Reprobates (6 page)

‘
Yeah, whatever,’ said Vicky as she sat down and mopped up the liquid that had spilt on her paperwork with a tissue from her pocket. ‘You watch, what goes around comes around.’

‘
Well it can’t come soon enough for me. If it wasn’t for the fact that she knew so much... well, let’s just say I’d have her guts for garters,’ Dylan spat.

Vicky raised her eyebrows.
‘And what’s that, pray?’

‘It
’s private. Nothing for you to worry yourself about,’ he said.

***

DI Dylan’s thoughts were interrupted by Lisa’s voice from where she had retreated to her desk outside his office. ‘Sergeant Megnicks on the phone for you again, sir!’

‘Dylan,
’ he snapped as he picked up the phone.

‘
Just had it confirmed that the bike was stolen from outside number 27, Maple Crescent, Tandam Bridge. The house is literally on the canal bank towpath. The trusting owner had placed it outside his front gate with no lock to secure it, in fact nothing more than a “For Sale” sign.’

‘Damn,
’ said Dylan. ‘So the bike might not be connected?’

‘
The “For Sale” sign has been recovered by the officer attending and it’s awaiting fingerprint examination so we’ll have to see if we have any marks of significance.’

‘
Update me as and when.’

‘
Will do, sir.’

***

Lunchtime and the identity of the man found in the canal still remained a mystery.

Dylan picked up his phone and dialled the press office.
‘Debbie Canavan?’ asked Dylan.

‘Yes.
’

‘Dylan.
’

‘
Thanks for ringing,’ she said.

‘I
’ve got that update you were requesting on the dead man we recovered from the canal yesterday,’ he said.

‘
A brief description of the clothing would be great to give out to the press. It might jog someone’s memory, and in turn assist in his identification for you maybe?’

‘I
’ll get it faxed over,’ he said checking his watch. ‘Crikey, I’m due at the mortuary at ten thirty for the post-mortem.’

***

Jen sat at her desk. Her mind in a turmoil. ‘Jennifer,’ shouted Avril Summerfield-Preston, from the bowels of her office. She appeared at her door and headed in Jen’s direction. ‘I need to do a back-to-work interview with you, but first I want you to go to pick up some papers from court and get my dry cleaning,’ she said. Retrieving a dry cleaning docket from her purse she thrust it into Jen’s hand.

‘
Can I just ring and see how Max is, Avril...’

‘Now
would not be a good time,’ she said, screwing up her nose. She folded her arms, turned and smiled sweetly at Jen.

Suddenly Jen felt angry, an anger that only Avril Summerfield-Preston it appeared could conjure up in her. Jen was thankful for the support of her work colleagues who were all perplexed by Avril
’s persona or had been at the end of her scornful conduct at one time or another.

***

Dylan crossed the tarmac in the police station’s yard to his car, he turned. Where was Detective Constable Vicky Hardacre? Was it too much to expect her to be following him as requested? Detective Sergeant Paul Robinson appeared as if from nowhere.

‘
Great timing. You, my friend need a real job to get you back into the routine of proper police work. You’ve been languishing on that development course at training school for far too long. In fact is that a spare tyre I see round your midriff?’

‘
Three cooked meals a day, with pudding,’ Paul said patting his stomach. ‘The wife’s not impressed.’

‘
Wait till you see your sister Fearne. She’ll have something to say about those added pounds.’

‘What Fitness Fearne? She already has. She also said she’d been working with you.’

‘Yeah, she did a good job for us. I was impressed. That reminds me I need to update you regarding the missing corpse and the man pulled from the canal. Oh, and by the way Vicky’s going to be “acting up”. Keep it under your hat she doesn’t know yet.’

‘
She is?’ he said. He gave Dylan one of his big broad toothy smiles.

‘She’s the only one in the office qualified, and she’s more than capable.’

‘The supervisory experience will do her the power of good. Hey, glad it’s you rather than me going to the mortuary.’

