Page 123 of Dying Truth

‘That was it. Couldn’t go any further. I was assigned new cases, and by the time the inquest was done I almost agreed that I’d been mistaken in the first place.’

‘About what?’ she asked, wondering what had caused his doubts.

‘The placement of the body,’ he admitted, reaching for another club.

Kim recalled her own feeling on the placement of Sadie’s body and realised that this man would be far more disturbed than he realised if he understood just how similar they were.

There was an instinct that he possessed that was similar to her own. It was something that could not be taught. Except there was one small difference. She believed in her gut and had learned to argue on its behalf. He had not.

‘What about the placement?’ she pushed.

‘It didn’t look right. Too far away from the diving board.’

‘You’re saying she didn’t dive from the board like the accident the inquest ruled?’ Kim asked.

He shook his head. ‘Not even close and there was nothing accidental about it.’

Eighty-Five

‘Are you kidding me?’ Stacey asked as Dawson entered the office with one box. ‘That’s the total investigation into the death of Lorraine Peters?’

Dawson nodded as he slid the box onto the spare desk.

‘Looks like DCI Burrows wasn’t all that keen on paperwork,’ he said, taking the lid off the box.

He removed three brown Manila folders and an inch-thick computer printout.

Stacey came to stand beside him.

‘Hardly a major investigation,’ she observed, opening one of the files.

‘The boss said he was cut short, but I’ve had shoplifting cases that have generated more paperwork than this.’

‘Reckon it’s all here?’ Stacey asked.

Dawson shrugged. ‘We’ll never know. Paper trail and arse covering wasn’t like it is now.’

Stacey closed the folder and touched the computer printout.

‘What is it?’ Dawson asked.

‘I’m guessing DNA results,’ she answered.

‘All I can see is a whole lot of numbers. That’s not gonna help us.’

He opened another folder and slid it towards her.

She could see that the first few documents were witness statements. She opened the last folder which contained the photographs. Stacey spaced out the photos, and they both viewed them silently for a minute. Lorraine Peters’s body captured in time from every angle. Her long, athletic limbs splayed around her; once so efficient and powerful at moving her through the water, now limp and lifeless, smashed against the tiled floor.

She looked back at the witness statements. They would be no use to her. Any witness to the events that had led to the body in the pool was not going to be telling the truth.

‘So, which folder do you want to—’

‘Neither,’ Stacey said, reaching for the computer printout. ‘I’ll take this one.’

Dawson pulled a face at her. ‘But that’s just a bunch of numbers. You’re not gonna get anything from that.’

Stacey shrugged. ‘Maybe, Kev. Yes they’m just numbers but, unlike your witness statements there, numbers don’t lie.’