Purple Death E-Book

Brian L. Porter

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A series of murders leads Detective Inspector Sean Connor and his team into a labyrinthine investigation. The victims are dispatched using a poison previously associated with the notorious Borgia family.

As the murders multiply at an alarming rate, Connor finds clues hard to come by, and every lead takes him down yet another blind alley. The killer seems to be one step ahead of him at every turn.

Together with Sergeant Lucy Clay, they must piece together the shreds of evidence and find the mastermind behind the murders that become known as Purple Death.

Leseprobe

Purple Death

Brian L Porter

Copyright (C) 2010 Brian L Porter

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2019 by Next Chapter

Published 2019 by Next Chapter

Cover art by http://www.thecovercollection.com/

No part of this book maybe reproduced in any format except in brief quotations for review purposes without written request and consent from the publisher.

This a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, places or events is purely coincidental.

Dedication

This work is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Enid Ann Porter (1914 – 2004). Her love and support never failed me, and to my wife Juliet, who supplies those commodities in our everyday lives together.

By the Same Author

A Study in Red – The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper (Winner, The Preditors & Editors Best Thriller Novel Award, 2008)Legacy of the RipperRequiem for the RipperPestilenceBehind Closed DoorsGlastonburyThe Nemesis CellAvenue of the DeadKiss of Life

Novelette

Dracula Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Short Story Collections

The Voice of Anton BouchardA Binary Convergence (with Graeme S Houston)

As Harry Porter

Tilly's TaleDylan's TaleWolfAlistair the Alligator

Acknowledgements

Purple Death owes much of its existence to a small group of people scattered across the globe whose help and support, both in reading and critiquing the manuscript has proved invaluable. Covering a wide spectrum of ages and occupations these volunteers have helped to shape the final story that is about to be laid before you, and for that reason I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Malcolm Davies, Sheila Noakes and Ken Copley (UK), Jean Pike (USA), Graeme S Houston, (Malaysia), and last but not least to my wife Juliet, whose help and support through the long hours of writing the novel has been inspirational.

Introduction

The London Borough of Richmond-on-Thames sits sedately at the south-eastern fringes of the boundaries of Greater London. Hampton Court Palace, Kew Gardens and Twickenham, the home of English Rugby are all to be found within its borders, as is the National Physical Laboratory. There are over one hundred parks within its borders, and the River Thames flows sedately through twenty one miles of the borough which has royal connections that date back some nine hundred years.

It is into this tranquil and unlikely setting that a killer with terrifying motives begins a spree of murders that soon lead the police to a connection with a decades old case. Unfortunately for Detective Inspector Sean Connor and his assistant Sergeant Lucy Clay, all roads seem to lead to nowhere in this baffling investigation as they begin to realise that the man behind the murders is a master of the art of misdirection who appears to assume a new identity with almost every passing day. Witnesses are thin on the ground, clues non-existent, and every potential suspect soon turns out to be yet another victim of the invidious killer. Connor is faced with question after question as to the killer's motives and yet the answers are never going to be easy to find.

Who is the unknown but deadly female accomplice of the murderer whom the police soon dub The Chocolate Woman? Who is directing her in the prosecution of these apparently pointless and motiveless crimes? Why does the driver die at the controls as an express train arrives at Birmingham station, and how does his murder on the opposite side of the country connect with the horrendous series of killings taking place in quiet, leafy Richmond-on-Thames? What, if anything connects the victims to a thirty two year old unsolved murder investigation?

Each and every time that Connor and his team feel they are about to discover a new lead, they find they have been led into yet another `blind alley' by the merciless yet fiendishly clever mastermind behind the murders. Time is running out for those still on the killers `murder list' and the detectives must work fast to prevent the serial killer from completing his gruesome task as they begin their investigation into the catalogue of murders that would soon come to be known collectively as `The Purple Death'.

Author's note: Although the towns and cities named in this fiction and the borough of Richmond-on-Thames are genuine, any and all references to local place names, streets and individuals are purely the inventions of the author's mind and bear no connection to any place or person in real life. Any similarity to real places or persons is thus a pure coincidence and is entirely unintentional.

Prologue

The man pulled the grey cardboard box file from its place in the bottom of the well-worn metal filing cabinet that stood in the darkest corner of his office. The heavy box file bulged from the bulk of its contents. It bore no file name or label in the space that had been provided for the purpose. Placing it on his desk the man removed the pink ribbon that held it closed and slowly began to remove the contents. Old newspaper cuttings, yellow with age, were soon joined on his desk by photographs of a diverse collection of men and women, of streets that betrayed their history by the collection of motor cars of a previous generation, notebooks with discoloured, crumpled pages and a single, leather bound album that contained yet more photographs, this time of a more personal nature.

