So perhaps they had found the murder weapon, and, finally, some of the proceeds of the scam. Time and forensics would tell. The Forensic Officer on scene should presumably be heading back fairly soon, but is currently being monopolized by Joyce. They are sitting together on Joyce’s raincoat, which has been spread over a mossy bench. What they are talking about, heaven only knows. Elizabeth is walking out of the woods with Andrew Everton.
‘Seems like you owe us one,’ says Elizabeth.
‘I’ll owe you one when we find Bethany’s body,’ says Andrew Everton. ‘We’ll start concentrating the search in the same spot.’
‘Feels like it should be enough to arrest Jack Mason,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Ask him a few questions?’
‘Leave that with me,’ says Andrew Everton. ‘You can’t do everything.’
That was a moot point, but Elizabeth doesn’t feel the need to argue. ‘Do keep us informed though.’
Andrew Everton bows to her, a little sarcastically for Elizabeth’s liking. ‘Ma’am.’
Elizabeth veers off in the direction of Joyce and the Forensic Officer. She hears Joyce’s conversation as she approaches.
‘But say that three bodies are left in a cellar for many years,’ Joyce is saying. ‘At what stage would the smell disappear?’
Is Joyce asking her about the case in Rye?
‘Do they have wounds?’ asks the Forensic Officer.
‘They have been dismembered by a chainsaw,’ says Joyce.
That doesn’t sound like the case in Rye.
‘Well, they would bleed out very quickly,’ says the Forensic Officer. ‘So putrefaction would also occur fairly quickly. The smell would be awful for the first, let’s say two months, then gradually things would return to normal.’
‘Bit of Febreze every now and again,’ says Joyce.
Elizabeth reaches the bench and addresses the Forensic Officer. ‘Is my friend bothering you? She does that sometimes.’
‘Not at all,’ says the FO. ‘I’m helping her with her story.’
‘With her story?’ Elizabeth takes a look at Joyce, who won’t meet her gaze.
‘I thought I might give it a try,’ says Joyce to the flowerbed. ‘You know I like to write.’
‘Three bodies in a cellar,’ says Elizabeth. ‘That sounds familiar.’
‘You’re allowed to base things on real cases,’ says Joyce. ‘Andrew Everton does it all the time.’
‘Where do the chainsaws come in?’
‘You have to add bits of your own too,’ says Joyce.
‘And you added chainsaws?’
Joyce nods, and gives a little smile. Elizabeth wonders, not for the first time, just how well she knows her friend.
‘Shall we head home and see how the boys are getting on?’ says Elizabeth. ‘And tell them we’ve found a gun?’
66
Pauline and Mike have arrived for lunch.
Alan literally can’t believe his luck. Even more people! If only Joyce were here, the whole scene would be perfect. Surely she won’t be much longer. Pauline is tickling his belly as Mike Waghorn takes a seat.
‘This is Henrik,’ says Ibrahim. ‘He is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and Swede.’
Mike holds his hands together and says, ‘Namaste, Henrik.’
‘Henrik is also very good with money-laundering,’ says Ibrahim. ‘And this is Viktor, a former KGB colonel.’