Nikki woke with a start but quickly realised the familiar sound of her phone buzzing on the bedside table. 4.48 the time read on the screen that lit up her face in the pitch black room. She groaned as she pushed her blonde hair off of her face and replied to the message that she was on her way before getting out of bed and getting ready for another day. She never minded being on call but on a cold morning when she was comfortable in bed, she did find it difficult to get up and ready and out quickly but after all these years she had learnt that it was like ripping a plaster off; the quicker you do it, the better it feels.
On the drive to the crime scene Nikki always liked to play a little game with herself of guess the crime before she saw the body or any evidence. 9 times out of 10 she guessed something right. 'Married couple...one murdered the other, blood everywhere' was this mornings guess. As she approached the police cordon the sun was beginning to rise and the pathologist breathed a sigh of relief, working on a crime scene in the dark, even with specialist lighting was always difficult and you could be guaranteed to miss something. Nikki flashed her pass to the policeman holding a clipboard and went to join Jack who was already in his soco suit and waiting for her.
"What time do you call this, part timer?!" Jack joked, banter between the colleagues was the only thing that got them through each case filled with death and crime and sadness.
"You're telling me you haven't just arrived?" Nikki shot back whilst changing into her white suit.
"No, been here ages, some of us don't need beauty sleep"
"Oh, I did wonder why you look like that...and now I know" Nikki replied with a smile as she made her way inside the house, leaving Jack struggling for an answer.
From the outside it looked like a normal terraced house, flowers in the front garden, nicely mowed lawn and freshly painted exterior of the property. But within two steps of being inside the front door the pair realised this was anything but a normal house. The blood started in the hall and not just traces of blood, more like puddles of it. They followed the trail that led to the kitchen where a woman was sat slumped against the cupboards. There was so much blood on her and surrounding her Nikki didn't even know where to begin. Her train of thought was interrupted by a man being taken out of the house cuffed by two uniform officers.
"Husband" Jack answered Nikki's non verbal question.
"Bingo" she replied.
"I'm sorry?"
"Oh, nothing" she quickly tried to cover. Although she and Jack got on well and did always manage to make light of serious situations, the guess the crime scene game was something she used to share with Harry and she wasn't sure if Jack wouldn't get it or if she just didn't want to talk about her former colleague. "Shall we get started then?"
"Well that was nice and easy" Jack said pointing to something, Nikki's gaze following the direction of his finger.
"Murder weapon" Nikki replied as she caught sight of the kitchen knife covered in blood next to the victim.
As Jack bagged the knife a short, rather plump man entered the room. "DI Sandwell...Mike"
"Nikki Alexander and Jack Hodgson from the Lyell"
"According to her husband, John, this is Susan Carmichael, aged 47" the detective informed the team as he read from his notes. "This should be a nice quick one, Mr Carmichael has just confessed to murder"
"Right" Nikki was suspicious, they never confess this quickly. "We'll finish up here and get her back to the Lyell where we'll carry out the post morterm"
"Is that necessary, we can see how she died and we have arrested our killer?"
"I don't know how long you've been in this job or how many murder scenes you've attended but you never take things as they first seem" Nikki's back was immediately up and Jack took a deep breath, knowing when she started, she wasn't stopping. "We can see she has been stabbed and she has lost a lot of blood, we have recovered the knife but that doesn't mean one of these stab wounds were the cause of death, when we have her clothes off we will be able to see if there are any other injuries, we need to see if there is anything unusual in her toxicology and the first thing forensics will do is check the knife for prints. Mr Carmichael may have confessed but in my experience when the confess that quick and they are in that state, there is every possibility they are in shock and they aren't the actual perpetrator"
"I.." was all the detective managed before Nikki cut him off.
"You may be happy to have an open and shut case but this is not just another case, not just another body, we need to find out...actually you need to find out if there's any other family and for their sakes and for the sake of this poor woman we need to find out every last detail about what went on her tonight and get justice for her. I do not like standing up in court, which I will have to do and not being able to give a full and frank account of the scene and the investigations we carried out and I do not wish to go home knowing I did not do my job to the best I could. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a body to examine"
Jack tried to hide his snigger as he guided the shell shocked detective away from Nikki. "You alright?" he asked.
Mike swallowed hard. "Fine"
"You haven't been doing this long have you?" Jack figured.
"Day one. Fast track. This is my first murder" and suddenly it was all clear.
"Ah. I'd give her a wide berth today" Jack advised and the detective nodded in agreement and with that Nikki appeared from the house.
"Right I'm done here and to answer your questions I believe time of death was no more than three hours ago. It is likely that the cause of death was one of the stab wounds and in a few hours after the PM I will be able to tell you exactly which one. It is likely she was stabbed in the hall first and made her own way into the kitchen as there are no drag marks and no bruising on her arms or wrists and she was then stabbed again once in the kitchen again from the amount of blood. Jack, see you back at the Lyell. Detective"
"She's good" Jack admitted whilst Mike stood awestruck.
"She's a formidable woman" the detective finally managed to speak.
"Yeah, maybe don't tell her that" the forensic advised.
"Why, will she be angry? I'm not trying to come on to her or anything, I haven't even thought of it, she's just so..."
Jack interrupted "No the compliment will go to her head and we'll never live it down. Ahh my friend, you have a lot to learn"