The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 38

Before Sarit had rushed off after the phone call, she had told Daniel how to log on to her eMail. After she left, he had downloaded the witness statements and pathologist’s report on Costa that Dovi had retrieved and forwarded. Daniel had printed them out and was now reading the post-mortem report, very carefully. As he had expected, and as the police had told him, the cause of death was a series of violent blows to the head, not the fire or even smoke inhalation.

But the state of the body — the burns, etc — might give some indications about the fire and possibly about how long he had been dead. Unfortunately, the report made it clear that the fire actually made it very hard to establish the time of death. The report concluded that Costa could have been killed just before the fire, but could just as easily have been killed hours, days or even weeks before.

Daniel’s mind was working along the lines of a theory that Costa may have been killed immediately after sending the picture — hence Daniel’s call going straight to voicemail. As he read on he came across a short paragraph that said that one of Costa’s hands was curled up and traces of fibres were found underneath his fingernails. That could indicate a struggle. But were the fibres from clothes (which might indicate what the killer was wearing) or flesh, which could give the police an exact DNA profile of the killer?

Daniel flipped on ahead, seeking out the page with the lab analysis of the fibres. And it was at that point that he got quite a shock. Because what it said was that the fibres were cowskin. But before he could process the information, his attention was caught by something else.

The plasma TV was on in the background and something on the wide screen caught his attention. He looked up to see the face of his sister, Julia. And she seemed to be agitated. He grabbed the remote and turned up the sound. But what he heard was not her voice but a TV reporter’s voiceover.

“It is not clear if this was a crude murder attempt or an equally inept abduction. What is clear is that but for the prompt thinking of a good Samaritan on a motorbike, something very unpleasant could have happened to a young mother and her children.”

Daniel was unable to contain himself. He wasn’t prepared to risk using the house phone, but he grabbed the mobile that Sarit had left for him to be used “in emergencies only,” keyed in 141 to withhold the called ID and then called his sister.

“Hallo?”

It was a nervous voice, but it was Julia.

“Julie, it’s Daniel.”

“Daniel!”

“Are you able to talk?”

“Yes. But quickly. They’re in the other room. Checking out the security.”

“Who?”

“The police.”

“I just wanted to know if you’re all right.”

“I’m fine… just about. Who was that man?”

“Who?”

“The man who tried to kill us… and grab Romy.”

“I don’t know. But I think he’s the same man who killed Martin Costa.”

“If it hadn’t been for that guy on the motorbike — ”

“It wasn’t a guy.”

“What?”

It was a blushing moment. Daniel remembered that well-worn phrase of Hagrid from the Harry Potter books: I should not ‘ave said that!

Except that he had. And it was too late to take it back.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Daniel, do you know something about it?”

He had to think quickly

“I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’m getting help from… the Israelis.”

He decided not to use the word Mossad.

“As long as you’re — sorry, gotta go.”

She ended the call. Daniel realized what had happened. She had spoken too loud when he had let the cat out of the bag about the “guy” on the motorbike and caught the attention of the cops in the other room.

The question was, would they treat her with kid gloves or take the phone off her and pressure her for answers?