Bad granddad
English project:
Whodunit
Group members:
Amber ForĂŠe Mieke Korpel
Class: D3AH
School: H.N. Werkman College Dalton / Groningen / The Netherlands
Dewy Leegstra Tom van de Looi
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1989 7 October- England; Birmingham, 13:36 A cold wind flaw blew over a remote playground. The swings moved slowly back and forward. There’s a puddle of water on the slide. If you look at the dark brown sand, you can see that nobody has been there for years. Dark clouds float above a remote district in Birmingham. Raindrops are falling down on the ground. A trace of red blood leads you in to the sandbox. You can find a little boy there. His death body lays helpless in the sand. His eyes and fingers lay next to his body.
1989 7 October- England; Birmingham, 14:57 Jack and Emily are driving the car through Birmingham on a rainy day. Big raindrops are falling on the windshield. People are running down the street, searching for shelters to keep dry. Emily looks through the window. She gets a cosy feeling of the sound of raindrops that is falling on the car’s roof and the music that’s playing on the background. The song on the radio reminds her of the summer, when she played with her daughter Mandy in the garden. It was a very hot day in the summer holiday. Maybe it was one of the hottest days in England. Emily played all day with Mandy in the swimming pool that she got a few days earlier for her fourth birthday. ‘The weather is amazing today.’ says Jack sarcastic. Emily is so far in her daydream that she don’t even hear Jack. ‘Hello Emily, are you still there?’ Jack starts to laugh when Emily finally looks to Jack. ‘Sorry, I think I was daydreaming.’ ‘Yeah, I saw it.’ says Jack. Suddenly the phone rings, Jack picks up the phone. Jack’s face turned more serious when the man on the other side of the phone call tells him information about a crime in Birmingham. ‘All right, we are on our way.’ says Jack and he ends the phone call. ‘What was that about?’ asks Emily after the phone call. ‘About a little boy. He’s murdered and somebody found his dead body in a playground.’ says Jack. ‘In a playground? That's a weird location.’ says Emily. A couple of minutes later they arrive at the crime scene. They step out of the car, and see that the local police and other CSI agents are already there. Jack sees that they are all standing at the sandbox, so he decides to go there. When he stands at the edge of the sandbox he looks horrified to a helpless little body that lays in the sandbox. It feels like he has to throw up. He walks back to the bushes and bents his body. His stomach is turning upside down. And he’s getting dizzy. It took a couple minutes to calm down. When Jack feels a bit better he decides to go to the sandbox. ‘Are you sure that you want to do this?’ asks Emily. She walked back to Jack to calm him down. ‘Yes, I never thought it was this bad. Next to the small body lay his fingers and eyes and his feet are cut open. 'This is terrible. He's so young, so little. His life has to start yet. 'Jack does his gloves on and takes carefully the fingers and eyes and put them in a plastic bag. He thinks to himself 'Who can do this to a child?! If somebody did this to my children, I'll maybe shoot a bullet through his head. I will do anything for my children. I have to solve this crime, for the parents of the boy, for the family.'
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While Jack is busy with the body, concentrates Emily herself on the environment. ‘This playground is very remote. You can see that nobody has been here for years.’ ‘Maybe that is why somebody brought his body here.’ says Jack. He walks to Emily while he’s closing the plastic bag with the evidence. ‘But someone did find the body. I’d heard from Sam, a local police, that they got a phone call from a neighbour. She was walking through the neighbourhood with her dog. The dog wasn’t on the leash and ran in to the playground to the sandbox.’ says Emily. ‘I think the woman was very shocked when she saw the body.’ Emily walks to the swings, they're slowly swinging back and forwards, and there is blood is all over the playground. ‘I understand why nobody has been here. Imagine this playground without all the blood. It still looks very scary.’ Quickly she walks also to the sandbox. Emily thinks by herself: ‘Why here and not just in a house. There must be a story behind it, because why would somebody kill a kid? It must have been revenge’ After Jack collected all the evidence and the pictures are made, he says to another agent named Joe: ‘Let’s take the small body quickly away from here. He must go to the lab for research, it’s the only evidence that we have and we don’t want to waste it.’ Along with Joe, they lift the small body on a stretcher and bring him to the ambulance. Emily feels relieved when she sees that the ambulance with the boy is finally driving to the lab. Now they finally can solve this crime. She follows the car with her eyes. When the car turned right and she couldn't see the car anymore, she turned to Jack. ‘Is everything okay Emily? You look a little emotional.’ ‘No, there’s nothing.’ ‘Are you sure?’ asks Jack. ‘Maybe I’m a little emotional. It’s hard to see a little boy like that. The murder messed him really up, and not just a little bit. I just can’t imagine. I have also a child. Maybe the children here in Birmingham are in danger now.’ ‘I totally agree with you.’ says Jack. ‘I have two children and if somebody did this to them, I didn’t know what to do. I’ll be so angry. We are going to solve this crime, Emily. No matter what.’