He spent a good ten minutes perusing the contents of the file before slowly replacing each item in the reverse of the order in which he'd removed it. Finally he spent a few minutes looking at the photos in the personal album, tenderly fingering the face of the central character in each and every one of the pictures that the well preserved photograph album contained. A smile played across his lips and he appeared lost in thoughts of a happier time, but eventually he added the album to the other items back in the box file which he soon replaced in its place in the filing cabinet. He pushed the protruding pop-out auto-lock on the cabinet. His secrets were safe until the next time he decided to delve into his own personal museum of what his life had been, and what, under other circumstances, it might have been.

Unlocking a drawer in his desk, he next took out a polished wooden box. Hand-made from the finest quality oak, it bore a distinctly aged and old-fashioned appearance. He knew it had once belonged to a retired sea-captain who'd sailed the world long ago on one of the old clipper ships, carrying tea and other treasures from one corner of the empire to another. He'd acquired it at an antiques auction, and had put it to good use.

Opening it with a key he kept on a chain around his neck he surveyed the contents with a look of satisfaction. Five small glass tubes, rather like test tubes from a chemical laboratory lay in a bed of green velvet within the box. Each was securely topped off with a closely fitting cork top, and sealed around the edges with strong corrosive resistant black tape. Only the sharpest of syringes would serve to pry the contents of those vials from within their glass homes. He touched each of the vials in turn, his gaze lingering upon the clear, innocent looking liquid that each one contained and then, with a smile of satisfaction on his face, he slowly closed the box, turned the key in the lock and returned the box to its allotted place in the drawer.

Picking up the telephone, the man prepared to make a call, checking the number on a pad on his desk. He smiled again as he began to dial. The game was about to begin!

The First Taste

Looking out at the world through his office window Sam Gabriel had every reason to feel pleased with himself. As he took in the sights of the people enjoying the warmth of the sun in the park that lay directly below his office building he wondered if any of them could possibly feel as happy as he did at that particular moment in his life. Just forty years old and already he'd been propelled upwards towards the higher reaches of the promotion ladder. It had been less than an hour since old Lawrence Betts called Sam into his office and handed him the prize he'd been seeking for so long, a partnership! To be offered the role of partner in the firm of Betts, Cowan and Ford was something Sam had dreamed about ever since he'd joined the city law firm just four years ago, but he'd never envisaged would happen this soon. He'd earlier made a name for himself with a smaller firm specialising in criminal matters and had been head-hunted by the larger, more prosperous firm for whom he now worked. He wanted so much to call Lynne, his wife of the last six years but he knew that she was en-route to Edinburgh to visit her mother and Lynne would never, ever dream of answering her phone while she was driving. She'd always been too safety conscious to take such a risk.

As Sam was thinking of Lynne he first noticed the slight burning sensation, accompanied by an unexplained tingling in his mouth. Putting it down to excitement Sam ignored the discomfort at first but, as he watched two children chasing a small Yorkshire terrier through the park below his window he became aware of another disturbing sensation, when his mouth began to feel numb, as though he'd received a large dose of novocaine, and the tingling sensation increased, as did the burning which now spread from his mouth and took a firm hold of his abdomen.

Sam staggered back against his desk while the burning increased and his motor functions suddenly failed him. He wanted to move his arms and legs but they didn't want to obey his brain's commands. What the hell was happening? Sam reached for the telephone which sat invitingly on his desk intending to call for Maggie, his secretary. He knew he must have eaten something that had disagreed with his stomach. This could only be a virulent attack of food poisoning, surely. For some reason, at the same time as he reached across the desk the telephone seemed to keep moving away from his outstretched hand; no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't make his hand connect with the inanimate but elusive plastic object that had become the absolute focus of his life in the last few seconds.

He couldn't do it. The telephone wouldn't allow him to pick it up, so he tried for the next best option. He'd walk across the floor to the door, open it and call Maggie into the office. He'd done it a thousand times before, why not now? The answer came in less than two seconds when Sam Gabriel tried to move his legs and instead fell in a crumpled heap on his office floor. He felt more than just `ill' now and fear gripped Sam while the sweat on his brow began to run down into his eyes. He felt a constriction in his chest which felt as though someone had suddenly placed an iron barrel ring around him and was tightening it by the second. The life was rapidly being crushed out of his body, but with nothing and no-one there with him in the office to offer help. Sam Gabriel had never felt so frightened and alone.

