CHAPTER 6

"That's alright",Liam dismissed the apology, while thinking that perhaps he had been wrong and angry looks were not all he could expect. He got quickly to his feet , and bent to retrieve the Carrier bag holding his trainers.

"Are you alright, Mr Walker?" Melissa asked, coming back to help him, though he was already back on his feet by the time she reached his side.

"It's through here, Mr Walker," Mitchell said, speaking before the author could answer his colleague's question. He made no effort to conceal his dislike of the friendly air that seemed to be developing between Melissa and Liam Walker.

"Thank you, sergeant," Liam said, ignoring the obvious lack of concern over his tumble. "I'm fine ," he said to Melissa. "It's nothing paying more attention to my surroundings won't help".

With an unpleasant wet feeling on his feet, Liam followed sergeant Mitchell through to the stations sole interview room, which didn't look big enough for the four people it was supposed to accommodate.

"We'll begin the interview just as soon as I've taken care of a few things, Mr Walker," Mitchell said before disappearing from the doorway without giving his interviewee a chance to say anything.

"Can I get you a drink?" Melissa asked. Unlike her sergeant, she hadn't taken an instant dislike to Liam Walker- if anything, she had taken an instant liking to him, in part, mostly, because he was attractive.

Liam nodded. "Thanks, my water bottle's just about out".

"Tea , coffee?"

"Tea, white, no sugar".

"Be right back".

"How bad is it?" Inspector Stevens asked of his sergeant , the moment Mitchell entered his office.

Mitchell didn't answer straight away, he waited until he had taken a seat across from his superior. "Bad ," he said finally. "You remember how bad James Goode looked after his tractor rolled on him?"

Stevens nodded, it wasn't something he was likely to forget; it had surprised everyone who was there at the scene, that the farmer survived the accident, let alone that he had made an almost complete recovery.

"Worse than that . she looked like a victim from one of those horror movies you see on Tv late at night. Whoever killed her, he must have really hated her , or been really angry with her, because he beat the hell out of her. She had cuts and bruises just about everywhere I could see : arms , legs, body , face . God knows how many of her bones must have been broken" . Mitchell had taken a moment to try and force away the memory of what he had seen. "I'm no expert, and Kelly's out of his depth with this, but it looks as though she was kicked and punched repeatedly; her face.... it's just unrecognisable. It's so badly damaged it's almost impossible to tell whether it's a girl or a boy from the face. If she wasn't naked , I think it would have taken me a while to figure it out, especially if she'd been in trousers or something boyish .

"That's not even the worst of it.... I told you something was carved into her stomach.

Stevens nodded.

"Well I was able to make it out before I left- whoever killed her, he carved "TEASE" into her". He shook his head , not able to believe the memory of what ha had seen.

Stevens could only stare at his subordinate."she's naked ?" he asked finally, focusing on something he found less troubling. He was inexperienced in investigations, of any kind , but especially murder investigations, just like Mitchell, but he did think that the nakedness of the girl they believed to be Ava Wilson, was more important than the fact that she had been beaten so badly.

"Yes", Mitchell said with a slow nod of his head that made plain he was thinking along the same lines as his superior. "Near as dammit anyway. She had on the remains of a dress- it looked like it had been all but torn from her- same for her bra , and we found her underpants a short distance away. If you ask me, it looked as though they were ripped off her and simply thrown aside.

"Was she....?" Stevens couldn't bring himself to finish the question, and it was several long moments before Mitchell could bring himself to answer it.

"That's something the pathologist is going to have to answer when the postmortem is done", Mitchell said finally. "But if you are asking my opinion". He hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yes, I think she was raped. I think he beat her unconscious, ripped her clothes off, and then- then he did what he wanted with her."

There was silence for several long moments then, during which time Stevens pulled a bottle of whiskey from behind the files in the bottom drawer of his desk. Two glasses joined the bottle on the desk , both of which he filled half full. He said nothing until they had both finished what he liked to call a good stiffener. When he had drained his glass, and the fire in his throat had subsided , he asked," How was she killed? Was it the beating?"

"I don't have anywhere near the experience to answer that," Mitchell admitted, his voice a little hoarse after the solid liquor. "I'm inclined to think it was beating, and Kelly's of the same opinion- he couldn't see any obvious signs of anything else that might have led to her death, though he did admit that a post-mortem might pick up any number of things he couldn't see. Mr Walker, however....."

"That's our newest resident , the gentleman who found our murdered girl, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir. He claims he's former detective inspector." Mitchell was pleased to see his own disbelief mirrored in his superiors face.

"Isn't he only about thirty?"

"Mid thirties I think; all I know for sure is , he's a damned sight younger than you or me. Anyway, he claims he's a retired detective inspector, he also claims that marks around the girls throat suggest she was strangled".

"Beaten, raped, and strangled. My god!" Stevens couldn't help gasping. "How did we ever reach the point where something like this could happen in our village?"

