He sat down to a round of applause.
“Home Secretary, Your Lordship, Chief Inspector and Inspectors of Her Majesty’s Constabularies and fellow Chief Constables, may I first introduce myself to those who do not know me, I am Miles Ridwell.”
“I have been until today Chief Constable of Cheshire and your host this evening. I hope you all had a very productive conference over the last two days, in the famous five stars Chester Grosvenor Hotel and Spa”.
“We are fortunate with all the cuts that the Home Secretary was gracious enough to provide funds to ensure the facility went on as normal, thank you sir.”
There was a round of applause and numerous calls, of “Here, here” even some knocking on the table indicating there was more than one Freemason present.
“I now welcome you all to the annual dinner after the conference with I believe some very unusual entertainment rather than the normal speeches”.
This new face after dinner event is entirely due to the tacit efforts of Christian Woodcock with the approval of the Home Secretary and Mr Jepson, the Chief Inspector. As a result, we will have a special guest to entertain us. May I first of all ask you to rise and toast the health of Her Majesty the Queen?”
“The Queen”
Ridwell sat down he was no longer a Chief Constable but a watcher of the event and he relished the idea.
A lavish five-course meal with a choice of Fresh River Dee salmon, caught in Chester or roast Deer being the highlight of the main course.
Sidney the headwaiter who, unknown to those present held some dark secrets of his own.
He was tonight however in full uniform, strutting around organising so that everything went according to plan with such high-powered guests.
The Hotel Manager appearing twice and confirming as usual Sidney was ensuring the reputation of the hotel was performing to the finest standards thus enhancing the reputation it already had.
The meal finished there was a tapping on the table and when the diners looked up it was Christian Woodcock at the helm.
Silence now in progress, Woodcock commenced what was likely to be one of his last official duties and official functions call it what you may.
“Home Secretary, My Lord and brother officers, oh I apologise and sisters I see,” There was a laugh as the female officers present put up their glasses in acknowledgement; they had not been forgotten, for once some thought.
Woodcock looking to the rear of the room, relaxed seeing his guest had arrived and so continued.
“Some time ago whilst carrying out my inspections a very unusual series of deaths was brought to my attention, five dead police officers in fact. None seemingly, known to each other, serving in different forces, Cheshire here, Manchester, Wrexham and Shropshire.”
“The cases were all investigated locally, nothing of a criminal nature was discovered, and all the deaths were confirmed as natural causes after medical examination by pathologists.”
“In spite of this, as all the officers were young in service and apparently before their deaths were all fit and healthy, this caused me to wonder and I may add nothing more than that, I did however wonder if there was anything more in the cases?”
“With the approval of the Home Secretary I approached and sought the experience and services of the country’s most experienced detective Mr Jack Richards, an ex Superintendent of New Scotland Yard, now retired.”
“There may be some who will recall a variety of his more famous cases and I might say as he is not in the room, you may well know him by his trade name, “Jack the Hat”. I see he has arrived, I will call him to speak to us without delay when hopefully we will hear the results, if any, of his investigations.”
With that, he looked up waved at Sidney who showed no signs of any emotion then brought in the star speaker.
Jack was dressed slightly different, he was wearing his trilby but due to pressures at home, he had in fact put on a dark suit last worn at the funeral of his mother, 25 years ago.
He took off his trilby hat looked around but finding no stand to throw it onto; he placed it on the table.
Invited to have a drink, he said with a smile, “Thank you, Sid a glass of water, please, from the glass on the table if you don’t mind”, this caused Sidney to look up, “Sid indeed your time will come” thought Jack, but said nothing.
Jack saw the staring eyes and eager faces around the room, all eyes being beamed upon him.
“Home Secretary and other distinguished guests there comes a time in every investigation when the man who has been charged with investigating these tragic events has to report his findings.”
“In view of the tragic circumstances of these matters may I first of all ask you all to stand with heads bowed and remain silent for one minute as a mark of respect for the fallen officers?”
There was a shuffling of seats and feet, then silence.
After half a minute there was, a terrific crash and loud voice called “blast the bloody thing”.
It was Sid who had dropped and broken a full jug of water it appears he intended to bring it into the room.
Jack looked realised Sid’s motive for the disturbance but failed to react in voice or expression but thought, only moments left for you my son.
“I will get straight on not wishing to take up more of your valued drinking time than is necessary”. Jack said.
There were low-key laughs and Woodcock immediately thought disaster had struck, Jack the hat the famous detective had found nothing.
He could literally feel the egg yolk running down his face even before the guest speaker had hardly spoken.
Jack continued, “I confess these deaths of such young officers are not only very unusual but sad cases in fact devastating, such young loss of life and trauma for the loved ones of those who died.”
There were calls of, “here, here”, around the room.
“I have been ably assisted during my enquires, by Inspector Scott-Ling who you will more than likely meet later.”
“In addition my thanks goes out to Chief Superintendent Denton-Smyth the boss here in Chester for permitting the officer to assist me and for providing us with a fine office and surroundings.”
“The atmosphere in the building has gone a long way to providing the correct climate in which to operate. I do in fact work in the museum adjacent to the main police station; my office is from the Victorian era, the days when crimes were investigated thoroughly as a matter of course”.
There were no reactions to this it being a veiled suggestion such was not the case these days under the modern leadership.
“I have visited each of the forces and spoken with each individual Chief-Constables where the deceased officers were serving. I report they have all been very helpful in all aspects; I thank them for this cooperation”.
“I visited the next of kin of the deceased officers. None could recall or suggest any reason for the deaths of their loved ones save from natural causes.”
“No suggestions were made of any criminal holding a grudge or that their loved ones had been involved in anything suspicious”.
“The only strange item was that of a mysterious lady whose description appeared shall I say to be of none Caucasian appearance.”
“She visited all the officers and had a private conversation with each officer outside their homes.”
On completion of the conversations, no officer would relate anything of the woman’s visit. Each lady of the house commented that each officer was left with a grimace expression but they assumed it was some form of ex marital affair, possibly a pregnancy. I made enquiries but events I will describe later totally discount this theory”.