Chapter 1
Sumner was puzzled. As he sat at his desk, slouched lazily back in his chair, feet sprawled across the desk itself, he studied the report of the incident from the night before, hardly knowing what to make of it all. A man had been found dead outside and far below his apartment, virtually splattered across the yard as if flung from the balcony twenty floors high above where the pathetic remains of his body lay. Worse still, even after this horrible death, his limbs had been torn from his body by some great force, as yet to be determined by a post-mortem.
Stranger still, witnesses had heard the man’s screaming, and ran to see his body falling horribly to the ground, making a dreadful sickening sound as it reached ground zero, broken like the soft flesh of an apple thrown from an aeroplane, innards scattered and dispersed in sickening disarray.
Worse was to come for the unfortunate observers of the man’s misfortune. An obscure dark and dimly-lit figure was seen to suddenly approach the fallen object, at first, he was perceived as someone there to help, as was the instinct of all who witnessed this dreadful event from their own balconies above, but to everyone’s horror, they saw the man, dressed like a dark leopard, moving so swiftly they could scarcely discern his outline, pulling the already disfigured body apart, throwing the limbs across the yard with a force and feeling that seemed to suggest more than mere anger, rage, animal fury, a bestial destruction of what was left of the life and mortal remains of what had once been a man.
This was all dreadful and difficult enough to take in, but the witness accounts spoke of how swiftly this strange dark shape had moved, “like a film speeded up” was how one witness described it, the force, the power, was incredibly fast, unbelievably strong, everything had happened in an instant, then he was gone, the yard was dark and silent again, only the horrific sight of what lay there, silently waiting for the dreaded morning light to expose the full truth of what had taken place.
Sumner could not fully absorb what he was reading. Had the witness account been made by one person, he would instantly have dismissed it as some crank, or fantasist, but given that this was not the case, what was he to make of it? The people who had seen this happen insisted that it was not an animal, some dark panther, but a man, albeit a man whose actions had all the speed and power of an animal, mythical or otherwise – And if this man had been the one to throw the unfortunate victim from his balcony, how did he arrive in the yard only seconds after the sickening sound of the man hitting the ground? Witnesses were very specific about the time frame within all this happening – But how was such a thing possible?
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Sumner’s brief, this kind of thing. His squad officers were perfectly capable of dealing with murders, which were by no means rare in this town, violence was normal enough, sad as it that was, but it was routine that did not usually reach Sumner’s desk, unless it was major crime, or a shocking child murder or abduction that was likely to hit the press and TV. But he could tell that even his case-hardened team had been shocked by what they had seen and heard, so it had landed on his desk for assessment and comment.
He sighed wearily, and unwound himself from the comfort of his desk and chair. It was time to go the Ops room, where the team were waiting. As he walked in, the hubbub of noise swiftly subsided – The men were wary of him, they knew he could be a bit of a martinet, having a tendency to frown on anything that smacked of the work not being taken seriously. Then again, he was well liked too, for many times he had defended members of his team from criticism coming from the top drawer, at risk to his own career. For that at least, he had the respect of his team.
“Morning” he said, rather formally, marching with purpose towards the large Ops board, where the graphic and horrible photographs of the body were pinned in not-so-glorious technicolour. Even the hardened veterans among the team had never seen anything so wantonly vicious perpetrated before, and an uneasiness hung in the room, pervading the silence, no-one knowing what to expect.
Sumner studied the faces. Walter Ellis, better know as “Wolf”, his DS; a tough, uncompromising copper who, previous to this incident, had thought he had seen it all; Safen Mamand, the new DC, a bit green round the ears as well as the gills, on this pale morning with the guts of a man splattered on the board before his eyes, renewing the memory of the real thing from the night before, when he had been violently physically sick, despite the merciful darkness surrounding the scene; Filiz Polat, an attractive Anglo-Kurdish 25 year old police girl, seconded to the team to help with admin as well as liaison duties and anything else that could be put upon her when necessary; Alan ‘Al’ Martin, the more experienced of the two DCs, but still fairly wet round the ears compared to the hard-bitten Wolf. Chief Inspector James Sumner had never seen them so quiet, so subdued as they were today.
“Wolf, what can you tell us”? He said, typically not beating about the bush or standing on ceremony.
The hard-faced DS cleared his throat and, as casually as he could muster, he rose from his slouched position facing the Chief Inspector and turned to face the assembled officers, their faces tense and expectant.
“A man was found in the courtyard of his apartment block, from all accounts, and from the state of the body, he seems to have fallen from his balcony. No post-mortem as yet of course, but death must be assumed to have been instant. Immediately after his fall, someone or something tore his limbs from his body and scattered them across the yard, making a right old bloody mess to say the least”. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mamand, involuntarily heaving. He momentarily wondered if the boy was going to throw up again.
“Witnesses?” Sumner interjected, wanting to push Wolf faster along the line of enquiry.
“Several heard the man’s distress”, the DS said, slightly irritated at the interruption, knowing from past experience the thoughts of his boss in such situations. “ Quite a few witnessed the fall and what happened afterwards” he said, tersely. “Allowing for the usual contradictions in witness statements, there’s a general agreement that someone rushed to the scene and proceeded to tear the man’s body apart, though in the dark, a description of the man or thing that did this is proving difficult to pin down. The best we can come up with so far is a dark shape that looked like a man, but someone who was moving incredibly fast, faster than we would expect to see from a human, and given the terrible damage done, it must be possible that what they were seeing was an animal rather than a man”.
“But surely if it had been an animal, it would have carried off at least part of the body to consume?” said Filiz, (her warm sweet voice a perfect match for her beautiful face and unusually dark eyes thought Sumner, despite himself and the sombre situation).
“Good point” he said, noting with slight satisfaction her look of gratitude and respect. Briefly, their eyes met and held each other for a few seconds.
“Did this animal or thing make any kind of noise that would help to identify it?” He asked, looking quizzically at the team in general.
“Nothing at all” said Ellis, slightly annoyed at Filiz’s interruption as well as the unwelcome interaction between the highest and lowest of the team.
“The creature – if that’s what it was – just went about its work and vanished”.
“Vanished?” said Sumner, dissatisfied with the vague nature of the reply.
Ellis squinted at him, trying to hide his displeasure. “Whatever went on down there, from all accounts, it was over in no time at all, so fast that no-one really could say with certainty what became of the thing causing all the damage to the body. It just disappeared into the night”.
“So what about the victim – who was he? What do we know?” said Sumner. Delegating was never one of his strengths, he was more of a hands-on man, as his team well knew.
“Vincent Grey, a stockbroker, forty-three years old. Lived in the apartment block for the past eight years, divorced, three children, lived alone” said Ellis, glancing needlessly at his papers as he continued his summary. “Nothing visibly wrong in his finances or relationships, though Filiz and Safen are following through with background checks on that and on relationships etc. Al and myself are going through statements with the witnesses and awaiting the post mortem reports to see where we go from there”.
Sumner stroked his chin thoughtfully, letting the moment’s silence concentrate the thoughts of his officers.
“Very well” he said, rather officiously, “This is an unusual and horrific crime. Not the sort of thing we want in our patch at all. Try and dampen down the public reaction if you can” he said, turning towards the Press Officer, Liz Naylor (or “Nearly”, as the men chauvinistically called her). “Keep on top of this, and keep me informed at all times” he said, turning to the team again, and focussing his sharp eyes to emphasise to the team the importance the command.
Gathering up his papers, he briskly left the room, only momentarily giving Filiz an almost indiscernible smile as the hubbub of conversation at once began to rise, the tension in the air slowly evaporating with his departure.