"I've no idea". Mitchell was as much at a loss as his inspector. "You read about this kind of thing in papers but I never thought we'd have to deal with it here".

There was another period of silence between the two longserving police officers as they tried to come to terms with things , which wasn't easy.

"What are the chances Mr Walker is responsible for the murder?" Stevens asked after several long moments; having failed to wrap his mind around things , he wanted to solve the murder as quickly as possible, so he could return his village to the peaceful place as it had been before.

"I won't know that until I've spoken to him. He's in the interview room, waiting to give his statement. He didn't seem all that bothered by having discovered a body , but I suppose if he is a former detective inspector, he must be used to that kind of thing. Any chance you can find out if he really is an ex DI?"

Stevens nodded. "It's likely to take me a while, unless you know what force he's supposed to have worked for".

"Not yet, but I'll ask him".

"Good . while I'm checking that out, I'll see what else I can find out about him. If it's not Mr Walker, who could have killed Ava, if that is who's been found?"

"I have no idea," Mitchell admitted. "Either it's someone from outside the village, which seems unlikely given how far we are from anywhere, or it's someone we know, and I can't think of a single person in the village who could have done what I saw. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it possible for someone to do that kind of damage to another person". He shook his head at the image that crept, unbidden, into his mind. "You should be glad you weren't there, it was enough to turn your stomach; it was all I could do not to throw up- Melissa wasn't so lucky, she threw up all over Mr Walkers feet".

"Okay, so you are going to interview Mr Walker , while I see what I can find out about him, and Mike is out at the body, keeping an eye on it, and I've got the coroner and forensics on their way. I take it you are going to see Wilson's after you have spoken to Mr Walker.

Mitchell nodded. "I'd prefer not to, not until I'm more certain that the body is Ava, but we both know how rumours and gossip goes around the village. It's probably too late, but I'd rather they hear about morning's discovery from me, atleast that way they'll get the facts, what few we have , rather than whatever Jean frost has overhead and embellished".

"Are you still set against them making an identification?"

"I'll do my best to talk them out of it. Verity will never be able to handle a trip to the morgue, she's been a wreck since Ava went missing; I don't think john will handle it any better, especially given the mess she's in, and I don't see any point in putting him though the ordeal when he's unlikely to be able to make an identification".

"I'll leave that up to you. Do you need anything else, apart from the coroner and forensics?"

"Yes, I am going to need a search party to comb the woods around where Ava was found; as many officers from town as you can get".

Stevens frowned at that. "Officers from town? surely we can get enough volunteers from the village, why do we need officers from town?"

"Two reasons", Mitchell told his superior. "First, the villagers won't have a clue what they'd be looking for; if I am honest, the same goes for me- they're likely to stop the search everytime they find the slightest thing that looks out of place, which means it'll take forever for the search to get anywhere. We can't afford to waste that kind of time. Secondly, much as I dislike the idea, we can't ignore the possibility that the murderer is someone from the village; I'd rather not give him chance to destroy any evidence he might have left behind, if it is".

Reluctantly, Stevens accepted the logic of that, even if he didn't like it. "That brings me to the next thing, the cheif inspector, I called him this morning to get the coroner and forensics, he offered me a detective to handle the case, but said we can handle it ourselves, if we wish , it's my decision, for time being. What do you think?"

Mitchell first instinct, which he almost went with, was to accept the offer. He held back though, and gave himself some time to think to try and come to the right decision. Finally, he said, " A part of me wants to say 'get the detective', let him handle this, he'll know what he is doing. Another part of me thinks it's a bad idea . The village is going to have a hard enough time dealing with what's happened, without having a stranger come in and poke and pry about- they'd have no idea about anyone, and will only jump to all kinds of wrong conclusions."

"I have to admit, that is a concern that occurred to me as well," Stevens admitted. "I'll tell the cheif inspector that we'll handle things ourselves for now. I think he'll be glad , I got the impression he was wondering where he'd be able to find a detective for us. If things change, though, he'll have to find us someone. Talking of things changing, what do you intend doing about Emma Harper?"

"I hadn't planned on doing anything", Mitchell said. "You know as well as I do that Emma is almost certainly not missing, she'll turn up soon enough, having been at a party or something, just like she usually is, and Catherine will have made a fuss about nothing".

"You are probably right, but under the circumstances, I don't think we can afford to ignore the possibility that she really is missing".

Mitchell found Liam Walker and Melissa deep in conversation when he entered the interview room. He wasn't happy about how friendly his constable seemed to be with the man he was about to question, he said nothing, however, since he didn't want to antagonise his witness and possible suspect.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr Walker," he apologized. "I see constable Turner got you a drink, is there anything else you need before we get started with the interview?"

"No , thank you," Liam said. "She makes a strong coffee, I'm going to be bouncing off the walls as it is, without having anything else. I'd rather just get on with things, I'm sure we all have stuff to get on with".

