All I could do was the best for the victim, my sole duty was to serve them justice and I would ensure I did that doggedly. Looking up I saw the battered Volvo of the pathologist, Dr Robert Bird pulling up outside the window, he was just stepping out of the car as I approached. His hair greying and unkempt, his tweed jacket frayed. He was slim to the point of being gaunt with piercing blue eyes which seemed to have the ability to look into your soul.
“Dr Bird.”
“DCI Jarvis, what a pleasure to see you again, sadly as always on such bleak terms. But if we didn’t want death to feature so much in our lives we are both in the wrong careers. Tell me, what do we have here?”
“Female, 21, multiple stab injuries. Pitchfork. She’s over here.” I used the impersonal shorthand of our work to describe the scene.
“Right, show me the way Kelly, let’s see what we have.”
He smiled, the faint lines wrinkling around his eyes. We had worked together for as long as I’d been involved with homicide, from the first days when I’d thought he was cold and had an issue with me as a young female detective looking to go through the ranks. I soon realised he was someone who communicates better with the victims in his care than living humans. We had found a good working relationship and more than once he had stood up for me on a case and fought my corner.
He sighed as he looked at the scene, climbing up the wooden boards, he knelt beside the victim on the plastic we had laid out to try to preserve what we could of the scene.
“Poor girl. This is quite frenzied, you would have to be pretty bloody strong to puncture the chest like that, look at the depth of the prongs, someone wanted to make a point here.” He looked up and saw my obvious discomfort. “Okay, let me do my work here Kelly, I’ll see what I can find. We may need the fire service to cut the handle to get her safely away from here.”
I nodded and he turned back to the body, I knew she would be safe in his care. I walked across the yard, watched by interested horses, pushing open the door of the tack room. John was on his phone with a chipped mug of tea in his other hand. I poured myself a mug, adding milk and sugar before sitting opposite him. I watched as he finished the call and looked up at me.
“Anyone important?”
“The Chief Constable, he’s got wind of this. The woman, Hilary whatsit is apparently quite a famous rider. We could have the press here if it gets out. When it gets out, make sure we have someone covering the entrance, I don’t want this all over the red tops.”
“Sure, I’ll get on it.”
“Anything yet?”
“Bob’s here, just looking at her.”
“Oh, that creepy sod… I don’t get him…”
“John, you don’t ‘get’ anyone, anyway he’s a damn good pathologist. He said it was quite a frenzied attack.”
“Oh, you don’t say! There I was thinking it was a kiss on the cheek…”
“Oh piss off John! If you don’t want to be here, bugger off back to the station.”
“No… I’ll wait until she’s been taken from the scene. Not that I don’t trust you of course.”
“Naturally…”
* * *
“Why would this happen here? I mean who would do that to her?” Hilary sat with her head in her hands.
“Adam was pretty cross with her yesterday… Do you think he could have? … Well, you know? -”
“Sally! There is no way Adam could have done this! Jesus, why would you even say that?”
“Well, I’m just saying he had a go at her yesterday, then he was here overnight before leaving at god knows what time. Don’t you think that’s suspicious?”
“Why the hell should I? He was going home anyway, we had agreed he would do four days a week, you knew he had a drink last night so he couldn’t drive, and as for the argument…”
“It was more than an argument, you told me he had attacked her!”
“I’m not having this conversation…”
“I’m just saying…”
“Sally, please, either shut up or piss off…”
12
Assumptions Made
I watched as the black van slowly navigated the driveway, ‘private ambulance’ what a euphemism. I often wondered how many people realised what they were really carrying.
“Kelly…”
“Bob. You’re all done here?”
“As much as I can. However, this is a bit interesting. I didn’t want it lost in transit as it were.” He held up an evidence bag, I took it peering at the broken gold chain contained within. “It was in her right hand. Now, it’s too early for me to speculate but as it was in the palm of her hand, wrapped around her fingers she may have torn it from her assailant.”
“Great, thanks. I’ll make sure it’s logged. Anything else you can tell me?”
“Time of death is going to be tricky to get exactly as the body was kept warm, but that shouldn’t be an issue as she was seen only last night, we aren’t going to be arguing about exact details, I’m sure. Cause of death, well, it’s pretty obvious she didn’t
