The Dead Trilogy by Andrew Barrett

Author:Andrew Barrett [Andrew Barrett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Ink Foundry
Published: 2020-01-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty Two

— One —

There were three scenes, Roger decided.

Scenes within a scene. But no obvious contamination issue.

He wore the customary white oversuit, overshoes, latex gloves – two pairs – and mask and hood. And he was there at the special request of Chamberlain; to put it into context, to split it down and make it easier to digest as far the investigative teams were concerned.

He was there because so much information was crammed into a relatively small space and Roger, though he’d never done anything quite like it before, had to ensure that all evidence was recovered, without destroying evidence from another aspect of the scene.

It was three-thirty in the morning, and a jaw-aching yawn caused tears to spill down Roger’s cheeks. He waited in the street for the West Yorkshire Police structural survey officer to stick his head around the corner and give the thumbs up. This man was part of a team, but Roger, in collaboration with Chamberlain refused more than one man through the cordon. The house was small, the scenes within it were susceptible to damage, and at last, the survey unit’s supervisor conceded and allowed a single man to quickly appraise the structure.

The survey officer hadn’t been the first into the house though. Before him, apart from the first attending officer who was basically there to make sure there was a scene and that there were no obvious survivors he could help and that yes, the cavalry did need to be called, the on-call doctor had pronounced life extinct on the female corpse lying behind the front door and the naked male corpse in the back bedroom.

And before any of them could do anything, the EOD officer had scoured the place for secondary devices, booby traps, weapons, and stocks of explosives. This man had been thorough, had been inside for almost an hour, and all this before anyone could have a sniff around.

Still, it made everyone feel safe when he came out pale, but giving the thumbs up sign.

For Roger, this scene was eerie. Here he was in the middle of Garforth, and there was not a person in sight who didn’t wear Day-Glo, or have some official business. And even these people were a long way back, behind the first cordon.

Despite the intensity of the scene, it was quiet; there were no visible onlookers, no press, no annoying kids; everyone had been evacuated beyond the safe distance. The EOD officer walked cumbersomely in all that armour, towards his colleagues, giving the all clear to Roger as he passed by. Roger had waved the structural man in, and when he had finished, he had accompanied the doctor inside to examine – very briefly – the two bodies.

Even though they had been shot in the head – the woman, it appeared through her eye, the man, straight through the nose – a medical practitioner had to certify that they were dead, that life was extinct and there was nothing medically available that could be done to help sustain life.

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