Lucy Spires – The Blind Detective Read online

  Lucy Spires – The Blind Detective

  Peter Hamilton

  Austin Macauley Publishers

  Lucy Spires – The Blind Detective

  About the Author

  Dedication

  Copyright Information ©

  Acknowledgement

  Chapter 115th March, 9:30 pm

  Chapter 215th March. 11:35pm

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 617th May

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  Peter Hamilton was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in October 1960 to working class parents and was bred there. He has a passion for problem-solving and enjoys being challenged. He started to work in retail stores at the age of sixteen and has never been out of work since, and still continues to work full time. For many years, he has had a burning ambition of writing his own book and this first book is of a series of stories detailing the crimes solved by Lucy Spires, ‘The Blind Detective’.

  Dedication

  To my loyal and supportive wife, Michelle.

  Copyright Information ©

  Peter Hamilton (2020)

  The right of Peter Hamilton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781528935715 (Paperback)

  ISBN 9781528998710 (ePub e-book)

  www.austinmacauley.com

  First Published (2020)

  Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

  25 Canada Square

  Canary Wharf

  London

  E14 5LQ

  Acknowledgement

  Many thanks to Wendy O’Connor, for her advice

  and support.

  Many thanks to Susan Walls, for the ongoing support.

  Chapter 1

  15th March, 9:30 pm

  Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Spires relaxed in her deep hot bath, her five feet five, well-toned frame fitted neatly into the space; her long dark brown hair floated around the top of her bath; music drifted in from her bedroom from the local independent radio station, a mixture of random nineteen-eighties pop songs. The day had been a long and a stress filled one. This was her relaxing, chill out time. She could daydream and de-stress.

  She managed a team of ten detectives, some of whom had been with her for many tears. She regarded the team not just as colleagues, but also as trusted friends. She supported them in every way she could. She also realised she had to be an agony aunt for all her team. All brought their problems, with relationships, family, pets, finances and every other thing imaginable. They trusted her, she was always there if any needed to talk.

  The team worked well together, with a mixture of new inspectors, and also some established inspectors with a great deal of experience. She reported to the Chief Constable, he was a man she joined the North East Police force with the same month, the same year. She had no regrets in her chosen career. The past twenty-four years in the police force had gone so fast. During her time in the force she had risen through the ranks to her senior position through extremely hard work and dedication.

  She also reflected on her failed marriage. She had fallen for a man she had known since her time at university. She really loved him, even though they were complete opposites. Her idea of a holiday was two weeks on a beach or a relaxing cruise; his would be trekking through a jungle in South America, or a canoe going through river rapids. As time went on, they both realised she was already married to her work. The break up wasn’t pleasant, but eventually they ended up as friends. They both promised to keep in touch with each other. He moved around doing a variety of jobs, from repairing roads to a ranger in a national park.

  Time went by and contact between them became less and less. The last she’d heard of him he was in New Zealand working on a sheep farm; he had always loved the outdoors and fresh challenges. She was a little upset to learn he had settled down and was married with children. She would have liked to have had children. However, in the time they were married it didn’t happen, and she had seen at first hand the issues brought with that; and it would have affected her work.

  She had lost both her parents several years ago, her mother to breast cancer. Her mother hadn’t just been a parent, but her best friend. She had supported her in every success and failure, never passing judgement. She always felt everyone deserved a second chance, although there were always exceptions. Two years after her mother passed, her father suffered a major stroke.

  Lucy Spires was working fourteen-hour days. She was trying to find a missing person, an elderly man suffering from dementia. He was found near a lake where he fished with his grandfather when he was a teenager. Luckily, he was found alive and well, although very confused. Lucy Spires was very happy with this outcome. This sparked memories of coming home from work to find her father in his garden. He had passed away several hours earlier and he had died alone. He was her rock. He taught her to drive a car, after she learned how to ride a moped. She loved that time. It was precious; long summer days of fun and a few bruises and a few scratches from falling off the little moped. Every day she thought about them. She missed them so much. Her meals would be waiting for her when she got home from work, and the conversations about her day and her parents’ days. She knew these would never return.

  Following the collapse of her marriage, she had other relationships, but none lasted for various reasons. Difficult, time consuming cases meant her time was taken up. She couldn’t give her commitment to a relationship it needed. She tried very hard to build relationships. She gave a lot of herself. Most would last for a few weeks. She enjoyed the company and physical side of the relationships. She had no specific types; she liked a good personality over stunning looks. She’d learned in her university days that the good looking, charming men were too often interested in themselves. She avoided relationships within the police force. Her father used to say, “Try not to mix business with pleasure. Don’t bring your work home.”

