A Mersey Maiden

Chapter 4

Chapter 4Autopsy Room Two

The drive to the city mortuary building had been a strange one for Andy Ross. It had been ages since he'd driven himself there, with Izzie Drake normally doing the driving, and visiting the place without his trusted assistant felt somehow wrong, out of place, especially as he knew her husband, Peter Foster, a familiar face on entering the mortuary building, would also be absent, and another, unknown receptionist would be on duty, ready to admit him to the antiseptic and formaldehyde-scented inner sanctum of the world of the pathologists.

Ross parked the car and waited for D.C. Paul Ferris to arrive in his own vehicle which he did a couple of minutes later. Ross's resident computer 'genius' and team collator Ferris had an incisive mind and Ross wanted him to view the body of Aaron Decker to get his 'feel' on the case. It was unusual for the team to be called into a case after the body had been removed from the murder site, so Ross felt they were playing catch-up. The old theory that the first twenty four hours of a murder investigation were the most important had definitely gone out the window on this one.

“Bet it feels strange without Sergeant Drake, sir?” said Ferris.

“I admit it does, Paul,” he replied. “Still, only another couple of days and she'll be back on the job.”

“Meant to ask you, is she still Sergeant Drake or Sergeant Foster now, sir?”

“Drake at work, Foster at home,” Ross replied.

“Makes sense, I suppose,” Ferris said as Ross pressed the buzzer beside the door that allowed entry to the mortuary building. A female voice answered, asking who required entry to the premises. After identifying himself and Ferris a click sounded and Ross pushed the door open. At the reception area usually manned by newly-wed Peter Foster, Ross was greeted by a petite brunette whose name badge gave her name as Michelle Hill.

“Inspector Ross, nice to meet you,” Michelle said, after the two men had produced their warrant cards. “Peter speaks of you often.”

“He does?”

“Of course. As his wife's boss your name comes up quite often in conversation.”

“Hmm, I see,” said Ross, wondering what Peter Foster really thought of him, but that was for another time.

“You're here to see Doctor Strauss, I presume?”

“Yes, please,” Ross replied.

“Autopsy Room Two,” said Michelle, “Doctor Nugent is with her I think.”

“Oh, that should be fun,” Ross smiled, as he thought of Doctor William Nugent, the overweight but brilliant Scottish Chief Medical Officer, not a man renowned for his sense of humour. Two minutes later, Ross and Ferris were to receive their first view of the mortal remains of Aaron Decker, just twenty two years old at the time of his death.

“Come in, Inspector Ross, come in,” Nugent said in a hale and hearty voice as he and Ferris entered the autopsy room after a brief knock and wait. William Nugent stood beside Doctor Vicky Strauss, who Ross had not dealt with since her brief involvement in the horrific graveyard murders of the previous year. Ross noticed that the petite pathologist had had her brunette hair cut in a fashionable bob since the last time he'd seen her. He thought it added to her look of vulnerability, though he knew she was quite superb at her job. Anything less and she wouldn't have lasted a day working under William Nugent.

“Hello, Doctor Nugent, Doctor Strauss,” Ross said as the two detectives walked slowly across the room towards the stainless steel autopsy table where the remains of Aaron Decker were already laid out, his chest cavity opened up and the majority of the internal organs already removed and weighed.

“Ah, D.C. Ferris,” Nugent observed on seeing Paul Ferris at Ross's side. “I see the inspector has let you out of the office for a breath of fresh air in the absence of the newly-wed Sergeant Drake.”

“Hello, Doctor,” said Ferris. “Not that I'd necessarily class a visit to the mortuary as a breath of fresh air, but yes, it's good to see you again, you too, Doctor Strauss.”

“Detectives,” said Strauss by way of greeting. “Sorry to have to meet like this. Such a shame, tragic when we see them this young on the table,” she added as the body on the table loomed larger in the view of Ross and Ferris, as they arrived at Vicky Strauss's side.

“No Lees this morning?” Ross asked, referring to Nugent's erstwhile assistant. Seeing Nugent without Lees was akin to how Ross probably appeared to those used to seeing him with Izzie Drake.

“Ah, poor Francis,” Nugent replied. “Had such a good time at the wedding the other day, seems he was a little worse for the drink, and slipped on the stairs when he got home. Spent three hours at A & E, only to be diagnosed with a severely sprained wrist. He's nae good to me in that state, all wrapped up and fingers useless with the strapping, so I've told him to stay at home until he can work his hand again.”

“The dangers of the demon drink, eh Doc?” Ross grinned.

“In Francis's case, aye. Silly wee boy isn't used to all that hard liquor. Seems the punch at the reception was a wee tad over-imbued with vodka, and Francis was literally bundled into a taxi by a couple of guests when he was found slumped on a staircase singing I belong to Glasgow.”

“But he's from Fazakerley, isn't he?” Ferris observed.

“Aye, that he is,” Nugent laughed. “Must have spent too much time working with me. Ma Glaswegian roots seem to have rubbed off on him and tainted the man's perception after a couple of drinks.”

“Right, well, can we get to work, please Doctors? Seems this young man's father is on his way up from London. He's something to do with the U.S. State Department so the case could have political implications. The Chief Constable has apparently already been applying pressure to the Chief Super who in turn put the squeeze on D.C.I Agostini…”

“Who in turn, is putting pressure on you, I presume,” Strauss observed, logically.

