Katerina Diamond - Woman in the Water

They found him. They think I am asleep, but I hear them whispering. Their words drift in and out of my head as they pass my bed. That’s what happens when I try to get away, people get hurt. He warns me and yet still I persist.

When will I ever learn?

I am both glad and disturbed that I can’t remember what happened that night. I have the tiniest ember of hope left. If he thinks I am dead, then there is still a chance that I can get far enough away before the truth comes out.

In the briefing room, Adrian had his phone on the table, waiting for Dr Hadley to call and update him on the condition of their Jane Doe. She had promised to message when the woman woke again. While violent attacks were on the rise by almost twenty per cent in the last year across the country owing to a multitude of factors, including government cuts and a mounting feeling of general hopelessness among the populace, this was something else. This was personal.

He thought about the body they found. He should have checked the area to see if there was anyone else. He didn’t even think to do that. Maybe he could have saved that man if he had just walked a little further downriver. What if the man heard him? What if he tried to call out? Adrian waited for any small piece of information that would release him from the weight of his guilt.

DCI Mira Kapoor walked into the briefing room with DI Walsh and nodded at Adrian before putting her mug down on the desk. Gary Tunney followed closely behind and opened his laptop. Gary was the district forensic computer analyst and all-round genius; they relied on him for a lot and he seemed more than happy to oblige. He was one of those people who was constantly thirsting for knowledge, always doing a course of some kind or other. At present, Gary was doing a part-time degree in forensic psychology. Adrian was a little in awe of Gary’s capacity to learn things.

‘First, great job, DS Miles. That must have been a very upsetting situation and I’m very proud of the way you dealt with it. You’re a credit to the station.’

Adrian was slightly taken aback by this comment, as it wasn’t like Kapoor to heap the praise on quite so thickly. Just take the compliment , he thought.

‘Thank you, Ma’am.’

‘Also, thank you for staying with the Jane Doe at the hospital last night. Now, we don’t have an ID on the male victim, is that correct?’

‘Nothing as yet,’ Imogen said.

‘And she still hasn’t said who she is?’ DCI Kapoor added.

Adrian looked at the DCI and shook his head.

‘Has anyone been reported missing?’ she asked.

‘Not in the last week,’ Gary said.

‘Well, they came from somewhere and so someone is missing them. When the woman spoke to you, did you notice an accent? Was she British?’

‘I believe so. She hasn’t said much, but it seemed to be an English accent.’

‘Gary, do you have anything?’ the DCI said.

‘I haven’t managed to find anything through the CCTV; there’s not a whole lot of cameras down that way,’ Gary said sheepishly.

Adrian watched and waited as DCI Kapoor sucked in a breath. It was always tough when there were no leads. All they could do was hope that once the crime scene was processed and the autopsy had been carried out, they would have more to go on. It wasn’t a given. Some investigations required a little more investigating than others.

‘Do we know the time of the death of our John Doe? Was he alive when I got her out of the water?’ Adrian asked.

‘I spoke to Karen Bell. She was heading the forensic team down there and she said he had been dead for more than twenty-four hours. Likely, he died some time before you found her on the Saturday morning. You couldn’t have saved him,’ Imogen said.

Adrian could see she wanted to reach out across the table to reassure him, but with all the prying eyes, she settled for giving him a comforting look. He wondered if anyone noticed these affectionate glances between them. It was mostly her decision to keep the relationship a secret, though he was happy to go along with it for now, until they were comfortable enough to go public.

‘There was nothing you could have done,’ Walsh added, which was uncharacteristically comforting.

Adrian could tell Walsh’s opinion of him was, at best, on the fence.

‘So, we have nothing? Nothing at all?’ DCI Kapoor said with a prominent tone of disappointment in them.

‘I can check with other constabularies re MisPers. It’s possible whoever they were that they were just visiting the city,’ Adrian said.

‘Is that likely? That would make this an opportunist attack and it certainly doesn’t feel that way,’ DCI Kapoor said.

‘It’s got to be worth checking. I don’t mind doing it,’ Adrian said.

‘Thank you, Adrian, that would be great,’ DCI Kapoor said. ‘The preliminary report from the pathologist records that he died from multiple blows to the head. Definitely deliberate, definitely with the intent of killing the young man. He will have a more detailed report for us in a few days.’

Gary raised his hand. ‘I know someone at the university who may be able to help. He’s the professor of forensic anthropology and archaeology on the Streatham Campus.’

‘How is an archaeologist going to help us?’ Adrian said.

‘He does skull reconstruction and can get a good likeness of John Doe for us to work from. He is superfast. I don’t have any decent facial reconstruction software here and if we send it off to London or one of the other constabularies with the program, it’s likely to take a week minimum because of backlog. It’s actually two separate programs run by two different people.’

‘Why don’t we have this software? Can’t you run it?’ DCI Kapoor asked.

‘I can run it. It is, however, several grand. I put in for it a couple of years back but was denied owing to budget constraints. My guy at the uni is a fast worker and he would prioritise it; he lives for this kind of thing.’

‘OK, brilliant. Has he worked with us before? Is that how you know him?’ DCI Kapoor said.

‘No. He’s in my guild. He’s the Healer.’

‘Your guild?’

‘Warcraft. It’s a computer game thing. We have a local guild and we meet up occasionally. Anyway, he is kind of a big deal. In the real world, I mean, but also in the game.’

Denise Ferguson, the duty sergeant, knocked on the door of the briefing room and walked in with a piece of paper, which she handed to Gary. When Denise looked up, her eyes widened at Adrian and she had a smirk on her face.

‘This was just on the local news Twitter feed.’

Gary put a video up on the big screen. Bloody mobile phones. Adrian knew before it even started what it was going to be. He watched himself pulling Jane Doe from the bushes and then carrying her to safety on the bank, to the soundtrack of gasps from both the women in the video and his colleagues in the room, followed by a round of applause when it ended on a freeze-frame of him walking towards the camera. He blushed.

‘I see they cut out the bit where I asked her not to share this with anyone until we identified the woman,’ Adrian said.

‘Well, DS Miles, I think you are probably going to have a few questions to answer as soon as the press learn your name. It’s always great to have some good PR for a change and so it would be nice if you would issue a statement, even nicer if we had any good news with regard to Jane Doe’s progress.’

‘Do I have to?’ Adrian said.

‘It’s better if you do, then it’s over and you can get on with things. Trust me, I learned this lesson a long time ago. If you cooperate then you control what information they get hold of. They are going to talk about you anyway,’ DCI Kapoor said.