Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection

Chapter 18

The phone call Andy Ross received the following morning came as a pleasant surprise. The feelings of negativity and impending failure began hanging like the Sword of Damocles over the Inspector and his team since the previous afternoon. As much as none of them felt good about the possibility of allowing a murderer to go free, even after such a length of time, the prospect of being pulled off the case loomed large and such a result was abhorrent to every member of Ross"s small team. Even young Detective Constable McLennan appeared to have lost some of his normally infectious enthusiasm.

“We"re not going to just give up though, sir, are we?” the young D.C had asked. “I mean, it"s still a body, isn"t it, that is, I mean, I know it"s a skeleton, but it"s a victim, murdered, right? Our duty must be…”

“Please do not try to tell me what our duty is McLennan. As much as I sympathise with your youthful exuberance and sense of justice, we have a duty to follow the orders of our superior officers, and if D.C.I Porteous says we close the case in a week, we close it. If we want to keep the investigation alive, we have to identify the victim, got it?”

“Got it sir. Sorry, sir,” McLennan had replied, looking rather sheepish and shamefaced at having voiced his opinions so strongly. In truth, Ross had every sympathy with young Derek McLennan. He too hated the thought that they"d quite literally unearthed a murder victim from many years earlier and due to lack of clues and identity, they could be forced to close the case almost before it had got off the ground, thus allowing the murderer to continue living in the belief that he or she had got away with their crime, scot-free.

“Ross here,” he spoke as he lifted the receiver and held it to his ear.

“Andy, it"s Hannah Lewin.”

“Oh, hello, Doctor Lewin.”

“It"s Hannah, remember? And listen, you know you said William and I could go and have another ferret around the skeleton recovery site?”

“Uh huh,” said Ross, suddenly feeling a sense of anticipation at the way the forensic scientist was speaking.

“Well we did, go for another dig that is, and we"ve just returned to the lab. I really think you should come down here and see what we found.”

Now Ross was as alert as he could possibly be.

“You"ve got something?” he asked

“We"ve got something,” she replied. “How long will it take you to get here?”

“I"ll go find Sergeant Drake and we"ll be there within the hour, and Hannah?”

“Yes?”

“Well done, and thanks.”

“You don"t know what we"ve found yet. Isn"t it a bit premature to be thanking me?”

“Just let me be the judge of that, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied as she replaced the phone on its cradle.

“Izzie,” Ross shouted at the top of his voice. “Get in here, now, and bring McLennan with you.”

Soon afterwards, Ross, Drake and young Derek McLennan were in the car heading for the mortuary. Ross had made the decision to include the young detective constable in the visit in order to give the man added experience, and in view of McLennan"s earlier statement about the case, he wanted to show him that they were, in fact, doing all they possibly could. Perhaps a visit to the morgue would give McLennan something of a reality check. It might just make him aware of the difficulties the case presented, and anyway, it was time he saw how the youngest detective on his team handled such a visit.

Peter Foster was once again on duty in reception and this time smiled warmly in recognition as Ross and Drake walked up to this cubicle c*m office, closely followed by D.C. McLennan,

“Back again so soon, Detective Inspector?” asked Foster. “You must like it here.”

“Needs must I"m afraid, Mr. Foster. You seem a lot happier today than when we called last time.”

“Ah, a good win at the weekend, Inspector, always cheers me up for the week.”

“I see,” said Ross, “an Everton supporter eh?”

“Correct,” Foster replied,

“Me too,” said Ross, and Foster beamed at him as he identified himself as a fellow fan of Everton Football Club. A wry smile on the face of McLennan gave him away as a fan of the red half of the city, in the form of Liverpool F.C. The young constable maintained a diplomatic silence in the presence of his boss.

Foster buzzed the three officers through and they were soon back in the presence of Doctors William Nugent and Hannah Lewin, Lees the assistant lurking in the background, and on this occasion, another man stood beside Hannah Lewin.

