Page 45 of She Saw What He Did

Her stomach was too queasy to entertain food and the smell of overcooked lasagne wasn’t appealing. Weis disappeared, and Ellen looked around. There was only one other policewoman there. She felt several eyes on her and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She was beginning to wish that Ryan had come with her after all. Weis returned with a hard-plastic tray. He took a cup of strong tea from it and placed it in front of Ellen along with three sachets of sugar. I must look like I’ve had a shock, Ellen thought.

‘Long hair suits you,’ said Weis, taking her by surprise. ‘You used to wear it short, didn’t you?’

There was a hiss as he cracked open a can of Coke. Ellen was surprised he remembered.

‘You have a good memory,’ she said, wrapping her hand around the tea cup.

‘Sorry about this dump,’ he said, gesturing with his hand.

‘Well, it’s more than we have on the islands,’ she smiled.

He nodded absently, took a long swig from the Coke can and said,

‘A kid discovered the body. Forensics estimate it is about four days old which fits in with the Miller’s story of a murder …’

‘It wasn’t a story,’ Ellen interrupted, feeling irritated.

‘Whatever,’ he said dismissively. ‘Anyway cause of death was several blows to the head of which there is not much left.’

He lifted his briefcase and Ellen held her breath.

‘I’ve got photos. I figured you would prefer that to seeing the real thing.’

Ellen didn’t reply. She didn’t want him to know how relieved she was. She prepared herself for the sight of the dead man. Weis placed the photos on the table and pushed them across to Ellen who willed herself not to throw up.

‘We’re looking into all missing persons from the past month. Identifying him is going to be difficult if we don’t know who we’re looking for.’

Ellen glanced warily down at the photographs and stifled a gasp. Just looking at the photo made her whole body flush with fear. The man’s face was completely obliterated. Who could do such a thing and why? Poor Abby Miller, to have to witness something so horrific.

‘Let’s presume it’s your guy,’ said Weis, biting into a roll. ‘We can put out a press release. It may jog someone’s memory.’

Ellen nodded, her eyes fastened on the photographs.

Weis laid a hand on her arm and she jumped.

‘I thought we could go over the press release together,’ he said, quickly removing his hand.

Ellen looked up at him.

‘Oh,’ she said.

‘It’s on your turf Ellen. I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes.’

‘You were pretty scathing of the whole incident as I recall,’ she said, feeling more confident now that she had seen the photos.

‘I’m a man who admits when he’s wrong.’

Ellen nodded.

‘I’ve got the whole day,’ she said, finishing her tea. ‘I should let the Millers know before the press release goes out.’

‘Sure,’ he smiled. ‘Let me show you my office.’

Chapter Twenty-Nine

‘This is it. Like I said, it’s a bit out of the way, but if you don’t mind that.’

Sparrow didn’t mind that at all. In fact, it was just what he wanted. Long grass and wildflowers grew around the old cottage. All around them were fields. There wasn’t another house in sight.

---