Play Dead by Anne Penketh

Author:Anne Penketh [Penketh, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thrillers and mysteries
Published: 2019-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

Clayton recognised Dr Fiona Blackhurst by her profile. She was seated right at the front of the incident room listening to Bligh, who was gesturing at the board behind her. The latest victims’ photos stared out at them, as though in silent reproach.

Her nickname always made him think of a French cancan dancer. It made him smile, because the image this presented couldn’t be further from the austere mien of the Home Office pathologist. For a start, it was rare for Fifi to be seen in any item of clothing but her lab coat.

“Morning, everybody,” said Bligh, after they’d all taken their places. “I’ve asked Dr Blackhurst to brief us about the body, which we presume to be that of Lauren Garner, that was found in a freezer at Mark Braithwaite’s house. Dr Blackhurst?”

Fifi moved to the front of the desk, tall and straight in a dark trouser suit. “It’s extremely unusual to have to perform an autopsy on a frozen corpse, and I have to warn you that the process is going to take time, possibly as long as a week or more.”

“The young woman’s body has been perfectly preserved in the freezer. But we can’t just defrost her like a chicken.” Someone tittered. Fiona sought out the offender with her eyes and glared.

“What we are doing is a controlled defrosting in stages. If we just left the body to defrost, the outer parts would begin decomposing while the inner organs were still frozen. Doing it in stages means that the refrigeration unit must be kept at a steady temperature. Once the body is defrosted, we should be able to conduct our tests and, we hope, determine the cause of death. We should be able to estimate the time of death, although the fact that the body was frozen will complicate this further. So I’m here to ask you to be patient, because we will be taking all the time that we need.”

“Thank you, Dr Blackhurst. Any questions?”

Nobody spoke.

“And on the DNA front? Maybe you could bring us all up to speed,” said Bligh.

“As you are aware,” Fiona began, “we have a partial fingerprint from the trumpet of Alex Parker. However, we do not yet have a match and we will have to wait, for the reasons I have just explained, to analyse Lauren Garner’s body — assuming that it is her, of course.”

“And could you update us on the DNA from Kristina Manning’s cello?” Bligh asked.

“Yes. We collected some trace evidence from a hair sample found on the instrument. Unfortunately, we do not have the hair root which would have allowed DNA profiling. However, the hair shaft that we analysed did contain peroxide dye.”

Could Kristina’s killer be a woman? While Bligh thanked the pathologist, Clayton ran through the timeline again in his mind. Could Lauren have killed both Parker and Kristina?

“Excuse me, Dr Blackhurst,” he said, raising a hand as she prepared to leave the room. “Can you detect the killer’s gender from the hair sample?”

“No, I’m afraid not,” she replied.

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