‘Dave Nash called them Sophie's Squad when he mentioned them to the daughter yesterday,’ Warrander said to his boss.
‘Well, I’ll need to ask them if we can go and let the family know. We don’t want them hearing about the discovery here via the radio news.’ She walked across to the assembled team and caught the eye of the blonde detective, who was clearly in charge of the crime scene.
‘Ma’am, we’re keen to inform the family as soon as you’re happy for us to do so. As far as I can tell, there isn’t much doubt, is there? The car is theirs and they look about the right height.’
‘Okay, but stress that it’s unconfirmed at the moment. I trust your judgement. You’re Rose Simons, aren’t you? Tell them that I’ll call on them later, Rose. Which family member will I be seeing?’
‘Probably the daughter. She’s a GP in Blandford. She can be a bit uptight, but I’ll tread carefully. There’s a son as well, but he’s a bit of a waster.’
The detective looked across the clearing. ‘Is that George Warrander with you? Give him my regards, won’t you? Tell him I’ll have a chat later when there’s time.’ She waved across the clearing at the young PC, who didn’t quite know how to respond and lifted his hand in a cross between a wave and a salute.
Rose walked back and the two uniformed officers made their way to the squad car. More squad car units were arriving from Wareham and from headquarters at Winfrith.
‘Let’s get out of here while we can,’ Rose said. ‘It’s starting to turn into a real circus.’ She waited until Warrander had navigated their car along the tracks and had turned out onto the main road before she spoke again. ‘How did she know who you were, Georgie boy? Is there something you haven’t told me?’
Warrander chose his words carefully. He knew that his boss was likely to make a joke about whatever he said. ‘She’s the reason I joined the police. She interviewed me a couple of years ago when a friend of mine was found murdered. I’d thought about it before then but had never done anything about it. It kind of spurred me on. I asked her about joining and she sent me some details. I didn’t think she’d recognise me.’
‘What, a handsome young man like you? And in my tender care to boot?’ She remained silent for a minute or two. ‘So she had that much influence on you? Seriously?’
He nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Hmm. Friends in high places. I can see I may have to treat you with more respect.’ There was a slight pause. Warrander waited to see what was coming next. ‘On second thoughts, maybe not. I wouldn’t want you getting big-headed.’
* * *
It was well after midday when Rose and Warrander arrived at the medical centre where Sharon Giroux worked. The morning rush had subsided, with only a handful of patients occupying the seats in the waiting area. Sharon was standing in reception talking quietly to one of the nurses. She glanced up as the two police officers came in through the main entrance door and fell silent as she caught their eye.
‘Can we go somewhere private, Dr Giroux?’ Rose suggested.
‘My consulting room. Do you have news?’
Rose merely nodded, and followed the doctor through to her office.
Warrander chose to remain standing as the two women sat. Sharon was tense, her hands tightly linked. It was obvious that she had picked up on their sombre mood.
‘I need to tell you, Dr Giroux, that we discovered two bodies this morning in a car, out in the depths of the Morden Nature Reserve. It’s your parents’ car, without a doubt. It had been there for some time.’
Sharon frowned. ‘What do you mean? Had it been in a crash?’
Rose shook her head. ‘No. It had been driven to a remote spot deliberately. There was a pipe leading from the exhaust to the inside.’
‘What? What are you saying? That Mum and Dad committed suicide?’
Rose remained non-committal. ‘It would appear so, but it’s early days yet. We’ll need to examine all the evidence.’
‘Who’s the medic in charge?’
‘Doctor Goodall. He’s come across from Dorchester. He’ll do a thorough job.’
‘I know he will. But it’s just not possible.’ Tears were escaping from Sharon’s eyes and running down her cheek. ‘They wouldn’t. Why would they? It doesn’t make sense. They were happy with their lives. It’s beyond belief.’
Rose spoke softly. ‘It’s always hard to comprehend. I wish we could have come with different news, Dr Giroux, but we have to let you know. In all likelihood it will be reported on local radio as the afternoon goes on, and it will certainly be on the teatime bulletins. You need to be prepared for that. Do you want us to tell your brother, or would you prefer to do that?’
