places-so the chances are, there was either a woman present while the murder took place or someone else, who didn't report it, found the bodies before your old lady did.'
'If that's true,' said Cheever pensively, 'then it's conceivable they may be our wallet thief. The logical assumption is that the murderer removed anything that could identify them, but it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that someone else did the business.' He glanced towards his colleagues. 'What do you think?'
Gareth Maddocks gave a noncommittal shrug, his narrowed eyes, sunk in folds of thick flesh, watching the pathologist's biscuit-dunking routine with disgust. 'You said it meant a woman might have been present during the murder,' he reminded him. 'Does that mean a woman could have delivered blows like this, or was she there only as a witness to a man delivering them?'
Apparently oblivious of the other man's distaste, Clarke rubbed biscuit crumbs from his fingers and started in on his coffee. 'Assuming she had two people, incapacitated, on their knees in front of her and assuming a sledge or club hammer with a reasonable length handle, then any woman with the strength to swing the thing several times could inflict this sort of damage. But it's an unlikely
'Not impossible, though?'
'Nothing's impossible, but frankly, statistics and psychology are against you. It was a very physical crime, requiring energy and extreme savagery, neither of which are typical of female murderers. That's not to say there aren't some extremely savage and dangerous women about, but in my experience, they prefer to conduct their murders within the four walls of a house, using a pillow over the face, poison, guns and knives even. I'd plump for a man or men, if I were you, with the possibility of a woman in tow who witnessed the whole event. It really is a pity there's been so little rain recently. A nice piece of soggy ground, and I could have told you how many people were there, what they weighed and probably how tall they were.' He paused briefly. 'Of course you realize there'll have been a great deal of blood, and that's a brute to clean off, as you know. Your killer will probably have left bloodstains in the car he drove away in. I certainly feel those are areas worth concentrating on.'
'Tell us about the victims,' said Frank Cheever. 'We've got height, build, and coloring. Anything else? What do their clothes say?'
'Ah, well, Jerry's having a field day with them.' Clarke pulled out another set of notes. 'It'll be a while before he can give you a full analysis, but this is what he's come up with so far. These people weren't poor, quite the reverse in fact-Jerry says look at the wealthier end of the market. The woman first. Not much help from the jeans, which are stone-washed, men's Levi 501s, but the T-shirt is American, made by a company called Arizona, and imported into this country by the Birmingham-based Interwear. Preliminary talks with them indicate that these T-shirts retail at fifty-five pounds from only ten stores throughout the country, all of which are centered in either London, Birmingham, or Glasgow. We're expecting a faxed list this afternoon, and Jerry will send it through to you as soon as it arrives, with precise details of the size, color code, and style that she was wearing.' He followed the notes with his finger. 'Her running shoes are a Nike brand, retailing at eighty-five pounds, and her underwear, again not too helpful, is top-of-the-range Marks and Spencers. The point is, nothing that she was wearing was what you or I would call cheap, considering all her clothes are of the casual type.
'Now, the man. He's the better bet, by a long chalk. The pullover is dark green, army-style with leather-patched elbows, designed by Capability Brown and retailing only through Harrods at a price of one hundred and three pounds.' He smiled at Frank Cheever's grunt of excitement. 'That's only the beginning, my friend. The shirt is a casual green-brown check from Hilditch and Keys in Jermyn Street, retailing at eighty-five pounds. Trousers by Capability Brown again, one hundred percent lined cotton, with pleated front and button detail, color described as taupe, and retailing out of Harrods for two hundred and fifty pounds. Socks by Marks and Spencers, shoes probably purchased in Italy because Jerry has no record of an importer who deals in that particular brand, but he's working on it. His best advice is that our chap has an account with Harrods and probably one with Hilditch and Keys as well. He has located some interesting fibers on both sets of garments which he believes are from the same carpet, probably a thick-pile, off-white Chinese rug, and some hairs which he suggests tentatively are cat hairs, but give him a few more days and he claims he'll be able to describe the room these two were in before they were taken to Ardingly Woods.'
'Anything else?' asked Cheever.
Clarke chuckled. 'Isn't that enough to be getting on with? Good God, man, we've had them less than twenty- four hours. What else are you expecting?'
'Some reasonable fingerprint impressions,' Cheever said. 'You were doubtful yesterday, but perhaps you've had new thoughts today? If either of them have previous records, that's got to be the quickest route to identification.'
'Yes, well, I'll be in a better position to judge that when we've got them out of the bags.'
'What about the green nylon twine that was used to tie their hands and feet? Anything useful to say about that?''
'Not really. It's available in most garden centers, DIY stores, and supermarkets. Impossible to break and takes years and years to wear through. The knots were standard grannies, repeated several times to stop them slipping, and they were very tight, so presumably the victims struggled to get out of them. That's an avenue worth exploring. How does one man tie up two healthy adults? And when did he do it? Before he transported them to Ardingly, or after he got them there? If it was before, how did he get them to the middle of the forest? If it was after, why didn't one of them run away while the other was being trussed? I really think the most likely scenario is that you should be looking for two or more suspects.'
DI Maddocks rubbed his jaw in thought. 'Are you sure it was a hammer and not a heavy branch? If it was a branch, we could be looking at a rather more spontaneous attack. Our maniac, and I use the word advisedly, stumbles on a sleeping couple in the wood, renders them unconscious, ties them up, and then bludgeons them to death before absconding with their money. Could it have happened like that?'
'Not with a branch,' said Dr. Clarke amiably. 'Whatever made that neat hole in the woman's skull was cleanly and symmetrically shaped, very hard and heavy, and was probably at right angles to its shaft to penetrate so deeply. I wouldn't put my life on a sledgehammer, but I'd certainly put my savings on it.'
The third policeman, Detective Sergeant Sean Fraser, who was leaning against the wall by the open window, stirred into life. 'With respect, Governor,' he said to Maddocks, 'if it had been a spontaneous killing, we'd have found a car somewhere. A guy who buys his clothes at Harrods isn't going to hitch a lift to Ardingly Woods for a snooze with his bird.' He crossed his arms and tapped his fingers against his leather jacket sleeve. 'It's interesting listening to the doctor's description of how it happened. Pick any war you like, and you'll have seen film footage of victims kneeling in front of open graves before they're dispatched with a shot in the back of the head to topple forward into the pit. I'd say it's a fair bet these two were executed.'
The others digested this in silence for a moment.
