Page 6 of Then She Vanished

‘DI Harte.’ Bernard waved them over.

She led the way. ‘Can you talk me through what you have so far?’

He nodded and leaned over her with his lanky frame, his grey beard neatly tucked into his beard cover. ‘As always, we have a long way to go, but follow me and stay on the stepping plates. As you can see from the markers, we have all sorts. Litter, cigarette butts, so many bags of rubbish. We’ll take it all in and sort through it later. As for the man, it’s looking like he died by suicide. He hasn’t been moved post-mortem. We have an initial suicide attempt that didn’t work: it looks like he cut his wrist with a pocket knife and used the sheet to clean himself up. The cut definitely didn’t kill him. The cause of death is looking likely to be carbon monoxide poisoning, but we need to confirm that in the post-mortem.’

‘Time of death?’

‘I would say between ten and twelve hours ago.’

Gina lifted her crime scene suit at her wrist to see the time. It was nearly nine in the morning. ‘So, between nine and eleven yesterday evening?’

Bernard frowned, creasing the lines on his forehead. ‘To be on the safe side, make it between eight and midnight.’

‘Have you managed to search the whole car yet?’

Bernard shook his head. ‘Not yet. As you can see, the team are on it, so if there is more to find, we’ll find it. We’ve yet to check under the seat, under the car mats and under the sparewheel. Then there are all the panels. We’ll strip those out when the car is taken to the compound.’

She followed Bernard, clunking on the metal plates until they reached the vehicle. Glancing through the open driver’s door, she took a deep breath. The man’s reddish lips definitely suggested carbon monoxide poisoning. His checked shirt came apart where his belly had forced the buttons at the bottom, and his grey-threaded dark hair had been slicked back with some strong gel. ‘Has an officer scanned his fingerprints with a portable scanner?’

Nodding, Bernard stepped a little closer. ‘Yes.’

‘If he’s on our system, we should be able to identify him. Jacob?’ She turned to her colleague. ‘Could you quickly call PC Smith and get an update on that?’

Jacob pulled out his phone and stepped to the side.

Gina glanced ahead at the woodland, imagining what it would have looked like the previous night. It had been cloudy, so he would have probably arrived in darkness, even if he had arrived at eight. It wasn’t a busy road at that time so he could have easily parked in the field without a single person seeing him. She pictured him with the interior light on in the car as he struggled to cut his wrists, and she shuddered at the thought.

‘Bernard, you say he tried to slash his wrists with a pocket knife. Do you have the knife?’

‘Yes. It’s a small flick knife. The blade is only one and a half inches long and it’s not particularly sharp.’

‘Have you found a phone?’

‘Not yet.’

She continued to play out the scenario in her head. He knew he might not be able to go through with cutting his wrists. He’d come prepared with the hose. One thing was for sure, he had been determined to end his life.

Jacob began walking back towards her.

‘Any news on his identity?’

He shook his head. ‘He’s not on our system.’

She scrunched her brows. ‘Great. Let’s hope the library can help, then.’

One of the CSIs waved a hand towards them and called Bernard over. Gina and Jacob waited in silence as she saw the two of them talking. ‘What is it?’ Gina asked as Bernard began walking back.

‘We’ve found a phone. Isobel is just bagging it.’

‘We need to take a look.’ She hoped it hadn’t run out of battery.

Bernard took it off the young female CSI and passed it to Gina in the clear bag. As soon as she saw that it was a burner phone, her shoulders dropped. There would be no social media accounts or internet history on that phone. She turned it on and hoped that it would come to life, and to her surprise, it did. She began scrolling and she could instantly see that it had been completely wiped of everything.

The CSI waved her arm again. ‘We have something else.’

Gina followed Bernard and they watched as Isobel pulled at something that had been secreted in the car seat upholstery.

‘It’s a photo.’ The CSI placed it in a bag and passed it to Gina to look at.

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