Disclaimer: Rookie Blue does not belong to me. I am merely borrowing the characters.
A/N Thanks so much for the reviews, favourites and follows guys, glad people are enjoying this.
Gail woke. Kissed Holly, who groaned and stirred. Gail went to the shower where, just as the water had got warm, Holly joined her.
"How do you always manage to get in the shower just as I've managed to get the water warm?" asked Gail.
"When you understand the laws of physics, in this case the heat equation, you can do most things." replied Holly.
"Nerd!"
"You do know there is a rumour that they had to call in a professor of physics from the Uni to interpret the report you wrote for the Crown Attorney's Office last week, don't you?"
"Really?" Gail laughed so hard she started choking.
They finished their shower, dressed and ate breakfast.
Holly and Gail travelled to the morgue together. The case wasn't going anywhere until they got an ID and given that Holly was confused about the gender of the skeleton (she'd identified it as male at the scene and female in her lab) they were a long way from getting an ID.
"So which is it?" asked Gail when they got to the lab.
"I'm really not sure! The brow ridges and ribcage say male but the pelvis says female. This is either a man with really wide hips or a very butch looking woman. Until the forensic anthropologist gets here I'm in the dark. Sorry." said Holly.
"Any chance we're looking at the head from one person and the body from another?" said Frances.
"No, I don't think so, the skeleton is, remarkably, still articulated, and the diatoms match. This seems to be the scene of death." said Holly.
"How about cause of death?" asked Gail.
"There I may be able to be a little more positive. From the damage to the left number six rib and the right number five rib I am confident that the cause of death was a gunshot wound and that the bullet would have been of medium calibre, say a 8-9mm and would probably have passed through the heart." said Holly.
"Ah madmoiselle 'Olly!" a woman with a lab coat covering her simple but elegant clothes entered the room.
"Excuse me madam, but unless you have official..." Gail was cut off by Holly.
"It's all right Gail she's the forensic anthropologist." Holly turned to the woman. "You'll have to excuse my finacee, she gets protective of crime scenes. Being a detective does that."
"Fiancee? C'est increable! So the free spirit is caged?" said the woman.
"Walked in willingly! Even built the cage."
"Nice! Can one of you please tell me whether the skeleton is male or female?" said Gail
"First let me do the introductions. Detective Gail Peck, Officer Frances LeTrec meet Dr Adelina Bizzet." said Holly.
Adelina kissed Gail on both cheeks much to Gail's displeasure.
"Now can someone tell me the sex?" Gail was getting irritated.
"On ze cause du mort I agree. Ahhh! I see the problem with determining gender." Adelina's eyes narrowed. "In the absence of flesh or clothing it is going to be difficult to determine what this person identified as."
"Identified as?" Gail was puzzled.
"You want the gender to narrow down the search of the missing persons? No?" said Adelina.
"Yes. That would be a help!" said Gail.
"May not be possible. They have characteristics of both but would, given our society, 'ave identified as one or the other. But I can give you occupations they may 'ave 'ad. And a fairly narrow age range." said Adelina.
"So are we talking intersex or transgender?" asked Gail.
"Intersex. Probably not born in Canada or the US or anywhere else with western standards of paediatric care." said Adelina.
"The lack of paediatric care is based on?" asked Gail.
"Not lack, more: different. In the west the standard of care when this person was born was to fit them to the binary male/female system. This person was not fit to that system." said Adelina.
"Fit them how?" asked Gail
"Drugs, surgery." said Adelina.
"Oh. And this skeleton shows no sign of that?" said Gail. "OK let me make a call!"
She rang Jo's mobile.
"Gail! Great party." Jo answered.
"Thanks. I've landed one for my first solo. Vic appears to be intersex." Gail replied.
"What the hell is that?"
"It is an umbrella term for a range of complex medical conditions that render a person neither fully male nor fully female."
"Wow that's going to make identification difficult! Or maybe not. Was this an immigrant from Thailand of European descent? Jo asked.