Sharon thought for a few moments. ‘I couldn’t cope with it. I know I should be able to, but I just feel so empty.’ She paused. ‘Who’s running the investigation? Not those two dimwits still? Jumping to conclusions like they do?’
Rose shook her head again. ‘Suspicious deaths always get referred to the top, especially when there are two together.’
Warrander interrupted. ‘It’s DCI Allen in charge, Dr Giroux. She’s the best there is, trust me. You have no need to worry on that score.’
Sharon continued to wring her hands, her face ashen.
‘Maybe you should consider going home, Sharon,’ Rose said. ‘Can I contact your husband for you?’
The doctor just nodded, overcome by sobs and no longer able to speak. Rose put an arm around her shoulder.
CHAPTER 6: A Grim Task
Friday Afternoon, Week 1
The task was a grim one, but with both Benny Goodall, the senior pathologist, and forensic chief Dave Nash on hand, Sophie Allen knew that the in-situ examination of the two corpses would be thorough. She stood back, watching, as they got on with their work.
‘Do you think there’s much doubt, ma’am?’ Her second-in-command, DS Barry Marsh, stood by her side. ‘I’ve just checked back with the information built up this week from the missing persons inquiry. The car’s theirs and the bodies look about the right age to my untrained eye.’ He wiped some perspiration from his face and tried to scratch his ear, impossible under the nylon hood. A few strands of his ginger hair peeked out onto his forehead below the white material.
‘You know me, Barry. Not one to make too many assumptions, but when the obvious is staring you in the face like this, it would be stupid to ignore it. Yes, it’s them. But it’s so peculiar. When old people take their own lives in some kind of pact, they tend to do it at home. They want to end it all in the place that means most to them, that most reassures them. It’s a kind of comfort blanket. So they usually take pills and go to bed, because to them it’s their final rest. Even if they do it this way, in a car using the exhaust pipe, it’s usually in their garage at home. Why come out here to this remote place? Unless of course it meant something to them, if they first met here, say. Or maybe he proposed to her here while they were out walking all those decades ago.’ She paused. ‘We’ll get Rae onto that line of enquiry once we get started, looking to see if there’s some reason why they would have chosen this spot. It is very tranquil here, and beautiful while the sun’s shining, so there could be logic behind it. We’ll wait and see.’
Benny Goodall, who’d been carefully probing the two bodies, straightened up and backed away from the open car door. ‘Okay, that’s as much as I can do here. If you can get them out, Dave, we’ll move them back to my place and I can start the serious work.’ He turned to Sophie. ‘No obvious wounds or injuries of any type. The next stage will be examination of some underlying tissue back at the lab. Carbon monoxide poisoning leaves evidence behind. Most obviously in skin colouration, but that’s a no-no with this level of dermal decomposition. It’s the heat and flies. All is not lost, though. There’ll be other indicators left in deeper tissue and in the internal organs, and they’ll show up during the PM. Their daughter’s a local GP, you say?’
Sophie nodded. ‘In Blandford.’
‘Right. She’ll want the m
edical facts, no doubt, so I’ll bear that in mind. Keep her away at present, though, Sophie. Sometimes doctors think they’ll cope okay with seeing bodies like this, but they’re unprepared for the emotional impact when it’s someone close.’
‘That’s helpful, Benny. Barry and I will drive up to see her later this afternoon. The uniformed lot have already broken the news. It seemed the best option because they’ve been involved with her since she reported the disappearance at the beginning of the week.’ She paused. ‘So how long do you think they’ve been here?’
He smiled grimly. ‘You’ve waited a long time before asking me the obvious question. I wondered if you were losing your touch.’ He glanced across at the bodies again. ‘Much more than a week. I’d say it was closer to two weeks, maybe three. What do you think, Dave?’
The forensic chief removed his mask and hood as he stepped away from the car. ‘I agree, but we’ll need to look at the reference material on body decomposition before we can give you a more accurate timeframe.’
