Cold case, p.1
Cold Case, page 1
Cold Case
Cold Case, Volume 1
S L Davies
Published by S L Davies, 2023.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
COLD CASE
First edition. March 20, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 S L Davies.
Written by S L Davies.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author Note
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
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Further Reading: On The Hunt
Also By S L Davies
About the Author
Author Note
Thank you for choosing to read the Cold Case Trilogy. This series is set in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Therefore, you will notice that the way police procedures are handled differs. In Australia, there is no such thing as Miranda Rights. So, instead, the people under arrest are given the option not to speak rather than a speech about their rights.
If you’d like to see what Detective Maverick Wolfe is doing, you can find his story in the On The Hunt series by Samuel Davies. And Harley from Missing Persons Unit can be found in the Missing Persons Unit trilogy by S L Davies. Thanks again for reading this trilogy.
Prologue
Zach
I sighed as I listened to my colleagues spewing their homophobic vitriol. It was the same bullshit I’d heard for years. I was a gay man working in an industry still with antiquated ideals. It wasn’t to say that all cops were out of touch and homophobic. In my time, I’d met several great men and women who treated me fairly and didn’t give a shit about who I liked to fuck.
I’d never understood why my sex life was important to anybody. If the shoe was on the other foot, people would be outraged if I asked my colleagues if they liked to be fucked in the ass and then became horrified when they told me they were straight.
But here I sat as Lionel went on and on about how disgusting the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was. I scrubbed my hands up over my face. Because of this issue, I’d apply for a transfer to join a different precinct. I sat at Dandenong Police Precinct, hearing the same bullshit from another detective.
“What do you think, Zach?” Collin asked as he looked over at where I sat, surrounded by paperwork.
“What about?” I asked, pretending I hadn’t heard the derogatory way they referred to gay men.
“Do you think that the big faggot event should be banned?” Lionel laughed.
I rolled my eyes and sat up straight. “What would it matter if it wasn’t?”
Lionel sneered. “It’s unnatural. It’s disgusting.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I think fucking a woman is disgusting, but you don’t hear me gossiping about it and calling you derogatory names.”
Lionel snorted. “Faggot isn’t derogatory.”
I raised a brow and crossed my arms over my chest. “No? Okay, then, what if I called you a pedo?”
Lionel’s eyes widened before he turned his glare toward me. “But I’m not.”
I nodded my head. “That’s right, but it still would be offensive to call you a pedo, right?”
“Only because it would be a lie.”
“Oh, so if you were a pedophile, you would like that title?”
“Well, no.”
I smirked. “I don’t like being called a faggot, fag, poof, or whatever other derogatory name you can think of. Just because I dislike sticking my dick in a vagina shouldn’t matter. Have I ever hit on you? Have I ever hit on any of my colleagues?”
Lionel frowned as he thought about what I was saying. “Only because you know you’d get your head caved in if you tried.”
I sighed. There was going to be no getting through his thick skull. “No. It’s because I know that you aren’t gay, so I have enough respect for you to keep my sexuality to me and not try and hit on people that aren’t available. No different than if I was straight and wouldn’t hit on women, I knew were married.”
“He has a point,” Collin said.
“He’s still a fucking faggot. What if he gets fucking AIDS.”
“Jesus Christ,” I snorted. “You realize that the fear of AIDS stopped around the nineties. Fucking hell, man, get with the times.”
Lionel sneered. “I don’t even know why he has to fucking work with us. No one fucking wants him here.”
I sighed and shook my head before turning back to my desk. It was true. None of the detectives in the Homicide Unit wanted me there. I didn’t kid myself to believe that I had any friends. It was fucking lonely, and to come to work every day to hear stupid shit like what had just spewed out of Lionel’s mouth was exhausting.
I scrubbed my hands up over my face. I tried not to let it bother me, but the words stung. I was tired of being called names, it was fucking primary school shit, and I was over it. I would never understand why adults continued this bullying and didn’t just leave the school yard shit behind.
“Zach,” Captain Michael Long called.
I glanced up, and he nodded his head toward his office. Standing, I walked into his office and closed the door behind me.
“I’ve had another complaint about you, Zach,” he started as he moved to sit behind his desk.
I frowned and shook my head. “How? You’ve had me on desk duty for months.” I was on desk duty because of a false claim that I’d hit on a fucking victim’s family member. It was fictitious and bullshit, but because I was gay, I was also a predator. Just more fucking stereotypical bullshit that wasn’t true.
Michael scrubbed his hands down over his face. “This came from within. What was going on between you and Detective Carter Ryan?”
I frowned and shook my head. “I don’t even know a Detective Carter Ryan.”
Michael frowned. “He works in the Drug Unit.”
I shrugged. “Still don’t know him. What is he saying I did?”
Michael shook his head. “It’s not him that is saying anything. It was a report that you were seen grabbing him against his will.”
