The Door is Still Ajar Read online

  “Do you think that Claude may have committed suicide?”

  “No chance. When he fell he still had his harness hooked onto the frame of the Stella. What is still a bloody mystery to me was, there were fifty two links in the chains of the harnesses we used. There were twenty two on the half that was around Claudes’s body and only twenty on the half that was still hooked onto the Stella. That means that ten of the links must have completely shattered. And the links of those harnesses are extremely strong.

  “I’ll give you Mrs Burgess’s address in Jaywick. My wife told me that she still lives there. I think Mrs Burgess’s son knew Freddy quite well. I know that Hammond never came back here after he came out of prison. I heard he went back to London. He was not from around here. Freddy was never heard of, or seen again. Neither of them would have shown their faces around here again. The last burglury they tried was a complete balls-up. They tried to rob a leather goods shop in the town. There was a safe in the back and they had managed to wrench the door off with a crowbar. The owner of the shop lived upstairs and and caught ‘em. Hammond must have smashed his face in. The poor bloke’s face was in the newspapers. They caught Hammond, but Freddy escaped.”

  CHAPTER 14

  When Blumer arrived back in London; the first thing he did was to contact Richard Marshall and give him a complete and detailed report of his findings. The next thing he plannned to do was to contact Mrs Alice Burgess and interview her. He also needed to find out the whereabouts of Dennis Hammond and his movements. He already knew that Hammond had been in the clear involving ‘the stripper murders’, because he was still in prison, when they were committed. He also wanted to find Freddy Kinski. Marshall had come to Blumer’s office and had listened to Blumer’s findings with guarded interest. They agreed that Blumer should travel down to Clacton again and try to glean as much information about this bizarre relationship between Dennis Hammond and the son of Eva Kinski Freddy. Blumer had not given Marshall too much hope that they would catch the killer of Sian Ellis. But Deep down inside the hunter in Blumer had been awakened and alerted. All he needed was another lead, or hook that would lead to another lead and hook. He would get his next lead and hook when he travelled down to an address in Seaway Jaywick Sands. And then all hell would break loose and he would become completely galvanized and focused on catching a killer that would push him beyond any boundries that he had known and experienced before.

  Marshall had been extremely anxious for Blumer to pay a visiter to Alice Burgess. He had openly asked Blumer if Hammond may be a prime suspect. Blumer had simply told him that his main task concerning Hammond was to find out his whereabouts and movements recently. Freddy Kinksi would be his second target and he must try to stay off of both of their radars and not let them find out he was looking for them.

  The night before Blumer was due to travel down to Clacton he had been sitting at home in his armchair, thinking, brooding and waying up scenarios and speculating about the relationship between Hammond and Kinski. Where they just partners in crime, or was there another aspect to their criminal relationship that had never been brought to light. It was then for some reason something suddenly occured to him. He stood up from his armchair and went over to his bookshelf. The book that he was looking for was on the top shelf. It was a book that Pamela had bought him for his birthday. He pulled it out, sat down and studied the index list, until he found what he was looking for. He had read the whole book before and had not given it a second thought. But once he had studied and digested the contents of the piece he began to ponder the unthinkable. Claire Gleason, Nadine Barber, possibly Lisa Noonan and now possibly Sian Ellis. He read the whole piece again and slipped a piece of paper in the book as a marker, before returning it to the book shelf. Could people like that really exist?

  This time that Blumer boarded the train to Clacton he made sure that he got on the half that went to Clacton and not Walton. He had remained in contact with Eddie Buckley by phone and Buckley’s wife had arranged a meeting with Mrs Burgess with him. Buckley had given him directions to Seaway and as Blumer got off the bus at The Sheldrake pub he knew that the address was only a short walk away. When he got off of the bus, he turned right and made his way along Seaway.He noticed that the bungalows along the road were more like chalets, or holiday homes. Some were kept quite smart, others were quite delapidated and it was blatently obvious that not the best of building materials had been used in there construction. As he approached the bungalow he was looking for, he noticed a young man sitting on the banister of the porch, eying him inquisitively. The man had a well brycreemed DA and he was wearing a baggy, sailor styled shirt, tied at the middle. His Levis were so faded that they were nearly white. Blumer was the first to speak and the mans eyes lit up with delight.

  “Good afternoon. My name is John Blumer. I would like to speak to Mrs Alice Burgess. I believe she has been expecting me.”

  “You bet she has, or rather we bet she has. MUM, MUM! Guess who we who’s come to pay us a visit. The famous John Blumer.”

  A woman appeared on the porch that looked like a cross between Widow Twankey and an antediluvian relic from a bygone era.

  “Ah, at last. Eddie has told me all about you Mister Blumer.Dean and myself knew a lot about you anyway. We do read the newspapers, you know. Never thought we would have such an illustrious guest to our humble abode.”

  “Blumer laughed despite himself. And thought, ‘I think I’m going to like Alice Burgess’.

  “There’s nothing illustrious about me Mrs Burgess. A private detective’s life can be boring.”

