Uggg . the Officer Said, Or Rather, Grunted

Raven

R

A single hand extended into the light, between its fingers it held a match, the fingers opened and the match fell. It landed silently on the ground, the liquid igniting around it. The flames growing up the mans legs, his clothes catching on fire. He let out a single wailing scream as he rolled on the ground in a firery rage, that smelt of death.

“Uggg”. The officer said, or rather, grunted.

“Your so articulte, Hi I’m.....” He paused and looked at the body again.

“I’m detective Nelson,”.

“Turner, pleased to meet you” She said

“I see” Said Nelson looking at the body.

“Tell me Turner, what do you see here?” Nelson asked

“Well, its oviously a homicide, victim is a white male in his...”

“No, no, tell me what you feel here,

“The strange thing is this” Said the Turner. Pointing to something on the ground.

“Looks like an ordinary bird crap to me” Said Nelson while taking a closer look

“It is..... but if it was on the ground before Mr. Reed was killed then don't you think it might be a little burnt”

“Not necessarily” Said Nelson “The bird could have come along anytime after John here got fried, and before you lot came”

“Yes, but that was in the middle of the night, not many nocturnal birds live here in Churchill and no birds live in the shed” Turner said while looking at the roof supports, there was nothing, not one speck of white or anything.

“Mr. Reed never liked birds crapping on his car, he hated it” Said Turner

“I’m going to ask Mrs. Reed a few questions, ther’s not much we can do here”

“Yeah you do that” Said Turner

“Sly bastard” She said under her breath

A

The cars horn beeped twice

“Come on, move it” Annette yelled out to Clara

“I’m coming, I’m coming” Clara said as she opened the car door.

“Its cold isn’t it” she said while putting on her seat belt

“Yeah” Annette said. She waited for a car to pass then pulled out from the curb, they headed north towards the Churchill state school dance. They drove about two kilometres before they were even near to where they were going. They passed their school, but the dance was nowhere near there, it was at a large hall just out of town. They were driving along quite happily until something hit their window.

“Ohh god what was that, it looked like a bird” Annette said while looking behind her. The car drifted to the right a little nearer the curb.

“Annette look out!” Clara yelled, they were heading for a tree.

“I can’t break!” Annette yelled, she was pumping madly at the break, nothing was happening. Clara screamed, she held her arms up to her face as the car slammed into the tree. Then there was silence......

“So Mrs. Reed...... You sent your husband downstairs to see what the noise was. And then what happened?” Nelson said. He was sitting in a chair, notebook in hand, quickly scribbling down anything he thought held any significance. Turner was looking around the lounge room, at all the paintings on the wall, Mr. Reed must have been fairly well off to afford all this.

“The snows melting” She said, as if she didn’t even hear what Nelson had said. She turned and looked at him, then turned back to the window.

“Beautiful day isn’t it.” Mrs. Reed said “A lot brighter than yesterday” Mrs. Reed sighed and then looked at Nelson.

“Would you like a cup of tea dear?” Mrs. Reed said, while getting up.

“No thanks” Nelson said, while writing in his notebook.

“Ohh, but I would” Turner said quite brightly, as if she was trying to cheer Mrs. Reed up.

“Come down to the kitchen, I’ll make you one” Mrs. Reed said. She walked out of the lounge room and walked downstairs. The design of the house was rather strange. It was built on the bank of a river; the river of course had long since dried up. But the ‘U’ shape where the river had been was still there. From the front, the house looked like an ordinary one storey house, but as the land sloped away from the street. The house progressed into two storeys. The kitchen, dining room and the bathroom are all downstairs.

The bedrooms and lounge room are upstairs.

“Do you like sugar in your coffee?” Mrs. Reed said

“Ohh, yes please, two thanks” Turner said.