‘
Aye well, someone has to do it.’

‘
It feels good to be back. The duration of that bloody course was way over the top.’

‘Aren
’t they all?’ Dylan said raising his eyes to the sky. ‘Another tick in a box for you, though. Bloody hell...’ he said looking at his watch, ‘talking of mortuaries we should be there now. V I C K Y, it’s time to go,’ he shouted across the yard.

‘
Glad to know nothing’s changed,’ Paul laughed, nodding towards Vicky who was dodging around parked cars, papers under her arm, texting with one hand, one arm in her grey bubble coat and a half eaten slice of toast hanging from her mouth.

***

The pair were met at the mortuary by Professor Stow’s theatrical wave from his chubby pink hand. ‘Tea for me, strong and sweet, preferably with a shot of brandy,’ he said to his assistant with a wobble of his big, fat, red chin. There was unusually no belly laugh associated with the larger-than-life character.

‘You okay? You don
’t seem yourself,’ said Dylan.

‘
I have to be on my best behaviour,’ he said. His top lip curled back exposing his teeth, as he grabbed Dylan’s arm to steady himself. He stepped into his coveralls. ‘And, between you and me I absolutely hate being watched,’ he added in a whisper.

‘
Watched, who’s being watched?’ asked Vicky. Her voice was without enthusiasm at what lay ahead.

‘I
’ve got an eminent surgeon with me today. They’re assessing us again.’ Head down, Professor Stow looked over his half-rimmed glasses and smiled, as he acknowledged the smartly dressed man who had just walked into the room. He was wearing a three piece suit, his outer coat had a velvet collar.

‘
Eugene Regis,’ he said holding out his hand to Dylan. He nodded in Vicky and Professor Stow’s direction. Dylan noticed the strength in his grip.

‘
A man of few words unfortunately for me,’ Stow whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Vicky as Eugene turned his back on them to find a place for his shiny black briefcase. ‘Truth be known, I can’t figure out what he’s thinking about my old fashioned ways. We’re dinosaurs to these youngsters, you know,’ he said.

Vicky raised an eyebrow at Dylan and smiled before moving quickly to help the doctor.
‘Let me help you, Doctor Regis.’

‘Mister,
’ he said to her in a cold but polite manner.

Without looking at Vicky, Eugene Regis felt inside the inner breast pocket of his suit jacket and extracted a key. He opened the locker. Vicky shrugged her shoulders at Dylan who shook his head.

‘You wouldn’t want to cross him, would you, boss?’ asked Vicky sidling up to Dylan.

‘He
’s known as the good doctor,’ Stow said to Dylan. He couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

Mr Eugene Regis took off his coat and hung it very precisely so it didn
’t crease. He turned, extracted a pen and paper from his briefcase and secured it on a clipboard before standing upright with his paperwork neatly tucked under his folded arms.

‘
He doesn’t give a lot away does he?’ asked Vicky.

‘
What do you want to know?’ asked Dylan.

Vicky giggled. ‘Hey, I
’m a detective aren’t I, and he’s one hell of a good looking guy.’

***

Dylan relayed the circumstances of how the naked body of the unidentified deceased was discovered and what had been found at the time in the canal. Professor Stow listened intently. This information was paramount for the pathologist to give the officers the best chance at time of death. The more well-known post-mortem changes, such as rigor mortis, livor mortis and algor mortis progress on a relatively set schedule; however, many external and intrinsic factors may affect their development.

The team were gowned, suited and booted and the face masks, that hung around their necks, were the only items that needing pulling into place.

The light from the fluorescent tubes bounced off the tiles that covered the floor and the walls of the examination room, where the temperature wasn’t much above fifty degrees.

