‘What the hell?’ Maggie looked around the room, taking in the horror before her. Kate’s neighbour was straddling a chair, legs and hands tied with plastic cuffs to make sure he was held securely. His head was tilted back, eyes bulging and vomit stuck to the side of his face. It was like an explosion had happened. Flecks of vomit were on the floor and nearby wall. Dr Blake tilted the man’s head forward. She looked to be searching for something on the man’s neck.
‘What the hell, indeed. Not the most pleasant way to die, I’d say.’ Dr Blake continued to examine the back of the victim’s head and Maggie moved closer to hear the pathologist.
‘What are you looking for?’ She strained her eyes looking at the victim’s neck.
‘Puncture wounds. Before we bag him up and take him to the morgue, I was curious to see whether he was injected with something he may have had a bad reaction to. Nothing obvious at the moment, but I’ll be able to tell you more after the PM. I’m going to head back now and I’ll make this a priority.’
Maggie moved out of the way as Dr Blake walked past her and out of the door, calling out instructions to her team as she left.
She stared at the man. What can you tell us? There didn’t seem to be any obvious answers. She joined Nathan. ‘Do we have anything that can tell us where Kate may have been taken?’
‘Looks like there was a bit of a struggle here and Kate may have been incapacitated somehow and fallen. They found some blood on the floor just over there.’ Nathan pointed. ‘And a broken nail – black polish, so I am assuming it’s Kate’s. Though we’ll have to see what forensics say, and there’s no way we can say for sure. However, Dr Blake advised that there were burn marks, consistent with a handheld stun gun, found on the neighbour’s flesh.’
Maggie closed her eyes. ‘So he could have been waiting behind the door and taken Kate by surprise? If knocked out by some sort of sedative, she may have fallen and when putting her arms out to break the fall, her nail may have been broken then?’ She was trying to work out the logistics in her head.
‘Are you OK, Maggie? If this is too much, I can meet you back at the station?’
‘No. I’m fine. I need to be a part of this. Has anyone in the building been spoken to?’
‘Kat and the field officers are doing that now, but from what I’ve heard so far, there’s been nothing out of the ordinary reported. Not much else for us to do here. Whoever abducted Kate seems to have been meticulous enough not to have left any clues as to where they were taking her. What are we going to do about her cat?’
‘Oh, shit. Salem. Where is he?’
‘Through there, in the back room.’
‘I’ll take him back to mine and figure out what to do after. Can we do a quick stop by mine on the way back to the office?’
‘Sure. I’ll help you get the cat’s things together.’ Nathan followed Maggie to the back room and they collected Salem and his belongings and loaded them into Nathan’s boot.
‘Has anyone searched Kate’s flat?’
‘Yes. No evidence it was broken into. Door was secure and nothing inside disturbed.’
‘OK. Christ, Nathan, I really won’t forgive myself if anything happens to her.’
‘I told you. None of this is your fault. Let’s get this cat dropped off before I have a sneezing fit. Did I mention I’m allergic?’
‘Oh crap. Sorry. Do you want me to put him on the back seat?’ Maggie went to move the carry case to the back.
‘No, it’s fine. It won’t take long.’
Maggie dropped Salem off at her place, closing him into Kate’s room with everything he would need. She left a note for her brother in case he came home, advising him not to panic if he heard sounds from Kate’s room and to keep the door closed. She had no doubt Scrappy would be upstairs once he figured out there was another cat in the house. She couldn’t worry about that now though. They had to find Kate.