“Ah, come in, please, Inspector,” William Nugent urged. “Sergeant Drake, good to see you again, and who might we having the pleasure of entertaining here?” he said indicating young Derek McLennan.

“Good morning Doctor,” Ross replied. “This is Detective Constable McLennan, the newest member of my team. Thought he"d maybe learn a thing or two from joining us this morning.”

“Aye, a good idea, I"m sure. Pleased tae meet ye, laddie,” Nugent reached out a hand to McLennan, who shook hands firmly with the pathologist. “A fine handshake ye have, laddie. You"ll go far, I"m sure.”

McLennan blushed and Ross came to the rescue of his embarrassed young officer.

“And who have we here, may I ask, Doctor?” his eyes turning to indicate the newcomer. The answer came from the man himself, dressed in a plain navy blue suit, white shirt and red bow-tie which, to Andy Ross immediately screamed "academic" who quickly walked round from the other side of the autopsy table, his hand outstretched in greeting. The man"s black shoes were polished to an almost mirror finish. As Ross politely shook hands with the newcomer, the man swiftly identified himself.

“Alan Slade, Inspector. Please to meet you.”

“That"s Professor Alan Slade,” Hannah Lewin interjected. “Alan"s a forensic orthodontist.”

Professor“Ah, I see, I think,” said Ross.

“Hannah asked me to give her a second opinion on the teeth in your mystery skull, Inspector. Hope you don"t mind,” Slade said.

“Not at all,” Ross replied.

Hannah Lewin quickly added,

“Alan is a freelance expert in his field, Andy. I know how frustrating this case is proving to be for you and thought Alan might see something I haven"t that might help identify our victim.”

Ross nodded, “And have you found anything new, Professor?”

Slade glanced at Hannah before continuing.

“I can"t exactly say what I"ve found is new compared to Hannah"s previous analysis, but I can confirm that the amalgam used in the fillings in the victims mouth are a silver amalgam typically in use during the late fifties, early sixties. What we call composite amalgams came into regular use during the sixties but this amalgam pre-dates them so we can certainly say that victim received the fillings in his younger days. I"ve taken a full set of dental x-rays which we can normally use to generate positive identity, but we would need the patient"s dental records against which we can compare the x-rays.”

As a look of disappointment appeared on Ross"s face, Izzie Drake spoke the very thoughts in his mind.

“So we"re really nowhere nearer to a positive I.D. are we?”

“That really depends how you look at it,” Slade replied. “It"s probably true that a lot of dental surgeons who were actively practicing in the fifties and sixties are now either retired or deceased, but we still have a chance of making a positive identification, if your victim was treated at a practice that is still in existence. What you need to do is send copies of the x-rays to each practice in the city and ask if they match any young male patients, probably of junior school age, from your timeframe. The other thing I can confirm is that your victim was certainly no older than twenty one or maybe twenty two at the time of his death. I presume you"d like the exact details of how we determined the age, Inspector?”

“I"ll take your word on that for now, Professor, but would like a written copy of your findings as soon as possible, please,” Ross replied, a hint of optimism creeping into his voice. It wasn"t much, but it was a tiny glimmer of hope provided by the joint efforts of the pathologists. “McLennan, as soon as we get back to the station, I"d like you to compile a list of dentists in the city, and as soon as the dental x-rays arrive you can circulate a request to all dental practices in the area in the hope that one of them might have the records of the deceased. It"s a long shot after all this time, but well worth the effort.”

“Will do, sir,” said D.C. McLennan, as he wrote his orders up in his notebook.

“There"s something else,” Slade said.

“Go ahead, Professor,” Ross spoke with expectation in his voice. He was beginning to warm to this dapper little man.

“Well, back in the nineteen fifties and early sixties, I do believe there was a system in operation where what were known as "school dentists" would visit schools in the area, mostly infant and junior level I think, and carry out routine dental checks. It"s possible the education department might be of some help in that area of investigation?”

“Hmm, a little more complicated to check out with all the changes in the education system over the years, but yes, thank you, Professor, it"s an avenue worth pursuing if we come up empty-handed with the dentists. Anything else?”

