Where There's A Will

Chapter Twenty-Seven

As she had every step of the way there, Lisa protested and resisted. "We're going to be late for school," she said as her friend started up the steps to the police station. "If we go in there we'll end up in trouble with our parents about Sunday, and late for school, which will get us into even more trouble, is that what you want?"

Megan paused to look back at her friend. "You do what you want, Lisa, but I'm going in, and I'm gonna tell them what we saw. If I'm late to school and get in trouble, I can live with that." With that she turned and finished her ascent of the steps, pushing open the door when she got to it so she could enter the police station.

She waited patiently for the officer to pay attention to her when she reached the counter. As she did, she wondered what her friend was going to do; she didn't have to wait long to find out, the door opened and then closed noisily after a short while, announcing that Lisa had decided to join her.

"Good morning, girls," Sergeant Wells greeted the two schoolgirls in front of him. "How can I help you?" It wasn't often that he had schoolgirls entering the station voluntarily, and never so early in the day, which made him think that they were there to report something potentially important; he soon learned that he was right.

Lisa gave her friend a significant look.

Megan took the hint. "We'd like to speak to someone about the hit-and-run on Sunday night, the one that's been on the news and in the papers."

"Do you know something about it?" Wells asked, wondering what they could possibly know about it, given the time the incident had occurred. When he received a curt nod in answer to his question, he picked up the phone and called through to CID. "What's your names?" he asked of the girls halfway through the call.

"I'm Megan, and this is Lisa," Megan told him, not thinking to provide their last names.

Wells repeated what he had just been told.

"Someone will be down to speak to you shortly," Wells told the girls once he had finished on the phone.

"Hello, I'm Detective Constable Grey," he introduced himself. "You're Megan and Lisa?" He received nods from both teens. "Good. I understand you want to speak to someone about the hit-and-run that occurred on Sunday night."

With more eagerness than she had shown up to that point, now that she saw the young detective they were to deal with, Lisa nodded. "That's right. We think we know who did it," she said importantly.

Grey put the two teens in an interview room and then went to find a WPC to sit in on the interview with him. "Lisa, Megan, this is WPC Unsworth," he informed the girls. "Now, I realise you both need to get to school, so why don't we get started. You say you have information about Sunday night's hit-and-run, that you know who did it, is that right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Lisa said.

"No, we don't know," Megan disagreed quickly. "But we think we saw who ran that old man down."

"You saw Mr Bollard get knocked down?" Grey asked in surprise. Given when the incident occurred, he hadn't expected to find a witness, let alone that that witness would be a pair of schoolgirls.

Megan shook her head. "No, but we were almost knocked down not far from where he was. We were crossing the road and a car almost ran us down."

"Why don't you tell us where you were, what you were doing, and what happened," Grey suggested.

Lisa answered before her friend could, wanting to give a good impression to the young detective. "We'd been to the festival that afternoon, we stayed there 'til about eleven, then we got a lift back with some friends; we stayed at their place for a while, drinking and listening to music. Then we left to go back to Megan's. We told our parents we were staying at each other's houses, so they wouldn't know where we were. Meg's parents were away for the night, so they didn't know what time we got there." An embarrassed, almost apologetic, look crossed her face as she said that. "We were on our way there when a car came out of nowhere and almost ran us down, we were lucky it missed us. I was so scared, I thought they were going to kill us."

Megan nodded her agreement. "One moment the road was empty, the next the car was there. Where it came from, I don't know. Lisa was on the pavement but I was still on the road. I had to jump out of the way – ruined my favourite jeans."

Grey quickly concealed a smile. "What time did this happen?" he asked. Hearing that they had been drinking, he worried that their information might have to be discounted – might be useless for securing a prosecution.

Megan had to think about that for a few moments. "We left our friends' place at just after two, so it was a bit after that, quarter past, twenty past, something like that."

"Are you sure?"

Megan nodded. "I remember seeing the time and telling Lisa we needed to get home and get some sleep, or we'd end up missing school. We almost did anyway, and I thought I was going to fall asleep during all my morning classes."

"Did you see the car that almost ran you down?" Both girls nodded. "Can you describe it for me?" Grey asked.

"It was a Vauxhall, an Astra I think," Megan said. "Dark blue."

"What about the license number? Did you see that?"

"No." Megan shook her head. "By the time I got to my feet the car was gone, disappeared round the corner."

"How about you?" Grey turned to Lisa. "Did you see the license number?"

"Yes." Lisa nodded, though it was a few seconds before she said anything more; her brow furrowed as she struggled to remember what she had seen. "It was T248 GUU," she said finally.

"Are you sure about that?" Grey asked.

Lisa nodded. "Uh huh. I've got a thing for numbers, once I see one I can't forget it."

"Good, now, where were you when this happened?"

"Dawson Street," Lisa said quickly. "It's only a street and a bit away from where the old man was hit."

Grey accepted that for the moment, and made a mental note to check the distance between the two locations on a map. If the information was right, then there was little reason to doubt that the Vauxhall Astra that had almost run the girls down was responsible for Mr Bollard's coma.

"Did either of you see the driver?" he asked.

"Not clearly."

"But you did see him," Grey pressed Lisa. He ignored Megan for the moment since her answer had been a shake of the head. "Can you describe what you saw of him?" Having a description of the car, including the license number, was useful, but since the car was almost certainly stolen, he thought a description of the driver, even a partial one, would be of more help in securing a conviction.

"He wasn't young," Lisa said, her brow furrowed. "But he wasn't old either. In his thirties, maybe; he was older than you, but not by much."

Grey jotted that on the notepad he had taken out. When she had been silent for a few moments he prompted her. "What about his hair, did you see what colour it was?"

"Light brown, or maybe it was dirty blond, I'm not sure."

"How about the length? Could you see that? Was it long or short?"

"Medium, maybe more short. It was scruffy," Lisa said that decisively. "It was all over the place; I remember thinking he needed to do something with it, and he needed a shave."

Grey could almost imagine the teen shouting at the guy to clean himself up, and probably to learn how to drive as well. "Do you remember anything else about him? Anything distinctive that might help us identify him?"

"No." Lisa shook her head, and then immediately nodded. "Yes, there was something. He had a mark on his neck; I don't know what it was, a burn, a birthmark maybe, but it was pretty big."

Grey forced himself to control his excitement and asked, "Could it have been a tattoo? An eagle maybe?" He found himself holding his breath as he waited for an answer, and had to resist the urge to let it out in an exultant explosion when she nodded.

"Yes, it could have been."

Containing his excitement as best he could, Grey asked his next question, "Was there anyone else in the car?"