Greetings fellow readers, here is another update for you to consider, now I know this is pretty slow going so far, but stick with it there will be some pretty good stuff coming soon. I hope.
They had dropped Jack and Brian off at the office and Gerry had climbed into the front seat. Sandra had barely stopped the car to allow the boys to get out before she was off again and headed for the pathology lab as few short minutes down the road. She would never have said anything to the boys but she had a feeling that they were not going to solve this one. At least not in the time frame they had. One week was all they really had, as soon as that hotel was demolished she was sure so would be any chance of solving this case.
Not speaking to Gerry for the entire journey and for once not being bugged by him either Sandra sat in quiet contemplation while she watched everyone else go about their daily business. She wondered what would happen to society of they all knew what really went on in the world. Of how close they all came to being that next victim lying in the bed, cause of death unknown. It was then that she realised what was bothering her so much about this case. That it was so random, that not one of the victims linked up to any other and if they had been found in five different locations there would never have been a case.
Stopping the car on that scary thought Sandra switched off the engine and turned to Gerry. He was watching her whilst he undid his seat belt and he gave her a weak smile.
"I don't want to hear any talk of ghosts and goblins when we get in there." She said handing Gerry her bag as she climbed out of the car and fumbled around with the keys for a moment before locking it.
"Don't worry I have no intention of looking like a crazy man." He said passing Sandra her bag back and she flashed him a small smile.
"No more than usual anyway." She replied with a grin that made Gerry smile as they headed off towards the office where Dr Jackson was due to meet them.
It was like many morgues dark and quiet and had a creepy air about it that Sandra never really become accustomed to. Not that light and noisy would have been appropriate for a morgue, but it wasn't like any of the patients would be complaining so why did they have to be so dark and quiet. The thought rolled around Sandra's head as she waited with Gerry in a small reception room. The chairs were predictably hard and uncomfortable and the nurse at the station was elderly and as quiet as the people currently residing in her refrigeration units. Gerry was browsing through a well-thumbed magazine as Dr Jackson walked in through the door, Sandra was amazed at the speed with which Gerry stood up, brushed himself off and presented his hand to the tall dark haired trim woman in her early fifties.
"D.S.I Pullman?" she enquired towards Gerry as Sandra just watched this display of machismo with a certain interest that she would never admit to out loud.
"Umm no, I am Gerry Standing, this is my Govner." He said shaking Dr Jackson's hand for a moment longer than necessary as he finally turned to Sandra as though he had forgotten she had been in the room at all.
"Sandra, please." Sandra said holding out her own hand to shake the Dr's as she moved forward not paying any attention to Gerry's obvious attempt to stand in between the two women and they shook hands.
"Pleased to meet you and it's Dawn, all those years at school to be called Dr and now I hate it. Ironic don't you think?" she asked as Sandra merely nodded and followed as Dawn pushed through the double doors at the end of the waiting room and revealed the rooms behind. Sandra checked back over her shoulder to see if Gerry was following as an almost after thought. He was right there though, just like she knew he would be as Dawn walked then to her office which was surprisingly cluttered.
"Excuse the mess but I have been looking through a lot of files concerning your five dead men." She said offering them the chairs opposite her on the other side of her desk as she sat down and pulled out one of the files.
"Dead men, so you don't think they were murdered?" Sandra enquired thinking it was time to get down to business and it seemed as though Dr Jackson agreed.
"On that one I cannot be one hundred percent sure. You see without an actual body to examine it is hard to say for certain what thy died from." Dawn continued as Gerry shuffled around in his chair slightly as Sandra looked at him and wondered what was wrong.
"I thought the recoded cause of death was heart failure?" Sandra said as Gerry finally still and gave his boss a quick nod.
"That's not always the cause of death, it is something we use when we cannot find anything else wrong with the victim. There could well be another reason for the victims heart to simply stop beating. Very few men in their thirties simply have a heart attack and die without some form of assistance or underlying genetic weakness in that area." Dawn continued as she pulled out a file presumably on one of their victims and Sandra listened with interest.
"I have reviewed each case by itself, and then as a group, I have come up with a few possibilities for these men's deaths, although I have to warn you it is all speculation." Right now Sandra knew that speculation was the least of their worries when it came to this case and she urged the Dr to continue.
"Looking at all these men and their previous medical reports it seems almost impossible that they all could have dropped dead from a heart attack. However suffocation is a possibility, done slowly enough while someone is asleep would not cause too much bruising. Also it could explain the lack of petechial haemorrhaging in the eyes."
"What is that?" Gerry enquired speaking up for the first time as Dr Jackson smiled back at him.
"It is where the blood vessels in the eyes burst due to lack of oxygen, often found in someone who has been suffocated because of the sudden and harsh nature of it. But if your victims were asleep, they may not have realised until it was too late." Sandra nodded, at least it was a step in the right direction, however much of a leap it might be.
