Stop Her On Sight (S.O.S.) (Dead Reckoning series - Part 12)

Continued from Episode 11 (What Becomes of the Brokenhearted)

The story so far:  Josiah seems to be besotted with Jeanette DeVille and Archibald is decidedly keen on her daughter, Precious.  Samantha Knight is less than happy with the situation and frustrated that there isn't much she can do about it.  After their respective romantic lunches, Mrs. DeVille and her daughter were intending to go shopping, wonder where they went?:

D.I. Wood was perusing a motoring magazine, well, mostly motoring. He clutched ‘Babes & Bumpers’, whilst sitting sideways at his desk, with his gout-inflamed leg resting on a spare chair.  From time to time, he munched a biscuit, thoughtfully, before flicking to the next page.  A brief tap on the office door preceded the arrival of his colleague, D.S. Stone.

“Anything?” D.I. Wood enquired, without looking up from his periodical.

“Not a lot, sir” D.S. Stone consulted the papers he was carrying, “biggest thing is a robbery at a jeweller’s”

“Much taken?”

“Not a heck of a lot.  They’ve reported a necklace worth a few thousand pounds stolen”

“Hardly worth the bother, then” D.I. Wood flipped over to another page.

“Well, possibly, but the owner does reckon he’s a chum of the Chief Constable” D.S. Stone pointed out.

“Cobblers!” D.I. Wood threw his magazine onto the desk, “all that means is he’s seen her from afar at some Chamber of Commerce finger buffet, you mark my words.” He bit into a biscuit, savagely, “’Friend of the Chief Constable’ my arse!”

“Don’t you think it would be wise to take a look, even so?”  D.S. Stone looked distinctly worried.

“It’s just shoplifting on a slightly bigger scale” D.I. Wood reached for his coffee, “you wouldn’t turn out for someone nicking a couple of apples and a banana, would you?”

“Well, no, but…”

“There you are, then” D.I. Wood selected another biscuit, “there’s no difference, except for a couple of noughts on the end”

“I still think…” D.S. Stone began.

“You fretting about your promotion, Stoney?” D.I. Wood raised an eyebrow.

“Hadn’t crossed my mind, sir” D.S. Stone replied, primly.

“Yeah, right” D.I. Wood sneered, “and the band played ‘Believe Me If You Like’”

D.I. Wood looked at him blankly.

“Doesn’t matter, Sergeant” D.I. Wood shook his head, “just an expression.  If it’s going to fret you, we’ll go and take a look at this jeweller’s but don’t expect me to waste much time on it, alright?”

“Whatever you say, sir”

* * * *

“I take it she’s gone back home?” Samantha Knight asked, as she studied her laptop.

Archibald Thurble, sitting a few feet away from her perch in the stock room, frowned.

“Who?” He asked, eventually.

“Mrs. DeVille” Samantha replied, with considerable contempt.

“I should have thought so” Archibald nodded.

“Hmph!” Samantha contributed, with a snort.

“He’s going over to hers on Saturday” Archibald nodded in the general direction of Josiah Oakshott’s office.

“Yes, so you told me” Samantha said, through clenched teeth.

“Spot of posh nosh, he reckons” Archibald said, expanding on his theme, “she’s got a famous table, or summat”

“He’s welcome to it!” Samantha snarled.  “I suppose you’ll be taking him up there, so’s you can see your Precious?”

“No, she’s ‘sending a car for him’” Archibald said, in what he thought was a posh voice, denoting the phrase with his fingers.

“Oh, is she?” Samantha frowned, “that makes him a bit of a hostage to fortune, doesn’t it?  I wonder if he’s thought about that?”

“Eh?  What do you mean?”  Archibald looked puzzled.

“I mean, Archibald, that he won’t be able to leave whenever he wants to.  I’m sure it sounds great, but it might be a different story when he wants to come home”

“You’re just jealous!” Archibald chuckled.

“Maybe I am!” Samantha nodded, “but that doesn’t change the fact that he will be stuck up there, in the wilds of Cheshire, with no way of getting home.  I think he ought to have more sense!” She seethed.

