Shooting in the Dark

only achieve sexual satisfaction or fulfilment through the amputation of a limb - who had lost faith in conventional medicine, laid his leg across a railway line and waited for a train to come. The guy had drunk himself unconscious while he waited and when he woke he was a new-born amputee with a hard-on.
    Sam let the breath come out between his teeth. Wondered what genuine amputees thought about a guy like that.
    Genuine? Who’s sitting in the judge’s chair?
    He took one fiche out and replaced it with another, rubbed his eyes, and there it was, the article he’d come here to find.
     
    Tragedy of Local Lifesaver Hero
     
A fireman was killed today, but only after he had saved the lives of two small girls on a village pond.
Angeles and Isabel Falco, both of them under five years old, had strayed on to the ice-covered pond in the tiny village of Whenington.
As the ice began to break up the local fire service went into action and fireman Alan Jenkins crawled out to the girls on a ladder.
He successfully plucked one of the children to safety but the second girl fell into the freezing water.
Fireman Jenkins did not hesitate, he plunged into the water after her and eyewitnesses reported an agonizing wait until he returned to the surface with the child held aloft.
Unfortunately, the fireman did not have enough strength to save himself and immediately after placing the girl on the safe haven of the ladder, he sank into the depths and drowned.
The two girls were taken to the local hospital, where they will be detained overnight.
Fireman Alan Jenkins leaves a wife and a young son of six years.
     
    Sam made a note of the date and set off for the Evening Press offices in Walmgate in the dark. While he’d been trekking through microfiches the night had tumbled in on the town. His friend Sly Beaumont, the oldest serving journalist in the north, would remember the case and be able to fill in the background. Sly, with a face as creased and worn as an old glove and the memory of an elephant. ‘You wrapped up another one, then, Sam,’ he said. ‘We got the guy out of circulation, but there’s still a couple of loose ends to tie up.’
    ‘Like why he did it?’
    ‘You don’t think that’s important?’
    ‘Not as much as you do, Sam. The most important thing was to get him off the street. Anything else is a bonus.’
    ‘Life gets miserable without the occasional bonus.’
    ‘So how can I help?’
    ‘You remember the Falco sisters being in a pond accident when they were small?’
    ‘Should I?’
    ‘Yeah. You wrote a piece in the press about it. Village pond in winter? A fireman was drowned.’
    Sly scratched his head. ‘Jenkins,’ he said. ‘Alan Jenkins, local hero. Yeah, I do remember now, two little kids, I hadn’t put it together that they were the Falcos. And, oh my god, Rod Jenkins is his son?’
    ‘You’re getting there,’ Sam said. ‘What do you remember about the case?’
    ‘It was tragic. The fireman, Alan Jenkins; everybody knew him. The year before he’d saved a young colleague after the guy collapsed in a warehouse fire. Fie got some kind of medal for that. Went to the palace, was on television, in the papers. Good-looking guy, mop of blond hair, strong as an ox, he was. They reckoned he got cramp in the cold water, the muscles in his limbs just stopped working. It must’ve been bitter in there.’
    ‘What I don’t understand,’ Sam said, ‘Angeles Falco told me the story just like it happened, but she didn’t mention the guy drowning.’
    ‘They didn’t tell the kids,’ Sly said. ‘The parents thought they’d had enough trauma with the accident.’
    ‘And what about Jenkins’ son?’ Sam asked. ‘He must’ve grown up nursing a revenge fantasy. He killed Isabel and if we hadn’t ferreted him out, he’d have found a way to get to Angeles.’
    ‘I remember him vaguely,’ Sly said. ‘Not after his father was killed; his mother kept him out of the way after that. But we interviewed Alan Jenkins when he got the medal and the lad was there then. Rod; was he called Rod? Beaming, he was, his eyes shining like his father was Superman. Beautiful young kid, the two of them together looking like a couple of generations of Norse gods.’
    ‘And just as tragic,’ said Sam.
    ‘Yeah. But you wouldn’t have guessed it then. They looked like they ruled the world. And when Jenkins showed us the medal, I’ve never seen a kid look more proud.’
    Sam got to his feet, ready to go. Sly walked