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“That gives them plenty of time to do whatever they want,” said Reilly.
“And it doesn’t matter too much about noise, because it’s an end house with only one neighbour.”
“Who was out. And I’ll lay odds our suspect knew this. They’ve done their homework. All of this was too well planned. Sounds like it went without a hitch.”
“We need to ask Beryl Potts if she can remember exactly what time she last saw Nicola Stapleton alive.”
“So where did they take Morrison between eleven-thirty and four o’clock the next mornin
g?”
“It certainly wasn’t his flat,” said Gardener.
“And they couldn’t take him back to the cab office.”
“Before you two get too involved,” Fitz intervened, “I haven’t finished.”
“There’s more?”
“Yes. Food wasn’t the only thing I found amongst the contents of Barry Morrison’s stomach.”
Gardener and Reilly glanced at each other whilst Fitz reached into a drawer. He pulled out an evidence bag and dropped it on the desk.
“What’s that?” asked Reilly.
“A key.”
“I can see it’s a key, but it’s not an ordinary one, is it?”
Gardener leaned in closer, studying the silver object, which was an inch and a half in length, with five oblong cuts in the side. The head was an inch wide, shaped like a three-leaf clover.
“No. I’m pretty sure it’s the key to a safe deposit box, the type held in a bank.”
“And that was in his stomach?”
“Yes, amongst the food.”
Gardener thought about the body when they’d found it. There were no cuts or lacerations, so it hadn’t been placed.
“He was made to swallow it?”
“Almost certainly,” said Fitz. “It wasn’t easy, but I did manage to find traces of Vaseline.”
“The killer’s playing games with us,” said Reilly. “Another one who wants us to run all over the place solving cryptic puzzles.”
“But what?” Gardener asked. “Why do you make a man swallow the key to a safe deposit box? What’s in there that they want us to see?”
“People store all sorts of things in them,” said Fitz. “Gemstones, precious metals, currency, marketable securities. Important documents such as a will, property deeds, birth certificates.”
“Could be anywhere,” said Reilly.
“I don’t know much about safe deposit boxes,” said Gardener. “Are they specific to certain banks?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” replied Fitz. “But a good locksmith probably could.”
Reilly made a note, and Gardener realized they were going to be working all night. They had collected so much information that needed discussing in the incident room, and that wasn’t counting what his officers had found out. He glanced at his watch, shocked to find it approaching eight o’clock.
“Well, gentlemen,” said Fitz, “I’ll send you my report as soon as possible, but I don’t think there’s a great deal more I can tell you.”
