Doors Without Numbers by C.D. Neill Read Free Book Online

further clue but Henderson had already turned his back on him and continued his examination. Hammond was dismissed.
    Back at the police station, a meeting with the investigative team was scheduled for early evening. It was more practical to use the station rather than set up an incident room in Saltwood since it was so close. Hammond wanted to give SOCO every opportunity to collect evidence from the scene before the briefing later. The autopsy would take longer but he hoped there would be enough information from the external examination back at the morgue to start the investigation. In the meantime, He wanted to look at the file on Mark Callum and find out as much information about the suicide as he could. The computer database could not promise to offer Hammond any more information than he had already, but Hammond could not take it for granted that Harris had been correct in his assumptions. Harris had behaved oddly, Hammond surmised. The man he had met at the Golf Club had seemed confused and erratic in his thinking. It was more than possible that Harris had seen a connection that wasn’t there, but Hammond owed his former colleague the benefit of the doubt. He unfolded the paper that Harris had handed him the day before. The paper was small, but heavily marked with lines and crosses against a list of names. Harris counted five in total. This wasn’t much to go on, but it was a start. Of course, Hammond mused, it may be awkward explaining why he wanted to investigate a suicide that was not local to him; after all, the suicide of Mark Callum had occurred nearly four months ago. The inquest had confirmed the manner of death so as far as the police were concerned, it was a closed case. Hammond sighed and hoped, rather ashamedly, that Lloyd Harris was simply being paranoid.

C HAPTER T HREE
    The coffee handed to him was tepid warm but Hammond sipped it appreciatively. He had spent an hour at the Ashford Police Station looking at the file in front of him. The photographs of Mark Callum’s body were detailed and the investigation had been thorough. Hammond knew that a death caused by suffocation would always be treated as suspicious until proven otherwise and the investigating team had left no stone unturned. Mark Callum had been found slumped against a wall. The bag over his head was a strong, clear plastic, like the type wrapped around home delivery parcels. The parcel tape which had been around his neck was excessive. From the photographs it looked like a whole roll had been used with the empty cardboard inner roll left still attached. Hammond considered that a roll of tape usually measured 10 meters. As there had been no tape left elsewhere, it appeared that all of it had been used. This fact alone added credibility that the act of wrapping the tape over the opening of the bag was a sincere attempt to make the seal impenetrable. At the same time, it also added doubt that there would have been enough air to have lasted the several minutes it would have taken to have wound this amount of tape repeatedly.
    The photographs showing the apartment were a surprise to Hammond. It was clean and tidy, which was rather uncommon for a man living alone (if Paul and his male friends were anything to go by) but what was so significant was the lack of personality in the room. There was nothing to show who Mark Callum had been. Hammond viewed the map of the apartment drawn up by the scene officers whom had placed a red X in the position where the body had been found. The apartment consisted of a kitchen, a bathroom with a toilet, basin and a small bath and the bedroom. There were only two windows in the flat which explained the dingy light shown in the photographs. One was above the bed in the bedroom in line with the front door. The galley kitchen had a small rectangular window above the sink. A fridge and a small cooker were the only items of furniture in the room with a bare white veneered counter-top. Hammond considered the items in his