Peter Robinson - Careless Love

Winsome pulled a face. ‘What a horrible way to go,’ she said. ‘Though I suppose she would have been unaware of what was happening.’

‘Yes. And it could hardly have been an accident. She took a far larger dose than anyone might take for recreational purposes. And on an empty stomach.’

‘Suicide, then?’

‘Looks that way. Or she just didn’t understand what powerful stuff she was playing with.’ Banks shook his head slowly. ‘Where was she, and what did she see or experience that scared her so much she killed herself?’

‘We don’t know that she did it because she was scared, guv,’ said Winsome.

‘No, you’re right. She may have been depressed or unhinged.’

‘There was no vomit in the car, was there?’

‘No. Meaning?’

‘Maybe someone cleaned her up.’

‘Good point. We’ll bear it in mind.’

‘Anything else of interest?’ Winsome asked. ‘Body art, birthmarks, distinguishing features?’

‘No tats or piercings. Small birthmark high on her right arm.’

‘Maybe someone could have forced her to take the pills?’

‘I suppose so. But that’s pushing it a bit, isn’t it? Besides, the doc went over every inch of her skin, and he found nothing suspicious. Not a bruise, not a needle mark, nothing. In addition, he couldn’t find any of the physical or medical problems that might have pushed Adrienne towards taking her own life. She wasn’t pregnant, was in general good health, no eating disorders, no signs of a heart attack, aneurysm, incurable cancer, debilitating nervous system disease, cerebral haemorrhage, stroke, seizure or anything like that. As far as mental-health problems go, we just don’t know yet. Or whether she had any problems with her love life.’

‘Every girl her age has some problems, guv, believe me,’ said Winsome. ‘Even if they’re not immediately apparent.’

Banks gave her a sharp glance. ‘Aren’t we the cynical one?’

‘Not cynical, just realistic. Put it down to experience. Late teens can be a tough time for girls.’

Banks nodded. ‘Sorry. You’re right, of course. Boys, too, if I remember correctly. I had no idea where my life was heading at that age, what I wanted to do. I was in business college, but I spent most of my time hanging around with the art and music students, going to rock festivals. I certainly never saw a police career in my future. But Adrienne had everything going for her — looks, education, brains, the lot.’

‘There’s always something. Even when it appears good from the outside. The things we think are so wonderful are often superficial.’

‘So you think she reached some sort of crisis point?’

‘Just that it’s possible, that’s all.’

‘What do you think would suddenly drive an otherwise normal girl like Adrienne Munro to commit suicide, if that’s what happened?’

Winsome shrugged. ‘Love? Loss of love? Clinical depression? Despair? Loss of faith? I don’t know, guv. We don’t even know that it was sudden.’

‘What do you mean? That something was happening to her that she couldn’t live with any more? Something ongoing?’

‘Possibly.’

‘Like what? Rape? Sexual abuse?’

‘But there’s no evidence of anything like that, is there?’ said Winsome.

‘Not in the post-mortem, no. No rape, anyway. Or physical abuse. But if it happened some time ago, and she was keeping it all inside, not confiding in anyone or seeing a counsellor... Who knows? It’s just another thing to consider when we’re questioning her friends. The doc says Adrienne wasn’t a virgin, but there were no signs of recent sexual activity or rough sex of any kind. And no signs of sexually transmitted disease. What about blackmail? That can be harder to pin down.’

‘But what could she possibly have been blackmailed over?’ Winsome asked.

‘Who knows? Maybe it was because of something she did.’

‘Somebody must know what happened.’

‘Well, the only way we’ll find out is by digging deeper into her life,’ said Banks. ‘By talking to people who knew her. What about your inquiries? Any forensics on the car?’

‘Just what you’d expect,’ said Winsome. ‘Plenty of fingerprints, inside and out. None of them on file. And none were the deceased’s. Hair. Coffee stains. Fast-food wrappers. Still no sign of any of Adrienne’s possessions.’

‘So she was in the car but she didn’t touch it?’

‘So it appears. If she’d opened the door herself, we’d have found her prints somewhere. She wasn’t wearing gloves. And if someone had wiped it down, the other prints would be gone, too.

‘The doc also says the pills were washed down with alcohol, whisky by the smell of it, and you say forensics didn’t find anything interesting around the car. I assume that includes an empty whisky bottle?’

‘Right,’ said Winsome. ‘There was no sign of a bottle or any trace of alcohol. But someone could have removed them. Could Dr Glendenning tell whether she died in the car or before she got there?’

‘She didn’t die in the car. He says there was no way she could have walked the ten miles from her bedsit to Belderfell Pass, but I think we already knew that. He also said that, according to the post-mortem lividity, it seems very much as if Adrienne died elsewhere and her body was moved. She was sitting up when we found her, but the lividity showed she’d been lying on her back for a while after death. At least, that was where some of the blood had settled after her heart stopped beating. But the evidence is contradictory.’ The problem was, Dr Glendenning had pointed out, that liver mortis, or hypostasis, begins twenty to thirty minutes after death, but the purplish red discolouration is not observable by the human eye until about two hours later. It increases over the next three to six hours and it reaches its maximum in eight to twelve hours. ‘He thinks she may have been moved quite soon after death, not left lying down long enough for liver mortis to take place completely, and the rest of the time she was in a sitting position. As he can’t accurately pinpoint time of death, given the amount of time that’s gone by, it’s a bit of a quandary.’

‘There was no trace of another vehicle at the scene.’

‘We’ll check with the taxi companies, but it’s looking very much as if someone took her there. Maybe someone she knew. The way it appears is that she died somewhere else, lying down, then maybe an hour or two later someone drove her to Belderfell and dumped her in the Ford Focus. All we need to know now is who and from where.’

‘Maybe an ex-boyfriend?’ Winsome suggested. ‘I mean, if they’d been having problems and she killed herself because of him, perhaps even at his house or flat, then he wouldn’t want to get involved, but he’d probably feel guilty enough to want her body found quickly.’

‘We’ll certainly be talking to any boyfriends. Past and present.’

‘I still can’t get over what a curious place it is for someone to dump a body,’ Winsome said. ‘I suppose it’s possible that she committed suicide in a place that was very inconvenient for someone, so they had to move her. We know she didn’t do it in her bedsit.’

‘We know it doesn’t seem like she did,’ Banks said. ‘The CSIs might find traces of drugs or vomit someone thought they’d cleaned up.’ Banks paused. ‘The doc also said something about Adrienne possibly having been in water some time before or after death. Apparently, there were traces of certain substances on her skin.’

‘There was no water in her lungs though?’

‘No. She didn’t drown.’

‘A bath, perhaps?’

‘Possibly. But there’s no bath in her bedsit, remember. Just a walk-in shower.’

‘Would that be enough to produce the effect Dr Glendenning noticed?’