‘But it was definitely before they were reported as missing on Monday? You can be sure of that?’
‘Oh yes, undoubtedly.’
She turned to the senior uniformed officer, a sergeant from Wareham. ‘I want a close search done on the immediate area, and everything picked up and logged. I know there’ll be some bits and pieces of litter but we can eliminate those later. Same with the car, Dave. I know it’ll go back to the depot for checking, but I want everything inside it logged as well. There’s something not quite right here. Can we fix up some security devices to log activity at night? We can’t afford to have someone stationed here overnight, but we need some way of monitoring the place in case anyone visits.’
Sophie walked back to her car with Barry Marsh. ‘It’s a relief that they’ve been there for two weeks or more. It means that anything those two plonkers running the missing persons inquiry did or didn’t do was of no consequence. The old couple had already been dead for a couple of weeks.’
‘Will we have to include them as part of the team, ma’am? Blackman and McCluskie, I mean?’
Sophie gave a snort. ‘Over my dead body. I had a dispute with McCluskie when I first arrived here a few years ago and got him shifted off my interim team for being drunk on duty, among other things. He was a sergeant then. He had the ability, there was no doubt of that, but he was lazy and cut too many corners.’ She unlocked the car doors and removed her white nylon overall, dumping it in the boot. ‘He wouldn’t want to work for me again, anyway. He blamed me for getting him demoted.’
Barry shut the boot after depositing his forensic suit inside. ‘Did you? Get him demoted, I mean?’
‘Dead right it was me. He’s got the morals of a guttersnipe. It wasn’t just the excessive boozing. He was hitting on any of the women witnesses who were half-attractive, and that could have put the prosecution case at risk. I decided to pay a second visit to one of the witnesses because something she’d said didn’t quite add up and it was my first case here in Dorset. This was before this unit was set up properly. I felt uneasy with something in the statement she’d given him so decided to double check. I found them both half-clothed, ready to jump into bed. He’d got her so drunk she didn’t know what she was doing. The powers that be at HQ have kept him out of my hair ever since.’ She climbed into the driving seat and waited until Marsh was seated. ‘In the only important sense, Barry, it wasn’t me that got him demoted. It was his own actions, but I couldn’t ignore them so I reported what he’d been doing. The decision was made at a much higher level.’ She started the car and drove out towards the road, then headed north. ‘I can’t tolerate that kind of attitude. It goes against everything I believe in.’
* * *
They found both Sharon Giroux and her husband Pierre at home. Pierre showed them through to the lounge, where Sharon was sitting in an armchair, hugging her knees. Her eyes were pink.
‘Dr Giroux, I’m so sorry for your loss.’
‘Is there no room for doubt?’ asked Pierre.
Sophie shook her head. ‘We took dental x-rays at the scene with a mobile unit, and we’ve just had them confirmed with your in-laws’ dentist, Mr Giroux, so it’s now certain.’ She turned back to Sharon. ‘I’m DCI Sophie Allen, by the way, and this is my assistant, Detective Sergeant Barry Marsh. We’ll be taking over the investigation into the circumstances of your parents’ deaths in the initial stages. In the longer term, the nature of the investigation will depend upon my findings and subsequent recommendations.’
Sharon looked up at her. ‘So does it seem to be suicide?’
‘It looks that way. But I’m well aware that appearances can be deceptive, so I won’t make any assumptions. The evidence gathering will be thorough and I’ll keep an open mind until I see it all. One thing does puzzle me, Dr Giroux, and that’s the place they were found. It’s in the north-east segment of the Morden Bog Nature Reserve. It’s very much off the beaten track. Can you suggest any reason why they would have been there?’
Sharon sipped at a mug of tea that had been sitting by her side. ‘We used to have family picnics there when my brother and I were small. Dad was always keen on wildlife and it was a brilliant place for dragonflies and other marsh insects.’
Sophie nodded. ‘So there is a sentimental connection?’
