Chapter 1
Detective Inspector Marilyn Houseman and Detective Sergeant George ‘Ginger’ Kidman walked into the murder team office, with the rest of the team stopping to look at them. Marilyn smiled and they all cheered.
“Terry Hanson got twenty-five years for each murder, consecutive, with the judge appalled at the brutality. That’s on top of the five that he got for smuggling and possession of illegal firearms. He’s unlikely to be out in our lifetime.”
Ginger went to his desk and Marilyn went into her office to tidy up the paperwork to be sent to the archives. It had been a year since she had sat in that interview room with the double murderer. Her team had been lucky, as the press were more interested in a mass arrest of three families and two deaths during a gunfight with police.
The arms cache had been revealed, along with the importation of gun parts from Ireland, but the reasons for them were kept inside the security world. The four Russians were eventually deported, after protestations of diplomatic immunity from their government, no doubt because their employer was a supporter of the Kremlin.
During the course of the year, members of the two main families had been sentenced to prison terms for cultivating and distributing ‘Class A’ drugs. On top of a whole slew of automotive offences, from outright stealing to selling ‘remanufactured’ cars. Barry Hanson was the only one of his family to get a prison term. The original five years for possession of illegal firearms, followed by his second trial as an accessory to murder, where he received fifteen years, consecutively, for each of the two.
Bernard Tapper was noticeably kept out of the trials, with his testimony only mentioned, in part, as from ‘Witness A, who is under protection’. His house had been sold, as was Andersons’ house, the estate of Esme and Alf going to her parents, as per their wills. The property at Youlton, along with other country hideaways and family homes, were seized by the crown, as assets gained from illegal activities. In all the hustle and bustle, the trial of George Hanson for the two murders in Leeds was almost a sidebar to the rest, with him now unlikely to see the outside world again. Marilyn was glad that most of the cases were the responsibility of Leeds, with York only involved with the Anderson murders.
Her team had been praised by their superiors, quietly, in meetings. That hadn’t kept them from working on the regular deaths that occurred on their patch. Most of them followed the usual pattern. Look for the money or else look for the angry partner.
The highlight of the year, for Marilyn, was her pregnancy and birth of her daughter, Madelin, named after Antons’ mother. She had three months maternity leave, while Ginger had the interesting experience of acting as the inspector, something that fundamentally changed his attitude. He had discovered that he had the ability to lead, as well as to keep the paperwork under control.
Since returning to work, Marilyn had been in her superiors’ office several times, with promotions and retirements being discussed. She had been offered a DCI position at another station, but had declined, stating that she was happy at the moment, even happier with her team, and wanted a few more years in one place.
Two months after the trial had wound up, Marilyn was at her desk when her mobile rang.
“DI Houseman.”
“Houseman, its Chief Superintendent Hawkins, from Traffic. Can you get your team down to Coppergate Walk ASAP! We’ve a report of a lot of injuries. Some madman has just driven a truck all the way down from Coppergate to Castlegate, mowing down anyone in the way. Get witness statements while it’s fresh in their minds. Start at the Castlegate end, DI Dutton and his team are starting from Coppergate.”
“On our way, sir.”
She gathered her bag and went into the main office, checking the clock. It was half past nine.
“Ginger, get a car and take Helen, Shirley and John. Tim and Ian, you’re with me.”
She looked at her newest member of the team.
“Constable Brightman, Hannah. We’re going to be seeing bodies, I think it’s time that you saw what we do, in real time. Everyone, make sure you have notebooks and working pens as well as recorders. We’ve been called to get to Coppergate Walk, as someone has driven a large vehicle from one end to the other, without worrying who they ran over. Uniformed will be all over it by now. Our job will be to take statements and see if we can identify the vehicle and occupants. Ian, when we get there, have a look for obvious cameras and get all the vision that you can, take a portable drive. The rest of you, take as many statements as you can. Hannah, stay with me.”
They went down to the car park and got into two cars, driving north up Fulford Road with blues and twos, veering onto Fishergate and then to Tower Street, parking with a lot of other first responder vehicles. Castlegate was absolute bedlam, a line of ambulances starting to take away the worst of the injured. The team started to talk to the walking wounded, with their ID highly visible on hi-vis vests.
Ian started going into business premises on Castlegate, to see if they had vision of the vehicle leaving the area. The further that they moved up to the Coppergate Walk entrance, the more blood and injured they saw. Marilyn and Hannah comforted people while asking what they had seen. In St. Marys Square, they started talking to unhurt people, finding a few who had seen the vehicle coming out of the walk and turning down towards the exit. A few had cameras and had been quick enough to take pictures. Marilyn commandeered the cameras, after writing a receipt in her notebook and giving the owner a copy, with the camera name and serial number noted.
