Shot of Silence (Justice Again Book 3) by M Comley (the unexpected everything .txt) 📕

Andrea and I were engaged to be married. The registry office is all booked, the wedding venue, everything was in place and now…she’s gone.”

“We truly are sorry for your loss. Was she on the phone to you when she lost her life?” Charlie asked.

“When she was murdered, you mean. Yes. We were flirting. All that is gone now, I don’t even have that as a lasting memory of her. All I have is her pleading for her damn life. Why? Why her? She’s never done anyone any harm. Why would someone strip her of years of happiness within two minutes of meeting her?”

“We believe she knew the murderer.”

“No! Who is it?”

“We think it’s James Boyd, a former colleague of hers.”

“Shit! I knew him, or should I say, of him. Why? He left the firm not long ago from what I can remember.”

“You’re right, he did.”

“Why kill her, she never did him any harm?”

“That was going to be my next question, had they fallen out at all?”

“No, not really. He was up for promotion. A woman got in ahead of him, maybe that’s what he objected to. Are you telling me that the two deaths which have already happened there, Grace and Colin being killed, were down to him?”

“That’s what we believe, yes.”

“Bloody hell. What does that say about our society? If you’re given the sack…hang on, he wasn’t even sacked, not from what I can recall. How sick is that?”

“We believe he left Zedex and set up his own rival firm in the last couple of months.”

Maria frowned. “Rival firm? So he thought he’d wipe out the people he worked with at his prior firm to gain an advantage, is that right? Or am I missing something here?”

“I think you’re going along the right lines. We need to track him down and get his take on things before the investigation makes any sense,” Charlie said. She cast an eye sideways at Roberts who was nodding.

Damn, say something. Don’t leave it all to me.

As if reading her mind, Roberts asked a question. “Were you together long?”

Charlie groaned inwardly. What type of question was that, and what relevancy does it have on the case?

“Around ten years. Does it make a difference?” Maria snapped.

“No. I was just wondering,” Roberts mumbled.

“Why aren’t you out there searching for the killer?”

“We are, we have teams gathering information on him now. As you can imagine, things will take a little time to piece together. He’s a dangerous criminal and…” Charlie stated.

“And he’s just gunned down my fiancée, and forgive me for saying this, but it’s taken you over…” She glanced at the sunray-shaped clock on the wall. “I was wrong, it’s more like fifteen or sixteen hours to get here. I rang the station, you know. They didn’t want to know.”

“What?” Roberts beat Charlie in saying. “Can you give me some details about that?”

“What else do I have to tell you? I was frantic. As soon as I heard the shots, I rang the station. Maybe I would’ve been better off calling nine-nine-nine. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

“Can you tell me who you spoke to?”

“A young woman. I figured she would do something about it and get back to me. I’ve been sitting up all night, waiting for someone to drop by.”

“We spoke to the parking attendant. The garage was locked around eight-thirty and remained closed until around eight this morning. In our defence, maybe a patrol car turned up at the location, found it locked and—”

“Are you serious?” Maria interrupted Roberts. “I’ve bloody heard it all now. My friends are always telling me the police are a waste of time, you guys have just proved it. Is it because of who we are? Because we’re not straight we don’t get the same treatment as straight folks? Tell me, I’d love to know.”

Charlie sat back and let Roberts take over. This was way over her head.

“No, I don’t think that’s accurate at all. I promise to delve into your complaint when we get back to the station. All I can do for now is apologise for the way your emergency call was handled. It’s a grave concern to me that we appeared to have failed you. Please, let us try and put that right for you.”

“And how do you propose doing that?” Maria sneered.

“By capturing the killer and making sure he faces the justice he deserves. There is also a complaints procedure you can enter into, if that’s the route you’d like to take.”

“I might want to do that in the future, not right now. I need to grieve the loss of Andrea. She meant everything to me. We’d overcome a lot in our relationship, enough to know that we were right for each other, no matter what hurdles were erected in our path to happiness. I know that probably sounds sloppy, but it’s fact. Being gay…well, I’m sure by now you can understand how difficult it still is in our society. Everyone in authority believes we have equal rights, but when it comes down to it, we have nothing. It’s all a load of bollocks. Unless you’re straight in this life, well, it’s one huge struggle to get noticed and have a voice of your own.”

“I can understand you thinking that way. I’ll give you a card. When you’re ready to talk, or make a complaint, you’ll have my backing, I promise you.”

Maria’s eyes glistened with tears. “You’d do that for me?”

“I would. I’m on the side of justice and I believe you were seriously let down by the force today. I’ll ensure this doesn’t happen in the future. I know that’s not going to help your situation but I’d like to do my bit for the future.”

“Thank you. That’s very kind of you. What will happen to the person who accepted my call and did nothing?”

“I’ll make it a priority to find out who was responsible and punish them accordingly.”

“I hate to get someone in trouble but…well, I can’t thank you enough for this. It’s