My eyes widened, and my mouth dropped open. “What the fuck? Someone is accusing me of assaulting a police officer I don’t even know?”
Michael sighed. “Look, Zach, I don’t believe it. I know that you are a good man. You are an amazing cop. If it were up to me, your sexuality wouldn’t matter. I don’t care about anything; as long as you do your job, that’s all I care about. But this is your fourth complaint in a matter of months. I’m afraid I have no choice but to ask for your badge, or we can agree to move you to Melbourne Precinct to the Cold Case Unit.”
I groaned. The Cold Case Unit was where all the naughty cops ended up. This was the ultimate punishment. We didn’t become cops because we wanted to solve cases of those that the perps would be long dead. We tried to help in the now.
I sighed. I didn’t have much choice. If I wanted to stay working as a cop and not be disgraced, I had to go to Melbourne.
“Alright, can I take the transfer?”
Michael smiled. “Fuck I’m glad you chose that. I think you’ll like it there. Ashton Knight is the lead detective of the unit, and he is gay,” Michael said, holding his hand up before I could tell him I didn’t care about that. “I know that doesn’t matter. But I bring it up because Ashton had a similar issue; hence, he is in the Cold Case Unit.”
I sighed and nodded. “Thank you, Michael. Thank you for believing I’m not some sexual deviant who abuses people against their will.”
Michael looked at me sadly and shook his head. “I just wish this fucking sector of society would grow the fuck up and get with the times. I’m sorry to have you leave, Zach. But I know you will do great over at Melbourne.”
I smiled and nodded before turning and leaving the office. I didn’t bother stopping at my desk. Instead, I continued to walk out and away from the precinct. There was nothing there for me now. I was done. It was time to look forward to the future. Hopefully, I will be more accepted there with Ashton leading the unit.
Chapter One
Ashton
“Ash, can I talk to you for a moment,” Captain Jennifer Mitchell called from the doorway of her office.
“Oooh, Ashton’s in trouble,” Grayson sang, making me snort, and Jennifer rolled her eyes.
Once inside Jennifer’s office, she closed the door behind her. I looked at my boss with wide eyes. “I’m not in trouble, am I?” I asked as I glanced over at the closed door.
Jennifer chuckled and shook her head. “No, you’re not in trouble. I just needed to talk to you about a new detective joining us.”
“Oh?” I said, sitting opposite the captain. “W ho are they?”
“His name is Zach Ramsay.”
“Oh shit,” I said with wide eyes as I recognized the name. “I’d heard he was in trouble, but I thought he was suspended.”
“The trouble is bullshit. Those bastards at Dandenong are nothing but a bunch of homophobic pricks. I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did there.”
I sighed. I knew what she meant. Everyone in the Cold Case Unit was gay, and we’d all been Dandenong rejects. I wasn’t sure how one precinct gathered so many homophobes, but the transfer here had been an enormous relief. Especially when I got to know Jennifer and her wife, Allison. For the first time in my career as a police officer, I found a home where I was accepted. I never understood why my sexuality mattered to my job. Still, unfortunately, power often attracted small-minded fools who couldn’t rub two brain cells together between them.
“So, all the shit about him assaulting another cop isn’t true?” I asked.
Jennifer nodded her head. “Yeah. Michael rang me. He told me all the complaints have been bullshit and submitted by a few other detectives.”
“Can’t Zach put in a complaint about that? Or Michael. Hell, Michael is his fucking captain. He should be standing up for his damned detective.”
Jennifer sighed. “You and I both believe that. But some are so fucking pig headed. Michael tries to be accommodating, like being gay is some kind of fucking disease,” she spat with a shake of her head. “Anyway, their loss is our gain. So, Zach is going to be starting with us tomorrow morning. What case are you currently working on?”
“The Lewis case,” I answered. The case had been doing my head in, and it would help to have some extra eyes on it.
“That would be a good one for Zach to work on too. You don’t have a partner, so I want to put him with you.”
I nodded and smiled. “Sure. I’d welcome a fresh look at this case. I just can’t see what I need to see.”
Jennifer nodded. “Tell me what you’ve got?”
“Selina Lewis was a fourteen-year-old high school student. She went missing on the twelfth of May 1987. Her parents reported her missing, Andrea and Mark Lewis. The cops at first thought she’d run away. Reports showed that she hadn’t been at school for the last week. Three days after being reported missing, Selina’s body was found in the Yarra River, just under the Spencer Street Bridge.”
Jennifer hummed. “Eighty-seven, that is before the start of DNA testing in Australia. Shit. Was there any forensics evidence taken?”
I nodded my head. “Semen from her body; the autopsy said she’d died of strangulation or blunt force trauma. There was no water in her lungs, so that counted out drowning. Our only other evidence is the school uniform she was found in, but it was soaked when her body was found.”
