‘Is this thing on drugs?’ she asked, when the electronic voice announced they had reached their destination. Kim had thought the contraption was taking her on a shortcut and that they would eventually rejoin civilisation or at the very least a tarmac road.
Bryant shrugged as the right tyre hit a pothole that bounced them both like a trampoline.
‘Oops,’ she said, as she spotted three police vehicles next to two minibuses on a gravel parking spot by a field gate. Luckily for her, electronic gadgets did not require apologies.
She parked ten feet back, blocking the single-track road.
As they headed towards the gate, a few fragmented groups of students reached the minibuses, talking animatedly.
Thank goodness someone had had the sense to start clearing the scene. She was sure this was a training session these kids would not forget in a hurry.
Both of them flashed their identification at the police officers guarding the entrance gate, even though both constables were known to them.
A part-worn path continued into the field, gouged by farm vehicles entering the space. It continued for approximately fifty metres before disappearing.
The wooded area to their right thinned to expose a flat, grassy field that stretched a quarter of a mile in each direction, bordered by dense green hedges separating it from the crop fields beyond.
Kim spotted the activity at the tip of the trees.
‘Aw, shit, guv. You could have told me it was her.’
Kim smiled. ‘Thought you liked surprises.’
‘You call that a surprise?’ he said, sourly.
Kim shook her head. She knew the scientist was an acquired taste. Her directness did not sit well on everyone’s palate but to Kim the woman was a breath of fresh air. She said what she meant and meant what she said. Not always correctly, but close enough.
Kim watched as Doctor A paced the length of the hole. Her one hand was thrust into her front jeans pocket while the other held the phone to her ear. The left leg of her light blue jeans had broken free from the confines of the Doc Marten boot.
What may once have been a tight ponytail holding up her long ombre hair had now loosened and dropped to the back of her neck.
‘Doctor A,’ Kim said, offering her hand as the woman ended the call.
The nickname had been fashioned by the scientist herself after witnessing too many annihilations of her Macedonian name. Kim wasn’t even sure what it was any more as she had used the shortened version for as long as she could remember.
A brief smile accompanied the handshake as she moved her gaze along.
‘Bryant,’ she said, thrusting her hand forward.
Her colleague had no choice but to take it.
‘She got my name right,’ Bryant mumbled, as the woman turned towards the hole.
‘Where is Keatings?’ she asked, suddenly.
‘Handing over a suicide scene,’ Kim explained. ‘He’ll be here shortly.’
‘Come, come,’ Doctor A said, beckoning them forward to the edge of the pit.
Kim saw immediately the chalky white bone protruding from the soil. Experience told her exactly what she was looking at.
‘A skull?’ she asked.
Doctor A nodded.
Kim stepped back and looked at the hole in the context of the flat land.
‘A foot and a half deep?’ she asked.
‘Approximately, yes. Very shallow.’
Kim stepped forward. ‘Can we?…’
‘No, no, no, no, no,’ Doctor A cried. ‘We cannot rush. We must have Keatings and my team firstly and foremost. We do not know condition or circumstance before you start tramping the scene.’
Kim understood. At this point there was no way of knowing how long the skull had been in there. Doctor A’s job was to preserve the evidence and remove the skull as carefully as possible.
Like most forensic archaeologists, Doctor A held a PhD in Anthropology and understood how to read any clues left in the bones.
She would need to ascertain firstly that the bones were human. Kim had seen enough skulls to hold no doubt about that.
She would then attempt to identify biological characteristics: i.e. age, sex and race. Kim already knew that establishing the time since death was beyond problematic when dealing with bones without tissue. The rate of decomposition of the flesh, factoring in both the biological and climate conditions, could have at least landed them in the correct ballpark. It was unlikely that entomology would assist either. Judging by the cleanliness of the bone, she could see the insects had long since left the party.
Most importantly for the investigation, Doctor A’s knowledge would hopefully assist them to identify a cause and manner of death.
Kim knew there were four manners of death: natural, accidental, suicidal, and homicidal.
As yet Kim had no clue what they were looking at, but she knew one thing: this poor soul had not buried themselves.
‘Aww… double shit,’ Bryant said, causing her to turn.
A horde was heading along the treeline towards them. Most of them she was expecting. One she was not. She groaned.
‘Thank you for keeping my crime scene warm but I’m here now,’ said Detective Inspector Travis, her arch nemesis from West Mercia Police.
Never, since she had made DI had he ever referred to her by rank.
She turned to face him, fully, and returned the favour.
‘Tom, by my count, this is the third time you’ve intruded on a crime scene of mine and walked away empty-handed.’
‘I make it one all,’ he said, referring to the body of a young manager of a Leisure Centre found in West Hagley.
‘Fair enough, and so pleased you solved that case. Oh, hang on, you didn’t,’ she said, realising, as the smile spread across his face, that she’d given him exactly what he’d been seeking. A reaction.
Now she sounded just as childish as he did. If not more so.
He continued. ‘I think you’ll find that Hunnington is under West Mercia.’
‘And Hayley Green is West Mids, so just leave it, Tom. We’ll let the grown-ups sort it out.’
‘Stone, you know…’
‘Tom, over here,’ she said, taking a few steps away from the audience that was suddenly more focussed on them than the skull in the ground. ‘Are you ever gonna just grow the hell up?’ she stormed.
‘Stop trying to steal my crime scenes and we wouldn’t have a problem, Stone,’ he spat back.
‘Oh, I think we both know that statement is bollocks,’ she said. ‘While there is breath in both of our bodies there will be a problem ? but stop turning it into a sideshow for the masses. It’s childish, unprofessional and beneath even you.’
He glared back at her with a coldness she knew well as more people arrived at the scene behind him.
She turned away and headed back to the activity around the pit.
Doctor A’s team members were assembled and changing into white protective suits.
Kim ignored everyone around her and watched as more of the skull was exposed by the techies. It appeared to be lying on its side in the dirt.
One eye socket was exposed confirming, beyond doubt, that it was a human skull they were looking at.
The techs continued to move the soil painstakingly away from the bone. Soon a gaping hole appeared where the nose would have been.
More brushing and gentle trowelling revealed the socket of the other eye.