‘How are his fingers?’
‘Pretty torn up, but there’ll be prints if they’re on the system. As for the time of death, we’ll have the entomological track. We’ll take some temperature readings and see if any insects have been attracted to his fluid leakage, find out what stage they’ve reached. If the body was moved, we might be lucky enough to get different bug sets.’
‘Could you give me a very rough PMI?’
Banbury sucked his teeth in thought. ‘I’d guess about seven or eight days ago, something like that. Giles will be able to give us a more accurate time of death.’
‘What’s the chance of getting an ID on him quickly?’
‘You mean without going through AMIP or any officially sanctioned database? I’ll have to pull in a favour. We could really use a fast-track.’
‘Raymond can’t get us authorisation, you know that.’ Bryant shoved his hands deep in his pockets, pacing around the site.
‘Any contact you use will have to be kept off the record. I want every inch of this ground photographed within a twenty-metre radius. You’re looking for a large shoe-print in the shape of a deer hoof.’ Kershaw and Banbury tried not to look surprised.
May made his way over to join his partner. ‘Come out of there, Arthur. You’re sinking into the mud.’
Gripping his hand, he pulled Bryant up onto the duckboards. ‘The Lagos police couldn’t be bothered to search for our store owner, but lucky for us he got into a fight a couple of days ago and the cops were called. They say he has all the papers for the sale of the shop lease and everything’s legit. The freezer and other bits of equipment came with the property. He’s been out of the country since April seventh, before Rafi Abd al-Qaadir took over the lease, and the estate agent says that he remembers the freezer being empty then.’
‘So it looks like he’s in the clear.’
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ said May. ‘The only other suspect is your stag-man because he’s carrying knives, and Waters says he cut open the perimeter fence.’
‘Something like that, yes.’
‘Which would mean you were right to trust your instincts and go after the stag-man. It also suggests we can reasonably expect the girl he abducted to turn up next without her head.’
‘It’s possible.’ Bryant unwrapped a boiled sweet and popped it in his mouth.
‘Now you don’t sound convinced.’
‘I think it’s odd she hasn’t been reported missing. A phantom girl, no real description beyond “short skirt,” and no-one who cares enough about her to go to the police.’
‘Suppose gangs have decided to use the area as a dumping ground? They could be coming in from Essex or even the coast.’
‘No, no. There’s something far stranger than just the dumping of bodies going on here.’ Bryant had a discomfiting look in his eye. ‘This is an area where death is used to walking among the living.’
May clapped his hands together, dispelling the sinister mood. ‘Okay, let’s fix this chap with an ID and we might start to discover a motive. Giles, get the body over to your place, and we’ll have the rest of the shops on both sides of the Caledonian Road searched. I’m going to try to interview everyone who’s seen our furry friend before the end of the day. Raymond has been asked to provide the Home Office with an update tonight.’ He gave Bryant a look of gentle concern. ‘Are you up to all this?’
‘I’m as fit as a fiddle if you don’t count my knees,’ Bryant snapped. ‘They packed up shortly after my legendary tango performance at the Queen’s silver jubilee. Nobody told me that Princess Margaret’s table wouldn’t take my weight.’ May gave his partner a sceptical look. Lately he had become convinced that Bryant was manufacturing his memories. ‘Besides, you’re the one who’s had the operation. You should be resting up and taking it easy.’
‘How could I, with everyone so worried about you?’
‘Well, you did a good thing, taking me out of myself. I only hope I can do the case justice. It’s difficult understanding the mind of a man who is prepared to dress as a stag to issue an ecological warning to the world.’
‘You think he trotted out in fancy dress trying to scare the natives, didn’t see much of a result and upped his game to include kidnap and murder?’
‘Even I wouldn’t be that presumptive, John. Besides, it doesn’t give us a feasible MO. Think about it.’
‘Seems perfectly straightforward to me.’ May spoke with more than a hint of sarcasm. ‘He puts on an outfit that must radically restrict his movement, hunts down his victims in another part of town, kills them, drags them back to his place and dismembers them before driving here, through the most heavily policed part of the entire city.’