A Murder in Merthyr

Frane always noticed that the air quality was better in Merthyr than in Cardiff, you got off the train and the sharpness, the coldness hit the back of your nose and throat straight away. Merthyr must be the only town with a shopping centre with the statues of two boxers at either entrance. Howard Winstone who trained in hob nailed boots, sliding over the paths and allowing him the swift movement and the lithesome poise and Johnny Owen, the Matchstick man, murdered in the mid-day sun out in Little Mexico, Los Angeles. You had to be tough to live and work in Merthyr. That’s why Des Phillips lived in Taff’s Well. He wasn’t tough. He was a cracked egg.    

They let the kids of Ysgol Pen y Dump out an hour earlier than the other schools. As 

a supply teacher Des Phillips drove away from there each afternoon and chuckled as 

he witnessed little fires being lit, a torchlight procession to see him home.

The danger of trying to educate in such extreme circumstances was that there 

would always be that one kid, a man child within the soporific ranks of Year 10 who could 

always threaten your life.  

Ken Frane took the call from Merthyr Police Station at 10.30am. Nigel Watkins, an old colleague from Docks Division 1980s style was on the other end of the line. His staccato delivery bringing back fond memories for Frane.

“Ken, Nigel Watkins, Merthyr, we’ve got a body, schoolteacher, supply. Kids found him this morning”

Frane & Heston, South Wales’ answer to Burke & Hare, Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey. Sometimes the pair were convinced that they were given jobs so that the team hiring them could have a laugh. They might have been a pair of throwbacks to the 1980s but nobody, nobody could wear cowboy boots like this pair. They had been known to put Line Dancing Nights out of business.

“Napoleon Bonaparte created what might be called the modern-day French Police Force and the reason that they are so effective is that the policemen and women are not from the local area. Merthyr coppers can’t solve a Merthyr crime. Everybody on the Gurnos shuts up shop. It’s a bit like Northern Ireland in that respect. They won’t rat on a rat. Napoleon had men from Lyon working Bordeaux. Very effective.”

“Absolutely shameful the way you treated that man, putting him in with the toughest classes in classrooms not suitable and not within easy reach of senior management help” Head of Geography Vivienne Pugh was letting it all hang out.

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