(aka Bike) Part 1176 (98 dozen) by Angharad Copyright © 2010 Angharad
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A little while before we left, Trish and I gave Julie some combined healing. It sent her off to sleep and we left her sleeping as we made our way home. We stopped at a cyber cafe and Trish created an email account with Yahoo and then sent a copy of the picture plus the name we’d been given to the woman police inspector who’d come to speak with me. She’d left her card which made it easier.
An hour later, the inspector knocked on the door, Simon let her in. “Lady Cameron, I don’t suppose you know anything about this do you?” she held up the photo of the man on Julie’s scooter.
“Why would I know anything about it?”
“You didn’t send it to me, then?”
“No, I didn’t send it, but that looks remarkably like Julie’s scooter. What’s he doing on it?”
“It is Julie’s scooter, and we’re hoping to arrest him in the next few hours.”
“Where’s he live, I’m sure Simon would happily go and arrest him for you, although I suspect he would resist arrest and Simon would have to quieten him down, wouldn’t you Si?”
“Wouldn’t I what? he replied.
I held up the picture, “This guy is riding Julie’s scooter.”
“Where and when?” he asked walking up to get a better look at the photo.
“The date is on it, and it was taken by a camera half a mile up the road from where it was found dumped,” informed the inspector.
“Big Jessie riding a girl’s scooter,” he almost spat at the picture, so I didn’t remind him he’d had a go on it.
“The man’s name is Alfie Bird, alias the vulture, because he has hooded eyes like the bird of prey.” The inspector informed us and although she was technically incorrect, a vulture isn’t a bird of prey because it eats mainly carrion, red and black kite will also eat carrion and yet they’re regarded as birds of prey, and other raptors are equally happy to eat stuff they didn’t kill. Why waste energy when there’s fast food waiting for you?
Sadly the same laziness applies to mammalian predators as well and the red fox, Vulpes vulpes is quite happy raiding dust bins instead of killing rats and mice, mind you so is Kiki and domestic moggies are quite adept at opening black bin bags as are various gulls and corvids. Nature is adaptable, or some of it is–it can still come unstuck, as one consequence of bin bags was large numbers of gulls dying through botulism about twenty years ago. The bacterium Clostridium botulinus, is a nasty little anaerobe, which means it doesn’t like oxygen or need it to thrive. Black plastic bags in warm weather are just the right sort of environment it loves and it was growing in old foodstuffs in the bags. The gulls were ripping them open or helping themselves to the spillages from landfill sites and poisoning themselves. The same toxin which was killing them is the one that’s injected to people’s faces to reduce wrinkles or lines by paralysing tiny muscles and better known as botox–botulinum toxin. Other delightful members of the Clostridia are C.welchii, C. Tetani and C. difficile–all expert killers, the first two are gas gangrene and tetanus, bugs found in the earth or animal faeces.
“Who is this Alfie Bird?” I asked knowing he worked at the college.
“He’s a nasty piece of work, with more records than Madonna, all of them criminal.”
“How is he nasty?” I asked realising it didn’t probably apply only to his personal hygiene.
“He’s been done for violence, sexual violence, armed robbery and supplying drugs. He’s not exactly a big fish himself, he’s too stupid, but he has been used by different gangs to enforce or extort money, so he gets to exercise some of the violence for which he’s rather too well known.”
“Why would he have attacked Julie and did he?”
“We’ll have a better idea when we’ve spoken to him. I don’t know why he attacked her, or even if he did, but perhaps she saw or heard something she shouldn’t have.”
“If he’s sexually abused her, I’ll...”
“You’ll what, Lady Cameron?” asked the inspector.
“I’ll hope you catch him and he goes down for a long time.”
She gave me a very old fashioned look and her eyes narrowed. “I have to remind you that we take a dim view of people who take the law into their own hands.”
“Would I do a thing like that?”
“According to our records–yes–quite frequently.”
“Not recently, the thugs round here seem to realise that we deliver them back to civilisation sky-clad, with a bit of a walk to do.”
“Sky clad?” queried Simon.
“It means birthday suit and tends to be used as a description of some pagan celebrations, such as Wicca.”
“Wouldn’t that be a bit cold on a broomstick–birthday suit I mean?” asked Simon finding the whole interview hilarious.
“I don’t honestly know, I could tow you behind the car if you really wanted to know,” I offered. The inspector allowed her lips to twitch at my suggestion before returning to her poker face.
“We learned very little from Julie, it seems she was possibly taken after being drugged, they found traces of Rohypnol in her blood amongst other things. Before you go thinking date rape, we didn’t find any trace of that as far as we could see.”
