Page 57 of Twisted Lies
Kim had known immediately that this victim had come before their own. Exactly how long before she would be interested to know.
She fought the urge to ask him who had found the body. Had they started viewing CCTV? When was the post-mortem? All questions she would have been asking if it had been her crime scene. But it wasn’t and she could only push the DI’s tolerance and good nature so far.
‘Anything here to help you?’ Lynes asked, giving the pathologist the signal to carry on with removing the body.
‘Not sure yet,’ she said, removing her gloves.
She thanked him for his time and headed back to the car. She had an urgent phone call to make.
‘If we can assist further, give us a call.’
She called out her thanks over her shoulder.
That was probably an offer he was going to live to regret.
Forty-Six
Despite having his headphones on, Penn somehow knew when Stacey was mumbling away in the background to herself or when she was addressing him directly.
‘What’s up, Stace?’ he asked, removing one ear pad for the fifth time.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Scrolling through 670 photographs.’
‘Of what?’
‘Dodgy-looking men.’
‘Hey, save that for your own time.’
‘You still got nothing?’
She shook her head. ‘Not found anything on anyone called Leanne King. Any suggestions?’
His own task was giving him enough of a headache, even though the feeling in his stomach told him he was onto something.
Ever since the post-mortem, Penn had been wondering about the numerous broken bones in both hands: injuries normally sustained from boxing. He’d tried searching for ‘Keith Phipps boxer’ which had brought up no results, so he’d gone to the only thing he had: a driving licence photo. He was unable to use the post-mortem photos of the man’s face due to the disfigurement caused by the burns. The tiny photo on the driving licence hadn’t been too much better. He’d enlarged it a few times, but the magnification had reduced the integrity of the image. It was the best he had though, so he’d scanned it into the facial recognition software, and the program had offered him hundreds of possibilities. His only choice was to scroll through them all, looking for a match.
‘You got a photo?’ he asked, wondering if she could use the same app he was using.
She shook her head.
‘You think that’s her real name?’
Stacey dropped her head onto the desk. ‘Don’t take away the only bit of information I’ve got.’
‘But was it always her name?’ he asked, pressing the mouse button to continue his search.
‘I’ve gone through birth and marriages a few—’
‘I’ve got him,’ Penn cried out, cutting her off.
‘You’re kidding?’ Stacey asked, coming around to take a look.
He put the two photos side by side. ‘You reckon?’
Stacey studied it for a few seconds and nodded before returning to her desk.
