Lies That Blind by Tony Hutchinson

Author:Tony Hutchinson [Hutchinson, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916134928
Publisher: Cheshire Cat Books Ltd
Published: 2020-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Sam walked to the tiny office adjoining the mortuary. Two low-slung, high-backed armchairs with thin wooden arms, no doubt recycled from one of the wards, were jammed against the wall. A dirty yellow plastic chair was next to an old table on the wall opposite.

Jim Melia and Julie Trescothick were on the armchairs, the mortuary technician on the yellow seat.

Sam stood at the door, no space in the room.

‘Sam,’ Jim said. ‘Good of you to turn up.’ He smiled.

Sam returned the smile. ‘Not like I’ve been getting my hair done Jim.’

‘Quite, quite…I’ve been thinking, and discussing my thoughts with Julie here. To do eight post mortems in one day is a lot and we don’t want to miss anything because we’re tired.’

Jim watched Sam for her reaction.

‘Seems sensible,’ she said.

‘Good. I suggest we do the four victims of the shooting today and the man in the rabbit suit. Julie tells me the ballistic expert is here and it would be useful to have him at the examinations.’

‘Fine with me.’

‘I reckon each one will take about three hours.’

Sam nodded.

‘What I’ve done,’ continued Jim, ‘is call out my two colleagues to speed the process up. Is that agreeable to you?’

Sam considered Jim’s proposal. It was unusual for the prosecution to use more than one pathologist, but this was not a usual investigation.

‘Fine by me,’ she said, before looking at Julie. ‘We got enough SOCOs to make three teams?’

‘Just waiting for your say-so to call them out Boss.’

‘How many of them are on rest days?’

‘All of them.’

Sam’s face resembled a blow fish as she puffed her cheeks and did the sums. The budget always spiraled upwards when jobs came in on weekends: three teams, six officers all on time and a half. Add that to those who were called out earlier and she’d already clocked up hundreds of hours of overtime.

Pity there was nobody here from the Home Office to see how quickly a major incident budget could evaporate.

‘Call them out Julie. I want this show on the road as soon as possible.’

Sam walked outside, lit a Marlboro Gold and rang Bev Summers.

‘You on speaker phone?’ asked Sam.

‘No. I’m 10/8. We’ve stopped for loo and tea.’

Sam smiled. The good old fashioned Ten Code. 10/8 meant Bev couldn’t be overheard.

‘Don’t speak,’ Sam said, knowing Tara must be somewhere near, ‘just listen. Ed’s been suspended.’

‘What!’

‘I know, came as a shock to me as well. Look I don’t know any details other than he’s suspected of corruption.’

Sam heard the huge intake of breath.

‘He’s angry,’ Sam continued. ‘Accusing me of knowing, which I didn’t. I’m at the mortuary waiting for the PMs to start but I wanted to give you the heads up.’

‘Appreciate it.’

‘Ring me later,’ Sam said.

Bev was a good detective, but she loved a gossip. The news of Ed’s suspension would gather momentum.

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