Peter James: You Are Dead

They were approaching the end of their shift, with just an hour till the 7 p.m. changeover, and it had been a quiet day. So far they’d attended a minor RTC — a rider knocked off his motor scooter by a van, but without any injury — a call to a chemist near the Seven Dials roundabout, where a man had collapsed in the doorway, from a suspected drug overdose; and, as there was almost without fail on every shift, a call to a domestic incident, which they had sorted, and arrested the live-in boyfriend. It was the fourth time the woman had called the police after being assaulted by this man in the past eighteen months. Perhaps now she would throw him out for good, but Susi Holliday doubted it. The true tragedy for many victims of domestic abuse was that they became so demoralized, losing all their confidence, that they rarely had the courage to chuck their partner out or to leave — or the ability to believe they could make a life on their own.

In a few hours, the downtown area around West Street with its bars and nightclubs would, inevitably, turn into a potential war zone as it did every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, kept mostly under rigid but friendly control through Operation Marble, a massive police presence late into the night. But luckily, on their current shift pattern, they would escape these nights of dealing with constant fights and with drunk, abusive chavs. Although, in truth, some officers enjoyed getting in a good ‘bundle’, as they called it — it was one of the adrenaline rushes of the job.

Susi Holliday was driving in the stop-start traffic, the wipers struggling to clout away the rain, the brake lights of the car in front flaring against their rain-soaked windscreen. RVK was engrossed in a text he was sending. They were both off for the next two days and Susi was looking forward to a quiet time with her husband James, shopping for stuff for the new flat they had recently moved into in nearby Eastbourne, where the property prices were substantially lower than Brighton.

‘What are your plans for your days off, RVK?’ she asked her colleague.

‘Uh,’ he said, and raised a finger, signalling he needed to finish his texting task. After a moment he said, ‘Taking Joey to the football.’ Joey was his twelve-year-old son, whom he doted on. ‘Then we’re going to the outlaws after. You?’

Their radios crackled. Then they heard the female voice of a Resource Room supervisor.

‘Charlie Romeo Four?’

RVK answered. ‘Charlie Romeo Four.’

‘Charlie Romeo Four, we have a report of an incident in the underground car park of the Chesham Gate flats, at the corner of Stanley Rise and Briars Avenue. A woman may have been attacked by an intruder. Can you attend? Grade One.’

‘Chesham Gate?’ Kyrke replied. ‘Yes, yes. We’re on our way.’ Then he turned to Susi. ‘Spin her round.’

Susi Holliday switched on the blue lights and siren and, adrenaline pumping, made a U-turn straight out into the opposite lane and accelerated. Like most of her colleagues, she always got a massive buzz out of responding to a Grade One ‘shout’. Along with getting in a ‘bundle’, driving on blues and twos was one of the great kicks — and perks — of the job. And a big responsibility. The lights and siren were, in law, a request to be allowed through, not an automatic right. And with what seemed like half of all drivers on the road either deaf, blind or just plain stupid, all blue-light runs were fraught with hazards and heart-in-the-mouth moments.

She had one now as a Nissan Micra in front, with apparently no rear-view mirrors or indicators, suddenly switched lanes right into her path as she bore down on it at over 60 mph. ‘Asshole!’ she hissed, missing its rear bumper by inches and undertaking it.

As she drove, Constable Kyrke was taking down details from the supervisor, who read out the make and partial index of the woman’s car and a description of her.

Ninety seconds later they tore over the roundabout by Brighton Pier, thanks to an intelligent bus driver stopping for them, and on up Marine Parade. They made a left, blazing up past the bed-and-breakfast hotels of Lower Rock Gardens. Less than two minutes later, driving up the steep hill before the hospital, they saw the apartment block, Chesham Gate, ahead to their left.

They pulled up beside the closed entrance to the underground car park, climbed out and walked up to the full-height gates. They peered through the bars of the grille into the darkness below. Susi Holliday took out her torch, switched it on and shone the beam through, but could see little other than a row of parked cars, some beneath fitted covers.

‘Any idea how we get in?’ she asked her colleague.

‘I’ll see if there’s a caretaker’s flat,’ he said, and sprinted off towards the main entrance. Suddenly she heard a clank, and the gates began to open. Moments later, she was lit up by the glare of headlights, and heard the roar of an engine behind her. She turned to see a small BMW convertible, driven by a young woman. Raising her arm, she walked towards it and told the driver she wouldn’t be able to enter the car park at this time because of a police incident.

She hurried down the ramp, triggering the automatic lights, and could now see much of the interior, switching her torch off to conserve the battery. She was looking for a white Fiat 500, index beginning GU10, and a slim woman in her mid-twenties with long brown hair. There were about sixty or so parking spaces, most of them occupied, as well as several motorcycles and a cycle rack.

But there was no sign of life. She began working her way along the rows of parked cars, breathing in the smells of dust and engine oil, and all the time keeping a wary eye out for anyone else who might be down there.

She reached the end of the row and turned left, towards a darker section. One light above her flickered intermittently, emitting a loud buzz, and she switched her torch back on. She passed a bike rack, with several heavily padlocked bicycles, and a beautiful old convertible Mercedes, caked in dust and sitting on four flat tyres. Then she saw, neatly parked, a white Fiat 500. The first digits of its index were GU10. The car looked wet, as if it had only recently been driven in here.

She stopped and radioed her colleague. ‘I think I’ve found the car,’ she said.

‘I’m on my way down with the caretaker,’ he responded.

She approached the car cautiously, then shone her torch beam in through the side window. The interior was empty. A discarded chewing-gum wrapper lay on the passenger seat, and there was a ticket sitting on the dash. She looked at it closely and saw it was a pay and display from a car park in nearby Lewes. She checked both driver and passenger doors but they were locked. The car bonnet was warm.

Just then, PC Kyrke appeared, accompanied by a short man in his fifties wearing chinos and a fabric bomber jacket and holding a mobile phone.

‘This is Mark Schulz, the caretaker for this block,’ he said.

‘So what exactly is the problem?’ the caretaker asked.

‘We need to ensure the owner of this car, Ms Logan Somerville, is safe,’ she said. ‘Have you seen her since she arrived back?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I finish at half past five.’

‘Do you have CCTV here?’

He raised his hands with a gesture of despair. ‘It’s not been working for six weeks. I told the management company, but nothing happens.’ He shrugged. ‘What can you do, eh?’ Then he hesitated as they walked towards the stairs. ‘Shall I phone her?’

‘Yes, please.’

‘Very nice lady,’ he said. ‘Nice boyfriend. Nice people.’ He held his phone up, scrolled through the display, then dialled. After some moments he looked at the two officers and shook his head. ‘No answer.’