anyone had lives outside the office!
Her eventual return to the office later in the week would then be met with an annoyed glare for the inconvenience she had caused him.

Mohammed’s return interrupted her thoughts.

“The earliest ticket to England is in three days. However, I have managed to get us on a flight to Northern Ireland. It leaves from here in 3 hours’ time and so I’ve got our bags all checked in,” he explained quickly, gesturing her to follow him towards the security and passport control areas of the airport, “I am sorry you know. I know you wanted to get home on time.”

“Thanks for sorting it out,” Cassie replied with a smile, “you managed to get the family off my back yesterday because of the offer. I think that more than makes up for this!”

They shared a mutual chuckle.

“If you’re interested, there will be about 7-8 hours before we’re able to get a connecting flight out.

The woman at the desk advised that it might just be quicker to hop on a ferry. So I left booking the transfer flight for now.”

“That makes sense,” Cassie replied, “It will be fun to have of a bit of a sightseeing if we’re having an unplanned delay there.”

They made their journey to duty free relatively successfully and they quickly found somewhere to eat. About half-way through the meal, Mohammed disappeared for a long while to the loo. She used this opportunity to check her phone.

There was a message, and it was from Novel.

The cat will be fed. What is your flight number?

With a couple of clicks, she had armed Novel with the ability to stalk her for the next few hours. Hopefully that should keep him happy and at least the cat would get fed….

“I phoned ahead,” Mohammed explained, noticing Cassie had spotted a sign with his name on, “A business associate of mine owed me a favour. He agreed to pick us up as I have to discuss a potential project with him anyway, saves trying to get a Skype call to connect.”

“That makes sense. If I could beg that we locate coffee before we leave the airport though please? I could really do with caffeine being injected directly into my bloodstream – but an espresso will suffice.”

The pair headed towards the awaiting blur of signs and faces. Mohammed steered them towards his name – which was being held by a smartly dressed man who was tall and has slowly thinning dark brown hair.

“I’m Steven,” introduced the stranger, “sorry to hear about your flight troubles and many thanks for allowing me to take some time out of your day so that I may speak with your cousin.”

“It’s no trouble,” she replied, shaking the offered hand.

“There is a cafe truck just by the taxi rank,” suggested Mohammed, pointing in the required direction before pulling out a rumpled 20 from his pocket, “do you mind grabbing 2 white coffees and what-ever you need while we load the car please?”

She looked to Steven, who nodded in agreement to the suggested coffee order and she headed over the source of her next caffeine hit.

“Have you managed to sort out a connecting flight?” Cassie inquired as they headed towards a smart black Mercedes, trying not to spill the 3 slightly overfilled cardboard cups of steaming coffee.

“I said to your cousin that my secretary would organise the next stage of your trip while we’re in out meeting. I’m a frequent flyer and we get remarkable deals – she’ll ensure you’re comfortable for the rest of your trip.”

Their drive from the airport entailed a road that appeared to skirt around the nearby city. Around an hour later – Cassie could not be completely certain as she had dozed off in the back seat of the car for a large portion of the journey – the trio arrived at a rather bland industrial estate. They stopped in the car park of what appeared to be one of the cleaner buildings.

After Mohammed’s sensible suggestion that she would be comfortable in the office than waiting in the car, Cassie followed the two men into the building. She was led into a spacious office reception area on the ground floor. It was an open plan space and the majority of the walls surrounding the room were glass rather than brick.

After her two companions left her to conduct their meeting, Cassie took the opportunity to study the only other soul in the room.

The only permanent fixture within this reception space seemed to be the receptionist. Her action of handing Cassie a cup of coffee scented water in a thin polystyrene cup was the only clue that she was not an innominate object.

As Cassie attempted to consume the ‘coffee’ without wincing, she watched the other woman out of the corner of her eye. After a long span of staring at the computer monitor, the woman shredded some paper – which Cassie was pretty sure was blank – before resuming the staring contest with the computer.

Even the phone was not appearing to be busy – it had not made a sound since Cassie had arrive.
Feeling bored, Cassie pulled out her phone to give Novel an update. No signal. She would have to get back in contact once she was back in the car.

