Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection

Chapter 12

“Before I tell you what I"ve ascertained so far, I need to ask you something,”

“Go ahead, ask me anything,” Ross replied, wondering just what was in the mind of Hannah Lewin.

“When you searched the area around the site where the remains were found, I presume you found various items?”

“We did, but we have to consider the fact this was a wharf, a dock for loading and unloading of ships, and all sorts of rubbish will have been thrown into the water over the years, and a fair amount since it closed down.”

“I know that, Inspector,”

“Andy, please,” he interrupted.

“Yes, sorry, Andy. Anyway you found this hammer, right?”

Hannah held up the hammer that had found in close proximity to the skeleton.

“Well, actually, it was Doctor Nugent who found it, as he carried out his initial examination of the remains at the scene. It was quite close by and had obviously also been disturbed by the digger when they were clearing the dock.”

“No other tools? Any specific metallic fragments, drinks cans excluded?”

“No, just the hammer. Doctor Nugent thought it may have been the murder weapon.”

William Nugent gave a sort of nervous cough, untypical of the man, as he waited for Hannah to continue. Before she did, she beckoned with her hand to draw the two detectives closer to the remains on the table.

“Well, for once, my friend William is in error.”

Nugent coughed again, and began to speak.

“Yes, but…”

“Oh, do shut up, please, William. Nobody says you were negligent. You weren"t in a position to make a full examination in situ so you couldn"t have been expected to see the rest.”

Nugent appeared mollified by Hannah"s words and stood back a little to allow her to go on.

“Look here,” she said, as the detectives moved closer to the table. She held the hammer closer to the skull until it was lined up with the hole that was previously thought to be the cause of death.

“What are we looking at?” asked Izzie Drake.

“Here,” said Lewin. “The small perforation in the skull was almost certainly made by the hammer but from the small indentation present, I can almost certainly say this blow, though it would have certainly incapacitated the victim and possibly caused a loss of consciousness, really did not pierce the skull sufficiently far to cause any damage within the brain cavity. And, once the skeleton had been fully cleared of the thick sludge and mud that covered the midsection, we saw these.”

Hannah pointed towards the skeletal legs, and Ross and Drake"s eyes followed her finger until it came to a stop, and both detectives immediately knew exactly what she was indicating to them.

“Bloody hell,” said Ross.

“Oh s**t,” added Drake.

“Exactly,” said Hannah Lewin.

“Not quite what you expected us to find, eh, Inspector?” came the voice of William Nugent, over Ross"s shoulder.

“That"s why you wanted to know if we found any metallic fragments?”

“Yes, it would have helped of course, but it doesn"t change the fact that your victim was shot in both kneecaps before he ended up in the river. I hoped you might have found the remains of the bullets or shell casings from the shooting. They would have helped me to identify the type of ammunition used and therefore give you a possible identification of the type of murder weapon. As it is, I can still hazard a guess, but you need facts, not guesses really.”

Both Ross and Drake continued to appear a little shell-shocked at this new revelation. Ross"s thought immediately went back in time to his teens, when the TV news and the newspapers were full of stories about "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, and the IRA"s use of kneecapping as a means of spreading fear among the community, and often used as a deterrent when applied to those they believed had betrayed their cause, perhaps by talking to the police or the troops deployed in that benighted province during that sad time. He decided not to mention those thoughts right now; that being something he would save for discussion between himself and Drake back at the station. The inspector let up a silent prayer that if and when they identified the victim, he wouldn"t find himself embroiled in a case involving the terrible and bloody events that had taken place back in sixties Belfast. With the Northern Irish capital lying just across the Irish Sea from Liverpool he knew the chances were high that any number of IRA members and members of their opposition in the loyalist community factions had at any given time used the port of Liverpool as an entry and exit point for their forays to mainland Britain, and the ramifications of having to investigate an IRA killing on his home turf were enough to make Ross shiver involuntarily. For now, though, he eventually asked,

“So, you don"t think the blow to the head was fatal, and we now know the victim was kneecapped as well, before being killed, as there"d be little point doing such a thing post-mortem, so I have to ask you, what do you think killed the poor bugger?”

Hannah Lewin stood looking down at the pitiful-looking assembly of bones that lay before them on the cold steel of the autopsy table for a full twenty seconds before finally replying to Ross"s question.

