PADS #33

The noise stopped and the video faded to a ghostly visage in the full glare of the locker room neon strip lights which were flickering back into life.

‘Well,’ Elms began, ‘you must have dropped your phone because I found it outside the station after you left work and Carter was able to download the photos and video you had taken of the crime scene.’

A tangible pause ensued as Wyse recalled leaving work that morning and throwing the PADS phone away, a throw consisting of some force to hurl it into a dense rhododendron bush which kept the public at arms length from the ambulance station. How then did Elms find it? He glanced at Elms who with fierce determination was scrutinising the pristine demarcation lines on the ping pong table.

‘And may I say the video capture was rather an excellent idea and although the turn was a bit quick I managed to slow it down, I'd always assumed you were a bit of a technophobe Wyse because I thought you didn't know how to use a phone.’ said Carter who often showed his disdain for those who did not believe or have time for his technology.

He also believed the eyebrow was an essential part of communication and imparted valuable information if applied correctly, at the moment his left eyebrow was trying to bend itself into a ninety degree angle, one which he had been caught practicing numerous times in the mess room mirror. Wyse had accidentally found the non-verbal handbook Carter had studied in the local library which described the complex eyebrow patterns used for this sort of communication. He was fairly confident Carter was now attempting a double cross eyebrow, implying someone was both lucky and a liar.

Wyse replayed the event of him using the phone, yes the photos showed a dramatic artistic flair and did not surprise him in their quality or accuracy but the video though was perplexing. The voice recorder was the only other function he, ah divine intervention he must have activated the video recording facility instead of the voice recorder. Well this would straighten that eyebrow of Carters out when he told him what had happened, especially when he had no idea there was a video recording facility on the phone.

‘Yes well done Carter couldn't have done it ...’ started Wyse.

‘Only one problem,’ interrupted Carter, ‘but I can't quite get the sound yet. It will probably only take a few more minutes, it seems to be a lot longer than the video probably recorded the whole event.’

‘Yes, yes very good but don't bother about that now, it is I'm afraid as I have already said the end,’ said Wyse attempting to retrieve the phone from the table.

‘But...’ stammered Rowlands producing a scale model of the crime scene in perfect detail, except it was now Ken who laid crumpled on the floor with a bucket atop his head and a garish Barbie standing in the hallway.

‘No, that is enough!’ Wyse would have to get tough but not too harsh for they were to be cut free and their suffering should not be increased, ‘please my trusted companions let this be an end to it.’

‘He's dead!’ shrieked Karen.

‘           Yes he's dead,’ Wyse said, patting her on her head, ‘but it has been deemed by circumstances beyond our control that the mystery of the bucket killer is not ours to solve.’

‘Not him, you idiot, the man in the doorway!’ shouted Karen pointing at the projector screen.

The video had stopped, it had captured the distraught friend of the dead man waiting to be told everything was going to be okay, Karen shouted some more.