Murder at the Stripclub by Lew Pit - HTML preview

Chapter 7

 

After a few weeks, Seiko was getting desperate, how was it possible that she couldn’t solve her first murder? She had numerous meetings with Jeff, but he couldn’t help her either. He just told her to calm down, that something unexpected would most probably pop up when they least expected it. Seiko was assigned a number of other smaller, less spectacular cases involving beatings even some attempted murders a lot of these as a result of domestic violence.

She kept on thinking and thinking and decided she had to go back to the basics, talk to all the people involved in these heinous crimes again, maybe focusing more on the why rather than on the how. Although there was one thing that bothered her enormously, the branding of the word whore on the forehead of both murder victims. On Rose, it was clearly branded letter by letter with an electric soldering iron, but on Kelly’s forehead, it looked quite different as if it was branded with a real branding iron, like the ones they use on cattle, this one with the word made in metal and then heated up, but with what? They hadn’t found anything that could have been used to heat up the branding iron, and the iron itself hadn’t been found either.

The theory of the pathologist was that the murderer had used a gas soldering iron, commonly used by plumbers to weld copper tubing. It was also clear that the murderer had something against lesbians, the question remained if it was someone who had a personal involvement with them or if it was somebody who just had something against Sapphic lovers.

She decided to go back to the retirement home where Kelly’s grandmother Dita was and have another chat with nurse Braxton who helped her to find Kelly’s real name. Maybe she could shed some more light on Kelly’s background. Rather than just drive up she called first, to make sure nurse Braxton would be there and willing to talk to her.

“Hello, can I speak to Nurse Braxton please?”

“This is Nurse Braxton, who is calling please?”

“Oh I’m so sorry, nurse Braxton, it is I, Seiko Tashima, I hope you remember me?”

“Yes, of course, I remember you, dear, you were the policewoman who came to see our dear Dita, was there anything else you wanted to know?”

“I was wondering if I could come by again and we could have a chat?”

“But of course dear, we haven’t seen Kelly for a number of weeks, so maybe you can tell me why, you see even though most of the time she doesn’t recognize her, Dita does miss the visits.”

“Thank you nurse Braxton, is this afternoon convenient for you?”

“Yes, I’m on duty till 6, so please feel free to come anytime before that.”

“Excellent I’ll be there around 1 if that’s convenient?”

“Yes, most of our residents will have had their lunch and will be resting, I’ll have time until at least 3 when we give them their afternoon cup of tea.”

“Thank you, nurse Braxton.”

“Alice dear, please call me Alice, I’m not a big fan of all those formal greetings and if you don’t mind I’ll address you as Seiko?”

“OK, Alice, and yes please do, thank you see you at 1.”

When Seiko arrived at the retirement home Alice Braxton was already waiting for her at the reception desk.

“Hello Seiko, please join me in the nurse’s station, can I offer you a cup of tea?”

“That would be nice, yes, and maybe you should have one as well.”

“Oh, why is it so bad what you are going to ask or tell me that I’ll need a cupper?”

“I don’t want to beat around the bush, so I’ll tell you straight away Alice, the reason you haven’t seen Kelly is because she’s dead.”

“Kelly dead, how come, she was a picture of health.”

“It has nothing to do with her health, I’m afraid she was murdered.”

“Murdered?”

“Yes and not in a nice way. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but she was killed shortly after my visit to you, even before I had the possibility to meet her, and we still haven’t found who did it. We have an idea why, but not completely.”

“Oh my God, it’s not my fault that she was killed I hope?”

“No, no don’t worry the murder has nothing to do with you, but it is the main reason why I wanted to see you again, to try to find out some more about Kelly’s background.”

“Whatever you want to know I’ll gladly share it with you.”

“For starters, Dita is Kelly’s grandmother right?”

“Yes, she is.”

“What about Dita’s daughter, Kelly’s mother?”

“We were told she and Kelly’s dad died in a car crash.”

“So you don’t know anything about her?”

“That’s not what I’m saying, we have never seen her but we heard lots about her, both from Dita when she was still OK and also from Kelly of course.”

“Oh please do tell.”

“One afternoon, when Dita was sleeping Kelly told me the story of why her mother never came to visit Dita. Abuse was the keyword in this, you see Dita’s husband, Kelly’s grandfather had abused his daughter, Kelly’s mom, from an early age onward for many years, but Dita never believed her, or was afraid of her husband as I heard later, it seemed he had loose hands and not only for touching Dita and her daughter but also for hitting. And when Dita’s daughter became too old for his taste he made a move first on Lindsey, Kelly’s older sister, and then on her.”