“Do you know how long they’ll be in the meeting?”

The woman almost looked startled for a second – apparently she had forgotten that Cassie was still there. After holding up a quick finger to gesture her to wait, she made a quick call and spoke briefly before responding.

“They think they might be some time yet, can I get you another cup of coffee?”
Knowing that some caffeine was better than no caffeine, Cassie agreed and another cup was passed in her direction.

Instead of the desired buzz of caffeine, she started to gradually feel more tired.

“What is this? Decaf?” She joked as he peripheral vision slowly started to cloud.

That was when the panic quickly set in…. what the hell was going on? Cassie attempted to stand. Maybe, if she could run…

Any option to escape quickly was removed as her legs gave way beneath her. The door that she had used to enter gave a slight squeak as it opened and an unknown man came through.
Her vision slowly began to return to her and she tried to move her arms and legs. However, she quickly found that this option was impossible.

Cassie’s hands were secured behind her back and her legs beneath her.

“You’re awake,” the voice was sourced to her right, just out of her line of sight, “you’ll be pleased to know that your cousin has left you in my tender care.”

“Why the hell has he done that for?” she was started to feel an odd mixed of pissed off and scared.

“I’ve been made aware that you are currently romantically involved with one man known as ‘Novel’. We have crossed swords in the past and I wanted to show him what it feels like to be left rotting in a cell.”

If the situation had not been so serious, Cassie would have laughed. She had never known Novel to be romantically involved with anybody. Ever.

“Your sources are talking shit. If you’ve been paying for your intelligence, well I would be looking at a refund…”

A tall, balding white man in an off – the – rack suit stepped within her vision. There was a rather dangerous looking scowl on his face.

“Your cousin seemed to have the impression that you were engaged to be married the copper.”

“I can promise you that I am currently free and single – with no hope of a husband in the near future. But no, that is not a desperate plea for you to offer,” Cassie responded with a chuckle. If she was engaged to anyone then at least her family would leave her alone for 5 minutes and lose interest.

Without warning, Cassie felt a sharp scratch in the back of the neck.

Aurthors note: That's all from me! Please feel free to share :)
Love to you all and happy knitting!
MrsKirstyHoll
x

What I did at the Weekend

Friday

So this weekend I treated myself to a days holiday and had Friday off too. Happy days :)
I've recently gained an English Heritage membership through work, so I thought I'd make some use of it and go exploring.

My friend, her daughter, Lily and I found ourselves at 11am on Friday morning driving to Dorchester to find The Nine Stones. These are essentially 9 large rocks in a circle type arrangement that were placed there about 4000 years ago. No idea why, but there are only 4 of them that can be found in Dorset, UK. Lily was strapped into the harness (the meadow walk to get there was not pushchair friendly). She seemed to enjoy the trip...



My friend also found a 4 leaf clover - which was pretty cool! I'd never seen one before.



Also published my first chapter of A Game of Life and Death. So that was pretty cool :)

Saturday

Saturday was a very busy day. Lily and I got up at 7ish, then went to swimming at 9am. She's really getting the hang of putting her face in the water - they encourage them to copy us so she's moving at her own pace with this one which is nice.

From swimming we went into Poole to meet a friend, which was lovely. Then we went straight from Poole into Bournemouth to meet some other friends for lunch at The Real Greek. We're a huge fan of high chairs in restaurants. Lily is also starting to develop a habit of studying menus...



We've also developed an attachment to a travel sized version of "I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet..." which she now pretends to read and studies the pictures. So cute!
In the evening we then went to a friend's engagement party, which was lovely :) Lily was absolutely fascinated by the disco lights and promptly fell asleep in a faster manner than she does at home. How does that work exactly?



Sunday

Was just a day of chilling, knitting and wine. Which I completed needed after the last couple of days!



I'm going to give this very yummy bottle of wine from Lidl (on offer at £2.99) the credit for giving me the courage to finally learn DPN knitting.



So that's all from me for today :) what did you guys get up to this weekend?
Love to you all and happy knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

x

New Wip - Socks 1/12

Hello all - my name is Kirsty and I am addicted to knitting....

