He Who Lives by the Sword Shall Perish by the Sword

By Bill Coles

A person with good reason is programmed for revenge for past crimes and to make them pay.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496973740

Bill Coles

Bill Coles has been a journalist for 25 years and was the New York Correspondent, Political Correspondent and Royal Reporter on The Sun. He has written for a wide variety of papers and magazines ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The Mail, The Scotsman and Prima Baby Magazine. For the past five years, he has been a tabloid consultant with South Africa’s biggest newspaper group, Media 24, as well as The Herald Group in Glasgow and DC Thomson in Dundee.

Book preview

© 2015 Bill Coles. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/29/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-7373-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-7374-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

After completing the attempted murder case of Samantha Watt and having received so many accolades Robin and I were given a short vacation, not that we were going anywhere but it did afford us enough time to move her property into my apartment where we would be closer together. It had become fairly accepted among a select few that we, Robin, and I were together. The attitude was, if the chief didn’t care, then they were not about to start problems. During this period I had purchased a white Germen Shepherd puppy as a little gift to Robin for being my partner and saving my ass. She was fast to acknowledge ownership by naming her Samantha. I guess we can all understand the reason she become great company as the weeks passed as she grew. It was obviously Robin’s dog since she never listened to me but was always at her side. She also learned to get control of us by loudly barking when she wanted something, i.e., if she wanted to eat she would stand by her bowl and bark knocking the bowl over with her paw, if she wanted to go out she would scratch the door and bark. Needless to say living in an apartment nobody wanted to hear a dog barking and so we would respond to her dictates. By the time spring had re-appeared and there was a break in the weather all three of us would set out for a nice day in the country or at the sea shore. Being so close to water it was obvious which was the most common. By now we had returned to work and life was going along nice and quiet and peaceful, and work had become routine with all the paper work that would be tossed at us when people thought we had too much free time on our hands.

The first weekend we had to ourselves we decided to go to the beach and take Sam for a romp. Approaching the water Sam did not have to be told where she was. Yes Sam was able to smell the salt and knew instinctively that the ocean was not very far. As we got closer, her wagging tail kept hitting me on the side of my head and continued to do so until I couldn’t take it any more regardless how I tried to calm her down. Finally out of total desperation I found a parking space and let Sam out. Like a shot she was off and running in and out of the surf. As Robin and I started to follow along the sea shore we both became involved in, what else, police work and we had quite a discussion on how we should conduct business with-in the office of Detective Lieutenant O’Hare and Detective Sergeant Robin Novak. Everything was going along well enough until we heard Sam barking up a storm. About a quarter of a mile down the beach we watched as Sam stood by the water’s edge and as hard as we might try, she refused to respond to our calls. She did not move, she just stood there barking at something at the water’s edge.

You know Dan we should hurry and see what she’s barking at. She might be in trouble.

Don’t be silly. She probably found a dead fish floating in the water.

Well I’m going to see for myself, is that okay with you.

Whatever.

And with that she ran on ahead. Before she even reached Sam she turned and called with a voice that said get your ass over here and fast. Now it was my turn to start running and as I got closer I could see what was causing all of the commotion. Floating in the surf was the body of a man face down. You didn’t have to be a doctor to know that he was dead. Part of his body had served as dinner for some mighty hungry fish. The strange part about the whole thing was what Robin had seen and called my attention to it.

Look, there on his ankle doesn’t that look like rope fiber?

Robin, thank god you’re my partner. I wasn’t even thinking along those lines. I think we better call it in and get some forensics in on this one.

In the meantime Sam had stopped her barking and was lying in the sand taking the whole thing in as though she was the chief investigator. Robin removed her cell phone from her pocket and called Jerry to tell him of our find and asked for a complete crime scene team. They would take over all of the investigation at the scene and turn the results over to the persons assigned to the case as a matter of department policy. She also informed him that we would stand by until they arrived. Within minutes we heard the wail of sirens and the arrival of two or three police cars from the local precinct. What cop doesn’t like a little excitement on his tour of duty? That is until the part about doing the paper work. The duty sergeant walked over to us and identified himself as Sergeant Wilkins from the 6-0 Precinct. Now it was our turn.

Good morning Sergeant I’m Detective Lieutenant O’Hare and this is my partner Detective Sergeant Robin Novak. Sam here is the one that found him and we just happen to be her partners. The sergeant laughed and replied

I know just what you mean. I have a dog to.

Just as soon as she heard her name, her ears perked up and she came running over to Robin looking for her pat on the head and of course the traditional ‘Good Girl, Good Girl’.

I explained to the sergeant everything that we had done, explaining our own observation and concluding with our best description.

We determined, he was a small man, maybe 5'7 a bit overweight, maybe about 180 pounds and dark complexion. Maybe somewhere in the vicinity of the Mediterranean or there abouts. Well Sergeant I guess that’s about as close as we can get. We did call for a forensics’ team and we expect them to arrive any moment and they will be able to give you more information."

The fingerprint crew arrived and set up shop looking for anything that might give them a clue as to who the subject was. Since most of the body had decomposed with a lot of help from the fish it became a tough task to say the least. Finally after turning the body in all kinds of positions it was decided the only prints useable were the right thumb and the right pinky. After they had finished their task, which by the way was not a very nice one. They turned the body over to the people from the morgue and as it turned out every time they tried to move the body a piece of flesh would peel off and fall to the ground. After many comic remarks from various persons they were able to get the body into a body bag and into the wagon after which they were on their way back to the city as the rest of the crew was finishing up their part of the investigation.

