by L M Krier
‘Apologies to those of a delicate nature, especially so soon after breakfast. But the reason the jogger spotted it as possibly being of interest was that something had torn the bin bag wrappings open and had made a start on the limb inside. We don’t yet know what but possibly a stray dog, or foxes. Maybe even rats.’
‘Anything from pathology yet?’ Ted asked him. ‘Any further forward with identifying features? Do we at least know the gender?’
Jo shook his head. ‘I imagine it’s been a bit like a jigsaw puzzle for them, getting it a bit at a time. And with the weekend intervening, I doubt we’ll get that for a day or two yet.
‘The only early indicator we’ve got is that it appears the body parts had been kept in a domestic deep freeze before being dumped. And once again, it looks as if this latest part was removed using some sort of a power saw. Professor Nelson has promised she’s going to give it her full attention today, while she’s got some students with her, so we might know more by end of play.’
They were in the main office. Jo had put up a map of their area with the body part dump sites to date marked on it. They were wide spread.
‘And before you ask, boss, no. No sign of any witnesses, nothing suspicious on camera in the immediate area. So we’re still pretty much in the dark. And so far, trawling through missing persons isn’t helping us a lot without a definite confirmation of sex or approximate age. Not even size or build at the moment, although I imagine that with a full leg now, it might bring a clue as to height. Always supposing the limbs are all from the same body.’
‘Of course, for the two found in water, they could have been thrown in anywhere upstream and floated down to where they were found,’ Mike Hallam pointed out. ‘They weren’t weighted down with anything. Just wrapped and dumped.’
‘Theories, anyone, please?’ Ted asked, looking at the map. ‘Even far-fetched ones, as they may be all we have at the moment.’
‘Has to be a murder, surely, boss?’ DS Rob O’Connell began. ‘If it was natural or accidental, would anyone go to this much trouble to dispose of a body?’
‘They might if they felt guilty about it,’ Jezza suggested. ‘Or if they were convinced that they would be considered as a suspect and weren’t sure if they could prove their innocence.’
‘Sir,’ DC Steve Ellis began, hesitant as ever. ‘I know it’s too soon to tell for sure, with only four parts for now. But three on Friday, one on Saturday, none yesterday. Someone who works, but not on Sundays, disposing of them on their way to and from work?’
‘But look at the spread pattern, Steve,’ Virgil told him. ‘A bit far-flung.’
Steve was turning pink, as he often did, but was sticking to his guns. ‘Yes, but think about the probable tools involved here. Power saw and bolt cutters. That could be someone doing some sort of site maintenance, which would involve them travelling from place to place.’
Ted nodded approvingly. ‘Very good point, Steve. None of it gets us very much further for the time being but that’s definitely something to keep in mind.’
Ted let Jo wrap up the briefing then spoke again.
‘Last Friday’s fire is now confirmed as an arson, so we will be involved. No casualties, thankfully. But it could potentially be an interesting one. The Watch Commander I spoke to on the scene is coming in this morning, with the Fire Investigation Officer, to talk us through what they know so far. He’s also bringing video footage of the fire dog working, to give us more idea of how their investigation is run. They’ll be here at ten and we’ll use the briefing room. Inspector Turner and some of his officers from Uniform will be joining us.’
Ted’s desk phone was ringing when he went back into his own office. He’d muted his mobile for the briefing. Glancing at it as he headed for his desk, he saw there was a missed call from Professor Nelson, the forensic pathologist. Hopefully she had an update for him.
‘Edwin, what an utterly fascinating case you’ve presented us with,’ she began breezily, with no preamble. ‘It’s going to be an intriguing one for my latest little clutch of students.’
‘Morning, Bizzie, glad to hear it. By any chance are you phoning with any information for me? I know it’s early days but we’ve not a lot to get started with at the moment.’
‘I was principally phoning to say I do hope you and Trevor will come to our handfasting. Douglas and I have decided it’s about time we did something a bit more formal. He practically lives at my house now. I’ll be sending out invitations shortly, of course, and I do understand that your job means you can never be sure. But I’d be delighted to have you both there.’
‘I’m sure Trev would love to be there and I’ll certainly do my very best,’ Ted assured her, reluctant to admit that he wasn’t quite sure what he was being invited to. He hoped Trev would know more than he did.
‘Excellent! It really would mean a great deal to me. I’ve come to look on you both as good friends.
‘Now, to the gruesome bits, so I hope you’re not munching on a bacon roll or anything. I think initial reports suggested that the dismemberment was carried out with some sort of a power saw to take off the larger limbs, then something like bolt cutters to amputate the fingers, which I gather haven’t been found yet.
‘Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m not convinced those are the correct implements, but I need to do some experiments to be sure. That’s where my young students get to help with the exciting bits.
‘Basically, under the very strictest supervision, they will be allowed to play about with trying to reproduce the wounds using various implements. But – and here’s where I’m going to stick my neck out somewhat – I have an inkling already.