Why didn't anyone come to his aid? He couldn't think of a reason why no-one came until he remembered that he'd told Maggie he wasn't to be disturbed under any circumstances. Sam had wanted to enjoy his big moment, to savour it and then make a few phone calls to friends and family to share his news. Then he'd have gone for lunch, meeting as usual with his colleagues from inside and outside the firm at The Harrow Arms, the local watering hole for the legal and upmarket business set.

His pulse was slowing and his skin appeared to him to be on fire and the sensations of heat were rapidly spreading over his whole body. He could almost feel the throbbing of his own heartbeat in his temples and he knew that along with his pulse, his heart rate was getting slower by the minute.

“What the hell's happening to me?” he managed to voice out loud, but they were the last words he managed before he felt his stomach lurch and heave, and Sam Gabriel began to vomit uncontrollably. He lurched violently while a spasm shook his body, he felt the cold hardness of his desk behind his back, and then Sam began to sob as he realised that no-one was about to come to his aid, and that whatever was happening to him could have potentially lethal consequences for him. This was no simple case of food poisoning, he concluded. Some bastard had deliberately poisoned him. But who, and with what? He tried desperately to think of something he might have ingested that could have caused this type of reaction but his poor tortured brain could think of nothing.

The pain in his gut increased exponentially and Sam managed to assume a foetal position, his arms gripping his belly tightly in an effort to dull the agony and control the retching that now wracked his weary body every few minutes. It became harder to breathe. Little did he know at that stage, but Sam was slowly being starved of air, his lungs were beginning to fail due to asphyxiation. Lucid to the end, Sam Gabriel lived out the last minutes of his life on the floor of his office, recognising the approach of imminent death, but being unable to summon help, unable even to call out to his secretary in the next office. Sam thought of Lynne and the child she was carrying, the son or daughter he'd never know, and then, as the pain in his abdomen reached a crescendo and his lungs felt as though they were being crushed in a vice, Sam closed his eyes for the last time, and the children in the park chased the little terrier, and the lunchtime crowd gathered on the park benches to enjoy their sandwiches and pre-packaged drinks.

Knowing that he'd want to be on time to celebrate the good news of his promotion with the lunchtime crowd Maggie Lucas dared to knock and enter Sam Gabriel's office less than ten minutes after he'd drawn his last agonizing breath. The screams that accompanied her discovery of the painfully contorted body of her boss brought the staff and the senior partners of the firm of Betts, Cowan and Ford running to the office of their newly promoted and recently deceased junior partner. Sam Gabriel had lived less than two hours to enjoy his promotion.

Second Helpings

An hour after Sam Gabriel expired on the floor of his office, David Arnold, thirty- eight year old father of two and a driver for Great Eastern Railways pulled his train to rest at platform two of New Street Station in Birmingham. The journey from the south coast resort of Penzance had been uneventful and David had coasted to a halt at the platform at Birmingham dead on time. The burning in his stomach had started about ten miles from the city, but he'd put it down to having eaten his breakfast in a hurry that morning. Now he was paying the price.

It wasn't until he felt the burning and tingling sensations in his mouth and began to feel the cramping feeling in his gut that David realised there might be something more seriously wrong with him. He knew he couldn't continue to drive for the rest of his shift which would take the train as far as his home town of Liverpool, where he'd hand over to a new driver for the rest of the train's journey to Glasgow. In his current condition he'd be a liability to himself and his passengers and so he responsibly decided to exit from his cab and get help before handing over the train to a relief driver if one could be found.

It was at that moment, at the same time as he tried to rise from his seat and move to the door of the cab that he realised just how bad things were. Though his brain continued to function perfectly well, David Arnold found himself rooted to his seat. He wanted to move, but couldn't. All his motor functions seemed to have deserted him. Hell, he couldn't even reach out his arm to lean through the window and call for help. He felt sick and a heavy tightness began to form in his chest, breathing becoming difficult. David knew he was in trouble.

Carriage doors slammed, the guard's whistle blew, and the hundred and forty passengers aboard the train waited for the mighty diesel-electric locomotive to begin its slow glide as it pulled the snake of carriages away from the station before gradually picking up speed as it moved out of the city.