"You said several, what else could they have died from?" Sandra asked as Dawn placed down her file and laid her pen next to it as well.
"There is always poison, none of our victims had a full tox screen performed because their death was eventually ruled as natural causes. Any number of poison's that we don't usually screen for could have been used. Slow acting and leave no outward signs on the body afterwards." Now this had promise and Gerry obviously saw it to as he sat forward.
"Helps us with the invisible man theory, if he poisoned them before they went to the room, then he wouldn't have had to go up there and finish the job. No prints, not CCTV jobs done." He said and Sandra had to agree with him, but there was no way now they could prove the theory.
"Could you get us a list of the poisons that could have been used, you know so we can run a check to see if anyone purchased them around the times of the murders?" Sandra asked and Dr Jackson nodded quickly.
"No problem, but it may be quite a long list. I do have one more theory, and although unlikely it may also explain your lack of a suspect in the room." She continued, Sandra was more than happy with the outcome so far, it certainly had possibilities and depending on what the other two found out could lead them to the killer.
"Electrocution. Now I know from the photos the body showed no sign of it, however if the charge was introduced at an extremity, such as the fingers or toes there would be little and almost no damage to the body itself. How they would do such a thing falls more in your line of expertise than mine however." Dawn finished and Sandra felt like the woman had told them all she knew.
"Thank you Dawn, we will look into it." Sandra said standing up and shaking the pathologists hand as Gerry did the same.
"Oh Sandra, if you manage to work out exactly what happened to these men, I would love to hear about it." Dawn said as they made to leave her office. Sandra turned back and smiled down at the woman still seated at her desk.
"No problem, you have been very helpful." She replied as Gerry opened the door for her and they made their way out of the building with more speed than was strictly required. Getting into the car Sandra started the engine and Gerry buckled in beside her.
"You know I don't think I will ever get used to those places." He said as Sandra pulled away and headed back for the UCOS office. She turned to him briefly and nodded slightly, she knew what he meant but she wasn't going to tell him she was thinking the exact same thing.
"At least now we might have something to go on, if we can find someone in that hotel that purchased one of the poisons Dr Jackson comes up with we will have a killer if not a motive." Sandra said making the final turn towards the police building as Gerry looked out of the window before replying.
"You know I have been thinking about that, the motive may be something as simple as money. That these men were killed because someone was paying their killer to do it." Gerry said finally as Sandra stopped the car and switched off the engine.
"You know sometimes Gerry I remember why I keep you around." She said with a small grin as they both got out of the car. Moving towards the external door Gerry pulled it open and ushered Sandra inside out of the cold wind that had picked up once more and closed the door quickly behind them.
"Oh and if you want me to inform Dawn of our progress when the time comes I am happy to volunteer." He said trying the puppy dog eyes on her which quickly fell silent as she stopped and looked at him.
"Then you say something like that and I wonder why I don't fire you." She half grinned half snapped as they pushed the doors open to the office to find D.A.C Strickland sat in one of the chairs and Sandra wondered how she could get rid of him as quickly as possible without getting herself demoted in the process.
"Sir how nice to see you what can I do for you?" Sandra enquired as Strickland stood up to greet the returning pair while Brian and Jack remained in their seats. Sandra caught a glance of Gerry as he snuck off towards his desk and she vowed to get him back for that one later but right now she had to deal with Strickland.
"Nothing really I was just wondering how the case was going." He said but Sandra could feel something was coming, something she probably wasn't going to like.
"We have made some progress on what might be our cause of death. We have reason to believe poisoning could be involved and that maybe the person who carried out these murders was a killer for higher. We will have to check out the families, work colleagues again to this end." Sandra said as Strickland just stood there arms folded and nodded his head slightly.
"Good, well we are all keen to see if you can figure this one out, but there is something else." Here it is, Sandra thought as she placed her hands in her pockets and rocked back on her heels.
"What's that sir?" she said as waiting for him to continue was starting to irritate her and she just wanted him to get on with it at this point.
"We are getting pressure from the developers, they are losing a lot of time and money, and for a case we are not even sure is a case yet. The deputy commissioner has agreed that The Grand hotel will be coming down Friday, whether you have completed your investigation or not." Strickland finished and Sandra pulled her hands from her pockets and clapped them together.
"Great three days, three days to solve a case that has been sitting gathering dust for twenty years. Sometimes I do wonder who we are really working for sir. The public or anyone with enough money to influence who is running this country." Sandra was angry and not for the first time that money had once again gotten in the way of them finding justice and she had just taken it out on her boss. Before she could stutter an apology though Strickland took a deep breath.
"We all have to answer to the binds of budget sometimes, it's sad but for now that's just the way it has to be." With that the D.A.C left them alone to try and come up with an answer before their time ran out.
Hope you are enjoying this please let me know reviews make me happy. Thank you for reading XxX