“You’re right, she does.” Rob took a step back and studied her position. She lay on her back with her hands folded across her chest. “Do you think the killer positioned the body like this?”
Liz gave a grunt. “I’d say so. She had two blue metallic clips in her hair. One on each side.” She nodded to two evidence bags the forensic technician had already recorded and placed in a plastic box.
“Could I have a quick look?”
The technician glanced at his boss, who gave a curt nod.
Rob emptied one of the bags into his gloved hand and inspected the contents. It was one of those girls' hair clips that snapped shut when you bent them. Yvette’s niece had some like it. He remembered Yvette doing her hair once when they went round for supper.
He turned it over, studying it under the portable crime scene lamp. This one was rusty and weathered, but beneath the dirt and corrosion, a cobalt blue colour was visible.
He handed it back. “I wonder if these were hers or if the killer put them in her hair,” he mused.
Liz was once again focusing on the corpse. “All I can tell you, Rob, is that she appears to have been respectfully laid to rest, covered with a shroud, and then buried. The grave is fairly deep, whoever buried her was obviously afraid of wild animals getting to her.”
“Or her body being found,” pointed out Mallory.
Liz raised an eyebrow.
“Is there any indication of how she died?” asked Rob.
Lisa touched the child’s head, gently moving a clump of course, grey hair to the side. “At first glance there doesn’t appear to be any trauma to the skull and her bones are intact, but I can’t confirm until I’ve had a chance to study her properly.”
“What about sexual assault?” he asked.
She hesitated. “I can’t say at this point, Rob.”
He sighed. That was all he was going to get today. Still, it was more than most pathologists were willing to cough up on the spot. “Okay, thanks Liz.”
It was time to go.
He gestured to Mallory and threw back the flaps, exiting the tent. Outside, he tore off his mask and inhaled large lungfuls of fresh heath air. The oppressive melancholy that always befell him at crime scenes began to dissipate.
“It could be her,” Mallory said, joining him.
They stripped off their suits and handed them back to the PC, who immediately put them into a box to be disposed of later.
“Yes, and if it is, it means she was buried in the same place she was abducted.”
Mallory hesitated. “Does that mean Katie’s buried somewhere in the Nature Reserve?”
Rob shook his head. “We searched the place. The sniffer dogs would have picked up her scent.”
“Her backpack was found there,” Mallory reasoned. “He may have taken her back there after we searched the place. If we’re making parallels, we don't know when Arina was buried here. It may have been when she was taken, but it could have been days, even weeks later.”
Rob stared at him. He was right. If Katie was dead, the killer could have gone back to the nature reserve to bury her body. What better place to hide her remains than somewhere the police had already searched?
“Organise it,” he said.
28
Rob and Mallory watched as Arina’s remains were lifted onto a stretcher and carried to the waiting forensic van that would transport them to the lab for further analysis.
“It’s hard to believe they didn’t investigate because they thought she was in Iran,” Mallory mused.
Rob grunted. He’d keep his opinions on the incompetence of DCI Purley to himself. An enquiry into his incompetence would kick off anytime now.
A wail came from the woods behind them, making them both spin round.
“Tessa!” yelled Rob, recognising the dishevelled woman stumbling towards them.
“Is it her?” Her voice was a hysterical cry. “It’s her, isn’t it? I know it’s her.”
Rob caught her just before she reached the police cordon. She collapsed like a ragdoll into his arms, sobbing. “Arina. My baby.”
Mallory blocked her view so she wouldn’t see the stretcher of bones being lifted into the SOCO van.
“We don’t know it’s her,” Rob stressed. “Not until we’ve done a DNA test.”
But Tessa was inconsolable. “It’s my baby, I know it is. It was that paedophile. He killed my Arina.”
Rob grimaced. A lawsuit looked unavoidable.
A female PC approached them. “Can I be of assistance?”
Rob smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
She took the sobbing woman from Rob’s arms and led her away from the crime scene, talking to her in a calm, reasonable voice.
Rob breathed a sigh of relief. Tessa’s anguish only made the situation more distressing.
“She’s going to go mental if it is Arina,” Mallory said, his jaw set in a grim line.
Rob nodded. “At least she’ll have some closure. Although, it won’t be easy. She probably harboured some hope her daughter was still alive, even after all these years.”
“Can’t blame her.” Mallory wiped his forehead. “It would have been better if she was in Iran with her father.”
“We need to release a statement first thing tomorrow morning that Anthony Payne has been cleared from our investigations.” Rob said as they walked back across the heath.
“I’ll call Vicky and set it up,” said Mallory.
“Get Harry to do it. Audiences will know him from the Crimewatch episode.”
Rob glanced back. The female police officer had led Tessa off towards where a park ranger’s vehicle was stationed. They’d get her safely back home, and a Family Liaison Officer would be assigned to her, once they knew for certain it was Arina’s remains they’d found.
Rob was already in bed when his phone rang.
“DCI Miller,” he said, his voice groggy.
“Rob, it’s Liz Kramer. Sorry to disturb you, but I thought you’d want to know the results of the DNA test on the remains.”
Rob sat up so fast he got a headrush. “Tell me.”
“It was Arina Parvin’s body.”
He stared in front of him
