Down Down Down Read online

  ‘deadly mind games with a killer’

  Down Down Down

  Ted Darling crime series

  LIVRES

  LEMAS

  L M Krier

  Published by LEMAS LIVRES

  www.tottielimejuice.com

  © Copyright L.M.K. Tither 2019

  Cover design DMR Creative

  Cover photo Neil Smith

  DOWN DOWN DOWN

  All rights reserved.

  The right of L.M.K. Tither to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for the enjoyment of the purchaser only. To share this ebook you must purchase an additional copy per recipient. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Shewee is a registered trade mark of Dales Distribution Ltd

  This book is also published as a printed book

  ISBN 978-2-901-77321-4

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  About the Author

  Contact Details

  Discover the DI Ted Darling series

  Acknowledgements

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  About the Author

  L M Krier is the pen name of former journalist (court reporter) and freelance copywriter, Lesley Tither, who also writes travel memoirs under the name Tottie Limejuice. Lesley also worked as a case tracker for the Crown Prosecution Service.

  The Ted Darling series of crime novels comprises: The First Time Ever, Baby's Got Blue Eyes, Two Little Boys, When I'm Old and Grey, Shut Up and Drive, Only the Lonely, Wild Thing, Walk on By, Preacher Man, Cry for the Bad Man, Every Game You Play, Where the Girls Are.

  All books in the series are available in Kindle and paperback format and are also available to read free with Kindle Unlimited.

  Contact Details

  If you would like to get in touch, please do so at:

  [email protected]

  facebook.com/LMKrier

  facebook.com/groups/1450797141836111/

  twitter.com/tottielimejuice

  http://tottielimejuice.com/

  For a light-hearted look at Ted and the other characters, please consider joining the We Love Ted Darling group on Facebook.

  Discover the DI Ted Darling series

  If you’ve enjoyed meeting Ted Darling you may like to discover the other books in the series. All books are available as ebooks and in paperback format. Watch out for audio-book versions, coming soon:

  The First Time Ever

  Baby’s Got Blue Eyes

  Two Little Boys

  When I’m Old and Grey

  Shut Up and Drive

  Only the Lonely

  Wild Thing

  Walk on By

  Preacher Man

  Cry for the Bad Man

  Every Game You Play

  Where the Girls Are

  Down Down Down

  Acknowledgements

  I would just like to thank the people who have helped me bring Ted Darling to life.

  Beta readers: Jill Pennington, Kate Pill, Karen Corcoran, Jill Evans, Alison Sabedoria, Emma Heath, Alan Wood, and The Dalek, for editing assistance.

  Police consultants – The Three Karens.

  Thanks for all the expert advice on the work of the Fire Service and Fire Dogs to George, to Matt and Fire Dog Kai.

  Language advice: Manuel and Jenny (Spanish), Lyndsey (Welsh).

  Prison service advice: Ron and Cynthia.

  Expert tree advice: Becky and Philip at Jodrell Bank.

  Special mention for Hilary for all her kindness and patience in updating me on Stockport and suggesting locations for cover photo-shoots.

  And a very special thanks for all Ted’s loyal friends in the We Love Ted Darling Facebook group. Always so supportive and full of great ideas to be incorporated into the next Ted book.

  To service animals everywhere.

  Thanks to you and your handlers

  for everything you do for us all

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading the Ted Darling crime series. The books are set in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and the characters do use local dialect and sayings. Seemingly incorrect grammar within quotes reflects common speech patterns. For example, ‘I’ll do it if I get chance’, without an article or determiner, is common parlance. Ted and Trev also have an in joke between them - ‘billirant’ - which is a deliberate typo. If you have any queries about words or phrases used, do please feel free to get in touch, using the contact details in the book. I always try to reply promptly to any emails or Facebook messages. Thank you.

  Chapter One

  Ted Darling snapped awake at the first sound of distant sirens. A light sleeper, he’d had a more restless night than usual. He had yet another day of meetings ahead of him and was worrying about whether he’d got all the figures which he would need.

  He listened attentively, trying to identify from what he heard the level of the incident and whether or not it might involve him or his team.

  Fire appliances. Two of them, on bull tone, and not all that far away. He couldn’t yet hear either police vehicles or ambulance sirens, so it was hopefully a minor incident.

  But he was awake now, although his mobile phone on the side table showed it was not yet five o’clock. He knew he wouldn’t get back to sleep. He might as well get up and phone the station for information.

  Ted, lying on his back, was as usual confined to a few inches of space right at the edge of the bed. His partner Trevor was fast asleep, one arm and a bent leg draped possessively over Ted. Adam, the smallest of their seven cats, was curled into a tight ball. A warm, furry presence in the space between Ted’s shoulder and his cheek. The rest of the feline family members were scattered randomly about on top of the duvet.

