(no subject)
Title: Blood Snooker, Part 1
Author: Jeannie
Word count: 3,815
Summary: There's been a mass murder, it's up to Sam and the team to find out who's behind it.
“I’m afraid Sam still hasn’t responded to any outside stimuli, the more we try to get him to respond the further he seems to slip away. I’m afraid we…”
“I’m sorry Doctor, but I know my Sammy is still there! He’s fighting to come back, I know it. All we need to do is give him some time.”
“Time, Mrs Tyler, is something that Sam does not have. If Sam doesn’t respond to any stimuli soon, then I’m afraid we may be forced to review the situation.”
“What are you saying?”
“If Sam is no longer responding, then it may be that he has lost his battle to get back. The last brain scan showed some activity, but it may be that Sam’s brain in now functioning at a minimal rate. If this is the case, then the kindest thing would be to switch o…”
“If this is true, then I’ll make the decision. I will not let you Doctors decide whether or not my Sammy is still around, I know what my boy’s doing! And right now he’s fighting, and he’ll wake up soon. I know he will.”
“For Sam’s sake, let’s hope he does.”
XXXXXXXXX
“Mum?” Sam whispered, as he rolled around on his small bed. His eyes were shut, and his mouth was slightly open. Occasionally he tossed and turned on the small, matchbox-sized bed, sometimes leaning precariously over the edge of the bed.
Suddenly with a start he woke, and sat up quickly. His eyes were wide, and fearful. He brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the dream. At least that’s what he hoped it was, because if it was true then the Doctors in 2006 were close to turning off his life support!
“Sam?” A high-pitched, cold voice sounded from one of the corners in his dark room. He looked up sharply, and began to scramble backwards away from the small figure. Even in the dark Sam could still see the red of her dress, and the silhouette of the clown clutched in her arms.
“What’s the matter Sam?” The Test Card Girl glided towards him, as she had done so many times before, and Sam found himself falling off the bed and hitting the floor hard. This didn’t stop him, he continued to back away, until he hit the small table by his window. He shot a quick glance at the television, and indeed the spot where the girl and her disgusting clown should have been, was empty. He looked back at her, and saw that she was now only a few inches away from him, staring down at him.
“What’s wrong Sam?” She asked again, tilting her head to one side. He felt his breath quickening, as he opened his mouth to speak.
“Go away. Just leave me alone!” He cried, still trying to push himself backwards but his back was against the table, he couldn’t move.
“Do you really want me to leave Sam? I’m your only friend Sam, you know that don’t you.” She smiled, one of her sickeningly evil smiles, as he glared at her.
“Go away, please.” He found himself pleading with her, and he bit his tongue in annoyance. She smiled again, and opened her mouth to speak again, when a loud banging burst through the dream.
Sam woke up with start, and sat up quickly. The loud banging stopped abruptly, and Sam wondered for a moment if it had actually been there at all. Then suddenly a loud bang echoed around the room, as a large man elbowed his way into Sam’s flat. The man was wearing a long, camel coat and black, driving gloves. His hair was quite long, and blonde.
“What?” Sam asked, as he glanced towards the window, it was still dark outside. He turned back to watch Gene,
“Get your coat.” Gene said curtly, refusing to give any information about why he’d called at this hour. Instead he looked around the pokey flat, his face unreadable. Sam knew better than to ask questions, so he quickly got up and walked to the end of his bed, where his leather jacket lay. He picked it up and pulled it on, over his clothes. For some reason he didn’t have any pyjamas in this flat, so he’d settled for sleeping in his clothes. Also this meant that when Gene bashed down his door at any old hour, he could be ready to go quickly.
Gene shot him a quick look, making sure that Sam was ready before he walked quickly from the flat. Sam followed, his curiosity peaked. What had happened to make Gene come and call on Sam this late? The last time this had happened, Gene had taken him to the canal and had shown him the body of a young girl. It hadn’t been nice, and worse still Ray had blamed him for it!
Sam shook his head slightly, trying to clear it of this memory. This could all be perfectly innocent, and Gene may have just fancied a drink and thought that the only way to get some company was to bash down his DI’s front door.
Finally the two walked out of the flat block, and out towards the Cortina. Gene marched around the car towards the driver’s side, and clambered inside slamming the door rather loudly. Sam sighed and quickly opened the door to the passenger’s side, and sat down next to his DCI. The minute he’d shut the door behind him, the engine revved up, and soon they were off speeding down the road towards an unknown destination.