1989 7 October- England; Birmingham, in the crime lab, 15:48 When Emily and Jack arrive in the lab, is pathologist David Sanders already waiting for them. When they bring the boy in, Emily tells David: ‘We found this little boy in a playground, he was lying in the sandbox. His eyes were picked out, his fingers were cut off, the murder put them next to the body and his feet were cutted open. There was sand thrown over him, to give him a little to cover up. But there was blood all over the playground and the sandbox. So it didn’t help that much.’ Jack says: ‘He’s all yours, when you’ve found something call us!’ David looks to the little body and thinks to himself: ‘I’ve seen a lot, but this is really horrible.’ He undresses the boy and rinses all the sand and blood from the body. When he’s ready, he takes x-rays of the little boy’s body. When he looks at the pictures of the boy’s hands, he can see he has some fractures. Someone has broken his hands. ‘His fingers aren’t there anymore and his hands are broken. Someone really wanted to hurt this little boy.’ thinks David. David walks to the other part of the lab and lays down the clothes at Claire. ‘Would you like to search for traces and DNA’S on the clothes of the little boy?’ asks David to Claire. Claire says: ‘Yes of course. Do I have to find some specific?’ ‘No, nothing specific. But please find 3
everything that you can find.’ answers David, ’Just look for things that doesn’t belong there. And come to me, or call me when you have something!’ ‘I will do! Bye David.’ David walks back to the corpse and thinks: ‘I have to find out who this little boy is, then we can find his family.’ When he’s back in the crime lab, he grabs one of the fingers and makes a fingerprint. David scans this fingerprint and let the computer search through the database to find a match. While the computer is searching, looks David at the boy’s feet. He sees something stuck in his left foot. He grabs a magnifying-glass and a tweezers. He gets a sharp thing out of the boy his foot. He looks closely at it and sees it’s a knife point. ‘So the feet are cut open with a knife.’: thinks David. At the same time David hears a beep. ‘The computer must have find a match!’ David walks to the computer and immediately sees the name: Luka Grey. He’s 6 years old. There is also a picture of him. The tears jump in David's eyes. ‘He was such a beautiful, innocent boy. How can someone do this to him?’ David gets also information about Luka’s family. The parents of Luka are Clover Green and Louis Grey. They ended three years ago their marriage. Clover Green has been arrested 2 years ago for aggressive behaviour. His father has never been arrested. David decides to go to Peter and walks to his department. David says: ‘Hello Peter, can you do something for me?’ ‘Hello David, of course. What do you need?’ ‘Well I need you to find some things about Luke Grey. That’s the little boy we found in the playground. I discovered his name and I really want to know more about Luke Grey.’ says David. ‘Of course, I’ll go and search for things about him. I’ll let you know when I have something!’ says Peter. ‘Thank you very much!’ Then David walks back again and thinks: ‘Maybe I can find more things in the body of Luke and then maybe I can discover what the murder weapon is.’ When David was back in his lab he starts working on the knife point. He has to find out from what kind of knife it was. ‘Finally after a long time searching I have the answer,’: thinks David, ‘his feet were cut open with a pocket knife! Now I have to search for clues on his hands and eyes.’ David walks to the table where Luke’s eyes are lying and grabs his magnifying-glass. He looks closely and sees bits of copper or rust in his eye sockets. With his tweezers he grabs some and submit it in a glass bowl. David examines the particles under the microscope. ‘These particles are rust. Where would that be from? Maybe there is something more in his eye sockets...’: thinks David. David searches in the eye sockets, but he can’t find something more. Then David walks to the fingers in the bags. It’s looking really painful. ‘They must be cut off with a pair of pliers or something bigger like a hedge trimmer. I have to look for particles in the injury’s.’: thinks David. So he walks to the death body and picks up one hand. He looks at the stubs where once were five fingers. Then he sees a little piece of sheet or something in one of the wounds. He grabs it with his tweezers en also put it in a glass bowl. He lays it down under the microscope, and sees it’s a piece of a leaf. When he searches on the computer he finds that at the house where the boy lived are also that kind of leaves. ‘His fingers must have been cut off with a 4