“Just that your victim was well-fed, the teeth showing no signs of poor diet or undue decay for their age.”

“Right, well, thank you for that, and thank you to you too, Hannah for having the Professor here take a look at the teeth.”

“I"m glad it may have helped,” said Hannah Lewin. I know I told you that teeth can play a big part in identifying the dead, but even we forensic pathologists need a point of reference in order to come up with a definite identification. But all this leads me on to the real reason William and I asked you here today.”

“There"s more?” Ross asked.

“Oh yes, isn"t there, William?”

“Aye, that there is, lass,” Nugent replied. “Go ahead, Hannah, you tell them. After all, you were the one who had the brainwave in the first place.”

Lewin now asked the small group to follow her to the counter top that stood against the far wall of the room. Standing there was a battered and faded boot, still easily recognisable as being of the western, or cowboy style of footwear. In addition, propped up against the wall itself where the counter top ended was the rusted, misshaped carcass of an old bedstead, little more than a few springs and a partial frame, with one remnant of a leg barely attached at one corner.

Hannah first of all indicated the rusted old bedstead.

“One thing we discovered when I was working abroad, with mass graves or any old burial sites where water was involved, was that heavier items can often find their way down through muddy river bottoms and so on into the next layer of strata, mud, or whatever. William and I, together with Mr. Lees, spent a morning getting down "n dirty in the old dock until we came up with this old thing, and the boot, possibly the pair to the remnants your people found. I think you might just find that this is the reason the body never floated back to the surface when it should have done.”

“Of course,” said Drake. “The body could have sunk and got caught in the old springs of the bedstead. The boots would have got trapped by the springs and prevented it from floating.”

“That"s precisely what I believe happened, Sergeant,” said Lewin. “I think you might even be able to date the boot as well. It"s degraded a bit but should still be identifiable. It certainly appears to have been an expensive item, not some cheap imitation leather or synthetic. Whoever owned it and its partner would have treasured such a pair of boots, I"m sure.”

Feeling they"d learned all they could from the current visit, Ross thanked the three scientists and he, Drake and McLennan headed back to Merseyside Police H.Q. where McLennan eagerly separated from the two senior officers, eager to "get his teeth" into his new role in the investigation. He knew it wouldn"t be easy but was determined to do all he could to effect an identification through the dental records check. Until the x-rays arrived from Professor Slade later that day, he"d prepare the ground by compiling a list of all those dental practitioners he"d need to contact. Andy Ross and Izzie Drake had just returned to Drake"s office and were reviewing the information they had to date when the phone on Ross"s desk began to ring. “Does someone have eyes in my walls, Izzie? Two minutes back in the office and the damn thing rings.”

Izzie Drake smiled as she watched Ross reach out and pick up the phone.

“D.I. Ross,” he snapped into the offending instrument.

After a few seconds, he spoke again.

“You have got to be joking.” A pause as he listened again and then, “Well for Heaven"s sake, get someone to show them to my office, right away, Miller.”

Replacing the phone on its cradle, he looked at Izzie Drake and said, sounding much calmer than he felt, “That was Sergeant Miller on the reception desk downstairs. He says there are two men standing in front of him who claim to have information relating to the identity of the skeletal remains found, at the wharf near Cole and Sons warehouse. Apparently, they"ll only speak to the detective in charge of the investigation. They"ll be here in a minute, soon as Miller can get someone to escort them up here.”

“That"s amazing, sir. Let"s hope they have genuine intel. Do you want me to leave you to speak to them in private?”

“No, Izzie. Stay here. Whatever these guys have to say, I want you to hear it too. Make sure you take notes of everything they have to say.”

Ross quickly re-arranged the papers on his desk in an effort to make it look a little more business-like in front of his visitors, but within a minute a knock on the door signalled their arrival. Maybe it"s time our luck changed, thought Ross as he motioned to Drake who moved to the door, to usher their potential informants into the office.

Maybe it"s time our luck changed,