Impression (DI Gardener 4)

“Cause of death?” asked Gardener.

“Oh, I certainly know what caused it. I had the blood spatter on his jacket analysed. Same blood group as Nicola Stapleton, so you can definitely place him in the room at the time of her murder. He died in very unusual circumstances. Barry Morrison had something called ‘blocked superior vena-cava syndrome’.”

Reilly sighed. “Here he goes again.”

“You’ve got me with that one, Fitz,” said Gardener.

“It’s the big vein that drains blood from the upper body to the heart. His was blocked. The blood accumulated in the upper body causing it to swell. The faster it is blocked, the worse the symptoms. It is usually caused by cancer.”

“But not in this case,” said Reilly.

“No.” Fitz shook his head. “You remember the syringe found underneath Nicola Stapleton? The best I can tell from the remains was hot sealing wax which was injected into the vein, making it look like something else, until I did my job.”

“Sealing wax?” asked Gardener.

“I’ve sent some of it away for analysis. As soon as we get the results back, I may be able to narrow it down.”

“Doesn’t that stuff harden once it’s been melted and left?” Reilly asked.

“It does,” replied Fitz. “But it’s like everything else these days, it’s moved on with technology. Beeswax was the most common ingredient years ago. Then they introduced different colours, made it with different formulas, so in all honesty I have no idea what’s in today’s wax.”

“Maybe the analysis will show us what’s been used to keep it moist. Like Sean says, that stuff usually hardens pretty quickly.”

“There was definitely no evidence in the house that the killer had heated it up there,” said Reilly. “And judging by the timescale I doubt he or she would have had the time to clean up so well. Whoever it is will be quite a pain in the arse to catch.”

“The method is specific,” said Gardener. “There wouldn’t be too many people who know how to do that.”

“A job for HOLMES.”

“We might have to go deeper than that,” said Gardener. “Use the specialist search engines.”

Gardener addressed Fitz. “Do you think either of these two were responsible for killing the other?”

“To be honest, no. But I don’t think there’s any doubt they were both in the same room.”

Gardener’s head was spinning. Two murders, very few clues, no suspects. They also had an unidentified child with no idea how central to the investigation she may be.

“Someone must have seen something,” said Reilly.

“Even if no human saw the killer, the CCTV outside the shops must have picked something up.”

“How the hell could they transport two people around in a car, kill one in the house with the other present, then move him somewhere else to kill him without being seen?”

“Maybe we can pick up something on ANPR.”

Gardener took a pen and a piece of paper from the desk. “So, what have we got? Barry Morrison was radio silent from nine o’clock. His car was seen outside of Nicola Stapleton’s house from around ten. Our killer must have taken Morrison between eight-thirty and nine. So where was Stapleton at that point?”

“She must have been at the house. I can’t imagine a killer lugging the two of them all over town.”

“No,” said Gardener. “Too risky. So let’s say he or she silenced Stapleton around seven. That in itself is a risk, because Beryl Potts was at home. And I think she would have seen him or her. So how did he or she get there?”

“Maybe they’re local, within walking distance.”

“The other advantage to being local is they can move around without drawing attention to themselves,” said Gardener. “Here’s what I think happened. The killer must have had Nicola Stapleton around seven. At which point, she’d have been tied up and gagged.”

“Then the killer goes to the cab office,” offered Reilly. “Life gets a bit easier there because he or she can take Morrison’s car back.”

“They’re back at the house for ten and gone again by eleven-thirty.”