"Charlie," snaps Jack. "Her name is Charlie."
"Senior, you need to keep this professional," Holmes tells him in a level voice. "I know it's not easy, but you won't be much help if you can't think straight."
Jack nods, reluctantly acknowledging she was right.
"Now, why do you think this is Sgt. Buckton?"
Jack takes a moment to get his thoughts together, before speaking. "It's Charlie's car, the victim is a woman, we haven't been able to contact Charlie and no other woman has been reported as missing in the area." He shrugs, "You do the maths."
She could certainly understand why they believed it was the Sergeant, Holmes thought as she walks toward the burnt out wreck of the car, Watson hot on her heels.
"Shit," Watson mutters as they see the victim for the first time. "Definitely not suicide or an accident," she thought to herself. The victim had been handcuffed to the steering wheel and the heat of the flames had been so intense, the wrists were now melded to the cuffs. The condition of the victim was making Watson feel a bit nauseous. Seeing the dead for the first time was never a pleasant experience and it was a part of her job that she never got used to, especially when there were clear signs that the victim had suffered and this poor soul had most definitely suffered. The scream of agony etched on the charred remains told them and no doubt all the officers there, that the victim, who could very well be their colleague and friend, had been alive when the fire had started to consume her. At least she thought it was a her, it was hard to tell from the state of the body.
Holmes seemed to echo her thoughts when she asked Jack if the Medical Examiner had examined the body and was sure the victim was female.
"Sid, sorry, Dr Walker was here not long after the call came in; he identified the victim as female, then went back to the hospital to get things ready for the autopsy." Again, his tone telling them he wasn't happy about the long wait.
"Forensics?" Holmes asks. She doubted very much that they had just twiddled their thumbs while waiting for them to arrive as he'd said.
"We gathered what we could without disturbing the body, crime scene photos have been taken and evidence is still being gathered. We still have to examine the car more thoroughly once the body," he detested that word now more than he ever had. "Has been removed. We've also found a couple of shoe prints near the car that don't match the victims."
"Excellent work Senior." Holmes does a slow survey of the crime scene, taking note of every little detail she could. "The place looks fairly secluded and there's enough bushland to have hidden the fire from view." She turns to Jack. "When was Sgt Buckton last seen?"
"Last night, when she left the station as soon as her shift finished at 7 pm. We're still trying to track her movements from when she left work, to when this happened. Sid should be able to give us a better indication of a time of death once he completes the autopsy."
"So, it was dark, which would have helped mask the smoke."
"The killer put the fire out," Watson says suddenly.
"It could have just burnt itself out," Holmes reasons.
Watson shakes her head. "The fire would have ignited the petrol and caused an explosion before it even came close to burning itself out and look around," she waves her hand around them. "This place is so dry it's like a tinder box ready to go up with even a small spark, yet there's only a bit of scorching on the ground by the car and while there's fire damage to the rest of the interior of the car, the intensity of the fire was to the driver's side and the victim itself, which seems our most likely point of ignition. This was a controlled fire that was extinguished before it could do more damage," concludes Watson.
"That's right," Jack agrees. "We didn't find a fire extinguisher, but one, possibly two, was definitely used to put the fire out."
"Which means our killer watched while she burned," mutters Watson. As a cop, she had seen some terrible things before, but she shuddered at the thought of someone being so cold and callous as to have been able to stand there and watch while another human being burned to death.
Holmes glances over at Casey. "What was our witness doing here?" she asks.
"Taking a short cut. I know the place seems secluded, but it's actually quite a well used short cut, especially during the day."
"So, our killer used the cover of darkness to commit the crime and chose a place that offered seclusion at the same time knowing the body would most likely be found in a reasonable time," Watson says, thinking it more than likely that it was someone with local knowledge. She hoped she was wrong, but experience told her the killer was usually someone known to the victim and something about this felt like it was personal.
Holmes walks around the car again before turning to Jack. "Ok Senior, you can remove the body now and we'll go and talk to the witness."
"Go easy on him," Jack tells her. "The poor kid is still in shock and we've kept him here without even calling his brother." He glances over at Casey. "You should also know that he's known Charlie his whole life and she was engaged to his brother until earlier this year, so he was very close to her."
Holmes seizes onto his words. "I take it that they're no longer engaged?"
"Charlie ended the engagement."
"Reason?"