The Mersey Ferry Murders

1. June 2007

CHAPTER 1

JUNE 2007

It had been a warm Monday, the skies almost cloudless and the surface of the River Mersey bore barely a ripple as the Mersey Ferry, MV Royal Daffodil tied up at the pier head, quickly disgorging its passengers, mostly daily commuters who worked on the Wirral side of the river. The crossing from the Seacombe Ferry Terminal had taken, as usual, little more than ten minutes and among those disembarking was 55-year-old Wanda Burnside, a solicitor’s clerk who worked for the firm of Bertrand and Doyle in Wallasey. Single since her divorce a year ago, Wanda enjoyed life as a single woman, and most people, on seeing her for the first time, could be forgiven for thinking the attractive blonde to be at least ten years younger than her actual age. Her natural blonde hair was wavy and stylishly cut, her face make-up immaculate, and her clothes certainly belied her age. This evening, she was wearing her usual office attire, a royal blue skirt suit, the straight pencil skirt reaching to just above her knees, teamed with a cream blouse and low-heeled black patent leather shoes.

She owned a two-bedroomed house in the Wavertree area of the city, which she shared with her cat, Coco, a tabby she’d adopted from a local rescue shelter soon after her divorce. Occasional evenings out were her main source of social entertainment, but she could hardly be described as a social butterfly, tending to restrict such evening recreation to one evening a week, either on a Friday or Saturday.

Reaching the bus stop on James Street, Wanda took her place in the short queue to wait for her bus. She was one of six people waiting for the bus and once the bus arrived, she settled herself into a seat and casually watched the people on the streets, enjoying people-watching as she was carried home. Alighting at her stop near the Liverpool Bluecoat School, Wanda walked the last few yards to her home, where her Vauxhall Vectra stood on the drive, exactly as she’d left it that morning. She knew she could get to work faster if she took the car and used the tunnel every day, but she enjoyed the relaxed approach that the ferry afforded her, the short crossing, especially in the mornings helped to blow away the cobwebs in her mind and set her up for the working day. Equally, the return crossing was a great way to begin the process of unwinding after a hard day’s work.

She reached her front door and extricated her keys from her handbag, blissfully unaware of the soft footsteps that followed her as she placed the key in the lock. The key turned, Wanda pushed the door open, and in less than the time it took her to cross the threshold into her home, a push in the back suddenly sent her sprawling into her hallway, and before she could shout, scream or turn to confront her assailant, a blow to the back of her head ensured Wanda’s world turned black as unconsciousness turned her day to instant night.

Earlier in the day, Detective Inspector Andy Ross arrived especially early for work. After the tragic loss of DC Nick Dodds some months before, killed by the twisted killer known as ‘The Doctor’, a replacement member of the squad was due to start work today, and Ross had asked him to arrive early so he could spend some time introducing him the rest of the team.

No matter how early Ross arrived, he always seemed to be beaten into second place by his partner, and squad member, Detective Sergeant Izzie Drake, who’d recently returned to work after a period of maternity leave following the birth of her first child, Alice. Sure enough, he opened the door to his office to find a grinning Detective Sergeant, sitting in one of the two visitors’ chairs, with two mugs of steaming hot coffee on his desk, ready for his arrival.

“What time d’you call this then, Detective Inspector?” she laughed, and Ross laughed with her.

“b****y hell, Izzie, can’t I ever beat you in to the office?”

“Not a chance,” Izzie replied. “Didn’t you know, I’ve got my secret radar following you so I know when you’re leaving home, and I can get here before you, and anyway, if you got here first, who’d make your coffee?”

Ross was so pleased to have Drake back on the team. The pair had worked together for so long that they understood each other perfectly and at times the two of them seemed able to read one another’s thoughts, so close was their working relationship. They had an easy but respectful relationship, one that transcended rank, and he wondered how he’d managed during the months she’d been away on leave.

“If I didn’t know better,” he now responded, “I might even believe you about the b****y radar,” and he laughed again.

Drake just tapped her nose with one finger, smiling a knowing smile.

“Who says I’m joking?”

“Izzie Drake, shut up and drink your sodding coffee before it gets cold.”

“Yes, sir,” she smiled and then the pair spent five minutes quietly enjoying the hot drinks, before getting down to business.

Ross and Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Agostini had jointly interviewed the candidates for the vacancy in the squad and both agreed without hesitation on the choice of 28-year-old Detective Constable Mitchell (Mitch) Sinclair as the outstanding candidate from some impressive applicants. The squad had been operating under-strength since the death of DC Dodds, as there had been no suitable applicants that met with Agostini and Ross’s strict criteria.

No sooner had they finished their coffee than there was a knock on the door, and the team’s Admin Assistant, Kat Bellamy opened it and escorted the tall, blonde-haired detective into the office.

“I found this poor soul wandering around the squad room,” she said, announcing the arrival of Mitch Sinclair, who walked past her and strode up to the desk and offered his right hand, which Ross, rising from his chair, took and the two men exchanged a firm handshake. Kat quickly withdrew from the room, leaving Sinclair in the hands of the boss and his sergeant.

“Good to see you again, Mitch,” Ross said by way of a welcome. “This is my second-in-command, Izzie Drake.”

Izzie stood and offered her own hand, and she and the newcomer also shook hands. Sinclair’s right eyebrow lifted slightly as he felt the strength in Drake’s handshake.

“Pleased to meet you Sarge,” he said with a smile, and Drake smiled in return.

“Nice accent,” she said, picking up on Sinclair’s obvious Australian heritage.

“Yeah, left the old country when I was fourteen when my Mum and Dad decided to settle over here. Dad’s a retired captain for the Oceanic Cruise Line, and he was from over here anyway. Mum’s Australian, and they met in Sydney years ago, and well, I won’t bore you with the sickly-sweet love story.”

Drake instantly liked the latest recruit to the team.

“Hope you’ll enjoy working with us,” Drake said to which Sinclair responded.

“I sure will, no worries.”

“You were with the Regional Crime Squad, I hear.”

“Correct, Sarge. Spent two years with them before this came up and I put in my application.”

“That’s enough for now, you two,” Ross interrupted. “I think the rest of the team will be in the squad room now, so let’s go and introduce you.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Sinclair replied, and Ross and Drake led the way from the office into the squad room where, as Ross expected nearly all the team were present already.

The rest of the team knew of the impending arrival of the newest member of the team, and all were present except for DC Ishaan Singh, who was on a week’s leave, and not due back for a couple of days. Ross’s only slight worry was how DC Tony Curtis would react to Sinclair’s arrival. He and Dodds had been close friends and the death of his pal had hit him harder than it had anyone else on the team.

As he and Drake walked Sinclair round the squad room, making the introductions, Ross hesitated for a few seconds after introducing the new man to Curtis. Curtis’s real name was Leonard, (Lenny) Curtis but ever since he joined the squad, he’d been known as Tony, due to his uncanny resemblance to the former movie idol of that name. Ross needn’t have worried. Curtis was nothing if not a consummate professional.

After shaking hands, he spoke genially to Sinclair.

“Welcome mate, if you need any help settling in, just grab a hold of me, anytime, you hear me?”

“Yeah, thanks Tony,” was Sinclair’s short reply, before Drake dragged him across to meet Paul Ferris and Kat Bellamy.

The rest of Mitch Sinclair’s first day passed without drama as he learned his way around and made some tentative friendships with the rest of the team. It would soon prove to be nothing more than the calm before the storm.