The Kristina Melina Omnibus: First Kill, Second Cut, Third Victim

‘Oh, shit,’ I said. ‘Why the hell is he doing here?’

  Frank looked as surprised as I was.

  ‘Stay put,’ I ordered David as I stepped out of the car at the same time as Frank was walking towards me. His eyes shifted to David and back to me.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he asked before I had time to place a word.

  ‘Long story. I was looking for evidence. Someone broke into her apartment.’

  He pointed at David. ‘What’s he doing here?’

  My lips remained sealed. I couldn’t find the right answer.

  ‘Did he go in the apartment with you?’ Frank asked, red colouring his face.

  ‘I told him to wait in the car.’

  ‘But he went inside the apartment with you?’

  ‘Yes, but that’s only because he thought I was in danger.’

  I didn’t know how I was going to talk my way out of that one. Ops, sorry Frank, I’m screwing one of the witnesses. You would understand. You did the same two years ago.

  ‘It’s not what you think,’ I went on.

  He threw his hands in front of his body. ‘I don’t want to know. All I know is this guy is a key witness, and unless you have a damn good reason to take him with you on an investigation, then I’m going to demand a written report explaining this incident.’

  Shit, that was all I needed. Frank turning bureaucratically ethical on me.

  ‘Come on, Frank, give me a break. Instead of wasting time playing politics, why don’t you help me find out what’s been going on in Evelyn’s apartment.’

  He threw me an inquisitive glare.

  ‘Someone broke into her apartment,’ I continued. I explained what Judith Kingman told me when I caught her in Evelyn’s place.

  Frank now seemed genuinely intrigued. ‘And she’s certain they were cops?’

  ‘To the best of her knowledge. They showed her police badges.’

  ‘I’ve got to see this for myself,’ he said, aiming for the other side of the street.

  With a hand signal, I ordered David to stay in the car.

  Slightly embarrassed, I followed Frank, hoping he would forget about David.

  ‘And what are you doing here, anyway?’ I asked, changing the focus on him instead of me.

  He gave me a non-committal look and said, ‘Just checking her apartment was secured properly. I was on my way to the VFSC and thought I’d dropped by for another look at the place, just in case we missed something.’

  When we got inside Evelyn’s apartment, everything was the same as I left it.

  Frank’s eyes circled the living room while he let out a long whistle. ‘Whatever they were looking for,’ he said, ‘it must have been important.’

  I recalled to his attention the little black address book.

  ‘Now, that’s a damn good possibility,’ he acknowledged. ‘If there was one thing I would want to get my hands on after screwing Evelyn, that would be that little book, especially if my name was in there.’

  I didn’t like the language he used in regards to my friend, but I was in no position to argue.

  ‘My view too,’ I said. ‘What’s intriguing is that if the intruders were in fact the police, then we can easily assume that some of her customers were police officers.’

  He chewed on my comment while continuing to look around the room. ‘Let’s not jump to conclusions. You start spreading rumours like that, and you’re going to have the whole police community on your back. Maybe the intruders were not police officers. It’s not that hard to get a fake ID, believe me, I’ve seen a lot of them over they years.’

  ‘I’m just stating the obvious, Frank. You’re the one who keeps telling me everything is black and white in an investigation, and how I shouldn’t look for shades of grey.’

  He twisted his lips. ‘Have you conducted a crime scene examination?’ he asked.

  ‘Well, no, that’s not why I came here in the first place. But now that you mention it, since the place had been disturbed, a search will have to be conducted. I’ll put down the reason as suspected robbery and wilful damage to property.’

  ‘Unfortunately, I don’t have the three hours to help you with collecting evidence. You’re going to have to do it by yourself.’

  ‘Sure, not a problem. I’ve just put the PERK back in the car. I’ll go and retrieve it.’

  Frank checked his watch and added, ‘Time for me to go.’

  I walked him to the Ford and noticed David was no longer sitting in my car.