‘I’m not a gambler, but if I was I would be going for a chainsaw and tree loppers. And if that’s the case, the very good news is that we might be able to get something further for you to work from. With any luck, we may find microscopic traces of trees and other vegetation lodged in the wounds, left behind by those tools. And with the amount of science now available to us, we might even be able to identify the species of trees or shrubs those traces came from.
‘Then if by any stroke of good fortune they were anything at all unusual, they might just give us a geographical pinpoint for where the tools had been used. Now that could potentially be of great help to you, I would imagine. But don’t get your hopes up too high, too soon. All of that is going to require some specialised research, which may well take some time.’
‘Right, everyone, my name’s George Martin. I was Officer in Charge at Friday’s fire. This here is the Fire Investigation Officer, Hugh Parry. We’re here to explain to you the ins and outs of why we know this was an arson, as well as why it looks like it’s going to be an interesting one. Hugh.’
‘First off, apologies if I’m teaching my grannies to suck eggs, but I’m going to assume none of you knows everything there is to know about arson. So I’ll explain on that basis. As George said, this is an interesting case for a number of reasons. I’m going to be showing you video footage of the fire scene, which we can now confidently call a crime scene. In particular, you’ll see Fire Dog Ellie at work with her handler, Matt.
‘We use specially-trained dogs who can find traces of flammable liquid, which helps us to pinpoint exactly where the fire started. Because said liquids continue to evaporate after the fire is out, we try to get the dog in as soon as it’s safe for it to work, and certainly within the first twenty-four hours.
‘The usual sequence of events is that as soon as the fire is out and the Stop message has been sent back to Control, the FIO – me, in this case – goes in for a first look. Sometimes it’s fairly obvious from early on when a fire has been set deliberately. If you look at the screen, you can see what jumped out at George right away, and at me as soon as I got there.
‘This was an old building; a former warehouse. A lot of timber about, not all of it in the best condition. Downstairs, which was the source of the fire, you can clearly see a curve pattern on the floor. Like part of a
circle. The edge of a doughnut, if you like. Keep that thought in mind. It’s significant.
‘This was on a bare wooden floor so the pattern showed up far more. If there’d been carpeting down, especially synthetic fibre, that tends to melt and mask the pattern. The carpeting can actually create false pool burns which can confuse inexperienced eyes.’
The man paused and looked at Ted. ‘Is this all right? Not too basic and too much of an information dump for you?’
‘Interesting and vital,’ Ted assured him. ‘If we’re going after an arsonist, we need as much information on their methods as you can give us. Please carry on.’
‘Right, so here’s the footage of Ellie working the scene, once all the crew have been withdrawn. She gets a free run with no distractions and she will indicate on any accessible flammable liquid traces. If there are traces she can’t get at, she’ll show heightened interest in those areas. You’ll see she’s wearing special boots to protect her from anything like broken glass, and any hot spots.
‘Once she’s done her initial search, we can start excavating the site to see what’s uncovered, and the dog will come back at various points to search further.
‘This fire took hold quite quickly because of various broken windows which gave a good air entry. In fact one of the windows on the ground floor was wide open, which we suspect is how the perpetrator got in. And out again. But we responded fast and got control of it early on.
‘Watch the way the dog is working. Some of the cross members in the ceiling came down, but you can see that she’s basically working in a circle rather than any random kind of a pattern. That becomes significant later on in the video. After she’d done all her initial searches, we started to clear some of the fallen timber from where she was indicating then let her search again.’
The dog they were watching was a black Labrador, clearly enjoying her work from the way her tail was threshing as she searched. The FIO explained that she was working off her own initiative and would later be redeployed with more targeted searches.
‘You’ll probably remember from your school science lessons that it’s the vapour which burns, not the liquid itself, so the dog can still find traces of that.
‘Jumping forward slightly here, you can see the dog searching again after the fallen timber has been cleared. Now you can see very clearly that she is following a perfect circle. I can tell you, because I measured it, that it had a diameter of exactly one old-fashioned yard. Three feet precisely.’
‘Ring of Fire,’ Jezza said, half to herself.
When several pairs of eyes turned her way, she gave one of her characteristic shrugs and said, ‘Sorry, it just gave me an earworm. The Johnny Cash song. Probably no significance at all. I’ll shut up now.’
‘It is significant, to a degree. I’ll come on to that. Not only a perfect circle, which would indeed cause a ring of fire, but an extra dollop of flammable liquid at each of the four cardinal points. Very precisely done. I checked with a compass.
‘Dollop is a technical term we Fire Officers like to employ,’ he added with a smile.
‘So what flammable liquid are we talking about? Petrol?’ Jo asked. ‘Sorry if that’s an idiot question but this is actually the first arson case that’s come my way.’
‘A good question, and one we’re often asked. It’s a good sign because it shows I haven’t yet sent you to sleep. Generally, arsonists favour a heavier liquid than petrol. Paraffin, white spirit, that sort of thing. A diesel/petrol mix is quite popular and effective and again, significant in this case. Potentially. It used to be possible to trace the exact type of fuel with petrol branding, but those days are gone now, unfortunately.
‘So now you’re probably going to want to know how the fire was started and why we see a link between it and the historic one for which someone is serving time. And he is still inside, we checked. And as George was able to spot that link early on, I’ll hand back to him.’
