James Hawkins - Missing - Presumed Dead

“One question at a time, Miss,” the pathologist cut in. “Chief Inspector?”

Where to begin, wondered Bliss, the barrel-lidded wooden trunk bearing the Major’s illuminated monogram or the little regiment of toy soldiers marching through the dust at his feet.

“Just look at that,” the photographer had said, marvelling at the ranks of miniature soldiers. “Reminds me of that place in China where the Emperor had all those soldiers buried with him.”

“Xian,” said Bliss. “The terracotta army … but these are lead.” Choosing one at random he turned it over. “Britains,” he said with the air of an expert.

“Do you know about these then, Guv?” asked the photographer seemingly impressed.

“Just a little …” he paused, something catching his attention. At the head of the assorted foot soldiers was a horse drawn gun carriage with four outriders, just as the dealer had described. “That’s interesting,” he said manoeuvring carefully around the tableau to examine the figures. “Royal Horse Artillery,” he continued, almost soundlessly, “with steel helmets.” What had the dealer said? 1940–1941?

“Can you get some pictures of these?” he said to the photographer.

“Sure, Guv. No problem. Do you think they have some bearing on the case?”

“Put it this way — I think I know where their leader is.”

“The hand-crafted wooden trunk had survived the war but had lost the battle against woodworm,” Bliss explained to the students in the mortuary. “The lid disintegrated as I opened it but, lying on the top of all his clothes, was a medal, the Distinguished Service Order, and it was still shiny after all those years.” He paused, thinking how proud the Major must have been of the enamelled medal with its crown and laurel leaf.

“In addition to his uniform, we found his dog-tags and, interestingly, the dog-tags of another soldier, a Captain David Tippin.”

The plain-faced girl seized on the information and shook it, like a bulldog. “Maybe the Captain murdered him — tracked him down after the war — the Major seized the dog-tags … Wait — Perhaps this Captain Tippin was the one who wounded him on the battleground — disgruntled junior officer type, lashed out at his superior …”

“Hold on,” said Bliss smiling at the woman’s fervour. “Anything is possible. However, at the moment we’re keeping an open mind, but the simplest explanations are usually the most accurate. Initial enquiries reveal that a captain of that name was killed around the time that Major Dauntsey was wounded. I suspect that the Major intended presenting the other man’s tags to his family but never got around to it.”

With the final question answered, “No — there was no suicide note,” the pathologist began a thorough examination of the skeleton, picking over every piece of bone, explaining the anatomy as he went. Bliss let his mind drift. The cause of death was already clear — a single bullet in the back of the head, execution style. Wasn’t the indignity of death enough without all this, he thought, recalling Mandy Richards with her breast blown off and her skirt halfway up her backside.

He had not attended Mandy’s post-mortem and had not wanted to, but, because of his involvement in her death, his inspector had thought it prudent to warn him off in any case. “Not a good idea, lad,” he’d said, turning an order into a piece of friendly advice. He had moped around the office that morning, picturing the grisly scene in his mind, wondering why it was necessary to dissect her scrawny body when it should be obvious to a five-year-old why she had died. What possible benefit could there be from knowing what she’d eaten for lunch? It just made everyone feel worse for the sake of accuracy.

It was her pregnancy that had caused the most grief. “A first trimester foetus was present in the womb,” the coroner’s clerk had said, reading the pathologist’s report at the inquest. “I estimate the deceased to have been approximately eight weeks pregnant. The foetus appeared to have been developing normally.”

A sudden hush had fallen around the courtroom then Mandy’s mother exploded in grief. Not only had she lost a daughter but she’d also lost a grandchild. Mandy’s fiance threw his arms around her, comforting the woman who would never be his mother-in-law, but it was as much to comfort himself. He had never slept with Mandy. “We’ll wait,” they had agreed, throughout their two year romance. Now he had more pain to endure, as did Constable Bliss — he was responsible for two deaths now, not one. And one of them would never even see the light of day.

Superintendent Donaldson was eagerly awaiting their return from the mortuary and had taken out his frustration on another packet of biscuits. “The press are demanding some sort of statement. Someone must have tipped them off that he’s been dead for ever. Where the hell does that leave us? It’s the sort of thing the nationals will jump all over.”

Bliss and Patterson pulled up chairs to the superintendent’s desk, uninvited. “We’re no further forward, Sir,” started Patterson. “He took a bullet in the back of the head, but we knew that the minute we found the skull. The question is who put it there.”

“What did Jonathon have to say?” asked the superintendent offering Bliss a digestive.

“Thanks … He gave us a long-winded no comment then stuck his nose in the air and said, “I warned you not to dig up old skeletons, Inspector.” I’m pretty sure he knew the body was there but, subject to the results from the pathology lab, he couldn’t possibly have done it. He couldn’t have been more than ten when it happened.”

“He could have done it,” suggested Patterson tersely. “Ten-year-olds have shot people before.”

“Then manhandled the body into the loft and plastered it up — I doubt it,” sneered Bliss. “Anyway, don’t you think Mrs. Dauntsey may have been a tad suspicious when her disabled husband suddenly disappears out of his wheelchair?”

“What about her?” asked Donaldson. “Could she have done it?”

“That’s my bet,” replied Bliss. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she got fed up taking care of the poor specimen — it couldn’t have been much for either of them. So she put him out of his misery — lightened her load. She has to be the prime suspect. There were only three of them living in the house as far as we know and one of them was a young schoolboy. That leaves Ma and Pa. Pa gets a slug in the back of the head — that only leaves Ma, and who could blame her. Ten years with a one-armed bloke in a wheelchair who can’t even raise himself up for a satisfying fart without assistance. He couldn’t speak and couldn’t even give her a once over. He would have been less fun than a goldfish.”

“You haven’t questioned her yet?”

“I haven’t even told her we’ve found him …”

“That I found him,” muttered Patterson.

“Alright, Pat — you found him — that reminds me. How did you find him? What made you rip that ceiling down?”

“There was a faint stain — very difficult to see — could’ve been a trick of the light. Just a ghostly smudge on the ceiling. It must have been where the juices came through when the body was still fresh, but it had been painted over — several times probably. Then, when I couldn’t find a trap door, I became really suspicious.”

“So what happens to Jonathon now?” asked Donaldson. “He confessed to killing someone.”

“He confessed to killing his father …” started Bliss, then paused, his mind swirling with possibilities. “Wait a minute … what if Rupert Dauntsey wasn’t his father? I think I’ve got it. What if he killed his real father, whoever that may have been, and we just assumed he was talking about the Major …?”