  If she were in a relationship with another police officer, all they may have in common would be cases they worked on and this may cause a conflict. The hours Lucy Spires gave meant they would never go anywhere.

  She enjoyed time on her own. Her position meant she was very busy, with contacting and speaking to so many people, departments, attending meetings; her working day was an express train ride. She commanded and received a great deal of respect from all her colleagues, having earned it with her dedication and work ethic.

  Lucy Spires poured a glass of her favourite Shiraz. She picked up a thick file with the title ‘Farooq El Haj. Confidential’. She had read this file many times. She wanted to go through it again as she had a meeting with her Chief Constable, James Ingram and with a director of the Crown Prosecution service, Thomas Archibald, at three o’clock the following day. This was a case she inherited from the previous Detective Chief Inspector, who had retired early with health problems. He had become too involved in the case and it led to him having a massive heart attack and staying in poor health. To get away from this case, he moved his whole family
to the south of France. The case had been ongoing for almost two years. It had ground to a halt for almost six months, but once Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Spires took it over, it had developed to near conclusion. Another glass of wine poured, a packet of cheesy snacks opened in a bowl, she wasn’t ready to sleep. She decided to make sure she had prepared thoroughly for the following day.

  As she opened the cover, there were several photos of Farooq El Haj. He had been arrested five years earlier for assault. The police photos made Lucy Spires shudder every time she looked at them. He had an air of arrogance, modern hairstyle and thick black wavy hair. He wore expensive jewellery; all high carat gold; a ring on almost every finger and a very expensive watch. The photographs showed he was always smartly dressed, wearing handmade suits, handmade shoes. He had a reputation to maintain. The choice of vehicle reflected the amount of money he’d made; top of the range sports cars or expensive German saloons.

  Turning over the dossier, it began: born July third, nineteen eighty, to an Afghanistan father & British mother. His father left the family when the young Farooq was thirteen years old. He went to work as usual and never returned. Searchers found he had used his passport to fly to Germany, and from there he disappeared. The young Farooq took this badly and rebelled at school. He was expelled several times for his bad behaviour. His lack of respect, particularly of any female authority, Lucy Spires thought must have come from his father’s parenting skills. He was excluded from lessons for fighting and bullying. Other school children could be very cruel to a child with no father, being brought up by a single parent. Reading between the lines, Lucy Spires thought his mother had probably tried her best to bring him up through his difficult teenage years, but he was such an independent young man that he knew his own mind, and with no other person to keep him under control, he lost his way and became a man with huge issues, many now out of control.

  At age eighteen he found himself joining the army. After the usual period of training he was posted to Afghanistan. As a fluent speaker of the language, he became a key member of translation teams, engaging locals in every type of communication. In his downtime, he tried to locate his relatives. He failed to contact or find any, but instead began to make contact with many of his father’s countrymen. The type of industry within the country was not what he was used to. He eventually began to be aware of the illegal type of trades from the country. He quickly learned how the drug trade worked, along with illegal people trafficking. Over the next few years, he made many useful contacts. Learning all aspects of the supply chain, from opium growing farmers, who harvested the material to make heroin, to the drug lords who reaped in vast amounts of money, supplying across the world to anyone who wanted to buy it. These were the main players in this multi-million-pound industry. No-one paid taxes as corruption made the wheels turn. They had no morals, and as far as they felt, no-one forced anyone to push a needle into their arm and if they didn’t supply the drugs, someone else would.

  Demand never slowed; it only grew. The more they could produce, the more was sold to fill the never-ending hunger, leading to vast amounts of money coming back and re-invested on developing ways to make more drugs, leading to more usage, leading to more money being made. A never ending, growing vicious circle, yielding vast fortunes, but had to be managed or would fail completely.

  He built up a plan on how to use this knowledge once he had left the army behind him. Using the Afghan language fluently and having made the connections, he knew an easy way to make lots of money. He knew he must have had the patience to wait as he had a few years left in the army. During this time, he went out of his way to cement relationships with his new-found friends. He knew he had to gain their trust before he would begin making money in his future.

  He was passed over for the whole of his eight years in the army for any promotions. His record had blemishes for his fighting and violence to all ranks. He had a reputation as a man with a short fuse. He seemed to feel free to use his fists to sort out any issue. Lucy Spires felt he was a loner, with few or no friends. On his leave, he would disappear, spending time with local Afghans. He told his superiors and members of his regiment he was trying to enhance the army presence and build friends in communities. In real terms, he was learning how to smuggle drugs and arms, and become a useful person in England to help bring in illegal immigrants.

  He left the army, returned to England and he quickly began to identify how to use the knowledge of illegal trades learned in depth, starting with running prostitutes and low-key drugs. He quickly learned the trade of bringing into England illegal immigrants.

