Bryant joined her on a patch of recently repaired bitumen.
‘My apologies, Inspector. I have to go,’ Thorpe said, gravely. ‘Sadie’s parents are at the police cordon.’
‘Do they know?’ Bryant asked.
He shook his head. ‘Only that there’s been an incident.’
Kim understood. Delivering such news over the phone was only done as a last resort. She did not envy him his next job.
‘We’ll let you know when we’re done,’ she advised as he re-entered the building.
Bryant shoved his hands into his trouser pockets as he stood beside her.
She narrowed her eyes at him when he started humming the Ghostbusters theme.
‘Just look down there,’ she said.
‘Must I?’ he asked, taking a tentative step forward.
Three storeys below lay the body of Sadie Winters, guarded by uniform officers while others worked to take details and clear the area. Keats had arrived, accompanied by his team of crime scene techs, who were changing into white protective suits.
‘You think she jumped from here?’ Kim asked, lining herself up with the body on the ground.
Bryant nodded and stepped back. ‘Yeah, seems about right.’
‘Hmm…’ she said, taking five steps to the left.
‘Was that the wrong answer?’ he asked.
‘How about here?’ she asked, ignoring his question.
Again, he took a cautious step forward and shook his head. ‘Too far away.’
She walked past him and headed to the right.
‘How about here?’ she asked.
‘Guv, are you trying to make me throw up?’
‘I haven’t cooked for you in ages, now just look,’ she urged.
He looked down and shook his head. ‘Much too far away from where she landed,’ he said.
She returned to her first position which was directly in line with the body. She frowned as she looked down.
‘Who you gonna c— aah, I think I see what you’re looking at,’ he said.
‘The railings,’ she clarified.
A row of black wrought-iron spikes, about four feet high, surrounded a narrow-planted area she’d noticed on the ground. Four steps either way and there were no railings.
‘It’s obstructive,’ Kim said. ‘You look down and picture your body landing on those spikes.’
‘Ugh,’ Bryant said, looking away.
‘Exactly,’ Kim said. ‘And you’re a fully grown adult… allegedly.’
‘But if I’m killing myself anyway I’m expecting a broken neck or a fractured skull?’ he argued.
‘But do you really want to picture yourself impaled on those spikes?’ she asked.
‘Not really but I’m not a troubled thirteen-year-old girl,’ he offered.
‘Yeah, but I was, and I can tell you that I would have noticed those spikes.’
People wanted to die painlessly and that was no different for suicides. Fast and painless. Logically, it didn’t make sense to her. She recalled the grey mark on the bottom of Sadie’s shoe as she took another look around the surface of the roof.
‘Hmmm…’ she said, not finding what she sought.
‘What now?’ he asked, wearily.
‘The cigarette,’ she answered. ‘Sadie had recently ground out a smoke with her shoe but there’s no cigarette butt here,’ she observed.
‘Guv, what exactly are you thinking?’ he asked, with a note of fear in his voice.
‘I’m thinking we might just have a chat with our good friend Keats before we leave.’
Six
Kim stepped back outside into what appeared to be chaos.
Plant and his team had succeeded in clearing the area close to the body but were still trying to corral students and adults into some kind of order. Word had clearly travelled, and the number of spectators had increased tenfold. A third squad car had just pulled in and officers were trying to guide everyone back into the main building.
Kim ignored it all and focused her attention on the ground. ‘There’s one,’ she said, pointing. ‘And another…’
‘Secret smoking spot,’ Bryant said, looking around.
Kim frowned. ‘That ash mark wouldn’t still be on the sole of her shoe if she’d had her smoke all the way down here,’ she observed.
‘The butt could have blown anywhere up there, guv,’ Bryant said, nodding towards the roof.
‘Get ’em all collected,’ Kim said, moving towards the focus of the forensic activity. She was pleased to see that a modesty blind had been placed around the victim.
‘Can you not do something about all these people?’ Keats asked, bypassing any form of greeting.
‘Not really my case,’ she answered, with a shrug.
‘Then don’t speak to me,’ he said, pushing his glasses back on to the bridge of his nose.
‘Bloody hell, Keats, who pissed on your chips so soon?’ she asked. ‘I’ve only just got here.’
‘All these folks with smartphones trying to get a damn photo of this poor soul to plaster all over social media.’
Kim understood that just about the only person Keats cared about right now was the one that was no longer breathing. She gave him a moment of silence as he worked through his initial examination.
‘Are you still here?’ he asked, looking up.
‘Time of death was between one fifteen and one thirty,’ she offered.
He scowled at her and then pointed. ‘And that guy standing over by the wall with the red hair is a potential serial killer.’
Kim confined her smile. ‘I wasn’t telling you how to do your job, Keats,’ she said.
He stood up straight. ‘No, really, why are you here?’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Just passing.’
‘The word “passing” is indicative of continuous movement, so I’d suggest you carry on…’
‘Anything suspicious?’ she asked, ignoring his outburst.
‘Do you mean other than the fact she’s a thirteen-year-old girl that decided to end her own life?’
‘Yeah, apart from that. Anything physical?’
He shook his head. ‘Nothing yet but I’d like to take a better look at her first. And with that in mind, I’m not happy continuing here,’ he said, glancing up towards the windows with faces crammed against the glass. ‘I’ll know more once I get her cleaned up.’
‘You’ll let me know?’ she asked.
‘Of course, Inspector, as I often have little else to do,’ he said, turning to one of the techs. ‘William, if you’d be so kind.’
William stood at the feet while Keats stood at her head.
They bent down in unison and gently turned her onto her back and onto the stretcher. Kim saw her whole face for the first time. She didn’t look older than her years. There was no make-up, eye shadow or mascara.
She looked exactly what she was. A child.
‘Come on, guv, we need to get back to the—’
‘I know, Bryant, I’m coming,’ she answered, beginning to turn away.
And then she turned back and took another look at her face. She noticed Keats doing the same thing with a puzzled expression.
She took a step closer and peered at the left cheek, where a red mark stretched up and over her temple. A gash around her ear had been responsible for the pooling of blood beneath her head. But there was something not quite right with what she was seeing. She would have expected to see a portion of the head caved in where the skull had met the ground and gravel embedded in the soft skin of her cheek.
Kim realised this did not look like a face that had just been smashed into the ground from three-storeys high.
Seven
Kim had not been surprised to see she had a missed call from Woody by the time she got back into the car.
Her conversation with Inspector Plant had been pleasant enough, and he’d been only too happy to accept her assessment of suspicious circumstances. He had graciously agreed to leave his team to continue taking witness statements which he promised would be on her desk by the following morning.