A Silent Truth Read online

  Jan’s phone trilled, and she shot him an apologetic glance before turning away.

  ‘I have to get this. I’m on call tonight.’

  ‘I know.’

  Since a suspect had died before being arrested on charges of murder and arson earlier that winter, Mark had been relegated to the incident room. Unable to work in major crimes until the representatives from the force’s Professional Standards department were satisfied with his statement about his involvement in that accidental death, he was back to working burglaries and fraud cases.

  Kennedy hovered at his side while he stuffed his mobile phone in his pocket and slung his backpack over his shoulder, then both men paused to listen to Jan’s side of the conversation.

  ‘… dead on scene? Okay, what’s the location?’ She paused and checked her watch. ‘Yes, I can be there in about twenty minutes. Thanks.’

  ‘Suspicious death?’ Kennedy asked as she replaced the receiver.

  ‘A young woman’s been found dead on a back road between Wantage and Charney Bassett. A couple found her lying in a shallow ditch – only her legs were visible from the road. They thought she was a dead deer to start off with, apparently.’

  Kennedy looked around the incident room. ‘Is Caroline still here?’

  ‘She should be. I think I saw her heading downstairs to the vending machine.’

  Mark saw the DI cast a quick glance his way before turning back to Jan.

  ‘Best take her with you.’

  ‘Guv.’

  Mark watched as she collated together her kit and checked her mobile phone and warrant card were in her bag while he battened down a searing envy towards DC Caroline Roberts.

  It wasn’t her fault he was still relegated to the side benches.

  Jan tossed a wave over her shoulder and hurried from the room, car keys jangling in her hand.

  ‘I’m sure this won’t be for much longer,’ Kennedy said gruffly. ‘Hang in there.’

  ‘It’s been months.’

  ‘These things take time. Especially when someone dies before he can be arrested. And especially when that person was known to you, and that he was a suspect in another force’s investigation, and—’

  ‘—especially when my ex-wife accidentally ran him over.’

  ‘Quite.’

  The DI held up a finger as his mobile rang, looked at the number, and then turned back to his office, the phone to his ear.

  The door slammed shut behind him.

  Alone, Mark forced himself to take a deep breath.

  Somewhere within the building a vacuum cleaner roared to life, the contracted cleaners starting their daily sweep through the building to clear away the detritus left by the inhabitants of the busy town police station.

  He hoisted his backpack up his shoulder and exhaled while Kennedy’s empty assurances went round in his head before the stack of folders caught his eye once more.

  ‘Fuck.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  Jan squeezed out from the passenger door and cast a furtive glance at how close Caroline had parked to the hawthorn as branches scraped against the paintwork.

  A fine drizzle misted the air around her, clinging to her hair and face and soaking the hedgerow and long grass that feathered her trouser hems.

  Up ahead, the rest of the lane had been blocked by Traffic division, a series of wooden sawhorses lined across the road with blue and white tape stretched between them.

  In front of those, the approach to the crime scene was cluttered with two patrol vehicles, a dark panel van, and a coroner’s vehicle.

  Beyond the tape, she could see a silver sports car parked awkwardly across the lane as if it had braked to a sudden standstill.

  The flashing lights from the closest patrol vehicle tore through the pitch-black night and illuminated the bare branches of oak and beech trees that crowded over the narrow lane.

  Everywhere she looked, there was a frantic sense of time already slipping away as the first responders paced out the asphalt beyond the tape, heads bowed while they walked side-by-side with their colleagues from the forensics team.

  ‘Sorry,’ Caroline said after watching Jan sidle along the car and then pause to pick out leaves from her hair. ‘I didn’t want to block the rest of the road in case anyone else turned up.’

  Jan pulled at an errant tangle of plant life between her fingers, her lips twisting at the soggy mess she’d extracted before flicking it to the ground, unwilling to linger on what it might have contained.

  ‘No problem.’

  She fell into step beside the younger detective, noting how Caroline still towered over her despite the heels she wore.