Mrs. Reed said

“You know, I’ve never been alone before, never without someone’s company, it just feels so strange now, so very strange”

“Ohhh, my head...... ahh...... Clara, Clara, what happened?” Annette said. She looked around she couldn’t see Clara anywhere. She rested her head on the seat, it was all bent and distorted, or was it. It was her scull all bent, fractured in seven places. It hurt so much that she could barely even think. She heard something outside, something like a motor starting, like a lawn mower. But that was silly no-one would mow their lawn at eight o’clock at night. It wasn’t a lawn mover. She turned her head to the right, no matter how much it hurt. She saw Clara lying on the road, she wasn’t moving at all. There was someone standing next to her, in their had they had a....A chain saw!

‘RING-RING...... RING-RING...... RING-RING’

“Ahh...... Nelson here” Nelson picked up the bedside phone in his motel room. It was three o’clock in the morning. He was tired.

“Nelson, Turner here. I’m at the scene of a fatal traffic accident, looks interesting”

“Umm... that’s nice Turner.” Nelson said. He was very tired

“I think you better come down here.” She said

“And why is that, I’m in homicide, you know that” Nelson was almost awake now, almost.

“I know you’re in homicide, but I reckon it isn’t no traffic accident. One girls completely decapitated here. And she was laying on the road twenty meters from where the car is”. She said. Trying to make Nelson come.

“Allright, I’m coming. But I’m so tired, you probably wont have my full attention, wait a minute, where are you?” Nelson asked

“Near the corner of Smith street and the Esplanade, should cost you about ten dollars in a taxi, okay?” Turner said

“Okay. I’ll be about half an hour, see you there, bye” Nelson said

“Bye”

Turner retracted the aerial on her mobile phone and put it in her car, she closed the door and walked back to where the body was.

“Definitely homicide you’d say” She asked a young black man from forensic

“No other possibility” He said, looking her in the eye

Turner started walking back to her car,

“No other possibility”

Back at the motel Nelson was waiting for his taxi. He was dressed, the taxi company said it would take about five minutes for it to arrive, he had been waiting for twenty. He went back to his motel room and phoned Turner.

“Turner here” she said

“Hi Turner, its Nelson here, listen that taxi’s a no-show, I don’t suppose you could come and pick me up or something?”

“Sure, you at the Churchill inn aren’t you?” She asked

“Yeah, how’d you guess?” Nelson asked

“It’s the only hotel in Churchill. Hang on I’ll come around, okay?”

“Sure thing, bye”

“I really shout un-pack my mobile” Nelson said. He turned to his bag and got out a mobile phone, it was so tiny that it looked more like a Nintendo hand held videogame. He plugged the recharger into the power point and slid the spare battery into the phone. He went outside again and waited for Turner.

“I know I’ll ring the taxi company again!”

V

A few moments ago.

The taxi rounded the corner, it was just a few blocks away from the Churchill inn.

“What’s this guy want” The taxi driver said. There was a man standing in the middle of the road, next to him there was a car, the bonnet was open and he had jumpercables in his hand. The taxi pulled over and the driver got out.

“What’s the problem?” The driver asked.

“Ohh, I’ve got a flat battery, don’t suppose you could give the old beast here jump start?” He asked

“Yeah sure, hand on I’ll just park a little closer.” The taxi driver said. He got back in his taxi and drove around and did a ‘U’ turn, and parked facing the other car. He got out and opened the bonnet, he took the two ends of the jumper cables and put them around the battery. He turned around to the other mans car.

“Ohh, here, I’ll do it” The driver said. The man walked around to the other side of the car and got something from behind the rear wheel. The taxi driver was walking back to start the engine of his taxi when the other man lunged at him from behind, he hit him on the head with a hammer, not hard as to kill him, but hard enough so he would be un-conscious. He dragged him into the taxi and started the engine. He closed the door and then went back to his car. From the boot he got a long fat hose and a roll of silver coloured heavy duty masking tape. He put one end of the hose in the exhaust pipe, used the tape to seal any gaps, and then put the other end of hose in the passenger side window. He was about to seal the gaps with tape when he thought that it would be best to put it in the side nearest the driver, he’d die quicker that way.

Turner’s car pulled up to the hotel.

