RED SKATE CHAPTER FOUR

"What now, Sally?" Jack inquired. "What is your problem, now?"
"There's... There's blood on the back of your jacket." I stammered.
Jack fumbled his jacket and looked at it.
"Oh, that," he said. "Yeah...Uh, I... Um, there was blood on the back of this chair in this club I went to last night. I put my jacket on there, and that's how the blood got there."
I tried to remain calm, but my palms were sweating. 'I musn't overreact, I must remain calm," I thought to myself, reciting a quote from one of my favourite movies.
Out loud, I said: "And you didn't think to wash it since?"
"I only went there last night."
"Just now, you said it was last week!"
"Oh, Sally, I can't remember! When you're out on the bender every night, they all merge into one night, I really can't remember what night I got blood on this jacket!"
"How about... Tonight?" Piped up Cathy.
Jack turned and looked at her; he turned and looked at me. The look of realization dawned on his face.
"Oh, surely not... You can't think!"
I gave him a stern look, like a mother who definitely knows her son has definitely got top shelf magazines under his bed, and he can't lie his way out of the situation.
He gave me a look back; you can't prove it was me, there's no evidence.
"Well, it must be a coincidence," I said, sarcastically.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I don't even know who this Julia Entwistle is?"
"See?" I said. "You know her name!"
"Yes, because her murder was all over the news last night!"
"It couln't have been," said Cathy. "She wasn't found until two hours ago."
Jack suddenly looked frightened; a little boy who's been told to give the bigger kids his lunch money, even when he's told them he needs the change for the bus fare home.
I sauntered over to the filing cabinet, and tok out a piece of paper and a red pen. On the paper, I scribbled, in big letters:

"THE MURDER OF JULIA ENTWISTLE - IN THE ICE RINK - SUSPECT NUMBER ONE - JACK SABRE."

Jack then looked really worried.
"When I type this up, it's going in our permanent recoreds," I said. "We shall have to book an appointent with you, and take you to the interviewing room, and ask you where you were and what you were doing the night Julia Entwistle was murdered."
"You don't even know the actual night she was murdered," Jack insisted.
"That's why we're not doing the interview now," replied Cathy. "We need to find out beforehand."
"And we need to keep your jacket," I continued. "For DNA testing."
"Then you'll know I didn't slice and dyce her." A look of triumph passed over Jack's face. He picked up and thrust at me his jacket.
"Happy testing," he said, turning to leave.
"You can't leave," said Cathy. "You're spending overnight in the cells."
"Oh no, I am not," Jack argued. "I'm going home!"
"OK, fine," I said. "Just don't leave town."
Jack winked at me, and headed out the door.
"OK, Cat," I said. "Now all we need to do now is test his jacket for DNA results, and find out the exact night Julia died; not necessarily in that order..."

Find out what happens next in Chapter Five...