Villagers, whether law-abiding or criminal, respected Flint and crime was generally low. This was the first murder to occur in these parts for six years, the last being an elderly man who strangled his equally elderly wife following a dispute over a television programme.
“Good afternoon, Sergeant,” Graham returned. “What’s the story?”
Flint looked thoughtful. “Well, first of all, we got called out here by a local who had been walking his dog. The man was very shaken but he managed to get his story out. The body is as it was found. As you know, forensics and pathology will not spoil anything on the scene but they do want to remove the body as soon as possible. Come. I’ll introduce you.”
First to meet Graham were the three men from forensics who merely nodded and grunted their greeting. Then came the pathologist. A woman of around 30 years of age, five-feet, seven inches tall, dark brown, short-cut hair and no make-up. Her complexion was clear and slightly tanned. A woman who did not need to use cosmetics to improve herself, she had large, brown, intelligent eyes with a neat, straight nose over full lips. Graham noticed a wedding ring on her finger. Small wonder she was spoken for.
“Hello, Detective Inspector,” she said before Flint had a chance to speak. “I’m Doctor Sallie Dunning, the pathologist. “Pleased to meet you,” she smiled. “As usual, not the best of circumstances.”
“No, quite. What have you got here?”
Dunning adopted her cool, working voice as she explained the facts as found so far. “Well. The victim is a female of around seventeen years of age. There appears to have been sexual activity…”
“Penetration?”
“Yes. Penetration. However, it does not at this stage indicate force. I will know more when I get her back, where I can carry out a proper inspection. There appears to be some bruising around the vaginal area but that is normal following intercourse. There also appears to be a deposit of semen inside and on the upper thighs, so DNA should be no problem.”
“What killed her?”
Dunning’s brow creased and she placed a fist thoughtfully under her chin. “At this time, I cannot tell you. I’ve turned the body over and given it as thorough an inspection as possible without risking the destruction of evidence and I can find nothing particular except that, from the condition of the body, I would say that she has suffered a fit of some kind. It may be an unlawful death but the autopsy should give a clearer picture.”
Graham uttered a short sigh. “Thank you. I know it’s difficult out here but I would appreciate the results of the post-mortem as quickly as possible. There is no evidence present to link this with any other enquiry but I have a feeling that it is linked with a current investigation into a child murder.”
Sallie turned her attention back to the work in hand as Graham studied the still figure. “What time did she die?” he asked Sallie.
She answered from her crouched position, without turning her head. “I can only estimate that, but I would say around eighteen to twenty-four hours ago.”
Graham walked carefully around the body, noting the absence of signs of struggle and the clothing being in no disarray. This was too much like the scene of Kylie’s murder not to be linked. Together with Sergeant Flint, he carefully inspected the surrounding area, seeking any possible clues but, after half an hour, nothing had been found. Even if the murder had been committed the previous evening, there could still have been footprints due to the fine weather with little breeze. However, the killer had been clever enough to erase any such clues.
Deciding that there was nothing more to be gleaned, Graham asked Flint to organise a thorough search of the lane leading to the clearing and to contact him when the pathology results were in. He said his goodbyes to Sallie and the crew and made his way back to the motorway.
On arriving back home, Graham let himself in and went into the kitchen where Bethany was preparing an evening meal. They kissed in greeting and Graham set about organising the drinks of tea and buttering of bread.
Over the meal, Bethany asked about the trip and if it had resolved anything.
“No, not really,” Graham said. “I am certain that it’s connected to the Kylie murder but there‘s no evidence available yet. The area was clean, just as with Kylie and there were no signs of a struggle. Another mystery, it seems.”
Three days later, Graham was in his office at Scotland Yard, trying to link the two recent killings, with the sparse information of the latest one hampering his attempts. All that there was to show, was the similar killing ground, the lack of struggle, the incidence of sexual activity, the relative neatness of the victims clothing, the suspicion of poison being administered and the failure to find out how. In the last case, even poisoning had not been immediately evident but Graham knew it would be so.
He opened the post on his desk and was pleased to find among it, the pathology report, together with the forensic report. There was also a memorandum from Sergeant Flint to say that the path to the scene had revealed nothing at all and that house to house inquiries had been carried out but had been fruitless.
One good thing to appear was the DNA result taken from the semen found inside the girl’s body and on her thighs. This could now be compared. Calling a WPC into the office, Graham instructed her to take the DNA report to the lab for comparison with the DNA record attached to the Kylie Johnson murder. He wanted the comparison to be done immediately and he told the constable to wait in the lab until it was ready. She was then to bring it straight back to him.
Graham turned his attention to the reports in front of him. Forensics had recovered hair samples from Debbie’s body; body hair and pubic hair that had tested to be from a male person. It had been possible to check these with the hair taken from Kylie’s dress and they had come up with patterns matching those of ‘Unknown assailant in the murder of Kylie Johnson.’
So, the same person had carried out the crime. It was pleasing to Graham that his hunch was right but he was still no nearer to solving the crimes. Pebbles and samples of earth had proved only that Debbie had taken the footpath, as suspected, and that she had veered from that to the clearing where she was found. Again, as with Kylie, there were no other traces of her killer.
The motive, too, was elusive. Clearly, there had been a sexual element but it could never be described as rape, in the true sense of the meaning. The victim here had appeared to be willing. Of course, in the Johnson case, the crime of sex with a minor had been ruled out. Robbery was simply not a factor.
Graham then turned to the pathologist’s report, knowing that it would yield little, if anything. Sure enough, the cause of death was diagnosed but not the method. A small amount of strychnine had been found in the blood stream — so it was murder — but even a small amount would be enough to generate a quick and agonising death. Again, there was no visible point of entry, as of a syringe. The tiny punctures that had been found were diagnosed as being from a flu jab and they were beginning to heal and fade.
Just then, there was a knock on the office door and the WPC entered, carrying a thin, buff coloured folder clutched to her chest. She handed it to Graham. “Is that all, sir?”
“Yes, WPC, and thank you,” said Graham, offering a weak smile, before opening the folder. As the officer left, he looked at the brief notes, which were largely couched in technical terms. However, pictures of the two sets of strands, set side by side, were shown on the last page, with a third picture showing one sample placed on top of the other. He didn’t need to read the result to know that they matched perfectly. The one on the left was taken from the hair strand found in the first murder while the one on the right was taken from the foreign hairs on Debbie’s body.