  ‘Where’s your boyfriends gone to?’ Frank asked, sarcasm infesting his tone. He still couldn’t digest the fact that even though I’d known him for years, I kept on seeing other men, even if I’d only met them a few days ago. He obviously had his own misconception about what sexual attraction was. Just because he was a man, and I was a woman, and he was hanging around me all the time, didn’t mean I was going to jump in bed with him, not in his wildest dreams.

  ‘He’s not my boyfriend,’ I protested.

  ‘Yeah, right.’ He dismissed me with a wave of the hand. ‘And my middle name is not dickhead. I can smell hormones in a five-kilometre radius.’

  I froze, jaw dropped, while he calmly slid into the driver’s seat.

  ‘And don’t forget to explain in your report what David was doing in Evelyn’s apartment,’ he said through the unwound window on the driver’s side. ‘Oh, and you can speculate on why you’re fucking a key witness.’

  Heat crept up my face.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I scanned up and down the street for David. He was no where in sight.

  Frank took off without saying goodbye.

  Where men really worth all that trouble? I swore out loud that one day they were going to drive me insane, if they hadn’t done so already.

  I removed the PERK from the car and left a note on the windscreen for David. I scribbled that I had returned to Evelyn’s apartment, and if he wanted to see me, he’d have to press the buzzer outside the front gate. Somehow, I no longer cared whether he entered the apartment or not. Frank, Judith, David and I had already been in and out of the place, not to mention those two crooked cops, so how much more contaminated could a crime scene really get?

  Back inside Evelyn’s apartment, I opened the PERK and glanced around me. When I realised the fully extend of the damage done to Evelyn’s belongings, and the amount of work I had to undertake to process the place for collection of evidence, I began to doubt the value of my existence on this planet. After all, processing of a crime scene was really nothing more than cleaning a place up, not that there was anything wrong with cleaning as long as it was your life ambition.

  I began with a sketch of the premises, followed by photography. It took five 24-exposure rolls to cover the whole area, including lounge, kitchen, bathroom and study. By the time I was done with the photography, I had a sore arm from holding the Minolta up to my face. Imagine taking pictures for a living. For a spilt second I was joking to myself about suing the police and the VFSC for repeated strain injury. How much was a damaged wrist worth these days?

  It took me four hours to collect, bag and label everything in the place. By the time I was done, I had assembled trace evidence of all sorts—fibres, mud, dead insects, clipped finger nails, food residues and a ton of cat hair. I rang the Forensic Centre for a van to come and collect the larger pieces of evidence, such as the slashed couch, the smashed television and the painting in the kitchen.

  Throughout the entire process of collecting evidence, I’d hoped to find Oscar sleeping somewhere in a corner of the house.

  No such luck.

  And then, there was David.

  Where the hell is he?

  After lunch, I became seriously concerned about David’s disappearance. Back in the car, I punched the number of his bookshop on my mobile phone.

  ‘David’s Bookshop,’ the familiar voice sang out like a television jingle.

  ‘David, I’ve been looking for you everywhere! Why did you run out on me?’

 
‘I had some work to catch up on. I’m sorry, it’s just that you looked so busy - maybe you were right. I shouldn’t have come with you after all.’

  ‘How did you get back to work?’

  ‘Hailed a cab.’

  I was mildly upset. ‘You could have told me you were leaving. For Christ’s sake David, that’s not asking for much.’

  ‘I’m really sorry. I heard you guys argue outside, and your cop friend gave me that foul look, so I though it’d be better if I leave. You know, I’m not much for physical confrontation.’

  ‘He’s not that type,’ I said. ‘He yells a lot, but he doesn’t hit people unless he has to.’

  ‘Yes, I didn’t really want to hang around and find out if he had to. Maybe there’s more to him that meets the eye.’

  David was right, of course, but I wasn’t the kiss-and-tale type. The only people who knew about Frank’s crush on me was Frank and myself. I didn’t want to make life more complicated than it already was, so I changed the topic.

