The Silent Victims by Alex Coombs

Author:Alex Coombs [Coombs, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

31

Huss was at the meeting of the Serious Crimes investigation into Elsa’s death. There had been, according to the pathology report, severe head injuries so although she was alive when she was set on fire, it was doubtful that she was aware of what was happening to her.

‘Which is some crumb of comfort,’ said Templeman, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the details of the damage to her skull. ‘At least the poor woman didn’t suffer too much.’ I hope, anyway, he thought.

‘There is that,’ agreed McKenzie.

Templeman was still angry with him at his late arrival at the crime scene. He went on: nothing usable from forensics, no witnesses, the fingertip search had revealed nothing, the area fairly trampled by the boots of the emergency services, the only real hope was footage from a CCTV camera that monitored a nearby junction that was an accident blackspot: a rat run that connected with the road just round from a blind bend. That was being examined now.

‘OK.’ Templeman sounded weary. ‘Any idea of the perpetrators? DI Huss, you have a theory, I believe.’

‘Yes, sir.’ She cleared her throat. ‘As a result of measures taken to ensure the safety of Wolf Schneider…’

Templeman audibly groaned and put his hands over his eyes in pantomime protest. Him again.

‘I wish he’d stayed in Bavaria.’

‘Baden-Württemberg, sir. Don’t we all. Anyway, sir, while he’s here for his political promotional tour, we looked into the threat posed by an anarchist group called Eleuthera. The group has a known history of violence and is said to be active here in Oxford. A freelance journalist called Marcus Hinds who is a suspect in the Kettering murder investigation passed information on the group in the form of a computer hard drive that was in the possession of Elsa Worthington.’

‘And was the hard drive found?’ asked Templeman.

‘A hard drive was found,’ confirmed McKenzie. ‘It’s at the lab, but the chances of anything usable being found are pretty much zero.’ He gestured. ‘The fire…’

McKenzie leaned forward. ‘Do you think they were involved in the fire? Eleuthera?’

Templeman looked at her sharply. Huss knew she had to tread warily. Her boss would be implacably opposed to bringing in shadowy organizations as potential suspects. He prided himself on being a simple man. ‘Murders are usually simple and most murderers are cretins,’ he’d told her once. ‘I don’t know,’ she said carefully, ‘but we’d be remiss if we didn’t have a look.’

‘But why kill Elsa? Why not just take the hard drive?’ asked Templeman.

‘Because Elsa was a witness to what went on that day at Pretoria Road when Kettering was killed,’ said Huss. ‘There was nothing wrong with Elsa’s eyesight, or her memory when she wasn’t zoned out.’

‘Is there any evidence other than supposition that Eleuthera had a hand in her death?’ Templeman, eager to shut down this line of enquiry.

‘Hinds will be able to shed more light on their activities when he’s caught,’ said Huss. ‘It’s believed that he was fleeing from Eleuthera when the stabbing took place.

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