“Quite right Doctor Strauss. As I wasn't involved in the case until this morning, I have little to go on so far except the report from the Detective Sergeant who responded to the original emergency call, and the crime scene photos that were taken by Miles Booker's forensic team.”

“Right, well, Inspector Ross, I can tell you that Sergeant Meadows was very thorough and carried out a very professional examination of the scene,” said Strauss.

“I'm glad to hear it,” Ross replied. “I have his report here,” he added, holding up the file he'd brought from headquarters.

“Yes, in fact it was Sergeant Meadows who first suggested to me that something might be wrong with Sally Metcalfe.”

“That's the girlfriend, right?”

“Yes, I was examining Mr. Decker of course, and then the sergeant asked if I'd take a look at the young lady. He thought she might be on something at first, but from her state of disorientation, he suspected she'd been deliberately drugged. I broke off from my examination of the body for a few minutes and it was clear to me that Miss Metcalfe had been drugged in some way. Her reactions didn't suggest she'd deliberately taken any kind of recreational d**g, and the symptoms she displayed made me believe she'd been given something to anaesthetize her for a period of time. On close examination, I found a small needle mark on her arm that could be the site of an injection having been administered. I took blood samples at the scene, and sent them for a tox screen. We should get the results later today.”

“That was good thinking, Doctor Strauss. Now, what can you tell me about this poor fellow?” Ross said as he looked at the body of Aaron Decker. Sadness showed on Ross's face, the sadness he felt at the lost life of a young man who, it appeared, had everything to live for before being cut down by the hand of a killer.

“This is where things get interesting,” Strauss said, and Ross could almost swear she said it in exactly the same tone of voice that her boss, Doctor Nugent had used with him over the years. “Of course, the first thing I did was look for signs of a natural death. Even young men of Aaron's age have been known to keel over from heart failure, for example, but then, I noticed a few scraps of lint-like fibres in the nasal passages, petechial haemorrhaging around the eyes and signs of cyanosis in the face. I compared the lint fibres with the pillow cases on the bed and they provided me with a visual match. Tests are ongoing to confirm my thoughts. I made a quick examination of the body as it lay on the bed and lo and behold, I found a similar pin prick on Aaron's upper left arm. I had enough to warrant a determination of a suspicious death, and that's why we're here today.”

“Seems to me you've got it all worked out, Doctor,” said Ross. “I'm surprised you're going through the whole business of the autopsy if you think you've already determined cause of death.”

“Ah, procedures, rules and regulations, Inspector,” Nugent chimed in. “As ye well know, in cases of suspicious death we have tae carry out a full post-mortem examination, and so that's what we're about today.”

“Yes, of course. I know that Doc, just seems a waste of time sometimes.”

“Aye, well, I'll not disagree with you on that one, Inspector, but anyway, we were just finishing up anyway, when you and D.C. Ferris arrived.”

“Okay, so, what's your verdict, Doctor Strauss?”

Ross directed the question to the younger pathologist as, strictly speaking, it was her case, despite Nugent being her supervisor.

“Death was caused by asphyxia, Inspector. But, it's possible the victim was drugged first in order to render him unconscious and therefore eliminate any chances of him struggling while he was being suffocated. It looks very much as if his girlfriend was also drugged to pacify her while the murder was being carried out.”

“There is another option that you may have missed here, Doctor, if you don't mind me saying so,” said the quick thinking Paul Ferris.

“Go on, please, D.C. Ferris,” Strauss replied.

Ross smiled, thinking he already knew what Ferris was about to add, and as the young detective spoke he confirmed Ross's own thoughts.

“Well, what if the murderer was actually intending to kill both Aaron and Sally? He successfully knocks them both out somehow with a d**g of some description, manages to complete the murder of Decker, and then before he can kill the young woman, something disturbs him, a knock on the door, a noise at the window, I don't know. It could have been anything, I'm just theorising here, but it's surely possible. The girl could still be a target.”

“You're quite right, Paul,” Ross agreed.

“Yes, I suppose you are,” said Strauss.

After a moment's hesitation, Ross added another option to Ferris's initial supposition.

“Your theory is good, Paul, but it also opens up another possible scenario.”

“Sir?”

“Yes, it's equally possible the girlfriend is a very clever and devious killer. She could have injected Decker, suffocated him while he was unconscious and then injected herself with enough of whatever the knockout d**g was, just enough to make sure she was still out of it when someone came to find them in the morning. She was bound to know the housemates would come looking for Aaron when he didn't show up at breakfast time.”

“I see what you mean, sir. So, Sally Metcalfe could be a potential victim or she could be the murderer. Looks like we either have to protect her, or investigate her in detail.”

“Exactly,” said Ross.

Having listened to the two detectives thinking 'on the hoof' Doctor William Nugent turned to his female colleague and observed,

“Aye well, that's why they're the police and we're just the old sawbones, Vicky,” Nugent concluded. “It's their job to look one step beyond our findings, in order to catch the criminals. Am I correct, Inspector?”

“I suppose you are, Doctor. Yes, we rely heavily on what you can discover from the dead, but we have to take what you give us and try to build a case around the simple facts of what actually caused a person's death.”

“Well, I wish you luck with this one. Such a shame, and him so young,” said Nugent. “I'll have our full report on your desk as soon as humanly possible.”

“Thanks to you both,” said Ross, at which time the doors to the autopsy room flew open and a well-dressed figure of a man burst into the room closely followed by a red-faced and flustered-looking Michelle Hill.