“Where are we going Guv?” Sam asked, unable to control his curiosity any longer. He looked sideways at Gene, unconsciously gripping the seat beneath him as his DCI hurtled down the different roads.
“You’ll see in a minute.” Gene said, not looking at Sam, instead keeping his eyes fixed on the road. His face was still unreadable, but Sam thought he saw a flicker of something pass across his face. They continued their drive, Gene taking them down alleyways, which would normally not have been able to fit a car but this, was Gene Hunt’s Cortina it could go anywhere! Or at least that’s what Gene thought.
Finally after about ten minutes of nerve shattering driving, Gene slammed on the brakes and pulled up the handbrake.
Sam unfastened his seat belt and opened his car door, looking around for whatever Gene had brought him to see. On the other side of him, he heard Gene open and shut his own car door. He walked forwards around the car, and took in the huge building in front of him. It was one of Manchester’s many factories, and on a normal day it would be full of workers busily trying to get all their work done, all dreaming about being able to go home to their families, to be able to give their families everything that they wanted.
“Guv?” He looked sideways at his DCI, watching as the older man continued to walk forwards towards the entrance to the factory.
“’Bout an hour ago Phyllis got a call,” Gene said over his shoulder, “Was from some nutter, kept saying about how ‘blood ran cold’ or something like that. Next thing we know, several plods have found a mass murder.”
“So let me get this straight,” Sam said, as he fell into step with his DCI “Phyllis got a call from a stranger, possibly psychotic and no one thought to trace the call? Especially after the bodies were found?” Beside him Sam felt Gene bristle slightly, the slight hint of accusation already playing havoc with Gene’s rationality. It seemed like it took all of the man’s effort not to slam Sam against the wall of the building, but finally he managed to swallow the urge and he continued to walk towards the building.
“Don’t you think we tried that? Caller ID couldn’t be found.” As they reached the front doors, Gene bashed them open with a bit more force then was necessary. They both entered the large building, and walked towards the sound of activity. As they drew nearer, they could see that there were dozens of police officers standing around, taking notes, smoking or looking a bit ill. Chris and Ray were stood near the back of the group, Ray with a cigarette in one hand and Chris looking slightly green around the gills.
“It’s a nasty one Guv.” Ray said as the two men approached, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at Sam. Ignoring this Sam spoke up, his eyes travelling over to the group of uniformed officers obscuring the scene.
“So what happened?”
“I just told you Gladys. Mass murder, or do I need to spell it out?” Gene said viciously, he was clearly not in a good mood. And who could blame him; no copper wanted a mass murder on their patch! No copper wanted a mass murder, full stop.
Sam ignored him and began to make his way carefully, through the uniformed officers towards the centre. As he drew nearer to the centre, he saw small dark red circles scattered on the floor. He kept his eyes fixed on the floor, and saw that as he got nearer to the centre the spots increased in both number and size until eventually there was a massive sphere of it. Most of the bodies had been removed, but there were still two lying in the middle of the pool of blood. Their eyes were wide and glassy, their skin as pale as paper. Sam gently pushed past two CID officers, and walked closer to the bodies, careful not to step in the blood or disturb anything.
As he reached the edge of the pool, he knelt down and tilted his head to one side. It wasn’t hard to spot how they’d died; each one had a large slit in their throats and several smaller cuts on their arms. It looked like the killer had tortured them before he’d murdered them.
Sam turned his attention from the wounds to the victims themselves, a man and a woman. The man had short slightly greying brown hair, with stubble covering most of his lower face. The woman had long, blonde hair and a fearful expression still evident on her pale face.
Slowly Sam stood, and turned away from the site feeling slightly sick. He moved back towards Gene, Ray and Chris wanting to know what else had been found.
“How many?” He asked, swallowing hard as he felt the bile rise in his throat. He’d seen a few scenes like this, but it never made it any easier. These were people’s husbands, wives, sons, daughters, uncles, and aunts. Somewhere a family was about to receive the devastating news, that one of their family members had been brutally murdered. Then they’d have to endure interviews, about whether or not that family member had any enemies, whether they were in debt or anything else. The torture would continue, until finally they’d find peace and the bodies could be laid to rest.
“Six.” Ray said, staring at the floor and fiddling around in his jacket pocket trying to find more cigarettes. Sam’s eyes widened for a minute before he took a deep breath, and turned away. Six people in one night! That was insane.
“Why were they moved?” He asked sharply, glancing from Ray to Chris and finally to Gene. “The bodies shouldn’t have been moved!” His voice rose in volume, as he stared around at the group before him.
