The Cop Killer (21 page)

“Police at Wrexham, who is speaking please”? Was the voice he heard.

“It is Jack Richards”.

“Oh yes indeed Mr Richards isn’t it, well now Idris has been calling you, now just hold the line please”.

“Constable Idris Roberts yer, who is that please?”

“It is Jack Richards, Constable Roberts; do you have an update on this Sid fellow?”

“I do indeed Sir, but as you are not a police officer I am unable to pass you my report”

“What did you say officer, are you aware that I am in charge of this investigation?”

“That may well be the case Sir, but rules are rules police records can only be passed within those in the job see”.

Before he could become even more exasperated Doris arrived, “Is there a problem Mr Richards?”

“Please deal with this wooden top he won’t pass me the information”.

“Inspector Scott-Ling here, have to you an update on the Sid fellow?”

She was sometime listening and then said. “Right thank you; send an email to me at the address on the card I gave you
.
Thank you for you enquiries, pardon, yes I will pass on what you say”.

She replaced the handset looked up and said, “Idris says the Wooden Tops went out years ago when he was a boy”.

She went to the computer, opened it then printed out the message, she did not read it but handed it to Jack assuming, correctly that was the correct thing to do.

He took the sheet of paper and they both left, once seated in her car they were on their way. As they travelled through the town negotiating the various traffic lights, which seemed to take an eternity to change to their favour.  He read the report Constable Roberts had gathered in respect of Sid.

“Cedric Royston Morgan, Alias Sid, born in 1971 now 42 years of age, a native of Cardiff in South Wales. A single man, he received an elementary education leaving school at the age of 16 years”.

  “On leaving school he joined a group of travellers and first came to police attention in the year 1991 when he was convicted of robbery involving antiques, he was sentenced to 7 years.  He was released on licence in 1994” 

“In August 1995 he was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for assaulting a police officer at a football match, he served only one year and was released on licence”.

“He then returned to life amongst Irish travellers but during a police raid on their encampment in 1997 he stabbed a police officer and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted murder. He served 4 years before being released on licence in 2001”.

 “He disappeared from police notice until the year 2003 when he was involved in an armed robbery in which two security officers were badly injured. Morgan was himself shot by a police marksman and when recovered he was sentenced to a further 10 years, he served only 3 years.” 

“He was released on licence in the year 2006 pending a training course at a local hospital in that year.”

“Since his release he has attended the rehabilitation course and currently works in the same place.”

“He remains an assistant in the hospital dispensary at Wrexham General Hospital where he is described as a quiet man, loyal and good worker”.

“There is a cautionary note on his file at New Scotland yard, which reads.  He has a known pathological hate of police officers since the incident in which he was shot”.

He read the file to her, she shook her head and said, “It’s the same old story, a repeat offender repeated offences all serious, I suppose now he appears to have settled at the hospital that is something, what do you think?”

“What do I think?” Said Jack, “I think that we need to keep one eye on this fellow.”

“I see he appears to have gone quiet which reminds me of the old saying.”

“Take care of still waters and quiet men”.

“I wonder how the hell Wendy Upton came to get involved with him”. Asked Doris,

“I would imagine she was lonely and it seems he has changed, outwardly at least and of course there is no way she would know anything of his record.  Clearly he wasn’t married to the lady who kicked him out”.

“That is true,” she said.

“Well keep the contents of this under wraps and contact this Idris copper, he won’t` speak with me and tell him the same. I suspect if this Sid or whatever name he is using gets wind of the fact we are asking about him he might just kick up some dust and we don’t need any clouds of dust or anything else at the moment”.

“I will contact Idris but if you didn’t know, in Wales it is renowned for gossip and if Idris has been asking around locally it won’t take long for the word to get out”.

 “We are here now, you can probably tell from the area”

“Yes” he said, “Grim, very grim”.

They left the car and approached the first house, that of Bob Friday but as they did so the door opened next-door causing Doris to say.

 “That is Rachel Friday, she is waving us inside, I will hazard a guess they are both in there, a moral support thing”.

“I suspect you are correct, we will try it together after all they are not suspects”.

“Hello Mrs Friday you remember me?”

“I do indeed, Inspector Ling”

“Ah well yes”, replied Doris not making an issue of the fact she had forgotten the Scott bit.

“Please come in”.

They both went inside, Doris said, “Mrs Friday and you Rachel may I introduce to you Mr Jack Richards a retired Detective Superintendent from New Scotland Yard who has been asked by the powers to be to look a little further into the death of both your lads and several others similar”.

There was a surprise, for Wendy was holding a new borne babe, she said, “Welcome, I always thought it was murder”

“Well now” said Jack, “may we take a seat?”

