‘I’ll do the post-mortem tonight,’ Isaac said. ‘I’ll let you know more as soon as possible.’
‘Thank you.’
Erika took one last look around the flat at the blood-soaked mattress. There was a crackling of plastic as the body bag was closed and zipped up, entombing Vicky’s remains in its shiny blackness. It struck Erika, how fragile life was. She wondered how Vicky had felt the last time she walked through her front door. Was she happy? Sad? Scared? Whatever she felt, she probably had no idea she would be leaving in a black body bag.
6
Erika, Moss and Peterson followed the stretcher with the body bag as it bumped its way down the short driveway to the black mortuary van parked out on the road next to the white police support van.
They stopped in the front garden and pulled off their crime scene coveralls, depositing them into plastic forensic bags.
‘Can you sort out a search for the murder weapon?’ Erika asked Peterson.
‘Yeah. I’ll get a team together to check out the surrounding gardens,’ he said, moving off to the support van.
‘Can you come with me to talk to Tess?’ Erika said to Moss, adding, ‘If you could go over to the support van and make sure she stays inside, with that on its way to the morgue van.’
‘On it,’ said Moss. The two young police officers who Erika had asked to interview the neighbours came out of the building towards her.
‘Ma’am, there seems to be only one other neighbour in tonight,’ said the taller of the two.
‘Okay. What are your names?’ she asked.
‘I’m Constable Robbie Grant,’ said the taller, who was very pale with a smooth flawless, complexion.
‘Constable Amer Abidi,’ said the second. He was equally handsome and fresh-faced, and as he nodded and smiled, the top edge of a tattoo on his dark skin peeked above his shirt collar. ‘There are three floors in the block of flats,’ he said, pointing back at the building entrance. ‘And three flats on each floor. Vicky Clarke is at flat one, Charles Wakefield lives in number two, and at three, there are two sisters, Sophia and Maria Ivanova, both trainee doctors, but there’s no one in.’
‘Ivanova?’ asked Erika.
‘It’s Bulgarian. Upstairs on the second floor is an elderly lady, a Mrs Wentworth. She lives alone at number four, directly above Vicky’s flat. She says she didn’t see or hear anything tonight. She was in bed by eight.’
‘She’s very hard of hearing, and a bit doddery. We really had to hammer on her door before she heard us,’ added Robbie.
‘She told us that flat five, the one above Charles Wakefield, is vacant, and in number six, opposite her, lives a businessman called Ray Fontaine. He’s away most of the year working in China,’ said Amer.
‘Okay. What about the top floor?’ asked Erika.
‘The whole of the top floor is a penthouse flat, owned by a Henrietta Boulderstone, who also owns the building. There was no answer at her door.’
Erika watched as the SOCOs carefully loaded the stretcher containing Vicky’s body into the back of the mortuary van, ready to take it to the morgue. Moss and Peterson were standing at the steps of the police support vehicle with Tess, who was watching her sister’s body, her eyes wide. She had a blanket around her shoulders.
‘Good work, guys,’ said Erika, turning back to Amir and Robbie. ‘If you can cross-check all that info is correct, that would be great.’
It was coming up to eleven pm but the road was busy with police cars and support vehicles, and every light in the surrounding houses was on.
It was quiet and warm inside the police support van. In one corner there was a small seating area with a table, and Moss slid into the booth beside Erika. They were both facing Tess, who sat opposite, cradling a plastic cup filled with tea.
‘Thank you for your patience,’ said Erika. ‘Would you like some more tea?’
‘This is my third cup of tea. What are doing about my…’ At this point her voice broke and she pressed her eyes shut. Tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘My sister,’ she finished with a hoarse whisper.
‘I have an excellent forensics team working inside the flat. We have officers talking to the neighbours and searching the area. And we’ll shortly take this all back to the station and set up a full incident room,’ said Erika. ‘Are you happy to have an informal chat? I know it’s late, but we find that people often forget things after the crucial first few hours.’
Moss picked up a box of tissues and offered it to Tess. She took one and wiped her eyes. She nodded.