‘Emily and Chrissy, could you join me in the situation room?’
Both women rose from their workstations and hurried over to join Ridpath.
‘What is it?’ asked Emily Parkinson.
He closed the door. ‘We’re on again, ladies.’
Emily rubbed her hands. ‘Brilliant. What’s the case?’
‘The three hands found in a backpack in Daisy House Children’s Home.’
‘No more stats?’
‘No more stats, Chrissy.’
She brought her hands together as if in prayer, looking up to the ceiling.
‘But there is a problem.’
‘I knew there was a catch.’
‘We only have till Monday.’
‘Well, we’d better get started.’ Emily opened her pad. ‘Brief away.’
Ridpath took them through the details of the case so far, including the evidence from the pathologist and the crime scene manager. ‘So what do you think?’
Emily spoke first. ‘Not a lot to go on, is there? Three hands found in an old house. We’ve no idea how long they’ve been there, or if they were all placed in the backpack at the same time.’
‘Are we sure this isn’t a publicity stunt by the film people? The Evening News has gone big on the story. Interviewing the producer and the announcer. They could have purchased the hands from a bent undertaker or from an anatomy lab.’
‘That’s Turnbull’s theory. It would certainly fit with the hands being embalmed. But Dave Connor has interviewed the film crew and has cleared them. All their stories match and he felt they were genuinely surprised at the discovery.’
‘So we’re treating this as real? The murder of at least three people?’
‘Until we find evidence to the contrary.’
They both nodded.
‘For me, we have four questions to answer.’ He took up a pen and began writing on the whiteboard. ‘How did the hands get in the backpack? What are the identities of the victims? Where are the rest of the bodies? Why place them in Daisy House Children’s Home? And finally, who killed these people? Before you say anything, I know it’s five questions. Next steps? Chrissy?’
The civilian researcher adjusted her City scarf. ‘Well, the obvious place to start is with HOLMES. The programme should tell us if any bodies with hands missing or a similar MO have been found in England.’
‘I asked Dave Connor to do that, but you would be far quicker. Can you go back to at least 2000 on the first pass?’
‘Why 2000?’
‘Wouldn’t 2006 be better? Surely somebody would have noticed the backpack as they closed and emptied the home?’ Emily Parkinson prodded the air with her pencil.
‘The forensic anthropologist thought one of the hands had been operated on after 2000, so let’s use it as our starting point. We can refine it later when we get more information.’
‘No problem. It seems logical.’
‘I’ll let Dave Connor know Chrissy is working on this. He’ll be relieved to know he has one less job to do.’
‘What about the backpack? Who’s checking up on it?’ asked Emily.
‘It’s supposed to be me, but I haven’t had time. Can you do the job? Get the details from Hannah Palmer.’
Emily scribbled a note to herself. ‘Also, I’d like to relook at the film crew. See if any of them have a record.’
‘Dave Connor has their statements. He seems to think they were kosher.’
‘Doesn’t hurt to check. I’ll also look at the door-to-door responses. It’s a quiet area, people could have seen somebody strange loitering around.’
‘Dave has the sheets too.’
She paused for a moment. ‘Is there a possible link to Daisy House?’
‘I’ve checked the Operation Pharaoh investigation. The place was a hellhole for kids in the eighties and nineties.’ Ridpath wrote the words ‘Daisy House’ followed by a question mark on the board.
‘I could find the staff roster, it’s sure to be in the operational files of the investigation,’ said Chrissy.
‘What about the kids who went there?’ asked Emily.
‘The information is with Manchester Social Services. We’ll need a court order to get it, data protection laws are a bastard.’
Ridpath held his hands up. ‘Let’s not go there yet, I don’t want us to be swamped with information at this stage. Thousands of kids attended Daisy House, finding and contacting them all will be a nightmare.’
‘You’re right, Ridpath.’
‘We have more than enough to keep us going until we get the DNA and fingerprint results back.’
‘When are they coming in?’
‘Hannah says two days, but I’ll push for them earlier.’
‘We need them, Ridpath.’
‘Don’t I know it. Until then, I’ll get Dave Connor to set up a situation room in Stretford nick—’
‘We don’t have to come here?’
‘Nah, for the next few days, we’re on secondment to Stretford.’
‘Brilliant, shame it’s so close to Old Trafford though.’
‘Don’t worry, Chrissy, you won’t catch anything… much,’ laughed Emily.
‘Right, let’s get going. We have until Monday to sort it all out. Chrissy, can I have a word – did you find the files on my misper, Jane Ryder?’
Chrissy patted a sheaf of printouts in front of her. ‘Got them here, Ridpath, what there is.’
Emily stood up. ‘I’ll get on with this stuff. I hope this isn’t a hoax with the hands stolen from some university or lab.’
‘Dave Connor is checking if there are any reports of break-ins or losses of human tissue anywhere. We should know soon.’
‘Right. Next meeting?’
‘Tomorrow at eight.’ Ridpath remembered he had to drive Eve to school. ‘No, make it nine a.m. at Stretford.’
‘Right.’ She turned to go and stopped. ‘Monday – it’s not a lot of time, Ridpath.’
Ridpath ran his fingers through his rapidly thinning hair. ‘Don’t I know it, but it’s all we have.’