Page 76 of Not That Complicated

Liam shook his head slowly. “You don’t want to know.”

“I don’t?” I said faintly.

“Earlier than the seventies, and it wasn’t so much an outfit as a…costume.”

“A costume? Like…a Halloween costume? Like Batman?”

“No, he wasn’t dressed as Batman, and that’s all you need to know.”

I decided not to argue with him.

“As you can imagine,” Liam went on, “this isn’t the sort of case that a small force like ours is used to dealing with. Which is why we’ll be bringing in a specialist team.”

“Okay.”

“We have two options there. One, we can see if we can get a cadaver dog. Two, we can get a forensics team in to do a detailed inspection. By which I mean they’ll pull up some floorboards, check a few cavities. That sort of thing.”

I winced at the idea of them going into the attic. It would give a hoarder nightmares. It made my garage of Aunt Alicia’s stuff look like the Louvre.

“I’ll have the cadaver dog, please. How does that work, anyway? They have a quick run around, sniff some stuff, give you the thumbs up or thumbs down?”

“Yep. That’s about it.”

“Sounds great.

“It’s efficient, minimal disruption. Ideal, really.”

“Definitely the dog then.”

“The thing is, they are the elite of K9 officers.”

“Cool.” I loved dogs. I wondered if I’d get to say hi.

“Obviously, we don’t have one locally. And it’s not easy to book their time.”

The sinking feeling in my gut told me I wasn’t going to get to say hi. And the vaguely apologetic, vaguely belligerent expression on Liam’s face told me they were going to tear up my floors.

“We can put a request in,” he said.

I perked up.

“But it could take up to six months.”

“What? To get a dog to run around my house for twenty minutes?”

“It’s a bit more technical than that, Ray.”

“I’d still like the dog.” I said.

“On the other hand,” he talked over me before I’d even finished speaking, making me blink, “we can get a consult from one of the major crimes forensics units in London. They’ll be here as soon as they have an opening. It might be more invasive, but it’ll be done. Better than waiting six months.”

“I’m still leaning toward the dog.”

“And getting it done quickly and efficiently is in everyone’s best interests.”

“Why do I feel like my interests aren’t at the number one spot here and yours might be higher?”

“My recommendation to my boss is that, from a community policing standpoint, the best course of action is to get it done quickly and efficiently.”

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