“How do you know what happened to her, if she was either drugged or unconscious?” asked Simon.
“She was medically examined by a police surgeon who would know where to look for signs of sexual abuse.”
“It could have happened without leaving any marks,” Simon was becoming quite angry at the thought of it, especially as we knew it had happened before.
“I can assure you, our doctors are well trained.”
Simon looked at me and I wondered if the same idea went through his brain–At which well are they trained? I realised he wasn’t thinking the same when he said if he came across the guy first, he wasn’t sure how he’d react. I asked him to let the police deal with it, at the same time wishing I could have five minutes alone with him and a pair of tin snips.
“I honestly wouldn’t recommend any contact with him, Lord Cameron, he has escaped at least one charge of manslaughter because the witness withdrew his statement, we’re pretty sure because of intimidation. He’s a really nasty piece of work.”
“If he turns up here, he’ll leave in a body bag,” stated Simon impassively.
“Please, I’ve already asked you to avoid taking the law into your own hands, vigilantism achieves nothing but more problems for all concerned.”
“Oh it’s not me he has to worry about,” Simon said quite cheerfully.
“No?” said the Inspector.
“Oh no, round here the female is definitely much deadlier than the male.”
She looked at his slightest of smiles and then she looked at me and her eyes narrowed.
“We have a very savage guard cat,” I joked and she shook her head at me and sighed.
“You’ve been warned, if he shows up here, dial triple nine...”
“And ask for the ambulance?” suggested Simon.
Comments
Suppressed violence...
And she looks like such a nice girl....
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Educational or what
All that stuff about Botulism... and here us lot stick it in our faces. Weird or what. As for violence...well time and place...sometimes...
Kris
Bike pt 1176
If he does show up there and is taken care of, the plods wil rue the day that they got the Camerons mad if they get silly and jail anybody..
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Diversions
Not strictly plot-related, but I love the little thematic diversions you occasionally treat us to - in this episode both the biology lesson and the obligatory jokes (more records / which well).
-oOo-
So, our Vulture man sounds a very nasty piece of work. Hopefully while he's in custody on an interim theft charge, our intrepid investigative team (Cathy, Trish and possibly Julie) can find out more information about him and the gang he's recently been working for. Chances are the college has CCTV, let's hope it's digitally recorded and their sysadmin doesn't have a very secure password :)
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Cathy and Simon are being a little too
open with the police.....
“You’ve been warned, if he shows up here, dial triple nine...â€
“And ask for the ambulance?†suggested Simon
While they have a right and an obligation to protect their family, statements like that can be used by cops to "prove" that someone was planning violence. Lets hope the police aren't out to get the thorn that stings them all too often even though she usually comes out with a positive solution to things.
... and I'd suspect that if Julie's been raped, Cathy and/or Trish will be able to tell.
It's amazing
That the British people have allowed themselves to be stripped of even the right of self defense. You can't even cosh someone with a cricket bat if they attack you in your own home. The police would rather have you dead then a criminal with a coshed noggin.
Different slogs
In the USA, if one wants to kill someone with no particular connection to one, one can lure that person to one's home and bang away at an "intruder" with a fair likelihood of getting away with it, if one is moderately clever.
Texas Homeowner Shoots Scots Tourist by Mistake He was a bit rowdy, and quite inebriated, but then he was a Scot. I understand that in Scotland, one is normally not considered truly drunk if one can still find one's arse with two hands.
On the other hand, the man who killed that Japanese boy in Louisiana, although acquitted by a racist jury in the criminal trial for manslaughter, after a racist defense, lost in the civil damages trial that followed, and was ordered to pay US$650,000 for the boy's wrongful death, of which only US$100,000 was paid by the homeowner's insurance carrier. The man who was "defending his home" wound up having to sell it to pay the court judgment, which is ironic in any language.
The Killing of Yoshihiro Hattori
Small Recompense for Yoshihiro Hattori
On the other hand, if one is an armed burglar, faced by a homeowner with a gun acting like a one-man police force, one might reasonably argue that killing the homeowner was self-defense in a wild-west-style shoot-out, and that the man had invited him in for a cup of coffee and then went berserk. With only one witness, there's almost always a reasonable doubt. There are two sides to every legal strategy.
In the UK, if one kills someone, no matter how crossly they spoke to one, or how drunk they are, you're almost sure to be very closely examined, at least, since one has, after all, murdered another human being. To avoid prosecution, or to escape conviction, the Crown Prosecutor has to determine that a reasonable person would likely have acted in a similar manner. The only real difference between the US and the UK is that using a gun is viewed much more seriously, and is likely to be considered overkill unless it can be exactingly justified, not least of which is justifying one's possession of it ready-to-hand, which implies a certain belligerence.
