Rigorous Mortis

Ken Frane

Last of the Cardiff Docks’ Detectives

Rigorous Mortis

The latest short story in the Ken Frane collection

When an assassination attempt is made on a politician in the Welsh Assembly, Ken Frane is the first person to attend the front doors of the Senedd.

"You are a pain in the arse Frane; you are always the first at the scene of the crime"

“Not bad for a fifty-eight-year-old eh, not bad for an old codger that the force had written off years ago, not bad ....

"All right, all right…. so?

“So instead of slagging me off as per usual, why for you not get me some assistance on this case?

“Christ Frane, you always come over ‘Italianate’ when you get the whiff of a lead. Why you didn't go down with the ship of Butetown Police Station I don't know!”

“This is Cardiff Docks Terry, you know as well as me that strange things happen down here'. Slights of hand, Optical Illusions. Don't forget the Magic Circle had their convention in the Coal Exchange last month"

Terry responded dryly

“We’ll you would have to be Derren Brown on speed to organise this little lot"

"He had been one of Wales’s most identifiable politicians, appearing on UK's Question Time but it was his habits as a human being rather than as a Politician that would now come under scrutiny."

“This has sent shock waves around the world"

“Don’t be silly Ken, this is Wales, the world has never heard of us"

“Terry has got a point Ken." Standish adds

“This will all blow over soon and we'll all go back to being the UK backwater that we all know and love”

“Look I agree with you, Wales is a shit hole but it's our shit hole, so we need to solve this and solve it pronto before Peter Price and the Cardiff Bay posse get their fingerprints on it"

"Up on the twyn overlooking the brwyn was the twmp! Nobody messed with the men who lived on the twmp. It was a lawless place where children rode horses without hats and the law of vigilantism was alive. It wasn’t far from Gilfach Goch. Imagine if you will a cross between Berchtesgaden and the Celtic Manor Resort." 

Frane didn't like prison. He thought the whole concept was alien to a civilised society. He got through the privatised security measures for prisoners without too much trouble, but he had been recognised by one of Peter Price's Associates from the Bay Police who was undertaking his own investigations with other prisoners. The word would surely get back to Big P.

Buy me a coffee please?