“Forensics said that they need some of the bodies.” Chris said finally, looking slowly up at Sam his face still slightly green.
“Happy now?” Gene growled, as he stared at his deputy with a murderous glint in his eye. Sam felt himself deflate, and he rubbed his face with his hand.
“We’d better get back to CID.” Sam said, turning so his eyes were fixed on the slowly diminishing group of police officers trying to look for clues around the bodies.
“Yeah, so we can find the bastard that did this.” Gene said brusquely, before he turned around and marched out of the door. Ray and Chris exchanged a glance, before they followed leaving Sam with the other officers. He cast one last glance around, committing the sight to memory for inspection later, and then left.
As he exited the building he found Gene sat on the bonnet of his beloved Cortina, swigging from a small hip flask. Sam walked towards the car, and sat down next to his DCI. Wordlessly Gene offered him the flask, and Sam took it and had a quick swig of the liquid within. As he passed it back, Gene sighed
“We’ve gotta find ‘em Sam.” He said quietly, taking the flask and screwing the top on it carefully. Then without another word he stood up and walked around to the driver’s door and opened it, Sam followed his lead and hurriedly got into the car. Soon they were flying down roads and alleyways, towards the station.
XXXXXXXXX
“We’re gunna find this killer! Okay? No excuses. Go.” Gene clapped his hands, and the whole of CID began to buzz with activity. Annie hurried back to her desk, and began to riffle through papers her face set and determined. Chris also hurried back to his desk, but instead of settling behind it he grabbed his coat, which was on the back of his chair, and followed Ray who was swiftly exiting the office. Gene walked back into this office, and slammed the door shut. Within the office there were the sounds of things being thrown about, and the occasional punch to a wall.
Sam sighed and sat down behind his desk, which was now piled with paperwork. Notes on ever murder that had happened, and every murderer who may have been let out of prison. This could either be a copycat killing or some person had decided that it was time for all these years of pent up anger to be released.
He rubbed a hand over his face, before he pulled the nearest file towards him and opened it. He was greeted with several black and white photographs of two young women, and one profile picture of a young man in his twenties. He flicked through the pictures, and gently put them down on the table in front of him. After these pictures there was a pile of paperwork, all eager to be read. He started to read the top piece, and had gotten to the bottom of the second paragraph when his phone began to ring. He looked up at it for a moment before he looked around the room, to see if anyone else had noticed it. None of the officers were looking at him, or looked annoyed at the interruption. He looked back at the phone, and picked up the receiver hesitantly.
“DI Tyler.” He said automatically, although he knew immediately that it was one of those phone calls from the ‘future’, one where he could hear what was going on around his bedside.
“We’re going to give Sam a small dose of dopaminergic, this stimulant has proved effective in increasing synaptic activity, if not waking the patient from a coma. There have been several cases where the use of this stimulant, has woken the patient, although we cannot guarantee that this will be the case with Sam.”
“But if this…stimulant has been proved to wake people from comas, why haven’t you used it before?”
“We have used several other stimulants before Mrs Tyler, and we wanted to leave this one till last. There have only been a few cases where this has worked, we don’t want to raise your hopes. This really is a last ditch attempt.”
Sam’s eyes widened for a second, before he spoke quietly.
“I’m here, please! Last time you gave me a bloody stimulant, I was as high as a bloody kite!”
“Sorry caller, crossed line.”
He sighed and put the phone down, his mind racing. So now they didn’t believe that he was still there, they were going to go and give him a stupid stimulant again! He rubbed his face with his hands, and pressed his palms into his eye sockets.
“Tyler!” He jumped slightly as a harsh voice sounded; he let his hands fall on the desk and looked up to see Gene framed in the doorway to his office.
“What?” He asked, not really caring what was going on with his DCI at the moment. All he wanted to do was catch this killer, and not get high on stimulants because of some stupid doctors.
“My office. Now.” Sam heaved another sigh, and pushed himself out of his chair and walked towards Gene’s office. Gene had already disappeared inside, and was no doubt waiting to berate him about something or other. He pushed open the door and walked into the office, looking directly at Gene with a defiant glare.
“What?”
“No need to look like that Sammy-boy.” Gene said as he stood by his coat stand, one hand on his long, camel coat. “We’re going out.”
“Where? Why?”
“I’ve got a hunch.” Sam restrained the urge to roll his eyes, mainly because Gene’s hunches tended to be right.
“And where might this hunch be taking us?” He asked, watching his DCI as the older man swung on his coat and grabbed his cigarette pack from the table.
