Steve and Sarah walked into the office of Roxy Bright. Roxy was young and one of the best in the field of forensic investigation. She had quickly risen to the top of her profession due to her passion and commitment to the job.
‘Good afternoon detectives’ she greeted them as they walked in.
‘Hey Roxy, whats going on?’ Steve asked taking a seat opposite her desk. Branson sat down next to him.
‘Well a whole lot really’ she grinned back at them. ‘First up I think we have found the murder weapon in the Firth case’
‘Serious, when did that happen?’ Steve asked excited at the prospect.
‘About an hour ago. Someone walked in and handed it to the uniforms saying they found it in their front garden. They wanted to remain anonymous.’
‘They just walked in?’ Branson asked sounding amazed at the idea.
‘Yep, just walked in. Anyway I have run some preliminaries on it. Think we may have a DNA match.’
‘So what exactly was handed in?’ Steve asked.
‘Gardening tools’ Roxy said beaming.
‘Serious? The murder weapon is gardening tools?’
‘Yes and not just any old gardening tools. It was the small hand held pitch fork’
‘Agghh well that makes sense given the nature of the puncture wounds.’
‘Correct’ said Roxy. ‘And we have found tissue and blood samples on it which match the victim. So we are pretty sure this is the weapon used.’
‘Great work Roxy. Any clean prints?’
‘Yes. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better we lifted a clear set of prints from the weapon. Perp was left handed. Used the weapon to strike in an upward motion from behind.’
‘I see’ said Steve rubbing his chin as he digested the new information. This would make or break Pinkton as the number one suspect. A simple check of the prints and Pinkton was either going to jail for a long time or he would be walking free.
‘Let’s get a set of those prints then over to uniforms so they can run them against Pinkton’s’ he said to Branson. She nodded and got up and walked out of the office.
‘Can I take a look at the weapon?’ Steve asked Roxy.
‘Of course you can detective, come with me’ she giggled and walked out of the office. Steve followed her out into the examination room.
On a table was the set of gardening tools. The small pitch fork in question, a hand shovel, and a rake. A three piece set, the kind that you would buy at the hardware store as a Christmas present.
Next to the three gardening tools was a material carry case. It looked home made. Inside it had three elastic hoops for securing the tools into. Once secured inside, the material case could be folded up.
‘May I take a closer look?’ Steve asked Roxy.
‘Sure thing’
Steve picked up the material case and looked closer at it. He turned it over and sewed into the material on the back he found the initials AF.
‘AF?’ he asked himself out loud.
‘Yes we had been wondering what that meant as well’
‘Agriculture Fair?’ Steve asked knowing it was a long shot.
‘Maybe. We were thinking more along the lines of it being someones initials’
‘That’s it!’ Steve said loudly knowing exactly whose initials they were.
Steve’s phone burst into life with ACDC. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket to answer it. It was Branson.
‘How did you go?’ he asked her.
‘No match’ she said sounding disappointed. She had been convinced that the finger prints would match Pinkton’s and it would be case closed.
‘Okay’ Steve replied. ‘Looks like we can let Pinkton go’
‘Will do. Does this mean we are back to square one?’
‘Not necessarily so Sarah. After you release Pinkton meet me in the car park’
‘Okay see you there’. With that Steve hung up the phone.
‘Do you mind if I get a pic of this?’ Steve asked Roxy.
‘Of course not’ Roxy said.
Steve snapped pics of the garden tools and the carry case on his phone. When he was finished he thanked Roxy and told her how amazing she was. They hugged briefly before Steve walked out of her office and headed towards the car park to wait for Branson.