JACK OF DIAMONDS

CHAPTER 12

“Charlie? Charlie! Where the fuck are you?” Nigel called out, coming up the stairs two at a time. His steps rang out in the narrow stairwell, a steady tattoo echoed by Sonia's heels behind him.

“Rose!” Sonia called out.

“Don’t get your knickers in a knot, girl! I can hear you fine! I'm sure they can hear you all the way over in goddamned Okehampton as well,” Rose called out back from somewhere down the hall, the sound of a slamming door punctuating her statement.

“Rose! What the fuck is he going on about?” Charlie called out, walking into the room. “What the fuck, Nigel! I goddamned told you, I got this bloody big bollock trying to push its way through my ass—”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Charlie. Sounds painful,” Sonia laughed, racing passed Nigel and coming to a standstill at Rose’s desk. She was smiling as she walked passed Charlie, saying, “I’ll bet you forgot I was here, didn’t you? Well, no harm no foul, as they say—”

“Who says that? I’d like to know exactly who it was, that first said that,” Charlie muttered, easing himself into his chair. There was a stained pillow on the seat, and she wondered how many of the spots were tea stains. She didn't think it was very many, not judging by the way he was sitting.

“Who says that? People say it, Charlie,” she said, looking at Nigel and shaking her head, as if she’d expected Charlie to at least know something of what she was referring to. Nigel sat in the chair across from Charlie and watched the man struggling to get comfortable.

"God, Charlie, I'm almost sure you can get something for that, can't you Sonia—I mean, Special Constable Nazar?"

"Special Constable, is it? We just found a dead—I'm sorry, did we decide if we were going to say anything about it, yet? Either way, we found it over at that tree that was struck by lightning, God only knows when."

"Found what?" Rose asked, entering the room.

"A body."

"You found a body?" Charlie asked, looking at Nigel who nodded.

"I think it'd be grand if you call me Sonia, and then I can call you Nigel. You'll always be Charlie,” she said, turning to look at him and smiling.

"He looks like a Charlie, don't he?" Rose said with a laugh. "Now, what's all this talk about finding a body?" she asked, settling herself in behind her cluttered desk. She picked up a half-smoked cigarette and found her lighter.

"Do you have any reports of anyone having gone missing?"

"Missing?" she asked, the lighter flashing to life.

“I'd like to know who ‘They’ are. Just once, I’d like someone to tell me who they are!” Charlie said, out of the blue, looking at Nigel across from him.

“Maybe later, Charlie, okay? Right now, Nigel and I need to contact Okehampton, because, you see, this is now a murder investigation." As she said it, she lowered her voice, looking at Rose as if it was a secret only the four of them would be sharing. "I think that means Okehampton qualifies as the proverbial ‘They’, don’t you, Charlie?” she said, her voice suddenly perky.

“Ah, leave off with that,” Rose smiled, looking at Nigel. “He's never going to get that sorted out in his head. What's this about a murder, Nigel?”

Sonia was looking around the small room and spotted a chair. She pulled it over and sat in front of Rose's desk. “Where is everyone? Surely there's more than just the three of you working here?”

"Not many more," Rose said absently, looking through a small stack of files. "I'm almost certain I saw something in here last week."

"Last week? That seems to fit right in with our time frame, doesn't it? Isn't that when the rain started?" Sonia asked Nigel.

“I thought you were looking into a break-in, Nige?” Charlie asked, shifting on his chair and wincing.

“A what?” Sonia asked, turning to look at Nigel briefly. “A break-in. Right. Right,” she said, turning and looking at Charlie again, trying to focus, a small knot forming between her eyes. “It was. But now there’s been a murder, Charlie. As far as we know, we’re the first Constables on the scene—I mean, well, really, who else could it be but us, right Charlie? Not much we can do but document things. That’s why I'm looking for missing persons reports. Anything?" she asked Rose.

"I don't know. But I do recall filing something about a missing person in the past two weeks. Something about it stuck out."

"Tell me."

"What? No. Not off the top of my head, no," she said, pausing a moment as she sorted through a second stack of files.

"There can't be that many people that go missing in a place like this? How can you have so many files open?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Charlie asked.

"It's not supposed to mean anything. It's a matter of demographics, Charlie."

"Demo-what?"

"It has to do with statistics, Charlie," Rose said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Most of the people that go missing around here are youngsters running off to London for the weekend, and not coming back."

