A Murder and A Ring

Featuring DI Richard Poole, DS Camille Bordey, Officer Dwayne Myers and Officer Fidel Best

Alicia Best was having a perfectly normal day. She had had breakfast at her hotel where she was staying with her husband George and then, once she had got washed and dressed, the two of them set off, for the Honore Market.
Alicia and George had arrived on Saint Marie only a few days ago, and had been staying in a local hotel known as L'Harmonie, which they thought was luxurious. In fact, the whole island was very luxurious: the view from the beach, the exotic cuisine, the friendly locals. They had decided to come here because they wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of London, and they had made the right decision.
"Looks like this is it." George announced, as they parked opposite to the Police Station, where they could see the Honore Market clearly: some people were rushing around, others were yelling inaudible phrases in order to sell their goods.
"So that's the legendary Honore Market," Alicia said, with a cheeky smile, "I can see why you were so desperate to come here."
"Oi, stop it you!"
They laughed and hugged each other, Alicia kissing her husband on the nose gently.
"Want do you want to do now?"
"Well, I just wanted to get a few things from the market. Coconuts, chicken, that sort of thing."
"That sounds perfect. And after that, shall we go to the beach?"
"Yeah, why not?"
What happened next was both unfortunate and unexpected: as soon as George opened his door, the car exploded. Orange and red plumes of flame rose up, almost licking the sky, whilst a thousand locals turned in shock as their attention turned towards the explosion.

It was at this point when four people rushed out of the Police Station and gazed in shock at the explosion: the first was a forty something year old English man wearing a black suit and tie; the second was a young Caribbean woman wearing a flowery shirt and orange trousers; the third was an oldish Caribbean man in standard Saint Marie police uniform and the fourth was a much younger Caribbean man, also in standard Saint Marie police uniform.
"What the hell just happened?!" DI Richard Poole exclaimed, gazing in both amazement and horror at the ruins of the once beautiful car.
"Er, sir..." Camille Bordey answered, pointing at two charred skeletons who were sat in the front two seats.
Alicia Best and George Best were dead.

Back at the Police Station, Richard was setting up the investigation database, which was, essentially, a whiteboard with photos of the dead on it. They had learnt who the victims were, as they had traced the numberplate back to a rental company who had lent the car to the victims, and so he was now engaged in the regular activity of writing everything they knew about the murder.
"So," he said to Camille, "what do we know so far?"
"Well, Dwayne and Fidel are checking the scene outside sir, but I have been doing some background checks on the victims. And there's one thing that I think you should know before I tell you everything else."
"And what's that?"
Camille took a deep breath, knowing that what she was about to say would darken the mood slightly.
"They were on their honeymoon together."

And, by pure coincidence, Dwayne and Fidel re-entered the station just as Camille said that, making all four of the Police team have an expression of sadness on their face.
"I see." Richard finally said, after a few minutes of silence, "Is there anything else? Anything unusual?"
"Well, their daughter worked as an IT consultant until early last year, when she was fired by her boss for inappropriate behaviour."
"And who was her boss?"
"Adam Best's father, William Spencer."
"I see. But there's no record of the daughter coming out to Saint Marie?"
"Not as far as I know."
Richard then popped the lid off of his favourite green pen and wrote the words "DAUGHTER - MADE REDUNDANT" on the investigation database.
"Fidel, Dwayne, what have you found?"
"Well chief, " Dwayne said, "we've found a cable linking the door on Adam's side to a bomb underneath the car."
"Very good." Richard commented, writing "CABLE ON ADAM'S DOOR" on the database.
"But sir," Fidel said, "we've found something that's a bit strange."
"Strange?"
"Yes sir."
He then held a plastic evidence bag in front of the Detective Inspector, making him raise his eyebrows in amazement: the bag contained a gold ring.
"Where did you find this?"
"In the boot. Or rather, what was left of it."
"Right. Fidel, dust the ring for prints; Dwayne, tell me more about the car and Camille, see if you can find any possible record of the daughter coming to Saint Marie."
"And what will you do chief?" Dwayne asked, sitting down at his desk.
"I am going to find out more about our victims' honeymoon."

A few moments later, Richard had discovered that the victims had been staying at L'Harmonie, a hotel that was near to the town of Honore. When he had originally arrived on Saint Marie after DI Charlie Hulme had been murdered, he had considered staying at L'Harmonie until he could get a proper home. But, after he'd discovered that his only chance to get a free house was a little wooden shack by the beach, he had to reluctantly give in. Since then, he'd been subjected to nights where he could hear all sorts of animals chirping and barking, and he would have to sometimes clear chickens out of his shack the next morning. That only added to the discomfort that he suffered on a daily basis of wanting to wear a full suit and drink tea in extraordinarily hot weather.
At this moment in time though, he had decided to pay a visit to L'Harmonie with Camille, in order to see if they had any CCTV footage of the killer strapping the bomb to the couple's car.
"Has the Commissioner told you about his niece?" Camille said, interrupting his thoughts.
"The Commissioner has a niece?"
"Yes. She's called Ruby and she's just started Police School. I think he's hoping that one day Ruby will be a police officer, perhaps even with us."
"Hmm. Did you find any record of the couple's daughter arriving on Saint Marie?"
"No, I didn't. However, I did find something that you may be interested in."
"Which is?"
"Alicia Best witnessed the murder of Roger Damian on Saint Marie, twenty years ago. DI Arnold Walker was the chief officer at the time, who was tipped off by Alicia that a criminal known as Jordan Davis killed Damian. Davis was sent to prison for fifteen years, and was released five years ago."
"So Davis must have been hunting Alicia ever since. That gives us a pretty strong motive, Camille. All we need is an opportunity and some evidence that clearly shows that he killed George and Alicia Best."