‘Yes. He used to take photos of the wildlife and sometimes of us, standing in our wellies.’ Sharon gave a gentle smile. ‘We took sandwiches and flasks of tea, and used to stomp around the place for a few hours. Mum, Dad, Rod and me. Well, Mum used to sit with her back against a tree and read while we were pond dipping, then get the food out. She wasn’t an enthusiast herself.’ She replaced her mug on the low table beside her chair. ‘It was what kicked off my interest in biology. Then from that to medicine, so I suppose what I am now is partly down to those summer afternoons on the edge of Morden Bog.’
Sophie listened carefully, trying to weigh Sharon up. She was obviously intelligent and perceptive, only to be expected in such a well-regarded GP. And she’d worked her way there from an ordinary, working class background. Good for her. Sophie had a great deal of respect for people who’d made it the hard way, through sheer effort and a dogged determination. Wasn’t she the same? That’s why she felt for this woman so much. She recognised a kindred spirit.
‘What do you do, Mr Giroux? For a job, I mean?’ Sophie turned her attention to the husband.
‘I’m an academic editor for research journals in environmental science. I work from home for three days each week and in Oxford for two. The flexibility suits me. And it means I’m on hand for child-minding duties for much of the week. It works well.’
‘So do you know the place, Morden Bog? If you’re an environmental scientist? I realise that your work is academic rather than practical, but even so.’
‘Yes, I do. As a much younger man I came across from France in a group of students to study Dorset’s heathland habitat. It’s quite famous. We spent a day or two at each of a variety of locations. That was when I met Sharon. My group was staying in a hostel in Blandford and we met in one of the pubs there on an evening out.’
‘I do want to double check a few things with you both. I think you said that you were on holiday in Cornwall until the weekend. Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ Sharon replied. ‘We were in St Mawgan, near Newquay. With Easter being so late this year we gambled on the weather being good, so took the whole fortnight. We rented a cottage. Neither of us was there for the whole time though.’
Sophie looked up. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I had a two-day medical conference in Exeter at the start of the second week. Pierre was in Oxford for a couple of days during the first week. It was partly a working holiday for him.’
‘So did either of you come back to Blandford during your break?’
Both Sharon and Pierre shook their heads.
‘Okay. I need to ask you about your brother, Sharon. He has a bit of a chequered history, including some run-i
ns with the local police over the years. How well did he get on with your parents? I’m aware that you’ve already partly covered this ground earlier in the week, but I do need to know.’
‘He got on okay with Mum, less well with Dad. There was often friction between them. Dad had strict standards, something totally meaningless to Rod. He’s never seemed to fully understand the difference between right and wrong. His own convenience is much more important to him.’
‘He is known to us, Sharon.’
The doctor nodded wryly. ‘Drug possession, petty vandalism and theft. The whole family knows about Rod and his inability to stay out of trouble. Dad was so frustrated he was sometimes reduced to tears. Mum was more phlegmatic about it. But he’s never done anything violent, Chief Inspector. That’s one thing I can say for him.’
The detectives left a few minutes later. As they drove away, Marsh said, ‘So the family never knew about the possible GBH charge. It must have been dropped very early on.’
Sophie steered the car out onto the main road heading south. ‘No independent witnesses and the victim, a very drunk young man, backed out of pressing any charges very quickly. He refused to say whether he was being intimidated, but the suspicion was there. There might be a nastier side to young Rod than his family have ever suspected.’
CHAPTER 7: Scar
Saturday Morning, Week 1
It was a beautiful May morning. The blue sky was dotted with a few small puffs of cloud, and the air was as fresh and clean as a newly cut lemon. Sophie Allen stood leaning against the car, listening to the sound of bird calls while waiting for her husband to finish tying his boot laces. In another hour the first of the morning’s ramblers would probably be arriving, although they wouldn’t be able to gain access to the area around the crime scene, still cordoned off by police tape. She loosened the neck strap of her camera, then handed a set of binoculars to Martin as he stood up.
Detective Sophie Allen Box Set 2 Page 29
