"John Doe" by Antoinette Moses

Chapter 3
Who is John Roberts?

Detective Jenny Brown walked along the street. It was a beautiful sunny day. There were lots of people in the street. Children ran down the street to school. People talked to each other and laughed.

Jenny loved the city of York. It was a beautiful place to live. But bad things can happen anywhere, she thought. Bad things can happen in beautiful places, too.

Jenny went into a building. It was a television studio. Jenny walked to the reception.

'Hello,' said Jenny to the receptionist. 'I'm Detective Jenny Brown. I'm here to see Susan Peters, the television producer. She makes the programme "Crimeseek".'

'Is that the programme where the police tell you about the crimes in York?' asked the receptionist.

'Yes,' said Jenny Brown, 'that's right.'

A few minutes later Susan Peters came down the stairs to the reception.

'Hello, Jenny,' Susan Peters said. 'Come to my office. We can talk there.' They went to Susan's office.

'Please, sit down,' said Susan. 'Would you like a coffee, Jenny?'

'No, thank you,' said Jenny. 'I'm fine.'

'I hope we can help you,' said Susan.

'We want your help about a woman who died. Did you read about it in the newspapers?'

'Yes,' said Susan, 'but the newspapers don't say very much. Tell me about her. Tell me what happened.'

'I can tell you everything the police know,' Jenny told Susan. 'But we don't know very much. We need to know more. That's why we hope your programme "Crimeseek" can help us.'

'We'll do everything we can,' said Susan.

'On Saturday,' said Jenny, 'a woman came to see the police. She said she was very worried about her friend. Her friend's name was Mary. The woman played tennis with Mary every Saturday. But this Saturday she waited and waited and Mary didn't come.

'The woman was very unhappy. She phoned Mary's number lots and lots of times. But nobody answered. She wanted to go to Mary's house but she didn't want to go alone.

'She asked the police to go with her. I went to the house at three o'clock that afternoon,' said Jenny. 'There was no answer, but the door was open. I went in. A woman was on the floor. It was Mary. She was dead.'

'The newspaper said that Mary died on Friday night,' Susan said.

'Yes,' said Jenny. 'About eleven o'clock, we think.'

'What else did you find?' Susan asked Jenny.

'Well,' said Jenny, 'we think that Mary knew the person who killed her. We think that he or she came to dinner on Friday. There were two plates and two glasses in the kitchen. Then we talked to Mary's friends and to the people she worked with.' Jenny gave Susan a piece of paper.

'Then we found this,' Jenny said. Susan looked at the paper.

'It's a letter Mary wrote on Friday,' said Jenny. 'But she didn't finish it.'

'Is that the end of the letter?' asked Susan.

'Yes,' answered Jenny.

'Who is John Roberts?' asked Susan.

'We don't know,' said Jenny. 'That's why I need your help. We need to find him. I know he came here, to York, in July. He worked at an Italian restaurant. They said he was very quiet. They liked him. But he didn't go to work on Friday. After Friday nobody saw him. We can't find him anywhere.'

'Do you have a photograph of John Roberts?' asked Susan.

'Yes, here,' said Jenny. Jenny gave Susan the photograph.

Susan looked at it. It was of a man. He was about thirty years old. His face was like anybody's face.

'One of the waiters said that one night there was a big party and lots of people took photographs,' said Jenny. 'One of the photographers was a friend of one of the waiters.'

'That's not a face that people remember,' said Susan. 'But we can use this photograph. We can show the photograph on "Crimeseek". And I would like you to go on "Crimeseek" yourself, Jenny.'

'Me!' said Jenny. 'I can't go on television.'

'Why not?' said Susan. 'Go on the programme. Show people the picture. Tell them what happened. Ask them if they know John Roberts. You'll be fine. And you're very pretty, you know.' Jenny laughed.

'OK, Susan,' said Jenny. 'Thank you. But you're right about John Roberts. He looks like anyone. He doesn't look dangerous, but he is. He's very dangerous.'

'I hope we can help you find John Roberts,' said Susan. 'He's out there, somewhere. Someone knows him.'

'Yes,' said Jenny. 'But we must find him before he finds someone else. We must find him before another person dies.'