“And who knew what they were doing,” Joseph added.
“And whilst I’m sure you gentlemen will have come to a similar conclusion,” Dr Hart moved away from the body and towards his desk where he had arranged several of the photos that had been taken by the crime-scene photographer, “I don’t think he died where you found him.”
“Lack of blood,” Ray agreed. “I did wonder, but until we knew how he was killed, we couldn’t say.”
“I would think the blow to the back of his head would have left far more of a pool underneath the body, regardless of whether he was quickly killed thereafter. The skin split quite easily, it seems, and I would expect the blood loss to be far greater in the immediate aftermath.”
“Which means that the crime scene could be any number of places in the dock.” Joseph tried not to sound dismayed, but the look that Ray gave him suggested that he’d been less than professional.
“What about a time of death?” Ray turned back to the pathologist.
“Reports say that he wasn’t completely cold when he was discovered, but he was stiff. Rigor mortis starts after around three hours. Temperature drops quicker when it’s cold out, but our man was well wrapped up. My basic mathematics suggest sometime from midnight to two in the morning, give or take.”
“Thank you, Dr Hart,” Ray smiled. “Always extremely helpful.”
“I only wish I didn’t have to be.”
*
Instead of heading back to the station, both agreed they wanted to return to the yard and begin their search for where Gerald Trainer had met his demise.
“We’re going to need help with this,” Ray warned as he drove. “Big old place like that, we need boots on the ground.”
“If it’s not been cleaned up already,” Joseph replied. Ray grunted. “I mean, before we even got there, not after.”
“Either way, it doesn’t really matter. We let a live crime scene go to pot.” Ray sounded angry and Joseph found himself shouldering all the blame inside.
“Sorry,” he began.
“No need to apologise. That one’s on me.”
“We couldn’t have shut the whole place down, could we?”
“We could and we should have done.”
“But they were already working before we got there. Anything left would have been compromised.”
“Anything left would have been better than nothing. Give the station a call, get them to send down whoever they can. The sooner we can work our way through it, the better.”
Joseph picked up the receiver from the console in the centre of the car and made the call. The despatcher promised a van full of constables would meet them at the docks as soon as they could.
Their arrival at the docks resulted in far less enthusiasm. Derek Nadderley sighed and shook his head when he saw them back so soon.
“Are you joking? I’ve got boats to load and unload. Men working. This place can’t start shutting areas down. Not a chance,” he ranted in his office, waving his arms about as he spoke, before taking a seat in the chair behind his desk.
Ray shrugged. “I don’t really think you’ve got much of a choice, I’m afraid. This is a crime scene after all and as such we need to search it to ensure a prompt investigation into the murder of Gerald Trainer.”
“I’ve plenty of bloody choice,” Derek thrashed his arms above his head, his voice rising, before shaking his head and sighing.
They stood in silence. Joseph wondered if he should say something. Derek shook his head as he sat. Ray just stood impassively. Finally, Derek huffed and looked at them.
“How do we make this go quicker? Or do it so that I can keep as much of my normal operations working as they should?”
“If you tell us what areas you need to have access to most urgently, then we can get them searched first,” Ray said. “We’ll move through them bit by bit and open them back up when we’re done with them individually.”
“And how long do you think that will take?”
“We’ll be quick, but we’ll be thorough.”
“Well, that’s a non-answer if ever I heard one.”
“You wouldn’t want me making promises that I couldn’t keep, Mr Nadderley. We both know that.”
“Yes. Yes, we do.” Derek shook his head. “I’m going to be in a lot of trouble over this. I hope you’re aware of that. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give head office a call?”
“I’ll talk to the DCI. Let him know about your cooperation in the face of external pressures. People like him and people like your bosses, I’m sure they move in similar circles sooner or later.”
Derek snorted. “Yeah, whilst people like us do the graft down the bottom. Must be nice for them.”
“It’s what they pay us for,” Ray said.
*
The search went on well into the early evening. They moved methodically throughout the numerous buildings that made up the docks, but it was all in vain. No mystery marks on the floor. No signs of struggle. One by one, the various sheds, stores and rooms were ruled out of the running.
“Looks like someone beat us to it, or he was killed off site,” Ray grimaced as the last of the constables finished reporting that the final warehouse had been cleared.
Joseph went to agree with his boss, but something nagged at him. “Not necessarily.” Joseph looked at the docks, at crate upon crate of different goods, gathered there from different parts of the world. Many of them were far too heavy to be moved without the help of machinery, like the tall cranes that stood along the dock. “What if someone covered the crime scene with something we couldn’t move?”
