The dangers of Smoking.
The dangers of smoking are widely known, by smokers and non smokers alike. Detective Sergeant James Hathaway knows them, accepts them and lives with them. Except one. No one thought to warn about that one did they?
Chapter 1 – Two years later
"Good morning" Doctor Laura Hobson beamed as Detective Inspector Robert Lewis and Detective Sergeant James Hathaway ducked under the crime scene tape and headed towards her.
Hathaway smiled a return, or she thought he did, with Hathaway, you could never be sure, almost ten years on and she still wondered. Lewis was fiddling with his standard issue, crime scene paper suit.
"I swear these things get smaller" he grumbled.
"Or you get bigger?" Laura raised her eyebrows.
"I've told you before" Lewis glowered slightly "I'm not eating that brown bread"
"It's your cholesterol" she shrugged.
"Oh enough with the lovey dovey" Hathaway rolled his eyes.
"One day" Lewis turned the glower on his subordinate, and friend "A woman will come along and bully you, won't be so smart then will you?"
"He'll always be smart" Laura chuckled.
"So what delights do you have for us today?" Lewis ignored the last comment.
"By the looks of him" the doctor led them into a white tent that covered a body "Homeless, about 40 but could be younger, head injury but hard to say how, or if it killed him"
"Exposure?" James looked up from scribbling in his notebook.
"In September?" Laura replied "It wasn't that cold last night, even someone in poor condition wouldn't have perished"
James nodded, writing some more.
"Time of death?" Lewis asked.
"24 to 48" Laura replied "I'll know more when I get him back of course. He's rather dirty, can't see an awful lot here"
"Could it be natural causes?" Lewis questioned.
"It could be alien intervention" Laura quipped "Like I said, nothing obvious, you'll just have to wait"
Lewis tightened his jaw at Hathaway's smirk but didn't rise.
"I don't suppose there was any ID?" Lewis ventured.
"No, I'm afraid not" Laura said "Just some bits of old newspaper and wrappers, cartons, things like that in his pockets"
Hathaway looked hard at the body "Sometimes people get lost, sometimes they lose themselves"
"Evie?" Laura called to another white suited colleague "Do you have the personal effects?"
A small woman picked up several police evidence bags she had been cataloguing and handed them to the doctor.
"This is what we got off him" Laura handed the bags to Hathaway "Might be something there"
"Thank you" he nodded.
"Right well" Lewis huffed "Best go see if we can get anything from it, until you decide whether it's suspicious or not"
"I'll run dental records and DNA" Laura added "I might beat you to an ID"
"You're on" Hathaway grinned, holding out his hand to shake on it.
The doctor looked at her own gloved hands and then at him "You might not want to do that" she advised "I know where my hands have been"
Hathaway coughed and retracted his hand "Make it interesting?"
"A drink" Laura decided "All rounds on the loser"
"Oi!" Lewis was lifted from his slight gloomy mood by their banter "You can't bet on a case!"
"We can and we are" Laura told him smartly "Best get started James"
Lewis shook his head as he and James left the crime scene.
"I dunno who's worse" he chuckled "You or her"
"Oh definitely her" James gave a small laugh "Sir"
…...
Hathaway frowned now and again as he looked at the pieces of scrap paper from the evidence bags. Holding bits together to see if they made sense.
"What ya got?"
James spun his chair away from his desk and looked at Lewis, and behind him, Innocent.
"A lot" he replied "Of nothing"
"Not encouraging" Innocent remarked.
"Dates don't form a pattern" Hathaway continued "Stories don't link on from each other, all from different publications, but all from Oxford"
"What about the wrappers?" Lewis gestured "Anything there?"
"Chocolate, sweets, crisps, cigarettes" Hathaway shrugged almost imperceptibly "All available from any supermarket or newsagents. Did find a few receipts, running the cards now. And I'm going to visit the shops, see if anyone recognises our man"
"Well, keep at it" Innocent nodded, moving on.
"Yes, ma'am" Hathaway scowled.
"So no hint of an ID?" Lewis grinned at him.
"There's a connection" James muttered "I just can't find it"
"Ever thought you're looking too hard?"
"You can never look too hard" Hathaway gave him that unblinking and slightly insolent look that seemed to infuriate and endear in equal measure.
"Well leave it for now" Lewis said "Laura has something"
Hathaway gave the contents of his desk a final look and stood.
"Julie?" he called.
"Sarge?"
"Could you return these to the evidence locker for me?"
"Of course" she gave him a shy smile and started to gather them up as James swung his jacket on.
"She fancies you" Lewis said out of the side of his mouth as they left, grinning at Hathaway's snort of disbelief.
"I don't think so"
"She's pretty" Lewis regarded him "Ask her out"
"I'm not her type" James muttered.
"Oh so she turned you down then?" Lewis chuckled.
James merely shook his head by way of an answer, it wasn't the first time his superior had suggested it, and he would bet his last pound it wouldn't be the last.
…...
"Another exile from a pathologically scared society?" James Hathaway sat on the bench outside the mortuary and lit a cigarette.
The woman who occupied the bench breathed some smoke out before she looked at him, she recognised him. He was in the police, came in to the autopsy suite with DI Lewis, her bosses 'partner', if staff room gossip were to be believed.
"Yes" she replied "Banished for my socially unacceptable habit"
He gave a tightening of his lips which may have passed for a smile and inhaled deeply from the cigarette.
"Do you work in the mortuary?" he asked after a moment.
"Yes" she nodded "Assistant to Doctor Hobson"
He nodded "Not been here long" he observed.
"A month" she replied.
"And before that?" he asked.
She laughed "And you are a policeman" she said.
Again, the lips twitched "Obviously"
"Don't worry" she replied "It's not the suit that gives you away"
"Oh?" he looked at her. She extinguished her cigarette and stood, good manners dictated he do the same.
"No, it's the suspicious nature" she told him with a smile.
"Comes with the job" he nodded.
She gave him a shy smile and turned to leave.
"What's your name?" he called after her.
"Evie" she turned back around "Evie Bennett"
He extended his hand "DS James Hathaway"
"Nice to meet you DS James Hathaway" she replied.
"Likewise, Evie Bennett" he nodded "I'm sure we'll meet again"
"I'm sure we will" she said "As long as people keep dying and policemen keep investigating"
"And society's paranoia about smoking continues" he added.
She gave a small laugh "Until next time then, my exiled friend"
He returned her smile, though she noticed it didn't reach his eyes, and left.
James watched her go as he finished his cigarette, standing on it he headed into the mortuary and DI Lewis.
…...
Hathaway started the car "So we have a homeless person, whacked over the head in the woods, what are we thinking?"
"I never have a clue what you're thinking" Lewis remarked "But a mugging gone wrong? A fight?"
"Possibly" James replied "No ID still, and uniform haven't had much luck with the regular homeless in the city"
"Right" Lewis mused a moment "We need to get around to the shelters with a picture, find out who this guy was. You can start with that, I'll have a bash at missing persons"
…...