Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection - Books 1-3

Chapter 7-2

“Thank you, yes that might be a good idea. I"ll arrange it and get back to you, give you an escort to accompany you. Perhaps Doctor Nugent would like to go along too?”

Nugent replied enthusiastically to Ross"s suggestion.

“Aye, well, that might be a good idea, Hannah. Two sets of eyes and two minds would be better than one, don"t you think? Lees can assist us on site, take photographs and record anything we find.”

“A very good idea, William,” Hannah Lewin responded. “If you make the arrangements, we can make our detailed study of the site whenever it"s convenient for you, Andy,” she said to Ross.

“Sure, Izzie, can you arrange for D.C. McLennan to pick the doctors up tomorrow morning and take them to the wharf and give them whatever assistance they need?”

“Yes, sir, I"ll make sure I see to it when we return to the station,” Drake replied.

That one point dealt with, Ross now moved the conversation back to the subject of just who their victim could have been. He directed another question at Hannah Lewin.

“You said you had more information that might help with identification, Hannah?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. If you look here,” and she pointed to what appeared to be a small, but noticeable line across one of the lower bones of the leg. Both detectives leaned in closer to get a better look at what she was indicating. “This is the tibia, and this,” she pointed again at the paler looking groove-like line in the bone, “well, this is a sign of a break at some time, long healed by the time of death, possibly occurring some time in the victim"s youth, maybe a sporting injury, or an accident of some kind. Oh yes, as I"ve previously speculated, your victim was definitely young, certainly under thirty five, and most likely around twenty years old at the time of death, give or take a year.”

“I see, and you can be reasonably sure of that?” Ross asked, already knowing the answer likely to be forthcoming. Hannah Lewin struck him as not being the sort of person to make such statements without being sure of her facts.

“Of course, Andy. First of all, we have enough teeth to give us a pretty good estimate of age and then there are other contributing factors, most of which are highly scientific and probably wouldn"t interest you, though they will be in my final written analysis of the remains.”

“Oh, please, go ahead and humour me. Tell me just a little bit about how you determined the age of our victim.”

Hannah sighed, thinking the detective was perhaps testing her skills prior to fully accepting her findings. Then again, he had a job to do.

“You really want the text book version? She asked, and as Ross smiled and nodded she simply smiled back and with the words, “Very well,” she began. “There are multiple ways that we can estimate how old the person was at the time of death, it"s kind of like a puzzle and as forensic scientists, we have to join the dots in order to achieve a result. So, first of all, we can estimate the age of skeletal remains by dentition. You probably know from your experience of similar cases that there are certain teeth that erupt at certain times, etc.”

Both Ross and Drake nodded, both understanding Lewin so far, and the scientist carried on, sounding to Ross almost as if she was quoting directly from a text book, so sound was her knowledge, it seemed to him.

“Now, apart from the teeth, we can also determine age from the cranial suture fusion sites, long bone length, though not an exact science, and changes to the pubic symphysis surface. A young adult displays a rugged surface transversed by horizontal ridges and intervening grooves, and the surface eventually loses relief with age and is bounded around the age of 35. Additionally, we can estimate the age of a murder victim by obtaining a radiograph of specific bones in the victim"s body, mainly the hand and wrist. By comparing these to an atlas of bone growth, the victim"s age can usually be detected.”

Hannah Lewin fell silent and looked directly into the eyes of Andy Ross. When he said nothing for a few seconds, she spoke once again.

“I did try to make it as clear and helpful as possible. I hope it made some sense to you both.”

Ross smiled and looked first at Drake and then at the pathologist, before finally responding.

“Hannah, you are an undoubted expert in your field and you know damn well we were hardly able to follow any of that accurately but thank you. I believe we got the gist of what you"re saying and wholeheartedly accept your findings of our victim"s age, don"t you agree, Sergeant?” He looked to Izzie for her response.

“If you say we agree, sir, then yes, without a doubt, we agree, most assuredly, we agree.”

Izzie couldn"t help but grin as she replied to the inspector, and before they knew it, the two detectives, Hanna Lewin and even the usually stiff and gruff William Nugent were laughing together. The laughter served to act as a release of the tension that had built up as Hannah Lewin had delivered her in-depth technical "lecture" on determining the age of a human being"s bones, and as they each returned to their normal, professional demeanors, the pathologist added:

“Oh yes, there was one other thing too. I think you"ll find it very interesting,”

“Do go on, please,” said Ross.

Lewin walked to the back of the room where a long, counter-top style table ran the length of the wall across the width of the room. Ross immediately recognized the three boxes of possible evidence his team had recovered in the vicinity of the skeleton, in a radius of ten yards from the last resting place of the remains.

“We received these earlier this morning, sent across from your own crime scene people.”

William Nugent joined in the conversation again. In fact, Andy Ross was quite surprised to have witnessed the long silence from the big Scotsman, quite out of character from his own experiences with the man. Ross wondered if perhaps Nugent was a little overawed by the skill and expertise of the younger, and certainly much better looking expert who now held the attention of everyone in the room.

