by M A Comley
“Any idea how the injury occurred or what made such a large indent in the man’s skull?” Lorne asked, taking a closer look at the wound as Patti pulled the hair and skin apart.
“Something sharp, I’m guessing.”
“Sharp, as in a knife? Can someone stab someone in the head like that?” Katy asked, her eyes looking perplexed above the blue mask she was wearing.
“With enough force behind it, anything is possible, Katy,” Patti said. “The thing is, my guys didn’t find any likely items at the scene that could have been regarded as the weapon.”
“Strange. Do you think the killer took it away with them as a trophy?” Lorne asked. She surveyed the wound even more closely, hoping to find an impression in the skull that Patti might have overlooked.
Patti lowered the body back onto the metal table and shrugged. “Who knows? Especially nowadays. Have you got any suspects in the case yet?”
“Give us a chance, Patti. What we have learned is that he was a well-thought-of chap. No affairs, discreet or otherwise, we should be delving into. No enemies from what we can tell, either. Very mysterious indeed,” Katy said.
“Maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time then. But if that was the case, why stage the scene to look like a suicide?” Patti replied thoughtfully.
“Because the police don’t tend to delve into suicide attempts, do they?” Lorne said.
“Good point, Lorne. Okay, let’s get this over with. You’ll notice a fair amount of bruising to his upper chest area as well as on his back. My thinking is that he might have been jumped on, beaten, perhaps a robbery that went wrong even.”
Lorne tapped a finger against her nose. “Hmm… possibly. But surely if robbery was the motive, wouldn’t the assailants have stolen the vehicle, instead of leaving it running? Just a thought.”
“A good one at that,” Patti was quick to agree. Then she sank the scalpel blade into the man’s body.
“Did you go through his personal effects? Was his wallet still with him?” Katy asked, thinking along the same lines as Lorne.
“His wallet was in the back pocket of his jeans, along with his other ID. I guess we can discount robbery in that case, given the evidence left behind,” Patti told them. She pulled the blade down the length of the man’s breastbone to his belly button then withdrew the blade and dropped it into the waiting metal dish on the stand beside her.
“It’s all very perplexing. No known enemies that either his wife or his work colleagues can tell us about. The vehicle left running instead of being stolen. The fact that someone went out of their way to stage this as a suicide. Why would anyone want to do that?” Lorne asked.
“Like I always say, when you ask questions about the motive to a crime, Sergeant, I can give you all the information, except that. It looks like you’re going to have to dig deep to find the answers on this one.” Patti picked up the scalpel again and started slicing off pieces of the victim’s internal organs and depositing each piece carefully into sample pots so they were ready for more thorough tests. It was almost an hour before Patti finally let out a huge breath. “Well, that’s it, ladies. Job complete.”
“And? What’s your professional opinion?” Katy asked.
“As it was in the beginning, Inspector, the blow to the head is the cause of death. He was dead minutes before any of the fumes from the exhaust could do any further damage. His lungs are clear in that respect.”
“Okay, so now we have a murderer on the loose who kills innocent people by stabbing them in the head. Should be easy to find, eh?” Lorne said sarcastically.
“Maybe we’re looking for someone who’s just been released from a mental institute,” Katy offered.
“Bit extreme, but I suppose anything is possible. Shit like that is always showing up in news bulletins nowadays. Are there any mental hospitals around the crime scene?” Lorne replied.
Katy shook her head. “Not a clue. Even if there aren’t any in the area, it’s still something we shouldn’t discount. Any similar incident in the past has involved these people being set free—just shoved out the door with little or no money to their names—and never into the hands of an accompanying member of their family, from what I can remember.”
“You’re right. It’s dreadful, these people who—let’s be frank—are crying out for help, are neglected in such a way in today’s caring society.”
“Ladies, as much as I’d love to stand around listening to you debate what kind of killer you’re after, I’m going to have to get changed and onto the next PM. So if you’ll excuse me.” Patty motioned for Katy and Lorne to leave the examination room.
“Oops, sorry. We ought to be getting back to the station anyway. Thanks, Patti,” Katy said as they all left the room together. “We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”
“Sure. Toodle pip, ladies, and good luck. You’re going to need it.”
Chapter Four
In spite of their best efforts, the team had not come up with anything significant in their absence, either. Katy left Lorne to run through what each member had uncovered, while she tackled the paperwork threatening to bury her alive in her office.
“Nothing on the CCTV footage, AJ, I take it?” Lorne asked, crossing the room to the sergeant’s desk.
“I can show you what I managed to dig up. It’s not much.” AJ pounded the keys on his keyboard then pointed at the screen. “Here, look at the time in the top right. Three a.m.”
“Is that significant, AJ?”
“When was the van found? Around five-ish? That means the engine was running for over two hours, and no one else noticed it in that time?”
“Let’s be fair. It’s not as if there are a lot of folks lingering in the streets at that time of morning, thankfully. Can you imagine the shit uniform would have to deal with if that was the case?”