When the train failed to move, the guard tried the whistle once more, thinking that perhaps the driver had failed to hear the shrill piercing sound intended to send him on his way. When the second whistle produced the same abortive effect the guard walked briskly down the platform to the front of the train. He was joined as he neared the locomotive by a platform supervisor, whose job it was to ensure that the train's carriages were in a safe condition with all doors closed before it moved off. The two men arrived at the door to the driver's cab simultaneously and the guard, a veteran of twenty years working on the rail system reached out to open the door. Normally, the door to the cab would be automatically locked while the train was in motion, but now it allowed the guard to depress the latch and open it to reveal the interior of the cab.

The floor of the cab lay awash, stained with the vomit that David Arnold had spewed in his final moments. He'd remained conscious and clear-minded to the end, and had been horrified to feel the massive constrictions in his chest and lungs, to feel himself being gradually strangled as if by an invisible assailant, his need for air being met with nothing but more pain, more burning and numbness while his body closed down cell by cell, and the tears ran down his face. David Arnold thought of Vicky and Tracy, his two young daughters, and Angela his wife waiting at home for him to finish his shift and return to them as he always did. He could see their faces in his mind when that final awful constriction hit him and the struggle to breathe became superseded by the need to give in, to let the inevitable consequences of this sudden painful attack take their course. David Arnold died just ten seconds before Ray Fellows the guard opened his cab.

The horrified faces of Ray Fellows and Mike Smith the platform supervisor mirrored each other as they gawped at the horrific sight that met their eyes when they looked into the drivers cab. Smith looked away and vomited himself, right there on the platform. Fellows, despite the shock of finding the driver in such a state, managed to gasp a call for help into his radio and requested both the police and paramedics be summoned.

The police were there first of course, since the local force maintained a strong presence on all the major stations on the rail network as part of the modern-day deterrent against the scourge of terrorism. A sergeant and a police constable arrived at the entrance to the cab within two minutes of Fellows' call and the sergeant needed no second look in order for him to determine that the driver was unlikely to be alive. The grim rictus of pain on his face, frozen at the moment of death, served to advertise his deceased state and the sergeant ordered the constable to seal off the area around the cab until the paramedics and a more senior police officer arrived to take charge.

“What about the train?” asked Fellows.

“Eh?” the sergeant responded.

“The train, Sergeant! There are probably over a hundred people in these carriages waiting to continue their journey. What are we supposed to do with the bloody train?”

Sergeant Peter Seddon thought quickly, and came to a decision.

“I'm sorry, but until we know for sure that this was an accidental death, they'll have to stay here until a senior officer decides to release them.”

“You're joking surely,” the guard responded. “How do we keep them all on the train? We don't exactly have a massive security force here you know. They could just open the doors and leave the station and we'd never know a thing would we?”

“Davies,” the sergeant spoke to his constable. “Get on the radio and get as many men as we've got on duty at the station to get over here. I want the names and addresses of every passenger and I want them quick!”

“I'm on it, Sergeant,” the constable replied.

People were already opening carriage doors all along the length of the eight carriage train. It was going to take a superhuman and miraculous effort by the police to keep them all in place until the detectives arrived. Thanks to the sterling efforts of Sergeant Seddon, Constable Paul Davies, and four men from the transport police office at New Street Station, they achieved the near-impossible. As far as they knew, no-one left the train before the arrival some thirty minutes later, of Detective Inspector Charles Carrick and his assistant, Detective Sergeant Lewis Cole.

The detectives soon set to work, though there was little that could be gleaned from either the passengers or the rail staff on duty on Platform Two. The likelihood that anyone on board the train could have had anything to do with the driver's death was miniscule in the extreme in the detective's minds, and after ensuring that the constables had noted the names and addresses of the passengers they were released to continue on their journeys as best as they could.

The paramedics were certain that the driver was dead, (the policemen could have told them that) and Carrick demanded that the body remain untouched until it could be examined by the police doctor and officially pronounced as such. The whole procedure took about an hour from start to finish and eventually paramedics removed the body of David Arnold from the cab with as much care as possible, placed it in a black body bag, and removed the deceased to the local mortuary where he would soon be subjected to a rigorous examination and autopsy in an effort to determine the cause of the unfortunate driver's demise. The locomotive would be treated as a potential crime scene for the time being, forcing the station master into the inconvenience of having to shut down all operations on that platform, thus causing severe disruption to the whole rail network, until the police allowed the loco to be moved to a siding.