Whilst Richard and Camille were in the Honore Police Landrover, Fidel and Dwayne were back at the station, doing what DI Poole had told them to do.
Dwayne was skim-reading documents about the Ford Fiesta that had exploded, whilst Fidel was waiting for any signs of a match for the fingerprints that he had uploaded to the Caribbean Police Computer Network. After a few minutes, however, the computer pinged, and Fidel examined the screen closely.
"Dwayne, you'd better call the Inspector and Camille." Fidel said, amazed by what he had just found.
"Really, why?" Dwayne responded, walking over to Fidel's desk and reading what his computer said.
"I think you'll find that this is why, Dwayne."

At L'Harmonie, Richard and Camille were stood waiting at the front desk whilst the receptionist, a short asian woman called Milla, retrieved the CCTV footage from the car park.
"Is there anything else I can do for you today?" she asked, having handed over a silver disc to Camille, who then slid it into an evidence bag.
"Not at the moment, no." Richard answered, before they left the hotel and got back into the jeep. But, as soon as they had put their seatbelts on, Richard's mobile phone rang: it was Fidel.
"What is it, Fidel?" he asked, as Camille drove them back to the station. After a short pause though, Richard had a look of amazement on his face.
"Well," he then said, "that's quite astounding. Just tell me where we need to go and we'll meet you there."
Richard then listened for a few more moments, remembering the address that Fidel was giving them before hanging up.
"So, what did he say?" Camille finally asked him.
"He said that he's worked out who the killer is, and we need to get to Honore quickly, as we don't have long."
"Don't have long before what?"
Richard turned to face Camille.
"Before the annual Day of the Dead parade, of course!"

In Honore, people dressed up as skeletons and demons were busy dancing about, as various floats passed by. One of these people was Matthew Kendell, a young Englishman who was dressed in a black suit and tie which had a skeletal pattern on it and who also wore a skull mask, making him hard to identify from the various other dancers and festival-goers.
Also in the parade was DI Poole and his team, frantically searching for Matthew Kendell, who they knew was their killer.
"Chief," Dwayne cried, "there's too many people! How are we going to find him?"
"Surely we should just try and work our way through separate areas?" Camille suggested.
"No," Richard said, heading towards a stall selling skull masks, "I have a much better idea."

Richard's idea went against his values in multiple ways: one, he knew that he would be boiling in a skull mask in the middle of November on a Caribbean island; two, it would make him look ridiculous and three, he only wanted to see skulls at a murder scene. But, he knew that this was the most effective way to try and figure out where Matthew was, and so his team had no other choice.
They slowly began to drift through the crowd, trying to examine people's facial features under their masks, but hardly any matched Matthew's. Luckily however, Dwayne managed to spot Matthew remove his mask and slowly drift away from the crowd, and tried to signal to the other members of the team to try and follow them. Thankfully, Richard, Camille and Fidel received the message clearly, and tried to intercept him as he ran.

Merely half an hour later, back at the station, Matthew Kendell was in chains and locked in one of the cells behind the main office of the station. Richard and his team stood opposite to his cell, watching his every move.
"You'll want to know why I did it, won't you?" he eventually asked.
"We know that your fingerprints were on the ring, and that your fingerprints were also on the car door. So why did you kill the innocent couple?" Richard questioned.

George Best was my best friend. We had been friends since university and he had helped me to find a wife. It was my turn to do the same, a few years ago, and I succeeded. But I should have known that he would abandon me. He never cared about me any more. It was all about her now, and he had forgotten that I had helped him find her. Without me, he would be a lonely man, sat in London with nothing to live for. So I decided that enough was enough. I managed to make sure that opening the door once would prime the bomb, and opening the door again would make sure that he never lived again. A fitting end for somebody who never cared about his friend.

"You killed somebody because they had forgotten about your friendship with them?" Richard finally asked.
"Yes. Weren't you listening?"

It had been an hour since they had interrogated Kendell, and Richard and Camille were now sat outside Richard's shack, gazing at the dark blue sea as it washed towards the shack and then retreated again.
"Richard, now that we're alone, can I say something?" Camille said.
"Oh, go on then. What do you want to say?"
"I think you're brilliant. I think that you may act grumpy on the outside but on the inside you are a kind, honest person, and I don't think that I could be a police officer without you."
And then a very strange thing occurred: Camille hugged Richard.
"Er, Camille, what are you doing?"
"Saying what I think about you. That is what I'm doing, sir."
"Well I think I've got the message, so, er, good night."
"Good night, sir."
She smiled and walked back to the police jeep, before eventually driving off, leaving Richard alone with his thoughts.
Peace at last.

THE END