Bennett muted the sound again. Turning to the sink, he poured the rest of his coffee away, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the handle of the mug as if to snap it off. His dark eyes were unfocused. Then he blinked, put the mug in the sink, snatched up his overcoat from the back of one of his kitchen chairs and headed to his front door.
*
An hour or so later Kate and Delaney came out of the entrance of the church as a suited team of SOCO went in. Kate nodded to the forensic pathologist, Dr Derek ‘Bowlalong’ Bowman, a cheerful portly man in his early fifties with a mass of badly managed curly hair atop a large smiling face. He was hurrying up to them at the usual busy pace that had given rise to his nickname.
‘Doctor Walker. What a delight,’ he said, his smile widening.
‘Bowlalong.’
‘Thanks for filling in – sorry I got held up. Some teenager turned over his car on the North Circular. Three mates on board. All seventeen.’ His smile disappeared momentarily. ‘So, Inspector Delaney, I see you couldn’t keep the lovely doctor away from the business end of the job.’
‘Didn’t want to wait. Not with the boy still missing.’
‘Quite so.’ Bowman turned to Kate. ‘Well, what have you found?’
‘I haven’t processed the scene at all. Just took some shots – I’ll email them over to your office later this morning,’ she said.
‘I’m led to believe the victim’s head was frozen?’
‘Or extremely chilled.’
‘Could you tell how it had managed to become separated from her body?’
Kate shrugged. ‘Cut rather than sawn. I’m guessing a large heavy-bladed implement.’
‘Like an axe?’ prompted Delaney.
Kate nodded. ‘Or a machete – a sabre, possibly.’
‘A military sabre?’
‘Maybe. We’ll know more when Dr Bowman finishes a proper post. I’m just speculating here.’
‘But to cut off a human head … that’s going to take a lot of strength, isn’t it?’
‘I would say so,’ said Doctor Bowman, with an emphatic nod.
‘Especially if the flesh was frozen,’ added Kate.
‘I don’t know,’ said Delaney. ‘If it was partly chilled it would be easier in some ways. Cleaner cuts, less blood spillage. Butchers chill their meat before butchering it, don’t they?’
‘They do, Jack. They do. Food for thought, I’d say.’ The forensic pathologist held his bag up and grinned bleakly again. ‘I’d best get to it. I’ll be back to you as soon as I can, Jack.’
‘DI Robert Duncton is in charge of this one, I’m afraid, Derek.’
‘Copy me in, though,’ said Kate.
‘You got it.’
Bowman bustled purposefully inside and Delaney and Kate walked across the small front yard, through the gate and up to the parked police cars.
Delaney leaned against the bonnet of one of the squad cars and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. As he did so a folded piece of paper fell to the floor and Kate had to bend down quickly and pick it up before it got soaked in the puddle it had landed by.
She handed it back to Delaney who opened it out.
‘What’s that?’ asked Kate.
‘Somebody the new boy Bennett is looking for. He thinks he might have something to do with the stabbed Iranian who you found off Camden High Street.’
‘Who is he?’
‘Don’t know.’
Delaney handed her the photo and she looked at it, frowning. ‘He looks a little familiar to me.’
‘Doesn’t look the sort to play tennis at your club,’ said Delaney dryly.
‘Funny.’ Kate looked at the photo again and pulled out her mobile. ‘I think I know who he is.’
As she punched in some numbers Sally Cartwright approached, carrying a large brown paper sack. Delaney smiled. The aroma of a bacon sandwich, apparently, was the one smell most responsible for turning ex-meat eaters away from being vegetarians and back to being carnivores. Delaney could see why. Anyway, as far as he was concerned he was as likely to turn vegetarian as he was to turn teetotal.
‘They’re going to be a bit cold, sir. Got here as fast as I could.’
‘Good girl.’
Delaney unwrapped a sandwich and took a hefty bite. Bemused, Kate watched him, wondering how he got away with it. Anyone else who called Sally Cartwright
