Two Left Feet

by Em

The manner in which the victim had been hung from her neck was pretty standard.  However, the location in which her body had been positioned was unusual, to say the least.  In all his years on the police force, Detective Ian Atkins had never seen a body hanging from a flagpole in front of a government building.  The fact that the building where the victim was hanging was the police station didn’t make it any better.

He had no idea how someone had hoisted the young nude female up there & it certainly wasn’t lost on the media.  They were filming from the minute he’d arrived on the scene.  His fellow cops had cordoned off the scene, but until they got photos and evidence, they couldn’t take her down.  Officer Emma Chadwick was taking photos of the crowd in case a suspect was later discovered.  She was being as subtle as possible, but Atkins noticed her anyway.  Of course he noticed Officer Chadwick.  She had curves in all the right places---

YOWCH! WHAT THE FUCK WAZZAT BRIGHT LIGHT?!  Atkins felt sure someone in the crowd had just taken a photo of the crime scene. He strained to see behind the crowd that had formed over the last two hours.

Atkins lurched towards the crowd and noted it shifted when he approached.  He wondered if someone ran off or moved before he could find the picture taker.  The detective realized he wouldn’t be able to find out what had occurred, so he returned to the scene.

CSI Tad Jackson poked him on the shoulder and Atkins jumped.

“Jesus Tad!  Don’t do that!”  Atkins had jumped about a foot and held his hand over his heart.

“Why so skittish, Ian?”  Tad laughed.  Though they had been friends for a long time, Atkins was not amused.  Tad quickly turned serious.  “I found two shoe prints over here, E.  I already got pictures and now I’m taking an imprint.  You’re never gonna believe this.  The two shoe prints are both for left shoes.”

Atkins stared blankly into Tad’s deep brown eyes.  He wasn’t sure he heard correctly.

“Um, sorry,” he stammered.  “Are you saying you found two left shoe prints?

“Yes.”

“Could they have been from two people?”

“Well, at first glance, yes.  However, looking at the treads in the shoe prints, they appear to have the same markings and wear marks.  Also, the treads are from the same size shoe.”

The middle-aged detective closed his eyes and pinched the top of his nose in frustration.  “Tad, are you suggesting our perp literally has two left feet?”

“Well I’m not saying he doesn’t.” 

Atkins rolled his eyes and walked over to the body that was finally being taken down from the flag pole.  It was going to be a long day.

**

The no-nonsense detective felt his heart drop as he reviewed the coroner’s report on this morning’s murder.  He stroked his moustache and Sonia Lopez, the county’s medical examiner, raised her hand in protest.  “Now Ian, don’t give me that look.  I know the report tells you everything you already know, but when we get the blood tests back from the lab, we should know more.”

Atkins frowned and glared at the small-framed elder woman sitting calmly before him behind her desk.  Her chestnut eyes reminded him of his mother’s eyes.  He realized that’s why he was always more patient with Dr. Lopez than with most of his coworkers.

“I know Sonia, but you know there’s a lot of pressure to solve this high profile case.”  He sighed.  “At least you’ve given me the victim’s name.  Looks like her name is Irma Keystone and she’s 45 years old from down on Ellington Street.  That’s the nicer part of town.”

“Yes, true,” Sonia’s Guatemalan accent had softened over the year, but Ian still enjoyed its sing-song tone.  “I forgot to mention, Miss Keystone was manually strangled before being strung up.  I found bruising on her neck and, as you know, the dead don’t bruise.”

Atkins’ mind began to race.  Now that he knew Irma was strangled by hand, what could that possibly mean?  It was time to piece together this fantastic mystery and Atkins looked forward to closing in on this killer fast.

**

Officer Li Ng had been on the police force for a year and finally felt he was getting his bearings.  He was finally off 3^rd shift, a fact that relieved his heavily pregnant wife.  The criminals at night tended to be more violent, but Ng loved his job and loved working the streets at night.  Still, being awake when Lucy was awake was nice.  Ng was finally finishing up his interviews of Ms. Keystone’s family and friends and was eager to report back to his boss.

When he walked into Detective Atkins’ office, he was met with a scowl.  “Bring me anything I can use?” the detective growled.

Ng nervously scratched his full head of hair.  It had finally grown back after police academy training was over.  “Well detective, I talked with the victim’s family and friends and the only thing that stood out was that most of them disliked her, even her sister, Beth.  I’m on my way to type up my report and I’ll have that to you later this afternoon.”

"No officer, you will give me your notes now.”  Atkins thrust his hand expectantly across his desk expectantly.

Ng wasn’t sure what he should do.  This definitely went against protocol.

“I’m waiting,” Atkins sighed.

Ng handed over his notes and stood awkwardly across from the detective.  Atkins looked up and shook his head.

“You can go now, kid.”

“But Detective Atkins, I can’t break the chain of command.  I need to write my report and log my notes.”

