Helen Fields - Perfect Prey

‘What’s happening?’ Ava asked, appearing around the corner of the curtain. Callanach sighed.

‘Apparently the detective inspector needed a nap,’ the superintendent said. The doctor threw her a look that would have shamed most people. Overbeck seemed to take it as a compliment. ‘I’m going to express my sincere concern to Begbie’s wife. What’s her name again?’

‘Glynis,’ Ava said.

‘That’s right. You two, with me in five minutes.’ She stalked off, leaving the doctor to fill a hypodermic syringe. Ava turned her back as it was administered.

‘How’s the chief doing?’ Callanach asked.

‘Stable. It was more of a warning than full-blown cardiac arrest. He won’t be going home tonight and his wife’s very upset, but he’ll live.’

‘I’m sure the Super will make the Begbies feel much better,’ Callanach muttered. Ava smirked. The doctor cleared the room and pulled the curtain across to give them privacy. Ava kept her back turned as Callanach put the forensics suit back on.

‘You decent now?’ Ava asked after a minute.

‘More than I was when Overbeck walked in without any warning. She didn’t even break stride. Just stood there with me half-naked.’

‘Some day you’re having,’ Ava said. ‘Listen, Ailsa phoned me back. She told me what you walked into. It’s no wonder the chief reacted the way he did. Are you okay? Only I can make your excuses with Overbeck, get a car to take you home …’

‘I don’t think I’d have a job to come back to in the morning,’ Callanach joked. ‘A drink after work would be good though, if you’re not busy. It’ll be more fun than just taking painkillers.’

Ava paused before meeting his eyes. ‘That sounds like a good idea. I’ll meet you back at the station. We can go on from there.’

It was two in the afternoon before Callanach left the hospital, and his next stop was the mortuary. Ailsa was waiting for him with coffee as he walked into her office.

‘You’re walking strangely,’ she said.

‘I fractured my arse,’ Callanach replied.

Ailsa burst into a fit of laughing he hadn’t expected.

‘I’m sorry, dear, I shouldn’t be laughing. Alternate hot and cold compresses. Make sure you have a soft enough mattress. It’s painful. Was that when you slipped under poor Mr Swan’s body?’ He nodded. ‘I needed the laugh. It’s been quite a day and I’m afraid it’s not over yet. Drink the coffee. Take some painkillers if you need them. We have to go and spend some time with the body.’

Callanach had known he wouldn’t get away with simply being given an oral report. He’d viewed hundreds of dead bodies in his time, witnessed scores of autopsies, but this one was going to leave an indelible memory. He did as suggested and swallowed tablets before getting a gown and going in.

‘Has Mrs Swan been in for a formal identification yet?’ Callanach asked.

‘She has indeed, although I wish we could have spared her that,’ Ailsa said. ‘I replaced the skin over his face and did my best to make her husband look as he had in life, but there was very little softening the blow. I think Tuscany would be nice to retire to, don’t you? Warm climate, olives trees, good food. Have you been there?’

‘I have,’ Callanach said. ‘But I didn’t know you were retiring, Ailsa.’

‘Neither did I, Detective Inspector. But today, for perhaps the first time, it occurred to me that there is more to life, to what’s left of mine anyway, than this. Now, here we are. Look closely at the incision marks around the face. We pulled the edges of skin back together and took some photographs to make it easier to see. These are the marks close up.’ She moved back from the corpse to a computer and pressed a button. Immediately an image filled the screen that would have been impossible to understand had Callanach not been told what he was looking at.

The skin was grey either side of the wound, the central gash a line of black. The skin on the right-hand side of the incision was smooth, but on the left there were minute tags regularly along the path of the cut. Ailsa pointed along the uneven side.

‘Caused by the blade,’ Ailsa said. ‘The weapon was extremely fine and extremely sharp. What you’re seeing wouldn’t have been visible to the naked eye. We had to enlarge the image multiple times to pick this up.’

‘Why only along one edge of the wound?’ Callanach asked, walking away from the screen and back to the body to see if he could detect the difference on the skin itself.

‘Think of it like a bullet, with micro detail that links it to having been fired from a specific gun,’ Ailsa said. ‘All blades leave different impressions if you look closely enough. Find me that blade and I’ll be able to tell you if it’s a good match for this incision.’

‘That helps with evidence at trial but it doesn’t identify the attacker,’ Callanach said. ‘So who am I looking for?’

‘Someone who knows their way around the human body, who is not the least bit squeamish. A person who enjoys the spectacle. But that’s not why I got you here. Look at this.’ She tapped a key and another image popped up. The same smooth line ran down one side, a microscopically jagged edge along the other.

‘I see the same markings.’ Callanach walked back to look down at Michael Swan’s face. ‘Which section of the wound is that picture from?’

‘None of it,’ Ailsa replied. ‘You’ll be needing to look at Sim Thorburn’s injuries for that.’

Callanach stood still and let it sink in.

‘But that was a double blade. It can’t have been the same weapon as was used on Thorburn,’ he said.

‘Not the same weapon, but possibly scalpel blades manufactured in a single batch, all with the same minuscule flaw. The first two blades were used to home-craft the weapon that killed Thorburn. The next one became part of a more traditional knife. Without seeing the blades themselves I couldn’t swear to this in court, but between us, I’d say whoever killed one, killed the other. And there’s more than that. Come here,’ she said, beckoning Callanach over to Michael Swan’s body. ‘The scalpel’s point of entry is at the left lower jawbone and the victim needs to be lying down for this to work. The only way to get such a clean cut would have been for the killer to have been sat at the crown of the head, like so.’ Ailsa positioned herself behind the top of Swan’s head and held her pen as if it were the knife. ‘Starting at the left jaw and pulling backwards means the killer was using their left hand. It didn’t occur to me with Thorburn until I was doing this autopsy today, but the draw of the blade on Sim was from his right to his left. The video footage you have shows the perpetrator passing in that direction. I think the killer chose the direction of walking specifically to allow them to use their left hand.’

‘Anything else?’ Callanach asked. His mind was full of possibilities. The links between Thorburn and Swan. The description of the killer from the festival who was short and light, hardly a good candidate for hauling a grown man up to a ceiling beam. A growing sense that this was a beginning and that there was worse to come. ‘What could be worse than this?’ he asked aloud.

‘If you want the worst,’ Ailsa answered, assuming the question was for her, ‘then you’d best have it all at once. It was the loss of blood that caused heart and brain function to cease for Michael Swan, just as for Sim Thorburn. Swan was alive when he was skinned. And he took a while to die. It was torture of a degree that I find difficult to describe adequately. I see no evidence that he was drugged to make him compliant whilst the procedure was undertaken, although the toxicology screen will take a couple more days. Who’ll be taking DCI Begbie’s place while he’s on sick leave?’