  ‘You’re still staying over tonight?’ I asked.

  ‘Sure. Look forward to it.’

  As soon as he hung up, the mobile phone went off.

  ‘Dr Melina,’ I announced.

  ‘Kristina, it’s Charles from the mortuary. You’ve got to get over here as soon as possible.’

  ‘Why? What’s wrong?’

  His tone was filled with anxiety. ‘Oh, God, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you over the phone.’

  ‘Try me. What? The place’s gone up in flames?’

  ‘Evelyn Carter’s body has disappeared.’

  Within half an hour, I parked in the car park of the VIFM. I stepped out of the Excell and rushed to the blue-grey building, passed glass sliding doors, cleared myself at the front desk and rushed to Dr Main’s office.

  I stormed in the room without knocking. ‘What do you mean her body has disappeared?’

  Dr Main wore the expression of an out-patient. He was seated behind his desk filling up details of what looked like an official government form of one sort or another.

  ‘I can assure you that whoever did this knew what they were doing,’ he said as if cued.

  ‘How can that be possible? How can someone just walk into a morgue and snatch a body? We’re not talking about a sandwich here, but a full-size body!’ I was doing a waving thing with my arms as if I was controlling traffic at a congested intersection.

  He stood up from his chair. ‘I know, I know, and I understand why you’re upset. Please sit down,’ he said, offering me a chair opposite his desk. ‘This has never happened before, and if you think you’re upset, just imagine how I feel. The press is going to come down on me like a ton of bricks, and I bet you there will be an independent inquiry on this breach of security. I’m hope I’m not going to lose my job over this.’

  I caught back my breath, letting empathy take over, and said, ‘All right, so what happened?’

  ‘I finished the autopsy, and the body was ready to be shipped to the funeral home. When the mortuary assistant went to get it from the cold room, it was gone.’

  My mind was jumping all over the place. I thought about the cops who broke into Evelyn’s apartment. And now her body had gone missing. Just as well Dr Main had finished the autopsy before Evelyn disappeared.

  ‘Okay,’ I said, ‘did you get me a copy of the autopsy report?’

  More colour drained from his face. At least he wouldn’t have to travel too far if he died from a heart attack. ‘Well, that’s the other thing I needed to talk to you about.’

  The way he said that, I knew he was not about to retrieve ten certified copies of the autopsy report from his top drawer and hand them over to me.

  ‘Someone got into the system and wiped out her file.’

  I placed one hand on my chest. ‘You are joking!’

  ‘Would that be a good time to be joking?’

  ‘What about a hard copy? Didn’t you print one out?’

  ‘I don’t bother until it’s finished.’

  And that’s why I hated computers. Not because computers made mistakes - everybody knows computer never make mistakes - but because whoever uses them is so goddamn lazy. How difficult was it to click the print button every time new information was added to a report?

  ‘What about a backup file?’ I asked, desperately hoping there was something left for me to work from.

  ‘They stole the backing tape as well.’

  I threw my head back in amazement and laughed.

  Dr Main looked at me as if I’d suddenly grown a gigantic zit at the end of my nose.

  I regained my composure and said, ‘The body is gone, the autopsy report is gone - have we got anything left? Do I still have a case here?’

  Dr Main shrugged embarrassingly. And who could blame him. Two years ago, I had already made a fool of him by stealing files from his office, and now someone snatched a corpse, complete with the autopsy report. I didn’t know who was going to get into more trouble. Ironically, even thought the disappearance of Evelyn Carter’s had nothing to do with me, it would still give Goosh some formal reason to kick me out of the investigation. He’d argue that without a body and no autopsy report, we’d have little to work from. And, as much as I hated to admit it, he’d be more than justified.

  ‘What about the samples and the toxicology results? I asked, clutching at straws.

  ‘They’ve ransacked the fridge as well. We’ve got nothing.’

  Biological samples to be tested were usual kept in a fridge, labelled with the case number. Someone obviously knew that, and helped themselves as if the mortuary was a 7-Eleven.