“Wait and see Sammy-boy. Wait and see.” This time Sam couldn’t stop his eyes rolling, so he turned around quickly and walked out of the office, behind him he could hear Gene following him. As he passed Annie’s desk he smiled at her, she smiled back and gave him a questioning look. He didn’t have time to respond, before Gene whisked past him and out of the door. Sam had to jog after him, in order to catch up with him.
XXXXXXXXX
“So, who’s this guy?” Sam asked as he closed the car door, staring up at the small house in front of him. It had a tiny garden, three boarded up windows and a dark red front door. Behind him he could hear Gene shutting his own door, and walking around the car towards the house.
“Jimmy Daines. One of me snouts, knows everything that goes on in this city.”
“And we’re just going to go in there and ask politely if he could tell us who did this?” Sam asked, following Gene towards the front door. Gene didn’t properly reply, instead he made a noncommittal noise in his throat, and banged loudly on the door.
Behind the door there was a strange scuffling noise, and then the hesitant drawing back of a lock.
“Who is it?” A high-pitched voice asked, as the door opened a few centimetres.
“Coco the clown.” Gene said with a perfectly straight face, whilst behind the door there was a low groan.
“Mr. Hunt?”
“Hello Jimmy.” The door swung open, to reveal a tall, thin man with a thick mop of sandy blonde hair. He was wearing fairly normal clothes. He wore black trousers, a light blue shirt and a dark blue jumper. The minute the door was opened properly, Gene pushed his way into the house. Sam followed looking around the house curiously, taking in every inch of the place. He followed Gene into the living room, with a boarded up window and some old furniture.
“Been keeping the place tidy I see Jimmy.” Gene said, as he turned back to the door watching the man carefully.
“It’s been a busy time Mr. Hunt.” Jimmy said, smiling slightly as he looked Sam up and down. “Who’s this?”
“DI Tyler, pain in the arse.” Gene said simply, ignoring the glare that Sam shot at him. “I suppose you heard about the murders.”
“Yeah, I heard about ‘em. Not many who haven’t.” Jimmy sat down heavily in an armchair, his hands falling on his lap. Neither Sam nor Gene made any move to sit, instead Sam moved towards the boarded up window and Gene stayed where he was, leaning lightly against the wall behind him.
“You know who did it?” At this Jimmy looked up sharply, his eyes wide and fearful. The answer was writing clearly in his face. “Who did it?”
“I…I…can’t…” Jimmy stuttered violently, wringing his hands in his lap. Gene looked at him for a moment, before suddenly he moved forwards so fast that he looked like a blur. The next thing Sam saw, Jimmy was held up against the nearest wall by his throat.
“Come on Jimmy, eight people were murdered today! You know who did it, so tell me and it’ll be better for you.” Jimmy’s face was turning slightly red as he fought for breath, his hands clawing at Gene’s grip.
“Guv, let him go.” Sam said, moving forwards glancing between the two.
“Jimmy.” Gene’s voice was low, and threatening. Slowly Jimmy nodded, well at least it looked like he nodded, it was hard to tell. Finally Gene let him down and walked back to the opposite wall, Jimmy clutched his throat and took deep breaths.
“Okay…” Jimmy took one more deep breath before he continued, “I’ll tell you. But this is all I know okay! So you don’t come back to me, okay? I’m already gunna be in big trouble for telling you this, oh god, I’m gunna die.” Sam realised that Jimmy was rambling, so he gave a small cough.
“Jimmy.” The man looked up at him, and then cleared his throat.
“Right, okay. You ‘eard of Donald Peterson?” Sam looked across at Gene, wondering if the name sparked any memory with him because it certainly didn’t with him. Gene’s face was impassive, but Sam thought he saw a flicker of recognition flash in Gene’s eyes.
“Well he’s been out of prison for a while now, trying to get his life back together, or so he says. Well about a week ago he came looking for workers, said they’d be paid a good sum if they helped him out a bit. He got about five guys from round here, and the next I heard he was setting them up working in that big factory. Where those bodies was found. Coincidence?” Jimmy shot a significant look at Gene, his nervousness gone. He looked slightly pleased with himself, when Gene nodded slowly and began to move towards the door. Sam moved to follow, but before he’d left the room Gene turned,
“Jimmy, if you’re spinning me a line, then Peterson won’t be the only guy you’ve gotta worry ‘bout. Got it?”
Jimmy gulped, and nodded fervently. With that Gene made his way out of the living room, and out of the front door. Sam followed him, closing the front door behind him and hurrying towards the Cortina.
*End of chapter 1*