“Oh of course please do” said Rachel, “I am so sorry not to have asked you, it’s the stress of it all, you being from Scotland Yard and that”.

Jack and Doris sat down and she said, “How old is the Baby?”

“Its only four weeks old, Wendy, I called him Reg after his Granddad”.

“Very nice too, I hadn’t realised when I came before, you were expecting”, replied Doris.

“Well no I wasn’t showing you see at that time”

“Right” said Jack; “I have checked the police records of both officers so I don’t have many questions.  Can either of you recall anything that might give you rise to believe that someone had it in for either of the men, in particular anything to do with any sort of drug or family weakness”.

“Well” said, Rachel “I know for certain there is some heart problems in our family. Bob’s father died aged only 50 years of age from a heart attack”.

“Well there is nothing as far as I know in Sid’s family for I have been in touch with them, you know to safe guard the baby and there is nothing”.

“Mrs Friday” asked Jack, “there seems a gap for several years of what Bob was doing before he joined the police, can you shed any light on that”.

“Well not really you see he had a spell shall I say he was disillusioned, he left home for a year or two when he came back he never would say what he had been up to.  When he came back he went straight into the police and they gave him this house”

“I see” said Jack, “What about you Mrs Upton same thing it seems there is a gap in what Sid was up to before joining the Police”

“I am sorry”.  “We only met after he was in the Police I met him a few weeks before we were married. We met believe it or not in Chester when I was in this religious group; I play the guitar you know.  We had some hassle from some yobs one Saturday morning and my dear Sid came to the rescue”.

“So there is nothing at all nothing suspicious, no doubts or anything”, he asked, feeling despondent, he could almost feel the egg running off his face.

“No not really, only that woman you remember Wendy, that woman came knocking wanting to see Bob, you thought at first he had been having it off”.

“Oh yes, I recall it now”

“Tell me more,” said Jack.

“There is not much to tell”, replied Wendy, “we were sitting here one day when a knock came on the door, Sid got up and answered it. The next moment I saw him on the path speaking with this very nice looking woman.  The next moment Bob came from next door and joined the conversation.  After a few minutes, the woman left and I saw the two lads speaking with each other and shaking their heads. I assumed it was some woman who either Sid or Bob or both might have been having an affair with, she was really nice looking”.

“When Sid came inside he looked a bit pale, put on his coat and left together with Bob. I asked both of them about it later but they just said it was a police thing and the woman had come to the house pestering them. They went down to the nick and it was all resolved. I never heard from her or saw her again and the blokes never spoke of it. To tell you the truth round here people often visit police houses to speak with officers, that is the way it is.

“What did the woman look like?” Asked, Jack.

 “I didn’t see her,” said Rachel Friday “I only know what you said Wendy”

Wendy thought, and then replied, “Well I can’t really recall except she was in her early thirties, very beautiful had a very tanned skin, not black, not white just nicely tanned. She had very long black hair”.

“If you saw her again do you think you might recognise her”? Asked Jack”.

Wendy hesitated then replied, “Yes, I think I would”.

“Thank you” said Jack

“Well ladies is there anything else anything at all suspicious you can bring to mind that might give me a clue in which direction to look to find any cause other than natural causes as it appears at the moment?”

They both shook their heads, Doris and Jack rose and were about to leave when Jack stopped and asked

“Does the name Sid, other than your husband I mean, or Morgan, Roy, Royston or Cedric mean anything.

There was silence then they both simultaneous said “Morgan that rings a bell”, they looked at each other.

 Wendy said, “It was Morgan, Rachel that chap from the hospital in Wrexham. He came round here after the lads who stopped him found some drugs on him, they warned him and took the drugs off him”.

“That is right,” said Rachel, “he came round shouting the odds, then burst into tears saying he had the drugs in connection with his work, he accidentally had them in his pocket and was searched when they caught him speeding and he didn’t want the lads contacting the hospital in case he got the sack. Some bloody traffic Warden in town gave him the lads’ addresses.

“Yes that is it Mr Richards”, said Wendy, “it was all resolved, they said they would give him the drugs back to take to work and he would hear no more of it”.

“Thank you for this ladies” said Jack.  “It is vital that you speak to no one of our visit or of anything that has been said here today”.

“You do understand that, both of you?” Said Doris.

They both nodded their heads; Doris and Jack shook hands, stating someone would be in touch if there were any developments.

They left the house and on arriving at the car a voice said, “Are you the cops?”

“Yes”-replied Doris

It was a lady very obese, aged around fifty years of age smoking, wearing bedroom slippers and a very dirty brown jumper, and what had been a red pair of trousers, which were now mottled in many colours and stained with of every possible item of food.