“I suppose so,” AJ admitted.
“Run the disc for me.” Lorne leaned in, trying to make sense of the fuzzy image. “Not the best picture in the world, is it?”
“Nope, I doubt if I’ll be able to clean it up, either. Wait—see what happens in a few seconds.”
Lorne screwed up her eyes and got even closer. She could make out two figures at the base of the screen. “What are they up to? Do you think they’re the killers?”
“Looks that way to me. That’s nothing. Keep watching.”
Lorne shuffled to the edge of the chair and watched the two figures—she was unable to work out if they were both men or not—carry what appeared to be a rolled-up rug and throw it into the back of the van. The two figures then disappeared from sight and emerged from the van a few seconds later, carrying the rug under their arms, looking smaller than it had before. “So they dumped the body and then removed the rug. Interesting. Can you tell if the engine is running at this point, AJ?”
“It isn’t.”
“Do we have footage of the van actually arriving? Can we make out who was driving from that?”
“Sorry, I should have said. The van arrived. One of these guys was driving it. The other one travelled in the dark vehicle off to the left.”
“How strange! I wonder why they didn’t shove the body in the back of the van before they arrived at the scene. Why take the risk of having trace evidence being left behind in the other vehicle? What’s that all about?”
AJ shrugged. “It does seem odd. There’s no point doing a thorough search of the vehicle or the crime scene then. Is that what we can gather from this?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Some form of DNA might be found at the scene. We shouldn’t give up hope on that front, AJ. Let’s see what happens next… now they’re rigging up the hose to the exhaust pipe. I’m getting the impression that we’re dealing with professionals here, aren’t you?”
AJ turned sharply to look at Lorne. “As in contract killers?”
“I don’t th
ink we can rule it out. If not contract killers, certainly people who have killed before. They’re confident about their next movement. Not concerned in the least about leaving trace evidence in the car already. Pure arrogance, yes?”
“What’s this?” Lorne hadn’t heard Katy approach.
AJ explained what they were watching.
“Crap, it’s not very clear. Can’t you do any better with the image, AJ?” Katy asked, straining her eyes at the dodgy image.
“Nope, believe me, I’ve tried. The best thing we can do is send the disc off to the forensics lab, see if they can define the pictures better for us. Other than that, there’s no hope of catching these bastards, using what we have here. No judge will accept crap images in a conviction.”
“Okay, can you sort that out ASAP?” Katy asked, shaking her head in disappointment. “So they pulled up in two cars, took the body out of the boot of the car, and tossed it into the back of the van. It doesn’t make sense.”
Lorne nodded. “Yep, that’s what we were just saying. Why? There must be a good reason, but what?”
“I know it’s dark, but did the camera pick up any of the plate on the car?” Katy asked.
“Nothing. Not even a single digit.”
“All right. You know what I’m going to say next, don’t you, AJ?”
“I can hazard a guess. You want me to check all the footage in the immediate area and try and locate the van and car, yes?”
“Yep. The sooner we get the answers, the better, too. I agree with you both that these suspects seem like hardened criminals. What’s more, I think Paul Lee wasn’t as innocent as everyone makes him out to be,” Katy suggested.
“Really? You think he’s been doing dodgy business?”
“What else do we have to go on at this point, Lorne?”
“And where do we start?” asked Lorne. With very little clues to go on and stunning character references blocking their way, she didn’t know where on earth they could turn to find anything of use to their investigation.
Lorne couldn’t remember stumbling across a case as perplexing as this, not for a very long time anyway. Usually, something sparked the investigation off in the right direction—rumours of an argument, something, anything along those lines. But so far, they hadn’t come across a single clue.
“What are you thinking, Lorne?” Katy asked as they walked back to Lorne’s desk.
“I wasn’t really. Just how flummoxed we are, I suppose. What do we do next? Wait for clues to drop into our laps? They’re going to be from a very large height from what I can tell.”
“I’m sure something will show up soon, Lorne. Until then, we need to just keep digging. Why don’t you try and access Lee’s bank account? If he’s into drugs or dodgy dealings, it might show up there. Again, if not, then we’re screwed.”
“I’ll get onto it now.”
Katy called across the room to the other member of the team proficient at doing background research when the need arose. “Karen, look into Lee’s employment history, see what that tells us. Will you please?”
“Searching for anything in particular, boss?”
“Not really, anything and everything that raises your suspicions, okay?”
“Rightio.”
The afternoon drifted by slowly as the team worked away, searching for clues that turned out to be impossible to find. All facts led to Paul Lee having an exemplary record at his previous posts, all as an electrician. Lorne delved into his bank account, which again, didn’t throw up any real surprises. He had regular salary payments going in and plenty of household standing orders going out, with one large payment of five grand to a local travel agent—the Lee family had recently booked a holiday to take place the coming May.
Lorne arrived home, feeling a little despondent, but her spirits soon lifted when she pulled into the drive and saw Charlie playing with their new family member, Sheba. The German shepherd was barking as it chased after the football Charlie was kicking the length of the paddock, where she exercised all the dogs during the day.
