Footloose by Val Mcdermid & Peter James

Author:Val Mcdermid & Peter James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2019-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Grace opened his hands, expansively. “I’m all ears.”

“Forensic gait analysis. That specialist guy, Haydn Kelly, we’ve used on previous cases. Maybe we should bring him in. He knows more about feet than anyone on the planet, and he has a massive database. Worth a shot?”

“Good thinking, if he’s around.”

Kelly had developed software that, from a single footprint, could enable someone to be picked out in a crowd from his or her gait. Everyone walked in a unique way; every human being’s gait was as unique as their DNA.

“Call him and see if he’s in the country and available to come down. I know he’s abroad a lot.”

His phone rang.

“Roy Grace,” he answered.

“Detective Superintendent Grace? This is DCI Carol Jordan of the Northern Regional Major Incident Team.”

A strong, pleasant, if a tad formal, northern voice.

And the name rang a bell.

“Was it you involved with the Jennifer Maidment case?”

“I was, yes.”

“That’s where I know your name from. How can I help you?”

“Your inquiry team entered a pair of feet on SCAS. We have a female body up here missing her feet, and although we’ve had a man in for questioning, we didn’t have enough evidence to hold him. So any supporting info would be helpful.”

He felt a beat of excitement and gave her all the information he had, informing her that tissue had been sent to the lab for fast-track DNA analysis.

“From what I’ve read on SCAS, I’m pretty sure we won’t get a DNA match to your victim. Our body here is fresh. Your feet sound a few weeks old, which doesn’t tally with our time of death estimates or last-seen evidence.”

“They are old. I can’t give you a precise date. About two to three weeks is our pathologist’s educated guess from the generations of insect larvae.”

“Those serration marks you’ve just described interest me,” she said. “Could you send me photographs? If we could establish whether the same, or a similar instrument has been used to sever both pairs of feet, we might make progress.”

“I’ll have them to you in a few minutes.”

Carol Jordan thanked him and told him she would call back as soon as she had confirmation, one way or the other.

Ending the call, he turned to Glenn Branson. “You’re a movie buff. What films can you think of where people have had their feet severed?”

“Misery. In the book the batty woman chain-sawed off one of his legs and cauterized it with a blowtorch. But they tamed it down in the film and she just shattered his legs with a sledgehammer.”

“Anything more helpful?”

He was feeling tired and fractious.

Branson yawned. “There was some horror movie I saw years ago, but I can’t remember the title. They hacked this guy’s legs off and fed them to a pig in front of him.”

“It had a happy ending?”

“Not exactly. They fed the rest of him to the pig, too.”

“Let me guess, then they ate the pig?”

“You saw it, boss?”

• • •

AT 7 A.M., GRACE WAS BACK in the CID HQ for the daily management meeting, prior to the next briefing on Operation Podiatrist.

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