Page 40 of Reinventing Cato
The DCI nodded towards a chair, and Vigge sat down.
“You look rough,” his boss said.
“My flight from Glasgow was cancelled. I had to rent a car and drive back.”
“Good New Year?”
Just as well Vigge hadn’t hoped for sympathy for having to drive over 500 miles. “Fine, thanks, sir.”
“You haven’t spoken to Occupational Health.”
“I thought it was better to leave it until after the holidays.” And it wasn’t compulsory to speak to OH.
“You ought to arrange a time. Sort it today.”
“Yes, sir.” It wasn’t worth the argument. DCI Channing was a stickler for doing things by the book—hisbook. Vigge had already had a fairly heated discussion with him about taking time off in the wake of the incident involving a firearm. His boss had wanted him to see OH, then take whatever leave they deemed appropriate. Vigge didn’t need time off. Even if OH advised him to take a couple of weeks off, that wouldn’t be happening.
“Meeting in ten.”
Vigge nodded and returned to the room where the MCU, the major crime unit was based. “Ten minutes,” he said.
They all knew what he meant. Gradually, the room filled. Everyone was expected at the morning briefing, even the chief superintendent. Greetings were exchanged, a few witty comments tossed about, but the sound of chatter decreased as the room filled. The team comprised of police officers of all ranks, plus analysts, Intel, the police media guy and forensics.
Apart from a cold case unit based in their building, there was just one other MCU covering the three counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire. The other MCU was in Welwyn Garden City. As well as investigating homicide, MCUs were responsible for investigating attempted murder, stranger rape, kidnap, abduction and child sexual exploitation. Vigge wondered if there’d ever be a day when there was nothing to report, everything solved, no more crimes committed.
Their current priority was still the murder committed on the 13rdof December. The victim, a 27-year-old man, Dan Frayn, had been stabbed to death in a village near Huntingdon. Now almost three weeks later, they’d gathered a lot of information, come to dead ends on possible leads, and had no suspect. Frayn was gay but there was no particular reason to think this was motivated by homophobia, though Vigge kept an open mind. He listened carefully as reports were given and he added his own. He’d hoped the murder might have meant cancelling his trip to his parents, but with no breakthrough on the case expected, and under pressure to take a couple of days off since he’d worked through Christmas, his DCI had insisted he go.
After everyone had run through their findings on the murder, and on other continuing enquiries, priorities were set for arrests in two cases and the Supe gave a pep talk. Then he and the DCI left. The rest of them brainstormed around the whiteboard. Athena, the software system on which they input every detail of their cases, was all very well, but sometimes seeing something on the board made links stand out.
“Any more thoughts on the nature of the attack?” Vigge asked. “Mindset of the killer?”
“Mr Clean,” Tim quipped.
Vigge shot him a look. “But why?”
The bodyhadbeen surprisingly clean. The pathologist had been certain the stab wounds were inflicted before death, which meant there should have been a lot of blood, and there was. But all that blood had been mopped up with towels left at the scene in a black plastic bag. Dan Frayn’s back had been blood-free.
“Maybe he meant to take the towels and forgot, or was disturbed,” one of Vigge’s female team members suggested.
“Maybe he tried to save him,” someone else said. “Staunched the blood with the towels.”
Vigge looked at the photo pinned to the board. Ten stab wounds.
“I’ve been wondering about the weapon.”
Vigge turned to Mark, the forensics guy. “Yep?”
“The pathologist said a stiletto, but what about a kebab skewer?”
Tim let out a snort of laughter.
Mark glared. “With enough force, it would work.”
“Were there any skewers in the kitchen?” Vigge asked.
No-one spoke.
“Right, Tim. Check,” Vigge said. “Good point, Mark.”
