Chapter 2
Denton
Denton had always been sensitive, but he had done his best to disguise it. In some ways you could call it intuition & there had been times where it had given him the edge. It was a gift & in truth it had been there from birth, because it was hereditary & defined his very being. His senses were tuned just that little bit more than normal, like his parents before him. Due to his upbringing, his principle morals were built on honesty, truth & honor. For those that once knew him well there had never been any doubts that he had cared passionately & to him everything had once been clear. Life’s mysteries had seemed solvable. Black & white, right or wrong, all had been within grasp, within reason. (If only he had used his abilities to their fullest!) These days even everyday chores were hard. It had all become fuzzy, kind of blurred at the edges. Nothing was straight forward, not even his dreams & insomnia had become his master of late. He found that perhaps his gift was in fact his Achilles heel. For whilst he had focused on hiding it from others, to shield himself from ridicule, it had been a distraction. Sure, he had sensed something, but he had not acted. He had been lost along the way.
Denton had just turned thirty nine. His once brown, wavy hair was long & unkempt, greying rapidly & beginning to thin on top. Almost over night, the formally hansom, smart dressed man had been replaced by a scruffy imposter with a face that sagged. It was as if his image had been numerously photocopied, declining each time in definition & quality. Despair was in his eyes, he could see it whenever he stood before the cracked bathroom mirror. And it wasn’t only his looks that had disserted him either. Physically he had fared just as badly. Over the last decade he had unwillingly abused his body, through lack of sleep & excessive drinking. In terms of fitness the only six pack in his life these days was the one that he bought at the off license (the night before) & had sunk before it had time to see the inside of his fridge. The now reclusive, alcoholic, divorced Inspector Denton, (as he had once been known), was not at all his old self! Things in general were as bad as they could get. His life was a mess, through no making of his own.
His alarming decline was evident to all, but only his family remained loyal. His former work colleges turned their backs, once everything had gone against him. His sister, whom he was closest to, had tried to help him through his depression, but to no avail. Through the bad times though, during her visits with her children, it had provided him with some rest bite. The children especially had helped take his mind off of things, after the breakdown. He was grateful for that!
The Force...the twisted, crooked Force (in this case) had provided psychiatric treatment against his wishes to aid his rehabilitation. However, it hadn’t helped, because it wasn’t supposed to. He was once considered dangerous, but not anymore. Not since they had branded him psychotic. Now no one would listen even if he wanted to tell the truth. His good name & reputation had been systematically stripped away, revealing a now broken man. He was effectively alone, but it had not always been this way.
It was May 22nd 1983, ten years to the day that the case, which changed his destiny, had been officially closed. Denton’s part in the conviction of the Berkshire Ripper had been instrumental, to start with. The case had attracted huge media attention, but the nature of each murder was so horrific that newspapers, during the trial, refrained from printing every detail. There had been tremendous pressure on the investigative team & the general public demanded a capture. As a result of this, the case became politically motivated & there was considerable fiction within, causing a split in the team. Eventually after a two-year reign of terror, in which 13 women were murdered, subjected to mutilation before being hacked to death, the psychopath, who was responsible for such hideous atrocities, was caught. There seemed to be little doubt regarding William Jenkins’ guilt. At the trial, the prosecution’s case hinged on the fact that Jenkins had been caught at the burial site of the last victim & afterwards a blood stained rope was found at his house. Without an alibi for either of the earlier murders the evidence was insurmountably in favour of the prosecution. The problem was that Jenkins, a “simple” man, didn’t quite fit the killers psychological profile & during cross examination he had suck to his rather bizzar story. Denton logged what was said & noted his own personal thoughts in margins beside;
23rd April 1973- diary/ note book:
Case No.: b71344
1st Interview commence 08:02
Those present; William Deacon Jenkins (charged with multiple first degree murders)
Officers: Detective Sergeant Tregunner,
Detective Inspector Rictor & myself (Detective
Inspector Denton).
After suffering “terrible visions”, Jenkins believes, with conviction, that he had been drawn to the killer’s actions in some way. He claims that the rope had in fact been planted in his house!
Although hindered by his intellectual limitations, in many ways his explanation, whilst irrational, seemed truthful, thought Denton. Others around Detective Inspector Denton however didn’t share his open mindedness, or his near acceptance that corruption was even a possibility. It wasn’t as if Denton suspected corruption, it was just the point that the accused was pretty convincing & refused to budge when cross examined. They had tried, but they could not catch him out. A lie detector test was suggested by Denton, but it was decided in the end that there was enough evidence for a successful conviction without its use. Denton believed that much of the evidence was circumstantial, all except for the rope. The pressure was mounting by now & everyone wanted it over (too quick, wrote Denton). He overheard a telephone conversation (the soon to be appointed) Detective Inspector Tregunner had been having, in which he said... Jenkins had to be tried & it had to be quick, seeing he was the only feasible suspect & all. Then hopefully that would be the end of that....
Fortunately the murders did cease with the imprisonment of Jenkins, which indicated that they had got their man & that all was well within the force. Denton even tried to forget about the Berkshire Ripper case, even though he still suffered nightmares, after viewing the women’s mutilated bodies. Only a man with a monsters mind could have dreamt up such acts, let alone performed them, he thought. He’d never seen, or heard of anything like it. One thing was for sure he was glad that it was over, but he would never be the same again, after his encounter with evil. Others too, who had been closely involved in the investigation, shielded similar scars. The subject, as a matter of professional practice, was dropped. By day it was as if it had never happened, but by night it haunted each & every one of them. Well, almost all of them, for there were some that had ulterior motives in life & benefited from the case’s outcome. Not Denton, for he had expressed doubt. Instead he was watched; watched very carefully, just in case he should decide to head in a direction which was considered to be dangerous to others.
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Written by T.R.Vinnicombe (aka Dr. Peter Hodgkins) ©2009 all rights reserved & none of the contents of this site can be copied or used in any way without the written consent of the author. Published online by MicroHotStar 2009.
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