“Kelly’s mom never forgave Dita for not interfering, but Kelly did after she had heard that her grandmother had been abused and beaten up by her husband if she dared to comment on his behavior, and that’s why Kelly kept on visiting her grandmother, seeing her also as a victim.”

“This explains a lot, it might also explain why Kelly turned lesbian.”

“Did she now? I never noticed it, but she was married wasn’t she?”

“Yes, but that didn’t amount to very much, in fact, it resulted in her husband also becoming a pedophile just like her grandfather. I don’t know if Kelly ever knew. At one point in our investigation, we even suspected him of killing Kelly, but unfortunately for him, that resulted in us discovering him as a sugar daddy to a 15-year-old girl, a friend of his niece, Lindsey’s daughter.”

“Now that I come to think of it did Lindsey ever visit Dita?”

“No, I didn’t even know that Kelly had a sister until she told me the story.”

“Did Kelly ever mention the name, Meredith?”

“No, I never heard that name, one day when I brought in the afternoon tea while she was visiting, I overheard her mention someone named Rose to Dita.”

“That was Meredith’s artist’s name.”

“Oh, and who was this Meredith or Rose them?”

“She was a very close friend of Kelly, in fact, she was Kelly’s lesbian lover as far as we know.”

“Now that you mention it, shortly after I heard that name Rose, Kelly was accompanied by another woman to visit Dita, but that only happened once.”

“Is this the woman who accompanied Kelly? “ Seiko asked, showing a photo of Rose she had on her phone.

“Yes, I think it was. “

“Was there anything else that you know about Kelly that could help us?”

“No I’m afraid nothing else comes to mind, it was only that one time that Kelly confided in me. It is so sad for Dita, even in her condition, that she will no longer get any visitors anymore, unless, of course, Kelly’s sister decides to forgive her as well after I tell her the whole story. Now that I know there is another relative, maybe I should give her a call if I can get her number?” She said while looking hopefully at Seiko.

“Yes that might be an idea, I do feel sorry for the poor woman, I’ll give you Lindsey’s number, but please don’t divulge to anybody you got it from me.”

“No, you can rest assured this will be our little secret, I’ll be very discreet.”

“Thanks, Alice for your help and candor in telling me about this dark family secret, I’m sure it will help us.”

“Any time, will you keep me informed if you are able to catch the murderer?”

“I don’t think I will have to tell you, I’m sure when we catch him it will be all over the papers.”

“Just for one murder? Murders happen almost daily.”

“No Alice it’s not one but two murders and believe me they were spectacular.”

Seiko now better understood why Kelly had turned lesbian but it would not allow her to solve the murders immediately. Unless a miracle would happen or an unknown witness would drop suddenly out of the sky and in a way it did a few days later, when Alice called her.

“Hello, Seiko?”

“Oh, hello Alice is there something else you thought of that might help me?”

“No, I would like to ask you a favor.”

“OK, as long as it does not involve giving you any information about the investigation.”

“No, no it has nothing to do with the investigation, you see I sometimes volunteer in a women’s shelter and I’ve been seeing some women who have been badly abused by their husbands, and I was wondering if you could do something about that.”

“If they come to the station and log a complaint we can do something about it, but if they don’t I’m afraid there isn’t much we can do.”

“These women are always very afraid, even when they are safe in the shelter.”

“I understand but again…”

“Couldn’t you please come to the shelter instead of them having to come to the station? I think that would help a lot to convince them to log a complaint.”

“About how many women are you talking?”

“Well, there are at least two who have been beaten up very badly, your know, broken bones, and stuff.”

“And when do you think we can see these poor abused creatures?”

“If you could come tomorrow evening, I’ll be there as well and I can prepare them.”

“Prepare them, what do you mean?”

“These women are afraid of their own shadow, so you can imagine if a policeman in uniform walks in they will clam up.”

“If it would be me, which I guess is what you are asking for, I don’t wear a uniform.”

“No, but still you are a person of authority.”

“Yes, but I’m a woman, just like them, and I guess they were not abused by women but by men, their husbands, or boyfriends.”

“You are right of course but still, I’ll need to convince them a bit to participate.”

“OK, at what time do you expect me to be there?”

“Sevenish would be nice, the evening meal will be over and they’ll be a bit relaxed.”

“OK, I’ll swing by at seven tomorrow evening, you may as well tell them also that I’ll have a recorder with me to record the conversation.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so Alice, it saves a lot of time and makes the conversation easier as I won’t have to stop them all the time to write stuff down when they’re telling their story.”

The next day at seven Seiko made her way to the shelter to help Alice and the women staying there. When she arrived it was a plain house with just one bell to ring. Even before she had a chance to do that the door swung open and Alice welcomed her inside.