So, in all fairness, I've started another WIP because I needed a change from the shawl (garter stitch gets boring after a while) and I have finished the first yarn ball.



This is currently on hiatus while I jump to my first sock knit of the year.



As it's my first project on DPNs I thought it might be best to start off on something small and easyish.



In all honesty, it took me a good 6 rows in to actually get the hang of this. It took ripping the first attempt apart and restarting to work out what on earth I needed the 5th needle for. Once I got started though the length soon started adding up.



By about row 5 it was feeling a lot less awkward knitting with about a zillion needles. Getting used to it now.

So my main yarn is Crofter 4ply baby fair isle effect from Sidar Snuggly (super soft). The pattern also wants some contrasting yarn for the heel - so we're swapping to Regia 4ply verigated for that. We'll see how these go. They might be for Lily if they fit, or they'll be donated if they don't. I can use this knit though to work out how much larger Lily will need it to be.



We tried Lily on orange and lemon yesterday - each slice was quickly demolished. She is quickly becoming a citrus lover! Now just to try her on some lime...

Love to you all and happy knitting

MrsKirstyHoll
x

Chapter 1: The Bodies in the Bog

Author's Note: Hello all and welcome to the first Chapter of A Game of Life and Death. This hasn't been professionally editing and I welcome all comments that aren't trolling. Love to you all hope you guys enjoy. 
My promise to you all is 1 chapter per week. 
Chapter 1
The Bodies in the Bog
The lonely figure at the window was sure that the universe as conspiring against him. He took the moment of serenity to study the reflection staring back at him.

William Novel’s head was still currently covered with an impressive mop of black hair. However, the slight lines that ran across his face betrayed the paths he had taken.

There was not that much that he could look forward to in the upcoming weeks. In a few days his Deputy, Cassie, was swanning off to a family wedding in Turkey. He was sure that his department would descend into chaos while she was gone. If Cassie called to extend her stay…. The team were useless without her. Two days was quite long enough for her to be gone.

It was if the raindrops on the window fore-told the horrors ahead. The clock’s gentle tick… tock…. tick… tock… seemed to be the only noise in the room.

Assistant Chief Constable Novel moved away from the window of his office. It was usually so easy not to care However, in this case, he knew that he could not do this on his own. This case was fuelling his dependence on the woman.

The town below him stretched out for as far as the eye could see. All the streets below were a hive of activity with streams of people like ants on the ground. He could not remember the last time a case had affected him so much. Novel had been in the force two decades – usually it was possible to maintain the required emotional distance.

The call had come that morning. He had only been in the office an hour and his normal cup of coffee – black – had once again gone cold.

His desk phone rang, the piercing sound breaking the customary still silence of the morning. He calmly reached out to receive the call. It was probably his mother.

It was a female voice, but definitely not his mother.

“Chief, we got another one.”

Novel did not immediately reply, “Sorry, what”

“I’m Sarah Lucas, from the basement – seriously Sir, you need another coffee. They found another poor sod. The Sergeant recon’s same MO as the one last week.”

“Where did they find this one?”

“Peat bog. The one behind the shopping mall. It’s about an hour from here. Pathology recon she’s been in there since spring.”

“Many thanks. Someone from my team will call you if I need anything else.”

Last week they had found a body in a bog on the local heathland. A local peat cutter had called the station in a blind panic.

The body of a young woman, still unidentified, was lying in cold storage in the station’s morgue. There were no records marching her prints or DNA on the database. She had been naked, there were signs of strangulation by a rope – although that was long gone – and both her eyes and her nose had been removed. Even for an officer with as much experience as Novel, it was difficult to stomach.

Looking around the office, he spotted Cassie at her desk staring intently at the screen. She had obviously been here a while and was probably the source of his coffee.

“Cassie, you should have been more organised and booked your extra baggage allowance already. I need you for a few hours.”

She look up in surprise at the interruption, but nodded in reply.

