Private Royals (Private 12.50)

‘Horse Guards.’

CHAPTER 10

KNIGHT PUSHED OPEN the door to Hooligan’s lab. ‘What did I miss?’

‘Oh, only the kidnapper calling. Where have you been?’

‘Don’t ask.’ Knight shook his head.

But the East Ender asked again anyway.

‘Abbie’s publicist came in to help me build background on her,’ said Knight. ‘She’d know the darker parts of Abbie’s life that her father wouldn’t.’

‘She would?’

‘Half of a publicist’s job is covering things up, or at least glossing them over,’ Knight explained.

‘Did she help?’

‘Not really. She fainted into my arms.’

Hooligan smiled. ‘You’re getting as bad as the boss.’

Knight ignored the comment. ‘What have we got on the bloods?’

‘Bad news for the bodyguard. Looks like the bulk of the blood is his. Matched his military records that Cook got for us. There must have been six or seven pints of it.’

‘He’d never survive that.’

‘Nope. I’m afraid the bodyguard’s brown bread.’

‘Anything turn up at his place?’ asked Knight.

‘Seemed to live a sanitary life. Some dirty gym clothes in the wash basket. No computer equipment that we could take a sneaky look at.’

‘What else have you got?’

‘A few strands of cotton in the blood pool,’ said Hooligan. ‘Look like they were cut with a serrated edge. Most likely a hunting knife.’

Knight looked at the slides Hooligan projected onto the wall, seeing the frayed fibres.

‘That much blood, the blade must have severed an artery.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Hooligan agreed. ‘But there was no arterial spray in the penthouse. A wound like that’s usually a wild hosepipe.’

‘Armpit?’ Knight suggested, remembering cases he’d seen from his time at the Old Bailey. ‘Stand up,’ he instructed Hooligan. ‘Now, say I’m coming at you with a blade and I go for your chest. What’s your natural instinct?’

‘I lift my arm to protect myself,’ Hooligan answered.

‘Exactly, and my blade goes into your armpit and hits the subclavian artery. Then, your natural reaction will be to bring your arm back down again, covering the wound and causing the blood to pool on the floor, rather than spurt all over the walls and furniture.’

‘That makes sense,’ Hooligan admitted.

‘You said the bulk of the blood is from the bodyguard,’ Knight said.

‘There was a second set of markers in one of my samples. Definitely from a different person,’ Hooligan explained.

‘Who?’