"It wasn't a teenager. The body, I mean. He was a full grown man, from what I could see of him."

"Get a good look at him, did you?" Charlie laughed.

"Enough to see he was murdered," she said calmly. "I made some notes. It's all about documentation. It's always good to document things, Charlie. Remember that. We’re going to have to drive out to Okehampton later—the two of us—ourselves—and make our appeal to them based on procedure. Protocol. In person. This is our case, Charlie,” she added, turning to look at Rose again.

“Doesn't sound like something for Okehampton. This'll have to go out to Exeter.”

“Exeter?” Nigel asked.

“No,” Sonia said without hesitation. “I can get us to Okehampton before Okehampton can get here and start poking around. If we go together, we can look at my notes and corroborate our story. It'll be up to Okehampton to contact Exeter.”

“Bilge won’t like that, I can tell you right now,” Rose said, getting up from behind the desk and walking to the file cabinet.

“Taking Nigel with you? Leaving the motorcycle behind to ride in the comfort of a new automobile with a beautiful woman? What’s a young man to do, eh?” he added with a chuckle.

"Who's Bilge?"

"CDI Bilge," Rose said, finding the file she was looking for and crossing back to her desk. "He's here from Exeter. Arrived about an hour ago. Ah, here it is."

“Did you find it?” Sonia asked. “It has to be documented Charlie; I mean, this has to all be properly documented if we’re going to take on Tammany Hall,” she said.

“Who?” Charlie asked Nigel.

“Tammany Hall? It’s an American reference,” she called out.

“American? We’re British, here. Rule Britannia, and all that.”

“People use Americanisms all the time, Charlie,” Sonia responded.

“No, they don’t. I don’t. Didn't you hear me complaining about my third bollock, earlier? Did that sound to you like I was searching for an Americanism? No? I didn’t think so, either,” he said, squirming at his desk as he reached for his pen and the proper paperwork. She began dictating several of the known facts to him.

Nigel filled in the blank spots as best he could.

“Artemus Spencer?” Charlie asked, looking up from the page he was writing out.

“Do you know him?” Sonia asked; Nigel sat up, looking at Charlie.

“Not personally. He's been staying out at Reggie O'Dowd's place. Friend of Reggie's from the War. Well, that's what I heard. I just saw him going into the hotel with Agatha--"

"Who's that?"

"You were just up there? She's the Baron's daughter-in-law. The plain looking one with the big tits."

"Big tits? Is that how you spot the difference in women, Charlie? Who's got the biggest tits?" Sonia asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes. One can only assume they went in to find a room.”

“A room, Charlie? Why would they take a room?”

“If you can’t figure that out, Special Constable, you’ll never be a detective, will you?” a strange voice replied, coming out of the hallway with a cup of tea in his hand. He leaned against the doorway and affected a smile.

Rose looked up from the file she was scanning.

“Chief Detective Investigator Bilge. From Exeter, as I said,” Rose smiled.

“CDI? No, you didn't say he was already here,” Nigel said, sitting forward. "This is our case. You can't just come in here and take it from us," Nigel said, turning and looking up at the man.

“Have issues with Exeter, do you, Constable Bannister?" the man said, taking a drink of his tea.

"Does that come as a surprise to you?"

"Well, apparently the Baron doesn't have any issues with Exeter. He didn't seem too overly excited at the idea of having someone as young as yourself doing the investigating.”

He was a tall man with a shock of grey-streaked hair, and a thin, lined, angular face. He put his tea cup on a nearby shelf, then crossed his legs as he began rolling a cigarette. He licked it closed and lighted before looking at the two Constables again. In a moment, he was standing under a blue haze. He was wearing a red cardigan rather than a jacket, and Sonia found it odd, thinking it was almost as if he was trying to present himself as the kinder, elder statesman.

Sonia stood up and stepped forward, facing the man.

“We haven’t even finished filing our report yet.”

“Oh? And which one would that be? The theft, or the murder? Just so you know, with word getting out that there’d been a burglary in one of the big houses out here, well, things seemed to get a little tense out there. Out there is where the big boys play—and the big boys play in Exeter, not Okehampton, Special Constable. Now, tell me about this murder you’ve stumbled upon.”

“Yes.” It was Sonia.

“Well? Do tell,” he added, looking from one to the other.

“Yes, do,” Nigel said, his voice soft, looking lost and staring up at Sonia.