“If you say so” Archibald sniggered and returned to his work.

* * * *

“Could you describe for me, exactly what happened, sir?” D.S. Stone enquired, whilst D.I. Wood perused the premises of Scrivener & Scrapes, High Class Jewellers, with a bored expression.

“As I said, in my original report” Mr. Scrivener replied, with more than a touch of peevishness, “a lady, of some refinement, came into our establishment yesterday afternoon, and asked to view a rather fine necklace that we had on display…”

“Ok, thank you sir, could you describe her?”  D.S. Stone asked.

“I regret not” Mr. Scrivener replied, mournfully.

“CCTV?” D.I. Wood interjected, nodding toward the blinking red light on the ceiling by the corner of the store.

“Regrettably, and strictly entre nous, that is not currently functioning” Mr. Scrivener admitted and looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“Give me strength!” D.I. Wood muttered.

“Can you remember anything about her?” D.S. Stone persisted.

“I am unable to help you in that respect, Sergeant, because I did not attend to the lady in question.  Perhaps it would be helpful, at this juncture, if I called upon my assistant, who did attend to her needs?”  Mr. Scrivener suggested.

“You think?” D.I. Wood sneered, sotto voce.

“That would be helpful, sir” D.S. Stone nodded.

“Mr. Hamble, could you spare me a moment?” Mr. Scrivener called through the archway leading into the stock room, behind.

“Hamble?” D.I. Wood looked surprised.

Lawrence Hamble oozed into the room, much to the astonishment of the detectives.

“Stone the flaming crows, Stoney!  Look who it is!” D.I. Wood chuckled.

“Detective Inspector, Sergeant” Lawrence nodded to each, in turn.

“You know these gentlemen, Mr. Hamble?” Mr. Scrivener looked startled.

“Mr. Hamble had occasion to help us with our enquiries, a little while ago” D.S. Stone rushed to explain, before D.I. Wood could get a word in.

“Really?  I do not recall this being mentioned on your Curriculum Vitae, Mr. Hamble” Mr. Scrivener looked sharply at his employee.

“To be clear, Mr. Scrivener, Mr. Hamble was never charged with any crime and was released without a stain on his character” D.S. Stone scrambled to explain.

“His missus, however…” D.I. Wood observed, dryly.

“We are separated” Lawrence explained, blushing furiously.

“By a few thousand miles, would be my guess” D.I. Wood sniggered.

“Perhaps Mr. Hamble would be kind enough to provide a description of this lady you mentioned?” D.S. Stone attempted to get the inquiry back on track.

“Ah yes, she was an attractive, dark-haired lady, of medium height and build” Lawrence explained, “dressed in a rather old-fashioned manner.  She seemed very self-assured”

“That narrows it down” D.I. Wood said, under his breath.

“And she was the only person in the shop, at the time of the theft?”  D.S. Stone continued.

“Well, originally, yes” Lawrence nodded, “but, as I was showing her the necklace, this young girl came in.  She was a bit…odd”

“Odd?  In what way, sir?”

“I think they call them ‘goths’ these days, don’t they?” Lawrence looked from D.S. Stone to D.I. Wood, “She was dressed all in black, even had black fingernails”

“I see” D.S. Stone made a note, “what happened then?”

“Well, the lady asked if we had any other necklaces like the one, she was inspecting.  I said we had but they were in the stock room and I would have to go and fetch them” Lawrence explained.

“Leaving her and this ‘goth’ with the original necklace?” D.I. Wood asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, yes” Lawrence admitted, miserably.

“Mr. Hamble acted perfectly correctly” Mr. Scrivener intervened, “we expect our staff to make a judgement on the risk attached to any particular client and I am sure that his evaluation of this specific customer was a sound one”

“Dropped a bollock there, didn’t you?” D.I. Wood muttered.

“Thank you, Mr. Scrivener” Lawrence gave his employer a weak smile, “unfortunately, subsequent events have rather cast some doubt on my judgement”

“In what way?”  D.S. Stone asked.