Hey lieutenant, we just received a request on the radio from your command and they want you to report to the precinct ASAP. We told them we would pass it on and give you the message.

Yeah, thanks. We’ll get back to them when we get back into the city.

We continued our walk with Sam for a while when we decided it was time to get back to the city. The walk was good since it gave Sam the chance she needed to dry her coat. If you ever smelled a wet dog you’ll know what I mean. Today was Saturday and our normal day off, so it was a bit of a surprise that they should want us to come in, unless of course there was something that had to be done and just could not wait. Since we were here and ‘they’ were there we decided to take out time and let Sam run a little longer and hope he dry’s off before she gets back into the car. On our drive back to the city we kicked around several ideas as to who the person was, and just how did he die and why were there fragments of cord or rope around his ankle? By the time we had arrived at the precinct the news had spread and everyone was a buzz about the two detectives who go looking for trouble even when they are on a short sabbatical.

However we both agreed that this was looking more and more like a murder then an accident. Now that we have a murder on our hands, the next problem is the old standby, who, what, when, why and how. If we can get those answers then we are half way home. Looking at Robin it finally dawned on me and I made the comment:

What the hell are we getting so wrapped up in this thing for any way? It’s not our case, it’s not even anywhere near our precinct.

Robin started to laugh and then I saw the humor in the whole dam mess and I started to laugh with her. Well it was a good exercise. Had I known what lay ahead I might not have taken the murder so lightly.

At the precinct we were met by Captain Jerry Rubin, commander of Manhattan South. Maybe I should tell you a little bit more like the truth.

We were ushered into his office by the desk officer who informed us that the Captain would come out of his office every five or ten minutes asking if we had arrived ‘yet." As soon as Jerry appeared we could see the happy look on his face.

Hi Jerry how’s tricks?

What the hell is the trouble with you two, can’t you stay out of trouble even on your day off. My phone has been ringing off the hook for the past two hours. Even the chief called wondering what you have to do with this murder. In the meantime I’m walking around with my fingers up my ass and wondering what the hell he was talking about and then I get a call from Captain Thomas of the 6-0, Sheep heads Bay precinct asking why these two detectives are working in his precinct without notifying him that we had a case going on. I tried to explain that it was your days off and as far as I was concerned you were just out for the day. I don’t know if he believed me or not but someone is going to call and apologize to him and tell him exactly what had happened.

Jerry, believe me Robin and I had just gone to the beach so Sam could run and romp in the surf and sand. That was our only reason for being there. Believe me if there was anything else we would have told you long in advance we certainly would have done it

Well at some point in time you have two phone calls to make. One to the Chief and another to Captain Thomas, but he can wait until you come back to work. He has always been a nervous Nellie. I know you guys didn’t do anything behind my back but when you start getting phone calls and you don’t have answers it gets to be a great big pain in the ass. I think you both know what I mean. Okay, now you two can take a chair and let’s hear everything you know even if it is only guess work.

Well to start with Robin and I went to the shore to give Sam some exercise and to relax. Sam was the one that found the body and we reported it and that was it. Robin saw some rope or cord fibers around the ankle area and we told Sergeant Wilkins.

Who the hell is Sergeant Wilkins?

If you would pay attention Jerry you would know who Sergeant Wilkins is. He was the Sergeant in charge of the detail from the Sheeps head/ bay Precinct.

If you don’t stop jerking my chain I promise I’ll have your ass.

Robin looked at me then at Jerry.

Don’t pay any attention to him. He’s just trying to be funny and he’s picking the wrong time to play games. I told him you were a very serious person and you take your job very seriously and you weren’t a person to toy with.

Thank you Robin for all your support. At least there is one person that has brains that I can count on.

Jerry can’t you see she’s just trying to be funny at your expense.

Thank you Robin. Maybe when you get him alone you can talk some sense into that thick brain. Oh by the way I told the Chief that I thought you and Robin would make a good team to investigate this and he agreed but was a bit hesitant. He voiced his concern over interfering with your own work. I told him that you had nothing of any importance on your desk that couldn’t wait. Guess what smart ass, he agreed to let you have the case and told me to inform you of his directive and he would confirm by telex-type. Do you have any comments?

Looking at Robin, Jerry winked and she knew now that Jerry was playing with Dan.

You know, one of these days you’re going to smart ass someone and they will not take it like I do? Then your ass will be in deep trouble.

Did you really tell all that to the Chief?

No but it’s not a bad idea. Does anyone have any idea who he is?

Not so far. After all they just took the finger prints this morning and even the F.B.I. don’t work that fast. But I would like to stay in touch with them just to see how it turns out.

Well I’m sure no one will mind so long as you don’t get under foot with their investigation.

Well it’s just out of curiosity. You understand don’t you?

I turned to Robin and suggested that maybe she should go out and let Sam out of the car since she’s been in it for so long.

"I’ll be out in a few minutes I just want to check and see if there are any messages for us. Without saying a word she got up and left with me trailing behind. A couple of