  “From all that I’ve read about you, there is nothing boring about you, Mister Blumer. I’m so glad you caught the stripper murderer by the way, because I used to be one you know; a stripper not a murderer, of course. Eddie told me that you would like to know as much as possible about what I know about Claude and Eva. I got to know Eva very well and she told me her most of her deepest, darkest secrets. Things that Claude, or whatever his real name was never knew.”

  Blumer’s interest immediately peeked. And he asked with guarded interest. “Well, if Claude’s real was not Claude, do you know what other aliases he may have used?”

  “And neither Claude or Eve were Polish. They were Rumanian. His second name was Avram and hers was Bucar. His first name was really Costin and hers was Stefana. I know what you may be thinking. That they may have changed there names, because they may have been trying to hide a criminal past. But nothing could be further from the truth. They had burned their boats and bridges. They were trying to put behind them a terrible and tragic past. It could take me a long time for me to tell you what I know. But now they are both dead, I would sincerely like to tell somebody a story that almost, yes almost beggars belief.”

  “Mrs Burgess, please start at the beginning and I will try not to interrupt.”

  “They originally came from a small village, not far from the Black Sea. From what Stefana told me the village and the people were still living in the dark ages. Poverty, superstition and the sheer hardship of just surviving from day to day was rife. The Infant mortality rate was really high for a small village and the people grew old well before their time. Costin, I’ll call him Claude from now on wanted to get away and start a new life somewhere else. He had a friend who had made such a move and had found a job in Poland, working in a foundry. He had made contact with Claude and Claude had decided to join his friend in Poland.The only problem was he and Stefana had grown up together and they had fallen in love. Well it was love for Claude. Sefana, I’ll call her Eva from now on, was a rather opportine and crafty young lady. She told me this herself. She also had the good fortune of being incredibly beautiful. I think she was a gipsy; big chestnut brown eyes, raven, shiny black hair and without putting too finer a point on it she was extremely voluptuous. They both had planned that Claude would join his friend in Poland, because his friend had also found him a job in the same foundry. And when Claude
had got himself established, he would send Eva enough money for her to join him.”

  “This is where the fairy tale took a twist. A rather sinister twist. Claude was now earning money, decent money and he had developed a taste for vodka. This is where Eva pulled a trick on him. She probably had very little choice, with the predicament that she had got herself into. Only it was not entirely her fault. To Claude’s joy she got a message to him that she was pregnant. And she had only just found out; three months after Claude had left for Poland. What she failed to tell him was that he was not the father. Claude, although earning decent money was spending more than he should have done on vodka.

  About a mile outside the village was a chateau, or mansion that had been shut and boarded up for years. Then one day, completely out of the blue, all the chains came off of the gates, the boards were removed from the windows and somebody moved in. Eva did not elaborate on this person. All she would tell me that he was an aristocrat and was of a high class standing. Now we are talking about a place that we simply don’t understand, Mister Blumer. The village was still in the medieval dark ages. Superstition, evil spirits and things that we would think are nonsense were very serious to these simple people. The village priest forbade anybody to go anywhere near there. The whole village, every man woman and child, obeyed him, apart from Eva. She thought that there could be a chance of work to be had up there. And she openly admitted to me that she had deeply resented living in dire poverty and abject misery. She hated it. She was hoping that she may find a job as a maid, or cook, she didn’t care.

  Well this aristcrat, or count, whatever his title was, quickly became her lover and she got pregnant by him. The whole village was mortified. She became shunned and was publicly humiliated, by everybody. Only the priest had felt pity for her. To make matters worse, this bastard abandoned her right away when she became pregnant and she became nigh on destitute. The rumour that she had brought a curse upon the village was now flying around and she was now in serious danger. The old priest knew that he must get her away from the village by any means, because pandamonium was erupting and he had no control of it. Through various contacts through the priesthood that he knew in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and Poland he managed to get her up to be with Claude in Poland. The priest-hood even paid a brigand good money to get her to Claude. The old priest was not only complicite in this subterfuge, he and his fellow priests planned and organized it. Right, or wrong, he probably saved her life and she knew.

  By the time Eva reached Claude she was six months pregnant. And her pregnancy was was a very difficult one. She suspected that she may be bearing twins and she had been right. Claude had not been expecting her and he was caught with his trousers down, so to speak. Because he had taken up with a local girl and of course he had failed to tell the girl about Eva. The girl dumped him, because of his deceit. So Eva and Claude were brought together again in bizarre and very traumatic circumstances. To make matters worse, Eve’s pregnancy was not going well at all. She knew that she must be bearing twins, but it was as if they were fighting each other, inside of her womb and this was causing her terrible pain.

  When the twins were finally born, they had come out of her nearly two weeks overdue. And Eva very nearly died giving birth to them. The twin boys Waltar and Freddy were so small, weak and frail that it was touch and go if they could survive. Eva literally had to breast feed them until they were nearly two years old and this drained the life out of her. But the woman of the village came to her aid, bringing her milk, eggs, cheese and butter and making sure that she was well sustained, while she had each baby nigh on permanantly suckling on each breast.

