The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett Read Free Book Online Page A

you were one of the few registered forensic anthropologists in the country. Worked on mass graves in Iraq, Bosnia, the Congo. You name it. According to him you were pretty much the expert when it came to human remains. Not just identifying them, but how long they'd been dead, what they'd died of. He said you picked up where pathologists left off.'
    'Is there a point to this?'
    'The point is I can't help but wonder why you didn't mention any of this yesterday. When you knew we'd found a body, when you found evidence it could be a local woman, when you knew we would want to identify who it was as soon as bloody possible.' He kept his voice level, though his face had grown redder than ever. 'My friend at the Met thought it was highly amusing. Here am I, the senior investigating officer of a murder inquiry, with one of the country's leading forensic experts in front of me pretending to be a GP'
    I didn't let the fact he'd finally called it a murder distract me. 'I am a GP.'
    'But that's not all you are, is it? So why the big secret?'
    'Because what I used to do doesn't matter. I'm a doctor now.'
    Mackenzie was studying me as if trying to decide if I was joking or not. 'I made some other phone calls after that one. I know that you've only been practising as a GP for three years. Packed in forensic anthropology and came out here after your wife and daughter died in a car crash. Drink-driver in the other car survived unhurt.'
    I sat very still. Mackenzie had the grace to look uncomfortable. 'I don't want to open old wounds. Perhaps if you'd been straight with me yesterday I wouldn't have had to. But the bottom line is we need your help.'
    I knew he wanted me to ask how, but I didn't. He went on anyway.
    'The condition of the body's making it difficult to identify. We know it's female, but that's all. And until we've got an ID we're pretty much hamstrung. We can't start a proper murder investigation unless we know for certain who the victim is.'
    I found myself speaking. 'You said "for certain". You're already pretty sure, aren't you?'
    'We still haven't been able to trace Sally Palmer.'
    It was only what I'd been expecting, but it still shook me to hear it confirmed.
    'Several people remember seeing her at the pub barbecue, but so far we haven't found anyone who can recall seeing her since,' Mackenzie continued. 'That's nearly a fortnight ago. We've taken DNA samples from the body and the house, but it'll be a week before we get any results.'
    'What about fingerprints?'
    'Not a chance. We can't say yet if that's down to decomposition or if they've been deliberately removed.'
    'Dental records, then.'
    He shook his head. 'There aren't enough teeth left to get a match.'
    'Someone broke them?'
    'You could say that. Could have been done deliberately to prevent us identifying the body, or just a by-product of the injuries. We don't know yet.'
    I rubbed my eyes. 'So it's definitely murder?'
    'Oh, she was murdered, right enough,' he said, grimly. 'The body's too badly decomposed to know if she was sexually abused as well, but the assumption is that she probably was. And then somebody killed her.'
    'How?'
    Without answering, he took a large envelope from the folder and dropped it on the desk. The shiny edges of photographs peeped out. My hand was reaching for them before I realized what I was doing.
    I pushed the envelope away. 'No thanks.'
    'I thought you might want to see for yourself.'
    'I've already told you I can't help.'
    'Can't or won't?'
    I shook my head. 'I'm sorry.'
    He regarded me for a moment longer, then abruptly stood up. 'Thank you for your time, Dr Hunter.' His voice was cold.
    'You've forgotten this.' I held out the envelope.
    'Keep it. You might want to look at them later.'
    He went out. I still had the envelope in my hand. All I had to do was slide out the photographs. Instead I opened a drawer and dropped it inside. I closed the drawer and told Janice to send in the next patient.
    But the envelope's presence stayed with me