In that sense, the UK and US laws are roughly symmetrical -- which is fairly predictable, because US law is mostly descended from British law, except in Louisiana, which has some similarities to French law -- so the man who killed the Japanese student was eventually found to have acted unreasonably, and in fact with reckless belligerence, despite having been acquitted of manslaughter.
The difference is that some jurisdictions in the USA have set the standard for "reasonableness" so low that the average chimpanzee would pass the test, where UK law has slightly higher standards.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Killing in the UK
I usually point out that as long as you use a motor vehicle to do your killing here, there is no problem. The cheekiest defence I remember was when a nutter turned upat an MP's surgery (local parliamentary member's office) and produced a samurai style sword, with which he killed aman. He then attacked the MP, who not unreasonably ran like stink.
In the initial hearing, the killer's lawyer unsuccessfully argued that as nobody had seen the killing apart from the three involved, surely it was the running man who must be guilty.
Cyclist's cynicism
That sounds like cyclist's cynicism to me. A view I can relate to especially thinking of the incident in North Wales a few years ago, where a motorist killed four cyclists and got fined the minimum for the two defective tyres on his car.
Inquest Report
Oops
I read that as 'my' cynicism, lol. Perhaps I should change my user name!
Not a bad idea.
You could, for instance, change your username to (say) Beryl and still be cyclist whilst honouring one of the finest female athletes in the world :) Or, if you want to be modern you could try Vicki in honour of you know who.
Just a suggestion. After all, I honour one of my local heroes. I realise your name is in the spirit of nominative determinism but you can go too far LOL
Robi
Vehicular homicide...
Oh, well then. In general, one can be stupid and careless and kill as many people as one likes in the USA well, as long as one does it whilst driving a car, or allows people working for one to labour in unsafe working conditions through greed, which is a laudable virtue in our unsavoury system of capitalism and -- strangely enough -- no longer a mortal sin. So very few capitalists will admit that the natural endpoint of the capitalist impulse is feudalism, through a process of creating an ever smaller but more powerful class of rentiers. Eventually, one has a King, through the back door.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Ok, so how many episodes until...
Alfie shows up at the house? We've been down this road before, and it's usually foreshadowed the confrontation, so it's probably time for Cathy to get her trusty bow and arrow out.
If anything happens...
if anything happens to Mr. Bird, now... Cathy & Simon are suspects #1 and 2... They begged for the title. *sighs*
Thanks,
ANne
Depends...
...on where he is at the time, where Cathy / Si are at the time, and how many witnesses there are.
It wouldn't surprise me if something happens to him while Cathy / Si are nowhere near, but some plod still picks Cathy up and arrests her... before collecting his P45 the following day :)
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Could be...
Of course, it could also be that the Plods have gotten smarter... They've had a bad track record with this baddun... They realize that Cathy (& Simon) have a history of successful vigilantism... Perhaps, they're setting things up so Mr. Bird gets what's coming to him - without having to worry about whether they can get a conviction or not...
Anne
I wonder...
...whether the police inspector woman has a degree in reverse psychology.
All the way through this Bikesode, I was thinking 'red rags' and 'bulls.'
Thanks A+B: I sense you're gearing up for an action scene, and I'll be here to read it.
Provocative Stuff
Bike Resources
Bike Resources
Security
When I used to do my rides around East Kent, there was a farm on Grove Road with a sign that read: "These premises protected by Browning 12 bore security services. Ib case of activation, please contact Dover Coroner on 01304....."
Shucks, sounds like Texas
The part about the "itchy trigger finger" is a little more belligerent, but not by much.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Just dial 999
And call for the hearse.
Still lovin' the story been out of touch for a few days in the Atlas mountains Morrocco.
Back in civilisation now and in contact to comment.
Enjpying it so far.
Does that sound trite or stupid after 1175 ephisodes?
Love and hugs.
OXOXOX
Beverly.
Don't you just hope
that Alfie Bird has no access to the police records about Cathy, Because if he had ... Then you could be sure he would be putting the biggest possible distance between himself and a certain Mrs Cameron.....
Kirri
Too bad the police Inspector
Too bad the police Inspector hasn't really read Cathy's and Simon's "police records" or she would understand they actually did the work for the police in all their encounters with the bad guys. Here, it would be a sign stating "this home guarded by two well known men, "Smith and Wesson"; or by a Browning 12 Guage shotgun 3 days a week "You pick the three days, you believe they are". Jan
When seconds count...
Police are but minutes away.