  Adam opened mismatched eyes and yawned widely as Ted slid carefully out of bed. Trev made a low sound then burrowed more deeply into the mattress, showing no signs of waking.

  Ted didn’t bother to pull on any clothes as he padded silently out onto the landing, shutting the door behind him. He phoned the station and asked for the duty inspector. He and his team would only be involved in a fire incident if a serious crime had taken place. Arson, especially one involving casualties. Insurance fraud.

  ‘Hello, Irene,’ Ted said in surpr
ise when he was put through. ‘I thought you’d gone off on leave.’

  ‘Don’t rub it in, Ted,’ she groaned. ‘I had done. Gone off to do last-minute shopping and packing. Got called back in. Roly was meant to be on duty. Came in, started his shift, then the poor bugger collapsed and was rushed to A&E with his appendix on the point of bursting. He’d been complaining for a few days of having gut ache but I thought he was winding me up. I’m covering the graveyard shift then Kev’s relieving me at seven, so I might still have time to get to the airport. If not, I might be needing the services of a good divorce lawyer, if you know of one.

  ‘Anyway, what are you doing awake at this ungodly hour? Why aren’t you sleeping the sleep of the righteous while you can?’

  ‘I heard the sirens. Wondered if it was anything for us. Is it, do you know?’

  ‘As far as I know at the moment it’s just a derelict property gone up in smoke. Fire Service are attending, but it’s off the main road so they’ve not even requested help with road closures or diversions or anything. So I’d say no, at the moment, nothing for the pay-grade of a mighty Detective Chief Inspector. Go back to sleep while you can – you lucky bastard. I’ll let you know if anything changes. Although god knows why you think they gave you a DI and two DSs on your team, if you insist on doing everything yourself.’

  Ted smiled to himself as he ended the call. She was right, he knew. His job these days as DCI was largely management and admin. But he missed the hands-on, front-line action. He was drawn to it. He decided to take a drive past the scene of the fire on his way in later. Irene had given him the exact location and it was not much of a detour. It left him with a couple of hours to kill before there was any point in doing that. He decided to put his sweats on and go for a run for an hour or so round the nearby recreation ground. That should clear his head in time for the meetings which lay ahead.

  The fire was well under control when Ted arrived. Fire-fighters were already packing up one of the appliances, getting ready to leave the scene. Ted approached the nearest person, his ID in his hand.

  ‘Who’s OIC here, please?’ Ted asked him.

  The officer glanced at Ted’s card then looked around.

  ‘George is. Over there, in the white helmet.’

  Ted went over to introduce himself to the officer in charge. He knew the man by sight but no more. The Watch Commander looked from Ted’s details to him in surprise.

  ‘A DCI already? Blimey. Are you lot gifted with second sight? I was just about to call it in to flag it up as suspicious.’

  ‘I don’t live very far from here and it’s barely out of my way. I heard the sirens, so I thought I’d drive by and see what’s what. Any casualties?’

  ‘Luckily no, it’s an empty building. Not even any squatters, although it’s not secure.’

  ‘But you suspect arson?’

  ‘Way too early to be certain of anything. But I’ve seen plenty of fires and more than my fair share of deliberate ones. Do you know much about arsonists, Ted?’

  Ted shook his head. ‘I’ve only come across a handful so far.’

  ‘They’re an interesting breed. Often very intelligent and highly manipulative. I’m sure you’ve heard that they love to revisit the scene of their crimes. They’ll often stand and chat to fire crews, although we haven’t seen anyone here this morning. Another thing I can’t yet confirm, but I suspect the fire was set to start after the perpetrator had left the scene.’

  ‘And one more thing that’s not uncommon with them is they will often have their own MO. An individual signature way of starting a fire. It will be very distinctive, when you know what you’re looking for. Unique, too.

  ‘Like I said, it’s far too soon for certainties. The Fire Investigation Officer is on his way and I’ve already raised with him the possible need for a fire dog, once the scene is safe for them to work in. They can quickly pinpoint the source of the blaze, indicate various patterns we’d expect to find in arson cases. That would confirm my early suspicions.

  ‘Now, my brother Eddie is also in the service. We’re a right old pair of boring buggers. When blokes get together for a drink or a meal out, they usually talk football. Or politics. That sort of thing. Me and Eddie, we swap fire stories. He’s up in Preston. I remember him telling me about an arsonist on his patch who left distinctive doughnut patterns with his starting methods. Very precise and specific sizing. Almost as if it was carefully measured out. That’s what I think I see inside that building, but it’s up to the Investigation Officer to take it from here. We’re clearing the scene now ready for them to come in and work.’

  ‘So you think it’s the same arsonist, changing his patch?’

  ‘That would be the logical conclusion to draw, wouldn’t it? Except that, as far as I know – and it’s not long ago that me and Eddie were discussing this – his arsonist is still inside serving a very long stretch for a fire which took the lives of a family of four.’