Between the two of them, they gathered six cameras with clear pictures of the vehicle, a vivid red and black beast, unfortunately with very dark windows. Before long, the revheads in the crowd had told them that it was a ’26 Ram, SRT TRX. It was not a common vehicle, very expensive to buy and run, with a motor over six litres. Nobody could say if there was a number plate on it.
The team were six hours on site, going in to talk to stores once the dead and injured had been taken away. The CSI team was working along the Walk, measuring and taking photos. The amount of information that Marilyn and her team had collected would take days to go through, along with the other information that the other team, under DI Dutton, had also collected, having started from the other end of the Walk.
Back at Fulford Road, a team of secretaries was given all the recorders to transcribe the witness statements from both teams, and the various videos that Ian had collected was downloaded to a secure computer, along with the ones that his counterpart in the other team had collected. An order was sent down from their superiors go home and relax, ready to start the real work in the morning, when casualty numbers, and names, had been collated. Marilyn got a phone call as she was collecting her things.
“Marilyn, It’s the Chief Superintendents’ office. He wants you to come upstairs before you go home. Bring both of your sergeants.”
“Thank you, Brenda. See you in ten minutes.”
She went out to the main room.
“Ginger and Tim, we have been requested to attend the big boss’ office before we leave. Get your things and let’s go.”
On the way upstairs, she reflected that the past year had seen fundamental changes in both of her sergeants. Ginger had a new sense of purpose, while Tim was now always well-dressed after a year of court appearances and praise from above. When they arrived at the outer office, they found DI Dutton and Sergeant Mayford there. All five of them were visibly tired, with odd bloodstains on their clothes. They were called into the Chiefs’ office.
“Come on in and take seats. This won’t take long. I’ve been contacted by the CC. He has ordered me to combine your two teams to work through this carnage. Finding the culprit and why they did such a heinous act is top priority. It is likely to take some time. The CC has instructed me to promote you, George Kidman, from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector and for you to take over your team, effective immediately. The way that you ran it was noted while your own Inspector was away.”
Marilyn wondered where this left her, which was answered after Ginger was given his new paperwork. After the congratulations, she was next.
“Detective Inspector Houseman. The CC has instructed me to promote you to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, with your first duty to oversee both teams. Dutton, she is now your superior officer. Tell the rest of your team that what she says, goes. When you get back here, in the morning, take the teams down to the gymnasium, where staff will be working, overnight, setting it up as a command centre for you. There will be three flatpack offices built for you three. There will be enough desks for both teams, and another set of desks for six WPCs who will transcribe further interviews, along with a sergeant who will be tasked with keeping the case files up to date. IT will be installing cabling for phones and computers, and there will be a portable kitchen to keep you filled with tea.”
Marilyn was given her new paperwork as the boss of the enlarged team. She was now a DCI, without having to leave Fulford Road. It was almost a poisoned chalice, though, as these occurrences usually ended up with a madman and a big vehicle, and she wondered what would happen once the case had been closed, with Ginger in charge of her team as they went back to their own offices again.
That evening, she had a bath with a scent bomb and told Anton that they were eating over the road. He didn’t ask about her day until there was a news item on the big TV, most of the news that covered the Coppergate Carnage, as the streamer showed it. He was looking at the vision from peoples phones, while a reporter rambled on, when he saw his wife in conversation with some people.
“I know that you don’t like to talk about your work on a rough day, my love, but I’ve just seen you on that news item. Why did they send you there?”
“It wasn’t just me, love. It was my whole team and Duttons’ whole team. They worked the scene from Coppergate while we worked from Castlegate, taking statements and getting any pictures. We were there six hours, and it wasn’t very nice. DC Brightman was at her first gory murder scene and took it well.”
“Murder scene, not just a nutter in a truck?”
“It was an idea that came to me as we worked along until we met up with Duttons’ team. There was a witness who said that the driver had aimed for a couple of guys and then just drove away, only running over those who got in the way. I don’t know if any of the others heard the same. We’ll find out over the next couple of weeks. I’m sorry, love, but I’ll be working seven days for a while. They made me the DCI to oversee both teams, putting Ginger in my seat, permanently.”
“So, this should be a celebration dinner. I’m sorry that it was due to something so horrible.”
“I’ll accept a glass clink, my darling, and then I carry on making the city safe for our baby.”
She looked down at the pram beside her, where their child was sleeping, in spite of the bustle around them. Anton looked at them both.