  ‘Any news about Mark’s case?’ Caroline said, slowing as they reached the first liveried car.

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Do you think Kennedy will make me go back to the smaller cases once he’s in the clear?’

  Jan heard the note of panic in her colleague’s voice, and shook her head. ‘Both you and Alex have really impressed him these past few months, don’t worry.’

  Caroline’s face brightened a moment under the strobing lights, then sobered as they took in the small group gathered a few metres ahead, heads bowed while a figure dressed head to toe in protective overalls knelt at the verge.

  She cleared her throat. ‘Who do we speak to first?’

  ‘Nathan Willis – over there.’

  Jan led the way towards the stocky uniformed constable with a clipboard in his hand, his brow creased while he completed all the documentation that Tracy, the team’s case manager, and her team would upload into the HOLMES2 database to record the start of the inquiry.

  He looked up at the sound of their footsteps. ‘I wondered who they’d send out. Any news about…’

  ‘Not yet.’ Jan peered at his notes from the beam cast by the police car’s headlights, then blinked. ‘If you’ve got a torch handy, can you switch those off? One of us is going to get a headache at this rate.’

  ‘Oh. Sure.’ He reached into the car, flicked the switch, then looked up as a set of spotlights burst to life from behind the tape. ‘Looks like forensics are all set now anyway.’

  ‘What’ve you got so far?’ Caroline asked, shuffling closer to Jan so she could read over her shoulder.

  ‘A woman in her early twenties, found at seven-fifteen this evening by a Mr and Mrs Tillcott when they were driving home from that new gastro pub outside Wantage.’ Nathan grimaced. ‘I don’t think they’re going to be Mr and Mrs for much longer though, given the way they’ve been carrying on since we got here.’

  Jan raised her eyebrows. ‘Anything to indicate it might’ve been a hit and run?’

  ‘Not at first look, no. Forensics plan to take swabs from their car’s bodywork just in case though. John Newton’s on shift with me tonight, and he’s taken a look at the radiator grille and the wheel arches.’ He held up a mobile phone. ‘We took photos too so I’ll upload those to the system as soon as I get a chance.’

  ‘Good. Okay, what else have you got?’

  ‘She’s definitely dead.’ The constable jerked his chin at the hooded figure at the verge. ‘I know the pathologist has to confirm that, but…’

  ‘Injuries?’

  ‘She’s had a bloody great whack to the back of the head.’ He swallowed. ‘Whoever did it, or whatever it was caused by, hit her hard enough that her eye popped out of its socket.’

  ‘Jesus.’ Caroline moved a few paces away, then turned back to him. ‘Any ID?’

  The constable shook his head. ‘Once we realised she was dead, we didn’t want to touch her clothing until forensics were here and had a look.’

  Jan handed back the card, before one of the CSI technicians beckoned to her from within the taped-off cordon. ‘Okay, thanks, Nathan. Looks like we’re needed.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Hurrying across to where the hooded figure stood waiting, the spotlight beams sparkling off the asphalt, Jan took in the sight of eight other forensics specialists spread out
beyond the cordon.

  While Caroline signed in, she watched them work, mindful that everything that would follow over the course of the investigation was dependent on what they found – or didn’t find.

  The CSI technicians conveyed a sense of busyness, of processes being followed that were second nature, and a patience that kept their heads bowed and voices calm while they tried to make sense of a young woman’s death.

  Over to her left, one of the technicians cradled a plaster cast, and she realised that despite the wet weather they might have discovered tyre or foot prints in the muddied verge close to the body, or perhaps some other evidence that would help them piece together the victim’s final moments.

  Further inside the cordon, a group of three similarly hooded figures gathered closer to the overgrown grass, a camera flash illuminating the hawthorn hedgerow every few seconds before notes were compared on a shared tablet computer.

  ‘Have you got gloves?’ Jan said, rummaging in her pocket for a pair.

  Caroline waggled her fingers in response. ‘Ready?’