  By now Claude was becoming suspicious. Walter and Freddy had bright green eyes and their skin was so white that is was close to being albino. He had thought that they may have been very small, because it may of had something to do with being twins. But as they grew it became blatantly obvious they they were not his. Their hair was auburn and their frames were light and painfully thin.

  Claude was a great big, heavy framed man and naturally very strong. His hair was black and his eyes were dark brown. Eva was also very dark, like a gipsy. He had questioned her about who real the father was and she did something that by any measure was dispicable. She told Claude that she had been raped and had been too terrified to tell anybody. She had only told the old priest what had happened. That is why he had got her away from the village. Claude believed her and accepted that he would bring up two boys that were not really his.

  Then disaster struck again. War broke out and Germany invaded Poland. The village where they were living was in the worse possibly place. When the Germans eventually overran the village, a form of martial law was imposed and everything and everybody was strictly monitered. Fortunately for the villagers, the commanding officer was a strict disciplinarian and the men under him were subject to strict rules and regulations. Walter and Freddy were only two years old when the Germans took over the village. The war raged on for fours years, with the German army sweeping up through Poland to engage the Russian army, far to the east.

  Walter and Freddy would have been only six years old when the massive Russian counter-attacked. The panic and sheer terror erupted in the village. News that the Russian army were now running amok as they moved into Poland; pushing back the German army, but taking terrible casualties. It was a récipe for disaster. The Russian army were ransacking, plundering, raping and murdering entire villages in their wake. The village sat on the eastern bank of a fast flowing river. Then late in the evening on cold december night, the German army occupying village franctically gathered all of their arms and equipment together and crossed to the western side of the river. The Russian army had arrived in force. The German army were retreating, hoping to surrender to the British and American troops that had now caught the depleted German troops in trap with the Russians.

  The men of the village made a quick decision. Their only hope was to get the whole village across to the western bank of the river, before the Russians moved in; but it all went horribly wrong. The only place that the river could be crossed safely was by a bridge that the Germans had blown up in their wake. For some inexplicable reason, some of the villagers went down to the where the bridge had been destroyed, and another bunch I believe only twenty or so, went through a copse of wood, where the river narrowed and could be crossed, with difficulty. Eva Claude and Freddy were in the bunch that tried to cross the river where it was more narrow and shallow. Somehow Walter was in the bunch that had made it to where the bridge had been. He had been having special tuition, because he was having some learning difficulties and was being tutured at the time by a woman that lived at the other end of the village.

  What happened next was a massacre. The river was high and running very rapidly and was freezing cold. The group that Claude, Eva and Freddy were in was covered by a the copse of trees. And they all managed to reach the other side of the river safely, but the other group could not ford the river where the bridge had been, because it was too deep. Claude, Eva and Freddy saw what happened to them. When the Russion soldiers arrived, most of the bunch plunged into the river and tried to swim to the other side. Others were shot, machine gunned and bayoneted on the bank. Nobody got to the other side. The Germans had set up a couple of machine gun nests on the western bank, as a rear guard action to stem the Russian advance. It had been sheer carnage. They were all swept away by the current, riddled with bullet holes. The Russians were even throwing grenades into the water. The bunch that Claude, Eva and Freddy were in, ran through the woods in the pitch dark.

  They ran all night and then a miracle happened. In the early hours of the morning they were found by a company of British soldiers that had moved forward and had captured the German soldiers. They were cold tired, destitute and so traumatized that they had trouble communicating to British soldiers what had happened. The British soldiers were very good to them.

  Claude, Eva and Freddy were registered as
displaced persons and were eventually transported to England. They settled down here and Claude found work. They loved this country Mister Blumer and they had found freedom and safety. But all was not well. Freddy was not doing well at school and he got caught playing truant a couple of times. Then when Freddy grew into puberty he became awkard, abrasive and downright nasty. Eva was over protective with him. She had already lost his twin under terrible circumstances and would jump to his defence, when Claude would try to discipline him. And serious friction between Claude and Eva began to smoulder, like a fire ready to flare up. Freddy had turned into a nasty little bastard.

  Then Dennis Hammond entered into an already explosive situation. Now Claude had a petty crook influening Freddy.He had met Freddy in the Sun-Spot amusements, along the front. Hammond had been a gangland runner, messenger and general dogs body for the Ashton Brother’s and sometimes Benny Goldberg. My brother knew the Ashton brother’s and told me that Hammond had been dropped by them, for talking too much. I think he had got himself into some serious trouble and only came down here to hide out. This was confirmed when another low life crook turned up here looking for him. He had a Bedford van full of stolen goods. Televisions, radio’s and a couple of fridges. He had the gall to call himself a travelling salesman, that moved around the country. The truth was he was only a fence, that trafficked and delivered stolen goods. Apparently he had conned some other people in the criminal fraternity and he needed somewhere to hide out. I thought Hammond was revolting, but Jack Dawes, or the Jac-Daw I called him was downright disgusting and he looked like an even bigger pervert than Hammond the way he leered at Eva and myself. They had a confrontation right outside their house. Hammond was here looking for Freddy. The Jack-Daw pulled up in his van and jumped out. He had been sleeping in the van and he stank. Hammond was not pleased to see him and told him so.