The first thing Ian did was to take pictures of the room, it had already been done once with the body of Sergeant David Morris present, but the pictures hadn't been of the best quality and didn't show nearly everything that they should have. The next thing he did was to spray luminol looking for any bodily fluids that weren't obvious to the naked eye that he needed to take samples of. After that he ascertained that there were no visible prints before dusting the room with fingerprint powder to look for the latent ones. There were many, he noted grimly, most were just partial but he'd record them anyway. Once he'd done that he checked to make sure that by removing any of David Morris's personal effects he wasn't removing any evidence that he needed to take samples of. He then took anything he could out to where Spence and Grace were waiting for it. Grace would use it to help her form a psychological analysis of David Morris, they needed to know who he was to find out who the killer was. Spence would make up the inventory, a time-consuming boring part of the job, it was also necessary, cases had failed at court because they hadn't filled out all the proper forms. Ian then went back to taking samples, making a mental note to get the fingerprints of David Morris's unit, that would undoubtedly clear up most of the partials.
Meanwhile Boyd and Laura were in the base commanders office, they didn't expect to learn anything from him, it was just protocol, as much a part of the job as the forms Spence was filling out.
"It's just terrible, just terrible. He was a promising young sergeant, he could have gone far." General Mace told them standing by the window, he crossed the room to his desk, reaching in his top drawer he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "You mind?" he asked, looking for his box of matches
"It's your office sir." Boyd replied biting his lip, the General had only asked out of politeness, whatever he said it wouldn't have mattered.
"I've already been interviewed once, I told those detectives everything I know, I don't understand why I'm being interviewed again." Boyd and Laura exchanged a glance, they'd already told him twice.
"A link between this case and an old case has come up. We're from the cold case squad, the link makes it our case." Boyd explained again, General Mace nodded still not understanding but not wanting anyone to know that.
"Can you tell us what Sergeant Morris was doing on the day he died?" Laura asked, thankfully she'd been relieved of the duty of taking notes because they were getting a copy of the whole bases itinerary, this was just to fill the time.
"At the moment we're undergoing a period of extensive training, increasing our readiness state. This means that if war is declared tomorrow we're the first battalions to be deployed. In a couple of weeks we'll start the stand down and another base somewhere will start training extensively. So at the moment, the bell rings at five-thirty to get the men up, they then go for a three mile run, after that they shower, change into BDU's and have breakfast. After breakfast they head to the range, practice their shooting. Then they clean their weapons ready for inspection, after that inspection they get their barracks ready for inspection, after that inspection there's lunch. In the afternoon there's an exercise, on that day . ." General Mace pulled out a book, running his finger down the page until he found what he was looking for. "Yes on that day D regiment were simulating an attack against B regiment. After the exercise we work out the scores, talk about where they went wrong, after that the men clean their weapons, shower and go into the mess, or if they have a pass they can go off base, Sergeant Morris didn't. Then it's lights out at ten, Morris was alive then because he and Captain Kennedy did the barracks inspections together." Boyd smiled to himself, they already knew that because of the autopsy.
"Was Sergeant Morris well liked, did he have any enemies that you know of?" Laura asked, General mace shook his head.
"Not that I know of, though you'd be better off talking to Captain Kennedy about that."
"Where can we find Captain Kennedy." Boyd inquired.
"He'll be commanding his company in today's exercise. Corporal Richards is outside he'll take you." General Mace stood up and shook hands with Boyd. "If there's anything else you need don't hesitate to ask, everybody is very anxious to get to the bottom of this tragedy." Boyd nodded in reply and then left the office Laura following.
"Captain Kennedy?" Boyd yelled struggling to make himself heard over the deafening noise of gunfire. They were in the observation hut, for the purposes of this exercise Captain Kennedy was dead, he was watching the progress of his company on the computer monitor or when they were close enough with binoculars. "Captain Kennedy." Boyd shouted for the second time this time tapping him on the shoulder. Captain Kennedy turned at once, giving them a quizzical look, taking in the civilian clothes.
"Yes." Captain Kennedy replied guardedly, his eyes narrowed.
"I'm Detective Superintendent Boyd." Boyd yelled holding up his badge. "Can we talk? It's about the death of Sergeant David Morris." Captain Kennedy nodded and motioned for them to follow him. He led them to the room at the end, where there were the referees and the people keeping score. As soon as he shut the door it was instantly much quieter.
"This rooms sound proofed so the referees can concentrate." Captain Kennedy explained. "David was a good friend of mine, I'll help you anyway I can."
"How well did you know him?" Boyd asked, reluctantly Laura got out her notebook and left handed started to make notes.
"Pretty well, we've served together for six years. First as private and sergeant, then as sergeant and captain." Captain Kennedy replied.
"Did you know he was gay?" Boyd asked, Captain Kennedy looked at him in shock.
"David gay? Are you sure?" Captain Kennedy shook his head, he clearly couldn't believe it. "If he was he hid it well, when we all went out to strip clubs he came. He even had a girlfriend I think for a time."
"Do you have her name?" Boyd asked hastily, Captain Kennedy shook his head.
"No, I only saw her a couple of times, always in her car, she just to come pick him up and they went off base."
"Do you know when you last saw her?" Laura inquired, Boyd looked at her, had she thought of something that he'd missed?
"Er, let me think. I haven't seen her in a few months, last time must have been around Christmas, yes it was the twenty-seventh. I remember because I'd had the twenty-sixth off and he was leaving just as I came back." Boyd gave himself a mental reprimand, of course the people at the gate logged everybody in and out, they'd have the registration number and a name, it would just be a matter of finding the right one.
"Did Sergeant Morris's unit like him? Did he have any enemies that you know of?" Boyd finished, this would be the last question, it was the standard question, the one you always had to ask.
"Yeah his unit liked him, they had a lot of respect for him. As for enemies well I think you'll be hard pushed to find one, everybody liked him, he was a born peacemaker, settling arguments when they arose, one of the best soldiers I've ever worked with. He would have gone far." Captain Kennedy summed up.
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