Definitely Dead by Kate Bendelow (howl and other poems TXT) 📕

‘So, Maya, what do you know about the job?’ He smiled kindly. His avuncular manner and soft tone of voice endeared her to him immediately. Still smarting from the dressing down she had received from Kym, Maya was determined to prove herself at this job and she felt even more confident knowing she was going to be working alongside the seemingly pleasant DC Wainwright.

‘I’ve been told that the infamous Celeste Warren has jumped from her roof terrace in what appears to be a suicide. I take it you’ve heard of her?’

‘Oh, yes.’ He held the top of his pen in his mouth as he scribbled some notes down. ‘Everyone knew Celeste. I’ve heard stories about her in my time that’d make your hair even curlier.’

Maya nodded. ‘My intention is to record the scene photographically, search for any evidence that may indicate her state of mind prior to her death and then we can scrape her up and ship her to the corpse-cooler.’

‘Corpse-cooler?’

‘The mortuary.’

He laughed. ‘Nice turn of phrase, Maya.’

‘At this stage,’ she continued, ‘there’s no suggestion that she will need a home office post-mortem. That may change, of course, if we find anything that arouses our suspicion. The CSM is quite happy from the information we’ve received up to now, that it’s a straightforward suicide.’

‘Yeah, fair enough, but suicide? Who would have thought that’s how she would have chosen to go? I wonder what drove her to it. Have you any idea?’

Maya gave a hollow laugh. ‘After the bollocking I’ve just had, I’m not speculating about anything else today.’

‘Oh?’ He frowned quizzically.

‘Never mind.’ She shook her head, still feeling foolish about her flippant theory.

‘C’mon,’ he goaded lightly. ‘You can’t say something like that and not tell me. What’s happened?’

The fact she was still burning with shame over the recent incident and seeing how understanding and kind Dave Wainwright seemed to be, was all the encouragement Maya needed to unburden herself.

‘I made a flippant comment in the office about how this year was becoming the year of criminals dying, in the same way as 2016 became known for losing a lot of celebrities.’

‘Okay…’ Wainwright said hesitantly as he tried to grasp Maya’s understanding.

‘Well, it started with Karl Gorman the other week, then Jim Baron and now Celeste. It was just meant as a joke really. But the last few sudden deaths we’ve dealt with have involved well-known criminals. Anyway, I got a complete roasting off Kym about my “fantasist notions”, which is why I said I won’t be speculating anymore.’

‘These sudden deaths though, have any of them been found to be suspicious?’ Wainwright said as he scribbled something down.

‘Well, no.’ Maya was distracted by a white car that had just driven slowly past them. She could see through the rear-view mirror that it was reversing and heading back towards them and she was curious to see who it was. ‘I mean, I only attended Gorman’s death, a colleague of mine went to Baron’s. There was nothing suspicious about Gorman’s in the end and I believe the same was concluded about Baron. I think in both cases, their unhealthy lifestyle had caught up on them, so natural causes really.’ She shrugged with little conviction.

‘Like you said though, it is bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? The death of three known criminals in the space of a few weeks is enough to make you wonder if there is something suspicious behind it.’

‘Well, they do say there’s no such thing as coincidence in the cops. You should know that better than anyone. But that said, we haven’t found anything that has given us, or the pathologist, cause for concern.’

Wainwright raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t speak too soon; you’ve not examined this crime scene yet.’

The white car that had caught Maya’s attention was now parked up alongside Maya’s van. Wainwright turned to watch as a man in a suit climbed out of the car. He was clutching a leather holdall and paused briefly to peer through the window of Maya’s van.

‘Looks like we’ve got company.’ Wainwright nodded towards the man as he spotted them in the car and began striding over.

‘It’s not the bloody press, is it?’ Maya tutted. ‘That’s the last thing we need.’

Suddenly the passenger door was wrenched open and the man was looming through the doorway.

‘Maya Barton?’

‘Yes? Who are you and what the hell do you think you’re doing?’ She reached across to pull the passenger door shut again but he swiftly blocked her with his leg.

‘What the hell are you doing more like? Get out of the car!’ he hissed as he glared at Wainwright. Suddenly a crackle of static from the police radio filled the air, clearly coming from the man’s holdall.

Maya was temporarily stunned and confused in equal measures. Despite his padded frame, Dave Wainwright was doing a good job of sinking back into the driver’s seat, wearing a sheepish, yet amused look on his face.

‘You’re not a detective?’ Maya stated stupidly.

‘He’s one of the biggest parasites I’ve ever met,’ the man replied as he pulled the door open even wider and gestured for Maya to get out of the car. ‘He’s a reporter for the Evening News.’

17

Maya leapt out of the driving seat like a scalded cat. ‘You bastard. You absolute bastard!’ she screamed at the journalist. ‘You let me think you were a police officer.’

Wainwright looked completely unabashed. ‘Your mistake, darlin’ not mine. You were the one who willingly got into my car. I haven’t done anything wrong.’

He was laughing now, and it was all Maya could do to hold back the angry tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. She’d be damned if she’d give him the satisfaction of seeing her get upset. She’d fucked up again, and royally this time. That was humiliation enough.

‘You’ve got your pound of flesh, Wainwright, now fuck off,’ the man hissed as he pulled Maya away towards her van.

‘I’m not breaking any laws by being here and you can’t make me move on,’ Wainwright shouted after