Chapter Seventeen

 

Emma parked as close as she could on the residential street. She hadn't even made it into the office that morning. She'd been trying to get her head straight after the evening down the pub. She'd stayed longer than intended and she knew that it was because she'd enjoyed talking to Pete. She hadn't really decided what to do with that information yet. She didn't know how she felt about him, about the idea of a new involvement, especially with someone who worked in the same place. She had been trying to work it all out and also battling a hangover when her mobile had rung. She'd been summoned directly to this crime scene.

As she walked down the road trying to interpret the vague directions that she'd been given, she took stock of the scale of the investigation. One ambulance was trying to leave the scene, and two marked police cars were there, along with an incident van. People were starting to come out of houses and she knew it wouldn't be long before the press showed up as well. She stopped dead on the pavement. There, right in the middle of the street was a dark green Land Rover. Unmistakable were the black and white plates and regimental markings. What the hell was going on? Why had the army been called to the crime scene?

She quickened her pace and found a uniformed officer who directed her to a footpath between two houses. Soon she came out to an area of trees. It was right on the edge of the housing estate and the first section of the path was littered with plastic bags and larger items of rubbish.

There was her boss, Inspector Kev Slater, in his usual dull suit and tie, talking to a man in combat fatigues. DC Angel studied their body language and figured out that while there might not be a strict equivalence between police and army ranks, the two men treated each other as roughly equal.

The army man was younger with short dark hair and a stocky body. More than that, he had a way of carrying himself, an inner confidence that was missing in Slater. Emma had no choice but to hang back and wait for them to clear the path. There was no point anyway in barging in somewhere when the army were involved.

Soon enough the impromptu conference ended with shaking hands. As he passed, the army officer looked at her and said, 'The scene's all yours now.'

She approached her boss. 'What the hell's going on?'

'Well,' Kev Slater puffed himself up a little, 'we had a report of an explosion. Protocol clearly suggests that the proper thing to do is call in Bomb Disposal to make sure the scene is safe before putting any of my officers in danger.' Angel was thinking that it was overkill. Slater interpreted her expression and continued. 'It has been a common terrorist tactic, starting with the IRA, to detonate a small device and use that to lure the emergency services into the area and catch them with a secondary device.'

'So, what's the score now then?'

'The score, as you put it, is that your timing is spot on. The scene has been declared safe, although they did confirm that there is evidence that an IED has been detonated in the area recently, which combined with the witness reports means that we did have an explosion here.'

DC Angel nodded. She still couldn't believe that there had been a bombing here in Bradwick, her sleepy seaside town. She fell in behind Slater and kept walking up the path.

Soon they were past the range where it was easy to dump a fridge or television and the wood became cleaner and nicer. But for Emma the atmosphere was no better – she knew she was approaching a murder scene, the place where someone had died.

Soon they were at the police tape. They showed their warrant cards and were recorded on a clipboard before being allowed to proceed.

'I've got to warn you that this is pretty bad,' Dani Price, the pathologist, said as Emma approached.

'Hello to you too,' DC Angel said. 'Is it as bad as the motel? Or worse?' Emma still hadn't forgotten that she'd been the first one of the team to see what had become of Oliver Fairthorpe. She stopped on the path when she saw Dani's expression. 'How can it be worse than that?'

'Well, I'm not sure if it's worse or not, but the body is less intact.' She paused and indicated a second line of tape. 'This is the inner cordon, time to get suited up.'

'Less intact?' Emma asked as she shrugged her way into white overalls. 'That poor sod was beheaded.'

'Yeah, similar situation here, I'm afraid.'

Sensing that words would be useless, Dani waited for Emma to finish with the overshoes and hairnet. When she was done, Dani lead Emma into the clearing. 'Watch where you walk, we're still tracking evidence.' In the centre, like some macabre modern sculpture were a pair of jeans with trainers still attached. As she got closer, DC Angel could see it was actually the lower half of a body.

'Oh.' Emma moved a hand to her mouth, before remembering she was wearing gloves. 'Oh. My. God. Is that?'

'Yes, that's the lower half of our body.'

'Where's the rest...?' DC Angel couldn't finish the sentence as she saw the stumps of two arms lying behind the legs, as they'd been thrown aside. The more she looked, the more she could pick out odd body parts strewn around the clearing. A technician straightened from a crouch - he'd been photographing and documenting the head where it was lying, several feet from the body. 'What...? I mean, Dani, what's been going on here?'

She looked at a loss, and nodded at DI Slater, who was pale. 'Well, you saw the army were here, didn't you? The initial report was of a hysterical woman covered in blood running up and down the street. According to her, he just exploded.' He indicated the clearing and the body with a sweep of his arm. 'At first everyone dismissed it as some sort of hysteria, but when the other calls came in about a loud bang, well we had to take it seriously. That's when I took charge and called the army in. Ms Price, what are your initial thoughts?'