  I heard enough. Twisted minds were playing a dirty game, and the way things events were unfolding, it had to be people connected to Evelyn’s murder.

  Or someone who was scared to have his name linked to her death.

  ‘Who else knows about the disappearance of the body?’ I asked.

  ‘Well, you’re the first person I talk too,’ he said, playing nervously with his hands. ‘Since you’re in charge of the investigation, I thought it normal to let you know before making it official.’

  ‘What about the Deputy Commissioner of Police?’

  ‘Goosh doesn’t know anything at this stage, and I’m sure you can understand why I’m not exactly looking forward to have him informed on the matter.’

  Yes, I understood perfectly well. Goosh was a real-life vampire who was after everybody’s blood.

  ‘I’m going to get my partner on this,’ I said. ‘You don’t mind if I have a look at the cold room where the body was kept?’

  ‘Sure, I can get someone to take you there.’

  ‘It’s okay, I know the way.’

  I left his office, forcing a smile to cheer him up a bit. I’d never seen Dr Main looking so miserable, and I thanked God on my way to the cold room that I wasn’t in his shoes.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  On my way to the cold room, I dialled Frank on his mobile and told him to drop whatever he was doing and to get his arse over here on the double.

  ‘We got what?’ he yelled into the mouth-piece, causing temporary deafness in my right ear.

  ‘A body snatcher,’ I said. ‘Evelyn Carter has vanished. Someone’s fucking around with us, and whoever they are, they’re doing a good job.’

  ‘Give me twenty minutes.’

  Knowing him, he’d roll up in forty minutes.

  To end the call, I pressed the NO key on my banana-coloured, toy-sized Ericsson.

  The cold room was kept at ten degrees Celsius to preserve the state of the bodies for as long as possible and to minimise the breaking down of complex proteins and fats into simpler constituents—or in layman terms, to slow down decomposition and putrefaction.

  Galvanised trolleys were lined up against the right wall like soldiers ready for an inspection. Four of the trolleys were empty. There were only three bodies in the room. The bodies were that of two men, who’d probably died of old age, and of a woman in her early twenties
, complete with extensive bruising on her face and neck. All the bodies were stripped naked and ready for the obligatory autopsy. Other than for law enforcement, autopsies were performed to collect accurate medical records in order to gather meaningful statistics for use in health care, preventive medicine, and, in particular, medical education. Even in death, we still served a purpose. Just as well this was the end of the road - I shivered just thinking about the recycling process pushing the boundaries of moral dignity one step further, and, as a result, we’d all end up in a can of dog food.

  I checked the door and it looked secured enough, even though it wasn’t fitted with any kind of locking device. This was no surprise since no one would expect an intruder to steal a corpse. It certainly was the first I’d ever come across body snatching since I’d been investigating homicides. I just hope it wasn’t someone who was into necrophilia, the act of having sexual intercourse with the dead for those who don’t know.

  I stood alone in the cold room, lost in thoughts, wishing Frank would hurry up.

  Who in the world would have taken the body of Evelyn Carter? Most likely someone who had access to the premises, or someone with power and money who could talk himself into anything. I considered having a chat to the forensic technicians who worked on the premises. I’d be able to test my ability to detect those who weren’t as skilful as they thought themselves to be at the art of lying. How much was a dead body worth these days. Fifty bucks? Hundred bucks? A thousand?

  I aimed for the door, bewildered at how someone could just come unnoticed into a mortuary and snatch a body in broad daylight.

  I left the cold room and steered for the staff cafeteria, where I ordered a black coffee, no sugar. Feeling a headache coming on, I swallowed half my brew in one go and waited for Frank to turn up.

  Another twenty minutes, and two cups of coffee later, Frank walked into the canteen, a panic-stricken expression painted on his face.

  ‘Has she turned up?’ he asked, before he even reached the table where I was sitting.

  I shook my head and said, ‘Her body hasn’t gone walk-about. Someone stole it.’