'YOU NEXT'

‘YOU NEXT’


“That’s it. God that’s it. I’m calling the police. I’m sick to death of this weirdo’s bloody calls. She’s gonna drive me insane.” Helen slammed down the receiver.


When DC Fellowes arrived an hour later he found out just how distraught she was. Every time she started to speak she broke into tearful mumbles. An interview that should have taken twenty minutes was already through the one hour barrier.


“I’m sorry Mrs Peters, but I really do need more information. Can we try again? You say they’ve been happening for about six months and you’ve had the number changed?”


“Yes, yes. I’ve had the number changed twice. Your liaison officer told me that’s all she could suggest, but they’re still happening.”


“And you haven’t given your new number out to anyone?”


“No, the only people that know it are my partner and me. It never happens when anyone’s here, only when I’m on my own and it’s really getting to me. I’m going crazy.


“What does the caller say, exactly?”


“Nothing. That’s just the point. It’s as if she’s trying to get inside my head. She doesn’t say anything at first. ”


“At first?”


“No! not at first …. Then a sort of whisper.”


“What does the whisper say, Mrs Peters, Helen – can I call you Helen?”


“Yes… I’m not sure exactly. It’s something like ‘bitch’ and then ‘you next.’ Very quiet and shadowy. I listened at first, but it makes me feel so cold I just slam the phone down. Dave, my partner, said to ignore it. He waits in some days to see if he can catch whoever’s doing it, but it never happens when he’s here.”


“Hmm. And you don’t know of anyone who bears you a grudge. An ex-boyfriend or girlfriend perhaps? ”


“No, no one.”

“What about your partner? Could it be him?”


“Dave! No that’s ridiculous. It’s a woman’s voice, Dave wouldn’t. No.”


“I don’t suppose Dave could be having an affair?”


“Ohh for God’s sake! No, he isn’t. And what’s that got to do with it anyway?”


“Sorry, I needed to ask. We’ll set up a line tap to trace the calls. I’ll be back in touch within a few days. Don’t worry, we’ll get her, …. or him.”

At the station Steve Fellowes approaches his D.S., “Phil, what d’you reckon. Woman gets nuisance calls, changes her number, still gets the calls, changes her number again so that only her partner and she know it. The calls keep coming. Gotta be the partner yes?”


“Yeah, or his bit of stuff !”


“Exactly! So I interviewed the guy – records are checking him anyway, but I don’t reckon to another woman and the victim actually calls him while I’m interviewing him, says she’s just had another call. … she only gets them when she’s alone?”


“She is actually getting the calls Steve? You checked? She’s not losing it?”


“No, – first place I went was the phone company. They set up a logging system after she complained the first time. She’s definitely getting the calls.”


“So why haven’t they traced them or put a block on the line?”


“They’ve done both! The calls somehow get through and get logged, but there’s no voice except Mrs Peters and some feint background. They traced the calls to a public box, but they’ve kept a watch on it and there’s no-one in it at the time.”


“Not possible. They’re taking the piss.” Phil stares blankly and then, “And the caller doesn’t say anything at all?”


“No. Well, the victim reckons it’s a woman - says, ‘bitch’ and then, ‘you next’.”

“Maybe it’s someone who knows her or her bloke, knows about phone systems and number diverts. Diverts the call via the phone box, dah de dah. Yeah, it’s someone they know who works for a phone company or has done in the past. Grudge calls. Happens all the time.”


“So?”


“So we put some high tech kit in the exchange and when it happens again we trace the call and pull the sod.”


“I still think there’s something odd here.”

Five days later Helen Peters opens the door to find DC Fellowes and DS Collins standing sullen faced on the doorstep. She beckoned them into the dining room. DC Fellowes started, “Helen, when I called last you said you thought you heard a woman’s voice say ‘bitch’ and then ‘you next’?”


Helen nodded.


“A woman?”


Helen nodded again.


“Helen, do you know a Karen Cartwright?” Steve noticed a slight shiver in her as he said the name.


Helen answered, “She was Dave’s ex. She left him about a year ago. Why?”


“Did he ever talk about her? Where she’d gone?”


“No. No why? What’s this got to do with the calls?”


“Helen, this afternoon we arrested Dave on suspicion of the murder of his wife Karen Cartwright. Your nuisance calls were traced to a public phone box in Newton. When we checked it out we discovered the decomposed body of a woman in a nearby ditch. The body was that of Karen Cartwright. We also found traces of washed out blood on some items of clothing in Dave’s works locker, they match Karen's medical records.

Our own records show Karen was probably not the first and with a recent insurance policy taken out on your life Dave might have intended, ‘you next.’ No-one actually made those calls, but what you think you heard may have been ‘ditch’, Helen, not ‘bitch’. You had a warning and a very lucky escape.”


doughty 2003