“I’m so happy that you could make it and do this for us. The girls have been briefed and are looking forward to finally being able to do something about their situation. We will meet them in their room in total privacy. Let’s first go see Violet and her little girl Lilly. They’ve been with us now for about a week, don’t be alarmed, because you can still see the bruising of the abuse.”

When Seiko walked into the room there was this petite woman sitting on the bed holding a toddler of about 2 years in her arms, both looking frightened. Seiko gave both a big smile and put her hand out for shaking.

“Hello Violet, I’m Seiko and I’m a policewoman, and I‘m here to help you.”

Violet extended her hand to shake Seiko’s, and a tentative smile appeared on her face. Lilly looked at Seiko with big eyes.

“Hello Seiko, Alice told us that you would be coming to help us.”

“She told you that I will record our conversation?”

“Yes, she did and explained why that was necessary.”

“Excellent, so why don’t you start by telling me what has happened to you and what you expect us to do about it.”

Violet told her story to Seiko, how over the years of their marriage her husband had turned more and more violent, up to the point, about a week ago, when she couldn’t take it any longer and fled to the shelter. It was the classic story of a lot of women whose husbands drink too much and whose cash is low and they blame the wife for all their misfortune. After a good half hour, the story was recorded and agreements were made on how to proceed in the coming weeks. When Seiko walked out, Violet looked as if a very big weight had dropped off of her shoulders and Lilly was still looking with big question marks in her eyes at this strange woman with slanted eyes.

Next was Clara Cook, who had already been in the shelter for a couple of weeks. She didn’t look as afraid as Violet had looked and she was alone, no child.

“Hello, Mrs. Cook, nice to meet you, my name is Seiko Tashima, but you can call me Seiko.”

“Hi Seiko, please call me Clara, I understand you are here to help us log a complaint against our husbands?”

“I am here to help you log a complaint against the person or persons that have harmed you, and if they happen to be your husband you are 100% right. You are aware I will be recording our conversation?”

“Yes Alice told us and I appreciate it as I don’t want to have a report that only tells half the truth.”

“Has that happened to you?”

“Oh yes, this is not the first time I've tried to keep the bastard at bay, but usually you end up in the police station talking to a guy who doesn’t really believe you and who is convinced you’re exaggerating, even with your face in shambles.”

“You don’t have to worry about that Clara, I take what you will tell me very seriously.”

“Excellent.”

“Now why don’t you start at the beginning, when did the abuse start and what triggered it?”

“It started pretty early in our marriage, you see my husband is extremely jealous, something I unfortunately only found out after I married the bastard. Not that I ever cheated on him, something I think I won’t be able to say about him.”

“Why do you think he cheated on you?”

“THINK, I know he cheated, I do or better still I did his laundry, I must have seen all colors of lipstick pass on his shirt collars. Not to speak of the spunk residues I found in his underwear or used condoms in his pockets.”

“I see, so you have proof of his infidelity?”

“Yes and no, I didn’t exactly start a collection of used condoms as you can imagine.”

“Of course, but please continue when did the abuse or beatings start?”

“In our second year of marriage, he had set it in his mind I was seeing someone, and the worst thing was he imagined I was seeing a woman.”

“A woman, so he thought you had turned lesbian?”

“Yes, it’s probably his buddies who put him up to that.”

“Why his buddies?”

“He’s a member of this club of guys who hate gay people, both men, and women, they claim it is against nature, according to them lesbians, homos, transgenders, and everyone else who is not according to their standards are completely mad, totally against nature and should be reeducated or put out of their misery.”

“You mean killed?”

“Absolutely, they love subservient women. According to them, the female species have been put on earth to serve men in any way they want. I was lucky to never have conceived, although he didn’t bother about protection, that was a woman’s responsibility according to him. I’m sure if I had become pregnant he would have left me. Maybe I would have been better off and wouldn’t have suffered the numerous beatings he gave me.”

“Is there anything else that leads you to the conclusion these guys are convinced that women are put on earth to serve and obey them?”

“Oh yes, they love to go to striptease bars where women undress for their pleasure. He spent quite a lot of money in these establishments and always came back home drunk, ready to accuse me of whatever his buddies told him I was up to, feeding his jealousy. Although where he got the notion I was lesbian I have no idea.”

“Do you have female friends maybe?”

“I sometimes have a cup of coffee with my neighbor, you know how it goes when you’re not working and you stay home, a chat is always a welcome diversion, especially when the woman you are talking to is in the same shit as you are.”

“Are you telling me your neighbor’s husband is a member of the same club?”

“Yes, and she too gets slapped around a lot.”

“A kindred soul?”