Carrick's words as he watched the ambulance carry away the unfortunate driver towards his date with the medical examiner's scalpel would eventually prove to be quite prophetic when he said to Cole,

“I wouldn't like to see one like that every day Sergeant, no sir, I wouldn't. Gives a man the creeps to see a body like that. The poor sod must have been in agony at the end, from the look on his face. No-one should die like that, no-one. I hope I never see a face like that again as long as I live.”

“Right, Sir,” Cole replied.

He could think of nothing else to say at the time. He was too busy trying to hold back the bile and vomit that he'd been fighting against since he too had seen the corpse of the once strong and vibrant engine driver.

At the time, neither man could think ahead any further than the inevitable autopsy, which they hoped would prove that the man had died from some awful but natural death, food poisoning perhaps.

That hope proved to be short-lived, as was Carrick's hope that this was the first and last time he'd see such a tortured sight as the body of David Arnold!

Questions Without Answers

The death of Sam Gabriel had caused more than a stir within the hallowed portals of the old-established law firm. Senior partner Lawrence Betts, having so recently shaken the hand of his newly promoted junior partner had taken it upon himself to notify the authorities as soon as Sam's secretary had informed him of the tragedy that had taken place in Sam's office. Sixty-nine year old Betts, looking visibly shaken and every one of his years, now sat at his desk, his hands filled with a restless energy all of their own as Detective Inspector Sean Connor sat in the comfortable leather client chair that Betts provided for those who consulted him in his professional capacity. At that moment however, Connor saw only a sad old man with a head of white hair and wrinkled temples, hands pocked here and there with liver spots, a man with a look of defeat in his eyes.

“So, Mr Betts,” he began, “what can you tell me that might throw some light on what took place here today? I understand that Mr Gabriel had been with you in your office shortly before his death and that you'd just handed him a big promotion?”

Betts paused for a second before answering. Obviously Maggie or one of the other secretaries or para-legals had already given the inspector the news of Sam's promotion.

“Mm, yes, quite so Inspector,” he eventually responded. “Sam Gabriel was one of the brighter lights shining against an increasingly dull horizon. In modern legal terms he performed quite brilliantly and had a dazzling career ahead of him. I would have promoted him a year ago, but I wanted him to gain a little more trial experience before confirming what I already knew deep down inside. This is nothing short of a catastrophic tragedy Inspector, a catastrophic tragedy!”

“Yes sir, I'm sure you're quite right. Do you have any idea what might have happened to cause this, this…whatever it was to happen to him?”

“I can assure you Inspector that I have no idea whatsoever what could have happened to poor Samuel. Let me tell you right now though, that Sam had no time for drugs, so the thought that he might have overdosed on some illegal substance is positively out of the question.”

“Why on earth do you think that I might be thinking along those lines Mr Betts?” asked the inspector.

“I don't know Inspector. It's just that I know from years of experience that when someone dies in suspicious circumstances with no visible outward signs of bodily trauma, the police tend to think along those lines, don't they?”

“You do have a poor opinion of us don't you Mr Betts? For all I know Mr Gabriel could have had a heart attack, a stroke, a brain haemorrhage, any number of things that could be attributed to natural causes, and yet you automatically think of controlled substances. I know you're a lawyer, but I think that perhaps it's you who are jumping to conclusions. Is it that you think he really might have taken something that contributed to his death?”

“No Inspector, I don't think that at all, and you must forgive me for having brought the subject into our conversation. I'm shocked, that's all, shocked at losing a colleague with such a brilliant young mind and shocked at the effect his death is going to have on his wife and family.”

“Of course Mr Betts, of course. So, you have no idea what happened in Mr Gabriel's office after he left you following your conversation together?”

“That's right. Samuel left my office at around eleven a.m. and as far as I know from talking to my staff he returned to his office and after a few words with his secretary asking that she allow no-one to disturb him he was never seen alive again.”

“Wasn't that a little strange sir, you know, him just having received a big promotion and then not sharing it with everyone straight away?”

“Not at all Inspector. Samuel Gabriel was a modest and a respectful man. He would have wanted his wife to be the first to share in his good fortune. He told me that she was travelling north today, to Edinburgh I think to visit her family and he wouldn't have dreamed of disturbing her by telephoning her whilst she were driving. He'd have waited until she'd arrived north of the border, and then phoned her before telling anyone else.”