"Fair enough, perhaps you can start by telling me how you came to find the body," Mitchell said.

"Sure. I was out for a run, saw something on the opposite bank, called it in, then waited for you guys to arrive", Liam said succinctly.

Mitchell stared at the man on the other side of the table for several long moments, not quite able to believe that was all he seemed to want to say. "Can you expand on that for me?" he asked. "For instance, why were you out for a run? Is it something you do regularly, or a one-off?"

"Do you run the same route every morning?"

Liam shrugged. "More or less. I try to do about five miles everyday , keeping to the same route helps me know how far I've gone , and gives me some idea of whether I'm keeping to a regular pace".

"Five miles?" Melissa blurted out in surprise. " you must have been really fit if you do five miles a day". The moment the words escaped her, she found herself blushing, she couldn't help wondering what had made her say such a thing, she sounded like a schoolgirl with a crush.

A smile played about the corners of Liam's mouth. "I guess fit is a matter of perspective," he said . " The older I get the more exercise I have to do just to keep my weight stable."

"If you run the same route everyday," Mitchell said, far from pleased with the way the interview was going. " How is it you didn't see the body until this morning? I'm not an expert, but it looked to me as if the body as simply that, a body, rather than as a former person- had been there for a couple of days atleast. surely you should have seen it before now".

"I said more or less", Liam pointed out. "Usually I follow the road through the village and out towards town; it's nice, straightforward, and it's easy for me to know how far I've gone. The downside, though, is its boring," He said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Since the weather was so good this morning, compared to what it's been this past week, I thought I'd take a different route on my run; I do that every now and then. A change is as good as a rest, as they say. I only got as far as the pub before I decided not to bother with my usual route; I turned off the road so I could head along the riverbank, and found the body after about a mile and a half, well, you saw where she was".

Mitchell nodded. "If you left the road at the pub , how is it you saw the body?" he asked. "It was right at the edge of the trees, not easy to see from the east bank, especially with the grass about a foot tall , as it is there".

"I couldn't see it clearly", Liam admitted. "I caught a glimpse of something in the grass, that was all; unfortunately, I've had enough experience of dead bodies to be pretty sure of what I was seeing, even if I couldn't see it clearly. I didn't want to call you guys, and lady," he said with a nod towards Melissa Turner, "Out there until I was positive, so I waded across to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me. I wish they had been. I thought I left all that sort of thing behind when I left the force".

"Have you seen many bodies?" Melissa asked, curiosity getting the better of her desire not to annoy her superior.

"Too many", Liam said. "Though to be sure, as I'm sure you'll agree one is too many".

Melissa nodded her agreement of that". I hope you're wrong about the body you found just being the first", she said. "Because I don't think I could ever get used to what I saw this morning" .

"You never really get used to it", Liam told her. "Atleast most people don't. you sort of become inured to it, so you can keep going and do your job. It's when you become used to it, if you ever do, that you have to start thinking about whether it's time for you to stop and find something else to do".

"Is that why you stopped being a detective?" Melissa asked, realising too late that it might sound rude.

"If you don't mind, Melissa," Mitchell said irritably. "What did you do after you were sure you had found a body ?" he asked of Liam Walker.

"I called the police station to report it, then I went up to the bend in the river to wait for you guys to get there".

"You didn't check to see if she was alive or anything?" Mitchell asked. " constable said when you called the station you said she was dead; did you check to be certain?"

Liam shook his head. "There was no need . I knew she was dead as soon as I saw her . it would have been waste of time to check and doing so would have put any evidence there might be at risk . My old boss would crucify me if I did something like that, being retired is no excuse".

Mitchell spent a few moments absorbing that before he posed his next question. "If you didn't get close enough to risk any evidence, when did you insist on your trainers being bagged up for the forensic team? surely they won't find any trace of you on or around the body".

"No they won't", Liam said confidently. "But if the forensic guys are at all through, they'll check the ground for some distance around the body for evidence and take casts of every shoe print they find; once they've done that they'll want prints from the footwear all three of us were wearing this morning, so they can eliminate us from whatever they find." It had been some time he last had to explain forensics procedures to anyone. " if they want to be really thorough, they'll even take our DNA and finger prints".

"Had you ever seen the girl before this morning?" Mitchell asked, not at all happy to be having his job explained to him.

"That's hard to say ", Liam told him. "Given how unrecognisable she was, I could have seen her everyday , and I wouldn't know it. Do you have any idea who she is?"

Mitchell considered that question briefly before answering. " we have reasons to believe her name is Ava Wilson, she has been Missing for a week".

"The name's familiar;I heard around the village she was missing, but since I didn't have a face to put to the name, it meant nothing to me", Liam said.

"So you can tell us nothing about her disappearance and murder?"

"Sorry, no," Liam answered, doing his best to ignore the accusatory note in the sergeants voice.