Grant decided to ride to the new crime scene with Detective Penner. She wasn’t giving him too much information, so he wasn’t even sure where they were going. He figured his patrol car would be safe parked on the side of the road until he could get a lift back to it later that night, or morning, whatever the case may be.
‘So, where are we off to?’ Grant asked as he got into the passenger seat.
‘We have a new Jane Doe over on King Edward, beside the Big Ben statue,’ Penner said. ‘But first we’re going to stop at the corner store up the street and grab a coffee. I think it’s going to be a long night.’ She fastened her seat belt and pulled away from the curb.
‘The Big Ben statue, ma-am?’ Grant asked, a bit unsure. ‘Is that the horse jumping statue?’
‘That’s the one,’ Penner said. The statue was relatively new. It had been installed the year before to immortalize one of the best horse and rider teams in horse-jumping history. Penner pulled into the store parking lot. ‘Want anything? It may be a long night.’
‘Coffee and a chocolate bar would be great, thanks,’ Grant said as Penner got out of the car. She came back several minutes later with two coffees and a bag full of snacks.
‘Alright, let’s go.’ Penner pulled out of the parking lot and headed east along Flora Avenue. ‘There are way too many one-way streets in this city,’ she grumbled. The downtown core had one-way streets criss-crossing each other in every direction. If someone didn’t know their way around, the downtown core could be a nightmare, especially during rush hour.
They had been driving in silence for about five minutes or so, when Grant asked, ‘So, do you know anything about the scene? You said it was a Jane Doe, so I guess we haven’t ID’d the victim, yet. Cause of death?’
‘Don’t know. Dispatch just said it was a Jane Doe and gave me the address. Unless someone witnessed the crime, we don’t usually get too much info right off the bat. If we had a witness, then we may know the cause, but not this time,’ Penner said, taking a left onto another one-way street.
‘Right. Makes sense,’ Grant said. ‘So, this afternoon, I was able to run a check on the people at Mrs. Wong’s office.’ He pulled out his notebook.
‘Let me guess, nothing,’ Penner said, not very hopeful.
‘Actually, for almost everyone, you would be correct,’ Grant said. Penner turned to him, interested. ‘Dave, the guy we were interviewing, has a bit of a past.’
‘Really? I’m listening,’ Penner said.
‘Yeah. So, in March last year he was arrested for domestic abuse.’ Grant read from his notes. ‘Turns out he hit his wife after she confronted him about an affair he was having. He claimed his wife was hitting him and he was just defending himself, but the arresting officer didn’t see it that way.’
‘His wife?’ Penner asked, rather surprised. ‘So, is he still married?’
‘As far as I can tell, yes,’ Grant answered, putting his notebook away. ‘Maybe he thought Mrs. Wong was going to let it out that he was having an affair at work again and he got worried and did her in?’
‘That’s very possible. If he just walked up behind her and hit her with something it would explain why he didn’t have any defensive marks on his hands or arms. He’s a big guy, too. Probably wouldn’t be too hard for him to carry someone her size for a couple of blocks. Maybe Jane helped him,’ Penner mused, pulling up to the new crime scene. ‘Okay, we’re going to have to try and poke holes in his alibi. See if we can corroborate the fact that the two of them stayed together after Mrs. Wong left. Good work, Constable.’ They got out of the car and started walking towards the taped off area. Grant hid a sly little smile.
‘Oh, great,’ Penner muttered as they got closer to the yellow tape surrounding the statue. Grant looked around to see what she was commenting on. He really wasn’t sure.
‘Detective Penner, what can you tell us about the victim?’ Arden pushed forward to confront Penner. As always, he was accompanied by his camera man, who was trying to get some good shots for the morning news. ‘Is this related to the murder the other night? How did she die?’
Penner walked up to him. ‘How do you know it’s a ‘she’? And how are you always here before I am? Maybe you have something to do with it, eh?’
‘What?! Come on, you know that’s not true. I have my informants, same as you. Plus, I overheard one of the first cops on scene say it was a middle-aged woman,’ Arden said, signalling to his camera man to stop filming. ‘You know, I would expect an accusation like that from your partner, not from you. Speaking of which, where is Detective Millar? Finally get fired?’ Arden asked hopefully.
‘He’s not here,’ Penner said. ‘We have work to do. I suggest you just keep out of the way.’
‘You know, I think Millar is rubbing off on you. You used to be nice,’ Arden said as Penner and Grant ducked under the police tape and headed towards the body.
‘Not a fan?’ Grant asked Penner, as she put on her gloves. Grant felt around his pockets in vain. He had forgotten to grab gloves out of his car. ‘Rookie mistake,’ he thought ruefully.
‘I don’t mind him most of the time, but he can get a bit pushy.’ Penner pulled out a second pair of gloves from her jacket pocket and tossed them to Grant. ‘You have to know how to treat the media. You can give them bits and pieces every now and then, but never give them too much. They’ll run stories before we want, at times. If you work with them, they can get you info that you wouldn’t find otherwise. Like he said, he has informants. People off the street see and hear lots, and for a couple of bucks or a pack of smokes, you can get a lot further in a case than with just normal police work. Okay, let’s see if we can find the first officer on the scene before we examine the body.’