“But the office staff, the other members of your firm, they all knew I suppose?”

“Of course, but they would have kept that to themselves until such times as they left the building. Besides, apart from his family and friends it wasn't really of much importance to anyone outside of the office was it Inspector? It was just a work promotion after all and could have had no possible bearing on his death.”

“Perhaps Mr Betts, and perhaps not. We'll have to wait and see what the autopsy throws up won't we? Until that's carried out, anything else would be sheer speculation on our part, and hardly worthy of either of our professional statuses wouldn't you agree?”

Betts nodded in agreement as a knock sounded at the door. The diminutive figure of Detective Sergeant Lucy Clay followed her polite knock by pushing the door open and peering around it until she caught sight of Connor.

“Yes, Sergeant, what is it?”

“It's the crime scene people Sir, and the doctor. They want to know if they can move the body.”

“As soon as the doctor pronounces the man deceased and makes his initial examination of the body they can take him away,” Connor replied.

Betts could be of little further help to the police officers, his knowledge of Sam Gabriel extending little beyond the doors of the law firm's offices, so Connor and Clay spent the next two hours questioning the other partners and the staff of Betts, Cowan and Ford with the result that they ended up knowing almost nothing about the deceased apart from his record as a lawyer and the most basic details about his wife and home life. That he was happily married seemed to be a universally accepted fact, and everyone in the office professed the firm belief that Sam Gabriel had been the victim of some tragic accident, or that he'd been struck down by some hideous but as yet unknown disease, and a couple of the staff had even gone so far as to ask the police if they would be screening everyone for the disease that had killed their colleague.

It was with a sense of relief that Connor and Clay eventually left the building and headed back to police headquarters. It remained too early for any post-mortem results, and they decided to use the time at their disposal to check and cross reference the statements they'd received from the employees of the law firm and to contact the police in Edinburgh, where Sam Gabriel's unfortunate widow was expected to arrive at any time. It would fall on the shoulders of some poor unfortunate Scottish officer to break the sad news to the widow, but it would be Sean Connor who would have to deal with her grief and her questions upon her return.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Catherine Nickels tied her hair back, pulled on her scrubs and gloves and strode purposefully into the autopsy room. As chief forensic medical examiner for the town, thirty-eight year old Catherine had been called in to perform the examination of the body of the newly deceased Sam Gabriel. Her assistant, Doctor Gunther Schmidt was waiting for her. Gunther was Austrian by birth, of German parents, and had come to England ten years earlier to further his studies in forensic medicine. Tall and good looking in a Teutonic sort of way, Gunther had fallen in love with the country and its people and had been only too pleased to accept the job as Assistant Medical Examiner for Richmond when the post was offered to him. He'd been with Catherine for four years and the two of them worked together with a seamless ease that at times belied the meticulous professionalism that they applied to every case.

“Morning, Gunther”, Catherine greeted her assistant with a warmth that came from their close and at times intense professional relationship.

“Same to you,” he replied as he continued to wash down the body on the table in front of him ready for the process of autopsy to begin. “Looks like we have a small mystery on our hands today, according to the police.”

“What have I told you Gunther? There are no mysteries in forensics, simply answers that have yet to be found.”

“Of course Doctor, as you say, but this is a little out of the ordinary wouldn't you say?”

“Perhaps Gunther, perhaps,” was all Catherine would say as the two of them moved into their well-practised routine of opening up the deceased's remains. There was little or no verbal communication between the two specialists as the internal organs were swiftly removed from the chest and abdominal cavities, and the whirring of the high powered circular saw heralded the removal of the brain from its position within the skull. Within the next few hours various tests and procedures would be carried out on the various tissue samples taken by Catherine and Gunther, and if all went well they would soon be able to provide the police with the cause of death of the unfortunate Sam Gabriel.

As they left the autopsy room, the door at the end of the well lit corridor opened towards them to admit a tall dark-haired figure in a smart but slightly crumpled grey suit. Sean Connor passed through the entrance and moved briskly towards the two pathologists.

“Any word for me, Doc?” he asked Catherine.

“Sorry Inspector, not yet I'm afraid. If there was evidence of gunshot wounds or blunt force trauma I could give you a rough guess at the cause of death, but in this case he appeared to be a healthy and well-nourished man with nothing out of the ordinary to categorise in a visual scan of the organs. I've sent tissue samples and stomach contents to the lab for analysis, and we should have some preliminary answers for you by tomorrow afternoon.”

