Page 47 of First Blood

She nodded.

‘Mrs Bywater, I…’

‘Yes, it’s him,’ she said as the tears began to fall from her eyes.

‘Okay, thank you, that’s all we need you…’

‘Just one minute,’ she said, with a voice full of emotion.

Dawson took a step away. Some relatives wanted to imprint the features of their loved ones into their memory, lifeless or not. Others wanted to say a silent, final goodbye.

Lisa Bywater raised her right hand into the air and punched her brother square in the face.

Chapter Forty

‘She did what?’ Kim asked, as Dawson relayed the events at the morgue.

‘Punched him, boss. Like she proper meant it. I got her outside, she shrugged me off and left.’

Kim recalled the true nature of the man’s injuries.

She closed her eyes as she spoke into the phone. ‘Dawson, don’t tell me his head…’

‘No, boss, it was attached.’

She was silently grateful for small mercies.

But what the hell was that punch about?

‘Okay, Dawson, head back to the station and see what you can find out about this woman and child. Someone has to know them.’

He agreed and ended the call.

Immediately her phone rang. It was Keats and she absolutely knew what this conversation was going to be about. But she hadn’t known the bloody woman was going to punch a corpse.

‘Stone,’ she answered.

‘John Doe,’ he said.

‘Sorry?’

‘That victim you asked me to look into who was genitally mutilated. It was a John Doe case and remains unsolved to this day. Six years ago and the victim has never been identified.’

‘Beheaded?’ she asked, hopefully.

‘No, and I’m sure I would have remembered that small detail and told you yesterday.’

‘Anything else?’

‘A shoe, Inspector, was found in the woods. It was never proven to have had anything to do with the case, but I have one further note of interest.’

‘Which is?’

‘The mutilation was coarse and amateurish and clearly performed by someone who had not done such a thing before.’

She remained silent and waited for anything further.

Silence.