“Don’t worry. I’ll do the walking around during the night. You have plenty of expressed milk in the fridge for me to heat up. Have a good meal and try to sleep. You’ll need all your strength in the morning. I’ll let you get away early and talk to the nanny when she gets in.”
The next morning, she picked up Tim, as usual. On the way in, he congratulated her on her promotion.
“It affects you, as well, Tim. It puts you as the senior sergeant in the team. You’ll need to talk to Ginger about getting his car, as he’s likely going to take this. I’ll get something suitable from the pool, as well as being able to order up a marked car with a driver if I need it. I’ve put a bag in the back to take my clutter.”
When they walked into the team office, everyone was there, looking serious. Marilyn smiled and stood in front of them.
“Heads up, everyone. Ginger has something to tell you, and then we’re going for a walk.”
She stood to the side as Ginger told them that he was now the Inspector in charge of the team, while Marilyn was now a Chief Inspector in charge of both teams. There was a cheer and congratulations. Marilyn then spoke again.
“Inspector Kidman is now able to add a second sergeant among the team. I’ll leave that to him as his first difficult choice. Now, my friends, we have been given the gym as a command centre, they should have put in desks and other things by now. Leave everything here and let’s go and have a look.”
They took the stairs down to the ground floor, catching up with the other team, and went into the gym. It was alive with activity, with fifteen desks in three rows of five, and another seven desks for the WPCs and the sergeant. As promised, there were three pop-up offices, with desks and chairs. In the corner was a portable kitchen unit, with several filing cabinets lined up next to it. A uniformed female sergeant came up to Marilyn.
“Sergeant Preston, ma-am. I’ve done case files in the past. I’ve picked six WPCs who will join us, tomorrow, when this is all sorted.”
She waved at a guy in police overalls to join them.
“This is Charlie Thomas. He’s in charge of connecting up the IT systems. You’ll need a couple of stations with access to cameras, so get your geeks to talk to him about the things they want. He’s already put a big screen on the wall bars, with a laptop under it for you to see any vision that you’ve collected.”
Marilyn pointed Charlie to Ian and his counterpart, whose name she hadn’t needed until now, then turned back to the sergeant.
“Thank you, Sergeant. I don’t go for surnames in my office. What do I call you?”
“Mary, ma-am.”
“Right. You’ll be my right-hand woman, Mary, so, unless there’s superiors in the room, I’m Marilyn to you, even if the rest of the teams stay with ma-am. They’ve made me the DCI in charge of the room. Over there, by those offices, are Inspectors Kidman and Dutton. Dutton is old school, so will be sir. George Kidman is a very new inspector, who has always been Ginger to me. It’s up to him to tell you what to call him. Otherwise, everyone else is a sergeant or constable. Between the two of us, we’ll make this run like clockwork.”
“I’m honoured to be working with you, Marilyn. I’ve heard that you’re not one who suffers fools, but never hogs the limelight.”
“I’ve had the limelight thrust at me with this one, Mary. Do we have casualty numbers and any names, yet?”
“Nothing that I’ve seen.”
“Right. You stay here and make sure that everything is going smoothly. I’ll address my teams and then we’ll go back upstairs and collect up what we need here. Both teams will need a few hours to get current cases to a point where they can pick them up again. We all brought in a pile of recorders, notes, and cameras yesterday. Can you find out where they are and how much has been transcribed. When we all come back, I want to run vision that was captured of the event on the big screen, so we can figure out where we go next. That will be about three, this afternoon.”
“On it, Marilyn. I appreciate the faith in me. It’s a far cry from a lot of the men I’ve worked with.”
Marilyn went over to the offices and spoke to the two inspectors and then clapped her hands.
“Right, listen up. This is a big responsibility that we’ve been given, having to come up with the who and why of this carnage. I’m DCI Houseman, and beside me are DI Dutton and DI Kidman. Both teams will be working here for the immediate future. I want no bickering or competition between you. At the moment, you are one big team, and there is no ‘I’ in team. The inspectors will match the specialities of both teams, and will get you to sit in groups, Don’t be afraid to rearrange the desks. Ian, who’s your counterpart?”
The man standing next to Ian put his hand up.
“DC Savage, ma-am. Joe.”
“Right. Joe and Ian, put your desks near that big screen and get Charlie to Wi-fi you with the laptop running it. We’ll all need to be able to see pictures and vision easily. Charlie, can we have a second big screen, set up on end, so we can look at reports in portrait mode?”
“On it, ma-am.”
“Once you’ve sorted out the seating, we all need to go back to our own offices and get current files able to be picked up later. If there are any that are urgent, we can let you carry on with them, with any help that you need called in from Acomb or Mill House. This case has been deemed our priority. Get back down here about three. I’ve been assured that it should be ready for us by then. Charlie, will we have computers with access to the main servers by then?”
