Stop Dead (DI Geraldine Steel)

victim of a violent death she had spoken to before they were killed. George had been an ordinary man, the kind of person she might pass in the street every day. He had been offhand with her, guarded in his response to her questions. And now he was about to undergo a post-mortem. Up until now the cadavers she had seen had been no more than dead victims in a case to be investigated, but for the first time she gazed at a corpse recalling his mannerisms, the sound of his voice, the way he had frowned at her. It was unsettling and totally unexpected.

     
    The scene of crime officer’s voice recalled her to the situation.
    ‘Yes, it’s a good job, you recognising him like that. Saves us a bit of hassle.’
    She shook her head, frowning.
    ‘Am I missing something here? Only I don’t get it. How did you make the connection to the Henshaw case if you didn’t know who you’ve got here?’
    It was the scene of crime officer’s turn to look surprised.
    ‘I thought you knew,’ he said. ‘It’s the pattern of injuries that suggested there might be a link.’
    He shifted to one side to allow Geraldine an unobstructed view of the body.

     
    She stepped forward so she could see past the pathologist who hadn’t yet looked up from his work. Corless had a nasty wound on the side of his head, and with a horrible sense of déjà vu she saw that he had also been beaten in the genitals.
    ‘Oh my God,’ Sam blurted out.
    She looked very pale.
    ‘Now my Saturday night is definitely ruined.’
    ‘It hasn’t done much for his either,’ Geraldine replied tersely. ‘Oh well, that’s Corless ruled out as a suspect.’
    ‘Which means the spotlight’s back on young Romeo and his ageing Juliet.’
    ‘Hey, less of the ageing,’ Geraldine said sharply, but she was smiling.
    Sam nodded sheepishly. She had forgotten that Geraldine was getting on for forty herself, hard though that was to believe.

     
    A light rain began to fall, drumming out a soft rhythm on the roof of the tent.
    ‘Shit,’ the scene of crime officer grumbled. ‘It’s going to be a mud bath out there. And I left my umbrella in the car. Typical.’
    They hung around for a while, talking about the crime. They would be able to establish if Corless had arrived by train, in which case they might even be able to see if he had been accompanied there. The high fence between the platform and the waste ground made it more likely that he had arrived by car and made his way down the incline from a footpath that ran behind the waste ground. If that proved to be the case there would be no CCTV film of his arrival and might be few clues about whether he had been carried there post mortem, or had been killed where he had been found. And there might be nothing to indicate who had arrived there with him.

     
    Scene of crime officers were outside examining the area around the deposition site. While Geraldine and Sam were in the tent studying the victim and speculating about what had happened, an officer entered to report that tracks had been discovered which suggested that Corless had walked across the wasteland from the direction of the footpath. It confirmed what they had already suspected.
    ‘Was he alone?’
    ‘We’re trying to establish if he was accompanied, but it’s almost impossible to ascertain in all the undergrowth, and now it’s beginning to rain into the bargain. But it’s unlikely there was more than one other person with him. There’s not enough disturbance on the ground to suggest more than two people.’

     
    ‘First Henshaw, now Corless,’ Geraldine said. ‘It looks like we need to pay another visit to Mireille. What do you think, Sam? What’s behind it? Is it about money? Or did someone have a grudge against them?’
    ‘That’s a heck of a grudge,’ the sergeant replied, glancing at the victims’ injuries and shuddering. ‘Who would do that?’
    They stood in silence for a moment, shoulder to shoulder, observing the body. Then Geraldine turned to the sergeant.
    ‘We’ll go to the restaurant this afternoon, after we’ve spoken to the witness who found Corless. We might as well speak to him now, while we’re here and it’s still fresh in his mind.’
    Sam nodded.
    ‘Like you said, it’s going to be a long day.’

CHAPTER 28
     
    S am glanced at her watch and cast a pleading look at Geraldine who gazed pointedly at her own watch.
    ‘Is that the time?’ Geraldine asked, raising her eyebrows with a show of surprise. ‘I thought it