“We feel,” Sonia said, turning toward Bilge, “as we're the first representatives of the local Constabulary—”

“But you’re from Okehampton, Special Constable,” he interrupted. "You're not one of the local constabulary."

“Yes. I was from Okehampton--yesterday. I was transferred, as of this morning, and reassigned here, CDI Bilge. I may not be an inspector at the moment, but that's simply a matter of the proper paperwork not having gone through. I've written my tests and passed without trouble, I might add. Surely my pending promotion means something? I was sent to help with the investigation of a theft, as it was brought to my superior's attention that Constable Bannister has never headed up an investigation like this before.”

"You mean he's never headed up any investigation before," Charlie half laughed.

"Thank you for your input, Charlie," she said cooly.

“I have no interest in what you may, or may not be, investigating at the moment, Miss. As far as I can see, within the course of investigating a burglary, you’ve found a dead body. That negates whatever investigation you may have been sent to advize on. Surely you can see that? This is a murder we're talking about. The theft of a violin hardly matters to us now, I'm sure you'll agree?”

“Yes,” she conceded.

“And are they connected?”

“I'd hesitate to think they could be connected,” Nigel said, looking at Sonia, who gave a half-hearted shrug.

"And why do you think that, Constable?"

“The time frame doesn't allow it. The body, as near as we can tell, was washed out of whatever shallow grave it was buried in. A direct result of the rain, as far as we can determine."

"You've determined that, have you?"

"As this is unexpected, and while you’ve been sent here to help with the investigation of a theft—”

“You refuse to admit they're connected? Why's that, I wonder?”

“Why? There’s been a lot of flooding in the area lately. The victim was washed down one of the bigger streams and deposited along the property line of one of the major houses. He could be from anywhere. But he's been there for a lot longer than overnight.”

“Did you send a forensics team out to examine the area?”

Nigel almost looked sheepish as he shook his head.

“We were about to do that,” he added. “As soon as we give a statement for the record.”

“And how did you determine it was murder then? Did you examine the body?”

“Special Constable Nazar was a nurse during the World War—”

“And that qualifies her in the field of forensic medicine?”

“I know a bloody bullet hole in the head when I see one,” Sonia said. “I’ve seen more dead bodies than I care to remember, thank you.”

“Say no more, Constable, say no more. I know exactly where you two are going with this. You want the murder case. You think, because you found the body, you’re entitled to work the case and are perfectly willing to let me investigate the theft. While you have no experience in this field—neither one of you—you think it’s your chance to prove to those pricks in London we’re not sitting on our asses out here, but that we do damned fine detective work.”

Sonia stared at him in silence before nodding her head. She’d thought about it; she'd reasoned with it and thought it through, which is why she felt they had to get to Okehampton. She could see things weren't going to work out the way she thought they would. She could understood--she could even accept it--but going to Okehampton and arguing her case was still in her best interest. And it was at the moment of understanding that she could see new possibilities opening up in front of them. If they caught the thief, they’d be thanked by the large manor houses of the area, who, being ever so grateful, would happily endorse her promotion.

We already have a possible suspect.

“You’re going to tell us that we won't be working on this case,” she said simply. “What about the violin theft?”

“The violin?” he asked.

“Did no one tell you it was a violin?” Nigel asked.

“Did you start an investigation and seal off the scene?” Bilge replied, nodding as he considered.

“I did. I answered the call last night at which time I started a preliminary investigation. Charlie was here. He’ll vouch for that.”

"I started the paperwork for Rose last night," Charlie acknowledged.

“Have you made a forensic analysis of the site?”

“We’re a small team here. Everything we need to conduct a forensic investigation comes to us from Okehampton, who in turn receive their requests, through Plymouth and Exeter. Any of the evidence I may have been able to collect, or separate, will undoubtedly be destroyed due to the simple volume of running of a manor house that large. We have little to process, and what we have we'll be transporting to Okehampton the moment we have time to drive it out there,” Nigel said, standing up.

"And you want to carry on investigating the theft while I concentrate on the murder case?"

"Doesn't it make sense?"

"And we share whatever pertinant evidence we come across?"

“Not unless you agree to my terms.”

"Your terms? Who's the lead investigator on the case."

"I'm willing to concede to the fact the Baron feels I'm too young. How do you think he'll react to a woman leading the investigation?"