It was a cold, slithery ten-mile drive to the county forensic laboratory. The weather had worsened and they passed two cars abandoned in drifts.
The laboratory, a modern, single-storied building, stuck in the middle of nowhere, welcomed them with the warm antiseptic breath of its hot-air system as they trampled slush over the two-tone gray carpet tiles in the reception area and walked past an unmanned mahogany counter draped with potted plants. There were two old friends on the wall, the poster identifying the Colorado Beetle and a Foot and Mouth Disease Movement restriction order which made them feel at home in alien surroundings.
They followed a dimly lit corridor to swing doors, through which they found the laboratory proper. Frigid bluish-white fluorescent lighting glared down on the pathologist and three white-coated assistants who were crouching busily over a long bench.
The pathologist beckoned them over and led them to a table draped with thick polythene sheeting on which lay the completed jigsaw puzzle of the skeleton, the gaping eye-sockets staring blindly into the white fluorescent sun.
'He's cleaned up nicely, hasn't he?' said the pathologist proudly, scraping a blob of dirt from the lower jaw. 'Have a look at this,' and he picked up the remains of the lower right arm. 'This wasn't broken or chewed off by animals. It was deliberately hacked off-apparently with an ax.'
'Hacked off?' exclaimed Frost.
'Precisely. There can be no doubt.'
'Before or after death?'
The pathologist stroked the bone with loving care. 'We can only guess, but I'd hazard shortly after death, before serious decomposition took place. It's only a theory, of course, but my guess is that the arm was severed in an attempt to remove the chained case.'
'But it was still on the arm,' Frost pointed out.
'Agreed. Whoever chopped it, chopped too high up and wouldn't have been able to slide the metal wrist band over the severed end. The victim was probably fleshy and a little fat. You try and drag your wristwatch up your arm, you'll find it gets stuck half-way.'
'Why cut off the arm to remove a locked and empty case?' asked Frost.
'You're the detective, not me,' replied the pathologist, scratching his chin with the severed bone before carefully replacing it in its alloted place. 'But you've missed the best bit-look,' and he pointed to the skull. It was so obvious that at first Frost missed it, then he and Clive saw it at the same time.
'Good God!'
The skull had a third eye smack in the middle of its forehead. The third eye was small, neat, and precision drilled.
'This is what made the hole,' said the pathologist, and he dropped a small transparent envelope containing a dull mess of flattened metal into Frost's palm. 'It's a revolver bullet. We found it inside the skull, mixed up with the dirt.'
Frost held the envelope to the light and examined the discolored metal from all angles. 'So this is what killed him, Doc?'
But the pathologist wasn't going to be led into saying anything definite. 'All I can say after all this time is that if he was alive when this bullet was fired at him, then this is what killed him. I can find no other cause of death. We're having the soil analyzed, but after all these years…' He finished the sentence with a hopeless shrug, then led them to a side bench where a bald man was scraping away at bits of rusty metal.
'Show the inspector the other things we found, Arnold.'
Arnold was only too happy to oblige. 'Nothing spectacular, I'm afraid, Mr. Frost. Everything rottable had rotted, so all we're left with are metal objects. For example, these metal trouser buttons. No zips, of course-men didn't trust zips back in the 1950s.'
'I don't trust them now,' said Frost. 'I had an unfortunate experience. That's when you reckon he died, then- the 1950s?-'
Arnold nodded. 'We're doing more tests, but everything points that way.' He raked among the rest of the deceased's effects and found a flat, round pitted object. 'This is what's left of his wristwatch. A cheap pallet movement, probably pre-war. Over there is the money, which you know about, and there's these…' He rattled a crusted keyring containing two small desk keys, a larger key, and a flat Yale key, all in surprisingly good condition. And that was all the skeleton had to show for itself.
'No car keys,' Clive pointed out.
'Not an awful lot of private cars about in the fifties,' said Arnold. 'Petrol rationing was still on, I think.'
Frost spotted a tiny heap of rusty crumbs. 'What are they?'
'Remains of cobblers' tacks from his shoes. They used to nail the soles on in those days.''
Frost dug his hands in his pockets and stared for a moment at the pathetic piles of scrap, then turned and regard ed the bones stretched out on the polythene sheeting. 'So what do we know about him? He was shot, he had a few bob in his pocket, he buttoned up his fly, and he died more than thirty years ago. Not much to go on. Any special features, Doc, that would help us identify him, like a ten-foot dick or eight fingers on each hand?'
The pathologist gritted his teeth. 'I can't give you much, Inspector. He was between thirty-five and forty, he'd had extensive dental work carried out on his teeth…'
'That's the best place to have it carried out,' observed Frost, ignoring the withering glance.
'If I may continue… He broke his left arm about five years before he died. If you look carefully you can see the line of the fracture. That's all I've got at the moment.'
'The case,' prompted Arnold.
'Ah yes… I was forgetting. We've paid a lot of attention to the case chained to his wrist. It was very strong and obviously specially made for the job-the sort of thing cashiers use for carting large sums of money about. We managed to read the maker's name on the lock-Smith-Curtis-they used to specialize in safes and strongboxes and things.'
'Used to?' asked the inspector, warily.
'They went out of business in 1955, so no help there, I'm afraid. By the way, how is Inspector Allen? I was very sorry to learn of his illness.'
'Not half so bloody sorry as I am now,' replied Frost.
TUESDAY-5
It was as if he had the power to provoke reaction. The minute Frost walked in to Search Control, the previously dumb loudspeaker monitoring Mrs. Uphill's phone gave a little click and the spool of the tape recorder began to revolve. Someone was dialing her number.
Brr… brr… Brr- She answered it on the third ring.
'Remember me?'
Everyone in the room stiffened and held his breath. It was the kidnapper. Frost hissed for Barnard to ring Control on the internal and ask if Charlie Alpha two could see anyone.
'Yes,' said Mrs. Uphill, 'I remember you. How is Tracey?'
'Her cold's a little worse, I'm afraid. There's no heat where she is, you see, but if you get her home tonight, I think she should live.'
Charlie Alpha two had the phone box in clear view. It was empty.
'Damn,' snapped Frost, 'he's found another one. Let's hope the G.P.O. can trace it in time.'
'Please,' said the loudspeaker, 'I want her back. I'll do anything.'
'You only have to do what you're told… but do it to the letter. I'm saying it once and once only. Put the money in a carrier bag, then go for a walk down the Bath Road toward Exham.'
'I've got a car. I'll go by car.'
'You will walk… do you understand? Walk on the left-hand side. Just past the antique shop there's a public call box. Wait there for my call. I'll give you further instructions.'
A click and the death rattle of the dial tone.
