Abacus

me?”
    “Yes, sure , Sarge.”
    “Call in all the ones you are able to reach at this stage. Have them collect what they need at the office and meet me at the Blackwood Reserve crime scene.”
    “No problems , Sarge, if there are any issues, I will ring you back.”
    “Thanks , Sall,” he said cleaning his teeth with a toothpick.
    As ghoulish as it sounded , Randall enjoyed investigating homicides. It brought his team together and provided him with the thing he constantly craved; a challenge. He likened it to a boxer. All his training and learning over the years were part of his preparation for the big fights, the homicides. And he had enjoyed good success in many big fights.
    Reaching the northern side of the Blackwood Reserve, he crossed the single lane bridge that spanned the Botany River. He looked to his right and saw a uniformed officer standing on the grassed area, which led to the river’s muddy banks. He looked down at the river level and saw that it was low tide. The Botany River was a winding tidal river that snaked through various inner city industrial areas, eventually spewing its rancid, polluted currents into Botany Bay. The river was so notorious for pollution, he couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone swim or fish from it.
    He drove into the reserve’s central car park, and saw police crime scene tape tied between pine trees and wheelie bins to cordon off the riverbank area. A young uniformed officer stood guard at the entrance with a folder. “Good afternoon, Sergeant,” the young officer called, standing to attention.
    He had seen the constable before, but couldn’t recall his name. He hated when that happened. “Listen, mate, do me a favour. My detectives will be here soon, then the forensic officer. No one else is to enter the scene without my say so. Okay? Any problems, let me know.”
    The y oung constable stood erect with the folder at the ready. “Will do, Sergeant.”
    Ducking under the tape, he smiled as he walked across the sodden grass. He remembered when he too was a young, keen constable. “Bloody hell,” he cursed as his shoes sank into the wet boggy grass. He looked down to see they were now wet and muddied. “That’s just great.”
    Nearing the river, he was greeted by the immaculately dressed Sergeant Mick Abernethy. “Rando, thanks for coming out.”
    “Absolute pleasure , Mick, wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He looked up at the clearing skies that were a mixture of swirling grey clouds and patches of blue. “Looks like she is clearing up.” Mick nodded. They walked around to the western corner of the bank where the ground was more level. Randall chose this spot to scrape the outside of his shoes on the grass. “So what have we got, mate?” he inquired, opening up his notebook and unclipping a pen from the inner pocket of his jacket.
    “About nine A .M. this morning, a couple were out walking along on this southern side of the river. They came from that direction.” The officer pointed to the left towards a small footbridge. “When they got to this point here…” He pointed to an area on the bank directly in front of them. “They saw the black backpack there, which at the time was about two metres from the water’s edge. The female witness waited on the grassed area, while the male walked across the mud flat. As he got closer, he saw an object was falling out of the bag; the object was wrapped in a white sheet. Using his foot, he pushed the corner of the sheet from the object and saw the fringe of hair, forehead and eyes of what he thought was a human head. He yelled out to his wife to call the police. We came down and I was the only one that went onto the flat.”
    Randall interrupted. “Show us where you entered from.”
    They walked over to the edge of the river. “I went in here, and they are my footprints there.” He pointed to a set of footprint impressions in the soft mud, which stopped at the bag.
    “What did you see when you got there?”
    “Yeah, it was a melon all right, with what looked like a single bullet hole right above the right eyebrow. Once I knew it was human, I got out of the scene the same way I came in.”
    Randall looked in the area surrounding the bag and saw a set of deep gouge marks in the mud coming from the water ’s edge to where the bag lay. He also saw what appeared to be dog paw prints leading from the grass and down to the bag. “Good work, mate. So can we account for the drag marks and paw prints over