Thanks for the review and to any and all who added this on their alerts list. I appreciate it very much! I might be a bit slow in posting since I want to make sure I do this right.
Chandler sat at his desk, adjusting everything so that it sat perfectly straight. He somehow felt that if his desk were in order, his thoughts would follow suit. Very rarely did that happen, but he hadn't given up on the idea yet. He glanced up and looked out into the room where his team would be assembling in the next hour or two and was thankful for a bit of quiet. Try as he might, he wasn't able to get much sleep the night before...or rather, earlier that morning.
He slowly got to his feet and pushed his chair back in place, adjusting it slightly so that it was sitting sqarely behind the desk, and made his way around the desks in the out-lying room, inspecting each as he went along. Kent's was, as usual, neat and tidy. His was the only one. The younger man seemed to have taken after Chandler in some ways, and Chandler was flattered by it. Looking at the other desks, he was a bit disappointed to find a few stray wrappers here and there along with bits of crumpled paper. Chandler hadn't had the opportunity to throw things away the night before. Perhaps that's why he had so much trouble sleeping. A part of his routine had not been completed and so his mind could not rest knowing that.
"You're in early, sir." Kent's voice said quietly as he draped his coat over the back of his chair.
"So are you." Chandler said as he turned to look at the other man.
"DS Miles filled me in a bit on the scene from last night." he explained. "I assume it would do no good to go down to Buchan's labyrinth of files to see if there are similar cases."
"He's got his own system down there." Chandler shook his head.
"That, and if there was some connection, we just have to mention it to him and he'll be able to tell us all of the details." Kent smiled fondly. The little man was odd, but Buchan was brilliant in his own right.
"Exactly." Chandler nodded as he looked at his watch. "It's later than I thought."
"Is there anything you'd like me to start on?" Kent asked.
"Yes." Chandler replied. "There was no identification on the victim, so start looking at records for any missing persons. Men in their mid forties to early sixties."
"On it." Kent said as he headed out of the room.
"Ah, well I was hoping to give you a happy surprise by beating you here this morning." Miles said as he walked in.
"Couldn't sleep." Chandler explained.
"I slept like a baby." Miles smiled as he dropped his coat at his desk and emptied his pockets of some small bits of paper. "Fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow."
"I was very nearly asleep, but was woken up." Chandler said, resisting the urge to pick up the bits of paper and toss them in the bin.
"Don't suppose you've gotten a call from Llewellyn yet." Miles inquired as he settled himself in his desk chair.
"Not yet."
"She probably hasn't even started the post mortem yet." the older man sighed. "Any idea yet who he was?"
"Kent's gone down to fetch missing persons records." Chandler answered as he headed back to his own office. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find our victim in there."
"Unless he was some poor sod, totally alone." Miles offered. "No family, no friends."
"You're in a cheerful mood this morning, Miles." Chandler stared at his DS. "And this is with a good night's sleep."
"I'm just thinking it would be too easy to find him in those records." he nodded towards Kent as he walked in carrying a small stack of files.
"Not many missing men fitting that age range." Kent said as he set the folders on his superior's desk neatly.
Chandler opened the first file and let Kent and Miles each take one to thumb through, hoping their man was there.
"It'd be a bit easier if he had been in better shape when he was found." Miles groaned as he stared at the picture in front of him, trying to imagine the man with tiny cuts all over his face and body. "This could be him." he decided after scrutinizing the photo.
"Really?" Chandler asked in surprise, taking the folder. "Dennis James, age 54 from Reading. Retired business owner."
"Who filed the missing person report?" Kent asked, notebook at the ready to take down their details so he could contact them.
"A sister." Chandler continued reading. "Louise Lynch. She lives in Coventry." he read her number out loud and Kent got to his feet and headed to his own desk to see if he could get a hold of her.
"Imagine finding that your brother died like that." Chandler said as he continued to look over the file.
"Imagine finding that your brother died in any way." Miles countered as he sat back in his seat, propping one leg on the other.
"I got a hold of her, sir." Kent said as he popped in. "She'll get here as soon as she can to see if it's her brother."
"Thank you." Chandler said as he glanced down at his watch.
"Come on." Miles said as he got to his feet.
"Where?" Chandler asked as he did the same. "Llewellyn hasn't called yet..."
"Then we can go get a bite to eat while we wait." he shrugged. "Can't do much until she's got the post mortem results and this Lynch woman gets here to tell us whether or not it's her brother lying in the morgue."
Chandler and Kent followed along behind the older man quietly, each of them knowing he did have a point. Chandler wanted to get the investigation underway properly speaking. It was always easier when you know who your victim is and who he knew. That, and how exactly he had died. He had to answer a few basic questions in order to be able to ask and get answers to the most important ones.
