Page 12 of Silent Scream

Kim shrugged. ‘You’ve either got it or you haven’t.’

She placed the card into her jacket pocket. ‘Any more?’

‘No, she was the last.’

They both stood. ‘That’s it for today. Go home and get some rest,’ Kim said.

She had a feeling they were going to need it.

Seven

‘Okay folks, hope you all got some rest and kissed your loved ones goodbye.’

‘Yeah, no social life for the foreseeable future,’ Dawson groaned. ‘So, no change for Stacey but the rest of us have real lives.’

Kim ignored him. For now. ‘The TUBs want this one solved by the end of the week.’

They all knew her acronym stood for Totally Unreasonable Brass. Substitution of the last word was optional, dependent on her mood.

Dawson sighed. ‘What if our murderer didn’t get the memo, Guv?’ he asked, checking his mobile phone.

‘Then come next Friday I’ll be arresting you and trust me, I can make it stick.’

Dawson laughed.

She remained serious. ‘Keep pissing me off, Kev, and it won’t be a joke. Now, what did we get from the post mortem?’

He took out his notebook. ‘Lungs full of water, definitely drowned. Two bruises just above her breasts. No sign of sexual assault, but difficult to tell.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Yep, she had chicken korma for dinner.’

‘Great, that’ll break the case wide open.’

Dawson shrugged. ‘Not really much to come out of it, Guv.’

‘Bryant?’

He moved a few pieces of paper but Kim knew that any information was already in his head.

‘The area was canvassed again yesterday but none of the neighbours saw or heard a thing. A couple of them knew her in passing but it would appear she wasn’t a coffee morning kind of person. Not the most sociable of sorts.’

‘Oh well, there’s a motive. Killed for her lack of community spirit.’

‘Folks been killed for less, Guv,’ Bryant responded and she had to concede the point. Three months earlier they had investigated the murder of a male nurse who had been killed for two cans of beer and the loose change in his pocket.

‘Anything else?’

Bryant picked up another piece of paper. ‘Nothing from forensics yet. Obviously no footprint evidence and the fibre analysis has just started.’

Kim thought about Locard’s exchange principle. It held the theory that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something to the scene and leave with something from it. It could be anything from a hair to a simple fibre. The art was in finding it. And with a crime scene trampled by eight fire officers and a waterlogged bathroom, trace evidence was not going to raise its hand voluntarily.

‘Prints?’

Bryant shook his head. ‘And we all know the murder weapon was a pair of hands so we’re unlikely to find them thrown in a bush somewhere.’

‘You know, Guv, it ain’t like this onCSI,’ Stacey offered. ‘Nothing on her phone either. All incoming and outgoing calls are either to St Joseph’s or local restaurants. Her contact list ain’t all that long.’