“Look Junior, you have no idea the kind of pressure I’m under.  Now I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.  GET. OUT.”

Ng turned with some reluctance and walked in a daze to his steel gray metal desk. He was reaching for his bottle of vodka in his bottom desk drawer when the police chief ran frantically into the room.  Chief Shana Martin was a tall black woman in her late 40’s.  She was all business and seldom had time for pleasantries.  It was strange to see her in such a fluster.  Chief Martin saw Ng and waved for him to follow her.  She also waved for Officer Chadwick and Detective Atkins to join her in her office.  This was going to be huge.

**

Officer Emma Chadwick had never seen the chief in this kind of tizzy before.  She had just finished her diagram of the crime scene and was preparing to follow up on some other business when the chief signaled her into her office.  The only times she was ever in Chief Martin’s office was for performance reviews and to update the chief on crime scene statuses from time to time. 

The 4 individuals sat together in Chief Martin’s office waiting for the chief to speak.  While they were waiting, Chadwick noticed Detective Atkins trying to look down her shirt again.  As if that creep would ever have a chance with her!

Chief Martin drank a big gulp of what may or may not have been coffee.  She finally broke the silence.  “This afternoon, the media received a photo of this morning’s crime scene from an anonymous photographer.  It depicts…well, see for yourselves.

The chief shoved a large black and white photo at the three of them.  Everyone leaned across her desk to get a good look.  It was a picture showing 3 things: (1) Detective Atkins’ face with his eyes closed and his hand up in front of his face; (2) the victim dangling from the pole behind him in the distance; (3) a shadowy figure bending over near the body on the pole.  The figure was not wearing any type of official uniform and appeared to be reaching for something and was clearly inside of the cordoned off area.  How had no one noticed him?

Atkins flushed and said, “The person whose flash almost blinded me this morning took this picture!  I remember when that happened!”

The chief looked at him with a mixture of hope and exasperation.  “You remember the time that this happened today?”

“Oh, well not exactly what time, no.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and looked away.

Chief Martin shook her head and began, “Ian, you are the lead detective on this case.  How did someone not in uniform get behind the crime scene tape?”

“Look Chief, there’s no way I let some civilian into the crime scene.  There has to be a mistake.  Officer Ng was in charge of allowing people into the scene.”  Atkins pointed towards Officer Ng accusingly.

Ng just looked confused.  For a police officer, he always seemed to be off in his own little world.  Some of the other officers thought he might be bringing something more than just coffee in his lunch thermos. 

“Now Ian, leave him out of this,” Chief Martin stated sternly.  “He’s still a rookie and you’re a 15 year veteran of the force.  I expect more of you.”

The chief turned to Emma.  “Young lady, did you get the pictures of the crowd developed yet?”

Emma was caught off guard, but nonetheless, responded quickly.  “I was just getting ready to call the photo lab—“

“Then what the hell are you waiting for?  Go call!”

With that, the meeting was over and Emma had never been so happy to call the lab before.  Lucky for her, the photos were ready and she quickly went downstairs to pick them up.  As soon as she saw the photos, she knew the chief was going to scream at her some more.  Oh well, better get it over with.

**

Chief Shana Martin was awfully glad that she found some vodka in Officer Ng’s desk earlier for a day like today.  She’d known about Ng’s alcohol problem for awhile and had meant to address it, but today she didn’t care.  It had turned out to be a shitty day.  The divorced mother of three had not had it easy raising her children on a cop’s salary, but two of the kids were out of the house and she just had one in high school now.  Chief Martin had a lot of which to be proud.

She truly had a lot going on lately and the Keystone Case was her #1 priority.  She wondered why Office Chadwick was taking so long with those photos.  She took another swig of her modified coffee and called to check on the status of the video that showed the front of the police station.  She hoped Office Ng had found something incriminating.

“Ng, tell me somethin’ good.”

Ng was quiet for a few seconds then nervously started, “Oh, uh, Chief.  I was just about to call you about the video.  I reviewed it and uh…well…”

“Spit it out, young man!”

“Well, the flagpole was out of the line of sight of the camera.  The crime wasn’t recorded on our camera.”

The dull ache that had been at the back of Chief Martin’s head started throbbing and she felt her whole body tensing up.  ”Are you telling me that that camera didn’t record the crime?!”

Office Ng stammered, “N-no, I mean, uh, yes.  I mean, there is no video of the crime.  I mean, I can see if the buildings nearby were pointed towards the flagpole and, uh, and—“

“Do what you have to do, kid.”  Chief Martin let the phone drop into its cradle as she closed her eyes in disbelief.

At that moment, Officer Chadwick wandered sheepishly into the room with a stack of photographs.  Judging by the look on her face, this wasn’t going to be good news either.

“Okay young lady, hand them over,” she put out her hand and Officer Chadwick placed them into her hand and cringed.

**

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