  ‘As I’ll ever be.’

  Nodding her thanks as her colleague lifted the cordon tape, Jan ducked underneath and led the way over to where the pathologist stood with Jasper Smith, the CSI lead beside the open door of the panel van.

  ‘Gillian, Jasper.’ She nodded to both, then peered around them to see a pair of legs poking out from the long grass. ‘What are your initial thoughts?’

  Gillian Appleworth lowered the mask from her face and pushed back the hood of the protective suit, sadness in her eyes. ‘I can confirm life extinct. I’ll be able to tell you more about how and when she died after the post mortem, but there’s one hell of a wound to her skull.’

  ‘Was she killed here?’ said Caroline. ‘We were talking to Nathan Willis about a potential hit and run.’

  ‘Too early to say.’ Gillian gave the younger detective a warning glance. ‘Especially in these conditions. We’ll know more at daylight and once Jasper’s team have finished.’

  Chastised, Caroline pulled her notebook from her bag and lowered her gaze.

  ‘Could you let me know if your lot find some ID on her, Jasper?’ Jan said. ‘Nathan didn’t want to disturb her clothing until you’d done your preliminary examination.’

  ‘We haven’t found anything yet. The fingertip search might turn up something. We’ll start that once the preliminaries have been completed.’ The CSI lead reached into the panel van’s open side door and pulled out a set of protective coveralls encased within a vacuum-sealed plastic bag. ‘Pop these on, and I’ll take you over there so you can get a sense of what we’re dealing with.’

  ‘I’ll let you get on,’ Gillian said, ‘and I’ll confirm the details for the post mortem in the morning with you, Jan.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Passing the first set of coveralls to Caroline, Jan took another set from Jasper and pulled them over her trousers and jacket. Tugging matching bootees over her shoes, she then swept her hair under the hood and scuffed over the asphalt towards a second cordon.

  ‘I take it your officers explained about the injuries they could see when they found her?’ he said, holding up the tape for her and Caroline.

  ‘Enough that I know this isn’t going to be pretty.’ She could see the victim’s legs more clearly now, the pale skin blotchy in places. ‘What’s that, carpet rash or something?’

  ‘Gillian wondered the same thing, which is why she was being particularly cagey.’ Jasper nodded to two of his team who were measuring distances from various natural landmarks and the road to where the victim lay. The figures stood to one side, pausing their work while Jan and Caroline moved closer.

  She swallowed.

  Whoever their victim was, she was young – early twenties, no more – and underweight. Her right cheekbone protruded from an angled jawline, while the left…

  ‘Jesus, Nathan wasn’t kidding about her eye.’

  Jasper crouched beside the woman and gently turned her face so that the overhead spotlight shone amongst her hair. ‘You can see that there’s a considerable indentation here.’

  ‘Got a torch handy?’

  One of the technicians handed her one from the kit bag at his feet, and Jan shone it into the undergrowth beside the CSI lead.

  ‘Not much blood around here.’

  ‘That’s probably why Gillian didn’t want to comment on whether she was killed here or not,’ Caroline mused.

  ‘Any other injuries?’

  Jasper shook his head, then rose to his feet. ‘Again, Gillian will be able to tell you more after the post mortem.’

  ‘Okay, thanks,’ Jan sighed. ‘We’ll let you get on. Could you call my mobile if you find anything else?’

  ‘Will do.’

  She trudged back to the first cordon, peeling away the protective suit and then handing it all to Caroline who wandered off to find a biohazard bin.

  Raised voices carried through the buzz of activity around her, and she looked across at the second patrol vehicle to see a man and a woman dressed in evening wear arguing beside it.

  She wore his suit jacket over an expensive-looking silk dress, remonstrating with her hands while he shuffled his feet and fiddled with his cuff links.

  ‘What do you want to do next?’ said Caroline, then squinted beyond the spotlights towards the couple.

  ‘Let’s have a word with Mr and the soon to be ex-Mrs Tillcott to see what they’ve got to say for themselves.’