“Hey, it looks like someone is having fun,” Lorne called over, interrupting their game.
Charlie beckoned for the dog to join her then came toward her mother. “Isn’t she wonderful? She’s going to be so good to train, Mum. I’m going to start her on the assault course soon. I think she’ll be a class-A student, don’t you?”
“What a great idea. Hey, if she proves good enough, you could consider entering a few of the local shows. Hey, you could even end up at Crufts. That would be terrific to have an agility champion in the house.”
Charlie giggled. “Easy, tiger. Let’s get her used to the equipment before we start planning our magnificent future. Don’t forget, I have this place to run, too. Or are you insinuating I have a lot of spare time on my hands?”
Lorne’s eyes flew open. “Never in a million years. I know how hard you work, darling. Are you coming in now?”
“It depends.”
Her eyes narrowed. “On what?”
Charlie ruffled the fur on the panting dog’s head. “On whether you’re expecting me to get involved in preparing dinner with you or not.”
“You cheeky mare. I’m sure Tony and I can conjure up something for dinner without your help. Has he been home long?”
“About an hour or so. He looked pretty excited about something, refused to tell me what it was until you got home. I’ll stay out here with Sheba for the next twenty minutes if you like, to give you two a chance to discuss things. How’s that?”
“You’re a treasure.” Lorne stretched over the fence and kissed her daughter’s cheek. Then she walked across the drive and into the house, where she found Tony sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by notes. “Hey, what’s going on here?”
He lifted his handsome face, and a large smile welcomed her. Tony pulled out the chair beside him. “Come and join me.”
Lorne approached the table, hooked her handbag on the back of the chair, and kissed him. “You look busy. Umm… don’t you think we should get dinner out of the way first? I’m starving.”
“It’s all in hand. Dinner will be ready in half an hour. Just enough time for me to tell you about my latest case.”
“Really? What culinary delight have you prepared, may I ask?”
“Fish fingers, chips, and peas.”
“Wow, you really know how to spoil your adoring wife, don’t you? Glad to see the romance is still alive and kicking in our relationship.”
“I know. Don’t get too used to being spoilt, though, will you? It took a fair amount of effort on my part to prepare that meal.”
Lorne grinned. “I can just imagine the taxing skills it must have taken pulling open a bag of chips and wrestling with a box to set those breadcrumb-coated fish fingers free.”
“I see your sarcastic gene is fully functional today, as always.”
“Any chance of grabbing a coffee before we get stuck into this project?”
“Sit. I’ll make it. It’s certainly an interesting case, if Joe and I choose to take it on, that is.”
“Why the hesitation? You can’t afford to be fussy which cases to take on or not, can you?”
“I know that. It’s just there might be an alternative reason to this case. Let me make your drink, and then I’ll go over the story.”
Lorne picked up one of the sheets of paper and read it. Missing. Stag night. Tony placed a welcome mug of coffee on the table and took the note from her hand.
“Nosey!”
“Yep, you knew that the day we met. Go on, tell me about the case. I take it a man has gone missing whilst out getting rat-arsed on his stag do, right?”
“That sums it up pretty well. Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited about the case. We just hear so many of these kinds of things that end up just being the future grooms getting cold feet at the last minute, as
though it’s suddenly dawned on them that in a few days, they’ll be giving up their freedom to marry one person.”
“I’m hearing you on that, Tony. The thing is, you have to treat each case differently. You have to learn not to tar everyone with the same brush.”
One of Tony’s eyebrows rose. “I hate to remind you, love, but I’m in my forties now, not some wet-behind-the-ears teenager starting out on his first career.”
“Sorry, gosh, really? Are you that old? Teasing! You know what I mean. I didn’t intend it to come across as condescending.”
Tony shuffled through the pages and picked out another note. “Anyway,” he said, brushing aside her latest statement, “when I got back home, I did a quick search on the computer and came up with a surprising statistic. Over thirty men went missing in the UK alone last year during a so-called ‘fun night out.’”
“Wow, that’s interesting. Did it say how many of those men showed up again after a few days’ absence?”
“More than two thirds. A couple of men were found dead, which came as another surprise to me.”
“Accidental deaths? Like walking in front of a passing bus? Something along those lines?”
“Yes and no. One man ended up drowned in a canal,” Tony replied, referring to his notes once again.
The alarm sounded on the oven, and Lorne stood up to look at the contents. “I guess you have a lot of background checks to make before you can start looking for the chap in question.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. How’s dinner looking?”
Lorne grinned back at him. “Well done. Can you clear the table? I think if I leave it in here much longer, it’ll be cremated fish and chips.”
Lorne closed the oven door again and turned the temperature down to fifty degrees from the two hundred and fifty Tony had it on. It was far too high in the first place. Then she bellowed out the back door for Charlie to join them.
“Goodie, I could eat a horse, figuratively speaking, I mean. Not seriously,” Charlie said when she and the panting Sheba entered the back door.
