Not Dead Yet

54

‘The time is 6.30 p.m., Wednesday, June the eighth. This is the tenth briefing of Operation Icon,’ Roy Grace said to his team in the packed Conference Room in the Major Incident Suite. ‘I will now summarize where we are.’

He was feeling in a good mood. He’d had a call from the estate agents, Mishon Mackay, to say they’d had some viewings of his house today. One, a woman, with a small boy, had seemed interested.

Looking down at his notes, he began his summary. ‘Four limbs – two arms and two legs – were recovered in separate locations from the West Sussex Piscatorial trout lake near Henfield, West Sussex, this afternoon. They are currently at Brighton and Hove City Mortuary, awaiting examination tomorrow by Home Office pathologist Nadiuska De Sancha. DNA from each of them has been sent for analysis to see if there is a link with the torso recovered from Stonery Farm.’

‘Good to know our investigation might now have a leg to stand on,’ quipped Norman Potting, who was immediately silenced by a forbidding glare from Grace; but only for a brief moment.

‘Sorry, Roy, didn’t mean any ’arm.’

There was a titter of laughter, and Grace himself grinned, too. ‘Shut it, Norman, okay?’ He noticed an exchange of glances between Potting and Bella Moy, and waited for some withering comment to Potting from her, but she stayed silent so Grace pressed on.

‘Darren Wallace at the mortuary, who has more experience than any of us in these matters, told me that the limbs seem very cold – far colder than they should be even allowing for the fact that they have been immersed in lake water. He surmises that they may have been frozen. I’m sure all of you who can cook know how long it takes to thaw a frozen leg of lamb?’

There were several nods.

‘All I can say at this stage, from the initial mortuary report,’ Grace went on, ‘is that the jagged nature of the severed bones of the limbs bears a visual match with the corresponding areas of the torso, which gives us a timeline problem. It is possible that they’ve been kept refrigerated until now. This is far too early to be sure that we have found the missing limbs, but we could be looking at this lake as a second deposition site.’

‘And if we haven’t, chief,’ Nick Nicholl said, ‘then we have another murder enquiry on our hands?’

‘Exactly,’ Grace said. ‘But I don’t want to go there at this stage. My personal hypothesis is that the perpetrator got panicked by the appearance of the cloth on Crimewatch last night and decided to dispose of the remains in his possession. But at this stage this is highly speculative.’

‘And does not explain the victim’s head, which is still missing,’ said DS Lance Skelton, the Office Manager for the investigation.

‘Why would the perpetrator have retained the limbs, chief?’ DC Jon Exton asked.

‘I have no idea. That’s our job to find out.’ He looked down at his notes again. ‘Right, missing persons. Norman, anything to report?’

‘I have the outside enquiry team working through all mispers in Sussex, Surrey and Kent who correspond to the estimated date “Unknown Berwick Male” was killed, and to his build and estimated height. But I have nothing to report so far, boss.’

Grace thanked him then moved on. ‘Acting Detective Inspector Branson,’ he said with emphasis, ‘what can you tell us about the suit recovered at the lakeside?’

‘I had to make a decision, boss, between leaving it with the tailor, Ryan Farrier at Gresham Blake, to see what we can learn about its owner from its size and construction, or sending it to the lab for immediate DNA analysis. But I thought in the interests of preserving any possible DNA it should go to the lab first.’

‘That’s the right decision,’ Grace said. ‘Maybe you could take this tailor up to the lab and he could examine it there.’

‘I’ve arranged that already, for tomorrow morning!’ Glenn said, with a grin.

Grace smiled back. He was so proud of his protégé. In his methodical manner, eye for detail and the way he thought for himself, Glenn was demonstrating more and more that he had all the makings of a very fine detective. He glanced back down at his notes. ‘A substantial number of quality footprints were found at the site, some in the vicinity of the piece of cloth found on the gorse bush.’ He paused to point to the blow-up and the sample strip pinned to the whiteboard at the end of the table. ‘In particular several matching footprints were found around the perimeter of the lake, and beside the deposition site of the suit.’ He turned to DC Exton. ‘Jon, there were casts and photographs taken; I’m tasking you to find the manufacturer of this footwear. I suggest you start with the National Policing Improvement Agency – their National Footwear Reference Collection.’

‘Right away, chief.’

‘I’ve asked a forensic podiatrist, Dr Haydn Kelly, who is one of the country’s leading forensic gait analysts, to attend tomorrow evening’s briefing – giving him time to analyse the footprints.’ He looked up. ‘Right, Crimewatch. Do we have any further leads from that?’

‘Nothing significant, chief,’ DC Nicholl said. ‘We’ve had seventy-five calls so far, and three names. And a load of crank calls. The usual drunks calling in. One said his dad did it – and then went on to say his dad died five years ago. Another said that Kirsty Young did it. We graded the calls, as usual, A, B and C. The only Grade A was the angler, William Pitcher, this morning.’

Grace thanked him then asked, ‘Does anyone have anything else to add?’

Several heads shook.

‘See you all tomorrow at 8.30 a.m.’

As he left the briefing room and headed back along the corridor towards his office, he encountered the figure of Ray Packham, from the High Tech Crime Unit, walking urgently towards him.

‘Roy! I’ve just had a chance to take a look at your BlackBerry.’

‘Oh?’

They stopped beneath a large red noticeboard on which was a flow chart headed, MURDER INVESTIGATION MODEL.

‘You were right to be concerned. You’ve been hacked.’

Grace stared back at the analyst, suddenly feeling profoundly uncomfortable. ‘I have?’

Packham nodded.

‘By whom?’

‘I’m not sure you’re going to like this. Perhaps we should go to your office?’

Grace led the way.