Page 5 of No Safe Place
Field retrieved evidence bags and gloves from the car. She needed to ID the victim.
Time was elastic, and in seconds she was back by the paramedics.
Trying not to get in the way, Field dived into the man’s pockets – the job made easier by the fact his jeans were in ribbons. Her hand closed around a wallet, and she teased it out between the green jump-suited bodies.
Field sat back and flicked it open, squinting to read the name on the driving licence.
David Moore.
There were three £20 notes inside.
Not a mugging.
Heart racing, Field bagged the wallet.
‘His name is David,’ she called, and Lea looked up, flashed her a grateful smile.
‘David?’ Lea said, over the low urgent chatter of hercolleagues – passing each other equipment and negotiating for space. ‘David – my name is Lea, okay? I’m right here with you.’
The medic next to Field stood up. He had been kneeling on a sheet of paper. It seemed so out of place, a piece of bloodstained A4 tangled in the detritus and ruins of his clothes. It wasn’t Field’s, and it wasn’t something the paramedics had used.
She caught the page by one of the corners.
The Disordered Approach to Diagnosis:a pilot study of—
Field was distracted from the sheet by the raised voices of the paramedics.
‘He’s coding. I’ve got no pulse – I need epi and fluids now; get ready to charge—’
Field twisted, seeking out Riley. Ancona Road was now swarming with people. Police tape was going up, more paramedics were on standby to support. There was a slight whine as the defibrillator charged.
‘Clear.’
Riley was a few metres away, looking sombre. She was glad. She wanted him here to witness this, to understand the magnitude of what they were dealing with.
‘You’re okay, sweetheart,’ Lea intoned, stroking David Moore’s hair while her colleagues alternated chest compressions. ‘You’re okay.’
Field looked away from the bloody mess of David Moore’s chest, and went to bag the items she was holding.
Chapter 2
Wednesday | Early hours
Field
Field glanced at her watch: 4 a.m.
Most of the response cars had been called away. DS Riley had started the case log and PCSOs were speaking to witnesses. DS Wilson had just arrived. Field had called in a decent DC to act as crime scene manager.
The hours had passed quickly, and they now had a good picture of the scene, an idea of who their victim was. Traffic police were tracing all cars and motorbikes seen in the area at the time of the attack.
Privacy screens had been erected around the more gruesome areas, although as the sky started to lighten, Field had still seen a few people aiming their phones out of upstairs windows.
Field walked the crime scene in reverse, starting from where they’d found David collapsed, and working outwards. He was found at the side of the road, outside number 19.
There was blood spatter on the pavement and on thewooden garden gate. An officer had already informed the homeowner that they’d be taking the whole gate away with them for testing. Field couldn’t imagine they’d want it back.
In total, their victim had only travelled a few steps between the first wound and where he collapsed. The attack had been vicious, efficient.