“Hi, what took you so long?” He asked her

“The Esplanade’s a long way from here” she answered

“So. Give me the low down” Nelson said

“Well it seems that these girls were going to the Churchill state school dance when their car crashed into a tree, whether by accident or the pre meditated work of our serial killer here. Anyway, they crashed into the tree, then our murderer drags one of the girls out of the car....”

“What was her name?” Nelson asked

“Shut up, I’m getting to that. Telling a story and watching the road are hard to do together, especially for a dumb blonde like me” Turner said. Nelson giggled.

“Anyway, this guy drags her out of the car and onto the road. No here comes the gross part. He gets out a chain saw decapitates her.” Turner said

“That’s it?” Nelson said.

“That’s it” Said Turner

“Was she dead when he started cutting off her head”. Nelson said, slightly frightened

“Un-conscious, but alive”

“And the other girl?” Nelson asked

“Taken to hospital”

“Right” Nelson said. They continued driving along the Esplanade. It was almost starting to get light, or perhaps not.

“Whoa” Turner said, narrowly missing a cat darting across the road.

“Ohh, you missed it” Nelson said jokingly

“Watch it mister, I just so happen to like cats!”

They rounded a bend and Nelson could see the traffic hazard lights in the distance

“Does the other girl know about what happened to her friend?” Nelson said

“Nope, nor do any of the other school students. They would have driven back right into the whole mess if it weren’t for the clever work of the traffic management people” Turner said

“Almost there” she said again. A few moments later the car came to halt. They both got out of the car and walked over to where the car was.

“Here’s the car, see that there aren’t any skid marks. It looks as if the car was sabotaged. Were just about finished here, the body has already gone to the morgue, as for the car, that shout be taken away as soon as forensic have finished taking all the photographs that they want to. I’m afraid you missed all the fun” Turner said.

“Perhaps not, I suppose you’d noticed this rather large bird poo here?” Nelson asked as he walked over to the car

“No, I certainly didn’t!”

“I guess you’re right, the bird crap might have something to do with it” Nelson said.

“Hey you” Nelson yelled out to one of the forensic people “Come over here and take a sample of this bird poo would you”

“What did you say” the young man said.

“This bird poo, take a sample of it”

“Okay” he said. He got out a small container rather like the type you put a film into and collected a sample of the bird poo.

“Take it to the lab and analyse it” Nelson said

“It’ll take about three weeks because the nearest good lab is in the United States.” The young forensic man said.

“Well that’s pretty useless, you have three bowling alleys here and only one hotel and not one lab, doesn’t matter, get it analysed anyway.” Nelson said rather angrily.

“I’m hungry, anyone else hungry?” Turner said while stretching her arms.

‘RING-RING...... RING-RING...... RING-RING’

“Is that mine or your’s’ Nelson asked Turner

“Your’s” she answered. Nelson picked up his phone and answered it.

“Hello” Nelson said

“Is that detective Nelson?” The voice on the other line said

“Yes, can I help you?” Nelson asked

“I’m lieutenant Walker, there’s an abandoned taxi near the Churchill inn” Nelson face turned white “It smells of car fumes, sounds a bit dodgy to me” the constable said

“I’ll come right away, where exactly is this taxi?” He asked.

“Five blocks away from the hotel” Walker said

“Okay, bye” Nelson said. He disconnected his mobile and called to Turner.

“We’re going now”

“Where to?” She asked.

“Back to my hotel” Nelson said as he got in the car.

“What’s happened” Turner asked as she pulled away from the curb.

“You know that taxi that never showed up, well its just turned up near my hotel with no driver!”

E

The car pulled up next to the police crime scene tape. They forgot to put any up around the Reed’s place until six o’clock in the morning. Their boss probably roasted them about it when they got back to the station. He got out of the car, he then walked over to the tape and ducked under it, a young officer approached him. Turner drove off again, probably back to her place, she was tired and wanted to sleep.

“Excuse me sir, but this is a crime scene” he said. Nelson reached into is suit pocket and the officer reached for his gun.

“It’s all right!, I’m reaching for my badge” Nelson said quite frightened.

“Ohh, sorry” the young officer said, he looked at his badge.