hedge trimmer, because there are leaves in the wounds and some rust. And you see where the bone is cut off a certain pattern that matches a hedge trimmer.’: thinks David. At the same time David’s phone rings.‘Hello, with David.’ ‘Hello David, here’s Jack. We just interviewed the woman who found the corpse, she only had no idea who it was. And she also has an alibi for the time that she found the body.’ ‘Alright, I discovered the name of the boy. His name is Luka Grey. I also found some rust in his feet and some pieces of a leaf in the wounds of his hands. When I searched on the computer I found that the same kind of leaves are also in the neighborhood where Luka lived. Maybe you can go to his house and bring his mother in, so that we can interrogate her.’ says David. Jack says: ’That’s a very good plan. We will see you soon!’ ‘Bye Jack.’
1989 7 October- England; Birmingham, in the interrogate room, 18:59 Emily is going to interrogate Clover in the interrogation room. Emily is a little bit nervous. She has to be strong, just like Luka’s mother. Emily has a child of 4 years old. She knows how Clover must be feeling. Two years ago Emily had a miscarriage. No words can describe how it feels. Emily gets tears in her eyes when she thinks about it. She dries her eyes and collects all the information about Clover. Emily is already in the interrogate room when two agents bring Clover in. She looks really bad. Like she has been crying for years. ‘Please take a seat, Clover.’ ‘Why am I here?’: asks Clover, ‘My child is murdered, why aren’t you searching for the one who killed him?’ Emily answers: ‘I just want to ask you some questions about your son. I know it’s hard but please talk the truth. We really appreciate it and it will work in your favour.’ ‘What have you done on 7 October?’ ‘I first dropped Luka at school, then I went to the hairdresser and I went shopping. The intention was that Louis would pick Luka up from school.’: said Clover while she was crying. ‘Who is Louis?’ ‘Louis is the father of Luka and my ex-husband. We decided to divorce because it was the best for our son. I didn’t love him anymore. I felt so sorry for Luka. It’s the worst nightmare for a child when his parents are going to divorce but for Luka we kept contact. Luka also needed a father, but he’s not the perfect father for him. Louis lies about little things that aren't needed. Just little things and that is what maked me so mad. So I wasn’t surprised that Louis called me at 12 pm. He said he couldn’t pick Luka up from school because he was too busy with work’: said Clover. ‘So you went to school, to pick him up?’: asks Emily. ‘Yes, because Louis couldn’t pick Luka up. I know Luka is always free at 12:30 pm. But it was very busy in the shopping mall so I came a few minutes later.’ ‘Do you remember how late you were at his school?’: asks Emily. ‘I think it was about 12:40 pm.’: answers Clover. ´So when you picked Luka up, you drove back to home together?' ‘No, when I were at his school he wasn't there! So I searched him at the schoolyard, but he wasn’t anywhere. Then I went in to the school and asked his teacher. But he said somebody already picked him up.’: answers Clover. Emily asks :‘Did the teacher say who picked him up or what he looks like?’ ‘I really have no idea. The teacher only said it was a man with grey hair.’ ‘But why didn’t you go directly to the cops? And told them that your child is missing?’ asks Emily ‘Well, I thought that my ex-husband did pick Luka up because 5
he didn’t want to let him down.' ‘And why do you think that he perhaps picked Luka up?’ 'Because Louis has also grey hair. So I thought he would be home again tonight’: answers Clover. I know it was really stupid.’ Clover burst into tears. Her tears are running down her cheeks and fall on her purple blouse. ‘I had to call Louis if he picked Luka up or something, but I did nothing, really nothing. And now it’s my fault. He’s gone and he will never come back. He’s everything I have. He was everything that I have and now I have nothing.' ‘So what did you do in the mean time?’: asks Emily. ‘I went to a friend’s house and we drank a cup of tea. After that I went home’: says Clover. ‘I have one more question for you, what is the name of your friend? So we can check your alibi.’ ‘Her name is Christy Greendale.’: answers Clover. ‘Thank you for your time, when we know something new, you will hear from us.’
