Close to the Bone by Susan Wilkins

Author:Susan Wilkins [Wilkins, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838885199
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-09-07T23:00:00+00:00

Megan walks into the incident room to find Laura Slater listening earnestly to the Crime Scene Manager, Hilary Kumar.

‘Ah, good,’ says Slater. ‘You need to hear this, Megan.’

Slater must know she’s just driven all the way to Exeter to have her arm twisted by Barker. But it seems she’s not going to mention it.

Megan greets Hilary; they know each other, though not well.

‘Hey, glad you’re going to be on this,’ says Kumar with a big smile. Considering the grimness of her job, she has a cheerful disposition.

Not everyone is, thinks Megan, though she refrains from saying so. It’s hard not to feel tetchy and put upon. But she has to just get on with it. She has no choice. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Collins following her into the room.

Kumar holds up her iPad. On the screen is a picture of lump hammer. ‘We found this in a skip about three hundred metres down the hill from the crime scene. Blood on the head of the hammer will probably match the victim’s. Some hair and tissue from the scalp too.’

‘This is probably the murder weapon then?’ says Megan. She becomes aware of Jim Collins coming up right behind her. He stops inches from her shoulder. She can hear his breathing, shallow and laboured, and smell the tang of his cologne.

‘Jim,’ says Slater. ‘We’re just bringing Megan up to speed with the forensics.’

‘Excellent,’ says Collins. ‘As I’ve just told Megan, I’m really glad she’s going to be on the team. She’ll be a great asset. I think we’re agreed what happened with her sister is water under the bridge.’

Weasel, definitely.

Slater gives him a quizzical look. ‘I hope you two will work well together,’ she says. She glances at Megan.

Megan says nothing.

‘Absolutely, ma’am,’ says Collins with a smile. ‘It’s certainly what I want.’ He turns to Kumar. ‘So did we get lucky on the fingerprints?’

‘There’s a couple of fairly clear prints,’ says Kumar. ‘But I’m afraid they don’t belong to Aidan Porter.’

‘Okay, well, looks like the lad had an accomplice then,’ says Collins. ‘Any hits on the database?’

‘No,’ says Kumar. ‘It’s extremely difficult to tell but looking at the spacing of the ridge patterns, I’m wondering if they could belong to a woman.’

‘A woman?’ he says.

‘I’m only speculating,’ says Kumar. ‘It’s impossible to tell for certain.’

‘But it tells us someone might’ve helped him,’ says Collins. ‘He could have a girlfriend, I suppose.’

‘Or,’ says Megan, ‘he’s confessing to something he didn’t do.’

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