“Well, I"d agree with your assumption regarding the bullet wounds to the knees, absolutely no point in taking such measures against a corpse. They certainly would have been excruciatingly painful, but, like the blow to the head, not fatal in themselves, and therefore the only assumption I can make, and it is only an assumption, based on the lack of confirming evidence, is that your victim was probably shot first, and then, while on the ground he was struck on the head and then thrown alive into the water.”

Izzie Drake, her face a mask of a mixture of anger and horror now asked,

“Are you saying they, whoever they were, just tossed him in the river like a piece of rubbish and left him to drown?”

“That"s my best guess, Sergeant,” Hannah Lewin replied. “There doesn"t appear to be any other answer to the question of how your victim found his way into the water, does there?”

“That"s just horrible,” said Drake, who then went on, “What makes you sure the body was thrown into the water, and not into the dried up dock after it had been closed off from the river?”

“That"s where we come to the rest of the results of my examination,” said Hannah Lewin.

“Please go on, Hannah,” Ross encouraged her.

“Well, from the state of the bones I can tell you there is enough evidence to suggest they were immersed in water for a long period of time. Also, there was sufficient detritus found in the immediate vicinity of the remains after cleaning to be able to date some of it, the drink cans for example, and under the remains we found these coins, none of which bears a date later than 1963, not conclusive I know, but they were probably in the victim"s pockets and fell through the bones as the clothes gradually deteriorated in the water, hence them being found in the mud immediately below the remains. There were four old cans in the mud we cleared away, two Coca- Cola cans, one Sprite and one Tizer, and each still bore the date stamps on the base that helped me identify when those cans went on sale.”

“You can determine such things after all this time?” asked the sergeant, becoming engrossed with Lewin"s findings.

“Oh yes, that"s not difficult at all. I"ve done work around the world on burial sites and communal graves and you"d be amazed at the huge databases that are being built up to assist in the identification of all sorts of artifacts found on and around corpses and skeletal remains.”

“Amazing,” said Drake, as Ross then also intervened with a question of his own.

“Okay,” he said, “but, can you give me anything else at this point that will help us to identify just who the victim was?”

“I think I can,” Lewin smiled at the inspector. “I can tell you that the victim was male, which Doctor Nugent of course had already ascertained, I know, and, from the shape of the skull I can tell you the victim was almost ninety nine percent of Caucasoid extraction.”

“A white male then?” Ross asked, then added, “but, you said only ninety-nine percent, Hannah. Explain the one percent, please.”

“This is Liverpool, after all, Inspector,” she replied. “You must remember that over the years there has been a great deal of inter-marriage between people of various races, typical in most large ports around the world. Your victim may have been of mixed race origin, one British parent, the other of any other race exhibiting similar Caucasoid characteristics, but if I had to testify on the spot, I"d say yes, this poor soul was a white male of between fifteen and thirty years of age.”

“Okay, I accept that,” Ross said, thinking for a moment of his own, mixed-race background, and then, “The bullet-holes, Hannah? Small calibre I presume?”

“Definitely,” she replied. “A shotgun would have done far more damage, particularly from close-range.”

“Close-range?” asked Izzie.

“Of course. You"re not going to shoot someone in the knees from long distance, Sergeant. Whoever did this had to be standing in close proximity to the victim and obviously had to be within close firing range so as to be on target with both shots, so to speak.”

“You"re right of course. I should have known that,” Izzie said, feeling slightly foolish in front of the forensic specialist.

“Don"t worry about it,” Ross interjected, refusing to criticize his assistant. He knew all this new information was a lot to take in and he"d seen Izzie"s face when she"d realised just how the victim had probably been eliminated. It wasn"t a particularly good way to go, if there ever was such a thing. “I do have a question, though.”

“Of course, please ask anything you want,” Lewin replied.

“Leaving the shooting aside for a moment, why didn"t the body rise to the surface? I thought dead bodies always floated after a period of time.”

You"re correct, of course, and under normal circumstances, a body sinks as the lungs fill with water, and stays there until bacteria in the gut and chest cavity produce enough lighter than air gasses, methane, hydrogen sulphide and good old carbon dioxide, at which point the cadaver will float to the surface like a balloon. In the case of this poor young man, something obviously prevented that, which probably means he was weighted down before being allowed to sink into the water. There would probably have been enough heavy items on a dockside for your killer, or killers to utilize as a weight. Or they may have used a number of smaller items and placed them in his pockets, or he may simply have got trapped in some underwater detritus, which held the body down and kept it from floating to the surface. I can take a look at the scene if you like. There may be something that gives me a clue as to what kept the body under water, instead of returning to the surface.”

“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.