office. “Ah, Watkins.” His voice echoed down the vinyl hallway. “I was just about to send somebody to find you. Come into the briefing room. I’ve got Dr. Owens here. He’s completed his findings.” He noticed Evan for the first time and his eyes registered surprise. “What are you doing here, Evans?”
“Constable Evans located the car we’ve been looking for, sir,” Watkins said. “We were just checking out details of its owner at the computer center.”
“Were you? Good man. Find out anything?”
“Only that he rented the car under a false name—the name of a mental patient in a hospital in France.”
“Most interesting. You can brief us on it after we’ve heard what Dr. Owens has to say.” His gaze skimmed over Evan again. “You’d better come along, too, Evans, since you’re looking into this car business and you’re the one most familiar with the scenario.”
He strode down the hall with Watkins and Evans in tow. Dr. Owens was standing at the front of the briefing room. The two detective constables were sitting with notebooks at the ready. They glanced at Evan with a certain amount of surprise as he followed the other officers into the room. Watkins sat near the back of the room. Evan perched on a chair behind him.
“Sorry to keep you, Doctor. Please go ahead.” D.I. Hughes pulled out a chair beside the doctor, facing the other officers.
Dr. Owens cleared his throat. “I have completed an autopsy on an unidentified man whose partially burned remains were discovered early this morning in the ashes of a fire at the Chez Yvette restaurant, Llanberis Pass. Probable age of the victim between thirty and forty, based on bone density and tooth condition. I was not able to determine ethnicity because skin and hair were burned too badly. Height about five feet eleven to six foot.
“The internal organs were as I suspected—in fairly good condition, considering what they’d been subjected to. He hadn’t eaten in a while, by the way, which probably indicates he wasn’t a restaurant patron. A good amount of alcohol in the system, though. Also my examination of the lungs showed no evidence of smoke inhalation.”
He paused at a gasp from someone in the audience. “I take it you all appreciate the significance of this. This man was dead before the fire started.”
“Any idea how he died?” Hughes asked.
“I couldn’t find any traces of toxic substances in the body. I examined the heart to see if he had, in fact, died of natural causes. The exterior of the heart was—um—pretty well cooked, but contained less blood than I would have expected. On closer examination of the wall of the heart, it appeared to have been punctured.”
“Due to the heat of the fire?” Watkins asked.
“No. In my estimation, I’d say he was stabbed in the chest with a rather large knife.”
Evan felt his own stomach lurch.
D.I. Hughes rose to his feet. “You realize the importance of these findings, don’t you? We’re not dealing with a victim caught in a tragic fire anymore. We’re dealing with a homicide and a fire most probably set deliberately to cover it up.”
Chapter 13
“You see, I told you that bloody Frenchwoman had her answers down too pat,” Inspector Hughes said. The meeting had just concluded but the D.I. had held Watkins and Evan back as the room cleared. “I thought she was a cool customer.” He perched on the edge of the nearest desk. “I’d always wondered what would make a Frenchwoman—and an outstandingly good cook, so we understand—come to a place like this. Now we know. She had something to hide.” He wagged his finger at Evan. “And the chappy you saw had obviously tracked her down. He looked up inquringly at Evan. “She said her husband was dead didn’t she? Maybe this man had come to blackmail her, maybe to threaten her. In either case she was desperate. She grabbed a knife and killed him to shut him up. Then she panicked and set fire to the place. Only the fire didn’t do its job.”
“If she wanted the fire to burn up the body, why did she sound the alarm so soon?” Evan asked. “Why not slip out and wait until someone else called the fire brigade? One of the village boys told me that she had run to his mother and given the alarm.”
Hughes nodded. “Of course, I’m just presenting one scenario. I’m not saying that she’s guilty. But we have to go with the most likely suspect first, don’t we?