“Another body in the peat bog. Did you fancy coming with me to take a look? I was hoping a look around the area might give us a better insight and make some individuals be a bit more ‘on the ball’. It does not feel like the investigation is moving as quickly as I would like.”
She flashed him a quick grin before grabbing her cot, “I could do with a field trip! It feels like I never get out of the office these days.”

They were met at the entrance to the outer cordon by a young officer. The rookie took their names for his notebook and bravely reminded them that they were not authorised to enter the internal cordon. Novel narrowed his eyes and was quickly placated with the information that he would have a pretty good view of the scene. The pair were also notified that the photographer was still around if they wanted to look at the crime scene images.

“PC Matthews is it?”

A quick nod and a hurried “Yes Sir” followed.

“Do me a favour and radio the Crime Scene Manager. I want a briefing on what has been happening here.”

The order was hurriedly carried out and a red faced female crime scene investigator appeared from a white tent. Novel and Cassie moved to meet her at the cordon tape.

“Afternoon Sir,” she greeted, fishing her notebook from her pocket, “PC Matthews informed me you would like a briefing?”

Novel nodded, “Have you gathered anything yet that would be useful to our investigation?”

“Not much yet I’m afraid,” she replied, sounding apologetic, “she was found by a dog walker this morning. However, the bogs are so acidic they tend to destroy evidence that would have been there. The photographer has been down here for the last few hours. Got some good in-situ images of the body. We’re just waiting on the private ambulance to move her and then it will be up to the pathology lot. I will send a few of my guys with the body to keep the chain of evidence. To be honest, I think there is only the slightest of chances that there will be DNA. Your best bet will be investigative leads.”

Novel briskly thanked the woman. He then called over one of the junior PC’s that was still hanging around to guard the scene. Opening his wallet, he gave the PC a crisp £20 note and told him to go and get everyone a coffee. He was sure the team could do with some defrosting.

“What’s the plan?” Cassie asked, rifling through her pockets to find a previously abandoned hair-band. Smiling with success, she proceeded to secure her long mousy brown hair behind her head.

“A door-to-door of the local area. I want anyone who even smells suspicious down at the station by the end of the day. We need a solid lead. I don’t want any more bodies.”

“Shall I get someone to re-interview the dog walker?”

Novel nodded, there was certainly no harm in it. The person may have seen something.

His thoughts were interrupted by a young woman with a camera – she looked fresh out of college.

“Sir, I was told that you wanted a preview?”

He responded with a brief nod and was handed a brightly lit LCD screen. The first image he came to as a wide angle image of the peat bog – a context shot. After locating a right arrow button he started flicking though the images.

After a few clicks through he paused again at another image. Whoever had done this to this woman had stripped her of her humanity.

He tilted the camera so Cassie could get a better look. Her face grimaced and turned a slight tint of green.

Even after additional attempts to persuade the CSI’s to let his into the crime-scene, Novel was still denied access.

Damn the chain of evidence and contamination prevention to hell and back again. It was no use unless they could get a strong case together and get it to court.

Having finally done all he could before the forensics came back, it was time to head home.
The sun was beginning to set on the front lawn as he shut the door behind him.

“William, darling, hang your coat up! I don’t want you getting it dirty if you are wearing it tomorrow!”

Novel felt the shiver run down his spine. That name was a curse that had haunted him from childhood. His mother was the only one who was still allowed to use it.

“You’re home late.”

“Mother, my job is not exactly 9-5!” he shouted back, was taking off his shoes and neatly leaving them on the show rack by the door.

When he had started out on the force he had not foreseen that he would still be living with his mother at 45. Novel was single, although he had no desire to be in a relationship with anybody.

Other people were just too complicated. His dad had left them in his teens and so leaving her alone had never been an option.

Over dinner that evening it was suggested, again, that he should take time off work. However, Novel was convinced that leaving the department would just leave behind a trail of chaos and destruction. He would never be able to find any paperwork – it would all be moved in absence.
He was once again one of the first into the office.

The first few stages of an investigation always seemed to be a waiting game. He needed the information the labs would hopefully provide and still could not understand how they took so long.
Later on that afternoon, thanks to a budget allowance for a new DNA comparison unit, he was able actually get some useful information.

