Gary was staying at his apartment off Rundle Street, only about a kilometre away. He rang Detective Lee and briefly gave him the details, knowing that Detective Lee didn’t have to be told anything more than the headlines. He knew his job was to get the uniformed cops to cordon off the area, to get forensics down there, and also to call his partner, Detective Alice White. They would all need to get to the crime scene as soon as they could.
Gary pulled on his suit pants, creased shirt, jacket, socks, and shoes—all in under a couple of minutes. He bolted out of the apartment and pulled up next to the Land Rover shortly afterwards. The uniformed guys were arriving at the same time, blue lights flashing but sirens off.
Gary jumped out of his car and started issuing instructions. He scaled the railing and immediately went to the horse trough and pointed his torch into the trough. It was exactly as Rebecca had described. There was no doubt that he was looking at the face of Will Oliver, albeit a little plumper than usual.
Gary gave instructions about leaving the heads for forensics. The police had already started cordoning off the area. Detectives Lee and White arrived, quickly conferred with the detective chief inspector, and subsequently issued instructions for the uniformed police to start combing the area for anything that could be associated with the murder, including being on the lookout for the rest of the body, a murder weapon, and any evidence of how the head got into the trough.
Gary hopped back over the railing and strode over to the Land Rover, where Rebecca and Penny were sitting in the front seats. Gary opened the rear door on the passenger side and climbed in.
Both Rebecca and Penny were staring at the proceedings. Even though dawn was beginning to break, the police had put up massive lights powered by portable generators. It had gone from being a deserted, still morning in the park lands to a full-on event with police swarming everywhere and generators masking the early-morning birdcalls.
Gary addressed Rebecca and Penny, slowly taking them through the details of that morning, jotting down anything he deemed relevant into his notebook.