  This was four years ago, when Lucy Spires had first come across Farooq El Haj. She worked for several years in vice. Even then he learned very quickly how to manipulate others to get out of potential charges and always had alibis, which couldn’t be challenged. Lucy Spires always felt frustrated as this was one of the very few cases she had not managed to bring to a satisfactory close.

  She felt Farooq El Haj’s power, even then, stretched to have corrupt officers within the Police force. Who or how many and which departments, she did not know, but she knew she had to be very careful or this case would never become fruitful and become her biggest failure. Chief Constable, James Ingram, also shared her suspicions. Too many things had occurred, too many times knowledge of cases had stopped enquiries in their tracks. His alibis included spending a day at sea fishing, in the presence of at least four or five of his employees. A difficult alibi to break as all said the same details, times, the fish caught, and who did what. These fishing trips occurred when shipments of drugs entered the country. Lucy Spires had no proof; she learned of the shipments days after. Intelligence from various sources, including worldwide agencies, always filtered through seemingly after the event. This frustrated Lucy Spires a great deal.

  Lucy Spires’ meeting the following day included a piece of information only three people were aware of: Chief Constable James Ingram, Thomas Archibald of the Crown Prosecution Service and Lucy Spires. Inside Farooq El Haj’s organisation there was an informer. The person was never named in any administration, nor if they were male or female, to protect them from serious harm. In truth, it was the long suffering, trophy girlfriend of Farooq El Haj. She was always referred to as X. Her name was Leonie Barker and she was groomed by Farooq El Haj to be a sex trade worker. A blond haired, very lean figure, big breasted woman. He was sure she would be very desirable to most men, willing to pay a premium price for her services. Before he introduced her to drugs and being used by men, he decided to keep her for himself. She was used by him as and when he wanted her. She hated when he sent a car to collect her, usually at short notice. She was expected to be available any hour of the day, any time. He never lived with her, but he liked to be seen with her. Most knew she was there for show, to keep up his persona as the top man in the area. She hated him for that. If she had to spend time with him, it was usually to impress other men in his organisation. She hated the sex. There was no intimacy and it was usually very rough sex; a humiliating, degrading time. Once started, she would wish it was over. It never lasted a long time; the deed was done by him, and then most times he left. She also knew his secret: he also used boys for sex. If anyone ever found out and he found out the information came from her, she would be made an example of his ruthlessness and he would take pleasure in her final humiliation. This was the main reason he would never let her leave. She had pinned her hope on having her life back. She was trying to learn as much about his business so she could pass it on to her new friend, Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Spires. She had found out dates of his latest drug shipment, due very soon. She also knew he recorded everything in written form. He didn’t trust electronic devices. During his time in the army, he learned how these devices can track movements, be listened into, be hacked into and data retrieved. He was paranoid about anyone knowing how he ran and controlled his operations. She knew he was very keen on minute details. This was how he controlled everything.

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sp; Lucy Spires made sure there was little ever written down in email or note form about X. Meetings were few so as to keep suspicion as low as possible. As his organisation grew, more people now worked for him, and he retained them all by fear. Once he had used them and he felt they would be of further use, he used severe bullying to keep them in line. He had a reputation as being ruthless.

  If any of his drug dealers or pushers dared to step out of line by not paying up, or got greedy, he would set an example of them. A sound beating, but not too severe to seek hospital treatment, or stopping them doing their day to day business. He also knew information about all his employees. He used this to force them to carry out jobs they would never consider. His favourite was to threaten to have parents, children or partners either beaten to a pulp or worse. This also meant he would not miss any business done on the streets.

  Reading this made Lucy Spires despise the man even more. He prayed on weakness. The fact most could stand a beating to themselves, but have a father or mother beaten severely was, to most, unthinkable. He had done this to a new member who had sold large amounts of drugs, kept the proceeds and disappeared for a few months. Once his father had been badly mugged and left hospitalised for weeks, the message was heard loud and clear.

  On the unfortunate young man’s return, he was seen around his local town, and then disappeared completely. The word on the street was he had gone on a fishing trip with Farooq El Haj, gone out to sea, but never returned.

  Everyone knew he had been murdered by Farooq El Haj, however, no body, meant no case. Everyone used by Farooq El Haj had received the news and closed ranks for fear of reprisals. The informant had contacted the police in a roundabout way. She had walked into a police station to report a lost dog. She knew of Lucy Spires as she had seen her giving an interview about the drugs problem in the area on television. She felt she had to take a chance and begin a dialogue. Lucy Spires met her at various discreet places. She would meet at her gym, or country house spa. They were never seen in public, nor spoke on any phone. The next meeting was always arranged as they parted company.