“Yes, ma-am.”
“Good. Get working, team. This afternoon we’ll look at the vision that was captured and then talk about where we’re going next. The vision may throw a light on something that had been said to me, yesterday, which could give us a possible aiming point.”
Ginger, beside her, chuckled.
“As usual, ma-am, you’re already one step ahead of us.”
“Nothing certain yet, Ginger. It was just something that a witness told me. We’ll all know after we see the vision. Now, Inspector Dutton, I don’t go with surnames, what would you rather be called while we’re working together?”
“I’m James, ma-am. Mostly Jim to my friends.”
“We can be friends, Jim. I need you and Ginger to keep your people working hard. It’s no longer my job to tell them what to do, it’s yours. I just tell you what I would like to happen.”
The two inspectors went to sort their team members out into groups. Duttons’ was all men, with Garry Elsegood and Don Newman, two of the youngest ones, to sit with Helen and Shirley, and chase family and social links with four desks moved to create a hub. Hannah Brightman and Jack Dixon were the two newest members, so were sat closer to the offices to be called on to run errands. Tim and Bruce Mayford, the two senior sergeants, had their desks turned to face the others, leaving DC Mark Wright and John Richards, who would co-ordinate with the WPCs.
When they knew who sat at what desk, Charlie put names on the desks so that he could put keyboards on them with the users already on the system. Then the teams left the gym, leaving Marilyn and her two inspectors. Ginger stood next to Jim Dutton.
“Jim. You haven’t worked with Marilyn Houseman as long as I have. I can tell you, here and now, that we’ll crack this case, no matter how hard it looks now. Me, and the team, have a great faith in her thinking, and, whatever she comes up with, we’ll not take lightly to anyone protesting that she’s crazy.”
Marilyn laughed.
“I do get crazy ideas, Jim, but don’t hang on to them as if they’re gospel. I’m open to suggestion and change, as long as the thinking behind it has logic. Now, Ginger. Two things, the first is for me to give you the keys to my car, and the second is to hear who you want to promote to your second sergeant.”
“Hang on to the keys for a while, ma-am. As to sergeant, it has to be one of the girls, and I’m thinking Helen.”
“Excellent choice, Ginger. You go upstairs and make it official with the bosses, and I’ll see you all later. I’m going back to Coppergate to have a walk now that it’s not slippery with blood. Oh! By the way, Tim will need a car allocated to him, now that he’s the senior sergeant.”
She left the gym, satisfied that things were moving on. When she arrived at the site, there was still yellow tape and uniformed guarding it. She flashed her warrant card and was let in. She walked until she was at the shop where her witness had spoken to her, seeing that it was about twenty yards from the Coppergate entrance. All of the shops were still closed, so she looked along the opposite side, seeing what the shops were.
The witness had been looking in the windows of ‘The Hole In the Wand’, a magic shop. The only shop along the other side that would attract someone in business was a jewellery store. She had a look in the window as she passed, where the display was still set out, seeing some very expensive things, with the price of gold now through the roof. She went to the end of the Walk, where Jacob was crouched at one of the security bollards.
“How are you Jacob. That looks odd.”
“It is odd, Marilyn. This one had had an angle grinder on it, so that something going in would easily knock it over. The ones at the other end are the same, two treated to allow easy entry and exit, as long as you knew which two. The cut was filled with epoxy and the outside painted black to match the rest of it. This was planned, some time in advance. The bollards are all removed to allow vendor vehicles in, overnight. I can’t see someone being able to rework them while there’s lots of tradesmen around.”
“How about someone making new ones somewhere else and swapping them as they’re leaning against the wall.”
“That would work! I’ll have a look at the bollards that weren’t knocked down. If they were replacements, it will mean that they covered all the bases. This is looking a lot like it was planned. But why?”
“More like who, Jacob. I’ll be looking at the vision this afternoon. They made me a DCI yesterday, in charge of the two murder teams to clear this up. We’re working from the gym, around two dozen in the whole team.”
“Congratulations. They should have offered you that rank after the last big case.”
“They did, but I told them that I wasn’t interested. This time, it was already set in motion from the CC, so I had no chance to refuse.”
“Any idea what did the damage?”
“It was a Dodge Ram, about four years old, and a very distinctive colour scheme, red and black. The revheads that I spoke to told me that it was a model that was in small numbers. Someone was trying to make a statement but I’m not sure what they were trying to say.”
“So far, the statement may be a load of odd bollards.”
Marianne Gregory © 2026