“Yes.”

“So why isn’t she here as well?”

“I guess she’s even more afraid of her bastard than I am, or she probably wants to see what is going to happen with me, now I took the decision to come here.”

“So your husband and his buddies visited strip clubs, any clubs in particular?”

“I guess he mentioned a place called George’s hideout a couple of times.”

“Does your husband drive a dark grey BMW 3?”

“Yes that’s his baby, it took him years to be able to buy one and it gets treated far better than I am. Why do you want to know?”

“OK I’ll be honest with you Clara, I agreed to help Alice with these complaints because she was a big help in a murder investigation I’m involved in.”

“OK, and what has that got to do with Ben?”

“Two murders have been committed at the club you just mentioned;” Seiko heard Alice take a sharp intake of breath, now probably realizing how serious this murder investigation was.

“Waw, and you think Ben had something to do with it?”

“I’m not sure about Ben, but maybe his little club of homophobic friends has.”

“Oh my God, murder!”

“Do you think he would be capable of murder?”

“Who Ben?”

“Yes.”

“The way he’s treated me yes I think if triggered in the right way he would be.”

“Something entirely different maybe, has Ben been married before you met him?”

“Not that I know of, he never mentioned anything in that direction, as far as I know, he was single when I met him, do you think I would get involved with a married man?”

“No, no, please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not implying you would do such a thing, but we are looking for reasons why this double murder was committed. We know it has to do with homophobic behavior and then after your explanation, the spotlight is now full on this club of homophobes your husband is a member of.”

“Maybe one final question, do you have physical proof of the injuries you have sustained?”

Here Alice took the floor, “Yes we have Seiko, when a woman walks in here we immediately take photos and we have a doctor examine the woman in question, I’ve got a copy of Clara’s medical report right here for you.”

“Excellent, I think I’ve got enough to take to an investigating judge. He or she will issue a warrant for Ben’s arrest and we take him into custody. We’ll have a chat with him as well as I do think he might somehow be involved in the murders I’m investigating.”

Chapter 8

Now everything gained momentum. Shortly after Seiko brought the file to the investigating judge, who happened to be a woman, a warrant for Ben’s arrest and a warrant to search his premises was issued pronto. It was not an easy arrest, when they arrived at his house the next morning at 6 am and rang the bell, nobody answered, although the car that had been described by Joe was in the driveway telling them he was home. As you can imagine they didn’t come alone, when there was no one opening the door the team broke it down and as they entered the premises they found him snoring completely drunk in his bed. He was taken into custody and put to rest in one of the detention cells at the station to sleep it further off, awaiting questioning. Jeff was excited with the prospect of finally having a serious suspect, or maybe even a group of suspects. Finally, around 10, when he sobered up, Ben was led to the interrogation room.

In the meantime, the team had been extremely busy, now that we knew the license plate of Ben’s car they could see exactly when and where he’d been during the time of the murders checking all the traffic cams and the footage they had from the cameras from the club parking. They even found it entering the club’s parking lot, especially on busy nights and always together with other cars, telling them Ben did everything to be unnoticed and stay inconspicuously. They now also started to also check the cars that had entered together or just before or after Ben drove in or out to see if it were always the same cars, maybe from his homophobic club members. He had even entered the parking lot on the night of the first murder.

Also, the team doing the home search had found a number of interesting items with which they were going to confront Ben during the interrogation.

“Good morning Mister Janssen, have we sobered up a bit?” No reply, he just sat there looking hostile.

“You are Ben Janssen, right?”

“Yes, and who wants to know?”

“I am Inspector Seiko Tashima and the gentleman sitting next to me is chief inspector Jeff Baines and we would like to have a word with you about your wife.”

“You mean that cheating lesbian bitch that left me a couple of weeks ago, have you found her?”

“Yes we have Mister Janssen, and she’s doing OK after the beating you gave her.”

“Did she say I beat her? I didn’t beat her, the bitch fell down the stairs because she had been boozing it up with our lesbian neighbor.”

“That’s not exactly what she told us.”

“What lies has she been telling you? I love her, despite the fact that she digs women.”

“You have a strange way of showing your love, I’ve seen photos of her when she arrived in the hospital.”

“Is that where she’s hiding, telling them doctors I beat her?”

“It doesn’t matter for the moment where she is Mister Janssen and it’s not about her that we want to speak with you, but about something entirely different.”

While explaining that to Janssen Seiko had placed the pictures of both murdered women on the table in front of him, asking him if he knew them. Of course, he denied knowing any of them. When they then confronted him with their knowledge of his relationship with Rose he became rather nervous.