“Aye,” he said, “And I must say your people turned up a considerably varied collection of items, most of which are probably nothing more than the detritus of many years, having been thrown into the water as nothing more than rubbish.”

“Hey,” Ross replied, leaping immediately to the defence of his crime scene analysts. “You need to remember, Doctor, that my people had no idea what they were looking for or what might or might not be significant to the case. That body may have lain in place for years or may have floated into its final resting place some time after death so yes; they collected anything and everything that may have a bearing on the case. They had a job to do, and they did it, whilst thanklessly crawling around in the filth and the mud beside that old wharf.”

“Och, dinna get yer knickers in a twist, Inspector. I"m no criticizing your people at all. Just mentioning that there was quite a bit of stuff in there for us to wade through in order to locate anything of significance. Perhaps in future, ye"ll kindly allow me to finish ma sentence afore ye begin berating me. A"hm just doing ma job you know, same as you and the good sergeant here.”

When irate or disturbed, Ross had noticed that Nugent had a habit of slipping into the broadest of Scottish dialects, clearly betraying his Glaswegian roots.

Okay, okay, truce,” Ross said, smiling broadly at Nugent. “We"re all tired and have been working long hours, so I apologise if I was a little quick off the mark there.”

Nugent "harumphed" and added, “Aye, well, I accept your apology, Inspector, and I apologise too if ye thought I was having a go at your people. Hannah, please go on and tell our friends here what we found.”

With his rant over, Nugent"s accent had moderated to his usual slight Scottish lilt, a fact Ross noticed and found instantly amusing, though he fought hard to keep himself from grinning at the humour he felt at the realisation. Izzie Drake, however, found herself thinking the same as her boss and covered her mouth with one hand, effecting a louder than necessary cough as she did her best to cover the smile that had appeared on her face.

“Are you alright?” Lewin asked, as Izzie finally brought her smile muscles under control and retuned her hand to its place at her side.

“Yes. Thank you. I"m fine, just a tickle in my throat. I"m sorry to have interrupted you, Doctor…er…sorry, I mean Hannah. Please show us what you"ve found. Sorry boss,” she said as she turned to Ross, who knew quite well what she"d been doing.

“No problem, Sergeant Drake. Happens to us all. Please, Hannah, carry on.”

Lewin lifted the lid off one of the stiff cardboard evidence boxes and lifted out a small, see-through cellophane packet and walked back to the small group gathered around the autopsy table. As she placed the packet on the table she also took another, similar packet from the right hand pocket of her white doctor"s coat, which she preceded to place next to the first packet.

“When the skeletal remains had been completely cleaned this little item was found under the pelvic area, obviously having at one time been in the victim"s trouser or jacket pocket. As you can see, not only is it the same material as the piece your people discovered, but when placed together, they make a rather nice fit, making them, in my opinion, two parts of the same whole.”

“The piece of plastic!” Izzie exclaimed.

“Well no, not plastic actually,” Lewin corrected the sergeant.

“Really?” Drake asked.

“Go on, please Hannah,” Ross urged. “If it"s not plastic, then just what exactly is it?”

Before replying, Hannah Lewin opened the two packets, and removed the two small pieces of material, then brought them together to show the detectives how they fitted together to form an almost perfect heart-shaped item.

“Does it remind you of anything, now?” she asked.

“Well, now you mention it, no, not really,” Ross replied.

“It does resemble something I"ve seen before,” Drake answered, “though I"m not sure what, or where.”

“First of all, it"s not just a piece of plastic,” Lewin went on. “It"s what"s known as tortoiseshell and this,” she held up the two pieces of material so they could all see clearly, “if I"m not very much mistaken, is a guitar pick, or plectrum, an item commonly made from the material. If I"m right, and I think you"ll find I am, then it"s quite probable your victim was a musician, Inspector.”

“Well, blow me down,” said Ross, “and it"s Andy, remember. A guitar plectrum, of all things.”

“Yes,” Drake now added. “I knew I"d seen something like it before, way back at school, when some of the kids took guitar lessons, though I"m sure they were more of the shape of a small shield.”

“They come in quite a few shapes and thicknesses,” Lewin said. “I believe it depends on whether the musician was a lead or rhythm guitarist, playing a steel stringed instrument or an acoustic model or something like that, though, not being a musical person, I"m not certain on that.”

Ross hesitated for a second, almost tempted to inject the lighthearted comment that he was surprised to find there was something Hannah Lewin didn"t know, but diplomacy won out and instead he replied, “Hannah, thank you. If you hadn"t identified it, we"d have probably ended up discounting it as just a piece of useless plastic, with no relevance to the case. Now we know we"re probably looking for a possible young guitarist, dating back to the sixties, young, having suffered a broken leg at some time in his youth.”

Hannah smiled. “I know it"s not a lot to go on and certainly far from a positive identification, but…”

“Hey, it"s a damn sight more than we had to go on before we walked in here this morning, right, Izzie?”

“Right, sir,” Drake replied, as she wondered to herself just how the hell they were going to find anyone from thirty something years ago matching such a brief and sketchy description, but, as Ross had just said, it was a step forward, albeit a small one.