“Okay, what aren’t you telling me?”
“It would appear that the three males were murdered.”
Katy faced the boat. “Are you telling me the female committed the murders then got trapped on the boat?”
“Possibly. We’re still trying to ascertain what went on. There are no witnesses from what we can tell, which is going to make life awkward for us.”
“What about IDs? Anything?”
“Two of the males are river police officers.”
“Really? What the hell were they doing on board?”
He shrugged. “Yet to be determined. You might want to check with your associates on that one.”
“We will, don’t worry. What type of injuries are we talking about? Fire related or something more sinister?”
“The two officers received gunshot wounds to the heart. Instantaneous death likely but yet to be confirmed. The other man had his throat cut.”
“Crikey, any weapons found?”
“Nothing as yet. The boat hit the bank pretty hard, therefore, we’ve got a dive team coming out to search the river surrounding the vessel.”
“What about the woman?”
“She had a gunshot wound to the right leg and a massive head injury. The pathologist seemed to think she walloped her head on the metal railing at the front of the boat. There are blood stains to corroborate her assumption.”
Katy glanced around the area. There was a footpath running on either side of the river. “Hmm…okay, I can’t believe there were no witnesses. Look at the number of people standing around here, rubbernecking the scene. I’m sure these footpaths are used regularly by pedestrians, dog walkers, people using a shortcut to work possibly. Charlie, we need to contact uniform, get them to canvass the area, knocking on doors.” She pointed at the few of the houses dotted around the area, a few hundred feet away. “Someone must have seen or heard something. Bloody hell, gunshots were fired, for God’s sake!” Katy tutted and breathed deeply to quell her rising frustrations.
“I’ll get that organised.” Charlie left the area to speak to the uniformed officers standing at the cordon. One of them got on the radio. Charlie nodded and returned. “All done. Backup should be here soon.”
“Good. James, all right if we go aboard the boat?”
He adamantly shook his head. “No way, sorry, it’s far too dangerous.”
“Because it keeps bursting into flames?”
“Yep. I’ve made arrangements for the woman to be lifted out of the water. I’m hoping that’ll happen this afternoon. We’ll take her back and give her a thorough examination when we return to base.”
“I understand. I’m not happy about it but I completely understand the logic behind it.”
“Bear with us. Maybe you could pay us a visit tomorrow, have a mooch around then? The thing is, we don’t know how much diesel is left in the fuel tank. Once we drain it, the vessel will be a lot safer for us to examine.”
“Yep, I agree. Anything else for us? Do we know to whom the boat is registered?”
“Yes, I did manage to uncover that nugget of information for you. Ray Thatcham, I Googled him. Apparently, he’s a local businessman. Lots on the internet about his wealth, the fast cars he drives et cetera.”
“Does he match one of the victims?”
“As far as I can tell, yes. You might want to hold off on breaking the news to the family until the post-mortem has been performed. Patti Fletcher is in the process of doing that now, I believe.”
“That’s great news. She shouldn’t take long. I’ll leave it a while before I chase her up, wouldn’t want to contact her midway through.”
“Very wise. She wasn’t in the best of moods when she attended the scene yesterday afternoon.”
“Any idea why?”
“Nope. Maybe it was her time of the month.”
Katy shook her head. “Did those words really tumble out of your mouth, James? Shame on you. I’ve never taken you for a sexist pig in the past.”
“Ouch! What did I say?” He seemed genuinely offended by Katy’s harsh words.
“How come when women have an off day, men generally put their foul mood down to their menstrual cycle, and yet when guys are having a bad day, those around them have to shrug it off as just one of those days?”
He held up his gloved hands and admitted, “Sorry, I stand corrected. My bad.”
Katy swiped his arm. “Too right you’re bad. That’ll teach you to engage your brain next time before you open that big fat gob of yours.”
“All right, there’s no need to go on.”
“And I’m glad you didn’t use the nag word there.”
“Jesus, you really do have your hand up your arse today, don’tcha?”
Katy glared at him. “No. Not at all. What about the two coppers who have sadly lost their lives, have the families been informed?”
“I believe so. It might be wise if you check on that, though.”
“I’ll do that now. Maybe they can fill in a few missing details for us, like why two coppers were on board the boat in the first place.”
“It does seem odd,” James agreed. “Oops, I forgot to tell you that the officers’ boat was found drifting in the middle of the river a few miles or so that way.”
Katy’s gaze followed his pointed finger. “Hmm…it gets curiouser, doesn’t it? Could they have fired the shot that hit the girl?”
“I doubt it. They have Tasers on them, no other weapons from what I can tell.”
Katy scratched her neck. “What are we missing?”
“I don’t think we are, not from what I can see. We just need to piece all the clues together. Once we find the weapon, I think that will answer a few of our puzzling questions.”
“We’ll see. Will you ring me with the results?”
“Of course. We’ll pass all of our findings on to Patti, she’ll be in touch with you within the next few days.”
“Until then, we’ve got very little to go on. See you soon.” Katy motioned for Charlie to follow her back to the car.
“Is that it?” Charlie asked once they were inside Katy’s Ford Kuga.
“That’s it. If we can’t view the actual crime scene there’s really no point in us hanging
