Abacus

chair. “Looks like the blades have been cleaned, but they may have missed up top.” Randall got off the chair as Jesse jumped up to inspect the blind. Randall looked down at the shiny new vinyl flooring. “For blood to get up there, there must have been some serious action going on pretty close. I say we have a look at this flooring next.”
    Hobbs bent down and found a loose section of vinyl flooring where it met the tiled floor. He slowly peeled it back away from the tiles, under watchful eyes. Underneath the new flooring, there was an older vinyl floor, which was a dirty yellow in contrast to the new ivory-coloured one. As it was rolled back further, a number of small randomly spaced cuts were seen in the old flooring. The cuts were quite fine, as if made with a very sharp blade.
    Hobbs rolled back the flooring further. The further he rolled it back, the longer and deeper the cuts became. Having now rolled back the flooring about a metr e, Hobbs stopped to allow closer examination. “Just step back a minute,” Randall asked. When all three detectives moved back, they could see that on and around the cuts the old floor appeared to have dark circular smudge marks, like it had been poorly cleaned.
    Jesse looked down at the cuts in the flooring, then up at the blind which was almost directl y above. “Do you reckon that…” He stopped when he saw the others nodding. They were all thinking the same thing. This could be it.
    “If it did happen here, it’s pretty ballsy,” Jesse said , looking at the common wall. “There’s a neighbour about five metres away on the other side of that wall, and neighbours in the block next door who can hear and see straight in here.
    As Hobbs continued to roll back the flooring towards the kitchen bench, the faint odour of bleach was released. The further he rolled the flooring back, the stronger the smell got. “Almost there,” he announced, approaching the kickboards. Rolling up the last section, the scope of the floor damage could be seen.
    Randall walked around the outside of the flooring, star ing at the scores of cuts, trying to decipher their meaning. He combed his moustache down with his fingers as he studied the floor under the window. He knelt down and saw that six marks were different in appearance to the others. They looked like puncture marks made by the point of a sharp object rather than by a slicing motion. The marks were deeper than the other cuts and had to have been made with greater force.
    He got to his feet and again circled the flooring, staring, like a lion sizing up its prey. This has got to be it . This has got to be the crime scene.
    Jesse looked around the kitchen benches. “Boss, if they didn’t go to the trouble of getting rid of the flooring, there may be other evidence left. We’ll pull out the stove and have a look under the benches.”
    Randall nodded. “Yeah, looks as though they were a bit careless, even amateurish.” Hobbs carefully rolled the new flooring back over the old, to preserve it. He and Jesse then grabbed each side of the oven and slowly walked it out of its space between the benches.
    As they did, Randall leant over the bench and shone the torch into the space it had left. He could see the old yellowish flooring, but no blood. “No blood under the stove, but I’m pretty sure there is a gap near the floor. I should be able to shine the torch in behind the kickboards from in there.”
    Hobbs and Jesse walked the stove out further, which allowed Randall to get behind it. In a crouched position on his knees, he pushed the torch through the gap under the stove. As he did, he immediately felt wetness on the back of his hand. He pulled his hand with the torch out and saw thick red congealed blood dripping from his knuckles and the end of the torch. “Fuck me,” he said, wiping the blood onto a tea towel he found near the sink. Once he’d wiped it off, he got down again and this time shone the torch from outside the gap. He saw that pretty much the entire area under the kitchen cupboards was covered in thick blood. The blood had taken on a crusty black appearance on top, but his gouge had uncovered a rich red colour beneath. “We’re on a winner, guys,” he said, walking over to the sink and putting his bloodied torch inside it. “There’s plenty of claret under there, looks like it’s been missed in the cleanup.”
    Randall walked out of the kitchen and joined Jesse and Hobbs in the tiled lounge room area. “Boss,