Strange Affair Read Online Free PDF Page B

you’re a womanalone and a car comes up fast behind you on a deserted country road at night?”
    “I’d say either you take off like a bat out of hell or you slow down and let him get by and put as much distance as possible between the two of you,” said Annie.
    “Exactly. Only in this case he forced her over to the side of the road.”
    “The gear stick,” Annie said.
    “What?” Gristhorpe asked.
    “The gear stick. She was trying to get away. She was trying to reverse.”
    “That’s the way it looks,” said Stefan.
    “But she wasn’t fast enough,” said Annie.
    “No. And she stalled.”
    “Do you think,” Annie went on, “that there might have been two of them?”
    “Why?” asked Gristhorpe.
    Stefan looked at Annie and answered. It was uncanny, she thought, how often their thoughts followed the same pathways. “I think DI Cabbot means,” he said, “that if the driver had to put on the brake, unfasten his seat belt and pull out his gun before getting out, those few seconds might have made all the difference.”
    “Yes,” said Annie. “Though why we should assume a murderer would be so law-abiding as to wear a seat belt is stretching it a bit. And he may have already had his gun out and not bothered to turn off the ignition. But if someone was there to leap out, say someone in the back, with his gun ready and no seat belt to unfasten, then she wouldn’t have had time to recover from the shock and get away in time. Remember, she’d probably be panicking.”
    “Hmm,” said Gristhorpe. “Interesting. And possible. Let’s keep an open mind for the time being. Anything else?”
    “Not really,” said Stefan. “The victim’s been taken to the mortuary and Dr. Glendenning said he should be able to get around to the post-mortem sometime this afternoon. In the meantime, it still looks very much as if death was due to a single gunshot wound above the right ear.”
    “Any ideas about the sort of weapon used?”
    “We’ve found no trace of a cartridge, so either our killer was smart and picked up after himself, or he used a revolver. At a rough estimate, I’d say it’s probably a .22 calibre. Anything bigger would most likely have left an exit wound.” Stefan paused. “We might not have had a lot of practice with gunshot wounds around these parts,” he said, “but our ballistics specialist Kim Grainger knows her stuff. That’s about it, sir. Sorry we can’t be a bit more helpful right now.”
    “Early days, yet,” said Gristhorpe. “Keep at it, Stefan.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Has anyone verified the woman’s identity yet?” he asked.
    “Not yet,” said Annie. “I got in touch with Lambeth North. It turns out their DI at Kennington nick is an old friend of mine, Dave Brooke, and he sent a couple of DCs to her address. Nobody home. They’re keeping a watching brief.”
    “And there are no reports of her car being stolen?”
    “No, sir.”
    “So it’s still more than within the realm of possibility that the registered keeper of the vehicle is the person found dead in it?”
    “Yes. Unless she lent her car to a friend or hasn’t noticed it’s gone missing yet.”
    “Do we even know for certain that she was alone in the car?” Gristhorpe asked.
    “No.” Annie looked at Stefan. “I’m assuming that’s something they’ll be able to help us determine down at the garage.”
    Stefan nodded. “Perhaps.”
    “Anyone run her name through our system?”
    “I did, sir,” said Winsome. “Name, prints, description. Nothing. If she ever committed a criminal act, we didn’t catch her.”
    “It wouldn’t be the first time,” Gristhorpe said. “All right, first priority, find out who she is and what she was doing on that road. In the meantime, I assume we’re already making door-to-door inquiries in the general area of the incident?”
    “Yes, sir,” said Annie. “Problem is, there’s not much in the general area. As you know, it happened on a deserted