1989 8 October- England; Birmingham, in the office, 11:01 Emily calls Jack: ‘Hello Jack, would you like to come to the office I have to tell you something about the case.’ ‘Of course I’m on my way!’ Jack arrives at the office and Emily is already there. Jack asks: ‘What do you want to tell me?’ ‘I wanted to tell you that Clover was here and I ask her some questions. I ask her where she was around the time that we think that the boy was killed.’: says Emily. ‘What did she answer’: asks Jack. ‘She first dropped Luka at school, then she went to the hairdresser and she did some shopping. The intention was that Louis, the father, would pick Luka up from school. But he called Clover a few hours later that he couldn’t pick Luka up. That is what she said’: says Emily. ‘And what next?’: asks Jack. ‘So Clover wanted to pick Luka up but she was a couple of minutes later. But she couldn’t find Luka anywhere. The teacher said a grey man picked Luka up, so Clover thought that the father of the boy would pick Luka up and that he would bring Luka home after dinner, so she went to a friend’s house, to drank a cup of tea. So that’s her alibi, I checked it, and it was right. Clover has nothing to do with it.’: says Emily. 'Now we can say that the mother isn’t a suspect anymore. We have to find Luka’s father now, to see if he really picked him up.' 1989 8 October- England; Birmingham, 14:49 Jack and Emily are sitting in the car on their way to Louis’ house. When they arrive, they walk to the frontdoor. Jack rangs the doorbell, but no one answers. They walk back to the car and call Claire. ‘Hello Claire, do you want to search for the adress were Louis works? Because nobody is home, so we thought maybe we can find him at his working place.’: says Emily. ‘Of course Emily! Give me a minute.’: answers Claire. ‘I’ve got it!’: says Claire. ‘The adress is Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT.’ ‘Thank you very much Claire!’: answers Emily.
1989 8 October- England; Birmingham at Louis’ office, 15:30 6
When Emily and Jack arrive at the work office of Louis and walk inside, they see a receptionist and walk to her. Jack asks her: ‘Does someone named Louis Grey work here?’ The receptionist anwers: ‘Yes, his office is on the third floor. Number 301.’ ‘Thank you very much!’ Jack and Emily are standing in front of door number 301. They hear somebody inside typing. Jack knocks on the door, they can hear that someone’s coming to the door. The door opens and a man stands in the door opening. ‘Are you Louis Grey?’: aks Emily. ‘Yes, I am. Come in.' When you listen to the voice of Louis, you can hear that he has been crying all day. They’re walking into Louis office. Jack starts talking: 'I think that you already know why we are here.' Louis nods and the tears rolling over his face. Carefully he sits down on the couch. 'Yes, my ex-wife called me yesterday just a couple minutes when she heard from the police that our son was found dead in a playground. I had to pick him up from school but I couldn’t because I was to busy with work. I called my ex-wife and said I couldn’t do it because I had work to do.’ ‘Where were you after you called your ex-wife?’: asks Jack. Louis says: ‘I was all day working, my receptionist can conferm it.’ ‘Alright, we will check that, we know enough’ ' Why are you working?': asks Emily. 'Yes, I know. I had to finish my work. My boss said I could stay home but I don’t want to, I know it sounds selfish but now I have some distraction.' 'If you want to stay home, you can do that. You can always come to us. Then we will arrange it for you.' 'Thank you, I appreciate it.' 'I think we know enough, we will check your alibi. If there's something you can always come to us.' Jack gives Louis a note with his phone number. Louis stands up and walk to the door to open it for Jack and Emily. 'We are so sorry.': says Emily when they walk out his office. Louis nods and closes the door. Jack and Emily walk back to the car, when they drive back Emily says: ‘So Louis also has nothing to do with it.’ ‘No he hasn't, but who does?' 1989 8 October- England; Birmingham, at the FBI office 17:06
When Emily and Jack are back at the FBI office, David is already waiting for them. When he sees them, he walks to them. He says: 'Jack, Emily. Listen. I found something on the body of Luka!' 'What is it?': asks Jack. David says: 'It is a grey hair! I thought maybe I can find some DNA, so I analysed it to find a name.' 'Good job David! Did you found a name?': asks Emily. 'Yes I did. It was from Henry Smith.': answers David. 'Who is Henry Smith?': asks Emily. David says: 'I had really no idea, so I looked in the data base and I discovered it is Luka's grandfather, the father of Clover Smith' 'Seriously? Maybe we can go to Clover and ask some information about him.' says Jack. 'That's a great idea!': says Emily. 1989 8 October- England; Birmingham, at Clover's house, 19:13 Ding, dong. Ding, dong. Clover opens the door. 'What's wrong?': asks Clover. When she sees that Jack and Emily are standing at the door, her head turns red. 'I'm sorry. I thought my friend was at the door.' 'Doesn't matter Clover, can we ask you some things?': asks Emily. 'Of course.' 'Can we come in?': says Emily. 'Yes, of course.' 7
