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Gardener added further actions to the charts. Before he’d finished, the door opened and Fitz entered, waving a manila folder around. “I have those results you asked for on this morning’s body.”
“Body,” asked Gates. “What body?”
“We were just coming to that,” said Gardener. Nodding to Fitz, he asked the pathologist to continue.
“Once I had a line on a possible identification – and further information from Maurice here, I had them fast track the dental records to me. The lady in the ground is definitely Jane Browne.”
“Thank you, Fitz. That gives us another line of enquiry.”
Gardener knew his team was confused. He had not had time to discuss the body.
“I have found something else very interesting. She has three broken ribs and suffered severe trauma in the pelvic area, judging by what I can see.”
Gardener noted the concerned expressions of most of his team. Tensions rose. They had to be thinking along similar lines to him: another body with similar injuries to the first – also called Jane. What exactly was going on here? “Any ideas on the cause?” he asked Fitz.
The pathologist raised his hands in defeat. “She was hit with, or by, something heavy.”
“Thank you, Fitz,” he said, waving the folder. “Much appreciated.”
Fitz nodded. “Well, gentlemen, I’ve done what I came to do, so I’ll leave you to your detecting. My wife assures me I have a home-made steak pie waiting for me, and a nice bottle of Merlot.”
“Any more comments like that, old son, and you might not make it home.”
“That’s right, Fitz,” said Anderson. “But don’t you worry about your pie because we know where you live.”
Everyone chuckled as Fitz left.
Gardener took them through the trip to Bedlam Rocks, and what they had found.
“What’re the chances of that?” asked Colin Sharp. “Both women being called Jane?”
“That crossed my mind as well,” said Gardener. “And I’m left wondering how many more coincidences we’re going to find before two and two start to add up to four like they should. Anyway, I believe Maurice has some information about her for us. He’s just spent the last two hours on the phone.”
Gardener stepped aside to allow the desk sergeant to take over. He opened the manila envelope and placed the photographs of the buried body on the charts.
“So what happened to Jane Browne, Maurice?” asked Anderson. “How did she end up buried on the moors?”
“We’re not sure. I’ve only had a couple of hours to make sense of any of this but I’ve spoken to the police in the North West and the North East. Seems Jane Browne went missing in the nineties. She was married to a man called Raymond Culver. They went away for the weekend, camping – presumably they ended up somewhere near Bedlam Rocks.
“Raymond eventually returned home alone. He acted withdrawn, said his wife had left him and he couldn’t go on. Grace, the daughter, reported it to the police and they questioned Raymond but said they had nothing on him, nor did they suspect him of any foul play. He were blaming the daughter for making up stories. He’d said at the time he had no idea why because they’d always got on,” Cragg said.
“So the wife just upped and left, and the daughter never heard from her again?” asked Anderson.
“According to the people I’ve spoken to, but like I said, I’ve only got the basics on this. We’ll need someone checking it all out.”
“Doesn’t sound right, does it?” said Gates. “I can accept that the mother would want nothing more to do with the husband, but would she leave her own daughter?”
“Did you get a last known address, Maurice?” asked Gardener.
“Yes. Might not be much use.”
“Maybe not, but at least it’s a starting point. The daughter might still live there, or somewhere in the area.”
“Aye,” said Cragg. “And people have long memories. They’ll remember this so we might strike lucky.”
“Okay,” said Gardener. “Colin, first thing in the morning I’d like you up in Billingham. Report to the local police station and find out everything you can. Dave, you go into the North West, to Brough. See what you can find about that incident. I know it’s a while back but there’s bound to be some records worth chasing.”
“Like Maurice says, people have long memories,” added Reilly. “There’s bound to be an old lag on the team who was around at the time.”
