‘Hello,’ said Isaac, looking at Igor appreciatively. ‘Sorry, I didn’t know you had company.’
‘I’m just leaving. I’m Igor,’ he said, offering a hand. Isaac juggled the plant for a moment, and handed Erika the bottle of champagne.
‘I’m Isaac Strong. Erika’s friend… GBF,’ he said, laughing nervously.
‘GBF?’ repeated Erika, surprised. She’d never heard Isaac use this phrase before.
‘You know, Gay Best Friend,’ said Isaac, blushing. Erika stared at him, and was surprised to see Isaac’s usual cool demeanour disrupted.
‘Oh, right,’ said Igor, smiling uncertainly. He put a hand to his head. ‘I left my hat in your kitchen.’
‘I’ll get it,’ said Erika, starting up the hallway.
‘And it’s eighty quid, for the plumbing in,’ added Igor, calling after her. Erika grabbed her purse and his cap off the kitchen table. When she returned, Isaac and Igor were standing in awkward silence. She handed Igor his hat, and gave him four twenty-pound notes, and an extra ten.
‘Oh. Thanks,’ he said. ‘So, you’ll call me?’
‘Yes. I will. About the chimneys being swept,’ said Erika. Igor leant over to kiss Erika on the cheek, European style. But she moved the wrong way and he ended up kissing her on the lips.
‘Sorry!’ she said.
‘My fault. Anyway, good to see you and good to meet you, Isaac.’
When he was gone, Erika closed the door, and turned to Isaac.
‘He was delivering my washing machine and bed and he offered to plumb it in. It turns out he’s my old boyfriend from home. A very odd coincidence.’
‘Interesting. He’s handsome,’ said Isaac with a smile. ‘Happy housewarming,’ he said, handing her the plant. ‘And here’s something to water it with.’ He held up the bottle of champagne.
‘Thank you. Come in. It’s just a mattress on the floor in the living room or a deck chair,’ she said. ‘Do you want a glass of this?’
‘Yes… I also have the results of Vicky Clarke’s post-mortem. If you’re happy to talk shop.’
‘You do? That was fast,’ said Erika, intrigued and glad to have the conversation back on safer ground. ‘Come through.’
46
‘Vicky Clarke died of a single stab to the heart,’ said Isaac when they were settled in the living room. ‘There were no drugs or alcohol in her system.’
‘Were there any other signs of violence?’ asked Erika.
‘None. The heart itself is hard to stab because it lies behind the sternum,’ said Isaac, putting down his glass and sitting up to indicate the hard bone between his pectoral muscles. ‘The sternum is partially covered by the ribs, and the heart has its own fibrous layer covering the pericardium – that’s the thick protective sac that surrounds your heart.’
‘The person would have to use a very sharp, very long knife? And have a good aim.’
‘Yes. Striking the heart with a knife itself is very difficult. The person doing the stabbing would need higher than normal upper body strength. And the person had confidence. There was a single stab wound. It was a very different crime scene to Sophia Ivanova. That was a crazed attack with little control. I’ve seen a lot over my years in forensics medicine, and a stab wound to the heart is very, very rare. With a crime of passion or rage, it’s easier and surer to go for the neck, the hepatic artery close to the liver, the aorta in the torso, the kidneys from behind, or the femoral arteries of each upper leg.’
‘So you don’t think the two murders are linked?’ asked Erika. ‘I’ve been struggling to find a link beyond our assumption that the killer mistook Sophia for Vicky and killed her, and then when Vicky was found, he returned to finish the job.’
‘I can’t answer that. I can tell you that the murder weapons used for Sophia and Vicky are very different. The knife that killed Sophia Ivanova was wide and around twenty centimetres long, like an average kitchen knife. For Vicky, the killer used a long, narrow blade, which was essential to hit the heart in the way it did.’
Isaac held up his right hand.
‘Make a fist,’ he said. Erika put down her glass and made a fist with her right hand. ‘Imagine you have a knife in that hand and try a stabbing motion.’
They both stabbed in the air, and Erika saw she could exert a lot of force in this way. She stabbed at the plastic-covered mattress which was filled with extra air, and the pressure made the plastic break with a soft popping sound.