When Emily and Jack are inside, Clover asks: 'Do you want something to drink?' 'Uhm, yes. Can I have a cup of tea?': asks Emily. 'Yes of course, do you want something to drink Jack?' 'No thank you.' When Clover made some tea for Emily, she asks: 'How is your relationship with your father?' 'My father?': says Clover shocked. 'I haven't seen him for years.' 'So, you don't have any contact with your father?' 'No': says Clover without any emotion. 'Do you know where your father lives?' 'I only know that he lives somewhere in Birmingham. That's all I know. Why do you want to know that?': asks Clover. 'We found some hair of Henry Smith on the clothes of Luka.': anwers Emily. 'Wait what?!' 'Yes, we wanted to ask you some things about him.' 'My father, Henry, he's horrible. That's all I can say about him. He is awfull!' 'What do you mean?': asks Jack. 'I had a horrible childhood when my parents were still together. He lied about everything. We couldn't trust him anymore, so my parents got divorced. Since the divorce, when I was about 12 years old I haven't had any contact with my father.' 'We think your father has something to do with the murder': says Jack. 'I think you are right, He is a horrible man. I have heard from a colleague from you, how Luka got murdered. My father is a misserable man. He is awfull.': says Clover. 1989 10 October- England; Birmingham, 15:48 Henry was in the car on his way to the playground, he was called by a woman to go there. Once he arrived at the playground, he sat down on the swing. It was quiet, too quiet. Then he heard a rustling in the bush. He looked around, but didn’t see anybody. In the playground is also a sandbox. It made him think of his grandson. Of all the blood in the sandbox when he left the playground. He walks to the sandbox, when suddenly a woman walks towards him. She’s coming closer, and closer. When she was a couple feet away, he saw that it was his own daughter. He was shocked, was she the one who had called him? He haven't seen her for years but he still can see that she is his daughter. In his eyes, she didn't change at all. When she stood in front of him, he saw that she had a screwdriver in one hand and a hedge trimmer in her other hand. He asks her: 'You know?' She answers him: 'I knew it from the beginning. You did it, it couldn’t be otherwise.' She shouts at him: 'Why??' 'It is your own fault. You never had to tell your mother that I had an affair with the neighbor': said Henry. Clover says: 'It's not my fault. You cheated on her, so you can’t blame me that I've it to told mom. You have never searched contact with me.' She walks towards him, and pushed him on the ground. She bents her body over him, and says: 'You had no reason to kill him.' She starts crying: 'My child, now he’s gone for forever. I hate you!' She stands ready to poke out his eyes with the screwdriver, in the same way he had done to her son. Then quickly Henry says: 'I’m so sorry, don't do it!!' Now she grins by her tears, she looks him straight in the eyes: 'Bye dad.' After she poked his father’s eyes out, cut his feet open and cut his fingers off, she drags him to the sandbox. She begins to dig a hole to put her father in. She looks one more time to her father and thinks, too bad it had to go this way... A cold wind flaw blew over a remote playground. The swings moved slowly back and forward. There’s a puddle of water on the slide. If you look at the dark brown sand, you can see that nobody has been there for years. Dark clouds float above a remote district in Birmingham. Raindrops are falling down on the ground. A trace of red blood leads you in to the sandbox. A dead body lays in the sandbox. His eyes and fingers are lying next to his body. He got murdered just the way Luka has got murdered. 1989 10 October- England; Birmingham, 17:56
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Clover is angry, so angry. She killed her father. Maybe is the police already on their way. She lost everything. Her child, her pride and now here dad. The police is going to find her. They are going to take her DNA. She must go to jail. At least for twenty years. Maybe longer. She takes a glass of whiskey. And another. She doesn’t know how many, maybe six or seven. It doesn’t matter. Everything doesn’t matter anymore. She has nothing. She looks to the knife block. Should I? She doesn’t think anymore. She grabs the biggest knife and holds it against her neck. Her worries are over now.