“So what can you tell me?” he could only presume it was Sarah at the other end of the internal phone line. For some reason she had obviously been assigned to his department.

“The preliminary run was provided some useful results. Flagged a Jane Doe profile that we picked up on a drugs raid. It’s been sat on the system for a couple of years. It was stored on the national database.”

“Cheers Sarah. Can you tell them to go ahead with another couple of runs? I want to ensure an eager defence lawyer can’t tear us apart if this goes to court.”

“Sure thing. Bye Sir.” The phone line cur and the call ended.

Figuring that this might be a good time to input these results into the internal system, he logged himself in and typed in the update.

Phone call from Sarah Lucas. Reported that the DNA collected from Jane Doe matched an unknown sample collected from another scene. The scene was a raid on a drug den – case number = B23067

One his update had asses itself into the internal system, it brought him back to the main dialogue page. This allowed him to see a general time-line of the events in order of input.

Case numbers = G56096
Operation name = Butterfly
Lead Officer = DCI Peters

9/10/2013 08:43:41
Member of the public (Mr Samuel Whithall) called to report that he had discovered a body while walking his dog in the local heathland.

9/10/2013 09:32:26
PC Matthews and PC Rogers arrive on scene and set up inner and outer cordons. The CSI team also arrive on scene.

9/10/2013 15:09:04
The CSI team report that little physical evidence was found on the body. Waiting for pathology report.
DNA evidence has been submitted to the lab with high priority status. Thy will contact ASAP upon completion.

10/10/2013 17:35:16
Phone call from Sarah Lucas. Reported tha the DNA collected from Jane Doe matched an unknown sample collected from another scene. The scene was a raid on the drug den – case number B23067

10/10/2013 18:05:34
Requested that members arrested as part of the investigation into the raid come in on a voluntary basis. Mark Stranton has agreed to visit the station tomorrow morning.

Novel was lost for words. The sudden dust cloud in his head, caused partially by shock, took a couple of seconds to clear.

At some point his tea had developed the ability to function independently.

He would have to continue to keep a careful eye on them – it might be a fluke.
Pulling out the android powered phone he kept in his back, pocket, he let himself wonder at the marvels of modern technology. These new phones allowed him to be so time efficient.
Pressing the record button – a smile diagram of a microphone – he recorded his text message to Cassie.

“Who’s interviewing Mr Stranton?” he then checked the screen to make sure that the text appeared correctly on the screen. It had. He pressed the send button.

Within a few minutes the phone vibrated in his hand.

I’m in the viewing room. Interested?

No. Busy. Keep me updated though.

Novel found the file on the raid and set his computer the task of printing it. After a few minutes of shouting at the printer – it was a wireless printed and highly unpredictable – the blasted machine began to slowly ‘warm up’ before sheets of paper appeared in the ‘out try’. He imagined it mean he had some decent bedtime reading tonight.

A few hours later he was sat at home in the lounge. His mother was watching a game show on the television. The large LCD screen helped him to see the faces of the washed up celebrities in clear precision. After being handed a hot chocolate, he dug the printing out from his bag and began to read through it.

June 2012
12:00pm
Witness statement of PC Davids
The team and I were deleted from entering due to dangerous electrical wiring. We have entered the property using a key provided by the owner. I was entered the property from the front entrance.
Upon entering, I was not aware that the occupier is present. However, I was aware of an overpowering smell of what I presumed to be cannabis. I was instructed by the leading officer to go with my partner into the kitchen. It did not appear that the kitchen had been cleaned and the remains of a number of microwave meals covered the kitchen surfaces.

Novel chuckled to himself and decided that he was probably wasting his time. It still amazed him how many landlords did not flag up the low electricity bills on their properties. Drug gangs had a horrible habit of circumventing the mains electrical box to compensate for the amount of energy required to propagate drug plants. However, this did come with a huge risk of self-electrocution.
He took another sip of his now lukewarm hot chocolate and carried on reading until the early hours of the morning.

