Jackman took several large printouts and pinned them to the whiteboard. Diagrams of the crime scene.
‘These are stills from motion graphic software. You will see in the first diagram the general layout of the lounge, and here,’ he pointed to an enlarged photograph taken by the first team of SOCOs, ‘is the forensic photographers’ view of the room. It has an old-fashioned stone fireplace and an open fire. Note, the mantelpiece is very low compared to modern, or even Victorian designs.’ He pointed to the next picture. ‘Professor Wilkinson believes that Suzanne was standing in the centre of the hearthrug — here.’ The image showed a woman of Suzanne’s height and build. She was facing away from the fireplace.
‘How has he done all this?’ asked Carter.
‘Blood spatter and stain analysis.’
‘Clever stuff.’
‘He’s a brilliant scientist.’ Jackman gave a wry smile. ‘If a little off the wall.’
There was a ripple of laughter. Rory Wilkinson was universally liked in Saltern. His camp humour often defused the tension that followed after witnessing a traumatic crime scene.
‘I suggest you all come and look at these pictures when we are through here. It will give you a fairly good idea of what happened. In a nutshell, it went like this . . . Suzanne Holland was pushed with considerable force. She possibly caught her foot in the rug, tried to turn to steady herself, then hit her head against the corner of the mantelpiece. She then fell to the floor and cracked her temple on the iron surround. Prof Wilkinson says that there is no chance that she survived her injuries.’
‘How can he be so sure? And how did he know it was her temple?’ Marie was staring at the pictures.
‘I’ve just come from a twenty-minute tutorial on the mechanism and classification of spatter patterns. It included low, medium and high velocity of the blood depending on the force of impact. I have learnt that blood issues from the body in many different ways. It can drip, ooze, flow, gush and spurt, and they all leave different patterns. It was worth getting a migraine. I’m telling you, there is nothing that man does not know about blood at crime scenes.’
‘Heck, sir! I only asked.’
Jackman grinned, and then became serious again. ‘As for the temple, Prof Wilkinson said there was an arterial spurt that most likely came from one specific artery, the left external carotid. He made that deduction from a passive bloodstain that would have gathered beneath her body after her heart stopped beating.’ He exhaled loudly. ‘Of course, without her body we cannot be certain about everything, but the crime scene and the evidence found there will tell us more than enough.’
Charlie raised a hand. ‘So would it be classed as an accidental death, sir?’
‘We do not know the intentions of the person who pushed her. Whatever, it was definitely the push that caused her to shatter her skull and sever an artery. The blood loss must have been extensive. If there had been no intention to harm, then it would be manslaughter, but if it was deliberate, well, then it was murder.’
‘We need to find her body,’ Carter almost whispered.
‘We do.’ Jackman looked across to Max. ‘Come up here and tell us what happened when you went to see Suzanne’s brother.’
Max took centre stage. ‘Ralph Doolan is at present in Scunthorpe General Hospital. He sustained injuries in an accident, a hit and run that took place in the early hours of yesterday morning. Neither the vehicle nor the driver of the car have been traced.’ He looked down at his notebook. ‘I was allowed to talk to him for a short while, and then again a little later. I confirmed his name, date of birth, and the fact that Suzanne Holland was his half-sister.’ Max closed his notebook and looked around the room. ‘His injuries are not life-threatening, but he has some serious damage to his pins, er, sorry, his legs. With several operations planned, he is likely to be there for some time, so we know where he is if we want him. Now, the thing is,’ he ran a hand through his spiky hair, ‘he says he was in the Fens at the time of his sister’s disappearance, but he hadn’t seen her for weeks. He swears that he wasn’t near the cottage on the night in question.’
‘Does he look like the photofit?’ asked Marie.
‘Bang to rights, Sarge. And he still has the ponytail. Oh yeah, and the glasses were Ray-Bans.’
‘That’s good?’ Charlie asked.
‘Pleb! Like they would have set him back a couple of hundred smackers?’
‘Alibi?’ Jackman questioned.
‘He’s given me the name of a friend. He said he might have been with him that night, but he can’t be sure. And that, folks, is that.’ Max returned to his seat.
‘So, no firm alibi, and he is a match for the photofit. It doesn’t look good for Mr Doolan, does it?’ Carter commented.
‘It doesn’t,’ agreed Jackman. ‘So we better have another word. And, Max, talk to the friend, will you?’
‘That’s first on my list for this morning, sir.’
‘Right, people. Let’s do all we can to discover what happened to Suzanne’s body.’
*
Ten minutes later, Jackman was sitting in his office with Marie and Carter.
‘Before you get back out there looking for whoever was running Danny Hurley, I’d like to get your thoughts on what happened in the Holland house, now we know she was actually killed there,’ Jackman said.
‘What I can’t understand is, why remove the body?’ Carter rubbed at his chin. ‘Given the amount of blood, it was patently obvious that something dreadful had happened. Why not just ring it in?’
‘Would you, if you’d just killed her?’ Marie asked.
‘Do you think it was Ponytail and sidekick?’ Carter asked.
‘Who else? Two men heard talking in raised voices on the path leading to the scene of the murder, on the very night we believe she died?’ Marie raised an eyebrow, ‘What more do you want?’
‘A motive,’ interjected Jackman. ‘Okay, so she wasn’t popular, and she’d had a failed marriage, then she went a bit wild and slept around for a while, but that’s not sufficient motive for murder by stone mantelpiece, is it?’
Carter looked at him. ‘Could she have tripped?’
‘Rory assured me that so much blood loss means that she was probably flung or pushed by someone in a rage.’
‘What does he hope to find from this new search, sir?’ asked Marie.
‘He just said he has a theory, but nothing more.’
‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ Carter muttered.
Jackman stood up. ‘Well, thanks for the input, but I think we are just going to go around in circles until we have more information, so you’d better get back out there. Good luck, guys.’
Carter went off to make some preliminary calls.
Marie waited behind. ‘We are edging closer to finding out what happened, sir, aren’t we?’
‘We are.’ Jackman saw her expression. ‘Close the door, Marie. Okay, what’s wrong?’