“As long as that eh, Doc?” Connor spoke with a smile on his face. He knew that Catherine Nickels was good at her job. If she could give him an answer sooner he knew that she would. Sean Connor trusted her to be meticulous. After all, a future prosecution could depend on the reliability and accuracy of her findings. He'd never try to rush the good doctor, though he might sound as if he would.

“As long as that, Inspector.” she retorted.

“I know it's not in your usual remit to do so Doc, but, if I were to tell you that your life depended upon taking a complete shot in the dark and giving me an inkling of what secret thoughts are going through your head about this one, what would you say to me? Come on, Doc, you must have a private opinion of some sort.”

“Inspector Connor,” Catherine grinned, “I do believe you're pushing me to speculate.”

“Maybe Doc, but go on, just tell me what you think it might be, please.”

“Listen Inspector Connor, as you seem to want to push me into a corner on this one, I'll tell you what went through my mind when I looked into the chest cavity of that poor young man a few minutes ago.”

“Yes Doc?”

“Well, there was no direct evidence of course, and I won't be sure until we get the test results back from the lab, but…”

“Oh, come on Doc, don't muck about.”

“OK. There was evidence of some kind of trauma in the trachea and oesophagus, as though he'd been struggling for breath, and I mean in a big way. The slight discolouration on his lips added to my feelings that we are dealing with a victim of asphyxia, and yet…”

“Are you saying he was strangled?”

“There's nothing to suggest that, I'm afraid.”

“Please Doc, you're holding back on me, I know you are.”

Catherine Nickels took a deep breath. Speculation wasn't her forte but Connor had pressed her and she had entertained a private speculative thought about the circumstances of this death as she'd looked at the victim's internal organs.

“If you were to press me, and I stress that this is just a wild shot in the dark, I'd say we're dealing with a case of poisoning of some sort.”

“Poison?” Connor was stunned.

“Like I said, we won't know until we get the results back from the lab, but I'd say we're dealing with some fast acting and highly lethal toxin, though I can't tell you how or when it was administered, not yet. Maybe the stomach contents will tell us something. There were no puncture marks on the body though, I can tell you that. Now, if you don't mind, Doctor Schmidt and I have notes to write up and other work to do.

“Yes, right, well, thanks Doc,” said Connor, turning and heading back for the door. “You'll let me know, right?”

“As soon as I know, you'll know Inspector,” she replied as she and Gunther disappeared through the door to her office.

As he climbed back into his car which he'd left parked in the tree-lined lane that ran along the back of the mortuary building, he picked up his phone, and dialled Lucy Clay's mobile number. She replied within seconds of the phone ringing.

“Any word from the widow yet Lucy?” Connor asked.

“Not yet Sir, we're still waiting. Anything on the cause of death yet?”

“Nothing definite yet Sergeant, but according to the doc, we could be looking at a good old Christie style mystery here, if she's proved right by the lab reports of course.”

“Sorry Sir, but you're talking in riddles?”

“Oh, yes, sorry Sergeant. Let's just say that in the case of Mr Sam Gabriel we could be looking at a case of good old-fashioned arsenic and old lace.”

“You've lost me now Sir,” Lucy spoke in exasperation into her phone.

“Forgive me Sergeant, I'm daydreaming of the books of my own youth. Poison, Lucy, that's what we could be looking at. Good old-fashioned poisoning, and you know what?”

“What, Sir?” was all the bemused detective sergeant could ask down the phone.

“In all my years on the force, I've never had a poisoning before. This could be something to really get our teeth into.”

With that unfortunate remark Connor brought the conversation to a close. Before Clay could respond, he shouted into the phone;

“See you back at the office,” and then broke the connection.

Sitting at her desk in the Criminal Investigation Department (C.I.D.) operations room at police headquarters, Lucy Clay looked in bewilderment at Detective Constable Harry Drew who just happened to be walking past, pointed an agitated finger at the phone to indicate whomever she'd been speaking to and shouted at Drew;

“He's gone crazy, absolutely bloody crazy.”

Constable Drew kept walking. He had nowhere to hurry to but he'd think of somewhere to get away from the demented Sergeant who sat staring at the phone in her hand, looking a little on the crazy side and muttering to herself,

“Old lace and arsenic, arsenic and old lace? What the hell does he mean by that?”

Unfortunately, Lucy Clay's education into classic Victorian style English literature was soon to escalate at an unheard of and decidedly unwanted rate.