RED SKATE CHAPTER TEN
By AMIDALA
- 743 reads
The inside of the house looked very Victorian. There were statues of dragons and witches everywhere. It looked to me that Alex Barker was a member of some sort of cult. I remembered that I wasn't here to admire his house. I cleared my throat and asked if we could go into the front room.
"Right this way," Alex said, showing us into the living-room. It looked just as old as the rest of the house, in the corner, there was a large fireplace, so large, you could have sat right in it to warm yourself up.
"Now, I know why you've come. You want to ask me about the night Julia Entwhistle died."
"How did you know?" I asked.
"It's been all over the news all week. Plus, Jack rang me up recently to warn me I will have to expect the police."
I totally forgot he'd already told us that before he let us in his house.
"Well, we're not accusing you of the murder," Charlie reassured. "We're just cross-examining witnesses at the moment, to help us with our clues."
"Do you know who's done it?"
"No. Although we did have a few suspects," I replied.
"Yes. Jack told me you suspected him for a while."
"Only because I found blood on his jacket."
"It's OK, he's not mad or anything. But he was deeply disapointed that you thought it was him."
"So, anyway, can you confirm where you were on that fateful night?" Charlie asked.
"Yes. I was at the ice rink. My car had broken down outside the rink, so I went inside to call for the AA, and to call Jack, and tell him we'll have to have our meeting at the rink instead. When he arrived, we both had coffee and started our meeting. At the same time, we watched two teenage girls on the rink. One of them went off - to get changed, I suppose - soon after that, there was a power cut. And when the lights came back on, poor Julia was lying on the floor of the rink, with a deep wound and a skate stuck in her throat."
He paused for breath, and carried on.
"I knew Julia, because I knew her father. He'd worked for me before. And we were sturdy friends before that. Hell, I used to go round his for a couple of beers and watch the match. Of course, her death was very devestating. Oh!"
He had a box of tissues next to his chair. He pulled out a tissue and blew his nose. "I hope we have finished," he said.
"Yes," said Charlie. "Thank you for your time, Mr Barker."
I went home for lunch. I got in, and made myself a soup. I switched on the computer and went on the internet; I was going to some paperwork I'd done for Charlie. I remembered that I wanted to find out whee I could buy the Dan Brown book "Angels And Demons". I went onto Google.com and typed in 'Dan Brown Angels And Demons'.
I filtered through the results, when something caught my eye.
It was a link to a page entitled: "Is Alex Dan Barker the most dangerous man on the planet?" I clicked onto the link, feeling nosy. Alex Barker was the name of the man we'd just interviewed, surely it wasn't him, surely it was a coincedence? But I felt I had to go to the page, like you do when you see your friend's name come up on Google.
I was taken to a news website. There was a phoo of a man there. I looked closely, and sure enough, it was the same Alex Barker I'd just interviewed! Intrigued, I read on:
"Is Alex Dan Barker the most dangerous man on the planet? The public gives their opinion that he should be locked up in jail. Locked up and the key thrown away forever. In 1990, Barker was the member and leader of The Brotherhood Of The Virgo. A society that believed that if a girl was still a virgin by the age of sixteen, it was their job to rape her. The society would go out and spy on teenage girls in the area in which they lived. They would get together and hold meetings, and if one of them found out a teenage girl was a virgin, it was their job to rape her. First they would approach the girl and become friends with her, and eventually try to seduce her into the act of intercourse. They would have three tries, but on the third try, if the girl still refused to succumb to the act of intercourse, they would brutally murder her. In 1991, The Brotherhood Of The Virgo were exposed and all of it's members put on a life sentence in jail, without the chance of parole. Alex Barker was the only member never found, and is still at large. It is also rumoured that at the time the Brotherhood were exposed, Barker was looking for his recent victim, one Catherine Lee Jones. The recent murder of Julia Entwhistle, sixteen, have speculated rumours that Barker is involved and may have trying to use her to go back to his old ways."
I read all of this with fascination and horror. I felt sick to the stomach. Of course, this was evidence to the case. I printed out the page, and when I finished my lunch, I headed back over to his house.
"Hello, again," said Alex, as he answered the door.
"Mr Barker, do you think you could tell me what your middle name is?"
"Yes. It's D - It's Stan."
"Oh, what a clever recovery."
"What do you mean?"
I shoved the piece of paper at him. "Read this," I ordered.
While he was reading it, I had time to think about it. Then I realized something! When Alex had finished reading, I snatched back the paper and scanned through it. I read 'Barker was looking for his recent victim, one Catherine Lee Jones.' My best friend, Cathy! She was murdered recently, too! By Barker!
"You can't think I'm that Alex Barker. That Alex Barker's middle name is Dan. Mine's Stan."
"Well, before you said your middle name was Stan, you very nearly said Dan, didn't you?"
"Well, yes, a mere slip of the tongue."
"Mr Barker, I'm placing you under arrest for the murders of Julia Entwhistle and Cathy Jones. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say will be used against you later on in court."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," I saw a hand whip out, and everything went black...
Meanwhile...
"Charlie! Get over here!"
I was sitting at my computer when Max Peterson called me over.
"Yes, what is it, Max?"
"I've just called at Sally's place to tell her we have some news, but there's no answer."
"So? Maybe she's gone out."
"No, sir. I rang her mobile as well, and she didn't answer that either."
?That was strange. Sally always answwred her phone if she was home, and when she wasn't, she always answered her mobile.
"Okay, Max, I'll go and look for her. What was the news yoyu wanted to tell her?"
"Oh, that we've had the DNA results from Jack Sabre's jacket back."
"Yes, Max, we got those yesterday. Brad gave them to us."
"What? That's my department. When I catch hold of that little..."
Max went off grumbling about Brad Erikkson, the Forensics Examiner he worked with, and didn't like very much. I sighed. Max Peterson was such a jumped up wanker.
I tried Sally's mobile. It rang for a couple of minutes before I gave up in the end. I got quite worried for a minute, expecting the worst. I grabbed my coat and headed out the door without a word to or backward glance at anyone.
Find out what happens next in Chapter Eleven...
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