"How do you think the investigation is going?" Matt asked Steve as they drove home later that evening.
"I think we made good progress today, Guv," Steve replied. They had just had a team debrief before everyone left for the weekend and certainly things were moving in the right direction.
Annabelle DuBois they had discovered was a retired headmistress. She had never married and consequently had no immediate family. There didn't appear to be any distant relatives either.
Although she lived alone she was an active member of the community and was a member of several groups. All described a lady who was very friendly and always very smart and presentable, even when just going to the shops.
Her death certificate stated she had died of a stroke and her post mortem confirmed that. There was also no sign of foul play, leading the pathologist to declare it had been a natural death.
Her body had been taken to FW and Son's funeral directors where a temporary worker called Reggie Dawkins had been found giving her body extra attention in the form of a wash and blow dry. He had not returned to work after being questioned and reprimanded by his employers and as Alan had found out, had given a false address. The team suspected his name might be false as well as nothing was showing on the data base or he had no previous crimes.
There was footage of Reggie leaving the cemetery after being disturbed by the grave digger, but it had been dark and he was wearing dark clothing so identifying him was impossible.
Some of the team who were rostered to work the weekend would be trawling through more footage seeing if they could find Reggie entering the cemetery. Unfortunately there were no cameras where the grave had been disturbed but it would have taken a few hours to dig down to the coffin so he possibly entered during daylight hours.
Reggie had forced open the coffin and then proceeded to vandalise the body of Annabelle using what the pathologist thought might be some sort of blunt shears as the fingers had not been cut cleanly off. Jagged edges of bone and skin were present at the exposed surfaces and there was congealed blood in the hair suggesting the same tool had been used afterwards for the hair cut.
Despite the dress being pulled up, there was thankfully no evidence of any sexual activity on the body. It was possible that Reggie had intended to do so but was disturbed before being able to carry out the heinous act.
Matt had found a criminal psychologist who was willing to help with the case. He had sent him all the information he had and would study it over the weekend. He would visit VCU on Monday and give them his profile of Reggie.
"You're not just saying that?" Matt prodded, keen to get his DI's thoughts. "I want to make sure I'm doing a good job,".
"You're doing fine," Steve promised as Matt pulled up in front of his temporary home.
"Have a good weekend Steve," Matt wished.
"Will do," Steve replied as he got out of the car.
"I'll call if there are any developments," Matt said before he pulled away.
Steve watched until the car had disappeared before walking up the driveway and entering the house. His nose was met with the amazing aroma of cooking food and his stomach growled in anticipation of eating it.
Toeing off his shoes, Steve headed in to the back room where Kate was in the kitchen area checking on the food in the oven.
"Hey," Steve said wearily in greeting.
"Hi," Kate said as she closed the oven door. She glanced at Steve and saw he looked exhausted. "You ok?".
"Yeah," Steve sighed. "Just a long day," he confessed as he approached Kate.
"Need a hug?" she asked.
"Yeah," Steve admitted before Kate was wrapped around him.
"Ooh," she declared as she caught a familiar scent, "someone's been in the mortuary," she said as she stepped back.
"Yeah," Steve admitted. "Have I got time for a quick shower?" he asked, keen to smell of something other than formaldehyde.
"Yes," Kate confirmed. "Go have a quick one whilst I make the gravy and mash the potatoes.
"Thanks," Steve replied gratefully before trudging up the stairs and heading to the shower.
Stepping under the warm spray gradually revived Steve. When he was alert enough he grabbed his shower gel and applied it liberally to his body and hair until the chemical smell of death was replaced by some woody scent.
A quick rinse and Steve turned the shower off. He stepped out of the cubicle and wrapped a fluffy towel around his waist before picking up the dirty suit he had just left lying on the floor. He deposited his shirt and underwear in the basket to be washed at some point. He would take the suit to the dry cleaners over the weekend to be cleaned.
Heading to the bedroom he pulled on a clean pair of underwear, some sweat pants and a t shirt before he headed back down stairs. Kate was just serving up their meal as he entered the room. He spied an unopened bottle of wine on the table and decided to be helpful. Opening it he poured it in to the two empty glasses also on the table.
"Cheers," said Kate as she put the two full plates on the table and took a seat.
"This looks amazing, Kate," Steve complimented as he took a seat and picked up a fork. He scooped up some mashed potato and put it in his mouth. "And tastes great too," he added. This meal was just what he needed.
"Thanks," Kate replied before switching topics. "So tell me about this case,".
"You're sure?".
"C'mon Steve," Kate begged. "I'm a police officer. There's not much you can say to freak me out," she reminded him.
Realising she was right, Steve told Kate about the case. It was actually good discussing it with her as she thought about angles that he and Matt hadn't thought about.
"Do you think this Reggie or whoever he's called will become fixated on another corpse?" she asked.
"I really hope not," Steve replied. "We've got a psychologist working on a profile. He's gonna report back on Monday,".
"Are you needed in over the weekend?" Kate enquired.
"No," Steve said. "At the moment Reggie doesn't seat to be a danger to anyone living," he continued. "Matt will call if plans change,".
"Good," replied Kate, "because we are meeting Amanda and someone else from cyber for that photo shoot I mentioned," she informed Steve as he ate.
"OK," Steve replied. "How was your jog by the way?" he asked, changing topics as he remembered what Kate had said she would be doing that day. He hadn't had a chance to speak to her since then.
"Fairly successful," she admitted. "Found out what Matt was doing the other day when he wasn't at VCU,".
"Oh yeah?" Steve asked interestedly. "Anything of interest?".
"Not to our investigation, no," Kate revealed.
"So what was he doing?" Steve prompted.
"Fertility tests. He and Tash are trying to have a family,".
"Not very corrupt," Steve said.
"No," Kate agreed. "Has he done anything suspicious at work?" she asked and Steve shook his head. "I haven't uncovered anything in my searches either," she admitted. "I'm starting to think the Gaffer might be wrong about this,".
"Yeah," Steve agreed, "but I think I'm gonna have to stay until this case is solved," he said, and Kate agreed. It was his duty as a police officer to help Matt catch this individual and keep the public safe.