1989 10 October – England; Birmingham, 19:09 “Police, Police, open the door!” Jack and Emily are standing for the door of the house of Clover. The police got a phonecall from the woman who also found Luka's dead body. Her dog ran again into the playground and found again a dead body. The woman should be crazy now. She's could have a heart attack. The local FBI came to the dead body and concluded that the dead body was from Henry Smith. The local FBI immediately called Jack's office. Jack called Emily and with other FBI agents they were driving as fast as possible to Clover's house. When they arrive at Clover's house, sees Emily that there's a body lying on the ground in the kitchen. 'Slam the door in!' screams Emily. As always Jack walks ahead. With his gun he protects himself for everybody in the house. His gun can shoot every moment. Emily walks directly to the kitchen. There is Clover. Dead. With a big knife in her neck. The body is warm. She has not been dead for long. Emily finds a note on the kitchen table. ‘I’m not proud of myself. I never was. But I was proud of my son. He was everything for me. And I hope I see him again I don’t know where but I hope somewhere above. I hate my father. He killed my son, so I killed my father. I hope you forgive me. I don’t know who I’m going to be. But I’m sure it’s better when I make an end of my life. God bless you.’ Jack and Emily know enough. It’s revenge. Clover killed herself. Jack and Emily are angry because they couldn't solve this crime. This is the biggest mistake they ever made. Jack calls the police station. ‘The mystery has ended. Bring a doctor.’ Jack walks outside. It’s smells to whiskey. Emily reads the letter for the second time. She still doesn’t get it. Why was the grandson killed? But she is never going to know it. There must have been some tension between Clover and Henry, the grandfather. Of course she got her opinion. But why? She will never know.
1989 10 October – England; Birmingham, 20:16
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Jack and Emily are driving to Abigail, the grandmother of Luka, the mother of Lucy, the exwife of Henry. They have to let Abigail know that there happened something really bad. ‘How do we have to say this to Abigail, Jack?’ Emily looks very concentrated. She has no idea how she’s going to do this. Abigail’s heart will be broken for ever. ‘We have to go to Parker Road number 56.’ They arrive at her house. Jack parks the car for the door. They step out the car. They walk to the door and ring the bell. Ding dong. ‘There’s nobody.' ‘Maybe she didn’t hear the doorbell, try it again.’ Jack’s hands are shaking. How would the lady react? Ding dong. Jack and Emily see through the window a shadow slowly walking to the door. They hear that she unlocks the door. She opens the door a little bit and asks ‘Who is there?’ ‘We are Jack and Emily’: says Emily calm to reassure the old lady. ‘We are from the FBI. Can we come in to tell you something?’ The lady opens to door as a sign that they can come in. ‘Thank you.’: says Emily. The lady nods friendly. But Emily can see that she is anxious from inside. Her house is very clean. Everything blinks. In the corner of the livingroom stants a showcase with little Swarovski statues. It’s looks very expensive. It reminds Emily of her own grandmother. She loved everything that blinks and looks expensive. ‘What’s wrong?’: asks the lady. ‘Well..’ Emily felt a lump in her troat. ‘I think you already knew what happened to Luka.’ Jack takes it over from Emily. The lady slowly walks to the couch. ‘Yes, my daughter Clover called me after she heard from the police that Luka was found in a sandbox, dead.’ The lady starts to cry. Emily gets tears in her eyes. She is FBI for about 7 years but this never happened before. ‘I’m sorry.’ Emily stands up and walks out the door. It’s so hard. Emily opens the door and walks to the car. She can’t show her emotion, it will make the lady more sad. Emily decides to wait in the car. With the radio on the background, she’s waiting for Jack telling Abigail the sad news.
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