“Contact the crime lab. They might be able to salvage something, I’m highly doubtful, but you never know.”
I nodded my head. “Other than that, there really isn’t anything. I interviewed Andrea and Mark, but they weren’t overly helpful. They told me they had put the case to bed long ago and didn’t want to think about it. Selina has two brothers, both older than her, Remy and Harry. I’m hoping to be able to speak with them.”
“Good, that will be something that would be good to have Zach involved in. What is your gut telling you?”
I sighed. “I don’t want to speak out if I’m wrong, but I seriously think her parents might have been involved.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have kids, but if one of mine were killed and I didn’t have the answers on who was the murderer, I would never stop searching. I would be on the phone with the cops weekly; I would never have let them place my child’s case in a box and forget about it.”
Jennifer smiled and nodded her head. “I agree with you. Let’s keep an open mind, but there is something suspicious about Selina’s family. The sooner we get to the bottom of it, the better.”
I smiled and nodded my head. “Alright, I’ll go and tidy my desk so that Zach has a place to sit,” I chuckled as I thought about the folders I had strewn all over the desk beside mine. Jennifer grinned and nodded as I turned and left her office.
“What’s the gossip?” Grayson asked, making me chuckle. I swear he was worse than a teenager.
“We are getting a new detective tomorrow,” I responded.
“Let me guess,” Vanessa called. “Zach Ramsay.”
“How’d you know?” I asked, shocked.
Vanessa laughed. “He is gay and from Dandenong. It was only a matter of time before he joined the Dandenong rejected fruit.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Well, at least he will be made feel welcomed here.”
Vanessa nodded her head. “I imagine it will be quite the culture shock.”
“It was for me,” Tyson said as he stretched in his seat.
“In a bad way?”
Tyson shook his head. “Not at all. It was like coming home to people that actually liked me. It was like coming home.”
I breathed a sigh of relief; it was how I wanted to make all of the detectives that worked out of the unit feel.
Chapter Two
Zach
I sat at a large desk opposite Captain Jennifer Mitchell at the Melbourne Precinct Cold Case Unit.
“I’m thrilled to have you here, Zach,” she said with a smile that felt like she meant it.
I breathed in and let out a long sigh. “Did you read my record? Are you sure you want me?”
Jennifer snorted. “Yes, I read your record. It’s full of homophobic bullshit. It’s the same as all of our files. Every single one of us in the Cold Case Unit is gay or bisexual and made the god-awful mistake of not pretending to be straight,” she said with a dramatic roll of her eyes, making me chuckle.
I hadn’t realized that they were all gay or bi; that meant I at least wouldn’t have to hide. I didn’t have to pretend to be someone I wasn’t. Not that I was overly flamboyant or the stereotype of gay men that the seventies media portrayed and caught on. I didn’t walk around with a limp wrist or talk with a feminine voice. I had nothing against gay men like that, but that wasn’t me.
It wasn’t until I worked as a cop that I truly understood being gay wasn’t a lifestyle choice like my old man used to spew. If it were a choice, I wouldn’t have chosen this life. Not that I regretted being gay. I didn’t. But I would have liked to be able to turn it off while I was at work. It would have made life a lot easier.
“You won’t get any of that crap here,” Jennifer said. “And if you did, I would rake those bastards over the coals. We are all Dandenong precinct rejects here. In fact, we are called the Dandenong rejected fruit to the outside world,” she laughed.
I chuckled. “I’m glad to have found somewhere that will accept me. I never could understand why my sexuality mattered. It didn’t affect my work.”
Jennifer sighed and nodded her head. “Yeah, I hear you. It pisses me off. And until a few of the cops at the top start to catch up to the modern times, it will continue happening. But I can have a unit that accepts and welcomes people regardless of their sexuality, gender, identities, or race.”
“How many detectives have you got here?” I smiled. I could definitely get behind that.
“There are five other detectives, not including yourself. Detective Ashton Knight is second in command, and he basically runs the unit with me overseeing everything. Then there is Detectives Grayson Doyle, Keira Wheeler, Vanessa Nelson, and Tyson Aspen.”
I nodded my head. “I know Tyson and Vanessa,” I said warmly. “They were uniform cops when I knew them; they hadn’t finished their certificate to become a detective.”
Jennifer nodded. “Yep, they finished it up here. Now I can’t say that the Cold Case Unit will be as exciting as Homicide.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s alright. I’m just happy that I’m finally in a place where I can be myself.”
Jennifer nodded again. “We are thrilled to have you here. Come on, and I’ll introduce you to Ashton. I’m partnering you up with him. Everyone else is already partnered.”
I nodded and stood from the seat before following Jennifer out of the office and into the large room used for the Cold Case Unit. There were desks dotted around the room with laptops on top of them. Off one wall were a kitchen and bathrooms. A large window looked out over the Melbourne city skyscape.
