Page 65 of Her Last Breath

‘Yes, but unlikely. There is too much structural damage to the hyoid bone, for example. Not enough for a strangulation, also the colour of the face does not align.’

‘I’m getting confused now. Doctor. Was it a hanging or strangulation?’

Jane was already running on empty, the words in the report and Dr Lydia’s confusing explanation of them making her temples pound. It felt unfair to have a hangover when she hadn’t drunk anything last night. She thought this was going to be the next breakthrough in this case, now she had a pathologist sounding wishy-washy. If that was how the original report was presented, no wonder the police didn’t investigate further. The coroner would probably feel the same.

Dr Lydia blushed. In the fifteen years that Jane had come across the forensic pathologist she never seen her do this.

‘Dr Lydia?’

‘It feels … my goodness, I cannot actually bring myself to even say this. The words are sticking in my throat.’

‘Try.’

‘It feels as though Bill Hargreaves was hung, but hung repeatedly.’

Letting the words fall between them, Jane felt fear tingling her spine.

‘Like he was hung close to death, then released, then hung again.’

Jane imagined the terror and horror of this man being brought to the edge of death, only to then be allowed to live. Like waterboarding but with a hanging rope instead.

‘I will carry out my own post-mortem to confirm the findings of the first and my suspicions from what I have read and seen.’

Jane was already heading to the printer. Dr Lydia had sent her the file via e-mail as well. Grabbing the pictures of Bill Hargreaves, she headed to the team briefing, energised by this potential breakthrough in a case that yesterday she thought was falling apart. Adding them to the whiteboard, she turned to see engaged faces poised in anticipation. DS Johnson was standing in the middle of the floor, impeccably dressed as usual. DC Berry was at DC Chan’s desk, her attention split between her screens and Jane.

‘Bill Hargreaves, fifty-nine years old. Details e-mailed to you all, I think this could be another victim of our killer. I want to know everything about him.’

‘Ma’am.’ It was DC Berry. ‘Uniform investigated this guy previously, when his body was found. A bit of a loner, a drunk, recently got the sack from his job. No family or friends, seemed like the only thing going for him was his job. So, with that gone, it wasn’t that big a leap to assume it was suicide.’

‘Dr Lydia has raised some concerns over the findings from his post-mortem. Enough to warrant her taking a second crack at it.’

‘He’s still in the freezer?’

Jane nodded.

‘What concerns does she have?’ DS Johnson asked, intrigued.

‘It’s in the report. Injuries and physical anomalies that don’t add up to the way Hargreaves hung himself. The new report suggests that he was hung multiple times. It was a callous and sadistic act and may help us understand the motive of the killer we are seeking.’

‘Jesus!’ said DC Berry. ‘What’s the doctor saying? That we might be looking at another Sutcliffe?’

Jane understood his reaction. Alice Rogers and Mark Burrows knew each other, but Bill Hargreaves was from a different world entirely. Did it point to their killer having a wider sphere for picking his victims?

‘If this is the same killer, disguising murders as suicides, then this could be the case that unlocks our investigation. We’ve been focused on the connecting lives our first two victims inhabited, so let’s find what part of that world Bill Hargreaves inhabits, and who might be of interest. I want to know if he has any links to Nurse Kandasamy for starters. I’ve been approved to hold her for another twenty-four hours, so we have limited time.’

‘We can charge her for the stolen goods,’ DS Johnson pointed out.

‘No, I want her kept in her delusional self-belief. She thinks she’s too clever to be charged, so let her carry on. If we charge her, she will lose hope of being let go, will clam up.’

‘DC Berry, I need you to really dig deep on Hargreaves. Check if there are any close friends or family we’ve missed. Has he lost a parent, for example? Or a partner we don’t know about?’ She thought about Melody. ‘Even an ex-partner he might still have a hankering for.’

‘Sure, ma’am.’

‘DS Johnson, any updates on the van?’

‘Working on it, ma’am. We’ve traced the false number plate and managed to triangulate an area where it’s regularly been seen. I’m organising a search using uniformed officers to track it down physically.’

‘Good. Let’s do this. We have three potential victims now, let’s get them justice.’