seemed to be annoying no one but her. Two hours had passed and despite all the slicing and organ removals, Gina felt her stomach grumbling away.
‘Don’t tell me you’re hungry, guv?’
‘Don’t hate me. I couldn’t face breakfast knowing we were coming here but now I feel sick because I’m hungry. Can’t win.’ She let out a small laugh as the chief pathologist leaned over and passed a succession of samples to one of his suited-up assistants. ‘Is Jennifer off today?’
‘No, I think she was working one of the other scenes until late. She’ll be back in later. I left her in bed to catch up on her sleep.’
Gina glanced back at the cadaver. She’d watched them remove the bags from his hands and feet, take nail clippings and samples. Every orifice had been swabbed, bloods, tissue samples – the full works.
She gazed at the blue-tinged man lying on the slab. It had transpired their Al’s full name was Alexander Swinton.
‘Is his mother coming in to formally identify the body?’ Jacob walked around a little, stretching his arms out, the bottom of his coat slapping the chair in the small viewing room.
‘Yes, she wanted to. It would be the quickest way of getting his identity confirmed. From the photos she sent to us and the link to his Facebook profile, it looks like it’s definitely him but we have to make sure. Our victim had no record either so we had nothing on the system that would have flagged up from his fingerprints or DNA.’ She swallowed, not relishing being with the woman when she viewed her son’s body.
‘How old did you say he was?’
‘Thirty-four.’ She flinched as Jacob’s coat caught her face. ‘Can you stop pacing around?’ She smiled.
He fell into the plastic chair and linked his hands in front of him. ‘Sorry, I’m just getting a bit restless after sitting for so long.’
‘How do you think he ended up in such a bad way?’
The chair creaked as Jacob leaned back. ‘Who knows? Drugs maybe, relationship breakdown, lost his job.’
‘Hmm, I hope meeting his mother will clarify that. Let’s go over what we know from the post-mortem so far.’
‘Go for it.’
Gina glanced at the pathologist. He continued working as the clean crime scene assistant kept stepping in to take more photos. The victim was respectfully laid out on his back in the sterile room. She shivered as the scales bobbed when the pathologist knocked them. Only an hour ago, the victim’s liver had been weighing them down.
Gina’s stomach was screaming for food but her throat tightened a little. She flipped back to the last page in her notebook. ‘Male, white, six foot, blue eyes, various piercings and a tattoo. Piercing in his right eyebrow that has almost healed and a ring in his right nipple. Tattoo of a lion on his thigh. A lot of dirt under his fingernails and ingrained on his hands. The smell of smoke oozing from his every pore and traces of ash in his neckline and his hair suggest he’s spent a lot of time in front of open fires. Crew cut, blond hair. Track marks on his arm and groin. Screams drug problem.’
‘Toxicology will tell us what he was taking.’
Gina nodded. ‘Those results won’t be back in a hurry. We know the track marks are a mixture of fresh and old. We need to contact all local drug services, see if he has been on a methadone programme. If someone was looking after his case, they may be able to tell us more about him.’
Jacob made a note.
‘I just hope that the more we learn about him, the more we might find out about who did this to him.’
‘I’ve never come across anything like this, guv.’ Jacob stared at the corpse as the pathologist began to stitch him up.
‘It’s creepy, isn’t it? We have to catch whoever did this. I checked social media this morning and there’s a lot of scaremongering about the ghost that buries people alive. The press are really going to town on this one and Lyndsey Saunders is taking all the credit. She’s right you know.’
‘About what?’
‘Cleevesford is a dangerous place to live. It used to be a desirable town and now house prices have dropped a little. This town has a sick feel about it and it’s not getting any better. We can’t let this happen to anyone else. It’s just unthinkable.’
Silence fell between the two as they watched the pathologist remove his plastic apron and face mask.