Twenty minutes later, she’d kissed AJ goodbye and was on the road. She rang her partner en route. “Hi, Charlie, did you get the call?”
“Morning, boss. Yes, I’m almost there. How about you?”
“Another ten minutes, depending on traffic, it’s not been too bad so far.”
“It was all right at my end, it’s too early for normal folks to be on the road.”
“Okay. I’ll see you shortly.”
Katy ended the call and put the radio on to ease her through the rest of the journey.
Patti was retrieving some equipment from her van when she pulled up beside her vehicle. Charlie joined her. “Morning, ladies. Sorry for ringing you so early. Thought you’d want to get cracking on this one right away.”
“No need to apologise, I’m used to you disturbing my sleep.” Katy grinned.
“As long as that’s all I was disturbing.”
Katy sighed. “Yep, old married couple now. Early morning hanky-panky went out of the window years ago.”
“Shame on you, Katy Foster… it is still Foster, isn’t it?”
“Yes, at work. We thought it best to keep things as they were. Enough about me. Should we suit up?”
“Always wise. I hope you’ve got a strong stomach this morning, it ain’t pretty.”
“Are any of them?” Katy moved to the boot of her car and dug around for a couple of suits. “Umm… supplies are getting low back here, just saying.”
Patti took the hint and returned to her vehicle. She collected a couple of paper suits and handed them to Charlie. “These might be of some use to the pair of you.”
“Gee, thanks, Patti. What would we do without you?” Katy called over. “It’s okay, I have an abundance of shoe coverings.”
“So glad to hear it. Come on, get a wriggle on, ladies. I haven’t got all day.”
Once they had slipped on their protective suits, gloves and shoe coverings, Katy and Charlie followed Patti to the scene. The technical team were hard at work, collecting evidence from the burnt-out vehicle.
“I’m taking it this was intentional, bearing in mind the location being off the beaten track?” Katy surmised.
“Yep. I had my doubts for the tiniest moment, but now I’m pretty sure this was down to someone with a seriously cruel agenda.”
Katy tilted her head and moved closer to the car. “Single occupant. Any wounds that you can tell?”
“Not as such, apart from the man roasting in the car,” the pathologist replied sarcastically.
“Okay, so someone torched the car and killed him, I agree, that’s pretty cruel.”
Patti shook her head and walked over to hold up an evidence bag. “We found traces of rope inside.”
“Rope? As in he was bound?”
“Yep. Someone tied him up and then torched the vehicle.”
“Ouch! Not good news. Have we got an ID on the victim?”
“Nothing that I can give you for definite, always difficult when there’s fire involved as you can imagine. The plate is intact, so that’s a bonus.”
“Charlie, can you do the honours for me?” Katy asked.
Charlie fished out her mobile and placed the call. She waited for someone back at the station to feed her the information and then hung up. “Jason Davis. I’ve got his address for when we need it.”
“Does he live far?” Katy asked, surveying the rest of the scene before moving on to the surrounding area.
“Not too far. About five minutes by car, that’s an estimate on my part, of course.”
“Okay. What else have you got for us, Patti?”
Patti folded her arms, her paper suit rustling as she tapped her foot. “Not a lot at present. I’ll know more once we get him back to the lab and opened up.”
“In the meantime, I suppose we’d better go and see if there’s a next of kin at his address. Wait, who called it in?”
“A postie stumbled across the car at around five this morning.”
“Must’ve been a shock for them. Keep in touch, Patti, the sooner we get on with the onerous task of informing the relatives, the better.”
“Good luck. I don’t envy you in the slightest. I’ll be in touch soon, although it might take me a little longer than normal to file the report.”
“I know you’ll do your best. TTFN.”
Katy and Charlie walked back to their respective cars. Katy tapped the postcode into the satnav and told Charlie to follow her to the location.
A woman in her early forties opened the door to them. “Oh God, he’s not… dead, is he?”
“Mrs Davis? I’m DI Katy Foster and this is my partner, DS Charlie Simpkins, would it be okay if we came in to speak to you?”
She inched the door closed a little. “I’m not sure. Answer my question first.”
Katy inhaled a large breath. “If you’re talking about Jason Davis, then yes, I’m sorry, we believe he’s dead, although his true identity has yet to be confirmed.”
Mrs Davis staggered backwards and slumped against the wall in the hallway. Katy ran to assist her. “No… no, this can’t be true. It can’t be. Sammy… Sammy, come down here.”
A younger woman with long blonde hair appeared at the top of the stairs. “Get away from her. Who are you? What are you doing to my mother?”
Katy and Charlie produced their IDs, and the girl ran down the stairs to inspect them. “Oh shit! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mouth off like that.” She turned to face her mother and reached out to her. “Mum, what’s going on?”
“It’s your father. They’re saying… he’s dead.” Jane Davis sobbed.
Her daughter pushed Katy aside. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to comfort my mother. Is he? Dead, I mean?”
Katy took a further step to the left. “Why don’t we go into the lounge or somewhere more comfortable to discuss this?”
Charlie closed the front door. Sammy indicated which room to enter and they all headed that way. Sammy supported her mother whose body was limp with grief.
After the four of them were seated, Katy relayed what they knew regarding the incident.
“What if it’s not my father? Do you really think you should come here telling us that he’s dead if you haven’t identified