  It was nearly the weekend. Ted’s team were restless at the start of morning briefing. They’d had a hard couple of weeks and those not working over the weekend were looking forward to a break. Knife crime was on the rise. It seemed they’d no sooner finished with one incident and the associated paperwork than there was another young person wounded and bleeding. Luckily, to date, although there were serious injuries, there hadn’t been a knife-related fatality.

  Ted was attending the briefing so he could update on the possibility of an arson case to open. At least it felt like proper policing before he left for the Headquarters building at Central Park with both of his immediate bosses, Superintendents Debra Caldwell and Jim Baker.

  Ted’s DI, Jo Rodriguez, was in charge of the briefing so Ted left him to it to get things started. He noticed that one of the team members, DC Virgil Tibbs, was absent. Jo began by explaining the reason.

  ‘I got an early call, boss. A severed leg found. All wrapped up in bin liners. It had been in the river but got caught up on some tree roots. A jogger out for a morning run spotted it and phoned in. The roots had torn some of the wrapping, so he could see part of a foot sticking out.

  ‘I sent Virgil because he lives nearest to where it was found. He called to update me from the scene and he’s on his way back in for now. The limb’s gone off for forensic examination, so of course we don’t know at the moment what sort of a crime we’re looking at. But there’s clearly a crime of some sort. You can’t just accidentally throw out a severed limb with the household waste.’

  On cue, the office door opened and Virgil came in. Always the joker of the team, he risked saying, ‘I legged it back here as fast as I could, boss. Whoever dumped the limb seemed to have hopped it before I got there.’

  DC Jezza Vine gave a snort of laughter which she quickly disguised as a cough. Ted was a good boss but he did expect his officers to show respect at all times. Jokes in dubious taste were always pushing the boundaries in his presence.

  ‘All right, everyone, settle down. Whatever happened behind this incident, the limb is part of a person and that deserves a bit of respect. First job involves trawling through any and all CCTV right along the river, and the approaches to it, if there is any, for any signs of anyone dumping something suspicious. And you get that job, Virgil,’ Ted told him.

  ‘Yes, boss,’ Virgil responded meekly, then went on, ‘Anyway, from what I could see of it, the limb was reasonably fresh and seemed to have been cut off with some sort of a power tool, I would say. It looked to me like it could have been a man’s leg but all the toe nails had fresh nail varnish on them. Bright red.’

  DC Maurice Brown started to speak. ‘Daddy Hen’ had a heart of gold but was always lacking in the tact department. ‘So does that mean it belonged to a ...’

  ‘Maurice, engage brain very carefully in gear before going any further,’ Ted cautioned him. ‘It means nothing until we have more information to go on. And if my memory serves me right, I recall you turning up to work with purple sparkly nail varnish on your fingernails one time.’


  ‘Aye, boss, but I’d been playing princesses with the twins and couldn’t find any of that remover stuff … Oh, I see what you mean. That could have been my leg in the Mersey if my ex had carried out some of her threats of what she wanted to do to me.’

  That brought a general ripple of amusement. Even Ted had to smile. He was going to have to leave them to it shortly to set off for his meetings, leaving Jo in charge, but he needed to say his piece before he left.

  ‘I’ve also got a possible case for us. There was a fire not far from where I live this morning, early. I spoke to the officer in charge and he’s flagging it up as a likely arson. We’re quiet enough at the moment,’ he looked to Jo for confirmation as he said it.

  Jo signalled his agreement so Ted continued, ‘So we might as well make an early start on both potential cases. If it turns out that either or both of them isn’t for us, then we can write it off as useful training. Starting with finding out what offences are involved in disposing of human body parts in a public place. Not something I could quote off the top of my head. Jezza, that’s one for you as you clearly find it amusing.’

  ‘Yes, boss.’ Jezza gave him her sweetest smile then switched into serious mode as she asked, ‘By the way, is there any news from Spain yet, speaking of remains? Any ID on all of the victims found under the swimming pool?’

  Ted and Jezza had been out to Spain just before Christmas on a historical case involving a paedophile ring. It had been a harrowing one for both of them, which had brought them closer together.

  ‘I’ve been in regular contact with DI Balewa and DS Reid since we got back. They’ve been out there most of the time, apart from a quick trip back to catch up. In fact, I spoke to Josie this morning, before I went to the fire scene.

  ‘Not all of the remains found by the Victim Recovery Dogs have been identified yet. But it has now been officially confirmed that one of them was little Storm Moonchild. Although she disappeared from Josie’s patch up in Bury, the discovery of her body and the circumstances around it mean that the case belongs to the Met, as part of their whole historic child abuse investigations. But at least it brings closure of a sort, now she’s been formally identified.’