‘Touch nothing!', 'Keep your distance!' had been the orders of the day and it had been around an unmolested, untrodden area of four or five square yards of woodland, carpeted with a thick, darkish-brown pile, that a rather irregular cordon had been drawn.
Morse had arrived on the scene within twenty minutes, and now stood there silently, not venturing beyond the waist-high red and e tape, his eyes recording the evidence before him. He saw the dislocated pattern of the bones; the scattered, residual clothes; and especially he saw the tasselled scarf beside the horridly damaged head. It reminded him of something from a DIY manual, in which various arrows point from the outer-lying parts towards a putative centre giving instruction for the assemblage of the purchase: 'Bring this part into there; attach this part to that; connect here; it will fit, all of it, if only you take your time, read the instructions carefully, know that you are going wrong if more than gentle force is required for the final assembly.' Occasionally Morse moved his weight slightly on the packed twigs and spindles beneath his feet, but still he said nothing. And the others standing there were silent too, like awkward mourners at a funeral.
Lewis, busily negotiating that afternoon with the University authorities, would not be with him. But neither of them, neither Morse nor Lewis, would be of much use at this stage. It was Max who was going to be the important personage, and Max had already been informed, was already on his way; Max who ten minutes later made his lumbering progress across the crackling bracken, and stood wheezing heavily beside Morse.
Silently, just as Morse had done earlier, the hump-backed surgeon surveyed the sorry sight which lay at the foot of an evergreen of some sort, the lower branches leafless, brittle, dead. If an attempt had been made to conceal the body, it was not now apparent; and disturbingly (as others had already noticed) a few of the major bones, including the whole of the lower left arm, had been carried away somewhere -to some den or earth or sett. From the look of it the clothes were slightly better preserved than the body: several strips of stained white, and substantial remnants of what looked like blue jeans, perhaps; and some yellowish, straw coloured hair still gruesomely attached to the skull.
But Morse hadn't kept his eyes long on the skull . . .
'This what you've been looking for, Morse?'
'Yes. I think that's her.'
'Her?'
'I'm certain it's a "her",' said Morse with finality.
'Do you know the last words my old mother said? She'd been baking earlier in the day - the day she died. Then she was taken to her bed, but she still wanted to see how the fruit cake was doing. And it was flat. The bloody thing forgot to rise, Morse! And she said, "You know, life's
full of uncertainties". Then she closed her eyes - and died.'
'It's the girl,' repeated Morse simply.
Max made no further comment, staring guardedly on as Morse nodded to the scenes-of-crime officer and the police photograph both of whom had been standing waiting for some while. If there was anything of any import there that Morse should have seen, he was not aware of it; but he still felt nervous about the patch of ground and instructed both to keep as far as possible from the grisly finds.
After a few minutes of photographic flashing, Max stepped rather gingerly into the area, hooked a pair of ancient spectacles around his large ears, looked down at the scattered skeleton, and picked up a bone.
'Femur, Morse. Femur, femoris, neuter. The thigh bone.' 'So?' Max placed the bone down carefully and turned to Morse 'Look, old friend, I don't very often
ask you for any forensic guidedance, but just for once give me a little advice, will you? What the hell am I supposed to do with this bloody lot?'
Morse shook his head. 'I'm not sure.' But suddenly his eyes glowed as if some inner current had been activated. 'I knew she'd be here, Max’ he said slowly. 'Somehow I knew it! And I'm going find out who murdered our Swedish Maiden. And I want you to help me, Max! Help me paint a picture of what went on in this place.’
The almost Messianic fierceness with which Morse had enunciated these words would have affected most people. But not Max.
‘You're the artist, dear boy: I'm just a humble scientist.'
‘How long will you be?'
‘Looking at the bones, you mean?'
‘And the clothes . . . and the underclothes.'
‘Ah, yes! I remember. You've always had an interest in underclothes' He consulted his watch. 'Opening time at six? I'll see you the upstairs bar at the White Hart-'
‘No. I've got a meeting back at HQ at half-past six.'
‘Really? I thought you were in charge of this case, Morse.'
There were the four of them again: the ACC, Strange, Johnson, Morse; and for the latter, naturally, congratulations were generous. For Johnson, however, there were very mixed feelings: Morse had come up with the girl's body in a couple of days, whilst had come up with nothing in a twelve-month. That was the simple truth of the matter. It was good for the case, of course; but much good for his own morale or his rating amongst his colleagues, or for his wife ... or indeed for his newly acquired mother-in-law. But when, an hour later, the meeting broke up, he shook Morse's hand and wished him well, and almost meant it.
After the ACC and Johnson had left, Strange in turn wished Morse continued success, observing that now Morse had come up with a body, all that remained for him was to come up with a murderer, so that he, Strange, would be able to get a nice little report and send it to the DPP. No problems! Then they'd kick the smart-alec defence lawyers up the arse, and stick the bugger who did it in the nick for the rest of his natural. Put a rope round his bloody neck, too, if Strange had his way.
‘Just as well we didn't hang the Birmingham Six,' said Morse quietly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It was a maxim with Foxey -our revered father, gentlemen -'Always suspect everybody' (Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop)
ON THE following morning, Saturday, 18 July, Morse appeared as Lewis saw things, somewhat distanced, somewhat reserved. It was customary for the chief to start, if not always to continue the case with a surfeit of confidence and exuberance, and doubtless that would soon be the way of things again; just not for moment.
'Not really all that much to go on there, sir.' Lewis nodded the two red box-files on the table.
'I've done my homework too, you know.'
'Where do we start?'
'Difficult. We ought really to wait till we hear from Max before we do too much.'
'All this DNA stuff, you mean?'
'DNA? He doesn't know what it stands for!'
'When's the report due?'
'Today some time, he said.'
'What's that mean?'
'Tonight?' Morse shrugged. But he suddenly sat forward in the black leather chair, appeared to sharpen up, took out his silver Parker pen, and began making a few minimal notes as he spoke:
'There are several people we've got to see pretty soon.'
'Who are you thinking of, sir?'
'Of whom am I thinking? Well, number one, there's the fellow who found the rucksack -Daley. We'll go through his statement with a nit-comb. I never did like the sound of him.'
'You never met him, did you?'
'Number two. There's the YWCA woman who spoke with Karin before she left for Oxford. She sounds nice.'
'But you never-'
'I spoke to her on the phone, Lewis, if you must know. She sounds nice -that's all I said. You don't mind, do you?'
Lewis smiled to himself. It was good to be back in harness.
'Number three,' resumed Morse. 'We must have a long session I with that Wytham fellow -the Lone Ranger, or whatever he's called.'
'Head forester, sir.'
'Exactly.'
'Did you like him?'
Morse turned over the palm of his right hand, and considered us inky fingers. 'He virtually told us where she was, didn't he? Told us where he would hide a body if he had to . . .'