Around 11 the following morning, Cassie wondered into the office with two steaming mugs of coffee. She placed one mug of coffee on Novel’s desk and made herself comfy with the other on the sofa.

“How did the interview go?” Novel asked, taking a swig of his coffee.

“Stranton spoke a lot of hot air. Tried to make himself seem more significant. There were a couple of names that could lead somewhere. DCI Peters seems to be on top of things.”

“Good. It’s his first big case. Did you notice the significance of the name of the dog walker yesterday?”

“Samuel Whithall?” Novel nodded to confirm she was correct, “He owns a couple of rental properties – but is on a suspended sentence as a a few of them were being used as drugs dens. I wonder why he wasn’t just locked up?”

The flare of intelligence from the team that had occurred earlier in the week had apparently finished. This was a fine example of why taking time off was a bad idea.

“Have you read the internal system notes?” There was a nod, “Did you look up the case file I reference?” A negative, “If you had, you would have known that our Jane Doe wondered into one of those drug dens during her existence.”

Novel could only admit that he was disappointed that Cassie had not made the time to read the document. Her mind was obviously distracted by this wedding fiasco. Not great timing for an off day.

Cassie stared at him. He watched as the light switched on behind her eyes. Novel grinned – at least someone else in his team was awake.

“I’ll call him in for questioning again – tell him we just want to run over his statement…” Cassie quickly made the call to the front desk to set it all in motion.
Within an hour the man was in an interview room and the pair was quizzing him. The usually gave this task to a DC or DCI. However, Novel figured that Cassie could do with the practice.

“Chief Inspector Novel does not believe in coincidences, do you?”

The man before them paled significantly.

When he had previously visited, the ‘dog walker’ had performed the role of distressed witness remarkably well. However, today that masked appeared to have been effectively removed.

“So Mr Whithall, I don’t buy that you couldn’t have any idea about what was going on,” Novel noted the beads of sweats dripping down the guys forehead, “we are therefore of the belief that you were the cause of these girls having such an untimely demise. After which, we believe, you helped orchestrate the cleanup. Although, we still don’t get why you then reported finding one.”
There was a long pause.

“I didn’t kill nobody! Stranton had me van for a bit! Our lot had taken his during the raid… I was just helping him get back on his feet…”

“Have you got any evidence? I’ve got both witness statements linking your van to both scenes.”

“Stranton got a speeding ticket while I was in the US, I have the paperwork that proves I was out of the country. I lent him the van because I didn’t need it you see…”

“Who were the girls Whithall?” Novel pressed again. The man opposite him was currently fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket, “one of the girls we’ve found can be places alive in your property around the time of the raid.”

“Have you spoken to the guys? I mean, she might be a girlfriend…”

Mr Whithall had finally cracked.

Within a few hours a solicitor had arrived. The now rather nervous looking man had realised that he was moving into hot water.

After a long discussion, his solicitor agreed that a detailed and helpful confession would probably be his best option.

The two girls had been homeless strays that the gang had picked up off the steets. They had paid for their keep and would never have been reported missing When the place was raided, they had to hide with other members until everything died down. It turned out that Stranton had done a ‘clear-up’ job as he found them.

Even though the team suspected that the unfortunate young woman had been sexually assaulted – there was no evidence to prove it.

Whithall called that he had not become aware of the horrific final ending of the girls until he enquired about them a few weeks after the raid. The second body had only been reported because Stranton had not paid Whithall for his silence on the matter.

Novel was once again convinced by the stupidity of the human race as a whole. That would be one
arrested for murder and one for trying to prevent to course of justice. They never learn.

“Case closed?” asked Cassie, tidying the last of her papers into the filing cabinet.

“There is always the chance of another poor soul…” Novel replied. He had already set some of the new recruits on the task of locating the girl’s families.

“I could do with a drink. Will be on fruit juice and water for the next few days. Care to join me?” she questioned while pulling on her coats, “I don’t know how I’m going to cope with the marriage questions every 5 minutes sober…”

“Of course. I wouldn’t want you mistaken as an alcoholic.”