'Initial thoughts are that I've never seen anything like this. I mean, I talked to the army boys. Some of them have been out in Afghanistan, so they know what they're talking about. I've also read reports from combat medics, and articles about causes of death during war.' Emma couldn't help wondering at her morbid choice of reading material. 'Most injuries from IEDs are the loss of limbs, as they are usually triggered by either touch or step. In more elaborate devices, you get a tripwire. But in that case, the injuries are usually focused either on one side or the front or back, depending where the device was placed relative to the victim. But to have most of the torso destroyed, and the extremities left intact but thrown around...' She shook her head.

Something tugged at DC Angel's consciousness. She broke away from the group and backtracked to the obvious entrance to the clearing. On hands and knees, she searched the edges of the path where there were branches and tree stumps.

'Here! I need a technician!'

'What have you got?' Dani crouched next to her, looking but not touching.

'There, that glint of gold on the side of that tree stump? It's another brass eye, screwed into the wood. I think there's a bit of fishing line running through it.'

Dani turned to stare at DC Angel closely. 'You mean, just like the motel room? The first murder?'

'Yeah, you said tripwire and it set me thinking.'

'Good catch.' Dani squinted and tilted her head. 'That piece of fishing line leads up towards the body.'

Before they could explore any further, there was a crashing and a commotion on the opposite side of the clearing. Something about the raised voices made Emma turn and move towards the noise.

'You can't just come crashing in here, it's a crime scene!' One of the uniforms was trying to stop a large figure from getting into the crime scene. Emma's heart sank when she recognised Rob Haines.

'I know it's a crime scene. It's my crime scene. You obviously don't know who you're dealing with.' Rob had stopped grappling and stood back a bit. He was shouting at the young uniform. 'I could have your card on my desk this time tomorrow.'

'Rob, there'll be no need for that.' Kev Slater had arrived on the scene as well. 'I don't know what you're doing here, but I've got everything under control.'

'Ah, didn't see you were there.' Some of Rob's swagger disappeared, replaced by confusion. He peered closely at Kev, taking in his plain clothes and air of authority. 'I suppose you're in charge.'

'Yes. Do you remember that you're meant to be on sick leave while I run CID?' Emma hated hearing the tone in Kev's voice, as if he was talking to a slow child. This was her boss who was probably going mad being stuck at home with nothing to do. 'Honestly, you can't come in here, contaminating the scene-'

'What have you got there, Rob?' Emma earned a sharp look for talking over her boss, but she didn't care. 'Do you want to show it to our inspector, Kev Slater?' She knew that she sounded false but it was the best she could do. She'd read the confusion on Rob's face and knew that he had no idea who he was talking to.

'Oh, this.' Some of his animation returned. He locked eyes with Emma and gave the briefest nods of thanks. She could see some of the tension disappear from his shoulders. 'I found it pinned to a tree over there. I remember you were asking about the case. It was...' he paused to search his unreliable memory. 'Well it was a long time ago. And this poster is fresh, so it's a clue.' He brandished it proudly.

'A clue which you've contaminated already, making it useless,' DI Slater said bitterly.

Emma handed Rob an evidence bag and watched as he properly bagged up the poster. 'Right, come with me,' she said. 'There's plenty of cars around, we'll find a uniform who can take your prints for elimination. Won't be a problem.' She glared at Slater as she left.

'I'm sorry, Emma, I've messed this up, haven't I?' He shook his head. 'I still have friends in some parts of the police. I heard from the dispatcher about this crime scene as I was just sat at home staring at the four walls. Thought it wouldn't do any harm if I came over to lend a hand.'

'Well, if nothing else you put the wind up Slater and that can't be a bad thing. He's been so full of himself since he had to call in the army and everything.'

Emma quickly filled him in on what they'd learnt so far and how the poster confirmed the connection between the two crime scenes.

After a brief period of silence, Rob spoke again. 'I didn't really believe them at the time, but the hospital said there may be some temporary problems with inhibition. I thought it had passed, but it seems I've become worse recently. I hate being sat at home, feeling like I'm on the sidelines of everything.'

'Don't worry about it, sir. That bang on the head might have given you a few symptoms, but it hasn't changed who you are. You still want to help. You can't keep away from a good crime scene if you think you can be of use somewhere.'

'Nah, you're just being nice. This is just more evidence that my career is over.'

Rob stayed quiet for the rest of the way back. He silently submitted to having his prints taken on a new machine. When he was all done, he turned to Emma.

'Would you say that the victim was sleeping rough?' he asked.

Emma cast her mind back. She tried to filter out the horror – the lumps of flesh and bone that were dotted around the clearing. 'Well, his trainers were so worn there were holes, and his jeans had seen better days. I mean, the state of the body means it'll be hard to make a definite call now. Once we get the pathology report we'll have a better idea and be able to identify the victim. Why?'

'On my way to blundering through the crime scene I passed a makeshift camp. Old beer cans, fire, cheap tent, that kind of stuff. Might be nothing, but might tell us who the victim was.'

'Thank you, sir. Even if our victim wasn't sleeping there, then we might have a witness.' She was grateful – she knew that this was good information. Haines could've used it himself to repair some of the damage he'd done. Instead he'd given it to her.