“Well, when I returned, from the stock room, and I couldn’t have been missing for more than a couple of minutes, the lady was slumped over the counter, clearly distressed and the strange girl had disappeared completely.” Lawrence explained, with some agitation, “I asked her if she was alright and she said that the ‘goth’ girl had snatched the necklace she was examining and run off.  She was understandably shocked by the event”

“Yes, of course, sir” D.S. Stone nodded, “did either you, or your customer, see where the ‘goth’ girl went?”

“No, I went straight to the shop door and looked both ways along the High Street, but there was no sign” Lawrence said, miserably.

“What about this lady?” D.I. Wood asked, putting emphasis on the ‘lady’, “What happened to her?”

“Ah, yes, well, I found her a chair so that she could sit down, as she was clearly distressed” Lawrence said, “I fetched her a glass of water and, at that point, this gentleman bustles in who said he was her husband and wanted to know what I had done to his wife!”

“Really?  What did he look like?” D.I. Wood asked.

“He was dressed rather formally…and a bit shabbily, if I’m going to be honest” Lawrence recounted, “not the sort of person I would have associated with this particular lady.  Anyway, I explained about the robbery and he insisted on taking his wife away, immediately, so that she would not come to any further harm”

“Did he now?” D.I. Wood grinned.

“Was there anything else you needed to add, sir?” D.S. Stone asked.

“Oh, come on, Stoney, don’t make a meal of it” D.I. Wood hissed.

“No, I think that’s everything, Sergeant” Lawrence nodded.

“I would say, Inspector, that this has been the most trying of experiences for Mr. Hamble” Mr. Scrivener patted his employee on the shoulder, sympathetically, “I do hope you can apprehend this ‘goth’ girl at the earliest juncture?”

“We will put out a description and do everything we can, sir” D.S. Stone said, keenly.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath” D.I. Wood muttered.

“I beg your pardon, Inspector?” Mr. Scrivener asked.

“I said we’ll leave no stone, left” D.I. Wood explained, “unturned, that is, sir” He turned to his colleague, “Come on, Sergeant, let’s leave these good people to their business” He spun on his heels and said, “Thank you gentlemen, we’ll be in touch”

Back in the car, D.I. Wood let out a deep sigh.

“What a waste of time and effort that was!” He exclaimed.

“Did you think so, sir?” D.S. Stone looked up from his notes.

“’Course it was, Stoney” D.I. Wood said, edging out into the traffic, “a couple of grand’s worth of necklace goes missing, they reckon, but it won’t really be worth that much, that’s just what they can sell it for and it’s odds-on the insurance will cough up for it, anyway.  That’s if he keeps schtum about the CCTV being buggered, of course…”

“Ah yes, I wondered about that” D.S. Stone nodded.

“I wouldn’t wonder too much” D.I. Wood shook his head, “you can either see conspiracies in everything or accept that people are bloody stupid, most of the time.  My money’s on stupidity, nine times out of ten”

“Do you think we should fingerprint the counter?”

“Don’t be wet, Sergeant!” D.I. Wood spluttered, “this was yesterday.  How many customers have they had since then, eh?  Let alone that they’ll have cleaned it this morning, don’t you think?  Nah, the forensics boys won’t thank you for sending them on that wild goose chase”

“Ok, so I’ll send out a description of this ‘goth’ girl, shall I?”

“Werl, you can” D.I. Wood conceded, “but, if I was you, I’d be sending out descriptions of all three of them”

“All three?”

“You didn’t seriously think that they weren’t all in on it, did you?” D.I. Wood scoffed.

“All of them?”  D.S. Stone looked astounded.

“That would be my bet” D.I. Wood looked pleased with himself, “and then there’s the fact of Lawrence Hamble turning up, out of the blue”

“Oh, surely he’s got nothing to do with it, has he?”

“Who knows?” D.I. Wood shrugged, “but it’s a hell of a bloody coincidence, don’t you think?”

They drove on, each deep in thought.

Josiah and Archibald let loose on the Spanish mainland?  That's what led to this current series of stories and you can find out all about it in 'Bring Out Your Dead' (link is external) available now in both Kindle and paperback versions.

Now read Episode 13