“Mister Janssen, if you don’t know any of these ladies, there must be something seriously wrong with your memory. Although she was badly mangled, you should be able to recognize the woman you had a relationship with some years ago.”

“Oh is that Meredith?”

“Yes it is, so can you tell us maybe where you were the night of Saturday, May first?”

“I don’t know anymore, but most probably in bed.”

“Is there anybody that can confirm that?”

“Hey, maybe you should ask my wife, although most of the time she is in bed with one of her lesbian friends.”

“Could it be that you were cheating on her and were in bed with another woman?”

“What is a man to do when his wife loves women more than her husband, and besides I don’t keep a list of all the women I fucked once.”

“Could you try a bit harder sir, your ex was murdered that night, and we have reason to believe you, and even your buddies with whom you regularly visit the strip club, were involved, or are you going to tell us you didn’t go there?.”

“I had nothing to do with that, and neither have they, we all love women very much, especially when they’re taking their clothes off.

“Then why was your car spotted at the club on the night she was killed?”

“It was probably someone else.”

‘Driving your car?”

“I regularly lend it out to friends.”

“OK, then can you give us a list of those friends?”

“I don’t keep a list of whom I lend my car to.”

“Ok then just give us a list of all of your friends instead, and we’ll figure out who used your car and when.”

“Isn’t that against the privacy law?”

“I’m afraid not sir, so can you please give us those names?”

“It’s going to be a long list, I have lots of friends.”

“We don’t mind talking to all of them unless of course there are not really any friends you lent your car to.”

“OK, I didn’t lend my car to anybody.”

“So can you tell us why your car was spotted at the club and what you were doing there?”

“Is it forbidden to go to a strip club nowadays?”

“No, but you see Mister Janssen a murder was committed there and your car was spotted a number of times and you are, according to the publicity text on your car a locksmith.”

“So is that a forbidden profession these days?”

“No, it’s not but somebody got into the club by picking the locks, and we suspect that you might be that person, furthermore as you are aware, we took your fingerprints and it seems that they appear on some of the things we found in the club related to the murders.”

“Of course, I had drinks there and I used the toilet, so it’s no wonder you found my fingerprints in that place.”

“We’re not talking about glasses or door knobs mister but on a manchette that was planted in the abdomen of one of the women. And we also found some incriminating tools in your garden shed.”

“Of course, I have tools in my garden shed doesn’t everybody?”

“Yes, but you see the things we found relate directly to the murders and injuries found on the victims. We found an electric soldering iron that was used to burn the word whore in the first victim’s forehead and an artfully crafted branding iron with the same word, plus a gas-operated soldering iron probably used to heat up the branding iron, which was used on the second victim, can you explain how these things ended up in your garden shed?”

“Somebody must have planted these things there, I don’t know anything about them.”

“Strange that we found your fingerprints on all of these items then and not somebody else’s,” Seiko said.

Jeff continued, “The words Dyke you carved in both of their bodies told us the crimes were related and that the murderer had a big problem with women having a lesbian affair, so did you?”

“The bitch left me to run around first with some Latino guy she met aside from a bunch of dykes taunting me and claiming I was a lousy lover who couldn’t satisfy her.”

“Are you now confessing to killing both women?”

“Women, they’re not women, they’re dykes, making us men feel inferior and I guess you are one of them as well and a chink to boost.”

Jeff intervened, hitting the table with his fist, “I don’t think your outburst is going to do much good to you at your trial and consequent sentence Mister Janssen, I advise you to stop addressing Detective Tashima in that way right now unless you want to add insulting a police officer to the murder charges.”

After that, Ben Janssen became very calm indeed realizing they had enough evidence to send him to jail for two premeditated murders, and he quickly realized that adding insults to that would definitely not help his case in court. Upon Tashima and Jeff’s advice, he confessed to both murders.

The rest of his homophobic buddies were also questioned but nothing could be found to tie them to the murders. They were just a bunch of idiots who were convinced the world purely revolved around men and women being inferior creatures just put on earth to serve and entertain them.

 

Epilogue

A few months after the trial George ran into Seiko at a local supermarket. She told him she now moved into the neighborhood. George, on the other hand, was happy to inform her that he and Julia had talked to Julia’s family and convinced them of their feelings for each other which will result in them getting married. In the end, Julia’s family were not the zealots as she thought they were.

Two new girls had replaced Rose in the club and all of them were very eager to act as Julia’s bridesmaids. After George invited Seiko to join them for the celebration she shyly told him she knew about it and would be there as she had started a relationship with Joe and knew already all about his official engagement with Julia and their planned wedding. She also told George that her partner during the investigation, Jeff Baines, had finally retired and she had been promoted to the number one detective at the station.