"Certainly an immigrant. Hold on."
Gail took her phone away from her face.
"Thailand, European Descent, a goer?" she asked.
"Goer?" Adelina was unfamiliar with the term.
"She means is it possible they were from Thailand and of European descent." explained Holly.
"Oui, possible."
"Did you hear that Jo?" Gail was talking into her phone.
"Yeah and who is the sexy sounding Quebecois?"
"Dr Adelina Bizzet, forensic anthropologist from Montreal."
"Keep her there! I am on my way."
"OK?" Gail had doubts about Jo's motives.
"Oh and cause of death?"
"Probably shot. From the side. Bullet probably compromised the heart."
"Compromised? You sound more like a pathologist by the day! See you soon."
"See you."
With that the call ended
"Detective Rosaati is on her way, she'd like you to stay until she gets here."
At the station Jo went to Frank's office.
"Sir, I have a problem." she said.
"Spit it out!" he ordered.
"I am going to have to take over Gail's case. Not because she's been incompetent, far from it. If I'm right it'll need a taskforce involving Guns and Gangs and the HCU and god knows who else. I think they've found Jean Abercombie, sir."
"Phew! That was thought to be a mob hit. Well spotted Gail."
"Yeah thing is this was supposed to be Gail's test solo and I'm going to need her on the task force for this so I can't give her another test till that's finished and that could be months or years."
"I don't see a problem. She's done what a solo detective who comes across a case like this should do. As far as I am concerned test passed! She's a full detective as of now. I'll sort the paperwork."
"Thank you sir!"
With that Jo left Frank's office.
At the morgue Holly and Adelina poured over the skeleton. They found several occupational markers indicating someone who spent most of their time standing, cutting things up. So perhaps food precessing of some kind.
Jo walked in with a smile on her face twenty minutes later. Put a picture down on the table of a male looking Caucasian face with long blond hair.
"Meet Jean Abercombie born May, 21st 1975 Bangkok, Thailand. Emigrated to Canada 1995, reported missing by her employer June, 24th 2008. Worked as a butcher. I worked this case." said Jo.
"Fits. Any DNA on file?" said a relieved Holly.
"Yes, from her hairbrush." said Jo.
"I'll get a comparison done." said Holly.
"How was the case left?" asked Gail.
"No body, no leads, going nowhere." said Jo.
"Until now?" said Adelina.
"Until now!" said Jo and Gail in unison.
"I presume you want in?" said Gail.
"Yeah, sorry Gail. But the good news is I had a word with Frank, you're no longer in training. You're a full detective as of 20 minutes ago." said Jo.
"Am I still on this case?" asked Gail.
"Absolutely. This is going to take more than one detective, a lot more." replied Jo.
"Dr Bizzet, there may be more skeletons. If you haven't got anything urgent on in Montreal I'd be grateful if you stayed. No reflection on you Dr Lee." said Jo.
"Oh believe me, I will be glad to have Dr Bizzet available!" said Holly.
"Right, we are going to start with a survey of the area where the skeleton was found."
"Geophysics? Magnetic resonance, electrical resistance, conductivity, or GPR?" asked Gail.
Everyone except Holly looked at Gail in astonishment.
"I can see why you 'ave this one." Adelina said to Holly.
"We'll ask. Any opinions on which would get better results, Gail?" said Jo..
"Well we probably won't get anything from Electrical Resistance because of the surfeit of organic material in the soil, it being a woody bog. Conductivity is out for the same reason. Can magnetic resonance distinguish between human and animal bone? I doubt it! Ground penetrating radar will tell us where the ground has been disturbed so that is the one I think we need."
"Now you see why they needed that physics professor to interpret the report to the Crown Attorney's Office?" said Jo to Holly.
"Yeah but I also think she's right." said Holly.
"OK GPR it is!"
"But a field walk first I think" said Adelina.
"OK we need a bucket load of rookies!" said Jo.