Page 78 of Twisted Lies

‘Wanna take a look, Leanne?’ he asked, glancing to his right.

‘I’m good, thanks.’

Penn cursed the good manners his mother had instilled in him, which dictated that every now and again he felt compelled to acknowledge her presence in the room, even though she had not initiated conversation with either himself or Stacey once.

He turned back to the screen as the pathologist motioned for Lynes to come closer. He didn’t hesitate.

‘There are ligaments here that have simply snapped under the pressure,’ she said, pointing to the exposed shoulder. Penn could see that the muscles which would normally resemble tightly wound string were limp and stretched.

‘Both shoulders and elbows have been dislocated, and the wrists have been completely separated.’

‘I cannot even describe to you how painful this would have been, both to most of the joints in his body but also the abdomen.’

‘Cause of death?’ Lynes asked, removing his mask.

‘Heart attack. The physical trauma was too much for his body to take.’

‘Might have been a welcome relief,’ Lynes said, touching the victim lightly on the shoulder before stepping back.

‘The team on the ground is getting the exact same results as us,’ Stacey said, bringing Penn back into the room. She nodded towards her computer and the updates that were appearing on the police log in Somerset. ‘Neighbours know very little about the family. Teenage daughter didn’t mix very much.’

‘Is it really worth it?’ Penn asked, turning to Leanne. This was the second family that had been forced into secrecy and deceit for doing the right thing.

‘It is to us,’ Leanne answered simply. ‘We get to put dangerous people away because some individuals are prepared to do their civic duty.’

‘Okay, but how is he getting his information? How does he know where to find them? Could the system have been hacked?’

Leanne shook her head. ‘There is no system to hack. It’s all kept on stand-alone computers. There’s no network link.’

‘But he’s getting it somewhere. There’s no way we’ve got some random psychopath into torturing people, who has managed by sheer coincidence to find two people in the witness protection programme.’

Penn tried not to let his frustration show as Leanne returned her attention to her phone. He was starting to understand the boss’s attitude towards the woman. She wasn’t like a police officer at all and seemed to have no interest in trying to find the person responsible.

He turned back to the post-mortem, which appeared to be winding up, but his thoughts had turned in a new direction.

For information to get out, there had to be a fault with either the system or the people, and if the system wasn’t broken, you had to look at the people.

‘Hey, Stace, got a minute? I have an idea.’

Sixty-Six

‘Looking very casual today, Doctor Crewson,’ Kim noted as the psychologist opened the door.

‘Admin day,’ he explained before opening the door wider to let them in. Of course, he had nothing to hide from them anymore. He knew his records were in slivers in the bin.

‘Ah, so what day is shredding day?’ she asked.

‘I’m sorry, Inspector,’ he said, closing the door to a utility room and quietening a washing machine on spin cycle.

He continued through to his office. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘We know the truth about the Phipps family,’ she said, sitting down.

‘What truth?’ he insisted.

Kim felt annoyance begin to creep up on her but pushed it down. He was just making sure.

‘We know they were a protected family and that Matrix Enterprises has been paying the bill for their sessions. Sessions we hope you might be able to share with us, now we’re in the loop.’