Grant looked around and saw two officers that he knew from the precinct. ‘Hey guys, how goes the battle?’ he asked as he walked up to them.
‘Hey Grant, how’s it going? Pretending to be a detective now or something? Saw you show up with the lady brass,’ the taller of the two officers said, gesturing at Penner.
‘Just helping out,’ Grant said. ‘Were one of you two the first on the scene?’
‘Yeah, I was,’ the second officer said. ‘Got here about half an hour ago. Evening, ma-am.’ Penner had walked over to where the three of them were standing.
‘What was the call?’ Grant asked. Since he already knew the two officers, Penner decided to let him do most of the talking.
‘Possible murder victim, laying at the foot of the statue. No witnesses, just a couple of suits coming back from a business meeting who saw her. They checked her for vitals and called it in. As far as we can tell, they didn’t move her at all, so what you see now is how she was found,’ the officer said.
‘Cause of death?’ Grant asked.
‘Not sure, but it looks like a nasty gash on the back of her head,’ the taller officer said, making the hair on the back of Penner’s neck stand up. She wondered if it actually could be related to Mrs. Wong’s death. ‘Maybe she fell. Maybe she was hit by someone. Don’t know. I’ll leave that one to you, Detective,’ the officer said sarcastically to Grant.
‘Cute,’ Grant said. ‘So, what now?’ He turned to Penner.
‘Well, let’s go have a look. Constable,’ Penner turned her attention to the tall officer, ‘Can you find out if the coroner’s on her way, and start a canvas of the area, see if anyone saw anything. And please, no comments to the media. I don’t want anyone leaking information until we know what we’ve got, right?’ Penner said.
‘Yes, ma-am,’ the officer replied, leading his partner over to the group of people gathered on the sidewalk.
‘You don’t think they’re related, do you?’ Grant asked Penner. ‘Could it just be a coincidence that the two women were both killed with a blow to the head?’
‘Don’t know, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions,’ Penner said, leaning down next to the body. ‘Let’s do our job first, and the evidence will point us in the right direction. Like your friend said, maybe she just fell.’
‘Gotcha.’ Grant knelt down next to Penner.
‘So, what do you notice?’ Penner asked Grant. She wanted to see what his observation skills were like in a real life situation. ‘Remember, we don’t want to move the body until the coroner has had a chance to do her examination.’
‘Right,’ Grant said. ‘So. Caucasian female, possibly mid to late forties. Maybe early fifties?’ The victim was laying on her right side, her back towards the statue. ‘Almost looks like she was laid down by someone.’
‘What makes you say that?’ Penner asked. She had thought the same thing.
‘Well, things look just a bit too…neat, if that makes sense,’ Grant said. ‘Like, her hair and dress look like they have been straightened. I would think if someone fell down after hitting their head, or if they were knocked over, their hair or clothes would be a bit more, I don’t know, all over the place?’
‘Agreed,’ Penner said, slightly impressed. ‘What else?’
‘Well.’ Grant looked up and down the body. ‘Not a lot of blood. Kind of the same as the scene the other night.’ Without moving the body, he tried to see the ground beneath her head and next to the statue base. ‘Doesn’t seem to be a big puddle on the ground. There’s some blood, but not a lot. Also, there’s no blood that I can see on the base of the statue or on the horse’s hoof here. Doesn’t look like she fell and hit her head, at least not here.’
‘Can you see the wound at all?’ Penner asked.
‘Kinda. But I would need to move her hair and head to get a better look,’ Grant said. He knew better. ‘Seems to be a single wound to the back of her head. Same as Mrs. Wong. Hey, check this out,’ he said, pointing to the body’s shoulder.
‘What are you looking at?’ Penner asked, leaning in for a better look. She could see a single hair. ‘Looks shorter than hers. The wrong colour, too,’ she said, reaching over to pull the hair off of the woman’s dress, holding it up for a better look.
‘Is it human? Maybe she has a cat or dog?’ Grant questioned, looking over the body to see if he could find any other hairs.
‘Not sure. See any others?’ Penner asked, putting the hair in an evidence bag.
‘No, it’s the only one I can see. If it was from a pet, there would probably be more. There could be others, I can’t really see her entire dress. This could be huge, right?’ Grant said, excited by his find.
‘Could be, but we’ll have to get it tested. If it’s human, there’s still no guarantee that it’s from our perp. Could be from her husband. Or it could have gotten on her from sitting in a chair at a restaurant. Who knows. Still, good find,’ Penner said.
Grant stood up. ‘You know, other than the fact she’s laying on her side and not sitting upright, this really looks the same as the scene the other night. She’s even almost the same size as Mrs. Wong was.’
‘Yeah,’ Penner said, fearing the worst. ‘I hope they aren’t related. People get real scared of the words serial killer.’ She heard some scuffling on the other side of the police line. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Arden quickly walking away. ‘Shit. I really hope he didn’t hear that. Go stop him before he gets wherever he’s going and make sure he didn’t hear anything, got it?’
‘No problem,’ Grant said, running after Arden.
‘That’s just what I need,’ Penner said to herself.