Chapter 1: Overruling a Jury

‘One of the others had dialled 999 for an ambulance so I stayed at her side until it came. It seemed to be ages, but it was probably only a few minutes. When they arrived, Margery’s breathing was starting to sound bubbly as if there was liquid in her lungs. The paramedic said the knife had probably punctured her lung.’

‘They put her in the ambulance then put her on oxygen right away. After putting a proper dressing on the wound, they rushed her to hospital. We heard the siren wailing as soon as they started off, then it faded into the distance.’

William asked Jamie if she had seen the attackers face. ‘No,’ she told him, ‘He had a mask on all the time I was looking at him, but there was enough skin showing to know that he was white. He was five foot eight inches tall.’ Seeing Williams puzzled look she smiled and told him, ‘He was the same height as my husband.’

‘I notice that you have CCTV,’ William said, ‘Can you show me the tape for the last hour or so?’ ‘It’s in the office at the back, behind where your men are working,’ Jamie told him, ‘But there’s another door in from the kitchen if you follow me.’

She led him through the kitchen and into a tiny office. ‘That’s the machine, she pointed out, ‘But I don’t know how to work it.’ ‘Don’t worry,’ William told her, ‘I’m a dab hand with them.’ He sat at the desk and pressed a few buttons. Soon they saw the robber approaching. He didn’t have a mask on at that stage, but his face wasn’t clear enough to identify him, although once they had a suspect it might be enough to confirm it was him.

As he got nearer the robber put his full-face mask on and entered the shop. On another screen they saw him approach the counter and hold the knife out at Margery. After the initial shock she could be seen filling the robber’s bag from the till, then they saw him lunge at her with the knife for no apparent reason as he snatched the bag. As they saw the blood appear William stopped the tape.

‘Do you have any blank discs so I can make a copy?’ he asked. ‘If they’re anywhere they’ll be in the top desk drawer,’ Jamie told him. William opened the drawer and sure enough there was an opened pack of discs. Quickly making a couple of copies, he put them in an envelope then tucked them away in his coat pocket.

‘Thank you, Jamie,’ he said, ‘You’ve been very helpful. I’ll just have a word with the SOCO team then I’ll go and see how Margery’s getting on at the hospital. If you give me your phone number,’ he told her, ‘I’ll let you know how she is.’

Jamie thanked him, then reeled off her number as William entered it in his notebook. They went back out through the kitchen. Saying goodbye to Jamie, William went over to speak to the SOCO team. ‘Nothing so far,’ they told him. William left them his card telling them he was off to the hospital.

Just before he drove off, he rang the station to ask them to trace and interview the occupants of the car he had seen on the CCTV. They had paid for their fuel and were leaving as the robber approached so they might have seen something. He read off the registration number from his notebook, then set off to the hospital, twenty minutes’ drive away.

Parking as near to A&E as he could get, he went in and identified himself then asked about Margery. The receptionist said she thought Margery had gone to theatre, so she went and fetched the doctor who had seen her.

A few minutes later she returned with the doctor who shook hands with William then told him, ‘Margery is a very lucky lady. The knife punctured her left lung and nicked a small artery which bled into the lung. If it had been half an inch to the side, it would have caught the Aorta, the main artery from the heart and she would be dead.’

‘She is in theatre at the moment having the blood drained from her lung and the tear sewn up. It will be sore for a few days but at least her life is safe. You’re not likely to be able to interview her until later this afternoon, say about two o’clock.’ ‘Thank you, Doctor,’ William said, ‘I’ll leave her in your capable hands until then.’

William returned to the station and gave the CCTV discs to his team. He asked them to check for any nearby cameras too. Uniform rang him to say they had traced the car on the video. They were satisfied that they were innocent passers-by.

They were not aware of having seen anyone or anything, but the husband had given them a copy on disc of his dash cam, just in case. ‘I’ll send it up to you in the next five minutes,’ the officer told him. ‘Excellent,’ William said, ‘Good work, let’s hope there’s something useful on it.’

One of William’s team came over to say he had checked crimes in the area over the past month. There had been four stabbings reported, none of which had been life threatening or with permanent damage. He had checked through all the statements and two things showed up. In all four cases the victims were complying with the knifeman’s demands and had said they could see no reason for him stabbing them.

The other was that the general descriptions of the knifeman were identical but equally sparse. They simply confirmed he was white and around five foot eight. William had also realised after watching the garage discs a second time that he was left-handed.

At one o’clock, William had a call from SOCO to say they hadn’t found anything of use. At two o’clock he was back at the hospital. Margery had come out of surgery and had been moved to a ward. Following the directions given, William entered the ward, showed his identity, then asked to see Margery. After the nurse had checked with the doctor and Margery, he was shown to her room.

She was sitting up in bed, her left arm in a sling looking bright and cheerful. Asking about the sling, she told him there was nothing wrong with her arm, it was just to keep her ribs still for a day or two. She was more than happy to be interviewed, wanting the culprit off the streets.

Margery confirmed that after freezing for a moment at the sight of the knife, she had done everything the robber demanded. She was actually handing the money over when for no reason she could see, he suddenly stabbed her.

‘He was still taking the bag off me when I felt this searing pain in my side,’ she told him with a shudder. ‘Even then I didn’t twig, it just hadn’t occurred to me he might stab me when I was doing everything he asked. I looked down and saw the blood. That’s when I screamed.’

‘What was his reaction to your scream?’ William asked. ‘He just looked at me for a moment, then turned away and walked off as if nothing had happened.’ ‘Can you tell me anything that might help identify him?’ William asked her.

‘Nothing much,’ Margery replied, ‘He was less than six feet tall, he looked quite chubby, but he could have had bulky clothes on, he was definitely white skinned, and he had a tattoo on the inside of his right wrist. I couldn’t see what it was of, I just caught a glimpse above his glove as he reached for the bag.’

‘You’ve done very well,’ William told her, ‘You get some rest now. I’ll let Jamie know how you’re doing,’ he told her as he got up to leave. ‘Here’s my card,’ he said putting it on the bedside table, ‘Just in case you think of anything else.’ Giving her a smile, he returned to his car, rang Jamie with an update on Margery then returned to the station.

SPECIAL GROUP – MURDER

Meanwhile, on the other side of town was a villain well known to the police. Richard Jackson was twenty. He had been in trouble with the police since he was thirteen, starting out with petty theft, then gradually moving up the scale. His description didn’t match Margery’s attacker. But because it was a knife crime he had been checked just in case. He had an unshakable alibi as he was in the police interview room at the time of the attack. Over the last twelve months he had turned into a vicious thug who had built up a gang of seven. They began to terrorise the area where they lived.

Whilst their names were all known to the police from tip offs, they had no evidence to arrest any of them.

There were many burglaries that the police were sure they were responsible for, including a few burglaries during which the householder had disturbed them. On most of those occasions the intruders had fled on being discovered, but on several where there had been an individual intruder, he had attacked the householder violently.