All the officers present were listening attentively. Arson was not all that uncommon. Fires which took lives, especially. It had the benefit, as a murder method, of being a contactless crime. A way of getting revenge on a victim whilst remaining at a safe distance.
‘Thanks, Hugh. And this is where it gets really interesting, in terms of a possible, yet seemingly impossible, link to the older crime for which, as Hugh said, the perpetrator is still serving time.
‘On screen now is the man we’re talking about. William Warren. Aged forty-two. He taught science at a comprehensive school near where he lived. Currently serving life with a recommended minimum of fifteen years. He’s done seven years so far. He has always denied being guilty of the crime. The jury couldn’t agree but in the end he was convicted on a majority verdict. He’s made a few attempts to appeal but not successfully. Insufficient grounds. I won’t go into all of that here as that’s something you can do yourselves.
‘Those dollops Hugh mentioned are significant here, because that’s something which was never disclosed in public. So that tends to suggest that Warren has been talking to someone about his MO. That’s unlikely, as arsonists tend to be proud of their signature and keep it to themselves. Even if Warren wasn’t guilty, he could still pass that information on because he would have seen it through disclosure to his legal team.
‘The other possibility, of course, is that someone other than him started the blaze he’s doing time for.
‘Remember we’re talking here about a fire which killed four people. Mother, father and two teenage boys. Both pupils at the school where Warren taught, and he’d apparently had a run-in with both of them. Not just at school but near his home as they lived not very far apart.
‘On the occasion of that fatal fire, it was started by a method which was quite common in the Seventies. Particularly in Ulster, for example. A box of matches with a smouldering cigarette in it. That gives the arsonist a good few minutes to have left the site before the cigarette burns down far enough to ignite the matches and set off the fire.
‘Any smokers amongst you?’
There was a pause then Jo raised a hand, looking sheepish.
‘Promise not to tell the wife, but I have been known to have the odd small cigar. She thinks I gave up years ago.’
George laughed. ‘Your secret is safe with me. And for the purposes of this case, we’re only interested in cigarettes. An EU directive aimed at reducing the number of fatal fires caused by smouldering cigarettes, particularly with people smoking in bed and nodding off, means that method is no longer effective. Normally.
‘Cigarettes now are what’s called RIP – reduced ignition propensity. That means that you have to keep taking a drag to keep them burning. Once you stop smoking them, they go out.
‘Now we get to the part which sounds as if it belongs in some very dodgy fiction book.
‘As has been said, it’s the vapour which burns, not the liquid. Our arsonist set his matches and cigarette timer on the floor close to the open window. Presumably to make sure he would have a quick getaway if it went up before he intended it to. When the matches ignited, it’s likely they caused a vapour deflagration resulting in a rapid spread of fire at higher level. This meant that in this case, the matchbox on the floor burned much less efficiently, eventually smouldering and going out.’
He reached into his pocket to pull out something in an evidence bag which he held aloft.
‘All of which means that a portion of the cigarette remained intact. You can see the breaks in the paper of RIP cigarettes. This has none, which suggests to me it could well be a cheap knock-off brand imported from somewhere not compliant with EU safety standards.
‘The best news of all, as far as the investigation goes, is that, with a bit of luck, the arsonist’s DNA is on this fag end from where he put it in his mouth to light it.’
Chapter Four
Inspector Kevin Turner went upstairs to Ted’s office as they were both getting ready to knock off at the end of the day. Ted’s first thought was that he might be going to sugg
est they go for a drink together, as they sometimes did.
Instead, Kev began with a wide grin, ‘I thought you might need a hand with your body parts case. I can’t give you one, but I can offer you most of a second arm.’
Ted groaned in mock despair. ‘I’ve already had to jerk Virgil and Jezza’s chains for jokes in bad taste at the expense of whoever the poor victim is.’
‘It’s just a bit of 'armless fun, Ted. Anyway, I’ve been working on that gag for ten minutes since I got the call, but I didn’t want to try it out with anyone else present. This time the arm was amputated at the elbow and it’s just the upper arm that’s been found. Same as the others, wrapped in bin bags, chucked in the water again. In a canal lock this time, up past Marple.
‘Any news yet about gender from forensics?’
‘I was hoping to hear something today but nothing so far. They’re probably backed up from the weekend but we might get a result tomorrow. It’s slowing up searching through Mispers, until we know what gender it is we’re looking for.’
‘I know it’s occurred to you as it has to me, but we’re going to need reinforcements if we’ve got this arson case and now a possible murder enquiry with no ID. When is it Maurice starts his parental leave?’
‘The twins are due at the end of the week, so he’s booked it to start then. I just hope they don’t keep him waiting. And you’re right about needing extra officers. I’ve asked to talk to Jim and Debs tomorrow and I’d value your input.’
‘I think we can both predict the outcome, in the shape of a big fat no. But we might as well try. Right, let’s both run for it now before there’s another major incident,’ Kev told him, then laughed as a phone in the main office started to ring. Ted was the only one still in.
‘You bugger, you made that happen,’ Ted laughed as he went through to answer it.