She was fortunate that there were not many surgery visits scheduled and having completed her paperwork she had time to check with Judy the practice nurse about Anna Thompson.
“I’ve made her appointment for an asthma review tomorrow,” Judy told her. “I’ll make sure to stress the importance of using her preventer inhaler regularly and check technique.”
“Perfect,” Callie replied. “If she really does need more inhalers that’s fine, but let me know what you think once you’ve seen her.”
“I did end up leaving her a spare inhaler at the desk, because she insisted that she had lost the last prescription and had none,” Judy admitted reluctantly, as she could see that Callie wasn’t convinced. “I couldn’t leave her with nothing, in case she had an asthma attack, but I made it quite clear she had to come in tomorrow.”
Callie knew she was right, but was willing to bet that Anna wouldn’t turn up for her appointment. Not now she had got what she wanted. The question for Callie was how to get her in without with-holding her medication. She just had to hope that Judy’s powers of persuasion were good enough.
* * *
Callie loved that Billy always seemed pleased to see her, even when he was up to eyes in work as he was today. Unlike Detective Inspector Steve Miller who often seemed to regard her as an irritant. She also loved that he never dismissed her theories, well, not out of hand like Miller did, anyway.
“Of course, he could quite easily be British, and of mixed origins, or even from a family that came from North Africa or West Asia and settled here,” he answered when she asked about possible ethnicity.
“But if his DNA showed a percentage of Northern European heritage, surely it would suggest he wasn’t one of the group?”
He gave this some thought.
“It would make it more likely, but not certain, because of course, it might just mean an ancestor of his had been from Europe. The problem is that people move round, they no longer stay in the country of their birth. They seek out a better life elsewhere.”
As Billy’s grandparents had, Callie knew.
“But could you do it?” she asked. “DNA testing might help me persuade Miller to look harder at the possibility.”
“If I can get permission, I will. But what you really need is detailed analysis of the minerals and trace elements in his hair, teeth and bones. That might possibly give us an idea of where he has been living throughout his life, and, more importantly, where he has been living recently.”
Callie brightened up.
“And could you do that?”
“Not personally, no, and my department head would never agree to the expense of farming it out to a lab that can. Not unless we had something definite to go on. So, let’s start with the DNA analysis and see if I can persuade him to do that, or, if he won’t pay, I could maybe see if the coroner will.”
Callie was pleased, at least it wasn’t a closed door and she knew Billy’s head of department liked him and would help if he could. She just hoped he agreed, or that Mike Parton would, because she didn’t think she would get Miller to agree to fund anything.
She was about to leave when she suddenly remembered about the clothing.
“What happened to the clothes he was brought in with?” she asked. “Did anyone take a look at them?”
Billy called for Jim the technician who told Callie they had gone to forensics, although they probably wouldn’t have done anything with them as they weren’t considered high priority, they would just be stored in case they were needed to help with identification.
“Can you remember anything about them?” she asked Jim.
He shrugged.
“Not really. Let me check my notes.” He went into the changing room and came back with a notepad. “He was wearing a torn check shirt and jeans, cotton trunks, no socks or shoes,” Jim told her. “From memory, they were all cheap makes, no distinctive labels.”
“Nothing different from the others?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. He would have liked to be more help but there wasn’t anything more he could say.
“You’ll need to ask forensics if you want to take a look at them yourself, Dr Hughes,” he said and she knew he was right, just as she knew it probably wouldn’t help even if she did manage to get the lab to let her see them.
“Maybe Mike could get more details for you. You should ask him,” Billy suggested and, much as she didn’t want to add to the coroner’s officer’s workload, Callie knew she would probably do just that. Mike Parton was the only one who could reasonably ask forensics to see the clothes now. Well, him and Miller, and that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Chapter 6
Mike Parton had called ahead to the forensic lab where all the clothes and other items found on the bodies were being temporarily stored. Callie and Parton were led to the cool and well-ventilated room with shelves from floor to ceiling. Along one wall there was a row of identical cardboard boxes. Each box contained the effects of one of the bodies and all the clothing had been dried before placing in the boxes, to prevent mould.
Mike and Callie both wore gloves as they opened the boxes and checked the contents. Callie didn’t want to just see the clothes from the Fairlight corpse, she wanted to compare those effects to the ones collected from the other bodies as well. If she was ever going to convince Miller that this body didn’t belong with the boat, she needed to find some anomaly, something that made it stand out. Both Callie and