  Caroline grimaced as the argument increased in volume. ‘It might be better if I let you lead this one.’

  Jan snorted, then squared her shoulders. ‘I thought you might say that.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Mark heaved himself to his feet as Kennedy called the morning briefing to a start, and tried to shrug away a lethargy that shrouded him in despair.

  Even his usual early walk with Hamish that morning had failed to invigorate him while they’d trudged along the muddy towpath back towards the narrowboat he shared with his other half, Lucy O’Brien.

  She had tried her best, smiling on his return and handing him a freshly brewed coffee before gently tousling his hair.

  ‘It won’t be forever, you know that,’ she assured him.

  ‘It bloody feels like it is,’ he muttered under his breath now, gathering up his notebook and chucking away a blue biro that had leaked over his fingers too many times. Snatching a fresh one from Jan’s top drawer, he made his way over to the semi-circle of chairs gathered around the whiteboard at the far end of the incident room and sank into one at the back beside Alex.

  He gave the younger detective a curt nod, biting back his resentment at the man’s eagerness as the briefing began, and tried to batten down the feeling that he was a pariah among senior management and therefore destined to investigate burglaries and the like for the rest of his career.

  ‘Right, first update please from Jan about the young female victim found bludgeoned last night over near Charney Bassett,’ Kennedy barked.

  Mark watched his former partner join the DI at the front of the group, unable to prevent a smile smudging his lips.

  Despite everything, he was proud of the way she had taken on more responsibilities the past few months, and missed working with her on a daily basis.

  ‘What did the couple who found her have to say for themselves?’ Kennedy began.

  Jan shot a rueful smile towards Caroline.

  ‘Oh, plenty. We got the impression that the Tillcotts had been arguing prior to seeing the victim, and they were still at it when we got there.’

  ‘Did they run her over?’

  Jan shook her head. ‘Doesn’t look like it, guv. There were no tyre marks on the road, nothing to indicate that their car had struck something. Although, given the rain that blew in last night, uniform have arranged for a forensic examination of the vehicle later this week just to make sure, and Jasper’s team did the same for the road and surrounding area.’

  Kennedy nodded, and gestured for her
to continue.

  ‘Mr Tillcott was driving, and he says that he was sticking to the speed limit – he’s local to the area, and knows the lane well. He told us that it’s renowned for deer running out in front of cars at that time of night. That’s what he thought she was at first – a deer that had been hit. He slowed down, then says he realised something was wrong so he parked about five metres from the victim, got out and confirmed it was a woman.’

  ‘Did he recognise her?’

  ‘No, guv. Neither he nor his wife have seen her before.’ Jan exhaled as she looked up from her notes. ‘They were genuinely distressed about the whole situation, that much was clear.’

  ‘Were there any other cars on that stretch of road?’

  ‘They couldn’t remember, guv. I think they were too busy arguing to notice.’

  ‘Statements?’

  ‘All being entered into the system this morning.’

  ‘Do we know who the victim is yet?’

  ‘We’re still trying to confirm her identity,’ Jan said. ‘Jasper phoned me earlier this morning to say his team found a handbag several metres away from where her body was discovered by Mr and Mrs Tillcott. He’s emailed me photos so I’ll pop those into the system when we’re done so you can all access them, but I’ve printed them out.’

  She paused while Tracy took the photographs from her and pinned them to the whiteboard beside Kennedy. ‘Thanks. It looks to me like a book bag or something you’d carry a lot of items in, rather than an everyday handbag. Of course, it might not have even belonged to her, but until we know otherwise we’ll treat it as if it were hers.’

  ‘Anything by way of ID in there?’ asked Nathan Willis, his features wan after the late night at the crime scene.

  ‘There’s no driving licence for her, or anything else to help us identify who she is.’

  ‘What about fingerprints?’

  ‘She’s not in the system, guv. Moving to the other photographs, you’ll see they found a mobile phone, and a clasp purse with a bit of change in it.’