Three steps into the room and a man-shaped lump was in full view, upon the stainless steel examination table at the centre. Vicky stopped in her tracks and Dylan urged her forward. The gentleman
’s distorted, bloated head was cocked back, open mouthed, his tongue black. The officers, Sarah Jarvis for Crime Scene Investigation and the exhibit officer Detective Constable Andy Wormald stood at the side of the dissection table. Professor Stow put on a pair of blue latex gloves as did Sarah and Andy. Professor Stow pointed to the green discolouration starting to appear on the man’s bloated abdomen. There were folds of greasy looking skin around the deceased’s yellowing hips, however, otherwise it was a body of an average-looking middle-aged man. He looked more like a wax sculpture or mannequin than an actual person to Vicky.

The naked body was laid on his back. Arms by his side, the green grass still grasped tightly in his clenched fist. The ankles where a ligature had dug deep into the flesh were relatively clean as the water had washed the ante-mortem soft-tissue haemorrhaging, causing the injury to resemble an artefact. The carcass had the remnants of more canal debris upon it. The hair looked greasy and matted.

‘It’s the stillness, isn’t it?’ Eugene murmured unexpectedly to Vicky who was stood closest to him.

‘
And the bloody smell,’ she said, not taking her eyes off the deceased’s face.

‘
A little better than the one we had earlier though; a man had died in the woods and he’d had his face eaten off by bees,’ said Eugene Regis. She smiled. It wasn’t always easy to judge what someone was thinking behind the mask but the skin at the side of Eugene Regis’s big brown eyes crinkled.

‘
Usual samples, Dylan, I presume?’ Professor Stow said. He appeared a little more at ease as he began to cut and pull samples of hair from the corpse, with the expertise of someone who had done the procedure a million times before.

Vicky flinched as he yanked at the pubic hair and she saw Eugene Regis do the same, she smiled at him.
‘I guess that’s one foolproof way to tell if a person is dead,’ she said.

‘
I bet having that stud put in hurt more,’ Stow said, pointing to the man’s piercing. ‘I suppose you’ll want it removing from his penis?’ he asked, looking up from his work at Dylan, who nodded in the affirmative. He handed the item to the exhibits officer who was holding a container out at arm’s length in anticipation. The noise the metal made dropping into the empty container echoed around the room.

‘
External evidence secured. Let’s get him swilled down,’ said Stow, holding his arms up as he stood back from the table.

Without undue ceremony the mortuary assistant hosed down the body with a hand-held sprinkler that was attached to the autopsy table. The water formed small rapids that ran quickly down a well at the perimeter.

‘We’ll take the blood samples before beginning a closer inspection, shall we?’

Mr Regis nodded his head and appeared to tick a box on the paper attached to his clipboard.

Professor Stow took a deep breath as he untied and removed the rope around the dead man’s ankles. ‘Tut tut, if only he’d been a scout he’d have learned how to do a slip knot,’ he said with indifference.

Eugene Regis
’s brows knitted together in a frown.

‘Okay, let
’s start. Feet first. We can see the rope he used has left bruising and cut into the skin, no doubt due to the weight of the boulder. If we look closely,’ he said bending down to scrutinise the ankles, ‘we can see similar scars on both feet. This indicates to me that he is by no means a stranger to having his ankles tied to a heavy weight, in this particular way. Here, I can see at least a dozen old abrasions which are similar to those that I have seen on bodies who have self-abused.’

Carefully, he removed the paperclips from his nipples.
‘Again, if we look closely we can see marks where he has previously used similar objects to do the same.’

‘
That makes sense as similar objects, clamps, clothes pegs and the like were found at the scene,’ said Dylan.

Professor Stow nodded. ‘
In my opinion the deceased enjoyed the intensity of the pain and the sense of drowning to satisfy himself. This is called erotic asphyxiation or in simple terms it is when the brain is deprived of oxygen and induces a lucid semi-hallucinogenic state. The accumulation of carbon dioxide increases giddiness, light headedness and pleasure, all of which they say heightens the masturbation sensation.’