He did not make a habit of going out for drinks with his staff. Cassie was the only exception to the rule. They had been working in partnership since she had joined the force 15 years ago. He had mentored her throughout her career – just to ensure there was at least one competent member on his team. She had followed in his tailwind and had quickly risen through the ranks by filling in the position that he left vacant.

The local pub (the “Magic Dragon”) was only a few streets away from the station. It was a dark old pub with fading leather seats.  They proceeded to make themselves comfortable with a whisky in the farthest corner from the door.

Cassie began to fidget, “that guy by the door is watching us…”

Novel flicked his eyes in the indicated direction, “I arrested him nearly 2 decades ago. He’s not been out long, apparently he picked up glaring as a new hobby.”

“Remind me again why we drink here?”

“The drinks are cheap. So who’s the wedding for?”

“My cousin. She’s marrying a friend of her father or something. It has all been arranged, but she’s still excited.”

“So how’s the boyfriends? Mike…. Mark…. Matthew… What’s his face….”

“John. We spilt up 4 months ago.”

“So I’ll avoid any drunken declarations of how much you adore him? Good. Staying single now then?”

“For as long as possible. As soon as I get a partner my mother will want to know when the wedding is. The cat and I are perfectly happy together. Are you still alright to feed her while I’m away?”

He had forgotten about that demon cat. Why he had ever agreed to be within 10 meters of that thing he had no idea. His mother probably liked cates… she could do it. Cassie only lived a few streets from him.

She slowly rose and dropped a set of keys next to his now empty glass.

“Fresh food twice a day…. Change litter if it smells…. I’ll see you in the office on Wednesday. Wish me luck!”

He nodded as a way of formal goodbye before she turned the left the establishment. After a few minutes, he too rose and exited. The patrons all glared at his retreating back with a sense of hostility.

It was only the barman who seemed to truly wonder why this man continued to enter his pub when he was so clearly unwanted by the other patrons. There had only been one face that he had seen in the crowd that seemed to contain anything similar to a smile – that gentleman had left the pub earlier in the evening.

Upon arriving home he informed his mother that she had a cat to feed. Her response was in the negative. Novel signed in resignation and warmed up his dinner in the microwave. He would have to feed that blasted cat on his Saturday evening.

Edits made: 1/8/2017: Feedback:  there are two written mistakes. ( he was
sat at home on the lounhe), I think it should be written ( he was sitting at home on the lounge) and ( I was entered the roperty) which should be written (I was entering the property). Also after the full stop there should be 2 spaces. I hope that helped.
Thanks Christina :) 

Work in Progress Update – Pikachu

Just a quick update tonight  I just wanted to share with you my progress on the Pikachu I am crocheting from Sunshine Sugar n’ Cream Aran weight cotton yarn.

To be honest, it’s looking larger that I thought it would – which isn’t a bad thing. It will make the toy more substantial (it’s a Christmas present for Lily). The Sunshine yellow shade also looks fantastic – I’m also going to have to order some more off Amazon before I can progress any further though as this used up a lot more yarn than I thought I would.

The shaping of the body looks good. There is a distinctive head and body shape to it, which will hopefully become more pronounced as I add the features. Those are the next job when the yarn arrives!

That’s all from me at the minute. Trying to prep for the launch of Chapter one of my Novel tomorrow!

What are you all making at the moment? Would love to see your current favourite WIP – post in the comments below 

Love to you all and happy knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

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Friday Night is Go Go Go!

So, starting this Friday night, I will be posting my novel – A Game of Life and Death – chapter by chapter on here and Wattpad. This is one of my main goals to get this novel out there this year, so please like and share the heck out of this. What I’m really after from this is feedback on writing style and form. Then I can have a good basis to launch future works from.

This will be totally free and then, once I’ve collected feedback and edited, I’ll put a copy on Amazon for a small price to help start to fund materials for blog posts.

Thanks for all of your support so far! Keep an eye out for an extra tab appearing on the blog on Friday. This will contain all the links to read the chapters both on here an on Wattpad. The chapters will also be posted as blog posts as well, so you’ll also have email alerts as per usual.

Love to you all and Happy knitting!

MrsKirstyHoll

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